In this study, the prediction power of the item characteristics based on the experts’ predictions on conditions try-out practices cannot be applied was examined for item characteristics computed depending on classical test theory and two-parameters logistic model of latent trait theory. The study was carried out on 9914 randomly selected students who took the student selection and placement examinations applied in Turkey that is one the examinations on which try-out practices cannot be applied. In this study, the experts’ prediction values were obtained from differently prepared metric scale applications according to classical and latent trait theories which were applied to 16 math teachers. In the study findings it was found that the item difficulty indexes of mathematic sub-test of student selection and placement examinations based on experts’ predictions have the capability of predicting the item difficulty indexes obtained from the classical test theory. Furthermore the predictions of bi parameters based on the experts’prediction have the capability of predicting bi parameters based on logistic model with two parameters of latent trait theory. But it is also found out that item discriminating indexes obtained from the classical test theory and ai parameters obtained from latent trait theory cannot be estimated through the experts’ predictions.

Keywords: classical test theory, latent trait theory, prediction of item and test parameters, test information functions
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In Urmia city, many children learn and speak their first language (either Azari or Kurdish) at home and study all of their courses in Farsi throughout their education. This bilingual quality of education needs to be researched to attain high quality educational practices. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of bilingualism on cognitive development. 135 primary bilingual and monolingual students in grades 1, 3, and 5 were tested. The data were collected through tests that rely on Piaget’s theories. The major finding showed that increase in age predicted the cognitive development stages of children as hypothesized. It was also found that there are no signification differences between bilingual and monolingual groups on Piagetian tasks.

Keywords: bilingual, cognitive, azari, kurdish, urmia
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In this paper, an application of one aspect of the Internet technology, namely Internet groups, into the teaching of American and British literatures is evaluated by means of a content analysis of the Internet group which was used as the course component. The aim of this paper was to see how students used the Internet group in the learning of literature so that the effect of the use of an Internet group on learning literature can be discussed. In this study, content analysis was used to understand the nature of the activity situated in the Internet group. The results of the analysis of the Internet group suggest that the Internet group was mainly used by the course takers for formal interaction. It is seen that very little collaboration or real interaction took place amongst the course takers towards creating meaning together. The results support the view that using technology in literature learning has advantages mainly because the students were interested in working in this group although they were neither graded in the activity nor were mandated to take part in it.

Keywords: internet, literature, internet group, blended learning
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It is expected that individuals should be in an interaction with different cultural groups and improve positive attitudes in their interaction, in the modern societies. Therefore, while developed countries get solutions for the problems about education, they also utilize the studies about multicultural education. Multicultural education, focuses on the different learning environments for making students tolerate different cultures. So, the teachers should create learning environments which make students respect the values of other cultural groups and remove their prejudices about different cultures and admit seriously the differences which are richness for the humanity. For this reason, in this study, the development process of multicultural education and its reflections to learning environments are tried to be examined.

Keywords: multicultural education, learning, curriculum
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Within MEB’s criteria on General Competencies for Teaching Profession, teachers are expected to be individuals, who are able to use technology and be a model for students in that respect. This study was conducted to determine level of teachers’ success in using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and to examine their attitudes towards ICT. The study was conducted using survey method and research population consisted of 163 teachers. Firstly, teachers’ ICT using achievements and attitude towards ICT were determined using Attitude Towards ICT Scale and an examination on ICT use. Then relations between teachers’ relevant attitudes and using achievements were studied. Study findings suggest there are considerable deficiencies in teachers’ use of ICT. It was found that teachers’ general attitude towards use of ICT in education was positive; but they thought using ICT in crowded classrooms would increase their responsibilities. A high level of positive relation was found between teachers’ ICT using achievements and attitudes towards ICT. Findings of the study also emphasize requirement of re-arrangement of computer course curriculum used at faculties of education and MEB’s in-service training programs regarding both contents and methods used.

Keywords: ICT using achievement, Attitudes towards ICT
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This study investigated the effect of concept mapping over traditional instruction on students’ understanding and retention of heat and temperature concepts. The sample of this study consisted of 5th grade students from two classes of a elementary school (n=75). One intact class was randomly assigned to the comparison group whereas the other one was randomly assigned to the experimental group. During teaching the topic of heat and temperature concepts in earth science curriculum, the experimental group was taught with the concept mapping instruction while the comparison group was taught with the traditional instruction. The results revealed that the students in the experimental group performed better on heat and temperature concepts. However, it has been found that there was no significant difference between experimental and control group on students’ retention scores of heat and temperature concept test.

Keywords: concept mapping, heat and temperature concepts, science education
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Hypertext is digitized, linear or nonlinear interactive texts, where readers have the options of chosing their own reading paths. As the Ministry of National Education put emphasis on introducing internet technologies into classrooms, especially with the information technology classroom project, elemantary school students will be exposed to more and more hypertext enviroments, which offer media- rich reading enviroments. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the fifth and sixth graders’ hypertextual reading process. A total of 45 fifth and sixth grade elementary school students participated in this study. A pre-test, post- test quasi experimental research design was applied. Data were collected through three instrurements, which are hypertext dissorientation scale, remembrance test, and reading-time logs. The results indicated that students percieved themselves as undecided about their dissorientation and no significant gender differences were observed. Secondly, the more time they spend on hypertext reading, the more they remembered and the less they felt dissoriented. Moreover, no gender difference was observed in their reading times.

Keywords: reading, hypertext, hypertextual disorentation, navigation
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This paper calls attention to the vital need to reexamine the role of the students’ first language in foreign language teaching. It provides a brief snapshot of the views concerning L1 use in L2 classes put forward by different methodological schools of thought over the last century. Through the presentation of potential uses of the first language, the author argues for the conviction that L1, if used properly, is essential and can play a facilitating role in foreign language teaching and learning as an invaluable linguistic resource, and thus, should not be treated as a barrier to learning.

Keywords: mother tongue, first language, foreign language, second language, l1, l2, teaching of english.
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The aim of this study is to discuss the experiences of prospective mathematics teachers in the course of school experience II. For this aim, 47 prospective mathematics teachers taking the course of school experience II wrote and submitted a one-two page reflection of their school-based experiences at the end of the semester. Prospective mathematics teachers’ written responses were examined and qualitatively analyzed for the common themes. Findings indicated that neither university mentors nor supervising teachers acted responsible and put the interest and commitment needed. Thus, prospective teachers gained more negative experiences such as making reluctant to the teaching as a profession or developing a negative attitude towards teaching rather than positive ones. On the other hand, a few prospective teachers who worked with trained and experienced supervising teachers and university mentors had good experience such as practicing teaching in real school situations and feeling like a teacher of the class.

Keywords: school experience II, prospective mathematics teachers, faculty-school partnership
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The main aim of this study was to investigate the effects of active concept-mapping strategy on students’ computer liking and motivation to computer course. The experimental model of the study was one factorial within- subjects design for repeated measures. Participants were 230 sixth-grade students. The mean age of participants was 12. Loyd and Gressard’s (1984) Computer Attitude Scale’s “Computer Liking” subscale and Christophel’s (1990) “Motivation Scale” were administered to the participants before and after the treatment. Paired samples t-test was used to examine the effects of independent variable on dependent variables. Results showed that the concept mapping strategy was significantly improved students’ level of computer liking and motivation to computer course. Implications are discussed.

Keywords: concept mapping, computer course, computer liking, motivation, elementary students.
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In physics education, the improvement of scientific thought skill is one of the major targets. While reaching this aim, the chosen teaching methods can be different; however it is very prominent that the ability to discriminate problems by using intuitive knowledge, to have creative thought for problem-solving and to establish a relation between the cases are acquired by individuals. In information age, creative and prolific individuals who know how to reach new information who can select the best one among them are needed. At this research, experimental procedures were carried out on the second year upper secondary school students who attended a lower socio-economic status secondary school at fall semester of 2005-2006 academic year in İzmir. In this study, strategy teaching group consisted of 25 and control group contained 21 students. Research data were collected by Physics Achievement Test, The Scale of Problem-Solving Strategies and problem solving sheets. During this study, cooperative problem-solving strategies were used with the experiment group (the strategy teaching group) and the control group was instructed problem solving-strategies with traditional teaching methods. In conclusion, the fact that the average of strategy teaching groups’ achievement and problem solving is much more higher than control groups’ achievement was found.

Keywords: physics education, problem-solving strategies, cooperative learning
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The purpose of this study is to investigate the current status of K-12 teachers’ Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) perceptions and ICT usage in their courses. The researchers used both quantitative and qualitative research approaches within data collection and analysis section. Quantitative data were collected with a questionnaire from 1429 K-12 teachers in 92 K-12 schools at 35 provinces of 12 different regions in Turkey through a representative convenience sampling method. Qualitative data were collected, through open-ended items in the questionnaire from the same participants and through interviews with 6 K-12 teachers. The results provided some evidence that there are positive perceptions about the integration of ICT into K-12 schools. The results also showed that at least one-fourth of the K- 12 teachers used computer laboratories and integrated ICT into their courses. The remaining teachers either do not integrate ICT into their courses or they lack of sufficient ICT facilities.

Keywords: ICT usage, ICT perceptions, K-12 teachers
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Experimental design is an important factor to assess the composite relations between dependent and interdependent variables in scientific research. To assess the associations precisely between the factors that involve in experimental design requires more sophisticated methods in the analysis process. CART is a non-parametric method that analysis complex relations between dependent and independent variables with group effects by classifying the sample into homogenous sub-groups and entering the model. Furthermore, CART has an advantage is that the analysis technique is free from the presumptions of multiple regression analysis such as normality, homogeneity, and interdependency of observations for parametric methods are ignored. The data was based on a survey among college students at Yuzuncu Yil University. The Limitedness Schemas Questionnaire, the General Self Efficacy Scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory were administered to 437 undergraduate collage students (313 males and 124 females). The data was analyzed by using CART analysis. Results were interpreted on a tree diagram obtained from statistical program with CART method. Relations between dependent and interdependent variables could be evaluated with the sub-group effects in the model. It was appeared that the sense of limitedness is a cognitive vulnerability factor for depression.

Keywords: classification and regression tree, cart, node, educational sciences, sense of limitedness
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This study is aimed to determine foreign languages teacher candidates’ self-efficacy for information literacy and computer literacy. Besides, relation between self-efficacy for information and computer literacy was also investigated. Two instruments were used for the study: information literacy and computer self efficacy scales. The results showed that information literacy and computer literacy self efficacy of the teacher candidates were quite high and there was a positive relationship between their information and computer literacy self efficacy. It was also found out that their information literacy self efficacy did not differ significantly by their gender and grades. However, their computer literacy self efficacy did not differ significantly by their grades, it did differ significantly by their gender.

Keywords: information literacy, computer literacy, teacher education, computer self-efficacy, information literacy self-efficacy
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The purpose of this study is to display the effects of the development of the pre-service teachers’ reflective thinking skills to the planning, implementation and the evaluation process of teaching. Qualitative research methodology is used for this study. “Mixed Form: Experimental Design, Qualitative Data Collection and Content Analysis” which is administered in qualitative research methodology is used for this study. Case study is prefered as a research design in this framework which consists of methodology and structure of the study. The study is conducted with the 12 fourth grade students of Hacettepe University Faculty of Education Department of Classroom Teaching. Observation notes, camera recordings, interview form, self evaluation form, participant journals and lesson plans were used as a data collection tool for the evaluation of the curriculum planning. According to the findings, reflective thinking training provided positive contribution pre-service teachers’ planning, implementation and the evaluation process of teaching.

Keywords: reflective thinking, micro teaching, qualitative research method, reflective thinking curriculum, charecteristics of pre-service teachers
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This research was performed so as to examine the French pronunciation problems encountered by Turkish university students learning French. The population of the study was composed of the students who attended the French preparatory classes of Gazi University in 2006-2007 academic years. The students were asked to read a text selected on the basis of certain criteria from the textbook “Taxi 1” – which had been taught in conversation classes since 2005- and their was voice recorded in order to determine the problems. Examining the recording, the pronunciation mistakes they frequently did during reading were spotted and classified, the issues that mostly caused problems to Turkish students were determined and discussed with examples. The paper established the fact that Turkish learners’ problems mainly stemmed from the differences between Turkish and French sound/spelling systems and that the learners did not know the differences sufficiently. It also suggested that false interference caused by English, which the students had previously studied, was also influential and that phonetics courses as well as phonetics exercises were not sufficient.

Keywords: French pronunciation, pronunciation problems, pronunciation mistakes, phonetic, phonology, phoneme
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In this study, the aim is to develop an attitude scale in order to identify the students’ attitudes towards mathematics courses given at education faculties. The items in the questionnaire were identified via literature review and expert opinion. A preliminary scale of 42 items was prepared and answered by 432 pre-service teachers studying at Hacettepe and Balikesir University, Faculty of Education, Department of OFMA, Divisions of both Mathematics and Primary School Mathematics Teaching. The research data were analyzed through SPSS 11.5 and after the analysis the items covered in the questionnaire were reduced to 20 in number. 11 of the items are positive and 9 of them are negative. The related Cronbach Alpha value is. 93. The factor analysis of validity indicates that the items in the questionnaire accumulate around single dimension.

Keywords: attitude, developing attitude scale, mathematics courses
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This study aims to make a comparative analysis of families’ and teachers’ evaluation of behavior problems among children at the age of six, receiving preschool education. The data of the study were collected from the mothers and teachers of 60 male and 61 female children. Data collection instruments are Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 4-18 (CBCL/4-18) and Teacher Report Form (TRF/5-18).The correlations between mothers and teachers in the subtests of Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher Report Form show that the relationship is of low and intermediate significance (r=0.183 r= 0.355, p<0.05). The correlation coefficient is higher for externalizing problems (r=0.361), compared to internalizing problems (r=0.238). The relationship is of intermediate significance for the problems as a whole (r=0.298, p<0.05). The findings were analyzed by the sex and socioeconomic status of children as well as by the educational level of their parents.In this study it was shown that behaviour problem, in children could not be evaluated with the information caring out from only one source. It was found out that some behaviour, that can be perceived by mothers as a problematicmight be not regarded as a problem by teachers. Sometimes the opposite situation is also possible. So the view and opinion of teachers having interactions with children should be regarded in studying related child behaviours.

Keywords: child behaviour checklist(cbcl/4-18, trf/5-18), teacher, parent, preschool
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The main aim of the study is to determine the 3rd year students’ ideas and attitudes towards the utilization of technological tools. The study was conducted with 30 3rd year students from Zonguldak Karaelmas University, Ereğli Education Faculty, Primary School Education Department. The data collection tool was the “Technology Attitude Scale” of 5 factors and 19 items, developed by Yavuz (2005). Moreover, in order to determine students’ ideas on the utilization of technology in education, 5 students were chosen and with semi-structured interview used. While evaluating data's dependent sample t-test was used. When the pre and post test averages of the “Technology Attitude Scale” were compared, a significant difference was statistically observed favoring the posttest (p<0,05). The results of the study showed that the technology-assisted project studies affected students’ attitudes towards the utilization of technology in education positively. The data collected through the interviews enabled the determination of the positive ideas of students on the utilization of technology.

Keywords: attitude towards technology, technology education, science education
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This study examined likelihood of high school students’ gender, levels of academic achievement, perfectionism and perceived social support in predicting their degree of test anxiety. Participants were 505 students from high schools in the Ankara metropolitan area. The Test Anxiety Inventory, Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale and Perceived Social Support Scale-R were used for data collection. In addition, the Personal Information Form (PIF) was given to the participants to obtain demographic information. Regression analysis was used for data analysis. Significant relationships were found between test anxiety; and perfectionism, social support and academic achievement. Stepwise regression analysis showed that perfectionism, gender, academic achievement, perceived support from friends and support from teachers significantly contributed to the variance in test anxiety. Findings were discussed in accordance with the existing literature and implications for researchers and practitioners were articulated.

Keywords: test anxiety, academic achievement, perfectionism, social support
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The purpose of this study is to compare the Restricted Factor Analysis (RFA) results to that of Mantel Haenszel (M-H) and Likelihood Ratio (IRT-LR) analyses. The data of PISA 2003 mathematics items from the English and Turkish versions were used in the study. Results of these empirical analyses were controlled and investigated further through the use of a simulation study. This study revealed that, in both occasions where the group means are equal or different, RFA produced more accurate results than M-H and IRT-LR.

Keywords: restricted factor analysis, differential ıtem functioning, mantel-haenszel, likelihood- ratio analysis
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The purpose of this study is to compare the KWL and note-taking strategies with the traditional method in Science and Technology Course of the fifth grade students at elemantary school, and to determine the academic achievement and attitudes toward science course. This quasi-experimental study with “pre-post test and control group” design was carried out during the spring semester of 2005-2006 academic year. The sample of the study was composed of 121 fifth graders attending public elementary schools located in city center of Hatay. The data has been collected by administering “Science Achievement Test” and “Science Attitude Scale”. Science and Technology course was instructed to the first group by “KWL strategy”, by “notetaking strategy” to the second group, and the by “traditional method” to the control group. The results of the study showed that “notetaking and KWL strategies” in the 5th grade Sience and Technology courses can be effective for increasing the academic achievement.

Keywords: learning strategy, know-want-learn strategy, note taking strategy
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In this study, variation in students’ description of quantum physics and ways of description were identified. Participants of the study were selected purposely. 65 students from Middle East Technical University and Hacettepe University participated to this study. Students answered the related test with three open ended questions in almost 30 minutes. The qualitative data was analyzed via phenomenographic analysis. The data analyzed by the researchers gradually. Two categories (‘quantum physics as a course’ and ‘quantum physics as a branch of physics’) for description of quantum physics and three categories (‘descriptions by connection with other courses’, ‘non-operational descriptions’ and ‘operational descriptions’) for description ways were determined in the light of the data. In addition, most used concepts in the descriptions were identified and they were compared with the most important concepts according to the students perspective. ‘Microscopic system’ was identified as most used concept and ‘Heisenberg uncertainty principle’ was identified as the most important concept. This study indicates how students perceive the whole of the phenomenon. The findings may be used in new instructional designs and material developments for teaching quantum physics.

Keywords: quantum physics, phenomenographic analysis, physics education.
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In this study we explored Turkish prospective teachers’ attitudes towards the use of nuclear energy and construction of nuclear plants, a recent topic of discussion in Turkish medya. We conducted a survey including thirteen demographic and twenty 5-point Likert-scale items. In order to evaluate the reliability of the Likert-scale, we administrated the survey to 124 randomly choosen prospective teachers. The factor analysis an the principal components analysis revealed a reliabilty of .88. The accepted α value in the variance analysis between groups was .05. Later, we administred the survey to a total of 506 prospective teachers from the social and the science teaching programs in the Faculty of Education at Ondokuz Mayıs University. Study analysis revealed meaningful differences among participants academic levels and socio-economic levels. Majority of our participants (51%) expressed that they did not have any formal knowledge on nuclear energy. Participants, who responded that they have same formal knowledge expressed that the mass media environmental courses and textbooks were the sources of their knowledge.

Keywords: nuclear energy, nuclear plants, environmental attitudes, prospective teachers
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The aim of this research is to determine the effects of the multimedia applications on the learning achievements of the students when teaching biology. The study is an experimental model. The population of the research is composed of provided by 58 students, from preparatory class of German division of the School of Foreign Languages of Hacettepe University in the spring term of the 2004-2005 academic years. At the beginning of the research, 29 students were chosen randomly for the experiment group and the other 29 students for the control group. The experiment group was taught in an electronic class, with a multimedia CD. On the other hand, without changing the contents of the same subject and by being completely teacher-centered, the experimental group was taught the subject by the same person who had taught the experimental group but by this time in a traditional method by using a blackboard and class notes. In order to collect data of research a 30 multiple-choice achievement test was handed out to both groups at the beginning of the application as a pre-test and again after the application as a post-test. According to the result of the research, it appeared to be that the complete multimedia applications provide higher achievement in reaching to the behaviors at the levels of knowledge, comprehension, and application.

Keywords: biology teaching, multimedia applications, cell division
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Perspectives about education has changed by the diffusion of internet using. Today many debates on whether web based training deliver lessons via internet, is more effective than face to face or not. The purpose of this research is to provide a different perspective to these debates by examine the students’ achievement, anxiety about computer and motivation with discussing differences in delivery methods of web based training. Achievement, anxiety about computer and motivation of four different groups of undergraduate students are compared who learn in tutorial, drill, practice web based environments with face-to-face environments. It is founded that hybrid environments provide much and more permanent learning. However, there is no difference in achievement between other environments. In addition, there is no significant difference in motivation and anxiety in practice, demonstration and hybrid environments.

Keywords: web based instruction, achievement, motivation, computer anxiety.
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The purpose of this study is to present the whole process step-by-step of how a science lesson can be planned and implemented based on Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory. First, it provides the potential of the MI theory for science teaching and learning. Then an MI science lesson that was developed based on a modified model in the literature and implemented in an 8th grade classroom is given as a concrete example in order to help preservice and inservice science teachers to create bridges from the theoretical framework of the MI theory into classroom practice. This study uncovers that there are four important factors affecting how MI science lessons are planned and carried out. They are: (1) identifying individual students’ multiple intelligences or strengths via a reliable and valid tool, (2) paying attention to the literature findings related to students’ difficulties in learning the relevant science topic, (3) considering the nature of the knowledge structure that students are supposed to learn with respect to the MI, and (4) examining teacher’s ability to manage the MI activity.

Keywords: multiple intelligences theory, science education, multiple intelligences science lesson.
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