The effectiveness of schools, that is, their ability to achieve their pre-determined goals depends on many variables but especially the effectiveness of the administrators who are responsible for the implementation of the educational programs and curricula. An administrator must have a healthy perception of being "an effective administrator" in order to be able to demonstrate expected roles successfully. Concerning school effectiveness, in addition to the emphasis of self-efficacy of administrator, the leadership role of the educational administrators has gained importance with modern educational administration approaches. If an administrator wants to be effective, he/she must act as a leader and convince followers. In this context, when questioning the effectiveness of schools, it is important to determine the level of self-efficacy perceptions of administrators and to determine the leadership styles displayed by them. In this study, it was aimed to examine whether there is a significant relationship between the perceived self-efficacy belief and leadership style. The results show that self-efficacy perceptions of the administrators make a difference in their leadership style and there is a relationship between the self-efficacy belief and exhibitors of transformational leadership behaviors; the more administrators feel themselves efficient, the more they exhibit transformational leadership behaviors.

The purpose of the study is to reveal the effect of cooperative learning on language skills in an English course. The study was carried out for 5 weeks with 66 students studying at the 10th grade at an Anatolian high school in the district of Karadeniz Eregli in Zonguldak during the fall term of the 2015-2016 academic year. The design of the study was ‘nonequivalent control groups pre-test post-test’ which is one of quasi-experimental designs. Data were gathered using an achievement test measuring students’ vocabulary knowledge, grammar knowledge, reading comprehension and listening skills. Results showed that cooperative learning had a larger effect on vocabulary knowledge, grammar, listening and reading skills compared to traditional method.

The aim of this study is to explain and predict prospective preschool teachers’ academic achievements depending on goal orientations they adopt, their critical thinking dispositions and self-regulation skills. Research sample constitutes of 265 prospective preschool teachers attending the Faculty of Educational Sciences in Cukurova University. Research data were collected with the 2x2Achievement Goal Orientations Scale, Self-Regulation Questionnaire and Critical Thinking Disposition Scale. Demographical information about prospective teachers’ gender, age, grade level and academic grade point averages were obtained with the personal information form. For the analysis of research data, One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and discriminant analysis were used. In this study; it was concluded that prospective teachers with high level of learning approach orientation, critical thinking disposition and self-regulation skills had higher levels of academic achievement. However, it was determined that distinguishing variables among prospective preschool teachers with low, medium and high level of academic achievement included learning approach, performance approach goal orientation and critical thinking disposition and self-regulation skills. Correct classification percentage of distinguishing variables according to prospective preschool teachers’ levels of academic achievement was determined as 48.8%. Considering the fact that prospective teachers’ achievement-goal orientations, critical thinking dispositions and self-regulation skills may increase their academic achievement and shape their future teaching performances, it is suggested to implement programs that will contribute to the development of such skills and orientations among prospective preschool teachers.

In this study, the relations between learning styles and academic success of pre-service history teachers were examined. The study group of this research was comprised of 142 pre-service history teachers, who attended Bayburt University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of History in spring quarter of 2017-2018 academic year. "Grasha-Reichmann Learning Style Scale" was used in collection of data for the research. As per the academic success of the pre-service history teachers, averages of their four major area course grades were recorded. In the analysis of the research data, descriptive statistics, t-test for the independent groups, and multiple regression analysis were used. It was understood that the dominant learning styles of pre-service history teachers were, respectively, dependent, independent, participant, collaborator, avoidant, and competitive learning styles. Also, it was found that gender variable has not significant effect on pre-service history teachers’ learning style. In the regression analysis, it was discovered that the learning styles of pre-service history teachers are predictive for their academic success. Moreover, it was understood that only participant and competitive learning styles significantly predicted the academic success. In other words, learning styles of pre-service history teachers accounted for 28 % of academic success of the pre-service history teachers.

The aim of the study is to determine views of principals regarding assignment procedure. Data were gathered with the implementation of semi-structured interview forms from 14 administrators in the center of Konya according to ‘Purposive sampling’ method. The data were analyzed by content analysis and the following findings have been reached. There should be criteria such as an examination (written and verbal), developing projects related with the school, receiving academic or in-service training in administration, having experience as assistant principal, preparation of evaluation forms aiming at objectivity and improvement, election of the assistant principal by the principal without any intervention among the successful ones from the written exams, appointment of administrators instead of assignment, acceptance of school administration as a profession, regulations respecting of the objectivity, justice and equality. It is recommended that similar studies be conducted through quantitative research.

This study aims to analyse opinions of social studies prospective teachers towards out-of-school learning. It was conducted with 12 prospective teachers who were at their final year at Kafkas University Education Faculty, Social Studies Teaching Department. In this qualitative study, phenomenological design was adopted, and the data was collected with semi-structured interview form which was developed by the researcher. To explain qualitative data and to find relationships, explanatory and inferential codes during analysis were adopted. Based on the results obtained from this study, prospective teachers expressed that they had inadequate knowledge about out-of-school learning, and out-of-school learning may present advantageous to learning process such as learning with doing-experiencing, permanence of subjects, and materialisation of information. Additionally, regarding out-of-school learning, prospective teachers expressed that there may be problems with time and incorrect learning practices. Recommendations were presented for these results.

The study investigates the views of social studies teachers (SSTs) about the advantages and challenges of interactive whiteboard application in social studies lessons. Data was gathered using a questionnaire consisting of 58 items. The sample comprised 483 male and female SSTs from different governorates of Oman who were provided with three training programs about using Interactive Whiteboard (IWB). Data were analyzed by using: Means, T-test and One Way ANOVA.  The results indicated that they considered its effect to be significant in supporting students’ learning process by enhancing the quality of learning environment, excitement of use and importance of use in social studies lessons. It also showed that they used it widely in their lessons but they experienced moderate challenges, including related to technical support and the availability of IWB in all classes. The results also indicated that teachers’ gender and experience influenced their views. The study recommends the provision of more technical support to teachers.

Human Resource Management (HRM) includes recruitment, training, development, motivation and evaluation of the staff who will achieve the goals of the organization and perform the necessary activities to be successful. The success of the organization depends on the effective use and management of human resources. Considering that The Ministry of Turkish National Education has the most crowded personnel and the potential of leading the future human resources, the HRM strategies of this organization becomes significant.  In this study, it is aimed to investigate to the human resources management practices of the Ministry of Turkish National Education from the perspectives of teachers who are also the human resources of the system.  In this research, holistic-multiple case study design was employed and the open-ended interview form which includes nine questions considering the functions of the HRM was utilized as the data collection tool. Research results showed that teachers know the duties and responsibilities which are declared in their job definition but they do not consider some of the significant professional efficiencies such as planning, assessment and evaluation. Moreover, the ministry does not make long-term plans in order to determine the required human resources, and also the functionality and subjectivity of the system is under discussion in terms of selection and appointment. What's more, the desired aims cannot be reached in terms of professional development. Teachers have the anxiety of performance evaluation based on accountability, and they emphasize fair and subjectivity in terms of payment, rewarding and discipline.

Gender differences in mathematics learning outcomes are still evident in many countries participating in large scale international testing, as well as in national testing in Israel, the context in which the study reported here was conducted. The participants were 281 students from three Israeli elementary schools and were in grades 4 and 6. The students completed a questionnaire with items based on a selection of variables included in explanatory models for gender differences in mathematics. It was found that many students held gendered beliefs related to mathematics learning, particularly when the questions asked related to themselves or to significant others in their lives (parents and teachers); the views of the majority of students were gender neutral. When presented with two photographs -a man, and a woman- and asked who was the one more likely to work with mathematics, it was clear that the students’ choices and explanations echoed perceptions of mathematics as a male domain.

The purpose of this study is to determine the attitude towards Turkish Course and reveal the perception of students towards Turkish Course and teacher. In this context, a personal information form and Attitude Towards Turkish Course (ATTC) Scale were applied to 419 students who receive education in the center of Kirsehir province, in Turkey. In addition to that, the metaphors of students towards Turkish teacher and course were compiled by means of semi-structured interview form. The students were also required to draw pictures that express their feelings towards Turkish Course. The results can be summarized as follows: it was seen that Turkish teachers were likened to an “angel”, “cotton” and “panda”, and happy emojis and heart figures were drawn towards Turkish Course. It was understood that the attitudes of- female students in comparison to male students, the ones who possess a phone to the ones who do not, the ones who have a higher literacy level to the ones with lower literacy level, the ones with more social media followers to the ones with less followers and the ones who spend more extracurricular time with to the ones who do not- have been developed more positively.

The researcher investigated the mathematics learning styles of vocational college students during fall 2017 and spring 2018. 94 students enrolled in the vocational college of a public university completed the questionnaire "How Do I Actually Learn?" developed by Forster. Scale has four learning styles: reflective, inquisitive, diligent and user. The results of the research revealed that the most preferred learning model was user learning style in mathematics learning. Most of the students preferred to learn mathematics by writing the solutions, and reading through their notes or work. There were also statistically significant differences in mathematics learning styles among students according to their academic achievement. According to the results, students with high level of success were more inquisitive than students with low levels.

The purpose of the present study is to test a hypothetical model in order to examine the association between students’ sense of classroom belonging along with four other university class-level variables including faculty-student relationships, connected classroom climate referring peer relationships, loneliness and classroom identity. It is intended to draw attention of teacher educators to the importance of creating sense of community at classroom level through this study in order to improve the quality of teacher education. With this aim, pre-service teachers attending the faculty of education were selected as sample of the study (N= 1425). Each measures used in this study was adapted for college-level students through confirmatory factor analysis in order to test specific predictions concerning each measure’s structure and the results revealed that  all measures have adequate psychometric properties. The model examined with structural equation modeling was an excellent fit with the data, and the results indicated that the fitted model explained 50% of the variance in classroom identity; 47% of the variance in sense of classroom belonging; 14% of the variance in classroom climate; and 9% of the variance in loneliness. Results and implications are discussed.

The major purpose of this study was to create a path analysis model of academic success in a group of university students, which included the variables of academic confidence and psychological capital with a mediator variable - academic coping. 400 undergraduates from Marmara University and Istanbul Commerce University who were in sophomore, junior and senior years participated in the study. The Academic Behavioral Confidence Scale, the Academic Coping Strategies Scale and the Psychological Capital Test Battery composed of the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale, the Life Orientation Test, the Hope Scale and the Resilience Scale were utilized to disclose the predictive roles of these variables on academic success. The results of path analyses showed that academic confidence and psychological capital had pivotal direct and indirect effects on academic success via the mediator variable – academic coping. Academic coping had also a direct influence on academic success.  The findings of the study are essential for telling both vocational counselors and educational psychologists the fact that career interventions for university students should consider the non-cognitive factors on their academic achievements.

Teacher education programs are often accused of failing to prepare preservice teachers for real life classroom situations. In the case of research on classroom management, the focal point is often classroom teachers and their educational and behavioral goals rather than students’ experiences. This study aims to explore the perspectives of preservice teachers on their attitudes and behaviors in the university classrooms. For this purpose, 40 preservice teachers, who studied in the Early Childhood Education department at a state university in Turkey, were selected. The interview was chosen as the data collection method. The interview questions were based on the questions that Cothran, Kulinna and Garrahy (2003) used in their study with the secondary physical education students. The collected data were analyzed by the constant comparison method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) and common themes were constructed through the analytic induction method (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993). In this study, the findings indicated that incompatible behaviors served different functions in teacher education classrooms. The preservice teachers perceived punitive teacher responses to students’ negative behaviors as compelling, ineffective and mostly humiliating practices. The preservice teachers provided three main elements that affect their attitudes, behaviors and experiences in a teacher education classroom. These elements were related to students, teachers, and the context of the classroom. The preservice teachers perceived their positive or negative behaviors mostly as reactions to the behavior of the teacher and the classroom environment.

The aim of this research is to examine the effects of creative writing activities on the reading and writing attitudes of fourth grade students. This research is a one-group pretest-posttest design of quantitative research methods. The study population of the study is the fourth grade students who are studying in Sorgun district of Yozgat province in Turkey. Cluster sampling was used in the sampling selection. A total of 35 students are in the sample. Creative writing activities were realized for the students for two months. Mean, standard deviation, paired samples t-test were used in the analysis of the data. As a result of the research, creative writing activities led to an increase in reading, writing and language lesson attitude of elementary school fourth graders. Increase in language lesson attitude is significant. The mean increase in Turkish lesson attitude scores was .39 with a 95% confidence interval ranging from 3.43 to 3.82. The effect size statistic (r=.32) indicated a medium effect size.

Self-regulation is an active and constructive process in which students regulate and observe their own behaviour, motivations and cognition by setting their own goals during their learning process. In this study, the aim is to investigate the effects of biology laboratory practices that are supported by self-regulated learning strategies on students’ readiness for self-directed learning and their attitudes towards science experiments in laboratory settings. This study, which was undertaken as a quasi-experimental study in accordance with the pretest-posttest design with a control group, was implemented. Second year students who studied science teaching in the faculty of education at a state university in Konya in the academic year of 2018-2019 made up the sample of this study. There were two groups in the study which were “The Control Group” and “The Experimental Group”. In order to measure the students’ self-directed learning readiness levels, “Scale of Self-Directed Learning Readiness in Laboratory” was used and to measure attitudes towards science experiments “Scale of Attitudes towards Science Experiments” was utilized. Both scales were implemented as pre-tests before the study and as post-tests after the completion of the implementation process. The analysis of the data was conducted via SPSS 18. Independent samples t test was conducted to understand whether biology laboratory practices supported with self-regulated learning strategies have any effect on students’ readiness for self-directed learning and their attitudes towards science experiments in laboratories. According to the findings of the study, biology laboratory practices supported with self-regulated learning strategies were observed to make a significant difference in favour of the experimental group considering their self-directed learning readiness and their attitudes towards science experiments.

This study aims to analyse the emotional intelligence scores of the special education teacher candidates for the predictor of multiple intelligences areas. This study was conducted through relational scanning model. 211 teacher candidates, 106 females and 105 males, participated in the study. Data were collected through Personal Information Form, Teele Multiple Intelligence Inventory and Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale. Logistic regression analysis was used to find whether the gender and grade level variables, and optimism, utilization of emotions and the scores of emotion evaluation are statistically significant in defining predominant intelligence areas or not. SPSS 24.0 was used in the data analysis process. The results revealed that while the gender variable and optimism scores are significant variables predicting the determination of individuals in which predominant intelligence is both interpersonal and not, optimism and evaluation of emotions scores are significant variables predicting the determination of individuals whose predominant intelligence is both visual and not. However, the results suggested that demographic variables (gender and grade level) and emotional intelligence scores did not affect kinesthetic, musical, intrapersonal, logical and verbal intelligence areas which were found as the predominant intelligence areas of teachers.

The purpose of this research is to examine the correlation between the attitude towards reading and the perception of creative reading. The sample group of the study, in which the correlational survey model among the qualitative research designs was conducted, consists of 319 students studying at fourth grade in primary schools. The scale for the perception of creative reading generated by Yurdakal and Susar Kirmizi and the scale for the attitude towards reading formed by Yurdakal and Susar Kirmizi were applied in collecting data for the research. Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Analysis and Simple and Multiple Linear Regression Analysis were implemented for the analysis of data in the study. When the data obtained from the analyses were examined, it was observed that there was a positive and high correlation between the attitude scale towards reading and its sub-dimensions. Likewise, a positive and high correlation was determined between the perception of creative reading scale and its sub-dimensions. As the attitude towards reading increases, the perception of creative reading decreases. This finding is similar for all the sub-dimensions in the scales. It was also comprehended that the attitude towards reading was a predictor of the perception of creative reading and that there were significant correlations between the perception of creative reading and the sub-dimensions of contributions, meaning, activities, and process of reading. Along with these variables, the attitude towards reading explains the perception of creative reading at a total level of 13%.

The purpose of the present study is to determine if high school students' character strengths composed of twenty-four different features, being virtuous including six dimensions and demographic characteristics predict risky behaviors. The participants of the study were 380 students aged between 14-19 years and enrolled in general high schools. The data was collected by using the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths for Young People and the Risky Behaviors Scale. From the findings, it was determined that the risk of school drop-out score was higher in the ninth grades and the male students had more risky behaviors compared to the their female counterparts. Moreover, it was also determined that the risky behaviors were significantly related to many character strengths. Besides this, as a result of the regression analyses, it was found that the character strengths predicted risky behaviors composed of the areas of anti-social behaviors, use of alcohol/cigarette, eating habits, suicide tendency and school leave at different levels. The findings were discussed within the context of adolescents’ psychological counseling needs and suggestionThe purpose of the present study is to determine if high school students' character strengths composed of twenty-four different strengths, virtues including six dimensions and demographic characteristics predict risky behaviors. The participants of the study were 380 students aged between 14-19 years and enrolled in general high schools. The data was collected by using the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths for Youth and the Risky Behaviors Scale. From the findings, it was determined that the risk of school drop-out score was higher in the ninth grades and the male students had more risky behaviors compared to their female counterparts. Moreover, it was also determined that the risky behaviors were significantly related to many character strengths. Besides this, as a result of the regression analyses, it was found that the character strengths predicted risky behaviors composed of the areas of anti-social behaviors, use of alcohol/cigarette, eating habits, suicide tendency and school dropout at different levels. The findings were discussed within the context of adolescents’ psychological counseling needs and suggestions were proposed.

The main goal of this paper is to briefly describe the educational quality assurance procedures of Jubail Industrial College and share its experience with other local and international institutions that are potentially interested in implementing similar quality assurance procedures in their various departments. This paper follows a document and descriptive method. Document analysis qualitative approach was opted. In essence, implementing quality assurance procedures within any educational institution ensures quality education and helps to maintain an organized structure. Internal quality assurance policies and practices guarantee that the quality of education in an academic institution is consistently monitored. This paper can be utilized by both academic planners and quality assurance personnel in academic institutions. The quality assurance procedures described in this paper are used to ensure the quality of education specific to the Jubail Industrial College; however, it can be applied in other academic institutions as well.