JOURNAL OF EDUCATION
Year:2020 | Volume:36 | Issue:1 (141) |Papers Count:10

With the aim of helping to improve the quality of teaching in Iranian teacher training centers a comparative study was undertaken in order to determine the extent to which aesthetically-based approaches to teaching are emphasized among the professional competencies sought after in the selected countries. Selection of the countries to be compared (Australia, England, Singapore, Finland, Canada, South Korea, Malaysia, and India) has been based on their performances in TIMSS, PIRLS, and PISA. The framework for the study is taken from the works of Mahmoud Mehrmohammadi wherein 13 characteristics of a competent teacher, such as being interactive, imaginative, and creative, are delineated. The findings reveal that in implementing these competency indicators in the selected countries aesthetically-based approaches are not dealt with that much. In some countries certain standards are used in order to define competency. In some others, including Iran, it is the documented national and political aspirations that define competency. It is worth mentioning that any reference made to the characteristics of teachers is mostly short and inadequate across all reviewed programs.

With the aim of helping to improve the teaching of entrepreneurship in high schools, this study set out to identify appropriate teaching strategies. A selective group of 22 experts in the area of teaching entrepreneurship was extensively interviewed. The interviews were semi-structured and the data collected from them were coded using an open, axial, and selective coding system. Results show that two teaching strategies are needed in this area: an external and an internal strategy. The latter emphasizes planning a training-based curriculum, managing students’ potentials, and enabling school staff, especially teachers; while the former focuses on acculturation, creation of supportive environments, and needs assessment at both national and international levels. In other words, teaching entrepreneurship requires an ecosystem consisting of the educational organization’ s both internal and external environments. It is suggested that entrepreneurship be taught across all levels using the active method of teaching, competent teachers hired, and student entrepreneurs supported by the government.

Operational objective number 11 of the Fundamental Reform Document of Education, Act 4, calls for the establishment of a system of competency evaluation of teachers comprised of moral, revolutionary, and professional beliefs and consistent with the goals and foundations of the document. In order to identify these competencies and their constituents, reliable library sources were initially reviewed and experts interviewed. Then the identified set was given to a group of 14 specialists and policy makers in the areas of teaching and teacher training and familiar with the reform documents, in order to be validated. The results are indicative of high degree of correspondence between the identified competencies, their constituents, and the reform documents, based on which 8 areas of competency and 36 constituents are identified, among which are morality and professional devotion, and educational knowledge and skills.

Since teachers are a key agent in the success of any educational system, those involved in teacher training need to have a clear description of teaching competencies, reflection upon which could be useful in organizational leadership and administration, teacher training curriculum, and creation of a compatible organizational culture. To have as broad of a spectrum of competencies as possible, a group of 49 educational activists consisting of higher education administrators, teachers, experts, and students were interviewed extensively and in a semi-structured format. Data analyses revealed six constructs with 15 constituents and 62 elements. These constructs are theoretical knowledge, practical knowledge, aesthetical and Unitarian perspective, and personal and professional beliefs. Further perusal of the data showed that the administrators, teachers, and experts of the group shared view on all six constructs whereas university professors and students differed only in terms of the personal competencies.

The aim of this research has been to help improve the performance evaluation of physical education teachers by identifying factors involved in such a task and exploring their relevance through a survey of such teachers in Tehran. A cluster sample of 384 physical education teachers was selected from among all such teachers in Tehran’ s 19 districts divided into five geographic areas. Data was collected by distributing and collecting a questionnaire of 47 items on the assessment of physical education teachers, with the internal consistency of 0. 79. Confirmatory factor analysis of the collected data yielded the following results The identified factors are adequately fit to the model wherein the general performance, curricular performance, performance in extracurricular activities, administrative performance, and factors degrading performance were considered as important in evaluation of physical education teachers’ performance. Furthermore, the responding teachers believe that a committee should do such an evaluation at the end of each semester.

To improve the quality of student learning it is necessary to identify their misconceptions and find ways of correcting them. Such misconceptions in science, and especially at the elementary school level, could be of grave consequences if not remedied. In this study a group of elementary school teachers from four provinces of East Azerbaijan, Tehran, South Khorasan, and Hamedan participated in a short course on the essence of misconceptions and ways of correcting them. Then they reported on their observations and corrective actions over the period of one academic year. 336 such reports on students of first through third grades were collected. Data analyses revealed that most misconceptions are lexical, conceptual, and preconceived. Utilizing active learning strategies, teachers were able to both identify and remedy these misconceptions. All in all, results are indicative of participating teachers’ ability in identification and correction of their students’ misconceptions.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to control and manage emotions. Bashfulness is an emotional characteristic that could lead to social isolation and impact children’ s performance across their developmental years. Learning social skills could help shy students overcome this problem. It has been hypothesized that such skills can be taught through storytelling, and hence, improve children’ s emotional intelligence. To test this hypothesis, a group of 25 fifth and sixth grader girls identified by their teachers as shy, were assigned to two groups one of which learned social skills through storytelling while the other did not do anything. Both emotional intelligence and shyness of both groups were assessed before and after the eight 45-minute storytelling sessions. Data analyses show that the emotional intelligence of the experimental group improved and their bashfulness detectably reduced. It is thereby suggested that within the educational environments storytelling be deployed as a way of helping students overcome their shyness.