Empirical directions to innovate e-assessments and to support the theoretical development of e-learning are discussed by presenting a new learning assessment system based on cognitive technology. Specifically, this system encompassing trained neural nets that can discriminate between students who successfully integrated new knowledge course content from students who did not successfully integrate this new knowledge (either because they tried short-term retention or did not acquire new knowledge). This neural network discrimination capacity is based on the idea that once a student has integrated new knowledge into long-term memory, this knowledge will be detected by computer-implemented semantic priming studies (before and after a course) containing schemata-related words from course content (which are obtained using a natural semantic network technique). The research results demonstrate the possibility of innovating e-assessments by implementing mutually constrained responsive and constructive cognitive techniques to evaluate online knowledge acquisition.

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.

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.

This study aims to determine the relationship between the self-efficacy perceptions of the prospective teachers and the levels of their professional competence. In the study, relational screening model is used and it is investigated whether prospective teachers' perceptions of academic self-efficacy and professional competence differed according to various variables. The population of the research constitutes 1430 university students (prospective teachers) who are educated in Inonu University Pedagogical Formation Education (PFE) Program in 2015-2016 academic year. In the sample of the study, there are 537 participants who were determined by random sampling method. The Ohio Teacher Competence Scale and The Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (Turkish versions) are used as a data collection tool. In the analysis of the data, the standard deviation, frequency, percentage and arithmetic mean of respondents were calculated. One-way analysis of variance, ANOVA and Scheffe Test are used. The main result of this research is that the perceptions of academic self-efficacy of prospective teachers are "Moderate" but their perceptions of professional competence are in level "Very". According to this result, prospective teachers are of the opinion that the teaching profession can be achieved with “a moderate level of academic competence”.

Anxiety that students experience during test taking negatively influences their academic achievement. Understanding how students perceive tests and how they feel during test taking could help in taking effective preventive measures. Hence, the current study focused on assessing children’s perceptions of tests using content analysis. The sample consisted of 1143 participants (566 females and 570 males) attending 3rd (n = 320), 4th (n = 420), 5th (n = 197), and 6th (n = 206) grade classes in three public schools in Istanbul, Turkey. The findings indicated that three main domains emerged from the data. The domains and the categories under each domain were as follows: evaluation (grades, success vs. failure, learning and development, and intelligence), emotions (excitement, fear and anxiety, happiness, curiosity, mixed feelings, and disappointment), and experiential process (answering questions, studying, difficulty, thinking, having fun, cheating vs. honesty, and silence). Understanding students’ experiences with testing early on in their education will give researchers and practitioners the chance to plan effective applications for treatment and prevention, which would influence students’ future achievement and experiences. The study findings could also help teachers and school counselors plan more effective teaching and counseling programs that take into account students’ anxiety levels during tests.

This research aimed to investigate relationships between quality of work life, burnout, school alienation, affective commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors. In this context, a model was proposed based on the literature review and the model was tested through structural equation model. The study group of the research consists of 314 volunteer teachers working in the state schools in Kilis in 2016-2017 academic years. The data was collected through work-related quality of life scale, burnout scale, school alienation scale, affective commitment scale and organizational citizenship behaviors scale. The analysis with descriptive, correlation, path and bootstrap methods were used to analyze the data. As a result of the analysis, it was found that teachers' perceptions for quality of work life have a negative effect on burnout and school alienation, whereas they have a positive effect on affective commitment. Besides, their perceptions for affective commitment have a positive impact on organizational citizenship behaviors. Another important result derived from the research is that teachers' perceptions for burnout and school alienation play partial mediation roles in the effect of their perceptions for quality of work life on affective commitment. Based on these results, it can be suggested that teachers' working conditions should be constantly improved.

This study was conducted within the scope of the General Biology Laboratory II course, which was taught in the Science Teaching Department in the Spring semester of the 2016-2017 academic year. The study group consisted of 40 teacher candidates in their second year in the Science Teaching Department at a state university in Konya. The purpose of the study, in which case study design was used, was to determine the views of teacher candidates concerning the V diagrams used in the General Biology Laboratory II course. To this end, experiments were conducted for a period of 10 weeks and reports for the experiments were formed by the teacher candidates in the form of V diagrams. The views of the teacher candidates regarding V diagrams were collected through open-ended questions and analyzed via content analysis.

The aim of this research is to determine the thoughts of the teachers about the concepts of "Smart Board", "Computer", "Internet" and "Social Media" from the Instructional technologies of the secondary school teachers with different branches through metaphors. In the research, a qualitative research model was used to identify teachers' thoughts in metaphor analysis from various branches about the use of instructional technologies in the national field. Within the scope of the qualitative research model, the phenomenology design was used. In order to find out what kind of thoughts teachers have about teaching materials from the participants "Smart Board / Computer / Internet / Social Media is like / similar to…..; Because ..." they were asked to complete their covenants. As a result of the research, 25 valid metaphors belonging to the concepts of smart board, computer, social media and 27 of internet concept were obtained from secondary school teachers. The most book (f = 4) metaphor for smart board concept, brain and memory (f = 2) metaphors for computer concept, most air (f = 3) and medicine, ocean, water (f = 2) metaphors for internet concept and the drug and virus (f = 2) metaphors related to the concept of social media. The metaphors of the concept of smart board are classified into 5 conceptual categories with common characteristics related to each other, 6 categories with common features related to computer and internet concepts, and 7 conceptual categories with social media concept related to each other. In the research, it was reached that the secondary school teachers expressed positive opinions about the concept of smart board and computer, partially negative about the concept of the internet but more negative opinions about the concept of social media.

The purpose of this study was to examine the postgraduate theses that focused on history textbooks between 1989 and 2017 in Turkey. The population was composed of 126 postgraduate theses (master’s and doctoral) which were obtained from Thesis Center of Higher Education Council (HEC), Republic of Turkey. The document review method was used to evaluate the theses in the study. Thesis analysis form, which was developed by the researcher, was used as the data collection tool. This form involved items related to the theses’ levels, years, universities and institutes, title of the advisors, focus countries, and research design. The findings were interpreted making use of percentages and frequencies. The results showed that some universities in Turkey such as Gazi University distinguished themselves in terms of the number of theses on history textbooks. The fact that there were 108 master’s theses and 18 doctoral theses raises the importance of the current study. As a result of this study, discussion and some recommendations were presented about the theses on history textbooks.

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 present study aims to investigate information literacy and curriculum literacy levels of teacher candidates and to identify the relationship between them through their course of study at Faculty of Education. The research model was designed as quantitative one and general screening model was employed. The study group is 895 students, who were reached out of teacher candidates, attending the third and fourth grade in the Classroom Education, Preschool Education, Science Education and Social Sciences Education Departments of Pamukkale University and Sinop University in the 2017-2018 academic year. To achieve the goal of this research study, “Information Literacy Scale” and “Curriculum Literacy Scale” were used. In light of results obtained from the study, it is observable that there are meaningful differences between information literacy and curriculum literacy of teacher candidates in terms of the variables identified. Further, the mean of items measuring teacher candidates’ levels of information and curriculum literacy were examined and their levels of “frequency” and “agree” were determined. Ultimately, correlation analysis was performed between information literacy and curriculum literacy and positive relationship was determined at the low, medium and high levels. Also, predictive power of the level of information literacy on the level of curriculum literacy was tested. Aforesaid these four variables together explain 34% of the change in curriculum literacy levels.

This study aims to explain the extent to which prospective physics teachers’ views and practices are consistent with the constructivist framework. A case study design was employed as the research approach. The study was conducted with 11 prospective physics teachers attending a state university in Turkey. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, observation notes and lesson plans. The interview guide consisted of questions which allowed the interviewer to probe participants’ views of constructivism based on 5E learning model. Such questions as “how do you plan your teaching?” (introducing new topics, continuing the lecture, types of questions to ask, evaluating students’ understanding etc.) were included in the interview. Following the analysis of the interview data, participants’ profiles were classified into three categories: traditional, transition and constructivist under the dimensions “beginning of a lesson,” “learning process,” “learning environment” and “assessment.” Observations were carried out using an observation checklist consisting of 24 items based on 5E learning model. Another checklist developed by the researchers was used to evaluate participants’ teaching qualifications. Interview results showed that seven participants had transitional, three had constructivist and one had traditional views. However, none of the participants were observed to exhibit constructivist teaching styles. Moreover, observation and interview results were consistent only for six participants, indicating that almost half of the participants had difficulty putting their views into practice.

It is important for pre-service teachers to know the conceptual difficulties they have experienced regarding the concepts of multiplication and division in fractions and problem posing is a way to learn these conceptual difficulties. Problem posing is a synthetic activity that fundamentally has multiple answers. The purpose of this study is to analyze the multiplication and division of fractions problems posed by pre-service elementary mathematics teachers and to investigate how the problems posed change according to the year of study the pre-service teachers are in. The study employed developmental research methods. A total of 213 pre-service teachers enrolled in different years of the Elementary Mathematics Teaching program at a state university in Turkey took part in the study. The “Problem Posing Test” was used as the data collecting tool. In this test, there are 3 multiplication and 3 division operations. The data were analyzed using qualitative descriptive analysis. The findings suggest that, regardless of the year, pre-service teachers had more conceptual difficulties in problem posing about the division of fractions than in problem posing about the multiplication of fractions.

The object of this study is to determine the conceptual understanding that prospective Science teachers have relating "de Broglie: Matter waves" and to investigate the effect of the instruction performed, on the conceptual understanding. This study was performed at a state university located in the western part of Turkey, with the Faculty of Education-Science Teaching students (2nd year / 48 individual) in the academic year of 2010-2011. The study was planned as a single group pretest-posttest design. A two-step question was used in the study, prior to and after the instruction. Lessons were conducted using the 7E learning model in the instruction process. When all these results are evaluated, it can be said that the conceptual understanding of the prospective teachers regarding "de Broglie; matter waves" has been taken place. In general, when all the sections are examined, it has been observed that the prospective teachers have more alternative concepts prior to the instruction and more scientific concepts after the instruction.  In this process, besides instruction, the prospective teachers have not taken any place in a different application regarding the basic concepts of quantum physics. Therefore, it has been determined that the 7E learning model used in the research and the activities included in the 7E learning model are effective in conceptual understanding.

This study focuses on the evaluation of academic conferences and ways of improving them. The study includes a case study of one university in Israel. Sixty two academic faculty members from varied departments completed a questionnaire, including 61.7% women and 38.3% men. The research participants were asked a single open question: "What do you think could be improved at conferences?" In addition, age, seniority, and the number of times the respondents had initiated or served as a partner in initiating a conference were also examined. The main findings are as follows: Age predicts seniority. Seniority has a positive effect on the number of times the respondent organized or was a partner in organizing a conference. Seniority has a negative effect on time, i.e., the more senior the faculty member the more he or she would like conferences to be short and to the point. Moreover, the amount of initiatives to organize a conference or to be a partner in establishing a conference has a negative effect on interaction, i.e., the more initiating the faculty member the less he or she is interested in interpersonal interactions at conferences. The wish to space out sessions and lectures has a positive effect on the need to improve the quality of the lectures.

Individuals face negative events throughout their lives and such events can cause problems in every aspect of life. A high level of resilience is required to cope with such negative events. There are various factors that affect resilience. Hope is one of those factors. This factor provides a strong structure to individuals and keeps identified objectives alive. Based on this view, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between resilience and constant hope of students studying in a sports science department. Accordingly, the study group of this study consisted of 203 students with 91 female and 112 male students studying in a sports science faculty/school of physical education and sports of universities. The data collection tools of this study were the “Resilience Scale” and the “Constant Hope Scale”. Additionally, to collect information about the students, the “Personal Information Form” developed by the researchers was adopted during the data collection process. The analysis of the obtained data was done with descriptive statistics, t-test for independent two groups, one- way variance analysis (Anova), and Pearson Correlation. To determine which groups caused the statistical difference after one-way variance analysis (Anova), the Tukey HSD multiple comparative test was applied. The results of the study indicated that the data obtained on a scale basis had normal distribution. While there was no significant difference for gender between the relationship of resilience and constant hope, there was a statistically significant difference between different age groups. Additionally, the correlation analysis indicated that there was a positive, moderate level relationship between the two scales.

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.