JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL INNOVATIONS
Year:2015 | Volume:14 | Issue:54|Papers Count:8

This study was undertaken to examine what university instructors and high school chemistry instructors mean when they use the term “chemical literacy”. Therefore, the main goal in this research was to define the chemical literacy. A sample including 201 high school chemistry teachers and 16 university chemistry instructors (chemists) of 6 provinces of Iran were selected and participated in the study. The process of defining it included a general framework for defining chemical literacy, as well as specific content requirements for achieving the basic level of the chemical literacy, and the level which every high school graduate should achieve. The research method has been of descriptive-survey type. The viewpoints of several chemists and teachers were collected through the use of interviews & questionnaires. In order to analyze the data, the descriptive and inferential statistics (t-test) were used. The results showed that teachers and chemists perceived the general framework for defining chemical literacy similarly. The definition of chemical literacy, suggested within this study consists of four dimensions: content, context, skills, and affective aspects. This innovative and native definition is in harmony with chemistry curriculum and high schools' facilities, and could be implemented in Iranian educational system. Also, it is valid according to university chemistry instructors and high school chemistry teachers’ viewpoints.

The main goal of this study was examining the views of 1st grade high school physics teachers about the role of curriculum elements of Physics 1 (objectives, content, teaching strategies, learning materials, learning activities, time, space, classification and evaluation) on students’ achievement. The questionnaire was distributed among 150 physics teachers. The participants were selected through random cluster sampling method. It was a descriptive survey research. Data was analyzed using paired samples t–test and Friedman. The results showed that all nine curriculum elements and sub-elements have been of great importance in students’ achievement; however despite their importance in the viewpoint of teachers, these elements and sub-elements have not been taken into account in the current curriculum and eventually, the present curriculum is meaningfully distant from the favorable curriculum. In teachers' views, in the favorable curriculum the elements of learning activities, space, teaching strategies and time are the most effective elements in students' achievements orderly. Also, they believed that despite its distance from the favorable curriculum, the elements of content, evaluation, purposes and learning activities have been taken into account in the current curriculum.

Teachers are important social investment in every educational system and their empowerment guarantees the blossoming of that country’s future generation. This phenomenon would be possible through school principals' leadership function. The purpose of present research was to investigate the relationship between principals leadership functions and the empowerment of primary school teachers. Primary school Female Teachers in Tehran in 1391-92 academic year were considered as statistical population from whom 366 teachers were chosen as the research sample by Random Cluster Sampling Method. In order to determine the leadership style of principals, The Teachers' Empowerment Questionnaire and Principals Leadership Functions Questionnaire were used. Data was analyzed through descriptive and canonical correlation methods. The results showed that there was a correlation between leadership style and empowerment (0.53) which indicates that %28 of teachers’ empowerment variance could be justified by leadership style of principals. So, based on these findings, we could conclude that principal leadership functions could increase teachers’ empowerment.

The current mixed-methods study has investigated the problems of primary schools’ novice principals in the city of Karaj. In the qualitative section of this study, using purposeful and snow-ball sampling method, 42 experts were selected and interviewed. Following content analysis of the interviews, 66 problems in terms of 5 dimensions including “psychological problems”, “interpersonal problems”, “problems due to lack of skills and expertise in school management in general,” “problems due to lack of skills and expertise in teaching” and “Problems due to lack of support “ were identified. In the quantitative section of this study, a questionnaire was developed on the basis of the results of the qualitative section. This questionnaire was completed by 163 novice principals. The data was analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Chi-square and Friedman tests. The result of CFA showed that the measurement model of latent variable has good fit with observed data. The results of Chi-square test showed that in each of problems, there is a significant difference between observed and expected frequencies. Also, the Friedman test significantly ranked the problems of each dimension. Some problems including concerns with authority delegation, low ability in effective interaction, low experience in financial management, low information about new methods in educational evaluation, and little support from parents and external society are highly ranked in each dimension. The results of quantitative section of this study confirmed the results of qualitative section. In general, the results of this study emphasize the importance of identifying the problems and coaching the novice principals.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of time management skills’ training on enhancing Study Skills and decreasing the procrastination of students. It was a Quasi-experimental research with pre- and posttestdesign with control group. The statistical population included Middle school boys in Delfan city in the academic year 1391-92. The participants included 400 Middle school male students from among the male students in Delfan city who were selected through the cluster random sampling method. Then, they were assigned to control and experimental groups (25 students in each group). From among the 400 student, 50 students who had received more than 2 SD score on the scale of procrastination were selected randomly and then they were assigned to control and experimental groups. To collect the data, Study Skills Inventory and Procrastination Inventory were used. The results of multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) showed that time management skills’ training was effective on enhancing Study Skills and decreasing the procrastination of students (P<0/001). Due to the fact that time management skills’ training can have a significant impact on developing new and original insights and considering the fact that time is a limited resource, the necessity of time management, particularly at educational settings is of great importance.

Creation of environmental privacy can prepare the grounds for physical, social and ethical development of girls and leads to an efficient and dynamic system. This research seeks to get a clear understanding of the factors that affect the issue of privacy and emphasizes the fulfillment of educational needs that provide girls with calm and tranquil educational environments. The data were analyzed through content analysis. Then, in order to measure the factors, a survey was used to collect the information needed for answering the research question. For this purpose, after studying the available sources, 25 factors contributing to privacy were extracted. Hypothesizing a positive relation between the dependent and independent variables, the opinion of the research population were studied using a questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed among 40 experts at Tarbiat Modares, Science and industry, Shahid Beheshti and Tehran universities. The effect and priority of extracted mental and physical components were measured by a Likert Scale. After omitting the half-completed questionnaires, the data collected from 17 experts were analyzed. Using Delphi and Shannon Entropy approach, the less important factors in the experts’ viewes were deleted for component moderation. Findings showed different effects of the independent variables on the dependent variable. Among the mental components, security and sense of belonging and among the physical components, hierarchy, boundary, inner and outer relations and introversion were the most important factors affecting the improvement of privacy in educational environments.

The present research has been carried out with the aim of studying the illustrations provided in primary school Farsi and Social Instruction’s textbooks in terms of the use of gender symbols. In fact, the research aimed at finding howthese pictures will influence the students’ mentality. In this research, the illustrations in the textbooks under study have been selected based on three concepts of “family, the role of men and women”, “cooperation” and “motherhood” and the results of its semiotic study was presented. This research was of descriptive nature; obviously it was not seeking to discover the cause and effect relationships. It only described and analyzed the themes related to the research topic, i.e. “gender symbols” in primary school “Farsi” and “Social Instructions” textbooks. The method used in this research was semiotics and the statistical population consisted of all primary school “Farsi” and “Social Instruction” textbooks printed and published in school year 2010-2011. The method of sampling was purposeful non-random sampling. In the purposeful samples (also referred to as judgment samples), the researcher selects the sampling units mentally and with a predefined objective. On this basis, the unit of analysis has been all illustrations depicting the three concepts of “family, the role of woman and man”, “cooperation” and “motherhood”. The results of this research revealed that “family” and family integrity is a central motif in the illustrations presented in these textbooks. Mother as one of the pillars of family is always seen as a symbol of peace in a halo of blue color which is reminiscent of tranquility. Handling the issue of family as a topic that is subject to crisis in the modern world and gracefully dealing with the role of mothering are the advantages of these textbooks; While paying less attention to other social and economic roles of women is of disadvantages of these textbooks.