Studies in Learning and Instruction
Year:2020 | Volume:11 | Issue:2 (77-2)|Papers Count:10

Introduction As Skinner, Kindermann, Connell and Wellborn (2009) believe, academic engagement is one of the main predictors of academic achievement, and it is quite significant the extent to which learners are interested in and committed to their academic activities and how well they are engaged in learning their various courses. In another definition of academic engagement, Schechty (2005) believes that students’ engagement in the school assignments means that assignments should attract the students so that thay gathers all their energy to accomplish the assignment and sustain their energy to the end of the task. Academic engagement is influenced by various factors such as cognition, classroom structure, learners' ability, teacher training, and environmental conditions (Covington, 1999). It seems one of the effective motivational factors on academic engagement is achievement goal. Pintrich (2000) states that the learners’ attempts to do their assignment are influenced by the goals they select for their education and for accomplishing the assignment. In this regard, the achievement goals theory proposes a framework for understanding the reasons why people display certain achievement behaviors (Barron, Evans, Baranik, Serpell & Buvinger, 2006). Another potentially influential factor on academic engagement is teacher’ feedback. Providing proper feedback by teachers helps the students to identify the main reasons for their success and failure. On the other hand, students use their intrinsic statement and thoughts, referred to as self-talk, when they engage in their academic activities. Depending on their age and position, such self-talks may be long or short, and may involve lips movements, or might be just in the form of a mind-passing thought. One of these self-talks is motivational self-talk. According to McCann and Garcia (1999), motivational self-talk increases the individual’ s attempt and resistance in obtaining their goals. Motivational goals policies focus on adjusting the motivational beliefs and include the student’ s attempt to remember the reason for completing assignments and ensure they have the abilities to accomplish the assignment successfully (Wolters & Benzon, 2013). Therefore, it seems the motivational self-talk is related to academic engagement. Hypotheses 1. Aspects of achievement goals predict the students' academic engagement. 2. Dimensions of teacher feedback predict the students' academic engagement. 3. Motivational self-talk mediates the relationship between achievement goals, teacher feedback, and academic engagement. Method The study adopted a descriptive (correlational) design. It examined the relationships between the research variables as a model. The aspects of the achievement goals and teacher feedback functioned as the independent variables, motivational self-talk was the mediator variable, and academic engagement served as the dependent variable in the model. The statistical population of this research included all female and male high school students (grades 10-12) in 2017-2018 academic year in Yazd (N = 15000). Cochran formula was used to determine the number of participants in the sample group. Accordingly, 400 students (211 females and 189 males) were selected through multistage cluster random sampling method so that district 2 from the two districts, and 3 schools out of all schools of this district, and 15 classes of these schools were randomly selected. The learners in the selected classes were provided with a consent letter and were allowed the opportunity to decide whether or not they wanted to participate in the research. Using the information about their latest classes, the participants filled in paper-and-pencil questionnaires related to the specified variables in the study. Results The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) suggested that, of the various dimensions of achievement goals, mastery goals positively predicted academic engagement both directly and indirectly, through the mediation of motivational self-talk. Performance approach goals, on the other hand, had a positive but indirect correlation with academic engagement. Nevertheless, no significant relationship was found between performance avoidance goals and academic engagement. The findings, on the other hand, revealed that the various dimensions of teacher feedback positively predicted academic engagement both directly and indirectly through the mediation of motivational self-talk. Discussion The results of data analysis using SEM showed that mastery goals can predict academic engagement both directly and indirectly. It can be claimed that students with mastery goals greatly respect understanding and seek learning even when they have a poor performance. On the other hand, the orientation of these goals guides the students’ self-talk toward mastery self-talk that is one aspect of the motivational self-talk. In addition, students with mastery goals emphasized trying more with perseverance to achieve their goals and succeed in their academic assignments using mastery self-talk. In addition, the obtained results from data analysis using SEM indicated that performance-approach goals indirectly predict academic engagement. Students with performance-approach goals more emphasize extrinsic goals while comparing their performance to that of others. Thus, the students’ learning activities and their engagement in academic assignments are determined by their extrinsic and relative ability self-talks in which they remind themselves respectively of the importance of getting good marks, the teacher’ s confirmation, and their peers’ acceptance, and of the importance of putting in a performance that is superior to that of their classmates. The findings further revealed that positive feedback can predict academic engagement both directly and indirectly. The direct effect indicates that positive feedback enhances the students’ academic performance. The indirect effect, on the other hand, can be explained as “ when a teacher has a positive feedback to the student, his/her feedback shows how much the student has approached the pre-determined goals and what gaps must be filled. Another finding of the present research was that negative feedback predicts academic engagement directly and indirectly. Students become disappointed when they receive the negative feedback from their teachers and gradually feel that do not have any control on their performance. Moreover, students make this feedback intrinsic. Therefore, through this negative self-talk, they make a negative perception about themselves and their attempts, which correspondingly brings emotions of shamefulness, humiliation, reject, and demoralization and thus reduces their academic engagement.

Introduction Faculty-student interaction is an important factor affecting student’ s academic life. It is in fact a form of academic involvement and a means for the students to socialize integrate in the university environment and could thus affect their development and learning (Chang, 2005; Kim & Sax, 2014). The study shows that efforts to improve student– faculty interaction will benefit all students, and improving these relationships would lead to more outcomes in terms of classroom engagement and cognitive skills (Kim & Lundberg, 2016). The associations between student– faculty interaction and students’ outcomes could be explained based on Astin’ s (1984), Tinto’ s (1997), and Weidman’ s (1989) models for the socialization process of university students. Accordingly, interactions between students and faculty can promote greater levels of academic engagement for students, which in turn leads to larger gains in academic outcomes (Kim & Lundberg, 2016). During the process of socialization, students acquire knowledge and skills that affect them as members of their academic society (Weidman, 1989). The faculty in this process, help students to develop networks that provide access to resources, guide them and introduce them to academic norms and values (Cole & Griffin, 2013). Nevertheless, a review of the literature suggests that no study has examined the associations between Faculty-student interaction, students’ academic self-challenge, sense of belonging, classroom engagement, and their cognitive skills in an Iranian academic context. Accordingly, the purpose of the present study was to explore the relationships between faculty– student interactions and the development of students’ cognitive skills, mediated by classroom engagement, sense of belonging, and academic self-challenge using a structural equation modeling (SEM). Hypotheses The present study aims to examine the mediating roles of students’ academic self-challenge, sense of belonging, and classroom engagement in their cognitive skills development. Accordingly, the following hypotheses were tested: 1. Faculty-student interaction affects students’ cognitive skills. 2. Faculty-student interaction affects students’ classroom engagement. 3. Faculty-student interaction affects students’ academic selfchallenge. 4. Faculty-student interaction affects students’ sense of belonging. 5. Academic self-challenge has a mediating effect on the students’ classroom engagement. 6. Sense of belonging has a mediating effect on students’ classroom engagement. 7. Classroom engagement has a mediating effect on students’ cognitive skills. Methods The study adopted a descriptive correlational design to verify the stated hypotheses. Participants and Procedures Participants were 415 undergraduate students from 10 faculties of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman during the 2017-2018 academic year. The instrument used was a 27-item questionnaire designed by the University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (2014) to assess the relationships between faculty– student interaction, the development of cognitive skills, classroom engagement, sense of belonging and academic self-challenge. The instrument reliability was measured through internal consistency method and the Cronbach’ alpha coefficient, estimated to be 0. 89. In addition, the construct validity of the instrument was confirmed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) in Amos Graphics modeling software (version 23) was used for data analysis. Results The findings showed that faculty-student interaction is a proper predictor for the development of students’ cognitive skills, and their classroom engagement, academic self-challenge and sense of belonging. The results also showed a positive and significant relationship between faculty-student interaction and the development of the students’ cognitive skills, mediated by classroom engagement. Neverthless, the effect of faculty-student interactions on classroom engagement, mediated by academic self-challenge and sense of belonging, was not significant. Discussion and Conclusion Previous research revealed that faculty-student interactions contribute to the development of students’ outcomes (Kim & Sax, 2014; Cox et al. 2010). The current study also suggested that faculty-student interaction is associated with the students’ cognitive skills. This finding is consistent with those of Kim and Lundberg (2016), Crombie et al. (2003), Gasiewski et al. (2012), Guiffrida et al. (2013), Kim and Sax (2011), Umbach and Wawrzynski (2005), and Kim et al. (2015). The results also suggested a significant association between faculty-student interaction and the development of students’ cognitive skills, mediated by classroom engagement. This finding is congruent with those of Cole (2007), Kuh and Hu (2001), and Pascarella and Terenzini (2005). One of the main contributions of this study is the finding that in Iranian academic context, faculty-student interaction, mediated by classroom engagement, could increase the students’ cognitive skills. Accordingly, we recommend future studies to concentrate on the effects of other psychological or sociological elements while exploring the contributions of student– faculty interaction to academic outcomes. Moreover, the issue of faculty-student interactions could be pursued in future research, considering demographic differences, such as gender, and academic discipline among students. In conclusion, the results shed light on the effects of the student– faculty interaction on students’ academic self-challenge, sense of belonging, classroom engagement, and cognitive skills in an Iranian academic context. These findings have important implications for the role of facultystudent interaction in increasing and development of academic outcomes of students. The findings also have implications for curriculum planners in universities to consider the faculty-student interaction as a pivotal variable that could affect curriculum elements such as the teachinglearning process and evaluation strategies.

Introduction Due to the importance and the role of higher education in the world, different countries have made attempts to keep their higher education dynamic and provide constant evaluation of its main components. As one of the components of higher education, students have been attracted to this system with their various expectations. The increased population of students as well as the rise in the number and variety of higher education institutions have led to higher expectations of higher education (Brinkworth et al, 2009). After their admission to university, as a result of their interaction with other participants there (e. g. students, professors, staff), students might find their expectations and goals challenged and might revise some; accordingly, they might get further attracted to or may tend to skip university (Ailes et al, 2017) in that the gap between their expectations and experiences could cause them to feel discouraged, stressed, and uncertain about their goals (Basow & Gaugler, 2017). Studies have revealed a wide variety of such expectations and goals, which are essential for keeping higher education active and dynamic. Nevertheless, it might not be always possible for higher education to respond to and meet all such demands due to the limitations in public and governmental resources. Hence, it is necessary to identify and recognize the different aspects of these expectations in order to keep higher education active and dynamic. Identifying the valid components of different aspects of these expectations can help the authorities in macro educational planning to estimate the possibility of their fulfilment and to keep the educational settings dynamic through the programs and goals consistent with the participants’ expectations. Students' lack of hope of fulfilling their demands on their fields of study will cause adverse effects on their objective and motivation for learning as well as their responsibility and future efficiency (Salehi et al, 2010). Studies have also shown that the students whose experiences are not in line with their expectations are more likely to get frustrated and disappointed, which will correspondingly affect their performance (Byrne et al, 2012). Factors such as the development of communities, the generation differences, and the technology changes in today’ s students all point to their difference with their previous generations. Students have become more demanding and try to meet their needs and expectations; hence, further research must be conducted to verify the students' expectations of higher education. Such findings are significant in that they can enable higher education planners find a way to communicate closely with the students by understanding their expectations. Thus, they can provide the necessary planning to gain the students' satisfaction, which can respectively contribute to the development of the society through increasing motivation in the educated people. Therefore, this study aimed at validating the components of doctoral students' expectations from the higher education. Research questions The present study was an attempt to design a valid questionnaire to assess the validity of the components of doctoral students' expectations from higher education. Therefore, the study had two main objectives: first, designing an accurate questionnaire, and second, determining the validity of its factor structure. The question that guided the study concerned whether these components are valid among doctoral students in Iran. Methods Using the identified components presented in Nourian and Ghalamkari's (2019) qualitative study, a research-made questionnaire was prepared. Cronbach’ s alpha and confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were used to confirm the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. The population consisted of the doctoral students in Tehran (55515 students). 382 students were selected as the sample through stratified random sampling method. The results were analyzed using structural equation testing using AMOS. Results The results indicated that the components specified for the doctoral students' expectations of higher education are well validated with 31 major themes and 7 subthemes (considering the students’ conditions, giving them social dignity, providing services and proper educational facilities, opening up opportunities for their employment, providing financial and scientific support and efficient management, and improving their personal and social life). The subthemes of considering the students’ conditions and social dignity and improving their personal and social life were below the average levels in explaining the doctoral students' expectations from higher education. On the other hand, the subthemes of providing services and proper educational facilities had the highest contribution in explaining the expectations. Contribution to employment was ranked upper than the average levels. However, financial support had the highest level after the subthemes of providing services and proper educational facilities. Offerinf scientific support was the third component in explaining the expectations. Efficient management, however, was in a lower than average level in explaining the doctoral students' expectations of higher education. In sum, services and proper educational facilities were ranked as the subthemes with the highest contribution to explaining the doctoral students' expectations of higher education and the subthemes of improving personal and social life and considering the students' conditions and social dignity had the lowest contribution. Discussion and Conclusion Studies on the students' expectations of higher education are mostly focused on one dimension. Considering the importance of studying the students' expectations of higher education, it is required to suggest valid and comprehensive components to provide a better understanding. Each identified component has been individually discussed in other studies, but examination of all components provides the basis for a major review of the higher education system. The present study demonstrated that students' expectations had various dimensions. Thus, considering the multiple dimensions of students' expectations at the same time and attempting to meet them can lead to the students' increased satisfaction. Regarding these components as a whole as well as the individual contribution of each subtheme and category in explaining the expectation can contribute to providing appropriate strategies and programs. In addition, increasing motivation among students can direct them towards the development of themselves and the society.

Introduction Academic dishonesty is a common immoral behavior in educational settings (Jowkar & Haghnegahdar, 2016), helping people achieve desired but unfair, illegal and inaccurate results such as lying, hiding the truth, cheating, deceiving and so on (Oran, Can, Ş enol, & Hadı mlı , 2016). In general, academic dishonesty involves two types of cheating: cheating on examinations and cheating on assignments. Cheating on assignments involves, for instance, tasks that should be done as individual work but are in a group with the help of others; it could further include plagiarism, or using someone else’ s ideas without citing the sources. Cheating on examinations, which involve copying from another student during a quiz or examination, or attempting to illegally obtain questions and answer keys, are also instances of cheating on assignments (Pincus & Schmelkin, 2003; Rettinger & Kramer, 2009). Academic dishonesty is considered an illegal (Jowkar & Haghnegahdar, 2016), detrimental (Kashkoli, 2017) and counterproductive (Mahbod & Fouladchang, 2017) behavior, and according to Pekrun’ s (2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions, metacognitive states and emotions plays a key role in determining academic behavior. Accordingly, in this study mindfulness, as a metacognitive state, and hopefulness, as an achievement emotion, were examined in a casual model, correspondingly as the far and near antecedents of academic dishonesty. In Pekrun’ s (2006) control-value theory, hopefulness has been proposed as a positive prospective outcome emotion that negatively evaluates failure and has a positive estimation of success and thus motivates the individual in achievement path. Previous research has demonstrated a negative relationship between hopefulness and academic dishonesty (Farid, 2017), procrastination (Hicks & Yao, 2015), and academic avoidance (Barani, Rahpeima & Khormaei, 2019). The necessity of hope for changing the future is to perceive the present moment and to own it. If it isn’ t done, it will lose the next moment and so on (Munoz et al., 2018). Therefore, mindfulness is a quality which can help people to live in the present. Mindfulness as a state of awareness, is associated with purified or revised attention skills, and judgmental attitude of internal and external events. (Malinowski & Lim, 2015). The review of the literature shows that mindfulness has a positive impact on hope (Ghasemi-Jobaneh, Zahrakar, Hamdami, & Karimi, 2016; Malinowski & Lim, 2015; Movahedzade & Shahveisi, 2017). Research Hypothesis The present study aims to investigate the hypothesis that hopefulness has a mediating role in the relationships between mindfulness and academic dishonesty. Methods A correlational design and structural equation modeling were used to test the research hypothesis. The population encompassed all the middle school students studying during 1397-98 in Darab, a city in Fars province, Iran. All the participant (N=295, Male=141 and Female=154) were selected through random cluster sampling. They were within the age range of 12-14, with a mean of 13. 28 and a standard deviation of 0. 96. The students answered the mindfulness, hopefulness and academic dishonesty questionnaires. Results The correlation between all variables was significant, making it possible to analyze the model. Mindfulness had a positive significant relationship with hopefulness (β = 0. 47, p = 0. 002). On the other hand, hopefulness had a negative significant relationship with academic dishonesty (β = 0. 38, p = 0. 003). Hopefulness did not have a direct effect, but it was found to mediate the relationship between mindfulness and academic dishonesty (β = 0. 18, p = 0. 002). Discussion and Conclusion In the results of the study, mindfulness had a positive and significant effect on hopefulness. Mindfulness, by focusing on the people’ s present awareness and attention (Wampold, et al., 2010), can help them to accept their feelings without any judgment or suppression (Baer, Smith, Hopkins, Krietemeyer, & Toney, 2006). This immediate acceptance empowers the individual to deal with various situations, especially challenges and educational opportunities. In other words, one can understand the situation well by understanding and accepting one's own emotions and thoughts, as well as considering and accepting one's own abilities. Additionally, he/she will be able to reflect on his/her feelings and emotions about the goal, see the obstacles on the way to the goal, create multiple ways to deal with the challenges they face, and thus plan to meet the goal. This ability to understand obstacles and devise and plan multiple ways to deal with them constitutes navigator thinking part of the hopefulness variable (Snyder, 2000), and will the individual to gain more positive energy to deal with the challenges. On the other hand, the results further suggested a negative and significant effect for hope on academic dishonesty. Hopefulness increases the students’ positive emotions about and attitude toward the future, creates a supportive atmosphere, and increases their adaptability (Barani et al., 2019; Feldman & Kubota, 2015); thereby, it allows them not to regard their academic performance as an indication of their own self-worth and thus not to display undesirable behaviors such as academic dishonesty to enhance their academic performance. On the other hand, the results of the study revealed a mediating role for hope in the relationship between mindfulness and academic dishonesty. In addition, mindfulness was found to enhance navigator thinking abilities by giving the individual information about themselves, increasing their understanding of their emotions, thoughts, and abilities. Accordingly, navigator thinking can increase the individual’ s hope of finding multiple ways to deal with challenges, and can enhance their agent thinking by empowering them to overcome academic difficulties and challenges, hereby reducing chances of academic dishonesty.

Introduction Adolescence is a period of special vulnerability that is usually associated with an increased incidence of mental disorders from the mid to late stages (Sunitha, & Gururaj, 2014). The students living in boarding schools have many problems with their accommodation and conditions and face many stressful adverse events such as increased involvement with peers and adjustment problems (Gao, 2014). Based on the results of the study conducted by Hossey and Gao (2005), mental disorders and behavioral and educational problems are higher among the students and adolescents living in boarding schools than those living with their families. The results also showed that the students in boarding schools have lower self-esteem and poorer social skills. One of the internal factors that can help boarding school students to keep psychologically healthy, despite the difficulties they face at school, is their “ psychological resilience” . The boarding school students with higher "psychological resilience" are better able to adapt to the environment and this affects their social relationships and "academic performance" (Skinner, 1992). A contributing factor to the process of resilience and adjustment, in adolescents in general and those living in boarding school in particular, is social-emotional skills training that has emerged in the late twentieth century as a serious topic in the process of personal transformation (Crane, 2015/1396). The results of the study by Ratcliffe, Wong, Dossetor & Hayes (2014) showed that socialemotional skills training increases emotional skills and social competence, resulting in overall mental health. Previous studies corroborate the effectiveness of social-emotional skills training in enhancing the learners’ adaptability and the ability to communicate effectively and accept social responsibility; with this being a purpose of education to boost such abilities of the learners, it can be argued that social-emotional skills training is quite essential for them (Behpajuh, Soleimani, Afruz, & Lavasani, 2010). Thus, this study aimed at investigating the effect of social-emotional skills training on the resilience and adjustment of boarding school students. The findings of this study can be used by parents, teachers, and counselors to empower adolescents to pass this stressful period of life. Research Questions Does social-emotional skills training have a significant impact on the resilience and adjustment of male adolescent students in boarding schools? Methodology The study adopted a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest and control group. The statistical population consisted of the first high school male students in boarding schools in Neyshabur in the academic year 2017-2018, among whom 100 students were selected through available sampling method and completed the Resilience and Adjustment Scale. Subsequently, 30 students whose resilience and adjustment scores were lower than average were selected as the participants in the study. The justification for their selection was that they were found more in need of social-emotional training than others and could benefit more from the experiment involved in the study than others. The participants were randomly assigned to the experimental (N = 15) and control (N = 15) groups. The experimental group received 8 sessions of social-emotional skills training. Results The findings of the study showed a significant improvement in the resilience and adjustment of the students in the experimental group, as compared to those in the control group. Therefore, social-emotional skills training can significantly increase resilience and adjustment in boarding school students. Discussion and Conclusion Explaining the above findings, it can be argued that people with the emotional knowledge needed to cope with can identify their emotions can build positive relationships, make complex decisions, and enhance their conflict management skills (Adibsereshki et al., 2019). According to Judge (2005), positive interpersonal skills act as protective and supportive agents of resilience and produce valuable results in the coping process. In this regard, Howard, Dryden, and Johnson (1999) believe that the best way to enhance the students' resilience is to design curricula based on the principles of social-emotional skills training. According to the results of the present study, training social-emotional skills significantly increased the adjustment of the experimental group, revealing the effectiveness of social-emotional skills training. Therefore, the social-emotional skills training program helps individuals to increase their self-awareness, emotion recognition, interpersonal relationships, empathy, flexibility to changes, emotion control, and the ability to express themselves in the face of negative experiences and adapt successfully to the conditions. It can be argued that social-emotional skills training increases the resilience and adjustment in boarding school students and is especially necessary for teenage students in boarding schools, who have poor coping skills. Thus, schools should strive to implement resilience and adjustment strategies as part of their curriculum, and the curriculum, especially in boarding schools, should go beyond the formal one. Future research can focus on enhancing such skills for teachers in these schools. In addition, due to the limitations of the present research, follow-up study was not possible, and future studies can more effectively investigate the impact of this training program by conducting a follow-up study. Moreover, since the research instrument used in this study was a questionnaire, due to the limitations in explaining the results of the questionnaire, it is better to use behavioral observation of the boarding school students to evaluate the effect of the educational program.

Introduction First coined by Andrew Jameton (1984), moral distress refers to the stress caused by intending to pursue a morally preferred action but being unable to do so because of barriers. Although there is a large body of research devoted to moral distress that primarily describes the negative outcomes of morally stressful situations, there is no widely used phrase to describe the opposite: the positive outcomes of morally distressing situations. Hence, in recent years, researchers have begun to study morally distressful situations from opposite side and as an opportunity to develop moral resilience. Based on recent research, moral resilience can be described from three main perspectives. In the first perspective, moral resilience is believed to enable a person to navigate a morally complex situation. Moral resilience can, therefore, reduce negative consequences, including moral distress. Johnson (2011), for example, describes moral resilience as a coping strategy, which allows a person to reframe a moral situation into a challenge over which the person has a level of control. Similarly, Monteverde (2014b) explains how moral resilience helps individuals deal with morally stressful situations by helping individuals manage moral complexity. In the second perspective, moral resilience is regarded as a slight variation of the fifth antecedent theme, which states that a lower amount of perceived moral distress in a given situation leads to moral resilience. The lowering of perceived moral distress not only leads to moral resilience, but in the active sense, is moral resilience itself. Monteverde defines moral resilience as “ a reduction of moral distress in a given axis of time measured by a validated tool” (Monteverde, 2014a). By this definition, it is hard to pinpoint conceptually whether the moral resilience of an individual is fostered after moral distress has decreased or whether the two phenomena are simultaneously occurring. For this reason, we listed this theme as both an antecedent and an attribute. In the third perspective, moral resilience is defined as the ability to hold true to one’ s values and convictions in order to do what is morally correct, a key feature of integrity. Oser and Reichenbach (2005) explain moral resilience as resisting the temptation and pressure to be successful and instead, putting aside success to live up to ones convictions. Although their focus is outside health care, the authors consider attorneys who risk the outcome of their case out of a drive to be honest. This would put aside larger success in order to adhere to their moral convictions. To them, moral resilience is attempting to bring good under conditions of risk (Oser & Reichenbach, 2005). Baratz (2015) also explains the importance of adhering to moral principles at all costs and explains moral resilience as the ability of an individual to cope with situations using values that he or she believes in, even when it is difficult to do so. These descriptions point to integrity as a critical attribute. Little research has been done on moral resilience, and the ones that have been conducted were limited to the field of medicine and the moral adversity in this field. Moreover, these studies have only addressed the conceptualization of moral resilience but have not focused on the operationalization of this construct; besides, in all these studies moral resilience was measured only in terms of moral distress scale constructs (Monteverde, 2016). Therefore, to address the stated gaps in the literature, the present study aimed to conceptualize moral resilience in the context of academic moral adversity. In this regard, the study introduces a new construct called “ academic moral resilience” and provides a tool for measuring it and determining its psychometric properties. Academic moral resilience conceptualized as a new dimension of the moral resilience construct is defined as the capacity to maintain and restore integrity in the face of moral adversity in the field of education. Research Questions or Hypothesis Does academic moral resilience scale have a desirable validity and reliability? Methods Inspired by the available tools for measuring moral distress, the 26-item academic moral resilience scale was developed by interviewing students and reviewing professional ethics codes in education. In order to investigate the psychometric properties of the scale, 500 student (330 girls and 170 boys) at Shiraz University were selected using the random cluster sampling method to respond to the academic moral resilience scale. Moreover, to investigate the convergent validity of the scale, Connor Davidson resilience scale, moral efficacy, moral identity, shame and guilt feeling and moral disengagement scales were used. Results The results of the exploratory factor analysis using principal components method with varimax rotation indicated three factors in the scale that were named disrespect, lack of commitment, unjustness and unfairness respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis results also confirmed the three-factor structure of the academic moral resilience scale. The convergent validity of the scale also confirmed the construct validity of the scale. Correspondingly, Cronbach’ s alpha coefficient for disrespect, lack of commitment, unjustness, unfairness, and the total scores were 0/85, 0/82, 0/70 and 0/89. Discussion and Conclusion Overall, the results confirmed the construct validity and desirable reliability of the scale. The results of the exploratory factor analysis showed three factors in the scale. Apparently, justice, respect for others, and commitment were the most important moral values among the students whose violation could make them morally distressed. Moreover, based on the results, there was a positive correlation between academic moral resilience and moral efficacy, feeling of guilt, resiliency, and moral identity. On the other hand, there was a negative correlation between academic moral resilience and moral disengagement and sense of shame. These results confirm the convergent validity of the academic moral resilience scale. The findings, hereby, corroborated the construct validity as well as the reliability of the academic moral resilience scale. This provides the basis for using this scale in future research and can open new ways for expanding and conducting researches on moral adversity in educational contexts.

Introduction Over the the last few decades, researchers in general, and psychologists in particular have become interested in the concept of academic engagement as a way to reduce student boredom and enhance their motivation and academic achievement. Fredricks (2004) described academic engagement as a malleable, developing, and multidimensional construct that consists of three broad dimensions: behavioral, cognitive, and emotional. The dimensions, according to the author, are not isolated but interrelate with each other. Behavioral engagement is a directly observable dimension of engagement, and the salient indicators of this dimension include truancy, preparation for school, attendance, participation in curricular and extracurricular tasks, and discipline referrals. The cognitive engagement dimension refers to the students’ investment in learning and encompasses aspects such as willingness and thoughtfulness to expend the effort required to understand and master difficult tasks. Finally, emotional engagement refers to the same features of emotional engagement, which describe the students’ positive and negative emotional index towards their teachers, classmates, academic tasks, and school in general (Fredricks et al., 2004). Presence of interest and happiness and the lack of boredom, anxiety, and sadness are indices of emotional engagement. It is known that contextual factors, including perception of the classroom, is the strongest variable to influence academic engagement. In this regard, research suggests that such dimensions of the students’ perception of the classroom as their belonging to the classroom, support from the teacher, cooperation, investigation, equality, and task orientation are important factors that can positively predict the students’ academic engagement and success. In addition, research findings suggest that self-determination, especially intrinsic motivation, is an important variable affecting academic engagement. Regarding motivation, studies of self-determination suggest that people have different motivations for being involved in the workplace, school, and other places. Review of the literature about motivation indicates that humans have four different kinds of motivation that can be considered along a continuum. External motivation is about involvement in activities associated with rewards and punishment when the situation dictates it. A type of motivation has also been characterized as the motivation in which people are involved in an activity due to its significance or even the value they attach to their own goals. Intrinsic motivation, which is more autonomous, refers to involvement in behavior for the sake of pleasure. In the end, amotivation, or absence of motivation, applies to a condition under which one fails to act because they do not find it significant. Many researchers have suggested that classroom context can affect the learners’ motivation, leading to positive outcomes such as persistence, academic engagement and academic success. Although the previous studies have confirmed the positive relationships between perception of classroom, academic motivation, and academic engagement, they did not clearly mention the mechanism of these relationships. Therefore, the main objective of the present study was to explore the effect of classroom perception on academic engagement, while considering the mediating role of academic motivation in this regard. Therefore, based on our research purpose, three research hypotheses were generated: 1-There is a relationship between perception of classroom and academic engagement. 2-There is a relationship between perception of classroom and academic motivation. 3-Academic motivation plays a mediation role in the relationship between perception of classroom and academic engagement. Method The research was a correlation study, using structural equation modeling (SEQ) as the data analysis technique. The population included all high school students in Ghaemieh. Of this population, a sample was selected of 300 high school students (100 males, 200 females) through random multistage cluster sampling. Having been informed of the purpose of the study, investigating their classroom perception, academic motivation, and academic engagement, the participants signed an informed consent form. Subsequently, they completed three questionnaires including classroom perception from, academic engagement inventory, and the situational motivational scale. SEQ was run as the statistical technique for analyzing the data. Results The results of SEQ showed that in the measurement model the indicator variables could measure the latent variables appropriately. In addition, the results suggested that the components of classroom perception (i. e. belonging to classroom, receiving support from the teacher, cooperation, equality, and task orientation) could affect academic engagement and academic motivation. It was further found that academic motivation could have a mediating role in the relationship between classroom perception and academic engagement. To evaluate the model, multiple indexes of fitness were used which corroborated the fitness of the models for the data. Discussion The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of academic motivation in the relationship between classroom perception and academic engagement. The results of SEQ suggested that the proposed model fits the research data quite well. The findings also showed that Academic motivation depends on the classroom environment and affects academic engagement. The components of classroom perception, namely belonging to the classroom, receiving support from the teacher, cooperation, equality, and task orientation, affected academic Motivation. In sum, the findings corroborated the appropriateness of the presumed model in accounting for the impact of the classroom environment on academic engagement. The results of the research could be insightful for teachers and educators, trying to enhance the learners’ academic engagement. The teachers should orient the learners to the tasks and teach them discovery methods to strengthen their intrinsic motivation and thereby improve the learners’ academic engagement. It is recommended that the teachers encourage cooperation, investigation, equality, and task orientation in the classroom and support the learners’ autonomy so as to enhance their intrinsic motivation and active engagement in their academic studies.

Introduction Today, understanding globalization as a phenomenon that affects all aspects of human life, is more than ever possible. As a process integrating international, cross-cultural and global dimensions into the goals, functions and method of education, globalization has had a tremendous impact on all aspects of human life including culture and higher education. One of the goals of educational systems around the world is to train effective and active citizens for the community as the future of every nation depends on the level of ability and awareness of its citizens as well as the kind of vision they have of various issues. In fact, citizenship education seeks to teach people how to become informed, active and responsible citizens and to achieve their rightful place and role in an urban, national and global society. In other words, in the age of globalization, citizenship education has three important tasks: a) helping young people to increasingly coexist in local communities, b) helping the national community, and c) bringing social stability and cohesion in the interconnected world. Nevertheless, facing global challenges requires global awareness and collective action. The aim of the present study was to identify and validate the components of global citizenship education, adopting a sequential-exploratory mixed methods design that involved conducting quantitative descriptive survey for data collection and qualitative thematic analysis for data analysis. Research Questions 1. What are the components of global citizenship education from the experts’ point of view? 2. Do the components of global citizen education have the necessary validity? Methods Potential participants in the qualitative sector consisted of globalization and higher education professionals with scientific expertise or practical experience in the realm of globalization education. Accordingly, 15 participants were selected using snowball sampling method. On the other hand, the statistical population for the quantitative sector of the study included all the postgraduate students (MA and Ph. D. ) at Semnan and Shiraz Universities. Of this population, 194 students were selected as the sample via stratified random sampling method. To collect data, a researcher-made questionnaire was used whose components were extracted from the qualitative thematic analysis conducted in the qualitative part of the study. The global citizen education questionnaire consisted of 47 items, devoted to seven main components, each emphasizing the development of a citizen with the following features: a) ethicality, b) commitment to social responsibilities, c) dedication to peace, d) concern about the environment, e) global identity, f) global competence, and g) theoretical/practical abilities. Of the 47 items in the questionnaire, five items were devoted to each of the first three components, seven to the fourth component, 8 to the fifth, 7 to the sixth, and 10 to the last component. All the items in the questionnaire were scored on a sevenpoint Likert scale ranging from very low (1) to very high (7). Overall, 230 questionnaires were administered among the participants, of which 194 could be used for further analysis in the study. Cronbach’ s alpha coefficient was calculated to determine the reliability of each component in the questionnaire. The indices for each component were correspondingly as follows: a) ethicality (0. 886), b) commitment to social responsibilities (0. 822), c) dedication to peace (0. 878), d) concern about the environment (0. 932), e) global identity (0. 915), f) global competence (0. 910), and g) theoretical/practical abilities (0. 924). The values suggested an acceptable level of reliability for all the components in the questionnaire. Results The results of the qualitative data analysis lead to the identification of 47 basic items in the field of global citizenship education that were organized into seven pivotal components (moral education, civil rights education, human rights education, environmental education, social-cultural education, global competence education, scientific-practical education). The data were collected using a questionnaire developed in the qualitative phase of the study. The questionnaire had 7 factors and 47 markers. The participants having filled out the questionnaire, the reliability of the instrument was assessed using Cronbach’ s alpha coefficient; exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were also conducted to verify the validity of the questionnaire. The results corroborated both the reliability and validity of the questionnaire with 7 components and 47 items as a tool for measuring global citizenship. Discussion and conclusion In the age of globalization, it is vital for any country to have citizens with global features, able to solve global problems such as soil degradation, habitat destruction, extinction of some animal and plant species, deforestation, the spread of global poverty and human rights violation, which are beyond national borders. Hence, there is a need for global citizenship education because solving such global issues requires the simultaneous realization of global membership, rights, duties, responsibilities and participation which is only possible through the institutionalization of global citizenship. The results of the study confirmed the importance of informing students of their civil and citizenship rights, ethical and environmental duties and their responsibilities as citizens in the global community. The finding highlights the significance of developing and designing activities in the field of global citizenship education, including offering courses in this field, and developing curriculum content for this purpose. The results further bring to light the salience of educating learners in other aspects of global competence, including the willingness to resolve conflicts with others peacefully, awareness of current issues in international relations, expressing their opinions in a local media about global inequality, the ability to solve global problems, awareness of their role in the global community, the ability to draw people’ s attention to global issues, and getting ready to live in the community. The codes extracted in this study can pave the way for more in-depth research on the other dimensions of the global citizenship education program. Finally, it is recommended that educational institutions provide the necessary conditions for fostering the students’ intellectual and moral opportunities.

Introduction Blindness is the most common sensory disability. It is commonly said that students who are not able to use their eyes in educational activities rely on their other senses (Elahi, 2016). One of the most important components of an effective intervention for students with visual impairment is proper and appropriate education for communicationwith the environment and surroundings because visual problems may lead to decreased communication and a sense of inadequacy and depression (lack of emotion control). This low self-esteemin students with visual impairment may influence their active participation in the teaching process (Norouzi, Ashouri, Ghalamazan and Kalantari, 2018). It may also result in increased social anxiety, communication problems, and maladaptive coping skills in the future, so students with visual impairments interact less with those around them (Arjmandnia, Azimigaroosi, Vatani, and Kazemirezaei, 1396). Moreover, the lack of communication or ineffective communication will also cause many problems in these individuals, including disruption of the communication pattern of dialogue, listening, and nonverbal skills (Jarrahi& Nejat, 2015). That is, they are unable to mimic individuals' moods and therefore cannot develop one of the most important components of the direct communication system, "body language", and this could reduce their ability to effectively express their intentions. The intentions of spoken words and the subtleties of nonverbal communication make a difference (Mohammad Youssef, Sharifi Daramadi&Aghaei, 1977). Therefore, to improve the communication skills of students with visual impairment and to develop their adaptation schemas, interventions that are based on social-communication skills training should be used. Body language is also one of the programs that often relies on the theory of bodily cognition (the study of the multidimensional relationships between cognition, emotions, motivations, and physical states), which uses external stimuli to activate the external environment. Relevant mental representations, including emotion regulation and self-concept, can be used as effective interventions and applications to improve communication skills and improve people's health, because individuals are more involved in their interactions and relationships. Words benefit from nonverbal communication (body language) (Segal, 2011). In the body language training program, one learns a model of communication skills that uses self-knowledge and, after learning the techniques of body posture, nodding, facial expressions, voice and tone, develops adaptive behaviors. As a result, the ability to adopt communication skills improves, thereby enhancing the social relationships of students with visual impairments. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of body language training on communication skills of students with visual impairment in Ahvaz. Hypothesis Body language skills training affects the communication skills of students with visual impairments. Methods The present study was a pilot study with pre-test, post-test and control group design. The study population consisted of all blind students who were studying in Ahvaz during the academic year 2017-2018. Using purposive sampling method, 16 blind students of Shiraz School of Ahwaz were selected and assigned randomly into two experimental and control groups. The experimental group received 9 sessions of training program. Attarha and Karami Communication Skills Questionnaire (2010) was used for data collection. Findings Data were analyzed runningMANCOVA withSPSS software. The results showed that body language skills training had a significant effect on the communication skills of blind students and the emotion management subscales (p <0. 05). Discussion and Conclusion The results showed that body language skills training was significantly effective and could enhance the students' communication skills, hence the increase in the total score of communication skills and emotion management subscale of the experimental group from pretest to posttest. In explaining this finding, it can be said that since more than 70% of social interactions involve communication in the non-literal sense of using body language, acquisition and use of body language can provide the basis for this form of communication for students with visual impairments (Kosser, 2016). The basis for the formation of cognition and emotion management in body language skills relates to sensory and motor experiences that in turn affect psychological states and affect behavioral outcomes and facilitate social communication (Shafiei and Ghasemzadeh, 2018). Likewise, the use of sensory-motor dimensions can facilitate intrapsychological experiences. For instance, face shaking induces sadness, or guilt can be alleviated by physical handwashing after committing immoral acts (Abbasi et al., 2015). Such effective interpretations of one's body language affect one's feelings and perceptions of others, and by establishing an effective social connection, it reduces behavioral problems that cause self-harm and impede social communication, and ultimately result in adaptive behaviors. . In general, body language program, which is one of the interventional methods of the whole body, often emphasizes conscious regulation of behavior and emotion, and embodies acceptance of learning and body orientation.