mohammadreza amirian

The main purpose of the study was to explore the connection between teachers' critical thinking, autonomy, and their teaching experience among public and private English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers. In addition, the differences between the two main contexts of English language learning (public and private contexts) were scrutinized vis a vis teachers' critical thinking and their autonomy. Two different groups of EFL private language institute teachers and EFL high school teachers were selected from two major cities in Khorasan Razavi, Iran. As the results of Path Analysis indicated, all subfactors of EFL teachers' critical thinking (analysis, evaluation, inference, inductive reasoning) except deductive reasoning were positive significant predictors of their autonomy. Additionally, the experience was a positive significant predictor of their autonomy. Furthermore, among five sub-factors of EFL teachers' critical thinking, four subfactors were predicted by experience including analysis, inference, inductive reasoning, and deductive reasoning. However, the experience did not predict evaluation. Also, the results of the Pearson correlation indicated that critical thinking was positively associated with autonomy with a moderate connection, and positively and weakly with experience. Furthermore, the results of the t-test for independent samples indicated that there was a significant difference between the two different contexts in the level of autonomy with private EFL teachers being more autonomous than public EFL teachers. Nevertheless, there was no significant difference between the two types of context in critical thinking.

Academic achievement is one of the main concerns of the educational system of any country, and as a result, any factor that is effective in reducing or increasing its quantity and quality is considered and emphasized by researchers. Psychological damage and stressful accidents have effects on academic achievement. This study aimed to develop a model of structural equations for academic achievement of students with post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD) (Kermanshah earthquake) based on cognitive ability; moreover, it was attempted to investigate the mediating role of difficulty in emotion regulation in this regard. This descriptive-correlational study was conducted based on a quantitative and applied research method. The statistical population of the present study includes all students with PSTD in Sarpol Zahab, Kermanshah Province, Iran, in the academic year of 2018-19. In total, 48 cases were selected using the available sampling method. The data were collected using the Capita’s Log software, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and final grades of Persian literature and mathematics courses. Data analysis was performed employing the structural equation modeling (SEM) and Smart PLS software.

The results of this study in the form of a structural model showed that all t-coefficients among the three main constructs were higher than 1.96, which indicates the existence of significant relationships among research variables. In other words, cognitive ability has a direct and significant relationship with the academic achievement of students with PSTD. Moreover, there is a negative relationship between cognitive ability and difficulty in emotion regulation.     

The results of the present study revealed the direct and significant effect of cognitive ability on the academic achievement of students with PSTD. In addition, an indirect effect of cognitive ability was observed on the academic achievement of these students with a mediating role of difficulty in emotion regulation. The findings of the present study indicate that the improvement of the cognitive ability, as well as the enhancement of the skills related to emotion regulation in students with PSTD, leads to improved academic achievement

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the adverse events occurring in people exposed to severe traumatic experiences, such as earthquakes. The devastating effects of such events and their associated losses are significantly higher in children and adolescents. The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation on academic achievement with the moderating role of emotion regulation in earthquake-stricken adolescents with PTSD in Kermanshah.

This cross-sectional study was conducted based on a pre- and post-test design with control and experimental groups. Among the students who were diagnosed with PTSD in Kermanshah earthquake, 48 cases were selected and assigned to the control and experimental groups. Data collection instruments were Captainchr('39')s Log cognitive rehabilitation software, and motion Regulation Scale developed by Gratz and Roemer.  Studentschr('39') academic achievement was judged based on the scores obtained from end-of-semester transcripts and teacherschr('39') evaluations. Data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 26).

Based on the results, cognitive rehabilitation is effective in the academic achievement of students with PTSD (P<0.01). Moreover, emotion regulation can moderate the effect of this method on academic achievement (P<0.05).

As evidenced by the obtained results, cognitive rehabilitation can effectively strengthen cognitive abilities and components related to executive functions. In so doing, it enhances the educational performance of students with PTSD and brings them academic achievement

Although reflective practice is seen as a distinguishing characteristic of professionals, there is limited research providing methods for assessing whether EFL teachers engage in reflection and if so to what extent. With the aim of understanding the level of reflection, this article sets out to develop and validate a new instrument to assess the level of reflection of EFL teachers based on the rubric proposed by Ward and McCotter (2004). The newly devised instrument was developed in a five-point Likert-scale format(ranging from never to always).The ultimate version of the instrument was administered to a random sample of 250 Iranian EFL teachers. The construct validity of this instrument was established through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The results of factor analysis validated a 4-factor model. The reliability of the instrument was also obtained to be 0.816 via the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The implication is discussed in the context of language teaching.

Currently reflective teaching has received much attention by educators in the field of education and is believed to be a serious new measure of the quality of teaching. Many experimental studies have been carried out to study teachers’ reflective teaching using methods and research instruments such as reflective journals, video recordings or actions research but little research has been conducted using reflective journals in L2 teaching in the context of Iran. The present study intends to explore the extent to which EFL teachers engage in reflective teaching. For the survey section, there was a random sampling of 250 Iranian EFL teachers holding M.A, B.A. Ph.D. degree in linguistics, translation, English literature. Out of 250 surveyed participants, a convenience sampling comprising of 60 EFL teachers, both males and females, from two language institutes in Sabzevar, Iran, participated in the study. They were randomly assigned into two groups of A as the experimental group and B as the control group with 30 participants each. Data were collected by the following means: (a) Akbari et al.’s (2010) reflective teaching inventory administered to 250 Iranian EFL teachers, (b) journals written by 60 EFL teachers. The results revealed that EFL teachers practice the metacognitive as the most frequently used component and the practical component as the least frequently used one. Using Farrell’s (2004) framework, journal data were analyzed whose results indicated that EFL teachers practiced three chronological types of reflection namely, reflection-for-,in, and on-action with different degrees. The analysis of the contents of reflective teaching resulted in a framework with metacognitive, learner-based, cognitive, critical components. Some implications and suggestions for teacher education programs are discussed in EFL context.

This qualitative study set out to capture Iranian EFL teachers’ perceptions of reflective teaching. In doing so, a semi-structured interview was done with a theoretical sampling comprising 15 EFL teachers. Drawing on a grounded theory method the collected data were analyzed whose results led to the emergence of five categories with reflective teaching understanding as the core category and teaching issues, learner’s issues, teacher-related factors, advantages of, and obstacles to reflective teaching as subcategories. The emerging categories were discussed in the context of language teaching along with some recommendations. The results indicated that the teachers have awareness of reflective teaching and support its priviples. The findings of the present research might be of value to the curriculum developers and course instructors of teacher education programs to design courses.

Solving problem is a feature that everybody needs in her/his personal and occupational life. One of the areas that its employees are in conflict with complicated problems and working to these areas require appropriate strategies for solving problem is Crisis and Relief and Rescue management and consequently relevant academic disciplines such as Relief and Rescue and Disaster Relief. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and endurance with strategies of undergraduate students’ problem solving in Relief and Rescue in the Red Crescent of Tehran Province who are current or future crisis and rescue workers.
This study was from correlation in terms of purpose, function and descriptive method. The statistical population consisted of undergraduate students of Relief and Rescue in the Red Crescent of Tehran Province and the volume number of sample was 88 according to the Cochran formula that responded to three questionnaires consist of Connor and Davidson (2003), Bradbury and Garyves (2005) and Cassidy and lung (1996). Regression analysis was used to analyze the data.
Findings: The findings showed that the level of emotional intelligence, endurance and strategies of undergraduate students’ problem solving who were under research is at the desired level and above average. Also the relationship between these variables was statistically significant (p Based on the research results, it is recommended to maintain and also all-out efforts of the Red Crescent educational centers and other organizations related to Crisis management.