A Study on Critical Purposes, Principles and Methods of Freire in Teacher Training Pedagogy

The present study is extracted from a qualitative research attempting to emphasize on critical thinking approaches in teacher training pedagogy through descriptive and analytical methods. In the first part, after a brief look over the history of critical thinking in education and educational trends in the world, several approaches in the field are discussed. One of these approaches is the recent attempts made by thinkers in the area of critical thinking and its promotion in teacher training pedagogies based on modern critical education. In the second part, the liberating model of Paulo Freire is investigated in teacher training pedagogy as a critical approach. In this model, the aims, principles and methods of education presented by Freire are introduced in teacher training pedagogy. Finally, it is induced that the emergence of critical thoughts in education, brought about huge improvements in educational methods and pedagogies compiled for teacher training programs. In this regard, the liberating model of Freire, as one of the prominent contemporary educational models, could be considered as an efficient solution for promoting elite teacher training programs all around the globe. Keywords: Critical thinking; Teacher training pedagogy; liberating education; Paulo Freir

Studies on the binding affinity of anticancer drug mitoxantrone to chromatin, DNA and histone proteins

Mitoxantrone is a potent antitumor drug, widely used in the treatment of various cancers. In the present study, we have investigated and compared the affinity of anticancer drug, mitoxantrone, to EDTA-soluble chromatin (SE-chromatin), DNA and histones employing UV/Vis, fluorescence, CD spectroscopy, gel electrophoresis and equilibrium dialysis techniques. The results showed that the interaction of mitoxantrone with SE-chromatin proceeds into compaction/aggregation as revealed by reduction in the absorbencies at 608 and 260 nm (hypochromicity) and disappearance of both histones and DNA on the gels. Mitoxantrone interacts strongly with histone proteins in solution making structural changes in the molecule as shown by CD and fluorescence analysis. The binding isotherms demonstrate a positive cooperative binding pattern for the chromatin- mitoxantrone interaction. It is suggested higher binding affinity of mitoxantrone to chromatin compared to DNA implying that the histone proteins may play an important role in the chromatin- mitoxantrone interaction process

A Look over Curriculum from the Point of View of Critical Thinkers: Freire, Giroux and Apple

The present paper investigates the approaches of three major critical thinkers about curriculum. Henry Giroux with his theory of "Border Pedagogy" combining critical, post-modern, feminist and reconceptualist views tries to help educators and learners understand manifests of traditional borders of power, knowledge, decision-making, and sociocultural curriculums could be criticized in their pedagogies and they could even go beyond them. Then borders of existing pedagogies created by imperialism would be challenged and redefined. Freire utilizes the "Emancipatory Concept" from Habermas and Frankfurt school, uses it in the field of education and manages to provide a critical ground in educational system in which critical dialogue does not merely solve the problem but discusses new issues. Michael Apple emphasizes the role of "Hidden Curriculum" in the formation of predefined goals of imperialism and offers new solutions in this regard. Keywords: Critical education; Freire; Giroux; Apple; Curriculu

Contribution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Country’S H-Index

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development on country’s scientific ranking as measured by H-index. Moreover, this study applies ICT development sub-indices including ICT Use, ICT Access and ICT skill to find the distinct effect of these sub-indices on country’s H-index. To this purpose, required data for the panel of 14 Middle East countries over the period 1995 to 2009 is collected. Findings of the current study show that ICT development increases the H-index of the sample countries. The results also indicate that ICT Use and ICT Skill sub-indices positively contribute to higher H-index but the effect of ICT access on country’s H-index is not clear

Does it Matter Which Citation Tool is Used to Compare the h-index of a Group of Highly Cited Researchers?

h-index retrieved by citation indexes (Scopus, Google scholar, and Web of Science) is used to measure the scientific performance and the research impact studies based on the number of publications and citations of a scientist. It also is easily available and may be used for performance measures of scientists, and for recruitment decisions. The aim of this study is to investigate the difference between the outputs and results from these three citation databases namely Scopus, Google Scholar, and Web of Science based upon the h-index of a group of highly cited researchers (Nobel Prize winner scientist). The purposive sampling method was adopted to collect the required data. The results showed that there is a significant difference in the h-index between three citation indexes of Scopus, Google scholar, and Web of Science; the Google scholar h-index was more than the h-index in two other databases. It was also concluded that there is a significant positive relationship between h-indices based on Google scholar and Scopus. The citation indexes of Scopus, Google scholar, and Web of Science may be useful for evaluating h-index of scientists but they have some limitations as well

Comparative Analysis of Paulo Freire & Al-Ghazali’s Pedagogical Comments

The goal of the present research was a comparative-analytic examination of common features existed between Paulo Freire & Al-Ghazali’s pedagogical comments. Such examination is of great importance in the sense that first, the common features between these two scientists in the area of pedagogy has been able to cause some reformation and changes in the field; and secondly, while living in two totally different cultures and eras, their attitudes toward pedagogy issue seem to resemble each other in a particular manner. Among such common ideas, the two scientists’ attention to the role of politics in pedagogy, the congruity between theory and practice, highlighting active teaching, critical pedagogy, anti-superstition during the flow of pedagogy and the importance of teacher training can be pointed out. However, some distinctions are observed between thoughts provoked by these great trainers in areas of adult pedagogy and dialogue-based pedagogy. Keywords: Al-Ghazali, Paulo Freire, active teaching, teacher training, dialogue

A Comparison between Two Main Academic Literature Collections: Web of Science and Scopus Databases

Nowadays, the world’s scientific community has been publishing an enormous number of papers in different scientific fields. In such environment, it is essential to know which databases are equally efficient and objective for literature searches. It seems that two most extensive databases are Web of Science and Scopus. Besides searching the literature, these two databases used to rank journals in terms of their productivity and the total citations received to indicate the journals impact, prestige or influence. This article attempts to provide a comprehensive comparison of these databases to answer frequent questions which researchers ask, such as: How Web of Science and Scopus are different? In which aspects these two databases are similar? Or, if the researchers are forced to choose one of them, which one should they prefer? For answering these questions, these two databases will be compared based on their qualitative and quantitative characteristics

Does Criticism Overcome the Praises of Journal Impact Factor?

Journal impact factor (IF) as a gauge of influence and impact of a particular journal comparing with other journals in the same area of research, reports the mean number of citations to the published articles in particular journal. Although, IF attracts more attention and being used more frequently than other measures, it has been subjected to criticisms, which overcome the advantages of IF. Critically, extensive use of IF may result in destroying editorial and researchers’ behaviour, which could compromise the quality of scientific articles. Therefore, it is the time of the timeliness and importance of a new invention of journal ranking techniques beyond the journal impact factor

Contribution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Country’S H-Index

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development on country’s scientific ranking as measured by H-index. Moreover, this study applies ICT development sub-indices including ICT Use, ICT Access and ICT skill to find the distinct effect of these sub-indices on country’s H-index. To this purpose, required data for the panel of 14 Middle East countries over the period 1995 to 2009 is collected. Findings of the current study show that ICT development increases the H-index of the sample countries. The results also indicate that ICT Use and ICT Skill sub-indices positively contribute to higher H-index but the effect of ICT access on country’s H-index is not clear

Comparing the Ability of Bayesian networks and Adaboost for Predicting Financial Distress of Firms listed on Tehran Stock Rxchange (TSE) 1

Abstract: Financial distress and bankruptcy of companies may cause the resources to be wasted and the investment opportunities to be faded. Bankruptcy prediction by providing necessary warnings can make the companies aware of this problem. The aim of this study is to compare the ability of Bayesian networks and adaboost for predicting financial distress of firms listed on Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). Two naïve bayes models were developed based upon conditional correlation between variables and conditional likelihood. The accuracy in predicting bankruptcy of the first naïve bayes model's performance that is based upon conditional correlation is 90% and the accuracy of the second naïve bayes model is 93% and finally the accuracy of the adaboost that was built to compare with naïve bayes models is 88%. Collectively the results show that it is possible to predict financial distress using Bayesian and Adaboost models. But, Bayesian networks are more capable to predict financial distress of companies listed on TSE compare to Adaboost. With respect to the variables in developed models in this research we find that firms with lower profitability and more long term liabilities and lower liquidity are more in Risk of financial distress. To reduce financial distress risk, firms should use more conservative methods which lead to decrease in debts and reduce their costs