The purpose of this study was to investigate middle school students’ attitude toward science and the effect of gender, grade level and parent education level on students’ attitude toward science. The sample of this survey study included 2961 sixth, seventh and eighth grade middle school students in Çankaya, Ankara. Students completed 40 items test of science related attitude (TOSRA) developed by Fraser (1978). Four dimensions (adaptation of scientific attitudes, enjoyment of science lessons, leisure interest in science, and career interest in science) were selected for this study. Descriptive analyses revealed that, regarding the mean scores of each TOSRA dimension, students were undecided about all sub-dimensions of attitude. MANOVA results showed that grade level significantly affected middle school students’ attitude toward science regarding adaptation of scientific attitudes, enjoyment of science lessons, leisure interest in science, and career interest in science. Gender and parents education level have influence on only adaptation of scientific attitudes dimension.

Considering the importance of epistemological beliefs in students’ learning process and how students reach knowledge, this study explored contributions of metacognitive awareness level to students’ scientific epistemological beliefs. Discipline Focused Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire and Metacognitive Awareness Inventory were administrated to 250 eight graders. Correlation analysis indicated that both knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition dimensions of Metacognition related with certainty/simplicity of knowledge, source of knowledge, attainability of truth dimensions of epistemological beliefs. Multiple Regression Correlation analysis, however, revealed that the model that includes regulation of cognition reached statistical significance and explained 11% of the variation in certainty/simplicity of knowledge, (F= 14.772, p < .05) and 7% of variation in attainability of truth (F= 8.396, p < .05). The positive beta values indicated that students controlling all aspect of their learning tended to see scientific knowledge as more certain, simple as well as more attainable.

In the present research to investigator made an attempt to explore the effectiveness of metacognitive skills in developing the teaching competency among secondary teacher education students. The concept of metacognition can be described as a higher-order cognitive structure. More specifically, metacognition as an appreciation of what one already knows, together with a correct apprehension of the learning task and what knowledge and skills it requires, combined with the agility to make correct inferences about how to apply one’s strategic knowledge to a particular situation, and to do so efficiently and reliably. Students with good metacognition were able to perform efficiently in teaching.

Blended learning model is the combination of face-to-face teaching and technology-based models and it is regarded as the 21st century model by the educational researchers. This study aims to find out the opinions, on blended learning model, of the trainers working at Higher Schools of Vocational Education and Training. This study is based on a qualitative research technique: focus group interview. The findings are grouped under the titles current situation, positive response of the students, flexibility, collaborative learning, financial and pedagogical aspects, and lifelong learning model.

Education encapsulates two thirds of our life span. Thus we give direction to our futures according to the education we undergo. University students especially are equipped with theoretical and practical information during their undergraduate studies. However, students taking theoretical courses in social sciences have difficulties. In this study, I will examine how university students look at social science courses and according to these results I will offer some suggestions. I have chosen the Communication Theories course given at İstanbul Kültür University, Faculty of Arts and Design, Department of Communication Arts as a basis for this study. 120 students taking the course will serve as my research group. My research method will be interviews. In addition, by using differing teaching methods and seeing how students react to them during the class, I will obtain quantitative and qualitative data to examine.

In my contribution possible implementation of quality management trends in education process at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Slovak University of Technology (SUT) in Bratislava (Slovakia) is described. Quality of education process depends on many important factors, like high qualification of teachers, good infrastructure concerning the education, library with new books and journals from all over the world, effective university information system etc. In the process of continual increasing the quality of education process we can implement quality management system according to ISO 98001:2008, total quality management, reengineering, Kaizen method and model of excellence CAF (Common assessment framework). Implementation of these quality management philosophies at university education process can lead into increasing quality of teachers and our customers-students and through them to application of new world knowledge and experiences to practice. At contribution are presented some important documents like quality policy, map of quality assurance and monitoring of education process at university.

This study has evaluated the effectiveness of vocabulary instruction via lexical networks and whether this approach aids text comprehension and vocabulary growth in an L2 reading and vocabulary course. The instructional use of lexical networks, more commonly known as semantic maps, was tested against the worddefinition matching technique, an approach that focuses on lexical items in isolation, as independent units. The main interest of the researcher was whether the use of a lexical network approach can help students recognize lexical cohesive features of a text and consequently facilitate comprehension of a text and increase vocabulary retention. The results of the study showed that learners’ identification of lexical networks in a text can be a useful vocabulary learning device for advanced L2 learners, helping them establish and strengthen the links not only between the items that were the focus of the explicit instruction, but also other semantically related lexical items in the text.

Pupils with specific learning difficulties and behaviour disorders are a relatively strongly represented group in Czech schools, which traditionally received special attention. This group of pupils has more serious problems when making educational and subsequently professional choices in the labour market. In the text we present data from a quantitative investigation focused on identification of specific features in professional aspirations of pupils with a mild disability, specific learning difficulties and behaviour disorders. Attention is paid to selected circumstances and influences which often play a role in the process of decision making, particularly the influence of counselling bodies.

Portfolio assessment has gained importance in the last twenty years and has been in use at different areas in education. Foreign language teaching is one of them. This study aims to find out the opinions of students on portfolio assessment. The study was implemented in a secondary school English preparatory class. As part of the study, portfolios and portfolio assessment activities were integrated into the program in a treatment group. The analysis of student responses showed that portfolio assessment is a fair method, compared to traditional assessments it is a more down-to-earth approach, it increases student responsibility and motivates students positively. On the other hand, student responses revealed some negative results, like portfolio studies take time, there is a need to include various types of a lot of tasks in portfolios, and self-evaluations, reviews and corrections of student work entail a lot of student and teacher effort.

The present study was undertaken to establish Ordinary and Advanced level students` receptivity of Open and Distance Learning Programmes offered by Zimbabwe Open University. With the proliferation of several higher education institutions, which include among them the eleven universities in the country and at one polytechnic in each of the ten provinces of Zimbabwe, competition for students has become stiff as enrolments in some of these institutions continue to plummet. There was, therefore, need to establish how receptive these young adults were of the ODL mode, in light of the introduction of the Enhanced Tutorial Programme (ETP) as an innovation in the ODL system at the Zimbabwe Open University. A total of 100 student respondents made up the sample which consisted of 64 (64%) male and 36 (36%) female students whose age range was between 16 and 22 years. These were drawn from rural and urban schools located in Chegutu district. Results show that a slight majority of 56 students preferred to study with the ZOU because of their area of residence which was prohibitive for them to enrol at a conventional college. The respondents overwhelmingly rejected the notion that there was poor quality of education at the ZOU. Because ODL had a lot of flexibility and was convenient, the majority of the respondents preferred to study through the ODL mode. Some preferred the ODL mode because while some conventional institutions required above 10 points at Advanced level, ZOU only required 5 Ordinary level subjects, including English language, passed with a grade C or better. However, the most prohibitive factor as indicated by the majority of the students was lack of access and competence in the use of the internet and other forms of technology since their understanding of the ODL mode entailed the use of modern technology, which is not currently the situation at ZOU. Also inhibitive for most respondents, was the argument that there was little time for face-to-face interaction. These young adults needed to make and meet new friends and socialize with colleagues from various socio-cultural backgrounds, an adventure not always possible in ODL systems due to geographical distances apart.

Music being an important component of Brain Based Learning and its effects on vocabulary learning in a foreign language was explored in this study. The study was conducted at Hacettepe University, School of Foreign Languages and aimed at determining the effect of music on learning and retaining new vocabulary in a foreign language. A secondary aim was to find whether musical intelligence had any effect on learning vocabulary with a music-based syllabus. A syllabus based on brain based learning principles that comprises music as its main component for vocabulary instruction was devised and implemented for 6 weeks. The experiment group got music based vocabulary instruction while the control group followed the same syllabus without the music component. Data have been collected by means of pre and post tests, student written feedback and an interview with random selected students in the experiment group to collect qualitative data. It has been found at the end of the study that the experiment group outperformed the control group with the number of words they learned. The experiment group also retained more words as music acted as a means to code the new vocabulary into the long term memory.

This study investigated the superiority of computer-based glosses in comparison with traditional glosses. 80 participants were divided into two groups(computer-based gloss group and traditional gloss group).Computerbased group received instruction through computer. i.e. new words were presented with their pictures and L1 translations and traditional group received instruction on the paper only with L1 translation. The results (pre and post-tests) were analyzed using a t- test. The results indicated the superiority of computer-based gloss group over paper-based gloss ones.

There is a natural integrity between law and mathematics arising from mathematics’ being the primary device in the area of technical law even though the character of relationship between them is debatable. Instrumental use of mathematics is extremely important for technical aspect of law. Mathematical logic, statistics, probability logic, simulation models cannot be used in legal context without establishing the mathematics and mathematical relations. While the legal system with mathematics aims to create or construct a more comprehensive and systematic world than a complex system or chaos, mathematics is the universe of the abstract and perfectly formed numerical collocations. In this context, law is the system of formed human relations, which is tried to be created by social mind. The necessity of mathematical understanding in legal world, on one hand, proves how important mathematics is in legal education and on the other hand, it demonstrates how similarly both legal and mathematical systems are formed. Law and mathematics emerged as the formed result of humanity’s search for perfection.