This research investigated perceptions, feelings and thoughts of early childhood teachers, working at university campus childcare centers in Turkey, regarding their profession and job. Understanding how they make the meaning of challenges, issues, difficulties, and enjoyment, and then connecting those to their job satisfaction, burnout, and stress were the goals. A total of nine early childhood teachers participated in the study. Using a phenomenological research design, two semi-structured focus group interviews, lasting about two hours, were conducted. Results showed that, overall, campus childcare teachers in this study enjoyed working with children despite their challenges of working with parents, low pay, and long and uncompensated work hours. The quality of the relationship with parents seems to have a very powerful effect on teachers’ job satisfaction and on their motivation. On the other hand, their love for children and passion about their work as well as having positive work environment help them re-build their motivation. Their personal and collective efficacy helps maintainıng their dedication and commitment to the profession.

This study investigated the effects of competitive and cooperative teaching techniques on Iranian adult EFL learners’ use of direct strategies. To this end, a sample of 88 non-English major university students at Sohrevardi Nonprofit College in Qazvin were assigned to two groups, and each group received instruction under one of the treatment conditions including cooperative and competitive teaching techniques. To collect data, the Persian translation of a modified version of the subsection of Oxford’s Strategy Inventory of Language Learning pertaining to direct strategy use was administered before and after the treatment. The obtained data were analyzed using an Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) procedure. The result of data analysis showed no significant difference between the effects of competitive and cooperative teaching techniques on direct strategy use of Iranian adult EFL learners. The findings of the present study may have implications for learners, teachers, and syllabus designers.

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.

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.

Previous research has found conflicting evidence in studies where students participate in the selection of their course topics in educational settings. Katz and Assor, for example, have argued that the increase in student motivation is probably not due to the mere act of choosing, but to the value of the options with respect to personal interest. The aim of our study was to investigate the impact of choice on aspects of motivation during biology lessons. Our sample consisted of five classes with 118 children of whom 63% were female. Their average age was 10.4 years (SD=0.6). One group of students was asked to select one topic out of four in a majority vote during a biology class, while a control group was simply assigned the same topic. Results: Students who chose their topic reported a higher level of intrinsic motivation than students who were not given the option. A surprising result was that the students in the voting group who did not receive their preferred choice reported the same level of motivation as those who did.

This study focused on the phenomenon of success at work asking whether it would be possible to find factors from top workers’ children and school experiences that would explain their later success. This study was a part of a larger research in which Finnish top workers, employees of the year, who have been selected as successful professionals of their field in Finland were researched. This article focuses on the narrative data collected through qualitative interviews. In this article, their childhood and adolescence experiences were analyzed in order to find out whether successful development could be enhanced already in early phases of life. This study employed the narrative interview method through which top workers were asked to reminisce their childhood and adolescence experiences. What factors have supported their success and how have they coped with adversities in life? According to the results, the most important key to success at work adopted from home was caring upbringing as parents did not set any ambitious goals for success for their children but made the children think about their future and have an optimistic attitude to life. The role of careers counseling at school was also discussed. Analyzing these factors is important if aiming at helping people’s chances of finding an occupation they fit and in which they can use their talents. Experiences and events taking place in childhood and adolescence can be crucial, or at least, direct people in a right direction.

This study is a departure from discussions on why community college students do not transfer in large numbers, but instead, provides an analysis of Latino students from community college who have successfully transferred to Tier 1 universities. The conceptual framework included student engagement theory (Kuh, 2003), the support for student autonomy (Koestner et al., 2015), and the importance of students studying to mastery (Sarwat & Irshad, 2012).  These theories were applied to the central research question, ‘What strategies do Latino students from a community college use to create a successful transition from community college to Tier 1 colleges and universities?’ The researcher generated six themes on how Latino students experienced successful transfer: institutional support, student transfer experiences, strategies to adapt, financial support, studying to mastery, and family support as major factors for academic success.   These findings would be significant to student development specialists in community colleges.  Further, such findings can be used to support Latino community college students as they sought transfer to four-year colleges and universities.

The purpose of this study was to develop a scale for assessing teachers’ self-determination instruction and to test the validity and reliability of this tool. The subjects included 315 teachers recruited from elementary and junior high schools nationwide in Taiwan. The Teaching Self-Determination Scale (TSDS) developed in this study aimed at assessing the extent to which educators teach students knowledge and skills related to self-determination. The 24-item TSDS is comprised of four subscales including Self-Realization, Psychological Empowerment, Self-Regulation, and Autonomy. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, t tests, and factor analyses. Findings showed that the TSDS has satisfactory psychometric properties. The internal consistency reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s α) ranged from .76 to .93, while the test-retest coefficients ranged from .71 to .87. Findings of the exploratory factor analysis showed that the four TSDS subscale factors can be reasonably extracted, which can explain 59.7% of the total item variance. The confirmatory factor analysis results further indicated a good fit between the measurement model and the sample data (GFI = .96, AGFI = .91, RMSEA = .08, NFI = .97, RFI = .93, IFI = .98, TLI = .95, CFI = .98). Suggestions are provided for future research.

Teacher wellbeing and performance is affected by their ability to cope with the demands of the profession. This pilot non-randomized, waitlist-controlled study investigated the impact of a mindfulness intervention (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) on teachers' wellbeing, self-regulation ability and classroom performance applying a mixed-method design. The sample was comprised of 32 German school teachers (93% female) which were distributed to a control and intervention group. Compared to the control condition, the intervention showed medium to high effect sizes on most outcome variables at post-test and results were sustained at follow-up. Mediation analyses showed that changes in mindfulness at post-test mediated changes in outcome variables at follow-up. Unexpectedly, the intervention seemed to negatively affect teacher engagement. Qualitative interviews highlighted the way mindfulness may influence teacher engagement and improve performance. Limitations of this study and future directions of research are discussed. 

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.

Human Resource Management (HRM) includes recruitment, training, development, motivation and evaluation of the staff who will achieve the goals of the organization and perform the necessary activities to be successful. The success of the organization depends on the effective use and management of human resources. Considering that The Ministry of Turkish National Education has the most crowded personnel and the potential of leading the future human resources, the HRM strategies of this organization becomes significant.  In this study, it is aimed to investigate to the human resources management practices of the Ministry of Turkish National Education from the perspectives of teachers who are also the human resources of the system.  In this research, holistic-multiple case study design was employed and the open-ended interview form which includes nine questions considering the functions of the HRM was utilized as the data collection tool. Research results showed that teachers know the duties and responsibilities which are declared in their job definition but they do not consider some of the significant professional efficiencies such as planning, assessment and evaluation. Moreover, the ministry does not make long-term plans in order to determine the required human resources, and also the functionality and subjectivity of the system is under discussion in terms of selection and appointment. What's more, the desired aims cannot be reached in terms of professional development. Teachers have the anxiety of performance evaluation based on accountability, and they emphasize fair and subjectivity in terms of payment, rewarding and discipline.

The aim of this study was to adapt and validate Mindful Self-Care Scale (MSCS) with a normative Turkish sample. Participants of the study were 330 university students (232 females and 97 males) along with the age mean of 20.22 (SD=1.32). In order to validate the six factor structure of Mindful Self-care Scale, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted. For providing evidence over convergent validity, Mindful Attention Awareness Scale-Adolescent version (Brown, West, Loverich & Biegel, 2011) was concurrently used. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis  displayed satisfactory evidence for the six factor Mindful Self-Care Scale (χ2 / df = 1.7; GFI = 0.87, CFI = 0.92; TLI = .91; RMSEA = 0.05). The scale was also found to be significantly correlated to Mindful Attention Awareness Scale-Adolescent (r=.27, p<.001). Also, the Cronbach Alpha value for the whole scale was found .89 yielding satisfactory evidence for the internal consistency of the instrument. The results of the study tentatively yielded that the Mindful Self-Care Scale is a valid and reliable assessment tool of self-care in Turkish culture. As well, further studies examining the psychometric properties of Mindful Self-Care Scale are still needed with larger and diverse samples.

The purpose of this study was to assess the correlation and predictive relationship between self-determination and quality of life of college students with disabilities. Subjects were 145 senior college students recruited from northern Taiwan. Subjects' age ranged from 22 to 25 years and their disabilities varied, including visual impairments (n = 16), hearing impairments (n = 17), speech/language impairment (n = 6), physical disabilities (n = 40), specific learning disability (n = 26), emotional and behavior disorders (n = 5), multiple disabilities (n = 4), autism (n = 23), and health impairments (n = 8). Two measures, the Self-Determination Scale for College Students (SDSCS) and WHOQOL-BREF were used to collect data. The subjects completed the SDSCS in their senior year of college, whereas the WHOQOL-BREF data were collected one year after their graduation. The Pearson correlation and stepwise multiple regression analyses were used to assess the correlation between the SDSCS and the WHOQOL-BREF. Results showed that positive correlations were found between self-determination and quality of life. Subjects’ scores on the SDSCS subscales (Self-Realization, Psychological Empowerment, Autonomy) were able to explain between 30.3%-53.2% of the total variance of their scores on the WHOQOL-BREF domains (Psychological, Social Relationships, Environment). The results of this study re-confirmed the positive correlation between self-determination and quality of life of individuals with disabilities. Furthermore, the study highlighted that self-determination not only has an immediate impact on quality of life for people with disabilities, but it seems to have a long-lasting effect. Suggestions and implications are provided.

The aim of the study evaluates cultural sensitivity in healthcare services among senior nursing students to patients with different cultural backgrounds. The study had a one-group pre-posttest model descriptive study design. Thirty-four nursing students taking the courses Emergency Care and Diabetes were included into the study. Standardized patients were used as a simulation technique. The difference between intercultural sensitivity scores before the simulation and those after the simulation was not statistically significant (p>0.05). Even though there were no differences between intercultural sensitivity scores before the simulation and the scores after the simulation, simulation based education is an effective teaching method in enhancement of cultural sensitivity.

In this study it is aimed to analyze the smartphone addiction, fear of missing out (FoMO), and perceived social and academic competence that predict social media addiction on high school students. Study group consists of 296 (136 females and  160 males) high school students studying in Anatolian High Schools and Vocational High School in Mersin during the 2017-2018 academic year. Simple random sampling was used. In the study, descriptive survey method was used. As data collection tools, Personal Information Form, Social Media Addiction Scale, Smartphone Addiction Scale, Fear of Missing Out Scale (FoMO), Perceived Competence Scale developed by Ozer et al. were used. In analyses of data, regression was used. According to stepwise regression analysis, smartphone addiction (β = .34), fear of missing out (β = .26) and perceived academic competence (β = -.12) predict social media addiction level on high school students. As the result of the study, smartphone addiction, fear of missing out, and perceived academic competence predict social media addiction on high school students. When the smartphone addiction level and fear of missing out decrease, and also perceived academic competence improve, students’ smartphone addiction levels reduce.

This descriptive and regression research was conducted to determine the influence of empowerment on organizational behaviors of 215 teachers in Catholic Higher Education Institutions in the Philippines. The results revealed that Catholic teachers have high levels of teacher empowerment. Specifically, they have very high level of status, professional growth, self-efficacy, and impact and high level of decision-making and autonomy in scheduling. Meanwhile, they also high level of organizational behaviors. Furthermore, three of the subscales of teacher empowerment tend to predict almost all dimensions of organizational behaviors of teachers in the school. The research concludes that Catholic Higher Education teachers are empowered to their organization as they feel respected, have opportunities for professional growth, feel efficient and effective in the classroom, and have the capacity to influence students and the school life. However, they do not have enough avenues to be involved in the decision-making process of their institution and do not have enough freedom and opportunities to choose their own schedules and teaching loads. Furthermore, they exhibit positive organizational behaviors in their institutions as manifested in their strong attachment to their organization, high level of involvement to their work, harmonious relationship with their supervisors and middle level managers. Also, they exhibit discretionary actions that goes beyond their functions, and have a desire and passion to continue and uphold the teaching profession.

The advent of the new economy brought university reforms to the limelight, and higher education research concentrated on the study of interactions of multi-level, multi-actor policy reforms, to the detriment of studying policy implementation. The ebbing of implementation analysis in the mid-1980s has probably put researchers off following up policies to the point of delivery, resulting in what critics dubbed a 'missing link'. Policymakers more pronounced need to evaluate the impact of the policies they adopt, inter alia, has led to a renewed interest in bottom-up implementation in other public policy fields, but not as much in higher education research. The article builds on a Network Governance-informed approach for studying policy reform in higher education and adapts it to study of policy implementation with a focus on transition systems. Witte's actor-centered new institutional framework is taken as a springboard, and some of its underlying assumptions are reviewed for that purpose, adding insights from public administration literature (NPM) and Lipsky's street-level bureaucracy (SLBy). Ultimately, it proposes a politics-institutions framework to account for the institutional change entailed to the reforms.

This paper presents how the process of flipped teaching with Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) works in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing in the Indonesian context. As well, it also elaborates how the teaching model affects learner autonomy. This flipped teaching with CALL was experienced by some lecturers of private universities in East Java, Indonesia. This study used a multi-site case study research design. The data were yielded from in-class observation, lesson plan analysis, focus group interviews, and questionnaires. The total of 5 EFL writing teachers and 150 students from 5 private universities in East Java, Indonesia had participated in this study. Experimenting with flipped teaching with CALL in teaching EFL writing enabled the teachers, as course developers, to get an idea of their students’ response to the challenges of new ways, methods, and techniques of their study. The flip-class environment fostered better communication amongst learners and learner autonomy as well. The flip-class atmosphere also had a beneficial impact on the motivation of learners. The qualitative results from interviews of the learners showed that the learners had inspired themselves to engage in in-class learning activities and self-regulated teaching environments. The findings gave reflection to the teachers on several vitally necessary conditions enabling a course in a flipped teaching with CALL format to contribute to developing students’ professional competencies.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between foreign language anxiety, shyness, language learning strategies, speaking scores and academic achievement of university preparatory students learning German. In addition, it was aimed to determine how the independent variables predict the speaking scores and academic achievement. The research sample consisted of 110 students (75 female and 35 males). Three instruments used in the study were: Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale; Strategy Inventory of Language Learning and Shyness Scale. The results of this study revealed that a moderate significant negative relationship (r= -.434) was present between the students' foreign language learning anxiety and academic achievement. Besides, a significant and negative relationship (r= -.290) was found between foreign language anxiety and speaking scores of students. According to the correlation analysis, no significant relationship was identified between shyness, academic achievement and speaking scores of students. According to the analysis, a significant positive relationship was found between the students' language learning strategies and their academic achievements (r= .275). Namely, these data showed that, the level of academic achievement increases as the use of strategy increases. Similarly, shyness and foreign language anxiety show a moderate positive correlation (r= .419). According to these findings, it may be stated that shyness increases as speaking anxiety rises. Besides, it was determined that students' shyness, foreign language anxiety and language learning strategies predicted 26.4 % of their academic achievement. The results indicated that independent variables were positive predictors of students’ academic achievement. Finally, suggestions were made for German teachers to reduce the effects of shyness and anxiety in the process of foreign language learning.