Iranian Journal of Learning and Memory

The purpose of this study has been to review the changes in the role of demographic and personality variables of mathematics teachers in predicting the mathematical progress of eighth-grade students in Iran and has analyzed the trend of these variables in four international studies. For this purpose, we examine the data from 21434 eighth graders and 877 math teachers who had participated in four TIMSS studies(2003, 2007, 2011, and 2015). Among the educational variables influencing the educational development of 10 variables including gender, age, history of teaching, the degree, major, teaching hours, job satisfaction, confidence, interaction with other teachers and teaching method using statistical methods of Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis were investigated. The findings related to the demographic variables showed that the students ' mathematical performance changes were almost consonant with the changes of age, history of teaching, and teaching hours in both groups of male and female teachers. This coordination was not similar about the major and academic degrees. The results of multivariate regression showed that the students ' mathematical development was explained by a set of demographic and personality variables. Among these variables, teaching history and self - confidence of the teachers played the most important role in explaining the students ' progress, and the variables of the degree of education and gender in this basis did not contribute to the explanation of the students ' math’s progress.

A professional learning community consisting of dialogue and engagement. Interaction does not mean simple one-way transfer of information from teacher to learner, but the discovery of ideas through others, the search for answers to questions and problem solving with others. In this paper, 15 papers were reviewed and analyzes continued to saturation. The registration unit was considered in this research. At the end of inductive content analysis, 6 categories and 17 subcategories emerged with continuous comparison of the obtained codes A professional learning community consisting of dialogue and engagement. Interaction does not mean simple one-way transfer of information from teacher to learner, but the discovery of ideas through others, the search for answers to questions and problem solving with others. In this paper, the factors contributing to the professional learning community in distance learning have been studied. Using qualitative content analysis method, a structured interview of teachers, experts and e-learning students at the educational institution was conducted in a targeted way. 15 papers were reviewed and analyzes continued to saturation. The registration unit was considered in this research. At the end of inductive content analysis, 6 categories and 17 subcategories emerged with continuous comparison of the obtained codes. The main categories are teacher, participation, online environment, time, tools and evaluation. The result from this article can be a guide to the action of trainers and distance education designers to increase student participation in formal education courses and finally to form a community of professional learning in this environment.

Aims: The current research investigated the relationship of key social-emotional and cognitive factors, termed as executive functions, with academic performance.  Method: In a representative sample (N = 76) aged 7 to 10, the social-emotional development scale, The Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale-Children and Adolescents (BDEFS-CA) and Academic Performance Questionnaire (APQ) were used to measure research variables.  Results: structural equation modeling using SPSS-22 and AMOS-20 indicated that social emotional skills were mediated by cognitive/executive functions positively related to academic performance in children in the final model.  Conclusion: Increases in academic performance has been found when children are capable of better utilizing executive function strategies at academic settings. Thus, there is evidence that early screening of social-emotional and cognitive/executive functions in young children can lead to identify children with difficulties in learning. Conclusion: Increases in academic performance has been found when children are capable of better utilizing executive function strategies at academic settings. Thus, there is evidence that early screening of social-emotional and cognitive/executive functions in young children can lead to identify children with difficulties in learning. Keywords: social-emotional skills, executive functions, academic performance, children

Object: The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of neuro-verbal programming on test anxiety and self-efficacy in secondary school students in Diwandareh city. Method: The present study was a semi-experimental pretest-posttest design with control group. The sample consisted of 30 students who were selected from among students with anxiety tests based on structured interviews and the implementation of the Sarahson Anxiety Inventory (1957) and were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. The experimental group was trained in 8 sessions of neurological planning and the control group did not receive any experimental intervention. Anxiety Inventory Questionnaire of Sarason (1957) and Social Self-efficacy Scale (Smith and Betz, 2000) were used as pretest and posttest on participants. Results: One-way covariance analysis showed that therapeutic interventions were effective in reducing the test anxiety in the experimental group (P<0.01), but did not affect the self-efficacy of individuals (P<0.05). Conclusion: In general, the results indicate that counseling and psychotherapy specialists can apply the verbal neural program approach to the treatment of anxiety disorders.

The present study aimed to examine the effective factors in the rank of national entrance exam of the candidates in state universities and higher education institutes in Iran in the form of a multilevel analysis. Therefore, the data of 5000 candidates was gathered randomly from five experimental groups in the national examination of 2017. The HLM7.30 software was used for multilevel data analysis. The results revealed that among the provinces there is a significant difference in the average national rank of the candidates in Math, Humanity, Art, and English experimental groups. However, there was not any significant difference in the Science group. In the Math group, the average scores of the third year of high school, the total average of diploma, the entrance quota, and gender determined 58.44 percent of the whole variance of the national rank at level one. In the Humanity group the average scores of the third year of high school, the total average of diploma, and gender 49.22 percent. In the Art group the total average of the third year of high school, the entrance quota and gender 15.8 percent; and finally in the English group the average scores of the third year of high school, the total average of diploma, the entrance quota, and gender were wholly 31.45 percent.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of task constraint in learning football chip through observation. For this purpose, 20 children (mean age of 11.6±1.7) participated in this study and were randomly divided into two groups (10 individuals). At the acquisition stage, one group watched the model and they were told nothing about kicking the ball, while the other group was told that the task is to kick a ball that should land on a specified target. At the acquisition stage, participants performed 30 attempts (three blocks of ten attempts each) which before the first attempt, they watched the model's film five times, and again, after each attempt they watched the film. After 24 hours, participants were again called to the lab and performed ten attempts as a reminder. The kinematic movement of the participants was recorded in order to compare it with the model. The results showed that the non-ball group had a more similarity to the model than the group with the ball. However, these results showed that in the speed variable, the movement of the group with the ball is more similar to the model. These results were explained in terms of goal-directed imitation theory as well as the existence of an external goal in the task.

English story reading as a sub branch of literature plays a momentous role with an impressive function to accomplish divergent goals of skill mastery in ELT studies due to the fascinating pedagogical and psychological benefits embedded in it. English for Specific Purpose (ESP) learners encounter reading passages that can implicitly impress their psychological capabilities as they perceive the world from the characters’ points of view, attitudes, and emotional expressions. This study aimed to explore the probable effects of English Literature (story reading) on ESP learners’ emotion-regulation. Research design was Quasi-experimental. Research sample (with convenience sampling method) included ESP learners in West Tehran branch, Islamic Azad University, who were homogenized via Nelson English Proficiency Test and randomly assigned into two experimental (N=65) and control (N=62) groups. Emotion regulation questionnaire (Gross & John, 2003) with the Cronbach’s alpha (0.82) was administered to both groups before and after treatment. The experimental group received the instruction of English story reading in a seven-week period, while the control group received traditional training during this period. The obtained data were analyzed using the statistical method one independent sample t-test on the gain score. The computation and analysis of the t-test proved to be (1.57) and confirmed the positive improvement in emotion regulation of ESP learners in experimental group. Accordingly, it can be concluded that English story reading could sharpen, deepen, and broaden learners’ insights towards emotion regulation. It can be incorporated in ESP curriculum plans and class syllabi as it facilitates learners to regulate their emotions.