Validating the Model of the Elementary Curriculum of Farhangian University based on the Fundamental Reform Document of Education

Abstract

The present research aims to design and validate the model of the elementary curriculum of Farhangian University based on the fundamental reform document of education. The current research is applied in terms of purpose with a mixed exploratory approach. In the qualitative approach, the grounded theory method was used and a descriptive survey-type method was used in the quantitative approach. In the qualitative group, the statistical population included subject experts, and university professors in the fields of curriculum planning and elementary education, among which 34 people were selected as a sample using the purposeful sampling method. In the quantitative part, the statistical population included 120 teachers who were chosen from the best teaching models festival, with masters and doctorate degrees in the field of curriculum and elementary education. They were selected from the five provinces of Farhangian University of Tabriz, University of Tehran, Mazandaran, Razavi Khorasan, and Qom using the cluster sampling method. Qualitative data were collected with semi-structured interviews and quantitative data were collected with a researcher-made questionnaire. The data were analyzed by content analysis and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The findings of the exploratory factor analysis showed that ten themes including the goal (6 components), content (7 components), teaching methods (8 components), evaluation methods (5 components), research-oriented encouragement (4 components), connecting students with scientific resources (4 components), characteristics of learners (4 components), facilitating factors (3 components), obstacles (3 components) and consequences (4 components) are the components of the elementary curriculum of Farhangian University based on FRDE. In addition, based on the findings of the confirmatory factor analysis, all ten components are sufficient to remain in the research, and their factor loading values are suitable and consequently have a good fit. The results of Cronbach's alpha coefficient showed that the research model has good reliability. In addition, according to the values obtained for the combined reliability coefficient, the research model has good internal consistency. Finally, the reliability and validity of the convergence model of the research are confirmed based on the average value of the extracted variance.  Therefore, the model designed for the components of the elementary curriculum of Farhangian University based on FRDE has appropriate validity and reliability.