Qualitative

Most studies within the area of genre analysis, particularly those conducted in Iran, have exclusively used text analysis. While such investigations have led to important understandings of generic features of texts, it can be argued that incorporating interview data for triangulation can lead to better understanding of generic features of texts. Along this line, this paper reports the results of a qualitative study of Persian RA abstracts written by native speakers of Persian. Taking a macro and a micro structure framework, this article will look into the ‘moves’ and ‘author identity’ in such RA abstracts. Two patterns are often associated with English academic prose: Introduction-Methods-Results-Discussion and CARS (Create-a-research-space) (Lores, 2004). This, however, did not seem to be the case in most RA abstracts under study. The other feature of Persian RA abstracts to be explored is the absence of first person pronoun. One preliminary hypothesis would be to attribute this to a carry-over of positivistic traditions (Hyland, 2001), though qualitative interviews pointed to a close link between lack of reference to self and modesty as a cultural norm among the participants under study.

Professional identity has been perpetually an underlying factor in teacher development. The maintenance of a strong professional identity is a key factor in teacher development which is ultimately a fundamental aspect in the prosperity or failure of any educational system. As a dynamic phenomenon, teachers’ professional identity can be influenced by a variety of factors and particularly any type of educational reform. The present study with an explanatory mixed method design was used to investigate transitions in Iranian EFL teachers’ professional identity in the context of Fundamental Reform Document of Education (2012). For the quantitative phase of the study, a researcher-made questionnaire developed based on the four components of professional identity namely, self-image, self-esteem, job motivation and task perception proposed by Kelchtermans (1993) was distributed among 98 Iranian EFL teachers. Considering the ongoing nature of the professional identity, the questionnaire was assigned to the teachers during the pre-reform and post – reform era. In the qualitative phase, in order to capture a comprehensive picture of the salient factors of teachers’ professional identity and their underlying reasons, a set of semi-structured interviews with 7 volunteer teachers were conducted. The findings revealed that the introduction of the curriculum reform made no change in teachers’ professional identity in terms of self-esteem and task perception, but it slightly affected teachers’ self-image and job motivation. The findings also revealed a potential transition path in Iranian EFL teachers’ professional identity development. Finally, some implications for policy-makers and material developers and suggestions for future researchers were discussed.

The Covid-19 pandemic has made fundamental changes in the human world at the levels of relationships, jobs, education, and health issues. This study was conducted to identify the components of basic psychological coping strategies in people with Covid-19 disease. Participants were people recovered from coronavirus. The research method was qualitative. Eighteen persons were studied through semi-structured interviews. One hundred thirty codes identified related to the objectives of the study. The results of the analysis identified four main topics and sixteen primary categories for hospitalized patients. The four main issues include symptoms and coping skills, treatment expectation, and consequences. The results showed that benefiting from psychological capital can be considered an essential aspect of coping skills. In dealing with Covid-19 disease, patients use all kinds of problem-focused to emotion-focused coping strategies and their resources and even negative coping methods to survive. How a cohesive body and mind make survival. Good physical perception, self-confidence, high will to survive, and hope are among these resources. All patients are grateful for their health after recovery. More importantly, the perception of social support, such as being supported by a spouse, family member, and proper physical activity, are healing factors against Covid-19 disease.

Qualitative information security risk assessments are somewhat subjective and the high degree of subjectivity associated with the perception of risk means that management is often skeptical of risk analysis results, and is unwilling to make important decisions based on that. Besides, the process of information security risk assessment is quite complex and rife with uncertainty and without taken into account the uncertainty of information security risk assessment the results can be misleading. Therefore, in this paper, the Fuzzy Multi Criteria Group Decision Making (FMCGDM) model is proposed to address the above-mentioned problems. The focus group method used to identify risk parameters and the Delphi method is used to construct a hierarchy for risk parameters. The findings of this research would be useful for the information security department to become more capable in analyzing the InfoSec risks and reducing the consequences of subjective assessment. A case study involving an actual information security risk management project was presented to illustrate the use of the proposed model. Computational results demonstrated the efficiency and effectiveness of the presented model that can assist InfoSec risk analyst to better evaluate InfoSec risk.

Dynamic assessment offers a holistic approach to evaluation by embedding assessment within instruction. Despite evidence suggesting the effectiveness of DA in language classrooms, there remains a reluctance among teachers to adopt DA practices. This reluctance stems from a lack of understanding of how DA models impact specific learning outcomes, particularly in speaking skills. One main contributing factor is the dominance of quantitative DA studies, which do not contextualize the differences between DA models. With an inductive thematic analysis design, this study explored the perceived effects of interactionist and interventionist DA models on speaking accuracy, fluency, and complexity among Iranian EFL students. Thirty undergraduate intermediate EFL learners from Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch, were recruited through purposive sampling. Each participant had received one hundred hours of speaking lessons with one of the DA models embedded before participating in a semi-structured interview. The analysis of participants' perceptions and reflections revealed that both DA models were well-received for improving speaking skills but had different effects on subskills. Learners perceived the interactionist model as an effective teaching method that improved their speaking accuracy and complexity but reduced fluency, while the interventionist model favored fluency at the expense of grammatical accuracy and complexity.