نشریه مطالعات آموزش و یادگیری
سال نهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 73، پاییز و زمستان 1396)

Introduction Whereas the beginning of academic life is favorable for a group of students, for some the entrance to university had been accompanied with stressful experiences (Zajacova and et al, 2005). Research has reported that students suffer from high level of psychological distress in this period (cook, 2006; Andrews, 2004). Psychological distress is an expression synonymous with pressure, stress (Ridner, 2004) and consists of depression and anxiety symptoms (Mirowsky and Ross, 2002) which brings about a lot of negative effects on student's functions (Ruthig and et al, 2008). One of the psychological resources that can protect students against the mental illnesses and one of the most important human mental potencies that has been assigned a specific position in psychology is optimism (Seligman, 2005). Optimism is a propensity in a person, according to which, one hopes that best results will occur in the future (Carver and Scheier, 2002) and gives people more chance to experience a decrease in stress and depression(Brissette and et al, 2002). Another effective factor in psychological health which is one of the adaptive variables with optimism that increases cognitive actions and students, commitment for achieving degrees and accomplishing academic course is perceived academic control (Ruthig and et al, 2009) that refers to a belief in one's capacity that influences or controls academic outcomes. Pery (2001) believes perceived academic control increases students, autonomy and responsibility, as a result it causes academic successes. Optimistic students have high perceived academic control (Stupnisky and et al, 2012) and different levels of which is a good predictor for anxiety and depression (Stupnisky and et al, 2012; You and Kang, 2014). Studies have reported gender differences in anxiety and depression (Mirowsky and Ross, 1995; McDonough and Strohschein, 2003) whereas significant difference in the optimism has not been reported in both sexes (Shokri, 1387, Lavasani, 1392). Considering the existing literature, the purpose of this research was to examine the mediating role of the perceived academic control in the relationship between optimism and psychological distress among university students.
Research questions 1-Is there a negative correlation between optimism with psychological distress? 2-Is there a positive correlation between optimism with perceived academic control? 3-Is there a negative correlation between perceived academic control with psychological distress? 4- Does erceived academic control mediate the relationship between optimism and psychological distress? 5- Dose gender moderate the mediating role of perceived academic control in the relationship between optimism and psychological distress?
Method Current study was descriptive and correlational and has used structural equation modeling for examining the relationship between constructs and measured variables in the suggested conceptual model. Among male and female students of Shahid Beheshti University a sample consisting of 360 students (119 males, 241 females) were asked to fill out the Life Orientation Test- Revised (LOT-R), perceived academic control scale and depression, anxiety and stress scale (Dass-42) as the research instruments.
Results Correlation matrix results in both genders showed that the relationship between optimism with academic control and academic responsibility was positive and significant and the relationship between optimism with depression, anxiety and stress was negative and significant and the relationship between academic control and academic responsibility with depression, anxiety and stress was negative and significant. Finally, the relationship between academic control and academic responsibility was negative and significant.The results of path coefficients comparison for both genders showed that among female students in comparison with male students, the correlation between optimism and perceived academic control was more considerable statistically.
Discussion Review of fitness indices of suggested model showed that the proposed model had a very good fitness with data and according to the findings of previous studies, was explainable. Carver and et al (2010) believed optimism indicates a generalized expectation and according to which, an individual feels favorable results occur when facing the problems. In this course, Scheier and et al (2002) believed that decreasing the optimism against the events is accompanied with pressure, anxiety and depression. Scheier and Carver (1985) and Solberg and Segerstrom (2010) showed optimist people hope to perceive favorable results and insist on achieving their own purposes. Because optimist people can have control over the events, students who have powerful emotions in perceived academic control can manage success and failure. Thus, they have more motivations to achieve the positive outcomes and have autonomy and self-monitoring strategies in life that protect them against the depression, anxiety and stress. Also, sexual equivalence test results for the proposed model was explainable based on structural weighs option, according to priority of orientation, based on self-improvement among female students who intend to improve and modify when facing frustrating events.

Introduction Identity formation is one of the most important topics in personality development at adolescence and has significant consequences in later live's stages. Academic identity is one of its dimensions which refers to competence, goals and self-efficacy beliefs and emotional experiences in school setting. Academic identity includes 4 dimensions of achievement, diffusion, foreclose and moratorium academic identities. In academic domain, emotions and motivations are fundamental. So, emotional well-being and academic motivation were considered to focus in this study. Emotional well-being consists of positive and negative emotions and their ratios. Higher positive emotions and lower negative emotions indicate emotional well-being. Academic motivations refer to the processes that leading to learning and success. These motivations included three dimensions of intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation. Furthermore, it seems that academic motivations are affected by academic identity and lead to emotional outcomes such as emotional well-being. Thus, the aim of present study was to investigate the relationship between academic identity and emotional well-being dimensions (positive and negative emotions) considering the mediating role of academic motivation.
Research question 1. Do academic identity dimensions predict emotional well-being dimensions? 2. Do academic identity dimensions predict academic motivations? 3. Do academic motivations mediate the relationship between identity dimensions and emotional well-being dimensions? 4. Does the study's conceptual model fit to the sample group's data?
Method This study was descriptive and correlational. The study population included all of Yazd high school male and female students. The sample group included 377 high school students (180 girls and 197 boys) who were selected by multistage cluster sampling. Academic identity (Rahimi Nejad et al.), academic motivation (Vallerend et al.) and emotional wellbeing (Keyes and Magyar-Moe) scales were administered. Cronbach alpha indicated acceptable reliability for the measures.
Results Research hypotheses were verified by the path analysis. The results showed the positive and direct prediction of positive emotions by successful and foreclose identities. Confused identity had positive and direct impact on the negative emotions. Intrinsic motivation predicted positive emotions, positively and extrinsic motivation and amotivation predicted negative emotions, positively. Furthermore, the positive effect of successful identity on positive emotions through intrinsic motivation and positive effect on negative emotions through extrinsic motivation was significant. The impact of confused identity through intrinsic motivation on positive emotions was negative and the effects of all four identities on negative emotions with the mediation of amotivation were significant. Fitness indices confirmed the final model of the study. Achieved academic identity had the most powerful impact on positive emotions as well as the effect of confused academic identity on negative emotions.
Discussion In general, the study findings showed that the status of identity has direct and indirect effects (with the mediation of motivate orientation) on emotional well-being dimensions. Self-determination theory explained these findings. Furthermore, it suggests that educational environments emphasize the intrinsic motivations through academic goals, instructional approaches and school climate.

Introduction Instructional Groups are one of the most important elements of educational system that are decisive and crucial in achieving the goals and missions of education quantitatively and qualitatively. Therefore, focusing on their performance and competencies through various aspects, especially in the realm of teaching and their effects on increasing the teacher's quality of performance is crucial. In this regard, the main goal of this study was to present the structural relationship between the instructional group's role and teacher's quality of performance at high schools of Yasooj in the academic year of 2013-2014. In relation to the research objective, the following research question is proposed:  Is instructional group's role a significant anticipant of teacher's quality performance?
Method The statistical method was correlative descriptive. The population includes all teachers at high schools of Yasooj from 2013 to 2014. Participants were 201 teachers (111 men and 90 women) who were selected through stratified sampling method. All of them completed scales of instructional group's role covering four dominants (coordinator, group leader, consultant, evaluator) and teacher's quality of performance covering eight dominants (professional role, relationships, management of course, teaching coaching, cultural competency, monitors and ensures quality education, quality of feedback, task, classroom management). Then, the validity and reliability of instruments were attested and data were analyzed by SPSS 19 and LISREL 8.54.
Results According to the literature review and the importance of instructional group's role in the success of educational organizations to achieve their educational and organizational desirability and also to create favorable conditions for the development of performance quality, the hypothesized model of the structural relationship between instructional group's role and teacher's quality of performance was considered in this research. The results of this study indicated: 1) The dominant component of instructional group's role from the viewpoint of teachers was group leader (M = 3.58). 2) The dominant component of quality of performance from the viewpoint of teachers was relationships (M= 4.23). 3) There was a positive and significant relationship between components of instructional group's role (coordinator, consultant, group leader, and evaluator) and components of teacher's quality of performance (professional role, relationships, management of course, teaching- coaching, cultural competency, monitors and ensures quality education, quality of feedback, task, classroom management). 4) Instructional group's role had a positive and significant effect (β=0.18, PDiscussion and conclusions The first finding suggests that from teachers’ viewpoints, group leadership and communications have the highest means. On the one hand, these findings could be resulted from instructional groups for optimum use of time to implement educational goals, effective verbal and nonverbal communication with teachers, creating suitable opportunities for arising questions, suggestions and ideas in order to have more desirable education, encouraging teachers to develop critical thinking to provide more optimum teaching and learning. It also suggests that it could be a result of constructive interactions between educational groups and teachers, using effective teaching strategies, and dealing equitably with the teaching problems of teachers. Also the role of instructional groups had direct structural effects on the quality of teachers’ performance. From teachers’ points of view instructional groups can affect teachers’ performance via developing a systematic approach to design educational planning, assisting teachers in the description and analysis of the teaching-learning tasks, practical implementation of written lesson plans, selection and use of resources, media and educational strategies, presenting workshops proportionate to the needs of teachers in teaching special courses topics, providing academic visits proportionate to teachers’ teaching needs etc

Introduction Universities are social systems which are thought of as insightful driving forces and leaders of thought in societies. Due to the intense transformations which affect our world, universities are at the heart of social and international debates focusing on ideals and goals of universities and their leadership. One of the major functions of universities is their educational mission. High quality teaching is thought of as the outcome of high quality learning and is defined as promoting effective learning opportunities for students at higher education centers. The goal of education is to facilitate students’ learning. Therefore, quality of teaching is a process which provides students with the most constructive and useful learning experience. Qualified teaching is a type of teaching which leads to learning by which student learns what the professor teaches. Teaching process has a complex nature and various components which must be completely understood and implemented for a qualified teaching. Philosophical mentality and job motivation are among the factors which seem to affect professors’ ability to present qualified teaching. Quality in education is an evaluation of the process of educating which enhances the need to achieve and develop the talents of the customers of the process, and at the same time meets the accountability standards set by the clients who pay for the process or the outputs from the process of educating and quality in education is clearly linked to the purpose. The main purpose of this study was to causally explain the relations among the quality of teaching, philosophical mentality and job motivation. In this regard, it is predicted that philosophical mentality and job motivation have a direct, positive and significant relation with quality of teaching and that philosophical mentality has a direct, positive and significant relation with job motivation. Based on the existing theoretical views, philosophical mentality and job motivation affect professors’ quality of teaching. In addition, philosophical mentality affects their job motivation. Accordingly, the present research sought to test this conceptual model by structural equation modeling and to examine the relationships among philosophical mentality and job motivation and quality of teaching.
Method The present research was a descriptive study and causal correlation in type. It is classified as causal correlation and employed “causal modeling” techniques. Structural equation model is used to determine the contributions made by philosophical mentality and job motivation to quality of teaching. Questionnaires used in this study included a researcher-made quality of teaching questionnaire; it consisted of 24 items with a five-point Likert scale scoring method and Cronbach’s Alpha at 0.881. Its validity was verified by using experts’ opinions and confirmatory factor analysis. Indices of confirmatory factor analysis are GFI=0.89, AGFI=0.86, RSMEA=0.046, NFI=0.93, NNFI=0.97, and CFI=0.97. This questionnaire measures planning and preparedness, teaching process, class management, human relation and evaluation, and professional participation. Philosophical mentality questionnaire consists of 42 items with a four-point Likert scale scoring method and Cronbach’s Alpha at 0.85 and measures comprehensiveness, contemplation, and flexibility. Job motivation questionnaire consists of 20 items with a four-point Likert scale scoring method and Cronbach’s Alpha at 0.855 and measures interest in job, importance of job, job satisfaction, responsibility, self-belief, and self-control.
Results Results showed that quality of teaching was significantly related to philosophical mentality and job motivation. Philosophical mentality had a direct, positive and significant impact on quality of teaching (β=0.5). Job motivation also had a direct, positive and significant impact on quality of teaching (β=0.3). Philosophical mentality had a direct significant relationship with job motivation (β=0.25). It is important to evaluate and stimulate these factors in academic environments in order to enhance quality of teaching.
Discussion The findings showed that professors’ philosophical mentality had a direct, positive and significant relationship with their quality of teaching. As their philosophical mentality increases, the quality of teaching improves. Therefore, philosophical mentality is considered as a factor which influences quality of teaching. Professors with a philosophical way of thinking pay much attention to teaching techniques and consider educational issues in relation to goals of education and direct their activities accordingly while trying to realize these goals. Such professors are affected during teaching process by their philosophical mind and use active and creative teaching methods which are effective in students’ learning. Moreover, it was revealed that professors’ job motivation had a direct, positive and significant relation with their quality of teaching. As their job motivation increases, the quality of teaching improves. Job motivation is therefore considered as a factor which influences quality of teaching. Consequently, it seems that higher job motivation leads to proper performance of assigned activities which in turn enhances students’ learning and university outputs. In this regard, professors with successful teaching have reached sublime beliefs of job motivation which will lead to continuous successful teaching. This makes them active in class so that professors might review the lessons in different methods which improves learning and effectiveness of the teaching. In this way, professors pay attention to both success and values. They are also modest during teaching process and treat students delicately and carefully. Also the results indicated that professors’ philosophical mentality had a direct, positive and significant relation with job motivation. As their philosophical mentality increases, their quality of teaching enhances. Therefore, one’s motivation depends less on his or her will and is remarkably affected by his or her attitude and way of thinking. Professors with high philosophical thinking never limit their minds to specific matters and look at educational issues with an open mind and implement various solutions for a problem. They are highly creative and this makes them very interested in their job which in turn makes them try more in their job. This will lead to students’ improved learning.

Introduction Teachers can help every society develop and advance. It seems that one of the most important subjects that teachers must consider is that of self-efficacy. Teacher's selfefficacy is one of the under research topics in all educational systems and may affect many aspects in addition to classroom management. Creativity self-efficacy refers to people's ability in producing creative ideas. According to Banduras, person’s beliefs make him able to have creative behaviors in certain contexts. So creativity self-efficacy is one of the necessary abilities for developing people's creative skill's which results in potential development and progress in society. People with high creativity self-efficacy are expected to behave more creatively than those with low creativity self-efficacy. It is worth mentioning that focusing on student's creativity self-efficacy can be useful for teachers and researchers to increase the student's creativity. Thus measuring creativity self-efficacy can be considered as an important educational construct and consequently different instruments are developed. The present research aimed to study psychometrical characteristics of Persian version of creativity self-efficacy scale for the school teachers.
Research questions This study tried to answer the following research questions: 1) How many saturated factors does creativity self-efficacy scale have for the Iranian teachers? 2) Does creativity self-efficacy scale have suitable fitness indexes? 3) Does creativity self-efficacy scale have an acceptable reliability? 4) Does creativity self-efficacy scale have an acceptable validity? 5) Does creativity self-efficacy scale have a suitable fitness based on item-response theory?
Method The present study's design was descriptive. The statistical population was all of the teachers of Khaf province schools in the school year of 1393-94. For sampling, Khaf was divided into two regions i.e. north and south. Then four schools were selected among the schools of each region and finally 180 teachers of the mentioned schools including elementary, guidance and high school were selected as the sample group. Among them, 77 were female (42.8%) and 103 were male (57.2%). The data were analyzed in terms of two theories i.e. classical test theory and item-response theory. In order to study psychometrical characteristics of the scale, exploratory factor analysis, item total score correlation and validity analysis were performed. The samejima graded response model was also used for data fitness and analysis. All of the analyses were analyzed by spss-22, EQS-6.1 and multilog-7.03 software.
Results and conclusion The results of factor analysis showed that the scale had suitable fitness indexes. There was a positive and significant relationship between creativity self-efficacy, general selfefficacy and discipline self-efficacy. Also reliability coefficient of instruments was good for total sample (women and men). There was a suitable fitness between the data of items response and samejima model and the scale's consciousness function was found to be in the sufficient range of the continuum. This scale was found to be a suitable instrument for measuring creativity self-efficacy among school teachers regarding the regarding administration ease, scoring ease, interpretation ease, practicability both for groups and individuals, feasibility and suitable validity and reliability. In other words, Persian version of creativity self-efficacy scale has acceptable characteristics in the Population of school teachers and can be used as a reliable instrument in psychological researches.

Introduction In psychological literature there are many definitions of creativity, some definitions focus on products of creativity and others emphasize the process of creativity. Nevertheless, the productions of an idea that are novel and appropriate are usually accepted as a core characteristic of creativity. In the case of factors associated with creativity, studies have shown that family, community, attitudes, personality, motivation etc… have an impact on creativity or attitude toward it. According to some research warm and eager parents that make fixed boundaries, promote creativity in children. It is known that family is the strongest variable that influence creativity. Dimensions of family communication patterns are one of the important structures in family psychology that effect the creativity among children. Family communication patterns have two dimensions namely dialogue and confirmatory dimensions. In the case of family communication patterns and creativity, researches confirmed that dialogue dimension is the positive predictor and conformity is the negative predictor of creativity. In addition, research findings showed that selfdetermination especially intrinsic motivation is an important variable that have an effect on creativity. Deci and Ryan (2000) and Amobile (1996, 2001) believed that contextual variables and autonomous motivation are also very important to nurture creativity. The context that we live in is important variable. Parents are one of the important contextual factors to creativity. Parents can provide autonomy support, structure, and involvement. Autonomy support from parents refers to parents providing rationale, giving choices, and acknowledging children feelings during childhood (Baard et al., 2004). The researchers showed that dialogue in family affects the intrinsic motivation and consequently affects creativity. Although the previous studies have strongly confirmed the positive relationships of family variables and creativity, they did not clearly mention the mechanism of these relationships. The present study aimed to expand the previous research regarding the relationship between contextual factors, academic motivation and attitude toward creativity. In particular it has investigated the mediating role of academic motivation in the relationship between family communication pattern and creativity. So, this study attempted to answer the following research questions: 1- Is there a relationship between family communication pattern and creativity? 2- Is there a relationship between family communication pattern and academic motivation? 3- Does academic motivation have a mediation role between family communication pattern and creativity?
Method The research was a correlational study that was conducted among high school students in Aligodarz. The sample comprised 328 students (145 male and 183 female) from senior high school (grades 10 to 12) who were selected by cluster sampling method. Their ages ranged from 15 to 20 years. The participants responded to the following scales: Family communication patterns scale, Situational motivational scale, and Creativity assessment Scale. These instruments showed appropriate reliability and validity. Path analysis was the major statistical operation in the study.
Results The results of path analysis showed that the relationship between family communication pattern and creativity was influenced by the academic motivation. Confirmatory dimension of family communication pattern had negative direct and indirect effects on creativity while extrinsic motivation, dialogue dimension of family Communication pattern had positive direct and indirect effects on creativity. In sum, the results showed that academic motivational beliefs could be a mediator in family communication pattern and creativity. To evaluate the model, multiple indices of fitness were used which indicated that there was an acceptable fitness between the models and data.
Discussion The main goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between family communication pattern and creativity with the mediating role of academic motivation. Data analysis showed that model variables explained 0.34 of the attitude toward creativity variance. Examining direct, indirect and total causal effects of the final model showed that dimensions of family communication patterns predicted attitude toward creativity with the mediating role of academic motivation. Combination of the variables in this model is, by itself, the most significant characteristic of this research. This finding that motivation plays a significant role in the relationship between family communication patterns and attitude toward creativity has illuminated the nature of this relation. Also it was revealed that student's creativity is, to some degree, affected by their academic motivation; those with an intrinsic motivation had more creativity than those with an extrinsic motivation. The findings indicate that if family environment provides comfortable conditions for conversation about many topics and spend much time to express thoughts and feelings of family members, the intrinsic motivation will be increased and will result in student's creativity. The findings could also be useful for schools; schools are expected to train communication and social life skills and values. Schools may help students to train needed skills for expressing feelings and emotions. Finally, in association with research proposals and constraints it can be said that, given the limited scope of the study participants in terms of age and geography, it is necessary to take care in generalizing the results to other regions and age groups. Also, as the study is correlational, causal inference is not possible from the results.

Introduction Anxiety and its related factors have been among the most widespread research domains in therecent decades. Anxiety is a mood-dependent phenomenon that often occurs without the presence of its stimulus and, thereby, affects behaviors and feelings. Anxiety sometimes appears mildly and naturally, and usually leads to an increase in motivation for the fulfillment of the activities. Occasionally, it is also manifested in a severe form and affects the person's whole life (Banga, 2016). Test anxiety is one type of anxiety that prevents students from acting effectively and efficiently and, thereby, is an obstacle to the optimal academic performance (Bozkurt, Ekitli, Thomas & Cassady, 2017). The studies conducted in the area of test anxiety and its consequences indicate that test anxiety is one of the serious obstacles to student's academic achievements and the most weakening factor of academic performance in all programs while it has been reported to prevail among 10 to 41% of students (Huberty, 2009; Whitaker Sena, Lowe, & Lee, 2007), and 15% of students experience it usually in a very serious mode (Putwain & Daly, 2014). Rupani et al. (2016) believe that although low levels of anxiety before the exam can trigger the examinee's ability, excessive anxiety can interfere with the person's ability and function and may bring about unpleasant consequences, such as increased inability and decreased function, digestive problems, headaches, and other physical and psychological side effects. Therefore, considering the complexity of the factors influencing anxiety, the present study sought to examine the cognitive, motivational, and behavioral components of test anxiety. Hence, self-regulation, self-efficacy, and procrastination were respectively analyzed as the cognitive, motivational, and behavioral components of test anxiety in the form of a causative model. It is noteworthy that the review of the related literature reveals that almost no research has investigated the relationship between these variables in the form of a single model. Accordingly, regarding the high prevalence of test anxiety and the need to pay attention to the effective variables in reducing it, the present study aims to examine some part of the complex and multifaceted nature of test anxiety. In addition, this study intends to assess some correlates and predictors of test anxiety through a structured model based on the direct roles of self-regulation and academic self-efficacy variables, and also through the mediating role of academic procrastination so that the contribution and importance of each one in the prediction of test anxiety can be determined.
Research question This study attempted to answer the following research questions: 1. Is self-regulation a negative predictor of test anxiety? 2. Is self-efficacy a negative predictor of test anxiety? 3. Is self-regulation a negative predictor of procrastination? 4. Is self-efficacy a negative predictor of procrastination? 5. Is procrastination a positive predictor of test anxiety? 6. Does procrastination play a mediating role between self-regulation and test anxiety? 7. Does procrastination play a mediating role between self-efficacy and test anxiety?
Method The present study falls within the category of correlational studies wherein the relationship between variables was evaluated in a model through path analysis method. To this end, self-regulation and academic self-efficacy were considered as the exogenous variables of the model, academic procrastination was regarded as the mediator variable, and test anxiety was considered as the endogenous variable of the model. Relative stratified sampling method was used to select the participants where the faculty and academic program were regarded as the strata. In this regard, the number of students in 17 faculties of Semnan University was extracted according to the statistics of the General Education Department. Then, 443 students were selected by stratified random sampling in proportion to the size of the faculties and academic programs and filled out the research questionnaires. From among these participants, 179 ones (59.6%) were male and 264 ones (40.45%) were female. Magno Academic Self-Regulated Learning Scale, Muris Academic Self-Efficacy Scale, Solomon, Rothblum Academic Procrastination, and Pintrich and De Groot Test Anxiety Scale were used as the data collection instruments in this study. The data were analyzed by Pearson correlation test and path analysis in SPSS and LISREL software.
Results The results of data analysis indicated that the model has a good fit with the research data, and it was revealed that self-regulation and academic self-efficacy predicted test anxiety both directly and indirectly (through the mediation of academic procrastination). In this regard, self-regulation and academic self-efficacy had significant negative relationships with test anxiety, but procrastination had a significant positive relationship with test anxiety.
Discussion On the whole, it can be claimed that the promotion of self-regulation and growth of selfefficacy beliefs may lead to a reduction in academic procrastination, may provide the grounds for student's endeavors and efforts to reach success and play a significant role in reducing student's test anxiety. In general, the research findings showed that self-regulation, self-efficacy, and procrastination play a detrmining role in predicting test anxiety. Therefore, student counselors and authorities are recommended to focus their efforts to increase student's self-regulation and academic self-efficacy. In this way, procrastination and test anxiety are reduced in students, and they can obtain academic achievements in consequence.

Introduction The present study aimed at investiagating and comparing the teachers’ perceived level of work autonomy at schools and focused on this concept based on demographic variables of gender, academic degree, service education level, and work experience.
Method A positivist approach with a descriptive survey method is applied in this quantitative research. Research sample included all working teachers in the city of Sanandaj during the school year of 2012-2013, who were 5862 instructors based on the statistics provided by Sanandaj’s educational system. The proposed sample size consists of 361 teachers who were selected based on Krejcie and Morgan table (1970). However, due to the fact that a small increase in sample size did not waste time and money, in order to improve the results and reduce the error rate, 413 questionnaires were distributed among teachers through cluster random sampling. First, a cumulative list of clusters, namely, educational districts of the city of Sanandaj was prepared for the implementation of the sampling. Then, random sampling was performed in all different primary and secondary levels of education and all teachers working at those schools were included in the research sample. The importance of the subject of teacher autonomy in research and practice has led to the demand for the development of an appropriate psychometric instrument to measure the teacher’s autonomy, however, there is no definitive instrument to measure autonomy. Therefore, in order to answer the research questions, the questionnaire of "Appropriate Teacher WorkAutonomy" adapted from the work of Friedman (1999) was used. He presented a model that divided teacher's autonomy into the following five categories: 1) Lack of independence, 2) Low independence, 3) Balanced independence, 4) High independence, 5) Full independence. The questionnaire has 32 items in six sub-scales (including, forming the identity and performance of school, teaching and progress evaluation, parental involvement, staff development, extracurricular subjects, curriculum change and modification) and measures the extent to which teachers are expected to work normally and independently, by teachers themselves. The items are set on a Likert scale of five degrees and demonstrate different degrees of work autonomy from lack of independence to complete independence.
Results Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to test the reliability of the questionnaire. The alpha values of all questionnaire items were above the acceptable level of 0.70 and ranged from 0.86 to 0.94. Therefore, the internal consistency of questionnaire items and components was confirmed. Confirmatory factor analysis method was used to test the content validity of teachers’ autonomy questionnaire. Since all goodness of fit indexes showed the fitness of model, it could be argued that the content validity of research questionnaire has been approved for implementation in Iranian educational environments. To test the hypotheses according to the type of data distribution, one-sample t-test, t-test with two independent-samples and one-way analysis of variance were used. The findings demonstrated that teachers generally rated their job autonomy levels, below the average level of the relevant scale. Teachers assessed their independence in terms of identity formation, decision-making on parental involvement, professional development, and extracurricular subjects, below the average level. Also, their self-assessment of the degree of independence in the area of teaching and academic progress evaluating was moderate and, in the area of curriculum modification and development, was higher than the average level. It appeared that teachers had little impact on curriculum development, but the results of teacher's responses illustrated the contrary. This might be due to several factors: First, it was likely that teachers were satisfied with the content of textbooks and had positive views of them, so there was no need to change the content of textbooks. In addition, this claim of high independence in the area of curriculum development might be related to a specific grade specially, elementary grade. For demographic variables, there was a significant difference between the degree of teachers’ work autonomy in terms of their service education level, academic degree and field of study, but there was no significant difference between the average scores of teacher's self-assessment regarding their level of autonomy in terms of gender and work experience.
Discussion The results of this study feature useful implications: First, it highlightes the role of school principals as being able to moderate the autonomy of teachers. Hence, it is suggested that trusted and brave principals develop the kind of organizational culture in which the professional autonomy of teachers may be strengthened and promoted. Second, it seems that many educational reform programs conducted in schools had not been in line with teacher's professional viewpoints which can affect their sense of autonomy and, consequently, their level of job satisfaction. Teachers with low job engagement or low motivation are costly for two reasons: First, due to their low performance and their absence, and second, due to the impact they may have as weak work models on other motivating teachers. Third, the advocates of teacher's autonomy in new professional development practices seem to emphasize the fact that school principals and education administrators cannot fully accept the responsibility of teachers’ professional development. However, they need to provide the conditions in which the individual and professional development of the teachers takes place. Therefore, such a model should increase the capacity, willingness and autonomy of teachers toward self-discipline, more control of events and accountability.