The topic of “Microorganisms” was presented to students through various contexts, and the effects of such a lesson on students’ levels of knowledge and interest were researched in this study. An experimental model with pre-test and post-test control group was employed in the research. The study group was composed of the 191 9th graders attending Ziya Gökalp High School in Gebze in the 2009-2010 academic year. The prepared course content was applied for three weeks. Thus, the lessons were presented through content that was prepared on the basis of a variety of contexts in the experimental group while direct instruction method was used with the control group. The data obtained were analysed by using the SPSS programme. The levels of interest measured in the pre-test and pos-test were found to display statistically significant differences in both groups. However, an increase was found in students’ interests in the experimental group following the application whereas a fall was identified in students’ interest in the control group after the application. The findings coming from the knowledge test demonstrated that the students in the experimental group achieved higher scores than those in the control group and that the difference between the two groups was statistically significant.

Keywords: context-based learning, microorganisms, interest, knowledge
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It is important, for explaining and supporting mother-child relations, to determine verbal behaviors of mothers in mother-child plays and to divide these behaviors into meaningful categories. The purpose of this study is to make a qualitative evaluation to identify the expressions that mothers use during their free play interaction with children. Eighteen mothers who have children at the age of four or five, participated in this study. Mother-child play interactions were videotaped in their own home setting. The data collected were evaluated through Parent-Child Play Recording Coding Form, and re-formulated in frequencies and percentages. The findings show that mothers used frequently undesired verbal expressions in adapting to children’s demands during playing, responding to children, making a play speech, setting limitation and making comments-informing.

Keywords: mother, child, play interaction
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In this study, with the aim to achieve a lasting and meaningful learning of the molecular biology, biotechnology and genetic engineering topics, the effects of including experiments to eliminate the inconvenience of the current experiments and application of courses supported by virtual laboratory on learning process were investigated. The selected experiments were simple and could be performed by using easily available and cheap materials. DNA isolation and electrophoresis techniques were taught by three different teaching methods. Teaching methods were determined to be the traditional lecture method, the experimental method and the computer-aided virtual laboratory method; and the three groups were taught by these different teaching methods. Results demonstrated that the average success of students in the experimental group was statistically superior than the average success of groups taught with the traditional lecture and virtual laboratory method. Findings support the notion that, the experimental method was more successful than the traditional lecture and computer-aided virtual laboratory methods, in terms of students’ success and achieving permanent learning. Additionaly, it was found that the permanent learning level of students was in the favor of the virtual laboratory group, compared to that of the traditional lecture group.

Keywords: DNA isolation, electrophoresis, experimental methods, virtual laboratory
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The research study aims to evaluate performance management in the state secondary schools in North Cyprus. This study is significant by shedding a light on perceptions of teachers and headmasters regarding quality control of schools through performance management. In this research, quantitative research was employed, and a survey was conducted to gather quantitative data through questionnaires. Quantitative data were analysed and interpreted through SPSS program based on ANOVA. 16 head teachers and 237 teachers from 11 state secondary schools participated in the research. The findings revealed that teachers and headmasters gained insights on performance management and its dimensions. In this research, the significant difference between work experience of teachers and headmasters and the dimensions of performance management was revealed. In other words, there is a significant difference between work experience and the dimensions of performance management which are the planning of individual performance goals, reflection on observation reports, performance measurement, reward-punishment and the relationship between individual performance and the culture of the organization

Keywords: work experience, professional development, performance management, secondary schools
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Learning a foreign language is a long and complicated process. A language learner should use some learning strategies to ease and fasten this process. In this study, we examined whether the use of cognitive strategies, change depending on the students’ level and whether some of these strategies are used more frequently compared to others. Results obtained from the research carried out with 88 students in total from 4 different classes in the undergraduate program of French Language Teaching reveal that those students studying in different classes use the same cognitive strategies almost at the same rate. Apart from this, we observed that some of the cognitive strategies are used more frequently than others by the majority of the students. Through this study, we aimed to remind that one of the main tasks of foreign language teachers is to enable the students to use the strategies that are an indispensable part of modern learning approaches.

Keywords: cognitif approach, language learning strategies, autonomy, learning to learn.
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The aim of the study is to determine trends in Turkish Mathematics Education on the basis of both master and doctoral theses involved. The researchers reviewed the online databases of the Higher Education Council and Proquest as well as the library of each university and examined 284 graduate theses in regard to research topic, research methods, data collection and sample. The document analysis has pointed out that the number of the thesises focusing research problem on teaching mathematics is quite high when compared with the other thesis focused different research topics and it is seen an increase in the number of the thesises written around that problem. In addition, it was determined that the most preferable research design by mathematics education researchers was experimental design and the most preferable data collection instruments were questionnaires and

Keywords: Mathematics education, research methods, trends in mathematics education, graduate theses.
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The purpose of this study is to investigate negative effects of preparation process of the university entrance exam on students’ solution processes and mistakes related to the function concept. To this end, a questionnaire related to the concept of function was administered to 229 students from first class of three different high schools. In this paper, only results of the analysis of the question required to determine the inverse of a function defined algebraically are presented. The results of this study have shown that preparation process of the entrance exam has negative influences on student learning in mathematics. Their procedures were based only on remembering a memorized algorithm or rule and thus their mistakes were mathematically very poor.

Keywords: Mathematics education, function concept, university entrance examination, private course
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This research was conducted to investigate whether there is a meaningful relationship between “Teacher Efficacy Perceptions” and “Metacognitive Learning Strategies” of prospective English teachers and whether “Teacher Efficacy Perceptions” and “Metacognitive Learning Strategies” of prospective English teachers differentiate depending on sex and grade levels. 172 prospective teachers studying at Mu la University Faculty of Education, Division of English are the participants of the research. Research results indicate that the standard of attainments about “Teacher Efficacy Perceptions” and “Self Efficacy Perceptions” are founded at acceptable level. While the level of “Teacher Efficacy Perceptions” does not show a difference depending on sex, it is revealed that there is a meaningful difference between first grade and third grade prospective teachers. While “Metacognitive Learning Strategies” do not show a difference depending on their sex and grades. There is also a meaningful relationship between “Teacher Efficacy Perceptions” and “Metacognitive Learning Strategies” of prospective English teachers.

Keywords: metacognitive learning strategies, teacher efficacy perception, prospective teachers, training of teachers.
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The aim of this study was to investigate whether the blog usage made a difference on reflective thinking skills of students and to determine students’ view about blog experience. In addition, it is investigated whether the reflective thinking skill is a significant predictor of deep learning approach as one of the learning approaches. Study group consisted of 57 third year students from Department of English Language Teaching. The study was designed pre-post-test, one group design, and explanatory design. The instruments consist of “Towards Problem Based Reflective Thinking Skills Test” (K lkaya and A kar, 2009), “Learning Approaches Inventory” (Çolak and Fer, 2007) and four question which was prepared to reveal students’ view about blog. In the analysis of the data; t-test for related samples, regression analysis and context analysis were used. According to findings of this study, blog usage did not cause a difference on reflective thinking skills and reflective thinking skills were found to be one of the significant predictors of the deep learning approach. Students’ views were classified into pozitif, negative, encountered problems and expectations.

Keywords: reflective thinking, blog, learning approach
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Problem posing is one of the topics which the educators thoroughly accentuate. Problem posing skill is defined as an introvert activity of a student’s learning. In this study, skill levels of prospective physics teachers on problem posing were determined and their views on problem posing were evaluated. To this end, prospective teachers were given 10 different activities on free problem posing, semi-constructed problem posing, and constructed problem posing; and they were asked to pose problems relating to these activities. At the end of the problem posing activities, it was seen that prospective teachers were more efficient in constructed problem posing, and that they were comparatively less competent in free problem posing. In addition to this, it was determined that the prospective teachers usually posed same kind of problems. According to the interviews, it was determined that prospective teachers consider problem posing as a more difficult task than problem solving. Moreover, it was reached some conclusions such as students think problem posing can be improved and this ability has an important role in their professional life.

Keywords: problem solving skill, problem posing skill, prospective teacher
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In this study, Maggie McVay Lynch Leaning Style Inventory was analyzed in terms of its linguistic equivalence, validity and reliability in order to adapt the Learning Style Inventory into Turkey conditions. The study was conducted with 668 student (321 girls, 347 boys) from different departments of Hacettepe University, Faculty of Education. The original Inventory has 60 items and it is three-point Likert-style. Content and construct validity studies were done within the validity of the Inventory. For the content validity of the Learning Style Inventory, expert views were taken and construct validity was determined by factor analysis. Within the reliability studies of the Inventory, Cronbach Alpha value and item-total correlations were calculated and split half method was used. Inventory’s Cronbach Alpha is .9536 and standardized Cronbach Alpha value is .9542. All of the item-total correlations of the Inventory were distributed over .99. As a result of the analysis, it is decided that Maggie McVay Lynch Learning Style Inventory is a reliable and valid instrument. Besides, the values found in this study showed that the Inventory is suitable for Turkish society.

Keywords: Learning Style Inventory, linguistic equivalence, validity, reliability
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Science education programs in many countries aim to promote effective teaching and learning process in science classroom and consequently develop scientifically literate person. Science teacher is an important actor to achieve this goal. For this reason, the purpose of the study was to examine the impact of one-week in-service program on elementary science teachers’ views of nature of science (NOS). A total of 44 (24 Female, 20 Male) elementary science teachers participated in the study. Pre and post administration of Views On Science-Technology -Society (VOSTS) questionnaire including 14 items (Aikenhead, Ryan & Fleming, 1989) was used to determine teachers’ NOS views. The results of the study indicated that at the end of the program majority of teachers’ demonstrated substantial improvements in their understanding of some NOS aspects such as theory driven nature of observations, scientific method, and hypothesis. This result supports effectiveness of in-service program on the development of science teachers’ NOS views.

Keywords: nature of science, philosophy of science, science education, in-service education.
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The ever-increasing presence of computers and other technologies that come along with them has affected mathematics education, and it resulted in the development of software in this field. Computer Algebra Systems (CAS) occupies a very important place among such softwares. A careful integration of CAS with the education environment would contribute to any learning environment of any level. However, the most important point to focus during this integration is to contribute to students’ development of expected mathematical skills. These skills have been expressed by different researches under different classification systems. The aim of this study, which has been realized in two stages, is to determine the changes in the activities of students, who have enrolled in a mathematics teacher training program, in a teacher experiment design, in CAS-supported and without CAS-support class environments. To this end, a worksheet on Taylor polynomials was prepared. In the preparation process of this worksheet, which was integrated with Maple, a CAS software, MATH taxonomy was taken into consideration. As a result of the study it was observed that the participants in CAS-supported environment frequently used different representations, had a critical point of view for gathered results and the interpretation and generalization abilites came into prominence.

Keywords: university students, computer algebra systems, MATH taxonomy, worksheet, teaching experiment.
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The objective of this research was to determine to what extent organizational intelligence (OI) has been achieved within private and public schools according to the perceptions of principals and teachers. The research included 499 principals and teachers -380 principals and teachers employed by public primary schools and 119 principals and teachers within the private primary school system- in Sakarya. Data was gathered utilizing the “Organizational Intelligence in Primary Education Schools Questionnaire” adapted from “Dimensions of the Organizational Intelligence Questionnaire” developed by Albrecht (2002). These findings were based on significant differences of perception concerning OI levels for the following dimensions: strategic vision, shared fate, appetite for change, heart, alignment and congruence, knowledge deployment and performance pressure. The results from analysis of all OI dimensions revealed that performances of private primary schools are superior to public primary schools. Principals and teachers with 21 years or more experience expressed more positive perceptions toward all OI dimensions. However, gender among the research subjects registered no effect on OI perceptions.

Keywords: organizational intelligence, public primary schools, principal and teachers’ perceptions, cluster analysis
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The purpose of this study is to explore pre-service chemistry teachers’ images of science teaching in their future classrooms. Also, association between instructional style, gender, and desire to be a teacher was explored. Sixty six pre-service chemistry teachers from three public universities participated in the data collection for this study. A modified version of Draw a Science Teacher Test Checklist (DASTT-C) was used as a data collection instrument. The results of study showed that pre-service chemistry teachers’ perspective of science teaching style is 37,9 % student-centered, 22.7% teacher-centered, and 39.4% reflect the characteristics of both student-centered and teacher-centered approaches. A significant association was found between gender and instructional style. Female pre-service teachers are more willing to use student centered approaches rather than male pre-service teachers.

Keywords: pre-service chemistry teacher, DASTT-C, science teaching
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In this study, it is aimed to compare the employees of two different occupational groups in terms of risk tendency and locus of control and investigation of the relationship between locus of control and risk taking tendency. For this purpose, 263 male teachers who work in Kastamonu as personnel of Ministry of Education and 168 policemen who also work in Kastamonu as personnel of City Police Department are studied with. Locus of Control Scale, the Arnett Inventory of Sensation Seeking and Personal Information Form are applied to the participants. SPSS (11.00) pack program is used for the analysis of the gathered data. According to the results, it is found that, there is a positive correlation (r=.112; p<.05) between risk taking tendency and locus of control. Also, the people who have an external locus of control significantly have more tendencies on risk taking when they are compared with the internals.

Keywords: locus of control, risk tendency, risk perception.
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This study examines the school readiness of first graders from different socioeconomic levels with respect to gender, receiving preschool education, and parents’ educational level. The study sample included 179 children who started the first grade of elementary schools in the 2006–2007 school years. Data were collected by using the Metropolitan School Readiness Test and a Demographic Information Form, and analyzed by using Two-Way Analysis of Variance and t- Test. The results showed that socioeconomic level, receiving preschool education and mother’s educational level created a meaningful difference on children’s school readiness levels, while gender and father’s educational level did not.

Keywords: socio-economic level, school readiness, elementary education
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The purpose of this research is to examine the moderating role of organizational culture in the relationship between leader’s power bases and subordinate’s job stress. Totally 622 lecturers and their superiors (deans) from 13 state universities chosen by random method in Ankara,

Keywords: Leader’s power bases, job stress, organizational culture
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This study aims to research on the validity and reliability of concept maps and structured communication grids used to assess students’ achievement regarding the unit called “Newton’s Laws of Motion”. The sampling consisted of 102 students studying in their Year One at Science Teaching and Physics teaching departments during 2009 – 2010 academic year. The responses to the short-answer test consisted of the main measure in checking the validity of the concept map and the structured communication grid. The Pearson Correlation Coefficient between the scores of the shortanswer test and the concept map was calculated to be 0.57. In order to find the reliability state of the concept map, the calculation concluded as 0.69. The degree of the relationship between structured communication grid and short answer test scores was calculated (0.69; p<0.05). For the reliability of the structured communication grid, Cronbach Alpha was calculated 0.77. A positive, medium level and significant relationship was observed between the structured communication grid and the concept map (0.51; p<0.05).

Keywords: concept map, structural communication grid, alternative assessment tools, validity, reliability
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In this study it is aimed to find out the effect of problem based learning on learning outcomes, problem solving skills and self efficacy belief. In this research experimental study has been used. In the extend of experimental study pretest-posttest control group experimental design has been used. Self-efficacy belief scale, problem-solving inventory and achievement test have been used to gather data. It can be seen from the achievement test results, problem based learning is more effective than the conventional teaching in achievement level of learner. There has been no significant difference between experimental and control group’s self-efficacy posttest scores. According this result it can be said that problem based learning doesn’t have an important effect on self-efficacy belief. Problem based learning has an impact on problem solving skills of learners. According to pretest and posttest problem solving inventory scores of experimental group, learners were less affected from problem based learning.

Keywords: problem based learning, achievement, problem solving skills, self-efficacy belief
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In this study the approach displaying collaboration between law and translation, which are two separate disciplines, is adopted. In the study, in the process of translation of legal documents, on the one hand, the importance of knowledge concerning the subject, which is translated, is highlighted; on the other hand, the requisites of skills of linguistic, semantics and syntactic analysis which the student should gain is emphasized. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to introduce, the requirements of both conveying knowledge concerning law to the student of translation and her/his gaining analytical skill of translation which she/he applies into law materials. Providing for the student to gain the analytical skill of translation requires both using applications of translation into specific areas in the translation departments of Faculties at Universities and interaction between teaching staff of translation departments and those of specific areas into which are translated, in the coming years. In the study, the document of the power of attorney in Turkish language is chosen and the legal nature of the power of attorney in both Turkish and German law is explained. It is planned that this analytical model of translation designed for law can be applied into other specific fields of translation such as economics, technical, medicine, chemistry and physics.

Keywords: law, translation, the agent’s authority, agency contract, power of attorney, teaching law terminology
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This paper examines the role of traditional language teaching methodology on the current language teaching methodology in Turkey from the Path Dependence Theory perspective. Path Dependence claims that the past continues shaping the present. Similarly, traditional approaches still shape foreign/second language education. Turkey has inherited a foreign language education methodology from the Ottoman Empire. It equates language education with studying formal aspects of a target language and consists of mechanical practice of the isolated formal aspects of a target language at the sentence level. To elaborate on the issue, the 4th and 5th grade English coursebooks are evaluated first and then comments are made with reference to Path Dependence.

Keywords: path dependence theory, language education, materials development, materials evaluation, foreign language education in turkey
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The purpose of this study is to analyze phonological awareness of children who attends preschool to different variables. The participants of this study are 162 kindergarten children; 76 of which are girls and 86 are boys who reside in Ankara metropolitan city center and who attend state governed kindergartens of Ministry of National Education in 2005-2006 school year. “Test of Phonological Awareness (Second Edition:Plus)” has been applied which was developed by Joseph K.Torgesen and Brian R.Bryant in 1994. Furthermore, “Demographic Information Form” devised by the researchers was used to get information about children’s family and teachers. Data collected were analyzed through One Way Analysis of Variance– ANOVA, Post-Hoc Tests of Tukey HSD, LSD and T-test. There is significant difference between sociocultural level in sub dimension of same-different sounds “Test of Phonological Awareness” (p=0,013, p<0,05) and also sub dimension of letter-sound correspondence (p=0,000, p<0,05) Children from middle and upper sociocultural level outperformed those of lower sociocultural level in “Test of Phonological Awareness”, and in discriminating same/different sounds and letter sound correspondence. The findings of the investigation reveals that sex of child did not become effective with phonological awareness.

Keywords: phonological awareness, socio- cultural level, kindergarten
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The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a self-report psychological instrument assessing pre-service teachers’ relative intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to teach. One hundred forty seven undergraduate students taking Educational Psychology courses from a large US University participated in this study completed the 12 item MTS along with four other questionnaires. Exploratory factor analysis on the MTS revealed a two factor solution accounting for 54% of the variance. Construct validity evidences further show that a) these factors reflect intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to teach and b) the two factors seem to be orthogonal. This study provides initial evidence for a new motivation instrument that seems to be a reliable and valid measure of pre-service teachers’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to teach. Implications for further research and practice are also discussed.

Keywords: Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation, Self-Determination, Teaching
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The aims of this study are to determine prospective chemistry teachers’ internet self-efficacy and preferences of constructivist internet-assisted environments and to examine the relationship between their internet selfefficacy and their preferences for constructivist internet-assisted environments, the relationship between their achievement in internet-assisted chemistry applications and their preferences for constructivist internet-assisted environments, the relationship between prospective chemistry teachers’ achievement in internet-assisted chemistry applications and their internet self-efficacy. An adapted form of Questionnaire Exploring Internet Self-Efficacy developed by Tsai and Tsai (2003), Tsai and Lin (2004), Wu and Tsai (2006), and Peng, Tsai and Wu (2006), a modified form of Constructivist Internet Learning Environment Survey (CILES) (Chuang and Tsai, 2005; Wen et al., 2004) and The Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) which was developed by the researcher was used as the data collection tools. For data analysis, descriptive statistics and the Pearson correlation coefficient were used.

Keywords: internet self-efficacy, preferences of constructivist internet-assisted environments, chemistry
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This study consists of the analysis on the relationship between the epistemological beliefs of secondary level students and their attitudes towards studying. The sampling of the study was formed by 440 students studying at Grade 10, 11 and 12 in secondary schools. The Epistemological Belief Questionnaire and the Attitudes towards Studying Scale, which were developed in Likert-type in order to assess students’ epistemological beliefs and attitudes toward studying, were used as data collection tools. The data obtained from the scales were evaluated according to some variables and significant positive relations were determined. The analysis concluded that there were significant relationship between students’ genders and grade levels in terms of their epistemological beliefs and attitudes towards studying. It was found that as the level of students’ epistemological beliefs increased, their attitudes towards studying also improved.

Keywords: epistemological belief, attitudes towards studying, secondary level students.
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The aim of the study, which was designed as a qualitative research, is to determine the problem solving approaches of pre-service physics teachers in special theory of relativity. The data was collected through semi structured interviews and through problem solving tasks and was analyzed by using qualitative research method. At the end of the analysis process three categories were obtained. Especially the students in the second and in the third categories were seen to have developed a solution approach which includes solving the problem through finding a similar equation that seems to match the current problem and/or through trial and error. We think that this study might be a source material to other studies supposed to be done in the future, since the insufficient investigation was taken into consideration at undergraduate level related to the special theory of relativity

Keywords: Pre-service physics teachers, problem solving, special theory of relativity
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The aim of this study was to find out the effects of reflection points in the video-cases and teacher participation in the online discussion groups on student teachers’ reflective thinking skills. The research was carried out in 2x2 factorial design. The independent variables of the study were adding reflection points to the video-cases and teacher participation in the online discussion groups. The dependent variable was the student teachers’ reflective thinking. Participants were 74 student ICT teachers from two large universities’ departments of Computer and Instructional Technologies Education. Study results revealed that adding reflection points to the video-cases significantly increased the student teachers’ reflective thinking. However, teacher participation in the online discussion groups did not affect the student teachers’ reflective thinking.

Keywords: case-based instruction, reflective thinking, reflection points, video-cases, case discussion.
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This study in which the effect of Realistic Mathematics Education on teaching “Measures of Surface and Volumes” unit and students’ opinions were searched and mixed searching method consisted of empirical method with control group by using pre-post test and qualitative data was used. Study was carried out in 2007-2008 academic year and seventy four 8 grade students were participated. Instruction was conducted in experimental group (38 students) based on realistic mathematics education and in control group (36 students) with using the traditional method. Data were obtained via equivalence test, mathematical achievement test and semi-structured interviews composed of open-ended questions. Quantitative data were examined with t-test and qualitative data were examined descriptive analysis. As a result of the findings from the study, instruction based on realistic mathematics education was more effective than instruction with traditional method and realistic mathematics education was found to be supported by student opinions.

Keywords: realistic mathematics education, mathematization, contextual problems, measures of surface, volumes.
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Human perceives invertebrates less positively than vertebrates because they are small and behaviourally and morphologically unfamiliar. This cross-cultural research focused on Slovakian (n=150) and Turkish (n=164) students’ fear, disgust and perceived danger regarding 25 invertebrates [including 5 disease relevant adult insects, 5 ectoparasites, 5 endoparasites, 5 disease irrelevant adult insects and 5 insect larvae/earthworm]. A subsample of Slovakian children was asked for taxonomic identification of these animals. It was found that Turkish students rated higher in all three dimensions fear, disgust and dangerousness, compared with Slovakian students. Gender difference favouring higher score of females were found only among Slovakian students and these differences were observed for potentially harmful animals. This implies that females were able to distinguish between more and less dangerous animals. It was neither detected any effects of owning animals on students’ ratings, nor found any correlation between identification skills and rating scores.

Keywords: invertebrates, perceived danger, disgust, fear, biology education
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DNA ve DNA teknolojilerinin 21. yüzy l günlük hayat n bir parças halini ald günümüzde, fen ve biyoloji ö retmenlerinin bu konular hakk ndaki bilgilerini güncel tutmalar ve bu konular ö rencilerine ö retebilmeleri büyük önem ta maktad r. Hizmet içi e itim programlar , ö retmenlere bu süreçte hizmet eden programlard r. Hizmet içi itim programlar n ba ar olma göstergelerinden biri, program içeri inin ö retmenler taraf ndan s f ortamlar na ta nmas ve yans malar n ö renci ba ar nda görülmesidir. Bu çal ma, “DNA Parmak zi” hizmet içi çal tay na kat lan retmenlerin çal taya kat lma nedenlerini ve çal tay içeri ini uygulamaya koyma (implementasyon) istek ve davran lar ara rmaktad r. Çal man n amac ö retmenlerin uygulamaya koyma davran lar aç klayan faktörleri belirleyerek ba ar hizmet içi e itim programlar n olu turulmas nda kullan labilecek davran modellerine katk sa lamakt r.

Keywords: professional development, science education, DNA fingerprinting, implementation behavior
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This research has been realized in order to study the effects of the creative dancing activities performed in the “Play, Dance and Music” course on motivation, self-esteem, body language- and dance-related self-efficacy and dancing performance. The study has been carried out in the 2007-2008 education year on the fourth-year Music Education Major students in the Department of Education of Fine Arts and in Dokuz Eylul University, Buca Faculty of Education. In this research the time-series model has been utilized. The research data have been collected via the Play, Dance and Music Course Motivation Scale, the Self-Esteem Evaluation Questionnaire, the Body Language- and Dance-Related Self-Efficacy Questionnaire and the Dancing Performance Test. The results of the research have shown that creative dancing activities have a meaningful effect on the Play, Dance and Music course motivation, self-esteem, body language- and dancerelated self-efficacy and dancing performance of prospect music teachers.

Keywords: Creative Dance, Motivation, Self-esteem, Self-efficacy, “Play, Dance and Music” Course
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In economic theory, the value of education is evaluated by way of two different theoretical approaches; the human the capital approach and human capabilities approach. In this paper our aim is to evaluate the value of education in Turkey in the light of these two approaches. Existing studies on human capital and education indicators drawn from OECD’s Education at a Glance 2010 show the importance of education to increase individual income as well as the economic growth. The results of the study also support the argument that, within the context of human capabilities approach the value of education also arising from the fact that education provides the basic cognitive skills necessary for achieving other essential functionings such as health and civic engagement. This study shows that although there have been some improvements, in comparison with the countries that have same or less income level than Turkey, Turkey still is behind in terms of providing the capability-increasing cognitive skills that are enabled by a basic education. At the same time, another important point for Turkey is the considerable gender and regional inequality with regard to capability development.

Keywords: human capital, capabilities approach, education in Turkey, capabilities in Turkey, value of education
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Multivariate matching in Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analyses may contribute to understand the sources of DIF. In this context, detecting appropriate additional matching variables is a crucial issue. This present article argues that the variables which are correlated with communalities in item difficulties can be used as an additional matching variable in DIF analyses. To examine this claim, mathematics data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) was analyzed. Out of school time students spent for learning was detected as an additional matching variable. Multivariate DIF results showed that this variable might be related to the source of DIF in some items.

Keywords: multivariate matching, differential item functioning, logistic regression, PISA
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The purpose of this study is to determine preservice teachers` technopedagogical knowledge competencies and to examine differences between those competencies and the usage level of information and communication technologies (ICT). The participants of the study consist of 3105 preservice teachers from seven higher education institutions in Turkey during the 2009–2010 education year. Research data were collected two separate instruments. These are `Technopedagogical Education Competency Scale` and `ICT Usage Survey`. The study results reveal that preservice teachers in the study had high level technopedagogical knowledge competency. Furthermore, a significant difference between preservice teachers` technopedagogical knowledge competencies and general ICT usage level was found. Also, it was determine that there is a significant difference between preservice teachers` technopedagogical knowledge competencies and the usage level of each ICT category (the processing technologies, communication technologies, internet technologies and educational. As a result, some recommendations concerning the application and future research were suggested.

Keywords: technological pedagogical content knowledge, technopedagogical knowledge, technopedagogical education, information and communication technologies, ICT integration
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This research was conducted for the purpose of developing a scaling tool to determine university students’ attitudes towards gender roles. University students’ attitudes should first be determined in order to change this traditional view to gender and to achieve a more egalitarian view. The research sample was comprised of one university’s students chosen using a size-proportional stratified random sampling method. A total of 500 students (291 female, 209 male) were included in the sample. Data was collected via self-administered questionnaires. The Gender Roles Attitude Scale (GRAS) contains 38 items and five dimensions (egalitarian gender roles, female gender roles, marriage gender roles, traditional gender roles and male gender roles). Statistically significant differences were determined among all survey items (p<0.01). The instrument’s total Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient was found to be 0.92. The findings that were obtained showed that the survey is a valid and reliable instrument for determining university students’ attitudes towards gender roles.

Keywords: gender, university students, attitude scale.
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