نشریه مدیریت و برنامه ریزی در نظام های آموزشی
پیاپی 16 (بهار و تابستان 1395)

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between dimensions of learning schools with teachers’ job innovation and quality of educational activities. The research method is descriptive - correlational. Statistical population included all teachers of elementary schools in Hamedan province comprised of 6346 people, and the sample size of 362 subjects was determined based on the Cochran formula. The sampling method used was proportional stratified random sampling. Data collected using three questionnaires including Park’s learning schools (2006), Ettlie & O’Keefe’s innovation (1982) and Sanjari et al’s quality improvement of schools (1385). For appointment reliability, used Cronbach's Alpha coefficient, and estimated .92, .78 and .89 respectively. Results showed that level of learning schools components, teachers’ job innovation, and quality of educational activities was above the average one. In addition, there is a significant positive correlation between learning schools components with teachers’ job innovation, and quality of educational activities. The results of regression analysis indicated that the dimension of personal mastery is effective in prediction teachers’ job innovation; and components of personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, and team learning have the highest impact on predicting the quality of educational activities.

The purpose of this study is to investigate knowledge generation in the field of Educational Leadership and Management (ELM) which used citation analysis as a scientometrics technique. The research population is ELM authors’ productions indexed in web of science (WOS) between 1900 and 2015. Using main references such as ELM encyclopedias, handbooks, thesauri, dictionaries and suggested sources by professors for data gathering, fifty important keywords were identified and searched in WOS. Collected data were analyzed by HISTCITE software. The research results show a total numbers of 9,385 documents produced by 14,994 authors, using 216,815 references in eighteen different formats (Article, critique, book review, etc.). These documents are written in 26 languages by participation of 3,876 institutes from 118 countries. Most of the produced documents are research-oriented and published by 2,468 journals. The “Educational Administration Quarterly (EAQ)” and “Teachers College Record” journals are the most productive and effective journals respectively. The first article published in scientific journals produced by Samuel Dutton in 1900 and the most productive and effective authors are Philip Hallinger and Ronald Heck respectively. The rate of ELM scientific growth is 21.42% and more than 90% of documents have been produced in the last four decades. The most number of articles (6,365) have been produced in 2013. London University with 118 products is the most active scientific institute and USA with 2,474 works (26% of total documents), is the most productive country in the world. The article ends with some suggestions.

Workforce diversity is regarded as an opportunity for organizations to create innovation and knowledge, but different organizations look at this subject differently. The purpose of this study is to determine the challanges of workforce diversity in higher education from the perspective of academic staff in Tehran. The purpose of this study is practical and the data was collected in a mixed (quantitative - qualitative) method. In the quantitative section, statistical population consisted of the entire employees of Alzahra, Tehran, Shahid Beheshti, Kharazmi and Allameh Tabatabai universities in the 93-92 educational year (N= 6493) from which, using a random stratified sampling method, 363 cases were selected and tested. In this section the 40- item questionnaire of Adli(1388) on “diversity management ”was used. The validity of questionnaire was prooved by surveying academic experts and scholars. The reliability of the questionnaire using Cronbach's alpha was calculated (0.80).In the qualitative section the population consisted of experts in the field of diversity management, from which 6 experts were selected by using a purposeful sampling. In this section according to the literature and questionnaires findings semi-structured interview with experts on diversity management was conducted. For data analysis of questionnaires one-sample t-test and were performed by using SPSS software. The qualitative data analysis was conducted by means of categorization method. The results showed that diversity in higher education is undesirable which was similar to the results of interviews with experts .Therefore, it is recommended that in order to exit from the current situation, attention to four factors of culture, law, education and structure should be paid and major revision to the rules and structure of the higher education system should be made.

Many factors influence the effectiveness and success of trainings. Among them factors including paying attention the real needs of human forces, active participation of staff in workshops, transparency of goals and contents of programs, motivating staff in order to participate in the trainings, and suitable methods for training and … are emphasized. But a very important object that is always ignored is the role and responsibility of managers in success and applying the outcomes of educational programs.
Apparently it is expected that people should apply the outcomes after taking part in programs but in reality putting this expectation into action needs to provide an environment that makes it possible to apply those outcomes. Such an environment commonly should be provided by managers but often it is ignored.
The results of research findings show that several causes rise as serious obstacles including not being serious on trainings by managers, contradictions between current duties and activities and subjects taught at educational programs, dependence of outcome application to necessary resources such as enough time, money, power, energy and … which mostly should be spend on current affairs.

A major challenge in educational arena is training for employment. In this regard, vocational education plays an important role in human capital as well as job skills. Investment in vocational education requires that potential students show interest in this type of training. However, during the past decade, vocational education is facing a major challenge in student attrition and retention. Therefore, the purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to determine the factors influencing the retention of vocational education among students across vocational centers in Kermanshah province. Using cluster analysis, 297 vocational students were surveyed. Exploratory factor analysis showed that five factors were predicted for students retention. 1) student-teacher factor, 2) organizational support, 3) understanding student condition, 4) personal factors, and 5) characteristics of vocational curriculum. Results further revealed that these factors explained 60 percent of retention variance. Result of this study has implications for vocational education policy makers. For example, considering these factors can enhance vocational training retention.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of Personality Characteristics and job characteristics in Predicting organizational commitment of teachers. For this purpose, the correlation research method was used. 175 of the elementary school female teachers were selected as the sample. Three questionnaires were used for collecting data including NEO Personality characteristics questionnaire, Hackman and Oldham Job Characteristics questionnaire and organizational commitment questionnaire. The Results of this study showed organizational commitment of teachers including commitment to education, school commitment, commitment to colleagues and commitment to teaching duties is in good condition. In addition, the results showed that teachers’ organizational commitment can’t be predicted simultaneously through Personality and job characteristics. While, personality characteristic of extraversion and the job characteristics of diversity of skills, job importance and feedback are able to predict organizational commitment of teachers in the separate analysis.