JOURNAL OF EDUCATION
Year:2018 | Volume:34 | Issue:3 (135) |Papers Count:7

To help with the improvement of the high school math curriculum, a theoretical framework named DNR (Duality-Necessity-Repeated Reasoning) was employed in order to identify activities and appropriate methods for teaching certain concepts in high school math. These activities and methods were initially used experimentally by the first author in real high school math classes, and then during the final stage of the experiment, the concepts of Cartesian coordinate system and the display of lines within this system were presented to three classes of 9th graders while their regular teacher was observing and giving critical feedback. The collected data revealed that the designed activities and methods facilitated learning the presented math concepts to a greater depth and fill many gaps impeding learning within the current curriculum.

To improve the quality of any occupation within an organization, two important steps have to be taken: Identification of the duties and tasks related to that occupation, and the required competencies for the person who is expected to do the tasks. Taking these two steps for teachers of different learning areas such as chemistry can help improve professional skills and the quality of teaching. To this end, ten of the experts in this area were invited to participate in a workshop wherein the teaching profession was analyzed and the duties and tasks of a chemistry teacher were thoroughly identified using the DACUM process. The results were categorized and approved by the participants to include five duties each with a number of tasks: Teaching and learning management with 10 tasks; assessment and evaluation with 8 tasks; management and leadership in the learning environment with 9 tasks; learners’ development with 8 tasks; and professional development with 10 tasks. In order to prioritize these duties and tasks, a questionnaire with 45 items was constructed and then filled by the participants wherein they ranked different tasks in terms of importance, frequency, and hardship. Results show that the most important and frequent duty is assessment and evaluation, while the least priority was given to professional development. In terms of hardship no significant difference was found between different tasks; hence, prioritization was not possible. These findings can help identify a competent and effective chemistry teacher.

The main purpose of this research has been to help with the improvement of the quality of schooling as it relates to the number of students in classrooms and its impact on academic achievement. Considering the importance of the quality of education, knowing about the existing conditions and the consequences of increasing/decreasing the number of students per class, could impact policies in regard to the distribution and allotment of educational resources. Current literature on the subject indicate two opinions on the matter: one considers increase in the number of students detrimental to the quality of teaching and learning, while the other regards a slight increase as an agent of improvement through bringing about competition. To clarify this matter a sample of 1294 4th graders of regular public schools in Tehran completed a questionnaire on their school performance/achievement and family conditions. Data analyses indicate that student concentration has no significant effect on grade point average and on math scores. On the other hand, family resources have a significant effect on students’ academic quality. For instance, the presence of father within the home, parental level of education, family income, and having been nursed by mother have a positive impact on the quality of education, while the death of father has a negative impact.

To help with the development of the concept of job burnout, on the one hand, and a comprehensive picture of national scene in regard to research in this area, on the other, a set of 16 studies on the subject, conducted from 2009 to 2014, are meta-analyzed herein. Results show that from among all factors considered, organizational commitment with effect size of 0. 361, quality of professional life, and emotional intelligence have the highest impact on occupational fatigue. Personnel’ s health showed the least impact with effect size of 0. 224.

The main aim of this research has been to help with the improvement of the quality of education through an improvement in textbooks used. Given the orientation of the post-revolutionary Iranian government and its centralized system of education, the 2nd and 3rd year high school textbooks on religion and life were selected to be content analysed in terms of their correspondence to the national curriculum. The instrument used was constructed based on the indices drawn from the national curriculum. Data analyses revealed that the 2nd and 3rd year high school textbooks on religion and life are written based on the general themes of cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions as indicated by the national curriculum. Conceptually, the two textbooks cover a total of 709 concepts of which 313 are covered in the 2nd year textbook and the remaining 396 in the 3rd year textbook. However, conceptual attention is mostly given to the cognitive dimension with the frequency of 425. The least attended dimension is the affective with a frequency of only 87. It can be concluded that the authors have favored the cognitive dimension at the expense of the other two.

To help Turkmen bilingual students improve their language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, it was hypothesized that if the method used in teaching these skills were the same as that used in teaching philosophy to children revolving around the notion of community of enquiry, students’ language skills would develop. To test this hypothesis, a cluster sample of 103 third graders, selected in stages from among all third graders in North Khorasan Province, was divided into two groups of experimental and control with equal number of boys and girls in each group. All groups were pretested on language skills using a test constructed for this purpose and with adequate validity and internal consistency. The experimental groups went through a twenty-session course wherein the said model was utilized, while the control groups spent the time learning the skills regularly. All groups were post-tested. Data analyses revealed that the experimental groups’ skills improved much better than those of the control groups. No significant difference was observed between male and female students. Hence, the use of this method is recommended.

To help with the improvement of achievement motivation in sports among school children, it was deemed necessary to explore dimensions of sport achievement motivation in order to address any shortcomings therein. To this end, two groups of 40 female students who had participated in Ghazvin Province’ s school Olympiads were selected, one representing those who have been successful and winning medals, and the other representing those who have not won any medals. Measuring the two groups’ sports achievement motivation with Gill and Deeter’ s Questionnaire, the three motivational components of competitiveness, win orientation, and goal orientation of the two groups were determined. Data analyses lead to the finding of a significant difference between the two groups only in competitiveness. Hence, if physical education teachers concentrate on all dimensions of sport achievement motivation, students would benefit tremendously and sport activities would be more popular.