In this research, images related to national identity were examined in history textbooks. In the first stage, nationalism, the historical course of the Turkish national identity and related literature were examined, and some components of national identity were determined.  Various categories related to national identity have been formed from the elements obtained. The data about the categories were collected through document analysis.  In the second phase, 8 history textbooks taught in the years 1930-2014 were selected as samples. Content analysis was used in the examination of the mentioned textbooks, and quantitative method was chosen in data analysis. In this context, data obtained by document analysis were analyzed with SPSS 13 statistical program. Chi-square tests, Bonferroni corrections for chi-square tests and graphs were used in the analyzes. The significance level for all analyzes was taken as .05. In the research, it was determined that republic values and revolutions, national struggle and the images related to the founder leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk be a most used in Turkish Republic Revolution History and Kemalism textbooks concerning national identity.  In addition, it has been found that the images of national symbols such as homeland maps, flag, parliament, and capital are used too much for the national identity.

We are living in an age where knowledge is rapidly produced and consumed. In this period, the future of the individual and the society depends on accessing, using and producing information. This situation requires a qualified education and first literacy teaching which is the foundation of it. Primary school is the foundation of everything; likewise, the first literacy learning is the foundation of learning (Gunes, Uysal and Tac, 2016). First literacy is to create a new communication and interaction channel for the individual by teaching the symbols of humankind that it created in ten thousand years. Education performs a great miracle by making a seven-year old child comprehend this script that humankind developed in ten thousand years within a seven- or eight-month period (Guleryuz, 2001). It is desired for and expected of the children who start the first grade in primary school at the level of illiteracy to reach the level of basic literacy with qualified first literacy education under the supervision of an effective program, equipped teacher (Sagirli, 2015). Education in cursive handwriting in our country has started in Ataturk era. Ataturk demonstrated examples of the New Turkish Latin Letters on the blackboard with the cursive handwriting. Elderly and young people of the generation of Ataturk era have learned the cursive handwriting very well and used for many years. Many documents of that period such as diplomas, identity cards, registry of deeds etc. have been prepared with cursive handwriting in a clear, cursive and aesthetic form (Gunes, 2006). In our country, it has been decided to start the first literacy education with the cursive handwriting under the scope of the 2004 draft program. For nearly thirteen years, our students are becoming literate with cursive handwriting. There are many studies in literature that examine the opinions of teachers, students, and parents about the cursive handwriting. The aim of the concerned study is to express the view from the perspective of the parents of the gifted and talented students on the practice of cursive handwriting in first literacy education. Within the scope of the research, interviews were conducted with the parents of the gifted and talented students and their opinions were taken about starting the first literacy with the practice of the cursive handwriting. All of the parents are the parents of gifted and talented children who are attending primary school. The data collected during the 2016-2017 academic year have been obtained by face-to-face interviews. The answers of the parents are recorded and then reported. Screening model is used in the study that is designed by content analysis. The research is a qualitative study. Recommendations are brought at the end of the research.

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.

The first person to learn Turkish as a foreign language is a Chinese woman writing Turkish love letters for her exiled husband in the 4th century. However, we do not know much about how this woman learned Turkish. The known history of teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language goes back to the first concrete material produced for this process. They are usually bilingual dictionaries and the oldest one was written in the 11th century. It is therefore more accurate to say that teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language has a history of nearly a thousand years. The changing educational paradigm since the 20th century has deeply influenced the teaching of language, which was previously carried out in accordance with the grammar – translation method. And, dictionaries ceased to be the main device for language teaching and became a source of complementary materials in learning environment, which has necessitated their re-regulation. Yet, Turkish dictionary authors continue to maintain old habits and produce classical bilingual dictionaries. The bilingual dictionaries, proven to be more helpful on second language teaching, have been used across the world from the 1980s onwards. In this paper, the history of the teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language is briefly explained by taking into consideration the resources used in the second language teaching and then answers are given to the questions "Why should bilingualized dictionaries be used in the teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language" and "How should two bilingual dictionaries be prepared?".

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.

This study investigated prospective mathematics teachers’ reflections on the experience of designing and conducting one-to-one clinical interviews with middle school students in the context of an elective course on use of video in teacher learning. Prospective teachers were asked to write about weaknesses and strengths in student understanding as well as their own performance as an interviewer in terms of asking questions and responding to student thinking in their reflections on conducting clinical interviews. Furthermore, prospective teachers were also asked to reflect on what they would do differently in order to conduct better clinical interviews.  Nature of prospective teachers’ reflections were analyzed by using existing frameworks (through constructs of reflection-on-action and reflection-for-action) and by using thematic analysis. Results of data analyses revealed that prospective teachers had more difficulties in providing meaningful reflection-for-action which was related to alternative decisions and planning for future similar interviews. Thematic analysis results revealed prospective teachers’ learning were grouped under three categories: conducting clinical interviews as part of being a teacher, complexity of conducting clinical interviews, and personal theories about middle school students. There are implications for both teacher learning and research.

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.

In this research, the purpose is to investigate the practice of teacher candidate procedure and engage in a discourse on the teacher candidates’ views on the practice. The qualitative method has been used in order to analyze teacher candidates’ views on the subject. The subjects of the study comprise 57 teacher candidates currently working in Bayburt. Semi-structured interview forms consisting of questions about the way the teacher candidate education is implemented and questions that refer to their thoughts about the practice were used as data gathering instrument. In this research, content analysis technique has been used for the analysis of the data collected through the interviews. The codes reached through the answers from the informants and their frequencies have been given. The codes with high frequencies have been supported with excerpts from teacher candidates. As a result of the study, it has been found out that most of these teachers who were involved in teacher candidate training consider it ‘a waste of time'. With flexibilities allowed and without proper planning, the practice of the procedure is found to have prevented achievement of the goal. Furthermore, the practice of contract adjunct teaching has also brought about some contradictions.

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.

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.

Building a teacher-student relationship is important for creating trust, mutual understanding and respect. The interaction of teacher and students can be found using the 48-item Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction. The result is the Model for Interpersonal Teacher Behavior, consisting of four dimensions, which are further divided into eight sectors to evaluate the teacher. The main goal of our study was to show how the teacher and students perceive the environment of the class, whether their views match, and whether it is a statistical significant dependence among different sectors of the model teacher-students interaction. The sample size consisted of 63 Slovak students of 12th grade and their teacher of biology. Our results have shown that the teacher has evaluated herself similarly to the students, but without a statistical significant difference. In monitoring of the relationship of scales in the whole group of respondents, in the group of male and female respondents we showed statistically significant differences between the sectors. Using of Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction can help mutual knowing of students and teachers and the creation of positive relationships.

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.

The aim of this qualitative case study is to investigate prospective mathematics teachers’ subject matter knowledge of the underlying concepts of standard and nonstandard algorithms used to solve the problems with whole numbers. Twenty three prospective mathematics teachers enrolled in the Elementary Mathematics Education Program of one of the most successful universities in Turkey were the participants of the study. The data was collected through four tasks containing basic algorithms. More specifically, the Ones Task assessed participants’ understanding of the underlying place value concepts of standard algorithms. The Andrew Task and the Doubling Task required participants to conceptualize and interpret nonstandard strategies. In the Division Task, participants were expected to provide in-depth explanation for the difference between multiplication and division and between partitive division and measurement division. The content analysis method was used to analyze the data. The results of the study revealed that more than half of the prospective mathematics teachers had knowledge about the place value of 1 in addition and subtraction, and also multiplication. However, most of the prospective teachers could not explain the underlying principle and the meaning of the nonstandard algorithm in subtraction. Similar to their knowledge on subtraction, prospective teachers’ knowledge on division was limited.

One of the central aspects of displacement and migration is resilience on behalf of the affected individuals. UNHCR reports that the number of displaced people around the world reached 65 million by the end of 2015. In another report UNHCR states that the number of Syrian refugees in Iraq is 233,224. While IOM reports that the number of the internally displaced persons in Iraq between 2014 and 2016 reached to 3.4 million. As it is crucial to communication and, thus, survival, language is vital to promoting resilience of such people. Nowadays, English language learning provides numerous opportunities for individuals to succeed; hence, it is essential in building resilience among displaced populations. The current study aimed to explore resilience level of the displaced adolescents in Iraq, also to verify the impact of English language learning on their lives. The study has been conducted in camp and non-camp schools via the delivery of a CD-RISC-25 questionnaire as quantitative method, followed by interviews as qualitative method. The results concluded that the participants had medium resilience level, and learning English plays different roles in building resilience of the participants.

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.

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

The 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.