PEYKE NOOR JOURNAL
Year:2005 | Volume:3 | Issue:2 (LEARNING AND DISTANT EDUCATION)|Papers Count:19

This study was made with the aim of examining the teaching effects of reading and learning strategies on Payame Noor University students, learning level and its stability after one semester. Sixty students of Psychology and educational sciences whose average was below 12 were randomly chosen and divided into three 20-member groups (i.e. control, experimental 1 and experimental 2 groups) by means of random substitutional method. Reading and learning strategies were taught to test 1 group, by applying face-to-face method and to Test 2 students by semi-attendance method. Then both groups were asked to apply the strategies while studying their textbook and Developmental Psychology (1) in particular.At the end of the semester, by means of an advanced 4- choice test prepared for the psychology text in the data bank of the university, the learning level of the two groups were measured. Moreover, the learning stability was obtained in another semester by means of a similar test.The analysis of the variance and comparing of means at the significant level of x£0.05 revealed that teaching the strategies increases the experimental 1 and experimental 2 students’ learning level regarding Developmental Psychology (1) and rises the learning stability after one semester. Comparing the means of the educational improvement of these groups, before and after the teaching, indicated that at the level x£0.05 the educational improvement of the test groups increased under the influence of reading and learning strategies.

Present pilot study evaluates the effects of "Coping-Therapy" (CT) on primary factors of personality as compared with "Progressive muscular Relaxation Training" (PRT) and "Control" group. 45 female students of Payame Noor and Islamic Azad universities in Qom were randomly allocated to tree equal groups. Before and after introducing independent variable, therapy method was tested by Chattel's Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire (form A), which was administered on sample groups. Results showed that "Coping-Therapy" (as an innovative technique) has been effective in changing primary factors: A, B, M, O, Q3 & Q4. CT decreased M, O & Q4 scores, and increased A, B & Q3 - to accessing more adaptation. "Progressive muscular Relaxation Training" decreased O scores, only. However, E & I scores in "control" group changed. More changes brought up by applying CT – especially those in relation with primary personality scores – as a whole suggest the efficiency and relative privilege of this technique comparing with Progressive muscular Relaxation Training  they were adaptive- suggest that has more preference and functionality in compare with PRT. However, we must be careful in generalization of the findings, because of methodological limitations.                 

To test the hypothesis “does using the learning strategies guide increase the level of learning in teachers attending in correspondence education on work and decrease the needed time to  study reading materials?”, 156 people were chosen to attend in the experiment. They included 92 women teachers and 64 men teachers, who were randomly chosen among registered teachers in one of on service education examinations in region number 16 of Tehran. They were randomly allocated to control and experimental groups. The experimental group was provided with learning strategies guide to help them with reading the relevant book, while the control group, without using the guide, studied the relevant book. An examination was held for both groups in the same time and date, in which they answered to the same questions, while they were demanded to determine the time they spared to complete their answers. The analyzing results by t test showed that using learning strategies guide decreases the time spared on reading materials, but does not affect the extent of learning. Co-variance analysis demonstrated that with an invariable time for reading, learning strategies guide has improved learning. This was a significant impact for the group with little or medium time to study, but not such meaningful for the group, who had spared a long time on reading.

Since their emergence, throughout their whole history, the human being has always relied on his creativity and innovation. He has changed the quality and the quantity of the life by his astonishing innovations. First, he would use, his surrounding objects as fascinator instruments, then, using the power thinking, by manufacturing instruments, paced the way to change the life. Thus, by combining technology and social structure, he succeeded to produce new ways for the life. Unfortunately, the achievements out of these creativities and innovations, incarnated in knowledge and technology, are not, correctly and rightfully, distributed between countries and, inside the countries, between different strata of people. The most important problem of deprived people, who can be named as marginalized of information society, is laid in the fact that the gap between them and the people who enjoy fundamental possibilities of information society -technology of information and communications (ITC) - is increasingly deepening and growing. Some argue that ITC, as a new achievement of human beings, has produced the gap and marginalized the deprived people of remote regions of the world, instead of improving their lives. Others believe that the new technology has not led to such situation by itself, rather the way it is distributed and controlled has been the cause of the present situation. Thus, the efficiency of using this technology depends on justly distribution of potentials of it, adapting it with cultural, social and economic conditions of deprived groups, and free conveyance of information between nations and societies. This question arises: how can the educational systems of different countries prevent from the emergence of these marginalized groups and adapt them with other members of information society, in both levels of national and international? They should think of some solution for removing the obstacles such as traditional illiteracy and new kinds of illiteracy. The new kinds are including lack of skills in using information and communication technology and computer, and cultural, social illiteracy. Therefore, they should help people to compensate their informational deprivation and enable them to live in the world village and reduce the international information gap between people and countries.The aim of the present paper is to find some approaches to solve the above problem. Solving this problem facilitates the using of perpetual life long education system, on one hand, and proves the new approaches like open and distance education and using ICT to be the proper choices in this process, on the other hand.

In the present paper, the authors, while introducing numerical taxonomy method and its mathematical formulas, have studied indices related to higher education, on the basis of them one could rank the level of development of the seventh region of Payame Noor university centers. Some fifty-one indices are introduced in this study.Ranking of the university centers has been done in two ways: first, using the available indices, giving each an equal weight; second, adjusting and merging some of them, emphazising on educational, research and administrative activities using thirteen ranking indices. The findings indicate that the results obtained through the two methods do not differ significantly. Moreover, it seems that the thirteen adjusted indices offer a suitable model for an annual evaluation of Payame Noor University centers.

Nowadays, the difference between strong and weak learners is not sought in the level of their knowledge, but it is the way of their learning and their cognitive styles, which is of great importance in differentiating them. The present paper deals with comparative study of the meta-cognitive knowledge and skills of strong and weak students.Studies by researchers such as Vinoguard (1990), Borkovski et.al. (1992), Maqsud (1997), Ebrahimi Qavamabadi (1998), Ababaf (1996), indicate the impact of meta-cognition on students learning. Fun et. al. (1999) attempted to compare cognitive skills of Open Learning students of Hong Kong. Their findings suggest that the students who are studying in open learning system of this university enjoy different meta-cognitive skills.To verify their findings, we conducted a research, which in it some 450 Payame Noor University students answered to two questionnaires measuring meta-cognitive knowledge and skills made by researchers. The study was intended to test the following hypothesis:1. Meta-cognitive level of Payeme Noor students affects their academic achievements.2. Meta-cognitive skills of Payeme Noor students affect their academic achievements.The data gathered in this way were analyzed by SPSS software. The results confirmed the above hypotheses.

Holding Faragir courses is a method of student admission in Payame Noor University, in which no entrance examination is needed and the only condition to be admitted is the adequacy of average score of the students.  The present paper deals with the impact of Faragir students on increasing the average mean scores of Payame Noor University students, who were admitted in 1993 in district number 4. Students from Ardakan, Bandare Abbass, Bam, Taft, Zabol and Kerman centers, in four disciplines (mathematics and biology, from basic sciences; and Persian literature and physical science, from humanities) were included in this research. The data about the mean scores of three groups of these students (official, equivalent and Faragir students) were extracted and it was proved that, by introgression of Faragir students to these centers, the mean scores of students increased from 12/20 to 12/55. This increase in mean scores was statistically significant, at a 95 percent probability level, in Ardakan, Bandare Abbass, Zabol and Kerman centers. The present paper is extracted from the research plan of “comparing academic achievement of students in Faragir courses with official and equivalent students of PNU”.

The present study aims at determination of the essential factors affecting the student’s presence in solving classes and midterm exams sessions. Instructors, structural problems, executive deficiencies and personal problems of the students are among these factors. The author has elaborated the following factors: -The low quality of the classes- The perception of the students on adequacy of textbooks and, in effect, to feel there is no need to any lecturer- The inconsistency of the classes’ timetable with students’ situations- The non-compulsory nature of the classes and exams- The trifle affect of midterms scores- The personal problems of the studentsThe author has also raised the theoretical debates on distance education and the problems emerged out of the non-face to face nature of this system. At the end, the author proposes some solutions to eliminate such problems.   The research was conducted in Shiraz Payame Noor University. The statistical sample consisted of 100 students, majored in social sciences, education and Persian literature.

The present study aims at determining how much the use of deductive pattern affects Persian grammar students. In this quasi experimental of two heterogeneous groups study with pretest and posttest, among the statistical population of students in five grade in four regions of Tehran, the researchers, using classified cluster sampling method,  selected two classes in five grade among boys and two classes in the same grade among girls as their statistical sample. Then they randomly used one of each two classes as control group and the other as experimental group. The control groups were taught using traditional method and the experimental groups were taught using inductive method of learning Persian grammar.After developing a Persian grammar course plan for students in grade five with inductive method, as well as devising measurement instruments (which were pretest and posttest questionnaire, and after assessing their validity and stability), the pretest and the posttest were held in relevant  times. Using descriptive statistics, as well as inferential statistics, the data were assessed, analyzed and compared with each other. As a result, by using t test, the hypothesis of the research, based on the effectiveness of teaching with deductive method, was confirmed. Other results proved a significant increase in the speed and durability of learning and in communicative, cognitive and affective skills related with teaching Persian objectives in primary schools.

This article deals with the relationship between stress and mental health among Payame Noor University students of Imam Khomeini (Rah.) port center. All of the male and female students make the research population. Among these students, 105 ones (i.e. 20 students of Psychology, 58 of educational sciences and 27 of admininistrative sciences) were chosen randomly. To gather information, two scales, i.e. Event Implication (Hurotise (1979)) and Public Health (Goldburg and Hilir (1979)) were used. The data were analyzed by means of descriptive and inferential statistics.The research findings indicate that: 1) There is a negative relationship between stress and the students sex, on the one hand, and their sex and mental health on the other hand. 2) Regarding the stress, there is no meaningful difference between male and female students. 3) Among students of different majors there are meaningful differences regarding stress and their mental health.

The polite listener In England stares at the speaker attentively and blinks his eyes occasionally as a sign of interest. That eye-blink says nothing to Americans, who expect the listener to nod or to murmur something such as "mm - hmm”. And in some parts of  Far East, it is impolite to look at the other person at all during conversation.It is often argued that, in teaching foreign languages, culture and language are interwoven in a way that it is not possible to present language without its culture. However, until a new method of teaching language, called communicative approach, which is sociolinguistically oriented, had not come into existence, this belief was not used to be observed in textbooks and language classes. This method intends to create situations in the classroom in which foreign language can be used as naturally and authentically as the native speakers of target language use it for communicative purposes.The problem of teaching culture, nevertheless, does not end here. Nowadays, foreign languages are taught with different and varied objectives. Is it necessary for all foreign language learners to get familiar with the culture of foreign language they are supposed to learn? As Schumann (1984) claims, is it true that second language learning is impossible, unless one gives up his/her own native culture and adopts the culture of foreign language community? What are some relevant issues regarding teaching English in Iran? These are actually some basic questions raised in this article. Whereas definite answers are not necessarily provided in this paper, some areas of research related to culture, and teaching foreign language are put forward.

The process of education has gone through a certain development path. In fact, it has witnessed revolutions, before reaching its present modern situation. In UNESCO 1998 declaration, the priority for the use of information technology has been given to the educational institutions. The large increasing number of applicants for study and the will to shorten this process as much as possible has faced the modern education with some challenges. Virtual education with its different representations (such as distance or online education) is a proper solution for solving the problems it is faced with.

During recent years, after transcendence of the society from cultural and industrial period, with extension of the INTERNET and new technologies of processing and exchanging information, the world is marching towards a new society. In that new society, conceptions such as information, knowledge, insight and wisdom play important roles. The new society is a combination of the following societies:- The net society (which communicates society through nets and makes them to move towards globalization);- The information society (in which all the works are organized on the base of information, the human being is considered as learner and issues such as increasing and using the information is important);- The knowledge oriented society or post-cultural society (in which, globalization is quite realized and the insightful developed human is the axiom of socioeconomic relations and developments).The present paper deals with the necessity of providing proper education, processing and updating the human source, producing science and it’s technology, producing contents, informational activities, informational poverty, lack of Persian informative sources, the next axioms of research, in formation and communication technology and the perspective of the world, which is presented in a world gathering on information society. Furthermore, it deals with the principals and the standards of local and world information society, and accessing and using information technology and changing patterns of life, work, leisure time, and educational and trade systems.