JOURNAL OF NEW APPROACH IN EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
Year:2013 | Volume:4 | Issue:1 (13)|Papers Count:12

The aim of this correlational study was to investigate the relationship of organizational justice, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational trust to self-assessment of organizational excellence. Research instruments in this research included: 1. Organizational justice questionnaire ((Niehoff & Moorman, 2003), (a=0.89)), 2. Organizational commitment questionnaire developed by the current researchers (a=0.93), 3. Spector job satisfaction questionnaire ((1997), a=0.84)), 4. Organizational trust inventory ((Shame, (2003) (a=0.91)), and 5. Self-assessment questionnaire of organizational excellence (a=0.86). The population of the study was Islamic Azad University professors in region four. A sample of one fourth of the instructors was selected using multi-stage sampling method. They were administered the questionnaires. Finally, 312 faculty members were selected for the study. The overall results indicated that the key variables accounting for self-assessment of excellence performance were distributive justice, organizational commitment and organizational trust. Distributive justice had a direct effect (0.491) and an indirect effect (0.137) mediated by organizational commitment on self-assessment of organizational excellence. Organizational commitment also had a direct effect (0.478) and an indirect effect (0.134) mediated by self-assessment of organizational excellence. Further, trust had a direct effect (0.319) and an indirect effect through organizational commitment (0.089). Other variables in the model negligibly affected the endogenous variable, that is, self-assessment of organization excellence. Based on the fit indexes the model fitted the data fairly well.

The purpose of this study was to determine and compare the effectiveness of Shafiabady's multi-axial model and Gotfredson's theory of constraints and compromises on the components of entrepreneurial behavior of the students of Islamic Azad University (Science and Research Branch of Tehran). Research method was pretest-posttest with a control group quasi-experimental. Out of a population of 253 graduate students who had volunteered to participate in entrepreneurship classes at the College of Humanities and Social sciences with lower scores on entrepreneurial behavior questionnaires 45 students were randomly selected. They were assigned to one control and two experimental groups. After 8 training sessions, data were analyzed employing Analysis of Covariance and post hoc Bonferroni test. The results suggested that both methods were effective in enhancing the components of entrepreneurial behavior (decision-making, recognizing the opportunity, determining the structure, funding sources, and determining strategies). In enhancing recognizing the opportunity, however, Shafiabady's method yielded a larger effect. Thus, it is suggested that the basic concepts of both models, particularly Shafiabady's model, be used to improve entrepreneurial behavior of college students.

The goal of this research was to study the relationship between principals’ distributed leadership style and teachers’ job performance as mediated by the two variables of organizational commitment and emotional intelligence. Research method was descriptive-correlational and the data was collected through a survey. A sample of 186 teachers were randomly selected out of a population all secondary school teachers in the city of Mehran. Research instruments included organizational commitment questionnaire (Allen & Meyer, 1991) with an alpha coefficient of 0.86, Weisinger’s IQ test (1998) with an alpha coefficient of 0.78, job performance questionnaire of Behrman and Perreault (1984) with alpha coefficients of 0.86 and 0.78 for behavioral performance and achievement respectively, and Leadership questionnaire of Delaware Education Research and Development Center (DERDC) with an alpha coefficient of 0.74. The results from this survey suggest that distributed leadership style had a significant relationship with job performance of teachers. It was also significantly and positively correlated with organizational commitment and emotional intelligence. The organizational commitment and emotional intelligence as mediator variables had a significantly positive relationship with job performance. Practical implications of the study findings for research and experience have been discussed in the paper.

The present study sought to provide a structural model of organizational justice based on transactional and transformational leadership at Islamic Azad University. The target population included all administrative employees of the Islamic Azad University of Roudehen, Damavand and Pardis branches (n=634). Consulting Morgan’s table a sample of 240 employees was randomly selected. The research instruments included Bass & Avolio’s (1997) multi-variable leadership questionnaire and Beugre’s (1998) organizational justice questionnaire with reliability indexes of 0.93 and 0.94 respectively. A use was made of structural equation modeling in particular path analysis in analyzing the data. Path analysis indicated that there was a significant relationship between both transactional & transformational leadership and organizational justice suggesting more specifically that both affected directly organizational justice. Variables of encouraging intellectual effort and active management had the strongest direct effects on the endogenous variable. From among the justice variables distributive justice was found as the most significant defining variable of organizational justice in the model. The model fitted the data adequately.

This study aimed at studying factors affecting accepting new technologies in distance education drawing on technology acceptance model. The study population (n=900) involved all of administrative staff and professors of Esfahan Payame Noor University. The sample size was determined based on Krejcie and Morgan’s table. A researcher-made questionnaire translated from TAM questionnaire with some added questions based on the research hypotheses was the research instrument. After validating the instrument, it was administered to the sample. The results suggested that mental perception of ease of use and usefulness of new technologies in distance education had a significant relation with the attitudes of the sample. Further, their attitude to these technologies had a significant relation with deciding to use the technologies and their decision was significantly correlated with the practical use of the technologies.

Some of the subjects currently discussed in the world of higher education include the issue of higher education internationalization and making provisions to attract international students. Achieving these aims entail different variables including the acceptance of cultural pluralism in the university environments, paying enough attention to the inter-cultural experiences, and the expansion of international relations. However, a study of the higher education in Iran indicates that Iran’s higher education system lacks appropriate patterns and approaches concerning multi-cultural curriculum, the identification of other cultures and inter-cultural experiences. The issue in the form of cultural obstacles has posed challenges in the internationalization of higher education curriculum in Iran. In this research, using qualitative research method (comparative analysis) an attempt was made to analyze the identified approaches in inter-disciplinary programs. The findings of the study suggested that the inter-disciplinary studies, offering comprehensive views, are able to give a special cohesiveness to the experts’ multi-cultural curriculum studies and can play an effective role in the face of cultural obstacles of internationalization higher education curriculum.

This correlational study aimed to investigate the relationship between job Commitment and creativity of high school principals in Bushehr. Research instruments were Lodahel’s and Kejner and Randsip’s questionnaires. As far as the impact of demographic variables is concerned it was specified that the four variables of gender, age, education and management experience might affect the relation between the principals’ job commitment and creativity. The study results suggested that a. there was a significantly positive relation between job commitment and the creativity of high school principals. b. There was a significantly positive relation between job commitment and creativity in the workplace. c. There was a positive and significant relation between adherence to job values and the principals’ creativity at schools. d. There was no significant relation between the appropriate benefits received principals’ creativity at work. e. There was no significant relation between the level of education of the principal and their creativity. f. There was no significant relation between the principals’ experience and creativity.

This study principally aimed at examining the effect of group career counseling based on Kromboltz's learning model on self-efficacy, career dysfunctional beliefs and skills confidence among high school first graders. This quasi-experimental study included all high school first graders in Char Mahal & Bakhtiyari Province (n=34120) in the academic year 2010-2011. A total of 64 students was selected through stage sampling and then assigned into two groups of control (n=32) and experimental (n=32). Both groups were administered the self-efficacy, career dysfunctional thought and skills confidence inventories as pre-, post- and follow-up tests. Further, the experimental group received a treatment of group career counseling based on Kromboltz's learning model for 9 sessions of 90 minutes each. The results of MANCOVA revealed that group career counseling gave rise to a significant difference in self-efficacy and career dysfunctional believes (P<0.01). In addition, from among the six dimensions of skills confidence, only realistic and exploring domains were significantly affected by the treatment (P<0.05).

The aim of this quasi-experimental study was to investigate the effectiveness of comparative advance organizers on the first year high school math course achievement. To this end, a sample of 63 high school first graders from region one of education organization in Qom city was selected in the academic year 2009-2010 using cluster sampling method. They were assigned to two groups of experimental (n=32) and control (n=31). All students were matched in terms of IQ. Both groups took a researcher-made pretest and no significant difference was found between them. To assess the dependent variable a lesson plan was designed based on comparative advance organizers to teach the experimental group for 8 sessions of 90 minutes each. The control group was taught through the traditional method. Then, both groups took a researcher-made post-test. T-test using SPSS software indicated that the treatment (advance organizers) impacted significantly the students’ math achievement.

The main goal of the current phenomenological study was formulating secondary education curriculum goals with an emphasis on citizenship education. The survey participants were all education specialists of secondary education in Isfahan and Qom. Sampling was purposive and involved participants until data saturation was fulfilled. At the end, the sample included 7 participants. The data was collected through an in-depth semi-structured interview and was recorded using an MP3 set. Data was analyzed applying Colaizzi's approach involving seven stages. After extracting conceptual codes and eliminating common codes, the findings resulted in "goals" characterized as two main themes of "democratic citizenship" and "multi-layer relationship in citizenship concept” with five sub-themes encompassing 102 conceptual codes. The results of the present research reveal that, unfortunately, the citizenship education approach in secondary education is reactive and, in practice, insufficient attention has been paid to all components of the students’ citizenship education. In addition, in the view of education officials and curriculum designers (and hence the curriculum itself) no logical balance exists between citizenship rights and responsibilities.

This study aimed to evaluate the creativity-oriented learning activities model in Saveh elementary schools. The model incorporates three dimensions, that is, cognitive, emotional, and metacognitive skills. The target population included all Saveh elementary students in the academic year 1389-1390. Using cluster sampling, 46 elementary school boys (n=23 as a control group, n=23 as an experimental group) were selected. This research was performed through a quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test with a control group design. Research instruments were Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT, form B) and student behavior observation. The test-retest reliability of form B was calculated to be 0/87 and the student behavior observation reliability was assessed to be 0/85 (calculated as the mean of 3 observers’ observation). The validity of both instruments was confirmed by the experts. The data was analyzed through descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (covariance test). The results revealed that teaching learning skills had a significant impact on cognitive, emotional and metacognitive skills. Further, there was a significant impact between learning skills and creativity.

The purpose of this study was to analyze management factors influencing educational quality in secondary agricultural education. The population of the study included all students of agriculture (n=86) at a secondary agricultural school in Hajiabad County in Hormozgan province. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire. Content validity of the questionnaire was approved by a panel of experts. A pilot study was conducted to assess its reliability. Its Cronbach’s alpha was 0.89. To analyze the data, a use was made of SPSS to run exploratory factor analysis. The findings revealed that, from the students’ viewpoint, relinquishing the responsibilities to personnel according to their expertise, planning and order, principals’ acceptable behavior were among three most important factors influencing quality in secondary agricultural education. Effective factors included professional ability, consultation, partnership and communication, legality, and support that together accounted for 66.41 percent of total variance.