نشریه نامه آموزش عالی
پیاپی 51 (پاییز 1399)

The aim of the present research is to study the relationship between university autonomy and total quality management and social responsibility at University. The population of the study consisted of all faculty members (including 5 faculties) at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences whose number was 763. Using Morgan Table, 241 faculty members were selected as sample via stratified random method. The method of this research is descriptive correlational. To collect data, standard questionnaires were utilized. For data analysis, Pearson correlation and step-by-step regression were used with SPSS software. Results showed that there is a significant positive relationship between the variable of university autonomy and its components, i.e. organizational autonomy and academic autonomy, and social responsibility. There was also found a significant positive correlation between total quality management and its dimensions and social responsibility. The present research results showed that dimensions of university autonomy (organizational autonomy β = .31 and academic autonomy β = .16 are able to predict social responsibility.

The purpose of this study was to describe and thematically analyze the curriculum research studies to identify the status quo. For this purpose, the quantitative analysis of articles in specialized journals was analyzed based on the thematic framework of the Iranian curriculum encyclopedia. Statistical population of specialized journals articles in the last five years (1392-1397) were selected as the sample (whole population). The data collection tool was a researcher-made checklist based on the Iranian curriculum axis that was validated by expert validation and expert opinion and its reliability estimated through inter-group reliability. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the findings, which finally showed that among the specialized journal articles, the most thematic distribution of articles is related to the curriculum and content areas; and the least distribution  to the “History”, “ Practical Curriculum Experiences and Curriculum Innovations”, “World Celebrities”, “Basics” and “International Statements and Recommendations “. The research results indicated that the titles and topics of the research were limited to a small number of fields of the curriculum encyclopedia and the repetition and parallelism of the subjects and the lack of attention of the research to the new domains of the curriculum studies.

Science is an organized and very important category for progression of all countries in any conceivable fields. The barriers for achieving this organized science are numerous, and our purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of some barriers on the scientific growth of humanities students at Lorestan University. The present study is a descriptive survey, and the population includes all the students of humanities at Lorestan University. The subjects were selected by relative stratified sampling, and the number of samples was obtained as 341 based on Krejcie-Morgan table. Finally, 300 male and female students of humanities sub-disciplines were studied at Lorestan University (2017). Data collection tool was a researcher-made 35-item questionnaire distributed among the subjects. The questionnaire was scored based on a 5-point Likert scale. In the end, data analysis was done by SPSS Software.One of the most important achievements of the study was that the findings suggest that the intra- and extra-individual academic factors (such as career prospect, social and economic status, etc.) have a significant effect on academic growth and scientific growth desire (sig<0.01); particularly, individual factors were more effective on scientific growth.In this study, it was found that all the intra- and extra- individual academic factors have a considerable effect on scientific growth; and it was revealed that individual factors are more effective than other factors. Studies conducted in Iran and other countries have generally investigated scientific growth obstacles from the perspective of professors and university administrators. However, in the present study, we have studied similar factors from the students’ perspective. Ultimately, it was concluded that students are considered as the influential members of the scientific community; reviewing the similar research works, the findings are highly consistent with the results of the previous studies. In fact, students should seriously attempt to minimize the impact of these obstacles; moreover, the society and the authorities should not ignore students, and they should take serious measures to reconstruct the current structures. In this way, science and knowledge will retrieve their value in the country as in the past. However, other factors should not be ignored as they all have a significant effect on scientific growth.

The higher education system is accountable for the community development. Part of this important responsibility relies on doing useful research as one of the fundamental foundations of community development, since no scientific and rational move is possible without the support of research. Obviously, a supervisor is accountable for the guidance and mentoring of teaching and disseminating science and knowledge in higher education, and the quality and development of knowledge and research largely depends on how the supervisor works. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate incentives to promote good research in agricultural higher education among graduate students of faculty of Agriculture, Yasouj University. Using a questionnaire instrument, four main criteria, known as supervisor's resume (including seven sub-criteria), behavioral characteristics (four sub-criteria), social communication network (five sub-criteria) and students' interests (six sub-criteria) were examined. According to the rate of inconsistency, the participants of this research were 17 agricultural higher education students. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to weight the main criteria and sub-criteria. Results showed that the most important criteria for the choice of supervisors were behavioral characteristics, social communication network, student interests and supervisor's resume, respectively.

The purpose of this study is the evaluation of the effect of virtual education on social capital with mediation of organizational learning in higher education system. The method of this study is correlational descriptive.  The statistical population of this study was composed of all of the faculty members of University of Urmia (N=486). Through Cochran formula, 214 samples were determined and were selected via random sampling method. Gathering tool is standardized questionnaire data Virtual Education, Saekow & Samson) 2011), social capital (Napahid & Goshal, 1990) and Organizational Learning (Knif et al 2001). Reliability of the scales was confirmed by Cronbach’s alfa and validity of the scales was confirmed by experts. For analyzing data, structural equation modeling was employed.The results revealed that the virtual education has direct effect on social capital (0.41). The direct effect of the virtual education on the organizational learning (0.73) is also positive and significant. The organizational learning have a direct effect on social capital (0.29) and the indirect effect of virtual education on social capital (0.21) is positive and significant with mediation organizational learning. Finally, the whole effect of the virtual education on the social capital (0.62) was also positive and significant.

In the recent decade, critical thinking as an educational goal has found a special position in many higher education systems. Therefore, recognizing the methods of measuring this skill in order to train it properly requires attention among learners. The present article was conducted to introduce the existing approaches in the process of measuring critical thinking in a documentary method. After searching for related documents in the foreign scientific databases of Science Direct, Wiley, Jstore, ERIC, ProQuest, Web of Science, Taylor and Francis and the domestic databases of SID and Noormags and critical thinking sites, including the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Educational Testing Service, Critical Thinking, American College Test, and Council for Aid to Education, 32 documents were retrieved between 1980 and 2017, and finally, 20 documents were selected based on the criterion of being expert of authors in the field of critical thinking, being up-to-date, and relevance. The analysis of documents was conducted using qualitative content analysis. The findings led to the identification of critical thinking instruments in two traditional and modern approaches. Overall, according to the existing challenges in the tests of the traditional approach, it is expected open-ended instruments in the modern approach with a qualitative method to be considered by experts in this field for creating a desirable status in assessing this skill.