Upstream Documents

The purpose of this study was to design and validate the environmental curriculum framework based on the upstream documents in the middle school, which was carried out using a qualitative-quantitative method with exploratory design in two sections. The research population in the first section of the research was upstream documents. The sampling method from this population was criterion-based. The data collection tool comprised a checklist and taking notes whose validity was assessed and approved by experts, masters, and professors. The output of this section was the environmental curriculum framework in the format of four elements of the curriculum (purpose, content, method, evaluation), which was used to validate the 42-item questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire approved from the experts' point of view and reliability by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The statistical population of the study in the validation section comprised 2259 people of the experts and masters of the social sciences, experimental sciences, and Farsi literature from six districts of education in Isfahan in the academic year of 2018-19, of which, 329 people were selected by categorized relative random sampling. The data obtained from this section were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis method using Lisrel software. The results showed that the fitness was appropriate for the proposed model based on the indexes (X2/df=1.947), (GFI = 0.95), (AGFI = 0.90), (RMR = 0.81).

Purpose: Teacher competencies in the education system is among the most influential and important issues. This importance is rooted in the critical role of teachers in educating people in a society, because the more teachers are prepared and qualified, the greater their impact on upgrading the education system. Methodology: In this regard, upstream documents, as the most extensive strategic and guidance texts, have given much attention to the teacher competencies, with regard to their mission, including directing and drawing the ideal human and the pursuit of a pure life. This study was conducted aimed at presenting a model for the teacher competencies in elementary education based on upstream documents. For this purpose, three major activities were carried out. Initially, upstream documents were examined to identify the components and instances of the teacher competencies, and the opinions of experts in the field were also used. Then, the model of the teacher competencies was designed according to the extracted instances and components. The qualitative method was used in this study and documentary research method was also used to investigate the first question. Findings: In this method, all the upstream documents, including the document of fundamental transformation of education, the national document as well as the scientific documents and literature in this field, were carefully studied so that all explicit and implicit instances and components of teacher training are extracted. Moreover, semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain the viewpoints of the experts in order to achieve the representing themes of competencies through content analysis. Discussion: Finally, the model of professional competencies was designed on the basis of the teacher competencies developed in the previous stages to examine the second question.