درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Although a wealth of research has been conducted in the field of English language teaching, the studies related to the effects of digital story telling (DST) instruction as an innovative technique for language learning have been fairly insufficient. The present research made an effort to examine the effect of using DST on Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension and their motivation. To address the study objectives, 40 female learners from Marefat Language Institute were recruited based on the results of an OPT as a standard test to homogenize. The participants (20 in each group) were randomly assigned into an experimental group and a control one. To measure learners’ motivation, the Motivation Questionnaire by Dörnyei and Németh (2006) and Taguchi et al. (2009) was applied. The experimental group received DST instruction based on Robin’s model (2008) and the control group received the conventional method designed by the institute. The analysis of the groups’ performance in the pre-test and post-test through an independent samples t-tests revealed that the DST group significantly outperformed the control group in both reading comprehension and motivation. This study has several implications for language teachers and syllabus designers in the classroom context.

This research investigates the interaction between leadership styles and managers' self-efficacy on teachers' psychological empowerment and creativity using a neural network approach. It is a descriptive-correlational study applied to the teachers in Iranshahr city during the 2024-2025 academic year, with a population of 1,800 individuals. A sample size of 317 was determined using Krejcie and Morgan's table, and 310 completed questionnaires were analyzed. Four established questionnaires measured the variables: Leadership Style (Bass and Avolio, 1969), Managers' Self-Efficacy (Bandura, 1986), Psychological Empowerment (Spreitzer, 1995), and Creativity (Amabile, 2001). Validity was confirmed by expert opinions, and reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha, yielding values of 0.92, 0.83, 0.77, and 0.79, respectively. Hypothesis testing employed variance-based structural equation modeling and a multi-layer perceptron neural network, implemented in SMARTPLS 0.4 and SPSS27 software. The neural network model featured three input layers, one hidden layer with two units, and two output layers. The hyperbolic tangent function determined the hidden layers. The training model error was 0.19, while the test sample error was 0.07. The study confirmed the impact of leadership styles and managers' self-efficacy on teachers' psychological empowerment and creativity, with a coefficient of determination of 63%, indicating a significant explanation of creativity influenced by independent and mediating variables. The mediating role of self-efficacy was fully confirmed.

This study explores the rationale behind the decision-making process for selecting educational applications (apps) from the perspective of parents, teachers, and students. The research utilized a qualitative, exploratory approach based on van-Manen’s interpretive phenomenological research to extract the selection criteria from the lived experiences of these primary mediation groups in the Iranian context. In-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted with a total of 47 participants, including parents (N=15), students (N=16), and teachers (N=16). Data analysis was performed using thematic analysis of lived experiences. Finding show that parents largely relied on user ratings and developer descriptions as their main source of information. They demonstrated a restricted understanding of learning, often associating it strictly with school curricula (e.g., math, language). They prioritized features related to safety (e.g., age-appropriate, adult permission for purchase) and privacy. The least valued feature for parents was personalization, a feature highly preferred by students. Students often had a more unlimited understanding of learning (e.g., exploration and problem-solving). Teachers emphasized features related to content quality (e.g., avoiding mere textbook review, content accuracy). They also highly valued open-ended design that allows users to create their own content, and the availability of real-time, personalized assessment or performance analysis. Criteria most frequently referred to by teachers were content, assessment, access, and reporting. The least valued features were interaction and cooperative learning. The findings reveal a gap in selection priorities: students and teachers prefer manipulable and constructive apps that offer open-ended and personalized structures, while parents favor instructive apps aligned with the school curriculum.

If the educational system fulfills its mission properly, it will provide a favorable environment for cultural, economic, political and social growth in society. A large part of the complexity and sensitivity of the education system goes back to the behavior of education managers. One of the challenges of human resource management in education is how to manage talent, succession, selection and promotion of managers. Therefore, the present study was designed with the aim of developing a model of alternative model of education managers with a data-based approach. For conducting the research, a qualitative approach of phenomenological type and grand theory method was used to conduct the research. The study population was all experts, professors and senior managers in the field of human resources in education who were interviewed using purposive sampling with 18 experts. The research tool was a semi-structured interview. Coding method was used to analyze the qualitative findings. The results showed that "succession planning and talent management" as a central category, "succession planning, evaluation system, analysis of training gaps and staff development, and meritocracy and merit selection" as causal conditions, "Improving the human resource system, creating progress, creating a professional perspective and laying the groundwork for the implementation of a decent-oriented succession" as strategies, categories of "organizational culture of leadership development and facilities" as a platform, "organizational factors and "Legal barriers and problems" were introduced as intervening conditions, and succession can have positive individual and organizational consequences in education. By designing and applying the succession model of education managers based on talent management, a clear and optimal vision for providing, training and maintaining human resources in education will be provided.