The purpose of this study was to explore differences in self-efficacy and attitude of teacher candidates toward computer-assisted education (CAE) with differential variables. Moreover, the relationships between their attitudes and self-efficacy toward the CAE were also investigated. The study was conducted by survey method. 135 teacher candidates participated in the study. The attitude toward CAE and self efficacy perception scales are used as data collecting tool. Arithmetic mean, standard deviation, independent t-test, one way variance analysis and Pearson Correlation analysis were used for analyzing data. At the end of the study, it was determined that attitudes of teacher candidates toward CAE are positive and self efficacy perceptions of teacher candidates toward CAE are on a good level. There is a significant difference between the attitudes of teacher candidates toward CAE and their sex and the frequency of computer usage. On the other hand, there is no significant difference between the attitudes of teacher candidates toward CAE and the program they enrolled, owning a computer and computer usage age. One of the most important results of this study is that self efficacy perceptions of teachers toward CAE doesn’t depend on their gender, the program they enrolled and owning a computer. On the other hand, there is a significant difference between the self efficacy perceptions level of teachers toward CAE and the frequency of computer usage and computer usage age. One of the most important results of the research is that relevance level is determined as .67 between attitudes and self efficacy perceptions of teacher candidates toward computer-assisted education.

Keywords: computer assisted education, attitude, self-efficacy, and teacher candidate
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Evolution has not being well addressed in schools partly because it is a controversial topic in religious views. In the present study, it is explored to what extent Turkish secondary school biology teachers and students accommodate the theory of biological evolution with their religious beliefs. Two-hundred fifty secondary school students and thirdy-eight biology teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire addressing (1) their acceptance of evolution and reasons of their acceptance, (2) their attitudes towards evolution and creation and impact on their education curriculum, (3) teachers’ educational backgrounds information. This research is descriptive, yet the study findings inform further studies. Findings reveal that the majority of the participants rejected the theory of evolution. Their rejection of evolution correlated strongly with their religious beliefs and for students, with their teachers’ attitudes towards evolution and its teaching in schools. Students and teachers believed that they should believe in either of these views; theory of evolution as it is described in scientific text or in creationism as advocated by religious organizations. Our participants thought they should reject one if they accept the other.

Keywords: biological evolution, religious belief, biology teachers, students.
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In this Study, the question “Was there any effect size of school administrators that participated in service training in Turkey, if there exists, in which subjects and what was the direction of the effect size were investigated?” were answered. 16 studies that have the perception of education administrators and have eligible data were included to the meta-analysis research by coding protocol from the pool of 378 studies, which were master and doctoral theses completed between 1997–2006 who participated in the service training and in these studies 2425 school administrators were involved. At the end of the research the mean effect size of education administrators who were participated in the service training was calculated as small. But it was determined that in some studies the effect size of education administrators who participated in the service training was calculated as medium.

Keywords: school administrator, education policy, in-service training, meta-analysis
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This study examined the variables predicting the primary school students’ perceptions of school climate. A total of 683 students from Afyon, Gümüşhane, Kocaeli, Konya, Mersin, Van, and Yozgat were participated in the study. “School Climate Student Scale” and “School Atmosphere Scale” were used to gather data. Multiple hierarchical regression analysis indicated that girls were more likely to experience a positive school climate than boys. Supportive behaviors of teachers and school administrators, perceived quality of academic programs, and a strong sense of school belonging were positively associated with the perceptions of school climate. However, perceived school violence was negatively related to school climate. Suggestions for creating a positive school climate and learning environment were presented at the end of the study.

Keywords: school climate, student success, teacher support, trust
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This subject was started to be studied considering the theorem which suggests that the ones whose native language is Turkish have problems in transferring the rule that the affix “-ler or –lar” into German. By means of this study which was conducted in 2008–2009 Academic years, it is aimed to evaluate comparative grammar performance of both students taking their 6th term courses in German Language Teaching Division at Trakya University and MA students. As a result of the study, it was seen that the affix “-ler or –lar” in Turkish was mostly transferred into German as a plural ending. In addition, considerable mistakes were made in choosing personal pronouns, prepositions, conjugations, cases of nouns, and using tenses, and it was concluded that much more activities which will help German Language Teacher Candidates, who have learned German in Turkey, to gain knowledge skills and abilities and overcome such problems in their professional life should be included in four-year German Language Teaching Education Curriculum, and also it was suggested that in-service courses should be organized for graduate students.The study was performed in a certain time period and it is an error analysis study based on comparison.

Keywords: german, turkish, affix –lar, comparison, language competence
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This study explored the effectiveness of mobile learning in foreign language education. With this purpose, instructional materials to be delivered through mobile phones operated in second generation GSM technology in order to improve English language learners' vocabulary acquisition were developed. The multimedia messages in this study allowed students to see the definitions of words, example sentences, related visual representations, and pronunciations. After students finished reading multimedia messages, interactive short message service (SMS) quizzes for testing their learning were sent. In addition, the study examined students’ tendencies in using MMS in their second language vocabulary study and explored the opinions of the students toward the use of mobile phones for instructional purposes. The findings of this study suggest some important points to consider while creating MMS content and a SMS quiz system for educational purposes.

Keywords: mobile phone, multimedia messages, vocabulary acquisition in English
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This research evaluates technological equipment and its use in Secondary Education Institutions in Turkey. Specifically we examine teachers’ use of new technologies in biology education. We focus on how frequently teachers use various computer applications and the conditions that prompt this usage. Our study also examines whether individual teacher characteristics affect changes in attitudes related to the implementation of technological supplements. The present research conducted via survey model was implemented with the support of MEB-EARGED. Data analysis was made by means of frequency analysis, Kruskal Wallis-H and Mann Whitney - U test processed with SPSS 15 for Windows. Research results indicate that even though secondary education institutions have satisfactory equipment in terms of new technologies, this quality does not appear in the class environments and education processes sufficiently. It was observed that a high ratio of teachers never use the new technologies in the teaching process and a rather low ratio uses the new technologies very frequently. Results show that there are significant differences between biology teachers’ frequency of various computer applications. Variables are according to their seniority in the school system, the sort of the schools they work in, their access to and progress in training courses, and their own level of education.

Keywords: Biology teacher, biology education, new technologies
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The aim of this study is to describe the medical students’ self-regulated learning skills and to examine differences between self-regulated learning skills and achievement. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this descriptive study. Out of 810 first three year students of Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine took part in the study. Moreover, nine students were interviewed. Data gathering instruments were the self-regulated learning skills scale and the interview form. The average score of the committee exams were used for determining the achievement level. The statistical differences were determined between students’ self-regulated learning skills and their achievement levels. The successful students were observed more self-regulated learning skills in all stages of learning in the qualitative study. The learning was described in successive five stages during the interviews: action to learning, determining and assessment of needs, determining of objectives, planning and implementation of learning, assessment of outcomes and strategies.

Keywords: self-regulated learning, achievement, medical students
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This study investigates school principals’ listening skills according to teacher feedback in terms of a number of variables. The study is conducted according to a general survey model. The sample of consists of 477 elementary, general and vocational secondary school teachers working in Konya, Turkey, in the 2007–2008 education year. The sample was selected by the random sampling method. In summary, it can be seen that school principals have sufficient listening skills in the perception of teachers participating in the study. The study results reveal that teachers’ feedback concerning their principals’ listening skills differs in terms of the variables of the school at which they work, their educational level, their professional experience, the length of time they have worked with the principals and the number of teachers at the school, but teachers’ feedback concerning their principals’ listening skills do differ according to the principals’ major.

Keywords: listening skills, school principals, teacher feedback
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the high school students’ hopelessness levels towards mathematics point of view students’ characteristics. The sample of the study consists of 214 students which selected randomly from an Anatolia high school in Eskişehir. Data were collected by adapted Beck Hopelessness Scale to mathematics with demographical information form. Frequency tables, t-test and analysis of variance were employed to analyze data. The results of the study indicated that, while there were differences in high school students’ hopelessness levels towards mathematics points of view grade, mathematics success and having mathematics education in out of school, there were not differences in hopelessness levels towards mathematics point of view gender. Finally suggestions were included for learning and teaching mathematics in high schools.

Keywords: hopelessness level, high school, teaching mathematics.
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Based on qualitative research method, the purpose of this study was to describe and document social studies teacher candidates’ perceptions of Europe, the Middle East and Turkey’s neighbors together with their perspectives on the cultures of the Middle East and Europe. A purposeful sampling was used to identify and recruit research participants and a semi-structured interview protocol was employed to elicit participants’ viewpoints on the research topic. The analysis of the interview transcripts by means of the techniques and strategies of inductive qualitative data analysis showed that participants’ viewpoints on the topic were characterized by a dualistic thinking in that they viewed Turkey’s neighbors solely in terms of a friend-enemy dichotomy, drawing heavily on their historical knowledge in their explanations which were mainly political in character and focus. Participants’ viewpoints were in part affected by their gender.

Keywords: social studies, teacher candidates, pre-service teacher perspectives, approaches to cultures
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In recent years, there has been a relative increase in the number of studies on thinking styles as an integrated dimension of individual differences. The scarcity of the studies in the literature focusing on educational administrators and their thinking styles increases the importance of the present study. The present study is a descriptive investigation of the thinking styles of educational administrators in Tokat province of Turkey. Thinking styles are compared in relation to different variables such as age, gender, tenure, and school type. The sample of the study is 241 voluntary school administrators who were selected conveniently. The Thinking Styles Inventory and a personal data form were used to collect the data. Results showed that the most preferred thinking styles are Hierarchical, Legislative, and External; whereas the least preferred ones are Conservative, Oligarchic, and Local thinking styles. Significant differences across the independent variables of the study were found. These differences were interpreted and suggestions were given.

Keywords: thinking styles, educational administration, educational psychology
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The aim of this study is to explore mathematical problem understanding performances of students. 53 third–grade students from an urban elementary school in Nicosia in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus were the participants. After conducting the pre-Understanding Problem (UP) Test, the experimental group (n = 28) has followed a problem posing based problem solving instruction for 10 weeks, whereas the control group (n = 25) has followed a traditional problem solving instruction. A 10 week period was followed by a 3 month recess. Then post- and delayed- post UP tests were conducted respectively to both of the groups. The results indicate that the experimental group students were better than the control group students in terms of UP scores in all dimensions (rephrasing, visualizing and qualitative reasoning). The difference between the two groups was the greatest in sub-dimension in which qualitative reasoning was emphasized.

Keywords: problem posing instruction, understanding of mathematical problems, problem solving
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This paper reports a research study carried out on teacher burnout with a group of English instructors (N=44) in order to identify the major factor(s) leading instructors to burnout at various levels. A survey research model was first applied to find out the instructors (N=37) with a burnout problem and categorize them at different levels of teacher burnout. The next step of the research was an interview carried out with 12 instructors who were selected randomly from the four different levels of burnout. The results show that the instructors from the different levels unanimously believe that the major factor of their burnout is the administrative applications in their institution, which was coded as a micro variable. It was also revealed that the instructors with a high level of burnout displayed ‘Alienation to professional identity’ behavior.

Keywords: english instructors, burnout, management, alienation
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The purpose of this study was to determine the primary education and ministry supervisors’ communication styles. The data of the research were collected with “supervisor interaction inventory” developed by Kremer- Hayon and Wubbels (1993). The questionnaire consists of 61 questions related to the dimensions: Leadership, helpful/friendly, understanding, responsibility/freedom, uncertain, dissatisfied, admonishing and strict. 308 elementary school teachers from 15 schools and 160 high school teachers from 10 schools who has been supervised participated to the research in Niğde . The data have been analysed using descriptive statistics methods. According to the study results it was found that primary education supervisors used the leadership and strict communication styles at most and uncertain and admonishing communication styles at least. Similarly it was found that ministry supervisors used the leadership and strict communication styles at most and dissatisfied and uncertain styles at least. There were differences between the communication styles of primary education and ministry supervisors. It was found out that ministry supervisors used leadership, helpful/friendly and strict communication styles with a higher level compared with the primary education supervisors.

Keywords: communication, supervisors’ communication styles, interaction
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The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of learning strategies on mathematics achievement. The sample was compiled from students who participated in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in Turkey. The data consisted of 4493 15 years old Turkish students in 158 schools, and analyzed by two levels Bernoulli model as a special case of hierarchical generalized linear models. These clustered data set with a two level hierarchical structure examined students nested within different schools. Two levels Bernoulli model was used to estimate coefficients and modeled differences across schools. Results from this study indicate that school location, gender and interest in and enjoyment of mathematics variables had positive effects, and elaboration learning strategies variable had strong negative effects on mathematics achievement.

Keywords: hierarchical generalized linear model, learning strategies, mathematics achievement, pisa, two-level bernoulli model.
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The aim of this research is to determine the effects of problem based learning on students’ success, attitudes towards course, metacognitive awareness and motivation level in the Primary Education Science and Technology course. The research was carried out on two different groups of the sixth grade students of İDV Bilkent Private Primary School in Ankara. In the research, to which pre and post-test with control group design were applied, achievement test, attitude scale, metacognitive awareness scale and motivation scale were used as data collection tools. Both the experimental and the control group were found to be equivalent in terms of first semester school reports, achievement, attitudes, metacognitive awareness and motivation levels prior to the treatment. The problem based learning approach was used in the experimental group yet no intervention was made to the control group. The results obtained at the end of the research indicated that there was a significant difference between the experimental group which was exposed to problem based learning and control group which wasn’t in terms of success, attitudes, metacognitive awareness and motivation means in favour of the experimental group.

Keywords: problem based learning, achievement, attitude, metacognitive awareness, motivation
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This study was conducted to examine views of mathematics and class teachers about new mathematics curriculum and to investigate difficulties encountered in the application of curriculum, in Adıyaman. 35 mathematics teachers and 230 class teachers, totally 265 teachers participated. Data were collected by using 5-point Likert scale, which consists of 43 items, an open-ended question which teachers wrote down their opinions about new curriculum, and a program evaluation form filled by teachers. In the analysis of quantitative data percentage, mean, t-test, and ANOVA test were used. Descriptive research method was used in the analysis of qualitative data. Research findings showed that the teachers’ views are generally positive, there are differences in terms of some variables and the program was not introduced to teachers adequately, lack of materials in application and difficulties in preparation of activities and overcrowded classrooms.

Keywords: curriculum reform, mathematics education, elementary education
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The aim of this study is to investigate how student teachers’ study attitudes, self-perceptions of success, and positive perceptions of their faculty and lecturers are associated with their grade and study strategies. The participants of the study are a group of 746 freshman and senior students from Gazi University, Vocational Educational Faculty. The study strategies and attitudes of student teachers were measured by using the Likert type Study Strategies and Study Attitudes Inventories. The hierarchical multiple regression analysis performed on the data showed that study attitudes, self-perceptions of success and positive perceptions of their lecturers were important factors of study strategies. It was also found that perceptions of the school and grade were not influential in the use of study strategies. The results implicated that student teachers’ study attitudes and perceptions of themselves and lecturers should be made more positive so that they use more efficient study strategies.

Keywords: study strategies, study attitudes, student teachers
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In this study, the effects of preschool education on primary first graders’ school preparedness is analysed in terms of gender, mother’s and father’s educational level. A total of 170 primary first graders attending primary schools with kindergartens comprise the sampling of this study. The data was collected through the Metropolitan Readiness Test and Family Survey. The data were analysed by using t-Test and two-way analysis of variance. The results revealed that preschool education and parents’ educational level have a significant effect on children’s level of school preparedness. However, gender did not create a significant difference in children’s school preparedness

Keywords: school preparedness, preschool education, literacy preparation skills, primary education
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Since improvement of Chemistry is based on laboratory researches, doing an experiment in a laboratory is an important part of chemistry learning in order to educate new generations in a scrutinizing way. To educate individuals will be able to carry out some researches in the future’s classes who has some abilities such as thinking, expressing one self, and creativity problem solving, has a big importance. In this study, whether students’ anxiety levels toward laboratory changed or not were investigated by doing experiments in a chemistry laboratory. For that purpose, in 2008-2009 autumn term, 100 students taking general chemistry class (4 branches from second classes - department of science teaching in primary school, faculty of education of Pamukkale University) participated in this study (as an example). In this scope of study, chemistry laboratory anxiety scale developed by Bowen and translated into Turkish by Uzuntiryaki and Azizoğlu was used. At the beginning of the semester, chemistry laboratory anxiety scale was administrated to the students as a pre-test before taking general chemistry class. During the term, experiments take parts in the lesson’s content have been carried out. At the end of the semester, chemistry laboratory anxiety scale was administrated to the students again as a final test. Having comparison pre-test with final test, it was determined that there has been a decrease in students’ anxiety by means of this implementation.

Keywords: chemistry laboratory, anxiety scale, science teacher candidates
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The purpose of this paper is to show that the reflections of different personality types can be observed in students’ developing different learning styles for themselves. It is hypothesized that personality may be a dominant factor in achieving the educational goals through several learning styles in foreign language achievement. To clarify this relationship; Maudsley’s ‘Personality’ and Barsch’s ‘Learning Styles’ inventories were distributed to Bilkent University Freshman students studying at the Faculty of Engineering, Science, Economics, Fine Arts, and Humanities & Letters, who received the English 101 course in their first year at the university. The results were evaluated statistically and the findings showed that there is not a statistically strong, but a low relationship between the personality traits of the learner, the way he/she establishes the learning styles and reflects these characteristics into success while learning a foreign language.

Keywords: personality, introvert, extrovert, learning styles
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This research is a correlative study that is oriented towards comparing the state of liking children of primary school teachers in the context of socio-demographical and occupational characteristics. The scale which was developed for this aim was conducted to 828 primary school teachers. By using descriptive and inferential statistical methods, answers to the questions of this research were sought. The dependent variable of this research is the “liking of children” score obtained from the Barnett Liking of Children Scale which was adapted to Turkish. The Independent variables are teachers’ sex, age, marital status, number of children if they have, number of working years as teacher, state of being a classroom or branch teacher and state of doing some activities related to children. According to the findings of this study, as to sex and the number of children teachers have there is no difference in the level of liking children, but liking of children scores of teachers who are between 40-50 ages, married, and who have children are higher.

Keywords: liking of children, teacher characteristics, socio-demographical characteristics, and teacher-child.
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"Work-Related Behaviour and Experience Patterns” (AVEM) has been developed with the intention of determining the occupation related behaviour and lifestyle models of professionals. This study has been conducted to test the validity and reliability of MEDYAM, the abbreviated Turkish equivalent of AVEM. 373 teachers from 10 different primary and secondary schools participated in the study (28.2% male and 71.8% female). Confirmatory factor analysis results revealed that the data fits well with the model (χ2 = 4426.30 and df = 2024 RMSEA = 0.056 and SRMR = 0.073). Moreover, the obtained absolute values were between .40 and .99 for Lambda; . 20 and .88 for R2 value, and 8.04 and 23.09 for t-scores (p <.05). In scope of the scale’s reliability test, all Cronbach alpha coefficients obtained regarding each dimension varied between 0.72 and 0.85. Findings related to validity and reliability demonstrates the suitability of the MEDYAM scale for studies conducted in scope of determining teachers’ work related behavior and experience patterns

Keywords: AVEM, MEDYAM, teacher, stres, burn –out, validity, reliability
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The aim of this study is to adapt the Innovativeness Scale which developed H. Thomas Hurt and others in 1977 to Turkish. In the light of results the adapted scale, that validity and reliability studies were carried out on 343 undergraduate students, was made up 20 items. That scale was yielded four factors and its structures of the factors were valid. It is found that adapted scales’ internal reliability co-efficient was 0.82 and test-retest reliability co-efficient was 0.87. Hence this adapted scale is suitable for Turkish academic studies related to innovativeness and its derivatives.

Keywords: Individual innovativeness, scale adaptation
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In this study, inter-regional differences have been examined in terms of educational opportunities at primary schools in Turkey. Principal component analysis and wheel of educational opportunities for the first time applied on education data have been used in order to analyze inter-regional differences. By determining in which direction and to what extent educational opportunities in each region differ from the average of Turkey, it has been revealed in what educational opportunities the regions should be supported. Wheel of educational opportunities has been preferred in this study because it points to the main problems of regions at a glance and enables comparisons among regions.

Keywords: educational opportunities at primary school, principal component analysis, wheel of educational opportunities, equal opportunity
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This study aimed at analyzing the attitudes towards biology course and the academic self concept of the students of a science high school on the basis of the variables of a) gender, b) grade, c) success and d) the faculty they plan to study at. The study was conducted with the participation of 322 students from Ankara Science High School. A 32- items attitude scale for biology course, an 8-item academic self concept scale and personal information form were used for data collection purpose. Alpha reliability coefficient of the attitude scale for biology course was calculated as 0.98 and of the academic self concept scale as 0.81. In data analysis, t-test was used for pairwise group comparisons and one-way ANOVA analysis and Scheffe test for the comparisons between more than two groups. Study results revealed a statistically significant difference between male and female science high school students in terms of attitudes towards biology course and the academic self concept, the difference being in favor of female students.

Keywords: science high school, biology course, attitudes, academic self concept
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