نشریه نامه آموزش عالی
پیاپی 8 (زمستان 1388)

The goal of this article is to explain the necessity of reviewing the Education Science curriculum, the branch of administration and educational planning in BA, with emphasis on the contribution of various sciences in the realization of course goals, and also conformity with its specialized branches in MA and PhD. Thus, the number of courses and their fitness to course coefficients of MA entrance exam and content continuity among BA, MA and PhD, are explained. The results indicate an unbalanced proportion of various sciences in the curriculum. The contribution of Psychology among the basic courses of BA is the most compared to other sciences such as Philosophy and Sociology. Generally, imbalance, lack of conformity and discontinuity in BA, MA and PhD curriculum of Education Science, the branch of administration and educational planning, are the major challenges of the educational system. Consequently, the necessity of rethinking and revision of thisprogram is inevitable.

With the formulation and approval of strategic goals in Iran outlook statement of 1404 and its announcement to all ministries and public organizations, nowadays all organizations in Iran are following it with programs and projects for developing their corresponding plansand implementation. One of the strategic efforts carried out is the Comprehensive Science Map of Iran (CSPI) in the High Council for Cultural Revolution (HCCP). All universities and higher education institutes in Iran are required to design and develop the strategies whitch should follow CSPI.Nowadays, universities and higher education institutes in the world are trying to develop and implement their strategic plan. Among the strategies concerned, information system strategy of universities and higher education institutes is one of the required strategies.Universities and higher education institutes in Iran thus need and are required to develop their information system strategy as a part of their major strategies for assuring successful achievement of their strategic goals towards the realization of the missions of CSPI.The aim of this article is to propose a model for defining and specifying information system strategy at three levels of Strategic, Tactic and Technique levels in Iran higher education system towards the realization of the "outlook of 1404" and CSPI's missions.Since there are different types of universities and higher education institutes with different scopes and conditions, it is natural to think of different strategies for these different universities and higher education institutes. Therefore, there is the need to have different information systems strategies for different universities and institutes. It is clear that realization of those strategies would be through defining, developing and implementating the appropriate software programs and projects.

This study focused on the investigation of BA and MA curricula in Educational Technology based on the perspectives of both teachers and students of Educational Technology in Iran. The subjects of this study were both teachers and BA and MA students who were majoring in Educational Technology. The participants were 217 people who were selected through stratified random sampling out of three groups (i.e. BA students, MA students and professors of Educational Technology). To collect data, a researcher-designed questionnaire was used.The results revealed that there was relevance between all curriculum goals of BA and MA courses and presented titles and syllabi in this major except for the goal of recognition and discovery of educational problems with some courses.According to the majority of teachers and students, Seminar in Educational Technology (among main courses) and some optional courses like General Medicine, General Economy and Anthropology in Islam were considered unnecessary. Most of the participants alsoconsidered unnecessary some other courses among specialized courses like computer programming, advanced Islamic education, philosophy and theories of education. Finally, most of the students and teachers believed that revising and reevaluating the goals, titlesand syllabi in Educational Technology were essential and inevitable.

Planning to utilize gifted and talented people who demonstrate potential capabilities of good and qualified performance is very important for decision-makers in every country.The aim of this study is to investigate and identify factors influencing the success of "Continuous PhD candidates" in three fields (i.e. biotechnology, mathematics and physic). The sample includes all Continuous PhD candidates at four universities in Iran (i.e. Tehran University, Amirkabir University, Tehran Tarbiat Moaalem University and Zanjan Postgraduate Center). The data was obtained through two different questionnaires the reliabilities of which were estimated through Crounbach alpha. The findings showed thatstudent satisfaction was the highest for the biotechnology students, then, physics and finally mathematics.

The aim of the present research was to examine the relationship between job satisfaction and professors’ scientific productions (faculty members and assistants) in Hamedan Payame Noor University. The research method used was survey and a researchermade questionnaire was utilized for gathering the data. The participants were chosen through random sampling. The results revealed that 60% of professors showed little or a little, 26.25% to some extent and 13.75% high or very high satisfaction.Also, results showed that assistants were less satisfied about their jobs compared to faculty members. With regard to scientific productions, 81.25% had little or a little, 3.75% to some extent, and 15% high or very high scientific productions. Also, the findingsshowed that assistants had less scientific productions compared to faculty members.In addition, the results of this research showed that there was a meaningful relationship between the independent variables of satisfaction towards the nature of work, university managers, colleagues, encouragement and punishment style, promotion possibilities in job, income, age, scientific grade (level) and the dependent variable of professors’ scientific productions. But there was no meaningful relationship between the independent variables of sexuality, satisfaction towards sanitation/health and education conditions of professors and the dependant variable of professors’ scientific productions.Also, the results showed that there was a meaningful relationship between age, scientific grade (level) and job satisfaction. But there was no meaningful relationship between sexuality and job satisfaction.

Curriculum development and curriculum design are based on many different models that can be divided into two major categories: traditional and new conceptualization. One of the perfect views in the traditional curriculum models is the Decker Walker model. In thismodel, the curriculum development process contains three stages: platform, deliberation and design. The main goal of this paper is the analysis of higher education curriculum development based on these three stages of Walker model. Naturalistic existence of the Walker model led the research method to a qualitative one. Therefore, data was collected by interviews with two categories of senior and executive managers in the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. The data analysis methods were summarization, categorization and interpretation.The results showed that in Iran, field curriculum is considered as the syllabus. The curriculum planning system in higher education may be apparently compatible with the Walker model, but not in detail. The reasons for this lack of compatibility are the presence of a central and top-down system and lack of curriculum designing centers in universities. In other words, the thing that comes out of curriculum design sessions is a syllabus that is used in departments without any change or sometimes with slight changes.

Largely without serious public policy analysis or debate, a series of individual state budget and revenue decisions over the past decade have made states increasingly smaller shareholders in their public colleges and universities. Public colleges and universities, whichenroll 77 percent of all American college students, draw more than half of their operating support from taxpayers in the 1980s; today, money from state coffers provides about 30 percent of their funding. The manifestations of this shift, tax cuts and spending caps haveconverged with outdated fiscal structures and budget practices to create long-term state deficits, which then lead states to shift more responsibility for funding higher education from state resources to individuals.In this article, we will see that states should clearly understand what benefits public dollars invested in higher education are buying and, correspondingly, what benefits are foregone when such funding is reduced. Meanwhile, colleges and universities should understand that they cannot blissfully expand access without the resources to servestudents effectively and ensure that they succeed.