NEW THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION
Year:2018 | Volume:14 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:11

This research aimed at identifying the learning needs of students of Farhangian University to help the policy makers and curriculum developers develop curricula relevant to their needs and promote their health literacy. A qualitative study focusing on normative inquiry was conducted in a teacher education center. The participants were 228 professional teachers and 25 teacher candidates who were studying in Farhangian University and were chosen using convenience sampling. An interview guide and a questionnaire with two open-ended questions were used to collect the data. Data were content analyzed, coded and categorized under emergent themes. The results revealed the following 6 themes for an effective health literacy curriculum identified by the participants: necessity for a health literacy curriculum, proposed competencies, the role of teacher educator, content, the method of evaluation as well as hopes and fears. According to the participants, there is an urgent need for developing a health literacy curriculum in teacher education since they have not experienced it in their primary and secondary school. They believed that an effective health literacy curriculum makes the learners responsible for their own and their future students’ health. The participants called for educators who had the same gender and were role models for healthy behavior. A content which is practical and relevant to the real world was proposed by the majority of the participants.

The aim of this study was to investigate the mediating role of satisfaction of basic psychological needs in the relationship between teacher interaction and students’ creativity. This study is a path analysis correlational research. The sample of the research included 250 students selected randomly. The participates answered Abedi’ s creativity questionnaire (1984), Deci and Ryan's Basic Psychological Needs questionnaire (2000) and the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) (Wubbels, 1993). Reliability (calculated by cronbach alpha) and validity (calculated by factor analysis) of every questionnaire were obtained. The Results showed that four of eight Teacher Interaction’ s types had good fitness. The relationship between leading and uncertain types and creativity with the mediating role of the satisfaction of basic psychological needs was positive and significant and the relationship between understanding and responsibility/freedom types and creativity with the mediating effect of the satisfaction of basic psychological needs was negative and significant. The Results indicated that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs is a mediating variable in the relationship between leading, uncertain, understanding and responsibility/freedom types of teacher interaction and students’ creativity.

The investment in action research training programs is not successful unless teachers transfer training contents into their classrooms. Researchers and practitioners have acknowledged that transfer of training will occur only when teachers have motivation to do so. For this reason, in the current study, motivation to transfer action research training of 235 teachers was tested based on Gegenfunter et al. ’ s (2010) model. Data were collected through two valid and reliable questionnaires and were analyzed using one-sample t-test and structural equation modeling. Results showed that the current situation of motivation to transfer variables was significantly desirable. Also the results of the tested model indicated that direct effects of autonomous and controlled motivation on intention to transfer and direct effect of intention to transfer on actual transfer of training were positive and significant. This study emphasizes on the importance of teachers’ motivation to transfer action research training and has some implications for principals as effective in motivating this variable in schools.

The purpose of the present research was to evaluate the quality of School Management Excellence Program (output and outcome) in girls’ high schools. The population of this survey included school principals, assistant principals, teachers and students selected from among girls’ high schools of Karaj city, district no. 4. 34 indicators and 7 criteria for gathering data regarding output and outcome were identified and classified. Based on the derived indicators, 3 questionnaires for students, teachers, principals and assistant principals were designed. Content validity of the questionnaires was reviewed and confirmed based on experts’ views, in the field of evaluation. To determine the reliability of the three of questionnaires Cronbach Alpha coefficient was used. The reliability coefficient had an acceptable rate (over 0. 85). Due to the limitation of population size, all principals and assistant principals (33 persons) were selected to participate in this research. Furthermore, 46 teachers and 636 students were selected from among successful, semi-successful and low successful schools by stratified random sampling method. Research findings indicated that the quality of implementing the program in output and outcome from the view point of principals, assistants, teachers and students have been reported partially undesirable. Finally, for the improvement of School Management Excellence some suggestions are proposed.

An effective relationship between teachers and students plays an important role in improving the teaching-learning process. The present study was aimed at determining the factors influential on building this relationship. The sample of this descriptive cross-sectional study included 1440 students from Shahid Behshti University who were selected through stratified sampling method in the academic year of 2012-2013. The data of the study was collected using a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire consisting of two parts: demographic data and 24 questions concerning the assessment of professional and moral factors in establishing communication between students and faculty members. The data was then analyzed using SPSS software. Chi square analysis was used to compare the groups. The results revealed that the most effective factors in establishing a qualified relationship were knowledge transfer (66. 4), teacher respect (63. 3) and personal factors including teacher sympathy (61. 9) and teacher justice (61. 3). While the age and gender of the teachers were the least effective factors. According to the students’ views, some professional features like teaching skills and some moral qualities in teachers are effective in establishing communication between faculty members and students. Training courses are extremely recommended to improve this communication.

Many risk behaviors such as aggressive behavior, addiction, and suicide may happen in adolescence. Self-awareness skills can minimize many of these problems in adolescents. This study aimed at investigating the effect of self-awareness on reducing aggressive behavior skills, addiction, and suicide among high school female students. The research method was experimental with pretest-posttest and control group. For this purpose, 40 students from Khoshkebijar city were selected who had high scores on aggressive behaviors, addiction and suicide and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (20 subjects each group). The Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (1992), Weed et al. ’ s Addiction Questionnaire (1992) and Suicide Questionnaire of Beck et al. (1961) were administered to both groups as pre-test. Then 11 sessions of self-awareness skills training lasting for 60 minutes were administered for the experimental group while the control group did not receive any intervention and in the end both groups were evaluated through the same questionnaires again. Data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed using analysis of co-variance. Results showed that self-awareness skills training can reduce aggression and (p <00/01) and suicide (p< 0/01) among students. It also showed that self-awareness training did not reduce addiction among students (p>0/05). Self-awareness skill improves girls’ aggression and suicide by increasing their self-knowledge.

This research aimed at exploring teachers' experiences of the factors underlying violence in schools. Identifying these factors can help in decreasing or eliminating violence in students. The sample of this phenomenological research included 12 veteran teachers who were selected through purposeful sampling from the city of Urmia. To collect the data, the teachers were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Discussions were analyzed using Smith's method. The results showed that the factors underling violence in schools can be categorized into three broad themes of individual, school-related and sociological factors. In order to understand the factors underlying violence in schools, in addition to genetic characteristics, age, gender, maturation of individuals and situational factors, physical features of the school, its organizational and management characteristics as well as factors beyond school such as sociological, economic, family-related effects, and most importantly, the media should also be taken into account.

Some ethical theories and moral education approaches consider philanthropy as the foundation of social morality. Islam recommends love for others. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent of philanthropy in Islam and to investigate the capacity of love for the people to be considered as the emotional foundation of social morality. The research method was descriptive-analytic. The findings showed that in Islam, philanthropy does not have an absolute value and it must adapt to some criteria; therefore, it has a limited scope. It is not necessary to love everyone in heart. On the contrary, social morality has no boundaries, and we are bound to observe ethics for all people around us. Due to the inconsistency of the scope of philanthropy and social morality, and disadvantages of considering philanthropy as the basis of morality, it cannot be the emotional basis and general motive for the moral social interactions. It is possible that using some other concepts, such as mercy and so on, could open up new insights in this regard.

The aim of the present research was to investigate the efficacy of logo therapy based on religious approach on academic motivation and life satisfaction of first grade male high school students suffering from depression. The research method was experimental with pre and post-test and control group. The sample consisted of 60 students who were selected through cluster random sampling. The participants’ age, and educational status were controlled and having one standard deviation below the mean in depression, life satisfaction and academic motivation were criteria for selecting the sample in this research. The individuals were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The instruments were Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Harter Academic Motivation Inventory (HAMI) and Huebner Life Satisfaction Inventory (HLSI). The experimental group participated in 10 sessions of logo therapy based on religious approach but the control group did not receive any intervention. The data were analyzed using MANCOVA. The results indicated that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in their life satisfaction and academic motivation (P<0. 001). The rate of life satisfaction and academic motivation in experimental group increased significantly in comparison with pretest and control group. It was concluded that logo therapy based on religious approach significantly increased the academic motivation and life satisfaction in first grade high school male students suffering from depression.

Academic vitality is one of the most important factors leading to academic achievement. The aim of this study was the discrimination of students with high and low academic vitality based on components of academic optimism and goal orientation. The method of this study was causal-comparative. The population included female and male high school students (N= 4300) of Sanandaj city who were studying in the academic year of 2015-2016. A sample of 370 individuals was selected through cluster sampling. For the purpose of data collection, the student academic optimism questionnaire (2013) (Cronbach alpha coefficient: 0/87), the goal achievement questionnaire (2001) (alpha coefficient: 0/88) and the academic vitality (2012) (alpha coefficient: 0/80) were used. Data were analyzed using the discriminant function analysis. The results of discriminant analysis indicated one significant component. According to the recognized component, trust in teachers as related to academic optimism and mastery-trend component as related to goal orientation had the highest ability to differentiate between two groups of students. Also, the majority of the students with low academic vitality and the highest percentage of recognition (75. 8%) were correctly distinguished from other students and 73% of the subjects in the two groups were classified according to the obtained function correctly. The results of this classification indicated the ability of these variables in distinguishing between students with different academic vitality levels.