Effectiveness of Teaching General Courses on Theoretical Foundations of Islam on Religious Identity and Academic Resilience of Sports Science Students at Ilam University

Background and objectives: Promoting the theoretical foundations of Islam has a role in determining the individual and social behavior of students. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of teaching general courses on the theoretical foundations of Islam on the religious identity and academic resilience of Sports Science students at Ilam University. Materials and Methods: The method of this study was a quasi-experimental type of pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population was all undergraduate students in the field of Sports Science at Ilam University, of whom 30 people were selected as the study sample and divided into two experimental (15 people) and control (15 people) groups using the available (non-probability) sampling method. Library and field methods were used to collect data. The library method was used to collect the background and theoretical foundations of the study, and two standard questionnaires, including Khoshavi’s Religious Identity (2012) and the Academic Resilience of Samuels and Woo, were used to collect data. Their validity and reliability were also confirmed. For data analysis, univariate and multivariate analyses of covariance statistical tests were used with SPSS software (version 24). Results: The results showed that there is a significant difference between the two experimental and control groups (at a 95% confidence level) after teaching general courses on the theoretical foundations of Islam regarding the variable of religious identity (sig=0.042, P≤0.05). However, no significant difference was observed in the academic resilience variable (sig=0.095, P>0.05). Therefore, teaching general courses on the theoretical foundations of Islam has a direct and significant effect on the religious identity of Sports Science students, but it does not have a significant effect on their academic resilience. Conclusion: The results of the study showed that teaching general courses on the theoretical foundations of Islam has an effect on religious identity. Therefore, teaching these courses can improve students’ religious identity. Moreover, the cultural managers of universities can use this method of intervention in order to promote the religious identity of students.