Criteria and Standards for Assessing Master Degree Dissertation

The purpose of this study is to determine the major and minor criteria and qualitative and scoring standards for assessing written master degree dissertation of behavior sciences fields (Management, Psychology, Education and sociology) of Payam Noor University. 172 assessment criteria were developed after literature review and interview with research method and assessment and measurement professionals, and then were used to construct a questionnaire with likert and rating scales. Then 112 teachers were selected randomly from working and related teachers of PNU in the aforementioned fields. The calculated Cronbach Alpha values for the questionnaire were about 0.99 which indicate the high reliability of the scales. Results of binomial tests with more than 99 percent of confidence show that the teachers confirm the developed criteria. Also based on teacher's opinion, the criteria were classified in three standard categories of: acceptance with no modification, acceptance with minor modification and acceptance with major modification. Finally, scoring standards were estimated by principle component factor analysis.