The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between self-compassion and interpersonal cognitive distortions. Participants were 338 university students. In this study, the Self-compassion Scale and the Interpersonal Cognitive Distortions Scale were used. The relationships between self-compassion and interpersonal cognitive distortions were examined using correlation analysis and the hypothesis model was tested through structural equation modeling. In correlation analysis, self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness factors of self-compassion were found negatively and self-judgment, isolation, and over-identification factors of self-compassion were found positively related to interpersonal cognitive distortions. The model demonstrated excellent fit (χ2/df= 1.37, p=.036, GFI=.97, AGFI=.94, CFI=.99, NFI=.98, IFI=.99, RFI=.96, SRMR=.036, and RMSEA=.040) and also accounted for 93% of interpersonal cognitive distortions variances. According to path analysis results, interpersonal cognitive distortions were predicted negatively by self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. Further self-judgment, isolation, and over-identification predicted interpersonal cognitive distortions in a positive way. Results were discussed in the light of the related literature.

Keywords: Self-compassion, interpersonal cognitive distortions, path analysis
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Nowadays, societies have been changed by rapidly developed digital technologies. The information explosion is experienced, and individuals / institutions should acquire digital empowerment. The concept of digital empowerment gains importance in the sense of both having digital skills and using them to their full potential. Digital empowerment refers to the ability of an individual to use digital technologies effectively in order to develop life skills and strengthen his or her capacity within the information society. The purpose of this study was to develop validate and widely applicable scale for university students to measure their digital empowerment. A scale with 45 items was constructed using a seven -point Likert anchored with notations 1 = strongly disagree, 7= strongly agree to design the instrument. The scale was conducted to 761 students. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and varimax rotation were carried out to determine the construct of the scale and it indicated the presence of four components. The internal reliability index, alpha coefficients, were adequate for the subscales (awareness, motivation, technical access and empowerment) respectively, 0.94, 0.84, 0.78, 0,81 and for the entire scale 0.86.

Keywords: digital empowerment, digital divide, digital gap
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As is known, writing is an indispensable part of language education. As far as English Language Teaching Departments are concerned, writing courses, especially Advanced Writing Skills, are taken as a course of higher importance. However, forming a syllabus for Advanced Writing Course for English Language Teaching Departments is not an easy matter. Both students and teachers need to have taken their place in forming this Advanced Writing Course syllabus. In order to have the contribution of both parties, the writer of this piece makes use of necessary data collection tool: questionnaires. By the help of them, the content is formed, and a coursebook is prepared for their use. In short, this study aims at preparing a suggested Advanced Writing Course Syllabus for English Language Teaching Departments. It is considered as a material to form a basis for language learners in English Language Teaching departments.

Keywords: writing, writing skills, syllabus, advanced writing skills, English language teaching
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This study attempts to develop a 7-point Likert-type scale for assessing the constructivist learning environments. The scale is based on 6 factors; which were developed by consulting the relevant literature. These factors are student centered, thought provoking, collaborative, life relevance, concurrent learning and assessment, bringing different view points. With the opinions of study group and the expert, some corrections were made on scale and item number decreased to 29. The scale implemented on 247 university students and analysis was made with SPSS and LISREL. After the confirmatory factor analysis, the scale became to its real version Explained variance is found to be %66,65. The cronbach alfa coefficient was found as ,96, and the RMSEA value as 0,076.

Keywords: constructivism, constructivist learning environment, scale development, constructivist learning environments assessing scale, YÖDÖ
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Developing learners’ lexical competence is one of the goals of language teaching. In this study, our objective was to contribute to this goal by using the Internet and see its effect on vocabulary learning. In this context, Internet-based vocabulary classes were held with French-learning students according to the time series model. The lessons lasted for 12 hours (12 weeks=1 hour/week). The first four weeks, the lessons were conducted in a traditional way (student book+whiteboard), the following four weeks with the Internet, and the last four weeks in a traditional way again. The results showed that the average scores obtained from the quizzes made after each class have risen when the Internet was used, and this increase was stable during the lessons conducted without the Internet. In conclusion, the Internet has indicated a positive effect on vocabulary development in foreign language teaching.

Keywords: vocabulary, French as a foreign language (FFL), Internet.
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The main purpose of this study is to compare the effect of the constructivist approach with traditional teaching method in the acid-base concept on the students higher order cognitive skills and investigate the effect of the teaching method on the students' attitudes toward science education as well as the effect of the gender difference on students' understanding of acid-base concept. The present study was conducted with 300 students which attend eight class. The control group received instruction based on the traditional instruction method whereas the experimental group was instructed according to the 5E learning method. In order to determine the existing knowledge level of the students, Acid-Base Knowledge Test (ABKT), Science Process Skill Test and Logical Thinking Skill Test were administered to all groups as a pre test. The Acid-Base Achievement Test (ABAT) and Attitude Scale toward Science Education(ASS) were administered to all groups as a pre and post test. The results indicated that 5E learning model was more influential on students' higher order cognitive skills and induced more positive attitudes toward science education as a school subject.

Keywords: 5E learning model, higher order cognitive skills, attitude toward science education, science process skill, logical thinking skill.
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The aim of this survey is to search the learning strategies of the Education faculty students, who will teach geography, according to different varieties. First of all, the measure of geography learning strategy was developed. It was found that the students with high academic success for geography lesson. Other data of this survey is that the students with relevance perception for geography much frequently used the learning strategies comparared to the students with low and moderate relevance perception for geography. Significant differences were found in the point of frequency of using the learning strategies for geography related with the types of programme entsance point and male- female students and between university students attending deportment of elementary learning education and the students of the social sciences education and the students of the social sciences education department.

Keywords: learning strategies, geography, learning strategies survey
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This study investigated the teachers' perceptions on the concept of value. In order to determine teachers’ meanings attributed to the concept of value 214 class and social sciences teachers working at primary schools in Mersin were asked to answer the question: “what do you think about the meaning of the concept of value?”. Written answers were content analyzed. According to the results we have reached 7 thematic groups named as “value as criteria”, “values as integrating elements between individual and society relations”, “values as sum of behaviors”, “values as spiritual and material elements of life”, “values as sum of rules”, “values as ultimate qualities” and “functions of values education”. In addition, we have evaluated teachers’ various value examples which they generated to support their descriptions. Findings were interpreted with the help of the related literature.

Keywords: values, value descriptions, teachers’ conceptions, values education.
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The objective of this study is to find out whether chance scores effects test equating, or not. Single group design, and linear equating and equipercentile equating were used in the study. The data analysis was performed at three stages. At the first stage, it was checked whether equating conditions are fulfilled for test score with and without the chance success. It was identified that there is no significant difference at 0.05 level between the two situations with respect to the mean difficulties, reliabilities, means and variances. Furthermore, at the end of the factor analysis performed, it can be said that both tests measure the same construct. At the second stage, the equated points were found by using linear and equipercentile equating. At the third stage, weighted mean square error of these methods was found, and the method with the lowest weighted mean square error was accepted as the most suitable equating method. At the end of the study, it was found out that; while linear equating is the most suitable method for equating of test points with chance success; equipercentile equating is the most suitable method for equating test points without chance success. Overall, it was observed in the study that the equating error is the lowest for equipercentile equating without chance success.

Keywords: test equating, linear equating, equipercentile equating, test equating design, chance scores
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Academic counseling courses, in which learner support is provided in a face-to-face environment, maintain their importance and continuity since the beginning of the distance education system in Anadolu University. Academic counseling courses, which are carried out by getting support from various universities, are conducted by bringing the instructors that are experts in their fields and learners together in pre-arranged places out of working hours (in the evening on weekdays and at weekends) in 74 town center. Learners could make use of this service by asking questions about the content they haven’t understood, discussing it, and consulting the instructor. In this study, it is examined learners’ attitudes towards learning environment and the instructors’ behaviors in academic counseling. The findings indicate that those who tend to academic counseling courses have positive attitudes towards both the instructor and the environment.

Keywords: distance learning, support service, academic counseling courses
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Numerous countries evaluate effectiveness of their educational reforms and investments and receive feedback for their educational systems based on the results of international assessment projects. Finland and Turkey as OECD members are also among those countries. Finland’s continuous success at PISA 2000, 2003 and 2006 has aroused so much curiosity, leading many countries particulary the ones that have failed at PISA like Turkey to investigate reasons behind its success. As a result, in this study, several reasons appearing to account for Finland’s PISA success, such as flexible, autonomous and individualized approach in education, equity in education; teacher efficacy and literate society are discussed in the context of Finnish education system. In addition, several conclusions for Turkey retrieved from the case of Finland are higlighted in order to contribute to the development of necessary educational policies to actualize the ideal of catching and maintaining quality in Turkish education system.

Keywords: pısa, finnish education system, finland’s pısa success.
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This study determined value orientations of living species. The study group of the research consisted of twenty-four university students. Necessary data were accumulated through semi-structured interview method and examined through content analysis based on Kellert’s value orientation typology. As a result of the research, student profiles emerged in terms of dominant value orientations for living species. It was established that an “anthropocentric environmentalist” value orientation predominates in most university students.

Keywords: living species, biodiversity, value orientations
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The purpose of the study is to investigate relationship between variables of assertiveness and locus of control levels of undergraduate students and to evaluate significant differences between variables. The nature of the research study relies on quantitative that case study is employed. Rathus Assertiveness Scale and Rotter Locus of Control Scale were applied to 281 participants from Turkish Language Teaching, 119 participants from Computer Information Technology to gather data. In this respect, data analysis was done through percentages, frequency, t-test, ANOVA and MANOVA. The research study revealed that there is significant difference on assertiveness and locus of control between students’ departments. In addition, it can be stated that Computer Information Technology students are more assertive than Turkish Language Teaching students. This study enlightens and shares with academic agenda that there is vital to be aware on career development and well structured, educated youth inline with European Union standards.

Keywords: assertiveness, focus of control, academic achievement and communication
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Social Appearance Anxiety Scale (SAAS) was developed to measure social appearance by Hart et al., (2008). The purpose of the present study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Social Appearance Anxiety Scale. 340 university students (143 female, 197 male) participated in the study. The Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (BFNE) was used for the criterion validity. In order to determine the construct validity of The Social Appearance Anxiety Scale (SAAS), exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted. The factor analysis resulted in a factors. The Cronbach’s alpha for the SAAS was .93 and split-half .88. The computed test re-test reliability coefficient for the SAAS was .85. There was . 60 correlation between SAAS and BFNE. Item-total correlation coefficients of the Turkish SAAS ranged from .32 to .82. Analysis demonstrated that SAAS had a satisfactory level of reliability and validity in Turkish university students.

Keywords: social appearance anxiety, scale, validity, reliability
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This study aimed to establish whether a Play Based Social Skills Training Program is effective on the social skills of six-year-old children attending preschools. The study was designed as a pretest-posttest-retention test control group experimental study. The study population consisted of normally-developing six-year-old (60-72 months) 96 children (experimental:48; control:48) who were attending the preschools of primary schools located in Çankırı. The Play Based Social Skills Training Program was applied to the experimental group three times a week for a period of eight weeks. When the Play Based Social Skills Training Program was not implemented, experimental group children continued their regular preschool education together with the control group children. Data for the research was collected via the “Family Information Form” and “Social Skills Scale” developed by Acun Kapıkıran et al. (2006). Data were analyzed using covariance analysis with one factor and a t test. A difference of (p<0,001) between the social skill point averages of children in the experimental and control groups was regarded as significant. We found that the difference between the point averages of the post and retention tests was not statistically significant (p>0,05) and the effects of the Play Based Social Skills Training Program was still continuing.

Keywords: preschool education, social development, social skills, social skills training, play.
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The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of some personal characteristics such as age, gender, type of high school graduated and the departments of the students on their learning styles. Learning Style Inventory (LSI) developed by Kolb in 1981 and amended in 1985 and translated into Turkish by Aşkar and Akkoyunlu in 1993 was conducted on 777 students enrolled in English preparatory courses at beginner, pre-intermediate and intermediate levels at the School of Foreign Languages, Department of Basic English at Hacettepe University. T-test, Kruskal-Wallis Test, one- way variance analysis and the least significant difference method (LSD) were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that the majority of the students preferred Assimilator and Converger learning styles. The results showed that, the students’ learning styles did not differ according to their gender, age and their departments at the university. However it was also found out that the students who graduated from Science High Schools preferred Converger learning style whereas the other students who graduated from different high schools preferred Assimilator learning style.

Keywords: Learning modes and their combinations, learning styles, English preparatory school students.
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This article introduces an instrument that has been developed to explore motivation and attitudes of students towards reading in a foreign language (FL). To develop the instrument, initially 123 students were asked a set of qualitative questions to determine their affective reactions to reading in a FL. A content analysis of emergent data yielded an initial 51-item scale. This scale was administered to 443 FL students at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University in Turkey. A factor analysis revealed four factors accounting for 58.70 % of variance in students’ attitudes and motivation towards reading in a FL. These were named as intrinsic value of reading, extrinsic utility value of reading, reading efficacy, and foreign language linguistic utility. The factorial constructs generally overlapped with current theories of reading motivation in the mother tongue with an extra element indicating that reading in a FL is viewed as a linguistic resource for developing language proficiency by foreign language learners.

Keywords: reading in a foreign language, attitudes, motivation
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The aim of this study is to determine the effects extracurricular learning situation and preparation activities on students. Therefore, changes in the students’ knowledge on the following topics can be observed: knowledge about smoking, smoking experience and attitudes towards smoking, social competency, behavioral expectations as well as classroom setting, body awareness and self-respect. The study has a semi-emprical research design and the data were obtained through the administration of questionnaire. The study was carried out in Baden-Wüttenberg (Germany) in 2009. The participants of the study are a total of 294 5. and 6. graders. The data obtained were analysed through descriptive statistics as well as t-test in order to determine whether or not participants’ scores differ at pre- and post-test. It is found that smoking has been decreased by the rate among the participants. .

Keywords: Health Education, Primer prevention, Out of School Learning, Smoking, Disadvantages of Smoking
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The aim of the study is to determine the effects of cooperative method utilized for gymnastics unit of physical education courses on the formative achievement level of the students.A pretest and a post test with a control group from experimental models was applied for the study. Cooperative experimental group was made up of 20, 10 males and 10 females. Traditional control group was made up of 20, 10 males and 10 females. Non-educated control group was made up of 19, 9 females and 10 males. The results showed that there was a significant improvement in both cooperative experimental group and traditional control group in cognitive and psychomotor domains (p<0.05), while there was no difference in both three domains of noneducated Control Group 2 (p>0.05). When the cognitive, affective and psychomotor scores of cooperative experimental group and traditional control group were compared, a significant difference in cognitive domain was found in agreement with the cooperative experimental group (p<0.05). The statistical results showed there was no significant difference in psychomotor and affective domains between cooperative experimental group and traditional control group (p>0.05).

Keywords: physical education, gymnastics, method, cooperative learning, formative achievement
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The purpose of this study is to build a Turkish internet addiction scale. Also, describing internet dependency profile of Turkey is aimed. The sample of the study included 754 students at secondary education level. The scale was five-point likert-type and consisted of 35 items. In grading of scale, “TwoStep Cluster Analysis Method” in classification methods was applied to the sample due to obtain detail results about addiction situations of individuals. Cronbach alfa () internal consistency coefficient of the scale was found to be .944. In this study, exploratory factor analysis for structural validity, and confirmatory factor analysis to test the correctness of factor structure were determined as method. The scale is consisted of four sub-factors which were defined as “Withdrawal”, “Controlling difficulty”, “Disorder in Functionality” and “Social Isolation”. Total stated variance regarding the scale is 47,463%. In this study; 76 (10,1%) of 754 individuals were found to be addictive of internet.

Keywords: Internet Addiction, Internet Addiction Scale, Problematic Internet Use, Profile of Internet Addiction
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of grade level and gender on elementary school students’ motivation towards science learning. A total of 2231 sixth and eight grade students participated in the study. Data were collected through Students’ Motivation towards Science Learning Questionnaire. Two-way Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was conducted to examine the effects of grade level and gender on student motivation (i.e. self efficacy, science learning value, achievement goal and performance goal), active learning strategy use, and learning environment stimulation perceptions. Two-way MANOVA results showed that grade level and gender had a significant effect on the collective dependent variables. Follow-up pairwise comparison indicated that there was a significant difference between 6th and 8th grade students’ motivation towards science learning regarding mean scores on each motivational variable. In addition, mean scores on each motivational variable, except leaning environment stimulation, were significantly different for boys and girls, in favors of girls. Results demonstrated that students’ motivation towards science learning declined as the grade level increased and girls had a higher motivation towards science learning than boys.

Keywords: motivation, learning strategies, learning environment, grade level, gender
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This study aims at determining the differences between cooperative teaching through jigsaw technique and teaching via teacher centred methods in terms of academic achievement, attitudes towards and self-efficacy in biology teaching. The research was conducted for four weeks with 36 third year students of biology education in the physiology course concerning the sensorial organs. An experimental research model with pre-test/post-test control group was used in the research. The experimental group was composed of 20 participants whereas the control group was composed of 16 participants. Jigsaw technique, a cooperative learning method, was employed in the experimental group while the traditional teaching method was used in the control group. In addition, individual interviews were conducted using interview guides. Consequently, the jigsaw technique was seen to improve students’ academic achievement and their attitudes towards biology teaching with no significant influences on their self-efficacy. Interviews, however, demonstrated that students held positive views concerning the technique

Keywords: biology education, cooperative learning method, jigsaw technique, student achievement, self-efficacy, attitudes
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The aim of this research is to study the impact of teacher leadership on the school effectiveness. A total of 181 teachers from six primary schools in Male (the capital island of Maldives) were chosen as respondents for this study. A quantitative survey method using questionnaire to obtain the data is employed. The findings showed there is a significant relationship between each dimension of teacher leadership and school effectiveness. Multiple regression analysis showed that among the seven dimensions of teacher leadership, autonomy dimension contributes 47.1% to school effectiveness and become the most significant predictor. However, the other two dimensions include positive environment dimension which contribute 6.5% while open communication dimension contribute 2.9% to school effectiveness. The overall findings indicated that there is 56.5% impact of teacher leadership on school effectiveness. This study indicates the importance of studying teacher leadership on school effectiveness as the information collected would help teachers, principals and the education ministry to plan, implement, access and maintain high level of teacher leadership which in turn to promote higher level of school effectiveness.

Keywords: teacher leadership, school effectiveness, Maldives primary schools
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The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of grading leniency on students’ evaluations. For this purpose, 144 freshman students responded to CEQ to evaluate instructor’s teaching behaviors. Then, students were randomly assigned to one of the two different experimentally constructed exams. The students in the first group received an easy exam and were graded leniently. On the other hand, the second group had hard questions and were graded strictly. Following experimental treatment, students reevaluated their instructors. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to determine whether students’ evaluations changed based on how leniently they were graded or not. According to the findings, students gave lower evaluations points for good teaching, generic skills and evaluations subscales of CEQ after the treatment. Also, students in strictly graded groups reported lower levels of course satisfaction and thought their instructors’ evaluations methods were unfair.

Keywords: students’ evaluations, grading leniency, college student.
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This study investigated whether infusing causal story elements into mathematical word problems improves student performance. In one experiment in the USA and a second in USA, Finland and Turkey, undergraduate elementary education majors worked word problems in three formats: 1) standard (minimal verbiage), 2) potential causation (causal and mathematical content overlap), and 3) climax resolution (causal and mathematical content combined in a way in which story outcome is discernable). Causal story elements in word problems, written in the USA, improved performance in USA and Finish students, but not Turkey, on word problems with some spatial content. Based on the finding that infusing causal stories played out differently in different cultures we concluded that situation models might be at least as primary as schemas in solving word problems.

Keywords: word problems, schema models, situation models
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The present study aimed to (1) determine elementary school teachers’ beliefs in using reform-based instructional strategies and traditional teaching approaches in science classrooms as well as their self-efficacy beliefs in science teaching, (2) examine the effect of sex and school type on those beliefs, and (3) investigate the significant predictors of teachers’ beliefs in using inquiry-based teaching strategies. The data were collected through implementation of Turkish version of ‘Teacher Beliefs toward Instructional Pedagogies Questionnaire’ to 197 in-service teachers. The results reflected that the participants had strong favorable beliefs in using inquiry-based and technology-enhanced instructional strategies, whereas they did not hold strong beliefs to use traditionally-designed instructional strategies. The results also revealed that private school teachers had significantly higher self-efficacy beliefs than public school teachers. It was found that beliefs in using technology, self-efficacy, and experience in teaching were among the significant predictors of beliefs in using inquiry- based instructional strategies.

Keywords: in-service teachers, beliefs, inquiry, technology
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The purpose of this study is to determine environmental literacy of pre-service teachers in 4 public universities in Ankara, to examine the relationships among the sub-dimensions of environmental literacy, and to investigate the effect of gender on these sub-dimensions. “Environmental Literacy Questionnaire” was administered in Education Faculties at 2007-2008 spring semester. The data were evaluated in 4 dimensions, as environmental knowledge, environmental attitudes, environmental uses, and environmental concerns. The results of descriptive statistics showed that environmental knowledge scores of the pre-service teachers were unacceptable. However, the responses showed that the participants had an ecocentric point of view and favorable environmental awareness. The results are promising to lead the studies related to environmental education at teacher education programs.

Keywords: environmental literacy, pre-service teachers, gender
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Research studies showed that teachers’ beliefs are important factors influencing their teaching practices. While some of these studies showed that there was a consistency between teachers’ beliefs and practices, others found that there were inconsistencies. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between mathematical beliefs and teaching practices of elementary mathematics teachers. The mathematical beliefs and teaching practices of 3 elementary mathematics teachers were investigated using different data collection techniques. After observing each teacher’s teaching for 6 hours, semi-structured interviews were conducted. During interviews, teachers were asked to complete a belief scale. After analyzing teachers’ beliefs and practices, the consistencies among them were investigated. Results showed that there were inconsistencies among the teachers’ beliefs and practices. All teachers taught in a traditional manner, but they portrayed different beliefs. In addition, it was found that teachers were stuck in between traditional and new way of teaching.

Keywords: mathematics teachers, beliefs, mathematics education, elementary education
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Tasks have a central role and important applications in the recently restructured High School Mathematics Teaching Curriculum (HSMTC) which has been implemented in Turkey. To be better understood the task HSMTC should be discussed intuitively and conceptually in terms of the national and international literature about mathematics education by handling it with its samples. The purpose of this study is to examine the conceptual understanding of activities, and the structure of various types of activities, and their applications in terms of the HSMTC’s perspective in order to generate a discussion and research environment, and reach a classification from the authors’ perspectives. In this study, definition of “task” followed by a classification in relation to mathematics learning is given. In this context, the characteristics and examples of classification are presented as isomorphic, projective, linear and composite task. It is expected that the study will guide mathematics teachers in the improvement of mathematics learning.

Keywords: Task, mathematical learning task, a framework of mathematical learning task.
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In several resources, especially in textbooks, there are two or more alternatives for terms. These terms generally come from foreign words and alternative equivalences of these words. The aim of the study is to investigate whether this situation causes students problems in perceiving the terms; in which alternatives, the conceptual perception is based on and in this context. Two applications (U1, U2) were made. The sample group is included student groups from 2005- 2006 academic year spring semester of Gazi University, Physics Education Undergraduate Programme. Consequently, in all term pairs except one; the terms expressed through foreign languages gave more effective in low level ability and the Turkish ones gave more effective results in generally high level ability to Bloom’s Taxonomy. Indicated results in this study and assessments obtained will be very beneficial for teachers and textbook writers. Besides, may get started for similar studies in other countries.

Keywords: Bloom Taxonomy, language, perception, physics education, term
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Since science teachers are an important factor in implementing educational reforms in science education, there are many studies in the literature about their beliefs and practices. Most of these studies investigate science teachers’ certain beliefs about science and education in isolation. This study suggests that it is more useful to investigate science teachers’ beliefs and practices from a perspective of values and value systems. An interpretive-qualitative study that investigated four science teachers’ values in relation to their beliefs and teaching practices is reported here. In the discussion, it is suggested that determining science teacher’s value priorities provide a better understanding of their beliefs and practices which may offer more informed ways of working with teachers to enhance their development.

Keywords: science education, science teacher education, values, value systems
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Computer literacy and internet usage are two prerequisites for integration of the developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) into education. This study was carried out on Azerbaijani teachers candidates’ attending at Azerbaijan State Pedagogy University (ASPU) to reveal their perceptions in relation to their computer literacy and their attitudes towards sub-factors of internet usage, on the basis of the variables of “department” and “frequency of computer usage”. Students were administered “Personal Information Form”, “Attitude towards the internet Usage Scale” and “Computer Literacy Perception Scale”. Findings obtained from the study showed that computer literacy perceptions of Azerbaijani teachers candidates’, based on the variable of “department”, differed significantly at the level of “basic skills, programming and computer awareness” and that no significant difference was observed in “applying software skills”. While student attitudes towards “enjoying use of internet for search and in teaching” factors differed at a statistically significant level; no such difference was recorded in their attitudes towards the factors of “use of internet in teaching, social interaction, communication and information exchange”. It was concluded that also frequence of computer usage had effect on the computer literacy and internet usage. A positive relationship was found between “student perceptions about their computer literacy levels” and “student attitudes towards internet sub-factors”, except “student perceptions about programming level” and “student attitudes towards use of internet for search”.

Keywords: computer literacy, internet usage, technologies, attitudes, perceptions
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The relationship between culture variable and thinking styles of candidate teachers who study at TRNC Atatürk Teachers Academy and who study at Cyprus International University, Education Faculty, Turkish Language Teaching Department is analyzed in this research. The research held on the data that were collected from 102 female and 44 male students who study at the Academy and 41 female and 74 male students who study in Turkish Language Teaching. “Thinking Styles Inventory developed by Sternberg ve Wagner (1992)” was used in the research. Findings, as a result of the research, show that thinking styles of the candidate teachers differentiates meaningfully in terms of culture. It was determined that candidate teachers who study in Turkish Language Teaching show meaningful differentiation in favor of males in the “introvert” sub-dimension according to gender variable; and it was also determined that candidate teachers who study in the Academy show meaningful differentiation in favor of males in the “conservative” sub-dimension according to gender variable. It was found that the teacher candidates who come from different cultures have different thinking styles.

Keywords: thinking, style, thinking styles, culture
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