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Articles
Policy Futures in Education (14782103)23(1)pp. 10-30
In an increasingly complex and uncertain world of the future and aligned with the emergence of Society 5.0, exploring alternative futures of education and the curricula in terms of fulfilling the mission of education systems is necessary. Therefore, this study set out to do foresight for the primary school curriculum in Iran. The study was conducted using the scenario planning method, which resulted in four alternative scenarios. The first scenario, called “The Magic School Bus” represents “curriculum as a personal roadmap.” The second scenario, entitled “The Pursuit of Happyness” describes the “curriculum revival.” The third scenario, named “The Ice Age” represents the “curriculum collapse.” The fourth scenario, entitled “Dead Poets Society” narrates the situation of “curriculum in limbo.” The findings showed that innovation comes from agency of players rather than impeccable structures and requires a transformation in perspectives about the educational aims in the digital era, as well as an increase in the authority and empowerment of schools. A key policy priority should thus be developing practical ideas for reshaping the curriculum and producing prototypes of future-proof educational models. © The Author(s) 2023.
International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning (17535263)15(1)pp. 1-13
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of brain-compatible courseware on students’ learning achievement and retention in computer programming course. In this quasi-experimental study, 60 eleventh grade female students in computer vocational schools were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group of 20 each. The control group was taught in the conventional method. The first experimental group used the researcher-made brain-compatible courseware and the second experimental group used the non-brain-compatible courseware. A researcher-made programming test was conducted as the pre-test, post-test and retention test. The results of the ANCOVA test indicate that using the brain-compatible courseware significantly improves the students’ learning achievement and retention compared to the second experimental and control group students (p<0.05). It is inferred that the use of brain-compatible courseware is more effective than the use of non-brain-compatible courseware and the conventional method. © 2023 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.. All rights reserved.
Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education (17581184)14(2)pp. 886-900
Purpose: The present study aimed to predict department heads' wisdom in Tehran universities based on their metacognitive beliefs and gender. Design/methodology/approach: The study employed a nonexperimental design. The statistical population consisted of all male and female heads of departments in Tehran universities, among whom 150 participants were selected using Morgan's table and via the random sampling method. The research instruments were the Meta-Cognitive Beliefs Questionnaire (Wells, 1997) and the Wisdom Scale (Schmit et al., 2012). The data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis and independent-samples t-test. Findings: The total scores of male and female principals were significantly different in the two scales and some of their subscales. The metacognitive beliefs scale and its components were good and significant predictors of the principals' wisdom. Cognitive self-awareness was the best positive predictor, and positive beliefs about worries were the best negative predictor for their wisdom. Practical implications: Wise department heads are usually more empathetic, and this makes their decisions for the well-being and satisfaction of their colleagues as well as the students. Therefore, when faculty members are more satisfied and relaxed, they can do their teaching better and establish more effective relationships with their students. They should also be more motivated to do scientific research studies. Because wise managers are happier and more relaxed, they can focus more on solving educational problems in their department, and this, in turn, improves the educational quality of their department. The higher the quality of the university educational system, the less stress and the more mental health the students will have. Students in such educational environments are more focused on learning courses and gain better expertise. These students will provide more specialized services to the community in the future. Social implications: Wisdom is associated with better contributing to a happy life, and as a result, we have a healthier and more productive society. Originality/value: It can be concluded that positive metacognitive knowledge, such as cognitive self-awareness via affecting the principals' mental awareness and regulating thoughts, and negative metacognitive experiences, such as worrying about the future, low meta memory and sensitive-obsessive control negatively affecting their affective and cognitive states, affect the principals' decisions and behaviors in educational settings. According to the results of this research, university presidents can hold workshops to increases metacognitive skills to their administrators and teachers. Also, the results of the present study can help the heads of university departments to establish more constructive and effective relationships with the faculty members and students by strengthening their metacognitive skills. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education (17581184)14(4)pp. 1340-1354
Purpose: The present study aimed to present a structural model of the relationships between personality traits, metacognitive awareness, creativity and academic achievement in virtual students. Design/methodology/approach: The statistical population of the study consisted of all students of the electronic Islamic Azad University in Tehran, where 240 of them were selected as sample group by random sampling method. Research instruments included the short form of the Creative Behavior Inventory (Linger), the Metacognitive Awareness Questionnaire (Schraw and Dennison) and NEO Personality Inventory (McCrae and Costa). Data were analyzed using LISERL software and the path analysis method. Findings: The findings indicated a mediating role of metacognitive awareness and creativity in the relationship between extraversion, openness to experience and conscientiousness personality traits with academic performance. It was also found that metacognitive awareness has a direct, significant positive effect on creativity. Originality/value: According to the results of the present study, the level of creativity in virtual students can be developed through training and strengthening meta-cognitive skills. The findings also suggest that meta-cognition and creativity are traits that can have intrinsic and personality roots. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education (20507003)13(3)pp. 759-781
Purpose: The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between career development and productivity of the university staff with the mediating role of self-regulation. Design/methodology/approach: The research approach is quantitative-relational and is based on structural equation modeling (SEM). The population consisted of the staff of two Iranian universities in 2018 out of which 331 participants were selected using Cochran's formula and a proportionate stratified random sampling method. To gather data, the self-regulation questionnaire (SRQ), the career development questionnaire (CDQ) and a researcher-made employees' productivity questionnaire (EPQ) were used. In terms of reliability, Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the instruments was found to be 0.97, 0.84 and 0.88, respectively. Face and content validity were confirmed by a group of field experts. Findings: The findings indicated that the staff’s self-regulation had a positive and significant effect on individual, organizational and environmental productivity factors. In addition, self-regulation had the ability to predict those factors. It was found that self-regulation had a mediating role in the relationship between career development and staff productivity. According to the results, educational institutions, especially universities, can provide their staff with the opportunity to exploit their full potentials through reinforcing their self-regulation and increasing their productivity. Research limitations/implications: Higher self-regulation capacity among university staff helps them liberate their potential energy for disinterested selfless service to the society. Higher self-regulation capacities allow individuals to increase the energy resource for self-regulation and contribute to the productivity and quality of life. The statistical population of the quantitative section is confined only to the staff working at Iranian universities. Therefore, our results should be cautiously generalized to universities in other countries. Practical implications: Our findings can help in empowering human resources and consequently improving education and research processes. Social implications: Universities play a decisive role in the economic growth and development of countries because of their diverse services in the production and distribution of science and knowledge. Originality/value: This study was conducted on university’s staff productivity, while most previous researches have been conducted in industrial enterprises. Thus, the present study seeks to fill this research gap by means of providing new perspectives and information on the factors affecting staff productivity and the relationship between research variables in higher education institutions. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Electronic Journal of e-Learning (14794403)18(6)pp. 525-536
The present study aims to compare the creativity of students in virtual and classroom courses at University of Isfahan and study its prediction based on the personality traits of these students. The statistical population of the study consisted of all faculty members and students at University of Isfahan in academic year 2017-2018. Among them, 150 subjects were selected using Morgan Table and random sampling method. The data collection was done through Abedi’s Creativity Questionnaire (1993) and Costa and McCrae Personality Questionnaire (1992). Data were analyzed by T-test for independent groups, Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. Results show that there is a significant difference in creativity scores of students attending virtual courses and those attending classroom courses, as well as between female and male students. However, the relationship between personality traits and creativity was significantly stronger among classroom students than the virtual students, and these traits were better predictors of creativity in classroom students than in virtual students. Based on findings, it can be concluded that more usage of the information and communication technologies such as internet, wireless networks, cell phone, etc.(ICTs) by virtual students not only increases their creativity, but also, as an important environmental and intrapersonal factor, affects the relationship between personality traits and creativity among these students and weakens it. This finding shows the great role of acquisitive-digital factors in students’ creativity. © ACPIL.
Assari, N.,
Siadat, S.,
Abedini, Y.,
Amirhasan monadjemi s., International Journal of Management in Education (17503868)13(4)pp. 355-376
Attention to school principals' managerial competencies and their development is an inescapable necessity, and failure to address these competencies in selecting principals leads to the loss of enormous financial and human resources as well as the dissatisfaction of the teachers and parents. The present study was conducted to explain and rank the competency criteria for school principals based on multiple fuzzy decision-making. This study has a combination exploratory design and is an applied study in terms of objectives and nature. A sample of 25 faculty members was selected for the interviews using network sampling and a random sample of 150 school principals was used for completing the managerial competencies questionnaire. To carry out the confirmatory analysis of variance, a random sample of 368 school principals was selected. The hierarchical structure of the competency criteria, including the main, individual, occupational and organisational criteria, 12 secondary criteria and 74 sub-criteria was then determined. Based on the final weight of the main criteria, occupational, individual and organisational competencies were ranked first to third. © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
