This study was undertaken to develop a "scale for causes of conflict in the classroom" that will assess and identify the causes of classroom conflicts in university students. Construct validity of the scale was tested by exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and it was determined that the scale consisted of 8 factors. In the Scale for Causes of Conflict in the Classroom, the first factor consisted of 9 items, the second factor consisted of 8 items, third factor consisted of 7 items, fourth, fifth and sixth factors consisted of 4 items each, and seventh and eight factors consisted of 3 items each. After examining the item structures that the identified factors consisted, the following factors were selected: appreciation of the student by the teacher, teaching-learning environment skills of the teacher, student behavior, communicative skills of the teacher, personal characteristics of the student, fair treatment by the teacher, biased behavior by the teacher and teachers' obeying the classroom rules. Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient values for each factor and the whole scale were found to be ,91; ,90; ,84; ,87; ,82; ,85; ,77; ,63 and ,95, respectively. After the scale was developed, 350 students from the department of education were administered the scale and the causes of conflict were determined according to student views by taking means and standard deviations into consideration. In order to identify the effect of individual variables, t-test, one-way analysis of variance and Scheffe tests were used. Analysis showed that the variables of gender and department attended by students resulted in significant differences in student perceptions whereas the variable of classroom did not affect the perceptions of students.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the cognitive (learning level) and affective (volunteering to study together, attitude towards the teacher and the lesson) changes which are caused by the differential classroom environment designed for the poetry subject in a Turkish lesson of the 6th grade in elementary education. Theory testing technique of case study which takes place in qualitative research was applied in this research. This research was implemented on 22 students who attended sixth grade in a private school in Istanbul. Differentiated teaching design, which was prepared by using station and interest center strategies, was exercised in the subject of poetry in a Turkish lesson for two teaching periods. Data which were obtained via in a depth individual interview with the teacher, focus group interviews with five students, and direct observations were analyzed with structured reporting method. According to the findings, differentiated teaching has a positive impact on children's learning. In addition, it increases the interests of children towards the lesson, help them develop friendship relationships, and augments mutual aid behaviors.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate pre-service teacher training of a faculty of education based on graduates' responses. The teachers who were the graduates of this institution and currently have been practicing teaching in schools. The study used an instrument entitled as the Pre-Service Preparation of Teachers to Teaching. The instrument was developed by Darling-Hammond (2006). The sample of this study included 228 teachers who were the graduates of Faculty of Education in Marmara Region and were teaching in elementary and secondary schools around Turkey. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis was carried out for validity of the instrument. Five factors were emerged. The results of CFA indicate a good fit. Cronbach alpha and split-half reliability procedures were used to establish reliability. The subscales were found to be reliable. These factors were highly and positively correlated with each other. The teacher responses were compared on these five factors based on gender, experience, teaching level, location of the school, number of students in classroom and school, socio-economic status of schools, and whether teachers had a master's degree or not. t-tests and one-way ANOVAs conducted to see whether there were differences among groups. Teachers indicated that the pre-service training they had received in the faculty of education prepared relatively well on supporting different learning styles. Secondly, they rated equally program and teaching and teaching and learning competencies. They rated professional development the third while they rated their preparation as the lowest on creating a productive classroom. Recommendations were made based on these findings.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether students' meaningful causal thinking abilities vary with their academic achievement levels, reading comprehension abilities, and gender. The sample of the study consisted of 124 ninth grade students attending a secondary school in Adana City Seyhan District during 2008-2009 academic year. The Meaningful Causal Thinking Evaluation Test, the Biology Academic Achievement Test, and the Reading Comprehension Test (IOWA) were used to collect the data. The study documents significant relationships between meaningful causal thinking and academic achievement, and between meaningful causal thinking and reading comprehension. On the other hand, no significant difference is found between male and female students' meaningful causal thinking abilities. It is concluded that students' academic achievement levels and reading comprehension scores are significant predictors of their meaningful causal thinking ability, but their gender is not. An individual carries all these characteristics in the same cognitive structure and probably uses them in coordination when he/she needs. Therefore, educational activities can be designed based on the relationship between meaningful causal thinking and academic achievement, and between meaningful causal thinking and reading comprehension.

The aim of this study is to determine what the visually impaired students already know about museums, how museums contribute to their learning and what those students expect to gain from their visits to the museums in Turkey and thus, to enable them to have more valuable experiences. For this purpose, a visit to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations was organized for a group of visually impaired students. The study is a sample case study carried out with a small group. Qualitative data were obtained from interviews, observations, and the compositions written by the students to reflect on their experiences after the visit. The data were encoded according to content analysis and then, categories and subcategories were formed. The results revealed that blind students expect to have the copies of the works of art, embossed forms of the drawings, and some explanations in Braille alphabet. They would like some attendants to inform them about the museums while the other students who suffer from low vision expect to have more spacious and better lighted interiors, contrasting colors in exhibitions, and scripts in large-prints. The study shows that visits to museums are very beneficial for the visually impaired students, but unfortunately the educational activities for those students are still insufficient in Turkey.

The main purpose of this study is to determine the rate of how teachers' subjective wellbeing is predicted by their perceptions about the quality of school life and burnout levels. The participants of the study consisted of 161 teachers (93 females, 68 males) who were working in elementary schools in Adana central districts. The Positive-Negative Affect Scale (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), Life Satisfaction Inventory (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griff in, 1985), Quality of School Life Scale (Sarı, 2007), and Teacher Burnout Scale (Seidman, & Zager, 1986) were used as data collection tools. To analyze the gathered data, stepwise regression analysis was performed. Results of stepwise regression analysis showed that teachers' subjective well-being levels were predicted significantly by the Quality of School Life Scale sub-factors, namely "status" and "curriculum" and burnout scale sub-factor, namely "coping work-related stress." Teachers' life satisfaction levels were predicted significantly by the variables of "status", "coping work-related stress" and "school administrator" which is a sub factor of the Quality of School Life Scale. Also, teachers' positive affect was predicted by the variables of "status", "positive affects towards school" and "teachers," and teachers' negative affect was predicted by the variables of "coping work-related stress", "status," and "curriculum." Other subscales of the Quality of School Life and Teacher Burnout Scales have no significant contribution in the estimation. Results also indicated that the contribution of predictors could be accounted as 39% for subjective well-being; 23% for life satisfaction; 23% for positive affect, and 37% for negative affect. In the direction of these general findings, it was suggested that, in-service education programs about interpersonal relations and coping strategies with stress should be applied for teachers and administrators. Besides that, the quality of life in schools should be increased. On the basis of limited similar studies in the literature, it was suggested that the number of both descriptive and predictive studies should be increased on the topic.

In order to reach goals and continue the ongoing learning process, like other organizations, universities also need the effective use of knowledge management. Knowledge management is an ongoing process and it has to be organized in a manner that is always open to new ideas. In universities where research and development studies play an important role, knowledge management has a very critical importance. Qualitative research techniques have been applied in the study. In the present research, 52 instructors and 25 different members of the board of directors of universities have been interviewed from five different universities. As a result of the comparison statement, results showed board of directors are not using knowledge management tools eff ectively in areas such as the improvement of knowledge, buying of knowledge, share and evaluation of knowledge, and figuring out of lack of knowledge, based on instructors capacity. Accordingly, research stated that board of directors should study the development of knowledge management tools.

Recent surveys show that cyber bullying is a pervasive problem in North America. Many news stories have reported cyber bullying incidents around the world. Reports on the prevalence of cyber bullying and victimization as a result of cyber bullying increase yearly. Although we know what cyber bullying is it is important that we learn more about the psychological effects of it. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to investigate the relationship between psychological needs and cyber bullying. Participants of the study included 666 undergraduate students (231 males and 435 females) from 15 programs in the Faculty of Education at Selcuk University, Turkey. Questions about demographics, engagement in and exposure to cyber bullying, and the Adjective Check List were administered. 22.5% of the students reported engaging in cyber bullying at least one time, and 55.3% of the students reported being victims of cyber bullying at least once in their lifetime. Males reported more cyber bullying behavior than females. Results indicate that aggression and succorance positively predict cyber bullying wheras intraception negatively predict it. In addition, endurance and affiliation negatively predict cyber victimization. Only the need for change was found as a positive, but weak predictor of cyber victimization. In light of these findings, aggression and intraception should be investigated further in future research on cyber bullying.

The aim of the present study is to adapt a scale of self-efficacy towards online technologies which was developed by Miltiadou and Yu (2000) to Turkish. In order to adapt the scale, first, the scale items were translated to Turkish by the researchers. Then, a translation form was further developed by consulting eight specialists. These English and Turkish forms were both responded by 30 undergraduate students at Middle East Technical University, department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology with two-week intervals, respectively. Two forms were accepted as equal since the correlation between them was .89. The Turkish version of the scale was implemented on 276 students who took the course in an online environment for validity and reliability studies. The scale has four factors, which was found as result of the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. In its original form for the whole scale, the Cronbach alpha value was calculated as .95. In the Turkish version of the scale, alpha value was calculated as .94. Th erefore, it can be concluded that the Turkish version of the scale was reliable and valid.

The aim of this study is to test the spiritual leadership behaviors of school principles in a structural equation model. Th e study is designed to test causality with the assumption that causality exists between the two variables. In this study, spiritual leadership behavior of managers is treated as the independent variable whereas the organizational culture is the dependent variable in the model. Population of this research is 2447 primary school teachers who were working in 32 primary schools in Ataşehir-Istanbul/Turkey. Sampling group consists of 359 voluntary teachers defined with (layer) cluster sampling method according to three income levels (high-mid-low). Data are collected in two scales which were originally developed by researcher. Th e Spiritual leadership scale consisted of two components and five subscales (performance: commitment, vision, productive and attendance: belonging, believe). The Organizational Culture Scale consisted of four subscales (managerial, social, value and aim). In order to test the structural equity model designed in the research, path coefficients and defined relations between implied and observed variables are used. Findings show that attendance highly affects performance and, in turn, performance affects school culture at the mid-level. It is suggested that the perception of spiritual leadership be improved in structural equation models in future studies.

The aim of this research is to investigate whether cognitive-behavioral group practices and psychodrama decrease adolescent aggression. This is a quasi-experimental, pre-post and follow up study with two experiments and one control group. The Aggression Scale (Buss & Warren, 2000) adapted to Turkish by Can (2002) was administered as a pretestto 9th grade students of Nezihe Yalvaç Anatolian Hotel and Tourism Vocational High School in Adana. After the administration and assessment of the scale, 36 students who had the highest aggression levels were selected and were randomly divided into three groups. The experimental and control groups each included 12 students. Cognitive behavioral techniques were applied to the first experimental group in 10 sessions, psychodrama techniques were applied to the second experimental group in 14 sessions. No application has been done to the control group. After the groups ended, the Aggression Scale was readministered to all groups as a post test. 16 weeks after ending the groups, the scale was administered one mor time to the experimental groups as a follow up test. Findings were analyzed with ANCOVA and t test for dependent samples. Findings have showed that cognitive-behavioral approach was effective in decreasing aggression scores, except verbal aggression and psychodrama approach was effective in decreasing all aggression scores except verbal physical aggression. ANCOVA analyses showed that cognitive-behavioral approach was more effective in decreasing total aggression, physical aggression, and anger than psychodrama. Follow up test results showed that the effects of group practices on both experimental groups were lasting even 16 weeks later.

The main purpose of this study is to determine the strategies of using the generalizing patterns of the primary fifth grade students. The practice of this research is conducted on twelve students, which have high, middle and low success levels. Task-based interviews and students journals are used as the tools for data collection. For the analysis of the data, a classification method including "data reduction", "data display" and "drawing conclusion and verification" are used. At the end of the research, it is seen that the visual and numerical approaches are adopted in the generalization of patterns and the visual approach is made easy for generalization, as well. In generally, the present strategies in the generalizing of patterns are also taken into account of near or far generalizing. The recursive strategies are used in the near generalizing. However, the explicit strategies are determined in using far generalizing.

This study aimed at learning parents' ideas about the values aimed to be taught in Social Studies lessons in the 4th and 5th grades of the primary education and about values education. Study data were collected by administering "the Values Education I" and "Values Education II" questionnaire forms developed by the researchers. The views of 378 and 387 parents who filled "the Values Education I" and "Values Education II" questionnaires respectively were collected. The results obtained in the light of the collected data are as follows: parents of the students attending at the 4th and 5th grades of primary education used 19 different values to define the values that have to be taught; they listed the reasons of value education as "success, socialization, democratization, self-improvement of the children", "peace" and "necessity to teach these values." Parents deemed both themselves and the school sufficient in terms of values education and they thought that the main responsibility of giving values education belongs first to parents and second to school. Parents gave priority to the values such as "patriotism," "honesty," "attaching importance to family unity," "responsibility," and "hardworking."

Discovering what determines students' success in the Secondary Education Institutional Exam is very important to parents and it is also critical for students, teachers, directors, and researchers. Research was carried out by studying the related literature and structural equation modeling techniques. A structural model was created that consisted of students' mathematics and science scores used by the College of Science Schools in addition to family income, attendance at private test preparatory courses, and parents' educational levels. The study's population consisted of 23,895 students who took the Secondary Education Institutional Exam in Konya/Turkey. The study sample consisted of 310 randomly selected students from the study population. The results show that parents' educational levels have a direct effect, and that increased incomes due to both the father's educational level and a preparatory course attendance have indirect effects on mathematics-science scores.

The purpose of this study is to develop the Metacognition Scale (MS) which is designed for primary school students. The sample of the study consisted of 426 primary school students in Izmir, Turkey. In order to examine the construct validity of the MS, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed. For the validity of the MI, corrected item-total correlations were used. The corrected item-total correlations ranged from .35 to .65. In addition, t-tests between items' means of upper 27% and lower 27% points were compared. For each factor and each item, the differences between mean scores of upper 27% and lover 27% groups are significant. Finally, Cronbach alpha correlation coefficients were used. The internal consistency of the MS is .96 for the entire scale. The MS has eight scales: declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge and conditional knowledge, planning, self-control, cognitive strategies, self assessment and self monitoring. According to these findings, the MS is appropriate for researchers or teachers whose aim is to measure his/her students' metacognitive awareness and metacognitive abilities.

Intended to enhance social skills instruction in Turkey, the present study highlights the process and outcome of creating a Turkish-language version of the School Social Behavior Scales (SSBS), originally developed by Merrell (1993). The social skills of the Turkish pre-and elementary school students were based on the Likert scale. The analyses of the data obtained from 467 students and their teachers were carried out on the linguistic equivalency, item-total and item-remainder analyses, confirmatory factor analyses, criterion validity, and reliability analyses of the Turkish conversion of the SSBS. The results of the analyses of linguistic equivalency reflected significance for each item of p<.001. A level of significance of p<.001 was found by means of the item-total, item-remainder, and discrimination analyses. Reliability values ranging between r=.91 and r=.98 were obtained by the Cronbach coefficient alpha, Spearman Brown, and Guttman Split-Half techniques. These reliability coefficients display a similarity with those for the original version. The data obtained by means of the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (MESSY) and sociometric technique were evaluated and found to bear statistical significance (p < .05). Based on the findings, it may be stated that the Turkish conversion of the SSBS may be used with Turkish samples and that it is a valid and reliable measurement tool.