A Comparative Study of the Objectives and Content of the Secondary School Curriculum of Group 7 Countries and Iran with the Aim of Identifying the Differences and Similarities of Cognitive and Metacognitive Skills

Education is the main factor of economic growth in a country, and the curriculum is the heart of any education system. As civilization makes the transition from the industrial era to one of sustainability, educational leaders around the globe ought to implement a learning system that prepares young people for life in a unified society. Every country that has experienced high growth for a long time makes great efforts to educate its nation and reinforce its human capital. In contrast, there is considerable evidence that many developing countries are not doing enough. Education has a legal claim on public funds for at least two obvious reasons. First, the social returns are likely to be greater than the private returns. Second, some families with low incomes and credit constraints may not be able to invest as much in education as they would like, even if a higher income is guaranteed for a diploma or university degree in the case of a successful job search. Therefore, public spending on education is established based on impartial opportunity and efficiency. This paper provides a starting point to explore what skills and concepts students should be studying to lead the future. The curriculum model provides an explicit outline of some of the competencies that will likely be required for whatever world scenario emerges. This study focuses on the key roles of education and its relation to economic development as well as the curriculum as a core part of the entire educational drive of nations. In particular, the aim of the present study was to study the goals and contents of the high school curriculum of Group 7 countries and Iran with a focus on the differences and similarities of cognitive and metacognitive skills, which were compared with Iran in order to reach an appropriate model.

The method used in this study is qualitative, seeking to understand a research phenomenon in its usual environment that leads to a deep understanding of the studied phenomenon. In particular, this research is a documentary analytical research with a comparative approach. The statistical population of the research in the first study, which had a comparative approach, includes all documents, printed and electronic texts regarding the curriculum elements of the selected countries. It includes all articles, websites, studies, and research related to the research topic. In the Delphi method, the presence of experts and experts in the subject is emphasized. Statistical sample: In this research, in the first part, after searching the official portals of the countries and databases, all the documents that contain the content of the curriculum elements of these countries have been found. Data analysis in qualitative research is the process of classifying, describing, and combining data. In this section, after collecting the information and data, the contents were separated into 4 components: goal, content, method, and evaluation for each country. Then it was analyzed based on John Stuart Mill's agreement and difference model. The analysis in the quantitative part includes Kendall's coefficient and confirmatory factor analysis with the help of SPSS22 and Amos Graphics version 23 software. Meanwhile, Maxqda18 software was used in the qualitative part and model extraction. All documents were translated by translators from IACTI (Iranian Certified Translators and Interpreters). It must be acknowledged that the process of translating the documents was complicated and difficult due to the different languages and finding the appropriate equivalent in Persian. 212 participants, including secondary school teachers, university professors, and Ph.D. students in the fields of curriculum and education management helped to confirm and categorize the collected information. In the next step, the Delphi method was used to obtain the opinions of experts and reach a consensus about the studied components. With a 5-point Likert style scale 80% agreement was obtained, which was regarded as attaining a minimum acceptable interrater agreement.

This study was motivated by doubts that have been raised about the role of education and human capital in economic development. These doubts come from a variety of vantage points ranging from whether the research has correctly identified the impact of education to whether other institutional aspects of countries might be more important. They also encompass concerns about whether or not we really know how to change educational outcomes, particularly in developing countries. The eight studied countries were divided into two groups for comparison: (a) Group of Seven, and (b) Iran. The objectives and content included in the curricula of these countries were identified, and then similarities and differences between these two groups were analyzed. The results show the importance of both minimal and high-level skills, the complementarity of skills and the quality of economic institutions, and the robustness of the relationship between skills and growth. International comparisons incorporating expanded data on cognitive skills reveal much larger skill deficits in developing countries than generally derived from just school enrollment and attainment. The magnitude of change needed makes clear that closing the economic gap with developed countries will require major structural changes in schooling institutions. Moreover, the results of this research showed that the goals and content of the curriculum of these countries often emphasize the areas of work and employment and are somehow economy-oriented. In Iran, there is not much emphasis on these areas in Iran. Although the principles and teachings of Islam pay attention to work, there is a lack of attention to this issue in the goals and content of the curriculum. It is suggested that there is an emergency need to review the national curriculum in Iran. Taking help from religious foundations in this field, such as paying attention to work and effort in Islam, avoiding laziness, and contentment, paying attention to halal earning and sustenance, etc., is very beneficial and enlightening. Using the fundamentals of Islam only in prohibitions and outward criticisms and only paying attention to prayer and fasting not only makes students evasive but also limits the main mission of religion which enlightens the path of people's lives and can open a way in their social and economic life. Pointing to the fact that the longest verse of the Holy Quran is in the field of economic transactions is one of the examples of the importance of the field of economics in Islam and proof of this matter. The lack of economic attention and cultivating students’ cognitive as well as metacognitive is felt in terms of preparing people for the future, after graduating from secondary education. It seems that it is better for the planners to update and modify the secondary school curriculum in line with economic development and changes in psychological knowledge.