Emerging Technologies
H. Abbasi; E. Zaraii Zavaraki; M. Nili Ahmadabadi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The current research was conducted with the aim of investigating the use of new Metaverse technology in teaching and learning in order to develop, facilitate and apply it in education. The research problem was how to make real impossibilities possible in teaching and learning ...
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Background and Objectives: The current research was conducted with the aim of investigating the use of new Metaverse technology in teaching and learning in order to develop, facilitate and apply it in education. The research problem was how to make real impossibilities possible in teaching and learning intuitively and the role of metaverse in this field, the success rate of educational research and their scientific and research reasons for using metaverse in education. In the studies, the goals, variables, methods, results and challenges regarding the use of metaverse in education were investigated.Methods: The research was conducted using a systematic review method. The statistical population (research field), the content required to conduct a systematic review, included valid scientific and research articles. The statistical sample was selected using a targeted method and 23 items were selected from among 127 articles. The criteria for entering the research cycle included the full relevance of the article title to the topic of Metaverse, the newness of the publication year, publication between 2020-2023, the validity of the indexed publication and site, the validity and adequacy of the article reference, the use of correct research methods and its relevance to the topic, that was teaching and learning. The criteria for excluding the article from the research process included the lack of subject relevance, the low research rank of the publication, the publication year not being new, the topic being repetitive, languages other than Persian and English. The keywords used were metaverse, teaching and learning in Persian and English, and the articles were searched in reliable domestic and foreign databases.Findings: The research showed that Metaverse was effective in teaching and learning, despite being new and the limited development of its technological dimensions. In response to the questions, the most prominent goals of research related to the use of metaverse in education, providing a clear definition of metaverse, applications of metaverse in education, presenting the model, determining challenges, describing the characteristics and methods of use, legal requirements, analyzing attitudes and the role of artificial intelligence in metaverse were determined. The leading countries in this field were Korea, China, America, Spain, Taiwan, and UAE. The research methods used were survey, descriptive, experimental, content analysis, modeling, and systematic review. The statistical population of most of the studies were students and the variables were general learning, educational content, user satisfaction, and metaverse framework. Also, the main tools used in the selected studies were questionnaires, interviews and tests. The number of experimental studies in education was seven. The main findings of the research included providing a technical framework, improving interaction, creating deep and meaningful learning, increasing motivation, creating creativity, personalized learning, situational training, and creating new educational opportunities. The challenges were related to the nascent nature of the technology, the effect of technical capabilities on the results, technological limitations, ethical issues, health threats, high costs, content production problems, lack of experts, and lack of access to everyone.Conclusion: The emergence of the metaverse should be practically considered from 2021, but its effective capabilities and abilities in education have been confirmed by most studies, and it is predicted that the metaverse would bring a bright future for teaching and learning and can be used to facilitate and accelerate the realization of educational goals. Therefore, to improve the current situation, it is necessary to a) develop instructional design patterns based on metaverse, b) design and present a content production model for Metaverse, c) design, formulate, and standardize the design principles of teaching and learning environments based on metaverse, d) develop the principles and method of implementation, technical development and support of Metaverse, e) design principles and evaluation methods of educational programs based on metaverse, and f) prepare the legal and ethical charter of metaverse educational environments. Among the limitations of the research, we can point out the lack of experimental researcg, the lack of evolution of applied technologies in the metaverse, and the limited range of studies. It is suggested that by using Metaverse technology, education should be transformed from classroom to virtual world and its effect on different dimensions of education and learning should be researched.
Education technology - Lifelong learning
Z. Royatvand ghiasvand; V. Farzad; B. Ssaleh Sedghpour; A. Baghdasarians; A. Kararmi Gazafi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: In proportion to the expansion of various skills in life, learning and education of any society needs quantitative and qualitative improvement. The rapid development of technology has caused a change in the way of learning, and in order to increase learning and acquire knowledge, ...
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Background and Objectives: In proportion to the expansion of various skills in life, learning and education of any society needs quantitative and qualitative improvement. The rapid development of technology has caused a change in the way of learning, and in order to increase learning and acquire knowledge, different methods of teaching and training are used to improve people's knowledge, among these methods is the use of standard concept maps. In the current research, the use of the concept map teaching method compiled with the network process analysis method and the lecture method on the students' learning skills in the topic of chemical atom structure was investigated.Methods: The present study was a mixed-methods (exploratory-explanatory) research and was conducted in two steps. The first step was done with a qualitative research method of the Delphi type. The statistical population consisted of experts and professors in chemistry education in 2020-2021, and 30 individuals were selected using purposive sampling. The tools used in this step were semi-structured interviews and a researcher-made pairwise comparison questionnaire.The data were analyzed using the network process analysis method (a multicriteria decision-making method) and the Super Decisions software.In the second step, a quasi-experimental quantitative research method was used with a pre-test, post-test and follow-up plan with two groups (one experimental group and one control group).The statistical population consisted of all eighth-grade high school students in the academic year 2021-2022. A sample of 30 students was selected using convenience sampling and divided into two groups of 15. The experimental group received education using concept maps developed based on ANP, and the control group was taught using the lecture method. The data collection tool was a learning skills questionnaire, and to assess the validity of the tool, the opinions of experts and professors were used. The reliability of the research tool was calculated to be 0.96 using the test-retest method, and the data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis and SPSS (24.00) software.Findings: The findings of the first step showed that mathematics layers with a weighted average of 0.652, physics 0.235, and chemistry 0.113 had the greatest impact, respectively, and the highest and lowest weighted averages in the physics layer were the concept of matter and the concept of electron movement in Certain circuits (Bohr) was 0.011. In the mathematical layer, the concept of main numbers and its four main operations was 0.291, and the concept of sine waves and wave concept was 0.014. In the chemistry layer, the concept of subatomic particles was 0.407 and the concept of using electron arrangement was 0.010. And the results of the statistical analysis in the second step, for hypotheses at a significant level (0.05), indicated a significant and more stable effect of training with the concept map method on learning skills.Conclusion: Considering the greater impact of education with the standard concept map method and the importance of prerequisites, it is possible to rank educational concepts using the network process analysis method and use it in teaching and learning. Also, the standard conceptual map can be considered as a suitable tool and approach to achieve learning.
Game-based Education
M. Ahmadi; S. F. Noorani; S. Hosseini
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Environmental crises are threats to all creatures and the balance of nature, and their root is human activity. Therefore, the current change in human behavior will be able to solve environmental problems. The purpose of environmental education is increasing people's sensitivity ...
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Background and Objectives: Environmental crises are threats to all creatures and the balance of nature, and their root is human activity. Therefore, the current change in human behavior will be able to solve environmental problems. The purpose of environmental education is increasing people's sensitivity to events and changes in the physical, biological, social, economic, social, and political environment and their effects on the environment so that the ability to recognize environmental issues can acquire the necessary skills in devising methods and tools to protect the environment and solve its problems. Currently, gamification is one of the techniques that can be used to increase students' environmental literacy. Gamification is a new method that has been translated into ‘playmaking’ in some sources and means the use of playful elements and thoughts in areas that are not the nature of the game. Gamification has been one of the topics discussed in recent years, which can be used to increase efficiency and user interaction. Properly applied gamification in educational environments will lead to better learning of students. This study investigated the impact of gamification on the promotion of environmental literacy of the first-year elementary school students in TehranMethods: The research was conducted as a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test and post-test design along with the experimental group. The statistical population included all male students whose age ranged between 6-7 years, who were studying in the district 15 of Tehran in the academic year of 2021-2022. With multi-stage cluster random sampling method, 60 participants were included in the sample and 30 people were randomly assigned to the experimental group; They have received part of the concepts of environmental literacy through gamification-based education for 12 sessions. The questionnaire was devised by the researcher and its formal and content validity was confirmed by the experts. Also, its reliability was reported using Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.86, indicating acceptable reliability. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics via SPSS 24 software.Findings: The results of the data showed that gamification had a significant and positive effect on promoting environmental literacy (F = 1.57, 70.6 and P = 0.001). Also, gamification made a significant impact in promoting environmental literacy (water consumption management (F = 1.57, P = 0.001), electricity consumption management (F = 1.57, P = 0.001), gas consumption management (F = 0.001, 04 F1.57/58 and P=0.001), waste management (F1.57, 40.8 and P=0.001), forest preservation (F1.57, 337.63 and P=0.001), animal protection (F1.51.06) ,57 and P=0.001) among the students of the first year of elementary school.Conclusion: Taking into account the effective role of gamification in improving environmental literacy (water consumption management, electricity consumption management, gas consumption management, waste management, forest conservation and animal conservation), it can be concluded that the use of gamification in education is a new approach that has caused a wide transformation in the education system and increased the hope of the effectiveness of learning environmental concepts and related literacy among the students.
Game-based Education
S.F. Noorani; M. Serkani; Z. Karimi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Game Theory is a branch of applied mathematics that can mathematically model the real-world scenarios for situations such as competition and cooperation and predict their payoffs. The main point in Game Theory is that the interests of the competition or cooperation of both ...
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Background and Objectives: Game Theory is a branch of applied mathematics that can mathematically model the real-world scenarios for situations such as competition and cooperation and predict their payoffs. The main point in Game Theory is that the interests of the competition or cooperation of both sides depend on each other's decisions. The teaching and learning environments are considered as an undeniable atmosphere of interactions among the learners, faculty members, and instructors. Using Game Theory to interactions modeling, we are able to analyze the situation to achieve the greater educational achievement. In this paper, for the first time, we used Educational Game Theory to mention the use of Game Theory in the education context. The aim of the present study was to highlight the types of applications of Game Theory in addressing various aspects of teaching and learning in the articles that were conducted from 1987 to 2022.Methods: This research is applied in terms of purpose and systematically provides a comprehensive review of research on the use of game theory in education and learning. In the first stage, by searching the electronic scientific and research sources and preliminary study of abstract, introduction, and conclusion of articles, we discovered that 42 articles were related to the purpose of our research. In the next stage, each of the studied articles was examined and analyzed in detail from four aspects: What is the application of game theory in the field of education and learning? Is there a mechanism design in the study? Who interacts in the field of education (learners, teachers, staff, and parents), and basically who are the players in the proposed model? Finally, we investigated how the articles evaluate and proved their proposed model. Using a questionnaire, the applications of game theory in the field of education were prioritized. The best-worst (BWM) multi-criteria decision-making method was used for prioritization.Findings: In the present study, we divided the use of game theory in the field of education and learning into six categories. The first category was research that analyzed participatory behavior in different situations. The second category was research that used game theory to create an environment for further learning; the third category was articles that used game theory to model conditions that would affect the quality of education and create an environment for further learning. The fourth category was research that modeled learner assessment conditions. The fifth category modeled and analyzed the educational behavior of teachers with each other and their teaching methods. The sixth category was articles that considered the collaborative learning environment and use game theory to recommend educational resources to group members. From the perspective of relationship modeling, 60% of the articles modeled the interaction among the learners, 29% modeled the interaction between the instructors and learners and 7% of the articles modeled the interaction of the instructors. One article modeled parental interaction in deciding whether to hire a tutor and one article modeled the employee-learner relationship on cheating. The analysis of the findings showed that applications such as "learner assessment", "enhancement of learning" and "content suggestion" were assigned the highest priorities, respectively. Applications such as "teachers' educational behavior analysis", "investigation of environmental factors affecting education" and "participatory behavior analysis" were in lower priorities.Conclusion: We studied and organized studies which have applied Game Theory in the education area. The areas of learner assessment by the instructor or peer, grouping for collaboration learning, using the user model, and implicit modeling were some of the topics that needed further research in Educational Game Theory. Also, in learner/learner and learner/teacher interactions, new incentives design methods need to encourage players to learning improvement. The results of this study provide a perspective for researchers in the area of education and learning regarding the use of Game Theory in modeling the teaching and learning environment and creating conditions for increasing educational outcomes.
Education technology - Lifelong learning
M. Moayeri
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Nowadays, one of the most basic things in education and learning is the use of technology in educational environments. By using the latest technology in the world, the level of learning can be significantly improved and therefore, the level of public awareness can be raised. ...
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Background and Objectives: Nowadays, one of the most basic things in education and learning is the use of technology in educational environments. By using the latest technology in the world, the level of learning can be significantly improved and therefore, the level of public awareness can be raised. This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of augmented reality-based mathematics education in cyberspace on student teachers’ lifelong learning and their academic engagement and also comparing it with the existing (traditional) method.Methods: The research method used in this study was quasi-experimental research method with a pretest-posttest experimental-control group design. The statistical population of the study included all student teachers with elementary education major in Shahid Beheshti university of Hormozgan. A total number of 40 participants were purposefully selected and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (20 subjects in each group). The control group was traditionally ran based on cyberspace (Adobe Connect), and the experimental group was based on augmented reality-based method in cyberspace. The participants in experimental group were trained in 6 one-hour sessions by installing Microsoft Math Solver application on their cellphones. Research instruments included the Lifelong Learning Questionnaire of Wetzel et al. (2010) and Academic Engagement Questionnaire of Schaufeli et al. (2002)Findings: Findings of this study revealed that augmented reality-based mathematics education in cyberspace affected the student teachers’ lifelong learning and academic motivation, and increased their lifelong learning and academic engagement.Conclusion: According to the results of the experiments, the performance of the experimental group in using mathematics education based on augmented reality in cyberspace and its effect on lifelong learning and academic motivation were reported to be useful and effective. Augmented reality technology can be used as an educational method that not only draws students' attention to the subject being taught, but also due to its appropriate and user-friendly visual interaction procedures, it can provide a deeper learning while allows for being integrated with reality and thereby, can be considered as a competitor to traditional teaching tools. Also, the fascination of this type of teaching increases the interest in the environment and leads to the enthusiasm and interest of people, which is one of the important components for learning. In general, the augmented reality-based teaching method increases the student-teacher understanding of themselves and boost the speed of learning, and as a result, leads to learning desire, which increases their effort. Expanding the information of student teachers in the field of augmented reality education and holding in-service courses for teachers and providing augmented reality-based education are some of the practical suggestions of this article.
Materials Evaluatio
Z. Ketabdar; M. Abdi; S. Ramezani
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Thesedays, people all over the world are faced down with the public media as new communication technologies in societies. A phenomenon that has been able to cover a large part of their daily lives and as the most important communication way with the world, affect on all private ...
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Background and Objectives: Thesedays, people all over the world are faced down with the public media as new communication technologies in societies. A phenomenon that has been able to cover a large part of their daily lives and as the most important communication way with the world, affect on all private and public areas such as religion, ethics, politics, society and culture. Media literacy creates the opportunity to achieve a framework of criticism view in this field by educating and raising the audience knowledge level. Therefore, media literacy could be introduced as the ability of the audience to analyze the message of various media with a criticism view of the content of these messages. Therefore, teaching media literacy to students, as individuals who will play the most important role in the future of any society, can have a significant impact on creating a correct and efficient understanding of the atmosphere of today's societies. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the effect of teaching thinking and media literacy book on the ability of optimal media consumption and criticism analysis of its messages in the tenth grade students in the Khomein city.Methods: The present study is an applied research and quasi-experimental in terms of data collection method. In the present study, the pre-test & post-test designs has been used by performing four steps. The statistical population included 1173 students in the tenth grade of Khomein city in the 1398-99 academic year. Sampling method used in this research is available sampling. The sample size of this study in the experimental group is a class by 30 student. To evaluate the criticism analysis of media messages and its components, two standard media literacy questionnaires Azizi & Falsafi with 59 and 20 items were used, respectively. The validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by expert authors in this field and Their reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient 0.89 For Azizi questionnary & 0.79 for Falsafi questionnary. Then, during the academic year, students were taught a book on thinking and media literacy. At the end, the post-test was taken from the experimental group. Data analysis in the descriptive statistics section includes plenty, percentage, mean and standard deviation and in the inferential section correlation or paired t-test; Data analysis was also performed with SPSS 25 software.Findings: The findings of this study show that the mean scores of the ability of optimal media consumption, criticism message analysis, message properties and the message criticism in the post-test compared to the pre-test has increased significantly. Also, the difference between the variables pair are at the 95% meaningfulness. In the other words, it can be claimed that there is a significant difference in all components of these two variables.Conclusion: According to this research findings, it can be concluded that teaching the book of thinking and media literacy in the tenth grade of high school in the Khomein city can improve the ability of optimal media consumption and the criticism message analysis in the students.
e-learning
K. Taghipour; F. Mahmoodi; M. abbasi; M. Mohammadi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Digital Divide refers to inequality in information and communication technology (ICT) which refers to inequality between the people who have access to digital technology and information and those who have very limited access or no access at all. Considering the fact that the ...
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Background and Objectives: Digital Divide refers to inequality in information and communication technology (ICT) which refers to inequality between the people who have access to digital technology and information and those who have very limited access or no access at all. Considering the fact that the Iranian education has entered the field of providing instruction in Corona pandemic conditions without having the necessary preparations and planning, examining the digital divide and knowing how to implement the instruction in these circumstances can improve the quality of instruction in schools. Accordingly, the current study was conducted with the intention of evaluating the amount of digital divide in the second secondary school education of Tabriz city in the condition of COVID-19 pandemic and identify the factors affecting it.Methods: The descriptive survey research was used. The study population included all teachers and students of second secondary school education of Tabriz city in the second semester of the academic year of 2019- 2020 who were randomly selected using cluster-random sampling method in three schools from each of the five educational districts and the 12th grade class from each school. The data were collected using the questionnaires of Hosseini et al. (2013), Gregg (2016), Zarei Zavaraki and Salemian (2015). The validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by experts in this field. The reliability of the questionnaires was calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient for Hosseini et al. (2013), Grieg (2016), and Zarei Zavaraki and Salemian (2015) questionnaires which were calculated to be 0.796, 0.86, and 0.92, respectively. Multivariate Analysis of Variance, independent T-Test and Friedman Test were used to analyze the data.Findings: The results showed that there is digital divide between the teachers of the five educational districts of Tabriz city only in the amount of access to ICT and the amount of the usage of computers during the day. However, there is a significant difference between students in five educational districts of Tabriz city in most dimensions of digital divide, access to ICT, the usage of computers during the day and the year, and the level of their skills in using ICT. Teachers, as compared to students, have more access to ICT in most educational districts of Tabriz, but students' attitudes, skills, and their usage of ICT is better than those of the teachers in most districts of Tabriz city. According to the results related to the effective factors on the digital divide from the perspective of the teachers, the shortage of technical, financial, and economic equipment, cultural, motivational- educational weakness, and the shortage of management and planning infrastructures have been identified as the most important and effective factors on creating the digital divide in second secondary school of Tabriz City.Conclusion: According to the findings, the digital divide is evident in the second secondary school education of Tabriz city. It is essential that the Ministry of Education, in addition to equipping schools, sets up ICT centers in the disadvantaged areas for better access of teachers and students to ICT, as well as providing ICT-related skills training courses.
e-learning
M. Mohammadian; M. Sedighi; M. Serkani
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Deploying IoT-based education can allow students to explore the environment using embedded sensors. They can access educational materials and other information at any time. Teachers can also use wearable devices and smartphones in the classroom to improve teaching and learning. ...
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Background and Objectives: Deploying IoT-based education can allow students to explore the environment using embedded sensors. They can access educational materials and other information at any time. Teachers can also use wearable devices and smartphones in the classroom to improve teaching and learning. Although new technologies such as smart schools, e-learning, e-learning content and smart classroom equipment have had a positive impact on the process of teaching and conveying concepts to learners, they have not been able to meet the challenges in this area well enough. Since the Internet of Things, in addition to using the mentioned technologies through technology convergence such as cloud computing, massive data, blockchain, smart phones, objects and classroom environment, etc. has a tremendous effect on the education industry by creating new teaching and learning methods, developing the systems of monitoring and control and improving the decisions through data analysis, it is argued that the IoT can empower the education sector to solve the problems and challenges it faces by providing practical solutions.Methods: This research is an applied research in terms of purpose and it is based on mixed methods research (qualitative- quantitative) considering how the data are collected. At the beginning of the research, the Meta-synthesis method was used to identify the applications of the IoT in education. In this method, 4638 articles were found, and after being reviewed, 490 articles were extracted among these 128 articles were used for the final analysis. Also, using the questionnaire as a tool to prioritize the Internet of things applications in education, the best-worst multi-criteria decision-making method was used.Findings: The findings showed that applications such as "Smart Campus" and "Student Health" have the highest priorities, respectively. Applications such as "Education (Teaching) and Learning", "Smart Class" and "Smart Tracking or Intelligent Transportation stsyem" were the next priorities.Conclusion: According to the findings, suggestions can be made to solve the problems of the education industry. In the field of application, with the help of IoT technology, there are problems such as the limitation of education to one place and time, wasting class time due to high density of people, lack of intelligence and high maintenance costs of educational centers, lack of accurate monitoring of students' health and hygiene, and the inadequacy of educational facilities for the physically disabled reducing the lack of smartness of the transportation system. Education industry policymakers can also be advised to pay special attention to these areas, given that the areas of "smart health monitoring", "smart energy" and "security" are more important than other sub-applications and they should also pay attention to these special sections. Also, action should be taken for public education and extensive publicity in familiariing the society with smart products and IoT technology in order to increase user acceptance and create demand. Among the limitations of the research, the limited number of experts familiar with IoT technology in the country's education sector vcan be mentioned. It is suggested to examine the relationships between applications and sub-applications and their priority based on the feasibility and attractiveness of the indicators in the future research.
e-learning
A. Babajani; َA. Sharif; M. Hassanzadeh
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The use of social media is expanding among students and different age groups. According to the published statistics, 67% of Iranian users of social networks are 12 to 17 years old. These people are of school age and most of them are students. Due to the few activities in the ...
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Background and Objectives: The use of social media is expanding among students and different age groups. According to the published statistics, 67% of Iranian users of social networks are 12 to 17 years old. These people are of school age and most of them are students. Due to the few activities in the field of design and development of scientific social network for this age group, the need to pay attention to the design and implementation of social networks for students according to their needs and based on the values of the Iranian society is felt more than ever. The purpose of this study is to identify the essential features of the student scientific social network at three levels: classroom, general and games and five management capabilities including identity information management, content management, communication management, search management and information management. Based on the aforementioned purpose, one question and four hypotheses were made.Methods: As applied research, this study was carried out using exploratory mixed methods (qualitative-quantitative). In the qualitative stage, observation and structured interview were used as the basis of collecting data. The international scientific social networks were observed to develop the draft of interview questions and the relevant documents. To conduct the interview, a sample of 15 experts were selected purposefully and exposed to the structured interview. Finally, based on an analysis of the content of the social networks and the data collected from the interviews, management capabilities and their specific indicators were categorized. In the quantitative section, the research method was surveying and the data collection tool was a questionnaire. The opinions of two groups, including 15 experts of the previous stage of the study and 43 information technology officials of smart schools in Tehran regarding the importance of the indicators obtained for each of the management capabilities, were collected and prioritized. To validate the collected data in the qualitative section, the review method both by the interviewees and the peers was used. In the quantitative section, the content validity was formally approved by the experts and the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient.Findings: The identified indicators for managerial capabilities in the main sections of the student scientific social network include 36 indicators in the classroom section, 37 indicators in the general section and 20 indicators in the game section. In each of the tripartite sections, the indicators related to the quintuple managerial capabilities were categorized. 11 indicators related to identifying information management are common to all three sections. The findings of the study show the importance of all indicators identified in the main sections of the student scientific social network. The highest average score obtained is related to the game section with an average of 8.66 versus an average of 8.30 for the general section and 8.45 for the classroom section. However, the degree of importance of those indicators is not the same for the respondents, and, accordingly, the indicators were prioritized. The total score of the indicators of the game section is more than the two general and classroom sections and the game capabilities can be used to advance educational goals. Moreover, it is possible to use the game factors and the capabilities that have been found in this study to further strengthen and support the students’ curriculum and general education.Conclusion: The presence of appropriate indicators for the use of information literacy capabilities in the scientific social network, as well as the use of motivational and playful factors such as point wins can help to increase student participation in educational activities. The possibility of sharing learning problems, class participation in content production, providing information about the activities of friends and groups, the possibility of defining competitions and urban challenges, the possibility of sharing social issues and proposing challenges and competitions based on interests which, in this study, have been recommended as appropriate indicators in different sections of social network, can help in strengthening group participation, project-oriented learning, and group problem-solving. Also, sharing and communication capabilities can provide different students with equal opportunities to grow and learn. The framework proposed in this research can be used to evaluate the existing student scientific social networks. It can also provide a framework for designing and developing software for the student scientific social network based on the local characteristics and imitating the model of similar international student social networks.
Educational Technology
M. Ranjbarfard; M. Zandvakili
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Today, the presence of computers in training classes has been expanded. Therefore, preparing appropriate software and games as well as conducting research to examine their impact on education and their comparison with the traditional teaching method (face-to-face and PowerPoint) ...
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Background and Objectives: Today, the presence of computers in training classes has been expanded. Therefore, preparing appropriate software and games as well as conducting research to examine their impact on education and their comparison with the traditional teaching method (face-to-face and PowerPoint) is essential. However, a game-based and a professional software-based teaching method as compared to the traditional teaching method has not been evaluated from the perspective of the students including various aspects, such as motivation, satisfaction, interaction, pleasure and learning. This study aims at making a comparison between the evaluation of various teaching methods, including game-based , professional software-based , and traditional teaching method. The evaluation of each of these three methods has been conducted from the perspective of the students in one of the courses of the field of Financial Management, using measures such as pleasure and interaction.Methods: First, the theoretical framework and the research hypothesis were determined based on the literature on three teaching methods, including game-based and professional software-based, and traditional teaching methods. The statistical population of this study comprised of 70 individuals who were undergraduate students of the course of technical analysis at the Financial Centre of Iran as well as at the Association of Stock Exchange Brokers. The selection of this course was due to the possibility of running all the three teaching methods in the time period of conducting this research. The evaluation data for each of these teaching methods were gathered, using a separate closed questionnaire (totally 3 questionnaires) with 5-point Likert scale. The questionnaires of the traditional and software teaching methods were distributed after 3 sessions of the classes had passed and the questionnaire of the game-based teaching method was distributed after 14 days of running the game (this was one of the time periods defined in the game). The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS and Excel. The paired t-test was used to analyze the differences in the evaluation of the three teaching methods at the significance level equal to 0.005. The normality of data was tested and confirmed by using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test before running the paired t-test. Findings: In the comparison of professional software-based with the traditional teaching method at the significance level of 0.000 and t= 6.454, it can be said that professional software-based teaching was better. In the comparison of game-based with traditional teaching method at the significance level of 0.000 and t=6.097, it can be said that game-based teaching method was better. In the comparison of professional software-based with game-based teaching method, at the significance level of 0.000 and t=4.861, it can be said that game-based teaching method was better. The mean for game-based teaching method was significantly much higher than that of the other teaching methods. This means that based on their ability, the students were more satisfied with the game-based teaching method; they regarded this method more interactive; they have enjoyed this teaching method more than the others; and this teaching method has increased their motivation, and they have regarded it more effective in their learning.Conclusions: With respect to the significant difference in the evaluation of the game-based teaching method compared with other two teaching methods, it is recommended that the educational institutes, teachers and developers of computer games pay more attention to game-based teaching method and gamification with the teaching objectives. At least, based on the subject and content of the course, besides the traditional method (face-to-face and PowerPoint) which is a common method in teaching, use of a combination of various teaching methods including game-based professional software-based teaching method along with the traditional method can be beneficial and increase the level of satisfaction, learning, motivation, capability, interaction and pleasure of the students. Lack of teaching games relevant to academic courses was one of the main challenges of this research. As a result, it was impossible to study the effect of game elements (such as leaderboards, scores, medals, …) in teaching through game-based method. Due to the impossibility of running educational games related to academic courses in the time period in which the research was being conducted, the spatial scope of the research was limited to two organizations in Tehran province and it was impossible to gather data from other educational institutions and in other classrooms for the other courses.
Educational Technology
S. A. Faregh; Y. Saffari; M. Jafari Sisis
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Education is an integral part of human life. At present, the educational books and the one-dimensional media which they contain, such as images, diagrams, tables, and the like play an important/significant role in this domain. Gamification, as a new and potential phenomenon, ...
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Background and Objectives: Education is an integral part of human life. At present, the educational books and the one-dimensional media which they contain, such as images, diagrams, tables, and the like play an important/significant role in this domain. Gamification, as a new and potential phenomenon, adds a new era into the area of educational technologies in which educational concepts are taught to the users through a gamified scenario. Today, the integration of new technologies with existing teaching and learning methods in order to improve the learning process is one of the most important issues that require a comprehensive study. Conflict, meanwhile, is an issue that arises in the individual and group life of any society, and its proper management requires proper teaching and learning. In line with using digital games as a means of gamfication, the present study aimes at examining the effect of this method on the teaching and learning of conflict management and comparing it with the existing (traditional) method.Methods: After studying the findings and the research methods of former studies, an experimental study was conducted in a quasi-pre-and-post-experimental framework on the conflict management of two digital games. For this purpose, 60 female participants were randomly selected varying from 18-to-55-year-old women's community in Tehran and Tabriz. Participants were randomly divided into three equal groups of 20 people among which two groups were experimental and one group was the control and each group was tested with a separate game. The measuring instrument in this study was the Thomas-Kilmann normative questionnaire. The testing process consisted of two standard web games called "The raise" and "The costumer service" which were used as test intervention. The control group was trained by means of traditional education (based on written documents) and the experimental group was trained by means of computer games.Findings: The analysis of covariance of results in SPSS software with the Alpha of 0.05 indicates that computer games have a significant relationship with improving the level of conflict management in individuals. On the other hand, examining the growth charts of individuals’ conflict management level that have been extracted based on the results of the pre-test and post-test questionnaire of Thomas-Kilman shows that in conflict management training, computer games are more effective than academic and traditional education.Conclusions: The findings of the analyses conducted on the results of the experiments in this study showed that the interactive nature of multimedia digital games increases the attractiveness of the educational topics.Therefore, conflict management training, as compared to traditional training, has been able to influence the level of "cooperation", "competition", "adaptability" and "avoidance" of the individuals, both through "The Raise" and "The Customer Service" games, , and it has also been more effective in teaching the conflict management styles. Exploring these issues in a heuristic manner among participants also suggests that educational materials based on traditional and text-based education have not been attractive enough to engage test-takers and have imposed a high cognitive load of comprehension on them. However, the computer games in the experimental groups could attract more attention toward learning and could provide the test-takers with better comprehension of the issues. Finally, it can be concluded that gamification has a positive effect on the process of teaching and learning conflict management.
Educational Technology
A. Dana; S. Ghorbani; A. Fathizadan
Abstract
education is increasing among sports researchers. Although the use of written methods is the first step in the influence of technology in physical education, with the advancement of computers and new technologies, the method of media education is fully developed and has created an interaction between ...
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education is increasing among sports researchers. Although the use of written methods is the first step in the influence of technology in physical education, with the advancement of computers and new technologies, the method of media education is fully developed and has created an interaction between learning and bridging the gap between audio education and audio-visual education. Physical education is one of the most important subject matters in the field of education to educate students to be sociable and responsible. As the use of educational technology can increase the participation of students more actively and engage them in this lesson, the aim of this study is to investigate the effects mentioned and the use of technology in the learning and teaching of physical education in schools. Methods: The present study is a qualitative-observational and case study that was conducted through interviews and observation of activities. The statistical population is all students and teachers of Gorgan city in Iran. Three schools were randomly selected from among the selected schools. Eight students were randomly selected from each class. Six teachers from each school were randomly selected to be interviewed. Three methods have been used to collect data for this research: 1) interview with the teacher, 2) interview with students, 3) observation of the classes during the activity. To achieve the objectives of the research, special classifications were made. These classifications are as follows: 1) Observing the quality of physical education (entertainment, activity, progress), and 2) Observing the performance of oneself and others (self-efficacy, motivation and group dynamics). In this study, video cameras were used to record the performance of students to increase motivation and learning physical education among them. Data were collected during two periods of school observation and telephone interview with the teacher a few days after the second observation.Findings: The results showed that students value learning new skills in physical education such as combat (5 people agreed) and entertainment (5 people agreed) and consider it a key component for quality of physical education. More interestingly, the students believed that the use of videotaping for recording their performance increased the success of the lesson. Students also consider the use of technology in physical education as one of the methods for successful physical education. In this regard, teachers find the use of technology in physical education in schools more useful and believed that it affects the emotional and social developments of students. Based on the findings of the present study, it seems that students have considered activeness, being in a group, staying healthy and having fun as the main components of the quality of physical education. Teachers believe that a virtual tutor is a good way to motivate students.Conclusion: Technology should be for the awareness and improvement of the quality of physical education and learning, and the combined use of the two will lead to the growth and improvement of teacher education and student learning. This research can justify and recommend the use of technology in elementary school physical education, which is more focused on increasing the quality of physical education, so the main goal is to develop motor skills. The use of technology in education can help teachers to enhance all aspects of learning (physical, emotional, social and cognitive) in students by using this opportunity.
Educational Technology
M. Ghasemi arganeh; S. Pourroostaei Ardakani; A. Mohseni Ezhiyeh; R. Fathabadi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Pillars of civilization of any society is based on the system and structure of education; and without any doubt health, comprehensiveness and efficiency of the education system of that society depends on the scope, breadth, diversity and quality of comprehensive educational ...
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Background and Objectives: Pillars of civilization of any society is based on the system and structure of education; and without any doubt health, comprehensiveness and efficiency of the education system of that society depends on the scope, breadth, diversity and quality of comprehensive educational programs and educational services that are offered to students in regular schools or special classes. We have often seen students who are very similar in terms of learning ability and talent; but there are many differences in their academic achievement. We see these differences not only in school learning but also in other non-academic activities. This aspect of human behavior is related to the field of motivation. Psychologists often see motivation as a process that is involved in motivating, directing, and sustaining behavior. Motivation is the basis of human behavior and the most important factor of various behaviors and in fact the driving force of human activities and their directing factor. Gamification is currently one of the techniques that can increase motivation. Gamification is a new method that has been translated as ‘playmaking’ in some sources and means the use of playful elements and thoughts in areas that are not the nature of the game. Gamification has been one of the topics discussed in recent years, which can be used to increase efficiency and user interaction. Properly applied gamification in educational environments will lead to better learning of users. This study investigates the impact of gamification on educational motivation for mentally disabled students. Methods: This research utilizes a quasi-experiment research method through which pre andpost-tests are organized for two groups of students, i.e., control and experimental. The reserach population covers all mentally challenged students in Kermanshah Providence in Iran. The experiment sample consists of 32 students selected using a convenience sampling method. They randomly formed two groups of 16 as control and experimental. The experimental group was taught by game-based instructions, whereas the control received ordinary lessons in the classroom. For this, a 20 sessions (ordinary and game-based) course were designed for both groups of students. Harter motivation test was used in this research to collect data from the students. The collected data was analyzed using a one-way analysis of covariance. Findings: In the descriptive statistics section, the studied variables were analyzed using statistical index tables, mean and standard deviation; and in the inferential statistics section, the research hypotheses were analyzed using analysis of covariance. According to the results, game-based education has a positive impact on educational motivation for mentally disabled students and the effect size of the Eta squared in research is 0.49 on the internal motivation and 0.51 is the external motive. Conclusions: According to the findings of the analysis of covariance, gamification-based teaching methods have a positive effect on internal and external academic motivation (p <0.01). It is concluded that motivation plays a key role in learning, specifically if the students with mental disabilities join game-based educational environments.
Learning Environment
S. Bitaraf; M. Kameli; B. Saleh sedg poor
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Due to the spatial-content development in domains of knowledge, it is necessary to pay attention to the new approaches to education by emphasizing opportunities and limitations. Therefore, in this paper providing an appropriate educational model compatible with an affordance-based ...
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Background and Objectives: Due to the spatial-content development in domains of knowledge, it is necessary to pay attention to the new approaches to education by emphasizing opportunities and limitations. Therefore, in this paper providing an appropriate educational model compatible with an affordance-based approach (including environment features and physical, cultural, behavioral and perceptual characteristics of users) at different levels of teaching the design of residential complexes is desired. The research studies conducted in this regard can be examined in two subjects: teaching residential architecture and affordances. In this regard, the purpose of this paper is studying the basics of teaching architecture, with two approaches including the affordances and the optimal relationship between environment and human being in the residential space and providing an operational model in educational planning of the course in designing the residential architecture. In fact, the analysis of the basic criteria for the design of residential complexes in the field of architecture education with a focus on improving the quality of these spaces based on the dimensions of sustainability are considered in this study. Methods: This research is applied in terms of purpose, descriptive in terms of data collection, and its type is causal-comparative. In the first phase of the research, the effective components of architectural education in the design of residential complexes were studied and collected in a qualitative and descriptive manner with the help of library and field resources and unstructured interviews with experts.Research instruments at this stage were a researcher-made questionnaire extracted from a primary model and an interview with the experts which included the following 6 components: 1- Environmental factors 2- Individual factors 3- Educational planning 4- PCK of education 5- PCK of teacher, and 6- Internal and external factors. The research was conducted in two stages with the aim of increasing the face validity (approval of the questionnaire by the experts) and the reliability of the research. The statistical population included experts and specialists in two groups of university lecturers and those involved in the design of residential architecture. The sampling method has been selected purposefully due to maintaining the principle of comprehensiveness and respecting the diversity of the community. In the second stage of the research, the variables were discovered using factor analysis tools in order to perform computational and statistical studies of the research for the purpose of explanation and prediction Then, the factors identified as affecting the residential architecture education were ranked. Findings: Theobtained results are descriptive statistics of respondents of both sexes holding master's and doctoral degrees and working as faculty members, university lecturers and those involved in residential architecture in three age ranges of less than 40 years, between 40 to 60 years and 60 years and above. The findings showed that among all the aforementioned six components that affect the architecture education, PCK of education, and environmental factors have the most significant impact. Conclusion: Based on the research studies conducted and the statistical results obtained, a comprehensive and operational model was developed for the educational planning of the residential architecture design course. In this pattern, TPCK and environmental components (including the design of light, the design of color, territory-oriented behaviour, ventilation, environmental equipment, security and respect for the environment) were introduced as the most effective components in residential architecture education. Also, based on the emphasis laid on the teacher-student interaction and the guidance role of the instructor and the facilitating role of the teacher in the type of the teaching method, an important feature of this model is the centrality of the aforementioned components in three dimensions of the instructor (teacher), the learner (student) and the environment.
Learning Environment
H. Hayaty; M. Behdarvand
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The mosque schools were the social, political, and religious centers considered as a refuge for the turbulent urban life in the Islamic countries. To teach religious affairs in a religious environment, the theocratic regimes in Iran began to construct a new building called ...
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Background and Objectives: The mosque schools were the social, political, and religious centers considered as a refuge for the turbulent urban life in the Islamic countries. To teach religious affairs in a religious environment, the theocratic regimes in Iran began to construct a new building called the mosque-school while benefitting from the background provided by the mosque-shrines and the mosque- monastaries. Despite the available studies conducted on the formation of these buildings and their physical features; it seems that the appearance of these mosque-schools still has many lessons for the contemporary architecture of Iran. It is not clearly known how the two educational (school) and worshipping areas (mosque) have been linked with each other in the two eras of Timurid and Safavid and what features distinguish mosque-schools from other combined forms of buildings. This research identifies the relationship between the educational and worshipping centers, which are in fact the so-called mosque-schools. The purpose of this article is to find out the relationship between the two educational and worshipping areas in the Timurid and Safavid Eras and the distinctive features of mosque-schools, as compared to the other combined forms. Methods: The present study used interpretive-historical and case study research methodology; and the analyses of the buildings are done by the method of logical reasoning. In this case, first, the two educational and worshipping areas in each era were considered separetly. Then the influence of these areas on the general form of the aforementioned mosque-schools and also the way their different parts are related to each other were analyzed. Findings: To make a comparative study on the relationship between the mosque-schools of the Safavid and Timurid Eras, seven cases of mosque-schools from these two eras were selected, using a purposeful sampling method. Regarding the relationship between the educational and worshipping areas, two general categories were introduced for typology. In these typologies, the mosque-schools were divided in terms of hierarchy, location, and the combination of the educational and worshipping areas. Moreover, the criteria for the simultaneous development of education and training, focusing on education, promoting the social interactions of the students in the mosqus and so on were introduced and, finally, these criteria were compiled and explained in terms of design principles of educational-religious centers. Principles, such as comprehensive development in various aspects, the importance of discussion, the improvement of social interactions, mentioning spiritual issues and other policies show the importance of these matters in the mosque-schools. Conclusion: The major changes in the Safavid schools provided more suitable residential, educational and worshipping areas for students. Sometimes schools had two separate entrances to access educational and worshipping areas. During the Timurid Era, these two sections were completely close to each other. Ghiasieh and Do-dar schools from the Timurid Era and Chaharbagh and Hakim schools from the Safavid Era are the proofs of this fact. With respect to the principles ruling over the in mosque-schools, for instance, respecting the privacy of the students which, in turn, leads to creating spatial hierarchies and observing order in the mosque-schools can be pointed out. Moreover, the importance of discussion and paying attention to the central courtyard could also lead considering open and semi-open spaces like porticos and also paying attention to natural elements in order to focus the mind on thinking and educational development. These principles lead to the organization and helped to focus on education along with worshipping in the school mosques.
e-learning
E. Jafari; N. Homayooni Bakhshayesh; J. Alamolhoda
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Nowadays, virtual education has become one of the most important applications of information and communication technologies in the world and extensive activities have been started in this field. This can be one of the favorite options to fill the educational gaps, in the unavailability ...
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Background and Objectives: Nowadays, virtual education has become one of the most important applications of information and communication technologies in the world and extensive activities have been started in this field. This can be one of the favorite options to fill the educational gaps, in the unavailability of face to face education and eventually leading to the promotion of educational justice for people in rural and remote areas. The aim of this study was determing whether those who were the target audience for this form of education have perceived it as a fair experience. To be more precise, which part of this type of education has led to a feeling of justice in these individuals and which part has led to a significant feeling of injustice in their experiences. In short, the aim of this study was to investigate the experiences of virtual students of Tehran’s comprehensive universities of the state of educational justice in virtual education in order to determine its aspects and dimensions. Methods: This study was conducted as a qualitative research using the phenomenology method. One of the suitable cases to apply the phenomenological method is providing an answer to the following question: Is there any need to further clarify a specific phenomenon? The state of justice in virtual education has not yet been properly studied in any research; therefore, the researchers in the present study selected the above approach to study this issue. Based on its goal, in this study, standard sampling was used among virtual students who have experienced virtual courses of Tehran Comprehensive Universities (Amirkabir University, Shahid Beheshti University, Iran University of Science and Technology, K. N. Toosi University of Technology and Tehran University) and met the criteria for being included in this study. The sampling process continued until the data were saturated in 32 interviews. A semi-structured interview was used for data collection. The interviews were analyzed using the Smith method. In order to confirm the validity and accuracy of the research, the reliability and verifiability of the data were examined. To ensure validity, the findings of this study were presented to the participants and they expressed their views to the researcher on the correspondence of the findings with their experiences; moreover, collaborative reflection on the emerged themes was conducted by the researcher. The researchers ensured the validity of this research by maintaining the documentation at all stages of the study. Due to ethical considerations, before starting the interview, the participants were informed of the goals and importance of the research and participated in the research with informed consent. Participants were also assured that their identity would be kept confidential during and after the study. Findings: The main question of this research was: What experiences do students have regarding justice and injustice in virtual education? In analyzing the interviews, the main concepts were extracted from the sentences expressed by the participants and were represented in a reduced conceptual form, resulting in 153 descriptive codes. In the next step, by reflecting on the descriptive codes, overlapping, similar, and related codes were identified. These concepts were integrated in the form of 20 interpretive codes based on commonalities, similarities and semantic overlaps. Finally, in the last step, the interpretive codes were reduced to 7 explanatory codes: students' equity with different characteristics (geographical condition, job status, and learning competence), students' equality in their interaction with professors (equality despite differences in appearance features and cultures), lack of real interactions (short and fragile interactions), content problems (non-practical content, lack of supervision in content development and lack of codified and specific planning in presenting courses), organizational misconceptions toward virtual students (having capitalistic attitude to students and not paying attention to students' real abilities), inequality in the use of facilities and costs (high educational costs and inequality in the use of facilities), and inequality in providing educational services (lack of appropriate organizational behavior patterns suitable for virtual teaching, low staff number to meet the educational needs of students, high number of students in classrooms and the use of inappropriate teachers for teaching). Conclusion: Justice and its realization has always been one of the main slogans in the field of education. Participants in the present study have sometimes focused on communication and sometimes focused on the facilities provided in the training process. If we take a general look at the themes obtained, we can divide them into two spectrums of justice and injustice although more examples have been found in the section on injustice. Another main conclusion that is drawn from the present study is the predominant link between the instances of justice and the inherent characteristics of virtual education and the predominant link between the instances of injustice in the way the virtual teaching is managed and lack of facilities appropriate for this form of education. Finally, it should be noted that due to the increasing use of virtual education and its fundamental difference from face-to-face education, ethical issues also appear differently in its process which require accurate recognition and study.
Modern Educational Approaches
Z. Kalantarnia; A. Shahvaran Semnani; M.H. Behzadi; , M. Rostami Mal-khalifeh; M.R. Mardan-beigi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Educating creative people is one of the important goals of educational systems. Undoubtedly, using educational models appropriate to educational content provides a suitable platform for achieving this goal. Innovative and 5 E patterns lead to increasing student creativity. ...
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Background and Objectives: Educating creative people is one of the important goals of educational systems. Undoubtedly, using educational models appropriate to educational content provides a suitable platform for achieving this goal. Innovative and 5 E patterns lead to increasing student creativity. In the innovation model, the student tries to look at the problem with a new perspective and turn it into a familiar problem by analogy and simile. In the 5E inclusive model, the student discovers relationships, solutions, and concepts through participation in a variety of activities. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of educational interventions based on innovation and 5E patterns on the academic performance of 9th grade students’ geometry. Methods: The research method was quasi-experimental in which pre-test, post-test design with control group was used. From the statistical population of 9th grade female students of Tehran public high schools, 3 classes, each class included 30 students as a sample, were selected by convenience sampling method. Then two classes were randomly selected as experimental groups of innovation and 5E and one class as control group. Data collection instruments included researcher-made performance tests tailored to innovation models and 5E, while the reliability and validity of these tests were assessed only for group 5E and the results were generalized for innovation groups and 5E. In order to collect the data, at the first phase, performance pre-tests based on the basic geometric concepts were administrated for innovation, 5E and control groups. Then, the content based on innovation and 5E patterns and the traditional method for innovation, 5E and control groups were implemented by the researcher in 8 sessions for 60 minutes in five consecutive weeks. Finally, the researcher-made post-test based on the geometric concepts was run for innovation, 5E and control groups. To analyze the data descriptive statistics (including mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics containing Kolmogrov Smirnov (to check the normality of the data) and the ANOVA were used by SPSS statistical software. Findings: The results of the research in the descriptive statistics section showed that the mean difference between the pretest tests of the performance tests of the innovation groups with 2.73 and 5E with 3.16 compared to the control group with 0.42 showed significant differences. Also in the inferential statistics section, the results of the ANOVA test for pretests of the innovation, 5E and control groups indicated that the academic level of the students of innovation, 5E and control groups was the same. (0.05 <0.963). The results of the ANOVA test for post-tests of innovation, 5E, and control groups showed that 5E and innovation had a positive effect on the performance of 9th grade students in geometry. (0.00 <0.05). Conclusion: The use of innovation models and 5E led to students’ performance, so the educational system should emphasize the use of the methods that aim to increase interaction and cooperation between students. Therefore, it is suggested that the necessary training should be introduced in the curriculum of teacher training in order to get acquainted with and apply active teaching methods such as Baybi. Also, the content of textbooks should be organized based on active teaching methods, so that these methods can be taught and implemented in teaching materials. This research has been accompanied by limitations that may affect the generalizability of the research findings. Because it is not possible for the researcher to control disturbing variables such as intelligence and gender, these variables have some effect on the results. Also, due to time and space constraints and the issue of necessary permissions, this study was conducted only among 9th grade female students. Naturally, increasing the sample will lead to more accurate results.
Educational Technology
A. Habibi-Azar; J. Keyhan; B. Talebi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Research findings about the application of information and communication technologies in classroom has shown that despite the efforts had been done and the large amount of costs spent for empowering teachers' computer skills, but these activities have not been able to create ...
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Background and Objectives: Research findings about the application of information and communication technologies in classroom has shown that despite the efforts had been done and the large amount of costs spent for empowering teachers' computer skills, but these activities have not been able to create desired changes in the role and activity of teachers in schools. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to study the phenomenological process of Iranian teachers' ICT competence in order to present a native model. Methods: This was a qualitative phenomenological research, because the lived experiences of teachers in achieving technological competence in the classroom have been used to explore the objectives of the study. The statistical population of this qualitative study were all teachers in Urmia city. 22 teachers (13 females and 9 males) were selected by non-probability purposeful sampling method with considering the desired characteristics and theoretical saturation based-rule. Participants who engaged in 17 different schools including public, board of trustees, smart, nonprofit, and rural schools, were selected. The data collection tool was semi-structured interview. Voice recording and note-taking (with emphasis on voice recording), as Two techniques for gathering data, were used. George's (1970) four-step coding approach were used to analyze the data. The coding process was performed in MAXQDA10 software. Findings:The findings of the qualitative analysis indicated that the process of teachers ICT-competence can be organized into five components, including; 1) motivation/ tendency/ interest in teachers including the following sub-components: “Changing in teacher’s salary”, “Changing teachers’ position”, “Create need”, “Classification of teachers based on the prior knowledge”, “Pay attention to the timing of the courses” , “Changing the look to the teaching profession” and “Choosing the right professor”; 2) planning, including the following sub-components: “Teachers Rating (Needs Assessment)” , “Determining curriculum (educational topics)”, “Choosing the right professor”, “Locate the right place” and “Determine the right time”; 3) beginning of the learning process including the following components: “Hardware training”, “Software training”, “Problem-solving training”, “Information literacy training”, “Facilitate access to educational resources” and “Support”; 4) implementation of the learning process including the following sub-components: “In-service preparation courses”, “In-service training courses”, “Specialized school courses”, and “Out-of-school courses” and 5) " institutionalization of technology competence " including the following sub-components: “Problem-solving training’, “Formalize collaboration between teachers” and ‘Formalize follow-up courses for teaching and learning”. Conclusion: This model is presented by looking at the needs of teachers, the conditions and Organizational structure of education, the facilities of schools, the status of courses, the cooperation between teachers, and so on. In this model, all the influential factors in the process of acquiring information and technology competence by teachers have been included and based on the content of the interviews, each of them has been considered in the relevant step. Although it could be organized these components or steps in hierarchical or step-by-step structure, but in many places it is possible to go back and start from the previous step. It is hoped that this model will be a step towards developing an appropriate model in the field of staff technology competence for the Education Organization and other organizations.
Learning Environment
F. Kamiab Kahran; M. Tabatabaee; M. Asadi Farsani; M. Ahmad Khani
Abstract
Background and Objectives: In handicraft literature, the art of handmade carpets is about what is woven and threaded by hand. Two thousand years of Iranian culture and civilization and all the technical chievements of Iranians in the field of handicrafts are summarized in the carpet (weaving carpet), ...
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Background and Objectives: In handicraft literature, the art of handmade carpets is about what is woven and threaded by hand. Two thousand years of Iranian culture and civilization and all the technical chievements of Iranians in the field of handicrafts are summarized in the carpet (weaving carpet), as much as that the structure of Iranian architecture can be known similar to the carpet. Considering the value and importance of handmade carpets and its training in Iran, we study the issue that carpet weaving is one of the oldest economic activities in Iran, according to this background The purpose of this research is to identify and prioritize the effective factors in welcoming the short courses of weaving carpet in the municipality's cultural centers of Tehran. The statistical population in this research includes all those who welcome the art of carpet weaving, so the statistical population of this research includes all the comprehensive and carpentry specialists in the municipality's cultural centers of Tehran. Methods: Research method in this research is applied in terms of purpose and in term of nature is description _ survay .the statistical population in this research is all people who welcome the art of carpet. The sampling method was based on cluster sampling method. In this method, a sample, comprehensive and carpentry specialists were considered in 10 cultural centers of Tehran municipality, whose total number was 126, and the number of carpet specialists was 10, and a total of statistical samples The research was 136 people. To measure the variables in this research, a researcher-made questionnaire was developed for effective factors in welcoming short courses of carpet training. Smart PLS software was used to implement the structural model of the research. Findings: The results showed that all factors are effective in welcoming short-term carpet weaving training courses in cultural centers of Tehran Municipality. Conclusion: In this research, 7 factors were considered to welcome learners from carpet weaving training in the studied cultural centers. These 7 factors are advertising, income, aesthetics, originality of Iranian carpets, interest, cultural needs and educational atmosphere. Considering the existence of this field in cultural centers of different regions of Tehran and recognizing the priorities of learners with different social and cultural origins and the activity of various cultural centers in Greater Tehran, it was found that the four main factors (advertising, income, educational space and interest) which have most effection in welcoming short -term carpet weaving training courses ,should be studied .Eventually The results showed that all the factors affecting the short-term courses of weaving carpet in the municipality's cultural centers And the most important and most influential factor in welcoming short courses in carpet weaving in the municipality's cultural centers are interest and the least influential factor in advertising.
Emerging Technologies
S.A. FAREGH; M. Jafari Sisi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Education plays a key role in human life. While the teaching of experimental sciences is one of the most important topics that should be accompanied by student's direct experience, in many cases, due to spatial, temporal, or cost-related constraints, it is based solely on traditional ...
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Background and Objectives: Education plays a key role in human life. While the teaching of experimental sciences is one of the most important topics that should be accompanied by student's direct experience, in many cases, due to spatial, temporal, or cost-related constraints, it is based solely on traditional books and their one-dimensional media. With the spread of new technologies, there are new opportunities for existing teaching and learning methods that can transform the educational structure. Augmented Reality (AR) technology, as a novel paradigm, potentially adds a new feature to the range of traditional student books that not only adds multimedia elements, but also allows interactive engagement with the content of them. Augmented reality, as one of the ways of distance learning, by simulating the real world in the form of animation, virtual objects, three-dimensional images, sound and similar elements makes it possible for the user to interact with the with the experiments of a lesson virtually. This study aims to evaluate the effect of interactive augmented reality based education on the learning and remembering of the content of textbooks. Methods: An experimental study in the pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental framework was performed on two groups of 18 sixth grade elementary school students. For this purpose, two scenarios have been selected from student science book and implemented in an interactive augmented reality application. The control group was trained through traditional teaching method. On the other hand, in addition to the traditional teaching method, the experiment group’s training was reinforced with the AR application. Students' learning and remembering evaluation was carried out through two tests. The validity of tests confirmed by the teachers of science in Education District 2 of Tabriz and their reliability has been calculated through Kuder – Richardson Formula. Findings: The results of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed a significant statistical difference between the control and experimental groups. Also, the learning and remembering in students who were trained in interactive augmented reality were more effective than the other group. Conclusion: According to the results of the experiments, and the comparative review of the theoretical subjects, the use of augmented reality technology has been reported as a useful and effective supplemental tool for textbooks that can, beyond the spatial and temporal constraints, facilitate the training process. Also, the interaction in AR encourages learners to replace the active role with the passive one and to learn the topics with more mental participation. On the other hand, the possibility of repeating augmented reality scenarios in educational topics, regardless of spatial, temporal, and cost-realted constraints, allows users to fix bugs and ambiguities, which are other advantages of using this technology. Finally, by examining these capabilities and the ubiquity of mobile phones in today's world, we can predict the presence of virtual laboratories in mobile smartphones in the near future; which can be useful in deprived areas of the country as a replacement of the lack of minimum facilities.
Curriculum Planning
s. Dashtgerd; K. Bazrafkan; H. Jahanbakhsh
Abstract
learning architecture. It seems that the mismatch with the needs and current problems of society, forgetting the values of Iranian culture and the lack of basic and applied research, has led architectural education in Iran to a developing trend towards the West lifestyles, norms and Culture. One of the ...
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learning architecture. It seems that the mismatch with the needs and current problems of society, forgetting the values of Iranian culture and the lack of basic and applied research, has led architectural education in Iran to a developing trend towards the West lifestyles, norms and Culture. One of the main intention to western education model in architecture is that the modern learning and formal education of architecture in Iran born by the importing of French model (Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and French Royal Academy), German model (Poly technical education, engineering learning and training Schools), English model (practical and experimental learning) and American model (combinational learning). Architectural education in Iran starting by applying French model; and after Islamic Republic revolution in 1979, if some schools and agents attempt to defining local model (Iranian and Islamic pattern) in architectural education but their models cannot developed through different architectural schools. In the last decades development of Anglo- American architectural education models impress all parties in it. Even though there are many researches concentrate on architectural education in contemporary Iran, but almost none of them focus on Zeitgeist. Interdisciplinary and its synchronicity with global approaches and the needs of society and social context, to recover and making efficient models are the aim of this study in both, which is suitable for Iran’s situation and Context. This study emphasizes the impact of the architectural education process in relation to the zeitgeist- which is derived from Hegelian literature and philosophy- and explaining its triple components which is dialectic, critical thinking, and updating in education. Finally, the educational programs evaluation has been done by testing these components. Materials and Methods: The present study is a cross-sectional and applied research. The research methodology was based on qualitative method and content analysis. In research process, the contents of the curriculum of the nine top universities -which is selected in valid ranking and geographical and continental distribution- in the world were analyzed by focusing on Zeitgeist’s concept. Statistical descriptive analysis is the approach to findings and its conclusion. Findings: This study showed that Delft University in two fields of history and theory courses with thirty five percent and in the field of technology with approximately thirty two percent, and the Massachusetts University with approximately fifty two percent share in the design department are leading. In interdisciplinary courses, California universities are distinguished from others by about thirty five of the courses. Interestingly, Iran's curriculum has not achieved a significant share in the competition among the world's universities. Conclusion: This research showed that current problems, historical and cultural transcendence is equal to Zeitgeist, which is derived from our society. Although there are a variety of educational models and applied in specific and appropriate educating cases, in all of them some features have a key role to approach the Zeitgeist including changeability, program and design electivity, flexibility in learning curriculum, critical thinking, problem redefining in teaching approaches, and situations simulation.
Education technology - higher education
B. Abadi
Abstract
Background and Objectives:One of the main challenges in Iranian higher education system is the fact that students are not entitled to the skills of thinking and reasoning. In particular, this issue manifests itself in situations where learners are expected to critique and redesign old ideas and thoughts ...
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Background and Objectives:One of the main challenges in Iranian higher education system is the fact that students are not entitled to the skills of thinking and reasoning. In particular, this issue manifests itself in situations where learners are expected to critique and redesign old ideas and thoughts with the power of creativity and innovation, and even creating new and innovative ideas and theories. The lack of attention paid by universities and higher education institutions to training and transferring of thinking skills, creative thinking, and problem-solving ability to challenge decision-making situations has made students rely solely on memorization and pre-prepared results. One of the fields of application of thinking is the issue of entrepreneurship, the close connection of which with creativity has clearly been confirmed in the literature. By institutionalizing entrepreneurship education through the transfer of thinking skills to students to create ideas, they are acquainted with the concept of entrepreneurship, by which they are inspired to create innovative ideas and thoughts. In this regard, entrepreneurial universities develop entrepreneurial skills and help students to start new businesses and network with economic agents in order to support university entrepreneurs. If universities and higher education institutions are not able to step towards entrepreneurial development and do not give thought to this issue, there would be no justification for their survival and continued work in long run, as macro-development frameworks will be implemented based on objective economic indicators and criteria. Hence, the six-hat method of thinking relies on students' thinking power to design career topics. This approach, in essence, will help students have the necessary efficiency and skills in thinking about different aspects of a business issue, especially in designing a business plan. For this reason, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of six thinking hats (STHs) of De Bono on improving the cognitive abilities and skills of agricultural students in the entrepreneurship course. Methods: In this study, 80 undergraduate agricultural students in the University of Maragheh (the academic year 2016-2017) were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups according to a quasi-experimental design of Solomon's four stages. To assess the cognitive ability of the cases, a business questionnaire for the construction of a fish farming unit was used. SPSS software was used to analyze the data and calculate the effect size of the results. Findings: The results unveil that the approach of STHs makes a significant difference in the knowledge of the cases in four experimental groups on the development of business plan (F = 40.89, df = 79, p < /em> < 0.001). Furthermore, there was a significant difference between pre-test and post-test scores of the participants in different groups (SΔ = 8.16, df = 22, p < /em> < 0.0010) with the effect size of 0.75 ( = 0.75), indicating a significant effect for the STHs on learning. Additionally, the qualitative results of the research manifest that the participants were able to design a standard business plan. Conclusion: It is recommended to use the STHs method in entrepreneurship centers of universities and higher education institutions.
Architecture
Kh. Daneshjoo; A. Hosseini Alamdari; M. Moeinipour
Abstract
Background and Objective:In the process of design development, it is the duty of the architect to find appropriate answers to design issues based on his experience and knowledge to provide the design goals considering diverse criteria. Therefore, the ability to create new and unknown solutions to issues, ...
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Background and Objective:In the process of design development, it is the duty of the architect to find appropriate answers to design issues based on his experience and knowledge to provide the design goals considering diverse criteria. Therefore, the ability to create new and unknown solutions to issues, commonly referred to as creativity, is one of the basic skills required from any architect. Responsiveness to the unique design issues requires a creative and flexible mindset. Accordingly, in teaching architecture, nurturing student creativity is critical to solving design issues. The present paper examines the extent of this goal realization in the undergraduate training course in architecture engineering in Iran. Methods: The present study is designed and implemented based on the exploratory mixing research method and the two paradigms of positivism and poststructuralism. In this regard, the research population was clustered based on MSRT’s qualitative classification, and one university was selected from the largest cluster (third grade universities). Considering the dual nature of creativity, using two standard tests of creativity (Torrance and Ned Herrmann), and the degree of creativity of students in the study process at the Malayer university was measured. In addition, the level of readiness of the educational environment for the development of creativity is also measured. In the next stage of the research, the appropriateness of the educational environment for improving creativity was examined based on five basic indicators. Graduated students were asked to evaluate their educational environment during their study in a closed-ended questionnaire based on these five criteria. Findings: The results of the research indicated that students did not increase their general creativity and significantly reduced their use of imagination and creativity as a tool for problem solving during the training period. Based on the results of the research, the instability of goals and design values during the course of the curriculum resulting from the structure of the educational system is a major factor in the disability of the educational environment in the development of student creativity. Conclusion: According to the results of examining general creativity of students, it seems that architecture education environment is useful for people with low general creativity, but it does not embrace very high creative students and provides conditions for high creativity to be suppressed and become close to the average creativity of the society. In general, this environment does not have a significant effect on the general creativity of the student community. On the other hand, a sharp decrease in the use of imaginative and creative thinking during the training course shows that the architectural design environment does not support and respect creative thinking and does not even tolerate creativity beyond a certain extent.
Learning Environment
H. Hayaty; F. Gholami
Abstract
Background and Objective:Education is one of the most important issues in any society and has a decisive role in promoting the level of knowledge of individuals and the growth of culture in that society. In the past, the duty and responsibility of schools was mostly religious education. Schools were ...
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Background and Objective:Education is one of the most important issues in any society and has a decisive role in promoting the level of knowledge of individuals and the growth of culture in that society. In the past, the duty and responsibility of schools was mostly religious education. Schools were built as one of the main pillars of urban organizations by various strata, such as scholars and teachers, kings and the rich, and in addition to their religious educational function, they often played a socio-political role. Took over. The school is a project to meet the needs of the Islamic community. The school was a custom building created to serve an institution that was itself an innovation in education. In addition, the school was the creation of a kind of entrenched civilization that brought new achievements to society. In the past, the core of the islamic education was in the mosques; because the first places which were used in the early islamic centuries for education were the mosques. Accordingly, the mosque have historically functioned as places of muslims gatherings and acquiring knowledge.The present study investigates development of the religion-educational centers, i.e. the school-mosques; and since majority of these centers were built in Qajars Era. Methods: the statistical population of the study consists of the school-mosques built in this period. The verify used in this research is historical commentary and the analysis of the buildings is done with the logical reasoning method. Historical documents and literature library resources have been used to collect information. In this paper, three of the school-mosques of Qajar Dynasty have been selected through purposeful samplivg in order to study the concept of education. Findings:The concept of education and educational methods have changed during Qajar Era; and these changes in the concept of education have led to diversity of forms and changes in architecture of the schools. These changes are evident in plan, internal functions of the building, including changes made to the entrance system, courtyard, and number and quality of the dorms. Conclusion: The concept of education in the Qajar period took a more general approach than in previous eras and was freed from the monopoly of the aristocracy and nobles. This not only led to the expansion and development of schools in terms of scale and number; but also caused the formation of living spaces and rooms with higher number and quality in Qajar schools. In the traditional period, schools have a completely traditional architecture. Sardar, Sepahsalar and Aghabzorg schools are examples of this period. The model of these schools includes a central courtyard with a number of rooms around it that has an educational-residential structure. The general approach in Qajar schools caused these schools to play an essential role in social activities, and even some religious ceremonies and prayers for the general public were formed there. This led to a change in the entry system and the creation of separate entrances for students and ordinary people. The courtyard is of special importance in the architecture of Qajar schools. The school yard provides a refreshing, eye-catching and relaxing space for students using plants, trees and a pool of water. These courtyards have sometimes even been the subject of debate and teaching.
Architecture
F. Mozafar; F. Mahdizade Seraj; S.S. Mirmoradi
Abstract
With changes in lifestyle, children’s daily experience is separating the natural world. Can be said of children and nature connection in today’s world is a failure and one of the most important places for re-establishing this connection are schools. What it said in this article is various ...
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With changes in lifestyle, children’s daily experience is separating the natural world. Can be said of children and nature connection in today’s world is a failure and one of the most important places for re-establishing this connection are schools. What it said in this article is various aspects of functioning of nature in educational spaces. Difference in these aspects can be an important factor in how the design of natural spaces and how their presence in the educational spaces and spaces so this is efficient. This article recognition various nature’s potentials in the development and education of children and explores practical solutions for them.
