Iranian Evolutionary and Educational Psychology Journal
Volume:1 Issue: 4, Dec 2019

This article reports on a sociopsychological study designed to investigate the components of 21st century teachers’ professional competencies in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context in Iran. A total number of 30 members of the English language teaching (ELT) professional community including experienced university teacher educators, supervisors in the private sector, teacher trainers, and EFL teachers in the public and private sectors, participated in this study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. For data analysis, qualitative content analysis was used. An independent coder who was an expert in this field was suggested to code one part of interview transcription randomly. An inter-coder agreement of 94.77% was gained. After analyzing the data, six main categories of professional competencies of a 21st century EFL teacher were identified: personality factors, interpersonal factors, professional factors, factors related to teaching materials, learner factors, and assessment factors. The findings contributed empirical evidence to an understanding of Iranian EFL teachers’ professional competencies in their teaching profession in the 21st century that can be utilized as a framework for the improvement of teacher education policy and the design and implementation of teacher-training programs.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of chess on the ability to problem-solving, working memory, and concentration of high school students. The statistical population consisted of all 10th-grade male students of Ahvaz city. A total of 40 subjects (20 experimental and 20 control subjects) were enrolled in this study by a multi-stage random method. The research design was experimental and pretest-posttest with a control group, along with data collection tools, including the Cassidy and Lang’s problem-solving style questionnaire (PSSG), Cornoldi’s working memory test (CWMT), and Weinstein and Palmer’s learning and study strategies inventory (LASSI). The experimental group received 15 sessions of training and practiced chess for four months, and the control group did not receive any intervention at this time. The results showed that chess significantly improved working memory and concentration of students in the experimental group compared with the control group but could not significantly improve the ability of problem-solving in these students. The results of this study encourage us to use this game more to improve memory or treat concentration problems.

Teacher competency is defined as an integrated set of personal characteristics, knowledge, skills and attitudes that are needed for effective performance in various teaching contexts. Despite the importance of teachers’ competency in the design of classroom practices and methods, few studies in Iranian EFL context have explored the effects of factors affecting this construct. Accordingly, the present study attempted to develop and test a model of motivational variables affecting a group of Iranian EFL teachers’ competency by using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. A total of 197 EFL teachers teaching at a number of schools in Hormozgan province participated in the study and completed a teacher competency test, a self-efficacy beliefs scale and a self-regulation in teaching questionnaire. The tested model gave satisfactory fit indexes and the variables of study had a positive relation with teachers’ competency. More specifically, instructional strategy, as the subscale of self-efficacy, and intrinsic interest, as the subcomponent of self-regulation, could best predict teachers’ competency.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the epistemological foundations of the pre-organizing teaching method in order to determine the position of these bases in the theoretical and practical fields. The research method is descriptive-analytic and it is kind of qualitative and attributive. Research data derived from multiple sources, articles, dissertations and research projects using text analysis techniques. The results of the study showed that organized cognition is hierarchical, personal, unique, subjective and relative. The set of factors of rationality and emotional affairs are effective in the formation of cognition. It is, therefore, close to the standpoint of existentialism philosophers. The teacher constantly uses the deductive method during the learning and development of knowledge. The characteristics of the learner's prior knowledge as a starting point for the teaching process are constancy, clarity and incremental capability. Also, the method of acquiring knowledge in this pattern is through direct and sensory experiences.

This study was performed to examine the relationship between cooperative learning and skilled learning with the satisfaction of students studying Russian, English, and Arabic languages. The research method was a correlational one. The study statistical population included the students of fields Russian, English and Arabic languages at the University of Guilan in 2016 who were selected by the cluster sampling method accounting for 120 subjects. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data. The data were analyzed using SPSS-18 software, Pearson correlation test, and the linear regression. According to the Pearson correlation coefficient results, the variable of educational satisfaction was positively correlated with cooperative learning (r = 0.338) and skilled learning (r = 0.449). The results of regression analysis also showed that the skilled learning variable and then, the cooperative learning together explain 0.22 of the satisfaction variance. The results revealed that cooperative learning and skilled learning have a significant effect on students’ satisfaction. Given the importance of this issue, we should say strengthening the teaching skills can help increase the student’s satisfaction rate and quality of education.

School education is crucial for personal/social development. To confirm the demand for special education any child is required to be assessed. Instruments that measure children’s intellectual abilities aid teachers to adapt their teaching environments once pupils with special needs are recognized. This correlational study’s intention was developing, validating and implementing a psychometric test to assess reasoning skill among children. Some of the influencing factors such as age, gender and parents’ educational level were meanwhile investigated. Hence, three subtests that assess abstract, quantitative, nonverbal, matrix and visual reasoning were selected under the supervision of scholars of the field to develop a psychometric test whose internal consistency was calculated through Pearson Coefficient Correlation by giving the test to 150 volunteer participants. All the calculated values declared high internal consistency. Then, 222 male and female preschool, first grade and second grade students were selected through multiple stage stratified sampling to participate in the study. Their reasoning ability was compared based on age, gender and parents’ educational level using ANOVA and tukey tests in SPSS22. The findings regarding age and parents’ educational level were controversial: younger children had better reasoning skills also children of fathers with lower academic degrees outperformed their peers. No statistically significant difference was observed regarding gender. Such findings could help educational policy makers and scholars of educational psychology to fill the gaps of educational contents and environments specifically during early school education. The developed instrument assists teachers modify teaching methods and environments to help weaker children flourish cognitively.