The aim of this research is to ad apt the Self-compassion Scale (Neff, 2003b) to Turkish and to examine its psychometric properties. The research was conducted on 633 university students from Educa tional Faculty of Sakarya University, Turkey. Results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that this scale yielded 6 factors, as original form and that the model was well fit. Internal cons istency coefficients varied between .72-.80 and test-retest reliability coefficients varied between .56-.69. Corrected item-total correlations ranged . 48 to .71, and according to t -test results differences between each item’s means of upper 27% and lower 27% points were significant. T hus Self-compassion Scale can be used as a valid and reliable instrument in education and psychology.

Keywords: Self-compassion, validity, reliability, confirmatory factor analysis
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Science process skills are the skills which each individual in the society must have to be a scientificaly literate. Moreover, creative thinking and science process skills are very important for the individuals in recognizing and solving the existing problems in their daily lives. A nd starting from this, in this study it was tried to determine the correlation between science process skills (SPS) and scientific creativity (SC). For this purpose, the e ffect of the activities given for developin g the SPSs on the students’ SPSs and SCs were examined, and exis tence of a correlation between SPSs and SCs of them were tried to set forth. At the end of the application, SPS and SC scales were applied to the students, and the work sheets which they filled out were evaluated in terms of SPS and SC, and their SPS and SC scores were obtained. At the end of the study, it is found that there was a co rrelation between SPS and SC.

Keywords: science process skills, scientific creativity, creative thinking models
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In this study, the place and importance of History of Turkish Education Course, included in the curriculum with the purpose of increasing the number of courses on gene ral knowledge, has been investigated through a questionnaire designed to construct the course content. The primary goal of the study was to collect student s’ knowledge of and opinions on the content of the course so that a sound syllabus can be prepared. The data have been collected from B.A. students (n=100) studying at Foreign Language E ducation Department, Divisions of Germ an and English Language Teaching. The questionnaire used for the study is composed of 15 Likert type items, and the collected data have been analyzed via SPSS 11.0. The Cronbach Alpha value of the instrument was found to be 0.83. According to the findings of the study, the students find their knowledge of history of Turkish education rather insuffi cient, but believe in the necessi ty of such a course in the curriculum while asking for a student-centered sylla bus to be followed in the delivery of the course.

Keywords: History of Turkish Education, German, English, curriculum development, syllabus.
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The purpose of this study is to examine the appointment procedure of the teachers employed in public schools in Turkey. Specifically, this study explores the correlatio n between the pre-service teachers’ Civil Servant Selection Examination (KPSS) performance and their “cognitive ability” represented by St udent Selection Examination (ÖSS) and their “quality of academic performance” represented by Unde rgraduate Grade Point Average (ÜNO). A random sample of 125 pre-service teachers was selected from the Pamukkale University . A survey was used to collect participants’ information and Pearson correlation and multiple regressions were used to analyses the data. The results showed that there was no significant relationship between ÖSS a nd ÜNO. Additionally, there is no signif icant relationship between ÜNO and KPSS performance. However, ÖSS is a significant and va lid predictor of KPSS performance. These findings suggest a proposed policy revision for appointing teachers employed in the educ ation institutions operating under the Ministry of National Education.

Keywords: civil servant selection examination, predictive validity, teacher recruiting
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The effects of educational computer games on achiev ement and computer self-efficacy of primary school children were the focus of this study. For this purpose, a com puter game was utilized by a seventh grade class to learn about computer hardware in a computer course. The research desi gn of the study was quasi-experi mental type that included a control group. Experimental group spent two weeks in the ga me-based environment while the control group spent the same amount of time while learning through tradi tional didactic teaching method. Learners completed a computer self-efficacy scale and took an achievement test before and after their le arning. Although both groups show ed statistically significant learning gains after the treatments, there was no significant difference in the achievement and self-efficacy of students. Qualitative analysis showed that students enjoyed learning th rough the game-based learning environment, the environment supported students in their self-learning, reduced their stress, and afforded visual learning.

Keywords: game-based learning environments, educational computer games, computer self-efficacy
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The aim of the present study was to investigate into th e critical thinking skills of late adolescent Turkish university students. The subjec ts of the study were the 39 students from the Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance, Faculty of Education, Uluda ğ University. Two separate discussion gr oups, each including five students, were composed to discuss the chosen topics in class for five weeks. While the first gr oup was asked to develop ideas in favor of the given topic, the other was asked to develop counter arguments against it. Discussions were held during a class hour of 50 minutes. The recorded discussions were analyzed using a conten t analysis method. The speeches of students were placed into one of the four categories defined before hand as: ‘Indicating a person/people as refere nce’, ‘Indicating a document as proof’, ‘Making rational speech’ and ‘Making emotional speech’. The data analyses revealed that university students had a tendency to speak emotionally most of the time. This was followed, in order of frequency, by ‘Sp eaking rationally’, ‘Indicating a document as proof’, and ‘Indicating a person/people as referen ce’. The results are discussed in the light of the related literature.

Keywords: critical thinking, student, content analysis
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It is shown that the students have quite difficulty in geometric concepts at the many stages of education. A factor which is effective in the students’ learning about mathematics concepts is also self-efficacy belief s. The students’ sel f- efficacy beliefs which are effected their motivations and pe rformances must be high. Howeve r, the scales detemining the students’ self-effcacy beliefs in many areas are quite limited. The scale was improved by researcher aiming at determining the students’ self efficacy beliefs towa rds geometry. The scale improved has been done the reliability and validity. At the result of the study, it was found th at the validity and reliability ( α =0.90) of the scale was high.

Keywords: mathematics education, geometry teaching, self-efficacy
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The purpose of this research is to determine whether lead ership behaviours of school administrators are estimation of office bullying towards to teachers. To tally 500 teachers, who work in 25 state primary and high schools chosen by random method in Ankara, Yozgat, Kastamonu and Van in 2005-2006 school year, constitute sample of the research. In research Multifactor Leadership Ques tionnaire 5 – x short (MLQ) was used to determin e transformational and transactional leadership behaviours of primary school administrators. The condition of being exposed to bullying, mobbing behaviours was measured by using Negative Acts Questionnaire (NAQ) which contains negative behaviour questions. It was made use of Pearson Moments Product Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression Analyze methods to compute the datas. At the end of this research, it is concluded that, school administrators show low level leadership behaviours, teachers are victims of bullying at mid level, bullying behaviors directed to teachers increase if school administrators (principals) use laissez-faire leadership behaviors, motivation by inculcation and laissez-faire lead ership have meaningful predictive ability for bullying.

Keywords: teacher, school director, leadership , workplace mobbing, workplace bullying
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Purpose of this study is to determine primary school principals’ levels of realizing servant leadership roles in accordance with the opinions of primary school principals, vice principals and teachers. Data of the research was obtained from 19 principals, 36 vice principals and 487 teachers working at primary schools in Bolu province in the academic year of 2005 – 2006. Mean, standard deviation, one-way anova and LSD were used in analysis of the data. In the study, the servant leadership roles of the primary school principals were ex amined within the scope of empowerment, service and vision dimensions. According to the whole participants, it has been determined that the primary school principals played empowerment role at “moderate” level and th e whole service, vision and servant leadersh ip roles at “high” level. It has been determined that there was a difference among opinions of principals, vice principa ls and teachers on the subject. This difference has been determined to be among pr incipals and vice principals and teachers.

Keywords: principal, servant leadership, empowerment, service, vision
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Effective teaching is one of the most important factors to improve student achievemen t. Therefore in this study we attempted to examine how to teach mathematics to students by primary mathematics teachers and elementary teachers. For this purpose, we used a Likert-type sc ale which was developed by Dede (2006) and adapted to teachers by researcher. It contained sub-factors items measuri ng teaching that are based on discussi on and inquiry, communication, various instructional materials and sources, and using methods and materials for problem solving. During the fall semester in 2005- 2006, the scale was applied to 100 teachers who studied 54 elementary teachers at 8 primary schools and 46 primary mathematics teachers at 25 primary schools in Sivas. Results showed that there was no statistical difference between the means for elementary and primary mathematics teachers for entire scale.

Keywords: Effective mathematics teaching, mathematics teachers’ views, elementary teachers’ views
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The aim of this research is to assess the science books used in 6, 7, and 8 th grades by science teachers and trainee teachers. Sample of the research consists of 114 science te achers chosen randomly fro m primary schools in Eski ş ehir city center and 36 fourth grades of undergraduated students from Eski ş ehir Osmangazi University. According to the results those science books used in 6, 7, and 8 th grades have been accepted at the good level for the appropriacy of the language and expression.

Keywords: language and expression, science, examination of course book
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The purpose of the this study was to determine the expe ctation and satisfaction levels of the students of all faculties at Hacettepe University with regard to academic se rvices delivered by the university. The population of the study consisted of the third year students of ni ne faculties at Hacettepe University. The data of the study were gathered through administration of the “Student Expectation and Satisfaction Survey” questionnai re developed by the researchers. Arithmetic means of the students’ views were calcula ted by depending on the data obtained. At the end of the study it concluded that expectation levels of the st udents were high but satisfac tion level of them low.

Keywords: Higher education, academic quality in higher education, student satisfaction, student expectations
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In this study, the teachers’ opinions about measurem ent and evaluation methods which they use in their classrooms were tried to be described. Th e survey developed for this purpose was ad ministred to 242 cla ssroom teachers and branch teachers teaching 1-6. grades in primary schools in cen teral province of Ankara. The teachers preferred traditional measurement methods at wh ich they considered themselves more adaquate to determine students’ achivement. The most important problem which the teachers meet at using measurement instruments is crowded classrooms and insufficient course duration. A great part of teachers’ opini on that has showed parallelism that th e primary school programme. Taking this finding and other findings of the study into consideration, it is understood that teachers need education on using and preparing measurement methods.

Keywords: Measurement instruments, teacher proficiencies, primary school program, measurement and evaluation
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This study investigated the written expression skills of forty 4 th , 5 th , 6 th , 7 th and 8 th grade hearing impaired students trained with the auditory/oral approach at the Resear ch and Education Center for Children with Hearing Impairment (i.e., İ ÇEM). It also examined two student characters that are considered affective on students’ written expression skills, which are age and duration of hearing aids use. Descriptive and correlational models are used in the study. Findings revealed that students reached an intermediate level of achievement in all written expression types. Fi ndings also suggested that age predicted 40 percent of the variance in written expression scores while duration of hearing aid use explained an additional 35 percent.

Keywords: hearing impaired children, auditory/oral approach, writing assessment
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The purpose of the present study was to investigate th e relationship between learne d resourcefulness level and automatic thought patterns of fifth grad e Turkish elementary school students. Ch ildren’s Version of Self-Control Schedule (C-SCS) and Cognitive Triad Inventory for Children (CTI-C) we re given to 232 fifth grade students in two elementary schools in Ankara. The differences among th e automatic thought patterns (CTI-C) of the students by gender and learned resourcefulness (C-SCS) were explored using a 2 (high-lo w learned resourcefulness) X 2 (gender) factorial MANOVA. Results showed that students who were highl y resourceful scored significantly higher in total, negative view of self, future and world and positive view of self, future and world subsca les of CTI-C. The results also yielded that there is no significance difference between ma les and females in total, negati ve view of self, future and wo rld and positive view of self, future and world subscales of CTI-C.

Keywords: learned resourcefulness, automatic thoughts, self-control, elementary school students
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In this study, effect of life and social science course s presented in primary school curriculum on preparation of students for science learning has been inve stigated. For this purpose, the questionnaires have been applied to teachers (166 classroom and 68 science teachers) and students (430 3., 488 4. , 489 5. and 443 8.grade) selected randomly from central schools of Samsun in sampling. The data were evaluated using by SPSS 11.5 statis tical program. The data have been evaluated using by Arithmetical mean and the relations between samplings were comparatively investigated. According to data, it has been observed that life and social sc ience courses are very effective but insufficient for preparatio n of students to science learning. Knowledge belonged to science that were learned in life and social science is important for science teaching in subsequent years and misconceptions occurred during first three years continue for years and raise difficulties for science learning.

Keywords: Science teaching, Life and social science course, Science teaching methods, Science intelligent
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Interest on father involvement to educational process has increased due to research findings related with the father’s role and effect on child rearing and fatherhood identity. Related research demonstrates that, father involvement on child rearing practices and educational process effect child development in many aspects. The aim of this study is to determine the factors related with father involvement in early childhood education. Also determining the involvement levels of the fathers from institutes that do and do not support family in volvement is another aim of the study. The sample consists of fathers (n=161) who have a child continuing early childhoo d education institutes. The study is carried on at 6 early childhood education institute selected am ong schools at Focal, Aliabad and Kar ş ı yaka- İ zmir. Family Involvement Questionnaire and Personal Survey is applied to gather the data . The results show significant difference on involvement level and expectations of the fathers from in stitutions that support family involvement.

Keywords: family involvement, father involvement, early childhood education
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The title of a work gives information on it in a direct or indirect way. In this article were studied the titles of 115 manuals of the French foreign language. The manuals in question were published in France between 1920 and 2007. Titles of manuals are grouped together in three classes : di stribution of the titles according to the aimed public, grammatical and énonciative distribution, di stribution of the contents. Except 24, the bigges t majority of the manuals were published after 1980, according to the communicative approach. Most of the manu als are intended for the "adolescents and adults". With the communicative approach, the titles were reduced to one or two word s. This is the name class that it most favorite in the titles . In the 20 last years, the titles of manuals refer to the comm unication and enunciation situation as well as to the interpersona l exchange.

Keywords: manuals of the FLE, titles of manuals, communicative approach
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The aim of this study is to examine the changes in computer attitudes and self-efficacy of biology students after a formal computer course. 22 stude nts are chosen from Hacettepe University , Department of Biology Education in 2004-2005 education year. In this experimental study, one group, pre-test, post-test mode l has been applied. Before the study, computer achievement test with a .78 reliability coefficiency, a self-efficacy scale regarding computers with a .71 reliability coefficiency, and an attitude scale with a .90 reliability coefficiency had been applied as pre-tests. After a 10-week computer course, the same scales had been applied as post-tests. Wilcoxon test had been used in order to check if there is a difference between the test results applied before a nd after the course. According to the results of the study, the computer course was efective and had a significant influence on the computer self-effi ciency of students. However, it did not have a significant influence on the development of a positive attitude.

Keywords: computer self-efficacy belief, preservice biology teachers, computer attitudes
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In this study, it is aimed to determine the effect of the course “Man and Environment” provided as an elective course in the secondary school curriculum, as well as the Volunt ary Environment Organisations, to the students in terms of providing environment-oriented knowledge and attitude. The developed “Environmen tal Attitude Scale” and “Environment Knowledge Test” are applied in educati on period 2004-2005 to 1013 students, having e ducation in Ankara, district Cankaya. Obtained data is evaluated by Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). According to MANOVA results, there is a significant difference in favor of student s that have attended the “Man and Envir onment” course, in terms of environment- oriented knowledge and attitude average of the students. On the other hand, with the evaluation considering active participation in the voluntary environment organisations, no significant difference is found between the students in terms of envorinment-oriented attitude and knowledge average.

Keywords: environmental education, environment-oriented a ttitude, environmental knowledge, man and environment, voluntary environment organizations
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This study aims to introduce the induction program on intercultural awareness prepared for students going abroad with ERASMUS student exchange program. Among the goals of this program, there exist the aims of grasping the importance of communication among different cultures, impr oving sensitivity towards differe nt behavior patterns and improving understanding towards cultural diffe rences. By taking into considerati on the model improved by Grosch and Leenen (1998), in this program it is aimed to base the progr am not on foreign cultures but the target group of students and their own cultural properties. This program is designed in tw o modules which are didactic an d application. The didactic module is composed of critical incidents with which the general cultural issues w ithout one main cultural focus are studied via presentations and films. The application module includes the st udies and simulations to get the participants evaluate their intercultural efficiency. Conducting such a program with ER ASMUS exchange students will co ntribute to the expansion of academic mobility towards intercultural mobility.

Keywords: Intercultural learning, ERASMUS Exchange Program, Intercultural preparatory training
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Student mobility in higher education in all Europe has gradually been increasing within the framework of Erasmus Programme started in 1987. Turkey joined this progra mme in 2004. Identifiying expecta tions and satisfa ction levels of students attending Erasmus programmes is cricually important in terms of corre ction and development efforts of the programme. Within this context, the purpose of this study is to identify the satisfaction levels of Hacettepe University outgoing Erasmus students related to daily life, academic life and student support services provided. The data were collected through the administration of Hacettepe Erasmus Student Qu estionnaire (HESQ) developed by the researchers from 75 Erasmus outgoing students in 2005-2006 academic year. In analysi ng of the data, frequency and percentages were calculated and in order to determine the satisfaction levels, the difference between expectation level and satisfaction level for each ite m is calculated and the difference is treated as the satisfaction level. The study revealed that the expectations of the vast majority of the students related to daily life, academic life and student support serv ices provided were met. However, it was also identified that significant number of students were dissatisfied with some of the services.

Keywords: Higher education, student mobi lity, student exchange, student satisfaction, Erasmus Programme
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Teachers need to rethink their beliefs on what is wo rth knowing about constructivist science and technology curriculum and education. The goal of this study is to inve stigation of teachers’ percepti ons about goals 2004 science and technology curriculum and course activities. The working unive rse of the research is based upon the teachers of elementary schools in fourth and fifth classes in A nkara the first and the second term of acad emic year 2005-2006. The subject consisted of 75 elementary school science and tec hnology teachers. A survey methodology was used in the study. Science and technology teachers showed discontent w ith the status of 2004 elementary school science and technology curriculum. This offers directions for revision of the goals in current science and technology curriculum.

Keywords: school science and technology curriculum, teachers, perceptions
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Percevived academic self-efficacy is a belief about students’ completion of an academic task successfully. Identifying the university students’ academic self-efficacy levels may guide the explanations on their learning. Therefore, both reliable and valid Turkish scale to measure academic self-e fficacy is needed. The aim of the study is to adapt “Academic Self-efficacy Scale” developed by Jerusalem and Schwarzer (19 81) in Turkish. Cronbach alpha reliability coefficent of the original scale which is in German is .87. Translation of the s cale into Turkish was made by experts. Then, the scale was also analysed by experts in terms of consistency, content and measurement issues. Revised version of the scale was administered to 672 university students to determine its va lidity and reliability. The results of fact or analysis show that Turkish version of the scale has one dimension like the original version and that it has a total of seven items. Cronbach alpha reliablity value o f the scale is found to be .79.

Keywords: self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy, psychometric scale adaptation
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