فصلنامه نوآوری های آموزشی
پیاپی 71 (پاییز 1398)

The purpose of this study was designing a competency-based curriculum framework for the industrial mechanics' discipline at the second cycle secondary school level. According to the concept and the nature of study, it was a mixed methods one, with content analysis and descriptive study design; and according to the objectives, it was an applied study.The research sample consisted of 44 curriculum experts, teachers and the elites in the industrial mechanics' discipline and 35 sources related to the topic. The data collected through the Delphi technique was analyzed using descriptive statistics, i.e., frequency, percentage and cumulative percentage and Kendall test. Findings of this research are a competency-based curriculum framework for the industrial mechanics' discipline which includes the components of the logic of the curriculum, the function, the scope and domain of the curriculum, the pattern of the curriculum design, structure, curriculum table, the curriculum objectives, content, learning activities, methods of assessment, and the characteristics of each one. This framework which was the result of the consensus of the authorities has been designed for the first time in Irān, considering the propositions of the national curriculum and the comprehensive system of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) as its main charateristics. The results of this research could be used not only for designing a competency-based curriculum for the industrial mechanics' discipline at the second cycle secondary school level, but also developing such a curriculum framework for the other TVET disciplines.

This paper aims at presenting a model, tailoring the vocational and technical education with the needs of the labor market from the viewpoint of the industries’ owners of Yazd city. The qualitative method of grounded theory was used due to the limited models in the current literature to explain the fitness of the vocational and technical education with the needs of the labor market and gathering the data suitable with the study. The data was collected through interview with 14 industry owners and vocational and technical organization managers in Yazd city. By classifying the concepts, minor and major subcategories, and finding the core category using the open, axial and selective coding, the categories which could develop a model for tailoring the vocational and technical education with the needs of the labor market and the relationships among them were appeared in a paradigmatic model. The model includes causal triggers (7 categories), Core category (training alignment), strategies (8 categories), environmental conditions (6 categories), contextual features (4 categories) and the consequences (3 categories). Based on the research findings, it could be concluded that the fitness of the technical and vocational education to the needs of the labor market could be realized using the strategies of need assessment, stakeholders’ participation, instructor training, internal and external cooperation, occupational future studies, land use planning, trainees acquaintance with the job market, along with counseling and career guidance.

Nowadays, in almost all of the developed and developing countries at all educational levels, the education and promotion of the entrepreneurship have a special place, so that innovation at the different dimensions of the education system underlies the education of a creative and multidimensional generation. The main purpose of the present study was designing theentrepreneurial education model at schools. It was an applied research with grounded theory design. The research population included all educational authorities and experts, educational management and planning, psychology and sociology experts, as well as the entrepreneurial education authorities. Using the theoretical sampling method, research findings reached the theoretical saturation, after conducting 30 in-depth interviews. The results showed that the value creation - based education is the main and key dimension of the entrepreneurial education which is influenced by the triggering factors of the entrepreneurial attitude of the parents, schools’ authorities and decision makers and teachers. The most important contextual factors including the entrepreneurial atmosphere, designing the playful environment, designing the attractive spaces of school along with the environmental conditions such as entrepreneurial consciousness, educational planning and entrepreneurial awareness help to implement and adopt strategies and actions including training along with performance, entrepreneurial learning, entrepreneurial assignments, entrepreneurial teams, entrepreneurial curiosity, the school interaction with the real-world, flexible and multilateral evaluation, and emphasis on cognition and metacognition. Finally, creating the new values, educating the creative, innovative and multi-dimensional student and empowered-skillful student could be the main consequence and output of the entrepreneurial education at school, during which the students deal with creating value for themselves and their society, while being on the correct educational and career path.

This research was aimed at investigating the impact of the use of the entrepreneurship training package based on Saskatchewan University curriculum on the students' entrepreneurship morale. The statistical population of the study included all female secondary school students in Isfahān during the academic year of 2017-2018. It was a mixed methods study with the concurrent embedded design. In order to quantitatively measure the entrepreneurial morale, 30 people were selected using the random cluster sampling method and they were randomly assigned to two groups of experimental (15 people) and control (15 people). Both groups responded to the questionnaire of entrepreneurial spirit at the pretest and posttest stages. There were 13 training sessions for the experimental group, but the control group received no intervention. To analyze the data, multivariate covariance analysis was used. At the second stage, in order to examine and confirm the quantitative findings, the students were interviewed at the end of each session. The results showed that the entrepreneurship education package based on the Saskatchewan University curriculum was effective on the students' entrepreneurial spirit (0.001). Hence, the components of the innovation, risk taking, success, and independence were significant at the level of 0.001 and the components of ambiguity and control were not significant. The results of the interviews confirmed the quantitative analysis. Therefore, it can be said that, given the importance of the entrepreneurship education at schools, besides other existing programs and methods, a Saskatchewan University entrepreneurship training package can be used.

The learning city has been a new concept aimed at the mobilization of the resources for the learning of all the citizens throughout their lives and in all places to promote the individual and economic development, and the social cohesion. This concept has various dimensions and components, extracted by the researchers and institutions. In this research, the dimensions and indicators of the learning city from the viewpoint of the Canadian Council for Learning, the European Commission and the UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning, with emphasis on the concept of the lifelong learning would be investigated. It was a descriptive-analytic research. The research sample included 20 formal education experts and the University professors at the study area of Qazvin city. The final learning city components in five dimensions, including »the formal education system«, »learning in the communities and families«, »learning at work«, »technology and the learning quality« and »the learning culture« have been extracted and analyzed using AHP analysis method and the priorities have been identified in each dimension. The results showed that the most important dimensions of the learning city are the formal learning and learning in the communities and families. Accordingly, the most important components of the learning city are: »the extension of the formal education«, »the use of the trained educators«, »support for the education of the disadvantaged groups«, »encouraging the continuous learning in the family and society« and »learning through the media and cultures« which can be prioritized according to our country's conditions to achieve the learning city.

Nowadays, educational demotivation is one of the serious challenges and damages to Iran’s educational system at all levels. The aim of the present study was to qualitatively investigate the educational demotivation among the first cycle high school students in rural areas and to present a grounded theory. The statistical population included the first cycle male high school students in the rural areas of Dehlorān city in the academic year 2012-2013. The research sample included 17 students who were selected using purposeful sampling method and based on the »theoretical saturation principle«. Also, the research instrument was the in-depth interviews. The process of data analysis included three coding phases: open, axial, and selective. The open coding resulted in 59 initial concepts, which were reduced to 27 themes by modifying the similar codes. In the second phase, and through refining the concepts, the eight major categories were formed: »family capital«, »cross fields«, »teaching style«, »the hidden self«, »diverse roaming«, »traffic challenges«, »forms and contradictions of the assessment system« and» reductionism of literacy to reading and writing«. Finally, based on the discovered major categories, the central focus of the research, namely the academic anxiety as a behavioral, institutional and cultural poverty was determined and a grounded theory was developed.

The main aim of this research was studying the effect of the learner’s participation on the literacy courses along with the relevant educational content on increasing the societal and psychological capital of the literacy learners. It was a quasi-experimental study with with pre and post-tests control group design. The research sample included 480 literacy learners from Sistān and Blouchestān, West Azerbāijān and Alborz provinces who were selected purposefully from the target population, i.e., all the persons who had registered and attended in one of the literacy courses across the country. Half of the selected learners were assigned to the experimental group and another half were assigned to the control group (120 basic literacy learners, 120 transition course learners). Then, the researchers assessed the research variables, using two researcher-made scales which had internal consistency (social capital from 0.75 to 0.84 and social capital from 0.80 to 0.90). The results of covariance analysis revealed that the participation of the learners in the literacy courses has a significant effect on increasing the societal and psychological capital of the participants. Also, the results of the survey showed that the continuity of the learning literacy has 12.6 % effect size in increasing the societal capital (0.502 in literacy courses and 0.628 in transition courses). In addition, this continuity had 32.4% effect size in enhancing the psychological capital (0.327 in literacy courses and of 0.651% in transition course).