Journal of Research in Educational Systems
Year:2008 | Volume:2 | Issue:4|Papers Count:14

The educational system has been constituted in order to obtain individual and social goals.Educational organizations in the world are responsible for providing manpower for society in order to achieve social growth and development. The management of educational units is of great importance, because principals can have a determining role in guiding the activities and leading the educational processes. In a research carried out by Me-Milan and Schuler, it was found that knowledge and manpower skills influence human resources development and the effectiveness of organizations (Moshabaki, 1377: 361). Fred Luthans also emphasizes managers' skills as a substantial element in the effectiveness of organizations. This research investigates the relation between managers' skills and the effectiveness of high schools and pre-university schools in district 2 of Kerman.' The researchers take into account the eight dimensions of effectiveness and three aspects of manager' skills. The main question is the relation between managers' skills and the effectiveness of high schools and pre-university schools in district 2 of Kerman.In order to gather data, the questionnaires of managers' skills and the effectiveness of schools were given to 105 managers in Kerman. Data were analyzed through nonparametric statistical methods like Spearman, Kendall' s Tau and Witney's test. The results show that there is a significant relation between managers' skills and the effectiveness of high schools and pre-university schools in district 2 of Kerman.

This article investigates the effective factors in male pre- university students' tendency toward drug abuse on the basis of the viewpoints of students, law executors, and educational experts in the city of Tehran. Participants were selected through random staged sampling method and the formula of sample volume determination. They consist of 600 persons: 40 law executors, 60 educational experts, and 500 pre-university students. A questionnaire containing 277 questions was administered to the sample and was analyzed based on the statistical test of factor analysis. The findings show that 18independent variables have direct impact on the dependent variable, namely, tendency to drug abuse: adolescence, genetics, personal characteristics, mental disorders, positive attitudes toward drugs, dangerous situations, drug impact on person, family, friends, school, living place, rules, drug market, drug abusing as a social norm, lack of alternative activities, lack of consulting opportunities, and industrial development. In general, these variables account for 46% of the variation of students' tendency to drug abuse. The findings of this research are in line with earlier researches.

Heterogeneity of the educational level in the entrance system of higher education through different entrance quota has been a case of discussion m previous decades. This factor is influential in students' educational process. The paper investigates the situation and educational performance of students considering the entrance quota in Shahid Bahonar University.480 students of Persian literature, English language, social sciences and educational sciences in Shahid Bahonar University with two groups (quota and non-quota). were randomly selected. The results showed that; total grade-point average of all students was 11.92. The grade-point average of quota students was 10.61 and that of non-quota students was 13.22. Persian literature students had the best performance with the grade-point average of 13.46 and the English language and social sciences students had the worst performance with the grade-point average of 11.44. The average of conditioned students (failed) was evaluated 1.24 in a term. It was concluded the average educational performance of the students in general and in two fields in specific, were conditioned on the basis of university rules, and the situation was far from desirable. The same situation was found in students with guota; this group generally had the conditioned average, although the students of Persian literature and educational sciences had average points higher than the conditioned level.

The evaluation of motivation is a fundemantal step in understanding human behavior, Infect, by evaluating motivation, we want to know the origins of human behavior and the power that forces him to move.The goal of this research is the comparision of achievement motivation, mental health and academic self-concept of psychology students in public, Azad and private universities in Tehran in the years 2004-2005.Our statistical population is all of the undergraduate students of psycology that are studying in public, Azad and private universities in Tehran in the years 2004-2005. 270 students (180 females, 90 males) were selected randomly through multistage cluster sampling. The questionnaires used in this research are: Hermans achievement motivation, Goldberg mental health, and Roger self-concept questionnaires. For analyzing the data, we used Pearson correlation coefficient, t-test, and one way ANOVA. The results are as Follows: 1- There isn't any significant difference between achievement motivation of public, Azad and private university students. 2- The mental health of public university students is more than Azad University. 3- The academic self-concept of students of public university is significantly more than Azad and private universities. 4- The achievement motivation of males is more than females. 5- There isn't any significant difference between mental health and self-concept of male and female students. 6-The Academic self-concept of male students of public university is significantly more than private university. 7- The relation between achievement motivation, mental health and self-concept is significant. 8- Mental health of male students of public university is significantly more than those of Azad University. 9- There isn't any significant difference between achievement motivation, mental health and academic self concept of female students in public, Azad and private universities.

The aim of this study was predicting academic procrastination based on learning self-regulation strategies. The sample comprised 400 students (158 males and 242 females) of different university subjects from eight faculties of Shiraz University. These students, who were selected via multi-stage cluster sampling procedure with class sampling unit, completed Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pint rich & De Groot, 1990) and Scale of Academic Procrastination (Solomon & Rothblum, 1984).Regression analysis procedure was used for analyzing the data. The findings of the study indicated that self-regulation strategies negatively and significantly predict academic procrastination. With respect to motivational strategies components, findings indicated that self-efficacy internal value, test anxiety and cognitive strategies negatively predicted academic procrastination. Also, this study revealed that there was a significant difference between male and female students in their mean score in self-regulation strategies, cognitive strategies, and academic procrastination. Female students used more' self-regulation strategies and cognitive strategies and academic procrastination than male students. Finally, the findings were discussed with regard to the research literature and suggestions for further investigations were set forth.

The aim of present study was the comparison of critical thinking and self-efficacy among art and non-art students.320 undergraduates (160 art students and 160 non-art students) of Kashan University were selected by cluster sampling procedure. They were matched in age, sex and academic basis. The instruments were personal information questionnaire, California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) and Sherer Self-efficacy Scare: In order to analyze the data both descriptive and inferential statistical methods were utilized. The results showed a significant difference in critical thinking and self-efficacy between art and non-art students. Art students showed higher critical thinking and self-efficacy than non-art students.Furthermore, art students had significantly higher scores in subscales of critical thinking than non-art students. The results suggest that art education influences critical thinking and self-efficacy.Moreover, it helps to establish a superior position for art in the educational system and to exclude it from null curriculum.

Today universities play an important role in the development of knowledge economy throughout the world. Therefore, more efficient use of resources becomes a critical issue for universities management. This paper aims to provide universities with a comprehensive evaluation pattern from the economic perspective in order to separate the productivity efficiency and change as well as its elements and introduce the productivity promoting factors. The main question is how the productivity and efficiency developments have been in universities during 2002-2007. The statistical population includes all major Iranian universities affiliated by the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. The study was conducted on 33 big universities. Data envelopment analysis for efficiency evaluation was used, and Malmquist approach was applied to measure productivity changes. The selection of main variables for measuring the productivity and efficiency was carried out through field study (experts' comments) and global experiences. The results show that output-oriented model is the most appropriate pattern for measuring the efficiency at public universities. The surveyed universities had a high relative efficiency this result is like the findings in other countries. The study of productivity index of Ur universities in five consecutive years showed that no tangible development has occurred in. their total productivity. Since there is a high correlation between total productivity changes and technological efficiency changes at universities, in order to improve the productivity in equipment and facilities investment, it is suggested that the effective use of the facilities be taught. Finally, the implementation of productivity management cycle (Measurement, Evaluation, Planning and Implementation) is the most critical issue.