Abstract:
The group research approach is regarded as a well-known and
highly-applicable approach at the international higher education and post
graduate centers, but lack of new and successful experiences in the field
of group research, lack of appropriate theories for the internal cultural
conditions, and inattention to the accomplishments of group studies can
be considered as the main reasons for non-prevalence of the group
studies at the postgraduate level.
The present research has been carried out with the aim of evaluating the
effectiveness of group studies in strategic and scientific empowerment at
the upper education levels in the country, and through benefitting from
the experience of S.N.D.U. In this research, all PhD students of the
S.N.D.U who had already experienced the group studies are questioned
completely and the group studies of S.N.D.U. are introduced for finding
the issue and solving the strategic needs of the country as a successful
national model.
In the present research, the strategic national needs were developed as the
dependent variable; the main components were recognized in two
domains of topic recognition and strategy formulation; and the effect of
group studies on each of the variables were evaluated separately through
the one-sample t test. Then, efforts were made to present a qualitative
interpretation of the effectiveness. Also, the Freidman test was used for
ranking these components.
Using the statistical data analysis, it was evident that the effectiveness of
group study on scientific recognition and fulfillment of strategic needs is
in the range of average to very high. Also, regarding the ranking of
effectiveness, it was evident that this effectiveness has been evaluated to
be more than an easy, practical consensus mechanism in the domain of
formulating the national scientific and participatory strategies.