there are two major theories of measurement in psychometrics: classical test theory (ctt) and item-response theory (irt). despite its widespread and long use, ctt has a number of shortcomings, which make it problematic to be used for practical and theoretical purposes. irt tries to solve these shortcomings, and provide better and more dependable answers. one of the applications of irt is the as...

supervisors play an undeniable role in training teachers, before starting their professional experience by preparing them, at the initial years of their teaching by checking their work within the proper framework, and later on during their teaching by assessing their progress. but surprisingly, exploring their attributes, professional demands, and qualifications has remained a neglected theme i...

acknowledgements i wish to express my gratitude to all those who have helped me in preparing this thesis. i would like to express my deep gratitude to my respected advisor dr. kourosh akef, whose advice and comments helped me in the early stages of the research and throughout the writing process. i would also like to express my gratitude to dr. hajar khanmohammad whose invaluable guidance he...

section{introduction} the concept of {sl cartan geometry} appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century, when {e}lie cartan was working on the so-called {sl equivalence problem}, the aim of which is to determine whether two given geometric structures can be mapped bijectively onto each other by some diffeomorphism. this problem can be considered in many different contexts, such as ...

abstract tasks nowadays are at the center of attention in sla research. task types is one of the critical issues in this regard, their effectiveness and suitability to any particular context, their characteristics and the result they yield are among some of these issues. on the other hand, discourse markers (dms) have been very much investigated and their effectiveness in conveying the meaning...

drought is transient phenomenon , slow , repetitive and integral part of the climate of each region. drought begins with a substantial reduction in precipitation over the long-term average rainfall and over time, reduced soil moisture and surface and ground water resources will continue to decrease. this phenomenon is the most important in bakhtegan basin because of its importance in strategic ...

the present paper offers a postcolonial reading of two of the best novels by v. s. naipaul – half a life and the mimic men – in five chapters. the focus of this research is on different notions of postcolonial criticism and their application on the two novels as discussed from homi bhabha’s and frantz fanons points of view. having introduced the life and literary career of v. s. naipaul in th...

the west of esfahan province, iran, is one of the most important agricultural areas throughout the country due to the climate variability and life-giving water of zayanderood river. rice is one of the major and economic crops in this area. the most important climatic elements in agricultural activities which should be considered include temperature, relative humidity, precipitation and wind. so...

although there are studies on pragmatic assessment, to date, literature has been almost silent about native and non-native english raters’ criteria for the assessment of efl learners’ pragmatic performance. focusing on this topic, this study pursued four purposes. the first one was to find criteria for rating the speech acts of apology and refusal in l2 by native and non-native english teachers...

abstract part one: the electrode oxidation potentials of a series of eighteen n-hydroxy compounds in aqueous solution were calculated based on a proper thermodynamic cycle. the dft method at the level of b3lyp-6-31g(d,p) was used to calculate the gas-phase free energy differences ,and the polarizable continuum model (pcm) was applied to describe the solvent and its interaction with n-hydroxy ...