UNIVERSITY TEXTBOOKS, RESEARCH AND WRITING
Year:2020 | Volume:23 | Issue:45 |Papers Count:12

This study investigates the acquisition of academic literacy from the perspective of its three fundamental components: academic writing, academic reading, and critical thinking through a case study for the Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran. Accordingly, this research, in a qualitative paradigm with an inductive approach that is characteristic of case studies, seeks to gain insight into the quality of academic literacy education and its promotion among undergraduate students of aforesaid faculty. Therefore, the author has attempted to gather the necessary information and indicators which constructs academic literacy through research literature first and then to investigate this phenomenon by designing a questionnaire and interviewing 10 professors. The results of this study indicate that although faculty members agree on most of the capabilities related to academic literacy of students, they still lack the tasks and assignments required to enhance the content area of academic literacy among students. And they do not properly evaluate the status of their students. As a result, the issue of academic literacy is not given much importance in the faculty under study, so newcomer students do not receive enough feedback from their professors to pursue academic discourse on the same basis.

Scientific studies and academic works about Persian Language and literature discipline, like other disciplines, are to be based on principles of applying scientific language. Some of these principles are as follow: the language has referential function, a sign in scientific language is unmotivated, arbitrary, and conventional, function of sign and text is conveying the purpose, sign has the least rate of polysemy, and the explicit structures of language is applied. Some times in academic books in Persian language and literature discipline, language application deviates from these principles. The aim of this research is studying the types of this deviation and the research is based on qualitative research method and theoretical sampling. Based on research findings, the types of this deviation in these books, in lexis and group and clause level, are as follow: applying extra regularity, applying some kinds of deviation (historical, sematic, and stylistic), applying literary simile, quoting from literary texts in order to make poetic function, applying implicit lexis, and value judgement.

Language plays an important role in academic research in transferring scientific concepts and findings. In recent years, neglecting the grammatical rules and incorrect use of words in these texts has disturbed messaging and seriously damaged language, one of those is repeated and hasty application of some words and phrases which has resulted in linguistic cliché s. Cliché s are used extensively in academic texts with no thought and cause damage to the language by repetitive patterns, incorrect use of words, use of slang and literary language and ambiguity, which in turn has reduced the clarity and expression of statement. In this paper, we survey linguistic cliché s in six academic books to explain the disadvantages of cliché s in academic texts and design solutions for correcting them. The results of this study show that cliché s are used in different places (at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the text), and are formed in different ways: Calque, the affected language by Folk language, the use of literary hackneyed phrases, and neglecting the meaning of the word and changing its meaning. In order to correct the cliché s, we can use the grammatical capacities of the Persian language as using the adverbs, conjunctions, appositive and so on. Plus, we can remove cliché s by correcting use of punctuation marks.

One of the most important elements in the preparation and compilation of educational books in general and English language teaching (ELT) textbooks in particular, is Visual element. In recent decades, various instructional theories and models have dealt with such elements in terms of type and role. Due to their importance, they are categorized into two main groups: (a) pictures (image, drawing, painting, animation), and (b) graphic organizers. In this paper, first they are presented through several perspectives. Then, considering the importance of English for specific purposes (ESP) textbooks published by SAMT in the academic community of Iran, through a descriptive and analytic approach, the authors tried to analyze this component quantitatively and qualitatively and in proportion to its role and function in three periods of ESP textbooks development. The results indicate that this component has been specially developed in the new generation of specialized books and has been largely overlooked in the second generation and especially in the first generation. In the third generation, we also see strong points and, of course, weaknesses in terms of the amount and type of visual elements, which are different based on various disciplines of textbooks. Therefore, while investigating and analyzing these cases, some suggestions have been made to strengthen this component.

The book Be suy-e javä meꞌ-e Dä nä ꞌ i-Mehvar (Towards Knowledge-based Societies) translated by Ali Hoseyn Qä semi and Sirus ä zä di from UNESCO World Report (2005), published by SAMT is used as main resource for doctoral course as Political Information Geography, and Globalization and Information Society, knowledge and Information management, and Internet and Information Network in mastersꞌ courses. While describing the condition of world in scientific and technological communication and listing the weaknesses of the underdeveloped countries in this respect, this report has provided solutions to develop the science of Third World countries. The universities mentioned in this report is considered as materialistic one in which there is no room for philosophical or theological discussions. The hegemonic critique of the book indicates that not only its recommendations fails to resolve the scientific problems faced by the Third World countries, but also they stabilize the dominance of the information-rich countries located in the northern hemisphere; accordingly, the information gaps are increased. This paper suggests that Islamic countries Islamize paradigmatic foundations of sciences and knowledge in descriptive and correlational researches, focus on the production of normative theories, and pay attention to liberation theology with an Islamic approach. All of these three suggestions are in fact the three main sides of the Islamization of the academic sciences and knowledge.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the content of the course of research and statistics in educational and psychological sciences. For this purpose, 22 universities from the prestigious ones ranking in the Scimago and Shanghai rankings, and the syllabus and books used to teach the research method in psychology and education were analyzed. The research method in this study was content analysis. Data were collected using a researcher-made checklist based on a list of books and university curricula in psychology and educational science. Findings indicate that the largest part of the list of books and courses of the universities goes for ethics of research, psychology as a science and a variety of experimental methods. By examining the content of the list of books and syllabuses of prestigious universities around the world and by distributing thematically, we can help teachers identify the right content for compiling appropriate and needed community textbooks.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the content of the course of research and statistics in educational and psychological sciences. For this purpose, 22 universities from the prestigious ones ranking in the Scimago and Shanghai rankings, and the syllabus and books used to teach the research method in psychology and education were analyzed. The research method in this study was content analysis. Data were collected using a researcher-made checklist based on a list of books and university curricula in psychology and educational science. Findings indicate that the largest part of the list of books and courses of the universities goes for ethics of research, psychology as a science and a variety of experimental methods. By examining the content of the list of books and syllabuses of prestigious universities around the world and by distributing thematically, we can help teachers identify the right content for compiling appropriate and needed community textbooks.

Classroom and non-classroom Speaking activities are the most important part that provide opportunities for language use. Writing educational books that include some conversions and transformational and substitution drills in the introductory levels and discussion activities in advanced levels, is a common problem in most Arabic speaking books. This study attempts to present the most important characteristics of effective teaching materials and activities for speaking skills by referring to theoretical resources in foreign language teaching. In the second step, we will analyze the speaking activities in Al-loghat Al-Arabiya. These activities were analyzed in several aspects: addressing all functions of speaking, authenticity, personalization, sequence from easier speech modes to difficult ones & including tasks for both accuracy and fluency. The results of the study show that in this book, especially at the introductory levels, appropriate activities to enhance all functions, use of authentic language, and accuracy of pronunciation and vocabulary are not provided. Fluency activities are weak at the introductory level as well.

Well-designed questions have an integral role in acquiring knowledge, developing perceptions, and stimulating critical thinking. This study is to present an integrative model for designing questions in university textbooks and accordingly conduct a case study on questions in education and psychology textbooks published by SAMT Publications. To this end, content analysis and case study were used. In the first section, the related literature on question design were content analyzed, and the integrated approach was chosen as the theoretical model. Then, the validity of the model was checked by eight relevant experts. In the second part, 1323 questions in eight education and psychology textbooks published by SAMT Publication between 1392-1397 AH were analyzed based on the research model. The results showed that a desirable model for designing questions should be developed based on three main dimensions including learning hierarchy, student engagement in the course, and types of convergent and divergent thinking. The final model was composed of 3 main dimensions with 13 types of main questions and 25 sub-questions. The evaluation of a total of 8 textbooks and 1323 questions indicates that 827 questions (62. 51%) and 496 questions (37. 49%) assessed Lower and Higher Order Learning Skills, respectively. Moreover, the design of the questions in these textbooks was mainly focused on content, and no attention was paid to fundamental, emotional, and engaging questions. Finally, only 10. 5% of the questions relate to the development of divergent thinking, while 89. 5% of them relates to interrelated questions.

With the purpose of identifying and prioritizing the goals and activities appropriate for internship for Undergraduatestudents of psychology, a mixed approach has been adopted in this study. In the qualitative section, interviews were conducted with 28 experts, faculty members, psychologists and graduate students who were selected using a purposive random sampling method. The statistical population of the quantitative section of this study was 5th-8th grade students in 1396-1397 and graduates of 1393-1396 in psychology, 150 of which were selected by stratified random sampling method. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. Content validity was used to determine the validity of the interview and the questionnaire, and to determine the reliability of the questionnaire, Cranach's alpha coefficient was used. The results showed that in terms of internship goals, the highest priority should be given to linking academic theoretical issues with the workplace. Regarding learning activities, communicating with clients and identifying the type of services they need were proposed as the most important activities. Participants in the interview also emphasized the promotion of theoretical knowledge as the most important goals. Regarding learning activities suitable for internship, they focused on the specialized activities.

This study aims to identify and validate the principles and criteria for designing textbooks based on religious doctrines in the seminaries for sisters. The method of this research is to analyze the content-thematic-theme-oriented (Thematic) content. The sampling method or analysis unit in this study was theoretical. The statistical population of the study consists of all upstream and scientific documents of the religious schools related to the subject matter of the research and all members of the scientific education groups and the scientific group compiling instructional textbooks in the religious schools for women. After coding the main categories, 9 main categories and 46 subcategories of qualitative data were extracted and, finally, the internal validation of the findings of the present study was performed. The results of the interviews and the analysis of existing documents show that some of items referred to by seminary specialists for designing textbooks are attention to the content of the content-orientation principle, balance, internal and external content, content writing, creating interest, the activation and implementation of the content, objectification, and content support. These criteria are from the perspective of the sub-factions of the Seminary for Sisters at the higher education level. These categories can be used in different situations, especially the publication of academic books.

Gholam Ali Homä ʼ iʼ s Vä ž eShenä siy-e Quran-e Majid (Glossary of Holy Quran), whichanalyzes and criticizes the combination of six old and new skilled linguistics points of views, uses a novel and critical view has known as a specific book in the semantics field of The Quran, particularly for master students. This research is to study the last mentioned book’ s structure and content, using descriptive and analytical approach. The research findings reveal that although this book’ s structure and content have outperform based on academic framework and curriculums, there are some weakness in its structure that can be noted as: lack of some technical principles of writing. Moreover, the evaluation of the content of Homä ʼ iʼ s work shows the most weakness in quantity heterogeneous of this work, contradiction in terms, inappropriateness of Quranic verses with content, ambiguity, lack of proper involvement in Concepts, lack of attention to categorization, and failure to considerate on the frequency of the Quranic vocabulary as well.