JOURNAL OF EDUCATION AND PSYCHOLOGY
Year:2006 | Volume:13 | Issue:2|Papers Count:11

In this article, the educational viewpoints of J. J. Rousseau concerning the goals, principles and methods of education have been extracted from their relevant sources, and compared and contrasted with Islamic educational thoughts, which in turn have been extracted from Islamic texts. The results of this research show some notable similarities and differences between Rousseau's educational ideas and Islamic educational thoughts.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the community of inquiry in the philosophy for children (p4c) program on fostering reasoning skills of third grade guidance school students (boys) of the N.D. School of Ahvaz. 60 third grade boy students of this school who were randomly selected participated in this study. The instrument of collecting data in this study was the New Jersey 'Test of Reasoning Skills (NJTRS). The findings of this investigation showed that utilizing community of inquiry in classroom has a positive effect on fostering reasoning skills of the participants.

The purpose of this study was to compare the performances of fifth grade elementary school students who participated-with those who did not participate in Roshd new teaching method (Roshed Multimedia Program, MRP) on final math exam with control of participants' IQ scores, in Ahvaz, Iran. The attitudes of all the teachers (N = 104) who were involved in MRP program were investigated regarding the effectiveness of this new program. A total of 491 boy and girl students were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The instruments of this study consisted of: school final math exam, a coordinated math test, Raven IQ scale, and an attitude scale. Nine hypotheses were tested and the results indicated that there was no significant difference between the math scores of those who did and those who did not participate in MRP. However, significant difference was found between the performances on math exam of girls who participated in MRP as compared to those who did not. This meaningful difference can perhaps be attributed to the motivation and job satisfaction of women and also to the effective management of girl schools that conducted the project. The findings of attitude questionnaire indicated that there was an inverse relationship between teachers' length of service and their attitude toward the effectiveness of MRP. The relationship was significant at P<0.05. In terms of academic degrees and gender no significant difference was observed in the attitudes of teachers toward the effectiveness of MRP. But teachers who had access to adequate educational facilities and equipment to make better use of MRP showed a more positive attitude. It is, therefore, suggested that the educational organization in Ahvaz should pay more attention to improve the effectiveness of this new teaching method.

In this study, relying on self-concept and cognitive/social perspectives, the effects of math self-comcept, learning motivation, prior math achievement, and gender on math achievement were investigated, using path analysis method. To conduct the study, 304 freshman high school students, 152 boys and 152 girls, from School District #6 of Tehran completed a mathematics self-concept and a math motivation scale. Further, to gather data to determine the level of participants' math achievement, their math scores of the first semester of the academic year 1382-83/2003-2004 were obtained. Participants' math scores of their previous year were collected to serve as a measure of their prior math performance. The findings derived from the overall path analysis method showed that math self-concept is a stronger predictor of math achievement compared to prior math performance, math learning motivation, and gender. Scrutiny of the direct effects of the variables showed that prior math performance has a very strong effect on math self-concept. This effect is almost equal to that of math self-concept upon math achievement. This draws attention to the reciprocal role of self-concept in teaching mathematics.

Children, from their very early ages, through their everyday expenence in both natural and designed conditions, learn about scientific concepts. The primary school is the first environment in which science concepts and principles are dealt with in a systematic way through planned experiences, and science textbooks play a vital role in this regard. Since scientific concepts, and particularly physics concepts, are abstract, young children need to form mental images about them. To satisfy this need, science textbooks should contain ample visual elements to make matters clear for the children. In recent years considerable innovations seem to have been introduced in the Iranian primary school science texts. These developments have taken place partly on account of internal and external research, and partly through following the examples of advanced foreign countries.Apparently, one of conspicuous changes in the textbooks involves the use of graphic elements. Research findings indicate that graphical components play a vital role in grasping student attention. The main purpose of this research was to study and compare the extent to which graphic elements are used in the primary textbooks of the three countries of Iran, USA, and England. To achieve this goal, physics concepts were selected as domain of the study and the section on sound was randomly selected in that domain. To collect and analyze the data, graphic elements were divided into active and inactive items based on their contribution to the children's understanding and learning tasks. Textbooks' content were analyzed and compared according to these criteria. Findings of the research indicate that Iranian primary textbooks tend to use related pictures and drawings with a variety of colors. But, because of the poor quality of paper, these textbooks are less effective compared to English and Amen can textbooks. Iranian textbooks present a lot of images in an inactive way. American textbooks present more extensive Images to provide students with ample information and stimulate their curiosity compared to other two countries. English books use graphics for organizing information and doing experiments more than those of the other two countries. As a result English textbooks use more active pictures and are more useful in promoting a discovery frame of mind.

Dyscalculia is a term used to describe children who exhibit special difficulties in arithmetical skills. In order for this diagnosis to be made, an individual is supposed to display arithmetical skills at a level significantly lower than his/her chronological age, measured intelligence, and appropriate education. This disorder does not include those students who have learning difficulties because of visual, hearing, or physical disabilities, or suffer from mental retardation or poor environmental, social and economical conditions. Two goals were pursued in this study: 1) investigating the prevalence of dyscalculia in primary schools of Ahvaz, and 2) the effects of practical remedial teaching, token economy and relaxation therapy on the reduction of arithmetical difficulties. An experimental design with pretest and postlest was used in this study. The sample size was 2800 students (1400 boys and 1400 girls) selected randomly from primary schools in Tehran. Results showed that the rate of dyscalculia was higher for boys than girls (3.5% for boys vs 3% for girls). Also the results of two -way analysis of variance and the tukey test showed that practical remedial teaching significantly reduces dyscalculia.

Since the Iranian Ministry of Education trains its school teachers at its teacher training centers across the country, this study was designed to evaluate the TTCs of Khuzestan comprehensively. In the course of this research, first the four factors of ground, input, process, and output were designated. Then for each factor appropriate criteria were worked out: six criteria being allotted to ground, seven to input, eight to process, and three to output, totally 24 criteria. For each criterion, indices and standards were defined on the basis of which judgment could be made about the condition and merit of each factor and criterion. The method used in this study was descriptive of the survey category. This study had the seven sub-populations of educational experts, principals and their assistants, students, budget personnel, library staff, faculty members, and graduates of five TTCs (three for women and two for men) during the two academic years of 1382-1384 (2003-2005). Data were gathered by means of 10 instruments comprising questionnaires, interviews, checklists and filed documents. Findings showed that these 2- year training institutions have been able to fulfill their set goals appropriately. The status of these centers was evaluated to be relatively appropriate in terms of geographical, socioeconomic and cultural grounds. The input of these centers and also their processes covering structural/organizational make-up, teaching/ learning activities, and services and support resources were found to be relatively acceptable. Finally, the outputs, i.e. its graduates, were rated as highly acceptable.

The present study attempted to survey the viewpoints of the faculty members of Shahid Chamran University on the importance and use of scientific journals. It also attempted to investigate their viewpoints concerning the substitution of the printed journals by the electronic ones. No attempt was made at sampling; all the 469 faculty members (the whole population) received a copy of the researcher-made questionnaire, 384 of whom completed and returned their copies. The results showed that 75% of the respondents believed that printed scientific journals and 80% believed that electronic journals help them improve their knowledge and stay up-to-date. Nevertheless, 44% of respondents believed that the printed journals available in libraries and 67% believed that the electronic journals available online satisfy their information needs. The results also revealed that while" departments" affect use of the journals, gender, type of degree, academic rank, and the years of teaching experience do not. Although the majority of respondents are against the reduction of book budget in favor of increasing the journal budget, 76% of them suggest an increase in the number of printed and electronic journals.