Teaching Social Compassion through Professional Competence: Insights from Genesis 45:11 in Christian Religious Education at SDN 071130 Eho

Abstract

This study investigates how the professional competence of Christian Religious Education (CRE) teachers contributes to the development of students’ social compassion based on Genesis 45:11 at SDN 071130 Eho, South Nias. The research is grounded in the premise that teachers’ professional quality plays a decisive role in translating biblical values into students’ character formation. Employing a quantitative approach, data were collected from all 130 Christian students through a structured Likert-scale questionnaire measuring perceptions of teacher professional competence and students’ social compassion. Descriptive statistics and Pearson product–moment correlation were used to analyze the data. The findings reveal that students perceive the CRE teacher’s professional competence to be in the high category, particularly in biblical mastery and clarity of instruction. Students’ social compassion levels are also generally high, especially in cognitive understanding of Joseph’s care in Genesis 45:11. The correlation analysis indicates a positive and statistically significant relationship between teacher professional competence and students’ social compassion, although the strength of the relationship is moderate. This suggests that while teacher professionalism is influential, other contextual factors also contribute to students’ prosocial development. The study concludes that professionally competent CRE teachers play an important role in nurturing students’ social compassion when biblical teaching is delivered clearly, contextually, and reflectively. Strengthening experiential learning and behavioral reinforcement is recommended to deepen the transformation from cognitive understanding to consistent compassionate action. The findings contribute to the development of more effective character-oriented Christian Religious Education in Indonesian primary schools.