exploratory mixed method

A framework has been proposed to improve the content of civil engineering undergraduate education with a focus on transferring entrepreneurial skills. Using a mixed-exploratory research method, 11 university experts were interviewed and a conceptual model with 9 components (ecosystem, tests and evaluations, structure, incentives, general/theoretical courses, projects (structural and road design), internship, complementary courses and Kehad, extracurricular activities) was developed. Based on the sub-components, solutions have been presented for improving the content of civil engineering undergraduate education by transferring entrepreneurial skills. Then, based on the model, a questionnaire including 35 Likert-scale questions and 2 ordinal questions was designed and distributed to a sample of working civil engineers (experts). The obtained data were analyzed with the Friedman test, and the questions were ranked according to the priority of the experts. Finally, based on the top 20 priorities, suggestions were made to policymakers, professors, entrepreneurs, and students. For example, visiting construction sites as extracurricular activities was the suggestion of professors and the first priority of experts, also, the lesson proposal under the title “Innovative Project” was one of the 20 primary priorities of experts.

Fairness is an important quality of classroom assessment as a continuous process that affects learners' beliefs, mentality, motivation, satisfaction, and performance. The main purpose of this study was to construct a rubric for evaluating fairness in classroom assessment.

For this purpose, based on an exploratory sequential mixed methods design, two studies were conducted. In the first study, using purposive sampling of the criterion type, 39 individual interviews with key informants including faculty members and graduate students of the University of Tehran, a group interview and a Focus group interview was conducted and in the second study, 511 students from the University of Tehran were selected through three-stage cluster sampling. Qualitative data analysis led to the identification of a conceptual model including the four main themes of "procedural fairness", "interactional fairness", "nature of assessment" and "fairness in the paper-pencil test" as the basis for the development of criteria and making Rubric. In the second study, the psychometric properties of Rubric were investigated using content validity, item analysis, construct validity and reliability determination.

The content validity of each criterion was higher than the standard value of 0.78 and the validity of the overall scale was 0.94. The results of exploratory factor analysis showed the extraction of three factors of procedural fairness, the nature of measurement and interactional fairness, which explained 57.08% of the total variance of variables. The results of factor analysis along with the study of discrimination and difficulty coefficients of items led to the elimination of three weak criteria and the final rubric was compiled with 17 criteria. The calculated Cronbach's alpha for procedural fairness, the nature of assessment and interactional fairness were 0.87, 0.84 and 0.79, respectively. Also, the retest coefficient for them was calculated at the desired level and 0.65, 0.63 and 0.54, respectively.

According to the desirable psychometric properties of the rubric, this rubric can help to increase the literacy of professors, increase the quality of teaching and assessment and strengthen the civic and educational behaviors of students by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of professors in the field of fairness.

The aim of current exploratory mixed study was to investigate principal's role in creating and develoaping teacher's sence of efficacy through compiling indicators and dimensions of Principal's Efficacy Building Behaviors (PEBB). Firstly in qualitative phase, educational experts were participated and interviewed. Participants were selected using purposeful and snow-ball sampling. In quantitative phase, using the identified indicators and dimensions, a questionnaire was arranged as PEBB questionnaire. In quantitative phase, 371 teachers were randomly selected from primary schools of Karaj and were completed questionnaire. Data of this phase were analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The results of qualitative phase demonstrated that PEBB were divided into 57 indicators and 10 dimensions. The result of CFA revealed that the measurement model of PEBB has good fit to observed data. This study highlights the role of PEBB in teacher's sence of efficacy and recommends PEBB variable and questionnaire to educational administration researchers. The results are discussed in the final section of the paper.