مطالب

To launch an evidence source for successive judgment and decision making, program evaluation of any educational institute is an indispensable process, and language institutes are not the exceptions. In an attempt to propose a solution for a fundamental problem as the lack of a standard evaluation program for English language institutes, this study used a new method to be implemented in the context of ‘English language institutes (ELIs)’ of Iran. In this country, evaluation of nongovernmental centers, including ELIs, is carried out by the Ministry of Education (ME) using a performance evaluation framework which mainly collects the required data through a survey form (locally known as ‘Form 322’). We adopted and applied the survey form 322 into developing a specific questionnaire. Ninety ELIs administrators of Mazandaran were surveyed through an instrument that was piloted and validated through the obtained data. The extracted results from the questionnaire were sorted into the categories of “validation”, “improvement”, “redesigning”, and “researchers’ opinion”. The results showed that the original form, long used in the country, needs to be redesigned. To cross-validate the obtained data and the emerging results, fifteen volunteers from the participating institutes were interviewed for their ideas through Skype and direct interview. Consistent with the results, not only for Iran are an online platform and a standard evaluation and monitoring process recommended, but also an international integrated performance evaluation standard is strongly suggested for English language institutes.

This paper explores the method Allāmeh Muhammad Husayn Kāshif al-Ghiṭā, a famous Muslim theorist of the 18-19 th centuries, employed in his critique of Christianity. Although, his method for looking into the Bible is similar to that of Christian and Jewish scholars, his assumptions and results are different. Based on his viewpoints on the Bible, he believes in impeccable revelations. He examined superstructure, namely accuracy of attribution of books and pamphlets to their authors as well as personality and credibility of Jesus Christ’s disciples and apostles. Lack of credibility of the twelve original disciples of Jesus Christ and unreliability of the Gospels are proved. Moreover, he has carefully examined the content as infrastructure of the New Testament. As such, incongruities can be observed between the New Testament and the Old Testament. There are contradictions in the Bible itself. He prefers to apply argumentative tactic for general readers. In addition, his application of comparative step in his critique is considerable. This paper studies Kāshif al-Ghiṭā's approach to review the Bible in order to figure out Muslim scholars' viewpoints on the Christianity.

The term ‘SciArt’ refers to bilateral relations between art and science, including artistically-inclined science, science-minded art, and intertwined SciArt activities. In this definition, different disciplines from metaphysics to physics are reckoned as science, as different types of art- from literature to music are counted as art. The SciArt approach, in the fields of philosophical inquiry, can be accounted for by Farabi’s works. As Farabi holds, rational well-being and rational truths just might be brought to mind of people via imagery and analogy. In Islamic philosophy, two representatives of the field are Ibn Tufail and Suhrawardi. I will compare and contrast the main characters of these two major figures in chronological order. Plus a few more philosophical and mystical issues Ibn Tufail developed in scientific matters like anatomy, autopsy, and vivisection in the non-allegorical style. Contrary to Ibn Tufail, Suhrawardi explains mystical vs. philosophical problems in his fictions, using the allegorical style. He represents the world of spheres and the sublunary realm by a variety of imageries like nine shells, eleven layers of a basin, and eleven mountains. Both Ibn Tufail and Suhrawardi use fictional manner to explain mystical as well as philosophical themes.