مطالب

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a Philosophy for Children Course on aspects of students' school engagement. School engagement is a structure indicating that students can create personal relationships with their teachers in addition to the educational content. For this purpose, a quasi-experimental study was conducted on 7th-grade students (n=128) from 4 classes at the same school as the intervention and control groups. In the current quasi-experimental, pre-test, and post-test study, the independent variable was the philosophy for children (P4C) program (ten 60 minute sessions) and the dependent variables were the school engagement aspects including behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and agency engagements. To analyze the data ANOVA was used. The findings indicated that the score of all four aspects of school engagement were significantly higher in the intervention group who attended the Philosophy for Children Program  than those of the control group. Based on the obtained results, 28.2% of changes in total school engagement were attributed to the P4C program. The results show a significant increase in school engagement and its aspects. Philosophy for Children Program can be used to create an educational atmosphere with the highest relationship to students’ curriculum in which the students can rule out their learning behaviors with high motivation.

The present study aimed to compare the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral play therapy and narrative therapy on aggression and assertiveness of students with an educable intellectual disability. This study followed a quasi-experimental research design with a pre-test, post-test, and a control group. The statistical population included all students with an educable intellectual disability enrolled in Tabriz elementary schools, of whom 45 male students were randomly assigned to two experimental and one control groups (15 per group) using convenience sampling. The Shahim Aggression Questionnaire for Elementary School Students (2006) and the Gmbryl and Ritchie’s Assertiveness Questionnaire (1975) were used to collect data. After the pre-test, one of the experimental groups received a play therapy program while the other group received narrative therapy. Afterward, all the groups sat for a post-test. Moreover, although the control group did not receive any therapy, they were required to participate in pre-and post-tests and complete the questionnaires. The covariance analysis revealed a significant difference in aggression and assertiveness between cognitive-behavioral play therapy, narrative therapy and the control groups (0.001). Narrative therapy was more effective at reducing aggression than cognitive-behavioral play therapy, with an effect size of 69%. Additionally, narrative therapy was more effective than play therapy at increasing assertiveness, with an effect size of 74%.  Thus, narrative therapy and cognitive-behavioral play therapy can be used in conjunction to alleviate psychological problems in students with educable intellectual disabilities.  

Inventing and applying motivational, highly efficient, and engaging strategies for teaching elementary school students is a concern that has always occupied the minds of teachers and experts in this field. Meanwhile, using music as an easy and accessible, low-cost, and popular solution in creating and promoting creativity, self-confidence, motivation, and cognitive skills and students' self-directed learning has been considered an important and effective strategy. To this end, the present research investigated the music and melodic teaching impact on the math learning progress of the third-grade elementary school students in Tehran. The research adopted a quasi-experimental design with the experimental and control group. The statistical population included about 20,000 third-grade students in region 1 of Tehran that were selected as available sampling from two Rastar and Meysam Tamar schools, from which 30 students were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups (15 in each group) as the study sample. Both groups learned the same and the specified concepts. However, the experimental group learned these concepts using music and melodic teaching while the control group learned these concepts using the lecture-based teaching method and the final math scores of the students were used in the analyses. As the instrument, a demographic information questionnaire, the mathematic motivation questionnaire, a progress test and an achievement test were used in this study. The results of covariance analysis showed that teaching math using music and melodic method has a significant positive impact on elementary school students’ math learning (70.8%) and more motivated learning (86%). Therefore, it can be concluded that by using melodic teaching in teaching math concepts can be more effective than traditional teaching methods.

In the field of family counseling and psychology, various approaches have been developed to reduce conflicts and communication disorders between couples. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of McMaster and Nichols family counseling approaches on problem solving ability. The present study is an applied research in terms of purpose and a quasi-experimental study in terms of method with pre-test-post-test design and control group. The study population consisted of all couples referring to counseling centers in Boroujerd in 2020- 2021, from which 36 couples with marital incompatibility were selected as a sample. The tools of the present study included the Family Problem Solving Questionnaire (FPS) (1989). McMaster family therapy intervention was performed in 10 sessions of 1.5 hours and Nickels family therapy in 12 sessions of 1.5 hours each one week; But the control group did not receive any intervention. The research data were analyzed by mixed analysis of variance (with repeated measures). Findings showed that McMaster's family therapy and Nichols's family therapy are effective on problem solving ability in couples (P <0.05). The results also showed that there was no difference between the effectiveness of McMaster's family therapy and Nichols family therapy interventions in adaptation (p <0.05). It can be concluded that McMaster's family therapy and Nichols's family therapy are effective in adapting the couple.