In this article, the predictive power of five variables relevant for Linguo-intercultural sensitivity (flexibility) is examined. Communication aspect of intercultural interactions, specifically, the role of English as an international language are emphasized. Attitudes Towards English and Its Usage Scale (ATEUS) was applied to 194 students who attended to international colleges and schools in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The results suggest that almost all variables are mutually correlated. The findings also reveal Verbal expressiveness and Verbal abilities as statistically significant predictors of linguo-intercultural sensitivity. Other predictors (English competence and Emotional attitudes) do not significantly contribute to explaining Linguo-intercultural variance.

The main purpose of this study is to determine the amount of time-dependent learning of "solving problems that require establishing of single variable equations of the first order" of the seventh grade students. The study, adopting the screening model, consisted of a total of 84 students, including 42 female and 42 male students at the seventh grade. Data was collected using an assessment tool consisting of 10 open-ended questions. The findings show that the learning group of 84 students were behind the value closest to the full learning level by a score of 0.013. While the female students reached the lower limit of 0.987 specified for the full learning level in a period of 3.2 course hours, the male students reached this limit in 4.0 course hours. The learning amount of 0.999, which is the closest value to the full learning level, was reached by the learning group in a period of 9.7 course hours, the female students in 8.5 course hours, and the male students in 11.3 course hours. In addition to this, the data obtained showed that learning difficulties among to the learning groups decreased as the space below the curve of time and learning amount decreased. As a result of the study, it was recommended that it is possible to determine the closest course periods for the full learning level for each of the gains found in all levels of education and all teaching programmes, which define certain learning outcomes within a certain time.

The paper presents an educative experience organized in a postgraduate course in a faculty of education with the aim of facilitating students’ “affective self-understanding”. Affective self-understanding is a reflective practice that allows people to comprehend their own emotions in order to gain awareness of them. Students were spontaneously engaged in a laboratory, where they were invited to reflect on their emotional lives. The educative experience was subdivided into different phases requiring writing and analysis tasks. At the end of the experience, students were asked what they thought they had learned, what had been difficult, and what had been the most important phase for learning. Students’ answers were analyzed on the basis of grounded theory through an inductive process of analysis. The theoretical framework of the research is the cognitive theory of emotions. According to this theory, an emotional education is possible because we can understand emotions by identifying their cognitive component and the actions they induce.

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 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.

We aimed to determine any factors like as smoking, being regular activity affect dietary glycemic index in university students. This study was carried out at Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey. The participants were 577 randomly selected Turkish healthy female university students aged 17-32 years. The survey included a questionnaire that assessed demographic, 3-day self-reported nutrient intake. The dietary intake was based on the of the recipients. The 3 days included 1 weekend day and the previous or next 2 days. A weighted GI was designed to the diet of the participants with the use of values from the 2002 international table of GI values. BMI was calculated from measurements of height and weight. The differences between living area (house or dormitory)/regular physical activity (do or not)/smoking/nutrition education and mean dietary glycemic index was determined by Independent Sample t-Test. Dietary glycemic index was found high (>70) in 98.4% of participants. Mean dietary glycemic index was found 85.1±6.80 and it was significantly (p<0.05) differences between participants staying house or dormitory, doing physical activity or not, smoking or not and educated on nutrition or not. Participant’s who are smoking, staying dormitory and no educated about nutrition dietary glycemix index was found high than who are not smoking, staying house, doing regular physical activity and educated on nutrition. Conclusion and Implication: It’s important that educated students on health and nutrition to prevent their diets content high glycemic index. It can be help to prevent obesity in the future.

This research paper explores the concept of ‘cost sharing’ which became more prominent in Zambia education with the advent of democratic form of governance in 1991. As a way of responding to the ever diminishing tax revenues, government through the education policy of 1996, allowed higher education institutions including public universities to introduce cost sharing as way of improving financial vibrancy, accountability and cost effectiveness. This paper therefore, uses students’ perceptions to examine the cost sharing policy which has now been existence for almost two decades. More specifically, it explores underlying factors which can make cost sharing more effective and sustainable. In exploring these prospects and challenges, a self administered questionnaire based on convenient sampling was used to collect data from 729 respondents in Zambia’s three biggest public universities. The findings revealed that the current cost sharing policy was appropriate but lacked the government support in its implementation. The study further highlighted the need for re-engineering the current policy by providing details on the implementation process. The study highly recommends that a true cost-sharing model be implemented in an effort towards making public universities more effective and sustainable.

Motivation to learn foreign languages is a significant determinant of successful language acquisition. The subject has been widely researched in the past, and since the early 1990s a great deal of empirical research related to the classroom environment has been proposed to expand theory into everyday classroom practice. I present an empirical, longitudinal (3-year) study to explore the relationship between and changes in foreign language learning motivation, learning motivation and self-concept in the 5th, 6th and 8th forms of elementary school. The same tests (Kozéki-Entwistle’s Learning Motivation Questionnaire, the Tenessee SelfConcept Scale, and Clément, Dörnyei and Noels’ Foreign Language Learning Motivation questionnaire) were administered three times, so I was able to compare the results and draw conclusions about developmental tendencies. A strong correlation was found between motivational and self-esteem scores, and between learning and foreign language learning motivation subscales. It is necessary to highlight the importance of the Moral, Family and Social Self, which draws our attention to the family values and beliefs students are equipped with, when they enter the school. The significant decrease in motivation and self-esteem in the period under investigation focuses our attention on problems of adolescence, and challanges language teachers to establish a highly motivating classroom practice.

Emerging evidence indicates that culture influences pupils learning of science. However, the influence of culture on science learning is usually not considered when developing science curricular for both primary and secondary schools. This study investigated the extent to which primary and secondary school pupils believe in cultural interpretations of the physical phenomenon of ‘heat’ associated with anger and the influence of education level, ethnic communities and gender on cultural beliefs. Cross-sectional survey research design was used. The target population was Standard Seven, Form one and Form Three pupils in ten districts selected from Nyanza, Rift Valley, Central, Eastern and Coast Provinces in Kenya. The ten districts were selected purposively to represent 10 different ethnic communities from the five provinces. A total of 2837 secondary and 625 primary school pupils participated. The pupils were drawn from 15 primary and 31 secondary schools .A questionnaire was used to gather information from pupils. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used in analyzing data. Hypotheses were tested using the chi square ( X 2) statistic at α = 0.05 level of significance. Some of the results obtained give statistically significant relationship between pupils’ beliefs in cultural interpretations of scientific phenomenon of heat associated with anger and the communities where they come from. This implies that such beliefs are confined to specific communities studied. There appears to be no significant association between pupils’ beliefs in cultural interpretations of the scientific phenomenon of heat and level of education in some of the communities. The implication is that education reduces beliefs in cultural interpretations in such communities but does not eradicate such beliefs. There was also no statistically significant association between pupils’ beliefs in cultural interpretations of the scientific phenomenon of heat and gender, implying that both boys and girls equally believe in cultural interpretations. The findings from this study inform curriculum developers of some of the cultural beliefs that are likely to influence the learning of science. It is recommended that teachers discuss cultural interpretations of scientific concepts before introducing them in their lessons.

Character education is a growing discipline with the deliberate attempt to optimize students’ ethical behavior. The outcome of character education has always been encouraging, solidly, and continually preparing the leaders of tomorrow. The promotion of character education should not just a leap service but has an action plan for practice. In order words, education policy should take the lead to actualize moral education. Taken together, parents, teachers, and administrators as stakeholders, should join this camp to encourage students to manifest those good values in their lives. The outline of this paper is that first the definition of character education is provided. Then, the historical perspective of character education is reviewed. Third, the issue of context in character education is disclosed. The challenge and controversy of implementation of character education is also presented. Finally, the implication and further research are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to understand in an exploratory way pupils´ perception of science and the image of scientists at primary and secondary school levels. Data was collected by means of a survey questionnaire and a drawing representing pupils´ depiction what scientists do during their working hours. A questionnaire anchored on a Likert scale was filled by 204 primary and 229 secondary school children. Pupils from this sample considered science classes enjoyable, helped to understand issues covered by media, that science is a body of knowledge whose goal is to make life more comfortable to people. A total of 433 drawings were collected at 3 urban and 1 rural schools. Drawings illustrated scientists in scientific activity, mainly working alone, wearing lab coat and eyeglasses. Scientific specialization included chemists, biologists and a few technologist and astronomers. Educational implications are discussed.

The purpose of the study is to develop a valid and reliable scale to measure the teachers’ levels of student-centered education practices. The Exploratory Factor Analysis sample included a total of 426 teachers and the Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the scale was conducted on a total of 160 teachers working in the province of Duzce during the spring term of 2014-2015 education year. Exploratory Factor Analysis was performed to test the construct validity of the scale and the model was tested through the Confirmatory Factor Analysis. For the reliability, Cronbach’s Alpha internal coefficient was calculated and item analysis was performed based on the corrected item total correlation. The final form of the scale included 32 items and one dimension. These 32 items explained 40.04% of the total variance. The results of the item total correlation analysis indicated that none of the item was below 0.30 and the lowest item correlation coefficient was 0.51. Cronbach’s Alpha was found to be 0.95 for the internal consistency of the scale. The reliability and validity results for the Student-Centered Education Scale suggest that this scale is a reliable and valid tool to measure the levels of student-centered educational practices among teachers.

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.

This study presented a secondary analysis of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) dataset. The paper explored the differences between fourth grade reading scores by examining (1) how often the fourth graders discuss their school work at home with family and (2) how often the fourth graders discuss what they were reading with friends. The results by NAEP Data Explorer indicate that the average scale score (M=214, SD=36) of students who report “never or hardly ever” talking about studies at home was significantly (p <0.001) lower than all other groups. The results of how often they talked to their friends about what they were reading were mixed: Students reporting talk with friends once or twice a month (M=228, SD=35) had significantly (p<0.001) higher average scale scores than those in the never or hardly ever and almost every day groups and slightly lower than those talking once or twice a week.

The educative project MelArete proposes an interpretation of ethical education: a form of Education to Virtue Ethics in the light of the philosophy of care. Starting from the ontological assumption that care is prime in life and without it the human being cannot flourish in his/her humanity, the project is based on an interpretation of the pedagogy of care. Since the practice of care reveals to have an ethical core and that core is made of ways of being-with-the-others, the pedagogical theory of MelArete states that in order to develop a project that is in relationship with the core of life we must educate to care. Therefore, educating to care means educating to virtues. On this basis MelArete proposes activities with the aim to guide children’s attention to the concepts of care and virtues.  MelArete has its many references in Plato and Aristotle; besides it assumes the distinction of Ricoeur between ethics and morality. In Plato/Socrates (Alcibiades I) ethics is an educational action that allows the others to thrive in their own existential capabilities; moreover, in Aristotle’s (Nicomachean Ethics) ethics searches for eudaimonia, a good quality of life. In our educational project with children, the educative methods are the following: conversations (promoting intersubjective thought), narratives (reading and writing stories about virtues), vignettes and games (stimulating ethical thinking through a playful language) and the “diary of virtues” (promoting a reflecting culture of virtues in everyday life). In this paper we present the theoretical background of the project and a summary of the pedagogical approach and application which we are testing in our research.

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.

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 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.

Kutadgu Bilig is one of the literal works that shed light on Turk-Islam history and culture. In this study, it is aimed to examine Kutagu Bilig in terms of values that are involved in social studies teaching program.  In research, Kutadgu Bilig work that is written by Yusuf Has Hacip and is adopted to Turkish in today by Silahdaroglu is benefitted as a collect data tool. In data collect period, document analyze technique that is one of the qualitative research methods is used and data is evaluated by descriptive analyze. In result of study, it is reached that justice, giving importance to family unit, responsibility, scientificness and honesty values take place mostly and peace value exists least.

The purpose of this study is to examine the opinions of middle school mathematics teachers on the integration of mathematics course and social issues. For this purpose, qualitative research method was used in this study. As for determining the participants of the research, criterion sampling among purposeful sampling methods was used. Being a middle school mathematics teacher as an occupation was considered as a criterion for determining the participants. The participants of the research consist of 13 middle school mathematics teachers in Turkey. So as to collect the research data, the semi-structured interview form created by the researchers was used. The data analysis was performed according to the content analysis, and Nvivo 10 program was used for the analysis. As a result of this study, the themes of the situation and methods of the integration of mathematics course and social issues, the attainment of democratic values in mathematics course and the ways of its attainment, gaining awareness of social justice and equality in mathematics course and the ways of its gaining, the activities performed by teachers for social issues in mathematics course and the teachers’ suggestions for the integration of mathematics course and social issues were reached and the results were discussed within this frame.