JOURNAL OF EDUCATION
Year:2018 | Volume:34 | Issue:2 (134) |Papers Count:8

Professional development and learning for teachers is an effective approach to guaranteeing the quality of output in educational systems. Such an undertaking could lead to higher levels of competency among teachers as an important intermediary goal. To develop a standard model to measure professional competencies of teachers 16 national, international, and scientific documents were perused for basic concepts, themes, and subjects, leading to a set of 7 areas, 33 main domains, and 158 indices of competency named “ standard model for measuring professional competencies of teachers in I. R. Iran” . The seven areas are: planning and preparation for teaching, planning and designing for learning, management of learning environment, effective teaching, organizational responsibility and professional development, social capital and cultural activity, and spirituality, morality, and believe in God. This model can fulfill the need for making policies and preparing instruments compatible with the current conditions, as well as theoretical and practical considerations in the I. R. Iran.

To improve the performance of the departments of research within the provincial divisions of Ministry of Education, based on the views of experts and the content of all administrative documents related to research within the ministry, a model was designed consisting of 15 areas in categories of input (5 indices), process (5), and output, etc. (5). The experts, numbering 8, were purposefully selected from among all the heads of provincial research departments and their staff, and then interviewed. The documents content analyzed included those stating the goals and objectives of research, basic activities, and needed supplies for research. Initial data gathering yielded a set of 99 indices which were screened further in a session with 5 of the interviewed experts leading to the elimination of 22 indices. It is the remaining 77 indices that constitute the 15 areas in the categories mentioned.

To help with the improvement in professional learning of teachers the opinions of 190 elementary school teachers on developmental leadership, cooperation among teachers, internalization of school objectives, self-efficacy, and teachers’ participation in professional activities were sought using a questionnaire constructed on the basis of the study’ s theoretical foundation and previous research. The analyses of the so collected data reveal that cooperation among teachers, self-efficacy, and internalization of school objectives as one’ s own are the most effective factors on teachers’ participation in professional learning activities. Developmental leadership, not only affects cooperation among teachers, but coupled with cooperative decision making, affects teachers’ professional learning. Finally, it is concluded that teachers’ participation in professional learning activities is influenced by systemic and out-of-school factors as well, that need further research.

A multidimensional approach to measuring poverty facilitates the assessment of educational poverty as one of its several dimensions. Utilizing this approach, the overall poverty in Iran in the years of 2005 and 2015 is measured and then the share of its educational dimension and its subsets that include the educational status of the head of household, and that of the children, are calculated. Furthermore, different provinces were categorized in this regard into two categories of having educational poverty and extreme educational poverty. Results show that the educational dimension has the highest share among all constituents of overall poverty as it counts for nearly 50% of overall poverty. The extent of educational poverty in urban and rural areas of the country in 2015 is 42% and 66%, while that of extreme educational poverty in these areas is 3% and 0. 9% respectively, showing a decrease compared to 2005. In 2015, the province of Kurdistan had the highest urban educational poverty, while the highest rural educational poverty was in Qom province. The province of Sistan and Baluchestan shows the highest level of extreme educational poverty in both areas.

Developmental theories describe and explain stages in which different aspects of human psyche develop. Among such theories is Kohlberg’ s theory of moral judgment wherein a complex mixture of different personality dimensions is present. Despite reviews and critiques on this theory, it seems that some of its aspects have remained hidden and unexplained. Through structural modeling, the authors have identified the missing element in this theory and thus accounting for its difference with the views of philosophy and religion scholars on morality. This missing element is actually a stage of development that Kohlberg has overlooked. Collected data from high school students in Tehran has verified the seventh post conventional stage whereby not only Kohlberg’ s theory is brought closer to what Maslow had in mind, but also helps with its compatibility with what Kant has called “ moral act” .

With the aim of helping with the improvement of the organizational health at the Technical & Vocational University, the role of culture and organizational climate was explored in this research. A sample of 655 employees, out of 6317 at the said university, selected randomly at different stages, was given three questionnaires measuring these three constructs. Collected data were analyzed using path analysis. The results show that different types of culture have a significant positive relation with organizational health through developmental climate of the organization. Other types of climate showed a negative correlation with organizational health. Organizational health can be directly predicted through clan, adhocracy, and market organizational cultures, and developmental, internal, and logical organizational climates. Indirect prediction is also possible through hierarchical culture mediated by internal and logical climates, and through clan culture mediated by developmental and logical climates. Overall, findings show that all absolute and relative indices of fitness are acceptable as the calculated chi-squared is significant at 0. 001 level.

Job crafting refers to a collection of self-initiating advancement behaviors of employees aimed at improving their occupation and their relationships with others. A questionnaire on how to achieve this among physical education teachers of Tehran, was initially translated into Farsi and then its validation was assessed using a sample of 306 such teachers from among all 1500 of them in all Tehran’ s 19 districts. Furthermore, another questionnaire of known validity which is based on Wrześ niewski et al. ’ s theory and contains 15 questions and three sub-scales, was utilized. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded 13 main factors and three sub-scales on duties, cognitions, and relationships. Using this instrument, researchers can benefit from a valid questionnaire in measuring physical education teachers’ job crafting.