فصلنامه اندازه گیری تربیتی
پیاپی 13 (پاییز 1392)

Young Researchers Club of Islamic Azad University plays a major role in Iran’s education system with the purpose of helping young Iranian talents to thrive and prosper, identifying young researchers, and supporting, fostering and guiding them in order to promote their knowledge and reveal their creativity. Considering the key role of this institution, the present research aims to carry out an internal evaluation of the Club so that a documentary and scientific investigation of the current status of the Club and the distance it has with its predetermined goals could be conducted. Therefore, after the inputting, processing, and outputting goals were identified, 10 factors consisting of 30 criteria and 83 indicators were provided at three levels of ‘undesirable, relatively desirable, and desirable’ with respect to the Organizational Elements Model and the viewpoints of the internal evaluation committee. At the next stage, 2 questionnaires were used to survey 1093 people including heads and members of the Club by employing codified factors and indicators. After sampling the collected data which involved a complete census (for heads) and random sampling (for the Club members), the data collection process was carried out. Using descriptive statistical method for the status quo, input, process, and output factors were evaluated as ‘relatively desirable’. It can be concluded that, in general, the Young Researchers Club is in a ‘relatively desirable’ status.Discussion and In addition to determining the Club’s status and the distance it has with its goals, revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the Young Researchers Club of the Islamic Azad University can be a starting point for the qualitative improvement of the status quo. This research is the best document to be used by the Club in order to plan the necessary changes. This can be possible only when all units across the country make contributions, since applying changes and efforts to make promotions and transformations are collaborative processes, just the same as evaluation.

The main purpose of this research was to investigate the obstacles to the effectiveness of Islamic knowledge courses in universities and higher education centers. The statistical population of this research included all students in Kashan universities (University of Kashan, University of Medical Sciences and Islamic Azad University) (n=17057). Using stratified random sampling method, 458 subjects were selected. Researcher-made questionnaire was used as the means of data collection, with reliability of 0.83 through Cronbach’s alpha. Inferential statistics (t-test, analysis of variance, etc.) were used in order to analyze the data. The results indicated that although the Islamic curriculums are in a relatively favorable status, there exists a series of internal and external factors which practically prevents such courses from having the expected efficiency and effectiveness on students. From the viewpoint of students, the component of evaluation as an internal factor and environmental or social conditions as the external factors are the major obstacles to the effectiveness of Islamic knowledge courses.

The feeling of shame is one of the most important moral self-conscious emotions which play a major role in interpersonal relationships and social adjustment. Therefore, it seems essential to provide instruments to measure this structure. The present paper aims to provide the necessary preliminaries in order to use Shame Scale designed by Rizvi (2009) among Iranian university students. In order to assess the validity of the scale, first, it was made sure that the data were normally distributed. Then, factor analysis with original components and varimax rotation method was used to discover factor structure. The correlation between this scale and other valid scales of measuring self-conscious emotions of shame was used as convergent validity and its correlation with happiness scale was used as divergent validity. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was also used to measure the scale reliability through the method of the internal consistency of items. Participants in this study were 231 university students (female=134 & male= 97) of Shiraz University and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. The results indicated that shame scale in Iranian population has a multiple-factor structure called ‘moral transgression’ and ‘self-inadequacy’. The correlation between this scale and the self-conscious emotions scale indicated that Rizvi’s shame scale has a convergent validity. Moreover, the relation with happiness scale was used as the divergent validity index. The results were indicative of the fact that unlike two other components, moral transgression component did not have a significant relation with happiness. Furthermore, a comparison between boys’ and girls’ scores showed that females had higher scores in some components. In sum, results of this study confirmed convergent validity, divergent validity, and internal consistency of the scale suitable to be used in Iran. The shame scale being culture- dependent was discussed with regard to the results.

Performance indicators can be appropriate tools for designing, implementing, and evaluating education, research, management, and other programs in universities and higher education institutions. Using performance indicators, one can investigate the past, current, and desired status of universities and compare it with the existing standards. The present paper aims to determine the weight of the performance evaluation indicators of nongovernmental–nonprofit higher education institutions in research, educational, and environmental dimensions, along with providing a ranking for them. Participants consisted of nongovernmental-nonprofit institutions of higher education as well as members of monitoring and evaluation bodies of higher education centers in Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Hamedan, Lorestan, and Ilam provinces (n = 45). All members were asked to fill out the performance evaluation questionnaire. The final weight of indicators was determined through analytic hierarchy process. Performance evaluation indicators were collected through questionnaires in the form of a self-report. Results showed that the educational indicators were more important than other indicators for evaluating the nongovernmental-nonprofit higher education centers. The weight of educational dimension was more than other dimensions (0.42). The weights of research and environmental dimensions were almost the same (0.29). The maximum weight of the indictors that were placed first in educational, research, and environmental dimensions were respectively 0.39, 0.30 and 0.17. The range of weights was larger in educational indicators than in other dimensions. The rating of each institution was determined in educational, research, and environmental dimensions.Discussion and When evaluating nongovernmental-nonprofit higher education institutions, the educational indicators should be prioritized. By ranking the institutions according to educational, research, and environmental dimensions, a more accurate image is provided and their comparison becomes easier. Implications of the ranking system were discussed.

Students differ in terms of mental abilities, learning style and rate, fitness, intelligence and aptitude, personality, interest in and motivation for learning, and academic activities as a means of assessing their learning. The present paper aims to discover some of such differences. This study seeks to investigate the relationship that exists between personality and learning approaches in predicting students’ preferences based on six different methods of assessment. The present research is based on a descriptive-survey method and is of a correlative type. Sample: Using cluster sampling method, 410 participants were selected. Instrument: The instruments used in this study included NEO Five-Factor Personality Inventory, study skills questionnaire, and assessment methods questionnaire. Data analysis with a correlation coefficient showed that the five personality traits and two learning approaches had a relationship with assessment methods. Moreover, results of multiple regression were indicative of the fact that students with low openness personality trait preferred multiple choice method; whereas students with openness personality traits and deep approaches to learning, preferred descriptive examinations and practical projects. In addition, students with deep approaches to learning, conscientious personality traits and low neuroticism preferred oral tests. As for continuous measurement method, regressions lacked any significance. Students with deep learning approaches and low openness personality trait preferred team work assessment method. Discussion and Students who possess openness and conscientiousness traits and adopt deep learning approach mostly select descriptive examinations, oral tests, teamwork, and practical projects as the assessment method.

Meta–analysis is a strong approach, but sometimes leads to wrong and misleading answers. To conduct case studies of clinical trials and observed cases regarding factors that affect the credibility of meta-research, such as the effect size, the number of analyses, data scale, analyses’ flexibility, method of reporting, and conflict of interest. Research The meta-analysis method was adopted in this research. A case study of corticosteroid therapy in acute bacterial meningitis was discussed in this paper. In addition, the meta-analysis progressed in a step-by-step manner with 6 researches out of 11 ones. The results of the meta-analysis of acute bacterial meningitis indicated that numerous studies have been carried out under such a title in different places. Each author has identified reasons for the use of steroid treatment. Although their reasons were sometimes incomplete, it must be noted that their researches have some things in common.

Nowadays, authorities give more attention to the creation of motivation in students in order to direct their activities and make them active. Despite the importance of this issue, contradictions are seen in the results of educational motivation researches. This study was aimed at reviewing researches conducted into factors affecting educational motivation and was carried out using meta-analysis method. The population of the present study consisted of all researches on learning motivation recorded in SID, Magiran, and Irandoc databases from 1992 to 2012. A sample of 132 researches was chosen according to the criteria for inclusion in the study, and their data was recorded on the meta-analysis worksheet prepared by the researcher. Overall effect size calculation, Number of Partial Safety (Nfs) and Q-test were used for data analysis using CMA-2 software. The results indicated that the following variables have the most effects in learning motivation respectively: learning strategies (ES=0/479), self-efficacy (ES= 0/405), self-esteem (ES= 0/384), self-regulation (ES=0/333), academic achievement (ES=0/329), test anxiety (ES= -0/196) and gender (ES= 0/037). The analysis of the homogeneity of studies showed that the combined studies were heterogeneous in all variables. The analysis of the number of partial safety indicator also suggested that there was no publication bias among integrated studies in variables.

Validity is of particular importance in test development. The aim of this paper is to briefly introduce the multidimensional scaling (MDS) as a method of determining construct validity, to assess its outputs, to compare it with other similar methods, and to show the utility of this method in different domains of psychology. Multidimensional scaling was performed on 419 students of Tehran state universities (Tehran, Amir Kabir, and Allameh Tabataba’i universities) who were selected randomly to investigate the efficacy of Post-Critical Beliefs (religious beliefs) scale. The implementation of multidimensional scaling showed the existence of two dimensions and confirmed the construct validity of the Post-Critical Belief scale. Generally speaking, multidimensional scaling is a suitable technique for determining the validity of psychological instruments that are used to evaluate individuals’ characteristics based on different dimensions.

The present paper aims at investigating psychometric properties of Social Emotional Learning Scale (SELS) among a sample of 4th and 5th grade Iranian male students. Statistical Population: The statistical population consisted of all 4th and 5th grade male students of elementary schools who studied in schools of Isfahan during the school year 2010-2011. To do so, 380 students of Isfahan elementary schools were selected using multistage random cluster sampling method and were asked to fill out social emotional learning questionnaire. The SELS is a self-report questionnaire made up of 20 items, which assesses three criteria: self-regulation (SR), peer relationships (PR), and task articulation (TA). The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the total scale and its subscales were 0.85 (total), 0.71 (SR), 0.83 (PR) and 0.79 (TA). The confirmatory factor analysis also confirmed the accuracy of the three factors (task articulation (TA), peer relationships (PR), and self-regulation (SR)). The results suggested that SELS is a three-factor, reliable tool for assessing and evaluating dimensions of social emotional learning among elementary students.