فهرست مطالب masoud kabiri

 In a cognitive sense, the concept of proportionality and the requirement for the development of proportional thinking are complex and teaching them needs concept-based approaches. Studying the perceptional quality in teachers amounts to how learners develop conceptual structures.. The goal of this study was to consider the teachers’ and prospective teachers selected strategies in teaching proportional problems solving activity and the impressionability of 4 semantic problems types. Convenient sampling was used to select three independent groups of subjects, including 180 elementary school teachers, middle school math teachers, and prospective teachers who participated in the study voluntarily. The research tools included one author-made test, contained 12 tasks including direct proportional word problems (missing value and comparison). The content validity of the test was approved by professors of "mathematics education" and "test construction". The results showed significant differences between 3 independent groups in applying the strategies leading to correct solving among the semantic problem types. In addition, the rate of using proportional reasoning strategies among these semantic types didn’t follow similar patterns. In order for the development of future teachers, attention to the consequences of delayed emergence of students' proportional thinking should be employed in the design of educational curriculum.

Problem-solving as an important transversal competency for the training students in the 21st century is attended in many educational systems, including Iran. However, no formal curriculum has yet been proposed for its development inside of our country. The present study has been designed to know current performance of students. With this regards, 4253 eleventh grade students in Tehran, which randomly selected, asked 32 items that were nested in 15 performance tasks. The results showed that average score of sample is a bit, but significantly, lower than the mid-point of scale. Also, 19 percent of students had not achieved to even first performance level. Furthermore, the performance distribution of boys is broader than girls’, especially in lower area. Besides, students who educate in mathematics-physic, science, humanistic sciences, career-technical education, and vocational training showed the best performance, respectively. Comparison between school types revealed that the highest performance was in gifted students schools and in the other side, the lowest performance was in public schools. In general, performance of students in Tehran City was evaluated as weak, even with regards to its average that was close to mid-point of scale.

The present study was conducted to developing a problem solving Training package based on positive psychology and investigating its effectiveness on the social competence of students with learned helplessness. The research method was qualitative, Theme analysis according to Attride-Stirling (2001), and the research method in the quantitative part was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group and a two-month follow-up period. The statistical population consisted of male and female students with learning helplessness who were studying in the first and second period of high school in the academic year of 2021-2022 in Tehran. The sample in this study included 70 students with learning helplessness who were selected by purposeful sampling and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (36 students in the experimental group and 34 students in the control group). The students in the experimental group received the problem solving training package based on positive psychology during 12 weeks in 12 sessions of 75 minutes. The applied questionnaires in this study included social competence Questionnaire (Felner, Lease, Philips, 1990) and learned helplessness Questionnaire (Quinless, Nelson, 1988). The data from the study were analyzed through mixed ANOVA via SPSS23 software. The results showed that the problem solving training package based on positive psychology has sufficient content validity according to experts. Also, this training package had an impact on the social competence (P<0001; Eta=0.62; F=111.10) of students with learned helplessness.

Attitu des and beli efs are import ant aspects of orie ntating to behaviors. In the field of rese arch utilization, also, teachers’ attitudes have been attended to the use of resea rch during teach ing processes. The pre sent study has been condu cted to design a model in order to promote teachers’ attitudes toward ds research. To conduct it, four variables incl uding attitudes of other people towards research, perceived compete ncy, profes sional skills, and re search skills of teachers were co nsidered as influe ntial varia bles and their role on research a ttitude as well as both er end ogenous varia bles were examined by stru ctural equation mod eling. Data were gathered from 335 teachers in Tehran province. Result reve aled that direct paths of all variables were statistical ly signific ant and all paths between independent factors were nonsignificant except a path of attitudes of other people e on perceived comp etency. A dditionally, professional skills were the most important influence factor on research attitude. Afterwards, there were research skills and attitudes of other people. The final casual model can be considered an adequate framework for teacher development and also for teacher education.

The present study was designed to identify the pedagogical beliefs of teachers and to explore the role of their beliefs in teaching practices and the math performance of their students. Data from 220 math teachers and 5890 students in the eighth grade were analyzed by a secondary analysis of TIMSS 2019. Also, a part of the national items in the Teacher Questionnaire of TIMSS 2019 was selected and seven factors were extracted by Rasch scaling based on two scales, including belief about mathematics and teacher pedagogical beliefs. The scaled scores were analyzed by latent class analysis to classify teacher pedagogical beliefs. The results showed that three dominant beliefs in the teachers were constructivism, direct transfer, and blended, to which 20.5%, 48.5%, and 30.9% of the teachers were classified, respectively. Comparing teaching practices in these groups revealed that less practices were reported in teachers who believed in direct transmit. Constructivist teachers reported the most teaching activities, while blended teachers reported the greatest volume of assessment. Meanwhile, there was no significant difference between the constructivist and traditional teachers in the use of assessment; there was also no difference between the math performance of their students. The results showed that a large part of teachers did not believe in newer pedagogical beliefs. Nevertheless, modifying their beliefs does not improve the students’ achievement. Therefore, although teachers’ beliefs are useful for learning processes, they are not very effective in improving the students’ learning.

Every teacher holds certain beliefs that determine their priorities for teaching and how the students acquire knowledge. It is assumed that teachers’ beliefs influence their classroom decisions and behaviors (Buehl and Beck, 2015; Fives et al., 2015).Much of the literature on the subject focuses on two prototypical beliefs, namely teacher-centered or behaviorist beliefs and learner-centered or constructivist beliefs (Horgan & Gardiner-Hyland, 2019; Berger, et al., 2019). Meanwhile, teachers can hold multiple, potentially-competing beliefs simultaneously, which is entitled blended belief.Studies on the subject of teachers’ beliefs and teaching activities show that teacher self-efficacy, sense of responsibility, pedagogical knowledge, and self-awareness have a moderator role between teachers’ beliefs and practices (Buehl and Beck, 2015). Moreover, despite the scarce research on the powerful effects of teachers’ beliefs on their students’ achievements, these beliefs, which are often communicated nonverbally and unintentionally, are perceived and internalized by the students and have direct consequences for their self-efficacy, efforts, and achievements (Watt and Richardson, 2015). Nonetheless, the idea that the quality of teaching and learning will improve if teachers are supportive of constructivist and student-centered beliefs does not seem to be the case. (Francis, Rapacki & Eker, 2015).The present study was designed to investigate the classes of pedagogical beliefs toward which Iranian teachers tend more. Identifying the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and teaching practice as well as the students’ achievements is another point of focus in this study.

The present study was a secondary analysis of TIMSS 2019 data. The responses given by 220 eighth-grade math teachers as well as 5980 Iranian students were taken as the sample, which were drawn by stratified two-stage cluster sample design.Three kinds of instruments were analyzed in the present study. First, 12 national items about teacher beliefs on teaching and learning approaches and 34 national items about teacher beliefs on mathematics were examined. The teaching and learning beliefs consisted of two factors: Constructivist and direct transmit approaches to teaching, as adapted from OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). Moreover, Beliefs on mathematics also contained five factors, math as an inquiry process, math learning via active activities, math as a set of rules and procedures, learning math via following teacher guidelines, and math as fixed abilities. The items are derived from IEA’s Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M). Both these national item sets were embedded in the math teacher questionnaire. Second, self-reported teaching activities were examined, which asked teachers about their teaching practices, expectations from students during teaching, and assessment of students. The items were in the math teacher questionnaire. Third, the math achievement of the students were obtained from a pool of 212 items and calculated.In order to analyze the data, certain methods were applied. Rasch scaling was applied to create the teacher scales. Then, latent class analysis was used to classify the teachers into several pedagogical beliefs. Winsteps was used to develop the scales and MPLUS was utilized to classify the teachers. Additionally, IDB Analyzer was used to apply the teacher sampling weights, create Jackknife standard errors, and analyze plausible values.

The scaled scores of seven factors were taken as variables of the latent class analysis to classify the teachers into pedagogical beliefs. The comparison of 2-class and 3-class models based on the model fit criteria (AIC, BIC, and entropy), percentage of sample in each class, and substantial implication of the classes showed that the 3-class model was the better one. Therefore, three groups of teachers were recognized based on their pedagogy beliefs: Direct transmission, constructivism, and blended. Each of these groups accounted for 20.5, 48.5, and 30.9 percent of the sample, respectively.Teacher responses in the teaching practice scales were explored to compare them with respect to the three above classes. The results revealed that constructivist teachers reported the most teaching activities, followed by the blended teachers in the second step. With regard to expectations from the students during teaching, the direct transmit teachers reported significantly less scaled scores than the other two classes, but the difference between the constructivist and blended teachers was not significant. Finally, blended teachers reported the greatest amount of assessment of the students, whereas, there was no significant difference between the constructivist and direct transmit teachers.The last part of the study relates to students’ achievement in these classes of teachers. The results are presented in Table 1.Based on Table 1, although the students of the constructivist teachers showed better math achievement than others, their dominance was not significant. Therefore, there is no evidence to assume that students educated by teachers with different pedagogical beliefs show any different performances.

The remarkable percentage of blended teachers suggests that these teachers have not chosen their strict pedagogical beliefs yet. In this case, simultaneous statements of constructivism and direct transmit are admissible; however, their teaching practices were reported higher than the other groups, probably revealing that their doubtful conditions did not prevent them from being active teachers.One out of every five students is educated by a teacher with traditional beliefs. To change the direct transmit beliefs into constructivism, some tools have been applied. Aside from educating teachers in universities, some other resources have contributed to modified beliefs, including personal experiences of the teachers, teachers’ knowledge of their courses, and teachers’ observation of successful experiences with new teaching approaches based on constructivism.The lack of significant differences in the students’ achievement between the three classes of teachers' beliefs suggests the complexity of comparing achievement by teaching practices. Achievement is a combination of several variables, with teaching practices being one of them. Besides, based on literature, achievement is not deeply affected by constructivist activities due to their time-consuming nature.

Nowadays, cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA) is highly attended due to attain deeply information about examinees. In present study, CDA is used to provide more information about science responses of Iranian fourth graders who participated in TIMSS 2015.

11 science attributes were identified and the Q matrix was created. Then, responses of 3823 students to 206 items was analyzed by G-DINA model.

The results showed that the model can produce suitable diagnostic evidences. Also, three attributes including: Recognize, Providing examples, and Describe had higher attribute probabilities than others and their mastery probabilities were more than 0.50. Whereas, only probability of Recognize was higher than 0.65 and this is considered as mastered attribute. In other hand, Predict and Scientific inquiry had lowest attribute probabilities.

In general, the results revealed that there are sizable deference between knowledge-based attributes and higher-order thinking attributes in students, that can associated to distance between intended and implemented curricular.

Ability to relate all the essential features of a situation in the form of zooming in or out represents thought in a relative form. The emergence of relative thinking, is the prognosis for the beginning of building a bridge to fill the gap between collective and multiplicative structures. Relative thinking is a cognitive function that describes the ability to analyze the change in relative conditions. The ability to lead and work with qualitative aspects leads to the strengthening of quantitative proportional thinking. Studying the quality of teachers’ perception is a perspective of how learners create and develop conceptual structures. With the aim of determinning the qualitative characteristics of knowledge of content pedagogy of qualitative proportional reasoning, this study examined the knowledge of related representations among the research participants. It was a descriptive study with survey design. The research sample consisted of 180 primary school teachers, first cycle high school math teachers and student-teachers. The research tool was the researcher-made test and the evaluation was done under the framework of the theories of this field through a mixed-methods analysis. Based on the results, the closeness of the performance of student-teachers and the primary school teachers could be pointed out, i.e., almost half of each of these two groups had a successful performance. The most correct interpretations were presented by high school teachers, student-teachers and primary school teachers, respectively.Paying attention to the preliminaries and necessities of the process of developing proportional reasoning by teachers, deepening its investigation by researchers and demanding it in the educational designs of teacher training centers were emphasized by the researchers of this study.Regarding the training of future teachers, developing sensitivity to the consequences of the delay in the emergence of students' proportional thinking is necessary.

Cognitive diagnostic assessment has been introduced as a new issue in educational measurement. In this approach, more information was examined about how people learn and master cognitive attributes in school. There are several data modeling issues in cognitive diagnostic assessment due to differences with another statistical modeling.

In the present study, science data of grade eight in TIMSS was analyzed by cognitive diagnostic assessment, as an empirical example, and the problems were entitled as modeling challenges. Each challenge has been explained in order to highlight differences from the usual statistical modeling.

The challenges included; unidimensionality versus multidimensionality, number of attributes, correlation between attributes, number of items in each attribute, operationalization of attribute, reliability of attribute, validity, item parameters, fit of the model, identification and specification, convergence, and complex sampling.

Each topic was discussed in the context of modeling TIMSS data in a science course and the experience of solving these challenges was shared.

Estimating provinces' achievement based on TIMSS and PIRLS is one of the demands of educational policy-makers, which is not possible due to some technical issues such as non-representative samples and small size of samples in most provinces. However, this has become feasible by changing the sampling design from TIMSS 2015 and assigning separate stratum to each large province; i.e. Tehran city, Tehran province, Razavi Khorasan, Khuzestan, Isfahan, and Fars. In the present study, the mathematics and science achievements of students in these provinces were compared in fourth and eighth grades as well as trends of achievements from 2015 to 2019. Furthermore, the provinces were compared in two series of variables that related to input and process. On the basis of these variables, two ratios were calculated: output-input (efficiency) and output-process ratios. The results showed that Tehran city, Isfahan, and Fars, respectively, had the highest mathematics and science achievements in both grades, afterwards, Tehran province, Razavi Khorasan, and other provinces were located in the next ranks and after all, Khuzestan was in the last rank. Similar ranks were observed in output-input (efficiency) and output-process ratios, except Tehran province that revealed better ranks in these ratios. Furthermore, Fars showed lower ranks in output-process ratio. In general, results indicated that learning quality has varied among the provinces, in addition, although there are variations in resources and inputs, these conditions can not totally account for poor performance in some provinces.

Promoting educational quality is one of the predominant missions of education. In the present study, we modeled school-level variables on learning in order to provide a guiding framework for educational policy-makers and school principals to adequate manipulations for improving the learning quality of students. Variables were teachers' preparation, perceptions, and activities; principal activities; school climate; and school achievement. This data was collected from questionnaires and tests presented to students, teachers, and principals of 325 primary schools in Tehran cities. The data was analyzed by structural equation modeling. Results were showed that school climate had the highest effect on school achievement. Aside from it, the only significant effect on school achievement was teacher preparation. Teacher activities had a low and non-significant effect on school achievement, therefore, no significant path mediated by teachers' activities was observed. In addition, principals had no effects on school achievement, but it was affected largely by school climate. In general, there is a challenge about the usefulness of instructional activities in school and the adequateness of inside-school variables.

Monitoring quality of educational system to ensure the quality of students' learning is one of the main responsibilities of educational systems and is considered as one of the indicators of the quality of education. In this regard, assessing students' learning in mathematics - as one of the key subjects - has significant importance. In this study, to assess quality of students’ learning in mathematics in the final grade of elementary schooling, a sample of 9720 sixth grade students in Tehran City was selected using a stratified two-stage cluster sample design. 264 math questions were distributed among students using matrix sampling. The results showed that the average performance of sixth grade students was 463, which is lower than the average scale (500). Also, girls performed better than boys. The comparison of different types of schools showed that public school students had performed weaker than students in other types of schools, but the difference in the students’ performance among other types of schools was not significant. In addition, there was a significant difference between the mean of students’ performances in different educational districts: the best performance was seen in districts 3, 2, 5 and 6 and the weakest performance was seen in districts 19, 15 and 18. The observed differences were almost noticed between public schools and schools with board of trustees too. In general, students of Tehran showed a relatively poor mathematics achievement, additionally, their achievement varies group by group.

Standard setting is one of the assessment techniques to create valid classifications of examinees. In present study, the effect of two standard setting methods, benchmark and bookmarking, was examined in results of a large-scale study, which was planned for assessing mathematics learning in sixth grade students of Tehran city.

Two methods were compared using data of a provincial large-scale assessment which carried out on 9720 sixth grade students in Tehran city. They asked 264 mathematics items and their response were analyzed by plausible values. 

Results of applying benchmark showed that 75, 48, 18, and 2 percent of students attained minimum scores in low, mediate, high, and advanced levels; respectively. In addition, 23.9 percent of items located in the same level that identified by content experts. In contrast, quality of classification by content experts in bookmarking was critiqued due to comparing of successive averages with standard deviations of location parameters. Moreover, effect of using five response probabilities: 0.52, .057, 0.62, 0.67, and 0.75 in classification of students indicated that, in spite of recommendation of response probability 0.67 in literature, the lowest response probability (0.52) produced the most realistic results rather than other response probabilities, however, this is still a strictly standard comparing benchmarking methods.

Standard setting should be considered as a technical issue in all assessments that grading or pass/fail is consequent of the test.

The present research performed based on TIMSS 2015 to identify the 4th grade students’ misconceptions in experimental science lesson. The second analysis method used as research method. The data of 8035 students that selected in TIMSS-2015 study as research sample considered in present research. Based on theoretical history considereations three misconceptions in geo-science, three misconceptions in physics science and four misconceptions in bioscience areas identified as common misconceptions amont primary school students in Science lessons that it could be investigated them by Persian students’ responses in TIMSS-2015 study. The misconceptions such as light intensity changes due to change of distance between sun and earth, earth rotation around the sun, the fixed situation of moon and its light intensity (the geo-science area), the bulb as electricity energy production source and the plastic as the best thermal conductor (the physic sicence area), food eating by all live creatures and considering the trees as non-alive creatures (bio-science area) verified among Persian students but three other misconceptions didn’t verify. By given to obtained results in relation to three misconceptions that identified in geo-science area, the attention to effective training the planetary conceptions and correcting the present misconceptions become more important than before. In addition, the high rate of misconceptions that identified in physics science in relation to thermal condoctur showed that it is necessary to emphasis on this part more.

The present study was conducted to investigate the impact of monolinguality-bilinguality of Iranian students on dimensionality, local item dependence and differential item functioning and impact of questions included in the passages of PIRLS (2011). The dimensionality was analyzed through comparing the one-dimensional graded response model and the multidimensional bi-factor item-response theory model. Next, the local item dependence and impact was analyzed using the two-level bi-factor model and, finally, the differential item functioning was examined using a multiple-group bi-factor model used by Cai et al. (2011).
The results of the dimensionality showed that the bi-factor model better fitted to the data than the graded response model. Furthermore, it was found that the local item dependence between two literal trait questions caused deviation from the one-dimensionality and that the linguistic difference could explain a majority of its variance. The Testlet results also showed that the average estimation of monolinguals’ abilities was higher than bilinguals’ abilities. Besides, it was indicated that items embedded with uniform differential item functioning were more difficult for monolinguals than bilinguals but monolinguals outperformed bilinguals in multiple choice items embedded with non-uniform differential item functioning.
Overall, the results showed that the traits related to the two literal Testlet were differently­ perceived among monolingual and bilingual students and local item dependence was more evident among bilinguals than monolinguals. Also, the results indicated a difference between the performance of monolingual and bilingual students in the mixed items format.

The focus of this article was comparing the previous types of recruitment of teachers in primary education. Three problems were studied, including comparing the students' math achievement based on the difference in various types of recruitment, type of majors, and the integrated variable of teacher education and majors of teachers. Statistical controlling was applied by two variables in each analysis. The data of TIMSS 2015 were used in the research, however, the information of teachers were validated by personal contacts with them. Then, data were analyzed using multiple regressions with categorical predictors. The results showed that grade 4 students’ mathematics achievement was independent from the ways in which their teachers were recruited. Also, there was no difference in the mathematics achievement of students whose teachers had different majors; however, comparison based on the teachers' education level showed that the diploma teachers' performance was significantly lower than other teachers with higher education levels. The integration of the teachers' preparation method and their major indicated that the students whose teachers were educated just for primary education did not outperform the students whose teachers were not educated for primary education, in the tests. Instead, the students of the teachers prepared for majors other than the primary school education outperformed the other groups of students. Findings have raised a number of questions about the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs in Iran, with emphasis on their qualitative improvement.

The present research aimed at the construction and validation of a reading test based on cognitive diagnostic assessment model (CDM). In order to construct the test, the most important reading attributes were identified by classifying the attributes relevant to reading in national and international research and documents. Subsequently, the test was designed by considering the viewpoints of experts in the field of Persian language and literature and primary school teachers. After pilot and preliminary analysis and eliminating inappropriate items, the final test was designed with 27 items, which measured four attributes of comprehension of explicit information in the text, inference, integration and interpretation, and vocabulary. In this research, the construction stages of the test were elaborated. Using a cluster sampling method, the test was performed on a sample consisting of 816 sixth grade students in Qom. The statistical analyses were carried out via additive CDM. The relative and absolute indices of fitness indicated that the model is sufficiently fit. Moreover, use of classification consistency and accuracy indices indicated that the test is capable of classifying students with proper consistency and accuracy. The research results illustrated that this test can identify students’ reading attributes using cognitive diagnostic assessment model. Extended Abstract:Evaluating ability of reading specifically in primary school students is of utmost importance. Though, national and international researches and assessments demonstrate weakness in Iranian students reading, no test for assessing of reading skills for primary school student is yet available. Recent developments of educational assessment is basis to construct tests that diagnose students mastery in different attitudes. Among them cognitive diagnostic assessment can demonstrate students weakness and strength in different attitudes. Generally, the goal of cognitive diagnostic assessment is promoting assessment for learning versus learning outcome assessment by providing the information needed to modify the teacher's training in the classroom. In another word the goal of cognitive diagnostic assessment is obtaining diagnosis and formative feedback by demonstrating students mastery of attitude exactly. The present research aimed at construction and validation of a reading test using cognitive diagnostic assessment . So this research has two minor goals: (A) identification of reading attributes and (b) designing a reading test using a cognitive diagnostic model. In order to achieve the first goal, reading theories were first reviewed . Reviewing reading theories suggests that existing theories analyze reading with great complexity and subtlety, making it almost impossible to make a test based on these theories . Therefore, in order to identify reading attributes, first reading attributes in national and international research and documentation, and valid language tests and researches that were performed with the cognitive diagnostic approach to assessing language, were collected and the most important reading attributes were collected . The attributes were categorized in several stages with the view of the specialists of Persian language and primary school teachers, and finally, four main attributes for the construction of the test were identified. Subsequently, The test was designed by viewpoints of experts in the field of Persian language and literature and primary school teachers. Though, in the stages of the construction of the initial test, the appropriate coverage of the various combination of the Q-matrix was carefully noted, but in a Focus group, the suitability of the Q matrix was investigated . After pilot and preliminary analysis and eliminating inappropriate items, the final test was designed with 27 items, which assessed four attributes of comprehension of explicit information in the text, inference, integration and interpretation, and vocabulary. The test consists of three types of items . In a class of items, the student must answer questions about the story content after reading a short text. In the second class, the student should understand the meaning of the words and ancient literature sentences. In third class items, students should be able to recognize the meaning of words in different sentences. In this test, in addition to the standards of educational measurement, a cognitive diagnostic model was used and specific Persian language requirements such as Iranian proverbs, ancient poetry and ancient literature, and some sources of reading errors that are rooted in Persian features (such as different letters with the same pronunciation, differences in the written and spoken word of some words, etc.) has also been considered. In this research, the construction stages of the test were elaborated. Using a cluster sampling method, the test was performed on a random sample consisting of 816 sixth grade students in Qom. The statistical analyses were carried out using additive cognitive diagnostic model. After the initial analysis and the removal of inappropriate items, the relative and absolute indices of fitness indicate that the model is sufficiently fit. Moreover, usage of classification consistency and accuracy indices indicate that the test is capable of classifying students with proper consistency and accuracy. Students' mastery of the four attitudes of reading in this test was between 0.53 and 0.68 . Subjects' mastery in the attributes of comprehension of explicit information in the text was 0.68, in inference attributes and vocabulary knowledge, each was 0.58, and in the integration and interpretation attribute was 0.53 . Students' mastery in the attributes has been compared with the two minimal criteria and the criterion that Jang (2009) has proposed. According to the minimal criterion, students have mastered all reading attributes. Based on the criterion that Jang (2009) suggests, the minimum level of proficiency required for each attribute is 0.6. Accordingly, students have mastered the comprehension of explicit information in the text, and have not mastered other reading attributes. The results of this study showed that this test can identify the profile of reading attributes of students using a diagnostic cognitive model

The present study has been done with the purpose of investigating the dimensionality and differential item functioning of the testlet-based test of Iran's PIRLS 2011. In order to analyze the dimensionality, graded response and bi-factor item-response theory models were used with full-information maximum likelihood estimation method and to analyze the differential item functioning multiple-group bi-factor model of Cai et al (2011) was applied. The results of the dimensionality investigation showed that the bi-factor model is better fitted to the data than the graded response model both in Iran's total sample and in boy and girl groups. The results of testlets effect variance showed that effects of second factors on Iranian student's performance in two testlet related to literal comprehension, has caused dimensionality in Iran's PIRLS testlets. The results showed that there was no significant difference in average student's performance of the boy and girl in general latent trait of reading comprehension, but the difference between the average reading proficiency of the boy and the girl in three literal and three informational testlet in favor of girls was significant. The result of differential items functioning based on the bifactor model showed that many items have an uniform and non-uniform differential item functioning, and boys in multiple-choice items and girls in constructed response items have better performances. In general, the results showed that in Iran's PIRLS 2011 testlets, the traits related to the two literal comprehension testlets were differently perceived between boy and girl students, and these two testlet had more local item dependence among girls than boys. Also, the results indicated a difference between the performance of Iranian boy and girl students in the mixed items format test of PIRLS.

Determining the structural validity of instruments is an important stage in research. Various methods have been suggested for analysis and estimation of structural validity. A more recent technique is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) which has many advantages compared with other methods, manifested in its more accurate analysis, use of goodness-of-fit indices to confirm general structure, and high flexibility. In this article, applying the SEM to determine construct validity along with convergent and differential validity has been discussed. The proposed methods have been applied to data from Fennema and Sherman’s math attitude scales which had been administered on 340 ninth grade students from Tehran High Schools. Results reveal the accuracy on the proposed methods. With regard to the high potency of this method, its use in studies concerning scaling and test development is highly recommended.

In order to inquire about users’ attitudes of research findings, some forms of use of findings were studied, which entitled Utilization Models, and identified fourmajor models including; Linear Translation Model, Problem solving Model, Enlightenment Model, and Interaction Model. Then, three groups of users including teachers, experts, and administrators were compared.Data was gathered from 181 users by a researcher made questionnaire. The sample was selected from 8 districts and Education Organization of Tehran Province by multistage sampling. Data was analyzed by paired-sample t-test in each group. Results revealed that users had positive attitudes toward interaction, linear translation, problem solving, and enlightenment models, respectively.There was no difference of orders of models between users’ groups except significance between them. That is, all of observed differences were significant inadministrators’ answers, but there was no significant difference between linear translation and interactive models and also between problem solving and enlightenment models in researchers and experts answers.In addition, the difference between linear translation model and interactive model was not significant. Results showed that interactive and linear translation models were more important models in users’ view.Enlightenment model had the lowest attitudes, so due to its benefits, it should be introduced to users of research findings.

Users’ attitude toward researches and the results has direct relationship with the method of use of the research outcome. This attitude is the deciding element on the amount and the how of using these findings. In order to inquire about user's attitudes about research findings, usage forms of the findings with the names of utilization models were studied. Four main utilization models were identified including: Linear Transformation Model, Problem Solving Model, Enlightenment Model, and Interaction Model. With respect to the research question in the field of comparison among the user levels, three groups of users including teachers, experts, and administrators were given attention. Information on the attitude of 181 persons from the user levels gathered by a researcher-made questionnaire.These subjects of the study were selected with the help of multistage random sampling from among the employees of the organization and 8 districts of the Education Organization in province of Tehran. Data was analyzed with the help of paired-sample T test in each group. Results revealed that users had positive attitudes toward interaction, linear transformation, problem solving, and enlightenment models, respectively. There was no difference in orders of models between users groups. The only difference was seen in significance of the differences. That is, all of observed differences were significant in administrator's answers, but there was no significant difference between linear transformation and interactive models and also between problem-solving and enlightenment models in experts’ answers. In addition, the difference between linear transformation model and interactive model was not significant among teachers. Results showed that interactive and linear transformation models were more important models in users view. This finding is in accordance with the previous findings. Enlightenment model had the lowest amount of positive attitudes toward it and due to its benefits, should be introduced to users of research findings.

This study examined the role of self-efficacy, math attitude math anxiety, and previous math achievement in math achievement by using path analysis. The sample consisted of 366 third grade guidance school students. Fennema’s Math Attitudes Scale, Shokrani’s Math Anxiety, a combind test of two Scale of Pajares’s Math Selfefficacy, math scores of last year, and final math scores of students were used to measure variables. The results showed that previous math achievement and math selfefficacy had the greatest effects on math achievement respectively. The study provided evidence for the mediator role of Math self-efficacy, that is, math attitude affected math achievement through its impact on the beliefs of math self-efficacy. The mediator role of math anxiety was also confirmed: math self-efficacy and math attitude affected math achievement through their impact on math anxiety. Apart from its large direct effect on math achievement, previous math achievement had an indirect effect on math achievement through its impact on math attitude, math selfefficacy, and math anxiety. Math attitude also had a direct effect on math anxiety. By comparing different effects of math attitude on math achievement, it was indicated that math attitude affected math achievement indirectly through its impact on mediational variables such as math selfefficacy, and math anxiety.