The purpose of the present study was to investigate the degree of considering the scientific principles in developing the content of the course " Thought and Research"(henceforth TAR) in the sixth grade primary school. The method employed in this applied research was survey study and content analysis technique is used as well. The data were collected quantitatively and qualitatively (mixed method research). The population consisted of instructors, authors, experts and teachers in Isfahan and Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari Provinces. A 44 individual ISSN 2162-6952 2014 www.macrothink.org/jse 81 sample of instructors and authors were selected from the population. For other groups, Random Stratified Sampling method was used and respectively 18 and 264 participants were selected. In quantitative section, 95 classes were observed and 180 participants were purposefully interviewed face to face in a semi-structured method. The data was collected using questionnaires, interviews, and observations. To determine the validity, both content and construct validities were used. KMO (in order to check the internal consistency of items) for teachers and observers questionnaires were respectively (0.907, 0.740) and questionnaires reliability in Cronbach's alpha were respectively 0.92 and 0.76. According to the teachers and experts questionnaires, the principles of developing the content were employed were at moderate level ( X =3.48 & p≤0.05), and according to the observations they were employed at low level ( X =2.75 & p≤0.05). Therefore, it is recommended that (TAR) course should be reviewed by educational experts, especially curriculum planners, expert teachers. In addition, according to the results of investigations on scientific principles, learners, interests, cultural and regional conditions, sufficient time and facilities as well as the three learning domains the ground of its effective implementation should be provided.
Journal of Studies in Education
In Iranian educational system, there are special schools offering specialized curriculum for gifted students. In the curriculum of their first degree high school course, complementary contents have been provided in order to improve the process of learning. The objective of the present study has been to evaluate the content of such books which has played a pivotal role Our questionnaire results showed that the four evaluated complimentary books were in quite desirable status. Based on the findings from the interviews and evidences from the gifted education literature we suggest principles by which selection and revision of complementary contents can be possible. Such principles are as follows: (i) content deepening, (ii) integrative and interdisciplinary organization, (iii) to be problem-oriented, (iv) understanding daily life use of the knowledge and (v) classification of exercises based on their complexity level.
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