مطالب

Distance education pedagogy to be successful requires teachers with different levels of computer, information, and multimedia literacy. Teachers' computer literacy has caught considerable attention due to the great opportunities provided by modern technology for promoting language education. The present study explored computer, information, and multimedia literacy of 255 Iranian EFL teachers. To collect data, we developed and validated Computer, Information, and Multimedia Literacy Questionnaire for EFL Teachers (CIM-LQ for EFL Teachers), a five-point Likert scale questionnaire containing three sections to examine the participants' responses. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS software version 20.  The findings revealed that the level of EFL teachers' multimedia and information literacy ranged from low to moderate which necessitates improving teachers' training courses and preparing them for implementing technologies in real language teaching contexts. The findings have implications for both teacher education programs including both pre-service and in-service teacher training courses and EFL teachers' practice. 

The studies since the second half of the 20th century have revealed the effect of stress on the heart and vessels with mediating neurological indicators and techniques of dysfunctional coping techniques. They also have shown that stress management and the improvement of coping techniques improve the indicators. The present study examined the appraisal of the effect of coping-therapy on cortisol, Interleukin 6 (IL-6) and Interleukin 1β (IL-1β) in comparison with the control group. The study was a quasi-experimental research with pre-test and post-test design conducted on 44 patients (randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups) suffering from coronary heart disease who were hospitalized in Shahid Rajaei Heart Hospital in Tehran in 2011. The experimental group was treated with coping-therapy, and the immunological indicators of both groups were measured using ELISA at the beginning, the fourth, the eighth, (immediately after the end of treatment), the tenth, and the fourteenth weeks. The collected data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA by SPSS version 17. The gender and education of the sample was controlled statistically. The results revealed that coping-therapy could significantly decrease cortisol, IL-6, IL-1β from the eighth to the end of the fourteenth week (follow-up). Considering the cognitive limitations of the present study, one can conclude that coping-therapy may decrease the negative effects of stress on immunological indicators through improving dysfunctional techniques to effective ones, and in this way, reveal the positive effects on health.

Background: The affectivity system is a complex dynamic system, thus, it needs to be seen as a whole-system unit that is best studied by analyzing four profiles: self-destructive (low positive affect, high negative affect), low affective (low positive affect, low negative affect), high affective (high positive affect, high negative affect), and self-fulfilling (high positive affect, low negative affect). Our purpose was to examine individual differences in psychological well-being and self-regulatory strategies (assessment/locomotion). Additionally, we investigated if the effect of psychological well-being on self-regulatory strategies was moderated by the individual’s type of profile. Method: Participants (N = 567) answered the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule, Ryff’s Scales of Psychological Well-being, and the Regulatory Mode Questionnaire. We conducted a Multivariate Analysis of Variance using age as covariate and Structural Equation Modeling in a multi-group for moderation analysis. Result: Individuals with a self-fulfilling profile scored highest in all psychological well-being constructs and locomotion and lowest in assessment. Nevertheless, matched comparisons showed that increases in certain psychological resources might lead to profile changes. Moreover, while some psychological well-being constructs (e.g., self-acceptance) had an effect of self-regulatory mode independently of the individual’s profile, other constructs’ (e.g., personal growth) effect on self-regulation was moderated by the person’s unique type of profile. Conclusions: Although only theoretical, these results give an idea of how leaps/changes might be extreme (i.e., from one profile at the extreme of the model to the other extreme), while other might be serial (i.e., from one profile to another depending on matching affective dimensions).