CURRICULUM PLANNING KNOWLEDGE & RESEARCH IN EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES
Year:2013 | Volume:10 | Issue:11 (38)|Papers Count:17

Hidden curriculum in higher education may be defined as a set of unstated rules which are necessary for completing the formal education successfully. Conducting a dissertation is one of the most important dimensions of postgraduate studies which owns exclusive dynamics and plays a vital part in shaping the hidden curriculum. Considering these exclusive dynamics of research supervision process, I have tried to uncover the hidden norms which influence the postgraduate students of a Mathematics Faculty, when they decide to choose their supervisor. This study is conducted within the qualitative framework, using phenomenology as the method. To collect the needed narrative data, I applied semi-structured interviews, in addition to data extracted from informal talks with the informants. Thus, 9 M.A students from the Faculty of Mathematics were selected using purposeful sampling and the collected data were analyzed and classified by content analysis method. Based on the results, the influential norms can be listed as follow: research supervision style, supervisors' scientific traits, supervisors' personality traits, non-academic norms, limitations.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of discussion and lecture teaching methods, on the level of student's learning and satisfaction in the religion and life lesson in the secondary school students. It was used intact groups and four classes of the third year of secondary school in one of Shiraz schools in 2010-2011 about religion and life courses in the second semester. Two classes were selected as control groups for applying lecture method, and two other classes as experimental groups for applying group discussion method. Furthermore, for assessing student's level of learning, researcher-structured learning measurement scale was applied and for assessing students’ level of satisfaction, researcher-structured teaching satisfaction questionnaire was applied. The scale was included four dimensions. For analyzing the obtained data, descriptive and inferential statistics were used through SPSS software. The study suggested that the level of students learning at group discussion were significantly higher than lecture method. The level of students learning average at empirical sciences was significantly higher than the students of humanistic sciences average were. However, there was no existence of inter-action effect between field and method. There was no difference between the level of students satisfaction of teaching in the students of the two fields and there was no existence of inter-action effect between the field and method.

Education is the most basic human needs. Without education, no society is able to continue to survive. However, effective education cannot be done by trial and error and it requires a design. This study was conducted according to the importance and effectiveness of instructional design models and specially the Gagne model in the field of educational activities on learning, retention and achievement mtivation of experimental sciences courses of the third-grade. Type of research was quasi – experimental with pretest-posttest design with control group. Statistical community of the research was all female students of the third–grade of Ahar in the academic year of 2009-10 by using cluster random sampling method. At first, it was selected a school and then two classes consisting of 25 students as samples and another class for the experimental group (25 students) and also other class as the control group (25 subjects). In order to assess the participants learning, retention and achievement motivation, a questionnaire (ISM) was used. The coefficient of reliability learning test by using the split-half method was 0.83 and coefficient of reliability achievement motivation by using the questionnaire (ISM) with Cronbach's alpha method was obtained 0.81. The method of conduction was the designed educational content (chapters 12, 13 and 14 science books) based on Gagne models for 8 sessions (every session for 45 minutes) and preparation tests, taught experimental group (n=25) based on Gagne instructional design model and the control group (n=25) based on the traditional method. After data collection, data analysis were performed by using the parameters of descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (analysis of covariance, multivariate analysis of variance), and using SPSS software. The results showed that applying the Gagne instructional design model in the experimental science courses compared with traditional method could increase learning and retention, but there was no significant difference in the achievement motivation between the groups.

This article aims to study the consequences and mechanisms of globalization on the higher education curriculum. Documentary studies show that the most important consequences of globalization on the higher education curriculum are development in science and technology, changes in labor market and employment, social inequalities, promotion of democracy and human rights, increase in intercultural communication, review of moral and ethical values and education for the time of uncertainty. Furthermore, the analysis of the single survey t-test, which has been done through enquiries prepared by the researcher, was answered by 37 experts in higher education curriculum. It showed that in order to deal with these consequences, the following points should be considered in preparing the higher education curriculum including putting more emphasis on learning English language, to increase one’s knowledge about the culture, customs and traditions of other nations, to know and appreciate the influential people of science in international scope, to increase one's life skills to be able to coexist with other races from different countries, to expand one’s knowledge about scientific achievements and innovations,to necessitate the inclusion of democracy and human rights in the curriculum, to produce and provide the virtual contents, to change the process of education from teaching to learning, from individual to group training, from increase in knowledge to increase in skill, from behavioral learning to constructional one and from traditional to virtual.

The main objective of this study was to investigate the pathology of chemistry curriculum at the high school by using the Delphi technique. The present research was a descriptive study. The statistical population was consisted of the groups of representative and chemical science teachers of Isfahan, with 300 subjects. 167 cases were selected by the random sampling method appropriate to the volume (according to the six different districts of the city in Isfahan) and by the aid of Cochran formula. The questionnaire had 23 closed questions and answers on a five-item Likert scale. The data resulted from the questionnaire was analyzed by mono-variable T-test, Freidman test and multilateral variance analysis.The results showed that the process of organizing, subjects laboratory areas, contents of chemical textbooks, executive problems and teacher’s teaching techniques were identified as the most difficult items containing an average ranking of 3.86 as the highest and executive problems and the process of organizing with 2.50 as the worst damage. The results showed that high school chemistry book contains many problems that affected a glance linguistic course and the authorities are bound to a major revision in this regard.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between individual characteristics and students’ experiences with their academic gains in Shiraz non-profit higher education institutions. The statistical population was comprised of seniors (3000 students) in these institutions in the academic year of 2010-11. 341 students were selected according to Morgan’s table and by using simple proportional classifications sampling method. The research tool included the college students experiences questionnaire of Pace and Kuh (1998), which was distributed after calculation of reliability and gaining the validity coefficient of 0.91. The data was analyzed by using the statistical methods such as multiple regressions, independent t-test and one way ANOVA. The results of research showed that all three dimensions of college students’ experiences including perceptions of quality of environment, quality of effort and social integrations were significant anticipator of their academic gains respectively. In addition, the results indicated that the students’ experiences in anticipating their academic gains differ in terms of their gender, place of residence, field of study, level of education and their grade point average. In addition, the results indicated no significant difference between the academic gains of students by gender, place of residence and level of education and significant difference between their academic gains based on their field of study and grade point average (GPA).

Aim of this research is predicting dimensions of Academic Engagement by Identity Styles. The method is correlation research and the required data is found by using Identity Style Inventory Sixth Grade (White, Wampler, & Winn, 1998) & subtest of Academic Engagement in Motivational Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich, Roeser, & DeGroot, 1994). The sample of research was 810 first grade girl students of Tehran state high schools which selected by random clustered sampling. The data were analyzed by using multivariable regression analyses. Results revealed that the information & normative identity style can predict all dimensions of academic engagement but the diffuse/avoidant style can only predict behavioral and metacognitive dimension of that negatively.

The purpose of this study was identifying and prioritizing the educational needs of Shiraz University faculty members. Statistical population of this study was consisted of all Shiraz University faculty members at 2011-12 academic years. 223 faculty members were selected with random class sampling method. For identifying the certain training needs, employment and employee analysis model was used and were prioritized by multi-factor method. In order to identify the normative training needs, a questionnaire was used, which was designed based on the identified certain training needs. The validity of normative training needs questionnaire was calculated by exploratory factor analysis method. Total reliability was calculated by Cronbach’s Alpha method equal to 0.87. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the normative educational needs of the faculty members according to various academic ranks and considering service history. It was suggested that identifying certain training needs as the basis of periodical training needs of the faculty members. Based on this fact, training programs were designed and implemented focused on various academic ranks and service history.

The purpose of this study was evaluating the content of curriculum for education science major education of pre-school and primary school. The present study was done with the survey descriptive method. The population was from the third and the fourth year students of educational science oriented pre-school and school education, administrators and coaches of kindergartens, and teachers of primary schools in seven districts of Mashhad. The research sample was included 83 subjects consisted 53 cases of education practitioners, primary school teachers and 30 subjects of the third and the fourth year students of educational sciences major pre-school and primary education. In order to evaluate the content of curriculum, to evaluate of instructor’s teaching method, to evaluate the appropriateness of providing content by instructors with the program content, provided offers and reforms used by reliable researcher-made questionnaires. In order to analyze the collected data, it was used descriptive indexes, ANOVA and non-parametric Chi-square test. The finding showed that the participation to evaluate quality of course curriculum content in intermediate level. The Results showed that kindergarten teachers compared with elementary school teachers and students to have a better attitude about the content of the curriculum. The results of the chi-square test showed that the studied groups except in four cases of proposed reforms. Other cases have had no disagreements with together. Furthermore, the results showed that from the perspective of the students, the teaching quality of the instructor (F (1, 27)=0.14, p>0.05) and quality of presenting specialized content by the instructor in evaluation of presenting content in the curriculum field had no effect (F (1, 24)=0.075, p>0.05).

The purpose of the present research was to explore the academic performance relationship with self-regulated learning, and academic burnout of Ardabil city high schools in 2010-11. The statistical sample of this research was included 379 high school students (197 boys, 182 girls) of Ardabil city. They were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling method irrespective of their field and year of study. The tools used in this research were three questionnaires: MSLQ, Berso’s academic burnout and average grade of academic semester in 2010-11. The results showed that there was a positive relationship between self-regulated learning and academic performance. However, there was a negative relationship between of academic burnout dimensions and academic performance. The results of multiple regression showed that academic burnout had a better capability in predicting the academic performance in comparison with self-regulated learning and path analysis showed that the academic burnout variable was the only variable, which was able to have a direct influence on the academic performance of students. On the other hand, the results of Hotlling t2 showed that there was a significant difference among the combination of three dependent variables in the two groups of female and male students. For an exact study, independent t-tests were used for all of the variables and the results showed that there was a significant difference between female and male students, just in term of academic performance.

The present study compared the priorities and ideologies of the six components of the curriculum from the perspectives of faculty members of Tehran faculties of educational sciences. Research society was comprised of all of the faculty members in the departments in 2010-11 adopted through census. Among the 95 members, 30% were female and 70% were male. The research was carried out as a descriptive (surveying) study by using standard questionnaire of curriculum ideology of Schiro (2008). The questionnaire focuses on curriculum based on the six factors including purpose, teaching, learning, knowledge, childhood and evaluation (scholar academic ideology, social efficiency ideology, learner-centered ideology and social reconstruction ideology). For data analyzing, frequency and percentage frequency and ideology graph were applied. Findings suggested that, the faculties of educational sciences in Tehran should focus on ideology of social reconstruction and the components of learning, knowledge, learning and assessment of learner-centered ideology. The strongest trends in this regard were learning and assessment the components of learner-centered ideology. The strongest trends (first priority) and components were teaching the ideology of scientific knowledge and the weakest parts of the trends (last priority) were the only components that all faculty members were agreed.

This study was a prospective, quasi-experimental research. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of students' attitudes toward the teacher skills and towards the content of the textbook in their learning rate .This study was consisted of three parallel experiments. They were selected from the population of 4,200 students, randomly from a school with 250 students. They were randomly selected 120 students aged from 12 to 16 years. The sample size was determined by using the Morgan Cochran formula. The students were randomly divided into six groups of 20 subjects. Initially, the students were pre-tested. Both groups were taught the same content in the same room. The procedure was recorded by video. They were taken immediately after the test. The questions, which have written by using a two-dimensional table, were used to determine the credibility of the expert. In order to determine the reliability, validity and reliability, the split-half method of reliability was used. The pre-test and post-test scores were studied. The t-test was used in each experiment to compare the mean scores of the experimental and control groups. Differences were significant. Attitudes of the students and teachers to teach the content, the learning was effective.