In current society, Digital Technologies (DT) are powerful pedagogical resources, however, they require special teacher training. This paper analyzes a case study carried in a subject given in a lato sensu post-graduation course for teachers. The program promoted the discussion of the use of DT, and used an Internet social network (ISN) to support activities. Therefore, this article aims to analyze difficulties and advantages of the use of ISN in teacher education programs. The study starts with a reflection of the importance of training teachers in the use of DT and the pedagogical use of ISN. Following, the case study is contextualized, and the methodological procedures are described. The paper closes with a discussion of the difficulties and benefits of social networking based on data derived from the observation, questionnaire and students’ posts on the network. Despite the difficulties, use of the ISN was considered a positive one.

In our contribution are described experiences concerning the development, implementation and evaluation of excellence model CAF in education organizations. There are described criteria and sub-criteria of model CAF and example of fulfilling these criteria by company Quality management Centre (CEMAKS) at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. In contribution will be presented some ideas and opportunities for continuing improvement of quality level in education organization by application this model, analysis of model CAF criteria, methodology to develop this model, automated system of evaluation of model CAF which allows to measure quality level in time. This CAF model is useful tool for schools and universities on way to find new approach to increase quality level in education process.

In recent years, parents in Turkey have mobilized for their children to pass exams and attend the schools they want, which affects children’s success and psychology severely. In this context, this study investigates the relationship between second level primary 7th and 8th grade students’ math success and overall success in terms of the variables of parents’ educational background and gender. The study was conducted with 472 students in Istanbul during the 2010-2011 academic year. The data was collected from the students’ 2011 SBS (Elementary Proficiency Exam) results. This research was designed in the relational analysis model. The SPSS16.0 statistical package was used for the statistical analyses of the research data. Independent group t-test and ANOVA were used in the data analysis depending on the variables. The method of the Pearson productmoment correlation coefficient was used in the analysis of the relationship between dependent variables. According to the results of the findings, a significantly positive relationship was observed between students’ overall and math success and there were significant relationships between the variables in terms of parents’ educational background. A significant difference was observed in favor of female students in terms of gender. Some suggestions were presented moving from the fact that parents’ educational background affects students’ math success and overall success.

There have been major influential views on the learning of L2 vocabulary through reading. One approach promotes explicit vocabulary learning through vocabulary activities. However, it is not clear whether there is an effect of text comprehension on vocabulary learning when reading and doing exercises for vocabulary learning. The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between text comprehension and learning vocabulary through word-focused activities. The participants were 100 first year students. They were given a vocabulary checklist before the treatments to make it sure that all participants were unfamiliar with the target words. There were four groups and all groups read one text each week during eight weeks. Each text contained one target word which appeared six times in the text. The treatment group read the texts, answered the comprehension questions and they completed the vocabulary activities. Then, they answered the form-recognition and meaning recognition tests as the last step of the process. On the ninth week, and tenth week, the participants were given the delayed post-tests to investigate whether they are familiar with the target words after treatments. First, participants’ answers to comprehension questions were analyzed. Then, means were calculated for form– recognition and meaning-recognition tests. Comprehension and vocabulary learning were compared for treatment and control groups. The analyses showed that the treatments have an effect on learner scores and results when learning an unknown word. One of the aims of the study was to explore the effect of completing a variety of vocabulary exercises while reading. It seemed to have tapped different levels of processing capabilities such as recognition and interpretation. The analysis showed that there is not a significant correlation between vocabulary learning through word-focused activities and text comprehension. It is concluded that to learn vocabulary through reading, text comprehension is a necessary condition.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of comic strips on reading comprehension of Turkish EFL learners. 167 university students from two proficiency levels (lower-intermediate and upper-intermediate) were divided into four treatment groups: low-level text only, low-level text with comic strips, high-level text only, and high-level text with comic strips. Students read the texts given and wrote what they remembered about the text on a separate answer sheet. The collected data were analyzed through scoring the Immediate Recall Protocols (IRP) by dividing each recall protocol into acceptable pausal units and ranging them from 1 to 4 based on their salience to the message of the text based on a sample value list. The results of the quantitative analyses showed that all students with a comic strip effect, regardless of proficiency and text level, performed better than the ones without the comic strips. The findings of the study confirm the Dual Coding Theory (DCT) on the account that students are better at comprehending reading texts that are accompanied with visuals. The results of the study are discussed along with the existing literature on the use of visuals for developing reading skills. Certain implications for language teachers and some suggestions for further research are also provided.

This article deals with the analysis of attitude of student teachers towards using the grammar games for teaching English. Using the conventional method of teaching, the teaching learning process, especially for English language, is not interesting for the students and the English language teachers, which in turn, the achievement in English of the students may also be severely affected. Realizing this fact, being the teacher educator of English optional, the investigator made an attempt to measure the attitude of student teachers towards using grammar games for teaching English. Using a self-made tool, the investigator collected data from the student teachers in Tirunelveli district and analyse the data with the help of Mean, SD and ‘t’ test. The results of the study indicated that majority of the student teachers have a favourable attitude towards the using grammar games for teaching English at the secondary level. Moreover, the female student teachers are found to be more favourable towards using grammar games than their male counterparts. Similarly, the UG qualified student teachers are more favourable regarding using the grammar games than the PG student teachers.

In this study, the effect of 5E learning cycle model, based on the constructivist approach, which is used for teaching trigonometry in 10th grade of elementary mathematics education, on the students’ academic achievement and on the permanence of their trigonometry knowledge is investigated. The participants of this research are 10th grade students registered for spring semester of 2010-2011 academic year to an Anatolian high school in Kastamonu. These students divided into two equal groups, a control and an experimental group. The students in the experimental group took the course about trigonometry from the researcher in an environment where the 5E learning model based on the constructivist approach is used. The students in the control group took the same course from their mathematics teacher in an environment where the activities of official mathematics curriculum are used. The statistical findings of the research show that the experimental group students’ scores of academic achievement and permanence of trigonometric knowledge are higher than those in the control group. The difference between these groups is statistically significant and is in favor of the experimental group.

The present study examined the influence of supplementing the course of Chemistry Laboratory with the web environment on students’ attitudes towards the course. For this purpose, on the web page of http://www.diclekimyaegitimi.org, the students were presented the contents of the course of Basic Chemistry Laboratory II. In the study, the pretest-posttest experimental design with a control group was used. The study group included a total of 107 junior students from the departments of Physics Teaching, Chemistry Teaching and Biology Teaching at Ziya Gokalp Education Faculty of Dicle University in the academic year of 2009-2010. The study was carried out with three groups: two of them were the experimental groups, and one of them was the control group. The first experimental group (web-based group), prior to the lesson, examined the experiments transferred into the web environment, and the second experimental group (web-based group) followed the lesson both in the laboratory environment and via the web. As for the control group, the lesson was taught via the demonstration method. In order to determine the students’ attitudes towards the course of chemistry laboratory, the “Chemistry Laboratory Attitude Scale” developed by the researcher based on the Physics Laboratory Attitude Scale – which was developed by Nuhoğlu and Yalçın (2004) – was used. The research data were analyzed with the package software of SPSS 17.0. The results revealed a statistically significant difference regarding the students’ attitudes towards the Chemistry Laboratory in favor of the webbased group. The results revealed a statistically significant difference in the students’ post-test scores regarding their attitudes towards the Chemistry Laboratory in favor of the web-based group.

Online education, defined as a platform for delivering educational content and facilitating instructor – student interaction over a computer network (Shelton & Saltsman 2005, pp 3-4 ) came of age in the 1990’s and grew rapidly over the next decade (Allen & Seaman, 2010). 96% of US Universities currently offer online learning opportunities, with over 3 million students enrolled (Ebersole 2007). In addition, several colleges and universities around the globe now offer degrees that can be accomplished online. The promise and potential of online education is laudable, it has the ability to make education more convenient and accessible. Advances in technology has made this possible since learning can occur “asynchronously” anytime, anywhere, anyplace (Sloan 2010). However, studies (for example-Gerlaugh et al 2007, Popham 2009, Saxon and Calderwood 2008) have shown that teaching and assessment in schools, within the in-class, blended and online set up, are concentrated on cognitive achievement to the detriment of affective and psychomotor development of learners. In the light of this, and because of the fact that comprehensive assessment is an indispensable aspect of any meaningful educational program, attempt is made in this paper to examine the implications of the aversion to the teaching and assessing of affective characteristics in online education. The paper also makes strategic suggestions as a way forward.

Archives are institutions in which materials which have to be stored over a long period of time are maintained and brought into use. The archival material has administrative, financial, judicial, and more over, historical value. Thus, this material has the ability to shed light on the past and the future. Therefore, archives should be used as part of primary, high school and university education programmes. In particular, national archives abroad use different practices and techniques in order to extend the use of archives to educational programmes. Moreover, these national archives design practices and techniques according to the ages and area of interests of the students. In this study, entitled “The Use of Archives in Education: Examples from Abroad”, the practices of national archives that have understood the importance of archives in education and have organized special programmes for teachers and students will be explained. These national archives include those in the USA, England, Scotland and Australia. Also in this study, in addition to the contributions of the four national archives to education, the ways in which we can improve the role of archives in Turkey for education will be discussed.

Principal is the bridge between community and school. However, principal’ role in parental participation in education is negligible in Pakistan. This has affected the quality of education in the country. The purpose of this study is to analyze the role of principal in parental participation in education at secondary level in district Chitral, Pakistan. This study investigated the perceptions of 100 government secondary school principals. Questionnaire was used to collect data. The collected data was interpreted and presented in simple percentage and diagrams. Results of the study showed that in Pakistan school principals do not play an active role in promoting parental participation. According to principals parental participation means sending their children to schools only. Hence, parents are not encouraged to participate in the education process of their children. School principals at secondary level do not know the ways and means of involving parents in the education process. They lack motivating and management skills to engage parents in education process. The study further discovered that principals consider parental involvement in education as interference in school affairs. Ironically, the principals accept that parental participation is essential for education. However, the study explored that principals consider parents ill-equipped in terms of knowledge and skills to understand the process of education. According to the principals parental involvement in education will create more management issues for schools rather than solutions. On the basis of this study it recommended that principals should be provided comprehensive training on the concept of parental participation in education. For this purpose strong parent teacher associations should be formed and actively monitored. Schools teachers could be trained in keeping close relationship with parents whose children are in the school. Parents could be invited to schools through conferences, meetings and other national and international events. This will strengthen the relationship between school and home and improve the quality of education as well.

One of the most controversial issues in the history of education is training of genius or cognitive (g) superiority. Together with enlightenment, democratic community, which based on achievement, converted to the school systems. Hence, the meritocracy thesis, which defends social inequalities are an inevitable result of individual differences, has begun to rise. Some of the anti-theses, which use some terms such as meritocracy, IQism, and g-centrism, have hampered the classifying of education according to aristocracy of intelligence. From this point of view, aim in this study is not ignoring individual differences or equalizing neurological differences, but on the contrary, unlike approaches considering humans as simple, measurable/gradable beings, emphasizing that human being is complicated. At this point, genius or cognitive superiority requires a discussion within on the basis of equality of opportunity. Because, the cognitive superiority and giftedness issues are not only particular concern for pedagogy, but also field of interests of education economy and educational sociology. Thus, in this study, firstly, development of the subject in the literature for the elite is questioned, then (2) how elitism was contextually turned into IQizm in modern period is discussed historically and conceptually, and finally (3) by looking at the situation in Turkish educational system, the probable results of a model, which had previously proposed, have been discussed.

IELTS, International English Language Testing System, is nowadays widely used as a certificating device and is claimed to be a reliable and strongly accountable measure of language proficiency by the organizations and educational centers that utilize it. Irrespective of the importance IELTS has gained in the present world, the attitudes of those who take the test have rarely been explored. Therefore, the present study aimed at investigating the attitudes of Iranian candidates towards the IELTS test. Accordingly, a standardized attitudes questionnaire was administered to 40 homogeneous Iranian IELTS candidates after taking the test. The collected data were then analyzed through Pearson correlation coefficient to find out whether there were any significant relationships between the candidates’ test scores and their attitudes towards IELTS. The findings indicated that the participants of the study mostly had a positive attitude towards IELTS. Implications can also be drawn for all the stakeholders including candidates intending to sit the test, institutes running IELTS preparation programs, teachers wishing to teach such programs, and finally, IELTS test administrators.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of problem-based learning, strategic learning and traditional learning on pre-service teachers’ physics achievement. Pretest–posttest quasi experimental research design was employed in the study. The classes were randomly assigned as control and experimental groups. Students in the first experimental group (n= 18) received problem-based physics instruction, students in the second experimental group (n= 20) received strategy-based traditional physics instruction, and students in the control group (n= 20) received only traditional physics instruction. Data were collected via the Revised Physics Achievement Test (R-PAT) and the Physics Self-Efficacy Scale (PSES). Pre-test scores of the instruments were used as covariates. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the favor of experimental groups after treatment. However, no statistically significant difference between two experimental groups (problem-based versus strategy-based instruction) was found.

Teachers constantly face the challenges of finding and applying the most effective methods of instruction that could enhance academic achievement and match the diversity among students. This study aimed at examining the effects of metacognitive and cooperative learning strategies on achievement in science classrooms. A quasi-experimental design involving 3 groups namely, two treatment groups-- cooperative learning(CL) group a metacognitive instructions(MI) group and a control group, was adopted. The study lasted for 11 weeks. A researcher-made achievement test in the topic ‘Human Anatomy’ was used to measure achievement in the 3 groups. Results revealed that the metacognitive instructions were most effective in enhancing academic achievement. Multiple regression analysis shows that there is significant relationship between metacognitive awareness and achievement. The researcher recommends that metacognitive instruction be adopted regularly in the classroom so as to help students learn material more efficiently and enhance academic achievement.

Activities in this study which can be used by both blind and sighted students are called as inclusive Nature of Science (iNOS) activities. This study aims to transform some traditional activities about nature of science into iNOS activities and involves the procedure of redesigning and testing. For this purpose three basic iNOS activities were redesigned and views were gathered from three types of groups, blind students, preserves physics teachers and approximately one and a half thousand people during a science fair. To determine and understand the weak and straight ways of these activities by the help of participants’ changed perceptions about science after doing iNOS activities, unstructured interviews and a questionnaire were used. At the end of the study, it was seen that these iNOS activities are not only useful for both blind and sighted students but also appropriate activities for both children and adults.

Despite Turkey’s current economic growth, modernization and increased academic performance, 50% to 75% of children in the country are reported to be subjected to different forms of physical punishment in schools. Moreover, the vast majority of teachers in Turkey believe in the need for corporal punishment as an integral part in the development of the child. And despite the fact that corporal punishment is unlawful in Turkey, it is regularly carried out in every grade level in virtually all regions of the country. By reviewing the related literature, the present study attempts to explore what approaches teachers generally adopt in dealing with student misconduct in Turkey. Implications are included for pre-service and in-service teacher development.

The paper investigates the integration of global component in the teacher education curriculum of B.Ed (1 yr) and looks into its role in preparing globally competent teachers. The overall strategy for the study was based on survey. The present study adopts mix- method (phenomenology and content analysis) as the major modes of investigation. The population consisted of all the B.Ed (1 yr) trained teachers and B.Ed curriculum in Pakistan. The total sample of 200 B.Ed (1 yr) qualified and experienced teachers were selected through purposive sampling while the curriculum of B.Ed (1 yr) developed by Higher Education Commission was chosen for the study. The data was collected through interview and documentary/record analysis. To find the global competency, themes are derived from the responses of experienced teachers using phenomenological research, while major global issues (Global Human Rights, Global Population, Global Language, Global Economy and Global Citizenship) were analyzed in B.Ed curriculum (1 yr) through qualitative as well as quantitative content analysis. The study identifies the missing gaps in B.Ed (1 yr) curriculum in preparing global minded teacher. The results concluded that the changing context of teaching is hampered due to theoretical integration of global education in the B.Ed (1 yr) curriculum. The curriculum partially fulfilled the needs of the teachers. They applied practical knowledge learnt from additional courses and through experience. The curriculum addresses more theoretical aspects and lacks in addressing needs of teachers due to which students are not globally prepared. The study recommends a strong intervention mechanism to revise the teachers’ curriculum to help teachers integrate the practical global phenomena in their everyday classroom teaching.

The visually impaired children are an integral part of our society. They are very much neglected in our society. Their need and problems should be understood well and measures should be taken in order to make their lives more easy and motivational. In this paper the Self- Concept and Self-Confidence of the Sighted Children and the Visually Impaired Children is assessed. Self- Concept and Self- Confidence are the two very important things which help in overall development of Personality. So, an effort has been carried out to know more about the Visually Impaired Children.

This study examined the role of Ethnicity as a crucial factor in determining language learning preferences. Recent researches provide important support to claim that when students have the opportunity to clarify and assess their preferences in regard to definition of objectives in general and awareness of leaning preferences, their motivation, performances, and achievements will be increased and better. Since students are increasingly diverse, ethnicity has been considered as a crucial factor in determining language learning preferences. In our country, Iran, there are various ethnicities, nonetheless, English language is taught almost in the same manner for learners with different ethnical background. This study examined the impact of ethnicity (Kurd, Turk, Fars) on language learning preferences of Iranian EFL learners in order to understand weather there was any meaningful relationship between learning preferences and EFL learner’s ethnicity. To accomplish the research, a language learning preferences questionnaire with 10 items was administered to Iranian EFL learners. Subjects have been chosen according to the cluster sampling from EFL Institutes in Tehran, (Iran Mehr language institute), Tabriz and Kermanshah (Kish institute).