Investigation of the Effect of Religious Training of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the Religiosity of Conscript Soldiers During their Initial Service Period (a Case Study of Malik-e Ashtar School)

 
Introduction and Objectives
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as a growing and innovative institution, is the birth of Imam Khomeini's strategic thinking and a clear manifestation of the scholastic and revolutionary ideals of the Muslim nation of Iran and a symbol of the political and military authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This unique revolutionary institution in the world, based on Article 150 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is responsible for protecting the Islamic Revolution and its achievements against any range of hard, semi-hard, and soft threats and helping to develop and deepen the Islamic Revolution inside and abroad, within the framework of the laws and measures of the supreme leader of Iran. In line with this task, the Vice-President of Education and Political Ideology of the Supreme Leader's Representation in the IRGC, based on his inherent duty, has prepared a system of ideological education for teaching in the preparatory combat course of soldiers. In these courses, which have a specific, exact, and codified text, issues such as rules, principles of Islamic beliefs, and morals, as well as materials about the Islamic Revolution of Iran are proposed for the learners. The general purpose of holding these courses is to improve the knowledge level of the learners regarding Islamic teachings, to increase their orientation towards religious values and behaviors, and also to improve their moral and behavioral levels based on Islamic standards. The main issue of this research is to investigate the impact of this course and the aforementioned training in promoting and improving the level of religiosity of the learners. Based on a division, this effect can be investigated and analyzed in three fields: cognitive (insight), tendency (emotional and emotional), and action (moral and behavioral). 
Method
In terms of the nature of the subject, this research is descriptive and analytical, and a survey research method was used to conduct it. To collect its information, one of the most common and widely used field research tools, that is, a questionnaire has been used. The present questionnaire was created by the researcher and is designed in a closed form. In this questionnaire, based on the Likert scale, 50 items were provided to the respondents to specify their answers about them. The tendency spectrum in this questionnaire is of a five-choice type and includes five values "I completely agree, I agree, I have no opinion, I disagree and I completely disagree". The mentioned questionnaire was designed in such a way that it can measure the effect of education in three dimensions: insight (cognitive), tendency (emotional/ emotional), and action (behavioral). Of course, considering the limited time of the training course (2 months) as well as its nature and educational materials, the main expectation from the training of this course will be more focused on the changes in the religiosity of the learners in the cognitive dimension, and it is less expected that the two dimensions of orientation and actions have significant changes. Therefore, in the research questionnaire, most of the items are designed to measure changes in the cognitive dimension. Thus, items 1 to 34 are considered for measuring the cognitive dimension, items 35 to 41 for measuring the tendency dimension, and items 42 to 50 for measuring the behavioral dimension. The questionnaire for this research was first prepared with the opinion of two experts (who were faculty members and PhD graduates related to this research). Then, to determine its validity and to ensure its feasibility, it was given to several professors and experts in the field of education who had doctorates in this field to comment on its validity. Each of these professors suggested amendments to the questionnaire, and these suggestions were also applied to the questionnaire. Finally, after summarizing the experts' opinions, the research questionnaire was approved by them in terms of authenticity. It should be noted that the proposed questions refer to the content of the training and texts that have been specially prepared and designed for this course.
Results
As mentioned, to be able to measure and evaluate the impact of the aforementioned training on the religiosity of the soldiers more precisely, we divided it into three dimensions: cognitive, tendency, and action. Accordingly, the following three sub-questions were included in the research agenda:
1. To what extent are this course and its teachings effective in improving the students' familiarity with Islamic teachings?
2. To what extent can these trainings improve the attitude of soldiers towards Islamic values, morals, and behavior?
3. To what extent does the aforementioned training affect the moral and behavioral improvement of learners and their practical commitment to Islamic beliefs, values , and rulings?
 Following the above-mentioned questions, three hypotheses corresponding to them were presented as follows:
 1. The religious educations mentioned in this course have a significant relationship with changing the religious insight and knowledge of the audience and learners.
 2. The material taught by ideological instructors in this course has a relatively significant relationship with the change in the learners' attitudes.
 3. The ideological training of the mentioned course does not have a significant relationship with the change in the behavior of the learners under the training.
Discussion and Conclusion:
The results of the research showed that there is a positive and significant correlation between the cognitive dimension and the effectiveness of the training on the learners at a significance level of 0.01. Therefore, it can be concluded that the training has had a significant positive impact on the cognitive dimension of the learners. Thus, the first hypothesis of the research is confirmed. Also, the results of calculating the correlation coefficient indicate that there is a positive and significant correlation between the tendency dimension and the effectiveness of the training on the learners at a significance level of 0.01. Therefore, it can be concluded that the training has had a relatively significant impact on their orientation dimension.