مطالب

Self-efficacy, which is known as the teachers’ self-perception of their competence and abilities in doing specific tasks, has attracted considerable attention in teacher education. It is seen as the teacher’s belief in achieving specific outcomes for students in their teaching practices, but the main sources of EFL teachers’ self-efficacy have not been systematically explored in a single study.  Therefore, this study set out to present a systematic review of the studies on EFL teachers’ self-efficacy. To this aim, a meta-analysis approach was employed to systematically review closely related papers from Elsevier, Google Scholar, and ERIC. The articles examined the sources of self-efficacy in a different context. Through precise screening, 13 papers were found to be eligible enough to be included in this study. Findings revealed that ‘Mastery Experiences’, ‘Vicarious Experiences’, ‘Social Persuasion and Support’,                                 ‘Emotional and Physiological States’, ‘Language Proficiency’, ‘Intelligence’, ‘Teaching skills and experience’, ‘pre-service training courses’, and ‘professional development activities’ are the main sources of self-efficacy. The findings could be theoretically and practically significant to EFL teachers, teacher trainers, and researchers interested in teacher education.

The global outbreak of COVID-19 necessitated a swift transition from conventional face-to-face (F2F) teaching to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) in educational institutions worldwide. This sudden shift posed significant challenges for both teachers and students, particularly those in low-resource rural schools. This study sought to probe into this experience in the context of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction, focusing on the perspectives of teachers and students in rural high schools within Iran. The study participants were 13 female EFL teachers and 15 female EFL students teaching and studying in rural high schools in different cities in Iran. Employing a qualitative approach, data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, online observation, and one of the researcher’s reflective journals. Thematic analysis was utilized to analyze the data, identifying several categories encompassing the hurdles encountered by the participants and the achievements they attained. The identified categories pertaining to hurdles encompassed technological, financial, educational, personal, professional, and well-being problems. Similarly, the categories pertaining to achievements comprised technological, educational, and professional progress, as well as enhanced convenience. Exploring the dilemmas and aspirations expressed by these participants can inform and better equip the educational system of Iran to effectively respond to similar crises in the future. Furthermore, this study offers insights to education authorities, aiding in the resolution of barriers to distance online education and facilitating enhanced preparedness for potential future emergencies.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of Neurofeedback (NFB) Therapy with Play Therapy in improving attention and cognitive function in students with Learning Disorder (LD). This study was a quasi-experimental research with a pre-test and post-test design. The statistical population of the research was about 600 elementary school students with LD in Lar city in 2017 (N=212). A sample of 60 LD children who were identified in schools was selected by multistage cluster random sampling and randomly divided into four groups fifteen-three experimental and one control group. The tools used in the study were the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-R) (Wechsler, 2003) and integrated visual and auditory continuous performance (IVA) (Sandford and Turner, 1995). NFB training was done according to the guidelines recommended by Monastra et al. (2005) in 20 sessions and play therapy cognitive performance and attention therapy were done according to the guidelines recommended by Drewes (2009) in 20 sessions, while no intervention was performed in the control group. Data were analyzed by the covariance analysis method. The results showed that NFB and play therapy were effective in increasing cognitive performance (p<0.01) and attention (p<0.01) compared to the control group. The combination of play therapy and NFB intervention was more effective on cognitive performance and attention rather than the two interventions separately. According to the results, it is recommended that therapists and clinical psychologists use NFB and play therapy to increase the sustained attention and working memory of students with LD.

Purpose: Talent management helps to identify the talented forces of the organization for their purposive development. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigating the validity amount of the talent management model based on the teachings of Nahjolbalagha. Methodology: This study was a part of mixed research (qualitative and quantitative). The population of the qualitative part was management experts and proficient in sermons, wisdom and letters of Nahjolbalagha, which according to the principle of theoretical saturation 10 people were selected as a sample with the purposive sampling method. The population of the quantitative part was the employees of the General Department of Social Security of Isfahan province, which according to the Cohen's table 136 people were selected as a sample with the simple random sampling method. In this study, qualitative part data was collected by semi-structured interview method and analyzed by thematic analysis method and quantitative part data was collected by 101-item researcher-made questionnaire method and analyzed by exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling methods. Findings: The findings of the qualitative part showed that the talent management model based on the teachings of Nahjolbalagha had 101 concepts, 23 basic themes and 7 organizing themes including talent acquisition and employment, training and development, preservation and maintenance, influence of talents, mission and value, socialization of talents and dismissal and appointment. Also, the findings of the quantitative part showed that the factor load of all 101 items was confirmed because it was more than 0.50, the average variance extracted of all 7 organizing themes was more than 0.50 indicating appropriate convergent validity, the influence coefficient of all 7 themes because more than 0.15 indicates a medium and higher effect size, the Heterotrait-Monotrait ratio of all 7 themes because less than 0.90 indicates appropriate divergent validity and Cronbach's reliability and combination of all 7 themes because more than 0.60 indicates appropriate reliability. In addition, the effect of the talent management model based on the teachings of Nahjolbalagha on all 7 themes was significant (P<0.001). Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, the talent management model based on the teachings of Nahjolbalagha was valid and experts and planners, especially religious experts and planners can exploit the mentioned model.