JOURNAL OF NEW APPROACH IN EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
Year:2012 | Volume:2 | Issue:4 (8)|Papers Count:10

The present study was carried out for the purpose of exploring the relationship between organizational trust and teachers’ perceived organizational justice. The study is of correlational type. The population comprised all high school teachers of Esfahan city in the academic year 2010-2011. The sample of the study included 363 teachers selected randomly through multi-stage cluster sampling. The data were collected using two questionnaires (Nihof & Moormans’ “organizational Justice”, and Ruders’ “organizational trust”). The validity of both instruments was verified and their reliability was assessed through using Cranach’s alpha (a=0.95 and a=0.89 respectively). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used in order to analyze data. The results indicated that organizational trust, alone, could account for 5% of organizational justice, but when “trust in administrator” and “trust in colleagues” were included in the model this index increased to 13% and 18% respectively. The relationship among these variables of interest was statistically significant (P<0.05). The results generally showed that the empirical model developed fit the data adequately with GFI=0.95 and AGFI=0.8.

Rapid environmental changes in both internal and external dimensions have forced organizations to adopt modern strategies such as learning, quality and knowledge creation. These strategies, hence, are essential for organizations to survive and to maintain their competitiveness. The organizational learning and learning organization concepts have been around for more than three decades now. Even though many studies have been addressing these two concepts, there is no consensus on a model to fully clarify the relationship between them. Using an analytical research method, this paper seeks to eliminate this deficiency by presenting an integrated conceptual model on the basis of authorities’ views in the related field. The model is composed of three sections. In the first section, which is based on a modified theory of Watkin and Marsik, learning empowerments have been introduced with a resource-based view at two levels, namely structural and non-structural (people) levels. In the process section, Haber’s theory of organizational learning has been described as the connector between learning enablers and performance outcomes. The last section, considering the viewpoints of Senge and Nonaka, characterizes learning organization under the title of “Learning Organization Pyramid” (LOP). As a systematic approach was adopted in the design of the model and as the enablers, process and performance were taken into account as the main dimensions of the model, this study can serves as the first guide in a better understanding of the above-mentioned concepts. The paper closes with suggestions for model application and research.

This study set itself the objective of evaluating the lived experience of education experts of the active citizenship curriculum in secondary education in Iran. This study is of a lived experience or phenomenological type. Snowball sampling method was used to select 6 education experts who studied citizenship in Iran. They participated in interviews which lead to data saturation. Data were collected by means of semi–structured interviews using a voice recorder. Data were analyzed employing descriptive-interpretive approach. One of the main contribution of this research is the development of an active citizenship curriculum drawing on Colaizzi’s model which covers four elements including goals, content, teaching method and evaluation method. As far as the goals are concerned, cognitive, affective-physical were suggested. Regarding the content, they emphasized considering issues and examples which lead to knowledge acquisition, attitudes and ability in active citizenship area. In the element content experts’ focus is to get business attitude and knowledge in three field goals. With respect to teaching method the emphasis was placed on active and participatory methods. Concerning the evaluation component, a combination of qualitative and quantitative, self assessment, and ongoing assessment methods were underscored as favorable methods for active citizenship education.

A review of the literature on auditing educational systems based on international standard of ISO 10015 reveals that inefficiency of in-service trainings is due to not employing precise approaches and techniques of needs assessments. This paper sought to apply educational needs assessments for financial staff in Mehr Finance and Credit Union. The specific objective of the paper was to explain job-based needs assessment technique as an instrument in order to pass over the quasi-needs assessment to a real educational needs assessment. The population of this applied research included 61 financial managers and senior staff of the head quarters of Mehr Union. 30 managers and staff were selected as the study sample drawing on stage cluster sampling method. Two researcher-developed questionnaires were used to collect the data, one tapped into task duties with 30 items and the other was concerned with education standards with 27 items. The study revealed that from among the educational needs the least priority belonged to principles of supervision with 29.5% distance from standards and the highest priority belonged to knowledge of electronic banking with 60% distance from the standards. The study recommends that before undertaking job-related education needs assessment job experts’ views and job network results need to be scrutinized in such research areas.

This descriptive study explored factors affecting entrepreneurship in Lorestan province. In so doing, using proportionate stratified sampling method, 245 entrepreneurs (service division 31, industry 86, and agriculture 128) were selected from among a population of 3417 entrepreneurs. A use was made of two questionnaires constructed by the researcher to collect the data; one as entrepreneurship instrument and the other tapping into the influential factors. The data were analyzed employing Friedman test, Chi square and mean ranks. The results of the study indicated that the major influential psychological factors were the intention and determination and the need for achievement, and the major sociological factors included social status achievement and family atmosphere. The main governmental factors were encouraging policies. The service division had the first rank of Entrepreneurship in the province. Educational context analysis based on research literature showed that the effective factors drive from appropriate family and formal education. Thus, in order to promote these factors, attention to formal education as a progressive entrepreneurship is essential.

This research attempted to study the learning organization characteristics in public and private high schools in district 3 of Shiraz in the school year 2010-2011. This descriptive survey included all teachers and principals in public and private high schools in the respective district. Using stratified sampling method 273 respondents were selected. The Learning Organization Questionnaire covering 5 principles of Peter Senge (shared vision, mental models, personal mastery, team learning and systems thinking) was used to collect data. Both face and content validity of the questionnaire were evaluated. Its reliability estimated by Cronbach’s alpha was 0.88. Descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage) were used for describing the data and inferential statistics (t-test) were employed to study the differences between public and private high schools. Data analysis of the teachers and principals’ views indicated that there was a significant difference in systems thinking between public and private high schools. There was also no significant difference in terms of other disciplines (shared vision, mental models, personal mastery and team learning). The shared vision was higher in public high schools than that in private schools.

The present study aimed at investigating the impacts of Iranian and non-Iranian philosophical stories and common stories on the growth of philosophical thought of first grade elementary students in Shiraz. A sample of 54 boys and 41 girls was drawn from among all first grade students in district 1 of Shiraz using stage sampling strategy. They were then assigned to Iranian and non-Iranian philosophical stories and common stories groups divided in terms of their gender (6 groups). The sample was administered a pretest of Philip Cam’s Philosophical Thought. They were then exposed to the required training for 10 weeks and finally were administered the posttest. The results of this study obtained through a use of gain score method, t-test, ANOVA, and Scheffe test revealed that Iranian philosophical stories may affect the growth of philosophical thought of the first grade elementary students ( hence confirming the first hypothesis. The hypothesis of the impact of non-Iranian philosophical stories on the growth of philosophical thought of the students, however, was rejected. The results also revealed that those students who were trained by Iranian philosophical books gained higher average gain in philosophical thought relative to those students who were trained by non-Iranian philosophical books. Moreover, it was shown that boys achieved higher average gains than that of girls. I was also revealed that there was no significant difference between boys and girls who used non-Iranian stories.

The aim of this research was to assess the degree to which the characteristics of bureaucratic organization were implemented and bureaucratic orientation of school principals in Tehran. This research was an applied study in terms its goal and a descriptive survey in terms of research method. The population of research was all school principals in Tehran. A sample of 154 respondents was selected employing cluster random sampling method. The Instrument utilized to collect the data was a researcher-made questionnaire. Its validity was established through experts’ views and its reliability was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha. The results of the study indicated that bureaucracy characteristics were moderately implemented and that the principals’ bureaucratic orientation was high. It was also revealed that there were not any significant relationships between personal characteristics and the principals’ bureaucratic orientation. The results of this research can be used to amend and to improve organizational structure of educational system.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between organizational health and the establishment of school-based management in high schools of Shiraz in the school year 2010–2011. Out of a population of 310 high school principals in Shiraz, 175 respondents were sampled according to Morgan’s table using stratified random sampling method. Data were collected through two questionnaires, that is, an organizational health questionnaire with 44 items, and a school-based management questionnaire with 42 items. Using Cronbach’s alpha their reliability was assessed to be 0.84 and 0.85 respectively. The data were analyzed using multiple descriptive and inferential statistics. The results indicated that there was a significant relationship between all components of the organizational health and the establishment of school-based management. Further, There was no significant difference between private and public schools in terms of the relationship between organizational health and the establishment of school-based management. It was also demonstrated that there was no significant difference between girls and boys high schools in terms of the relationship between organizational health and the establishment of school-based management.

This study was carried out to analyze the content of Iran’s Contemporary History textbook concerning critical thinking. A use was made of a descriptive method to determine the indices of critical thinking and content analysis was used to analyze the textbook content. The sample of the study consisted of 2818 sentences (i.e., the whole population) extracted from Iran’s Contemporary History textbook. The data collection instrument was a content analysis checklist of Iran’s Contemporary History textbook developed based on the theoretical framework whose validity was approved by the specialists of education. The unit of analysis was the sentences cited in Iran’ Contemporary History textbook. The results showed that 34.63% of sentences in the content of the textbook was related to critical thinking; out of which, 22.14% of sentences pertained to Cognitive indexes, %6.88 to Affective indexes, and 5.61% to Psycho-motor indexes. The results showed that the distribution of critical thinking indexes were imbalanced in the textbook content. Moreover, Cognitive component was attended three times more than Affective and Psycho-motor components. This is not appropriate for teaching critical thinking.