محمد حشم دار

Given the increasing prevalence of online learning and the absence of a validated instrument for assessing the critical writing skills of Iranian EFL learners in Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) contexts, this study aimed to develop and validate an analytic rubric to enhance critical writing in CMC environments. The participants were 236 EFL students and 10 EFL/ESL teachers, representing a diverse range of demographics, experiences, and qualifications. The rubric development process was guided by a comprehensive literature review, the administration of a critical thinking questionnaire, expert feedback, thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, integration of Paul and Elder’s (2019) Intellectual Standards, and the development and application of a Likert-scale critical writing questionnaire. Subsequent pilot testing facilitated refinements based on feedback. Accordingly, the finalized analytic rubric featured four principal components: (1) Clarity, Accuracy, and Precision (CAP); (2) Relevance and Logic (RL); (3) Depth and Significance (DS); and (4) Breadth and Fairness (BF). A rigorous validation process, including expert evaluation, factor analysis, and structural equation modeling (SEM), confirmed the rubric's reliability and validity. The findings demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency, as well as convergent and discriminant validity. This study offers valuable pedagogical implications for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers, learners, researchers, and curriculum developers.

The present study was conducted to investigate the comparative impacts of three types of EFL teachers' mindsets on EFL learners' mindsets. The participants of the study were English Translation undergraduate students (both female and male with the age ranging of 18-35) who were selected according to convenience non-random sampling from three classes of English Grammar 1 at both Islamic Azad Universities of Karaj and Shahriyar. The total number of students in each class was 30. The course lasted 16 successive sessions. Participants were assigned into three experimental groups. At the outset, a Mindset Assessment Profile (MAP) adopted from Mindset works, INC (2002-2012) on a scale of disagree a lot to agree a lot was administered among participants in all three experimental groups. The researchers provided interventions in terms of fixed, growth, and mixed mindsets to teach English grammar. At the end of the course, the same Mindset Assessment Profile (MAP) as the one administered in the pretest phase was administered among participants in all three groups and it was demonstrated that the EFL teacher’s type of mindset can significantly influence EFL learners’ mindsets. Consequently, it was determined that helping students adopt growth mindset hinges on raising teachers’ awareness about the importance of their own mindsets as well as helping them to grow their mindsets. This study includes a variety of instructional implications for both EFL teachers and EFL learners.

The growing literature on teacher professional development emphasizes the positive contribution of teacher engagement to the professional development of teachers. However, scant attention was given to the relationship between this concept and teacher ecological agency as one of the potential factors influencing teacher engagement and in turn professional development. To fill this research gap, a sample of 369 EFL teachers from different institutes in Iran selected through convenience sampling participated in this study. The required data was collected by administering two questionnaires: The teacher ecological agency questionnaire and the teacher engagement questionnaire. The relationship between teachers’ ecological agency and teachers’ engagement and their underlying components were investigated through structural equation modeling (SEM) and Pearson correlation. The outcomes of SEM revealed a significant association between teachers’ ecological agency and engagement. The Pearson correlation results indicated that all three components of teacher ecological agency are correlated significantly with all five components of teacher engagement. The highest degree of correlation was found between emotional engagement and practical-evaluative agency (.711), agentic engagement, and practical-evaluative agency (.705) and cognitive engagement and practical-evaluative agency (.692). The pedagogical implications of this study enhance the efficiency of the educational system and teachers’ professional development.

Textbook evaluation seems to be inevitable where textbooks are the main source of teaching and learning processes. This study aimed to investigate to what extent ''Vision 3'' (the last volume of the English book series entitled “English for schools”) has the characteristics of a CLT syllabus based on teachers’ points of view. To fulfill the objectives of this study, 60 male and female high school English teachers, teaching at different high schools answered an online questionnaire adapted from AbdelWahab (2013) which is a 3-point Likert scale checklist (i.e. poor, satisfactory, & good). The design of the scale enabled the researchers to evaluate the book in terms of four main criteria including; (1) physical and utilitarian attributes, (2) efficient outlay of objectives and supplementary materials, (3) learning/teaching content, and (4) language skills. The analysis of the data indicated that EFL teachers had a positive attitude towards the English textbook based on the CLT principles except for cultural considerations. The conclusion indicates that the book needs to be modified to include some aspects of cultural values about the target language culture. The results can guide the teachers, syllabus designers, textbook writers, evaluators, and curriculum designers in their planning and designing of future textbooks.