INNOVATION IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION (JOURNAL OF MODERN THOUGHTS IN EDUCATION)
Year:2012 | Volume:7 | Issue:3 (27)|Papers Count:10

Faculty members are the most important capital in universities and higher education institutes, and investment in development programs and upgrading them is so important. The goal of the study is to study obstacles of the faculty members' development in Islamic Azad University. It is a descriptive survey research and the instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire. The population consisted of all full time faculty members of IAU in regions 8 & 12. Using stratified random sampling method, 360 of them were selected. The content validity of the research instrument was confirmed by a group of experts in the field. Cronbach alpha is used for determining the reliability of the questionnaire (a=0.81). Data analysis was conducted by means of SPSS software program (version 11.5). The results show that out of 13 obstacles of faculty member improvement, 8 obstacles were higher than middle average. Friedman test results show that the most important obstacles consist of ignoring faculty members' needs and preferences, lake of enough support from university managers, non-arbitrariness of programs and lake of necessary motivations and encouragement. Investigating demographic variables shows that there are no meaningful relation between variables (gender, faculty members work experience, scientific level and the course) and obstacles of faculty member improvement. Finally, a number of suggestions were presented in order to improve efficiency of faculty member's improving programs.

The purpose of this study was the prediction of components of academic engagement (Behavioral: Effort), (Affective: value of task), (Cognitive: cognition and metacognitive), based on components of classroom environmental perceptions (interest, challenge, choice, and joy). The population included girl high school students of Tehran. The sample consisted of 400 girls who were chosen randomly. They completed two questionnaires, motivated strategies for learning (MSLQ), and students' perceptions of classroom activities (SPCA). For analyzing data the parametric method was used. The results showed that components of classroom environmental perceptions (interest, challenge, choice and joint) predicted (choice, interest and challenge). Since the component of joy wasn´t significant, it was eliminated in education. (P£0.01). Coefficient of multiple regressions was meaningful in the academic engagement and classroom environmental perceptions (P£0.01).

The present study was an attempt to investigate the role of classroom tasks in accelerating reading comprehension ability in EFL students. To achieve this purpose, 102 fresh women were considered as the subjects of the study. The subjects were randomly selected form a population of English major first year students. They were later assigned into experimental and control groups. During the course of study, the experimental group received some additional material in the form of reading tasks, while the control groups only received a placebo. Both groups were administrated three sets of tests. They were given a Key English Test (KET) as pre- and post- tests. They were also administrated a teacher made final test which was given to them at the end of the experiment. Undoubtedly, the validity and reliability of the instruments were taken into consideration. The analysis and comparison of the two groups’ scores from the instruments revealed that experimental group outperformed control group in the post-test of KET and in the final test. This led the researcher to the conclusion that such noticeable progress in the experimental group’s test score was due to the administration of reading comprehension tasks. These results provided enough evidence for the acceptance of the hypothesis formulated at the opening of the study.

The purpose of the present study is to describe the attitudes of the research deputies and publication directors in branches of Islamic Azad University (IAU). The population was all research deputies and publication directors in all branches of Islamic Azad University. To collect data for this survey study, a questionnaire was used. The results of SPSS analysis indicated that research deputies and publication directors in all branches of Islamic Azad University prefer book publications by IAU central organization and private sectors rather than by different IAU branches. They unanimously endorsed the support policies by IAU central organization. 35.4% of the participants confirmed the effect of book publication on the promotion of IAU faculty members. Furthermore, 32.3% of them underlined the impact of incentive policies on increasing book publication is considerable.

The main purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between needed skills for evaluation and academic achievement of virtual students based on constructivist approach. The methodology of research was correlational. The instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire about needed skills for evaluation (a=0.92) and f academic achievement test for two ago semester. The population consisted of all virtual universities’ students (2009-2010) in Iran. The sample group was selected randomly based on Krejcie-Morgan's sample size table (363 students). Pearson Correlation and structural equation model was used for data analysis. Findings indicate that virtual students’ academic achievement influenced by the principles of writing, participating in the process of teaching -learning in the network, electronic portfolio, and time management. The direct effect of synchronous interaction with classmate (0.473), priority of important and emergency affairs (0.395), process portfolio (0.290), principles of scientific writing (0.29), process-producer portfolio (0.250), technical principles (0.25). Based on structural equation test, Chi-Square=117.682, GFI= 0.951, AGFI=0.921, P-Value= 0.000, RMSEA=0.055. Thus, the tested model was acceptable.

The purpose of this research was to study of relationship between resiliency and classroom psychosocial climate with educational achievement of junior high school students in Tehran. Research method was correlational and the population included all the students of junior high schools in Tehran city 2009-2010 (326 students, 162 girls and 124 boys), who were all selected by multi-step cluster sampling method. The data were collected using psychosocial climate questionnaire by Michaud, Comeau, and Goupil (1991), Resiliency Scale of Conner & Davidson (CD-RISC, 2003) and mean score of the participants' first term. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regressions. The results showed that: 1) there is a positive and significant relationship between resiliency and achievement of students, 2) there is a relationship between classroom psychosocial climate and achievement of the students, 3) there is a relationship between the student's perception of classroom psychosocial climate and achievement of students, 4) there is a relationship between the student's expectation of classroom psychosocial climate and achievement of the students, 5) we could predict the educational achievement of students based on their resiliency and classroom psychosocial climate.

This study evaluates the effects of information and communication technology (ICT) on creativity and entrepreneurship among Payam-e-Noor students. In this causal-comparative study, the population included all undergraduate students of Payam-e Noor University of West Azerbaijan province in the academic year of 2009-2010 who were selected through stratified random sampling method (543 females and 362 males). Research tools included the entrepreneurship questionnaire and creativity questionnaire. Data were analyzed at two levels of descriptive (mean, median, standard deviation ...) and inferential (ANOVA multivariate). The results of ANOVA showed significant effect of ICT in general (simultaneously) and separately for men and women on creativity and entrepreneurship at the level of 0.01. Given the findings from analysis of data, the effect of ICT on creativity and entrepreneurship of students was confirmed.

This research aimed to examine the role of the perceived classroom goals structure, motivational strategies (achievement goals and self-efficacy) and cognitive learning strategies (rehearsal, elaboration, and organization) in the academic achievement English language. The population of this research was all students at third grade of state-run high schools of Varamin. For this research, 200 students (112 girls and 88 boys) were selected using stratifies randomly sampling. All of them completed the perceived classroom goals structure questionnaire (Midgley et al., 1998), motivational strategies for learning questionnaires (Pintrich et al., 1991) and the achievement goals questionnaires (Elliot & McGregor, 2001). The findings showed a positive and significant relationship between mastery approach goal, self-efficacy and rehearsal with academic achievement and a negative and significant relationship between performance avoidance goal with academic achievement. Self-efficacy, performance avoidance goal, and mastery approach goal in one predicted model predicted 42 percent of variance of language achievement and also the share of self-efficacy in the prediction of academic achievement was more than other variables. Some findings of the present research were consistent with previous research results. The theoretical implications of findings were discussed.