Journal of Educational Sciences
Year:2010 | Volume:5 | Issue:4|Papers Count:7

Constructivism which maintains that human mind constructs knowledge and which attributes a vital role in the formation of knowledge to the perception of the learners, considers knowledge not to be a reflection of external reality and, hence is in conflict with realism. Lacking a unified view toward knowledge formation, constructivism lays emphasis on two approaches toward the construction of knowledge, one psychological the other sociological. Psychological constructivism maintains that knowledge formation depends predominantly on the activities of the individual's mind where as its sociological counterpart subscribe to the view that it is based on social interaction. in the analysis of constructivism from a realist standpoint, which was the goal of this research, it was discovered that epistemologically speaking, there are wide disparities between constructivisrrr and realism. Regarding the nature, limits and sources of knowledge. Based on the findings of this study it become manifest that constructivist's epistemology is mixed with both psychology and sociology. It was also ascertained that, in constructivism in contrast to realism, knowledge has no independent status against process which is supposed to be fixed. Thus knowledge has a fluid character, being part and parcel of the process of learning. Learning which seems to be tantamount to knowledge is itself the product of learner's activity.

Differentiation between "happiness" and "pleasure" has always been a very important and crucial fact in psychology and philosophy. More important than this has been determining and aassessment of the correlatives that can increase or improve the happiness, and this has been the main purpose of this research. The research method was descriptive and correlational and the statistical population was all of the students of Shahid Bahonar Medical sciences, Islamic Azad, and Payam-e-Nur Universities of Kelman City in the academic year 2005- 2006 that 573 students were chosen among them using relative stratified sampling method. The tool used- for 'obtaining the necessary data was questionnaire which was designed by the researcher and assessed, "scientific, artistic moral and religious attitudes and behaviors; happiness and some individual variables" of the university students. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire was determined 0.913 and 0.815 respectively. Spearman, Kendall's Tau and chi-square tests were used for analyzing the research data. The results of the research showed that there was a positive and meaningful relationship between "scientific attitude, scientific behavior, artistic behavior, moral attitude, moral behavior, religious attitude and religious behavior" with the "happiness" of the university students, but there was not a meaningful relationship between "age, grade, diploma grade-point average, total grade-point average, the credit hours passed, gender, place of residence, kind of university and kind of faculty" with the "happiness" of the university students, although there was a meaningful relationship between "place of birth" and the "happiness" of the university students. Therefore, it is suggested that the ways of creating happiness in the university students to be sought in such factors as knowledge, art, morality and religion.

Academic staffs, as human capitals, are focal members of educational institutions in terms of supporting three major university missions namely training, research and services. Recognition of the role of human capital at the university level will help them providing a more productive job. The purpose of this research paper is to determine factors making faculty development in a research-oriented education institution. By use of grounded theory, a group of 17 faculty members in ACEC were, therefore, interviewed to find out predictors for faculty development the findings of the research showed that three major predictors should be recognized in this respect. They are mainly, professional development, organizational development, and individual development. The paper will also refer to some other indirect factors affecting faculty development.

The general curricula of higher education in universities are important in achieving the goals of higher education. This research was going to assessment the' degree of obtaining the aims and objectives of them in Shahid Beheshti University. The findings had showed that from the viewpoints of students and facuIty members of Shahid Beheshti University, none of the objectives of general curricula except family arranging course could not achieve to their intended objectives.

The aim of this research was to study the relationship between the perception of female and male students with different majors concerning and completing the faculty evaluation form and their assessment of curriculum, faculty and staff performance quality. Thus 179 undergraduate students form 6 majors at College of Education at Shiraz University were selected. The research instruments were the Sport Management Curriculum Survey (2004) and Students Perception of Faculty Evaluation Form (2006). The data was analyzed by using SPSS and LISREL softwares and results indicated that: 1) The highest percent age of satisfaction was attributed to curriculum quality and the highest dissatisfaction belonged to employee performance quality. 2) There were positive relationships between students' perception of completing the faculty evaluation form and their assessment of curriculum and faculty and staff performance quality. 3) There were significant difference between female and male students' perception, regarding to completing the faculty evaluation form. 4) No significant difference between female and male students' assessment of curriculum and faculty and staff performance quality. was found. 5) There were no significant difference among various majors' students' assessment of curriculum quality. 6) There were significant differences among the assessment of students with different majors concerning employee performance quality. 7) There were significant differences among students with different majors' assessment of faculty performance quality.

The current study was carried out to standardize academic motivation scale for Iranian students. This scale was created by Vallerand and his colleagues (1992) on the basis of Deci and Ryan (1985) theory. Population of this study comprised all Iranian students (male and female). 4000 students were selected randomly as a research sample. Findings of Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed that 7 recommended subscales of Vallerand and his colleagues were reduced to three general subscale called intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and amotivation. Findings of Confirmatory Factor Analysis also confirmed these three basic factor structures .Goodness of fit scale which is gained by Confirmatory Factor Analysis indicated a good tit of model with data. Examining construct validity (divergent and convergent) indicated that subscales have an acceptable validity. Also Internal Consistency Analysis (Cronbach alpha) and time reliability buttressed the. notion that this scale has an acceptable validity and Reliability for Iranian students.

The aim of this paper is to explore the typologies and strategies of sampling in qualitative research design. Although the sampling strategies are as diverse as the qualitative research methods, the label "purposive sampling" has overshadowed the large variety of typologies and strategies of qualitative sampling. Similar to all characteristics, logic, and procedures of qualitative research designs, the typologies and strategies discussed in the paper are based on philosophical and paradigmatic underpinnings known as interpretative/ constructive/ naturalist paradigm. This- paper firstly discusses the philosophical foundations guiding the qualitative sampling design. Then, while reviewing the general typologies of sampling in quantitative research, the paper focuses on three sampling typologies consisting of 18 sampling strategies in qualitative research. The final part of paper deats with considering the qualitative sample size, and some otber important features of qualitative sampling.