Teaching practice develops three-way partnerships among the university, cooperating school, and the teacher trainee to improve trainees’ performance in the classroom. The partnership becomes meaningful when stakeholders are fully engaged in mutual cooperation. In order to facilitate collaboration and communication among the stakeholders, a web-based Learning Management System, entitled UludagKDM was developed as part of a Tübitak-EVRENA project. This study, qualitative in nature, was conducted with university supervisors and teacher trainees to examine the effectiveness of UludagKDM regarding its organizational and communicational aspects. The data, analyzed through categorization of themes, revealed that the existing system needs to be re-examined or another social media should be considered for the purposes of communication and feedback.

The aim of the paper is to describe the policy and practice of forming European space of governing youth by creating a need for transferring and exchanging data, information and knowledge about youth. I attempt to elaborate thesis, that supply and demand for data exchange indicate a system of governing installing less obvious relations of power. This demand for data, information and knowledge releases and implements characteristic technologies of government and the concepts of “truth” about the world. Drawing upon the analyses of governing youth, I suggest introducing the notion of a dispositif of learning as a category used to describe a particular type of power relations constituting the identity of contemporary youth in the European Union policy.

One of the highly problematic areas of education is teacher training and its process. Increasing the level of success and quality of teachers is among the most pressing and debated areas of education almost in every society. Education, teacher training, and teacher training process, the most important components of education, cannot be considered without due consideration to social developments and changes. With this reality in mind, this study focuses on the dynamic relationships between society, education, and teacher training policies from a sociological perspective, since it is a must to know the dynamic structure of society and the process of change in order to be able to fully understand and soundly evaluate teacher training policies.

Theoretical framework, in educational research, guides the qualitative research process which is selected based on the researchers’ goals, purpose, or focus of investigation (Ornek, 2008). Phenomenography, a qualitative research framework, is an innovative research methodology for the developing countries whereas developed countries has already been taken up. They have been using this empirical research methodology since last two decades (United Kingdom, Australia, Finland, etc). Therefore, the aim of this paper is to discuss the phenomenographic research methodology in the easiest way so that the novice researchers (who are new in phenomenography) in Bangladesh can bestow this methodology into their qualitative research paradigm. This methodology may contribute new insight to the objects of investigations (students, teachers, staffs from educational institutions) and find out the solutions of the problems connected with the educational institutions in a real setting of Bangladesh.

The purpose of this study is to examine students’ perceptions of the nature of science and metaphors related to the concept of robot, to determine the differentiation in these perceptions and metaphors resulting from LEGO NXT robot applications, and to share some good examples of education-oriented activities with robots. In this study, a hybrid research method, which is a blend of a qualitative descriptive survey model, pre-test, posttest semi-experimental patterns without controlled group, is utilized. The working groups consist of 48 students, who are volunteers to take part in the research, from 3 different high schools. The data are collected using a “metaphor form” consisting of open-ended questions, utilizing the Scale for Understating Nature of Science. The findings based on our analyses are as follows: The students’ perception on the nature of science is generally at medium level and there are no students with low level of perception. Activities with robots contribute considerably to the level of students’ perception on the nature of science. A comparison of the results obtained from pre-test and post-test illustrates that prior to the activities, some students suppose that robots are like humans with an ability to think but after the activities none of them consider the robots to have the ability to think.

In recent years, Issues that have been regarded essential for knowledge management are based on this fact that organizations without proper strategies for maintaining their intellectual investments will not be able to survive. The ability of distinguishing between knowledge and raw data, enables the organization to change the information into related and appropriate knowledge and to achieve their goals. The present study is trying to identify factors affecting knowledge creation in Iranian National Tax Affairs (INTA), and suggests an optimized model for establishing the knowledge management system in this organization. In the first section, effective factors on knowledge creation in the organization are identified and ranked through applying One-Sample T test and Friedman test. Statistical population was the employees of the INTA headquarters, and sampling was carried out in a simple random manner for 149 persons. In the second section related models of knowledge Management are being studied, and an optimal model is provided for the establishment and deployment of Knowledge Management system in INTA relying on an integrated approach for the preparation of the prerequisites, culture, implementation, and finally evaluation and audit knowledge.

The innovation management has great significance in the creation of future educational institutions. These institutions, which undertake important mission in converting the innovative activities to economic and social values, are also expected to be ready for the innovation management. The knowledge of the readiness levels of the administrators of these institutions to the innovation management is seen to be a significant factor in the innovation of educational institutions. This research was seen to be necessary by the virtue of this importance. It was conducted with the aim of determining “the Readiness Levels of Secondary School Administrators to the Innovation Management” through their own opinions, and providing suggestions in the light of these opinions. In order for the research, which was carried out by using the General scan model, to achieve the specified objectives, primarily the literature review was performed. For determining the opinions, the “School Administrators Innovation Attitude Scale” was used in order to determine opinions, which was developed by Top as a 24-item five-point likert scale, determined the Cronbach Alpha reliability parameter as 0,895, and adapted in 2012 to Nevşehir province. School principals and Vice-principals, working at secondary schools in Nevşehir province in the academic year of 2011-2012, constitute the population of this research. As a result of the research, school administrators stated that they were ready for innovation management according to the overall arithmetic averages in the level of “C=4,33” with a degree of “completely.” When analyzed in terms of duty variable, it was discovered that school principals, unlike vice-principals, were ready for innovation management at higher levels. It can be stated that after school administrators get promoted to the rank of school principal, then, their readiness levels to the innovation proposals increased. The following suggestions have been made by looking at the research results: assuring measures should be taken to enable vice-principals to get post-graduate level training which also includes innovative management in order to render them more sensitive on the subject of innovative management and efforts that would ensure innovative management to be the vision of schools should be concentrated upon. The reason behind the increase in the attitudes of school administrators towards innovation after getting promoted to the position of school principal should be treated as a separate subject of research.

Changes in social roles and changes in social thinking in the post-modern society have led to changes in gender structure in certain occupations. Some former exclusively male occupations have now become also available to women - and vice versa. This state has been observed focusing in the field of health care which until recently, has been specifically understood as a women's professional field, in which more and more men are integrated nowadays. Notably, the share of men in nursing has been increasing recently, but an increased enrolment of men in nursing studies can be noted as well. By increasing the proportion of men in typically female profession, it logically comes to a slowdown of drastic changes and the perception of men in nursing. The issue of men in nursing is associated with stereotypes of nurses and stereotypes about male nurses. The widespread stereotype of the nurse - an angel of mercy - is deeply present in our society, as a nurse is seen as the one who first or last offers a caring and gentle hand to the sick, the baby, the injured and the dying. In the history of social relations this role has been understood and practised for a long time as exclusively female. The character of a nurse in the contemporary Slovenian post-modern society no longer coincides with the traditional idea of the roles of men and therefore poses a problem for patients, doctors and even the employees in health care. Patients who are in contact with men employed in health care develop a different relationship towards them with a woman who is a nurse. The relationship is more imbued with humour, based on camaraderie and the physical contact is reduced to an absolute minimum. Doctors prefer to ask them and do not expect (and require even less!) them to cook coffee or open the door for them. In the nursing team male colleagues are treated differently than female colleagues. Most of the differences are observed in the task distribution and the duties, as men are assigned to work where the need for greater physical strength and / or greater technical complexity is evident. For all the reasons above, male nursing is distributed at psychiatry, in emergency rooms and emergency services, while it is less noticeable at the pre-natal department of gynecology and paediatrics. In a study in which we wanted to clarify some misconceptions rooted in the Slovenian society, especially regarding the "typical female profession of nursing," we analysed the presence of men in nursing – in the field of health care. The study was based on a quantitative methodology from May to the end of June 2012 involving respondents, regular (39%) and part-time (61%) undergraduate students of nursing. Based on empirical data, we found how the respondents, students of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Maribor, regardless of the study mode, did not detect differences in treatment of students during the study. Nevertheless, the respondents highlighted the notion of a typical feminine trait of nurses’ (e.g., kindness, care, tenderness, empathy, warmth) and men's properties (e.g. strength, determination and authoritativeness). Although they estimated, how the respondents, i.e. the study part-time students expressed more devotion and concern towards more masculine features. Such expectations also reflect the perceptions of employees in health care based on gender in the Slovenian post - modern society. The respondents also highlighted high requirements for a good nurse. Her personal qualities are important: highly stressed due diligence, empathy, assertiveness and independence. These properties are the preconditions for the exercising her professional competence. And, last but not least, they are expected- from patients to relatives and members of the nursing and medical International Journal on New Trends in Education and Their Implications April 2014 Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Article: 08 ISSN 1309-6249 Copyright © International Journal on New Trends in Education and Their Implications / www.ijonte.org 88 team as well. According to how gender has been surveyed, we can conclude that it does not affect the quality of a good nurse. But at the same time we noted how, in the choice of work conditions, the gender does affect some fields of health care areas, as the respondents marked the emergency room, medical care and psychiatry to be the most masculine while they attributed nursing care in paediatrics, administrative work and gynecology more as a female workforce. This is also confirmed by Evans (2004), who states how the presence of women in psychiatric wards and emergency rooms has been more noticeable than in other areas of health care.

The purpose of the study is to analyze the attitudes of pre-service teachers towards mainstreaming before and after the informative studies about mainstreaming within the scope of special education courses carried out with primary mathematics pre-service teachers. The problem sentence of the study was determined as “What are the effects of informative studies regarding mainstreaming within the scope of special education courses carried out with primary mathematics pre-service teachers on the attitudes of pre-service teachers towards mainstreaming?” The design of ‘pretest-posttest with single group’ was used among quantitative data collection tools in the present research. This study was carried out with 38 pre-service teachers, 18 female and 20 male who are senior students in Marmara University, Educational Faculty, Teaching Primary School Mathematics Department in 2010-2011 academic years during fall semester. ‘Attitude Scale for Individuals who are affected by inabilities’ was used for the solution of the problems which was dealt with during the study. It was concluded that initially, people with disabilities were perceived as different from others by pre-service teachers, but then people with disabilities were not perceived as different from others by pre-service teachers. With this result, it is seen that the study which was carried out within the scope of special education course have a major role. It is concluded that the study increases the awareness level of students and change their point of views positively.

This study reports part of the initial findings of my PhD research project, the primary objective of which is to explore lecturers’ and students’ perceptions towards their English abilities and practices in English-medium instruction universities located in two provinces of Turkey. This paper only reports the perceptions obtained from the lecturers based on the following themes: their personal and language background, views on their own and students’ English proficiency, and finally on their language use particularly in academic contexts. The participants include a small number of lecturers based in the following universities: Boğaziçi, Fatih and Middle East Technical Universities. The participants are from the faculties of Economic and Administrative Sciences, and Engineering. The data were collected through online questionnaires. The findings revealed that overall they held a positive view of their English skills, and attached more importance to being intelligible users, though their goals slightly differed for speaking and writing.

In this research, it is aimed to investigate the metacognitive skills and scientific story writing skills of science teacher candidates. For this reason, the research was conducted with 80 science teacher candidates studying their 3rd year in one of the governmental universities in Turkey. The participants were expected to display a number of metacognitive skills and to make an interesting introduction to the lesson to capture students’ interest as a result of their science and technology laboratory applications. Hence, the participants were asked to write a scientific story concerning heat concept which can be used in the beginning of the lesson. In addition, their metacognitive skills were measured with a Likert type scale. In the analysis, a rubric will be used to evaluate individual scientific stories. Also, metacognitive skill scales will be analyzed via SPSS. The correlation between the scores of metacognitive scale and scientific stories will be determined and recommendations will be given upon the findings.

In this paper I consider the contours of a transformative research paradigm with pragmatic twist. I offer an account of various ways of activating transformative paradigmatic intentions to contribute to social justice. I propose that situating one’s research work within a social justice agenda in the field of education requires taking cognisance of the necessary impact of all research on the way in which people envisage and activate possibilities for enhancing educational quality. I also show how this links up with a particular way of seeing pragmatism as an epistemological stance, where “validity” is closely tied to furthering equitable social outcomes. I refer to an instance of embracing such a paradigmatic orientation in (inclusive) educational research, by focusing on the principles and practice of a research project undertaken in South Africa (Nel, Romm, and Tlale), where we re-tuned the remit of a larger international project.

Parents’ individual characteristics have an important role on children’s development and their acquisition of fundamental skills. This study aims to investigate the self-compassion, humor styles and alexithymia levels of parents with autistic children. The sample of the study consists of the parents of children diagnosed with autism who were also attending private special education centers in İstanbul. In the study, the Self-compassion Scale, the Humor Styles Scale and the Toronto Alexithymia Scales were used and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the causal relationship between the scales. The results revealed that over-identification subscale of the Self-compassion Scale and the aggressive humor subscale of the Humor Styles Scale are positive predictors, and the mindfulness subscale of the Self-compassion Scale is a negative predictor of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale total scores, the difficulty identifying feelings subscale and the difficulty describing feelings subscale scores. In addition, it is also revealed that self-enhancing humor variable is a positive predictor of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale total scores and the externally-oriented thinking subscale.

New geometry program in Turkey was developed by TTKB and became effective in 2009. The most significant innovation contained in the program its use of synthetic, vectoral and analytical approaches simultaneously towards proof in geometry. In addition the program encourages geometry teachers to make common the use of all these approaches among students instead of conventional synthetic approach. The first graduates of this program completed their education 2013. Analysing the use of approaches by these students in solving problems is siginificant in that it may provide useful insights about the efficiency of the program. The study aims at identifying proof strategies preferred by students and the reasons for their choices. For his aim 51 senior high school students attending three different Anatolian High Schools participated in the study. They were asked to answer two questions which can be solved through using all three approaches towards proof. They were also asked to indicate the reason for their choice of the approach they used. The findings of the study showed that majority of the students used the synthetic approach while solving the problems.

Inclusive education embraces various activities that aim to help the socialization of children with antisocial behavior and act as protective factors for reducing the risk of antisocial behavior. Pedagogues, psychologists and educators from different institutions play major role in the management of such activities. They are not only the organizers but also mentors, whose influence is crucial to the effectiveness of inclusive education. On the other hand, their motivation depends on their attitude towards their clients - delinquents. That makes the study of the stereotypes that pedagogues, psychologists and educators have toward the group of minor and juvenile delinquents of high importance. Their stereotypical perception can turn into а barrier to effective implementation of programs for inclusive education, stigmatizing them in a negative way. This paper presents a study of the stereotypes in a sample of the so-called public educators engaged in activities, which are conducted by the Anti-nuisance commissions of minor and juvenile offenders. The model SCM (Stereotype Content Model) is used, which is developed by S.Fiske, P.Glik and A.Cuddy. The survey results show that the negative stereotypes of children - delinquents are prevalent. That conclusion outlines the need for specialized training for professionals, engaged in the activities for inclusive education of minor and juvenile offenders.

This study aims to identify the perspectives of junior elementary science teacher students towards chemistry as a science. To accomplish this reason, 51 first year science teacher students studying in one of the governmental universities in the west part of Turkey were included in a survey investigation. Students’ habits, daily life concerns, wonders and initial considerations related to chemistry were collected with an instrument developed by the researchers. Descriptive statistics method and content analysis were utilized to analyze data. The findings represent a whole picture of the participants’ habits, daily life concerns, wonders and considerations related to chemistry. Based on the findings, a number of suggestions will be provided for science educators which will be beneficial to improve the vision of junior teacher students in terms of chemistry aspect beginning from their first year in the university to increase their academic success and to contribute their future occupational needs.

In the process of English language learning the issue of acculturation inevitably appears since the members of a minority culture come into contact with the culture and language of a majority culture.This phenomenon of acculturation and its effect on second language acquisition is to be observed not only with the Bulgarian learners of English but also with all the other ethnically represented groups in our society. This article studies the way the dilemma whether to resist or to conform to the cultural norms and the specifics of the English language is represented both by Bulgarian schoolchildren and by pupils from other ethnic groups. The difference in their results will be indicative of the degree to which the inclusive English language classroom has succeeded in giving equal opportunities for English language acquisition to all the children in the Bulgarian primary school.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the correlations between foreign language anxiety, coping with stress and personality characteristics in higher education learners. The study was carried out with 399 learners (164 females and 235 males). The learners' age ranged between 17 and 32, and the mean age was 19.30. The data collection instruments used in the study were Personality Test Based on Adjectives, Scale for Coping with Stress and the Anxiety Scale for Foreign Language Learning. Pearson's conduct moment correlations and independent samples t test were used to analyze the data. Statistical analyses revealed that the mean anxiety scores of the males and females did not differ significantly. Moreover, there was not a significant correlation between coping with stress and personality characteristics.

The study investigates the relationship between mathematical knowledge and cognitive and metacognitive processes exhibited by 83 students from Grades 6, 7, and 8 who engaged in a set of model-eliciting activities in groups of 4-5 students each. The data sources include audiotapes of their group work, worksheets, and notes. The findings indicate that the groups in each grade use different mathematical concepts. While they employed cognitive and metacognitive processes, these differed in number and distribution. The highest percent of cognitive processes and lowest percent of metacognitive processes occurred amongst the Grade 6 students. The lowest percent of cognitive processes and highest percent of metacognitive processes occurred amongst the Grade 8 students. The Grade 6 students’ metacognitive processes indicate that they exhibited greater awareness than regulation and evaluation skills. Conversely, the Grade 7 and 8 students employed more regulation and evaluation processes.

The transformative-pragmatic paradigm as applied in this paper has as one of its principles an emphasis on partnerships between researchers and participants, with the understanding that participants are themselves co-researchers who shape the research process. This paper elaborates on this starting point and indicates how in a particular research project undertaken in South Africa to examine the implementation of inclusive education, the initiating researchers (Nel, Romm, and Tlale) conducted focus groups with the intention of encouraging collaboration of various kinds. Collaboration as a way of thinking and organising is particularly important in the field of inclusive education. This paper shows how we, with teacher participants or co-researchers, set up collaborative processes at various levels, including: · between researchers and teacher-participants (co-researchers), · between teachers as part of institutional level support teams in schools, · between teachers, the district support team and others in the Department of Education.