فصلنامه مطالعات برنامه درسی
پیاپی 31 (زمستان 1392)

This research reflects upon English education as a foreign language in two different contexts. The main aim is to investigate and compare the status quo of Iranian and Swedish English language curriculum. Based on data derived from international and comparative studies, The Swedish curriculum has been considered as a successful one in field of educating English in schools. For evaluation of two systems, the main curriculum elements (e.g. Rationale, Goals and Approach, Contents, Learning Materials, Time, and Assessment) have been compared. The results indicate that the Iranian curriculum, compared to Swedish one, has some problems and shortcomings such as: accepting old and ineffective goals and approach; focusing on sub-skills (mainly vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and dictation) instead of fundamental skills like listening, speaking, writing and reading; teaching textbooks which are narrow-inclusive, un-varied, un-attractive, and out-of-date; allocating limited hours to English subject-matter in school timetable; and implementing national tests that do not cover communicative skills.

In this research the components of the national language objectives in the primary school curriculum of Iran, Germany, Australia, England, Japan and Saudi Arabia have been studied and compared in order to presnet some appropriate solutions for improving the Persian language curriculum. The main reason in deciding to select those Countries is their capability in providing extensive and advanced activities for language learning. The results show that all countries considered the main four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in national language curriculum. In Germany, UK, Australia and Japan, curriculum goals are interweaved with language skills. Except the four basic language skills, the curriculua of the mentioned countries are different from the aspect of other components. These differences are mainly the curriculum development structure; policy of language education; and diffrent identities of languages. Germany, UK, Australia and Japan adopted integrative approach to language learning. But, in Iran and Saudi Arabia the language skills and language learning materials are independently planned.

The present study investigated the trends in science achievement of eighth graders in Iran and regional countries based on three consecutive TIMSS studies. The average achievement scores of Iranian boy and girl students were compared with the performance of regional countries’ students in total science, four content areas (chemistry, earth sciences, biology, and physics) as well as three cognitive domains (knowing, applying and reasoning). Due to the increased number of participant countries in TIMSS 2007, Iran’s rank was lowered from the second in TIMSS 1999 to the fifth in TIMSS 2007. Even though the average science performance for Iranian students in three studies was higher than the average performance of students in all regional countries, the average performance of Iranian students was lower than that of the students in Armenia, Jordan and Dubai. Improvement of science achievement for Iranian students was lower than students in Jordan, Armenia, Bahrain, Turkey, and Tunisia. Girls’ improvement scores in most of the countries including Iran were higher than boys’. Findings indicated that factors affecting students’ achievement in Iran including socio- economic status of students, science self-concept, school attachment, school climate, behavioral problems, teaching limitations, teachers’ satisfaction and success, teachers’ perception of school safety, and teachers’ interactions do not enjoy the same satisfactory trend as some regional countries. On the basis of these data, we can conclude that in the current situation, it is unlikely to achieve the aims of Iran’s “20-year development perspective document” in the realm of general education.

Previous researches have been introduced teaching method as one of the influential variables in the school performance. The current study has been designed to explore the role of teaching method in achievement in the comparative study perspective. To achieve, four higher performing countries in TIMSS 2007 as well as the three lower performing countries in fourth grade were selected and the their teaching method were compared. The results showed that in high-performing countries the student-centered teaching method is applied more than the low-performing countries. On the other hand, the teacher-centered and experimental approach is used more in low-performing countries. According to the results, the teachers in high-performance countries likely use more appropriate methods to improve the students learning. Moreover, despite of predominance using the experimental teaching methods in low-performing countries, the results emphasis that using these methods should be revised in such countries.

Recently the world has changed fundamentally in economic, social, cultural, and educational areas. These changes are resulted from the development of technology in human life. Therefore the preparation of people as elements for development of world is essential that realization of it, is the task of educational systems. The purpose of this article is comparative study of the curriculum of IT education in developed countries in order to present relevant strategies for formulating a curriculum for IT education of Iran. Thus developed countries are selected from each continent; Japan and Australia as centralized systems and U.K and U.S.A as decentralized systems. First IT education curriculum of these countries is studied and then they are compared and finally a model for curriculum of IT education for educational system of Iran is presented. This model is provided according to the criteria in 20-year perspective document for Iran, scientific comprehensive plan of Iran and Theoretical Premises of the Fundamental Reform of the Formal General Education System of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This study aimed to assess the strengths and weaknesses of Iran’s life skills education program in order to provide practical solutions. Research has been done in the context of qualitative research approaches. The population included all countries that run life skills programs and the sample consisted of Iran, America, Canada, Vietnam, Australia, Malaysia, and India. The existing documents were analyzed through content analysis to extract similarities and differences. Results showed that measures such as Decision-making, conflict resolution techniques, and methods of teaching about media, target selection and object orientation, knowledge of laws and the rule of law, understanding the culture and customs, teamwork and how to use the media, including those of skill in the application Iranian life are neglected.