The contribution of special needs assistants (SNA) is becoming increasingly important in inclusive and special classrooms. However, the profession itself has remained unexplored. The purpose of this article is to describe special needs assistants’ perceptions on their education, professional competence, the content and significance of their work within the school system of Finland, and the further development of their role and content of their work. 171 special needs assistants from the province of Lapland participated in the research. This research was a mixed methods research where the data was collected in 2010 through a semi-structured questionnaire that consisted both quantitative and qualitative elements and was, therefore, analyzed both by using qualitative and quantitative analyzing methods. The results highlighted the diversity, challenges and development needs of special needs assistants’ work. Special needs assistants are strength and can work as a support for teachers, students, and parents.

This study aims to present the design and pilot testing procedures of the two specific self-report questionnaires were used to measure the two key aspects of reading motivation, self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation in the field of literary (narrative) reading, and the partial factors that jointly shape them. These instruments were outlined in advance, tested on a small scale and finally administered in a pre-post (quasi)experimental-control group research study, in order to investigate the effect of an intervention reading program to 6 graders. The measurement tools have good validity and reliability evidence, but further construct validity analysis should be done.

The purpose of this study is to determine the teachers' attitudes toward multicultural education. This is a survey study and the participants of the study were 248 teachers who are teaching Turkish to the Syrian immigrants in Sanliurfa. The data for this study was collected through a 5-point Likert scale called "Teachers' Multicultural Attitude Scale". According to findings, it is determined that teachers have positive attitudes towards multicultural education. Their attitudes do not differ in a statistically significant way according to their gender, mother tongue, and professional seniority. Literature teachers were found to have more positive attitudes than class teachers. Based on the findings, it can be suggested that more research is needed on how to develop, alter teaching methods and programs according to multicultural education and why teachers of certain subjects have a more positive attitude towards multicultural education. Also, studies that investigate if teachers’ attitudes towards multicultural education affect students’ academic achievement, social adaptation processes and so on may provide useful information. The participation of teachers in cultural exchange programs, formal education, courses may be useful to raise their awareness and competency on multicultural education.

Higher education institutions increasingly seek to promote students’ intercultural competence (IC), yet its conceptualization remains a challenge. The first aim of this study was to explore how a purposive sample of n=77 domestic, undergraduate students at a public university in Germany define IC. The second aim was to assess to what extent such definitions are context-dependent by comparing IC definitions provided by domestic students (with predominantly German nationality and little international experience/exposure) with those provided by n=130 international, undergraduate students at a private university in Germany (with predominantly non-German nationality and more extensive international experience/exposure). A qualitative content analysis showed that domestic students defined IC mostly in terms of attitudes followed by external outcomes while the opposite was true for the international students. Differences in IC definitions between the two samples are discussed with regard to various contextual factors. Our results suggest that such contextual factors should be considered when designing measures to promote IC development in university students.

The aim of this study is to determine the problem solving skills and science process skills of six year-old children who attended kindergarten and whether or not there is a difference in problem solving skills and science process skills of children receiving and not receiving the education with GEMS program. In the study using the experimental model with pre-test, post-test and control group, the sample group consisted of a total of 25 children including 11 children in experimental group and 14 children in control group who attended the preschool education. The “GEMS Program” was applied throughout a school year after applying pre-test to the children in the experimental group. In the scope of the study, “General Information Form” to obtain the data about the children and their families, “Parental Evaluation Form” including the evaluation of the parents about their children, “Problem Solving Scale in Science Education (PSSSE)” to determine the problem solving skills of the children and “Science Processes Observation Form (SPOF)” to measure the science process skills of the children were used. According to the results of the study, while a statistically significant difference was observed between the Problem Solving Scale in Science Education mean scores of the children in the experimental group who participated in the GEMS Education Program and of the children in control group, no statistically significant difference was observed between the mean scores obtained by the children in the experimental group from Science Processes Observation Form and the mean scores of the children in the control group.

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.

Students’ test anxiety is known to have significant influences on essential academic outcomes, and given the increased testing of school-aged children gender differences also appear in dimensions of test anxiety: thoughts, off-task behaviors, and autonomic reactions. This study examined: (i) whether there is a pattern of correlations exist among three dimensions of test anxiety that are tapped by the Children’s Test Anxiety Scale (Wren & Benson, 2004) and (ii) whether gender differences exist in the strength of these test anxiety dimensions. Students (N= 414) from 3 public schools, attending to the fourth grade (205 Females; 209 Males) were asked to rate on the thoughts (cognitive), off-task behaviors (behavioral), autonomic reactions (physiological) dimensions. The results revealed a strong relationship between thoughts and autonomic reactions (r = .57). Applying a multivariate approach, gender differences were found to be significant in overall test anxiety favoring females. Results also revealed a small female advantage for thoughts and autonomic reactions, Ƞ2 = .012 and Ƞ2= .016; but quite a small male advantage for off-task behaviors Ƞ2=.009. Taken as a whole, we need to seriously consider the implications of these differences and pay attention particularly to females in elementary schools.

Among school psycho-social factors with considerable effect on student outcomes are both school and classroom climate.  Because how students perceive the classroom climate strongly predicts achievement, measuring classroom climate gains importance and the need for testing the existing results across cultures persists.  In this study, we assessed the validity and measurement invariance of the Turkish adaptation of the Student Personal Perception of Classroom Climate Scale (SPPCC) developed in English (US).  Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and measurement invariance (MI) analyses by sex were performed on 629 students’ data.  CFA results confirmed the factorial structure of the SPPCC.  Results of the MI analyses showed that the SPPCC measures the same construct for females and males in a non-English context.  Latent mean comparisons revealed girls perceived the classroom climate more positively than boys.  We concluded that this study in the Turkish context is a further step in developing evidence of the extent to which SPCC provides psychometrically sound scores.

It can be said that effective development of intercultural sensitivity depends on the regulations and practices in the curriculum. Integrated program implementations are seen as one of the ways of regulation. In the study, a nested integration model was used in a single discipline. In this context, scientific research methods are considered as a discipline, and the achievements of this discipline and intercultural sensitivity development activities are integrated. Understanding different cultures correctly and not being prejudiced are very important for the development of intercultural sensitivity. Scientific research methods course provides students with scientific attitudes and behaviors. In this course, it is thought that students will be able to develop sensitivity by examining different cultures with scientific attitudes and behaviors. In this context, it is aimed to reveal the effectiveness of intercultural sensitization development activities integrated with scientific research methods course gains. The quasi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest and a control group was used in the study. The study group comprised of 86 second-grade students in the English Teacher Training Department. In order to measure the intercultural sensitivities of the students before and after the test procedure, the five-point likert type “Intercultural Sensitivity Scale” developed by Chen and Starosta and adapted to Turkish by Bulduk, Tosun and Ardic was used as data collection tool. It is concluded that the curriculum of scientific research methods integrated with intercultural sensitivity development activities is effective in developing students' intercultural sensitivities.

Teachers’ use of everyday cognitive heuristics can lead to biases in information processing and, thus, to unfair assessments of student characteristics. This problem can be addressed by a core aspect of research-based learning, i.e., by making use of principles and methods of empirical research in order to systematically collect information. However, pre-service teachers’ attitude towards the use of empirical research methods is usually rather low. To foster their attitudes, a total of 444 student teachers were confronted with their own biased perception during a methodology course. Biased perception was triggered by a halo effect inducing experiment. In a subsequent semester, n = 113 of these students participated in an online survey. They answered questions about their cognitive activity and affective reaction following the presentation of the results of the experiment. Moreover, they reported about perceived attitude changes towards systematic thinking and research methods. The results demonstrate the successful implementation of the halo effect, which affected the students cognitively and emotionally. Structural equation modelling showed, that attitude change was dependent on both cognitive and affective reactions. The findings indicate that the halo effect is not only easy to implement in university courses but also appears to have substantial impact on students’ attitudes towards research-based learning.

The analyses described in this paper permitted an evaluation of whether capacity-building professional development practices were related to early childhood intervention practitioners’ reported use of capacity-building family-centered practices. This was ascertained by structural equation modeling for two different types of family-centered practices (participatory and relational) where the two models were compared to determine the better fitting model and the sizes of effects for the relationships among the variables in the models. Results provided converging evidence that capacity-building professional development engenders practitioners’ use of capacity-building family-centered practices. Implications for practice are described.

In this study it is aimed to analyze the smartphone addiction, fear of missing out (FoMO), and perceived social and academic competence that predict social media addiction on high school students. Study group consists of 296 (136 females and  160 males) high school students studying in Anatolian High Schools and Vocational High School in Mersin during the 2017-2018 academic year. Simple random sampling was used. In the study, descriptive survey method was used. As data collection tools, Personal Information Form, Social Media Addiction Scale, Smartphone Addiction Scale, Fear of Missing Out Scale (FoMO), Perceived Competence Scale developed by Ozer et al. were used. In analyses of data, regression was used. According to stepwise regression analysis, smartphone addiction (β = .34), fear of missing out (β = .26) and perceived academic competence (β = -.12) predict social media addiction level on high school students. As the result of the study, smartphone addiction, fear of missing out, and perceived academic competence predict social media addiction on high school students. When the smartphone addiction level and fear of missing out decrease, and also perceived academic competence improve, students’ smartphone addiction levels reduce.

Pragmatic competence is an indispensable dimension of overall language ability, and proper interpretation of implied meanings is a major constituent of pragmatic competence. In this regard, this study aimed to investigate the efficiency of a film-based instruction program devised to facilitate the interpretation of implied meanings in English. It was conducted with a quasi-experimental design. First, a multiple-choice discourse completion test was given to 144 English language teacher trainees with 77 people in the experimental group and 67 in the control group. After the 5-week instruction given to the experimental group, the test was administered to both groups again. The results revealed significant differences in favor of the experimental group. This makes the program a promising one as it made the participants, who were also prospective English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers responsible for helping their own students have pragmatic competence too, significantly more equipped about processing implied meanings as a major constituent of pragmatic competence.

This descriptive and regression research was conducted to determine the influence of empowerment on organizational behaviors of 215 teachers in Catholic Higher Education Institutions in the Philippines. The results revealed that Catholic teachers have high levels of teacher empowerment. Specifically, they have very high level of status, professional growth, self-efficacy, and impact and high level of decision-making and autonomy in scheduling. Meanwhile, they also high level of organizational behaviors. Furthermore, three of the subscales of teacher empowerment tend to predict almost all dimensions of organizational behaviors of teachers in the school. The research concludes that Catholic Higher Education teachers are empowered to their organization as they feel respected, have opportunities for professional growth, feel efficient and effective in the classroom, and have the capacity to influence students and the school life. However, they do not have enough avenues to be involved in the decision-making process of their institution and do not have enough freedom and opportunities to choose their own schedules and teaching loads. Furthermore, they exhibit positive organizational behaviors in their institutions as manifested in their strong attachment to their organization, high level of involvement to their work, harmonious relationship with their supervisors and middle level managers. Also, they exhibit discretionary actions that goes beyond their functions, and have a desire and passion to continue and uphold the teaching profession.

This study was aimed at investigating whether or not there is an interaction between learning approach and social intelligence towards response fluency. A number of 126 eighth grade students (M = 13.9; SD = 0.5 years) in Bojonegoro, Indonesia were randomly selected to participate in this study. This research used 2x3 factorial quasi-experiment with the matching static comparison design. The statistical Analysis Of Covariance (ANCOVA) ware implemented for analysis of data in the study. The results show that: there is a significant difference in response to fluency between students who learn with a scientific approach and direct learning approach; there are significant differences in response to fluency between students who have high, medium, and low social intelligence, both in scientific and direct learning approaches, the students with high social intelligence levels have better response to fluency than those with moderate social intelligence or low, and the students with moderate social intelligence have better response to fluency than those with low social intelligence, in all levels of social intelligence, the students who were taught by using scientific approach have better response to fluency than those who were taught by using direct learning approach.

In almost all European countries, many schools offer a form of bilingual education provision according to which content subjects are taught either through two different languages or through one foreign language. This approach is known as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). The main problem addressed in this research article is the need to examine and describe the contribution of CLIL methodology to the development of bilingual language competence of students of a secondary vocational school. In addition, the study looks at the teaching and learning within a bilingual Slovak-English study program of the school, specifically at the implementation of CLIL methodology in content subjects taught within the program. Specifically, the extent, approaches, materials used in the study program to enhance bilingualism at school in general and the bilingual language competence of the students through CLIL methodology in particular, as well as opinions and perceptions of teachers and students were investigated. Three data collection tools were used – interviews with teachers and students, classroom observations and document review. The results of the study indicate that various factors inside and outside the classroom and school enhance students’ bilingual language competence with CLIL methodology playing an important but not a decisive role.

The study aims to promote relevant and effective environmental education (EE) through extracurricular clubs. For this, we studied the state of play of environmental activities (EA) carried out by 48 environmental clubs belonging to urban and rural areas of the Regional Academy of Education Fez-Meknes, Morocco. These extracurricular environmental clubs remain so far without formal environmental education programs. In this study, we identified the bulk of programs offered by extracurricular environment clubs, including types of scheduled activities and percentages of achievement and student beneficiaries in urban and rural settings. In addition, we have identified the main barriers to achieving certain environmental activities. The significant correlations detected between some of the variables studied allowed us to better explain the achievements and the weaknesses of these clubs. Finally, we have made recommendations to promote relevant and effective extracurricular environmental education.

This study investigates the emotional responses of EFL student teachers to various affective situations during practicum and their coping strategies to enhance positive emotions and reduce negative emotions. Seventy female EFL student teachers participated in this study. To collect quantitative and qualitative data, two instruments were used: an emotional reflective diary and semi-structured interviews. The results of the study revealed that the practicum is an emotionally positive experience. The frequency of occurrence of pleasant affective situations was more than that of unpleasant ones. In the decreasing order of frequency, the most frequent emotional responses were happy, angry, and stressed and the least frequent ones were lost, influential, and shamed. Furthermore, the results indicated that student teachers adopted many regulation strategies to manage their emotions. The study recommends that teacher education programmes increase the focus on teachers’ emotions and training student teachers to manage their emotions to build future professional identities.

Inclusive education as a curricular trend is implemented by countries as an action taken in response to the collective call of the Salamanca Statement. It carries the tenet that all learners should be educated alongside their peers regardless of physical, cognitive, socio-emotional, and economic, language, cultural, and other perceived differences. School children, as peers of children with special needs, are co-implementers of the inclusive agenda. Young children are competent, possess their views and agencies, and have nascent characteristics that promote inclusion. As such, it is essential to explore how knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, and ethics can further be developed and refined for the sake of creating an inclusive community through integrating them in the school curriculum. This paper sought to analyse the articulation of inclusive concepts and expressions in the K-curriculum and strategies utilized by the teachers to reinforce them. Two documents were analysed in this study to address the research questions: (a) prescribed k-curriculum currently used in the Philippines (b) interview transcripts of the key informants. Through content analysis, results of the study revealed that several inclusive concepts and expressions are articulated in the kindergarten curriculum across domains and are reinforced by teachers using varied strategies. Recommendations of the study are discussed.

This research aims to develop open ended-based worksheet in improving students' high-level thinking skills on static fluid materials. The method used in this research is Research and Development (R&D) with 3 steps namely, the initial stage, then the design and development of the product, and finally the product testing. The data analysis technique for product effectiveness is with the main field trials, namely (1) N-gain analysis, (2) paired t-test, (3) ANCOVA, and finally (4) effect size test. From the test results obtained information that conducted 10 students showed the results of the development worksheets obtained the average worth of development products by 90% this value is included in the very high category, while the student response of the average of 88% and also the readability response of 89% in the very high category. In the results of the n-gain analysis also show the value is0.70, that mean medium category. From the results of this study, it can be concluded that worksheets based on open ended can improve students' higher-order thinking skills. So, in further development we suggest that open ended-based on worksheet is not only applied to static fluid material, but also in other materials.