grading

Although grades are the most ubiquitous currency of educational measurement around the globe, their meaning, particularly in understudied settings as in Iran, is still shrouded in mystery. The purpose of this study was to investigate EFL teachers’ class grades by focusing on the less verbalized aspects of grading to see what a grade means. Five Iranian English language teachers working part-time in a private EFL institute were interviewed using the repertory grid interviewing technique, Kelly’s (1955) unique data collection instrument used extensively in personal construct theory (PCT). The results of the content analysis revealed that of the 92 elicited constructs, over 70% were categorized as non-academic, pointing to a heavy reliance on such criteria for grading, and consequently leading to the invalidity of assigned grades. Further, the results of principal component analysis (PCA) of each teacher’s elicited constructs endorsed hodgepodge grading by demonstrating single main components that accounted for the most variation in teacher grading and that comprised both academic and non-academic factors. However, this phenomenon was interpreted slightly differently when seen from the PCT perspective. Implications of this study for teacher professional development and teacher education programs are discussed.

the purpose of this research is to prioritize the indexes of discretion, Heterogeny and Autogeny factors in order to analyze and evaluate their readiness for ideal situation of Central bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran (CBI). This research is an exploratory kind and in terms of method is a survey kind. The data collection tool is questionnaire. After two Delphi cycles, in final questionnaire the detachment variable was eliminated and for Autogeny variable 10 questions, Heterogeny 11 questions and discretion 17 questions were regulated, therefore it can be said the ostensible and content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed. Also since Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the questionnaire was higher than 0.7, it indicates acceptable reliability of the questionnaire. In order to analyze the data, Friedman test with applying SPSS software was used. The results showed, the structural dimension with average grade of 1.83 had higher average than contextual dimension which means in Discretion factor, the structural dimension has more readiness for ideal situation. Also the structural dimension with average grade of 2 had higher average than contextual dimension which means in Heterogeny factor, structural dimension has more readiness for ideal situation. And finally, the contextual tent dimension with average grade of 1.91 had higher average than structural dimension which means in Autogeny factor, the contextual dimension has more readiness for ideal situation.