نشریه علوم تربیتی
سال بیست و سوم شماره 2 (پاییز و زمستان 1395)

The present paper aims to investigate the differences and similarities of the PhD admissions systems in Iran and the leading universities in terms of objectives, desired qualities as well as entry requirements. In doing so, descriptive-comparative method was applied. Consulting with the Shanghai Ranking, the graduate admissions systems of the top three universities, i.e. Harvard University, Stanford University, and the University of Cambridge along with the Iranian PhD admission system were examined. To gather data, documentations and universities’ websites were examined. In addition, we corresponded with the graduate admission office of each university. Beredy’s method or framework was used to analyze data. Findings show: All graduate admissions systems look for highly qualified applicants. Additionally, the Iranian PhD system pursues other objectives as well. With regard to desired qualities, all graduate admissions systems look for a wide range of academic and non-academic qualities in the applicants. The Iranian PhD admissions system, however, seems to take less account of non-cognitive qualities. With regard to entry requirements, all graduate admissions systems utilize a variety of measurements to screen out applicants, but the entry requirements used in the Iranian PhD admissions system are flawed in terms of reliability, validity and relevance. Finally, some implications are offered.

This study attempts to investigate teachers’ experience as educational philosophers based on the experiences of elementary school teachers. Research method is qualitative. The population consisted of all elementary school teachers of Ize City. The sample size was not determined in advance, but, using a purposive method, sampling continued to the point of saturation which occurred after interviewing forty subjects (participants) who were willing to be interviewed. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data.Data from the interviews were analyzed based on van Manen’s phenomenological method. The gathered data were analyzed in order to explain this lived experience. Then the resultant processed findings were returned to participants for validation. The findings include 20 themes which were categorized in 4 major axes. The first axis comprising major tasks of the teacher included 7 themes: goal setting, friendly relations, and attention to individual differences, motivating, strengthening team spirit, strengthening accountability, and assessment of students. The second axis under the title of fostering critical thinking subsumes 5 themes: creating a challenging environment, posing the question or issue, opportunities for contemplation and reflection, participatory methods and criticism. The third axis covering creative thinking includes 6 themes: discovery methods, creating opportunities for practical activities, encouraging student's creativity, creative patterns, and creative curiosity. In the fourth axis called deepening of knowledge 2 themes were identified: research and teaching aids. Since it is the teacher that copes with the actual conditions of teaching and has first hard knowledge of students’ interests, demands needs and abilities, he can provide grounds for an autonomous learning process. Also, if the teacher is to be successful in teaching thinking, he should be a philosopher - teacher who can make use of all the factors that support the cultivation of critical thinking in students.

This research was an attempt at comparing Farabi’s and Heidegger’s views on being and their implications for education. Based on the research objective, four research questions were formulated as follows: What are Farabi's innovations in the interpretation of Being in Islamic philosophy? What are Heidegger's innovations in the analysis of Being in western philosophy? What are the commonalities of and differences between the views of these thinkers regarding being? What are the implications of the results of this comparison for education? The methodology used was descriptive – analytic (comparative analysis) and deductive. The findings show that the main commonality of Farabi’s and Heidegger’s points of views about Being is return to Being (existence) as against existents. Of course, for Farabi, Being is hierarchical and value – laden. Also education for both Farabi and Heidegger comsists in the realization of Being. Of course, for Farabi, the ultimate Being is God's being, whereas for Heidegger it is the ‘self’ that is considered important.

The religious intellectualism, resulting from the religious confrontation with modernity, has become one of the most contentious, though influential, approaches in the contemporary Islamic world. This phenomenon has also given rise to many controversial debates among the scholars subscribing to different theoretical and ideological orientations. These orientations have provided grounds for the religious intellectualism in Iran to be labeled as different intellectual waves such as Islamic revival, Islamization of knowledge with its very recent trend recognized as an epistemological and philosophical orientation. The recent religious intellectualism in Iran claims to possess the ability to adapt religion to modernity and its components such as citizenship. The main purpose of this study, first, was to verify the possibilities and capacity of the recent religious intellectualism so that a program for educating appropriate citizens could be drawn up. This research was conducted under a qualitative paradigm using a descriptive-interpretive approach to analyze the data. The results of the study reveal that the current intellectualism in Iran, with all of its pre-suppositions and principles which prioritize epistemology over ontology has been able to adapt itself, in many cases, to the assumptions of modernity and modern citizenship thus making provisions for the realization of the modern citizenship training.

In recent decades interpretive approaches overcome the explanatory approaches in educational researches and this fact has led some experts to consider the achieve ment of objectivity in educational research impossible. The aim of this study is to investigate the possibility of achieving objectivity in empirical research in education and, subsequent to an investigation of the viewpoints of positivists, post positivists and the Reconstructionist approach, an attempt is made to answer this quetation from the perspective of the rational reconstruction of Habermas. The method of this research is deductive comparative. The findings suggest that consideration of the universal normative structures provides the educational researcher with a possibility of objectivity in interpretation. In this way, researchers can integrate approaches to interpretation with these of explanation. This secures an objectivity of reconstructive educational approach via internal impartiality; this distinguishes this approach from the positivist and post positivist approaches which invoke external impartiality research. At the end, the challenges and limitations of this type of objectivity in Educational Research have been examined and critically discussed.

The aim of this study was to investigate the content element in the curriculum of the environment course in secondary schools of Iran and some selected countries with suggestions concerning the ignored content of the curriculum in environmental education of Iran. The research method was comparative and descriptive-analytical. The results indicated that Swedish and Canadian curriculum approach to the environmental education involved sustainable development and their environmental education content in the curriculum for secondary school seemed to be comprehensive and consolidated. Australia’s secondary school environmental education curriculum comes close to support a sustainable development approach and environmental education curriculum content proved to be non-exhaustive and consolidative. The curriculum content of secondary schools for environmental education in Turkey fell short of sustainable development approach and its environmental education content was non-comprehensive and integrated. The curriculum content approach of the secondary school in Iran for the environmental education fell short of being oriented toward sustainable development and was non-comprehensive and integrated in contents of textbooks on biology, chemistry, geography and geology. In studied countries the selected contents centered around areas of knowledge, skills and attitudes towards the environment. With regard to the kind of knowledge and the space dedicated to content, there was a significant gap between attitudes and skills in environmental education in the curriculum of our country and those of the selected countries. At the end of study, using a comparative analysis, a streamlined content comprising 20 items, assumed to be ignored in the curriculum content for environmental education in our country, was presented.

The significance of media awareness in Iran’s public schools is crucial in helping Children comprehend the visual media world in which they live. The world is currently a place where our youth are inundated with visual messages that are to be received, interpreted and critically analyzed. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the philosophy for children program on awareness of media Violence and stereotypes in popular media of fifth grade elementary school students (Boys) of Dezful. A random sample of 50 fifth grade boy students participated in this study. Experimental group participated for 20 sessions in the community of inquiry to discuss their favorite media content such as games to be aware of the phenomena of media violence and gender and social stereotypes. The control group subjects did not receive training. The findings of this investigation showed that utilizing philosophy for children program has a positive effect on awareness of media Violence and gender and social stereotypes.

The purpose of this study was recognition of the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of Applied Science University of Zahedan and selection of the best strategy to improve the operation of this university. By studying the internal and external environment of the university, the most important strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of these Applied Science Centers were identified. By using these strategic factors, the SWOT matrix was formed and the appropriate strategies were codified in order to improve the operation. To determine the priority of suggested strategies and choosing the best integrated strategy, the SWOT model and ANP model were used. Based on the results the highest priority was given to ST strategy with a weight of 0.324. The second, third and fourth priorities were given to WT (weight 0.324) strategy, WO (0.131) strategy, SO (0.123) strategy. Therefore, the Applied Science University of Zahedan should concentrate on ST (0.399) strategy, as the highest priority.