فصلنامه تعلیم و تربیت
سال سی و هشتم شماره 2 (پیاپی 150، تابستان 1401)

As one of the most complicated and also among the touchiest of educational domains, sex education has always been subject to many obstacles due to existing misconceptions and areas of lack of clarity, which has led to the rise of social problems and abnormalities in behavior among youth. The present research has thus endeavored to determine the ten elements involved in the curriculum for sex education throughout primary to secondary education levels. To this aim, the studies carried out in Iran from 2001 to 2020 and abroad from 1990 to 2020 regarding sex education, sexual well-being and the curriculum elements involved in sexual education were examined, which led to 66 studies being selected for the sample, and Roberts' six-step synthesis research model was used to achieve the optimum combination of results. Checklists were used for data collection, and reliability was ensured by using Cohen's kappa coefficient. NVivo 8 was used for data analysis. The findings indicated that the objectives of sex education consist of providing the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to enable the individual to conduct healthy sexual affairs in personal as well as social affairs. The content depends on the objectives for each course, and active approaches of teaching prove more appropriate. The teacher has the role of a counselor, and a variety of sources can be used. There is flexibility in time and place, activities need to be conducted in small groups, and qualitative methods of evaluation are of significance.

The present research aims to analyze the content of Ministry of Education’s strategic plans (the Fundamental Reform Document of Education, the Comprehensive National Scientific Plan and the National Curriculum Document) based on Shannon's entropy regarding the favorable components of teaching English. The contents of the Fundamental Reform Document of Education, the Comprehensive National Scientific Plan and the National Curriculum Document, as well as 7 main components and 45 secondary components regarding teaching the English language in 2019 have been taken into consideration. The results obtained by content analysis using Shannon's entropy having studied all of the Fundamental Reform Document of Education, the Comprehensive National Scientific Plan and the National Curriculum Document pointed out that the component regarding the factors effective in learning the English language had the highest frequency – 429 – while the lowest frequency – zero – pertained to the challenges and damages regarding learning the English language. The component regarding the reason for learning the English language enjoyed a higher significance coefficient compared to other components, while the component regarding the challenges and damages have not been addressed in the aforementioned documents. The findings obtained from the frequency of the components indicate that components regarding teaching English do not have a normal distribution, and teaching English has received very low coverage in these documents.

This research has aimed to develop and validate a leadership inventory for successful primary schools. For this purpose, for the qualitative part of the study, purposive sampling was used, and semi-structured interviews using the theoretical saturation criterion were conducted and later transcribed with 24 successful primary school principals and key teachers in the cities of Tehran and Isfahan as informants of the research. Once the data obtained from the qualitative phase were analyzed, a list consisting of 131 items was compiled, and the study began its quantitative phase. The content validity of the tool was examined by ten experts and professors in the field of educational management from universities and the Ministry of Education. The content validity ratio presented by Lawshe (1975) was calculated for each item and then compared with the table. Six items, each measuring two areas, were separated, leading to 12 items, and eight items required revision and modification. The statistical population of the qualitative phase of the research consisted of 322 primary school principals in the city of Isfahan. The statistical sample was, using the table presented for determining sample size by Cohen et al. (2001), determined as 176, and the share for each district was determined using stratified sampling and distributed in an equal and random fashion among two groups of schools – successful and ordinary. The principals put the list to work, and 167 lists were returned, indicating a 95-percent return rate. To determine the reliability of the tool, Cronbach's alpha coefficient and combined reliability were used, and the obtained figures (0.70 to 0.94) showed the measurement inventory to be of high precision. In order to analyze the quantitative data, descriptive indicators and the factor analysis test were used, the results of which pointed out the credibility of the model and the tool.

The present research has endeavored to study deep insight experiences of expert teachers of primary schools as an effort to provide a model to be expanded for student teachers to use. Taking a qualitative approach, the research used narrative inquiry. The statistical population consisted of primary school teachers. Snowball sampling was used, and data collection and analysis were carried out by means of semi-structured interviews and content analysis. The research findings indicated that the narrative inquiry model is based on the application of three main steps – “the skill of understanding”, “the basics of understanding”, and “developmental contexts”. Therefore, passive-reflective observation, creativity, tolerance, questioning and silence are the most important skills used by expert teachers when interacting with events in their professional life. The mental basis for these skills arises out of applying fundamentals to use such as endless human faculties, affection, deep insight and taking an aesthetic approach when confronting every lived experience. By materializing this step, a suitable ground will be provided for expert teachers’ insights into domains such as cognition, learning, teaching, assessment and educational leadership. Moreover, by using the model suggested in this study, student teachers can obtain deeper insight from expert teachers’ experiences and use it in their professional life.

The present research aims to study the functional effects of green space in educational environments and its impact on primary schoolchildren's academic performance and behavior. A correlation-descriptive method has been used, and the statistical population consisted of all schools in District 2 in the city of Ardabil in the school year of 2018-2019 and the students studying in them, 291 of whom were selected using Morgan’s table. The required data were collected using the Fam and Taylor academic performance questionnaire, The Rutter Children Behaviour Questionnaire for Teachers and the researcher-made questionnaire for green space functions and analyzed by means of the Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. A significant relation was seen to exist between the functions of green space and academic performance and behavioral disorders in primary school students. As indicated by the findings obtained by regression, according to the beta coefficients, green space functions predict 0.08 of behavioral disorders and 0.45 of academic performance. The existence of green space is therefore effective in students’ academic performance and behavior. It is recommended that green space be increased both in quantity and quality in both interior and exterior sections of educational environments so as to improve the educational-mental quality of students.

The present research aims to identify the indicators determining successful high schools. Using a qualitative method, a Delphi study was carried out in a classical fashion. The statistical population consisted of all experts on the domain of teaching children and young adults in Kermanshah, and 15 university professors and teachers and advisors working for the Ministry of Education formed the panel group participating in this research. The present study was conducted in four phases. First, a questionnaire involving an open question was devised: What do you think are the features of a successful school? Qualitative analysis of the participants’ responses led to the extraction of 120 codes, 16 sub-indicators, and eventually for main indicators (emotional development, social development, career development, and cognitive-academic development). In the second phase, using the codes extracted, a questionnaire consisting of 66 questions was designed for the panel group to decide on. An 80-percent agreement was set as the criterion for acceptance. Eventually, after the phases of going through answers again, 4 questions were omitted, and the panel group reached a final agreement over 62 questions. As a result, a successful school is one that prepares young adults for their future lives by planning for and addressing the four dimensions of emotional development, social development, career development, and cognitive-academic development rather than merely aiming to prepare students for success in the university entrance exam.

This research aims to compile a profile model for the professional qualifications of PE teachers in the city of Tehran. Using a mixed research method, the researcher conducted insightful interviews with 19 elite, distinguished experts on the subject and, while identifying the relevant factors, engaged in purposive sampling. As the interviews were being conducted, they were also analyzed and coded based on the main issued discussed, and eventually, a qualitative model based on the indicators extracted from the data obtained from 306 PE teachers in the city of Tehran was subjected to fitting. Based on the findings of the research, the codes extracted were categorized into 30 questions and three essential qualifications entitled personal (emotional) constructs, expert knowledge and professional skills (psychomotor). Then each qualification were measured using three factors. Regarding the qualification of personal constructs, factors such as attentiveness, valuation and hierarchy; in the qualification of expert knowledge, cognition, understanding and analysis; and in regard to the qualification of professional skills, careful movements, harmony and performance can be mentioned. Awareness of qualifications based on personal constructs, expert knowledge and professional skills proved to be able to add original variables to the domain of information regarding physical education. Nonetheless, it is essential that such information be compared with previous foundations and taken into consideration based on a measurable framework for PE teachers (obtained from the results of the present research) in the Fundamental Reform Document of Education.

The present research aims to determine the effectiveness of spiritual intelligence training on coping with stress and self-actualization in adolescent girls. The research had a semi-experimental, pre-test, post-test and follow-up design. The statistical population consisted of all eighth-grade schoolgirls in the 12th School District in Tehran in the school year of 2017-2018. Using multi-stage cluster sampling, 56 students were selected as the sample and divided into the experiment and control groups in random fashion. The spiritual intelligence package based on the educational protocols presented by Bowell (2004) was used. The questionnaire developed by Endler and Parker (1990) for coping with stress and the actualization questionnaire devised by Soleimani et al. (2015) were the tools used in this study. Data analysis was carried out by means of the SPSS software as well as descriptive statistical methods (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (MANCOVA and the repeated measures ANOVA). The assumption that the variance-covariance matrices would be homogenous was tested using Box’s M test. Statistical analysis showed that 9 sessions of intervention through providing spiritual intelligence training led to a significant increase in problem-based coping strategies, positive emotions, relationships, finding meanings to life and progress in post-tests compared to pre-tests in the experimental group, while in the control group reduced emotion-based coping strategies and avoidance coping strategies were observed. Considering the positive effects of spiritual intelligence training, the findings of this research can be used in the planning of curriculum content on life skills so as to prevent social harms such as hazardous behaviors in adolescents.

Due to their mistakes while learning, students with specific learning disorders continually show signs of stress and, compared to normal students, more emotional problems and lower self-confidence. This makes the discovery of the most appropriate forms of psychological interventions aiming to reduce these students' emotional problems even more essential. The present research intends to study the effectiveness of psychological interventions in reducing emotional problems in students with specific learning disorders. By taking a meta-analysis approach, this research has endeavored to integrate the results obtained by various other studies. The sample size for meta-analysis consisted of 25 studies which were selected as methodologically acceptable from among 35 studies. Meta-analysis checklists were used. The research used in this meta-analysis have been based on 807 samples and 25 size effects. The results obtained from the meta-analysis show the size effect of psychological interventions upon reducing the emotional problems of students with specific learning disorders to be d=1.222 (p≤ 0.001) quite effective according to Cohen’s table. According to the findings, the study conducted by Ghazi Asgar et al. (2009) entitled “The Effect of Immune Training against Stress on the Anxiety and Mathematical Performance of Schoolgirls Incapable of Learning Mathematics” enjoyed the highest effect size (1.81), while the research conducted by Bigdeli et al. (2017) entitled “The Effectiveness of Using Games in Mathematical Problem Solving on Internal Incentives toward Problem Solving in Students with Disorders in Learning Mathematics” showed the lowest effect size (0.61). The results indicate that, considering the effectiveness of psychological interventions in reducing emotional problems in students with specific learning disorders, it is recommended that interventions with larger effect sizes be put to use.