PEYKE NOOR JOURNAL
Year:2003 | Volume:1 | Issue:1|Papers Count:13

When the political will of the government is in accord with the social demand for higher education but the economic possibilities are not responsive, many problems are resulted.Therefore, fundamental changes in existing conditions are necessary. In such a situation the specialists recommend strategic planning. This strategic planning must include fundamental changes in the country’s educational policy in the one hand, and leaving traditional procedures behind in the other.This, in turn, calls for the use of suitable technology, decrease in the expenses and increase in institutional effectiveness. The managers of higher education institutions will be able to do so if they can use all the available and effective factors.This article intends to consider some of these factors and gives some clues as “how to manage this strategic changes”. It also argues that open and distance education system can be the best solution by using advanced communication technologies in the higher education institutions for fundamental changes.

Theories of modernization, old and new Pioter Sztompka /Gh.R. Arjomandi Theories of modernization and convergence are the product of the post Second World War era. Both have been formulated in response to the new emerging division of human society into three distinct ‘Worlds’: the First World of the developed industrial society; the Second World of the ‘socialist’ societies Payke Noor, 1/14 and the Third World of the postcolonial societies of the South and East. Classical theories of modernization focus on the contrast between the First and the Third Worlds, whereas the theories of convergence, as well as recently emerging theories of post-communist transition, take the cleavage between the First and the Second Worlds as their main theme.The conconcept of modernization, the mechanism of modernization, the critique of the idea of modernization and a brief account of Neomodernization and Neo-convergence theory are the main axes of this subject.

In this article the author tries to show that Mahatma Gandhi, the political and spiritual leader of India, had special views about higher education.Gandhi believed that learning without vocational education was of no use to the society. Moreover, he believed that higher education did not correspond with the social and economic realities of India. He said manual work equalled mental work and one could worship while working. Considering the reasons of the graduates’ unemployment, he mentoned the point that the society did not need their speciality. Gandhi said vocational education should be substituded for free education; the government should control teaching and education; higher education should be supported by the private sector; and men and women should have equal opportunities for education.

New educational methods are concerned with the transfer of learning responsibility from the teacher to the learner. Selfstudy, or independent study, is one of the active learning methods, which has a significant role in retention stability of some courses and fields of study.This research is a semi-experimental study that examines the effects of self-study and individual learning of the physical education graduates. The data were collected through eight closed questionaires (240questions) and the statistical universe was the physical education graduates of second semester of the academic year 1999-2000.The results indicate that generally the self-study and independent study are more effective in graduates’ retention.Those who graduated through the self-study or individual study mode had a higher rate of retention as compared with oncampus students. Such difference is significant from statistical perspective in a=0.03 level.

The millennial celebration of Sage Abolghasem Ferdowsi birthday in 1934 drew the scholars, attention to the Shahnama, the eternal work of Tous Sage. Steps have also been taken for compiling a version of the Shahnama that would be reliable and close to the original poems of Ferdowsi. Scholars have made every effort to locate and to take pictures and microfilms of the oldest versions of theShahnama in the world libraries, to evaluate the authority and originality of these versions and to exchange views about the development of a well corrected and authentic Shahnama.In this article, there are six letters about the Shahnama versions and their correction style, from the late Mohammad Ghazvini, Abbas Eghbal and Teimourtash addressed to Inayat Khan Samiei and Ibahim Pourdavoud about the Shahnama. The writers of the letters were the famous Persian language and literature scholars who expressed their views about the Shahnama and the quality of is publication. Some of these views can guide young researchers for publishing other Persian books.

The post of sheriff was one of the important administrative posts in cities in the Qajar period. This post was to a large extent the replacement for the post of city mayor in the era of the Mongols and earlier.The aim of this article is to study the status and features of the mentioned post in the early Qajar dynasty (1210-1264 AH) with a glance at its background.

A core is the design and foundation of a story and is created when events and characters influence on each other and form the trend of a story. The core appears at both tragic and comic literary styles. Siavosh story in the Shahnama written by Ferdowsi is also a dramatic and tragic story. The writer of this article studies the core of Siavosh story from two aspects: "modern story literature" and "classic story literature". Firstly, dramatic aspect of the story (Siavosh’s expatreate) and tragic aspect of it (Siavosh arrival in Touran and his mourning at the end) are analyzed. Secondly, the core is explained in three stories: Siavosh and Sodabeh, Siavosh and Keykavoos, Siavosh and Afrasiab.

Since Qom is one of the historic cities of Iran and the center of the world of Shiate, recognition of its historic structure and the conditions of its creation as a model both for a city in ancient Iran and for an Islamic city is of prime significance.Despite the valuable researches conducted by Engineer Ahmad Saeednia and Marcelle Bazen about Qom, there have remained some obscurities in its historic survey. This article tries to clarify the ambigeous points about the cration of Qom referring to historic noble resources. Therefore, regarding the refutation of Marcelle Bazen and Ahmad Saeednia’s theory about creation of Qom, a short survey on different periods of the history of Qom is necessary. The writer believes that Qom was a big and thrivingcity and was ruined several times due to historic events during the history.

Introducing the theme: The aim of considering this plan in Peik Noormagazine, as the unique specialized magazine in open and distance learning in Iran, is to introduce rererence and also newly published works (either book or article) both in Iran and in the world and to advixe scientific news of conferences and seminars organized in distance learning field and open universities. As a preliminary step, it was necessary to note the background of research activities in this field. Therefore, at the beginning the specialized works of distance education published by Payame Noor University, the unique distance education university of the country, are introduced. We hopePeike Noor magazine create a professional archive of reference information in distance education in Iran. So we invite all of researchers and academics to cooperate in this specialized field. Furthermore, the book titledToward Virtualization of Open and Distance Learningand also a program of virtual university are introduced in this part.

Distance education system was set up in the beginning of thesecond half of the 20th century. The development of technology was one of the important factors of setting up this educational system. The aims, educational system, student number and also the educational method of distance education are different from those of the conventional education. In Iran this educational system was started with the changes in correspondence educa-tion in 1973.Payame Noor University was established with 28 local study centers in 1988 as a unique distance teaching state institution in Iran. In 2001, the number of the centers increased to 129 local study centers and 56 local study units throughout the country.

Payame Noor University (PNU) was established in 1988 after the sanction of the High Council of Cultural Revolution to enhance the scientific level of the society and to respond to its need for specialized manpower. PNU started its activities with 29 local study centers in different cities of the country. It first launched four degree programs. Now after 14 years, PNU has 10 Regions with 187 Study Centers and Units and has annually increased the number of its study centers and units. PNU offers Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral Degree level programs.Application is through National University Entrance Examination and General Degree Programs. There are 24 programs at Bachelor’s degree level, 14 programs at Master’s degree level and one program at Doctoral degree level.