An academic learning environment has a significant role in shaping students' learning experience, scholarly identity construction, and socialization into academic culture. The aim of the present study was to understand the experiences of PhD students from their learning environment and the challenges and problems they may face. This case study was…

This qualitative phenomenological study investigated the challenges faced by Iranian students during the admissions process at a mid-size southern university in the United States. Researchers used a convenience sample from Iranian masters and doctoral degree applicants admitted for the 2015-2016 academic year. Using face-to-face interviews…

As part of a large-scale study, the present study explored the impact of research practice on professional development for English language teaching (ELT) in higher education. To this end, 10 masters students, 10 doctoral students and 10 university professors in ELT in different high-ranking state universities in Iran participated in the study. A…

The investigation of test-taking strategies is a crucial aspect of test validation studies especially if the test is a high-stakes one. The purpose of this study was to uncover if gender, academic discipline and the total exam score influence on the test-taking strategies employed by the candidates of the General English Section of the National…

The present study investigates the hidden experiences of students in the doctoral programs. This qualitative study was performed using the phenomenological method. The data were collected through the interview. The population consists of PhD graduates whose study period had passed. Using normal purposeful sampling, 45 graduates were interviewed.…

Professional development of educators, especially in preschool years has been neglected in Iran. The purpose of this study was to investigate the viewpoints of experts and teachers about the purposes and content of the professional development plan for preschool teachers. This research is a descriptive-analytic study conducted through both…

As part of a large-scale project, the present study explores research conception, research engagement (both reading and doing research), the impact of research on professional development, the setbacks for research engagement, and the suggestions for improving the dominant research practice in English language teaching (ELT) higher education. The…

Employing metaphor analysis, the present study explores the nature of unconscious beliefs of PhD students. This research aims at analyzing the metaphors produced by Iranian PhD students about learning and teaching in both current and ideal situations. Using the Iranian context of education, this study intended to: first, collecting the metaphors…

While research is abundant on quality assurance in higher education, very little has been done to study informal learning in general and its relation to quality assurance in particular. Reporting on a study of informal learning among PhD students in natural sciences in an Iranian university, this article is an attempt to address this issue.…

An important aspect of native speakers' communicative competence is collocational competence which involves knowing which words usually come together and which do not. This paper investigates the possible relationship between knowledge of collocations and the use of verb noun collocation in writing stories because collocational knowledge…

This article is part of a larger scale project on some aspects of the process of academic socialization of a group of Iranian Ph.D. students studying in five UK universities, particularly focusing on the relationship between these students and their supervisors. The study included eight engineering and five social sciences/humanities students, as…