teaching

This quantitative, qualitative study investigates the usage of mobile phone applications in teaching and learning processes. The study aims to identify the benefits, difficulties, and resolutions of using mobile phone applications. The study was conducted in the English Department at Hebron University at the second semester of the academic years 2015/2016. The study focuses on the Business English course. A questionnaire was used to show the general attitudes of the students towards the effects of using mobile phone applications in the classroom. Interviews were administered to reveal the general attitudes of the students and instructors towards the difficulties and the solutions. The results showed that most students responded positively to using mobile applications in teaching and learning processes. In addition, all students had smart phones, and they used varied brands applications in the learning process. Moreover, the results indicated that students understand and learn better through using the applications.

The present study aimed to evaluate a new model of students' emotions in which the role of teachers' social-emotional competencies, social teaching practices, and their emotions was considered. To this aim, 303 six-grade students (150 females and 153 males) and their teachers were selected as the participants from Yazd in 2018. Then, the students were asked to answer a questionnaire on the students' emotion, whether positive or negative, and the teachers completed two questionnaires on social-emotional competencies, social teaching practices, and their emotion. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Results indicated that teachers who had social-emotional competencies and the ability to complement their social teaching practices could experience more positive emotion and interactions with their students. In addition, their students experienced positive classroom atmosphere, which stimulated the students' motivation. Finally, it was concluded the teachers' social-emotional teaching competencies played an indirect effect on the students' emotion via the teachers' positive emotions.

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to identify specialized language needs of MA students in University of Mazandaran. Method: This study was mix method instruments which would deeply explore the perspectives of English for specific purpose teachers and students about task–based language needs of teaching ESP. Semi-structured interview was carried out with a number of teachers and students in the field of sport management. The statistical population of the stage includes some teachers and students in the field of sport management. The sampling method was Purposive sampling and Sampling continue until theoretical saturation. Three ESP teachers who have been teaching ESP to the students for at least four years participated in this study. They were all selected through purposive sampling. Also, MA and Ph.D. (twelve persons) students who had passed this course were selected in qualitative stage. In quantitative stage and based on the results of the first stage, the questionnaire was designed. This questionnaire was broadly distributed amongst students and teachers (33 persons) in the field of sport management. Descriptive and Inferential statistics, were used to analyze the demographic information of the participants and their responses. Results: The results of the study showed that the main real tasks which were most frequently used in the English sport management classes include Participating in daily conversations, giving lectures at conferences, Conversation with foreign experts, Understanding daily conversations. The method of working with and using English to English dictionary to take advantage of all the capabilities contained in it. Conclusions: The information obtained about the target tasks and their frequency can be employed when taking decisions about which tasks should be part of a curriculum.

The present study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of two educational methods of learning by summarizing, and learning through teaching on the comprehension of sixth grade elementary male students. This was an applied study and the research design was experimental with a pre-test and post-test approach and the control group. The study population included all sixth grade male students at Allameh Tabataba'i School, who were studying in the academic year of 2018-2019. The random available sampling method was used in this study. The total number of students were 59, all of which were participated in the study and divided into three different groups by random convenience sampling method. Then, the first experiment group members (15 subjects) were trained in 8 learning sessions through teaching method. The subjects in the second experimental group (15 subjects) were trained in 8 learning sessions by summarizing method. The control group (n = 29) received no training. Two researcher-made questionnaires were designed to assess the comprehension level of the students. The data were analyzed using analysis of covariance in the SPSS software. Emphasizing the findings of the research, it can be argued that both learning methods had a favorable effect on the students' comprehension, and increased the students' comprehension level. Based on these findings, one can conclude that these two educational methods have a great impact on increasing the comprehension of sixth grade elementary students.

Teachers pose different perspectives toward teaching. Some teachers share this attitude that teaching is just a job and a sole source of income, while others believe that teaching is a vocational and moralistic career associated with love, commitment, and devotion. This study, in the form of a qualitative grounded theory approach, aimed to deeply investigate the interrelationship of data emerged from teachers’ perspectives toward teaching as profession to develop a model in this regard. Therefore, twenty-six Iranian English teachers, teaching at schools and Farhang language institute, were requested to share their ideas as to how they view teaching as a profession. A semi-structured interview, in three sessions with 20 participants and focus-group interviews with 6 participants were conducted. Based on Corbin and Strauss's (2014) systematic steps for grounded theory, the data then transcribed and codified. The findings ended with an eight-factor model containing 40 categories. The factors include: a) source of income, b) decreasing motivation, c) poverty and inclination to become a teacher, d) insufficient salary, e) deteriorated quality of teaching, f) experience, g) society negative attitude, h) dissatisfaction. The proposed model opens a new window for teachers and reminds the government educational policymakers, training centers, ministry of education, and those who care about quality education and students’ academic achievements to observe income inequality, and salary differentials, increase teachers’ social status, and motivation, facilitate difficult working conditions, reduce resource wastage, support teachers appropriately, decrease teachers’ financial concerns, terminate the sense of socioeconomic inequality, and speak out the voices of marginalized teachers.

Purpose: This paper aims to evaluate the teaching and learning processes of the Arabic course in the high schools of Zabol County. Methodology: Descriptive-correlational method was applied as the research method and the statistical population was comprised of two groups – students and teachers of Arabic course. It had a practical aim and relies on the general hypothesis stating that the Arabic course taught at the high schools of Zabol does not attain the acceptable level. Using separate questionnaires, the data regarding the level of acceptability of teaching and learning as perceived by students, teachers and textbooks were collected. The data were analyzed using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, one-sample t-test and independent t-test, Spearman’s rank correlation and analysis of variance. Findings: The results indicated that the level of acceptability was lower than average regarding two factors: students and textbooks; furthermore, it was slightly higher than average regarding teachers. To enhance the level of acceptability it is recommended to create an Arabic atmosphere using posters, brochures and images and using the visual capabilities like watching movies and cartoons related to the lesson. Conclusion: In addition, produce Arabic software and video games and teaching Arabic using various games and reducing uninteresting pictures is suggested.

The objective of this research is to identify the technology of cloud computing in terms of its concept, its development, its objectives, its components, models, classifications, and the advantages of its use in the teaching process at the University of Samarra, as well as to identify the most important challenges and obstacles that teachers face in using University of Samarra. The researcher used the descriptive approach in his research. This research was carried out on an objective sample of 40 teaching staff members in the Department of Life Sciences and English at the Faculty of Education / Samarra University. A questionnaire consisting of 22 questions were used as a data collection tool, which included two axes: The first axis: the advantages of using cloud computing technology in the process of teaching at the University of Samarra. The second axis: the challenges of using cloud computing technology in the process of teaching at the University of Samarra. The researcher used the statistical program (SPSS 20) in order to examine the differences between the responses of the members of the research sample. The results revealed that the estimates of the teaching of the advantages of the use of cloud computing technology in the teaching process at the University of Samarra, which included the search tool, came very much, and the results revealed the most important challenges which stand in the way of the use of cloud computing technology in university education. The study recommended institutions of higher learning and universities with a set of important recommendations regarding the use of cloud computing technology in educational institutions. 

Haack articulates something of what she takes the moral demands of academic life to be, calling for such virtues as industry, honesty, realism, patience, and consideration. She then explains why she believes the current academic environment is sapping the strength of character these virtues require, and why graduate students are caught in the middle. She writes primarily about philosophy, but much of what she has to say applies to other humanities disciplines and much of that to other disciplines as well---and while she writes primarily about the U.S. situation, much of what she says applies elsewhere too.

Pandemic has brought all together a new environment of working and compelled all the off line educational institutions to become online educational platforms and strengthen their online resources. We need to understand online platforms as universities, institutes, schools, colleges or any educational institute which are working online and providing degrees, certificates, diplomas for several courses and programs. In different researches related to online education and Covid -19, investigations addressed student’s perspective or teachers perspective. Literature review has showed the gap in exploring the turnaround strategies inspired by the parent’s perspective for online education especially with respect to young children (Age group 8 to 12 years). Apart from literature review and analysis of secondary data from websites and search engines, qualitative research was undertaken to know about parent’s views in general about the online platforms and particularly about WHJ (White Hat Junior). The focused group discussion and the indepth interviews revealed very useful information with regard to Online educational platforms and especially WHJ in relation to Covid -19 times. Findings relate to awareness, acceptability, perception change, costs, safety issues, etc. It has brought out elaborately in this case based research, how parents expectation may impact the turnaround strategies of their wards’ online educational platforms. In different researches related to online education and Covid -19, investigations addressed student’s perspective or teacher’s perspective.

Pronunciation is one of the sub-skills which has significant effect on improving the communication competency and linguistic performance. Moreover, Pronunciation is one of the most difficult parts of teaching a foreign language to adults. It seems that the sub-skill of pronunciation is not taught in the form of a well-rounded program in communicative approaches and interactive conversations in Persian language classes, and that learners pronounce Persian under the influence of the phonemes of their mother tongue. This study is an attempt to provide an answer for the question of what strategies foreign learners use in their learning process by examining pronunciation learning strategies. The current research is the application and collection of research data using the field research approach and the descriptive method is used for the data analysis. The research instrument in data collection is a questionnaire composed of 43 items, each question containing a pronunciation strategy. After verifying validity and reliability, it was randomly distributed among foreign Persian learners. Based on the findings, they make significant use of cognitive, social, metacognitive and compensatory strategies. Commonly, mother tongue does not have a significant effect on the use of these strategies, but Chinese speakers use the group of cognitive strategies significantly more than Arabic speakers do.

Before the introduction of modern Western civilization, education in Iran was primarily under the control of the clergy and considered one of their main responsibilities. With the arrival of Western culture and civilization in Iran, particularly during the Pahlavi era, formal education, like many official governmental institutions, came to be managed by graduates of the new educational system. As a result, today some people view the clergy's involvement in official education as unconventional. The central question of this research is whether, with the formation of new schools and the informal status of old schools during the Pahlavi period, the clergy still played a role in formal education. The author's investigation indicates that a comprehensive and focused study on this topic has not been conducted. Although various academic works have touched upon the role of religious movements and clergy during the Pahlavi era, as well as memoirs related to active clerics in this area, these references are scattered and lack coherence. The present study, by descriptive and historical analysis methods, aims to explore this issue in historical documents. The findings indicated that after the reign of Reza Shah and with the opening of the political and cultural atmosphere, Shia scholars and clerics undertook two fundamental actions to play their role in education: The first was a gradual reform of the government’s new education system, conducted in four stages: Requesting the inclusion of religious subjects in schools, selecting suitable teachers for instruction, separating girls' and boys' schools, and the writing of textbooks by clerics with their presence to teach these books. The second action was the establishment and management of new private schools by clerics. This involvement of the clergy provoked a reaction from the Pahlavi regime, resulting in pressure on these schools and even the closure of some of them.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between teachers' self-efficacy and their tendency for integrating technology in teaching. Additionally, the contribution of teachers' self-efficacy variables in predicting their tendency to use technology in teaching is measured. This research is applied in terms of its objective and descriptive-correlational in terms of data collection. A sample of 175 teachers (109 females and 66 males) from the Safir Gofteman Institute were selected as the participants considering convenience sampling method, while the statistical population encompassed 324 teachers. The participants completed three questionnaires: Skaalvic and Skaalvic Norwegian Teacher’s self-efficacy scale with Cronbach’s alphas of 0.98 , Browne’s Technology Integration confidence scale (2009) with Cronbach’s alphas of 0.95 and a demographic information questionnaire. It is indicated that the teachers’ self-efficacy and technology integration intention are at satisfactory level. Correlation between self-efficacy and technology integration intention is .30 which shows positive direct relationship between these two variables. Moreover teachers’ self-efficacy is of power to predict teachers’ intention to integrate technology in teaching.

Literature plays a crucial role in education, a powerful tool for learning and teaching various subjects. It enriches the educational experience by fostering critical thinking, enhancing language skills, and promoting cultural awareness. Literature can enhance critical thinking and empathy by exposing students to various voices, perspectives, and experiences. This article explores the multifaceted role of literature in the learning and teaching process. Incorporating diverse literary texts in instruction is essential for fostering an inclusive and culturally responsive educational environment. In the present qualitative study seven literature and teaching professors, and twenty-six university students at the BA level were interviewed. The data were analyzed to deduce the relevant themes. The results revealed many positive points in using literary texts in language learning and teaching. In addition, some important themes were obtained from the interview data. In general, it was revealed that diverse texts could reflect students' varied backgrounds and challenge dominant narratives, encouraging learners to explore and appreciate different cultures and histories. This approach promotes student engagement and relevance, as the students see themselves represented in the literature they study. Moreover, different literary texts can serve as powerful tools for discussions around social justice, identity, and power dynamics, helping students to navigate complex societal issues. Ultimately, integrating these texts enriches the curriculum, supports the development of a more equitable classroom, and prepares students to thrive in a multicultural world.

Education has evolved significantly over the centuries, ranging from the ancient and classical era to the Industrial Revolution, inclusive education, and technology integration. In the latter part of the 20 th century, technology was incorporated into education, starting with audiovisual aids and computer-based learning through to distance learning, online learning platforms, virtual classrooms, and collaborative tools, transforming education into a more flexible and accessible experience (Chiu et al., 2023; Ghahari & Nejadgholamali, 2019; Ng et al., 2023). Having emerged in the 2000s, personalized learning platforms and massive open online courses (MOOCs) offered free or low-cost online courses to a global audience and catered to individual student needs and learning styles. Finally and most recently, artificial intelligence (AI) has provided personalized recommendations, automated grading, and data-driven insights to optimize learning through such tools as Jasper, Sudowrite, Quillbot, and ChatGPT (Bates et al., 2020; Rahiman & Kodikal, 2024; Rospigliosi, 2023). The present handbook is a must-read for any aspiring teacher and researcher, providing a clear and concise guide on how to use ChatGPT in classrooms. It introduces ChatGPT as a cutting-edge tool that can revolutionize teaching and learning and spotlight the process rather than only the product. ChatGPT was created and offered by OpenAI as a pre-trained language model in 2022 and is an extension to a line of writing tools that build on Grammarly, the Hemingway app, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, etc. It is a variant of the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) model and is trained on a large dataset of conversational text. It is already reforming businesses and industries like higher education, similar to the printing press and the internet. At its core, ChatGPT uses AI to compose responses to queries spanning numerous topics. It can help educators optimize their classroom practices, particularly assignments, and evaluation, throughout the course rather than only addressing educational outcomes. Naturally, in education, the camps are divided between those opposing the use of ChatGPT as a result of concerns about academic integrity and potential cheating and those who believe it can be a valuable supplement to traditional instruction for supporting instructors and students. As an instructional technologist, Skrabut takes the latter stance and recognizes the potential benefits of ChatGPT in enhancing the learning experience. He maintains that ChatGPT for education is similar to calculators in math, which can be fine-tuned for a variety of natural language processing tasks such as language translation, question answering, and test construction.  "80 Ways to Use Chat GPT in the Classroom" offers a number of examples of using ChatGPT to enhance the classroom experience in teaching and learning. However, students need to be trained in information literacy, which is critical for developing critical thinking and lifelong learning skills. Simply rehearsing information from ChatGPT without verification does not contribute to meaningful conversation. Right at the beginning, the author provides the basic instructions to work with ChatGPT and then outlines a set of keys to using it more effectively. Surprisingly enough, the reader will find these instructions and hints highly comprehensive and informative. The keys to obtaining successful responses include (a) Be as specific as possible when making a request; (b) Use an iterative approach (asking the same question in different general or specific ways); (c) Ask ChatGPT to improve its responses to meet your expectations; (d) Assign ChatGPT a role/act to serve (e.g., act as Linux, interviewer, plagiarism checker); (e) Always validate its responses by applying critical thinking skills. Most favorably, the author has supplied multiple examples for each task that ChatGPT can do. Each example has two parts, including the prompt to provide to ChatGPT (bold-typed) and the response from ChatGPT (italicized). According to the author,  if ChatGPT is used appropriately and strategically, the possibilities are extremely helpful and time-saving. Chapter 2 indicates how ChatGPT can assist in the course preparation procedure, starting with the course description to developing classroom activities. In the first step, the user may ask ChatGPT to describe a course by clearly introducing what it is about. Next, ChatGPT can help in creating actual goals and objectives for the course. Here, the author suggests that users guide ChatGPT to create valuable results by citing Bloom's Taxonomy, for instance, in their prompts. An example of a good prompt suggested by the author follows: "Write learning objectives for a sports management course at the remembering level of Bloom's Taxonomy using verbs like Cite, Define, Describe, Draw, Enumerate, Identify, Index, Indicate, Label, List, Match, Meet, Name, Outline, Point, Quote, Read, Recall, Recite, Recognize, Record, Repeat, Reproduce, Review, Select, State, Study, Tabulate, Trace, Write" (p. 21). ChatGPT can also assist teaching practitioners in crafting lesson plans, classroom activities, warm-up questions and activities (i.e., icebreakers), community-building activities (e.g., teamwork and class discussions), lecture notes and outlines, and assignment prompts. What is highly important in persuading ChatGPT to prepare these tasks is to give it as specific prompts as the user can. Chapter 3 concerns using ChatGPT as a teacher assistant in personalizing instruction (i.e., personalized education). Some of its contributions include: (a) grading written assignments and essays (given either generic or specific guidelines), (b) facilitating reading comprehension by generating text summaries, (c) creating fill-in-the-blanks stories (i.e., Madlibs) usually in enjoyable and funny way, (d) crafting writing samples for any given prompt or topic, (e) creating personalized study plans attuned to each student's learning abilities, and (f) generating dummy data such as exemplars. What is highly important at this stage is to provide detailed and clear guidelines, precisely indicating the length, word size, and scope, before ChatGPT gets started. Here are some effective prompts as models: Generate questions about with corresponding answers at a college level; Provide ten creative writing prompts for an essay writing class at the high school level; What are some interesting or novel ways to begin a math class with children; What are some icebreaker activities one could use for a college-level course. In Chapter 4, ChatGPT is introduced as an effective tool for assessment by quickly and easily creating a variety of test tasks and questions. Among the ways in which it can serve as an assessment aid are creating assessment rubrics for subjective tasks and designing test items of a variety of formats, including multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blanks, dichotomous or true-false, matching, and ordering forms. After deciding on and determining the target article or text as a prompt, one may ask ChatGPT in the following exemplary way: "Create one (or more) fill-in-the-blank exercise on " (p. 65). Chapters 5 and 6 illustrate how ChatGPT can assist teachers and students in developing study aids and classroom activities. Using ChatGPT in building study aids such as summaries, notes, outlines, flashcards, and vocabulary lists can make learning procedures more convenient, enjoyable, and effective. Teachers may ask ChatGPT to generate example sentences using a certain word, write a list of words and definitions for an article, and create a list of flashcards for the given words. ChatGPT can also aid in checking the authenticity of students' essays and in generating arguments and counterarguments on a given topic for classroom debates. The last two agendas, for instance, can be accomplished by giving the following prompts, respectively: "Did AI write this essay? " and "Debate me on the use of AI in higher education. I believe it should be used. You are to take the opposing side" (p. 77). Even more interestingly, ChatGPT can be assumed as a classroom member interacting with teachers and/or students. After raising a question or topic in the class, the teacher can ask the students to predict ChatGPT's responses and then compare the students' responses to those of ChatGPT. Given enough rubrics and guidelines, the students can also be invited to grade ChatGPT's responses and essays and realize the strengths and weaknesses of AI by themselves. Taking the students' side, Chapter 7 indicates how students can improve their writing and communicative skills by using ChatGPT as a digital tutor and partner. ChatGPT can help students in crafting essays, paper summaries, research papers, lectures, and presentations by improving both form (e.g., grammar, vocabulary, coherence) and content (e.g., themes, main ideas, ordering, and organization). In addition, it can provide feedback on their writing assignments before submission and help them revise their drafts after getting reviewed. ChatGPT can also serve as an assistant translator and conversation partner, thereby contributing to the student's language skills development. It is also a digital tutor, being accessible anytime not only to reply to the students' questions but also to personalize learning materials by adjusting the responses to their needs, age, and level of ability. For this purpose, the user may only need to guide ChatGPT in the following exemplary way: "Answer this question or explain this topic to a 15-year-old or beginning student". Further, ChatGPT can serve as an exceptional research assistant by helping students discover trending research topics, formulate research questions, develop annotated bibliographies, paraphrase and summarize content, find credible sources, and draft and edit sections of a document. Chapter 8 showcases how ChatGPT can be used in computer programming and application development. Given a specific and accurate script, ChatGPT can quickly and easily write codes, explain what a certain code does, troubleshoot the codes, clean up unnecessary codes, write scripts for Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Linux products, and enhance programs like spreadsheets or word-processing. Chapter 9 extends to other applications of ChatGPT, such as developing blog posts, writing book reviews, drafting grant proposals, writing play/video scripts, and role-playing scenarios. It also effectively assists in drafting email messages, letters of recommendation, job interview questions, press releases for projects, and award packages suitable for nominees and accomplishments. It can be further used for converting references to different formatting styles (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago), converting grammatical structures (e.g., number, gender, tenses), analyzing data sets, and summarizing large amounts of content before a meeting or classroom session. Chapter 10 illustrates how practitioners can suppress their inhibition and/or fear of using AI as an education and assessment tool. It offers fundamental guidelines and strategies that help teachers and students find ChatGPT an asset rather than a threat. There are times when AI is appropriate and others when it is not. Teachers may ask the students to detect its flaws and limitations; they should be explicit on what is allowed and what is not. For example, if they are not allowing tools like ChatGPT, explain why it is essential to refrain from using it and the educational benefit of the assignment. ChatGPT would not have access to proprietary academic databases. Additionally, it does not have access to current events. Another point to consider is that "ChatGPT is a textual interface. It cannot see images or hear audio files. The more friction you introduce into the assignment, the less appealing it will be to use AI" (p. 159). Although organizations and instructors can enhance their productivity and save time through ChatGPT, there is a caveat regarding the accuracy of the information it offers, requiring the users to check the information from multiple other sources. Skrabut explains his point very clearly by stating that AI will inevitably impact teaching and learning, just as previous technologies have, but educators are required to prepare students for this future. While ChatGPT is an intriguing emerging technology, it is not yet a perfect tool and it is essential to weigh the potential drawbacks. While the book provides comprehensive instructions with practical examples, it lacks depth in addressing ethical concerns and academic integrity. For instance, it does not sufficiently explore ChatGPT's potential drawbacks, such as the risk of over-reliance on AI tools or diminishing critical thinking skills among students. Furthermore, the discussion on academic integrity could benefit from providing instructors with a list of hands-on techniques on how to minimize the possibilities of AI-assisted cheating. Although the book is highly practical and advisable, these limitations may explain the need for further research and instructional guidance on how to mitigate the potential threats associated with ChatGPT use in educational milieus.