هیمن خضری آذر

The purpose of this study is was to develop an Iranian Adolescent Time Attitude Scale. For this reason, two studies have done among Iranian adolescents to develop and validate of a time attitudes scale. In the first study, a qualitative method as well as grounded theory was used to conceptualize time attitude. Participants in the first study included 45 adolescents (23 male and 22 female) aging 15 to 17 years old with the average age of 16.20. Six focus groups were formed in schools for girls and schools for boys. The results of open and axial coding for past, present and future shows that this period of life contains eight categories of positive future, negative future, hedonist present, negative present, futurist present, positive past, negative past, and past acceptance. In the second study based on the codes obtained from interviews develop a scale to measure time attitude was drafted viewing time scale then examined its psychometric properties. Participants in the second study included 938 school students (493 female and 445 male) in the second and third grade of Iranian high school. The findings of exploratory factor analysis indicated that time attitude scale for adolescent Iranian contained 34 items measuring eight dimensions including positive future, negative future, negative present, hedonistic present, futuristic present, negative past, past acceptance and positive past. Fit indices in confirmatory factor analysis model, confirmed validity of this attitude scale. Based on the findings, time attitude scale can be as valid and reliable instrument for assessing attitudes toward adolescents Iranian used.

The aim of this study was to analyze multilevel of student, classroom, and school factors on students' critical thinking. 974 students of high school of Tehran participated in research. The variables selected from three levels of students (basic psychological needs and the need for cognition) of the class (support for autonomy, perceived structure) and school (school culture). A hierarchical linear model was used to analyses data. The results showed that there was a significant relationship at the student level, the variables required for autonomy, need for competence, need for communication and the need for cognition and At the level of the class, perceived structure and support for perceived autonomy had a significant relationship with the components of analysis, curiosity and truth-seeking, tend to be critical thinking. At the school level, teacher-student relationships had a significant relationship with the analytic, curiosity and student relationships with each other and normative expectations. In sum, the findings emphasized the role of student-level factors (basic psychological needs and the need for cognition), the level of class (support for autonomy, perceived structure) and the level of school (school culture) in influencing critical thinking of students.

Due to the effect of culture on the formation of time attitude, it is very important to examine the components of time attitude in Iran with its certain cultural-social conditions. Therefore, this investigation attempts to study time and time attitude conceptualization from the perspective of adolescents with a qualitative method, interview with focus group, and grounded theory approach. Participants in this study was 45 adolescents (23 boys and 22 girls) aging 15 to 17 years old with the average age of 16.20. Three focus groups were composed in male students school, and three focus groups were constituted in female students schools. Their responses regarding their perception of time were categorized in four categories of ‘hours’, ‘pressure and limitation’, ‘mental construct’, and ‘time as a metaphor’. The results of open and axial coding for past, present and future shows that this period of life in Iranian adolescents contains eight categories of positive future, negative future, hedonist present, negative present, futurist present, positive past, negative past, and past acceptance. Comparing with other findings, in general, time attitude is cultural based and cultural-social conditions affect time attitude adolescents’.

This research was conducted to study the relationship among basic psychological needs, academic motivation and student's academic engagement (in English language) in Structural Equation Modeling method. Using stratified sampling, 423 (127 males and 296 females) secondary and junior students were selected to participate in the study. They replied to the basic psychological needs, academic motivation and academic engagement Questionnaires. Structural equation modeling revealed that basic psychological needs satisfaction exerted a direct, significant influence upon intrinsic motivation, Identified regulation, Interjected regulation and an indirect one upon academic engagement. In addition, basic psychological needs had a negative direct influence upon amotivation, while the direct influence of related on extrinsic motivation was not significant. Intrinsic motivation, Interjected regulation and Identified regulation had a positive direct influence upon academic engagement, while the direct influence of related on amotivation was negative and significant. Additionally, the direct influence of related on extrinsic and interjected regulation was not significant. In general, findings of this study suggested basic psychological needs had influence on student's English language engagement through the meditational effects of academic motivation.

This article aims to investigate strategies for public participation in crime prevention. As a qualitative research, it employs interviews to achieve results. In this regard, 40 persons including heads of police forces, social deputy of Police Force, Prevention Police’s chiefs, and Police commanders were interviewed. Coding has been used for data analysis; the results have been presented in the form of particular themes. The results of the interviews showed that lack of public participation in crime prevention is categorized in three thematic groups: organizational, social, and legal and judicial. Organizational reasons are official reasons and communicative reasons. In terms of official causes for lack of public participation in crime prevention, police limitations and the administrative bureaucracy are the main factors. With respect to communicative reasons, lack of public trust in police and inappropriate treatment with people by the police forces are extracted as effective themes. Social reasons for lack of public participation in crime prevention are two themes, namely, cultural and security reasons. Two themes of lack of support for participation and lack of law for participation are legal and judicial reasons. The extracted themes for lack of support for participation are gaps in legislation, lack of legal protection for the individual who discloses the cases as well as juridical gaps and improper dealing with the criminals and oppositionists. Legal gap and lack of determining role for public are sub-themes in the lack of law for participation. Methods of public participation in crime prevention are classified in three categories: organizational, social and inter-organizational. Organizational methods include tasks, human resources, and increase in features and expansion of activities. Culture-building, confidence-building and legal supports are three themes of social methods. Inter-organizational method can be shown by the theme of relationship between organizations.

Having understood the role self-efficacy beliefs play in student's learning and motivation, teachers and educators have extensively attended the ways one might develop as well as enhance such beliefs in academic settings. Social cognitive theory posits self-efficacy beliefs are influenced by environmental (teacher characteristics, direct and indirect reinforcement and class atmosphere) as well as personal factors. Based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this research investigated the effect of such factors on self-efficacy beliefs.Self-determination theory, a theoretical perspective of the social-cognitive approach to motivation, emphasizes three basic psychological needs necessary for individuals to satisfy their inherent motivation, personal well being and self-regulation. These needs (need for competence, autonomy, and psychological relatedness) are said to be universal, innate and psychological (Ryan & Deci, 2000). SDT argues that social contexts that enhance or forestall such needs will invariantly impact one’s satisfaction of basic psychological needs, which will in turn produce different motivational, cognitive and behavioral outcomes (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Along the same lines, research has indicated that teachers’ motivational style (controlling versus autonomy-supportive) affects the ways students might be motivated towards engaging in academic tasks (Khoshbakht & Khayyer, 2004). Students with autonomy-supportive teachers are more intrinsically motivated (Khoshbakht & Khayyer, 2004) with higher perceptions of competence and self-esteem (Deci, Nezlek, & Sheinman, 1981; Ryan & Grolnick; 1986; and Reeve, 1998). Using Structural Equation Modeling, the present study seeks to investigate the relationships of teachers’ autonomy support with students’ psychological needs and self-efficacy in a specific domain (English course). Gaining insight into contextual predictors of self-efficacy can lay the grounds for an improved understanding and knowledge of how teachers’ motivational styles influence students’ self efficacy.Research Hypotheses: 1- Teachers’ perceived support of students’ autonomy directly influences students’ basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness).2- Basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness) directly influence students’ self-efficacy3- Teachers’ perceived support of students’ autonomy indirectly influences self-efficacy in students through autonomy, competence and relatedness. This research was Structural Equation Modeling in design, which is considered descriptive-correlation in nature. The population of the study included all the male and female students of grade one in high schools of Qom City in the academic year 2010-2011. Overall, 310 students (177 male and 133 female) were selected from the population through random cluster sampling. The instruments in this research included Learning Climate (Williams & Deci, 1996), Basic Psychological Needs (Ilardi et.al, 1993) and Self-efficacy (Middleton & Midgley, 1997) questionnaires. The psychometric properties of the instruments were confirmed by Chronbach' Alpha and confirmatory factor analysis. Results indicated that the relationship between all the variables of the study (perceived autonomy support by teacher, need for autonomy, competence and self-efficacy) was significant at 0.01. The results of structural equation modeling showed the direct influence of autonomy support on autonomy need (β=0.86), competence, (β=0.74) and relatedness (β=0.50) was significant at 0.01. Teacher’s autonomy support accounted for 73 percent of variance in need for autonomy, 54 percent of variance in need for competence and 25 percent of variance in need for relatedness. The direct influence of need for autonomy on self-efficacy (β =0.17) was significant at 0.01. In addition, direct influence of need for competence on self-efficacy (β=0.67) was significant at 0.01. Furthermore, basic psychological needs accounted for 41 percent of variance in self-efficacy. Finally, the results indicated that teacher autonomy support exerted an indirect influence upon students’ English self-efficacy; this influence is exerted through basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness), and therefore, the meditational role of these variables in the relationship between autonomy support by the teachers and self-efficacy is also confirmed. Goodness of fit indices for the model showed the data had good fit with the model (RMSEA, 0.06; GFI,. 90; AGFI,. 86; CFI,. 90; PNFI,. 74, X2/df, 2.09). The results of this study indicate when academic settings are autonomy- supportive, students feel they are autonomous; hence, they are inherently motivated to initiate, maintain and regulate their activities and they regard themselves as the cause of their behaviors; that is to say, satisfaction of basic psychological needs will make students enjoy their learning practices.Another finding of this study was the direct, positive influence of autonomy and competence on self efficacy. This finding is consistent with Furrer & Skinner (2003) and Reeve (2006). Teachers foster such intrinsic motivational resources through autonomy-supportive classrooms.The results also revealed that autonomy-support by teachers indirectly influenced student's self-efficacy through psychological needs. This finding accords with SDT (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Perception of an autonomy-supportive classroom by students will help them develop valuable intrinsic motivation variables (such as autonomy, competence and relatedness) and therefore increase their self-efficacy. Accordingly, it is suggested teachers pave the grounds for the satisfaction of their student's psychological needs; it is believed this will lead to positive outcomes in terms of the student's academic achievement. As self-efficacy beliefs entail the development of sense of agency, on the one hand, and positive attitudes towards one's abilities, on the other, teachers can enhance self-efficacy in students by satisfying their need for autonomy and competence. Teachers might also help students satisfy their need for relatedness through fostering positive classroom communications and cooperative learning.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of self-efficacy, task value, mastery, performance-approach, performance-avoidance and cognitive engagement on students’ mathematics achievement using path analysis. 280 third grade high school students majoring in mathematics in a high school in the city of Mahabad participated in the study. The students filled out Middleton and Midgley’s Mathematics Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (1997), Midgley et. al’s Achievement Goals Scale (2000), Pintrich et. al’s Task Value Subscale (1991), and Kember et. al’s Deep and Surface Learning Strategy Subscale (2004). The results of path analysis revealed that the exogenous variables of self-efficacy and task value exerted a direct, positive and significant effect on mathematics achievement. The direct effect of self-efficacy on mastery, performance – approach and performance – avoidance goals, as well as deep cognitive engagement was also significant. Task value had an indirect significant effect on mathematics achievement with mastery goals and deep cognitive engagement being the mediating variables; however, the indirect effect of selfefficacy on mathematics achievement was not significant. Mastery goals had an indirect, positive and significant effect on mathematics achievement, while deep and surface learning strategies were the mediating variables. on the other hand, performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals had an indirect negative effect on mathematics achievement through surface cognitive engagement. The direct effect of deep cognitive engagement on mathematics achievement was not significant, however, surface cognitive engagement had a direct, negative and significant effect on mathematics achievement.

The current study used structural equation modeling to investigate the relationship among willingness to innovate, computer anxiety, user support, and intention to use, with regard to the mediational effects of perceived usefulness and ease of use using the partial least squares (PLS) method. 300 male high school teachers in Qom city filled the following questionnaires: intention to use;perceived usefulness and ease of use; willingness to innovate;computer anxiety;and user support. Partial least squares method was used for analyzing data. Findings, in general, showed that usefulness and ease of use had a mediational role in the relationships among willingness to innovate, computer anxiety, user support, and intention to use. Willingness to innovate and user support exerted an indirect positive influence on intention to use through usefulness and ease of use. In addition, computer anxiety had an indirect negative influence on intention to use through perceived ease of use and usefulness, while perceived ease of use influenced intention to use computer indirectly and positively, with the perceived usefulness being the mediation variable. Individuals’ cognitive beliefs about information technology can mediate the relationship between individual and organizational factors with this technology acceptance.

This research aimed at studying the influence of basic psychological needs on academic achievement taking into account the meditational effects of identity styles. 330 students (166 males and 164 females) were selected using cluster sampling and answered to the basic psychological needs (La Guardia, et al. 2000) and identity styles (Berzonsky, 1992) questionnaires. Path analysis revealed that basic psychological needs exerted a direct, significant influence upon identity styles and academic achievement. In addition, basic psychological needs exerted an indirect one upon students’ academic achievement through the mediation of identity styles. Results indicated informational style had a positive direct influence upon academic achievement, while normal style influenced academic achievement in a negative correlation (p<0.05). The direct influence of Diffuse / avoidant style on academic achievement was not significant. In general, this study emphasized the influences of basic psychological needs and identity styles on academic achievement.

The current study aims to compare gender differences in self-efficacy, achievement goals, task value, cognitive engagement and mathematics achievement of high school students studying at the third grade of high school (in mathematics) in the city of Mahabad. We analyzed data obtained from 280 students (of whom 113 were girls and 167 were boys). Instruments used to measure the variables of the study were Midgley and Middleton Math Self-efficacy Questionnaire (1997), Achievement Goals Scale (Midgley, et.al, 2000), Kember, et.al (2004), Superficial and Deep Strategies Subscale and Task Value Subscale (Pintritch, et.al, 1991). Results indicated girls scored higher in mastery goals, task value and math achievement compared to boys, but there were no significant gender differences regarding performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals. In addition, Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) revealed while boys were more likely to use superficial strategies, there was no significant difference between boys and girls on their usage of deep strategies.

The current study aimed at structural equation modeling of the relationship between cultural values (individualism/ collectivism, masculinity/ femininity, uncertainty avoidance, power distance) and computer use, with regard to the meditational effects of personal innovativeness, perceived usefulness and ease of use applying the partial list squares (PLS) method. Three hundred and eighty-one B.A students in Tehran University answered a questionnaire comprising of the following subscales: perceived usefulness and ease of use; willingness to innovate; individualism/ collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance and masculinity/ femininity. Partial least squares method was used for data analysis. Findings, in general, showed personal innovativeness, usefulness and ease of use had a meditational role in the relationship between individualism/ collectivism, masculinity/ femininity, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and computer use: individualism/ collectivism exerted an indirect positive influence on use through personal innovativeness, usefulness and ease of use. In addition, uncertainty avoidance and power distance had an indirect negative influence on use through personal innovativeness, perceived ease of use and usefulness. On the other hand, perceived ease of use influenced computer use indirectly and positively, with the perceived usefulness being the meditational variable. Individual variables and cultural values can predict student's computer use.

This research aimed at studying the relationship between the perceived teacher autonomy support, basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and communication), intrinsic motivation and effort in Structural equation modeling method. 287 freshmen of Babol’s boys high schools were selected through stage cluster sampling method. These subjects answered to the Learning Climate Questionnaire (Black & Deci, 2000), Basic Need Psychological Scale (La Guardia et al. 2000), Intrinsic Motivation Scale (1989) and Effort Scale (Dupeyrat & Marine, 2005).Results of the study revealed that teacher autonomy support exerted a direct and significant influence upon the psychological needs satisfaction, and this would have an indirect influence upon the students’ intrinsic motivation. In addition, autonomy and competence had a positive and direct influence upon the intrinsic motivation, while the effect of communication on the intrinsic motivation was not significant. Intrinsic motivation exerted a direct and significant influence upon students’ effort. In general based on the results of the study it can be concluded that teacher autonomy support can meet the students’ basic psychological needs which can in turn influence their intrinsic motivation