INTRODUCTION: Many medical universities around the world have performed stunning changes in the recent years. Some of these changes have been performed with the support of international organizations. They changed the traditional training programs based on teacher- centered learning and disciplined approach to the educational course based on community needs responsively and student centered learning...

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.

Criticism is judging the merits and demerits of something and showing its weaknesses and strengths. Textbook evaluation, as a small step in learning and teaching process, can help teachers and learners find books that suit their needs and likes. In the present article, the book ‘ Educational Psychology’ (the 13th global edition) authored by Anita Woolfolk (2016) is reviewed and evaluated. This is a qualitative evaluation based on the writer’ s experience in teaching this source in postgraduate classes for several years. To do so, the formal characteristics and the content of the book and the degree of its success in fulfilling the objectives, which are mentioned in the introduction of the book, are examined. Although this book, like any other book, is not flawless, it can surely be recommended to those who are interested in the learning-teaching process. It is hoped that, via this article, this book would be read and used by more people in the scientific community of Iran.

In line with the perspective that teachers are the most significant agents in language policy enactment, teacher agency in general and the pivotal role of agency in curriculum reforms, in particular, have received a surge of attention in recent years. This study aims to investigate the way a group of experienced EFL teachers exerted agency in the context of curriculum reform in Iran. Narrative enquiry was utilized to explore teachers’ agency by drawing on the ecological approach proposed by Priestley, Biesta, and Robinson (2015). Seven teachers (aged between 30 to 45 years) of English as a foreign language with more than 10 years of teaching experience at state high-schools participated in this study. Snowball sampling was utilized for selecting the teachers who had been involved in teaching both old and new books, designed by the Iranian Ministry of Education, for over five years. The results indicated that the teachers construct agency in order to cope with the changes in the curriculum by adhering to many past experiences, creating an image of the future, and enacting the curriculum despite the challenges. This study also highlighted the importance of teacher agency in professional development and improvement of education and learning in the time of curriculum reform.

In the twentieth century, the reform of religious educational centers in Najaf was influenced by the Iraqi cultural, social and political atmosphere. This study investigates various aspects, of this reform and renovation, as a part of the Shiite culture, from 1900 to 1963 AD, the Ba'ath party establishment date. The study shows that the principal modifications in the religious schools of Najaf began in 1936 AD (1354 AH) and developed more or less until 1963 AD (1382 AH). The reform pioneer was Jamʿiyyat Muntadī al-Nashr, preparing a model for four other schools, particularly Jāmiʿat al-Najaf al-Dīniīyyat. The most critical renewal in all these educational centers was establishing a general curriculum and introducing education regulations, emphasizing quantitative progress.