Iran Teacher Employment Exam cheat sheet

Iran's Constitution (1358/1979, revised 1368/1989) has 177 articles; Article 1 defines the state as an Islamic Republic, Article 110 lists the Rahbar's (Supreme Leader's) powers.

The Expediency Council (Majma'-e Tashkhis-e Maslahat) was created in 1367/1988 to resolve disputes between the Majles and the Guardian Council; the Assembly of Experts elects and may dismiss the Rahbar.

Iran's administrative geography: 31 provinces (ostan), each headed by a governor-general (ostandar); provinces divide into counties (shahrestan), districts (bakhsh), and rural districts (dehestan).

UN Security Council has 5 permanent veto members (China, France, Russia, UK, USA) and 10 non-permanent members elected for 2-year terms.

Persian Gulf is about 240,000 km² and connects to the Gulf of Oman via the Strait of Hormuz; Iran's largest island is Qeshm, its longest river is the Karun, and its highest peak is Damavand (~5,610 m).

Iranian calendar (Solar Hijri): year begins at Nowruz (1 Farvardin, around 21 March); months 1-6 have 31 days, months 7-11 have 30, and Esfand has 29 days (30 in leap years).

Key international dates: 1945 UN Charter, 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1979 Islamic Revolution (22 Bahman), 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

Basic economics: GDP = C + I + G + (X - M); inflation erodes nominal purchasing power; a country's balance of payments has current and capital accounts.

Persian alphabet has 32 letters; Persian words do not begin with a vowel sound in writing, so initial vowels are carried by alef (ا) or hamze.

Persian sentence order is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV); the ezafe (-e) links a noun to its modifier or possessor (ketab-e sabz = the green book).

'ra' (را) marks a definite direct object; it follows the object, not the verb, and is not used with indefinite objects.

Verb morphology: past stem + personal endings forms simple past (raft-am); present stem + mi- forms present progressive/habitual (mi-ravam); the perfect uses past participle + auxiliary (rafte-am).

Classical poets and eras: Rudaki (Samanid), Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (epic, ~60,000 couplets), Khayyam (quatrains), Rumi's Masnavi, Sa'di's Golestan and Bustan (13th c.), Hafez (ghazal, 14th c.).

Major 20th-century Persian fiction: Sadeq Hedayat (Buf-e Kur), Bozorg Alavi (Chashmhayash), Jalal Al-e Ahmad (Gharibeh), Simin Daneshvar (Savushun).

Literary devices (araye-ha-ye adabi): tashbih (simile), este'are (metaphor), kenaye (metonymy/allusion), majaz (figurative use), jenase (paronomasia), mora'at-e nazir (congruence).

Punctuation and orthography: the half-space (nim-fasele) separates suffixes like -ha and -i; tanvin is written on Arabic loans (e.g., 'elman), and hamze spelling follows standard Farhangestan rules.

Quadratic formula: roots of ax² + bx + c = 0 are x = (-b ± √(b² - 4ac)) / 2a; discriminant Δ > 0 gives two real roots, Δ = 0 one, Δ < 0 none.

Arithmetic sequence: aₙ = a₁ + (n - 1)d, Sₙ = n(a₁ + aₙ)/2; geometric sequence: aₙ = a₁rⁿ⁻¹, Sₙ = a₁(1 - rⁿ)/(1 - r) for r ≠ 1.

Logarithms: log(ab) = log a + log b; log(a/b) = log a - log b; log(aⁿ) = n log a; log_b a = ln a / ln b.

Derivatives: (xⁿ)' = nxⁿ⁻¹, (sin x)' = cos x, (eˣ)' = eˣ, (ln x)' = 1/x; product rule (uv)' = u'v + uv'.

Pythagoras and trigonometry: a² + b² = c²; sin²θ + cos²θ = 1; sin 30° = 1/2, cos 60° = 1/2, tan 45° = 1; area of triangle = ½ab·sin C.

Combinatorics: permutations P(n,r) = n!/(n-r)!, combinations C(n,r) = n!/(r!(n-r)!); probability P(A) = favorable/total, P(A∪B) = P(A) + P(B) - P(A∩B).

Percent and ratio: percent change = (new - old)/old × 100; a 20% discount followed by a 10% discount equals 28% off, not 30%.

Circle and solid geometry: circumference 2πr, area πr², sphere volume 4/3 πr³, cylinder volume πr²h; mean = sum/n and median is the middle value of ordered data.

Iran's formal education structure: 6 years of elementary (ebtedai), 3 years of lower secondary (motovasseteh-e avval), 3 years of upper secondary (motovasseteh-e dovom); the Ministry of Education (Vezarat-e Amuzesh va Parvaresh) governs schools.

The Fundamental Reform Document of Education (Sanaad-e Tahavvol-e Bonyadin, 1390/2011) sets six subsystems and a six-domain approach to learning (religious-moral, cognitive, physical, social, aesthetic, economic-occupational).

Bloom's revised taxonomy (2001): Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, Create; verbs in objectives should match the intended cognitive level.

Curriculum elements (Tyler): objectives, learning experiences, organization, and evaluation; objectives must be stated in behavioral, measurable terms.

Teaching methods: lecture (efficient for large groups, low interaction), discussion (high participation), project-based and problem-solving (inquiry), cooperative learning (group interdependence and individual accountability).

Assessment types: formative (during instruction, feedback-oriented), summative (end of unit, grading), diagnostic (before instruction); norm-referenced compares students, criterion-referenced compares against fixed standards.

Classroom management: preventive discipline (clear rules, routines, engaging tasks) is preferred to corrective; positive reinforcement strengthens behavior, punishment only suppresses it temporarily.

Teacher professional ethics in Iran: respect for students' dignity, confidentiality of records, equity across backgrounds, and alignment of practice with national curriculum goals.

Piaget's stages: sensorimotor (0-2, object permanence), preoperational (2-7, egocentrism, conservation failure), concrete operational (7-11, conservation, reversibility), formal operational (11+, abstract/hypothetical reasoning).

Vygotsky: Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is the gap between independent and assisted performance; scaffolding and the More Knowledgeable Other support learning; language drives cognitive development.

Erikson's psychosocial stages include trust vs mistrust (0-1), autonomy vs shame (1-3), initiative vs guilt (3-6), industry vs inferiority (6-12), identity vs role confusion (adolescence).

Kohlberg's moral development: preconventional (obedience, self-interest), conventional (approval, law and order), postconventional (social contract, universal principles).

Classical conditioning (Pavlov): unconditioned stimulus, conditioned stimulus, conditioned response, extinction, spontaneous recovery; operant conditioning (Skinner): reinforcement schedules - fixed/variable, ratio/interval.

Information processing and memory: sensory register, working memory (~7±2 chunks, Miller), long-term memory; rehearsal, elaboration, and organization improve encoding; spaced practice beats massed practice.

Motivation theories: Maslow's hierarchy, self-determination theory (autonomy, competence, relatedness), attribution theory (internal/external, stable/unstable causes), expectancy-value theory.

Individual differences: Gardner's multiple intelligences (linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic) and learning styles are frameworks for differentiation, not fixed labels.

A lesson plan (tarh-e dars) typically includes: subject, grade, time, prior knowledge, general and behavioral objectives, content, method, materials, procedure (introduction, presentation, practice, summary), and evaluation.

Behavioral objectives use observable verbs (list, compare, solve, explain) and specify condition and criterion; avoid vague verbs such as 'understand' or 'know'.

Gagné's nine events of instruction: gain attention, state objectives, recall prior knowledge, present stimulus, provide guidance, elicit performance, give feedback, assess, enhance retention and transfer.

Lesson-planning models: Tyler's rationale, Taba's inductive 7-step model, and the 5E model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate) for inquiry lessons.

Time allocation: allocate roughly 10% introduction, 60% presentation and guided practice, 20% independent practice, 10% summary and assessment, adjusting to content.

Questioning: use wait time (~3-5 seconds), distribute questions across the class, and escalate from lower-order (recall) to higher-order (analysis, evaluation) questions.

Formative checks in class: exit tickets, quick quizzes, think-pair-share, and observation checklists; results should drive next-lesson planning (data-informed instruction).

Microteaching and reflection: a short recorded lesson analyzed against objectives improves specific teaching skills; reflective journals link action to outcome.

Mathematics: distinguish definitions, theorems, and postulates; a proof must state givens, the claim, and a valid chain of inference; common student errors include distributing over squares, (a+b)² ≠ a² + b².

Persian literature teaching: teach text comprehension with pre-reading (vocabulary), during-reading (questioning), and post-reading (summary, theme); meter (vazn-e aruzi) and rhyme (qafieh, radif) are key to poetry analysis.

Sciences: the scientific method - observation, hypothesis, experiment, data, conclusion; control variables and identify independent/dependent variables; cell, atomic structure, and Newton's laws are core topics.

Social studies: distinguish primary vs secondary sources; cause-and-effect chains; map skills (scale, latitude/longitude, legend) and chronology are assessed.

Foreign language (English): teach the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing); PPP (Presentation-Practice-Production) and TBLT are common frameworks; assess both accuracy and fluency.

Quranic and religious studies: tajwid rules - madd (elongation), ghunna (nasalization), idgham (merging), qalqala (echoing letters ق ط ب ج د); know the meanings of short surahs and the occasions of revelation.

Elementary education: phonics and sight-word instruction for reading; place-value and number sense for arithmetic; hands-on manipulatives support concept formation.

Subject-specific assessment: align item type to objective - multiple choice for recall, constructed response for reasoning, performance tasks for skills.

Quran has 114 surahs and 6,236 verses (by the Kufi count); Meccan surahs (revealed before hijra) emphasize belief and resurrection; Medinan surahs emphasize law and community.

Tajwid: madd-e tabi'i lengthens a vowel to 2 counts; ghunna applies to نّ and مّ; qalqala letters are ق ط ب ج د; idgham merges a silent nun/tanvin into a following letter.

Five pillars (arukan): shahada (testimony), salat (prayer), zakat (alms), sawm (fasting in Ramadan), hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca for those able).

Salat: five daily prayers (sobh 2 rak'at, zohr 4, asr 4, maghreb 3, isha 4); wudu is required and is invalidated by sleep, excretion, and certain impurities.

Shi'a jurisprudence (fiqh) sources: Quran, Sunna, ijma' (consensus), and 'aql (reason); ijtihad is the derivation of rulings by qualified jurists (mujtahid).

Islamic ethics: core concepts include taqwa (God-consciousness), ikhlas (sincerity), amr bi ma'ruf (enjoining good), and nahy az monkar (forbidding wrong).

Prophethood: 25 prophets are named in the Quran; Muhammad (PBUH) is the last (khatam al-anbiya); the Quran was revealed over about 23 years, beginning with Surah al-Alaq.

Key Quranic sciences ('ulum-e Qurani): asbab al-nuzul (occasions of revelation), nasikh wa mansukh (abrogating and abrogated verses), muhkam and mutashabih (clear and ambiguous verses).