JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL INNOVATIONS
Year:2009 | Volume:8 | Issue:30|Papers Count:7

The goal of the present study was understanding the teaching-learning process and educational life of fourth grade elementary school girls in Tehran. It was a qualitative study that utilized “educational connoisseurship and criticism” evaluation method presented by Eisner (1994). This method contained four levels of descriptive, interpretive, evaluative and thematic. In this study, 2 fourth grade classes were observed and compared. To collect the information, observation of teaching-learning process and school interactions, interview with school principal, assistant, teachers and fourth grade students, open questionnaires for fourth grade teachers, video taping and recording of conversational interactions were employed. The findings revealed that in Iran there is a great gap between present situation of education process and its optimal state.

This research was conducted in order to investigate the primary school teachers’ knowledge about learning theories and applying it in teaching process. The sample consisted of 310 teacher (226 women and 84 men) who were selected randomly from among Hamedan primary school teachers during 2006-2007 academic year. The data was collected using two types of instruments: 1) a test for evaluating the teachers’ knowledge of learning theories and 2) a questionnaire for evaluating the application of learning theories. Also, the data was analyzed using one-sample t-test, independent sample t-test, Man-Whitney U, analysis of variance and the following results was obtained: The knowledge of primary school teachers on behaviorism theory has been around average and their knowledge on cognitive and social-cognitive theories has been below average. There was a significant difference between teachers’ knowledge on learning theories and variables such as the length of teachers’ in-service training, academic document, academic major and their’s teaching experience. However, there was not a significant difference among the teachers’ knowledge regarding the variable gender.The application of learning theories by teachers was upper than average. They mostly applied behaviorism concepts and regarding the social-cognitive theories, there was the least application. There was a significant difference between the application rate of learning theories by teachers and variables such as gender, academic document, teachers’ teaching experiences. However, regarding variables such as length of teachers’ in-service training and their academic major, no significant difference was observed.

Triangulation is a suitable strategy for improving research and evaluation. Its’ primary idea was introduced in the mid of 1960s. In this approach, an integration of different quantitative and qualitative methods are used in the process of inquiry. In other words, in this approach the use of various methods for gathering, evaluating, and judging on data, and representing findings is recommended. The major purpose is obtaining more valid and reliable explanations for research phenomenon or problem. Triangulation prevents imperfect, superficial, and naive explanations. Four known kinds of triangulation are: data triangulation, researcher triangulation, theoretical triangulation, and methodological triangulation. In addition, Elliot Eisner introduces another kind of triangulation which is known as triangulation in findings’ representation.

The subsystem of student achievement evaluation in our country formally established with approvement of the first regulation of school examinations in Iran’s education system. Investigating regulations and the explanation of responsibilities of organizations related to this subsystem indicated that the policy makers and decision makers of the country’s evaluation system have paid attention to evaluation of educational system in a way similar to the students’ achievement evaluation. With changes in structure and programs of educational system, attention to educational evaluation became less prominent and on the contrary, achievement evaluation subsystem became more prominent. In this paper, we are mainly concerned with following through the changes in achievement evaluation subsystem.

The main goal of this research is developing more effective techniques for visualization of information, and providing support for educational process. In particular, the paper discusses useful methods of visualization for students. The visualization techniques is used to construct more effective picture and graph, which can help the students to more easily understand the information represented in books and other media. The information visualization detection technique allows the students to visually detect picture, symbol and graph in a book or other information resources by visualizing its contents, and can be a useful aid in educational applications. Information visualization can be used in different ways to create a better understanding of visual information in history, geography, geology, biology, mathematics, statistics, computer, chemistry, art, film, cinema, graphics etc textbooks. Visualizing of Spatial metaphor, Galaxy, Spiral Graph, perspective wall and Dynamic analysis are important methods of information visualization. On the other hand, skills of visual literacy is necessary when using information visualization. The results of this study would be beneficial for students’ use of interactive visualization.

In this study, we tried to compare Tehran 2nd educational district’s guidance school girls and boys on the prevalence of their upper organs’ postural abnormalities. The sample consisted of 1888 students (boys=921; girls=967, age range between 11 to 15 years old) who were selected by purposive sampling method. The data was gathered through a researcher-made questionnaire, checker tablet, Meter, balance and New York standard test. Percentage statistics and Chi-Square test was used to report the prevalent postural abnormalities and the relationship between gender and the extent of abnormalities in the upper organs. The findings showed that the lowest and the highest percentages of upper organs’ postural abnormalities among boys with middle body situation were kyphosis (31.8%) and flat back (1%); and, among girls with middle body situation were kyphosis (47.1%) and Flat back (5.9%). Also, the findings showed that there was kyphosis (16.6%) and Scoliosis (.9%) among boys with poor body situation, and kyphosis (18.6) and Flat back (.8%) among girls with poor body situation. Finally, it can be said that boys (82.89%) comparing with girls (65.97%) have better body situation. It was also shown that there is a significant relationship between gender and body abnormalities such as forward head, uneven shoulder, kyphosis, Lordosis and, flat back. According to these findings, boys more than girls suffer from forward head abnormality and girls more than boys suffer from abnormalities such as uneven shoulder, kyphosis, Lordosis and flat back.

The purpose of this study was to examine the activities, environmental inhibitors and personal characteristics influential on teachers’ informal learning in Isfahan public schools. In this study, we used a survey research design. The sample consisted of 370 public elementary, guidance school and high school teachers. They were selected using a randomized cluster sampling commensurate with Cohen & others (2001) formula from among all the public elementary, guidance and high school teachers of the five districts of Isfahan, during the academic year 1386-87.The data was collected using the adjusted lohman (2003) questionnaire. The reliability of this questionnaire was estimated .95 using Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient. Also, its content and face validity was verified by experts and psychometrics.The findings revealed that the degree of high school teachers’ use of informal learning activities (M=2.33) was significantly more than the teachers of other stages (p<0.05, F=6.50). Also, the results of one sample t-test showed that four environmental factors inhibit teachers from using informal learning activities: lack of proximity to colleages’ work areas, lack of recognition, lack of monetary rewards and lower than average access to computer technology. The other finding was that personal characteristics such as love to learning and higher than average interest in his/her own profession influenced the informal learning of teachers’ at three educational stages (elementary, guidance and high school).