مطالب

As a part of a larger-scale research, the present study aimed to use the main tenets of sociocultural perspective; namely, mediation, internalization, zone of proximal development, and the activity theory, to analyze the novice and expert teachers’ professional development through personal practical theorizing as an awareness raising technique. Furthermore, the study attempted to identify the contextual factors hindering teachers’ pedagogical beliefs enactment. The areas of mismatches between the teachers’ beliefs and practices were identified in the previous phases of the study, and personal practical theorizing procedure was implemented in the program to help teachers converge their beliefs and practices. Within the domain of the qualitative research, a multi-case study design was utilized, employing eight novice and experienced teachers who were selected through purposive sampling. The teachers’ professional development in the proposed program was analyzed through the lens of sociocultural perspectives, and the contextual factors hindering teachers’ beliefs enactment were enumerated based on the results gleaned through interview sessions.

Throughout history and prehistory, death has been one of the most important issues occupying the minds of humans. They wondered as what causes death, why and when it comes, and whether any portion of an individual survives after such occurrences. Accordingly, they formulated answers to these questions and incorporated them into religious beliefs and practices. The Khanghah Gilavan cemetery, extending over 2000 hectares, is one of the unique sites located in the northwestern Iranian province of Ardabil. Until now, four archaeological excavations, have been carried out at this cemetery that have resulted in burials from the Middle Bronze Age up to the Parthian period. We have witnessed a variety of burial traditions practiced there over the course of two thousand years. One of the most distinctive burials in this cemetery is Number 29 burial in which the skeleton has been buried in prone position and its skull has been separated from the spot of its maxilla’s joint to the mandible, and then put 39 cm far from the body. This burial belongs to the Middle Bronze Age, and is comparable with the one obtained from the Caucasus. In this paper, we attempt to study this rare burial and compared it with other excavated sites to chronology it.

In international construction contracts, in which huge financial, technical and human resources are needed, it is vital to solve all disputes at the site of project immediately. Dispute Adjudication Board (DAB) of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers or FIDIC which has been in use for a long time, particularly in the US, has remarkable success in avoiding prolonged arbitration or litigation. Board members are nominated by consensus at the time when the parties to the contract are focused on the agreement. They are independent with particular technical expertise appropriate to the contract. DAB is completely different from FIDIC’S old model construction contracts. DAB is close to arbitration and the enforcement of their decisions is almost similar. This is why legal evaluation of DAB’s decisions seems to be very important. There is no international convention for the enforcement of DAB decisions yet. However, finding ways to enforce them can accelerate the development of DAB in international contracts. Here the 1958 New York Convention as the most applicable and famous in the field of recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards can assist us in the procedure of evaluation and enforceability of those decisions. This article aims to study the development of DAB in one introduction, three main parts and a conclusion. Part One will show what a DAB is and discusses different kinds of DAB. Enforcement of DAB decisions will be looked at in Part Two. Finally, Part Three will review the possibility of applying the 1958 New York Convention to DAB decision. The Conclusion will follow with concluding remarks.

Providing an exact explication of rationality in a way that would lead to the explication of the scope of rational discourse is among the most fundamental problems of philosophers. In the current essay the author struggles to reach a comprehensive definition of rationality via an exact description and analysis of ideas of Mulla Sadra (1571-1641) as the most significant philosophical figure in the Islamic world according to which one can present all human achievements in the domain of knowledge and science as manifestations of this rationality. Rationality in Sadra’s intellectual system represents a comprehensive term with an analogically graded meaning that in different levels of certainty guarantees the validity of applied, theoretical and intuitive sciences. This comprehensive perspective of the domain of rational discourse can put an end to many disputes on the exact sense of rationality and in doing so, it can bring about a basis for more interaction and sympathy among scholars in various branches of science and open the path for deeper dialogue.

Archaeologists define the Proto-Elamite phenomenon by the appearance of Proto-Elamite writing, the first form of local writing in Iran on tablets in many cases together with specific types of other management tools and pottery, over a vast geographical territory across the Iranian plateau. Different explanations have been offered to account for this spread and the shift from a Mesopotamian-oriented culture during the earlier period (Late Uruk) to a predominantly Iranian-oriented culture during the late fourth and early third millennium BCE. However, up to now, most of these explanations have been concentrated on the recovered material culture from Fars in the southern part of the plateau and Khuzestan in the southwest. New discoveries from sites on the northern fringes of the plateau depict a fresh and more complete picture of this enigmatic phenomenon. The new excavations and surveys conducted in the settlements that contain the material culture of this horizon have significantly added to our knowledge about the formation and spreading processes of this horizon. Cultural material recently recovered from these sites have extended the Proto-Elamite territory even further, have changed our understanding of the relationships among them and the potential ways this cultural horizon was shaped and diffused. In this paper, we present some of the newly discovered evidence from these sites including but not limited to: Sofalin, Shoghali, Ozbaki, Gholi Darvish and compare them with our older understanding of the presence of this cultural horizon in the center and northern parts of the Iranian plateau.