UNIVERSITY TEXTBOOKS, RESEARCH AND WRITING
Year:2019 | Volume:23 | Issue:|Papers Count:8

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of argument mapping method and concept mapping method in introducing textbook material on the critical thinking of students. In doing so, three texts for three personality courses have been prepared and introduced to the students throughout a semester. The text, in the first course, was introduced in each session with a mapped argument. The text, in another class, was introduced in each session with a concept map of that session’ s material. The text, in the third class, was presented to students with both a mapped argument and a concept map. These classes that included the graduate students of Islamic Azad University have been selected non-randomly and assigned randomly to one of the above-mentioned conditions. Students, at the beginning of the semester and after the final exams filled out the “ California Critical Thinking Skills Test” . The results showed that students’ score on final exam were positively correlated with their critical thinking. Among the three groups, only the third class (i. e. “ argument mapping with concept mapping” ) showed an increase in all aspects of critical thinking (except deduction). While showing the association of critical thinking and educational achievement, this study revealed that using argument mapping and concept mapping methods in writing university textbooks could help improve critical thinking of university students.

Study of the educational resources that have been developed for academic purposes takes place to evaluate the extent to which the goals have been achieved and the extent to which students’ educational needs are met. This research attempts to evaluate a textbook, Persian Specific for Social Sciences: Integrated Teaching of Language Strategies and Skills that has been written for non-Iranian university students of social sciences. The present research is applied and the research data were collected through field study, and the method of data analysis is descriptive. McDonough and Shaw’ s evaluation model (    ) is the research tool that collects data through direct questionnaire and interview. Exploratory factor analysis has been used for the factor validity of the research questionnaire. The results show that the textbook is in accordance with educational standards and the standards for developing materials in the field in terms of specialized content and educational strategies. The results of statistical survey also show that the textbook is significantly in accordance with the needs of the students. Integrated teaching of advanced language skills is one of the most important strengths of this textbook. And its weakness deals with the fact that it has not been developed for the basic and intermediate Persian language learners who want to learn Persian at the outset for academic purposes.

The present study aims to introduce a methodological model for the critical reading of history university textbooks through identifying ideological strategies in these texts. The retrieval of these components shows that although authors use some expressive techniques to provide a realistic representation of historical actors and events in the medieval period of Iran history, in practice, they transfer certain evaluative attitudes and readings from the past to their readers. Using Van Dijk’ s discourse analysis tools, this paper aims to present an explanatory and descriptive approach towards the normal attitudes of the native and non-native authors to the history of Iran in the Samanid, Ghaznavid, Saljuqid, and Qarakhanid periods. For this purpose, the four above dynasties that have been reflected in four native textbooks and two non-native reference books – as data corpus – were quantitatively and comparatively reviewed. Therefore, the native and non-native history books were studied in terms of the ideological strategies that have been applied in their meaning, style and syntax. According to the statistics, it became clear that the use of ideological strategies is inevitable in history narration. Also, by analyzing the ideological strategies in the text, it became clear that the differences that exist in the views of the Iranian and foreign authors as “ us” and “ them” towards Iranian history can affect the reading and representation of the historical events. In the narration of the native history writers more emphasis is placed on the positive characteristics of Iranians, such as their braveries and valiances, while in the writings of non-narrative writers, their negative qualities, such as class differences and the conflicts between Iranian ethnic groups, are reflected.

Considering the entrepreneurship role in the development of societies, entrepreneurship education should be tailored to the needs of universities and in line with the characteristics of each scientific group. The current research aims at evaluating the status of entrepreneurship education in the syllabi for Persian language and literature major with an emphasis on behavioral approach on the basis of descriptive-analytical method. The results of the study showed that entrepreneurship issue has not yet received proper attention in the Persian language and literature major, while entrepreneurial capability exists in a variety of areas such as dress design on the basis of ethnic beliefs, naming, story therapy, literary tourism, content production, editing and education, and computer games. In fact, the existence of weaknesses in the area of education and skills and experience development has led to the students’ failure in the entrepreneurship area despite having higher education. In the syllabi of different courses of this major, entrepreneurship issue has received no attention at all. In order to resolve this problem, some units appropriate for entrepreneurship in the Persian language and literature major are suggested to be added to curriculum by reviewing the syllabi. This problem can be resolved even by launching new branches of studies, especially interdisciplinary majors. Moreover, the students of Persian language and literature major gain no entrepreneurial experience and skill at university. Effective measures can be taken in this area by establishing entrepreneurship cores, holding workshops, sending students to various centers as apprentice, computer simulations, interviewing entrepreneurs, setting up student businesses, and conducting environmental explorations.

The Theory of Generations characterizes distinctive features for each generation; one of the important theories is the Theory of Digital Natives. For digital natives various features have been suggested among which “ pleasures of reading” and “ preferences for digital content” were investigated in the present study. This research seeks to answer “ whether digital natives enjoy reading and prefer e-books to print books” . To answer this question, a research conducted in two steps. In the first step, using descriptive survey method, the data of 172 students who were selected using a cluster sampling method from 300 educational science students population at University of Birjand were analyzed. In the second stage, after presenting the e-books in a semester, using the causal-comparative method, the behavioral patterns of reading e-book by students were compared, and their preferences for e-book were studied. Digital Native Scale was used as a research tool in both research phases. The results of extreme analysis using independent t-test showed that students who have more digital native characteristics are more pleased with reading. The results of a generational analysis of e-book preferences showed that students with digital native features prefer e-books but not as a source of academic study.

Course planning is an important task that is impossible without experimental studies and needs assessment of translation studies students. The present study aimed at investigating the content and materials employed in MA translation criticism course by the instructors of “ translated works criticism” unit in the MA course of translation. Moreover, it attempted to analyze translation students’ professional needs as translators and translation critics, regarding the course objectives. To this end, the MA translation students, PhD translation studies candidates, and translation instructors of three state universities were selected as the statistical population of the study. In order to study the statistical population, a pilot questionnaire was distributed among the students of the target population and simultaneously the target population’ s views on the course objectives and contents were asked through interview questions. Then, the data were analyzed and categorized, and 44 closed-end questions according to the 5 point Likert scale and 4 multi-choice questions in 4 areas were developed. The study of the answers revealed that there is no balance between the unit objectives and the expectations of the students and the unit has some deficiencies. Finally, some suggestions were made according to the findings.

Among the features which distinguish a monolingual dictionary from a bilingual one is the status of “ equivalents” . This feature is known as a main criterion in determining the success or failure of a bilingual dictionary. Thus, this criterion is introduced as one of the most significant criteria in any critical study and evaluation of bilingual dictionaries. Study of the present bilingual dictionaries reveals that despite the great breakthroughs in the development of English-Persian dictionaries, this trend cannot be seen in the field of Persian-English dictionaries. Therefore, while introducing the importance of equivalents as well as explaining the complexities and difficulties of equivalent selection in bilingual dictionaries, this paper on the basis of the theoretical framework of the study, analyzed equivalent selection method in Kimia Persian-English Dictionary as a reference book with didactic dimensions that has attracted many users in recent years. The findings indicate that in both choosing equivalents and presenting them, as two sub-criteria of the study, this dictionary suffers from serious shortcomings.

Writing textbooks for Arabic translation courses has been a great help to improve the quality of Arabic-Persian translations. Most of the books written in this regard have been on the principles of translation for political, economic, media, social, and sport texts. The important point in evaluation of these books is that while their advantages are appreciated, their shortcomings in terms of writing, structure and translation should not be ignored. Current Terms in Arabic Press is one of the books written on teaching translation and consists of extracts from Arabic press and their translations into Persian. Because of its didactic and academic nature, the book is supposed to be free of academic-related mistakes. On the basis of the observed data extracted from the text, a descriptive-analytical method was used. While appreciating the advantages of the book, this paper assesses its deficiencies, and to remove them, it offers some suggestions about the structure, content, writing style, and renderings. The findings indicate that the author failed to pay enough attention to the overall structure and necessities of the book such as using up-to-date content and methods, providing references, and delineating the teaching method. Moreover, taken literal translation as a method for rendering phrases and sentences from Arabic into Persian, the translator neglected translation principles and followed the source language syntax.