درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Given that social institutions are the basis of any society, they must ideally operate in unison with functional necessities for any society to function and then flourish. The plethora of issues confronting Nigeria as a country may be traced back to weak, incompetent, and dysfunctional social institutions that have failed to alter the status quo. According to Talcott Parsons, society is analogous to the human body, and in order for the body to thrive, all of its elements must collaborate. For Nigeria to advance, all social institutions, including family, school, religion, politics, and the economy, must work together to create repeatable results. It is against this background that this paper sought to examine the role of family structure in Nigeria and their pro-activeness in propelling national development. Literature was extensively reviewed from relevant publications and journals and it revealed that the family structure in Nigeria is gradually becoming weak and dysfunctional. This is attributed to a lot of changes that are taking place in the institution of family which quite often poses a threat to the very survival of family system universally. It was then concluded that there is need for every family to hold with uttermost importance the place or morals, socialization and regulation of individual member of the family’s behaviour.

Purpose: Covid-19 pandemic increased the use of e-learning and the ensuing academic stress. This research aims to study the relationship between e-learning induced academic stress and academic self-efficacy in the Yazd branch of Payame Noor University in Iran. Methodology: This is a descriptive-correlational study. The study population was the Yazd branch of Payme Noore University students in the 2020-21 academic year. Cochran’s formula gave us a sample size of 319 people. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the unavailability of some of the sample members, we used voluntary sampling. Our research tools were the academic stress scale (Pooladi Reyshahri, 1995) and the academic self-efficacy scale (Owen and Froman, 1988). We sent the scale to the subjects electronically. The scales’ alpha Cronbach reliabilities were 0.90 and 0.84, respectively. We analyzed the data using the T-test, correlation, and regression in SPSS version 21. Findings: Our findings showed that e-learning induced academic stress, and its subscales (academic conditions and economic environment stresses) were significantly below average in the students. Students’ academic stress and academic self-efficacy were significantly and inversely related. Academic stress could significantly explain self-efficacy (P < .001). Conclusion: Our results showed the negative role of academic stress in explaining students’ academic self-efficacy. Reducing students' academic stressors through academic workshops can significantly increase academic self-efficacy.

Purpose: Examining the factors affecting the social role of the higher education system can help in its improvement. Thus, this research aimed to identify and rate the factors affecting the social role of the academic system based on interpretive structural equations. Methodology: Regarding aim, this study was of applied type and considering method of implementation, it was cross-sectional. The research population consisted of the qualitative section of documents and texts related to the research and experts of this field. Fifty documents and texts were chosen via purposive sampling method, and 10 experts were selected via purposive sampling method as the sample. The data were collected through taking notes from the documents and texts as well as surveying experts about a researcher-made questionnaire, and analyzed further via interpretive structural equations method in PLS software. Findings: The results indicated that the factors affecting the social role of the higher education system include 11 factors including making the academic curricula challenging, promoting social participation forms, preparing students for public jobs, active civic curriculum, training and learning social responsibility, research-orientedness, social projects, training qualified individuals, attention to the views of social beneficiaries in the academic system, and training social sensitivity. The results of interpretive structural equations indicated that the factor of promoting social participation problem claimed the first rank, followed by research-orientedness and training qualified individuals at the second level, training and learning social responsibility at the third level, factors of making academic curricula challenging and preparing students for public jobs at the fourth level, factors of active civic curriculum factors, attention to the views of social beneficiaries in the academic system and training social sensitivity at the fifth level, factor of developing eligible citizens at the sixth level, and factor of social projects at the seventh level. Based on that, the interpretive structural model of factors affecting the social role of the academic system was designed. Conclusion: Based on the present study results, planners and experts of higher education can benefit from the present study results, and use the identified factors affecting the social role of the academic system for improving the status of university and acquiring competitive advantage.