The purpose of the research is to evaluate pre-service preschool teachers' knowledge about environment by analyzing their drawings about it. 70 first grade, 99 second grade, 56 third grade and 44 fourth grade, with a total of 269 students have been evaluated in this research. This qualitative research was made with social structuralism vision. The data used in this research were gathered by draw and tell conversation technique, where pre-service teachers were asked to draw the first thing when they think about environment and explain it. When analyzing the data, both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used. After analyzing collected data, it is seen that most used object in drawings are tree, human, house and sun, respectively. 4 themes and 12 sub-categories under these themes are detected by pre-service teachers' drawings. The most drawn theme by pre-service teachers is Theme 3: a place which affected/designed by third persons, while the least drawn is Theme 4: a place where humans, animals and plants lives together. 10 categories have seen after analyzing explanations of the drawing. Most explanation seen in the places that supports human life category. Independent variables of the research (sex and grade level) and themes and explanations of the drawings are statically and meaningfully related to each other. The most significant result of this research is that pre-service preschool teachers have human-centric system of thought about environment.

Learner and teacher beliefs play an important role in second language (L2) learning. Furthermore, the role of grammar instruction and error correction in the L2 classroom is a topic that is still debated in the literature. This study explored the beliefs of EFL learners and teachers regarding the controversial role of grammar instruction and error correction. A total of 17 instructors and 60 students at a private Turkish university participated in the study. The participants completed an open-ended questionnaire and interviewed regarding their beliefs about grammar instruction and error correction. Themes emerging from the qualitative data were identified. As a result of this study, it can be said that both learners and teachers believed in the importance of grammar in language and error correction, however there were some differences between the learners and teachers regarding the use of native language in grammar teaching and other areas of grammar teaching.

Effective communication between faculty members and students is one of the concerns of the educational stakeholders at the Northern Border University, Saudi Arabia. This study investigates the relationship between teachers’ effective communication and students’ academic achievement at the Northern Border University. The survey questionnaire containing 26 items was administered on 100 students, 50 males and 50 females to ask about their perception towards the effective communication of the faculty members and their academic achievement at the Faculty of Education and Arts, Northern Border University in the City of Arar, Saudi Arabia. The results of the Descriptive statistics method showed that, almost more than half of the students agreed that, the friendly and understanding position maintained by their faculty members had helped them to highly achieve academically. The results of the independent sample T-test found no statistically significant differences between the students ‘academic achievement and their faculty members’ verbal communication across the respondents’ gender and year of study. The study recommended for the Northern Border Authority as well as the Saudi Government looking into other areas that might bring about the effective communication of the staff and the students’ academic achievement in the University.

In this article, a teaching strategy which not only blends yesterday and today in a meaningful way but also powerfully integrates literacy and history will be examined. Firstly Readers’ Theatre as a technique will be introduced. Secondly, the usage guidelines of Readers’ Theatre will be presented. Finally the opinions of secondary school students about Readers’ Theatre as an instructional component in history teaching will be discussed. The research was conducted on 72 11th grade students from Deneme Secondary School in Çankaya district in Ankara in the spring term of 2013-2014 school years. For the purpose of the study, students were taught by using Readers’ Theatre technique in history lessons for four weeks and at the end of this implementation, the semi-structured interviews were held to determine the opinions of students about Readers’ Theatre technique. The themes were formed by making content analyze to the collected data. It is concluded that the students mainly have described Readers’ Theatre as “theatre”. They have found Readers’ Theatre useful in many respects as they outline the positive effect of the technique on their reading and obtaining historical information. They like most the cooperation with their peers and acting. The vast majority of students have not mentioned any dislikes and a few of them have difficulties to follow the script. Finally, the answers of the majority of the students on the implementation of Readers’ Theatre again are “positive” and their suggestions for better implementation are “on stage”, “the same way” and “using visuals”.

This paper reports on research into the practice of learning rounds in Scotland. Learning rounds are a form of collaborative professional development for teachers based on the instructional rounds practice developed in the USA. In recent years learning rounds have gained high profile official support within education in Scotland. The research finds that what teachers in Scotland do when they say they are do-ing learning rounds varies widely from school to school and deviates significantly from the practice of instructional rounds. The implications of this for who is learning what in the practice of learning rounds is considered. The wider implications of the Scottish experience for the development of in-structional rounds practice in other countries is also considered as are the implications for promoting collaborative professional development practice more generally.

The changes and innovations in information and communication technologies influence the economic and social lives of the societies to a great degree. The countries accordingly take new decisions to benefit effectively from these technologies. The new media system scrolling traditional educational paradigms has also required changes in educational systems. Thanks to the new media-equipped education system in which equality of facility and opportunity parallel to world standards is provided and technologic improvement is individualized, a new generation student profile will emerge who has global competitive skill and individual conscious and awareness. The new generation student profile has to carry the skills of problem solving, using the language eloquently, creativity, critical thinking, life-long learning, media, technology and information literacy, social responsibility and teamwork. Notebooks, projectors and internet infrastructure are aimed to provide for the six hundred thousand classes of all the schools in preschools, primary-elementary and high schools to ensure equality of opportunity, amend the technology in schools and make it possible to use more effective use of CT media in teaching-learning process, which will address more senses. The studies on the issue are still continuing. This study is based on qualitative research methods and techniques in which scanning model is used. The actual case has been presented by doing examinations on FATIH project, Turkish education system, teaching strategies used, e-learning and management information systems and a study is executed on teaching strategies of FATIH project in the light of this information.

Majority of NOS studies comprise of determination or assessment studies conducted with ordinary students. In order to gain further understanding on variation in NOS understandings among the students, there should be different research attempts focusing on unconventional students such as academically advanced students. The purpose of this study is to determine epistemological understanding of Finnish academically advanced science students concerning aspects of NOS. The study was a case study (N=39) conducted with qualitative perspective. Questionnaires on the students’ attitude toward science and motivation toward science learning plus a form for the teacher’s ideas and VNOS-C, were used as diagnostic tools and data collection instruments. The study revealed that the majority of the students were found to be naïve in aspects such as “empirical basis of science”, “observation and inference”, “subjectivity of scientists”, “social and cultural embeddedness”, “creativity in science”, “theories and laws” and “tentativeness”.

Grolnick and Ryan assume that an autonomy supportive environment leads to higher learner engagement and thus to greater achievements and deeper understanding of content. In school, knowledge acquisition (rote learning as well as conceptual learning) are regarded as most important. In this study, we examined the effects of teachers’ autonomy supportive vs. controlling behavior on knowledge acquisition as measured by reproduction as well as at higher cognitive levels. The sample consisted of seventh graders (N=85; M=12.85 years; SD=1.6 years). One week in advance to the teaching unit, the students were tested for prior knowledge using two knowledge tests. Test 1 used multiple-choice items to address rote learning and Test 2 used an open response format to address conceptual learning. One week after the teaching unit, the same knowledge tests were used to assess the learning outcome. Analysis of the knowledge tests suggests that the students taught in an autonomy supportive environment develop greater conceptual knowledge than those taught in a controlling environment. Rote learning was not affected.

Motivation is an inner force that activates and provides direction to our thought, feelings and actions. Two main characteristics of motivation are goal directed behavior and persistence. Motivated people persistently work for the goal until it is achieved. This paper explores the nature of motivation in the context of learning and seeks to relate it to self-efficacy, self- concept, confidence and self-esteem. Motivation is presented as a ‘second order’ variable be- ing very much dependent on attitudes as well as perceived goals, needs and value. Ways of assessing motivation are considered and the typical use of questionnaire approaches is criticized heavily. These can measure what a person perceives but the perceptions may or may not correspond to reality. Indeed, the entire mathematical basis of data handling with questionnaires is questioned. A typical questionnaire is then used with a large sample of 600 1st and 2nd year science intermediate students, drawn from the province of the Punjab in Pakistan and the data obtained examined statistically. Correlations between the responses patterns in all 30 Likert-type questions were examined using Kendall’s tau-b while Principal Components Analysis, using varimax rotation, looked at the questionnaire overall as well as sub-groups of questions. Correlation values were found to be very low, suggesting no factor structure and, indeed, the factor analysis showed that there is no factor structure with the questionnaire used with this large population. Chi-Square, as a ‘contingency test’, was applied to compare the distributions of responses, gender separated. Gender differences were found only in a minority of questions. It is argued that motivation is highly multi-variate and that no simple factor structure is to be expected. It is also argued that, with ordinal data, following no prescribed pattern of distribution, only non-parametric statistics are appropriate. The traditional approaches are statistically incorrect and, as a result, will often miss key insights.

This study examines the effect of project based learning on 8th grade students’ statistical literacy levels. A performance test was developed for this aim. Quasi-experimental research model was used in this article. In this context, the statistics were taught with traditional method in the control group and it was taught using project based learning in the intervention group. Statistics was given for four weeks according to pro ject based learning at intervention group. The performance test was applied to total 70 students as pre and post-test. Participants are from two different classes of a middle school in Trabzon. The data were analysed using Rasch measurement techniques. This measurement allowed both students’ performance and item difficulties to be measured using the same metric and placed on the same scale. All raw scores converted linear score in order to obtain equal interval scale. Acquired linear scores were compared. In the analysis of gained datum covariance analysis are used. According to gained results in pre-processing application there isn’t substantial difference between the achievements of intervention group and control group; but after processing between the achievements of intervention group and control group there is a substantial difference statistically in favor of intervention group. The results of the study revealed that the project based learning increased students’ statistical literacy levels in the intervention group.

This study aims to define Roma mothers’ views regarding their children’s education and their tendency towards crime. The study is based on an illustrative case study method. The participants of this study are mothers of Roma children between the ages of 4 and 6 who live in Konya, Turkey — more specifically in the Yenimahalle neighborhood in the town of Karatay and who do not attend any preschool programs. As a data collection tool, a questionnaire prepared by the researchers is employed, while in data analysis, descriptive analysis is used. The Roma mothers articulated that they want their children to have education and jobs; that they do not want their children to suffer in the same way they did; that the Roma culture prevents children’s education and therefore the mothers prefer to send their children to private schools, boarding schools or to schools far away from their neighborhoods by taking school buses; that they want their children to be judges, lawyers, nurses and teachers. The mothers stated that they meet the basic needs of their children; that they watch TV together and/or do housework together with their children. They also said that when their children commit a crime, they beat their children; they get angry with them and scold and/or complain to their fathers. They finally added that they can take measures for the children’s not committing a crime by talking to the children or by scolding them. Additionally, Roma mothers state that by taking the case to the fathers they can prevent their children from committing crimes.

This study investigates the effect of the project based learning approach on 8th students’ attitude towards statistics. With this aim, an attitude scale towards statistics was developed. Quasi experimental research model was used in this study. Following this model in the control group the traditional method was applied to teach statistics wheras in the intervention group project based learning approach was followed. The attitude scale towards statistics was applied as pre-test and post-tests to 70 students studying at two different 8th grade classes of a middle school in Trabzon during the 2011–2012 Academic Year. The results of the study revealed that the project based learning increased students’ attitude towards statistics in the intervention group. Therefore, the use of project based learning approach during statistics course in mathematics classes is recommended.

Schools and teacher induction programs around the world routinely assess teaching best practice to inform accreditation, tenure/promotion, and professional development decisions. Routine assessment is also necessary to ensure that teachers entering the profession get the assistance they need to develop and succeed. We introduce the Item-Level Assessment of Teaching practice (I-LAST) as a flexible framework-based approach for quantitative evaluation of teaching best practice in the induction stages. We based the I-LAST on a novel framework for teaching best practice, and used Fuller’s scale as a framework for understanding the potential of the I-LAST in providing longitudinal measures for growth. Using the context of a year-long teacher induction program in the Midwestern United States, we collected data through an online survey from 46 teaching supervisors who were asked to evaluate their interns. We used the Rasch partial credit model as a criterion for construct validity, and measured dimensionality and reliability from both Rasch and classical frameworks. The I-LAST was found to be a unidimensional, valid, and reliable measure for teaching best practice. It demonstrated the ability to provide reliable scores for specific sub-dimensions of best practice, including those which manifest at various stages along Fuller’s scale. Potential uses of the I-LAST to advance understanding of the role of teacher induction programs in fostering productive growth in new teachers is discussed.

Advances in computer technologies and adoption of related methods and techniques in education have developed parallel to each other. This study focuses on the need to utilize more than one teaching method and technique in education rather than focusing on a single teaching method. By using the pre-test post-test and control group semi-experimental researchmodel, this study examined the effects of the web-assisted education method supported by six thinking hats technique on student achievement, on students’ attitudes towards science and their attitudes towards the use of computers in science classes. The working group of the study was composed of 7th graders in a state secondary school in the 2013-2014 academic year. A working group consists of two randomly selected classes assigned as the experimental and control groups. The working group comprised of 50 students with 25 experimental and 25 control group students. Paired samples t-test, independent samples t-test and ANOVA techniques were used in analyzing the data collected via data collection tools to compare the experimental and control groups. The results showed that web-assisted education materials prepared with the use of the six thinking hats technique increased student attitudes towards science and computers. Students’ attitudes towards computers were similar based on the variables of owning a computer and gender. Paternal education levels had no significant effects on student attitudes towards computers and their academic achievement.

This paper presents a comparative research project on pre-vocational education in lower secondary schools in seven European countries. The primary aim of the study was to better understand how the formal pre-vocational education curriculum is interpreted and shaped by individual teachers. The countries covered are Austria, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Portugal and Scotland. Two research methods have been used. First, a content analysis of the relevant curricula was carried out, focussing on how, and to what extent, pre-vocational education competencies are embedded in the official curriculum in the seven countries covered by the study. Second, 75 teachers took part in qualitative expert interviews about their implementation of the relevant curriculum. This research builds upon previous studies in education and employment and in particular, on a theoretical framework that explores the differences between the ‘prescribed’ curriculum and the ‘enacted’ curriculum. This study will argue that, although it is possible to identify a distinct pre-vocational curriculum within each region in the seven countries, this curriculum is, in practice, taught very differently within the schools and that the differences in curriculum implementation can be explained, amongst other factors, by the availability of resources and the initial and further training of teachers.

Lesson starts are transitional events which may cause management problems for teachers This study sought junior secondary school mathematics teachers’ beliefs about calculator use in mathematics instruction in Botswana and was descriptive in nature adopting a survey design. The sample of seventeen (17) mathematics teachers from four (4) junior secondary schools in the Tutume Sub-district in Central Educational Region was selected through a purposive random sampling procedure. A questionnaire comprising both closed and open ended questions was designed to collect data then the analysis of results was carried out using descriptive and inferential statistics. As an illustration, a t-test was used to test for differences in teachers’ beliefs by gender while a one-way ANOVA was used to test for difference in their beliefs by experience. The study revealed that most of the teachers expressed their lack of confidence and were incompetent with the use of a calculator in their teaching with female teachers feeling less confident to explain different functions of a calculator than their male counterparts. In addition, the study showed that most of the teachers believed that a calculator was a technological tool that could be useful to the students in the future. On the contrary, most teachers felt that the overuse of calculators by the students could hamper the development of basic computational skills. Therefore, it was recommended that school based training on calculator use should be provided so as to empower teachers with the necessary technological skills for effective classroom instruction. The study findings have implications to research and practice as it provides unique and comprehensive data that will lead to insight for curriculum designers, policy implementers and instructional leaders on effective calculator use in math instruction.

Research indicates attributes and practices for mentor teachers that can be used for effective mentoring. Universities provide guidelines for preservice teacher (mentee) engagement in schools generally from anecdotal evidence, however, what are desirable attributes and practices for mentees? This qualitative study gathers data from 25 mentor teachers through an extended response questionnaire and audio-recorded focus group discussions about attributes and practices for mentees. Findings showed that desirable attributes for mentees included: enthusiasm, being personable, commitment to children, lifelong learning/love of learning, open/reflective to feedback, develop resilience, and taking responsibility for their learning, while desirable practices included: planned and preparation for teaching, reflective practices; understanding school and university policies, knowing students for differentiated learning, and building a teaching repertoire (e.g. teaching strategies, behaviour management, content knowledge, and questioning skills). Preservice teachers need to consider teachers‟ suggestions on desirable attributes and practices that can help them achieve positive teaching experiences.

The study investigated the perception of teachers of agriculture about Supervised Agricultural Experience Programmes (SAEP) in secondary schools in Ekiti and Ondo States. The population used for the study consisted of 520 teachers of agricultural science in all the secondary schools in Ekiti and Ondo States. The sample used for this study was 136 teachers of agricultural science drawn through a proportionate stratified sampling technique to pick four(4) teachers from each of the 34 Local Government of the two states. The Instrument used was a structured questionnaire to investigate the extend to which the teachers agreed on disagree with statemenst regarding SAEP. The questionnaire were test and re-tested yielding a reliability co-efficient of 89. (Cronbach alpha). The data for the study were analyzed using mean, standard deviation t-test and two tailed probability statistics. The probability level was set at P<0.05. Thirty eight items were generated for the study. The study found out among others that the teaching of agriculture needs improvement; that though SEAP related contents are in the agricultural science curriculum the teaching and learning of agriculture are not vocationally oriented in Ekiti and Ondo States. It was recommended among others that agricultural programmes in all schools should include supervised agricultural experience programmes, while the State School Boards in collaboration with relevant Ministries should conduct informational workshop and orientation on SAEP for educational planners, administrator and teachers of agriculture in Nigeria.

The aim of the study is to investigate the attitudes of student teachers of Social Studies to tourism for sustainable development. The study participants were the entire cohort of final year student teachers of Social Studies in the College of Education at Sultan Qaboos University in the Sultanate of Oman. There were 65 in total, 26 male and 39 female. Data was gathered through a questionnaire consisting of 37 items divided into 6 areas: attitudes to tourism; the impact of tourism on the economy; the impact of tourism on society and culture; the negative influences of tourism; tourism management, and working in the tourism sector. The results showed that student teachers of Social Studies hold positive attitudes towards tourism for sustainable development. There was no significant difference with regard to gender.

The millennial generation is facing challenges in their career path and they believe that tertiary education can help them to equip better to tackle against. However, some students find it difficult to rush back to classroom due to work commitment. Fortunately, flexible education developed these years allows students to capture knowledge anytime and anywhere easier. In order to deliver courses in line with students’ need, many universities have considered offering alternative studying modes, such as flexible method, to enrich the course delivery. Using a case study, this paper investigates the delivery approach adopted by a school of a well-known university in Australia. This School offers architecture and construction management courses and has successfully adopted the flexible approach, with the aid of various online teaching and learning tools: the Cloud, Elluminate Live!, EchoSystem, Mediawiki and ePortfolio, in delivering subjects. It is welcomed by various cohorts of students. Not only the student numbers have been increased, but the School is also the first preference when students opting architecture and construction management studies. Statistics also indicate students’ satisfaction and course experience are improved. The success of this School proves itself to be an exemplar for other educators planning for flexible delivery.