JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL INNOVATIONS
Year:2003 | Volume:2 | Issue:5|Papers Count:9

The purpose of doing the research which is the basis for writing this article, was the study and comparison of learning styles in bilingual students (Turkish and Kurdish) and those students who speak one language only (Farsi), and research into whether there exists a relationship between methods of learning and educational advancement elements and the gender among these students. Due to this fact, Felder-Solomon Learning-style questionnaire was put to work for 720 students in grade 6, 7, and 8 of public schools in 2001-2002 academic year. The students were consisted of 240 bilingual Kurdish female and male students, 240 bilingual Turkish female and male students, and 240 one-language speaking (Farsi) female and male students, respectively in cities of Sanandaj, Tabriz, and Tehran. The outcomes were analyzed with the help of multivariate analysis of variance and  the correlational method. This research showed that:a) There is difference between the learning style of bilingual (Turk and Kurd speaking) students and students who speak only one language (Farsi), in the way that the one-language speaking students have an intuitional-visual learning style in comparison with the bilingual students. The bilingual students have a sensational-verbal learning style compared to the one-language speaking students.b) There is no significant relationship between the learning style and the student’s educational advancement.c) There is a difference between the learning methods of female and male students; in the way that boys’ learning style is of the visual-holistic type, while the girls’ learning style is of the verbal-consecutive type.

Text book is considered one of the most important references and resources for students’ learning in education systems. In the same way, text books play one of the most important roles in Iran. Because of this importance and also because of the role of the content of text books in encouraging and providing for the needs beside making the students’ learning process easy, the content of text books in primary school have been put under assessment and analysis in this research with respect to the construct of advancement motivation and its indexes. This research is the foundation for the current article. At the beginning of the article the theoretical and experimental background of the subject has been provided. The research tool includes 5 indexes and 125 sub-indexes and its reliability has been concluded to be 0.93 based on the ratio of agreed-upon indexes to all other ones.With regards to the findings and based on the resulted data from “content analysis forms” in the current research and the researches that have previously taken place in this field, it can be derived that: Mathematics and Experimental science books have to high extent paid attention to advancement motivation construct;  Farsi literature, Religion, and Quran text books have to some extent paid attention to this matter; and Social Studies text books have been weak in paying attention to this matter. In elementary schools, it can also be said that grade 5 and 4 books have paid a lot of attention to advancement motivation construct and grade one and two have paid less attention to this matter.On top of this, most attention to the mentioned construct in elementary school books have been seen in grade 5 experimental sciences, grade 3 experimental sciences, grade 4 social studies, grade 3 religious and Quran studies, and grade 5 mathematics. And finally, least attention to this construct has been seen in grade one Quran studies, grade 3 social studies, grade one experimental sciences, grade 5 religious and Quran studies, and grade 4 Farsi literature.

The current research has taken place with the aim of understanding the activity of educational guidance teachers in fields of education (in various levels of pre-teaching, during teaching, and post-teaching), management (in the category of human relationships, evaluation of teachers’ work, and organizational responsibilities), and educational and experimental abilities from teachers view, in the form of a descriptive design through cluster sampling with the help of a questionnaire consisted of 64 questions (prepared with Likert style, in a five degree scale, with providing maximum validity and reliability for it). This research was performed on 322 teachers from the elementary school level in cities across province of Tehran. The results of this research show that from teachers’ point of view, guidance teachers are not only unsuccessful in acting upon their responsibilities in educational fields, but in some cases they have negative influence and activity as well. Based on the results of this research, two fundamental suggestions have been made along with detailed explanations in each case in order to improve the activity of guidance teachers. These suggestions have been made possible by using other assessments that have been done about the activity of guidance teachers, as well as the personal experiences of the researcher.

Creativity is a Devine gift and each individual has a certain amount of this gift. The realization and appearance of creativity requires a proper location. The expansion of this ability, which can be said is the survival of a society, is possible through educational programming, and accurate and proper teaching and education. Teachers, as one of the most important training and education elements, have a key role in nourishing creativity. The teachers’ attitude toward creativity, their level of understanding of it, and also their type of attitude and teaching method have a direct relationship on enriching the class environment for students’  growth of creativity. Therefore it is necessary to help the teachers gain the attitude and necessary skills for the growth of the students’ creative ability. In order to assess how creativity is taught in elementary school period, 120 instructors were participating (60 instructors in a test group and 60 instructors in a control group). The test group became involved in “Teaching of creativity” program so that the impact of the program and training model  on instructors’ knowledge, attitude, and skill would be assessed. The results were examined through T test and showed that there is significant difference between the two groups – The “test group” and the “control group”. The results stated the positive impact of the training period. A set of suggestions have been made for the growth of students’ creativity based on the findings in this research.

A glance at Iran’s education system history shows that its education systems are always exposed to modification and change. The most important reasons for these modifications are making the education system parallel with the changes in the political, economical, and social environments and in the recent decades haven been causing the speeding-up of economical modifications. Therefore modification of Technical and Vocational training system can be considered a main priority for modification of country’s education system. This is an important tool for training and increasing the performance of human resources, for the purpose of making the ground for economical modifications and expansion.One of the countries – in late 1980s – which was in the same conditions as ours – today – (in such ways as dependency on export of raw material, protective economy, facing youths’ unemployment and economical downfall, land space, geographical distribution, and cultural variation) is Australia. This country began  economical expansion based on modification of Technical and Vocational Education system in late 1990s. Hence, the country gained valuable achievements by the end of the decade and the beginning of the twenty first century. Therefore, the study of the characteristics of this system can bring with itself lessons for the modification of Technical and Vocational Education in Iran. Three important characteristics exist in the Technical and Vocational Education System, especially in Technical and Complementary Education, which provides for movement and flexibility of the system in responding to industry needs as well as expansion and continual modification. These characteristics include: 1- Organizational independence of Technical and Vocational Education System; 2- Communication with Production and Services sector; and 3- The creation of research centers and communication with universities and scientific centers. By describing and researching into usage of these characteristics in Iran’s Technical and Vocational Education System, this article has shown that paying attention to it can help Iran’s mentioned educational system. Of course in order to take place, these modifications require the setup of opportunities such as making the university structure research-based, setup of research centers in the field of Technical and Vocational Trainings, as well as organization and expansion of civic and complementary organizations so that with their help we would be able to setup mediator organizations, which would be able to provide for direct relationship between education and production sector. At the end of the article, a set of suggestions have been made for the modification of  Technical and Vocational Education System in Iran.

The modern vocational education which has been formed gradually and in different levels and dimensions in recent years is in fact a try for defeating problems and deficiencies of traditional vocational education – problems and deficiencies which are caused by strict skill-orienting process, the separation of thought from activity, as well as separation of theoretical teaching from vocational teaching. In modern vocational education what is regarded is the combination of theoretical and experimental training, higher amount of communication between school education aims and vocational aims of economical centers, as well as communication of high school education with higher education. Modern vocational education which was first formed in the United States gradually became an element of interest to other world countries and up to today steps have been taken in order to act up on it. The philosophical and historical basis of modern vocational education refers back to holistic pragmatist epistemology and unity of offered viewpoints by socialist originators. In fact the occurrence of the dominated holistic approach on this type of modern vocational education has caused attention to scientific and practical education and combined teaching programs. By pointing out to basis and levels of formation of modern vocational education in different countries, this article examines its epistemological foundations.

The current research has been designed and completed with the aim of assessing the relationship between levels of epistemological transformation of elementary school students with their mathematical performance. The research sample includes 240 female and male students in grade three to five of elementary school (80 students including 40 girls and 40 boys in each of the grade levels). The students in the research sample have been chosen by simple random sampling method among the students of 19 districts of city of Tehran.In this research the Piajetian concrete-operational testing (including the tests of seriation with model -and without model, classification, and number conservation) are used for determining the phase of cognitive transformation, teacher-made test for finding the performance of mathematics students in the way that is more popular in schools, and researcher-made educational advancement test in order to reach math students’ performance results and paying attention to understanding the taught math concepts.The statistical assessment of findings of this research, in the descriptive level, with quantitative statistics of percentage, median and standard deviation, and in the inferential level with measuring c2 (Khi square) coefficient and bi-variate, t test for the two dependent group, and one-way analysis of variance analysis and concurrent co-relational matrix has been performed.Statistical analysis of the data gathered in this research has been done in two levels of descriptive (frequencies, percentiles, means, and standard deviations) and inferential (c2 –one and bivariate Khi squares– t test for two related groups, one way analysis of variance, and correlation matrix) statistics.The results of the research show that there is positive correlation between cognitive transformation in Piajetian cognitive tests (seriation with model, without model, classification, and number conservation) with mathematical performance in the three desired grade levels. Therefore,  the research findings confirm the need for reviewing mathematics teaching lessons in elementary grade levels, matching mathematics teaching with students’ cognitive transformation levels, teaching along with activity and work, and paying attention to hierarchical mathematical concepts and to the formation of qualitative concepts in mathematics.