A Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluation of Master's Theses in Education of Mazandaran province

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality and quantity of master's and doctoral dissertations in Mazandaran province. The type of research was descriptive content analysis and applied in terms of purpose. The statistical population in the qualitative section of the research were the experts of the scientific community and academic specialists and in the quantitative section, all the dissertations of the graduates of the Islamic Azad University of Sari Branch with a total of 3367 dissertations which have been presented in five trends of the Department of Educational Sciences in the academic years of 2011-2020. The sampling method was stratified random.  The sample size was determined using Krejcie and Morgan table. Structured interviews (10 questions) were used to collect qualitative data. In the quantitative part, a researcher-made questionnaire was designed based on the criteria extracted from the qualitative stage. Cronbach's alpha method was used to determine the reliability of the data collection tool. Data analysis was performed using Mann-Whitney U, Friedman rankings and utility tests via Spss23 software. The results showed that among 18 sections of master's theses reviewed, the conclusion section was in a less favorable condition and the sections (abstract, problem statement, research objectives, etc.) were in a relatively good condition and finally, the sections of the title, keywords, introduction, statistical population, sample and sampling, appendices and principles of correct writing were in the desired condition. In fact, according to the mean rank, the greatest weakness is in the sections of conclusion, problem statement and the significance of research, respectively, and the strongest point of dissertations have been in the sections of keywords, appendices and research methodologies.