درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

In recent years, attention to environmental education especially in rural environments has attracted the attention of many educational experts. The aim of the present study was to investigate the experiences of teachers in relation to environmental education in rural schools. To serve that end, a qualitative approach and phenomenological method were used. Consequently, unstructured interviews were conducted with 13 teachers using the purposeful sampling method. To analyze the data, thematic analysis was used. The analysis of the interviews revealed three main themes (regressive approach, progressive approach, and indifference approach), 13 sub-themes, and 31 refined themes. The findings of the research indicated teachers' lack of real involvement in environmental education, lack of trust in the efficiency of environmental education, absence of employing of new methods, superficial knowledge about the environment, and absence of attempts to use new methods in education. It is concluded that teachers play a significant role in environmental education, so training and preparing them can improve environmental education.

There are different task types to improve oral production. The present study investigated the perceptions of Iranian EFL teachers towards the efficiency of incorporating different task types on their learners’ oral interaction. The research was performed through the use of qualitative content analysis by using semi-structured interview data. The interview protocol was developed following discussions with experts in the field and previous research. The first group of participants included six Iranian female English teachers selected through convenience sampling. This group was interviewed for the purpose of extracting their perceptions of different task types and the effect of task types on the oral interaction before and after the study. The second group included 120 EFL learners who were recruited using convenience sampling. The researchers transcribed the audio-recorded interview data verbatim for data analysis. Subsequently, qualitative analysis was conducted on the transcriptions of interviews using coding procedures such as open coding, axial coding, and selective coding to recognize recurring patterns, themes, categories, and sub-categories within the collected data. The findings indicated that EFL teachers held highly positive perceptions regarding various forms of form-focused and meaningful tasks, as well as their impact on the oral interaction of EFL learners. This shows that teacher’ familiarity with and practice of different types of form focused and meaningful tasks have changed their perceptions of the effectiveness of various task types. Given that oral interaction in general is considered as a big achievement and advantage for EFL learners, it can be concluded that different form focused and meaningful tasks can provide EFL learners with competitive advantages in comparison to their counterparts at homogenous conditions.

Strong reading comprehension skills and reading motivation are essential for personal growth, academic success, and overall well-being. Developing these skills can positively impact individuals' lives in various ways. Thus, this investigation aimed to examine the influence of massed and spaced instructions on the reading comprehension and reading motivation of Iranian EFL students. The researchers selected 150 Iranian participants from 300 based on their Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT) performance. The selected intermediate participants were randomly assigned into two experimental groups (massed and spaced) and one control group. The participants were given a reading comprehension pretest and post-test and a reading motivation questionnaire before and after the treatment. Three groups were provided with instruction on reading skills by English texts and new words from American English File 3. The massed group received a 90-minute session for each text, whereas the spaced group received three 30-minute sessions; the first session lasted 30 minutes, followed by two more sessions, each lasting 30 minutes, scheduled two days apart. The results of data analysis utilizing one-way ANOVA showed a considerable difference between the post-tests of the spaced and massed groups compared to the control group. The findings demonstrated that the spaced group outperformed the massed and control groups (p < .05) in terms of reading comprehension and reading motivation. The results have some pedagogical implications for English instructors, learners, and curriculum developers.

Although there have been many studies concentrating on writing development and techniques to improve it, there still remains the need to investigate more and give extra insight to the EFL language learners and teachers on these issues. Using a grounded model of research, the researchers performed an investigation to examine the various aspects concerning writing challenges, and requirements to improve it. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with an aim to achieve a thorough understanding of the topic by recruiting 25 male and female experienced EFL teachers along with 25 male and female intermediate EFL learners from language institutes in Tehran as the participants of the study through purposeful sampling technique. Then, 5 distinctive questions were chosen for the teachers and another set of 5 different questions for the learners to elicit their perceptions. After gathering the data and identifying the initial codes, the sub-categories emerged and helped the researcher to form the final model. Among the categories, writing strategies like collaborative and game-based, requirements like background, vocabulary, and grammatical knowledge were found to be essential. Based on the findings, a model was developed which is believed to support EFL learners in improving their writing proficiency.

The present research was conducted with the aim of designing and developing Job Fatigue Scale for Elementary school Teachers in 2024 employing both qualitative-quantitative data. In the qualitative phase, official documents and opinions from experts in this field were used to obtain the basic structure of the tool, and in the quantitative section, the basic structure of the tool was given to samples of three target communities in three stages to check the validity and reliability of the tool. The findings of the qualitative section showed 51 effective components in reducing job fatigue, based on which the initial pool was prepared with 81 items. The Holsti's coefficient of reliability was 0.864 and the results of the content validity investigation led to the removal of 29 items. Therefore, a 52-item questionnaire was formed based on the qualitative and quantitative data. Consequently, using factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha coefficient led to the removal of 7 items from the final form. Finally the structure of 45 items with 4 educational-psychological, psychological, behavioral-organizational and managerial-organizational factors was confirmed. Among the 4 factors affecting job fatigue, the educational-psychological factor took the first rank and then the psychological, behavioral-organizational and management-organizational factors took the second to fourth ranks respectively. In general, considering the validity and reliability of the developed model, it can be used to evaluate the level of job fatigue of primary school teachers.