Technology of Education Journal
Year:2012 | Volume:6 | Issue:4|Papers Count:7

In developing the models and approaches for engineering education, in addition to having technical knowledge (engineering science) there is a specific focus on skills and attitudes (engineering practice). Hence, the determination of engineering education objectives with regard to the required knowledge, skills, and attitudes for engineers is the basis of many studies in the present century. The aim of this paper is to determine the objectives of engineering education based on content analysis of present documents. The society in this research includes present documents in the context of engineering education objectives in which seven documents as purposeful samples and desirable cases were selected for analysis. The instruments for data collection were a checklist and researcher-made forms. The data was analyzed and interpreted by open coding and axial coding. Based on the performed content analysis, 24 objectives were determined for engineering education, which were classified into five categories. Then it was determined how the established objectives were supported by present documents. At last, based on the performed research in the field, the relation between assumed objectives with present documents was determined.

Educational and technology based learning is the turning point of learning and so is utilizing networks for design, presentation, selection, management and development which includes learners, specialists and content providers. A large volume of data which is produced in user interaction with learning management systems, student selected courses and their course grades are stored. These data include valuable information for studying, analyzing student behavior and offering consulting services. Electronic learning systems need virtual consultants and online associate specialists because of user-teacher distance and lack of related assistance in order to help students make better decisions and improve the learning quality level. This study aims at gaining more experience than is acquired by an associate specialist and dean by means of data mining. It also uses the data mining results to conduct educational guidance in electronic learning systems. It finds hidden patterns in student's course selection and predicts their final grades. The research also investigates the effect of activity, entrance method, time of attendance, and semester in electronic learning systems.

Development of any society lies in training skilled and expert human resources. Therefore, universities play an important role in achieving this goal. The aim of this research was to study the effectiveness of some wood technology under-graduate courses in order to get an insight into whether these courses are useful and effective for market needs. Thus, three courses of wood joints including wood industry machinery maintenance and wood molding (designing and derforming wood molds) were selected due to their essential role in the job market. Questionnaires were distributed to gather data, and based on Cronbach's alpha, the reliability of the questionnaire turned out to be %89. The research sample (89 participants) included wood technology under-graduates (engineers) of Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University (SRTTU). The participants were selected randomly. The data was analyzed through descriptive statistics using SPSS software. The results indicated that there is a relationship between the two courses including "wood joints" and wood industrial machinery maintenance" and the job skills of wood technology engineers while there is a weaker relationship between the other course "wood molding" and the above mentioned skills. Thus, it seems essential to modify, improve and update the content of these courses based on the expectations and demands of the job market, industry, and technology development.

In this article the influence of the equipped playgrounds has been compared with natural playgrounds. Playing and moving are the main activity in a young child's life. Allowing children to experience the natural and man-made elements in their living environment generates cognitive and social skills development and increases their educational qualities. Today, In Iran most spaces for children’s plays are inside the houses and many playgrounds are tarmac places with manufactured equipment likes swings and slides. This survey wants to specify the differences between natural playgrounds and equipped playgrounds and wants to answer the following questions: 1- What changes have happened in the children's relationship with nature? 2- What are the specifications of a natural playground? 3- What are the differences between an equipped playground and natural playground? This survey was carried out descriptively and the data have been collected from main resources and different samples. The result of this survey shows that the natural playground will develop children's educational qualities.

Teacher education in both in-service and pre-service program is a main concern of every educational system. In this paper, with concentration on in-service teacher education for teachers of mathematics, we introduce a theoretical model of classroom inquiry for decreasing the gap between theory and action (research and teaching). In order to do so, we initially discuss the necessity of in-service teacher education. Then the shortage of current in-service teacher education courses for teachers of mathematics in Iran will be discussed. After that, based upon the literature related to action research and lesson study, we design a theoretical model in the format of a flowchart. Then we report results of the implication of this theoretical model within an in-service junior secondary mathematics teacher education course. With this authentic data, we can examine effectiveness of the theoretical model in action. Results of this study show that this model for classroom inquiry had an effective impact on filling the gap between theory and action. For example junior secondary mathematics teachers associate some papers about square root to their students’ difficulties in the learning of this concept. Undoubtedly, there are some limitations in this regard. For example shortage of local research in mathematics education in Persian was an important limitation for teachers. This reveals the necessity of developing mathematics education program in the post graduate level. Finally, we explain strengths and weaknesses of the theoretical model in the future in-service teacher education programs.

This research aims to understand the relationship between the leadership style used by technical school managers and school efficiency. This research is a survey. Managers and instructors of technical schools in Tehran are the population and the participants are 9 managers and 119 instructors which were selected randomly. Data were gathered by three types of questionnaires, RANDSEEPE, ACHIEVE and MLQ. The results showed that there is a meaningful relationship between leadership style of managers and efficiency but a relationship was not observed between creativity of managers and efficiency.