(JOURNAL OF INSTRUCTION AND EVALUATION) JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES
Year:2015 | Volume:8 | Issue:30|Papers Count:8

The purpose of this study was to assess the level of social capital and its regression equation with the organizational excellence at the Azad University organization. This research was an applied research with a descriptive-correlational design in which 375 employees of the Islamic Azad University were randomly selected as the sample of the study. The social capital and organizational excellence questionnaires were used for collecting the data. Based on Cronbach's alpha, the validity of the social capital (0.84) and organizational excellence (0.88) questionnaires were calculated. The data analysis was done using Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression, ANOVA and structural equations model in SPSS and Lisrel softwares. The results showed that cognitive, communicative and structural aspects have the most significant impact on social capital of the Islamic Azad University, respectively. The level of social capital and organizational excellence at Islamic Azad University was assessed as being "average" and "poor", respectively. The results also indicated a significant and positive relationship (0.79) between social capital and organizational excellence at Islamic Azad University (p= 0.000). The cognitive, communicative and structural aspects of social capital had the highest regression effect on organizational excellence, respectively, and all were significant predictors of organizational excellence at the Islamic Azad University (p<0.001). In addition, all model fit indicators suggested that final research model has a high ability in measuring the research variables. Given that the level of social capital at Azad University was considered as poor to average and all aspects of social capital were the significant predictors of organizational excellence, it can be concluded that promoting the level of social capital, especially from cognitive aspects, will lead to excellence and promote organizational quality at Azad University.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of educational services provided to at Arak University students using the SERVQUAL Model. The population of the study consists of all undergraduate students at four Literature Humanities, Engineering, Science and Agriculture Faculties of Arak University, including 6644 student. To determine the sample size, stratified random sampling method was used and 453 students were selected. To collect the data, SERVQUAL Model which has been proven both a valid and reliable in previous researches, was used. For data analysis, descriptive statistics (percentage, mean, diagrams, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (one-sample t-test, one way ANOVA, and post hoc Scheffe) were used. The results showed that the quality of educational services in all 5 modules is negative with the maximum mean gap of tangibility module equal to -8.958, and the lowest mean gap, related to the reliability, being -1.933. The results also showed that there were no significant differences between the four faculty students' perceptions of the quality of educational services but there were significant differences between their expectations of the quality of educational services. The expectation mean of educational services quality among engineering and technical students was lower and the expectations of Humanities’ students were higher than those of the other faculties in this research.

Procrastination or delaying a task until tomorrow is so common that it can be considered as one of the inherent tendencies of human beings. Although, procrastination is not always a problem, in most cases, through impeding progress and attaining goals, can have unpleasant and irreparable consequences. One of the most common types of procrastination is academic procrastination. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching strategies to reduce procrastination on the secondary school students’ academic procrastination in Tabriz. To this end, 36 students with high academic procrastination, through screening and preliminary study, were assigned to two experimental and control groups. The experimental group received reducing academic procrastination strategy instruction whereas the control groups were provided with common daily education. Sovari's (2011) academic procrastination scale was used for analysis the pretest and posttest. The results of multi variatean alysis of covariance showed that the means of the experimental and control groups in deliberate academic procrastination (f= 4.42, p £ 0.05, h= 0.125) and academic procrastination from physical-mental fatigue (f= 5.51, p £ 0.05, h= 0.151) were significantly different but the mean of academic procrastination from non programming (f= 0.465, p ³ 0.05) was not significantly different from the control group. The results of the study can help school counselors and psychologists to reduce academic procrastination.

The present study was implemented to compare the effectiveness of network presentation using MindMapper software with linear presentation using PowerPoint software on the students’ academic achievement in experimental sciences and their cognitive outputs. Recall, understanding and using the learned materials were the cognitive outputs studied here. The research design used in this study was semi-experimental with pretest posttest and compared groups. The participants were 60 elementary school male students at the sixth grade of Khoy who were chosen by available sampling method. An achievement test of experimental sciences was used to measure the students’ cognitive outputs. The results of Covariyance analyses showed that the use of the Mindmapper software for network presentation as compared with the PowerPoint software linear presentation has a significance impact on the students’ academic achievement in experimental sciences (understanding and use).

The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of Working Memory Computer. Assisted Intervention on Mathematics Anxiety, Working Memory and Performance Mathematics among Students with Mathematics Learning Disabilities. The study design was semi-experimental with pre-test/post-test and a control group. The statistical population of the study included the students of grade fourth, primary school, with mathematics learning deficiencies in Miyandoab during the academic year 93-94. For this purpose, 30 students with math learning disability were selected by using multistage random sampling (each group consist of 15 children). To gather the data, the Raven intelligence test, the key Math test, a researcher made mathematics test, the scale of math anxiety (Bai et al) and N-back's working memory test were used. The experiment group received working memory training program in 15 sessions, each 30 minutes, while the control group received only school education. The data was analyzed using Covariance. The results showed a significant difference between the scores of working memory, math anxiety, math performance and working memory between the two groups after the intervention. The findings emphasized that working memory training can be used as an intervention method in improvemening mathematics and reduce Mathematics anxiety in students with mathematics learning disability.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between bonding social capital and happiness among the citizens of Tehran. Rapid developments in Technology and information have created a gop within contemporary human beings. The growing depression and other mental-social problems show the lack of happiness among people. Through reviewing the related literature, it seems that bonding social capital has an important role in people's happiness. The present study is a correlational one, the statistical population of which are all the citizen in Tehran. The sample of the study, including 412 people, were selected through cluster sampling using Cochran formula. Two questionnaires of boding social capital and happiness (Oxford) were used to collect the data. The findings showed a high relationship between bonding social capital and happiness (0.49). In this research income, education, residential area, and employment had a positive significant relationship with happiness.

The Present study aimed at determining the effect of metacognitive skills training on improving creativity and academic performance of high school students in Tabriz. It was a semi-experimental research with pretest-posttest and control group. 30 students were selected through multiple cluster sampling and randomly assigned in two experimental and control groups. Only the experimental group received explicit instruction on metacognitive strategies. The data were collected by Dortaj’s questionnaire of academic performance and Abedi’s questionnaire of creativity. To analyze the data, the analysis of Cavariance was used. The results indicated that interventions based on meta cognitive skills training can significantly increase the components of creativity and academic performance including self-efficacy, planning and emotional effects but not losing control and motivation (P<0.01). The Results provide some evidence that metacognitive skill training is appropriate for increasing creativity and recovering students’ academic performance.

This article aims at reviewing the characteristics of a good teacher from the political sciences students᾽ point of view at Shahid Bahonar University. The research method was based on Grounded theory. The Data collection method was having semi organized interviews with students and using documents. Theoretical sampling was used for sampling. 70 students were interviewed. The findings suggest that the characteristics of a good teacher can be classified in five categories: 1) research capacity, 2) training and teaching abilities, 3) supervision and evaluation of students, 4) behavior and morality. and 5) commitment to educational regulations. Two categories (teaching and ability supervision and evaluation of students) are more important than others. These two categories are affected by research capacity. Both behavior and morality and commitment to educational regulations categories are among the characteristics of a good teacher which can empower both teaching ability and supervision and evaluation of students. The research results were compared with previous findings and some recommendations were presented.