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Internationally and in Ghana, formal professional development is cited in many education policies as a focal lever for transforming pedagogy and engaging students in cognitively demanding learning processes with digital technologies. Yet, this expectation for technology integration has proven difficult to achieve for many teachers, often due to the nature of technology professional development programs, which in Ghana, have received limited research attention. In response, this qualitative study, based on interviews with 20 teachers, five education officials, and five headteachers, investigated formal technology professional development opportunities in Ghana, including teachers' knowledge needs and preferred training subject. Thematic analysis revealed the existence of professional learning communities, district-private partnership workshops, curriculum reform workshops, and cluster-based professional development programs. These in-service training avenues all prioritise equipping teachers with basic technical skills to use technologies as productivity tools. Teachers strongly prefer these skill sets, considering them prerequisites for supporting routine teacher-centred teaching tasks. Findings reveal that most professional development programs and teachers tend to overlook pedagogical transformation and innovation aspects of integrating technology. The study argues that technology professional development should shift from emphasising isolated technical skills training to equally prioritising pedagogical knowledge development for teachers to effectively facilitate student-centred learning and teaching with digital technologies.

With increasing policy interest in improving educational outcomes, technology integration has become a requirement in Ghana's education system, albeit with minimal impact on student learning. Several studies focus on identifying barriers to effective integration but pay scant consideration to the deeper reasons why teachers use technology. This qualitative study aimed to explore the underlying beliefs that shape teachers' decision-making and thinking regarding technology integration. The study used open-ended questions and interviews with five education officials, twenty teachers, and five headteachers, and an 'ICT Pedagogical Beliefs Classification Framework' as a lens for interpreting and categorising teacher beliefs. Thematic analysis of findings revealed four main beliefs: productivity tools for teaching and lesson preparation; developing students' ICT skills; meeting curriculum expectations, and engaging students in authentic teaching. Evidently, teachers are enthusiastic about using technology, but their beliefs indicate that they view technology primarily as a tool for productivity to supplement existing teaching practices, which they value. Findings indicate that most teachers espouse teacher-centred ICT beliefs, implying the need for transformative professional development that enables change in teachers' beliefs to embrace the view of technology as a pedagogical tool that can facilitate constructive pedagogy and deep student learning.

Education systems worldwide recognise the value and promise of technology as a catalyst for transforming pedagogy and promoting student learning. However, several factors stymie teachers' technology integration practices in pursuit of these desired aspirations. This qualitative study investigates, from the perspective of key education stakeholders, major barriers affecting teachers' adoption of technologies as meaningful pedagogical tools in Ghana's classrooms. Twenty teachers, five headteachers, and five education officials from two education districts completed indepth phone interviews with open-ended questions on these barriers. Informed by Ertmer's barriers to change theoretical lens, the findings revealed six contextual factors impacting effective technology integration, namely, "first-order barriers" -- technological resource availability; leadership support; teacher professional development, and "second-order barriers" -- teacher technological know-how; pedagogical beliefs and interest in technology use; and students' familiarity with technology. The first-order barriers were perceived to have a more significant impact than the second-order barriers. The findings contradict the commonly held claim that the impact of first-order barriers is diminishing, as this was not evident in the context of the study. The study offers implications for research, policy, and practice concerning the barriers that demand the utmost attention to advance effective technology integration, especially in developing countries.

Objective: Characterize college student COVID-19 behaviors and attitudes during the early pandemic. Participants: Students on two university campuses in Wisconsin. Methods: Surveys administered in September and November 2020. Results: Few students (3-19%) participated in most in-person activities during the semester, with eating at restaurants as the exception (72-80%) and attending work (35%) and parties (33%) also reported more frequently. The majority wore masks in public (94-99%), but comparatively fewer (42%) did so at parties. Mask-wearing at parties decreased from September to November (p < 0.05). Students attending parties, or consuming more alcohol, were less concerned and more likely to take COVID-19-associated risks. Conclusions: Students were motivated to adhere to COVID-19 prevention measures but gathered socially. Though there was frequent public masking, mask-wearing at parties declined in November and may represent pandemic fatigue. High-yield strategies for decreasing viral spread may include changing masking social norms and engaging with students about creative risk-reduction strategies.

Hybrid homeschooling is still in its initial phase in the Iranian education system and is still a mystery to many educators and parents. This study aimed to explore the reasons for choosing the homeschooling approach for gifted students using a grounded theory method. The sample of this qualitative study included 15 parents of gifted children and 10 specialists in giftedness recruited through purposive sampling. Factors influencing the homeschooling approach were collected through semi-structured interviews with professionals and parents and analyzed by the coding method based on grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1997). The data analysis revealed 143 open codes, 12 axial codes, and three selective codes, including educational challenges of gifted students in school and public education and the demands and expectations of parents and students. The results demonstrated that the Iranian educational system does not meet the needs and expectations of gifted students and their parents; therefore, educators and parents are recommended to use hybrid homeschooling for this group of students. While the participants in this study do not strictly follow a hybrid schooling model, the findings suggest that adopting elements of hybrid schooling could be advantageous for gifted students.

Research, primarily from pre-service teachers' perspectives, has found that teacher education programmes are not providing adequate preparation for constructivist pedagogy using information technology. This subject is pronounced in Ghana's teacher education programmes, where local research that investigates knowledge patterns in technology training methods and competencies pre-service teachers mainly acquire is also scarce. In addressing this gap, this paper describes a qualitative study that examined the reflective views and experiences of 20 in-service teachers regarding what was offered and missing in their pre-service training for digital pedagogy. Findings revealed teachers benefit from standalone educational technology courses, teacher educators modelling technology use, and curriculum activities requiring technology use. The knowledge pattern in these training methods suggests a prioritisation of technical skills acquisition that mostly supports traditional, teacher-centred teaching tasks. Factors impeding pedagogical development training are unpacked, along with the reasons behind misalignments between teacher education policy requirements, and actual pre-service technology training practices.

Although the ability to speak is often considered a determining factor of learners ability in the target language, research has given scant attention to strategies that can be used to improve this skill. This study aimed to shed light on the speaking strategies that learners use to deal with problems they encounter when using the target language or to improve the quality of their L2 performance. This study deployed the Oral Communication Strategy Inventory (OCSI) developed by Nakatani (2006) to measure the strategies that students use in oral communications. In doing so, adopting the mixed-methods sequential explanatory design, this study investigated the use of speaking strategies of low and high proficiency English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in performing speaking tasks. The participants of the study were 23 low and 25 high proficiency students learning English in an institute in Iran. After performing the speaking tasks, the participants filled out the OCSI questionnaire and answered two open-ended questions. The results indicated that low and high proficiency students employ different strategies. While advanced learners used "accuracy-oriented" strategies the most and "message abandonment" strategies the least, "message reduction" strategies and "thinking in English" strategies, respectively, were found to be the most and the least frequently used by elementary learners. The Mann-Whitney U test indicated that of the six speaking strategies, only "message abandonment" and "thinking in English" strategies were found to be significantly different between elementary and advanced English learners. This study contributes in some ways to the understanding of how students' proficiency level relates to their strategy use and provides English teachers with a variety of pedagogical methods to motivate students and enhance their oral production via speaking strategies.

High and low achievers' strategy use profiles in the speaking skill appear to be rare, with the few studies examining their strategy use profiles only in skills such as reading and writing. Another gap can be observed in the scrutiny of effective and ineffective strategy use in speaking tests. The study was carried out with thirty male and female high and low achieving test takers who engaged in the speaking section of IELTS and reported their strategy use through stimulated recalls in the Iranian context. Data collection involved two key phases: The test takers first went through a familiarization phase where they learned how to carry out stimulated recalls. This phase was followed by the main phase of the study where the test takers took the IELTS speaking exam, verbalizing their strategies after each of its three speaking tasks. The researchers used Huang's (2013) taxonomy of speaking strategies to analyze the garnered data. Results indicated high achievers' heavier reliance on strategic behaviors compared with low achievers. The findings also revealed high achievers' greater use of effective strategies than low achievers, and low achievers' more frequent use of a noticeably higher number of ineffective strategies compared to high achievers. More specific outcomes revealed that the variations between the two groups were mainly in the frequency of meta-cognitive, communication, approach, and social strategy categories. The results primarily confirm high and low achievers' varied strategic behavior profiles in test situations and the significance of effective strategy employment for higher test scores.

The purpose of this study was to develop and measure the usability of the software prototype of formative assessment in the LMS. This study was applied in terms of research objective and mixed method (qualitative-quantitative) in terms of data collection in which an exploratory sequential mixed methods design was used. In addition, in order to collect data in the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews and focus group sessions were held, while in the quantitative part, a researcher-made questionnaire was employed. The content analysis coding method was used to analyze the data obtained from interviews. The findings of the qualitative phase of the research revealed that there are a total of 12 main needs and solutions to improve the LMS in the field of formative assessment. Moreover, based on these needs and solutions, five main processes of Dynamic Dashboard, Mirror, Treasure, Real Me, and Step-by-Step to the Goal were designed for the prototype of formative assessment software. Furthermore, one-sample t-test was used to analyze the data collected in the quantitative phase of the research. Findings showed that the developed software enjoys the necessary usability.

This study investigates and fully identifies the challenges of the Iranian e-learning system. The approach was qualitative and the method was research synthesis. The statistical population consisted of studies from 2006 to 2019 in the field of challenges of the e-learning system of Iran collected with specific keywords from the country's databases. A total of 48 studies were identified as relevant. They were screened in stages and evaluated based on their title, abstract, and content. The final 19 articles selected underwent content analysis, revealing that Iran's e-learning system faces problems in eight dimensions: legal, human, educational, technological, sociocultural, support, economic, and managerial-organizational. The results of the analysis could serve as a model for countries with similar technology infrastructure and cultural features wishing to improve their e-learning systems.

This article seeks to move beyond the Euro/North-centrism recurrent in methodological discussions on what we may learn from the COVID-19 pandemic. Such debates often centre on uncertainty and involuntary immobility -- aspects which are hardly new for many researchers. In this article, we argue that the pandemic offers an opportunity to rethink research relations between what we term 'contracting researchers' in the Global North and 'facilitating researchers' in the Global South. Such relations are often marked by rampant inequalities in remuneration, working conditions, and visibility/authorship. Drawing upon experiences in DR Congo, Sierra Leone, and India, we argue that the pandemic increased the dependence on -- and highlighted the invaluable contributions and skills of -- facilitating researchers, in part slightly refiguring bargaining power. We also propose pathways for change, arguing for a strong collaborative approach and the need for institutional change, without discarding the responsibilities of individual researchers.

Teachers play an essential role in promoting human rights and a just society. However, the lack of Human Rights Education (HRE) knowledge, skills, and values among teachers in Turkey is a commonly reported issue. This study aims to assess the need for HRE implementation in the Turkish Teacher Education Programmes (TTEP), where academic research on HRE is scarce. Data were collected from a survey of 632 Teacher Candidates (TCs) and 47 Faculty Members (FMs), interviews with 14 FMs, and focus group interviews with 34 TCs. Descriptive statistics and the chi-square test were used to analyse the quantitative data, while the qualitative data were analysed using a qualitative data analysis framework proposed by Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña (2019). The results indicate the urgent need to integrate HRE through curricular and extracurricular activities. We also consider the benefits and challenges of implementing HRE in TTEP.

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of training career path skills based on Super's Development Theory on students' academic self-concept. The study is a quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population of the study consisted of all students of University of Isfahan year 2018. Using available sampling method, 30 people were selected and randomly, 15 of them were placed in the test group and 15 in the control group. The data collection tool was Academic Self-Concept Scale (ASCS) (Reynolds et al, 1980). The career path skills were trained to the test group for ten 90-minute sessions in groups, and no training was provided to the test group. The data were analyzed using SPSS software at the level of descriptive statistics including mean and standard deviation and at the level of inferential statistics by covariance analysis method. The results showed that training career path skills based on Super's Development Theory has a significant positive effect on students' academic self-concept.

There has been a host of research on recast so far, despite which it is still controversial if it is any effective. The main argument against recasts is that they often go unnoticed by students due to their implicit nature. It is hypothesized in the light of the theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) that certain intelligences might affect the noticeability of recasts. Therefore, this paper aimed to find if certain intelligences help learners notice recasts. To fulfill this, 121 pre-intermediate EFL learners in 9 different classes were selected using convenience sampling. A questionnaire was used to measure their MI. Moreover, they were observed for 104 hours for the occurrence of recast and uptake using a checklist. For data analysis, multiple regression was used to find out if any components of MI were significant predictors of recasts' success in leading to uptake. The results indicated that musical, visual, and verbal intelligence significantly predicted whether recasts will be perceived by students as corrective feedback. Therefore, it was concluded that it is essential to build MI into the picture when evaluating the efficacy of recasts on the grounds that students with certain dominant intelligence benefit from subtle clues which in turn help them notice recasts.

Implementing a randomized controlled trial design, the present study investigated the effects of two types of accommodations, linguistic modification and a glossary, for English learners (ELs) taking a computer-based mathematics assessment. Process data including response time and clicks on glossary words were also examined to better interpret students' interaction with the accommodations in the testing conditions. Regression and ANOVA analyses were performed with data from 513 students (189 ELs and 324 non-ELs) in Grade 9. No statistically significant accommodation effects were detected in this study. Process data revealed possible explanations (i.e., student engagement and glossary usage) for the nonsignificant results. Implications for future research on test accommodations for EL students are discussed.

In the knowledge-based economy, R&D centers in service industries increasingly depend on the performance of knowledge workers to gain competitive advantage. Therefore, these centers must give careful consideration to the performance assessment and continuous improvement of knowledge workers using appropriate performance assessment systems and models. In this paper, a system was designed for the performance appraisal and ranking of knowledge workers in R&D centers of banking industry using gamification approaches. The case study method was applied for the conceptual design of the system and the selected case was the R&D center of Mellat bank, one of the Iranian leading private banks. Data collection was performed via semistructured interviews with 12 key participants of performance appraisal process which included vice president of research and development and 11 senior researchers as head of research groups of the center. As a result of data coding process for analyzing the qualitative data, a total of 23 metrics and three key performance indicators namely, research impact factor, knowledge impact factor and knowledge absorption factor were identified for the performance appraisal of knowledge workers. The designed system in this study can be used by R&D centers in banking industry for the performance appraisal and ranking of knowledge workers. The designed system provides a comprehensive and detailed set of metrics and KPIs for the performance appraisal of knowledge workers in R&D centers of banking industry.

Due to the importance of creativity in teaching and learning, this study was conducted to study teachers' creativity and its relationship with their teaching's effectiveness. Another aim of this study was to measure the creativity among men and women teachers at English institutions in Iran. A sample of 325 EFL Iranians' teachers was randomly chosen and was rated on the ELT-CS and teaching effectiveness scale. With this aim, validated and reliable scales of assessing creativity (ELT-CS) of EFL teachers teaching effectiveness scale were used. After gathering the questionnaires, data was analysed by structural equation modelling approach. According to the results, five subscales of creativity have a significant relationship with teaching effectiveness. Also, the results have shown that there is a significant difference between gender and teachers' creativity.

Public universities strategic responses to the dwindling public funding in Ghana is an area of study that has received relatively little academic attention in the Ghanaian Higher Education (HE) milieu. This study, employing an exploratory research paradigm, sought to investigate the strategic actions taken by public universities in Ghana as a response to their public funding from the government which has undergone a series of gradual but significant changes in recent times. The study adopted a qualitative research approach with an embedded multiple case study design. Using data from semi-structured interviews in two public universities and documentary evidence, the main findings revealed that the major source of HE institutional pressures emanates from their limited and irregular public funding that inhibits their proper planning and the delivery of teaching, learning, and research. The results further indicated that the public universities as a response have implemented certain strategic actions to mitigate the effects of their limited public funding. The strategies identified included activities such as; revenue from diversified educational services, the expansion of non-traditional sources of income generating activities, and the commercialization of research. Reducing cost through better budgetary efficiency also assumed a greater strategy for the universities. The study revealed that, although the public universities continue to depend haplessly on the limited public funding, they are also actively involved in other diversified and alternative income generating activities in order to survive.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' reflective teaching. In order to do this, 30 Iranian female EFL teachers were selected. The group filled out a reflective teaching questionnaire as the pretest at the outset of the study and subsequently attended an NLP workshop. Following the end of the workshop, the teachers went back to their routine teaching program for 20 sessions and the researchers administered the same reflective teaching questionnaire as the posttest to the 30 teachers after those 20 sessions. In order to test the null hypothesis, that is to check any significant difference in the degree of the reflective teaching of the group prior to and after the treatment, a paired samples t-test was conducted. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the scores of the group at the pretest and posttest level (t=-6.976, p=0.001<0.05) meaning that NLP does significantly improve EFL teachers' reflective teaching.

Several scholars have, over the years, written about their experiences of the pathway of PhD by publication (PBP). However, little is known about why African doctoral students pursue PBP and their experiences . In this article, we adopt collaborative autoethnography to document our experiences and motivation for choosing the PBP pathway. Based on our experiences, the choice of PBP is primarily influenced by the candidate's previous research experience and the requirements/practices of the university. The common motivation among African doctoral students is the quest to acquire the requisite research skills and training in journal article publishing and the determination to catch-up in the knowledge economy through the production of high-quality scientific publication. Everyday experiences of PBP are shaped by university expectations, scholarly writing skills, institutional, supervisory and external support systems, research training and resilience. This study concludes by highlighting the positive implications of PBP for educational and socio-economic development in Africa and the world, more generally. It is recommended that journals develop scholar development programs to enable their editors to provide individualized support to PhD students, especially those pursuing PBP.

The development of speech-act theory has provided the hearers with a better understanding of what speakers intend to perform in the act of communication. One type of speech act is apologizing. When an action or utterance has resulted in an offense, the offender needs to apologize. In the present study, an attempt was made to compare the apology strategies employed by Iranian EFL learners and those of English native speakers in order to find out the possible differences and similarities. To this end, a discourse completion test (DCT) was given to 100 male and female Iranian EFL learners and English native speakers. The respondents were supposed to complete the DCTs based on nine situations, which varied in terms of power between the interlocutors and level of imposition. This study employed Cohen and Olshtain's (1981) model to classify various types of apology strategies. The obtained results revealed some similarities along with some (statistically insignificant) differences between EFL learners and American English speakers in terms of their use of apology strategies. Furthermore, it was found that the illocutionary force indicating devices (IFIDs), such as request for forgiveness and an offer of apology were the strategies mostly employed by the Iranian EFL learners while taking on responsibility such as explicit self-blame, and expression of self-deficiency were found to be the strategies mostly used by English native speakers. In terms of gender, the male and female respondents more or less used the same apology strategies in response to the situations. The findings of the present research can be used by language teachers as well as sociolinguists.

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a preventive approach which is broadly implemented in the West, particularly in the USA for early identification and intervention of students with learning difficulties (LD). However, in the East, especially in the developing countries, neither has this kind of program been used extensively, nor is it even a prerequisite in any educational environment. The challenges of implementing this approach in real-life situations have been investigated in the present article, and the prerequisites, obstacles and outcomes of such a program have been taken into consideration. In this qualitative research, information was gathered by various means including semi-structured one-on-one interviews with six school staff members, three parents, informal conversations with a number of students with LD, and monitoring (with note taking) of the conditions and interactions of these students in the school environment. The findings helped shed light on the causal conditions that underlie the bases of Iran's present educational system; the current situations with which LD students are faced in schools; the necessary strategies and actions for successful implementation of RTI in the country; the factors that can facilitate the needed strategies and actions; and the consequences of the implementation of those strategies. The implications of the findings in educational policy and practice have also been discussed.

The study was aimed at identifying the potentials of and barriers to the Smart School Project (SSP). Through the use of a mixed methods design, data were garnered from 746 school teachers, principals, and information technology experts, semi-structured interviews with 21 key informants and two researcher-designed questionnaires on the potentials of and barriers to SSP. The qualitative data were analyzed using three-stage coding and quantitative data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis. The findings from the three data collection tools indicate 8 potentials and 9 barriers. SSP potentials include improving teachers', principals', and students' knowledge, skills and attitudes toward using information and communication technology (ICT), access to quality e-content, increasing school facilities, potentials available in the social environment, developing curriculum beyond schools, student participation in the learning process, enhancing school and parent relationship, and social supports and enacted laws. Further, SSP development barriers are comprised of 9 themes including teachers', principals' and students' lack of access to ICT and using it, vagueness in policies, missions, and goals of ICT integration into school curriculum, lack of support system and supervision, lack of specialized training for principals and teachers, barriers concerned with the nature of ICT, incompatibility of curriculum structure with ICT, structural and organizational barriers, cultural conditions and barriers, and lack of space and equipment.

This study reports an independent investigation of the psychometric properties of Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP), a teacher-rated measure of school readiness for preschool-aged children. In a sample of 2,031 low-income, 3- to 5-year-old children attending Head Start, we tested three measurement models: a higher order one-factor model, a seven-factor model, and a five-factor model. To explore the appropriateness of the DRDP for use with diverse populations of young children, we used multiple group and differential item functioning (DIF) analyses to determine whether the DRDP works differently for dual language learners (DLL) and non-DLLs. The proposed five-factor structure fits the data best, with greater face and statistical validity. Using this conceptually driven factor structure, the multiple group analyses were robust for DLL and non-DLL preschool students. More than half of the items on the DRDP displayed little DIF. Items measuring emergent language and literacy exhibited DIF favoring non-DLL children. [For the Grantee Submission, see ED596379.]

The use of online intervention in providing career counseling and guidance is one of the practical methods to help people improve their understanding of their conditions and existing career conditions. This method helps people to take fundamental steps in the decision-making process. Accordingly, the objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of online counseling and face-to-face counseling with a guidance paradigm on career decision-making self-efficacy of students of the University of Isfahan. For this purpose, three groups of students including the face-to-face group, the online group, and the control group were created. Different analyses pre and post tests for these groups showed that students in the online group were similar to students in the face-to-face group in terms of career decision-making self-efficacy and both interventions promoted career decision-making self-efficacy of students relative to the control group.

In the present article, we present a systematical review of previous empirical studies that conducted formative assessment interventions to improve student learning. Previous meta-analysis research on the overall effects of formative assessment on student learning has been conclusive, but little has been studied on important features of formative assessment interventions and their differential impacts on student learning in the United States' K-12 education system. Analysis of the identified 126 effect sizes from the selected 33 studies representing 25 research projects that met the inclusion criteria (e.g., included a control condition) revealed an overall small-sized positive effect of formative assessment on student learning (d = 0.29) with benefits for mathematics (d = 0.34), literacy (d = 0.33), and arts (d = 0.29). Further investigation with meta-regression analyses indicated that supporting student-initiated self-assessment (d = 0.61) and providing formal formative assessment evidence (e.g., written feedback on quizzes; d = 0.40) via a medium-cycle length (within or between instructional units; d = 0.52) were found to enhance the effectiveness of formative assessments.

Research indicates that the performance-gap between English Language Learners (ELLs) and their non-ELL peers is partly due to ELLs' difficulty in understanding assessment language. Accommodations have been shown to narrow this performance-gap, but many accommodations studies have not used a randomized design and are based on relatively small sample sizes. Addressing such issues, we administered a standard-based mathematics assessment to approximately 3,000 Grade 9 ELL and non-ELL students under five different language-based accommodations. Results indicate that many of these accommodations did not produce significant gains for the recipients. Some even had a negative impact. We believe several factors may explain these findings. First, newer assessments, including those developed for this study, may have been linguistically modified to the point that further modification has only a limited effect. Second, the language of instruction may have not adequately prepared students for the assessment. If the language of instruction (textbook, etc.) contains unnecessary linguistic complexity, then students may not have had the opportunity to learn the assessed content. A third factor is students' unfamiliarity with these accommodations because they are seldom used in classroom instruction and teacher assessments. We discuss our findings and implications for policymakers, assessment developers, practitioners, and researchers.

The authors investigated the effect of a mathematical curriculum (CU) developed based on verbal and practical activities on the mathematical competency (MC) and learning behaviors (LB) of preschool children. In a quasi-experimental design, 60 children (5- to 6-year-old girls) were selected using the accessible sampling method. The children were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group, and the relevant concepts were taught to the children in both groups. While the control group received the typical kindergarten education based on the usual textbooks and worksheets, the CU was taught to the experimental group. Structural equation modeling was used to model the data and statistical evaluation. The results demonstrated a significant difference between the two groups in MC and LB. The CU significantly improved MC directly, and indirectly through the improvement of LB (i.e., engagement and learning focus, verbal behaviors, and type of activity).

This study investigated the dynamism of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' professional identity with respect to their commitment and job satisfaction. A mixed-methods design integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches was used. To conduct the quantitative part of the study, 198 EFL teachers were selected from different private language institutes in Mashhad, a city in northeastern Iran. They were requested to complete a battery of three questionnaires. For the qualitative part of the study, four EFL teachers were chosen to be interviewed. Teacher professional identity measured six factors: Self-expectation (SE), Teachers' duties (TD), External influential factors (EF), Pedagogy (PE), Instructional skill and knowledge (SK), Teachers' citizenship behavior (CB). The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) demonstrated that job satisfaction played a positive and significant role in SE and TD. Job satisfaction was in turn influenced by EF. Job satisfaction predicted teacher commitment both directly and indirectly via its effect on TD and CB. Teacher commitment, on the other hand, impacted on PE, CB, and SK. The results of the qualitative part demonstrated the overlap between the three constructs and were in line with the results of the quantitative part of the study.

The present study used data from a randomized controlled trial on brief interventions with adolescents to identify distinct longitudinal patterns of substance use and identify predictors, as well as outcomes associated with those use patterns. Data were originally collected for the purpose of evaluating two brief intervention conditions with adolescents who had been identified in a school setting as abusing alcohol or other drugs (total sample, N = 315). Adolescents were randomly assigned to a two-session adolescent-only brief intervention (BI-A), a two-session adolescent-plus an additional parent session (BI-AP), or an assessment-only control session (CON). We located 74 participants to assess them at approximately 3.5 years post-intervention. Three distinct cluster patterns were identified, including a low decreasing, moderate increasing, and high decreasing pattern of use. The low decreasing cluster was associated with the BI-A condition, mono-substance use, and comorbid anxiety symptoms at baseline. The moderate increasing cluster was associated with the BI-AP condition, polysubstance use, and comorbid conduct disorder symptoms at baseline. No variables were found to be predictive of membership within the high decreasing cluster. There were also no differences found between clusters on adjustment outcomes in young adulthood. Overall findings from this study support the long-term efficacy of a brief intervention, without parent involvement, for adolescents experiencing mild to moderate substance abuse problems. Findings also highlight the importance of early intervention and the tailoring of interventions to meet the unique needs of adolescents.

Counseling through the internet is one of the provided facilities by modern technologies that paves the way for the career development of students. This study aims to investigate and describe the role and effect of online career counseling interventions on the career development of students. In the current study, 45 university students were randomly assigned into three groups of online counseling (15 students), face-to-face counseling (15 students), and control (15 students). Participants completed short form of career development inventory (Creed and Patton 2004). The collected data in pretest, posttest, follow-up 1, and follow-up 2 were analyzed using SPSS package at descriptive and inferential levels as well as analysis of variance with repetitive measurements. The results showed that both interventions increased the students' level of career development as compared to that of the students in the control group.

The purpose of this study is providing a scale for measuring attitudes toward science among Persian secondary school students. A total of 300 (150 girls and 150 boys) of second grade students from all disciplines including science and mathematics in secondary education, participated in the study. Research instrument was, translated Persian version of Simpson-Troost Attitude Questionnaire (STAQ). After performing the scale among the sample, the data was analyzed by SPSS software. The reliability of questionnaire was found to be 0.84. Factor analysis indicated that more than 35.8% of the total variance was explained with the scale scores. After factor rotation, five factors of attractiveness of science, the class/teacher, self-directed efforts, anxiety toward science and the family pattern were identified. Thus it was shown that the scale is multidimensional and the dimensions have appropriate reliability and validity to measure attitudes toward science, so this instrument could be used in the next Persian research in measuring attitudes toward science. Multivariate Analysis (MANOVA) of data showed that there is no significant difference between sex and students' attitudes toward science. But in the third factor (self-directed efforts) was a significant difference between sex and students' attitudes toward science and the average of female students were higher than male students. Test results also showed that there is significant different between discipline of students and their attitudes to science and attitudes of empirical science students have the better attitudes than themselves, while science students in first factors (attractiveness of science) and in second factor (class/Teacher), had mean higher average than mathematical physics students.

This study tries to answer some ever-existent questions in writing fields regarding approaching the most effective ways to give feedback to students' errors in writing by comparing the effect of error correction and error detection on the improvement of students' writing ability. In order to achieve this goal, 60 pre-intermediate English learners were randomly divided into two groups: the first one was Direct Feedback Group, receiving feedback on their writing through error correction (DFG) and the other one was Indirect Feedback Group (IFG), receiving feedback in their writing through error detection along with the codes. The learners were taking English classes in a private English center and were supposed to self-correct and hand in their writings when received indirect error feedback. The results suggested that error detection along with the codes led to better improvement in the learners' writing than the error correction treatment.

This study examines the power of cognitive and noncognitive variables to predict students' performance in algebra. We investigated students' prior year's assessment scores and demographic characteristics to predict eighth-grade algebra scores. Using California statewide assessment data, we explored predictive factors in three regression models. These analyses reveal that the seventh-grade mathematics test scores account for 61% of the variance in eighth graders' algebra test scores. Analyzing subscores of the seventh-grade mathematics test, the assessment content focus of "rational numbers" is a major predictor, contributing 48% of the variance in eighth graders' algebra test scores. On the other hand, students' demographic variables show little predictive power for eighth-grade algebra scores. This study provides empirical evidence for understanding the factors that impact a student's success in learning algebra.

The present study aimed to develop the thinking maps training package and compare its training effect with the thinking maps method on the reading performance of second and fifth grade of elementary school male dyslexic students. For this mixed method exploratory study, from among the above mentioned grades' students in Isfahan, 90 students who met the inclusion criteria were selected by multistage sampling and randomly assigned into six experimental and control groups. The data were collected by reading and dyslexia test and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-fourth edition. The results of covariance analysis indicated a significant difference between the reading performance of the experimental (thinking maps training package and thinking maps method groups) and control groups (p < 0.01). Moreover, there were significant differences between the thinking maps training package group and thinking maps method group in some of the subtests (p < 0.01). It can be concluded that thinking maps training package and the thinking maps method exert a positive influence on the reading performance of dyslexic students; therefore, thinking maps can be used as an effective training and treatment method.