فصلنامه خانواده و پژوهش
سال پانزدهم شماره 1 (بهار 1397)

The current study[3] was undertaken to evaluate the impact of P4C (Philosophy for Children) instruction using a community of inquiry method on students’ accountability. This quasi-experimental research had a pretest posttest control group design. The statistical population of the study included all female students of public high schools in Tehran in academic year 2015-2016. For the purpose of sampling, 50 students whose accountability was lower than average were chosen via multi-stage sampling method and were randomly assigned to experimental (N=25) and control (N=25) groups. The experimental group received P4C instruction using a community of inquiry method in 10 ninety-minute sessions, while the control group did not receive the intervention. In the posttest, both experimental and control groups were given the accountability questionnaire. In order to analyze the data, descriptive and inferential statistics (between group analysis of covariance) were utilized. Results showed that accountability of the students who had received P4C instruction was significantly higher than those who had not received such instruction. Thus, P4C instruction using a community of inquiry method is effective in promoting students’ accountability.

The current qualitative research was carried out to evaluate teachers’ perception of their social status based on a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. To this end, 16 male elementary school teachers in District 14 of Tehran were selected through purposive sampling method and the data were collected by semi-structured interviews. Results showed that few teachers were satisfied with their social status and valued the teaching profession as a spiritual endeavor. Nevertheless, majority of teachers were not content with their social status and contributed this to organizational, economic, social, and personal threats. Low wages and benefits and lack of professional prestige were among the most important indicators of the economic dimension. The most significant indicators of the organizational dimension included poor performance of authorities as well as recruitment, promotion and selection policy and standards. The identified indicators of the social dimension were money-oriented culture, standards of social status in the highly materialistic society, parents’ and students’ attitude towards teachers, status of the teaching profession compared with other occupations, and the performance of mass media. The identified indicators of the personal dimension comprised weak performance of some teachers, low professional commitment, personal feelings and thoughts, teachers’ negative mentality, personal behavior and professional ethics. In general, the present situation has led to teachers’ being demotivated at work, lack of professional commitment, desire to quit the job, regret of choosing teaching career, shirking, and fatigue.

The present study[4] sought to investigate the effectiveness of emotionally focused couple therapy in improving marital adjustment and couples’ intimacy. This quasi-experimental research had a pretest posttest control group design with a follow-up assessment. Thirty-two parents of school-aged children (16 couples) who were the clients of counseling clinics of Education Departments in Tehran were selected through convenience sampling method. These individuals were randomly assigned to two groups of emotionally focused couple therapy (N=16, 8 couples) and control (N=16, 8 couples). The emotionally focused couple therapy group was subjected to 10 treatment sessions and the control group was assigned to a waiting list. There was a subsequent follow-up two months later. The instruments comprised Spanier’s Dyadic Adjustment Scale (1976) and Walker and Thompson’s Intimacy Scale (1983). The data were analyzed using two-factor repeated measures ANOVA. Results showed that emotionally focused therapy led to effective and lasting changes in couples’ adjustment and intimacy components (p

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the use of virtual social networks, perception of social interactions, narcissism, and positive feelings toward spouse among couples who use social networks. The design of the study was correlational. The population of the study comprised couples who used social networks in Zanjan in 2015. For the purpose of sampling, 120 couples who were frequent users of social networks were randomly selected. The instruments included a self-devised Internet Addiction Inventory, Perception of Social Interactions Questionnaire (Glass, 1994), Narcissistic Personality Inventory (Ames et al., 2006) and Positive Feelings Questionnaire (OLeary & Turkewitz, 1981). For data analysis, Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis were utilized. Results showed that there was a significant negative relationship between the use of social networks, positive feelings toward spouse, and perception of social interactions, whereas a significant positive relationship was observed between the use of social networks and narcissism (P

In recent decades, new quasi-religious movements have been a serious threat to the foundations of society and people’ beliefs, especially those of the youth. Hence, this study was undertaken to examine student's tendency towards new quasi-religious movements and its correlates. The current work was a survey-based quantitative research. The statistical population of the study comprised high school students from East Azerbaijan out of whom 570 individuals were selected via random stratified sampling. The data gathering tools were questionnaires with established face validity and reliability indices of higher than 0.8. For the purpose of data analysis, SPSS 24 and LISREL 8.8 were utilized. Descriptive results indicated that 25 out of every 100 students have shown inclination to new quasi-religious movements. Students showed the highest tendency to Sai Baba and Eckankar and the lowest tendency rates were observed for Paulo Coelho and Castañeda. The results showed that level of religiosity, the extent of familiarity with the movements, quality of leisure activities, and the extent of belief in magic and witchcraft have significant effects on student's inclination to such movements. More specifically, level of religiosity and quality of leisure activities play a hindering role and the level of familiarity with the movements as well as belief in magic and witchcraft play a promoting role in the tendency towards new quasi-religious movements.

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of discourse-based mathematics instruction (through classroom discussion) on female fourth graders’ math performance. To this end, students’ mathematics performance in three cognitive domains of TIMSS, i.e., understanding, applying and reasoning, was probed. The statistical population of the study included all fourth grade female students in Shahriyar studying in public schools in academic year 2014-2015. The sample included 80 students who were selected by random multi-stage cluster sampling method and assigned to experimental and control groups. The instrument comprised a performance assessment test which included items from TIMSS cognitive math domains of knowing, applying and reasoning. The reliability of the measure was computed to be 0.77. The experimental group underwent the intervention (discourse-based mathematics instruction through classroom discussion) in three stages of "action", "exploration" and "discussion and summarizing" within the framework of Cirillo’s (2013) strategies for facilitating class discussions in 16 sessions. The results of MANOVA indicated that students’ math performance in the experimental group was higher than that of the control group in two cognitive domains of knowing and applying; however, no significant difference was observed between the two groups in the reasoning domain. In general, discourse-based mathematics instruction improves students’ math performance in TIMSS cognitive domains.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between hidden curriculum, its four components (teacher-student interaction, school rules and regulations, teaching methods, and evaluation methods), and students’ emotional intelligence. The research method was descriptive and correlational and the population of the study comprised senior high school girls in Tehran in academic year 2015-2016. The sample size was determined to be 384 according to Cochran’s formula and random cluster sampling method was utilized. More specifically, Tehran was divided into 5 clusters of north, south, east, west and center. Next, from each cluster one region, from each region, 2 high schools, and from each school, two classes were randomly selected. The instruments included Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (1997) and a self-devised Hidden Curriculum Questionnaire. Ten experts examined the questionnaires and then confirmed their content validity. The questionnaires also had acceptable reliability indices (coefficients higher than 0.70). The obtained data were analyzed by Pearson correlation and regression analysis. Results demonstrated that three components of hidden curriculum, i.e., teaching methods, evaluation methods, as well as teacher-student interaction, had a positive, significant relationship with students’ emotional intelligence. No association was observed between school rules and regulations and students’ emotional intelligence.