JOURNAL OF THEORY AND PRACTICE IN CURRICULUM
Year:2018 | Volume:6 | Issue:11 |Papers Count:7

This study was conducted with aim of investigating profound experience of elementary male students in the fourth and fifth grades from the descriptive assessment. To this purpose, the method qualitative and phenomenological methods were employed to address the research questions. The purposeful sampling was used with regard to the nature and objectives of the study. The collected data were saturated by interviewing with 9 students. The final data were analyzed by Smith's Analysis Method and MAXQDA10 software and the obtained results were summarized and categorized as 5 themes and several subthemes. These themes included: "positive perception of descriptive assessment", "negative perception of descriptive assessment", "appropriate for bottom grades" pleasant for lazy students parents "and" harmful for lazy students". The findings of this study could guide authorities to examine the conditions of descriptive assessment, as well as the advantages and disadvantages. This could encourage and facilitate the attempts toward improvement and solving the current problems for eliminating or replacing this method.

Flourishing students' artistic capacities is among the major missions of education in the Document of Fundamental Reform. The five axes of artistic education including communication with nature, aesthetics, artistic production, familiarity with cultural and artistic history and heritage, and artistic criticism, along with the content structure of culture and art textbooks including visual arts, calligraphy, traditional arts, vocal arts and performing arts are all issues that should be considered by planners in developing potential human abilities. This study involved the content analysis of the culture and art textbooks of the junior secondary system in 2015-2016. Images, texts, and activities were taken as the unit of record. The encoding method was deductive following the topical and structural aspects of culture and art education. To validate the encoding process, a second rater encoded 10 percent of the content, indicating a correlation of 0. 89. The results revealed that artistic production, aesthetics, artistic criticism, familiarity with cultural and artistic history and heritage and communicating with nature are the most significant aspects of artistic education respectively. Additionally, visual arts, traditional arts, calligraphy, vocal arts, and performing arts are the main priorities. The study of the 3D model of curriculum structure showed the application of all three activity types (prescriptive, semi-prescriptive and non-prescriptive) in the textbooks, but their content needs to be reviewed regarding the coordination of activities with the educational content presented, the form of content integration, balance and diversity, and the lack of raising students’ motivation and creativity.

This purpose of this study was offering a systematic review and a meta-synthesis of the theoretical patterns and studies conducted with the aim of contrasting and comparing teacher training in Iran and worldwide. The approach used in this study included discretional qualitative research synthesis which was fulfilled through content analysis and metasynthesis. The total corpus for this study included studies, books, and theses conducted with contrastive goals in the field of teacher training in Iran and abroad during 2000 and 2017. The sample corpus included more than 10 books on contrastive education that was published in the past 15 years in Iran, 3 books in English, 35 studies, theses, and research in Persian and English. A conceptual framework was then formed based on the results for contrasting the teacher training systems which included 3 main aspects: a comprehensive program of education, social patterns and economic patterns.

Scientific disciplines evolve based on the modern needs of societies and curriculum is no exception. One of the recent concepts introduced in the curriculum area is curriculum counseling. Explaining and conceptualizing this concept could facilitate the improvement of the learning level and realizing the objectives of the curriculum. In this study, curriculum counseling was discussed as a new concept in curriculum studies. The approach employed in this research was qualitative with systematic review. The research data was collected through library studies and documentation. The findings of this study indicated that the concept of counseling curriculum has its theoretical basis and ground in new conceptualists’ theories, including phenomenology theory and autobiography of the curriculum. In addition, curriculum counseling could play an important role in improving the level of learning and the teaching-learning methods, and particularly the development and enhancement of learner personality within the framework of curriculum. Counseling and psychology could cooperate effectively in curriculum studies in order to achieve curriculum counseling goals.

The purpose of this study was to examine multicultural education in the content of Farsi textbooks of elementary education in Iran. This research was conducted within a qualitative framework and the qualitative content analysis method was used with a conventional (inductive) approach. The sampling method was purposeful and the sample included Farsi textbooks of all the grades of elementary education. The unit of analysis (record) was the theme, pictures and units of the textbooks. To determine the reliability of the qualitative content analysis method with the inductive approach, the review was conducted in two stages, one after completion of 10-50% of the categorizations and the other at the end of the research. Five categories were extracted as the result: introducing and paying attention to mother tongue of ethnoses; introducing celebrities; reflection of dressing style of ethnoses; cultural traditions of ethnoses and introducing cultural heritage. The analysis of the quality of the books showed that only the trace of dominant culture in the textbooks was observed. The findings show that the educational system seemingly seeks to implement a pattern of cultural assimilation that leads to the suppression of the languages and cultures of the Iranian minorities. This approach could bring about negative and reverse effects, and increase the awareness of the people of their identity and history and culture.

The main purpose of this study was to compare the performance of gradeskipped students with their peers in mathematical reasoning and applying. In this study, gender and mathematical selfconcept were considered as effective variables. This study was a part of a longitudinal study. The data analysis was performed through repeated measurements and the results showed that in applying math concepts, grade-skipped students outperformed their peers. However, there was no significant difference between grade-skipped students and their peers regarding the reasoning; although the 4thgrade students are better than the 3th-grade. The girls and boys showed the same function on applying, reasoning and between grade-skipped students and nongrade-skipped. Mathematical self-concept was also similar in three groups. It seems that grade-skipping does not have negative effects on math performance. Of course considering other academic contexts, emotional and social aspects and pursuing the effects of acceleration in long-term is necessary for informed decision-making in the field of grade-skipping.

Flipped classroom is a way to create positive changes in education; therefore, in the present study we tried to offer a comprehensive operating model of implementation of this method based on research synthesis. The corpus of this study consisted of all scientific articles published about the implementation of flipped classroom. From this corpus 1084 papers were identified through constant searching of the scientific data bases and a total of 100 articles were selected for the final analysis. A researcher-made worksheet form was used for the purpose of reporting and submitting information. The obtained data were analyzed through six-step model for metasynthesis Roberts using Open and axial coding techniques. According to the findings Curriculum Design in the flipped classroom includes a change in the structure of classroom which has defined different and new roles and responsibilities for teachers and learners.