JOURNAL OF NEW APPROACH IN EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
Year:2011 | Volume:2 | Issue:1 (5)|Papers Count:8

This study chiefly aimed to investigate the reasons for slight preference of talented girls towards humanities in Semnan high schools. To this end, all high school female sophomores studying mathematics/physics, natural sciences, and humanities in Semnan in the school year 2008-2009 with first year GPA above 17 were taken into consideration as the target population. Out of 230 talented students 193 students were included as the sample of this survey study consulting Krejcie & Morgan’s table using stratified random sampling method. In order to collect data a researcher-developed and Holland's questionnaires were utilized. The reliability of the former was assessed to be 0.75 using Cronbach's alpha and the validity of both instruments were confirmed by experts. t-test, ANOVA, X2, and Duncan test were used to analyze data. The results of the study indicated that personality type, apathy, parents' status (interest, education, and income), unawareness of the status of labor market and the students' evaluation of the social status of the humanities influenced the students' choice of the field of study and eventually their preference towards humanities.

The principal purpose of the present study was to provide a structural model of organizational learning and intellectual capital in Shahid Beheshti University. The target population of the study included all employees of the Shahid Beheshti University who held high school diploma or higher degrees. Based on Krejcie & Morgan’s table a sample of 219 employees was drawn through random sampling. 277 questionnaires were completed and analyzed. Research instruments were Watkins & Marsick’s (2002) standard questionnaires of organizational learning and Bontis’s (1997) standard questionnaire of intellectual capital. Their reliability coefficients were 0.94 and 0.95 respectively. The research method involved structural modeling and path analysis. Path analysis showed that there was a significant relationship between the dimensions of organizational learning and intellectual capital. The greatest direct effect could be described as the effect of learning in organizational level on the intellectual capital. Further, human capital was considered as the most significant factor of intellectual capital in this model.

This study aimed at investigating the impact of individual factors on the creativity of Shiraz high school principals. Having employed a descriptive-correlational research method, this study targeted a sampling frame of all principals (190) working in Shiraz high schools in 2009. The sample of the study included 130 principals selected drawing on random cluster sampling strategy based on Cochran's formula. This study employed two research instrument whose reliability and validity were established before their employment; Randsip's creativity questionnaire and a questionnaire of individual factors affecting creativity. In order to analyze the data a use was made of Pearson product moment correlation and multiple regression. The results of the study indicated that individual factors impacted the subjects' creativity and could meaningfully predict it. These effective factors included, among others, personal characteristics, cognitive style, and thinking and knowledge style. It was also shown that the principals possessed a relatively low level of creativity.

This survey addressed Shiraz Islamic Azad University with regard to learning organization from the perspective of its faculty members in the academic year 2010-2011. The target population involved all the faculty members at Shiraz Azad University (N=271). With this end in view, 160 respondents were selected using random sampling. The instrument used was the standard Learning Organization Measurement questionnaire which taps five characteristics of learning organizations such as leadership, human resources, organizational design, organizational culture, and organizational mission/ strategy dimensions. The reliability of this questionnaire was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha and its validity was subjected to the judgment of professors and experts. A use was made of both descriptive (frequency & percentage) and inferential statistics (t-test). The results of the study indicated that Shiraz Islamic Azad University as a learning organization attended to dimensions of leadership characteristics (M=3.5) to an extent above the mean, human resources (M=3.06) around the mean, organizational design (M=2.85), and organizational culture (M=2.79), and strategy/ mission (M=2.76) below the mean.

This study examined the impact of in-service training courses in terms of teaching methods and techniques, classroom management, and assessment and measurement on the performance of teachers in four districts of Shiraz Education Organization. An Ex post facto research design was followed in this study. To this end, teachers were divided into control and experimental groups. In order to collect data a use was made of an observation checklist and a form to elicit students’ scores. The content validity of the checklist was assessed and its Cronbach’s alpha was estimated to be 0.885. Data was analyzed using mean and t-test. The findings of this study suggested that in-service training courses targeting methods and techniques, classroom management, and assessment and measurement had no significant impact on the professional performance of teachers as far as these variables of interest are concerned.

This descriptive-correlational study was undertaken to investigate factors influencing instructors’ job performance in agricultural secondary education centers in Tehran province. The target population included all instructors (professional and general) of agricultural secondary education centers of Tehran province (N=91). Employing stratified sampling method and Cochran’s statistic 49 instructors were sampled and administered a questionnaire developed by the current researchers. The content validity of the questionnaire was evaluated by a panel of five experts of agricultural extension and education from Tehran and Tarbiat Modares Universities and its internal consistency reliability was estimated - using Cronbach’s alpha _ to be within the range of 0.82 to 0.94 for different research variables. The findings showed that job performance of 75 percent of instructors was intermediate and high. The findings of correlational analysis also revealed that whereas there was a positively significant relationship between instructors’ professional skill, job satisfaction, and job capabilities and their job performance (p<0.01) there was a negatively significant relationship between their age and job performance (p<0.05). The results of multiple regression analysis further indicated that job capabilities, job satisfaction, and professional skill of instructors could explain 81.3% of the variations of the dependent variable. Thus, improving instructors’ professional skill and job capabilities and making provisions for the enhancement of their jobs satisfaction are influential factors in promoting their job performance and accordingly students’ learning process.

The main purpose of this research was to explore the status of job empowerment skills in the high school vocational curriculum for the trainable mentally-retarded male students in Iran. To this end, this study concerned the effects of curriculum elements (objective, content, time and evaluation) on the elements of job empowerment skills (general and social skills, self-management, economical self-sufficiency, and professional rehabilitation). The sampling frame of this field study included all the specialists of Education Organization for the Exceptional Students (N=45), all the curriculum planning experts in the high school vocational education (N=100), all the teachers working at high school vocational education in Qazvin Province (N=120), and all the employers (N=15). The sample of the study comprised 223 respondents selected using simple random sampling. Data was collected through two research instruments, that is, a 44-item questionnaire with a scale of 0 to 10 (constructed by the researcher) and an interview. Data was analyzed through both descriptive (tables, charts, frequency, cumulative percentage, variance and change coefficients) and inferential statistics (t-test, one way ANOVA, and LSD). The results of the study indicated that the two groups of education specialists and curriculum development experts contended that the curriculum maintained high efficiency to enhance the quintuple skills (general and social skills, self-management, economical self-sufficiency and professional rehabilitation) of the trainable mentally-retarded students in Iran in order to acquire job empowerment skills. The other two groups however maintained that it had a small capacity. Paying close attention to this difference in their stance and the point that teachers and employers are the administrators of the high school vocational education curriculum, it seems essential that the two groups of education specialists and curriculum development experts in Iran basically reconsider the current curriculum in order to help the trainable mentally-retarded students gain job empowerment skills.

The aim of this research was to explore the feasibility of establishing a virtual in-service training system in Islamic Azad University from the point of view of the faculty members in district three. 1523 full-time and part-time faculty members in 20 university branches in district three were the target population for this descriptive survey study. Based on Krejcie & Morgan’s table 310 faculty members were selected through stratified random sampling as the sample of the study. A Likert-type questionnaire with 41 closed questions developed by the current researchers was administered after determining its validity and reliability (0.86). Both descriptive and inferential statistics (ANOVA and Scheffe test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and Kruskal-Wallis) were used. As regards the first research question, a study of the circumstances & facilities for the establishment of the virtual in-service training system indicated that there was a significant difference among these circumstances and facilities for the establishment of the virtual in-service training system in different university branches in this research. With regard to the second research question, an identification of the applied contexts for the establishment of the virtual in-service training system showed that there was no significant difference among university branches in this regard. It is worth noting that respondents principally had the same idea as far as this question is concerned. Concerning the third research question, a diagnosis of obstacles to the establishment of the virtual in-service training system revealed that there was a significant difference among university branches in district three in regard to these obstacles. With respect to the forth research question, an identification of the facilitative factors for the establishment of the virtual in-service training system showed that there was a significant difference among university branches in district three with regard to these factors.