Portrayal of Positive Psychological Capital in Quran

The present study aims at exploring positive psychological capital in the verses of Qur’an. Positive psychology is the latest advancement in the field of psychology which focuses on improving the well-being of society. Positive psychological capital refers to the combination of overall qualities of positive psychology that contributes to the well-being and mental health. The present study is based on the content analysis of the verses of Qur’an. Content analysis comprises of three steps including identifying the categories or themes, dividing the information into units or parts and finally rating all the themes in all units. In the first step the researchers identified 41 themes from Qur’an by using committee approach and reading the verses between the lines. All these categories were identified by keeping in view the underlying themes of positive psychology. In the second step 30 units were devised from Qur’an by considering each Part as a single unit. The categories included behavior modification, belief in divine help, brotherhood, bravery, contentment, civility, credibility, encouragement of virtue, emotional regulation, excellence, forgiveness, generosity, gratitude, honesty, hopefulness, humility, justice, knowledge, lawful spending, learning, meaningfulness, mindfulness, moderation, obedience, patience, peace, determination, positivity, prosperity, repentance, resilience, reward, self-actualization, self-awareness, self-control, sincerity, social leadership, truthfulness, trust, and wisdom. Results suggest that the most prominent category in Qur’an is the reward. Validity of the study was maintained through the selection of the themes with the help of committee approach. Reliability of the scoring system was maintained through partial inter-rater reliability. Overall the present research has many implications in the positive psychology of religion.    

Helping Teacher to Develop Students Reading Comprehension Skills

Reading is an interactive- constructive process in which readers comprehend, interpret, and respond to the text according to what they already know. Effective readers have personal expectations about what they will get from a selection, and they bring those expectations to bear as they read by predicting and testing their predictions. The children actively create meaning by constructing, or generating relationship between what is within the text and what they already know. Some researchers describe reading as a ;transaction, (Rosenblatt 1988) in which meaning emerges from a give and take relationship between the reader and the print on the page. The interaction between the reader and the text allowed reader to construct their own meaning background Knowledge and experience according to there. This research was therefore conducted to identify strategies that were being implemented by the teacher to develop reading comprehension in students. And how, the teachers could be facilitated to improve their teaching strategies to enhance students reading comprehension skills. This study was divided into two phases. Phase 1 dealt with implementing strategies that could develop comprehension skills through stories in an ESL classroom. Story helps to develop language in the classroom, as Meek (1988) points out, ;Stories encourage them to take on new meaning regularly in a context of shared enjoyment. They learn about language and the different ways it is used. (P.37) They learn new language of stories, which is different from everyday spoken language. Gradually children take possession of the language of books and they begin to learn vital lessons about the reading process Phase II was an exploration of how to facilitate the teacher in her professional development. For enhancing her knowledge about implementing effective strategies like predicting, questioning, silent reading and group work, to develop children reading comprehension. The findings revealed the teachers understanding and her changes in her perception throughout the course of the study. And how this study helped her to professionally develop her style of teaching in order to get the desired children's reading comprehension. The findings also revealed that as a result of teacher development and reflection on practice, the teacher could change her conception and her approaches to the teaching of reading comprehension skills.