sajjad askari matin

Recent Local and global studies unanimously recognize the significance of social capital in resolving the challenges of public education in post-Pandemic era. The majority of these studies confirm the increasing and decreasing effect of social capital on the educational community. The present paper has looked at this phenomenon from a new perspective and has sought to investigate the effect of language teaching on the promotion of social capital. To this end, adopting a phenomenological approach, we sought an in-depth and critical understanding of the positive effect of foreign language teaching on the development of Iranian teachers' social capital. The premise was that teachers would use their foreign language learning knowledge, skills, and attitudes – from among the available factors – to improve their and their audiences’ social capital. To collect data, eleven public school teachers serving in the state-run schools of Tehran participated in responding to the questionnaires and attending a semi-structured interview. To validate the data, 9 expert professors in the field of teacher training were selected through purposive sampling, whose ideas were sought up to the theoretical saturation level. Then, the collected data were transcribed, coded, and analyzed. As a result of the data analysis, “the overall model of the effectiveness of teaching foreign languages on the improvement of teachers’ social capital” emerged in the form of the three categories of individual effect, group-organizational effect, and social and supra-organizational effect, along with 18 main themes and 57 sub-themes. Based on the results of the analysis, the direct and indirect effects of foreign language teaching and learning on strengthening the social capital of teachers appeared in five arenas, namely promoting scientific and cultural participation; developing social network; promoting the sense of individual, collective, and national security; adopting self-initiation in empowerment and promotion of individual-professional identity; and promoting the intercultural and transnational awareness. Based on the attained results, it is suggested that the teachings and concerns of foreign language teaching related to the enhancement and improvement of teachers’ social capital should be observed in order to compensate for the challenges of education during the Pandemic – especially in training new teachers and in-service training courses. Moreover, these teachings and concerns need to be regarded in planning, policymaking, and evolution of the curriculum.

In the bulk of literature on critical thinking, the influence of interest on cognitive and affective processes of individuals has always been a source of debate and disagreement; a reciprocal relationship to be detrimental or facilitative in the development and enhancement of critical thinking as a skill. The present paper aims at explaining and resolving the observed discrepancy, with the combination of a comparative (agreement method) and a (descriptive-analytical).

method, on the additive and regressive effect of “interest” on critical thinking-product from the.  viewpoint of Islamic Traditions.

The finding show that although interest, as a human tendency, generally has a positive effect on critical thinking, in some cases, the same component prevents seeing the shortcomings and defects as well. Therefore, in critical thinking, which requires more judgment and evaluation in order to promote it, one must control the interest in the subject in order to form a critical view of the issue properly. Based on the results, it is suggested that more attention should be paid to the regressive role of interest in critical thinking, especially in cognitive and metacognitive understanding of the mental structure of thinking. Accordingly, updated and systematic rereading of the religious doctrines ia one of the necessities of the conscious life in the third millennium, especially when the effective and productive approach to psychological components is more and more needed for today's life.

Also, it is strongly suggested that the insights driven from Islamic traditions especially those that tap upon the issues on psychology are diverse and rich, provide a cultivated and rich ground for understanding of human cognition and mind.

Advancements in theory and practice of Teacher Evaluation maintain that effective teaching is the most important factor in realization of success or failure of an education system. Therefore, any attempt to explore the dynamic and complex nature of teacher's performance is considered critical. In the same vein, this paper is an attempt to introduce a Framework of Reference for Teaching English as a Foreign Language (FRTEFL) at the threshold of I.R. of Iran; a local model aligned with global perspectives. To this end, adapting a qualitative meta-synthesis approach, all possible dimensions of teacher's performance criteria reflected in 17 High-stake resources were explored; scrutinizing the twofold mapping of both curriculum and evaluation standards. For the application of meta-synthesis, grounded coding and thematic analysis was carried out by two research assistants also fifteen teacher training experts participated in validation analysis. The output of meta-synthesis resulted in emergence of overall 6293 Grounded Codes, 1655 Themes, and 218 Super-themes. Based on the results, the framework contains 8 Domains, 35 Key Areas, along with their validation measures: Planning and Preparation for General Pedagogy, Planning and Preparation for Language Pedagogy, Planning and Design for Learning, Management of Learning Environment, Effective Instruction, Organizational Responsibilityand Professionalism, Socio-cultural Capital and Social Agency, and Spirituality, Morality and Theism. The proposed framework is believed to represent a localized framework of teacher's practice in the context of an Islamic Education System, provide considerable implications for enhancement of teacher's professional development, and to be a major step in validation of local and large-scale Teacher Evaluation programs.

Analysis of interrelationship between self-identity changes and national identity reconstruction in the course of language learning is a concern for foreign language pedagogy and policymaking. In this study, based on a cluster sampling, 204 foreign language learners were selected to answer two Likert-Type questionnaires; one on self-identity changes in six categories: self-confidence change, additive change, subtractive change, productive change, split change, and zero change and the other on national identity dispositions in five categories: geographical orientations, national culture, national language, heritage, and national art and literature. Results revealed that self-confidence change was the prominent change common among foreign language learners and demographical influences on both constructs were also observed. Findings suggest that EFL learners can apparently experience moments of identity conflict due to EFL instruction, however, concerns for a prolonged and negative impact of EFL pedagogy pertinent to EFL learners’ sense of national identity is not significant. On the contrary, EFL pedagogy can have a positive impact on learners’ awareness and attitude toward national language and culture.

The decline of attention to the facade of modernity and the inclination toward spirituality and theism in the third millennium is the evidence of human natural tendency toward spirituality, theism, and faith. This is, also, to some extent connected to discussions of identity and semantics in organizations. This paper tries to review the works of researchers on spirituality and theism along with specific focus on the conception of theism and spirituality in Quran and Nahjol-Balagha; providing suggestions and implications applicable to organizational issues. The review reveals that spirituality and theism are significant for one‟s sense of integrity, consciousness, and organizational identity.