JOURNAL OF NEW APPROACH IN EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
Year:2014 | Volume:4 | Issue:4 (16)|Papers Count:13

The purpose of this study was to investigate the school principals’ evaluation system from the view point of principals and teachers. This descriptive survey included all principals and teachers (n=13625) in Isfahan. The sample of this study comprised 60 principals and 120 teachers chosen through stratified random sampling. The research instrument was the current official education evaluation scale comprising 18 Likert items. The reliability was estimated to be 0.87 for principals and 0.94 for teachers. In order to analyze the data both descriptive and inferential statistics (mean, frequency, standard deviation, t-test, analysis of variance and factor analysis) were employed. The result of the study revealed that all three main factors received a weight above the average. MANOVA has also indicated that there was no significant difference between the view of points of principals and teachers about the evaluation checklist.

Trust in principals is a core topic in organizational studies and social exchanges among people in work places. As such, this article explores changes in trust level in principals based on two predicting variables i.e. principals’ unethical and empowering behaviors. In light of review of literature, a conceptual model was developed to delineate the relationships between variables and then it was assessed. A sample of 105 secondary school teachers in Chenaran was studied using stratified random method. A use was made of a questionnaire. Its validity was established through factor analysis and its reliability was also confirmed using Cronbach's alpha. To analyze data, two softwares, that is, SPSS and Lisrel were employed. The findings indicated that the perception of empowering behaviors of principals influences the sample’s cognitive and affective trust. Further, unethical behavior of the principals was found to affect negatively the cognitive trust in principals, while it exerts no effect on the affective trust in principals. The refined model set forth was tested using path analysis. Fit indexes suggested that the model adequately fit the data. The paper concluded that improving principals’ behavior, as role samples, has a major impact on teachers’ trust in principals and consequently on the effective interaction between teachers and principals.

This research was administered to investigate the relationship between the dimensions of organizational Justice, trust, affective and continuous commitment with teachers’ perceived efficacy of educational administrators in Isfahan city. This correlational research involved all teachers of education organization of Isfahan. A sample of 361 (127 males & 234 females) teachers was drawn using stage cluster random sampling. The sample was administered the research questionnaires. The face and content validity and reliability of the instruments were analyzed and confirmed. Data analysis was performed using SPSS and LISREL softwares. The results pointed to a statistically significant relationship between the dimensions of organizational justice, trust, affective and continuous commitment with the teachers’ perceptions. The structural model conceptualized was assessed through using Lisrel. Adequate fit indexes suggested that the model could fit the data and predict the relationships among the variables of interest.

This study aimed at a pathological study of agricultural high schools in Hamedan and Kurdistan provinces. This mixed method study involved three groups of teachers and administrators, students, and graduates. The samples were selected from four agricultural high schools including 165 students, 38 teachers and administrators, and 30 graduates. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The questionnaire’s reliability (Alpha=0.85) and validity were established. Interview questions were also face- and content-validated. Descriptive, analytic, exploratory and content analysis methods were used to analyze data. The results indicated that the problems of the high schools could be grouped into five categories of planning and course content, teaching methods, tools and equipment, teachers’ skills, and evaluation methods. The most important problems however were lack of educational tools and equipment and their out-datedness, inattention to practical examinations, difficulty to find jobs for the graduates, using old teaching methods, and unsuitable planning of agricultural courses. The most important solutions suggested included a) to renew and equip the high schools by new tools b) conducting ongoing in-service training for the teachers c) using more meticulous evaluation methods involving varied assignments and tasks, d) planning to solve the students' employment problems.

The purpose of this research was to study the impact of School environment on teachers’ self-efficacy through a structural equation modeling analysis. Based on cluster random sampling, 223 questionnaires were collected. Expert consensus, item analysis and Cronbach’s alpha were used to validate School Environment and teachers’ self-efficacy questionnaires. Multiple regression analysis from among school level environment variables innovation, cooperation and decision making respectively had the greatest impact on and could predict teachers’ self-efficacy. According to the structural equation model developed school level environment had a significantly positive impact on teachers’ self-efficacy.

Over the recent years, we witnessed the advent and development of knowledge discovery approaches, especially data mining along with its particular techniques. There also have been theoretical and approach-centered analyses, studies and processing in qualitative research. The current study has discovered the effective factors in knowledge sharing among university faculty members through basic theory data mining. The findings indicated that there are four major factors in knowledge sharing among university academic staff including social-affective communication, market pricing, individual growth, internal and external authority factors. Then, a short form of the knowledge sharing questionnaire was formulated based on unstructured interviews. Data was collected from a sample of 92 faculty members of Gorgan University. The instrument validation indicated that the 20-item questionnaire had adequate reliability and validity indexes.

The present research aimed at studying the effect of communication skills training on self-efficacy beliefs and academic achievement of female students of high-schools in grade one in Zanjan city. A use was made of a self-efficacy questionnaire, students’ average-point scores and the UNISEF program for training communication skills in this pre- post-test experimental study. A sample of 60 students with average point scores smaller than intermediate was selected using stage sampling strategy from among a population of 4935 students. They were randomly assigned to one experimental and one control group. The experimental group received a treatment based on the UNICEF Training kit over a ten-session course in terms of questions and answers and role-plays. To analyze the data, SPSS was used to run ANCOVA and MANOVA analyses. The results suggested that the training of communication skills was effective in improving the self-efficacy (F=33.7, p<0.001) and academic achievement (F=25, p<0.001) of the students.

The current paper aimed at an analysis and comparison of religious education needs of secondary school students in terms of cognitive, emotional, and functional needs. A sample of 300 students (150 girls, 150 boys) was drawn through stage cluster sampling method from among all secondary school students in Jahrom city. The participants were administered a questionnaire with acceptable validity and reliability indexes. Data analysis involving Kendall coefficient, independent sample t-test and Chi-square indicated that: as regards the cognitive needs, understanding the concept of religious pluralism, religious research methodologies, and familiarity with other religions took the highest priority and the need to learn to trust God had the lowest priority. In terms of emotional needs, learning how to be committed in the absence of Imam Mahdi (AS) and learning about resurrection took the highest and lowest priority respectively. with respect to the functional needs of the students, participation in Friday Prayers and to learn how to fast were, respectively, of the highest and lowest priority. A comparison of boys and girls suggested that the girls significantly differed from boys in terms of cognitive needs, but no significant difference was indicated as far as the emotional and functional needs were concerned. The students had varying priorities in regard to the skills. In terms of cognitive domain they needed further training and the needs comprised cognitive, functional and emotional needs in the order of priority.

The present study was conducted to compare perceived classroom structure and academic procrastination of traditional and virtual education students of University of Tehran. To this end, 580 graduate students from University of Tehran (488 traditional & 132 virtual) were selected through stratified sampling method and were administered a self-reporting questionnaire of perceived classroom structure (Blackburn, 1998) and academic procrastination subscales (Solomon & Rothblum, 1984). To ensure the reliability of the subscales, Cronbach’s Alpha and to establish the instrument’s construct validity, confirmatory factor analysis were used. The results revealed that there was a significant difference between traditional and virtual education students in terms of perceived authonomy in learning and perceived motivational tasks. However, there was no significant difference in students’ perceived mastery evaluation. The results also indicated that there was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of academic procrastination.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation among organizational justice, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior. The current descriptive survey involved all educational department heads in the first region branches of the Islamic Azad University (n=315) in the academic year 2010-11. A total of 118 faculty members was selected through cluster sampling. Three questionnaires of Organizational justice, Organizational commitment and Organizational Citizenship behavior were used as the study instruments with the reliabilities indexes of 0.812, 0.825 and 0.882, respectively. A use was of SPSS to run correlation, simple and multiple regressions, and path analyses. The findings suggested that 1. There was a significantly positive relationship among the components of organizational justice, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior, 2. There was a significantly positive relationship among organizational justice, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior, 3. There was a significantly positive relationship between the components of organizational citizenship behavior (friendship and respect, duty, virtue and generosity) and organizational justice, 4. There was a significantly positive relationship between the components of organizational commitment (emotional, normative, and continuous commitments) and organizational justice.

Diversity in learners’ intelligence profiles was heralded by the advent of Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory. Teachers, however, do not always recognize the interests, talents, and potentials of the students. Textbooks as the main curriculum plans and guides in Iran’s educational system are expected to recognize and cater to the diverse students as individuals and hence their intelligences. This study was motivated by a query as to whether ESP textbooks published by the Organization for Researching and Composing University Textbooks in the Humanities (known as SAMT) accommodate intelligence diversity or they are an exclusive province of linguistic intelligence. In an attempt to see to the extent to which the ESP textbook activities address and engage different intelligences, a sample of them were analyzed in the light of MI theory. More specifically, eight ESP textbooks were selected randomly from among 34 ESP textbooks published by SAMT according to Biglan's (1973) eight academic task areas, that is, each textbook was randomly selected from and belonged to one area. Activities in each textbook were extracted and evaluated using a detailed checklist developed by the current researchers drawing on the relevant literature and theoretical description of each intelligence and possible activities. The evaluation indicated that textbook activities generally involved four intelligences: verbal/linguistic, intrapersonal, logical/ mathematical and spatial/visual. These four intelligences prevailed dominantly the textbooks to the extent of 99% of the activities. Thus, though ESP textbooks are developed for different academic fields, it seems that SAMT ESP textbooks developers failed to cater to the learners’ intelligence diversity and uniformly accommodated the other intelligences in only a negligible extent of 1% of the activities.

Nowadays, knowledge is the most important and valuable capital for each organization. Rapid changes and increasing growth urge each organization to do its best for survival. Universities can also benefit substantially from knowledge management due to their performance nature as major centers of knowledge creation and diffusion. The initial investigation of knowledge management is very important in conducting effective knowledge management. Thus, this paper investigated the readiness degree of fundamental infrastructure for implementing the knowledge management system (culture and human factors, structure and processes, technical infrastructure) and ranked the factors with respect to their salience in Islamic Azad University, Mashhad Branch and Mashad Payam Noor University. The research population of the current descriptive survey comprised the faculty members of the two universities. Stratified sampling method was used to draw a sample of the faculty members of the IAU while all members of PNU were included in the study. The research instrument was a questionnaire involving questions adapted from similar domestic and foreign questionnaires based on the literature review. The findings indicated that Islamic Azad University, Mashhad Branch was moderately ready to implement knowledge management as regards “culture and human factors”, “information technology infrastructure” and “structure and processes” dimensions. Further, the Friedman test revealed that “culture and human factors” was the most important factor and “information technology” the least important.