JOURNAL OF TEACHERS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Year:2019 | Volume:3 | Issue:4 |Papers Count:6

Since faculty members have important role in the quality and scientific capability of higher education, especially in terms of research and education of the elite and specialists, it is desirable that universities take basic steps towards developing the competencies of faculty members and plan to develop and enhance the full competencies of their faculty members. One of the means to this end is the use of knowledge management. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of knowledge management in the professional competence development of faculty members in the Farabi Campus of Tehran University. This study is an applied research which follows a descriptive /correlational method. The statistical population consisted of all faculty members of Farabi Campus in the University of Tehran in the academic year of 2017-2018 (N = 130). Out of this population, according to the Krejcie and Morgan table, 110 people were selected using simple random sampling method. Two standard questionnaires were used to collect data: The Lawson questionnaire to measure knowledge management and a researcher-made questionnaire to assess the professional competence of the faculty members. Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used to analyze the data. The results showed that the creation, absorption, dissemination, application, organization and storage dimensions, respectively, had the highest level of relationship with the tendency of the professors to develop professional competence.

The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of portfolio in a descriptive evaluation system from the viewpoint of teachers in primary schools in Tabriz. The research method is descriptive survey. The statistical population of the study consisted of 5054 primary school teachers in the academic year of 97-96. Sample size was selected based on Cochran formula from five regions in proportion to the population, (N = 357). A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data. Reliability of the questionnaire was calculated based on Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α = 0. 93). The validity of the questions was also confirmed by professors and specialists of curriculum development in Tabriz University. One-way ANOVA and single-group t-test were used to analyze the data. The results of this study showed that the level of familiarity with and satisfaction from the portfolio among teachers were significantly lower than the average, and the level of familiarity of teachers with how to set up the portfolio is significantly higher than the average. There was a significant difference between teachers with regard to their teaching experience, educational degree and age, but there was no significant difference in the level of teacher familiarity with the portfolio with regard to different educational degrees. Finally, there was not a significant difference between teachers in relation to their familiarity with using portfolios with regard to teaching experience, educational degree, field of study and age.

This research is aimed at assessing the feasibility of implementing the “ fundamental transformation document” in classrooms and schools in Iran`s education system, from the viewpoint of teachers and principals of primary schools of Yazd. In this study, using a descriptive survey method, the teachers’ opinion on 5 aspects of media, content, teaching, time and motivation, and the principals’ overall opinions were studied. The statistical population consisted of two groups of teachers and principals from primary schools of Yazd. 459 teachers and 186 principals were selected via stratified random sampling method based on the Krejcie-Morgan table. The research instruments were two researcher-made questionnaires whose reliability, using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, was calculated to be α = 0. 976 (for teachers’ version) and α = 0. 953 (for principals’ version). Moreover, to estimate the content validity of the instruments, expert judgement method was used. For data analysis, one sample T-test, two independent samples T-test, One-way ANOVA and Scheffe post-hoc test were used. The results showed that from the viewpoint of both groups of teachers and principals, the fundamental transformation document is operational in the classroom. From the perspective of teachers, in the aspects of content, time, and teaching, this document can be implemented in classrooms and schools of Yazd; but in the aspects of media, and motivation, the document cannot become operational. Finally, the results showed that from teachers' point of view, there is no significant difference in terms of gender, teaching periods, and educational degrees. But in the type of school (governmental, nongovernmental, support packages), the differences were significant. Female principals, in contrast to male principals, had a more positive attitude toward the implementation of the fundamental transformation document in schools.

The first step towards developing a teacher's professional development is to understand the factors that affect the quality of the teacher’ s activity. One of these factors is the job satisfaction of teachers as there is a direct relationship between employees’ satisfaction with their performance and those who are satisfied do their job better. In this study the role of different dimentions of social capital of school principals on job satisfaction of teachers has been studied. Concerning its objective, this study is an applied research and considering its data collection procedure, it is a descriptive research (correlational). The statistical population of this research consists of the employees of the education organization of district 2 of kermanshah province (327 people). 177 questionnaires were collected from the participants who were selected based on availability sampling procedure based on the Cochran formula. Cronbach’ s alpha was calculated for the instrument (0. 973). SPSS software version 22 were used to analyse the data. In this research, the effect of three dimensions of social capital (i. e. relational, cognitive, and structural dimentions) on the job satisfaction of teachers was investigated and the results showed that the hypotheses of the study were accepted at the significance level of 0. 05. From among different dimension of social capital, the structural dimension had the highest level of impact on the job satisfaction of the participants (0. 937). In the end, it is suggested that the managers of schools do their best to improve the level of job satisfaction, social capital and its elements.

This research was conducted with the aim of studying the effect of teachers' participatory behavior on the motivation and academic achievement of elementary students in District 3 of Karaj. This study is an applied research and in terms of performance, it uses a quasi-experimental method with experimental and control groups without any pre-test. The statistical population of the research consists of the 6th grade elementary students of the 3rd district of Karaj in the academic year of 2017-2018 (N = 8574). The statistical sample consisted of 2 groups (N = 30 for each group), which were selected based on convenience sampling method and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The instrument of this study was Hartler's Standard Higher Education Inventory (1981). Moreover, the students' academic reports were used as indicator of their academic achievement. In order to assess the content validity of the questionnaire, the expert judgement method was used and the reliability of the questionnaire was calculated by Cronbach's alpha (α = 0. 85). To analyze the data, independent samples T-test was used. The results showed that teachers' participatory behavior significantly affects the internal and external motivation and academic achievement of elementary students in District 3 of Karaj.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of social and cultural capital in the quality of work life and the happiness of elementary school teachers in the 3rd district of Tehran. This study is a descriptive-correlational research. The statistical population of this research includes all the teachers of the elementary school of district 3 of Tehran (N=390). The sampling method was cluster random sampling and according to Cochran formula, 194 subjects were selected as the sample. Data collection instruments included the Standard Social Capital Questionnaire (Nahapit & Ghoshal, 1998), the Standard Cultural Questionnaire (Bourdieu, 1997), the Quality of Work Life Questionnaire (Walton, 1974), and the Standard Happiness Questionnaire (Hills & Argill, 2002). The validity of the questionnaires was approved by the experts and the reliability was calculated via Cronbach's alpha coefficient. It turned out that the data were analyzed using K-S, Pearson correlation and multiple regression tests. The results of the study showed that there was significant positive relationship between social and cultural capital and quality of work life and teachers' happiness. The results also showed that cultural capital and its components were the most important predictor of happiness from the viewpoint of teachers. In fact, cultural capital, in contrast to social capital, was a stronger predictor of the teachers’ happiness. Finally, it was found out that happiness can be directly influenced by cultural factors.