Teacher’s Perspectives on Null Curriculum in BA Level: 21st Century Skills in TEFL

Known as what educational contexts do not teach, null curriculum has been considered one of the most significant types of curricula due to its absence, being left out or overlooked. This non-existent curriculum brings an important theoretical tool to the field of curriculum development for the idea that something which is not offered to students has an educational significance and effect. To follow the purpose of the study which is teachers' perspectives on the null curriculum at the BA level, 300 university instructors were selected to participate in this study. To answer the research questions various statistical methods (one-way ANOVA, independent sample t-test, Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Scheffe’s test) have been utilized. Results of this quantitative study revealed that among the sub-constructs of the 21st century, critical thinking, collaboration skills, creativity and innovation skills, self-direction skills, technological literacy, global and local connection skills, economic and financial literacy, business and entrepreneurial literacy and media literacy should be considered as aspects of the null curriculum in TEFL curriculum in BA level in Iran, and they should be added to the present curriculum; however, communication skills are not regarded as aspects of null. In addition, Iranian EFL university instructors’ ratings on different components of 21st-century skills as one aspect of the null curriculum significantly differed. Finally, a model was proposed to describe the relationship between the ratings of the components of 21st-century skills as one aspect of the null curriculum by Iranian EFL university instructors. The findings of the present study can help to a better understanding of the ELT curriculum, aspects of the null curriculum, and 21st-century skills in the Iranian context

Essential Primary Predication and Technical Common Predication Devoted to Subject and Proposition

Essential primary and technical common predications have two meanings equivocally: (1) as a qualification of the subject, (2) as a qualification of the proposition. The meaning which has been proposed by Mullā Ṣadrā is the second one and the first meaning, with this title, has gained its common use only after him. To avoid confusing them, one must use each of them in its proper place in every single proposition. The first meaning must be asserted immediately after the subject, since it concerns the concept-referent distinction in the subject. However, the second one must be asserted at the end of the proposition, since both subject and predicate are important in its realization. It shows either they are conceptually the same (conceptual unity) or subject is among the referents of the predicate (extension inclusion). To avoid the contradiction, these two meanings must be mentioned in one proposition simultaneously. For instance, it can be rightly said: “the particular with primary predication is universal with common predication” which means “the concept of the particular is among the referents of universal” or it can be rightly said: “the particular with primary predication is the particular with primary predication” which means “the concept of particular is the same as the particular conceptually”. By distinction between these two kinds of predication, Mullā Ṣadrā tries to solve some contradictory (paradoxical) instances and his commentators say explicitly that he has added a unity to the eight unities concerning the conditions of occurrence of a contradiction. However, the unity that can be added to the eight conditions is not only the second meaning of these predications, but both of them. Now, according to the two predications concerning the subject and also proposition (as a whole), as well as the quality of the propositions, i.e. affirmation and negation, we come across eight forms of propositions which two by two are contradictory

Morphology and Symbolism of Birds Designs onto the Samanid Ceramics of the 3rd and 4th Hijri Centuries

Birds have always had a special place among the decorative designs of human-made artifacts. Certain characteristics of the birds and the symbolic concepts they imply have made many artists represent them in their artworks. In the early times of the Islamic age in Iran, especially during the Samanid era, the birds represented in the artworks are of high importance symbolically and aesthetically. Far from the natural world, such bird representations come much closer to abstraction and, subsequently, to symbolism. Notwithstanding, why certain birds were represented so extensively onto the surface ceramics has been only scantily studied. Given that symbolism is one of the integral parts of the Persian art and culture, the significance of studying the bird representations becomes clearer. The present research aimed to examine the importance of symbolism expressed by birds designs onto the surface of ceramics survived from the Samanid era. To do so, first, through a morphological survey, a contrastive analysis was applied between the mentioned designs and the relevant cases in calligraphy and literature. The results implied that the birds designs onto the surface of ceramics were mainly in abstract forms. At the same time, applying the Kufic calligraphy and floral decorations have played a major role in improving the representational quality of these designs. Symbolically, the belief that birds could bring bounty for the owner of the ceramic object may well justify why ancient Iranians intended to apply birds designs. The data were collected based on library sources and analyzed descriptively. The ceramics with birds designs examined in this research were from the 9th and 10th (3rd and 4th Hijri) centuries

On the relationship among Iranian EFL Leaners’ Crystallized Intelligence, Fluid Intelligence, Creativity, and their Performances on Multiple-Choice and Constructed-Response Items

Studies have been done on finding construct-irrelevant factors and cognitive processes involved in test taking. Previous studies have explored correlations between reading comprehension (RC) ability and psychological variables such as creativity and intelligence reporting significant relations. Many researchers trying to figure out the difference between diverse formats performance. The present study takes  interest in investigating if each test format performance is affected by cognitive traits of test takers. It  investigates the effects of three psychological variables including Fluid intelligence (Gf), Crystallized intelligence (gc), and creativity (C) on reading comprehension (RC) performance where Multiple-Choice (MC) and Constructed-Response (CR) formats are involved for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Learners. The relations among all five variables are examined applying Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) by hypothesizing a model related to the previous researches. The model goes through modifications twice and the final revision reports the relationships. Path analysis demonstrates direct significant effects in paths for Gc-MC, Gc-CR, Gf-CR and indirect significant effects in Gf-MC, creativity-MC, and creativity-CR. Therefore, CR items are the most affected format by those cognitive variables. The results are further discussed and concluded in more details

The Impact of Task-supported Interactive Feedback on the Accuracy, Fluency, and Organization of Iranian EFL Learners’ Writing

Controversy has not been yet resolved among researchers in second language research over the pedagogical efficacy of feedback in enhancing various features of learners’ writing skill. Research findings highlighting the significance of interactive tasks and learners’ engagement in improving the learning process stimulated the present study, the purpose of which was to explore the effect of task-supported interactive feedback on the accuracy, fluency, and organization of seventy two Iranian English major sophomores at Islamic Azad University-Mashhad Branch. It was hypothesized that engaging learners in both tasks and providing feedback would enhance their writing performance. The participants in three intact classes were randomly assigned to three groups: a control group, with no task (NTG), and two experimental groups: the task-supported group (TG), and the task-supported group with interactive feedback (TFG). Four one way analyses of variance tests were run on the research data indicated that the apparent gain in the task-supported interactive group over the other groups did not reach significance level. However, the TG group outperformed the control group in all three aspects of writing. The findings have pedagogical implications and can be interpreted in terms of socio-cultural characteristics of Iranian students