JOURNAL OF CURRICULUM STUDIES (J.C.S.)
Year:2010 | Volume:4 | Issue:16|Papers Count:10

Revision of curriculum in higher education is a continuous, necessary and inevitable endeavor. In particular, universities involved in medical education are required to keep abreast of the latest developments. Indeed, review of medical education courses is vital in order to be congruent with global trend in health care and treatment, new technologies, emerging diseases, new expectations of patients, knowledge explosion, and growing information on human body. By 1972, the medical education program offered at the Faculty of Medicine, the University of Tehran was a model for other universities nationwide. However, some discrepancies among various universities resulted in setting up minimum, maximum, and proper levels of each subject of the course. In 1980s, the Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution approved an identical program for medical education at all universities. The Supreme Council for Planning embarked upon a major curriculum renewal effort in medical education in 1984. In 1985, the newly established Ministry of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education was entrusted with organizing the medical education. As a result, the Supreme Council for Planning Medical Education was formed to set up relevant courses, rules and regulations. In 2001, curriculum revision, to some extent, was delegated to universities. This paper reviewed the history of medical education in Iran. Discussing experiences of universities involved in medical education, some suggestions were made to improve the program.

The purpose of this study is to identify the domain status subject of the conducted research of curriculum development in Iran, to draw a favorable situation and clarify its existing gaps. The important questions of this research are; what is the situation of the conducted research in the curriculum development as a matter of Disciplinary?What's the desired situation? What gaps are there between the current situations and the desired condition?This research has two stages: Firstly, the all conducted researches in the related areas to curriculum development make up the statistical population that has been selected among the Public Iranian University as a sample to identify the current situation. In this stage, the information gathering and data analysis have been used by FISH tools and quantitative content analysis. At the second stage, for Iranian curriculum development 30 clarifying the desired situation of the research specialists have been chosen via criterion - based sampling.The gathering data tool at this stage was the researcher made questionnaire. As well, to identify the research gap, we have had a comparison between the desired situation and the current situation data. This study findings show that the conducted research in Iran has mostly emphasized on the traditional areas and didn't pay attention to the new domains. Also, the comparison between curriculum specialist polling result and current situation show that the curriculum development researchers in Iran should pay more attention to the new fields as; curriculum validity, curriculum and multiple intelligence, curriculum in the post- modern condition, integrated curriculum, science, social, mathematics and Persian curriculum.

Indubitably, educating good citizens is one of the principal goals of educational system in any country. Therefore, emphasizing on the role of curriculum, this research evaluates knowledge of citizenship rights among college students. The sample included 327 Islamic Azad University students whom were selected randomly using gender based stratification method. Researcher made questionnaire was used to gather data. Utilizing independent Samples t Test, the status of students' knowledge of citizenship rights dimensions was examined. Using independent sample t and variance analysis, citizenship rights dimensions differences in gender, educational level, and age were studied. Research results indicated that male and female students knowledge of all citizenship rights dimensions including civil, political and social rights were significantly lower than average. In addition, in a gender comparative evaluation, the level of students' knowledge was higher in females, and no differences were noticed in other dimensions. An educational level and gender based comparative study did not show any differences in triplet dimensions of citizenship rights.

Genealogy is a philosophical approach that at first, Nietzsche applied in sociocultural studies and then was expanded by Michel Foucault. This philosophical method views social activities and discourses in a new way. Hence, applying it in socio-cultural researches can be led to new points and give us noble valuable information about them. In this paper, we aim to introduce this approach and its items to curriculum studies domain, and investigate that how we can apply it in this field. Genealogy tries to redefine the concept of power as dynamic, non-hierarchal, distributed forces influence all aspects of social human life. Consequently, Foucault holds that knowledge and power are interrelated and concludes that independent knowledge is almost an illusion. Thus, human knowledge and the norms it validates have to be problematized, criticized and revised. This critical analyze should rely on particle historical evidences in the deep archives. A genealogical research in curriculum studies, will apply some principles in dealing with educational phenomena. These principles consist in reversal, discontinuity, specificity, exteriority, interiority and multiple conditioning. Finally we introduce some theme domains in curriculum studies can be appropriate for genealogical research. Considering specifications, assumptions and principles of genealogy, we can apply it for studying educational policies, institutional concepts in education and curriculum, and implicit philosophies of curriculum.

To examine relationship of supervisors and students with respect to learning improvement, dissertation and knowledge production is of great importance. To choose a supervisor is one of important decisions made by doctoral candidates. Consequences of this selection as well as proper relationship with supervisor may affect dissertation assessment and continuation of future research guided by the same supervisor.The present study aimed to improve this process and examine its consequences. Initially, through literature review and interview with experienced supervisors of doctoral candidates 20 indicators were identified. Then, a questionnaire developed on the basis of the indicators was administered to 31 PhD graduates in education. Results indicated that supervisor selection and student-supervisor relationship were found to be relatively satisfactory. Significant differences were also found between graduates in terms of their dissertation marks, tendency to work under the same supervisor for future research, and satisfaction of their choice and relationship. Finally, based on content analysis of open-ended questions some suggestions were made towards improvement of supervisor selection and relationship of students and supervisors. Results were discussed in the final section of the paper.

Enormous funding spent on e-learning will have no return unless students succeed. Therefore, in this study a model was suggested on the basis of theoretical principles and research studies on e-learning in higher education. Main dimensions of Technology Success Model (TSM) include learner's characteristics, learning management, and perceptions of the system. Based on the general model of technology success a model was developed with emphasis on e-learning and was tested on a sample of 105 students using multiple regression analysis. Main findings indicate that perceptions of the system would directly affect learners' success. Finally, some practical suggestions were made to be taken into account by tutors, practitioners, and developers of e-learning systems.

The economical structure of the societies is highly under the changing condition and the globalization phenomenon hand in hand with the changes in the economy, industry and organizations has caused the specific skills, needed for the market, to change. The production system in the international scale emphasizes on the new skills which are needed for working in the global market. The abilities such as group working, problem solving, creating relationship, and using the computer in the models of the new organizations employment are increasingly focused on. This new flexibility seems not to relate to specific working skill, but, it is consisted of skills that are necessary for working in a big market with the vast range of the jobs. In fact these skills which are known as employability and key skills can be considered as knowledge, insight, opinions and skills which lead the individuals to activation in relation with others, moving up from one job to the other, having influential role in group working and innovation in problem solving. This research investigates the amount of market employability skills of the students of the University of Mazandaran. The method used in the research is based on the descriptive-measurement one. In this research all of the juniors of the University of Mazandaran were chosen as the statistic society. The tools used to get data are; interviewing with the industrial managers of Mazandaran province and a questionnaire prepared by the researcher which is based on the market employability skills of the province which are delivered to the students. According to this fact, by interviewing the industrial managers of the province, a list of market employability skills has been prepared and by the use of a questionnaire the amount of the students' capability of these skills has been evaluated. Due to the results of the research, the students of the University of Mazandaran from view point of the market employability skills has been found to be average. Although the results show that the major, gender and the average have no influence on the amount of the market employability skills of the students.