The Effect of Participatory Teaching on Group Cohesion of Elementary School Students

Extensive evidence demonstrates that dominating positivism approach in educational environments prepares the background of passivity for learners and fall of vitality and dynamism. The present research, comprehending the necessity of benchmarking the new educational approaches, aims to study the effect of participatory teaching on elementary school students. Therefore, the Quasi-Experimental Research Method with pre-test and post-test on intact groups. The statistical population includes the 24 female students of fourth grade of elementary school of Tehran School Dist.1. during school year 2016 – 2017, separated in two experimental and control groups and two-stage cluster sampling was used. Applied devices to gather data was Group Environment Questionnaire (Carron et al, 1985). Covariance Analysis shows that participatory teaching had a significant effect on group cohesion of elementary school student. Generally using the participatory teaching capacity may provide an appropriate field for formation and dynamics strengthening and promoting the culture of team working among students of the elementary school

The effect of spiritual vitality training program on athletes\' fear of failure and psychological security

Background: The literature in sports psychology showed that a decrease in the feeling of psychological security probably caused a decrease in success and thus caused fear and anxiety. As a result, sports psychologists have focused on training programs to overcome the reduction in feelings of psychological security and fear. Aims: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of spiritual vitality training program and evaluation on fear of failure and psychological security of athletes. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test research design, 46 female athletes were selected by voluntary participation, and randomly divided into two groups of spiritual vitality and control training programs. Participants completed pre-test and post-test questionnaires of psychological security (Edmondson, 1999) and fear of failure (Conory et al, 2002). The intervention phase was performed in 28 one-hour sessions. This protocol was a combination of the protocol of spiritual vitality (eight sessions), consciousness in the moment (ten sessions) and acceptance and awareness (ten sessions) (Mehry Varnayeb, 2017). During this time, the participants in the control group engaged in their daily activities. Data were analyzed by multivariate and univariate analysis of covariance. Results: The results of multivariate analysis of covariance showed that spiritual vitality training program has a significant effect on reducing the fear of failure (ie, decreased self-esteem, fear of having an unknown future, fear of upsetting important people, fear of experiencing shame and fear of losing Giving interest to important people (athletes) (P<0.05). It also showed that spiritual vitality training program has a significant effect on increasing the sense of psychological security of athletes (P<0.05). Conclusion: The results showed that spiritual vitality program has been effective in reducing the fear of failure and increasing the feeling of psychological security of the athletes through self-control and it is important for experts to be aware of this program in order to reduce the fear of failure and improve the safety of athletes

School health assessment tools: a systematic review of measurement in primary schools

Background. This systematic review aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the school healths assessment tools in primary schools through COSMIN Risk of Bias checklist. We examined the studies that have addressed the measurement properties of school-health instruments to give a clear overview of the quality of all available tools measuring school health in primary schools. This systematic review was registered in PROPERO with the Registration ID: CRD42020158158. Method. Databases of EBSCOhost, PubMed, ProQuest, Wily, PROSPERO, and OpenGrey were systematically searched without any time limitation to find all full-text English journal articles studied at least one of the COSMIN checklist measurement properties of a school-health assessment tool in primary schools. The instruments should be constructed based on a school health model. The eligible studies were assessed by COSMIN Risk of Bias checklist to report their quality of methodology for each measurement property and for the whole study by rating high, moderate or low quality. Results. At the final screening just seven studies remained for review. Four studies were tool development, three of them were rated as "adequate" and the other study as "very good"; five studies examined the content validity, three of them were appraised as "very good", and the two remaining as "inadequate". All seven studies measured structural validity, three of them were evaluated as "very good", three other were scored as "adequate", and the last study as "inadequate". All the seven studies investigated the internal consistency, five of them were assessed as "very good", one was rated as "doubtful", and the last one as "inadequate". Just one study examined the cross-cultural validity and was rated as "adequate". Finally, all seven studies measured reliability, two of them were rated as "very good" and the rest five studies were appraised as "doubtful". All rating was based on COSMIN checklist criteria for quality of measurement properties assessment. Conclusion. The number of studies addressing school health assessment tools was very low and therefore not sufficient. Hence, there is a serious need to investigate the psychometric properties of the available instruments measuring school health at primary schools. Moreover, the studies included in the present systematic review did not fulfill all the criteria of the COSMIN checklist for assessing measurement properties. We suggest that future studies consider these criteria for measuring psychometric properties and developing school health assessment tools.Funding Agencies|Swedish Research CouncilSwedish Research Council [2015-01229]</p

Investigating the Role of Customer Co-Creation Behavior on Social Media Platforms in Rendering Innovative Services

The emergence of social media platforms as the main representatives of Web 3.0 applications significantly impacts the co-creation activities among enterprises, customers, and other stakeholders, and has enabled firms to benefit from creativity and ideas of their users and customers for developing and rendering innovative services. This study aims to investigate how the co-creation activities of users on social media platforms have an effect on the enterprises&rsquo; innovative services. For this purpose, the authors surveyed customers of innovative services who used social media platforms to meet their needs from the enterprises that innovatively offer such services. An online questionnaire was designed and distributed among the sample of customers, and 505 completed questionnaires were analyzed following the PLS-SEM approach. The findings revealed that customer citizenship behavior and customer participation behavior on social media platforms positively affect the rendering of innovative services. Findings also highlighted that an increase in social co-creation activities, as moderator, positively affects customer citizenship behavior on service innovativeness, and negatively affects customer participation behavior on service innovativeness. The findings of this research could be useful for entrepreneurs and managers of the enterprises that offer innovative services to efficiently use social media tools to benefit from the customers&rsquo; co-creation activities and to perform more competitively and sustainably in a hostile business environment

Investigating the Person Fit Statistics of Teenagers Participating in the Iranian University Entrance Exam Using the PerFit Package in R

The validity of the scores obtained from a test determines the accuracy and appropriateness of the inferences made about the examinee based on his test score. Person fit analysis offers several statistics that provide a basis for evaluating the conformity of the test score with a certain measurement model or with a group of examinees as an indicator of the validity of the test score. The PerFit package has been developed in R software for easy access to most of the person fit statistics. In this article, a review of person fit statistics is provided. With an example, it will be practically demonstrated how to use the main PerFit operators. Both numerical and graphic tools are described and shown using the biology scores of the applicants of the Iranian university entrance exam in 2022. The goal is to introduce the PerFit package as a powerful tool for measuring person fit and show how person fit statistics can be easily used for academic achievement tests