JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND PLANNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Year:2002 | Volume:8 | Issue:1,2 (23-24)|Papers Count:7

The present article is an attempt to review the ethical, epistemological, and political foundations of educational evaluation. In ethical domain the ethical objectivism and the ethical subjectivism are discussed, and the two main schools of thought, the uteliterianist and intutionalist are presented. In epistemological domain, the naturalist, the empericist, and the pluralist points of views are discussed and the main variables of each are compared. In discussing the political foundations of educational evaluation process, two main points of views, the one emphasizing on the role of the government, and the one emphasizing the role of public are compared and the consequences of each are pinpointed. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of different evaluation models with respect to their relationship, ethical, epistemological, and political concerns.

Evaluation is one of the most complicated mental processes. Vagueness of concept and qualitative aspects of referees understanding are the main sources of uncertainties in evaluation. Fuzzy logic theory is a powerful tool I which can model these vagueness and uncertainties and has been applied to many practical problems. In this paper, the subject of academic books evaluation has been described and its important criteria have been discussed. Then using fuzzy logic principles, an expert system has been developed to model vagueness of different evaluation aspects. The main result of this paper is design of a Fuzzy -based expert system which can model and simulate expertness of referees and can help the intelligent human to manipulate and process different uncertain indices and finally extract an exact result which can simulate the expertness. The proposed system has been applied to a practical evaluation problem and through it the approach has been explained and discussed.

This article evaluates use of computer communication technologies in promoting university education from social psychological point of view. The article is based on three series of studies: observation of class discussions via the Internet (discussion groups), a comparison between the most active and the active discussion groups using computer communications, and a survey asking students motivations and attitudes about use of internet. Results show that there are complicated social-psychological-organizational interaction processes when computer technologies are used for education. According to the findings, among 2512 courses offered at Carleton University, only 574 courses (22%) were using the Internet system to participate in discussion groups and to exchange information about the material taught in the class. From these 574 classes, only 164 classes -- (6.5%) had used the Internet discussion groups at least 10 times during a term. The results of survey also indicate that lack of interest in using computer communication technologies is due to social psychological reason. The most important reasons were lack of enough time and then lack of motivation and interest. The results indicate that effective use of computer communication for education needs more social -psychological –organizational preparation than the availability of computer technologies.

Human Capital has an important place in economic development literature. These studies fill the gap between growth of production and growth of production factors. The present article investigates the role of human capital in economic growth of Iran and emphasizes on the macro aspects of human capital. First, MRW model is explained, then the role of human capital variables (registration rates in different levels, number of schooling years and educational expenditures) are investigated. The coefficients indicate that all these variables have significant and positive effects on economic growth. The role of skilled labor forces in economic growth of industrial, agricultural, and service sectors were also assessed. The coefficients were all positive and significant.

Attitudes and views towards pull factors and push factors of brain drain Are investigated among electrical engineering and computer science students in tow major universities in Iran. The results show that economic factors are by far the most important reason in students intention to leave the country in with all other scientific, social, cultural, or political reasons. The see much better economic future for themselves by pursuing their studies and working abroad than in their own country, however, of them would like to make destination country their permanent home.

The purpose of this study was a quantitative study of graduate and postgraduate theses in physical education in higher education centers from 1980 to 2001. The sample consisted of all physical education theses written between 1980-2001 period. The researchers name, title, year of presentation, scientific area, research goal, type, educational period, supervisors name, and his specialty were noted in each document. Frequency tables are presented for sex, scientific area, supervisers speciality, research type, goals, higher education center type, sex of subjects, statistical population, usage of body systems, kind of sport and geographic location, and necessary conclusions are drawn.