درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

EFL textbooks play a challenging role in underpinning or imposing certain ideological values, such as gender-related values on students. Thus, this inquiry examined Iranian high school teachers’ perceptions of the issue in mandated EFL textbooks (Vision series). This study adopted an exploratory descriptive method with a qualitative approach to collect and interpret the data. The population comprised all members of the Iranian high school EFL teachers’ channel from whom, thirty teachers were selected through a volunteer sampling method. As the study concurred with the COVID-19 pandemic, a researcher-made semi-structured interview was administered via WhatsApp and Telegram, and then, the responses were analyzed and interpreted using thematic analysis via the Nvivo 12 software. The data analysis showed that most teachers believed in the unequal representation of male and female characters in the series. Moreover, it was held that gender representation has educational effects on students' learning motivation, desire, and educational goals through the creation of gender stereotype roles. The findings revealed the permanence of male dominance in the textbooks and highlighted the must for the stakeholders to address gender inequalities as one of the most crucial sociocultural concerns of Iranian EFL educational textbooks.

The current study examined the effectiveness of the educational Lego “More Math” on the mathematical progress, spatial understanding, working memory, and processing speed of students in female first grade of elementary school. female first-grade students. The research employed a quasi-experimental design incorporating a pre-test and post-test framework, with the inclusion of a control group. The population of this study consisted of female first-grade students studying in the schools of Tehran District 14 in the academic year 2022-2023. Among the available schools in District 14, Mihrab Girl’s Elementary School was selected as the sample. Then, 30 students were selected by convenience sampling and randomly assigned to the experimental (15 students) and control (15 students) groups. The data were collected by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fifth Edition (WISC-V), which consisted of ten sub-tests comprising five sub-scales for fluency, language comprehension, visual-spatial reasoning, processing speed, and working memory, and the teacher-made math test. The Lego More to Math educational protocol consisted of weekly training sessions over the course of 15 weeks, with each session lasting for 60 minutes. The data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate analyses of covariance by SPSS26.The analysis revealed significant differences between groups for spatial perception (F = 1.48, p = 0.00, η² = 0.36), working memory (F = 12.13, p = 0.00, η² = 0.32), processing speed (F = 18.16, p = 0.00, η² = 0.42), and math progress (F = 5.78, p = 0.00, η² = 0.29, test power = 0.9), with non-significant pre-test results (p = 0.88) and significant group differences (F = 11.36, p = 0.00). The study demonstrated that the Lego "More to Math" educational program significantly enhanced first graders' mathematical progress, spatial understanding, working memory, and processing speed. These findings suggested that incorporating structured, play-based learning tools like Lego into early education effectively boosted cognitive and mathematical skills in young students