EDUCATIONAL STRATEGIES
Year:2010 | Volume:3 | Issue:1|Papers Count:9

Aims: For promoting the quality and quantity of services, increasing competition, efficiency and reducing the costs, universities need creative and innovative professors and teachers. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the individual and organizational factors affecting creativity and innovation of faculty members in order to provide the appropriate strategies to promote the innovation and creativity in university.Methods: This descriptive analytical study was carried out during 2009-10 on all faculty members of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences (210 participants). With the random categorical method, 16 persons were selected from each of the 4 "Medical", "Dental", "Health & Para-medicine" and "Nursing & Midwifery" schools (in total, 64 persons). Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire with the different parts including personal characteristics and the factors affecting the creativity and innovation. Questionnaire rating was in the form of five-point Likert scale. Its validity was confirmed through content validity and professional comments and its reliability was established through the pretest-posttest done with 10 participants and with the correlation coefficient of 0.92. The data were analyzed using SPSS 16 software.Results: The most important influential factor of faculty member’s creativity was personal factors with the mean score of 1.69±0.81 and the organizational factors had the most influence on their innovation with the mean score of 4.89±1.58. There was a significant correlation between organizational factors affecting the creativity among faculties (p<0.05).Conclusion: Personal factors have the most influence on organizational factors and creativity and the most influence on faculty members’ innovation.

Aims: The aim of the research was to investigate the effectiveness of life skills’ educational program on the blind and low-vision students.Methods: The statistical population included the whole blind and low-vision students of Isfahan University. Of these, 21 students were chosen using available sampling and were assigned to experimental group (11 students) and control group (10 students), randomly. In the initial study all students filled the Bell compatibility questionnaire. The experimental group not only attended in classroom instruction of the life skills’ educational program for 12 sessions (one session per week), but also they were instructed with CDs at home. The control group did not receive any education. Also, both groups had a posttest after ending the sessions by the same tool.Data was analyzed using statistical software SPSS 16, descriptive indicators and multivariate analysis of covariance test (MANCOVA).Results: Results of the covariance analysis revealed a significant (p£0.001) difference in follow-up posttest stage between experimental group (93.49±4.03) and control group (71.26±4.21).Conclusion: The life skills’ educational program is an effective way to increase the compatibility of blind and low-vision students.

Aims: Health Management course is one of the most effective and key courses in the health courses. For better utilization of its experts’ services, factors such as their satisfaction should be considered. In this study, the satisfaction level of the BA degree students of Health Management from their course was evaluated.Methods: This descriptive study was conducted through a cross- sectional method. The participants of the study were 89 undergraduate students of health management course in one of the Tehran city universities of medical sciences who were selected by census method. Following the library studies, a questionnaire containing 31 questions was designed and it's reliability and validity were confirmed. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.Results: 68.54% of students were satisfied with the major and specific course and 10.11% of students were dissatisfied with them. Also, 42.7% of students were satisfied with the training content, while 40.45% were dissatisfied with them. 50.57% of students were satisfied with teaching method of professors and 39.32% were unsatisfied. In addition, 39.44% of the students had a little familiarity with health management course, prior to the selection of the course, 44.95% of them had an average familiarity and 10.11% of them had high level of familiarity.Conclusion: The important index of providing information should be considered more and regarding to the low hope of students for the occupational status, more sensitivity regarding the future of students in term of their job and occupational aspect is necessary.

Introduction: Despite the increasing awareness regarding the importance and necessity of learning, its knowhow, forms and procedures that encourage learning in individuals and organizations, there is very little knowledge about unlearning. There is little study about what and why of unlearning and the condition in which it is encouraged. With regard to the importance of unlearning and its role in knowledge transfer and acquisition process, this paper investigated the unlearning, its necessity and its types.Conclusion: Unlearning is a continuous change which empowers individuals and organizations for adaptation with environment and developing new skills. Movement in unlearning curve is deliberate, requires restructuring and purification of the old procedures. In this process, getting rid of whatever that is not helpful, thoughtful cease and creating purified environment before new learning are essential. For individual and organizational success, the balance between learning and unlearning is necessary.

Introduction: Higher education represents a significant type of investment in human resources that help sustainable development by providing and promoting the required knowledge, skill and insights of learners. Higher education promote the knowledge and scientific and research progress gives rise to the new knowledge. New knowledge owes human’s creative thinking. Therefore, creativity is among the most important and universal functions of human being. Creativity is the ability of individual to generate a new idea, theory and insight or reconstructing the sciences and the other fields. As a cultural symbol in a society, higher education plays a major role in creativity dynamic of learners. The aim of this study was to introduce the creativity in higher education and to examine its role in sustainable development.Conclusion: It is possible to take a step towards realizing and expansion of the sustainable development by evolving extensive changes in supreme educational system and training creative and innovative students. As a principal basis of educational system teachers play a major role in nurturing the creativity. Therefore, the key to cultural education and preparation, which is itself the key to sustainable development and society progress, should be found in the hands of innovative and new-seeker teachers with a high loyalty to the various creative teaching patterns.

Introduction: Questionnaire is a scientific tool for measuring and collecting a particular type of information. If dividing the research into three logical phases of investigation, description, proving or interpretation, questionnaire is placed in the investigation phase. Questionnaire is one of the most common techniques of data collection. Electronic questionnaires can be performed in "Web-based" or "e-mail based" forms. The major problem of these kinds of questionnaires is the access to the proper sample size from the research population and sampling in a correct way. Considering the development of information technology (IT), especially the Internet, this study reviews the various kinds of electronic questionnaires and their characteristics.Conclusion: Speed, wideness, ease, cost-effectiveness, editablity and optimal data processing (DP) are among the advantages of electronic questionnaires comparing with the traditional print methods. However, the lack of access to the Internet for some potential responders, or their low literacy and computer skills, can be the weak points of electronic questionnaires.

Introduction: The spread of ICT (Information and communication technologies) in all aspects of human life has created fundamental changes. At the present era, the appropriate learning environment should always be wide enough with the necessary flexibility available to everyone, so that education can be possible not inside the educational centers with closed walls but everywhere. Large numbers of online class students, the lack of participation of all classroom students in learning, the lack of the necessary hardware and software facilities for creating interaction between students and faculty and students together, impossibility of face to face interaction and the existence of the other entertaining and interesting activities in the Web environment while attending in the electronic classroom, lead to challenges in the learning activities field, especially discussion learning activities. Therefore, the aim of this study was introducing the “discussion learning activities as the one of the learning activities in web-based instructions in both simultaneous and non-simultaneous ways.Conclusion: Information and communication technology plays a greater role by the passage of time in the higher education in general and in the curriculum in particula. Attention to the learner as the constructor of the knowledge is among from its major characteristics. Therefore, considering the learning activities in the webbased curriculum is necessary and several activities should be provided so that learner can increase his/her learning extent and richness through them.

Introduction: The use of evaluation is the most efficient way to improve the quality of education and among its major advantages are the improvement of morale and activity of participants and also the better justification of material and financial resources and education accompanying with evaluation. Evaluation is defined as the systematic process for collection, analysis and interpretation of information in order to determine the realization rate of the desired goals. For this purpose, the need for evaluation tools is felt. According to the classification of evaluation tools, log books are functional tests and used to assess the educational goals and learning outcomes of psycho-motor and cognitive areas. Log books are also called "personal educational records" which have been used at first in psychology, as a facilitator device for the recording and planning of education. Log books are used as a strategy for facilitating the feedback process and creative thinking during clinical education of nursing.The aim of this study was to examine the history of the use of log book, definitions, advantages, disadvantages, and its application as a feedback strategy in nursing.Conclusion: Due to the reduced distance between comment and clinic, log book can assist teacher and student reaching the educational and clinical goals and also it can provide feedback from student and teacher.