The aim of this research was two fold. First is to compare three different types of primary schools (i.e., boarding primary, bussing primary, and regular) students' behavior-adjustment problems and second is to investigate the environmental and psychological predictors of these students' school success. The sample of the study consisted of 438 students of whom 203 were females (Mage = 11.24) and 235 were males (Mage = 11.46), recruited from the primary and secondary levels of eight years of compulsory education. Results showed that especially the primary level boarding school students` total adjustment scores were lower (S (2, 425) = 2.93, p < .05) and their problem behaviors (internalizing (S (2, 425) = 4.13, p < .05), externalizing (S (2, 425) = 4.03, p < .05) and total (S (2, 425) = 12.42, p < .05)) were higher than those of the secondary level boarding school students. However there were no significant differences among the levels in bussing school. Grade level (F (5, 242) = 4.61, p < .05), family structure (living together, separated, and divorced) (F (5, 242) = 4.61, p < .05), attitudes towards school (F (10, 242) = 4.64, p < .05), perceived family support (F (10, 242) = 4.64, p < .05), total adjustment (F (14, 242) = 13.55, p < .05), internalizing (F (14, 242) = 13.55, p < .05), externalizing (F (14, 242) = 13.55, p < .05) and total problem scores (F (14, 242) = 13.55, p < .05) significantly predicted the students' school achievements. The results indicated that boarding school students were the most disadvantageous group among the others in terms of behavior problems, social support, and school adjustment. However they seem to cope with these disadvantageous conditions and attain their counterparts' school success under supportive conditions.

The purpose of this study was to develop the Career Search Self-efficacy Expectation Scale (CS-SES). The study was based on the measurement of career search selfefficacy expectations among adolescents (between 12-16 years of age). Two study groups participated in the present study. The first group consisted of 40 students, 20 of whom were 8th grade students and 20 of whom were 9th grade students. The second group consisted of 1098 voluntary students, 581 were females (52.9%) and 517 were males (47.1%). In terms of class status, 503 (45.8%) were 8th grade students and 595 (54.2%) were 9th grade students. The age of the students ranged between 12 and 16 years. The conceptual framework of the scale was based on the Bandura's Self- Efficacy Theory (1977; 1986) and the five career maturity dimensions of Super and Overstreet (1960) devloped out of the Self-concept Theory (Super, 1957). For the construct validity of the CS-SES, the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. The results showed that the CS-SES was comprised of four simple and stable factors. To determine the reliability of the scale and its subscales, itemtotal correlation, internal reliability, and test- retest correlation coefficiencies were calculated. Item-total correlations were found to vary between .32 to .46. Cronbach alpha and test-retest correlations value were found lower than the criteria values. These findings were discussed in the light of previous studies and suggestions were given to researchers for further studies.

In this study, the results of educational activities based on social learning theory in improving scientific attitudes among primary school students were investigated. An experimental and control group design was used with students who attended 7th grade classes at three different schools. By determining two control groups, the teacher effect was minimized. In the experimental group, social learning theory based activities were carried out; however, in the first and second control groups, activities in the curriculum of science lessons were given. The data were gathered by administering the scientific attitude inventory, academic success test, and socio-economic level inventory as pre-and-post tests along with a permanency test. The results showed that educational activities based on social learning theory were more effective in improving students' scientific attitudes. Moreover, academic success was an important variable in the process of evaluating scientfic attitudes; but gender and socio-economical levels were not.

This study focused upon elementary school teachers' perceptions of and attitudes towards educational research. The research was conducted in primary schools in Trabzon, Rize, Gümüşhane, Artvin and Bayburt which are cities located at the Eastern Black-Sea Reagon of Turkey. A total of 265, 161 male and 104 female, elementary school teachers, participated in the study. Participants had teaching experiences between 1-5 (34%) and 2-onwards (29.8%) years. In the study, a mail survey was developed in which there were four demographic questions and 22 questions (21 multiple-choice and one open-ended), about teachers' perceptions of and attitudes towards educational research. The questionnaire concentrated on issues such as the aim and importance of educational research, whether the teachers follow the research, if they do so, whether they understand academic language of the research, the attitudes towards educational research, and who should conduct educational research, and etc. One of the important results of the study is that teachers believe that academicians carry out educational research but they also believe that they need to be researchers as well. The other crucial result is that statistically significant differences were not found between demographic variables and teachers' perceptions of and attitudes towards educational research. Based on the findings, it is suggested that teachers should be active researchers in order to be able to understand and develep their teaching. To achive this goal, academicians and teachers can work collaboratively on how to undertake research so that teachers can carry out their own research in the future.

In this research, depression and adjustment levels of adolescents between ages 1518 in secondary education and having both broken and unbroken families were analyzed in respect of social support and family constitution. The role of family constitution and social support on depression and adjustment level were investigated. Instruments were conducted on 203 adolescents selected from secondary schools in Kocaeli Provincial Centre, 101 of which are from unbroken families and 102 of which are from broken families. Of the students, 104 were male (%51.2) and 99 were female (%48.8). A mean age of the oarticipants was 16.46 years. In the study, “The Hacettepe Personality Inventory” was used to collect the data about adolescents' adjustment levels and “The Beck Depression Inventory” was used to collect the data about their depression levels. The Perceived Social Support Scale was used to collect the data on students' perception of social support and personal information form was used to determine family constitutions. It was found that the perception of social support and family constitution considered to be influential on depression and the adjustment levels of adolescents from broken and unbroken families composed a significant diversity between groups. As to this finding, it was observed that the adolescents from unbroken families are more adaptable in respect of their personal and social adjustment levels than the students from broken families. It was also determined that perceived social suppport has a significant effect on depression and adjustment levels. It was stated that as social support increases, the adjustment level increases likewise and depression levels decreases; the adjustment level has a linear correlation with social support contrarily an inverse correlation with depression.

The term called “360° Performance Feedback Process” is usually used in the context of personnel administration. It means to assess the system and the employees with multi-source and continuous understanding in the methodology of performance evaluation. The purpose of this paper is to assess teachers' classroom management practices in pre-school educational institutions through 360° Performance Feedback Process and discuss the applicability of it. For this purpose, two kinds of scales were developed by the researcher. The first was about the classroom management activities designed by pre-school teachers and the second was related to the opinions of families on pre-school education for the parents. The scales were administered to teachers (n = 33) working in the Pre-school education institutions in Bolu, administrators (n = 26), supervisors (n = 24), and parents (n = 35) in order to identify the opinions of the related groups about the applicability of 360 Degree Feedback Process. The data were analyzed by frequency, percentage, t-test, analysis of variance, and Tukey HSD tests. Findings showed that there were some differences among the opinions of teachers, administrators, and supervisors related to the efficiency of classroom management practices of the teachers. Parents found classroom management practices of the teachers very successful and they declared that their children acquired desired behaviors in the pre-school institutions.

This study examines and classifies the metaphors that prospective teachers formulated to describe the concept of “teacher”. 485 male (39.7%) and 737 female (60.3%) teacher candidates (n = 1222) participated in the study. Specifically, the following questions guided this study: (1) What metaphors do prospective teachers use to describe the concept of “teacher”? (2) What conceptual categories can be derived from these metaphorical images? (3) How do these themes differ across participants' program type and gender? Participants completed the prompt “A teacher is like . . . because ...” by focusing on only one metaphor to indicate their conceptualization of teaching and learning. The data were analyzed both qualitatively (i.e, inductive analysis) and quantitatively (i.e., chi-square test). According to the results, 111 valid personal metaphors and 10 main conceptual categories, based on the participants' metaphorical images, were identified. Also, significant differences were detected between participants' gender and program type with regard to the six dominant conceptual themes. The study concludes that metaphor is a powerful research tool in gaining insight into prospective teachers' professional thinking about teaching and learning.

The aim of this study is to adapt university students' the intellectual development scale, which takes the Perry's Model as its basis, into Turkish. The scale, developed by Katung et al. is based on the three stages of Perry's Model (dualism, multiplism, and relativism). The purpose of the scale is to obtain university students' thoughts on some factors (i.e., student, lecturer, the nature of knowledge and examinations) that directly affect the learning processes. Thus, the scale ıs desıgned to determine university students' intellectual development levels. By doing so, instructors will have a chance to both determine their students' intellectual development levels and take appropriate measures in order to promote them to higher intellectual developmental levels. The first step in the study was to get permission from the developers of the scale. Thereafter, the items of the scale were translated into Turkish by the author and another researcher who is familiar with both cultures. The translation validity of the scale was examined by preparing translation harmony rating forms and referring to the views of English and Turkish language experts. Once the final form of the scale had been derived, an English language expert re-translated the items of the scale from Turkish to English. The results obtained from this phase indicated that the Turkish scale closely approximated the original English scale. After the translation and language validity of the scale had been insured, the Turkish scale was administered to 150 volunteer university students (i.e., freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior) of whom 72 were females and 78 were males. These subjects made up the sample for the reliability analyses of the Turkish scale. The results obtained from this phase were compared to those of the other investigations in which the same scale was used the comparison manifested that the results were in accord. In addition, the Turkish scale was re-applied to a gpoup of freshman students in the sample after one month and test-retest reliability coefficient was found to be .94. It was also accepted that the scale had a natural validity resulting from the process used to develop it.

The pre-school education of children with special needs is necessary for their social acceptance and integration to the society. This necessity is determined by the laws in Turkey and its continuity is based upon the integration. This study aims at describing the opinions of pre-school teachers on the pre-school education of children with special needs through integration. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Qualitative data were analyzed descriptively. Thirty female preschool teachers who were working for the Ministry of National Education, in a province center in Middle Anatolia Region during the academic year of 2002-2003 participated in the study. All the participants were teachers who had students with special needs. According to the findings, all the teachers in the study think that children with special needs should have pre-school education. Most of the teachers indicated that pre-school education should be given through integration for children with special needs. Furthermore, the teachers in this study expressed that they were not qualified on integration and the working conditions were insufficient.

This research was evaluated conversation and story reading and telling activities used by pre-school education teachers and determined the results related to these activities. A hundred pre-school education teachers, working in private and public primary schools and kindergartens in seven municipalities in Istanbul, participated in this study. A questionnaire composed of some demographic information, items related the research topic, and an observation form prepared for the conversation and story telling activities were used to collect the data. The questionnaire form was filled out by the teachers but the observation forms were rated by the researchers, observing the teachers during the conversation and story telling activities. The teaching methods implemented during the story and conversation activities by the teachers were compared according to school types. Demographic information of the teachers was analyzed with frequencies and percentages. The opinions of the teachers working in the private and public kindergartens were compared and contrasted with chi-square. Also correlation values between the information gathered from teachers and the observation results of the researchers were computed. The results revealed that the discussion during conversation, traveling and observation-experiment methods, problem solving, and sample case methods during story telling changed according to school type. Also it was determined that role playing technique during conversation activities and the question-answer technique during story activities were implemented by the teachers according to both the researchers' observation and the teachers own reports. There is no relation between the teachers' expressions and the observers' opinions regarding the other techniques.