Original Research Paper
Educational Technology
A. Mirzaie; Z. Khoshneshin; S. Salimi; S.A. Ghasemtabar
Abstract
Backgrounds and Objectives:The use of concept maps is one of the new educational approaches that is rooted in the constructivist approach. In constructivism, the importance of knowledge is emphasized by relating the learned information to the new one. In this relational view and based on the concept ...
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Backgrounds and Objectives:The use of concept maps is one of the new educational approaches that is rooted in the constructivist approach. In constructivism, the importance of knowledge is emphasized by relating the learned information to the new one. In this relational view and based on the concept map approach, people search between previous and new learning, people make their own schemas or mind maps, and in new learning, these mind maps are extensively revised and reconstructed. Concept map is a tool for showing the relationships between concepts in a coherent and hierarchical way that facilitates meaningful learning, because in this method the concepts are not scattered components but are in the form of a network of relationships to each other. Concept maps are also effective in facilitating creative thinking due to their unique features. The present study describes effectiveness of conceptual map implicated through multimedia on social skills improvement among learners with mental retardation. Teaching on the basis of concept mapping known as an active method to teach social skills for learners with special learning needs (as mental retarded). Methods and Materials: Quasi-experimental research method is used with pretest-posttest instrument. Sample of the study is equal to society includes14 mild mental retarded students (aged 16-14 years). It is a researcher-made questionnaire measures learners with mental retardation social skills improvement included three components as interaction with others, social adaptive behavior and self-control. Questionnaires' Reliability estimated by Cronbach's alpha (0.80). Mann-Whitney U test used to analyses the data, compartments of the pre- post-test scores in experimental group after the intervention. The Wilcoxon Signed rank test with the effect size is also approached to data analyzing Findings: It is revealed that there is a significant difference in pre-test and posttest scores of students in different level of social skills. So implementation of concept mapping plus to using multimedia could enable mentally retarded students as it is suggested to construct their minding's as well improvement of their social skills. Conclusion: Learning to apply a concept map in the form of multimedia can improve the learning of subscales in the social skills subset, adaptive social behavior, improve the learning of social skills in the form of interaction with others, learn social skills in the form of self-control and keep components such as having clean your own desk, discussing your feelings and emotions, reacting appropriately to strangers, separating good and bad habits, and expressing happiness will be effective when you succeed in your control component. Experience of teaching with teacher-made concept map methods in combination with multimedia shows the effect of using active and modern methods in education for meaningful learning in children with mental disabilities, objectifying the teachings of students with mental disabilities with up-to-date and effective educational media such as photos, videos, animations and other educational software, providing educational resources required for social skills appropriate to the appropriate time conditions for children with mental disabilities and drawing maps to communicate between the main and secondary components of concepts related to social skills. Educational groups and organizations are recommended to pay attention to this group of students in developing and improving their learning.
Original Research Paper
TVET
A. Ghaffari; M.R. Ahanchian; A.A. Khallaghi; M. Naderi
Abstract
Background and Objectives:Although the issue of vocational training has been considered in the history of education in the country, we do not come across a credible scientific document about the philosophy of vocational training. In other words, the study of preliminary evidence showed that the philosophy ...
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Background and Objectives:Although the issue of vocational training has been considered in the history of education in the country, we do not come across a credible scientific document about the philosophy of vocational training. In other words, the study of preliminary evidence showed that the philosophy of vocational training in Iran has not been considered as much as its value and sensitivity. For example, in the Fundamental Document of Educational Change, it is only important to pay attention to vocational training in general. In a general view, we see that in different periods of time, with the momentary decisions of the officials, the training of professionals has had many ups and downs. In these ups and downs, mostly without logical support, the vocational education system has sometimes been sharply criticized by some education experts in the country. As the philosophy of education and its different aspects such as vocational education is not so clear, and it is considered as a vaccum issue system of education, the purpose of this article is to understand the evolution of the philosophy of vocational education in Iran (from the establishment of Dar-al-Fonoon, up to now). Method and Materials: To achieve this purpose, the researchers have studied the evolution of philosophy of vocational education in contemporary Iran through a philosophical approach and via logical-analyzed procedure. This is done to express challenges and current issues as well as representing required suggestions related to the issue. To achieve this purpose, the relevant documents have been studied by evidence analysis method. Findings: The study of philosophical foundation of education system in Iran before and after the stablishment of Islamic republic indicates that the sprite of ruling over the vocational education in Iran’s education system is affected by several philosophical streams including doctrines related to the realism, pragmatism, liberalism, naturlizm, and mercantilism which are different from Islamic education philosophy in some axiological and epistemological foundations. Conclusion: In summary, the study of the philosophical foundations of the educational system of the Islamic Republic of Iran shows that the prevailing spirit of the philosophy of vocational education in the Iranian educational system is influenced by several philosophical associations that in some axiological and epistemological foundations with the philosophy of Islamic education. They are different. The most important of these schools were pragmatism, liberalism and utilitarianism. Therefore, it is inferred that the planning and implementation of vocational training programs has been associated with many shortcomings, and with the continuation of this situation, we can not hope for the success of these programs in the future. Because any vocational training system needs a philosophy to help it give basic answers to questions about what and why vocational training is. According to the present study, efficient vocational training is one of the most fundamental ways to achieve some goals of any educational system, and having a clear philosophy and a specific theoretical framework for vocational training is one of the first fundamental steps in achieving the goal of efficient vocational training. As stated in this study, and a review of the theoretical and practical background of research in Iran also shows, that the country's education system has clearly lacked the stated philosophy of vocational training. The lack of clarity in the philosophy of vocational training is a vacuum in any educational system. It is clear that having philosophical support alone is not enough, but also the stability and financial policies of the government can contribute to the success of vocational training projects.
Review Paper
Mathematics Education
E. Mohammadzadeh Chineh; H. Soltanzadeh
Abstract
Background and Objectives:Architecture training is to enable students to create three-dimensional spaces for human activities or to provide a better environment for human societies. Today, a wide range of different activities in the fields of skills, industry, creativity, knowledge, wisdom, are under ...
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Background and Objectives:Architecture training is to enable students to create three-dimensional spaces for human activities or to provide a better environment for human societies. Today, a wide range of different activities in the fields of skills, industry, creativity, knowledge, wisdom, are under the general title of "architectural education" in the schools of architecture. Typically, the curriculum in contemporary architecture schools is a set of basic courses that develop design knowledge, technology courses that develop the scientific formation of architecture; art courses to express architecture and finally design courses, which is a combination of the previous three and is the defining part of design education. The necessity of mathematics education and application of its concepts in architectural design is among major concerns of educational programs in universities and contemporary educational institutions. In architectural education in Iran, mathematics is delivered through traditional methods and independent from design practical courses. Moreover, mathematics is considered as a secondary course or sometimes an intricate problem in education. Professors of architecture always point to difficulties of students in understanding mathematical concepts and their application in structural design process. Methods and Materials: Therefore, the present study tries to compare the degree of attention to mathematics in architectural curricula in selected universities abroad and in Iran in order to provide a comprehensive knowledge regarding the place of mathematics in the curricula of these countries and prepare the ground for the development of an appropriate educational program incorporating mathematics in architectural education curriculum in our country. Findings: Comparative analysis of mathematics role in curricula of different universities and its targets via applied analytical-descriptive research method suggests that average mathematical courses provided in US architectural schools during the training course is 3%, in Asian countries 2.2% and in Iran 1.7%. The results emphasize the coordination of mathematical teaching methods with modern developments in design process and show that it entails mathematical knowledge delivered in the format of combined independent courses as preliminary, applied, technological and design. Conclusion: Mathematics courses and their teaching in architecture must be in line with new developments in the design process. This issue requires the definition of new courses in the field of mathematical application in architecture, mathematical history in architecture, as well as combined courses to transfer mathematical knowledge to design workshops. The subject of mathematics courses as independent preparation and basic courses for engineering students with the content of calculus, mathematics or their combination should be revised. This will give a new definition to the nature of the relationship between architecture and mathematics, as the role of mathematics in design was a priority in the Middle Ages. Considering the design workshop as the core of the architecture education program in the first and second academic year with an average of 40-36 credits per year, it is necessary to apply and new meaning of mathematics in introductory design workshops in two analytical-logical and structural concepts. Pay attention.
Original Research Paper
English teaching
R. Nejati; Z. Cheraghi; A. Nasery
Abstract
Backgrounds and Objectives:Today, all over the world and in our country, the need to speak English has increased and has caused a lot of demand for learning this language. This need is met through various means such as formal education in schools and colleges, travel to English-speaking countries, and ...
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Backgrounds and Objectives:Today, all over the world and in our country, the need to speak English has increased and has caused a lot of demand for learning this language. This need is met through various means such as formal education in schools and colleges, travel to English-speaking countries, and so on. But classroom teaching seems to be the most common opportunity for language learning; Therefore, the need for quality education and appropriate materials is inevitable. According to education experts, the textbook is a manifestation of the approved curriculum of the educational system. The textbook is one of the most important sources of learning in educational systems and is the main material of the school curriculum. Research on textbooks is necessary because it is used by many teachers and students effective in designing appropriate learning opportunities for students. Studying textbooks can reveal the connection between some of the students' learning difficulties and the curriculum and help to incorporate the concepts of the curriculum in the appropriate way in the textbooks. Authors of Prospect (1) have stated that the book was developed based on dynamic communicative language teaching approach. The present study evaluates all texts, pictures and exercises of the book in terms of communicative language teaching criteria to assess its effectiveness. The researcher attempts to investigate the application of communicative language teaching in the content of the book under study. The study addresses this question ‘to what extend the content of the book is in harmony with principles of communicative language teaching’. Methods: It is a descriptive content analysis study. The instrument entails six components of communicative language teaching and has been validated through content analysis by 5 scholars. Data collection was done by three researchers working independently. Kappa agreement statistic is greater than 0.8 indicating satisfactory inter-rater reliability. Findings:The results, analyzed through Shannon entropy revealed that group interaction (0.37), lingual communication (0.009), culture comparing (0.167), two by two communication (0.139), meaningfulness (0.079) and information gap (0.046) carried content weight. The book seems to be effective in terms of communicative language teaching principles. Conclusion: Based on the obtained results, the importance of the components of communication approach in the 7th grade English textbook is as follows: 1. Strengthening group communication, 2. Adapting to the culture of the country, 3. Strengthening two-way communication, 4. Meaningful principle, 5. Information gap, 6. Lingual communication. The most prominent feature of this book is that it adequately addresses the components of the communication approach. Attention to strengthening group communication indicates that language teaching is moving away from the traditional method, which helps the learner a lot. Paying attention to the adaptation of the educational content to the culture of the country makes the content of the courses tangible and attractive and strengthens learning.
Original Research Paper
e-learning
M. Falahi; E. Zaraii Zavaraki; D. Nourozi
Abstract
Background and Objectives:The computer is used as a powerful yet cost-effective tool in people's lives for any work or activity. The use of computers in education has increased dramatically in recent years, and computers and related technologies are now used in many schools around the world. Up to recently ...
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Background and Objectives:The computer is used as a powerful yet cost-effective tool in people's lives for any work or activity. The use of computers in education has increased dramatically in recent years, and computers and related technologies are now used in many schools around the world. Up to recently people should gather to learn in a specific place and time, but nowadays by the advancement of technological infrastructures and the Internet this need has vanished to a great extent. Soon everyone is able to learn anything, anywhere, at any time. This is accomplished under the umbrella of a new educational system, called e-learning. Social skills include components. Tolerance, how to react in the face of conflict, critical thinking, the decision to accept or reject an opinion and success based on logical reasons and evidence, responsibility, taking on a job or task and being accountable for it, activity Group activities, participation in group activities, duty, self-control, empathy, gaining, enriching and developing new relationships with other people in the community, respecting others, paying attention to relationships that preserve the social status of oneself and others, and finally, cooperation and coordination with the actions of others towards a common goal are components of social skills. Of all the organizations that play a key role in the socialization of individuals, educational systems are the first official place to gain social experience and the most basic element of social development of individuals because the education system of any society. It is the foundation of the social, economic, political and cultural development of that society. The purpose of this research was comparing the social skills of students under conventional training and e-learning education system. Methods: The research method is quasi-experimental with two experimental groups. The first comparison was done using a “Pre-Test” and second comparison was also done using a “Post-Test”. A total of 48 people were randomly selected as a sample group. These two groups were similar and comparing the dependent variable was done at the same time and under the same condition. The social skills questionnaire By Garsham & Elliot was used. The Analyze of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used for analyzing data. Findings: The results showed that there are significant differences between the two groups and e-learning environment in terms of social skills and social skills components of users of this environment has shown better performance in comparison to Face-To-Face training. Conclusion: The results of the analysis of research data indicate that the e-learning environment has a positive effect on the level of social skills and its components on students. Students in the e-learning environment scored higher than the other group in the traditional learning environment. This indicates the effectiveness of the environment designed for e-learning in the level of social skills.
Original Research Paper
educational psychology
H.R. Azemati; B. Saleh Sedghpoor; Z. Aminifar
Abstract
Lack of physical activity is one of the main concerns about children's public health. Physical environment is one of the variables that seems to affect the level of physical activity. The Purpose of this study was to construct and validate competency scale for evaluating physical features promoting the ...
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Lack of physical activity is one of the main concerns about children's public health. Physical environment is one of the variables that seems to affect the level of physical activity. The Purpose of this study was to construct and validate competency scale for evaluating physical features promoting the physical activity of children in the school yard. The statistical population of the study was children aged 8 to 11 years old in Tehran. Sampling was done in a multi-stage cluster sampling, and 120 selected children participated voluntarily in the selected areas. The method applied in this research was descriptive-correlation. Content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by an expert university panel, its face validity was confirmed by a group of children and construct validity was evaluated using the confirmatory factor analysis. Based on exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation, 21 items were divided into 3 factors. Total variance of these factors explained% 53.858 variance of physical features. According to experts, the resulting agents were called "environment attraction", "community spaces" and "play development". The findings of this study identify the most important physical variables that affect physical activity in the school yard, so it can be used to design the school yard.
Original Research Paper
Educational Technology Psychology
F. Yazdani
Abstract
Background and Objectives:The proliferation of the Internet, video, audio, and mobile media has made many families t to have face-to-face problems with their children. The accepted norms of families are widely questioned and denied by children and cause problems that are dysfunctional and cause a kind ...
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Background and Objectives:The proliferation of the Internet, video, audio, and mobile media has made many families t to have face-to-face problems with their children. The accepted norms of families are widely questioned and denied by children and cause problems that are dysfunctional and cause a kind of disorder and imbalance in the social system, in a way that challenges the core values and public security of the social system. This hurts the collective conscience and public concern of the elite. New communication media allow children to communicate outside of social and geographical boundaries. Today, computers, networks, software, and everything related to them create new pressures and issues that people must adapt to and the new arena in which they express their normal or abnormal reactions. Gaining the necessary knowledge about new communication media and learning the skills to use them can direct its educational effects. Satellite, mobile phones and the Internet are emerging phenomena affecting education that have become part of the lives of people in societies, affecting thoughts and feelings, relationships and education in general; as the characters portrayed in the media may become role models for people and influence their attitudes, beliefs and behavior. Increasing information and being different in the news is one of the advantages of modern communication media that obtains information from sources with high speed and volume and presents it to the audience. The main purpose of this research was to determine the effects of using modern media communication from Bahar city students' point of view. Methods: The method of this research was descriptive, a kind of survey. Statistical population of the study included all female high-school students in Bahar city. Therefore, in terms of multi-cluster sampling method 288 individual were selected. The main instrument for gathering data in this research was a research-made questionnaire. For data analysis, the inferential statistics such as Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, one sample t-test and dependent t-test were used. Findings: The results showed that students believed that using modern media communication like Internet. Mobile, and so on, have harmful and useful effects. Nevertheless, the harmful effects of them are more than their useful effects. The useful effects were: increasing the social relationship of students, promoting the individual consciousness, and facilitating second language learning. On the other hand, the harmful effects were: students’ morality disorders, isolation of students, educational drop-out, decreasing the use of local slangs, and decreasing sport activity time among students. Conclusion: Considering the positive effect of using new communication media on social relations, personal awareness and facilitating second language learning, it is suggested that teachers and school officials design and use a plan for using these media in the classroom. It was also found that the harmful educational effects of modern communication media are: creating moral turmoil in students, isolating students, academic failure, reducing the use of local dialect and reducing the time of sports activities in them. Therefore, according to this finding, it is recommended that children be taught in school how to use these media correctly, as well as how to evaluate and select media content. In addition, it is suggested that the educational effects of each of the new communication media, such as mobile phones and related virtual networks, as well as satellite and the Internet, be investigated separately. It is also suggested that research be done on the correct pattern of mobile phone use and its educational opportunities and threats among students.
Original Research Paper
Teacher Education
H. Vahedi Kojanagh; N. Karimi; R. Rezaei; A. Esmail Pour
Abstract
Background and Objectives:In the ideals proposed by experts for education systems in the twenty-first century, the teacher is mentioned as the fulcrum of any change. Competence is a set of knowledge, skills and abilities of a particular job that makes a person successful in performing tasks. In recent ...
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Background and Objectives:In the ideals proposed by experts for education systems in the twenty-first century, the teacher is mentioned as the fulcrum of any change. Competence is a set of knowledge, skills and abilities of a particular job that makes a person successful in performing tasks. In recent educational research, the term professional competence is used to describe the specific prerequisites that teachers need to succeed in their work. It is assumed that this professional competence can be learned and taught. Professional competence includes having professional knowledge as well as motivational and emotional aspects. Professional knowledge is divided into different types such as content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and pedagogical-psychological knowledge. A teacher's competence refers to his or her ability to adequately meet the demands and requirements of the teaching profession, using an integrated set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that manifest in the teacher's performance and response. Based on the growth model of teachers' professional competence, the psychological characteristics of the teacher seem to play an important role in gaining learning opportunities. In addition, it has been suggested that beyond specific subject knowledge, more aspects of the teacher, such as teachers' beliefs and motivational and emotional characteristics, are important prerequisites for educating and motivating students. The aim of this study is to investigate professional qualifications among teachers graduated from Farhangian University, former Teacher Education Centers and other universities. Methods: The method of the study is causal-comparative. The sample was comprised of 210 teachers in three groups that graduated from Farhangian University, former Teacher Education Centers and other universities such that the groups were similar in demographic factors. All subjects assessed by teacher professional qualifications questionnaire. The results of two-way analysis of variance show that teachers’ professional qualifications in three groups are different. Findings: The results of the cognitive qualification show that Farhangian University’s graduates have the best state. In management qualification, the difference between Farhangian University’s graduates and former Teacher Education Centers’ graduates is not significant but this difference is significant when other universities’ graduates are considered. Attitude qualification difference is not significant between the groups. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the professional competence of teachers is significantly different. The cognitive competence of Farhangian University graduates is higher than other graduates. Graduates of teacher training centers also have higher cognitive competencies compared to graduates of other universities. In terms of managerial competence, the graduates of Farhangian University have not shown a significant difference with the graduates of teacher training centers, but they are in a better position compared to the group of graduates of other universities. In this case, the difference between former teacher training graduates and other universities is not significant. In attitudinal competence, the difference between groups of teachers is not significant, meaning that these three categories have equally developed attitudinal competence in their graduates.
Original Research Paper
Education technology - higher education
A. Zamani; M. Pouratashi; S. Ghajarbeigi
Abstract
Background and Objective:One of the activities in the field of branding is brand management, which tries to create value for the brand with accurate and principled policy and timely planning, and then, in order to lead changes for striving to develop and improve it. The university brand succeeds when ...
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Background and Objective:One of the activities in the field of branding is brand management, which tries to create value for the brand with accurate and principled policy and timely planning, and then, in order to lead changes for striving to develop and improve it. The university brand succeeds when higher education administrators and policymakers in the higher education sector have an understanding of the intangible assets of the university and the higher education system and the university brand. In this regard, it is necessary to have strategic planning for brand management of the university, which means that first by defining the mission statement and vision of the university, the goals are well and accurately and clearly defined. Then, based on the evaluation of the internal and external environment of the university, it adopted strategies to achieve the desired university brand. And by using careful monitoring at each stage, the necessary feedback should be given to the university administrators regarding the extent to which the goal has been achieved. In other words, an accurate brand must be chosen for each university, and when it is managed in a comprehensive and integrated manner, it is a valuable asset. Brand identity of university and a positive image is an important part of what is now considered by many universities around the world. Therefore, this research aimed to study brand management in higher education and to study brand equity to attract scientific talent. Methods: The population of this study included all faculty members at public universities in Tehran and random sampling method was used for data collection. To collect data, a questionnaire was used whose validity and reliability were confirmed by professors’ views and calculating Cronbach's alpha. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used by SPSS; and structural equation modeling was used by LISREL. Findings: The results indicated that the university brand identity and brand equity affects attracting scientific talents and the highest path coefficient among the research variables is "brand identity" (0.88). Conclusion: Now that universities in our country are gradually moving towards competing with each other to attract scientific talents and attract the best people, they should try to increase their brand and mental image in the society and among the elites and develop the strategic university brand identity in prospective document of the university. As the credible identity of the university stems from its perceived success and credibility, which can include the overall brand of the university or its various sub-brands, such as the brand of campuses, faculties, associations and scientific groups, and sports teams. In fact the role of brand identity is effective in the marketing and success of the university as well as the public policy perspective of the university.
Original Research Paper
Educational Environment
Kh. Movahed; Kh. Sajadi
Abstract
Background and Objectives:Using the architectural environment as an educational tool requires identifying environmental criteria that affect the quality of users' learning. By recognizing the criteria affecting the arrangement and order of space, we can explain the principles for better design of the ...
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Background and Objectives:Using the architectural environment as an educational tool requires identifying environmental criteria that affect the quality of users' learning. By recognizing the criteria affecting the arrangement and order of space, we can explain the principles for better design of the learning environment and minimize the amount of learning disruption. On the other hand, schools, as the most important spaces for training human resources, play an important role in increasing the learning of people in society. Therefore, designing appropriate environments for the comprehensive development of students is a necessity. School is a social center, and its purpose is to learning lessons and learning social behavior. Behaviors are related to the physical environment in which human beings are located, so the formation of behaviors are influential in the qualities of educational spaces. Researchers have studied the role of the factors such as light, ventilation, heating and cooling, lighting, and etc. on learning process by studying the behavioral patterns of children in educational spaces. The most important element of a classroom with high productivity is its suitable furniture. In this study, the function and performance of furniture on student learning were studied. The purpose of this research is to design optimized educational environments in order to improve the quality of learning. Methods: The research method is correlational and the sources of environmental psychology and One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used. The case study is three classrooms in a school with the same lighting and air condition. Study on learning behavior was investigated by changing the furniture of the educational space using Excel software and SPSS. Findings: The results indicated positive effects of the spatial layout in the educational spaces, and the classroom can be a teacher for learning motivation. Conclusion: This research has been compiled on one of the important factors affecting the quality of school students' learning. As mentioned earlier, different factors play a role in the quality of learning or the combination of factors gives better results; among these factors, we can mention the relationship between educational space and green space, playing music, predicting freedom of movement and movement in space, the ability to sit and rest, eating and drinking, etc. According to the analysis of the findings, the research hypothesis was proven. And flexibility in the body of the learning environment will arouse the children's curiosity and lead to their creativity. In the educational environment, the arrangement of students' desks and chairs causes their active and two-way communication with the environment. Finally, furniture can be considered as one of the effective factors in learning and stimulating curiosity. The quality of the physical environment is directly related to the amount of learning, and the design of the interior space in the educational environment can increase students' learning and their progress.
