Studies reveal that there is a strong relationship between organizational commitment and staff performance. Organizational commitment is defined as psychological commitment of staff to their organization and addressed as affective, continuance and normative commitment dimensions. This study purposes to discover teachers’ perceptions on policies on organizational success, loyalty to the organization, keep working for their organization, organizational values and fate/future of their organizations. This qualitatively study was carried out with 20 teachers from 10 different schools in İstanbul with an interview technique. Results reveal that teachers’ perceptions on policies on organizational success, loyalty to the organization, keep working for their organization, organizational values and fate/future of their organizations are low and negative. These results show that there is not healthy organizational culture in the schools of that sample. Therefore, it is recommended that some administrative steps be taken to increase teachers’ commitments for achieving success at schools.

Keywords: Organization, organizational commitment, teachers, administrators
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Science and Technology curriculum was changed in 2013 and renamed as “Natural Sciences.” One of the most important changes in the new curriculum was that it is based on inquiry learning. The new curriculum expects teachers to prepare and apply in-classroom and out-of-school applications based on inquiry approach. This study aims to describe the difficulties that teacher candidates have when they design guided inquiry based activities. This study was conducted in the Inquiry Based Science Education elective course. In a 14 week period, inquiry based activities were conducted; video examples of inquiry based applications were shown to teacher candidates and after applications they were asked to design guided inquiry based activities. A total seven of approximately 30 minute semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 students in pairs. As a result, teacher candidates indicated that besides extrinsic difficulties, such as students’ readiness, materials, and time, they also face with intrinsic difficulties such as guidance, content knowledge, process knowledge, and paradigm change.

Keywords: inquiry based science teaching, guided inquiry, activity design
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The processes of selecting reading materials for children and the presentation styles of these materials play a critical role on the gaining and maintaining the reading habits. The planned activities before reading, essential points during reading, storytelling techniques and the post reading activities considerably affects the interest and opinions of children to books and literature. Thus, the goal of the researcher is to specify the essential point families pay attention in selecting reading materials for their children and the presentation activities of those materials. This study conducted with 121 families whose children were going to a preschool, was a survey method. The data of the study was gathered by the use of “Selecting Reading Material in Children’s Literature and Activity Assessment Form” which was prepared by the researchers. The study findings indicate that the issues families pay attention in selecting reading materials for their children and the activities they perform in the presentation process of those materials were limited.

Keywords: story book, reading materials, preschool education.
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Food consuming and personal nutrition habits of parents, directly affect the food choices and nutrition habits of children. This descriptive study has been planned for the determination of mother and child health, nutrition characteristics of the nursery school kids and the comparison of these characteristics. Population of the study consists of the parents who applied to the healthy kid polyclinic of the Mother and Child Health from January 2008 to December 2008, and the parents whose kids have been attending to Umudum Nursey School. 80 parents from the MCH and 50 parents from UNS that fit the selection criteria have formed the sample. Forms have been used as data collection tools. The data has been evaluated by using the SPSS 15.0 software, average, standard deviation and frequency. As a result, a difference has been detected in parameters such as meal frequency, starting time of eating without help, feeding methods of parents, the methods used when the child refuses to eat, favorite vegetable types, meat types, bulgur/rice preferences, meal length, reasons for leaving over the food, habits and length of teeth brushing, diarrhea frequency, illness frequency; in favor of the children in MCH and the NS.

Keywords: Mother and Child Health, Nursery School, Nutrition Characteristics, Nutrition, Preschool period.
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The aim of this study is to analyze the non-generic use of the English definite article the in several different written contexts (e.g. cultural, situation, structural, and textual) identified by Liu and Gleason (2002). The study compares 50 intermediate and 50 low-advanced level Turkish learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in terms of overusing the definite article (in null article contexts) and omitting it in the above-mentioned major contexts. The study also determines whether or not the usage of the definite article in each of the contexts is equally problematic for the Turkish learners in different proficiency groups. The data consist of essays written by Turkish learners enrolled in the English Preparatory School of the School of Foreign Languages at Hacettepe University and were analyzed quantitatively using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The results show that all learners omitted more definite articles than they overused them. In addition, the intermediate group omitted more definite articles than the low-advanced group suggesting that as learners become proficient in English, their use of the definite article improves. The results also show that the low-advanced group overused more definite articles than the intermediate group but this difference was not significant.

Keywords: Non-generic definite article, second language acquisition, English as a foreign language, definite article categories.
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The "fear of mathematics" become widespread not only in our society, but also around the world, as mathematics is perceived as a "difficult" course. The main purpose of this study was to identify the mathematical fear of pre-service primary school teachers. Phenomenological research design was based on which was one of the qualitative research methods in this research and convenience sampling was used. The sample of the study included a total of 138 pre-service primary school teachers who were selected on a voluntary basis from all class levels from primary education departments. The results of the study indicated that the metaphorical perceptions of pre-service primary school teachers generally addressed the "life" theme, while the "difficult" theme was found to be in lower categories. It was observed that the pre-service teachers did not actually experience much "fear" about mathematics. Their mathematical fear resulted from the attitudes and behaviors of their teachers and their own prejudice.

Keywords: Pre-service Primary School Teacher, Fear of Mathematic, Mathematic Education
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The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of planning the learning environment by taking into consideration different learning styles on the academic success of students. The universe of the study was consisted of prospective teachers of social sciences who were studied in the Social Sciences Teaching program of 19 Mayıs University Faculty of Education and who were participated General Physical Geography course. The study was used descriptive and experimental methods. The descriptive aspect of the study consists of determining the level of accomplishment for prospective teachers in terms of the objectives of the subject of climate in General Physical Geography course and their learning styles. The experimental study was conducted as a research model with pre-test, post-test experimental and control groups. In line with the purpose of the study, the course hours of the unit of climate were planned by considering the learning cycle stages explained by Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory. The data was collected through the third version of Kolb’s Learning Styles Inventory (KLSI-III) and a multiple choice test on the subject of climate. The findings of the study showed that planning the course hours by considering the different learning styles of students will affect learning outputs positively.

Keywords: Geography, Experiential Learning Cycle, learning styles of Kolb, academic achievement.
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The purpose of study was to investigate the effects of conceptual change texts related with conceptual changing approach on students’ misconceptions which are about heat and temperature in the unit of states of matter and heat. The research was applied on students from two eight-class in Amasya Gümüşhaciköy Kizilca Primary School. One of classes is control (20), other is experiment grup (20). The data were collected with ‘Concept Achievement Test’ and ‘Interview Form’ which were prepared by another researchers, were developed by researcher. The data obtaining from instruments was analyzed with t-test via SPSS. Evaluation of the data, firstly it was determined that how concept achievements of control and experiment grups were affected by applied teaching process. Then, the students’ who were in the experiment grup interviews which were about method were determined. At the end of research, offers were given to develop the conceptual changing approach for future research.

Keywords: Science Education, Concept Learning, Misconceptions, Conceptual Changing Approach, Conceptual Changing Texts
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Each year final year high school students confront with problem of deciding which university they will choose to study for the realization of their career goals. Selecting a right university is a complicated as well as a tiresome process which demands students and their parents to be aware of various factors. This paper attempts to examine the decision-making behavior adopted by graduating high school students hoping to enter an English department to continue their education. A survey was designed and administered to final-year high-school students with the purpose of determining their reasons to study at English department. The sample consisted of 164 graduating high school students and findings revealed that the job opportunities available to English majors affect students’ decision to study at the department. They do not intend to teach English but rather seek employment at multi-national companies and embassies of foreign countries.

Keywords: Graduating high school students, perception, English department, career choice, decision
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Geographic literacy is a skill that plays a significant role in our everyday lives, whether or not we are geographers. Given the importance of this subject, the geographic literacy rate of the students in different levels should be determined and road maps should be put forward. The purpose of this study is to reveal Turkish undergraduate students’ level of geographic literacy through a nationwide survey conducted in universities and put forward these results for decision makers and educators. A total of 1589 undergraduate students from 127 different universities and representing 191 different departments throughout Turkey participated in the survey. Students’ knowledge of 76 basic geographic terms and 15 multiple-choice questions regarding geographic knowledge were investigated. The answers of the students and the relationships between some demographic characteristics and answers were analyzed by using SPSS software. The study revealed that the students “have some knowledge to explain” the terms in general and have 84.33% success in answering the questions. The terms students “know enough to explain” are among the common environmental problems seen in Turkey. This success should be continued. However, students’ lacking knowledge should be further investigated by educational authorities.

Keywords: Literacy, geographic literacy, nationwide survey, geography education, undergraduate level.
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The purpose of this study was to examine environmental moral reasoning patterns of 120 pre-service science teachers together with the effects of gender and grade level on these reasoning. For data collection, participants were asked to write their concerns about four environmental problems (i.e., deforestation, electronic waste, oil spills, global warming) each of which were presented as local and global cases. Content analysis was performed on the participants’ written statements and frequencies of the statements reflecting ecocentric, anthropocentric, and non-environmental moral reasoning were calculated to be used in descriptive and inferential analyses. While analyses did not reveal statistically significant difference between environmental moral reasoning patterns of males and females, grade level was found to have statistically significant effect. In addition to general patterns in pre-service science teachers’ environmental moral reasoning, findings were also interpreted for local and global environmental problem dichotomy. Implications for environmental education were discussed.

Keywords: Environmental moral reasoning, gender, grade level
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In this research, it is aimed to find out to whether family, peer and teacher support variables and demographic properties predict the high school students’ career maturity levels. The sample of the study included totally 483 high school students. The data was collected by “Career Maturity Inventory”, “Perceived Social Support Scale-R” and “Personal Information Questionnaire” developed by researchers. Predictors of high school students’ career maturity levels were analyzed by Stepwise Regression technique. T-test was done to find out if there are any significant differences between career maturity level of girls and boys. Findings of this research were, family support, gender, teacher and peer support predicted career maturity of high school students significantly. School type and grade level did not predict high school students’ career maturity levels significantly. Furthermore, girls’ career maturity levels are higher than boys’. The findings were discussed and suggestions were made.

Keywords: Career maturity, social support, high school students.
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The aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of science-based and Interdisciplinary School Garden Program (SGP) from different variables, which was developed within the scope of extracurricular activities. The one-group pretest-posttest design is used in the study. Sample of the study is composed of 94 students in 3 different branch studying at “A” primary school Trabzon city centre. In the study Science and Technology Course Academic Success Test (STCAS) is used, which was developed by the researcher. STCAS is composed of 22 multiple choice questions which were complied according to 17 gainings included in SGP. KR-20 Reliability Index is defined as 0.74. Students get maximum 22 points and minimum 0 point from the test. In the data analysis gain points are used and evaluation results are analyzed through SPSS 13 package program. In analysis process t-test, ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests are used. At the end of the study it is defined that SGP has provided contribution to academic development of the students those especially male, whose socio-economic levels are high, who have nature, introvert and social intelligence, who have grown vegetables who have high problematic behaviors level sourced from educational problematic behaviors.

Keywords: Extracurricular activities, School Garden Program (SGP), Interdisciplinary Education, Science and Technology Course, Academic Success
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The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the Relationship Enhancement Program on relationship satisfaction of university students. It is an experimental design with one experimental and one control group with three measurements. The data used in this study was obtained using Relationship Assessment Scale and recordings of focus group interviews during which couples in the experimental group evaluated the training program. Mann Whitney U, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Tests, and descriptive analysis techniques were used to analyze the data. The results of the study revealed that there was a significant difference between post-tests of the experimental and control groups. Also, there was a significant improvement in the experimental group from pre to post test. However, positive effects of the training program on relationship satisfaction of the students and their partners declined over a 2-month period. Findings were discussed, and recommendations were made for counselors and researchers.

Keywords: Relationship satisfaction, relationship education, Relationship Enhancement Program
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