Assessing professional qualifications of teachers: An integrative review of Iranian studies

The teacher is considered the most basic element in the education system and his/her professional qualification, self-efficacy, interest, and professional mastery would have a determining impact on the quality of the teaching-learning process. This aim of this study was determining the primary school and high school teachers' qualification using integrative review of the related Iranian valid studies. For this purpose, electronic databases were searched using the Persian words with the aim of extracting the researches related to measuring the teachers' professional qualifications. Searching these databases was done between January and February 2021. Out of 100 PhD dissertations, research projects and the articles in Persian which were published during 2006-2021), 22 cases (15 articles, 4 research projects and 3 PhD dissertations) were screened based on the research criteria. Whittemore and Knafl’s integrative review method directed these texts' analysis. Open coding, and categorizing the relevant codes and themes resulted in 4 dimensions of qualifications (knowledge, skill, attitude/value/ and personality/ethical) at 3 levels (Above, within and below average). Findings showed that in general, the teachers were at an average level in terms of knowledge dimension. In the dimension of skill (including class management, planning and organizing the learning opportunities, active teaching methods and elements like assessment as well as using technologies in the teaching-learning process) they were ranked lower than average. However, teachers were above average in terms of value/attitude and personality/ethical dimensions. It was concluded that there is a need to develop and improve the professional qualifications of teachers with systematic planning based on the fundamental document for developing educational system and scientific researches.