Abstract
The aim of the research was to evaluate the teaching of Arabic in higher education institutions in Tehran based on the Kirkpatrick model. The research method was applicable in terms of its purpose, and descriptive-survey in terms of data collection, using a questionnaire as the tool. The statistical population of the present study included students of higher education institutions in the city of Tehran, with a total of 291 individuals. The sample size was estimated using the Cochran sample size estimation formula, and 166 students from higher education institutions in Tehran will be selected as the research sample. The sampling method in this research is simple random sampling. The effectiveness evaluation questionnaire of the Arabic course was developed by Abbas Arab; a PhD. Student in educational management of Semnan University, in 2014, and is based on the Kirkpatrick evaluation model, consisting of 29 questions. The findings of the research showed that the evaluation components of training effectiveness, including reaction, learning, and results, are able to predict the effectiveness of teaching Arabic in higher education institutions based on the Kirkpatrick model. According to the research findings, the teaching of Arabic in higher education institutions in Tehran is at a satisfactory level in terms of the reaction, learning, and results components.
Extended abstract
Introduction
The role of higher education in the comprehensive, balanced and sustainable development of countries in the social, cultural, educational and research fields in a complex and continuous manner has made the higher education system as the guardian of responding to the religious, national, revolutionary and field necessity. For the emergence and outbreak of all the capacities and talents of the country, it is necessary to design a model of policy effect evaluation (Mei et al, 2022). This basis of quantitative growth of universities and higher education and research centers alone and without paying attention to the process of scientific developments and the real needs of society and quality standards will definitely not work. Desirable quality, appropriateness between education and research, responding to society's needs, benefiting from up-to-date scientific information and communication, monitoring and evaluation are some of the issues that can guide higher education towards playing the expected development role in harmony with quantitative expansion. Therefore, if we consider the main mission of higher education to be the education and provision of expert human resources needed by the country, this mission is considered one of the qualitative goals that will be directly related to the quality of the higher education system (Al-Abdullatif, A. M., & Alsubaie, 2023). Therefore, evaluating and guaranteeing the quality of the performance of higher education units as an important step to achieve competitiveness is always on the policy agenda, and monitoring global developments in higher education evaluation in order to identify trends and events in this field is an effective step in evaluating higher education in Iran and consequently the country's sustainable development (Gabriela et al, 2022).
Higher education is a specialized field and has professional organized literature, and considering the continuous efforts made after the Islamic revolution to improve the country's higher education system, its quantitative growth status is very suitable and impressive with regional and international standards. But regarding the evaluation status of the courses offered, including the Arabic course, in the country's higher education system, the results of some researches indicate that the evaluation of the quality of the university system does not have a clear and consistent framework, and despite the fact that, in parallel with the quantitative growth, qualitative growth in the education of higher education has also taken steps; the country's higher education needs more scientific work for evaluation, and this need is especially important in theoretical foundations and evaluation models as a specialized field. The obvious reason for that is the lack of an evaluation model in universities. On the other hand, how to respond to issues such as understanding the complexities of the modern era, determining future research mechanisms and accurately recognizing the needs of society and creating needs in the country's higher education system begins with examining the existing situation in the form of a coherent program based on valid criteria and standards. In the first stage, in an organized process, the credibility of the country's higher education system (government and non-profit universities) will be evaluated in different dimensions, and the results of this extensive evaluation will be a solid foundation for the next stages, including the ranking of universities. Considering the cultural commonalities with Arab speakers, there are many issues in communication and interaction with native Arab speakers, which make interaction and information exchange difficult during religious ceremonies such as Hajj and Arba'in. In this regard, the textbook is known as the strongest and most important medium of mass communication and processing and transfer of information to students' minds. Because of this privileged position and having the content of the curriculum in shaping learning in the education process, especially in centralized educational systems, it has been given more attention. The main question of this article is: what is the evaluation of Arabic lessons in higher education based on Kirkpatrick's model?
Literature
The formation of the national identity and, its symbols as a result, is a historical process that includes many simultaneous and temporal issues. Among these issues in time and simultaneity, it can be mentioned historical, social, geographical, cultural (religion, language and customs) events. ), economic, political, scientific and technological and the like; each of which can be among the constituents of national identity. For the above reasons, the nature of each nation's identity changes throughout history and at different times; therefore it should be said that identity is a dynamic and not a static phenomenon. Various factors are involved in the formation of the national identity of a nation, for example, in the cultural dimension, important indicators can be mentioned such as rituals and traditions, celebrations and holidays and public culture, traditional values, clothing and dress, architecture of buildings and places, customs, national and native arts. Of course, it cannot be said that each of them alone is the determining factor of Iranian national identity. These factors collectively form the identity of a nation and are divided into two general categories: The first category is the racial, geographical, historical, script and language elements, which are considered as the form of nationality; and the other category is the intellectual, religious and cultural factors that form the substance and content of nationality (Vatmani, 2023).
Donald Kirkpatrick proposed a comprehensive model and implemented it in various organizations including Barclay Bank. This model was described as a simple, comprehensive and scientific model for many training situations. He defines the title as determining effectiveness in an educational program and divides the evaluation process into four levels or steps (Gabriela et al, 2022).
Research method
In general, the types of research are divided according to three criteria, a) based on the type of data, b) based on the result, and c) based on the goal. Based on the type of data, the current research is classified as a quantitative research. Also, since the results of the present research can be used to evaluate the teaching of Arabic in higher education based on the Kirkpatrick model, it can be considered in the category of applicable research according to the results; because the purpose of applicable research is to develop applicable knowledge in a specific field. Also, the current research based on the objective is in the field of correlative descriptive-survey research, in which the questionnaire tool was used. Questionnaire was used in the field section. The statistical population of this study includes students of higher education institutions in Tehran. The total number of the statistical population of this research is 291 people. In order to estimate the sufficient number of samples in this research, Cochran's sample estimation formula was used. Therefore, 166 students of higher education institutions in Tehran will be selected as the research sample. The sampling method in the present study is simple random sampling.
Findings
The components of teaching effectiveness evaluation, including reaction, learning and results, are able to predict the effectiveness of teaching Arabic lessons in higher education based on Kirkpatrick's model. The results of the above table show that the t calculated for the variables is greater than the critical t (1.96) at the 99% confidence level, and the significance level (two-sided) is less than 5%. This means that the null hypothesis is rejected and the research variables are in a favorable state. Based on the findings of the research, the T value of the learning component is at a higher level than the rest of the other variables and is in a more favorable condition.
Discussion
The purpose of the research was to evaluate the teaching of Arabic lessons in higher education based on the Kirkpatrick model in Tehran's higher education institutions. Based on the findings of the research, the teaching of Arabic in Tehran's higher education institutions is at an optimal level in terms of response, learning and results.
In line with the findings of the research, it is suggested that the knowledge in the field of evaluation of higher education courses be improved through holding educational workshops and scientific seminars, as well as the evaluation criteria and indicators of Arabic education according to the available resources and using the opinions of Arabic teachers and education experts. It is suggested that local criteria for evaluating Arabic education in the country should be presented and educational centers and sites should be evaluated according to the opinion of the learners.