JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION STUDIES
Year:2018 | Volume:8 | Issue:23|Papers Count:8

Item nonresponse is a serious challenge to the measurements in large-scale studies which plays a considerable role in decision and policy making about educational and/or cultural issues. This challenge affects both the process of instrument construction and its application because of big error and bias in the estimation of psychometric indexes and scores distribution parameters. Therefore, this paper aims at simulating the effects of different nonresponse rates under completely random and nonrandom item nonresponse by using a real data set. The results show that a nonresponse rate less than 5% can be ignorable under completely random nonresponse where there is no notable difference between respondents and non-respondents. In contrast, psychometric indexes (Cronbach’ s alpha, split-half reliability coefficient and validity coefficient) and scores distribution parameters (mean, standard deviation and quartiles) can be biased and inaccurate if the item nonresponse at any rate is nonrandom. In addition, item nonresponse can lead to wide confidence intervals and misleading results. Hence, the simulation findings do not advocate the deletion of non-respondents from a data set as a solution to the nonresponse challenge.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of "assessment for learning" on classroom goal structure and academic buoyancy in two groups of students (strong and weak). The statistical population of this study included the students of psychology from University of Zanjan in the academic year 2015-16. Of these, two groups including 34 and 33 students of psychology were selected. This research was conducted with an experimental approach. For more control of the experiment conditions, 16 strong first-group students (lessons of statistics) and 16 poor-grade students (lessons of physiological psychology) were taught in assessment for learning, and 16 poor grade students first-group students (lessons of statistics) and 16 strong second group students (lessons of physiologic psychology) were taught in a normal way. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to analyze the data. The results showed that assessment for learning is effective in reducing the avoidance goal structure and increasing the academic buoyancy of the students. The significance of the effect of classroom assessment showed a better performance when students are faced with assessment for learning. Also significant interactive effect showed that the influence of formative assessment on the classroom goal structure and academic buoyancy among poor students was more than that of strong students.

This research was conducted to investigate the teaching quality of faculty members of different branches of Farhangian University in Khuzestan based on two components of Teaching Program Module and Professional Behavior as well as 8 techniques embedded in My Course Scale. This descriptive survey included a statistical population of 1500 students and 17 faculty members. The statistical sample included 306 students and 17 faculty members of such branches of Farhangian University as Sheikh Morteza Ansari (Dezful), Khadijeh Kobra (Dezful) and Imam Reza (Andimeshk) selected through systematic random sampling method. The results indicated that all students believed that professors’ quality teaching module significantly ranked medium and the quality of implementing the forenamed techniques related to teachers’ professional behavior was ranked perfectly. Given the different scientific fields and course curricula, the professors of Farhangian University are recommended to make use of different teaching methods

The main aim of the present study was to determine the elements, criteria and indicators of quality evaluation of the curriculum in the undergraduate course in Farhangian University. The study is applied regarding its aim and is conducted through a mixed method. Reviewing the theoretical and experimental literature as well as national and international experiences, the components of quality evaluation of curriculum were extracted. Then, in order to identify the components related to the context and the specific conditions of the teacher education in the country and the probably ignored components in previous researcha semi-structured interview with experts of curriculum evaluation was undertaken. The interviewees were experts in the national curriculum studies who have participated in the international annual conference of the curriculum studies association, from whom 8 participants were selected through purposeful sampling according to the saturation principle. Finally, by combining the results of the two stages a researcher-made questionnaire was devised and used to identify the most important components of quality evaluation of curriculum in the undergraduate and the questionnaire was presented to 100 curriculum study experts who were selected through purposeful sampling method from the country universities. Research findings led to the selection of 12 elements, 59 criteria and 193 indicators as the most important components of quality evaluation of the curriculum in the undergraduate course in Farhangian University. The relative weights of the components were determined through analytical hierarchy method.

The purpose of the present research was to extract the effective components of the virtual curriculum in order to achieve common points in previous research and present a framework for implementing virtual curriculum with collaborative approach. The research method is qualitative and based on the synthesis strategy. The statistical population consist of the resources related to the purpose of the research. In total, out of 112 researches, 49 samples were selected purposefully, and the effective components of the curriculum of virtual universities extracted and, by analyzing them a framework for presentation of virtual curriculum in virtual universities was presented. The results of the analysis show that the most important components are effective components include participation components, input components, evaluation, logic and infrastructure. In the following, the effective components of the virtual curriculum based on the participatory approach and not the identification factor which included the component of the participation return, group composition, technology component, job assignments, group roles, processes and training, time, group skill instruction, are learners' prior knowledge and incentives were surveyed and described.

The era of globalization and log in to knowledge-based economy along with the increasing rate of change, actors’ sensitivity to quality issues in order to harmonize with the demands of stakeholders by the system of higher education has become more prominent. This study with review of main trends of higher education developments and major drivers affects the quality assurance of higher education by the point of views, outlooks, and ideas of experts, the typology of forces, shaping quality assurance of higher education. This study was conducted by qualitative method of phenomenological approach with purposive sampling and semi-structured in-depth interviews with 17 faculty members, and was analyzed by Streubert and Carpenter (2003). The results of the shaping quality assurance in 7 main themes including endogenous factors, environmental political, economic, social, international, infrastructure and environmental factors and 17 sub-thematic were summarized. The results of this study can open new horizons of thoughts in relation with creating a desirable future and normative for correct of policies and long-term plans in domain of issues related with higher education quality.

Present paper reports the findings of a qualitative study which aims to examine the approach of university administrators towards the change of curriculum in higher education institutes. Data were elicited from interviews with 17 participants who are involved as the policy makers, university administrators and curriculum developers in Iranian higher education. The qualitative approach of Graneheim & Lundman was used for the analysis of the interviews. The results showed four holistic approaches towards the change of curriculum among university administrators. Based on the first approach (supportive), the managers believe in these changes and use any resources at their disposal to apply these changes. In the second approach (non-supportive), however, managers are not in favor of these changes and they are not inclined to implement them. In the third approach (neutral), managers are not either for or against the changes and they are not willing to cooperate in their implementation. Finally in contingent approach, managers deeply believe in the changes and welcome them and consequently they try their best to implement these changes and put them into practice.

In many countries, the qualifications of teachers are measured before entering the profession of teaching, and it has been started in Iran since 2016. The purpose of this study was to investigate the predictive validity of the professional qualification evaluation (ASLAH) test at Farhangian University. The present research is applied in terms of purpose and as a method is a correlation type. The research population is all students of the 28th Madeh of the year 2015-16 in Farhangian University, whose number is 2823. Due to the dispersion of the community in all provinces of the country, the available sample was used and the students of Khorasan Razavi province, which numbered 190, were selected as samples. The main part of the research data is the results of the ASLAH test of Farhangian University, which was held in Shahrivar, 2016. A researcher-made test was used to investigate the success of teachers from the perspective of their colleagues. The reliability of this test was obtained by using Cronbach's alpha method of 0. 89 and its validity was evaluated using factor analysis. According to the method of letter of ASLAH, the share of the subscale "cultural", "teaching of reason", "science" and "performance" is 20, 35, 20 and 25 percent respectively. According to the results of this study, to increase the predictive validity, the share of subscale is 15, 11, 38 and 36 percent, respectively. It was also found that the coefficient of the subscales based on the validity results in different outcomes.