CURRICULUM PLANNING KNOWLEDGE & RESEARCH IN EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES
Year:2014 | Volume:11 | Issue:13 (40)|Papers Count:24

The purpose of this study was to analyze the contents of elementary textbooks based on the components of constructivism such as active participation of the students to facilitate casting the role of teacher, group interaction according to the formative evaluation, notice to the physical environment of learning and evaluation as a tool for developmental process learning. The used method in analyzing of the present study was Shannon Entropy Method and unit of analyzing was textbook pages (texts, questions, practices and pictures) with the sum of 3467 pages. Statistical society of all three of elementary books was 36 books in the academic year of 2009-10 in eight topics of reading Farsi, writing Farsi, sciences, sky gifts, sky gifts (homework), Quran, math and social education. Statistical sample of this study was consisted of the same topics excluding the math. The obtained results from data analysis showed that group interaction was considered more than other components and there was less notice to the physical environment of learning and evaluation as a tool for developmental process learning.

Curriculum is one of the youngest domains of human knowledge. Definition of its limits and boundaries has been followed by many ups and downs. One of the basic foundations of curriculum is its philosophical foundations, which is like a guide light in response to the questions of ontology, epistemology and axiology. Among the great philosophers of education, there are ones who have comprehensively considered impression, objectives, principles, methods and the necessity of this important process. One of these great philosophers is Plato, the father of West's philosophy, and the other one is Farabi who is called the second teacher, as the father of Islamic philosophy. This study reviewed their educational approaches and opinions to define the components of curriculum. In order to achieve this important goal, the research method of qualitative content analysis has been used. Information collected using a library method and then analyzed through applying the inductive categorization system. The obtained results indicated that both of Farabi and Plato believed in education goals including physical, chimerical, moral, intellectual and social objectives. Plato's lesson contents are as follows: habituate children to play, develop physical strengths, literacy training, military training and teaching philosophy, literary material and dialectics. Farabi focuses on the content that directs the man towards cognition of the God, trust and following up the instructions and then leading to cognition of the man himself as the God's creature. According to Plato, the dialogue approach is the most important teaching method. Farabi focuses on the two persuasive and argumentative methods on teaching approach.

Recently, studying on critical thinking disposition and its related factors as one of the teacher’s professional competences has attracted many education experts. The present study investigated the trend of critical thinking in high school teachers and its role in their preferred teaching style. The study was descriptive and correlation. The study population included all of 4115 female high school teachers in the city of Mashhad in 2012-2013 academic year. Kukran formula and cluster random sampling of 110 teachers were selected. Research tools were the questionnaire of teaching style (Mousa Poor, 1998) and critical thinking disposition criteria of Ricketts (2003). The findings from this study showed a significant meaning (r=0.48, p<0.001) and teachers tendency toward active teaching style was more than passive and the overall critical thinking disposition of teachers was desirable.

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of mobile phone using (SMS) on English vocabulary learning of the students and their attitudes towards the benefits and disadvantages of using mobile phones in learning and teaching English. In this study, the first available samples were selected from the disciplines of law and political sciences with a number 152 students among 521 population. Then, by using Cochran Formula, 76 students were randomly selected and randomly divided into two groups of 38 experimental and control groups. After ensuring the consistency of the two groups' average age, the proficiency test was used. The students in experimental group were trained for two months by mobile phone (SMS). Meanwhile, the other group was trained with the conventional technique. The validity of measuring the rate of students’ learning was covered by using the method of Korder - Richardson (KR=20). It was calculated equal to 86%. Interviews were used in order to investigate the benefits and disadvantages and the reasons of the students' attitudes toward the use of mobile phones in teaching and learning. For example, 32 students were targeted from the experimental group and made the semi-structured interviews. Face and content validity of the interviews were confirmed by the experts. The end result by using t-test showed that phone mobile learning method (SMS) was more effective in learning English vocabulary. The interviews’ results showed and highlighted the advantages and disadvantages of using mobile phones in teaching and learning of the interviewees due to the small screen and the friendly usage of mobile phones every time and everywhere. On the other hand, it showed the attitude toward using the mobile phone in language learning and combining this method with other mobile devices.

The purpose of this study was analyzing the relationships of psychological capital (PsyCap) with achievement goals and academic performance of the first-year university students of Islamic Azad University in Masjed Soleiman and Ahwaz branches. The participants were consisted of 520 students (262 males and 258 females) who were selected by using the stratified random sampling method. The used instruments in the present study were consisted of Adult Dispositional Hope Scale (ADSH), Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), Resiliency Scale (RS), and Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (ASES) in order to assess each of the four factors of making up psychological capital. The Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales (PALS) and Andrew Achievement Goals Scale were used to measure the achievement goals. The average of student's final scores in that semester was used to measure the academic performance. For analyzing the data, the confirmatory factor analysis, Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression methods were applied. The results showed that psychological capital and its four components with mastery-approach and performance-approach goals, and also academic performance had a meaningful positive relationship. Moreover, psychological capital and its four components had negative relationship with performance avoidance goal. Achievement goals had meaningful relationship with academic performance as well. In addition, the combination of the four variables of hope, optimism, resiliency and self-efficacy with respect to higher order construction of psychological capital can predict the mastery- approach goal and academic performance of the students more effectively.

The aim of this study was to identify and prioritize the teachers’ effective qualifications from the students’ perspectives by using AHP and TOPSIS methods. The study method was descriptive - survey research and the population was consisted of 1182 university graduate students in 2011-12 academic year. 291 students were selected by simple sampling method. The results showed that students were considered professional, technical and interpersonal qualifications as a lecturer as their first three priorities. The validity was confirmed by the experts and calculated by using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of HPV and TOPSIS as 0.783 and 0.849, respectively. The final results of the rankings on 17 criteria were reviewed in order to measure the ability of the students for understanding the content of first priority. The criterion of "the teacher appears" was allocated as the last priority. The most weight was assigned to "ability to understand the content by the students", "scientific literacy" and "research literacy".

Homeschooling is defined as educating the child by parents in home environment. In this approach curricula and teaching methods are determined by child and their parent. The current research was aimed at studying the factors influencing on tendency to homeschooling. In this qualitative a sample of 9 families selected based on purposeful sampling and using the snowballing method. Method for gathering data included semi- structured interview and autobiography. Results shoe that economic factors were not considered as an effective to tendency to home schooling from the parent’s standpoint. Parents believed that the most important socio- cultural factors affecting the tendency to home schooling were as following; being the competitive climate within schools, lack of the ethical education and human values in school curricula, educational experiences of parents and taking the responsibility from parents. In addition to, parents referred to this reasons as educational and pedagogical factors leading to homeschooling; dissatisfaction with the school curricula, teaching methods and lack of autonomy in learning, attending to the interests and needs of child. Active methods and being opportunities for mutual learning. Centralization and politicization of education also mentioned as influential policies in tendency to home schooling. Results also indicate that tendency of parents to home schooling is not only because of dissatisfaction with schooling, but also because of positive homeschooling factors and incentives.

The study aim was to compare educational motivation and quality of life of male students, subjected to descriptive evaluation with the traditional evaluation in the fourth-grade of elementary schools of Qaen city. The statistical population was consisted of 698 students in the 2010-11 academic years (70 eligible students for descriptive evaluation and 628 students for traditional evaluation). Multi-stage sampling method was used and the sample size was estimated to 136. The research method was descriptive with causal-comparison type. In order to collect the data, the questionnaires of educational motivation and quality of life was used. MANOVA and t-test were used to analyze the obtained data. The results showed that there was no significant difference in educational motivation between the eligible students for assessment in the description evaluation and students under the traditional evaluation. There was no significant difference in the quality of life between the students who are assessed with descriptive evaluation and those under the traditional evaluation. There was a significant and direct relationship between the educational motivation and quality of life of the fourth-grade students.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of descriptive evaluation on reading and writing skills of the fourth grade elementary school students in the Gachsaran city villages. The method of research was Quasi-experimental. Isfahan standard tests of reading and writing skills and also the teacher-made exams have been used for gathering the data. The sample of this research was including 84 students in the fourth grade of elementary schools. The experimental group was undergone the descriptive method of evaluation and the control group was undergone the traditional evaluation method. Covariance analysis was used to test the hypotheses of the study. The research results indicated that the descriptive evaluation method had a significant effect on both of reading and writing skills of the students. On the other hand, the findings displayed that the reading skills of boys in descriptive evaluative group were better than the boys in the traditional group and the writing skills of the girls in descriptive evaluating group were better than the girls in the traditional group.

The major goal of this research was surveying on the present status of the ability and competencies of the teachers from the perspective of students and the comparison with the ideal situation from the perspective of experts about physics in the fourth grade of high schools in Shahre ghod. This research as an applied one was carried out on the basis of descriptive-explanatory research methodology. The participants of the research were students from 15 High schools. The research sample was taken based on Krejsi and Morgan Sampling Table. The sample size was consisted of 280 students. Furthermore, 35 educational experts were surveyed. The stability of the research's tool was estimated by the Cronbach's alpha as 89%. The research data was analyzed by the alpha one-sample t-test and independent samples t-test statistics. The analysis of data based on the students’ perspectives revealed that cognitive, affective domain and skills were different from educational experts’ perspectives. The research findings showed that on physics education and laboratory, the teacher was not competent.

The present study was conducted with the purpose of investigating the effect of breakfast eating on the cognitive performance and educational achievement of the fourth grade students of elementary schools of Garmsar in the academic year of 2010-11. The research implied comparative approach and single test instrument was used for experimental and controlled group. Statistical population was consisted of all of the fourth grade students in Garmsar elementary schools. In order to select the sample population, a primary questionnaire was distributed among the fourth grade students that are required to complete it with their parents assistance. A number of 120 students with similar qualities and characteristics with this element were being accustomed to breakfast at home or not, then they were selected and were divided into two groups of 60 students. For measuring the dependent variable in terms of cognitive performance, Wexler IQ (containing 10 semi-tests) was implemented and in terms of educational achievement, the average of the students was implemented. The collected data was analyzed by using the central tendency measures and dependent T-test. The results revealed that breakfast eating at home could positively affect educational achievement of students in mathematics, and cognitive performance in seven semi-tests such as completing pictures, similarities, modifying pictures, accounting, cubic design, vocabulary, number memorizing (p<0.05).

In the recent decades, the researchers and scholars in the field of psychology and educational sciences have shown more interest in religiousness and the teachings thereof. The level of focus on religiousness in the elementary school text books’ contents with respect to interpersonal religious skills was evaluated through content analysis. Using overall sampling, all the elementary school text books, consisting of 35 volumes in eight topics were selected and evaluated. The data collection instrument was a categorizing system and coding of variables and subordinate variables in the form of an inspecting list, which was developed for this study. The results revealed that the difference in terms of the level of focus on religiousness, cooperation, amity with kindred generosity and forgiveness variable parameters in the text books of different grades were numerically significant. For the data analysis, descriptive statistics and linear quadratic or x2 were used. The most focused variable parameter in the elementary school books’ contents was religiousness and the least focused was amity with kindred. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the emphasis on introducing the religious principles and the derivatives thereof in an attempt to promote intra-personal religious attitudes and spiritual growth in students is prioritized as primary and developing the inter-personal religious skills as the secondary.