Reconstructing Islamic Education Learning Evaluation: Integrating Philosophical-Theological Foundations, Authentic Assessment, and Digital Transformation

Abstract

Learning evaluation in Islamic Religious Education (IRE) has long been criticized for its dominant orientation toward the cognitive domain, while affective, psychomotor, and spiritual dimensions, which are the essential core of Islamic education, remain marginalized. This study aims to reconstruct the concept of learning evaluation in IRE by examining three focal points: (1) the philosophical-theological foundation of holistic evaluation, (2) the implementation of authentic assessment as a response to the limitations of conventional evaluation, and (3) the opportunities and challenges of digital transformation in learning evaluation within the era of the Merdeka Curriculum and Society 5.0. This research employs a qualitative method with a library research approach, in which data were collected from reputable national and international journal articles and academic books, then analyzed using thematic content analysis. The findings indicate that a holistic evaluation paradigm, one that integrates cognitive, affective, psychomotor, and spiritual domains, provides a stronger theological legitimacy for assessing the success of IRE learning. Authentic assessment, through techniques such as observation, portfolios, self-assessment, and reflective journals, proves capable of capturing the internalization of religious values that conventional tests cannot measure. Meanwhile, digital transformation offers efficiency and transparency in assessment, yet it simultaneously presents challenges related to teachers' digital literacy, infrastructure inequality, and the risk of reducing the spiritual meaning of assessment to mere technical automation. This study concludes that an ideal model of IRE learning evaluation must synergistically integrate these three dimensions to produce an assessment that is not only academically valid but also spiritually meaningful.