A Model to Guarantee Student-Teachers' Quality of Preparation in Iran's Educational System

The present research has aimed to present a model to guarantee the quality of student-teacher preparation in Iran's educational system. For this purpose, a sequential, exploratory mixed research was used. Grounded theory was used in the qualitative phase. By means of purposive sampling, 28 individuals who better suited the aim of the research were selected, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with them. Content analysis led to the identification of 20 main components guaranteeing quality in the first phase: public perception of teaching profession, student admission, training system, managers, faculty members, administrative staff, structure, organizational culture, supervising and assessing the system, regulations and rules, formal curriculum, informal curriculum, internship program, coaching process, teaching process, evaluation process, learning facilitators, coaching novice teachers, assessing learning consequences, and professional support for novice teachers. To accredit the quality guarantee model, both quantitative (using questionnaires) and qualitative (forming focus groups) means were used, and the model was presented. For the quantitative phase, 745 faculty members, senior officials, mid-ranking officials and students were selected by means of random clustered sampling. A questionnaire consisting of 159 items was devised based on the given components and subcomponents, the reliability of which was determined to be 0.94 using Cronbach's alpha. Second-order factor analysis indicated that the subcomponents for each component predicted that component significantly, which shows that the model presented in this research enjoys the required credibility.