درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The objective of this study was to explore and identify effective differentiated instruction (DI) strategies for students with learning disabilities in mainstream educational settings. This qualitative research involved semi-structured interviews with 21 participants, including general education teachers, special education teachers, and educational administrators from an urban school district. Participants were selected through purposive sampling, ensuring a diverse representation of educators with extensive experience in teaching students with learning disabilities. Data collection continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify patterns and themes related to DI strategies, perceived effectiveness, implementation challenges, and support mechanisms. The study identified several key DI strategies, including differentiated content, process, product, and environment, along with the integration of technology. These strategies were reported to enhance student engagement, academic achievement, and social-emotional development. However, significant challenges such as time constraints, limited resources, and the need for professional development were highlighted. Support mechanisms, including professional development opportunities, collaborative practices, administrative backing, community resources, parental engagement, and technological support, were identified as crucial for successful DI implementation. Differentiated instruction is an effective approach to addressing the diverse needs of students with learning disabilities, promoting inclusivity and improving educational outcomes. Despite its benefits, the successful implementation of DI requires addressing substantial challenges through targeted support mechanisms. Future research should focus on expanding the sample size, exploring long-term impacts, and investigating the role of technology in DI. Practical recommendations include enhancing professional development, fostering collaboration, securing administrative support, engaging community resources, and increasing parental involvement.

This study aims to explore the experiences of special education teachers in implementing differentiated instruction (DI) within mixed-ability classrooms. This qualitative research utilized a phenomenological approach to gain in-depth insights into the participants' experiences. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 25 special education teachers from various schools in a metropolitan area. Participants were selected through purposive sampling to ensure they had significant experience with DI. The interviews, each lasting 60 to 90 minutes, were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis. The data collection continued until theoretical saturation was achieved, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the teachers' experiences. The analysis revealed three main themes: challenges in differentiated instruction, strategies for effective differentiation, and perceived effectiveness and outcomes. Teachers reported significant challenges, including resource limitations, managing student diversity, assessment difficulties, increased workload, and issues with parental involvement. To address these challenges, teachers employed strategies such as flexible grouping, curriculum adaptation, professional development, collaborative planning, and enhancing student engagement. The perceived effectiveness of DI included improved student progress, positive changes in classroom dynamics, increased teacher satisfaction, and greater inclusivity. Differentiated instruction is a vital approach in mixed-ability classrooms, promoting equitable learning opportunities for all students. Despite the challenges, the strategic implementation of DI leads to significant positive outcomes in student performance and classroom inclusivity. Schools should support teachers through professional development, adequate resources, and collaborative opportunities to enhance the effectiveness of DI. Further research should focus on larger, diverse samples and mixed-methods approaches to provide a more comprehensive understanding of DI practices.

Abstract Since student L2 achievement is the primary objective of all language education contexts, a huge number of inquiries have explored the role of various elements including teachers’ qualities in promoting their L2 achievement. Teachers’ qualities, such as professional commitment, have been shown to affect students’ achievements; however, some factors such as academic burnout seems to play a role in disturbing teachers’ commitment, even though the association between two concepts is not crystal clear. Due to the importance of commitment and burnout, this qualitative research intends to systematically uncover Iranian EFL teachers’ perceptions towards the dynamic interaction between academic commitment and burnout. To this end, a sample of 50 EFL teachers from high schools and language institutes of Urmia, Iran was selected based on the convenience sampling and they were interviewed to express their perceptions towards different types of commitment (to school organization, to the teaching profession, and to students) they experienced, the role of burnout and its relationship between professional commitment and burnout level. Based on the thematic analysis, the results indicated that teachers in both high schools and private institutes were aware of three types of commitment and they believed in the negative interplay between the two concepts. The majority of the participants indicated that they feel stressed and anxious due to the heavy workload and low salary that resulted in limited opportunities for professional development.

This study examines the employment of self-praise in online celebrity culture, particularly the self-presentation strategies adopted by male and female English and Iraqi celebrities on social media. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of self-presentation, politeness theory, and self-praise, the study examines how male and female celebrities employ self-praise to negotiate their public images, engage with audiences, and enhance their market value. By examining posts on Instagram, Twitter, and Weibo, this study identifies prevalent self-praise strategies, such as explicit self-praise, adapted self-praise, and implicit self-praise, and draws attention to the affordances of platforms like hashtags, character limits, and multimodal content that influence these strategies. Further, this study investigates the degree to which cultural norms, primarily of individualism and collectivism, inform male and female celebrities' practice and perception of self-praise in different cultural settings. The findings suggest that as a global platform for celebrity branding and social validation, self-praise is grounded in the cultural expectations and affordances of given platforms. This study adds to the knowledge of self-presentation in the digital era and offers insights into the intersection of self-praise, gender, celebrity culture, and social media.

Self-regulation equips learners with the expertise to continue and improve their studies throughout their life span. The current study investigated the impact of reflective learning using Kolb’s cyclical stages on EFL learners’ self-regulation. The participants were 61 Iranian EFL learners from two intact university classes randomly assigned to the Reflective (n=30) and Non-reflective (n=31) groups. During an eight-week instruction, the Reflective group experienced reflective practices, and the Non-reflective group was exposed to traditional teaching. The data were collected through Seker’s (2016) Self-Regulated Questionnaire, administered before and after the treatment and participants’ think-aloud protocols. The quantitative data analysis using ANCOVA and MANOVA revealed that the Reflective group significantly outperformed the Non-reflective group in all self-regulated learning components except for external and metacognitive self-regulation subscales. The protocol data analysis substantiated the quantitative findings, indicating that reflective learning significantly improved learners’ self-regulated skills. The results offer significant implications for language instructors and language learners.