حسین عباسیان

INTRODUCTION: The quality of education and accreditation of universities, institutions, and educational centers has always been of great concern to many groups, including managers, officials, students, parents, and employers, in the past hundred years. The purpose of current research is to design the accreditation model of applied science higher education institutions. METHODS: This qualitative research was conducted using qualitative content analysis. Its statistical population includes articles, documents, and all the key informants of applied science higher education institutions in Tehran. A total of 21 key informants were selected using the purposive and snowball sampling method and maximum diversity technique. The data were collected by semi-structured interview, observation, review of documents and scientific texts and analyzed by using MAXQDA-2022 software and weighting of factors, criteria, and indicators with the Shannon entropy method and prioritization with RANK function in Excel. FINDINGS: The results demonstrated that after weighting and prioritizing, the final research model included 33 factors, 101 criteria, and 704 indicators. There are 27 input factors, 4 process factors, 1 output factor and 1 outcome factor. CONCLUSION: The current accreditation model was prepared in accordance with the conditions of applied science higher education institutions using domestic and international experiences with a systemic approach (input, process, output, and outcome) in the form of factors, criteria, and indicators and can be used by the University of Applied Science and Technology.

The present study was conducted with the aim of designing a model of professional competencies of vocational school principals with an open innovation approach and its validation. Qualitative research is a classic foundation data type. Participants include 20 experts and the director of the conservatory, purposefully sampled and interviewed in a semi-structured manner. The data are encoded using MAXQDAv2020 software, and the researcher has used the Strauss and Corbin acceptance indicators, the technique of visit by members and the self-review approach for validation of the research model. The findings show that the model of professional competencies of the directors of technical and vocational schools with open innovation approach includes 9 main competencies and 20 sub-competencies as follow: social competencies (cultural competence, social responsibility); Cognitive competencies (self-confidence and self-assurance, perfectionism and professional development); Specialized competencies (technical, scientific and functional competencies); Knowledge competencies (general level knowledge, basic level knowledge and professional level knowledge competencies); Attitudinal competencies (systemic thinking and problem solving strategy competencies); Personality competencies (self-awareness and independence, positivity and realism); Communication and networking (competence to establish external and internal communications); Developmental competencies (advocacy for IT, transformation and change management); Strategic and leadership competencies (goal-oriented and planning competencies). The listed methods for validating the model show that it has the necessary validity. The findings of this study provide implications for training and improving the directors of vocational schools in accordance with the identified professional competencies.

Purpose: This paper aimed to examine the pathology of Shahab national plan in primary schools of Shahryar, Tehran, Iran. Methodology: This research was conducted with a mixed exploratory method, that is, firstly, using semi-structured interviews and a qualitative method of the fuzzy Delphi type, the harms of Shahab National Plan were identified and prioritized, then the current situation of the harms was investigated using a quantitative descriptive-survey method. The statistical population of the qualitative part of the research was specialists and experts working in the Ministry of Education as well as university professors. The sampling method in this section was a targeted method, according to the principle of theoretical saturation, 15 of them were selected as a sample. The statistical population of the quantitative part of the research was made up of all the fifth grade teachers of the elementary school of Shahryar city, whose number was 441 in the academic year of 2018-2019. To determine the sample size in this section, the Cochran formula table was used and 230 people were selected as a sample, whose selection method was cluster random. The research tools were semi-structured interview, fuzzy Delphi questionnaire and researcher-made questionnaire. Reliability and validity in the qualitative part were obtained according to the audit strategies of the research. In the quantitative part, the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed through Cronbach’s alpha test, and it was used to confirm the formal and content validity of the questionnaire from the experts’ point of view. To analyze the results in the qualitative part, content analysis of interviews and fuzzy Delphi were used, and in the quantitative part, one sample t-test was used in SPSS. Findings: Based on the qualitative findings, the harms of Shahab plan were identified and prioritized in three areas: behavioral (including 14 harms), structural (including 19 harms) and contextual (including 25 harms). According to the analysis of quantitative data, the current state of harms was examined from the teachers’ point of view. Conclusion: The results of one sample t-test showed that most of the harms are at a level higher than the assumed average of the community and a few are at an average level or lower than the average.