Teacher factors encompass the teachers’ cognitive and affective characteristics that are likely to affect their instructional efficacy. Language teacher immunity is one of the affective factors that determines the teachers’ psychological well-being in their settings. The present study strived to itemize the factors in novice and experienced EFL instructors’ teacher immunity philosophy. To this end, first, the researchers used convenience sampling for selecting 62 EFL teachers including 38 novice and 24 experienced teachers at ten prominent language institutes in Tabriz (Iran) as the participants. Second, they conducted 30-minute interviews with the participants for determining the factors that influenced their TI philosophy using a researcher-developed semi-structured interview protocol. Lastly, they used thematic analysis in order to particularize the main factors in their teacher immunity philosophy. The findings of the study indicated that while the novice teachers considered external support as the main factor in their philosophy, the experienced teachers regarded their internal strength as the decisive factor that influenced their teacher immunity philosophy. The findings may have practical implications for teacher education courses in foreign language contexts.

2Various researches have shown that Iran's educational system does not pay enough attention to cultural differences and mostly promotes the dominant and official national culture in an engineered way. The focus of these researches has been focused on the inputs of the educational system. The current research, relying on the mixed exploratory method, tried to examine both the inputs and educational processes in order to test the truth of this claim, whether such a claim is consistent with the reality in the educational system. In this way, in the qualitative part, first the teachers' lived experiences of the criteria that were considered for their selection and employment were analyzed (inputs), and then in the quantitative part, the teacher's success in the classroom was analyzed. It was predicted based on the mentioned criteria (processes). The findings of this research showed that scientific identity and ideological identity are valued in the recruitment of teachers, and because of this, criteria such as personal success, special privileges, and religious and moral foundations are put forward. However, it is only the teacher's personal success that can predict his success in the classroom. This shows that the ideological identity is only manifested in the inputs and is practically not institutionalized in the classroom and teaching processes. In this way, considering Iran's educational system as ideological does not match the realities of the educational system.

The current research was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of training courses held for teachers based on the Kirkpatrick model. The research population is all the people who participated in the mentioned training courses and finally, 123 people who participated in the courses during 2013-2014 were selected as a sample through simple random sampling method. This research is descriptive in terms of data collection, practical in terms of purpose, and evaluation in terms of function. To collect information in the first level, the reaction level evaluation form was used, and in the second and third levels, a questionnaire was used to evaluate learning and behavior. One-sample t-test was used to analyze the obtained data. The findings of the research indicated that there was no optimal effectiveness in all four levels of reaction, learning, behavior and results, and the main reasons for this were the failure to conduct a needs assessment for the mentioned courses, and the lack of mastery of the professors of the courses. The content and method of teaching, lack of attention and correct criteria to attract the professors of the courses, lack of motivation in the teachers to participate effectively in the courses and attend only to receive certificates and degrees, and lack of attention to useful and practical content in the courses.

teachers’ assessment literacy plays a crucial role in the assessment quality and student achievement. To shed more light on this issue, this mixed- methods study intended to measure and describe the assessment literacy level of 80 randomly selected Iranian EFL and field specialist ESP university teachers who sat for an assessment literacy questionnaire and 10 of them for a semi-structured interview.Analyses of the data showed that: first, members of neither group possessed an acceptable level of assessment literacy; and second, there were significant differences among them on the nine sub-scales of assessment literacy. Though the EFL university teachers showed higher assessment literacy level than the field specialist ESP counterparts, both groups suffered significant deficiencies which not only indicate weaknesses in EFL teacher education programs in terms of language testing and assessment but also are persuasive enough to render specific assessment education for each group involved in foreign language teaching programs necessary.

If professional competencies were of any importance in any educational environment, they would be clearly and emphatically covered in teacher training and in-service training programs in that environment, leading to a common perception among both working teachers and student-teachers. To explore this situation here in Kordestan, a group of 16 student-teachers and 15 working teachers were interviewed in a semi-structured manner. Data analyses led to the identification of themes and their classification across both groups. Comparison of the two sets of data reveals that the student-teachers perceive professional competency to be having a teacher’s characteristics, professional preparedness, response to the changing environmental demands, and the ability in interacting and communicating with others positively. The other group, on the other hand, perceive competency as being able to impact the environment and the potential beneficiaries, knowledge and ability to communicate positively, appearing in multiple roles, and abiding by the professional principles.

Teachers have got important roles and responsibilities in the society during the teaching time. They are not also the transmitters of knowledge but also the contributors to transforming knowledge by the students. Knowing the important role of teachers in the society, it is well to know that many of their responsibilities can be achieved by their knowledge bout the society (Johnson, 2009). It is always stated that educating student-teachers should be in a way that they understand different aspects of their society. That all said, In this paper, we were due to introducing a new, localized, model of teacher education based on the prerequisites which were nominated by Richards (1998) and Johnson (2009). This model is the one which is discussed and debated. We will go through different principles required for a sociocultural approach towards teacher education. We hope this proposal can be applied to the current teacher education programs.

This study was designed to identify teacher effectiveness factors, according to the perceptions of the English teachers in Khuzestan. Participants were 215 male and female secondary school English teachers, selected by a multistage sampling method. A 50-item researcher-constructed questionnaire was administered to these teachers, asking them what characteristics they thought effective English teachers should possess or demonstrate. A Principal Component Analysis was used, which yielded the following four factors: (a) instructional strategies (15 items), (b) communication (social) skills (8 items), (c) personal characteristics (8 items), and (d) knowledge (5 items). Results indicated that, to these teachers, instructional strategies were viewed as more critical for teacher effectiveness than other characteristics. Implications for training centers, principals, and higher education planners as well as suggestions for further research were discussed.