Determination and Prioritization of Educational Needs of Academic Members in the Area of Educational Assessment

Abstract

The main aim of the present study is to prioritize the training needs of academic members of Farhangian University and their assessment. This research method is descriptive-analytical survey, and the qualitative and quantitative methods have been used to carry it out. The statistical population in the qualitative section consisted of all education authorities throughout the country, out of whom 19 were selected using goal-oriented sampling. The quantitative statistical population comprised 181 of permanently employed academic members of Farhangian University which 150 samples were randomly selected. The research data were collected from semi-structured interview and researcher-made questionnaire. In order to determine the validity, content validity and to check the structural validity, operating analysis, and to estimate the reliability of the questionnaires, Cranach’s alpha coefficient was used. The findings showed that the results obtained in the qualitative section are in agreement with those obtained from the qualitative section. According to the research results, the most important educational needs of academic members in the area of assessment are: 1) ability in carrying out the qualitative assessment, 2) ability in carrying out the combined assessment, 3) ability in “skill-oriented” assessment instead of “memory-oriented” assessment. Moreover, the research findings in the qualitative section indicated that the amount of need of academic members of Farhangian University in the area of assessment were more than the medium level.