Y. Mehralizadeh; H. Sepacy; F. Atashfeshan
Abstract
School- Based Management (SBM), rooted in the theoretical idea of participation, decentralization, authority delegation, and competition, believes that all school teachers, pupils, families and other stakeholders in the school should be involved in the process of school decision making. Bearing this ...
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School- Based Management (SBM), rooted in the theoretical idea of participation, decentralization, authority delegation, and competition, believes that all school teachers, pupils, families and other stakeholders in the school should be involved in the process of school decision making. Bearing this in mind, with help of Lawler’ (1992) theory and other researchers’ views, the problem of SBM was addressed. The main aims of this study were to recognize major barriers of SBM in Iran, particularly in public secondary schools of Ahvaz. The main questions were: 1) How much do teachers, principals and LEA authorities know about SBM’ 2) How much teachers, principals and LEA authorities are agreed about SBM? 3) To what extent is application of SBM necessary? 4) To what extent SBM is feasible in Ahvaz secondary schools? 5) What are the barriers and difficulties facing SBM? 6) What are the weaknesses and strengths of SBM? By using a questionnaire and holding interviews data were collected from secondary schools. On a 1-5 Likert- type scale the respondents’ mean scores were as follows: a) Knowledge about SBM, 3.09; b) agreement among respondents concerning decentralization and SBM, 3.49; c) importance of the application of SBM, 3.51; d) feasibility of application of the present SBM model, 2.51. Five factors were discovered to be the main barriers of SBM implementations, i.e: 1) political and power factor with an average of 3.80 (out of 5); 2) Structural and facilities factor, (3.79); 3) principals’ and teachers’ knowledge and information factor (3.72); 4) socio- cultural factor (3.52); and 5) management factor (3.24). It is concluded that the SBM scheme has not been developed in a suitable way and requires to be reconsidered by education policy makers. Suggestions are made toward smoothing the implementation of SBM in Ahvaz.
H. Sepasi; Y.A. Attari
Abstract
The purpose of this study was first to measure the psychometric characteristics of Shahid Chamran University faculty members’ final test papers. The investigation of different test formats and different procedures used by faculty members to evaluate their students final academic performances also ...
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The purpose of this study was first to measure the psychometric characteristics of Shahid Chamran University faculty members’ final test papers. The investigation of different test formats and different procedures used by faculty members to evaluate their students final academic performances also served as a second purpose of this study. A total of 109 faculty members from different academic disciplines voluntarily participated in this study. Each test item on exam papers was analyzed individually and its item difficulty, item discrimination and index of reliability were computed. The results of the completed analysis of test items were confidentially sent to the faculty members. The findings of the study showed that faculty members differ in the test format they use to evaluate their students academic performances. By comparing the psychometric characteristics of the test items with the known criterions, it was found that the differences between faculty members were significant. In addition, the analysis of item diffculty of the test papers showed that the students did not have a hard time answering the test items which means that the test items were relatively easy. It is therefore suggested that the university provide a testing center in which the faculty members would be able to learn how to construct standardized tests and improve their understanding in calculating the psychometric characteristics of their test scores.
H. Sepasi
Abstract
This study was conducted to find out how fifth grade elementary school teachers’ knowledge and understanding correspond with theoretical principles. In addition, the difficulties they think exist in teaching math to their students as well as the students weaknesses in learning basic skills to solve ...
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This study was conducted to find out how fifth grade elementary school teachers’ knowledge and understanding correspond with theoretical principles. In addition, the difficulties they think exist in teaching math to their students as well as the students weaknesses in learning basic skills to solve math problems were also investigated. 731 fifth grade elementary schools teachers, were selected as subjects in this study, 389 men and 372 women. To survey their attitudes, a preliminary questionnaire conainting five factors was constructed and its validity was ascertained. As a result of a factor analysis, the five factors were reduced to four. This was the final instrument to be used to test the hyphotheses of this study. The results showed that teachers’ attitudes toward the factors were in accordance with theoretical bases found in the literature. Moreover, a significant difference was found between men and women regarding the difficulties they face in teaching math to their students. Women showed better attitudes toward this factor than men. But, there was no significant difference -bctween men and women regarding the use of teaching strategies and students math skills. Both groups believed that in order to be able to teach math effectively, the student must first show mastery of basic skills. The results also indicated that in order to improve the students weaknesses to learn math, the current teaching strategies must be reexamined. Teachers believed that the textbook in terms of its volume is reasonable, but the variety of subjects they must teach are too numerous.
