مطالب

Purpose: A competitive advantage based on the empowerment of professors can create a competitive advantage for the university. As a result, this study was conducted with the aim of explaining the background factors of competitive advantage based on the empowerment of university professors. Methodology: In an applied research from type of qualitative, the educational elites of universities and non-governmental-non-profit higher education institutions of Mashhad city were investigated. For this purpose and according to the principle of theoretical saturation, 21 people were selected as a sample with the purposive sampling method and were individually subjected to semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed with open, axial and selective coding methods in MAXQDA software. Findings: The findings indicated that for the background factors of competitive advantage based on the empowerment of university professors were identified 34 indicators, 9 sub categories and 4 main categories. The main categories were included the categories of organizational (with 2 sub categories of organizational dependence and governance view), cognitive (with 3 sub categories of organizational learning, knowledge management and educability), psychological (with 2 sub categories of limited control and passive thinking) and cultural (with 2 sub categories of organizational culture and organizational ethics). Also, according to the main and sub categories, the pattern of background factors of competitive advantage based on the empowerment of university professors was drawn. Conclusion: According to the pattern of background factors of competitive advantage based on the empowerment of university professors in the present study, to create a competitive advantage based on the empowerment of university professors, can be provided the context for the realization of background factors through the identified main and sub categories.

Purpose: Ambivalence includes the ability to perform exploitative activities (attention to the present time) and exploratory activities (attention to the future time) at the same time. Therefore, the current research was conducted with the aim of drawing a scientific map of the field of ambidextrous leadership with a bibliometric approach. Methodology: This research in terms of purpose was applied and in terms of execution method was descriptive. The population of this study was conducted researches in the field of ambidextrous leadership in the Scopus database from 2007 to 2023 with a systematic method. For data analysis was used from bibliometric method with the two objectives of functional analysis and citation network analysis and with PRISMA protocol in VOSVIEWR software. Findings: The results of functional analysis showed that in the field of ambidextrous leadership, Rosing et al had the most citations (583 items) with an article entitled Explaining the heterogeneity of the leadership-innovation relationship: Ambidextrous leadership. Also, the countries of China, Australia, Germany, England and America respectively had the most research in the field of ambidextrous leadership. In addition, the findings of the citation network analysis showed that there were three clusters for authors and six clusters for countries in the co-citation pattern. Also, the synonymy pattern had 1309 links, 337 keywords and 48 clusters, which most of them were with the keywords of innovation, creativity and leadership. Conclusion: The findings of this study about the ambidextrous leadership with a bibliometric approach indicate that the results of this study can help to understand the different angles of ambidextrous leadership with the aim of increasing and promoting it.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to design a model to improve the physiological performance of human resources, based on the biorhythm cycle in educational and medical centers. Methodology: the combined research method is based on exploratory mixed research (qualitative - quantitative). Statistical population in the qualitative section of a group of experts including professors in the field of organizational behavior management in universities and higher education centers, Vice Chancellor for Management Development and Resources of Medical Universities and experts on physiological performance and biorhythm cycle and in the quantitative section; The staff in rotation of Imam Khomeini Educational and Medical Center in Sari consisted of 820 nurses, midwives, paramedics, services, laboratory and radiology; In the qualitative part, using the snowball method to achieve theoretical saturation, in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 experts, and in the quantitative part, to measure the model, a researcher-made questionnaire with relative class sampling method was used among 264 people. was distributed. To determine the validity and reliability in the qualitative stage, the necessary tests, including acceptability and capability, are used, and in the quantitative stage, the validity of the 74-item questionnaire by face and content method (CVR and CVI range for items between 0.6 to 0.1, 0.85 and 0.1, respectively) and its reliability by Cronbach's alpha method by 83% of the cases Confirmed. Data were analyzed in qualitative stage with grounded theory technique with MAXqda2018 software and in quantitative stage with structural equations (heuristic and confirmatory factor analysis) with SPSS and AMOS software. Finding: The results of the qualitative part indicate that the physiological performance model of human resources, based on the biorhythm cycle has 16 dimensions in terms of causal conditions (working conditions, demographic characteristics and individual conditions), contextual conditions (organizational structure, motivation of managers and employees and intelligence Ethical), intervention conditions (culture building, teamwork and organizational and non-organizational challenges), strategy (training and awareness, biorhythm cycle planning and performance management) and outcome (job performance improvement, physiological performance of human resources and improvement Organizational performance) has been. Conclusion: The results of the quantitative section showed that all dimensions of the research model were confirmed.

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to explore pre-service EFL teachers’ conceptions and self-efficacy for effective online teaching and (b) to determine their instructors’ conceptions of online teaching effectiveness and their approaches to preparing them for effective online teaching. The participants were 100 MA students of TEFL and 6 teacher educators at Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST). The data collection instrument was a questionnaire with 40 principles of effective online teaching classified into 7 categories of facilitating learning, interaction, deep learning, relationship, resources, engagement, and organization followed by two open-ended questions. A semi-structured interview was also conducted to examine teacher educators’ conceptions of online teaching effectiveness. The results revealed that pre-service teachers considered themselves more self-efficacious in fostering relationship while less in maintaining organization in online English language classes. To be an effective online teacher, they also held the view that teachers need to establish a friendly atmosphere and relationship, provide useful materials, have adequate technological knowledge, give prompt feedback, and engage learners in their learning process. For teacher educators, effective online teaching was having adequate technological knowledge, providing appropriate content, establishing an online presence, successful classroom management, and having positive perceptions of online teaching.

One strategy that eases the process of teaching argumentative writing might be teaching them how to express their thoughts, beliefs, and in general, ideologies in academic essays. This study aimed to investigate the effect of teaching writing skills on ideology transfer in the academic writings of EFL students. To this end, a sequential mixed-methods design was used. Participants were 80 male and female IELTS candidates who were selected based on some criteria such as proficiency level, age, and educational background. A sample Mock Writing Task 2 and a sample IELTS Writing Task 2 were used as instruments in the pre-test and post-test respectively. Learners’ essays produced during these stages were analyzed based on Fairclough’s (2001) three-dimensional model of critical discourse analysis: description, interpretation, and explanation. To analyze the data, content analysis methods were applied during which discursive strategies used by the candidates were identified and coded, and the frequency and percentage of them were calculated. After the analysis, the following themes were extracted in the participants’ writings, as representing ideology transfer: tendency towards representation of identity, use of active voices, use of first-person pronouns, social views, author visibility, ideology-laden concepts, and idea development. Moreover, there were significant changes in the post-test writings of the participants in terms of the number of discursive strategies used to express ideology. This shows that teaching writing skills can significantly affect EFL learners’ ability to transfer their ideology into academic writing. The findings can have some implications for EFL learners, teachers, and curriculum planners.

Iranian high school students confront various challenges in understanding reading passages and learning vocabulary since appropriate process-oriented assessment techniques with constructive and communicative feedback are not practiced to consolidate instruction and learning. The effect of formative assessment (FA) retelling strategy on vocabulary knowledge and understanding passages was investigated and scrutinized in this quasi-experimental study in the EFL context. Thus, a sample of 48 intermediate EFL students was selected and assigned to two intact groups. The retelling assessment was implemented for the experimental group (EG), while the product-oriented summative assessment was applied to the control group (CG). The pre-test scores were taken at the first phase of the study followed by the eight-week assessment process. Finally, the post-test scores were taken. For the purpose of the analysis, the Independent Samples T-test and the one-way  ANCOVA were utilized to compare and contrast the mean scores. The findings were in favor of the retelling technique which developed the vocabulary command and text comprehension in the EG. Moreover, little or no significant impact was revealed for the product-oriented assessment in the CG. The findings can be pedagogically rewarding for learners, teachers and theoreticians and may cast light on SLA research in applying FA techniques.

Reflective practice and noticing can be regarded as two essential concerns for novice teachers’ survival and development in their first practices. Therefore, this study was an attempt to explore how reflective practices activate novice English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ noticing. To that end, we conducted an instrumental case study to explore the role of reflective practice among Iranian novice EFL teachers in activating their noticing. An inductive-deductive thematic analysis of the data collected through teachers’ portfolios and semi-structured interviews indicated that novice teachers’ noticing could be activated and sharpened through teachers’ personal, cognitive, and professional developments addressed by reflective practice. Furthermore, the findings showed that there are relationships among novice teachers’ personal, cognitive, and professional developments and the components of teacher noticing, including framing, perceptual activities and exploration, and interaction, leading to sharpening novice EFL teachers’ noticing. Hence, it can be concluded reflective practice can activate novice EFL teachers' noticing, impacting their professional development through framing, interaction, perceptual activities, and exploration. The study has implications for EFL teacher education programs, where teacher educators can help teachers develop critical reflection skills to address problems in their classrooms.

The provision of scaffolding entails contingent assistance given to learners. Despite the proliferation of research on scaffolding, scant attention has been devoted to studying the modes of classroom interaction in fulfilling various scaffolding intentions in content-based instruction (CBI). To narrow the gaps, the present qualitative study embarked on an investigation of science teachers’ scaffolding in four modes proposed by Walsh (2006), namely managerial, classroom context, skills and systems, and materials modes. Four science teachers participated in this qualitative study, and 12 sessions of science classes were observed and analyzed deductively based on four classroom modes through conversation analysis (CA). The content analysis of the videotaped recordings indicated that managerial and materials modes were frequently used to enhance students’ comprehension and develop classroom interaction. The findings evidenced that pedagogical objectives were mostly related to cognitive structuring, contingency management, and direction maintenance requirements. Furthermore, the findings revealed that students’ engagement and involvement through recruiting interest was the only scaffolding intention employed in all four modes to involve students in the learning process. The findings can provide insights to teachers and teacher educators in the realization of distinct scaffolding intentions in various classroom modes by delineating the interrelationship between language use and teaching purpose.  

Presenting the writer's voice and positioning it within the larger body of alternative voices is essential in academic writing. Realizing the challenges novice academic writers might experience while doing this, we selected and analyzed a corpus of 40 discussion chapters (timespan: 2010-2019) written by Iranian master's students. Following systemic functional perspective (Martin & White, 2005), we explored the engagement resources in the corpus to discover evaluative language choices and stance types. The results showed that although student writers actively engaged other voices and adopted a more balanced dialogically contractive and expansive stance, they employed fewer and less diverse linguistic devices. Moreover, these novice writers tended to avoid certainty and preferred more modest and cautious assertions. There was a great tendency to remain neutral toward other voices. In aligning with other voices, they preferred to present more supportive evaluations than critical ones as well as more explicit structures. They opted for implicit attitudes in evoking resources to show criticism. The implication of this study is for EAP and dissertation writing to novice writers.