Original Research Paper
e-learning
M. Jafarabadi Ashtiyani; M. Nugmonov
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Since the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is an efficient, well-accepted, learner-centered method in which the learner is active in the whole process of teaching and learning, it is a suitable method for teaching mathematical concepts. Nevertheless, the researchers have pointed ...
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Background and Objectives: Since the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is an efficient, well-accepted, learner-centered method in which the learner is active in the whole process of teaching and learning, it is a suitable method for teaching mathematical concepts. Nevertheless, the researchers have pointed out that the implementation of the PBL method in the traditional way faces serious limitations, such as shortage of financial resources, lack of time, and skilled educators. Therefore, implementing this method to benefit from the existing facilities in the electronic space including writing tools, access to shared resources, discussion and exchange of ideas among students, and sharing opinions and ideas is an undeniable necessity. The main purpose of the present study is designing a new software program based on problem-based learning (named as Facilitator Software) and investigating the effect of this software on the mathematical performance of third-grade high school students. The Facilitator Software was designed and implemented by consultation with a team of educational and mathematical technology experts to learn some of the mathematics topics of third-grade high school. This software provides an appropriate method for teaching mathematical concepts in electronic environments (e-environments) which results in increasing the students' activity in mathematics, saving time and educational expenses and providing an opportunity to take ongoing written examinations for students and online self-assessment in e-environments. Methods: The study was conducted by a random sampling method based on the pretest-posttest with a control group. As a result, two researcher-made mathematics pre-test and post-test were devised in the form of eight questions, each of which had 20 marks, from mathematics textbook of the third grade high school. Data collection was done using a teacher-made achievement test, with validity and reliability considerations. The content validity of the researcher-made mathematics tests was examined and verified by the Lawshe method. In addition, to evaluate the reliability of the mathematics tests, the split-half method was used. For this purpose, statistical software was used to examine and measure the reliability, based on the split-half reliability coefficient and, finally, for the mathematics tests, reliability was found to be 0.78. Participants in this study were 65 male and female students in the third-grade of two public high schools in Tehran. Based on simple random sampling, the Cochran formula, 32 students were selected as the experimental group and 31 students were chosen as the control group from one high school and in the same way, 33 students were selected as the experimental group and 30 students were chosen as the control group from another high school. The traditional method was used in the experimental groups and in the control groups the Facilitator Software was used to teach mathematical concepts. The data were then collected through mathematical tests and analyzed by exerting analysis of variance and post hoc tests. Findings: The results showed that there is a significant difference between the average scores of the control groups and those of the experimental groups in their post-test results. The average scores of the post-test for the experimental groups were higher than those of the post-test for the two control groups. Conclusion: On the whole, the findings showed that the idea of designing and using the Facilitator Foftware with emphasis on BPL in teaching mathematics has been successful and this software had a positive effect on the mathematical performance of the third grade high school students.
Original Research Paper
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.
Original Research Paper
e-learning
Y. Sekhavat; F. Alizadeh; S. Roohi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Virtual Reality (VR) technology is an effective tool to teach various well-known skills and concepts. Teaching and integrating the traffic culture by using modern approaches is an essential fact to control and decrease the damages and costs caused by driving problems. In ...
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Background and Objectives: Virtual Reality (VR) technology is an effective tool to teach various well-known skills and concepts. Teaching and integrating the traffic culture by using modern approaches is an essential fact to control and decrease the damages and costs caused by driving problems. In the past few years, the element of virtual instructor has been added to the intelligent tutoring system to increase the interactivity and learning effectiveness of the learners. Teaching via an instructor or the so-called ‘video modeling’ which is part of multimedia teaching content is referred to as the teaching samples in which an instructor explains how to do something. Examining the effects of using an intelligent virtual instructor in educational multimedia content is one of the special fields of research in education and learning to which enough attention has not been paid . On the other hand, in recent years, using technology and modern approaches in the field of traffic educating has become very popular and various countries have made considerable investments in this area. Based on this issue, in this paper, with the development and testing of a simulator game of teaching traffic rules (traffic-sim) the effect of the presence of an intelligent virtual instructor on the improvement of the users’ learning efficiency as well as enhancing their sense of presence were studied. The goal of this study is determining the effect of the presence of the intelligent virtual instructors in teaching the traffic rules to the learners. We also aim to investigate to what extent the presence of the intelligent virtual instructors can enhance learning ability and the sense of presence in the learning scenarios. Methods: For this aim, to provide the educational content in a game, the ‘traffic-sim’ simulator was designed and implemented in two versions including with a virtual intelligent instructor (instructor-based) and without a virtual intelligent instructor (visual-text).Using a comprehensive user study, we evaluated and compared the sense of presence and performance of players in the instructor-based mode and without the virtual instructor mode. In order to test the objective variables, the statistical population of 20 students from Tabriz Islamic Art University was selected and assigned randomly to either control or experimental groups. The experimental and the control group were respectively trained using the instructor-based simulator and the visual-text-based simulator. Participants were asked to play the simulator while learning the traffic rules. To analyze the effect of the presence of virtual instructor on two variables, namely learning and sense of presence, the data regarding the number of the rules violated during playing the game and the results of the sense of presence questionnaire were used both for the experimental and the control groups, respectively. Findings:The analyses in two levels of descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent t-test) confirm that the use of intelligent virtual instructor improves the users’ learning (M=5.00, SD=3.00, t(18) =0.043, p < 0.05) and enhances the sense of the presence in the participants (M=114, SD=6.00, t(18) =0.023, p < 0.05). Conclusion: In the present study, ‘traffic-sim’ simulator was designed and developed to teach the traffic rules. as a serious game to train individuals by scenarios related to the real-world traffic rules. We tested the impacts of intelligent virtual instructor attendance on enhancing users’ learning and their sense of presence. The results of data analysis showed that the presence of the virtual instructor can enhance the participants’ sense of presence while enhancing the efficiency of the process of learning traffic rules. Our findings reveal that the learners would try to choose safer strategies and improve their performance after they have made a mistake . Moreover, the presence of the virtual instructor would lead to social interactions between the user and the virtual instructor that can result in increasing the learners’ sense of presence. Based on the findings of the previous researchers and the present study, it can be concluded that the intervention of a virtual teaching factor can have a positive effect on learning as well as the sense of the learners’ presence in the process of driving traffic simulation. Therefore, virtual instructors can be used to improve the learning process in educational subjects.
Original Research Paper
TVET
A. Poorang; N. Asghary; A. Shahvarani Semnani
Abstract
and is a potent means for developing algebraic thinking which necessitates students’ understanding of the functional relationship between measure spaces. The ability to recognize and identify the structural similarity and multiple comparisons in the proportional reasoning process is the base of ...
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and is a potent means for developing algebraic thinking which necessitates students’ understanding of the functional relationship between measure spaces. The ability to recognize and identify the structural similarity and multiple comparisons in the proportional reasoning process is the base of algebra and advanced mathematics. The concept of proportion and the necessities of developing proportional thinking are cognitively complex and its teaching demands concept-oriented approaches. Studing the quality of teachers' perceptions draws the perspective of the method and development of conceptual structures among the students. The present study focused on determining the extent of recognizing non-proportional situations and also the kind of selected strategies to solve proportional verbal issues in the teaching activity. Considering the importance of the context of this problem, the study focused on four semantic types of the problems in this field. Considering the pedagogical thinking of teachers in solving proportional problems provides the discussion on the obstacles of using the proportional reasoning among different semantic types. Methods: The study was done by descriptive survey method. The statistical population included 180 teachers of primary schools and mathematics teachers of the first level of the secondary schools, and prospective teachers who participated in the study voluntarily. The research instrument was a researecher-developed test containing 17 problems comprised of 3 non-proportional situations of additive problem types and 14 direct proportional problems, presented in the missing-value type which were either researcher-devised or selected from reliable research sources. The content validity of the test was confirmed by professors in the field of mathematics and testing and psychometrics. The collected data were analyzed using inferential and descriptive statistics. Findings: The results of the first study revealed that the primary school teachers and the prospective teachers were faced with some difficulties in recognizing non-proportional statements. It seems that the superficial characteristics of verbal problem including having a structure similar to the proportional problems of the type of missing value and also the multiplicative nature of numerical structure are involved in determining the situation as a proportional structure. In studying the the strategies of solving the proportional problems in the teaching activity, the responses of the participants were analyzed using the descrtiptive method based on 9 types of problem-solving strategies. The results of the analyses showed that all of the first levele of the secondary school teachers and the prospective teachers of both of these levels, at least in one of their first two priorities in teaching these problems, applied algorithmic proportional strategies or algebraic equation formulation while being slightly influenced by semantic types. Teachers of the primary schools had little desire to use the algorithmic proportional strategies. On the contrary, as compared to other teachers, they had a higher preference for using functional and numerical proportional reasoning. However, they did not prefer to use proportional functional reasoning in their activities. On the other hand, the first two priorities of the primary school teachers were not included in any semantic types, utilization of more complex proportional reasonings, and scale factor. Conclusion: The results emphasize the necessity of the development of pedagogical content knowledge in this field in order to develop the application of the strategies of functional proportional reasoning and appropriate representations by teachers which are aimed at providing more desirable conditions for students’ proportional reasoning development. Unexpected behaviors of prospective teachers in this study emphasize creating higher sensitivity to the consequences of delaying the emergence of students’ relative thinking in the instructional plans of teacher training courses.
Original Research Paper
e-learning
F. Seraji; R. Malmir; H. Abbasi kasani
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Users enter social networks with different motives and their participation in social networks is also different from each other. Having different goals and motives, teachers as users of social networks choose various ways to participate in these networks. So, laying emphasis ...
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Background and Objectives: Users enter social networks with different motives and their participation in social networks is also different from each other. Having different goals and motives, teachers as users of social networks choose various ways to participate in these networks. So, laying emphasis on the role of motivation in the ways teachers use social networks, the present study aims at identifying teachers’ motivation and the ways they use social networks. The specific objectives of this research are: 1. determining how virtual social networks are used by teachers who are actively using them. 2. Identifying the feedback of teachers in virtual social networks. Methods: The present research is done using qualitative research approach. The field of this research includes groups and forums of Iranian teachers’ social networks. In this research, 30 teachers who were active in social networks participated among whom 14 teachers were male and 16 teachers were female. All of these participants were managers of virtual channels and Various supergroups in social networks. They were selected using the logic of purposeful sampling and criterion-based method. The selection criterion was the record or history of the group or channel, the number of the followers and the number of the visitors. Also, the teachers who were selected for the interview in addition to this criterion, were selected in the field of e- content generation in virtual social networks by the Roshd center site as an active content generator. Every interviewee mentioned their views in answer to the interview questions for 40 to 45 minutes. To analyze data, the theme analysis method was used. In this method, first the concepts and codes are extracted from the interview text and then the status of each theme from the type of inclusive, organizing, and basic is determined in the network of themes. In this research, in order to perform this process, the following steps were taken: 1. Frist, with the frequent screening and active reading of the data, the search for the meaning and discovery of patterns began by using note-taking and punctuating the data (familiarity with the data). 2. After reading the data, the codes and concepts introducing the data were established (generating basic codes). 3. The identified codes were organized and transferred to certain themes (generating themes). 4. At this stage, the themes were named and reviewed as needed 5. The network of themes were generated to identify the basic, organizing and inclusive themes and the final report of the data was set. Findings: The findings showed that teachers benefit from social networks for personal purposes such as entertainment, access to the news and communication with friends, and for occupational purposes, such as professional development and interaction with colleagues. The teachers’ motives affect how they provide feedback and how they participate in the social networks. Teachers show various feedbacks and participation in the social media which can be classified into six levels of reasonable diffusing, liking, controlling, counselling, criticizing, and commenting. Conclusion: Levels of teachers’ participation in the social networks in terms of their professional development and occupational learning is of significance from the perspective that the more the participation of the teachers in social networks can be organized by using specific projects and programs, so that they can move away from weak interactions, such as diffusing, liking, and controlling towards counselling, criticizing, and reasoning, they can be more profoundly involved with their own occupational themes in the social networks and can benefit from any time, any place, and interactive potentials of this environment for their own professional development.
Original Research Paper
Machine-translation
M. Shamsi; M. Divani; A. Rasouli Kenari
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Sign Language is a visual language that uses hand shapes, facial expression gestures, and body language for communication. Linguistic studies have shown that Sign Languages, like spoken languages, are natural and meet the communication needs of their speakers. Sign Language ...
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Background and Objectives: Sign Language is a visual language that uses hand shapes, facial expression gestures, and body language for communication. Linguistic studies have shown that Sign Languages, like spoken languages, are natural and meet the communication needs of their speakers. Sign Language is not a single language that can be universal, nor every country has a Sign Language equivalent to its own spoken language. There are many Sign Languages in the world including the American, English, Japanese, Italian, Turkish, and Persian Sign Language. The Persian Sign Language is the natural language of the deaf in Iran. The ability to communicate effectively is an important step in establishing relationships and participation for the deaf in the community. Lack of support from the hearing community leads deaf people to isolation and other social problems. In order to overcome the obstacles that exist between hearing and hearing impaired people, a translator system is needed to translate messages into the Sign Language in accordance with their spoken language. A Sign Language translation system can be used by the deaf, the family and friends of such people, the blind-deaf people, the people who have lost their ability to speak due to some factors, the professors and teachers, the medical staff and also people who are interested in learning this language. This article, by providing an automatic translator system for translating from the Persian Language into the Persian Sign Language, aims to help the deaf in Iran to communicate better. Methods: The proposed translator system requires the use of an architecture in order to convert the Persian text into the Persian Sign Language. Due to the nature of the Persian language as the input language of the translator system and also the problems inherent in the Persian Sign Language as the output language of the translator system, the architecture of the translation systems presented in other languages cannot be presented and developed regarding the Persian language. One of the most important issues in the Persian Sign Language is lack of equivalent signs for some words in the Persian language. In order to overcome these problems, an architecture appropriate to the Persian language and the Persian Sign Language was presented. By using the proposed architecture, the proposed system, receives the Persian text as an input in the form of word or sentence from the user, and after performing the initial processing and by using the lexical transfer module, the system translates the text into the Persian Sign Language. Finally, by using an avatar, the Sign Language form corresponding the input of a word, phrase, or sentence can be represented. For this purpose, transfering the translated words into HamNoSys notation, turning the HamNoSys notation to SiGML language and then animating the 3D character with the help of this language are used. Findings: To evaluate the translation system of the Persian language to the Persian Sign Language, a set of test sentences were used. After evaluating the system, it was found that the proposed system has acceptable efficiency, storage space and speed. Conclusion: Research in interdisciplinary sciences is only effective and influential when research in all of the sciences involved is done equally and each science solves the challenges of its own field of study. For example, the most important challenge in completing the Persian Sign Language translation system is lack of linguistic research on Persian Sign Language. The proposed translation system is a combination of linguistic, social, and engineering sciences. Focusing on each of these areas and upgrading them will considerably improve the proposed system. However, the proposed system can improve the relationship between the hearing and the hearing impaired people to a great extent. One can focus on any of the proposed architecture modules and upgrade and improve each of them. It is also possible to integrate the section of emotions and facial expressions with the animated character so that the facial expressions of this avatar can change according to the conditions.
Original Research Paper
Modern Educational Approaches
M. Ashrafganjouei; H. Nadimi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: During design process, images as visual stimuli are significant tools in reaching creative design ideas. So this issue has resulted in conducting extensive studies in the field of educational technology on the methods of using visual stimuli as an educational tool. Since the ...
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Background and Objectives: During design process, images as visual stimuli are significant tools in reaching creative design ideas. So this issue has resulted in conducting extensive studies in the field of educational technology on the methods of using visual stimuli as an educational tool. Since the visual stimuli can be categorized based on their similarity to the design problem or their quality (clear, ambiguous), in some of the studies, the impact of various types of visual stimuli on students’ design creativity has been examined. The level of students is another factor which could have an influence on students’ creativity when they were using visual stimuli. Also, in some studies, the relationship between the type of the design task and the visual stimuli has been investigated. However, there is no comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of these methods in the field of architecture design education. As a result, the purpose of the present research is examining the effectiveness of the methods of using visual stimuli in design training. Methods: In the present study, first, a framework for using visual stimuli based on previous studies was suggested which consisted of two sections: in the first section, the relationship between different types of visual stimuli and different aspects of creativity was determined; the second section, the factors influencing the methods of using the visual stimuli by the students were determined that consisted of students’ level, the type of the design task, and the design problem. Then,the methodofpeer review was applied to evaluate the effectiveness of the methods of using the visual stimuli in the design training. As a result, expert teachers in architecture from Iran and the United States evaluated the compiled text. In this regard, the teachers’ opinions were recorded through interviews and then their opinions were written and analyzed by a qualitative coding method. Peer review as the method of analysis was applied to investigate the validity of those methods. First participants’ ideas were gathered by interview. All their utterances were audio recorded and transcribed. In the next step the data were analyzed by a qualitative coding method. So the utterances of the participants were segmented based on different sections. Then, in the next stage, their content were codified in terms of validation, similar experience; criticism or suggestions. Findings: The opinions of the expert teachers were examined according to two sections of methods of using visual stimuli and also the effective conditions for using them in design education. Besides confirming the methods related to the types of stimulus and design task, the participants also provided numerous educational experiences on the proper interpretation of various types of stimuli. In the second section, besides confirming the impact of the students’ level, and the type of the design problem, some of the teachers offered criticisms and suggestions regarding the classifications of these problems. Conclusion: The results of peer review, besides confirming the methods of using visual stimuli, provide approaches that can improve the effectiveness of the methods of using visual stimuli in design education. Moreover, the expert teachers offered criticisms and suggestions regarding some problems and also added some suggestions. For example, the visual stimulus which has more similarity to the design problem has more effect on students’ design creativity than those images which have less similarity to the design problem. Or when using the ambiguous sketches related to the expert designers, the way they use their sketches and the stages through which these sketches are transformed into the final idea should be taken into consideration and these processes should also be taught to the students. In other words, students need to know how expert designers transform those ambiguous images to final design solution. Also, categorizing the design problems into formal and functional has ambiguities and other methods of categorization should be used. The results of analyzing the opinions of the expert teachers can be used for future research besides the development of the subject.
Original Research Paper
Educational Technology
M. Hosseinzadehnabati; F. Mahmoodi; Y. Adib
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Developing a positive attitude toward the subject under study is one of the common educational goals today. Teachers as well as parents believe that the student's attitude toward the subject matter affects the student's success in school. High school students' perceptions regarding ...
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Background and Objectives: Developing a positive attitude toward the subject under study is one of the common educational goals today. Teachers as well as parents believe that the student's attitude toward the subject matter affects the student's success in school. High school students' perceptions regarding technology learning may influence their decision to study in a field at the university and work in the context of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics which are considered to be the basis of economic development in developed countries. During the past decades, there has been a growing gap between the scientific and technical skills offered by the schools and the economic demand in this area, and the number of the learners and those who have been trained in technology and science has decreased in some cases. Since the main objectives of the field of education and learning of the work and technology curriculum in the Fundamental Document of Transformation of Education for the first year of high school is obtaining the merits and positive attitude towards technology and entrepreneurship, the aim of this study is investigating the relationship between attitude toward work and technology with technological attitude and entrepreneurship of high school students in destrict one of Tabriz in the academic year 2018-2019. MethodS: This study was a correlational research using structural equation modeling method. Data were analyzed using least squares method. This method tests the pattern in two steps which include the measurement and structural pattern test. The measurement model examines the validity and reliability of measurement tools and research structures and tests the structural pattern of hypotheses and relationships of latent variables. The statistical population consisted of 15386 high school boys and girls in district one of Tabriz who were studying in the academic year 2018-2019. The sample was selected by proportional random sampling method (the seventh, eighth, and ninth grade) and since the original questionnaire had 40 components, 10 subjects were selected for each component and on the whole, 402 subjects were selected. Data were collected using the Liou and Kuo Technological Attitude Questionnaire (2014), Athayde Entrepreneurial Attitude Questionnaire (2009), and a researcher-made attitude to career and technology course Questionnaire. To test the hypotheses, structural equation analysis using Smart PLS 3 software was used. Findings: The findings showed that there was a very close relationship between career and technology course, attitude to technology and entrepreneurship. Hypotheses were significant at 0.001 level and t-statistic was significant as it was higher than 1.96. Attitude to career and technology course explains self-efficacy of learning technology as 0.44, the value of earning technology as 0.56, strategies of learning technology as 0.56, goal orientation of learning technology as 0.63, environmental stimulus of learning technology as 0.64, self-regulation-triggering of learning technology as 0.54, self-Regulation Implementation of learning technology as 0.68, others’ leadership as 0.40, achievement as 0.56, personal control as 0.30, creativity as 0.42, and intuition as 0.38. Conclusion: Attitude to career and technology course explained the components of technological attitude and the components of attitude to entrepreneurship. The high significance of a positive attitude to the career and technology course lies in having a positive relationship with valuable components such as self-efficacy, learning value, strategies of learning, goal orientation, environment stimulus, creating self-regulation, leadership of others, achievement, self-control, creativity and intuition; therefore, it is recommended to prioritize this course. Knowing the attitude factors and their relationship to the subjects of courses can help teachers to improve the curriculum and the effectiveness of teaching methods so that students can be more successful in learning their lessons, academic performance, and career.
Original Research Paper
e-learning
F. Narenjithani; J. pourkarimi; S. Hejazi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: E-learning is the necessity of the information society and the main condition for achieving the goal of the Fourth National Development Plan (Knowledge-Based Development) which has paid special attention to the university activities while benefitting from the electronic learning ...
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Background and Objectives: E-learning is the necessity of the information society and the main condition for achieving the goal of the Fourth National Development Plan (Knowledge-Based Development) which has paid special attention to the university activities while benefitting from the electronic learning in higher education in order to provide equal education opportunities and increasing the coverage of the student population. Along with the development of e-learning at the level of universities and institutions of higher education, the issue of evaluating the e-learning system and justifying the implementation of programs and the need to meet the proper requirements and standards for designing, developing and implementing e-learning in higher education is important. Given that the structure of e- learning is complex and consists of various components, it is necessary to examine all these components to evaluate the e-learning system. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive study to identify and introduce the main and practical indicators of evaluating the e-learning system so that they can be used for designing and developing appropriate frameworks and tools for evaluation of this system. Evaluation of the e-learning system provides the relevant staff and managers in higher education with the opportunity to identify the strengths and weaknesses of this system and enhance the strengths or eliminate possible deficiencies and shortcomings. Methods: This research was an inquiry into the lived experiences of the faculty members of the University of Tehran in 2019 of evaluating the e-learning system. In this study, an attempt was made to identify the components of e-learning system evaluation in the University of Tehran by using qualitative methodology. The data of this research have been extracted through a qualitative approach with a descriptive phenomenological method and with semi-structured interview tools and the data have been analyzed through coding and categorization methods. Sampling in this study has been purposeful and standard and a total of 17 experts in the field of e-learning from Tehran University have participated in thestudy. The validity of qualitative data using four judgment criteria of Lincoln and Goba)1985( including validity or reliability, transferability verifiability or neutrality, and reliability or compatibility and reliability of qualitative data through recoding by the second encoder and the encoder himself has been confirmed. Findings: Based on the research findings, the factors related to the evaluation of e-learning system are classified into three dimensions of pedagogy, organization and technology which, on the whole has 17 components and 95 concepts. These components have been identified in the form of teacher, student, teaching assistant, teaching-learning process, content, evaluation, support services, interaction, education and empowerment system, motivation system, university goals and strategies, knowledge management system, culture, physical resources, software, hardware and infrastructure. Conclusion: In general, the results of this study indicate important points that can provide valuable information for administrators and authorities the University of Tehran in the field of e-learning system to adopt principled policies regarding the evaluation of this system to improve and enhance the quality and effectiveness of e-learning. It is recommended that the university uses the model presented in the present study in order to evaluate the e-learning system of the University of Tehran.
Original Research Paper
Educational Technology
V. S. Vahedi
Abstract
CALL) programs have been incorporated into language classrooms over the past five decades, it has become more important to find a clear answer to questions such as to what extent, and under which moderator variables CALL programs can yield more effective outcomes as compared to traditional language instruction. ...
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CALL) programs have been incorporated into language classrooms over the past five decades, it has become more important to find a clear answer to questions such as to what extent, and under which moderator variables CALL programs can yield more effective outcomes as compared to traditional language instruction. The present meta-analysis is a comprehensive investigation to determine the extent of the effectiveness of hypertext annotations on the learners' vocabulary learning. Moreover, the study aimed at identifying the moderator variables that influence the heterogeneity of the effect of various studies. Methods: The statistical population of the present study consisted of all the studies conducted in the past related to the effectiveness of hypertext annotations on learners' vocabulary learning. To this aim, an exhaustive research of the multiple electronic databases was carried out in order to identify all the studies examining the relative effectiveness of CALL on enhancing learners' vocabulary learning The main criterion for selecting the studies to be analyzed in the present research was their publication in journals or proceedings of conferences during the period between 1950 to 2014. Concurrently, the experts in this area were also consulted for articles that had not been identified in the primary search. Eventually, the search process resulted in the identification of 132 articles of potential relevance to the present meta-analysis. In the next stage, all studies were investigated more carefully and examined based on the checklist which was the criterion for the final selection of those studies that should be included in the present meta-analysis. Finally, a total sample of 36 studies met the required criteria and selected for the final analysis. Data analysis was performed using Comprehensive Meta-analysis Software (Version 2). Findings: With respect to the overall effect size of the hypertext annotations on the students’ vocabulary acquisition, the results of 36 study in the present meta-analysis revealed that hypertext annotations had a large, positive, significant effect on students' vocabulary. Acquisition (+140). In addition, there was a highly significant heterogeneity in the distribution of the effect sizes in the meta-analysis under investigation. To further explore the sources of the heterogeneity between the effect sizes across studies, moderator analyses were administered in terms of six variables (research design, sample size, proficiency level, age, duration of the program, year of publication). It was found that the variable of the sample size had significantly affected the inconsistency of the effect sizes across the studies under investigation to the extent that studies with a sample size of more than 60 individuals produced a large effect size, whereas studies with sample size of less than 60 individuals generated medium effect size. Another significant finding was that the mean of the effect sizes statistically differed across different duration levels of the teaching program. That is, studies with a higher duration of teaching program had a larger mean effect size than those with a lower duration, indicating that the learners' vocabulary achievement enhances significantly as the length of the teaching program increases. Moreover, the results revealed that publication year was also a significant moderator variable so that the studies published in the recent years had a higher effect size as compared with those published in earlier years. Other findings revealed that the dissimilarity of the effect sizes in the present meta-analysis was not influenced by the differences among research design, proficiency level, and age of the language learners. Conclusion: Based on the findings of the present meta-analysis, it is necessary to integrate CALL into traditional language classes in order to reach better learning outcomes. With respect to future research, the researchers are recommended to provide more details of the study so that it could be possible to confirm or reject the factors that are effective in the role of computer in second language (L2) learning.
Original Research Paper
TVET
A. A. elyasi; M. Salehi; R. Uosefi
Abstract
University in Technical and Vocational University Area 8 (Mazandaran, Golestan, and Semnan provinces). According to the review of the research studies in the past including Ataiee et al. (2017), the researchers in the present study concluded that applying the criteria of the entrepreneurial universities ...
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University in Technical and Vocational University Area 8 (Mazandaran, Golestan, and Semnan provinces). According to the review of the research studies in the past including Ataiee et al. (2017), the researchers in the present study concluded that applying the criteria of the entrepreneurial universities in the organizational and educational chart of universities will result in the development of the power of innovation and creativity of students and graduates to perform entrepreneurial activities; Mahdi (2015) believes that the establishment and effectiveness of the entrepreneurial university is not possible without the systematic development of entrepreneurship education and effective training of students, professors, managers and staff of the university system and strengthening the entrepreneurial characteristics of the university's human resources. Bahayani (2015) believes that the following four elements should be considered for entrepreneurship in universities: organizational structure and management style, education and research, government facilities for entrepreneurial activities, entrepreneurial culture. Also, Naderi et al. (2014) emphasizes the entrepreneurial capabilities of students in terms of independence, internal control, motivation, success, risk-taking and creativity in different stages of higher education and by presenting a model with six different dimensions, they intend to take into account the dimensions and components of the entrepreneurial university within the technical and vocational university, which is the only university in charge of higher technical and vocational education in the country, and technical and vocational colleges, as the sub-units of this university, have a history of more than 40 years of educational activity and are among the first centers of higher education in the country. In fact, by determining the dimensions and components of the entrepreneurial university, it is possible to find out whether we have achieved our desired goals or not? Methods: This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of method. The statistical population in this study is comprised of 448 individuals selected from all heads, deputies, official managers or expert officials and department heads of the technical and vocational colleges and institutes in district 8 (in Mazandaran, Golestan, and Semnan provinces). 207 individuals were chosen through applying stratified random sampling and Cochran formula. To collect data, a researcher-made questionnaire with 95 items was used. The validity and reliability of the research tools were confirmed. To analyze the data, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis tests were applied. Findings: The research findings have indicated that the entrepreneurial university in the technical and vocational university includes 6 aspects: educational and research aspects, structural and organizational aspects, human resources, social and cultural aspects, economic and financial aspects, information and communication technology, and 18 components: (educational and research), (structural, prespective, mission, strategy, management and leadership), (professors, staff, university students and graduates ), (social and cultural), (economic, financial, facilities, equipment and research contracts) and ( infrastructure, offices, centres and companies). Conclusion: From the findings, it can be concluded that in addition to identifying the dimensions and components of the entrepreneurial university, the structural and organizational aspect with the load factor of 0.950 has the most influence and the social and cultural aspect with the load factor of 0.874 has the least influence.
Original Research Paper
Teacher Education
H. Abedini Alavi; M. Nili AhmadAbadi; M. Neystani; M. Liaghatdar
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The purpose of architecture education is to prepare graduates for general proficiency in this field of study. However, many graduates of architecture who are employed at the job market observe a profound gap between what they have learned in college and what is being done in ...
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Background and Objectives: The purpose of architecture education is to prepare graduates for general proficiency in this field of study. However, many graduates of architecture who are employed at the job market observe a profound gap between what they have learned in college and what is being done in professional work in architecture. This study -by examining the method of architecture education at undergraduate level and the job market situation in Iran- evaluates the relationship between the education and professional work in architecture to answer the following questions: "1. What are the problems of undergraduate architecture education in Iran that cause the inefficiency of architecture graduates in professional environment?", "2. Which features in the professional environment are necessary for a graduate of architecture?" and "3. How can we make a more effective connection between and the professional architectural environment?" Methods: The present study is an applied one and its method is field survey. In addition, the method of data analysis is analytical-descriptive. Data collection has been done through handing questionnaires and holding interviews with senior undergraduate architecture students as the statistical population who are supposed to enter the architectural job market soon, professors of architecture schools as individuals who are teaching students in this field, and professional architects as individuals who are professionally active in the field of architecture. The students and professors who were studied in this research were selected from 3 Iranian universities at the intermediate level, and professional architects were also selected from the managers of architectural companies. Being a veteran architect was the criterion for selecting professors and architects. The criteria for professors to be a veteran architect have been the experience and years of work, and the academic degree. The criteria for selecting architects have been experience and years of work, the significant number of the projects implemented, and winning awards. Findings: According to the common viewpoints of the three groups who were investigated in this research, the problems of the architecture educational environment that have created a gap between architecture education and architectural profession and the low efficiency of the architecture graduate in the professional environment have a wide range from the beginning of admission of architecture students up to after their graduation. The main problems are: 1. Method of student admission, 2. Admission of too many students, 3. Incompatibility of educational topics with the job market needs, 4. The separation of university from the society, 5. Lack of professional ethics training, 6. Lack of interactive skills training, 7. Lack of professional experience of professors, and 8. General problems of the society including economic issues. Therefore, the characteristics that are necessary for a graduate student of architecture in a professional environment are: 1. Familiarity with the topics required by the labor market, such as having a good command of various architectural software, familiarity with rules and regulations, and so on, 2. Having professional ethics, and 3. Having interactive skills. Conclusion: Based on the benefits of participatory education, it is proposed to turn architecture schools into "participatory education" environments in order to reduce the gap between education and professional work and decrease the low efficiency of architecture graduates in the professional environment. In this regard, it is possible to use the simultaneous training of students of different semesters in architecture courses and the presence of professional architects as expert individuals in some of the class sessions. In this way, students can benefit from each other's participation in design, critique of works, and improvement of skills related to the field of architecture, and the presence of professional architects in order to gradually acquire the skills required by the architectural job market. It is also possible to reduce the gap between education and professional work by establishing "NGOs" that are responsible for linking the university to architecture offices, job market and employers.
Original Research Paper
TVET
S. Hejazi; M. Shafaei
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Spatial ability is an important notion because of its application in everyday life and its place in science and engineering. In recent decades, there have been many studies on spatial ability in the field of mathematics education. Parts of these studies have been conducted ...
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Background and Objectives: Spatial ability is an important notion because of its application in everyday life and its place in science and engineering. In recent decades, there have been many studies on spatial ability in the field of mathematics education. Parts of these studies have been conducted in the field of school mathematics, emphasizing the importance of the spatial ability in the process of teaching school mathematics. Of course, it should be noted that the number of research studies related to mathematics education in Iran is not very large and most of them have been conducted in the field of psychology. It is also stated in the educational documents such as the principles and standards of school Mathematics (NCTM) that students should use a variety of visual representations to analyze mathematical problems and issues. Numerous definitions of spatial ability have been proposed and various terms, such as visual thinking, intuitive thinking, and visual ability have been used to describe it and various factors and components have also been identified to explain its nature. The purpose of this study was to investigate the spatial ability of students with regard to their gender, grade, and field of study and also according to factors including spatial visualization, mental rotation, and spatial orientation. Methods: The method of this study was the survey method and its participants were 901 students from secondary schools in Shahriyar studying in the 10th and 11th grade in the academic year 2017-2018. The measurement instrument was a researcher-made test whose formal and content validity was confirmed by a number professors and teachers of mathematics and its reliability was also confirmed by the approximate amount of Cronbach's alpha which was 0.83. In addition, descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent t-test) were used to analyze the data. Findings: The findings of the study showed a significant difference between male and female students in the field of spatial ability. In addition, the performance of math students was significantly better than the students in the field of experimental sciences. Also, the performance of the 11th grade students was significantly better than that of the 10th grade students. This difference can be justified by the implicit teaching that takes place in the 10th and 11th grades, as well as the courses which are taken by the 11th grade students in geometry until the exam. These findings show that the growth of spatial ability depends on education, and because of its place in everyday and professional life, needs more attention in school mathematics. The qualitative findings of this study showed that tasks related to spatial ability are a good platform for developing mathematical thinking and mathematical processes, such as problem solving, reasoning, and proof. Moreover, teaching and increasing the level of education seem to have an undeniable effect on the growth of spatial ability and the improvement of students' problem-solving performance. Conclusion: Although the problem-solving approach has clearly established its presence in Iranian mathematics textbooks in recent decades, little research has been done on the place and role of spatial ability in teaching the process of solving mathematical problems. Moreover, the field of school mathematics needs more research on spatial ability in different areas, such as curricula, teacher training, and methods of math teaching and learning. The findings of this study can be useful in modifying and strengthening the strategies, educational processes, curricula and appropriate educational instruments to improve students' spatial visualization.
Original Research Paper
Modern Educational Approaches
E. Reyhani; F. Ghasemi; Z. Rahimi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: In the turn of present century, dramatic changes have taken place in education and society. Among these changes, the change from an industrial to a knowledge-based society, the change from information technology and new information in various scientific fields, and the change ...
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Background and Objectives: In the turn of present century, dramatic changes have taken place in education and society. Among these changes, the change from an industrial to a knowledge-based society, the change from information technology and new information in various scientific fields, and the change in occupations can be mentioned. As a result, education has faced many shortcomings based on the level of the expectations of the society and its outputs. Due to the changes in the objective of the educational systems and the changes in the dimensions of people's lives, the teacher researcher paradigm has been considered by most teacher training systems in recent years, and that is why, it has led to some reforms in teacher training programs. The main and most important components of teacher training, curriculum, consists of goals, content, teaching method and evaluation. The present study explains the goals of the curriculum based on a teacher-researcher training at Farhangian University. The goals of the study are comprised of three areas of knowledge, competence, and attitude. According to the objectives of the study a mixed research method of the exploratory type was used which consists of two qualitative and quantitative stages. In the qualitative stage interpretive phenomenological method of data collection tool was used and In the quantitative stage, a descriptive survey method was utilized. Methods:Inthe qualitative section, the research population comprised of the experts in the field of teacher training among which the appropriate instances were selected through targeted sampling and the required information was collected through a semi-structured interview. Theoretical saturation was achieved from interviews with 15 experts. In the analysis of the text of the interview the interpretive content analysis was used. To validate the data, credibility, transferability, reliability and validation were used. In the quantitative stage, the research population were the faculty members of different campuses of Farhangian University, among which four provinces were selected as the sample. The multi-stage cluster sampling method was used to select the sample and using Cochran's formula 274 people were selected among the faculty members of campuses and provincial centers. Data collection was done through a researcher-made questionnaire which was extracted from the qualitative part of the research. The data were analyzed by using a single sample T-test and Friedman test. Findings:In this study, the goals of the curriculum were explained in terms of knowledge, ability and attitude. The results showed that the area of knowledge includes reflection, critical thinking, scientific expertise and research knowledge. The area of ability is comprised of the ability to perform research, to write, to be creative, to act systematically, to be independent and self-sufficient; and the area of the attitude includes interest in research and having no prejudice and stereotypes. The quantitative results of the study also showed that the components of attention and accuracy in relation to the issues of education in the field of knowledge, students' ability to self-assess; in the area of ability, and avoidance of prejudice and black and white thinking, and in the area of attitude received the most attention by the faculty members. There is clear evidence of a gap between the goals of the Farhangian University at the executive level in terms of knowledge, ability and attitude. Conclusion: This study showed that the goals of the teacher taining curriculum need a general reformation at the executive level. It is important to pay attention to all areas of goals including knowledge, ability, and attitude and It is necessary to pay equal attention to all areas and to combine theoretical courses with the required practical work in teacher training programs.
Original Research Paper
Educational Justice
M. karimzadeh; B. karimzadeh
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Education sector and its indicators as one of the most important components of the social dimension of sustainable development, by playing its fundamental and crucial role in the process of comprehensive development, has a very important and key role and it is prerequisite ...
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Background and Objectives: Education sector and its indicators as one of the most important components of the social dimension of sustainable development, by playing its fundamental and crucial role in the process of comprehensive development, has a very important and key role and it is prerequisite for achieving the development of communities. Education has always been a concern of governments in achieving a fair distribution of facilities and expertise and has therefore been one of the most important public policies. Public education improves the productivity of low-income and poor people; because it improves their position in the labor market, and as a result, through education, income and welfare gaps can be reduced, and these gaps in turn affect the degree of development of the countries. Therefore, the issue of inequality is a major development challenge in many countries, especially for those countries whose sovereignty includes vast geographical areas. These inequalities make a serious threat to the balanced development of the regions and make it difficult to achieve the national unity. The present study aimed to investigate the development level of Sistan and Baluchistan counties in educational facilities and services according to student’s population. Methods: The research method of this study is descriptive - analytical. The statistical population of the research is the counties of the province in 2016. The statistical sample of the study is 19 counties of the province. The required data for this study was obtained from the province's 2015 statistical yearbook. In the present study, 23 effective indicators in the education sector were used to obtain a logical answer to the main research questions. In this way, in order to analyze the data, at first, the Shannon entropy technique was used to weigh the indicators and then, based on TOPSIS technique with the help of TOPSIS Solver and Excel software, the extent of development of counties in terms of their access to educational facilities were analyzed and determined. Findings: The results of the research show that according to the TOPSIS method, the county of Zahedan is the most developed county and Dalgan is the most deprived county in the province. Based on this index, and according to the educational facilities, the counties of Zahedan, Hamoon, Konarak, Zabol and Sarbaz are the most developed counties in the province; and Dalgan, Qasr-e Qand, Mehrestan and Fanoj are the most deprived counties, respectively. Conclusion: Research findings show that 84.21% of the province counties are at relatively deprived and deprived level of development and none of the counties of the province are at a developed or relatively developed level. The findings of this study indicate the inadequate distribution of educational facilities and services in Sistan and Baluchestan province. Unfair concentration and distribution of educational resources and facilities in different regions of the province will aggravate the underdevelopment of counties and their further backwardness. Therefore, considering the abundant deprivation of the counties of this province in the field of educational indicators, it is necessary for provincial and national officials to make more serious efforts at the national and provincial levels to eliminate these inequalities and under-development of educational development in this vast province.
