Reading intentions, not just behaviours: a NIKOM-informed pedagogical approach for religious education

Religious education (RE) meets a recurring diagnostic problem: a pupil can recite doctrine, join in ritual talk, and give the ‘right’ moral answer while the underlying belief stays untouched. This article introduces the Intention Code Model (NIKOM; Niyet Kodu Modeli) to RE as a disciplined language for that problem. NIKOM is a mechanistic cognitive framework built on conditional IF→THEN ‘codes’ that probabilistically chain, activate, and align bodily and cognitive systems, and can be rewritten. Its central claim – a surface-compliance paradox, whereby observable behavioural change need not indicate code-level change – maps onto Kelman’s distinction between compliance and internalisation. The article sets out NIKOM for an RE readership, positions it among established RE pedagogies, distinguishes it from Gollwitzer’s implementation intentions, and derives a pedagogical stance, dialogue moves, and a developmental proposal for ‘code literacy’, with worked religious and non-religious vignettes for primary and secondary levels. The setting is non-confessional, educational RE; behaviour is no index of belief, and the affective and spiritual dimensions of learning are not reduced to cognition alone. NIKOM is offered as a theoretical synthesis awaiting validation, not a proven method; the article closes with an ethical analysis of ‘rewriting’ pupils’ codes and a research agenda.