UNIVERSITY TEXTBOOKS, RESEARCH AND WRITING
Year:2021 | Volume:24 | Issue:47|Papers Count:12

In Functional Grammar, theme is a structure that plays a key role in message processing and it refers to the subject matter to which the message relates. Due to having such role, this linguistic concept is considered in the analysis of educational texts by those interested in this field. In the present study, drawing upon textual metafunction of Functional Theory, finding possible similarities and differences in the theme selection of universities’ ESP textbooks in Humanities and Engineering disciplines by Iranian(SAMT) and non-Iranian authors is of significant interest. The method of this research is descriptive-analytical and the statistical population is 32 readable texts from the sources. The results showed that there is no significant difference in the use of themes in the corpus, among authors, and between dicsiplines; so that, 100% experimental themes, simple themes more than multiple themes (76% vs. 24%) and textual themes more than interpersonal themes (22. 5% vs. 2%) have been used by all authors. It seems that the main reason for this similarity is related to the genre similarity of writings. Based on the findings, the following results can be inferred: Theme is meaningful in the English language and is taken into account in the writing of academic textbooks, especially in ESP; the remarkable similarity and the writing framework alignment of different authors with Halliday’ s systemic functional theory suggests the usefulness of this view in the evaluation of scientific books; the authors' attention to the effectiveness of the textual metafunction as an efficient resource in the construction, development, and coherence of texts, as well as its efficiency in academic textbooks division to different genres is elaborated; finally, in the light of these findings, it can be said that choosing a textbook based on the criteria that the author is Iranian or not, is not desirable.

Learner’ s dictionaries are among the educational resources which are used in teaching a language to the speakers of other languages. Such educational or pedagogical dictionaries, which are known as valuable and efficient works, are compiled differently from general dictionaries. The aim of compiling such works as reference ones is meeting the needs of foreign learners. The study of a few available dictionaries in the field of teaching Persian language to speakers of other languages reveals that specifically in the realm of Persian to English dictionaries, Collin Turner’ s A Thematic Dictionary of Modern Persian which was published by Routledge in 2003 has gained the users’ attention more than other works. Due to the inevitable importance of this dictionary, this paper firstly introduces the work in brief, then studies and analyzes the selection of its entries, equivalents, etc. The findings indicate that although this work wins recognition, it suffers from many shortcomings.

What needs to be considered in the development of academic textbooks is the selection of an appropriate approach to the educational objectives and the ontological position of the educational subject. In this regard, the study of literature textbooks at universities shows that the focus of these books on literary history has left the aesthetic nature of literature lagging behind. Taking into account the existing vacuum, the following questions are brought to light: How far is the current prevailing approach in literature textbooks away from the nature of literature? What features literature textbooks should have in order to create in audiences a reaction proportionate to the nature of the lesson? How can the meta-literary view serve to perceive literature as an art? In the present article which has been done by descriptive-analytical method, in order to answer the above questions, first the current approach to compiling literature books is studied. Then the literature and its important components are explained. Finally, we will study the role of focusing on the nature of literature to change students' attitudes toward this subject and to clarify the need to pay attention to the ontological attitude to literature in compiling textbooks.

Since listening skill plays an important role in language learning, it is considered as one of the elemental skills in language learning. Individuals need to equip themselves with the listening skill before learning other skills such as speaking, reading, and writing. Therefore, teaching this skill at the elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels is an undeniable necessity. Utilizing standard textbooks in language classes, along with other learning elements, has an effective role in strengthening students` listening skills. To this end, in this study we attempted to achieve the qualitative requirements for book preparation by a descriptive-analytical method and utilizing the basics of foreign language teaching. Afterwards, based on these requirements through a content analysis method, we reviewed one of the books related to improving listening skills called Tallem Alloqata Alrabiyah Abra Alshashah. We show that emphasis on types of listening, attention to a specific educational approach, concentrating on listening processes and attention to the quality indicators of the audio texts are among the most important quality requirements in the listening skills textbooks. Moreover, the results of content analysis of the book Tallem Alloqata Alrabiyah Abra Alshashah shows that although the quality indicators of the audio text of the book are suitable for beginner Arabic learners, the content and exercises of the book adhere to none of the quality requirements of the book content, and it merely serves as subtitle for the cartoon “ Ba’ i Al-Halib.

Analyzing the contents of textbooks based on gender components is a very important topic for researchers. The purpose of the current study is to analyze the contents of Sadi Al-Hayati: Advanced Level textbook series by using quantitative and qualitative analysis methods. The statistical samples of this research are all of the main texts in the Reading4book, which includes occupational/social roles and familial roles, and the pictures in the book. The samples were studied in terms of gender representation. The results show that the presence of the male gender is more frequent than that of the female gender. To put it more clearly, about 80% of the pictures in all the four books are of the male sex, and only about 20% are of the female sex. We witness the introduction of famous people in all the books, all of whom, whether in the field of science, literature, art, politics, etc., are men. The occupational roles reproduced in the texts or pictures are also of a wide range when they are attributed to men, while the female gender is either represented in a limited way, or is absent altogether. Also, for the indicator of family roles, there is special attention paid to the role of women as mothers, while men are not shown to be inside of a house in any of the texts or the pictures. With all the evidence, the gender biases present in all four volumes of these series cannot be ignored, and it can be said that it is evident that women are being neglected or ignored in terms of all the three criteria of this research, and the texts and pictures of these books have been produced based on traditional and patriarchal prejudices and stereotypes which are based on gender discrimination, and consequently they need to be reviewed and revised.

The aim of this study was to analyze the content of social studies textbooks in terms of emphasis on the components of economic education. The present study is descriptive and content analysis using Shannon entropy method. The statistical population includes all textbooks in the field of social studies of students and teachers of Farhangian University. The statistical sample includes textbooks of Islamic education, educational, specialized and specialized education in the field of social studies of students and teachers. The research tool was a researcher-made checklist of components of economic education based on the scientific foundations of economic education, the content validity of which was verified by 5 experts. Its reliability was obtained 0. 686 using the re-implementation technique for the mentioned checklist. The results generally indicated that, in general, little attention was paid to the components of economic education in the content of social studies textbooks. The highest level of attention to the components of economic education is related to Islamic education textbooks, specialized textbooks and the lowest level of attention to the components is related to educational textbooks and specialized educational textbooks, respectively. The results also show that in total, textbooks in the field of social studies in terms of the amount of attention to the components of economic education in the elements of the curriculum 19% was allocated to the curriculum content element and 6. 65% to the curriculum location element.

Linguists compare different languages for different reasons. If we compare two or more languages for discovering the similarities and differences between them, we would do contrastive linguistics. Several contrastive rhetorical studies have been carried out on Asian languages, but a few studies have been conducted on the rhetorical contrasts between English and Persian languages. The objective of this research is to help the teachers to be aware of differences in writing styles of different languages. Several studies have shown that when the students learn the methods of the first language, they always transfer them to the second language. For example, the writings of EFL students, regardless of the courses passed in writing, have structural problems in comparison with native English students’ writings. This study examines the differences and similarities of the discourse features or rhetorical patterns of expository paragraphs written by 30 ESL students of Shiraz University. Theoretically, this research is based on Kaplan and Connor’ s studies. Practically, it is based on Becker and Dehghanpisheh (1971). In addition, to investigate if these rhetorical structure contrasts among languages are reflected in the university EFL learners’ writing textbooks, the university textbook of Paragraph Development: A Guide for Students of English was reviewed. Results of the data analysis showed that the English writings of Persian students are significantly different from the writings written by native English speakers. Furthermore, Persian students of English used L1 rhetorical patterns in their English writings that make them produce deviant and unnatural sentences. One of the reasons for this problem might be attributed to the university second language writing textbooks, including the textbook (Paragraph Development: A guide for Students of English) reviewed in the current study that almost lack any specific section on the contrasts between the second and first language rhetorical organization.

Research Methododogy is an integral part of a research and is considered as the most important course in the curriculum. The focus of the present study is on the art-based methodologies, as one of the most recent phenomena in the qualitative research in arts and humanities. These kinds of methodologies introduce the artistic experience as a way of thinking which is beyond the logical methods. They change the dominant paradigmatic attitude in research and provide more means to understand and connect with the world. The goal of this literature is to understand, introduce, and study such methodologies using descriptive phenomenology, retroductive and reductive strategies and answer the following ontological questions: What is the art-based research? What are the different types of such methodologies? What are the specifications and goals of these methodologies? As a result of this paper, there are eight art-based methodologies which provide means for processing, gathering, analysis, and data presentation, such methodologies create opportunities for activating the sensitive, emotional, and aesthetic perception of a researcher, which revolutionizes the research methodology. Accepting an artistic practice as a research methodology and establishing such methodologies in this field, independent from the ones in humanities and social sciences, is challenging for the many scholars.

A lot of the identity of any sciences depends on the texts it has produced in the past; but without a critical and integrated reading of these texts, it is not possible to get a clear picture of this identity, to avoid duplication and perversion, and to achieve synergy. The purpose of this paper was to identify the conceptual trends of educational management science in Iran, based on the survey of the production texts in this knowledge. The methodological approach of this research was a qualitative type of comparative and critical thematic bibliography. The research population was all the books indexed in the National Library of Iran during the last 60 years with the main and direct keywords of educational management, educational leadership and school management. After four stages of targeted screening, 28 books (16 authored books and 12 translated books) were singled out as research samples. Then, according to the tradition of bibliographic studies, after reading and critically taking notes from sample books, data, categorization and analysis, the main concepts were inferred. Concepts were also regularly validated using expert opinions. The results showed that in the written texts, a kind of absolute dominance of “ management and abstract organization” in the approach to educational management knowledge in Iran has prevailed; but in translated texts, the science of educational management is closer to the real world of “ schooling” . The findinds also demonstrate that in the authorial texts related to educational management science in Iran, due to the lack of a coherent conceptual framework within the discipline, discrediting and confusion in this science have become commonly widespread.

The present study is aimed towards identification the indices of desirable goals with regard to the Humanity Courses for universities and the extent to which these indices are taken into consideration. In the present study, exploratory mixed-methods research was used. In the quantitative section, Phenomenology method and in the quantitative section, a descriptive-survey method was employed. For the qualitative section, we administered quasi-structured interviews with 20 distinguished and qualified experts and faculty members of universities having their expertise in curriculum and goals. Also, 360 of the students of universities comprised the quantitative statistical population. This number of participants was selected using multistage cluster sampling method. To examine the reliability of interview questions and questionnaires, we recruited formal and content reliability. And, we used Cronbach's alpha coefficients to evaluate the validity of our questionnaires. We also employed in the qualitative analysis, the structural and interpretative method was administered in the quantitative analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics was also used to assess the data. The results indicated that the interviewees outlined ten indices as the salient indices of goals and it can be argued that the recognized indices can be used to assess and revise the goals of courses in different majors of the humanities. The quantitative findings also indicated that the range and degree of attention to the goal indices seem to be less than desirable which seem to require far more significant attention.

The Effect of Islamic Education Courses on Students' Religious Attitude and Motivation Reading and redefining the goals and functions of Islamic education courses and reviewing the methods of presenting these courses to make them as efficient as possible to meet the needs of new generations and transmit the values of the Islamic Revolution to them are of significant importance. The present study has been conducted with the aim of strengthening the scientific process of policy-making and illustration of Islamic education courses in the future perspective. Thus, the present study aims to examine the attitudes and motivations of students towards Islamic education courses to determine the extent to which they have succeeded in elevating students’ beliefs and political insights and what changes should be made to improve content and performance? The research method is descriptive-survey and its approach is also applied accordingly. Among the 95 undergraduate and pre-1900 undergraduate students, 319 students were selected as the research sample based on the Cochran sample size by random sampling method. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire and the obtained data were used using descriptive and inferential statistical indicators in the software environment were analyzed. The results showed that the situation of the course content is not in a good situation, contrary to the performance of the teachers. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to solutions such as floating texts of educational courses, matching educational courses with the field of study, quality of the curriculum, reviewing and updating the content and using experienced professors and attracting faculty to apply content of Islamic education courses.

The aim of the present study was to represent the types of educational interaction in the curriculum and to determine the dominant type based on mixed approach. The method of this research is mixed (qualitative and quantitative), which has been used in the qualitative part by the phenomenological method and in the quantitative part by the descriptive-survey method. Participants in the qualitative section were fifteen graduate students from the University of Tehran who were interviewed in a targeted sample until the theoretical saturation stage was reached. In the quantitative section, the statistical population included all students of the university in the postgraduate course in 1397. The content and formal validity of the questionnaire was calculated using the collective opinion of experts and the validity of the questionnaire was calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0. 82. In order to analyze the data in the qualitative section, the descriptive cluster phenomenological research method was used to collect the data. In a small part, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and the T-single sample were used. The results of the qualitative section showed the extraction of six types of interaction in the curriculum, including: interaction of teacher-professor, professor-student, professor-content, student-student, student-content and content-content. The findings also showed in a small section that from the students' point of view, the situation of the teacher-professor interaction type, the teacher-student interaction, and the student-student interaction type is low. But the type of teacher-content interaction, student-content and content-content interaction is in a higher than average state.