282 university students were chosen as the study group of this study that aims to develop a scale measuring perceptions regarding national identity. In the development phase of draft scale, after the examination of existing perception scales and literature on national identity, drafts items were written and sent to expert judges. In the phase of scale development, 50 five point Likert items including positive and negative perceptions were written and item total and item remainder correlation coefficients were calculated. On the basis of those analyses, items that were not significant were deleted and factor analysis was carried out on the remaining 40 items to investigate construct validity of the scale. Based on this analysis, a 21-item scale whose two factors account for 52% of the total variance was obtained. Through exploratory factor analysis, the scale took its final form and the Cronbach-alpha coefficient of the scale was found to be 0,93. Analysis showed that the scale has three factors and items’ factor loadings range from 0.45 to 0.76. It was found that the National Identity Perception Scale is for measuring the national identity perceptions of university students.

Many researches have been carried out into thinking education. In the basis of these studies lie two basic ideas. One of them is to prepare a special program for thinking education and the other one is to embed thinking education into a certain curriculum. Examples for such programs are CoRT (Cognitive Research and Trust), H.O.T.S. (Higher-Order Thinking Skills), Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment (F.I.E.), Philosopy for the Children, Tactics for Thinking, Structure of the Intellect (SOI), The Thinking/Learning (T/L) System and Odyssey of the Mind etc. however, almost none of these models present a proposal for concerning general educational system. In the current study, the similarities and differences between Quadruple Thinking and that other thinking models are discussed.

FL reading strategies are crucial for ESP learners as these learners have to deal with various academic reading materials for their academic studies. It is assumed that one’s engagement with awareness and regulation of reading strategies while reading academic materials may also be closely related to proficiency and reading performance in the target language. Although performance on a reading task or test may be an indicator of using effective and appropriate strategies, learners who do well on general reading performance tests may lack using reading strategies effectively when they are reading academic materials. Hence, this study aims at investigating the relationship between FL reading strategy use and performance on different FL reading tests in academic reading settings. For this purpose, 65 ESP students in a Turkish university context participated in the study. Correlation analyses and regression analyses were carried out between the participants’ scores on a reading strategy survey and their scores on reading proficiency and achievement tests. The results have yielded that ESP students in this study used various FL reading strategies while reading academic materials. However, there were weak correlations between FL reading strategy use and performance on both reading proficiency and achievement tests. These findings suggests that ESP students need to employ more and effective FL reading strategies both to handle academic texts and to be successful on various measures related to reading. The findings were discussed in the light of the relevant literature and pedagogical implicatrions were drawn to illuminate futher studies.

The main purpose of the study is to draw a picture of the education system in terms of the curriculum, the physical condition of schools, the attitudes of the teachers and the perspective of the society towards education in ancient Athens and today. Education was an important issue for free Athenian citizens. Athenian children were taught at home, sometimes under the guidance of a master or a paidagogos, until they began elementary education at approximately seven years of age. At school, the children were taught how to read and write, to count and draw. In this study also the importance of the paidagogos and the family structure in the education of the primary school students is investigated. In doing so, the body of the study is based on a literature review, where available the modern sources has been supported by the ancient sources. In this study is compared the ancient times and today's education system. Many similarities and differences were observed.

To assess the effectiveness of autonomous learning, today language teaching has witnessed a promotion of autonomous approaches in language learning and teaching. In order to find out similarities and differences between students’ preferences, this paper drew on an empirical study among 152 third-years students of Hacettepe and Selcuk universities. To study students’ preferences in self-autonomy for language learning, this study investigated students’ preferences in autonomous learning with Likert scale. Results of this paper are expected to provoke a depth research on how to heighten students’ self-autonomy in foreign language learning.

The purpose of this study was to understand the kinds of stressors originating from academic work setting, the influences of those kinds of stressors on academic staff and to know how they overcame stress at work setting. A non-probability sample was used. 12 academic staff -six in Diest Campus and six in Heverlee Campus in KHLeuven University Teacher Education and Training College in Leuven in Belgium- were volunteers working in pre-school, primary school and secondary school programs. A qualitative approach with a multiple case study with embedded units was selected for this study. Semi-structured individual and focus group interviews, participant observations and document analysis of staff’s weekly schedules were used to collect data. Findings showed that there were intensive and various kinds of stress originating from stressors in academic setting and the effects of stress might be either negative or positive. Thus, the outcome of the research addresses important implications for the professional work life of academic staff in understanding how stress influences academic staff’s performance negatively and positively, identifying where negative and positive stress exist in academic setting and knowing how to overcome stressors originating from academic settings.

In order to find out students’ and teachers’ views about foreign language use in different contexts and the relationship between FL (Foreign Language) use and foreign language use anxiety and students overall motivation to learn FL, an empirical study had been done between 62 first-years English Language Teaching students of Hacettepe and English Language and Literature students of Selcuk universities, as well as 21 English Language instructors from both universities. The results of the study represented that in some cases students didn’t like to use FL, also, students who had moderate motivation, showed more interest in university requirements and FL culture. Analysis of the data revealed relatively positive relationship between FL use and FL-use anxiety.

The study aims to examine the application of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) for Depression among Iranian students. Depression is a factor leading to behavioural disorders that can happen to a person in an undesirable incident. To reduce the effect of depression, this study adopted a Cognitive Behaviour Therapy approach to a case of 32 year-old woman from Iran uses stress management and relaxation techniques. A clinical assessment showed that the woman had the highest level of depression among other depressed students. Counselling sessions, observations, and interviews provided qualitative data while Clinical Assessment of Depression Inventory yielded quantitative data relevant to the case. The analysis of the data revealed that the techniques of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy were effective in reducing the level of depression experienced by the client.

The purpose of this study was to develop a “self-assessment scale for effective presentation skills”. The scale was developed via two different research processes. As the intention was to develop the scale via a two-factor construct determined by the researchers in line with the suggestions in related literature, the CFA was carried out on 50 items in the first study for item analysis and item selection. In the second study, the CFA was applied again for the appropriateness of the two-factor 41-item scale obtained in the first study. The sample of the Study-1 was made up of 409 teacher candidates and the sample of the Study-2 included 423 teacher candidates. Finally, the two-factor 41-item scale was tested, and such good values of fit indices as c2/sd: 2.84, RMSEA: 0.067, NFI: 0.90, NNFI: 0.92 and CFI: 0.93 were obtained. The Cronbach Alpha of the scale was found to be α= 0.90.

This paper aims a) to analyze the challenges in teaching aviation vocabulary and radio phraseology at high school level in English language instructors’ perspective and b) to present some recommendations that can help to reduce encountered problems if taken into consideration in the design and implementation of the related syllabus and course program. This study is based on a qualitative research model in which focus group interview is used as the data collection procedure. It is a fact that the challenges encountered in teaching technical vocabulary initiate from the very nature of teaching English for specific purposes to the learners of English as a foreign language. According to the results of this study, the problems occurring in learning environment are classified and analyzed in two main categories: The first group of problems arises from the students’ language competence and motivation. The second originates from instructors who are mostly experienced, therefore more motivated in English language teaching but not in aviation as a technical field.

Spatial skills have a central place in humans’ process of adaptation to their environment. Gaining of spatial experiences in the early childhood constitutes the basis for children’s learning experiences in the following periods. Preschool learning environments provide important opportunities to children (games and communication with friends and teachers) with regards to the discovery of space and learning of spatial skills. This study will therefore focus on the impact of the “Spatial Skills Education Program” on the spatial skills of preschool children. Pretest-posttest control group experimental design will be used for measuring the impact of Spatial Skills Education Program on preschool children. The sample group of the study is construed of 31 children (of ages 60-67 months) attending a kindergarten located in the Üsküdar district of Istanbul. The data for the research has been collected by using the Spatial Perception Scale, Bracken Basic Concept Test, and Spatial Ability Form. The experimental group is construed of the goals and gains defined in the 2006 Preschool Education Program of the Ministry of National Education, the goals and gains defined by the researcher so as to fulfill those of the Ministry of National Education, as well as the 12-week-long Spatial Skills Education Program that consists of activities designed to reach these aims and gains. The Spatial Skills Education Program has been conducted for 12 weeks, two days of the week by the researcher (Tuesdays and Thursdays), and two days (Wednesdays and Fridays) by the classroom teacher. Whereas the Preschool Education Program of the Ministry of National Education has been applied on the control group. For all independent variables, the posttest results show meaningful differences in favor of the children in the experimental group. The research results show that the Spatial Skills Education Program has positive impact on the spatial skills of the preschool children.

This research study aims to examine secondary school students’ mathematical problem-solving attitudes in terms of certain variables. The study was carried out to determine whether the students’ mathematical problem-solving attitudes differ or not in terms of the variables of gender, grade, attending nursery school, parents’ education level and mathematical achievement. The research sample consists of the students enrolled in the different gradesof randomly chosen secondary schools in the European side of Istanbul during 2013-2014 academic year.The research data were obtained using the “Mathematical Problem Solving Attitude Scale” developed by Canakciand Özdemir (2011) and a personal information form. The statistical analyses of the research data were performed with the package program of SPSS 19.0. The research findings are expected to contribute not only to the literature but also to the planning of teaching process taking into account the students’ mathematical problem-solving attitudes. The findings were discussed for further research and researchers in accordance with the relevant literature.

The aim of this paper is a) to analyze the views of the English language instructors at a private university about the positive and negative effects of innovation and change in education on the learning of the students and b) to discover possible improvements in the design of the language courses of prep-classes. This qualitative study with focus group interview data collection method seeks answers to the problems that instructors face in the classrooms in terms of learning outcomes of the students. In Turkey, most private universities accept students who get lower degrees than the others and one year of English instruction is regarded as unnecessary for the students or they lose their interest in the time of eight months. The problems and suggestive ideas are analyzed in two main categories: a) the learning abilities and the quality of instruction in the lessons and b) the motivation, interest and attitude of the students towards English.

The present study examines music teachers’ views about the implementation of music activities in the present curriculum by music teachers who teach at secondary schools in the province of Konya. The present study is a field study conducted with survey model. Sample is formed by randomly selected 30 secondary school music teachers, who teach in the province of Konya. The participants were asked semi-structured questions, and their views based on written statements were interpreted according to the frequencies and percentages. In accordance with the obtained data, it was observed that most of the music teachers conduct music activities in the present curriculum with various implementations. For instance, it was observed that music teachers carry Listening-Singing-Playing activities by singing simple songs, Musical Perception and Grounding activities by practicing on songs, Musical Creativity activities by listening different genres of music with students, and making students express their views related to the music with pictures, stories, or poems, and Musical Culture activities by listening different genres of music and asking students to brainstorm about the genre of the music.

The geometry program which was developed by the Board of Education and began to be used in 2009 brought innovations in the geometry course. Its major innovations is the addition of vectors, transformation geometry, rotation in space and drawings of perspectives. In addition, the order of subjects was modified. The goal of the course is to improve the students’ ability to prove. It is recommended that teachers should employ the synthetic, vectoral and analytical approaches in geometrical proofs. However, new design of the course has led to many problems. The aim of the study is to reveal the reasons for such problems based on the views of the students. To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty senior high school students. The findings indicate that the participants refer to the inconsistency between the current examination system and the geometry program in regard to the problems experienced in the course.

In this study, we investigate of science and technology pre-service teachers' opinions about the methods developed reflective thinking and we determined at the level of reflective thinking. This study is a descriptive study. Open-ended questions were used to determine the views of pre-service teachers. Questions used in the statistical analysis of data for obtained student’s through. Solution to the problems encountered in practice as a method for the production of research so descriptive research approaches used in the survey method. This study was applied Department of Science Teaching at the Faculty of Education students in the third class. Department of ScienceTeaching 32 students participated the study in Bayburt University. The 32 students in the sample and all of the mare 18 female and 14 male. The findings of the study about students opinion for reflective thinking skills that most of the prospective science teachers’ technical reflective thinking skills were beter than critical reflective thinking skills. In the area of critical reflective thinking skills is not at all note worthy. In addition, pre-service teachers have expressed their positive contributions to the teaching skills of the methods developed for reflective thinking. Work towards the development of preservice teachers' reflective thinking skills are complemented by recommendations.

In problem posing, students are faced with complex situations or events and they feel responsible from these situations or events. It is stated from this perspective that it is necessary to carry out problem posing studies and teachers should have a strong perspective for problem posing activities. In this sense, the aim of this study is to evaluate structured problem posing cases of prospective mathematics teachers about Ratio and Proportion Subject’, to determine the experiences (for instance, difficulties) of the prospective teachers during problem posing process and to elicit suggestions regarding the experienced difficulties (if any). For this purpose the data was collected by the researchers through a data form. This developed data form was conducted to 42 primary school mathematics prospective teachers. Prospective teachers were given 40 minutes to fill in this form. In data analysis, ‘Problem Posing Evaluation Form (PPEF)’ which was developed by the researchers for the first part of the data form was used. At the end, the results of the evaluation were presented on the basis of frequency (f) and percentage (%). The content analysis was used for the analysis of the data obtained from the second and third parts. The obtained themes were presented on the basis of frequency (f) and percentage (%) through digitalizing the data for the interpretation of the findings. NVivo 10 software was used in content analysis. In conclusion, it was concluded that prospective mathematics teachers posed clear and understandable problems which were compatible with the mathematical principles and which were in the form of simple and exercise type. Besides, it was concluded that posed problems had solvable problem features. The experiences/difficulties faced during problem posing process were determined as, having difficulties in deciding the numerical expressions that will be given in problems, in ability to construct a different problem other than stated in the example, in ability to construct the text of the problem, inability to recognize the cognitive levels of students and inability to correlate problems with daily life. The solutions which were proposed for the difficulties faced were determined as in the following, solving before the problem which is considered to be posed, constructing problems by using daily life, analyzing similar problems which are considered to be posed and taking them as example, carrying out activities for creating more meaningful problem texts by focusing on how to construct a problem and gaining experience about problem posing.

In Turkey, with 30.03.2012 dated and 6287 numbered Primary Education Law, 4+4+4 system has started to be implemented in 2012-2013 academic years and with this law, English language teaching level is lowered to 2nd year from 4th year in public schools. The purpose of this research is to discover the general perspectives, willingness, positive and negative emotions and experiences of 2nd year grade students with the help of their weekly written diaries. Besides, their teacher’s opinions are asked about the implementation of curriculum and positive and negative aspects of it. For this purpose, the study is conducted in the academic year 2013-2014 with 30 students (7-8 years old) from a public school located in the center of Tokat city and named as Vali Mehmet Özgün Primary School. Also, the researcher individually interviews with this class’ English language teacher. This study generally shows that 7-8 year-old students demonstrate positive attitudes towards English lessons. Students’ are more enthusiastic when they learn a new language with different games and activities in early ages. Furthermore, findings show that 2nd graders curriculum is more appropriate than 4th year curriculum for the level of students.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between student engagement and academic achievement. In another saying, this study aimed at determining the extent to which student engagement explains or predicts academic achievement. The study was carried out with the correlational research. The research sample was made up of 304 students. Student Engagement Scale and Demographic Variables Form were used for data collection tools. For the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, twostep cluster analysis, independent samples t-test and regression analysis were applied. The results obtained via the analyses conducted revealed that there were significant relationships between the students’ academic achievement and student engagement as well as between their academic achievement and especially the dimensions of cognitive engagement, behavioral engagement and sense of belonging. In addition, it was found out that cognitive, behavioral and emotional engagements - that is class engagement - predicted academic achievement and explained it with a rate of 10%.

The aim of English language teaching programs is primarily to improve students’ English language proficiency. The general knowledge or background knowledge students bring to the lessons are important in building language proficiency and for reading comprehension. Also, content or topics covered in language course books have important effects on the learner, such as increasing, motivation, interest, and comprehension. Besides improving language proficiency, language programs can add to the general knowledge of learners by incorporating topics that are new or interesting to the learners. Therefore, this study investigates whether the content of an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading course contributes to the general or world knowledge of students. The data were collected through open ended questions about the topics in the reading books used in the reading lesson. 48 EFL students at an English Language Preparatory School participated in the study. Subjects were at the beginner and elementary level of language proficiency. Participants were asked questions on the topics covered in the units of the reading course book. The results revealed that students already some general knowledge on certain topics before taking the reading course and that most of the topics in the reading lesson added to the students’ general knowledge and.