Masoud Safaei moghaddam
Abstract
education (RE). It has been said that for RE to be accepted as a reasonable subject matter it should be researchable. But for a subject to be researchable, or research based, it needs to be supported by reason, a kind of reason that have a public and universal character. On the other hand we need a conception ...
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education (RE). It has been said that for RE to be accepted as a reasonable subject matter it should be researchable. But for a subject to be researchable, or research based, it needs to be supported by reason, a kind of reason that have a public and universal character. On the other hand we need a conception of religion being capable of giving this conception of reason, and adapting itself with its teachings. I have argued that the Shiite idea of innatism is a good base for providing a theory of reason upon which reason, while having an important role in human life, and an intrinsic connection with religion, has some limitations that can only be compensated by appealing to divine aspect of life and the path of God, namely religion. To show that the Shiite innatist conception of reason can be a good starting point I have argued that, this concept of reason comes from the Shiite belief that humans have a shared nature upon which they have the same emotional and cognitive view. So I have discussed the place and the weight of reason in Islam and Shiism, the idea of innatism, the innatist conception of reason, and connecting reason and religion by suggesting the innate human nature as the same root for both of them. By suggesting the same divine nature for reason and religious belief, I argued that rational principles are at the same time the divine rules for having the best sort of life. That is reason and religion have the shared tasks for following the intrinsic virtues. So we can conclude that a true religious belief, which is supported by reason, as Shiite belief seems to be, can be a reasonable base for making a religious education system. In this work I have referred mostly to Allamah Tabatabaei and Morteza Mutahhari, as the most influential contemporary Shiite scholars, to explain the Shiite's belief as to the nature of reason and religion.
Nematolah Azizi
Abstract
This paper reports the results of a qualitative study about the effectiveness of major reforms taken place in 1990s towards closing down the gap between general upper secondary education and the economy in Iran. The study aimed to analyse questions such as: To what extent dose Iranian secondary education ...
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This paper reports the results of a qualitative study about the effectiveness of major reforms taken place in 1990s towards closing down the gap between general upper secondary education and the economy in Iran. The study aimed to analyse questions such as: To what extent dose Iranian secondary education meet current and future needs of labour market? How satisfied are employers and other key stakeholders with the quality of high school graduates in the workplace? And what are the most important further steps that policy makers should take into the account to complete the reform process of secondary education successfully? Field work using a series of semi-structured interviews was carried out with senior policy makers in the Ministry of Education. The research findings indicate that there is no systematic employers’ involvement in debates and decision are made about educational improvement causing a weak cooperation and partnerships between education and businesses. Also there is still a big gap between what is taught in schools and what employers require leading to the greater degree of dissatisfaction among employers
Abstract
Consciousness-raising (CR) task is a new way of teaching grammar developed in communicative contexts although little has been written on the effectiveness of CR tasks in EFL setting. The present study is an attempt to investigate the impact of CR tasks in Iranian EFL setting by comparing them with deductive, ...
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Consciousness-raising (CR) task is a new way of teaching grammar developed in communicative contexts although little has been written on the effectiveness of CR tasks in EFL setting. The present study is an attempt to investigate the impact of CR tasks in Iranian EFL setting by comparing them with deductive, grammar lessons common in the Iranian schools. The subjects of this study were 80 EFL pre-university male students who were randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control one. The control group received three ordinary teacher-fronted, deductive lessons, a common way of teaching methodology in Iran, on three grammatical structures (adverb placement, indirect object placement and the use of relative clause). The experimental group, however, was treated with three ‘consciousness-raising’ (CR) tasks dealing with the same target structures. The results showed that in the short-run, CR tasks were as effective as deductive approach in promoting the learners’ grammatical knowledge while in the long-run, the CR group maintained their gains more effectively than the deductive group. The conclusion is that CR tasks can function more effectively than deductive approach if the following conditions are met: (a) performing the consciousness-raising tasks in learners’ L1; (b) providing the learners with feedback whenever they encounter a problem in solving the tasks; (c) grouping the learners in such a way that at least one learner in each group would be more proficient than the other members to help the less proficient ones understand and discover the rules more effectively.
Roya Vahdat
Abstract
In this study two modes of reading (CAR and Print reading mode) were compared with regard to their effectiveness for L2 reading comprehension. A group of 120 English major students were divided into three classes: CAR, Print reading, and Control. Based on the English proficiency scores each class was ...
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In this study two modes of reading (CAR and Print reading mode) were compared with regard to their effectiveness for L2 reading comprehension. A group of 120 English major students were divided into three classes: CAR, Print reading, and Control. Based on the English proficiency scores each class was divided into two groups (high and low levels of proficiency). Three classes were taught by the same teacher and covered the same materials in their weekly four-hour reading lesson over one semester. From the three classes only CAR and Print reading groups received reading strategies instruction. This study also investigated the effect of gender and the role of teacher in CAR class. The data came from English proficiency test, reading comprehension test (pre-test), questionnaire, reading comprehension test (posttest), observation, and students’ emails. The results indicated that strategy instruction had an impact on reading comprehension. In other words, CAR and Print reading mode evoked better reading comprehension than the control group and CAR resulted in better performance when compared to the Print reading mode. Interestingly, EFL students with a higher proficiency level showed a significantly higher level of reading comprehension of the text when compared with those students with a lower proficiency level. Regarding the gender the findings indicated that gender played no significant role in CAR class. Finally, based on the observation and students’ emails the researcher concluded that the nature of the EFL teacher’s role changed in CAR class when compared with the print reading and traditional classes.
Gholam Reza Abassian
Abstract
This study, first, attempted to explore the conflict or tension between EFL teacher intuition or concepts and the conception with a composite view assembled from learner's accounts of the distinctive features of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), and second to investigate the latter's "hidden agenda" ...
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This study, first, attempted to explore the conflict or tension between EFL teacher intuition or concepts and the conception with a composite view assembled from learner's accounts of the distinctive features of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), and second to investigate the latter's "hidden agenda" (Nunan, 1998) of what ELT should be. On the other hand, role of educational context as an independent variable in determining such conflicting conceptions was also investigated. The study was carried out in the Iranian educational context conventionally categorized into three settings including; authoritarian, semi-democratic and democratic, given their varying existing educational policies and planning. Both the learner and teacher-participants (N=150, 45, respectively) answered three triangulating and already validated questionnaires (Brindly, 1984 and BALLI of Horwitz, 1987) attempting both the nature of language learning activities and their beliefs on CLT. Findings revealed that the learners hold variety of self-efficacy beliefs different from those of their teachers about learning language, many of which supported to be attributed to the educational context type and language planning and the pertinent administration policies. While both sides agreed in general on the virtues of CLT to language teaching, there were interesting differences in their perceptions mainly as to lesson purposes, classroom activities, and learning outcomes. The implications of the study would revolve around the (I) dependency of reflective teaching and learning on teacher's awareness of learner's needs, capabilities, potentials and preferences or in Richard's (1996) term of learner's" maxims", (II) necessity of teacher-learner cooperation in syllabus design, (III) significance of narrowing the gap between their maxims of instruction and learning, and (IV) awareness of the possible imposition of negative impacts like tension, anxiety and dissatisfaction on the learner's side resulting from any cognitive and intuitive mismatch on the teacher's side.
Mohammad Reza Atai; Mohammad Gheitanchian
Abstract
Recently, interest in research on EFL teaching, CLT-based methodology and materials, and post-method pedagogy has gain momentum in the Iranian mainstream education. This study was conducted; 1) to explore EFL teachers’ attitudes towards the present EFL methodologies and content of high school textbooks; ...
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Recently, interest in research on EFL teaching, CLT-based methodology and materials, and post-method pedagogy has gain momentum in the Iranian mainstream education. This study was conducted; 1) to explore EFL teachers’ attitudes towards the present EFL methodologies and content of high school textbooks; 2) to examine any probable relationship between teachers’ attitudes towards post method pedagogy and their students’ achievement; and 3) to probe any correlation between the teachers’ instructional experience and their attitudes towards the present teaching methods and materials. To this end, a questionnaire was designed to elicit EFL teachers’ beliefs. The subjects were 594 Iranian EFL teachers selected from different cities all over Iran. After the administration of the questionnaire, the data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistical procedures. The results indicated that: a) the Iranian EFL teachers hold different patterns of attitudes towards the dominant teaching methods and content of high school English textbooks, b) there is no relationship between the teachers’ positive or negative attitudes towards post method and their students’ achievement, and c) more experienced teachers’ attitudes are different from the attitudes held by less-experienced ones
Yadollah Mehralizadrh; mansour marashi; Eydan Al-Ansary
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of globalization on management of quality in higher education. A Meta-evaluation methodology is used to see how much the current research-supporting hypothesis is related to divergence, convergence or meso of quality management in higher education. ...
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of globalization on management of quality in higher education. A Meta-evaluation methodology is used to see how much the current research-supporting hypothesis is related to divergence, convergence or meso of quality management in higher education. In the light of three debates related to the nature of globalization, consequences of globalization and role of globalization in promotion of democracy and human rights, three controversial hypotheses are studied. It is suggested that forces behind these three hypotheses cannot be assessed in isolation, independently of one another, nor from a perspective of either convergence or divergence among them. Rather, globalization, regionaliz- ation, and nationalism should be captured and studied as forces relative to and overlapping one another, sometimes antagonistic and sometimes cooperative toward each other but never harmonious.
