Effective school administrators and teachers are those who provide the least restrictive learning environments for all students. The main goal of this study was to analyze the effects of inclusive science education on the general education population of middle school students’ scientific conceptual understandings. The study was designed as a quasi-experimental model and conducted in a middle school in a large urban school district in Midwestern US. Approximately 4% of students in the school were receiving special education services. The participants in the study were selected through non-random selection. The participants of this study included 20 students without disabilities in each classroom with a total number of 120 students from a total of six different middle school classrooms. The study included two classrooms (one inclusive and one non-inclusive) for each grade level (6, 7, and 8). The conceptual change of students without disabilities was measured using the Density Assessment, which included 20 multiple choice questions. SPSS program was used for data analyses. Paired samples t-test and a multivariate group analysis test were conducted to investigate significant differences on students’ conceptual understandings. The findings showed that the effect of inclusive education was significant and positive on the conceptual understanding of students without disabilities in inclusive science classrooms.

The study investigated differences in students’ reported overall test anxiety before, during, or after test taking among two school-levels and gender. Differences among three test anxiety components (thoughts, off-task behaviors, and autonomic reactions) were also examined. Participants were 725 primary (349 females, 376 males) and 375 middle (180 females, 195 males) school students from a metropolitan city in Turkey. Turkish students’ reported overall test anxiety declined from primary to middle school, with females showing higher test anxiety throughout school years. Whereas students rated thoughts high, autonomic reactions were rated low; followed by off-task behaviors. Female and male students did not differ in thoughts and autonomic reactions. School-level differences were found in off-task behaviors and autonomic reactions. The pattern of Turkish students’ overall test anxiety derived as a combination of thoughts, off-task behaviors, and autonomic reactions was discussed, and educational implications were offered.

The purpose of this research is to investigate teacher candidates’ perceptions about the physical dimension of classroom management.  A hundred two 3rd year students at the Primary School Education Department of a state university were instructed to visit a primary school and to observe a classroom in terms of its physical dimensions. The students were guided both to tell about the actual classroom they observed and to tell about their dream classroom. Thus, this study aims to discover students’ perception on actual classroom and their construction of dream classroom in terms of physical characteristics. The research findings revealed that most of the teacher candidates mentioned their dream classroom according to the actual classroom and only one third of them designed the classroom according to their own dream classroom characteristics. Also teacher candidates did not mention the affective influences of physical layouts and environments on individuals.

The aim of this study was to chronologically examine the contents of the social studies curricula implemented in Turkey in terms of skills teaching in the context of socio-cultural interaction. In the study, the social studies curricula used since 1967 were subjected to content analysis, and the skills aimed to be taught to students in the contents of these curricula were listed. These lists were examined with reference to the socio-cultural conditions of the time they were implemented. Based on the findings, it can be stated that the contents and emphasis of skills cyclically varied across different social studies curricula in Turkey. There was sometimes an individual-centred and libertarian approach adopted in the curricula, while at other times an environment was present in which strict rules were dominant and the system was emphasized rather than the individual as part of the political and social conditions of the time.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of creative drama as a teaching method on academic achievement and retention in social studies, students’ attitude towards social studies of 4th grade. The research is designed according to quasi-experimental model. The research was conducted with 4th year students in a public school in Adana in Turkey. There are 42 students in experimental group and 39 in control group. Creative drama activities were used to develop social studies achievement and attitude of students as a treatment for the experimental group. The treatment consisted of 15 hours, 40 minutes sessions that equal a class hour in school and 3 hours a week. Control groups had been taught by classroom teachers as the way they do traditionally. Data collection tools are “Attitude Towards Social Studies Scale” developed  by Gencel “Achievement Test” developed by the researchers.  Data were processed by using covariance analysis. Findings indicated that creative drama method has a significant effect on social studies achievement and students’ attitude towards social studies but not a significant effect on retention of social studies knowledge.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate pre-service history teachers’ perceived self-efficacy and the effect of pedagogical formation training on this perception. The study is based on a one-group pretest-posttest research design, which is a type of pre-experimental design. For the purpose of the study, in the first week of the formation training, the “Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale” developed by Tschannen-Moran and Hoy and adapted to Turkish by Capa, Cakiroglu and Sarikaya was administered as a pre-test to a group of 178 pre-service history teachers who underwent pedagogical formation training in 2016-2017 academic year in two different universities in Turkey. The same scale was administered again as a post-test at the end of the 28-week training. The study has found out that the pedagogical formation training did not make a significant difference in pre-service history teachers’ perceived self-efficacy except for the classroom management subscale, in which the self-efficacy scores of pre-service history teachers decreased after the pedagogical formation training.

This study aims to review the impact of the interactive story reading method on 48-72 month children’s vocabulary based on receptive and expressive language. The study group is 52 children in the 48-72 months age group at the nurseries of primary schools at Ankara province. The research employed a combined pattern analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data. The data were collected via "General Information Form" ,"Expressive and Receptive Language Test in Turkish (TIFALDI)" developed under the leadership of Gul Guven and Berument The "Teacher Observation Form", the "Teacher Interview Form" and the "Family Interview Form". In conclusion of the study, a significant difference in favor of the experiment group in the posttest was observed with respect to average posttest scores of experiment and control groups, following the implementation of the Interactive Story Reading Program. The comparison of the follow-up test and pretest score averages revealed a significantly high value in favor of the total for the follow-up test for the children in the experiment group. The agreement among the forms filled out by two observers with reference to the results of the observation and video analysis regarding the implementation of the "Interactive Story Reading Method" by the teachers, was assessed to be good/very good agreement. In the light of these results it can be said that the interactive story reading method have a fundamental impact on receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge of 48-72 months old children.

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of ethical leadership on teachers’ job satisfaction, and affective commitment in an education sector. This study proposes that ethical leadership has a significant and positive effect on overall job satisfaction and affective commitment. Moreover, it suggests that ethical leadership has an influence on overall job satisfaction and affective commitment. In this study, the relationships among the variables were evaluated using correlation, and regression analysis. The results which is based on a sample of 150 teachers from four private schools in Pakistan demonstrate that overall job satisfaction has a significant and positive influence on affective commitment, whereas, marriage as a demographic variable has a positive effect on overall job satisfaction and affective commitment.

The state of mathematical thinking is considered to have an effect on the formation of anxiety regarding teaching mathematics. It is hypothesized that with the formation of mathematical thinking, the anxiety in teachers regarding teaching mathematics will be reduced. Since mathematical thinking is a skill acquired starting from the early years of education, the anxiety in form teachers in primary school regarding teaching mathematics is important. Within this context, the objective of this study is to investigate the effect of mathematical thinking states of form teachers on their anxieties regarding mathematics teaching. The sample group comprises 194 form teachers working in state schools of Bagcilar district, Istanbul province in the spring term of 2015-2016 academic year. As data collection tools, mathematical thinking scale and anxiety scale for the mathematics teaching anxiety of form teachers were used. To test the predictive power of mathematical thinking regarding the mathematics teaching anxiety, Multiple Linear Regression Analysis was used. It was found that the form teachers had high mathematical thinking scores and had low anxiety scores. A low degree, negative and significant correlation was found between the mathematical thinking and anxiety of form teachers regarding mathematics teaching. Moreover, it was found that mathematical thinking had an effect on the anxiety in form teachers regarding mathematics teaching.

This study examines the subjects and concepts in biology perceived to be difficult to learn and teach by 759 pre-service biology teachers registered in the pedagogical formation program at Uludag University Faculty of Education in the academic year of 2005-2016, as well as the associations that word “biology” first calls to their mind. The study was designed as a survey model, and a questionnaire of three scaled questions was used as a data collection tool. The data were classified into 10 different categories based on different branches of biology: Anatomy-Morphology, Biotechnology, Ecology, Evolution, Physiology, Genetics, Histology, Cytology, Systematics and Reproduction and Development. Following the classification, the data were analyzed using frequency and percentages. The subjects and concepts perceived to be difficult to learn by the pre-service teachers are respectively as follows: photosynthesis and its stages, genetics, circulatory system, aerobic respiration, respiratory system, anaerobic respiration, protein synthesis, phanerogams, DNA structure and function, cryptogams, mitosis, plant systematics, endocrine system, meiosis, ETC, urinary system, plant physiology, taxonomy, evolution and digestive system. The subjects and concepts perceived to be difficult to teach by the pre-service teachers are respectively as follows: photosynthesis and its stages, protein synthesis, circulatory system, endocrine system, meiosis, plant systematics, evolution, mitosis, reproduction, genetic crossing over problems, Latinization of names, urinary system, genetics, ecology, aerobic respiration, DNA structure and function, plant tissues, glycolysis and anaerobic respiration. These findings confirm the need for developing undergraduate programs in biology and promoting the research culture at the secondary education level.

The general aim of this research is to try to determine the appropriateness of the visuals in the primary school Turkish workbooks for the students with low visibility in terms of visual design elements. In the realization of the work, the document review method was used. In this study, purposive sampling method was used in the selection of student workbooks. The Ministry of National Education Publications Student Workbook which has been studied in the provinces of Ankara city is determined as the document to be examined. Within the scope of the research 1. 2. 3. and 4. Class Turkish lesson, a random theme was determined among the themes in the Student Workbooks and the activities included in that theme were examined. The "Visual Design Principles Evaluation Form" has been prepared so that the necessary data can be collected after the document review for the research is decided. Within the scope of the research, color use, contrast use, font, layout use, and visual complexity are not appropriate for the low vision students. This situation gives the impression that the visual limitations, the low vision students have difficulty in, are not taken into consideration while preparing the visual activities in the Turkish textbooks. It can be said that the elementary school students who see this way out of the way are disadvantaged compared to their peers who have the normal sight power and use the same text book.

Mathematics educators have reported on many issues regarding students’ mathematical education, particularly students who received mathematics education at different departments such as engineering, science or primary school, including their difficulties with mathematical concepts, their understanding of and preferences for mathematical concepts. This study aimed to investigate the opinions of primary-school teacher education students in terms of their perceptions of difficulty level of the mathematics courses, change in their achievement, if there is any, and interest in mathematics after completing these courses, and factors affecting their achievement and interest level in these courses. Being qualitative in nature, this study was a case study. The data were analyzed using the content analysis and descriptive methods. According to the results, most students stated that they faced mathematics course content with unexpected level of difficulty. After taking basic mathematics courses, the percentage of students with decreased level of interest and achievement in mathematics was found higher than the students who experienced an increase in their interest and achievement. Students underlined such significant factors for the change of their interest and achievement in mathematics as prior knowledge, lecturer(s), and content coverage. Finally, most of the students viewed mathematics courses as a beneficiary tool for their professional development.

The aim of this study was to explore the degree to which a professional development (PD) program designed using GeoGebra influences a group of Turkish middle school teachers’ beliefs in relation to mathematics and role of GeoGebra in mathematics education. In order to collect the required data, the PD course was established to provide six teachers with an opportunity to obtain practical experiences with and necessary knowledge about the use of GeoGebra in mathematics education. In this context, a multiple case study approach was utilized, in which mathematics teachers were observed and interviewed using a variety of procedures to expose qualitative data about their beliefs and the dynamics of their beliefs changes during the course. The main findings illustrated that teachers’ beliefs were transformed to some extent in favour of the use of GeoGebra, as well as using constructivist ideas in their mathematics teaching and learning can be attained through the GeoGebra based PD course. In fact, the relationship amongst stated beliefs and intended teaching practice is complex and the social issues were very influential on teachers’ pedagogical decisions. This research also introduces some suggestions for researchers who focus on professional development of mathematics teachers relative to their beliefs..

In this study, in-class lesson observations were made with volunteer teachers working in primary and secondary schools using alternative observation tools regarding the scope of contemporary educational supervision. The study took place during the fall and spring semesters of the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 academic years and the class observations were made with six alternative volunteer teachers in the primary and secondary schools in the provincial and district centers using alternative observation tools. In the classroom observations, the teacher's verbal flow scheme, teacher's movement scheme and student behaviors both during tasks and not, were analyzed. Observations were made during the two classes with teacher's permission. After the first observation, an information meeting was held and then the second observation was made. Following the observations, interviews were held with the teachers. In interviews, the information about the class observations was shared with teachers and their opinions about research were asked. It has been found that alternative observations, in general, have a positive effect on the professional development of teachers. It is concluded that this type of observation approach positively affects teachers' in-class activities, helps in classroom management and teaching arrangements and positively affects student's unwanted behaviors.

The aim of this study is to review the academic papers written in Turkey on the subject of school readiness, with regard to one of the dimensions of school readiness, that of schools’ readiness for children. The examinations were carried out using one of the qualitative research designs, namely the nested case study design. The study universe consists of 45 articles in Turkish that include the subject of school readiness published in 26 academic journals between the years 2012-2017. With the purposeful sampling method, 14 academic papers that include the dimension of schools’ readiness for children were taken as the study sample. The obtained data were analyzed by descriptive content analysis. The analysis results show that half of the studies reviewed were published in the year 2014. It was observed that in the papers, among the components of the dimension of schools’ readiness for children, the schools’ physical readiness component was most often mentioned. In the articles including the schools’ physical readiness component, it was observed that mainly, findings indicating that schools were not physically suitable for first-year pupils’ level of physical development had been made. As for the component of teachers’ readiness, research findings were accessed relating to the fact that teachers were not prepared for students in terms of their attitudes and values as well as their professional knowledge and skills. Moreover, in the articles, in terms of readiness of the schedule for students, findings were accessed regarding the fact that primary school programmes were not suitable for the levels of the students or for their levels of readiness.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of lessons conducted in out-of-school learning settings on 5th graders science achievement within the scope of a guidance material that was prepared to be used in out-of-school learning settings in accordance with the “Let’s Solve the Riddle of Our Body” chapter objectives. The pretest / posttest equalized control group design, which is one of the quasi-experimental designs, was used in this study. The sample of this study was composed of a total of 31 5th grade students (15 were in experimental group, 16 were in control group) that were selected from secondary schools in the first semester of the 2015-2016 academic year in Tokat Province. Let’s Solve the Riddle of Our Body Chapter Achievement Test (LeSROBAT) was administered before and after the implementation of the guidance material to measure the students’ achievements and retention. The lessons were conducted as suggested by the current curriculum in the control group. The data were analyzed using independent samples t-test and covariance analysis (ANCOVA). As a result of the analyses, it was found that the LeSROBAT post-test scores of experimental group were significantly higher than the control group. Within this context, it was concluded that the out-of-school learning settings positively contributed to academic achievement and the guidance material that was developed within the scope of this study was effective. The results of retention test analyses didn’t reveal any significant difference between the posttest and retention test scores of experimental and control groups. When the LeSROBAT retention test scores were examined, it was observed that the scores of experimental group was higher than the control group.

The aim of this study is to determine the problems, the solutions and the suggestions of the school principals and teachers towards the Syrian refugee students in the primary schools in Turkey. The research group of the study included four school principals and six teachers. The research was conducted by qualitative methods. The results revealed that the school principals mostly live communication, adaptation, accreditation, absenteeism, psychological and financial problems related to Syrian refugee students. Teachers also have problems such as communication problems with these students. Principals have opened ‘support rooms’ for these students; have worked for adaptation of these students, have been in contact with the families. The teachers opened literacy courses and worked to socialize these students with their classmates. Both principals and teachers have primarily proposed the creation of specific curricula for these students and the activities to solve the problem of language and cohesion for these students.

Children have a basic knowledge of birds that they observe during their everyday life either in their garden, other gardens, round the house, walking in the local area or in the yard on school gardens. A total of 515 children, aged 3 to 16 (249 girls and 266 boys) enrolled in southern Brazilian public preschools, primary school and secondary schools, were invited to participate in this exploratory study. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 206 pupils asking to name which birds they knew, where they had seen these birds, which ones live around home, which they had seen further away. Additionally, they were asked which birds they knew from a list and the source of this knowledge where they had learned about the birds. They were asked to draw on a sheet of paper a representation of what the word “bird” meant to them. Results show the importance of everyday observations rather than beyond formal education in the children knowledge. Children from the earliest years notice birds in their everyday lives, and build a bank of knowledge, gradually acquiring an understanding of adaptation to a variety of habitats. Children notice birds in their lives to differing extent and sources according to the culture in which they are immersed. Experiences of seeing or finding out about birds are encapsulated for many children in the form of narratives and contribute to their mental models of birds and their habitats on which they will drew in formal science later (Biology and Environmental Education). Educational implications are discussed.

In this research, it is aimed to study the correlations between perceived supervisor supports (PSS), organizational identification (OI), organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and burnout of teachers. The research was conducted from the perspective of social change and identity theories. The study group of the research consists of 234 teachers working in the public high schools in Giresun city center during the 2016. In order to collect data in the research, Perceived Supervisor Support Scale developed by Kottke & Sharafinski, Organizational Identification Scale developed by Mael & Ashforth, Organizational Citizenship Behaviors Scale developed by DiPaola, Tarter & Hoy, and "Burnout Scale" developed by Pines were used. The correlations between variables are tested with the structural equation model. According to the results, PSS positively affects the OI and OCB and negatively affects the burnout. OI positively affects the organizational citizenship behavior and negatively affects the burnout.  OI plays a partial mediation role in the correlation between PSS of teachers and their OCB and burnout level. The results contribute to the integration of social change and social identity theories in description of organizational behavior.

Within the scope of restructuring the secondary education efforts of the Ministry of National Education, it has been decided to abrogate the secondary school level teachers' schools. The purpose of this study is to evaluate Turkey's teacher education practices and the quest for qualified teacher education through the perceptions of the graduates of these high schools. The study is a phenomenological research based on interpretation. Data were obtained through interviews. The data obtained were analyzed in the vetting of candidate teachers, the curriculum to be used in the education process and its accreditation, and whom to be certified as teachers. The main results of this study, conducted with participants from the secondary school level teachers schools’ graduates, show that, in terms of teacher education, teachers' high schools present various opportunities by enrolling successful candidates, educating them as leaders, preparing them for multi-cultural environments. In order to educate qualified teachers, the participants suggest teacher education programs should include individual and group activities, involve training, arts, basic science, and values education courses. In the selection and approval of tenure teacher, besides academic achievement and diploma, advanced communication skills, patience, confidence, and patriotism should be sought in the candidates.