درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of psychological factors on teachers` attitudes regarding technology use. To this purpose, such factors as ‘perceived usefulness’, ‘perceived ease of use’, ‘trialability’, ‘subjective norms’, and ‘attitude’ were investigated. The participants of the study were high school English language teachers in Shiraz, who were selected through stratified sampling as a representative sample of the available population. In order to assess the extent of the effect of each factor, five questionnaires were administered. Then, the elicited data were analyzed by means of path analysis. The obtained results revealed that ‘perceived ease of use’ was affected by ‘subjective norms’, and ‘trialability’ influenced the attitude of teachers about using technology in their teachings. The results also showed that the most influential factor on attitude was ‘trialability’. Furthermore, the results displayed that ‘perceived usefulness’ had a significant effect and subjective norms had an indirect but meaningful effect on the teachers’ attitude. The findings of the study have implications for school administrators and teachers to use them in their planning and instruction and, as a result, boost the learning environment.

This study intended to investigate critical thinking-based teaching strategies EFL teachers of Iranian high schools integrate into their teaching. To this purpose, the inter-relationship between the teachers' frequency of use of critical thinking-based teaching strategies and their teaching experience, their attendance at critical thinking in-service training courses, and their higher university degree were explored through a survey questionnaire. To analyze the collected data, means, frequencies, standard deviations, percentages, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), correlation coefficient, and five-point Likert scale were utilized. The obtained results showed that teaching experience was negatively correlated with the frequency of strategy use, and that no significant relationship was found between the frequency of strategy use and teachers’ higher university degree. The results further showed a significant relationship between the frequency of strategy use and critical thinking in-service training courses attended by teachers. The findings of this study imply that critical thinking should be reinforced in Iranian education system as well as in high school teaching schedule.

This study aimed at examining prospective EFL teachers' views about quality of online English language teaching and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) and the related skills. To this end, the viewpoints of 100 graduate students of TEFL (M = 23, F = 77) at Iran University of Science and Technology were investigated via administering two questionnaires, namely online teacher quality and frames of knowledge and skills, along with two-open ended questions to gain more insight into online teacher quality and their knowledge frames. Internet-based survey method was employed to administer the questionnaires and collect the required data. The quantitative and qualitative data obtained were analyzed through descriptive statistics and thematic analysis, respectively. With regard to online teacher quality, the results revealed that pre-service teachers agreed that an online teacher should be an organized mediator, communicator, and problem solver as well as being highly passionate, energetic, and competent in teaching. The results also indicated that having content and pedagogical knowledge, clearly organizing and structuring content, time management skills, using appropriate resources, and providing feedback and multiple opportunities for communication were the most significant knowledge types required of an online language teacher. Considering online teaching skills, effective online communication skills, effective content delivery, technological skills, and effective evaluation and assessment were the most frequent skills suggested for online language teachers. The findings of this study could give more insights into designing knowledge-based and skills-based professional development programs for prospective teachers to enhance the quality of their online teaching.