فصلنامه نوآوری های آموزشی
پیاپی 56 (زمستان 1394)

The purpose of this research was to cognize the understanding of practitioners from moral education in public and formal education system at primary schools. It was a qualitative research. Data was gathered by fifteen semi-structured interviews with practitioners—teachers, principals, assistants, and tutors and observation of twelve schools as well. Data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis method. The Results showed that whatever is done with the title of moral education is pseudo/semi-moral education based on practitioners’ views which have four characteristics: Lack of attention to the cognitive domain, Emphasis on modeling and imitation, authoritarianism and emphasis on punishment and reward methods.

In recent years, the role of educational media in providing necessary information and skills to help the addressee to better understand the educational subjects has been paid attention more and more. In the present paper, a method is proposed to teach the concepts and interpretation of Quran using educational technologies (charts and diagrams) and color psychology, which makes possible the easy familiarity of addressee with Quran concepts. In this method, the total subjects of each sura are provided in the form of a chart or circle diagram. Such a diagram makes the addressee familiar with the approximate volume of verses, related to each of the main subjects in sura and conveys the obvious image of sura content to the mind of addressee. In the majority of methods used in teaching Quran concepts, it is not considered in this way. This method has special flexibility and considering the condition and characteristics of addressee, suggests the education at general and specialized level. So, it could be used both in formal teaching (university and schools such as primary schools) and informal ones.

The purpose of this research was to explicate the criteria of recognition and proper encounter with art and its functions in education and then comparing and analyzing the content of 7th grade previous and new art textbooks, based on these criteria. Using an inductive approach, it became clear that the functions of art in education can be studied at three levels. The substantive level includes major art components, that is, creativity, impression and intelligence. The median level includes producing, criticizing and assessment. The derivative level includes components such as moral, social, religion and communicative education. At the second part of this paper, we pathologically analyzed the 7th grade art textbooks with regard to these levels and criteria, using a descriptive content analysis method. It became clear that the components of first and third levels had been ignored in the old textbooks. But in the new textbooks, this situation has been reversed. As a result, attention to the second level components has been ignored in the new textbook. Therefore, it is necessary to review the new textbook and to consider the second level components.

In order to evaluate auto mechanic curriculum, 233 graduates, 357 students, 69 teachers and 25 principals and school assistants of 16 schools in 5 provinces including Khorasan-e-Razavi, Qom, Kermanshah, Chahar Mahal-o-Bakhtiari and Khuzestan have filled in the questionnaires and checklists. The data have been analyzed using descriptive statistical methods. Some of the most important results of this research have been summarized below:The performance of students in various courses, particularly general and specialized theoretical courses was undesirable. Here, students and graduates’ families mainly belonged to lower socio-economic class. % 22.7 of graduates could get a job. The jobs of %58 of them did not have relation to their discipline. Most of them had temporary job and they were daily workers. Their salary was low and they were not satisfied with their jobs. Their livelihood, welfare and salary were not desirable. There was shortcoming in their knowledge, skills and competencies and there was lack of motivation and job satisfaction. So, it is necessary to look for solution to improve implementation and to achieve goals, to provide human resources and to get high quality skills and occupation for graduates.

Over the last few decades, group instructional methods have been the focus of many researchers. There are multiple studies on the effects of group instruction that highlighted a demand for a combination of research in this area. The method of the recent study was meta-analysis and the purpose of this study was combination of studies on the effects of group teaching methods (cooperative and discussion) on the learners’ cognitive, emotional and social indicators. The research population consisted of the available related studies which were conducted in Iran between 1370-1392, including full-text articles, theses and research projects in databases and libraries, universities or government agencies. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, as well as sensitivity analysis, almost 323 effect sizes on 172 researches were investigated. The result for the combinational effect size was obtained 0.643 for the random effects model. Findings indicated that these methods have a more effect on social and cognitive outcomes, respectively. The other finding of this study was to determine the effect size for each outcome with separate indicators. It became clear that based on the critical thinking indicator for cognitive outcome, self-esteem indicator for emotional outcome, and citizenship skills indicator for social outcome had the largest effect sizes. The finding of this meta-analysis has an adequate theoretical and empirical support, and they emphasize to review and use these methods in the educational system.

The theory of constructivism recognizes that students bring to any new learning situation a set of preconceptions based on their previous knowledge and experiences. Those preconceptions which are inconsistent with or different from the commonly accepted scientific consensus and the students are unable to adequately explain the observable scientific phenomena using them are defined as misconceptions. Several researchers in different countries have documented students’ misconceptions in electrochemistry. The purpose of the present study was to identify Iranian student's misconceptions in learning electrochemistry. For this purpose, 331 students were randomly selected from five municipal districts of Tehran (namely, districts 2, 5, 6, 9, and 16) in the educational year 1386-87 (comparable to 2007-2008), including 141 male and 190 female students. The test contained 7 multiple-choice questions, consisting of a set of alternative answers, and 1 open-ended question. Also, the questions covered subjects such as the concept of oxidation-reduction, electrodic potentials, concept of anode and cathode, completion of electrical circuit in galvanic cells, standard hydrogen electrode, and the role of salt bridge in electrochemical cells. The results identified students’ new electrochemical misconceptions as well as some of those previously reported. The identification of common misconceptions of students can improve teaching methods and educational content.

The aim of this study has been to evaluate the impact of teaching science with context-based approach on the achievement of seventh grade students in Baharestan city. It was a quasi-experimental study with pretest - posttest design. The research population consisted of secondary school 7th grade male students studying in the first semester of Baharestan city in 1392. The sample consisted of 67 7th grade male students who were selected based on access sampling method. They were divided into two groups of control (34 students) and experimental (33 students). Measurement tools used in the study included IQ test and achievement test (knowledge, skills and attitudes) based on 7th grade science course materials. At first, the achievement test was administered in both the experimental and control groups. Then, the experimental variable (context-based instruction) was trained to the experimental group for 12 sessions and finally the post-test was distributed in both groups. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (covariance) was used. The results showed that the experimental group who were trained with context-based approach has more achievement than control group who were trained with traditional approach. Also, there was a significant difference between the mean score of the two groups. Findings showed that teaching science with context-based approach had positive impact on attitudes, knowledge and skills of students.