Thought experiments are executed in the mind without using equipment by operating an imaginary scenario with a specific purpose such as finding a solution, bringing an evidence, clarifying a concept, strengthening or refuting a theory. Although thought experiments have revolutionary impacts in the history of science, their role in science education has not been revealed yet. This research aims to present enlightening results about students’ thought experimentation processes by investigating the effects of high school and university physics students’ alternative views about satellite motion on this process. In this research, Thought Experiments Survey was applied to 50 tenth grade high school students (age 17) and 20 fourth year university students studying physics education. The data taken from a single question about satellite motion were taken within the scope of this study. Response categories were formed, and thought chains that shows the students’ thought flows in each categories were drawn. Research results introduce the students’ alternative views about satellite motion and show that these alternative views effect students’ thought experimentation processes as deflectors in reaching the right conclusion. The results also illuminate the students’ problem solving processes in the context of imaginary world.

Keywords: Thought experiments, satellite motion, alternative views
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Today English serves as a lingua franca in international business communication between local and foreign professionals in Kazakhstan. Many Kazakhstani business people write business documents in English. However, non-native speakers may continue to use the rhetorical patterns of their native languages. At the same time English native speaker may expect writers using a second language to have a similar fluency in culture and customs. Therefore, this paper explores the rhetorical and pragmalinguistic peculiarities of business letters written in English by Kazakhstani students taking the English for Business Purposes course. The findings of the present study demonstrate that the written texts of sales letters not only reflect specific linguistic characteristics that differentiate them from other types of business texts, but also contain a number of unique national and cultural features which make them valuable “indicators” of the communicative traditions of the people. Based on the results and discussions, recommendations are offered for preparing students well for the business workplace through incorporating more authentic models and contexts into pedagogical strategies.

Keywords: Business letters, intercultural business communication, rhetorical analysis, pragmalinguistic analysis, English for Business Purposes.
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The main purpose of this study is to prove that tests, evaluations and personality files that are used at education institutions to follow student’s interest, skills, personal and occupational developments can be realized in a web-based decision support system. In this assistance, during the student’s educational life the following development and decision process is keeping to target in the electronic environment. With this study it is aimed to decrease required labor force, time, cost and paperwork which are required for guidance services and it is aimed to access fast and effectively to information. At the same time, when student transferred to another institution, it is provided that required information of student is also transferred to related institution. E-guidance and counselling decision support system is developed for students as a fast and effective solution for appropriate choices to make required decision, especially in knowing their interest and skills and depending on this, knowing their profession that they will apply willingly throughout their life.

Keywords: E-guidance and counseling services, occupational guidance services, student personality services, decision support systems.
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The purpose of this study was to determine the opinions of physical education (PE) teachers about problems in practice and the suggestions for solution. Focus group interviews were conducted with 16 PE teachers in the study and data were evaluated with the content analysis method. The results showed that their most important problems faced in practice were; management staffs thought that PE class are unimportant, qualifications of investigators were not efficient to assess PE class, not only parents but also girls were not interested in PE courses, PE teachers had missing information on personal rights, students were not bring sportswear, tools and equipment were insufficient, course time was limited, course planning-implementation-evaluation were not adequate because of crowded classes, students were not participated in extracurricular activities due to preparing for examinations. PE teachers’ suggested solutions for these problems were; arranging lectures emphasizing importance of PE for management staffs, parents and students.

Keywords: Physical education, Problems in PE class, Suggestions for problems.
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The main objective of this study is to determine the stress forming factors of college students and to determine the relationship between their social problem-solving abilities and interpersonal style. The further object of research is to contribute to a better understanding of relationship between stress factors of students and their various demographic variables such as gender and type of education. The results of analysis revealed that in many stress-forming-factor subscales, women’s score were significantly higher than men’s. Also, it was determined that, in the "academic issues" subsection, students from first-education scored significantly higher than those from second education. Students' stress scores were predicted by some demographic variables, and problem-solving approaches, and some interpersonal styles. It is considered that the findings can be used for some educational training and counseling services given by the health centers and/or psychological counseling for youths. Specially, ''problem-solving skills" and "communication skills" training programs which are offered in these centers will be very important in terms of preventive mental health for students.

Keywords: University students, stress, problem solving abilities, interpersonal relationship skills
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Music is interrelated with many fields of science, such as mathematics, physics and philosophy. The effect of music on mathematics has been one of the important subjects studied by researchers throughout the history of humankind. Researchers emphasize that Mozart’s music in particular increases mathematics skill and mathematical reasoning to a great extent. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of Mozart’s music on the success of middle school students in mathematics courses. The study group of the research was composed of 78 8th grade students who were studying at Sevinç Kurşun Middle School, located in the central district of Balıkesir province in Turkey. The Pre-Test/Post-Test group model, which is one of the test models, was used in the research. Two experimental groups and one control group, which were formed with unbiased allocation, were used in the research. The experimental study was repeated twice by changing the groups again with unbiased allocation. In the implementation stage of the research, experimental group 1 listened to Mozart’s music, whereas experimental group 2 listened to classical music except Mozart’s music. A mathematics course was given in the control group via the traditional method without music. According to the results of first experimental study and second experimental study, it was found that there was a significant difference between post-test scores of middle school students who participated in the research. It was concluded that the students who listened to Mozart’s music in the classroom achieved the highest success in the mathematics course, followed by students who listened to classical music except Mozart’s music and students who were given mathematics course via the traditional method (without music), respectively.

Keywords: Middle School, Mathematics Course, Success, Mozart’s Music, Effect
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The purpose of the present study is to adapt Cultural Intelligence Scale (CIS), which is developed by Ang et al. (2007) to Turkish, and to assess its psychometrics properties. Research was conducted on 5 different study groups, who consisted of 1104 students at Dicle University Ziya Gokalp Education Faculty during 2012 Spring Semester. In Turkish adaptation process of CIS, its language equivalence was assessed and strong positive and significant correlations were obtained between Turkish and English versions. Explanatory and Confirmatory factor analysis showed four factors for Turkish version of CIS similar to its original version. Concurrent validity results showed that correlation between Turkish version of CIS and Intercultural Sensitivity Scale was .61 and correlation between Turkish version of CIS and Tromso Social Intelligence Scale was .44. Reliability analyses showed .85 internal consistency coefficient and .81 test-retest reliability. Item analyses showed corrected item-total correlations were between .33 and .64. Based on these results, it can be concluded that Turkish version of CIS is a valid and reliable measurement in assessing university students’ cultural intelligence.

Keywords: Cultural intelligence, cultural intelligence scale, validity, reliability
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In this study, the relationship between school administrators’ accountability and teachers’ organizational justice perceptions at schools was investigated. This research is a correlational study designed in the survey method. The population of the study was comprised of teachers working at secondary schools in Şahinbey and Şehitkamil districts of Gaziantep. A total of 268 teachers participated in the study. Data were gathered via school administrator’s accountability scale and organizational justice scale. SPSS 15.0 package program was employed in the analysis of the data. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and basic linear regression techniques. Furthermore, in order to explore whether there was a significant difference between school administrators’ accountability and organizational justice according to age, gender and seniority, independent samples t-test and ANOVA were employed. The findings revealed a significant relationship between school administrators’ accountability and organizational justice. However, no statistically significant differences were found among teachers’ perceptions according to age, gender and seniority.

Keywords: School administrator, accountability, organizational justice, teacher perceptions
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Statistical software is commonly used in the statistical lessons at universities. The developments and enhancement in statistical software in recent years has considerably eased statistics education in these institutions. The purpose of this study is to develop an evaluation model considering the quantitative and qualitative criteria for statistical software selection in an outsourcing user of these programs variety fields, especially in education. An integrated model is proposed by combining Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Grey Relation Analysis (GRA) into a single evaluation model. The model is illustrated with a case study of a team of five people including academics and software developers well versed in the use and development of such software to demonstrate the effectiveness of this integrated method. AHP has been applied to determining weight of criteria and GRA has been performed for determining the most appropriate statistical software. The results indicate that when analysis characteristics are the main criteria with the highest priority, financial and vendor firm characteristics are the main criteria with the lowest priorities. Also according to GRA results, the most appropriate statistical software is SPSS and Statgraph is in last rank with a low level of significance.

Keywords: Statistics education, statistical software, analytic hierarchy process, grey relation analysis.
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Determination of individual' loneliness in virtual environments is an important issue, which has not been studied adequately and in the literature, it was not encountered any scales to measure the individual' loneliness in virtual environments for which validity and reliability have been proven. In this flame the main purpose of this study is to develop a scale in order to individual' loneliness in virtual environments. The sample group is composed of 354 for the first application and 141 individuals for the second. In order to detect the validity of the scale, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, item factor total correlations, corrected correlations and item discriminations were conducted. In order to assess the reliability of the scale, the level of internal consistency and the stability levels were calculated. As a result; Virtual Environment Loneliness Scale (VELS) is a five-point Likert-type scale and includes 20 items that can be gathered under three factors. The analyses provided evidence that the VELS is a valid and reliable scale that can be used in order to determination of individual' loneliness in virtual environments.

Keywords: Loneliness, Virtual Environment, Scale Development
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Applying Kecskes and Zhang's (2009) dynamic model of common ground in positioning theory (Davies & Harre, 1990), the present study aims to explore the second language (L2) socialization of Turkish students through the discursive processes as well as the skills they adopted in social interactions with the American speakers during a formal reception at an American university. The findings indicated that the Turkish students endorsed similar discursive processes not only to establish common ground as the American speakers', but also to position themselves in the speech context. This study highlights that engaging in real-life conversations with the target language speakers (Gumperz, 1996) encourages L2 learners/users (Cook, 1999) to embrace the discursive practices that are shared within a particular speech community. It also provides suggestions for future research embracing more longitudinal/ethnographic approahes to examine L2 socialization as well as teaching implications for instructional materials and contexts that reflect authentic social encounters.

Keywords: Second language socialization, common ground, positioning, discourse analysis
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The main purpose of this study was to determine the predictive value of course and instructor characteristics which have not been linked to student evaluations yet or expected to show a different pattern in Turkish higher education context for students’ perception of instructors’ effectiveness. These included class size, academic rank, instructors’ workload and total number of students, gender and students’ disciplines. According to the regression analysis, class size, instructors’ total number of students, work load, year of experience and students’ disciplines were predictive of students’ perceptions of instructors’ effectiveness. The higher workload, experience, class size or total number of students the instructors have, the lower ratings they had. However, these effects were not consistent across disciplines and instructors’ gender. That is, the better understanding of the predictive value of course and instructor characteristics for student evaluations requires more detailed studies wherein teaching context is taken into consideration.

Keywords: Student evaluations, effective teaching, instructor and course characteristics.
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In this study, it is aimed to analyze the adjustment levels of the points obtained by using scoring rubric and answer key for an applied course that requires technical knowledge. The researched was conducted in the electric & electronics major of a vocational high school on 70 students and 6 teachers. Based on the findings obtained it is seen that there is a high correlation between the points obtained by evaluation instruments. The correlation between the points of the students in the first semester and the scores awarded through both assessment methods has indicated that the correlation of the scores given through scoring rubric is higher. The correlation between the points for the first semester and the points obtained by using both scoring instruments were examined and it was seen that the correlation of the points obtained by scoring rubric is higher. However, the coefficient difference between two correlations was 0.05 and it is not significant. As a result of regression analyses, the regression level of points obtained by scoring rubric was higher than that of course points.

Keywords: Answer Key, Analitical Scoring Rubric, Performance Assessment
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In this study it was aimed to evaluate Accompaniment Playing course according to perspective of pre-service music teachers. The study group is composed of 56 students who receive education in third and fourth classes at Marmara University Atatürk Faculty of Education Department of Fine Arts Education. In the study, case study which is among the qualitative research patterns and scanning method which is among the quantitative research methods were used. In the study, easily accessible condition sampling was used which is one of the qualitative research methods, data obtained from a survey which is composed of seven open-ended questions were analyzed with descriptive analysis method. At the same time, the sufficiency levels of pre-service music teachers in Accompaniment Playing course were determined by observation form. As a result of the study, it was determined that the course hours and the fact that course is given in only single term is considered to be insufficient by pre-service music teachers, every student cannot play with accompaniment adequately during course, theoretical and practical studies carried out during course are functional about teaching profession, repertory studied in the course is suitable for elementary and secondary school music course, new and modern course instrument methods should be developed, pre-service music teachers think themselves capable of making decipher about accompaniment, accompaniment playing, writing accompaniment, adapting solo instrument or sound, listening to solo party. The results obtained depending on observation shows that the sufficiency of pre-service music teachers in Accompaniment Playing course is at medium level.

Keywords: Accompaniment Playing Course, pre-service music teachers, music teaching.
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of using case study method in chemistry laboratory course on preservice teachers’ anxieties who were studying in science education department. Matched pretest-posttest control group experimental design was used in the research. This study was conducted in state university located in Eskişehir during spring semester of 2010-2011 academic years. 53 preservice science teachers who were taking chemistry laboratory course participated in the study. Four dimensional “Chemistry Laboratory Anxiety Scale” was used as a data collection tool. In the analysis of research data, frequency, mean, standard deviation, and ANCOVA after verifying its assumptions were used. According to the anxiety scale data of preservice teachers in experimental and control groups, only one statistical significant difference was found in the sub dimension of “use of laboratory equipment’s and chemical substances”. This finding showed that case study and traditional methods might have different effects on decreasing the anxieties of students toward chemistry laboratory course. In line with the research results, it was proposed that not only quantitative studies including larger samples and examining students’ anxieties on different classes, departments, and courses, but also experimental studies considering each sub-dimension of the anxiety scale should be conducted.

Keywords: Case study method, anxiety toward chemistry laboratory course, preservice teachers, laboratory accidents, science education.
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The purpose of this study was to investigate parents’ expectations from preschool education institutions. By using stratified sampling method, the sample consisted of 1465 parents who had children enrolled in preschool education in 2010-2011. Data were gathered by using a demographics information form and Parents’ Expectations from Preschool Institutions questionnaire developed by the first author. Parents’ expectations were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results show that parents’ expectations from early childhood institutions varied according to their level of education, income, and region in which they live. Parents who graduated from elementary school and the ones who had low-income had higher expectations from early childhood institutions in education-family subscale than others. Parents who lived in Marmara and Mediterranean regions had higher expectations when compared to parents who lived in other regions.

Keywords: Preschool education institutions, parents’ expectations, quality
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How successful learners learn English has been one of the primary interest of scientists and researchers in recent years. Therefore, this study aimed to determine what language learning strategies the military personnel from different nations used while learning English. 56 subjects from 14 different nations deployed in three different military settings in the world participated in the study. Strategies Inventory of Language Learning was used to collect data about the research. According to the result of the study, although a native speaker of a language more or less used learning strategies to be a successful language user, heshe was not much better than the others at using learning strategies in every aspect. However it can be stated that some native speakers used language learning strategies more frequently than others

Keywords: English learning strategies, learning strategies in military context, learning strategies of various nationals
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In teaching Turkish as a foreign language, one of the most important problems for learners is accurate pronunciation of phonemes. Especially, in multinational classes, learners coming from different language families have difficulties about pronunciation of Turkish phonemes. The reasons for difficulties are supposed as differences, similarities or identical of phonemes in their native language or other languages they learned. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to investigate the reasons for phonological errors of Erasmus students studying Turkish as a foreign language; from which languages they get mostly benefit during the production of phonemes (mother tongue/other different foreign languages they learned); what phonemes are dropped during production; which letters/symbols are replaced for different letters in any word; reasons for positive or negative transferring of vowels and consonants in languages used; and finally which strategies and techniques are used to solve these problems will be searched.

Keywords: Teaching Turkish as a foreign language, multinational classrooms, phonetic problems, phonological processes
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It was aimed to determine academicians’ perceptions on their lifelong learning competencies according to various variables. The sample was composed of 255 academicians at Education Faculty at Mersin University, Fırat University, Dicle University, Trakya University, Selçuk University, Zonguldak Karaelmas University, Adnan Menderes University and Çukurova University. Data of the study were collected via lifelong learning competency scale developed by researchers and by asking them to describe their perceptions on lifelong competencies via a metaphor. For data analysis descriptive statistics, independent sample t test, one way variance analysis (ANOVA), Pearson correlation parameter and content analysis were used. It was observed academicians’ perceptions on their lifelong competencies were high and their perceptions differed as regards gender, foreign language proficiency level and technology using level. The learning continuity was emphasized via the metaphors. Not generating any metaphor forming limited competency perception indicated academicians’ positive perceptions on their lifelong learning competencies.

Keywords: Academician, lifelong learning
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The aim of this study is to examine the responsibility education strategies which are applied by primary education teachers in process of education. The research is a quantitative study in survey model. The study group of the research consists of 456 teachers. The data of the research was collected with “Personal Information Form” and “Responsibility Education Strategy Scale” developed by the researcher. The scale consists of 34 items and 2 factors. After the validity analysis on the data, KMO value was determined as 0.947; Bartlett Test values were x2=6502.170; sd=561; p<.001; explained variance amount was determined as %44.711. The reliability coefficient of the scale is Cronbach’s alpha 0.942. At the end of the research, it was determined that (1) teachers used informative responsibility education strategy more than applied responsibility education; (2) there were significant differences among the strategy applying level of teachers according to their education level, gender and level of seniority; (3) there were significant and positive relationship between seniority and responsibility education strategy which was applied. Collected results were discussed in relation to the literature and suggestions were made.

Keywords: Responsibility education, strategy, teacher, primary school
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Conflict is an inevitable fact of organizational life. In educational organizations, conflicts are also inevitable and likely to occur because the primary input is human and human interactions are so intense in such organizations. This study aimed at investigating the relationship between school administrators’ conflict management style preferences and their personality traits. In this study, the data related to school administrators’ conflict management style preferences was gathered through Rahim’s Organizational Conflict Inventory (ROCI) (1983). In order to reveal school administrators’ personality traits, Five-Factor Personality Inventory (5FKE) which was developed by Somer, Korkmaz and Tatar (2002) was employed. 5FKE and ROCI II were conducted to 89 school principals and 122 deputy principals working at state schools in Kastamonu. In this study, it was found that there are statistically significant correlations between school administrators’ personality traits and their conflict management style preferences.

Keywords: Conflict, conflict management, conflict management style, personality, five-factor personality approach
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