NEW THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION
Year:2007 | Volume:3 | Issue:1-2|Papers Count:11

To investigate the effects of progressive relaxation training on stress, self esteem, and the tendency to run away, a cluster sample of 760 high school girls was randomly selected and then tested on the tendency to run away from home. The 56 individuals who scored above the threshold were identified as the at-risk sample and placed in two matched groups, one of which then went through a ten-session progressive relaxation training course. The post-training measures of stress, self esteem, and tendency to run away indicated a significant positive impact of the training on the first two. The tendency to run away, although did decrease, however did not show a significant change as a result of the training.

To compare the cognitive styles of nomadic and urban students and their parents parenting approaches, two cluster samples each consisting of two hundred students were randomly selected from the two populations. To collect the data two measures were utilized, Group Embedded Figure Test and Parenting Style Inventory. The data analysis indicated that the nomadic students are more field dependent than the urban students.Furthermore, the results show that the parental warmth has a significant effect on students' cognitive style while the effect of their control depends on the type of society (urban/nomadic) they live in. It was also observed that the nomadic students construe cognitive processes differently.

To investigate the relationship between hardiness and emotional intelligence and any possible gender differences in these two areas a sample of 302 employed university students was randomly selected. To collect the data two instruments were used: Kobasa's Personal Views Survey and Shrink Assessment of Emotional Intelligence Inventory.To analyze the data, Pearson's correlation coefficient and Student's t-test were used. Results show that there is a significant relationship between hardiness& emotional intelligence at the 0.001 level. Nevertheless, there was no significant relationship between self-motivation (a component of emotional intelligence) and hardiness or its components, just as there was no significant difference between males & females in hardiness and emotional intelligence.

It is customary to use criteria such as scientific competence, teaching method, discipline, and personal characteristics in students' evaluation of the professor's classroom performance. To see what the students attending Tehran universities think about these criteria, a sample of 324 female students, both graduate and under graduate, in three colleges of four universities were randomly selected. To gather the data a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of 30 items on the above four criteria and with the assessed reliability of 0.78 was administered. The data were analyzed using both parametric and non-parametric statistics. The results show that there is no statistically significant difference between the opinions of different student groups on the four criteria, their use in professors' promotion, and their rank order.

To compare the motivational strategies and academic achievement of students in two types of middle schools in the city of Kerman-Shah, two cluster samples of 320 students each were randomly selected from among the regular and audio-visually oriented middle schools. The Data were collected using the Motivational Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and the students' academic records. Results show that students of audio-visually oriented schools have scored significantly higher on the use of cognitive strategies, self-efficacy, and academic achievement, while their scores on test anxiety were significantly lower. However, no significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of intrinsic values and regulated learning.Overall, a significant correlation was observed between the use of motivational strategies for learning and academic achievement. The results imply that audio-visually oriented schools increase the use of such strategies that leads to better student academic achievement.

Curriculum evaluation is the most basic step towards curriculum improvement, as doing so would provide curriculum planners with scientific information and guidelines for doing their job better. However, any component of the curriculum, such as text books, can also be evaluated in terms of compliance with the overall goals and objectives of the curriculum, be it through the simplest component of an evaluation program, i.e. an opinion survey of some of the people involved with the production and use of the textbook. It was with this understanding that the views of teachers and some educational experts were solicited on both the strengths and weaknesses of the 10th grade's Religion and Life textbook as well as its compliance with the overall guidelines provided by the approved curriculum. To collect the data in this study, a questionnaire was developed and interviews were conducted. The findings show that the textbook's content generally complies with the curriculum, although some shortcomings were pointed out that could improve the text if considered by the textbook authors.

During the past three decades, the development of knowledge and ways of doing so has been among the main objectives of the Iranian educational planners at both the macro and micro levels. However, recent reports are indicative of not having reached the set objectives. To explain the reasons for not doing so, the present paper examines some of the ways by which attempts at the development of knowledge have been made. Furthermore, it explores the current status of knowledge development in Iranian higher education and then by giving a strategic definition of the very concept of knowledge development, paves the way for presentation of a model in this area. Finally, the approaches used and the current status of knowledge development in Iranian higher education is evaluated using this model.

To study the relationship between parents' self-regulation and that of their children, a sample of 261female8th graders was randomly selected from among students in districts 3, 7, and 19 in Tehran. Parental data were collected using the Martinez-Pons (1996) questionnaire, while the student data were gathered using the Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons (1986) questionnaire for self-regulation and the Cooper smith (1967) questionnaire for self-esteem. Data analysis showed a positive significant correlation between parents' and their children's self-regulation in learning. Regression analysis of the data revealed that the students' self-regulation in learning is the strongest predictor for self-esteem.

Information and communication technologies have changed the face of teaching and learning by opening up new vistas and providing new opportunities in education.However, to use and benefit from these technologies requires both a conceptual and practical framework that would facilitate and support such an endeavor. In this paper the reports and findings on the use of ICT in the developed countries are initially reviewed and factors determining their success identified. Then an attempt is made to develop a conceptual framework for the use ICT in Iranian educational system.The review points out that the backbone of any program for the use of ICT in education is having a well developed user training program along with an adequate measure of technological support. The proposed framework utilizes these findings.