The purpose of this paper is to investigate how preschool children learn English a second language and literacy in early years. English as widely spoken language has prestigious in many societies. Thus, parents and teachers have appetite for their children and students to learn English. This study was conducted between October and January in a private nursery in Siirt, Turkey. The participant children are 5 and 6 years old. There are different bilingual education models applied in early year education. This paper will discuss these models by focusing on the concept of translanguaging on which recently scholarships have focused. This will be used to examine the children’s language learning and their interactions with teacher and peers in the classroom. Ethnography was the research methodology of this paper. The findings show that flexible language use allow the children to develop their second language learning. The paper suggests a flexible language model for learning English as a second language.
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This study was carried out to examine the effects of task complexity on text easibility and coherence in narrative writing of EFL learners. Data were collected from 41 Turkish EFL learners during a writing course. Task complexity was operationalized at two levels as a complex and simple task based on the resource-dispersing variables of Robinson’s the Triadic Componential Framework, +/- task structure. Accordingly, a colorful picture was first illustrated on the board, and students were asked to examine the picture for five minutes (complex task /-TS). They were then asked to write a story based on the picture they had seen (simple task /+TS). Two weeks later, they were given a sheet involving 16 pictures designed in an order and asked to narrate a story based on these pictures. Their essays were analyzed by the researcher and another rater in terms of coherence through an analytic rubric. An automated program was used to evaluate the essays for text easibility indices involving the indices of narrativity, syntactic simplicity, word concreteness, referential cohesion, and deep cohesion. The results analyzed with a Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed that complexity of the task had a statistically significant effect on some indices of text easibility such as word concreteness, and referential cohesion, whereas other indices, narrativity, syntactic simplicity, and deep cohesion, and coherence in their writing production were not affected by the complexity of the task at a significant level. However, it can be concluded that students’ texts produced in simple tasks are easier to comprehend.
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A recent systematic review of experimental studies conducted in Turkey between 2010 and 2020 reported that small sample sizes had been a significant drawback (Bulus & Koyuncu, 2021). A small chunk of the studies in the review were randomized pretest-posttest control-group designs. In contrast, the overwhelming majority of them were non-equivalent pretest-posttest control-group designs (no randomization). They had an average sample size below 70 for different domains and outcomes. Designing experimental studies with such small sample sizes implies a strong (and perhaps an erroneous) assumption about the minimum relevant effect size (MRES) of an intervention; that is, a standardized treatment effect of Cohen’s d < 0.50 is not relevant to education policy or practice. Thus, an introduction to sample size determination for randomized/non-equivalent pretest-posttest control group designs is warranted. This study describes nuts and bolts of sample size determination (or power analysis). It also derives expressions for optimal design under differential cost per treatment and control units, and implements these expressions in an Excel workbook. Finally, this study provides convenient tables to guide sample size decisions for MRES values between 0.20 ≤ Cohen’s d ≤ 0.50.
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In this study, measurement and assessment literacy levels of teachers were investigated in the context of certain factors. Assessment literacy inventory was applied to 189 secondary school teachers to determine teachers' measurement and assessment literacy levels. The item examination skill test was applied to 54 secondary school mathematics teachers to determine the relationship between secondary school mathematics teachers' measurement and assessment literacy levels and their skill to examine items appropriate to attainment and grade level was analyzed. It was as well as discovered that measurement and assessment literacy level of the teachers was low. It was also found that measurement and assessment literacy levels of the teachers significantly differ by professional seniority and branch. A moderately significant positive correlation was found between the teachers' skill to examine items appropriate to educational attainment and grade level, and their measurement and assessment literacy levels. Due to the low measurement and assessment literacy level of secondary school teachers, studies such as seminars or trainings on this subject can be conducted. Practical activities can also be conducted along with the theoretical information on the subject.
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The concept of energy, which is one of the concepts directly related to vital activities, increases importance day by day with the increasing technology, industrialization and population. For this reason, the concept of energy learned in primary, secondary and higher education programs has a privileged place in science education since it is both an abstract and interdisciplinary concept.The aim of this study is to reveal the cognitive structures and to determine misconceptions of pre-service teachers related to the concept of energy. Qualitative research method was used in the study.The research was carried out with 95 pre-service teachers studying in the 3th and 4th grade of the faculty of education, science education program of a public university in 2018-2019. Word association test and drawing-writing technique were used to collect data.The data are categorized according to content analysis. The model of the pre-service teachers' cognitive structures on the concept of energy was prepared with the Vue program. Results shows that 7 categories were created from the word association test in the conceptual structures of pre-service science teachers regarding the concept of energy. In this context, it has been determined that the cognitive structures of pre-service science teachers are concentrated in the "Energy types", “Scientific terms that evoke the concept of energy” and "Energy sources" categories. In addition, with the data obtained in the study, it was determined that pre-service teachers had misconceptions about the concept of energy. Some of the misconceptions detected in pre-service science teachers are; There are three types of energy: potential, kinetic and mechanical, Only living things have energy.
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This study aims to investigate the impact that teaching incorporating free problem posing activities has on elementary freshmen’s attitudes toward mathematics. As such, this study employs an embedded mixed methods design which includes quasi-experimental design. The participants of this study consisted of 33 elementary freshmen at a university in the Marmara region of Turkey during the fall semester of the 2017-2018 school year. The participants were selected using convenience sampling. The study’s data were collected using two instruments: the mathematical problem posing performance file and the mathematics attitudes scale. Quantitative data of the study were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistic while qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. Quantitative findings revealed there to be a statistically significant difference between the pretest and the posttest scores for the entire mathematics attitudes scale and for the interest-love sub factor. The qualitative findings, however, indicated that freshmen’s opinions could be grouped into two main categories: the affective dimension and the cognitive dimension.
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The aim of this phenomenology research is to define the perceptions of middle school mathematics teachers about internship trainers (mentor teachers and university supervisors). The perceptions of participant teachers about internship trainers are examined under three main themes: (i) the importance and contributions of internship trainers in their professional development, (ii) internship trainers' approach to internships and prospective mathematics teachers, (iii) characteristics that internship trainers must have. The results indicate that middle school mathematics teachers have very negative experiences and perceptions about internship trainers.
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Teacher agency, considered as an element of teacher identity, has become a concept upon which studies have elaborated recently. However, academic research studies on this concept carried out in Turkey is highly limited. Indeed, there is not a compromise even on the Turkish equivalent of the concept. In this study, in which ‘öğretmen etkenliği’ is adopted, the issues of Turkish meaning of teacher agency, its relation with teacher identity, emergence of the concept and its definitions, its theoretical foundations, characteristics of agentic teachers, related areas of research such as educational changes and professional development, and research studies on teacher agency carried out in Turkey are elaborated on based on an extensive literature review. In addition, in the conclusion, how teacher agency can be developed is discussed in the contexts of arrangement of teachers’ work contexts, in service training and pre-service teacher education. With this study, it is aimed to offer a comprehensive source about teacher agency in Turkish to form a basis for future studies to be carried out in Turkey.
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Memet KARAKUŞ, Nihan ARSLAN NAMLI, Ali Kemal UĞUR, Nilgün SAKAR, Seray DOĞRU ORAL
Memet KARAKUŞ, Nihan ARSLAN NAMLI, Ali Kemal UĞUR, Nilgün SAKAR, Seray DOĞRU ORAL
The aim of this study is to analyze the Curriculum and Education Departments (CED) offering postgraduate education in Turkey and the subjects of postgraduate and doctorate theses written in this field between 1974 and 2017. The lectures given in 28 universities with postgraduate and doctorate programs, the academic personnel, and the terms of acceptance to and graduation from the postgraduate education were taken into consideration. Written until 2017, totally 1599 theses (1162 postgraduate theses and 437 doctorate theses) were examined. Among 28 universities, the ones employing highest number of academic personnel were determined to be Gazi, Middle East Technical, and Hacettepe Universities. The most frequently offered courses were found to be related with “Curriculum Development” and “Curriculum Assessment”. The general average of score required to pass to these phase was determined to be minimum 2.00 for postgraduate and 2.50 for doctorate. Examining the theses from the aspects of themes, it was determined that the fields, on which the theses were written most frequently, were “Curriculum”, “Approach, strategy, and method”, “Attitude and value education”, and “Thinking Education and Learning Strategies”. Based on the study results, it is recommended to carry out the qualitative studies on this subject on a wider sample. © 2019 AUJES. All rights reserved
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In this study, The Math and Science Engagement Scales developed by Wang et al. (2016) was adapted to Turkish in the context of science course and, the validity and reliability studies were conducted. The original version of the scale consists of 4 dimensions and 33 items. These dimensions are; cognitive engagement, behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, and social engagement. During the adaptation phase, the items were translated into Turkish by three experts. The Turkish forms were examined and the draft form of the scale was obtained by the researchers. Then, the two experts of the two languages were examined through the language equivalence expert form for word usage and cultural suitability. The participants of the study consisted of 519 students in 6., 7., and 8. grades studied at two secondary schools in a small scale city in the south east of Turkey during the 2019–2020 academic year. The convenience sampling method was used to determine the participants. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied to the data obtained after the implementation. The fit index values obtained as a result of CFA (χ2 / df = 1.75; RMSEA = 0.038; SRMR = 0.049; RMR = 0.072; CFI = 0.98; NFI = 0.96) show that the 4-factor structure of the scale is acceptable. As a result of the reliability analysis, the Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of the Turkish form of the scale was 0.90 and the Guttman Split-half coefficient was 0.81. Finally, it can be said that the validity and reliability of the 33-item and 4- dimensional Turkish form of the scale adapted with this study can be used to determine student engagement in science classes. Add your abstract here.
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