The aim of this research is to determine differential item functioning (DIF) by hierarchical linear modeling (HGLM) on test items and comparing these results by the DIF results determined by logistic regression (LR) and IRT-likelihood ratio (IRT-LR) techniques. Investigating the concordance between the techniques in determining the items with DIF, we have found significant relations between items with DIF determined in Turkish and Science sub-tests using LR and IRT-LR. In Social Studies test, we have found significant relation between the results of the HGLM and LR, HGLM and IRTLR, LR and IRT-LR techniques. The number of items with DIF per gender determined by all three different techniques has been found to be almost half of the number of test items. Though all the level of the items determined by LR technique have been negligible, with IRT-LR technique only a very few of the items have been found with negligible DIF. Comparing the Social Studies and Science sub-tests with Turkish sub-test using HGLM technique, more than half of the items have been found to have DIF. Turkish sub-test has the maximum number of item with DIF.

The purpose of this study is to examine the predictive power of attachment styles and gender on negative social emotions such as shame, guilt, and loneliness. The sample consists of 360 (183 female, 177 male) students attending to different departments of Marmara University. Th e Relationships Questionnaire, Guilt-Shame Scale, and UCLA Loneliness Scale were used as instruments. Results obtained from hierarchical regression analysis showed that gender has a predictive power on shame, solely. When the predictivity of attachment styles on negative social emotions was examined, the results revealed that shame was predicted by secure and dismissing attachment style, whereas guilt was predicted by only dismissing attachment. Furthermore, all attachment styles played a determining role on loneliness.

The aim of this study is to analyse whether there is a significant relationship between moral judgment competence and empathic skills of the students studying at Uludağ University. In this article, the results of two researches carried out on two diff erent samples are presented. In the first research, data were collected using David's Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and Lind's Moral Judgment Test (MJT) and the participants were 68 female and 61 male students between the ages of 20 and 29 (average: 22.85) who are studying in different departments in the Faculty of Education at Uludağ University. The second research was conducted on 294 female and 141 male students between the ages of 18 and 30 (average: 22.30) who are studying in different faculties of Uludağ University. Data were gathered by using Dökmen's Empathic Skill Scale (ESS) and Lind's Moral Judgment Test (MJT). In the two separate studies there was no significant relationship between students' moral test points and their general empathy points. The analysis of the relationship between the moral judgment test points of students whose Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) points are between the top and bottom 27 percent segments revealed a significant negative relationship (r=.45.6; p> 0.01) between the points students got from the 'personal distress' subscale and the ones they got from the 'workers' dilemma' subscale of the moral judgment test. Data were discussed in accordance with the relevant literature that focuses on the relationship between moral judgment and empathy.

The aim of this study is to explore high-school school mathematics teachers' topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge. First, 639 high-school students were asked to give explanations about "a0 = 1, 0! = 1" and "a ÷ 0" where a ≠ 0. Weak explanations by the students led to a detailed research on teachers. Fifty-eight high school mathematics teachers in Northern Cyprus were the participants. They were asked to write how they teach the above topics to high school students. The researcher determined some categories and themes from the written explanations of the teachers using inductive content analysis. Then, three pre-service mathematics teachers had a four-hour training on deductive content analysis. The pre-service teachers went over the written explanations independently and used the pre-determined categories and themes to code the explanations in a deductive way. The results indicate (χ2) that experienced teachers propose more conceptually based instructional strategies than novice teachers. The results also indicate that strategies proposed by all the participants were mainly procedural, fostering memorization. Hence, giving teachers the opportunity to view and teach mathematics in a more constructivist way and more emphasis on topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge in teacher training programs are recommended.

Modernization efforts in education, which were initiated in the 19th century, can be seen as forerunners of the modernization attempts in the Republic period. In this article, Greek education system in the Ottoman Empire will be discussed and the eff ects and importance of the changes observed in Greek girls' education in 19th and 20th centuries on the modernization period of the Ottoman Empire will be emphasized. Greek girls' education system is examined in terms of the schools in Istanbul. In the secular Greek education system, education of girls was considered highly important. The underlying reasons were the social change emerging in Europe and the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, recognition of the importance of women in the said change and the need to train teachers for schools that were increasing in number every day. The courses taught and methods used in Greek girls' schools played a major role in the reproduction of Greek nationalism by means of education. State authorities that closely watched these developments perceived them as a threat against their political existence, as a result of which inspection on these schools were increased; however, some of these models were also adopted for modern Ottoman education. Furthermore, increase in number of these schools caused competition, which accelerated the opening of Muslim schools. Innovations and developments in the Greek girls' education are significant in perceiving and evaluating the Ottoman education system as a whole. As a matter of fact, this period, which lasted throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, presents us with important clues, which will help us in understanding the education system of today.

The aim of this research is to investigate and evaluate elementary student teachers' perceived information literacy self-efficacy in terms of the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). Th e relational survey method which determines the relationships between two or more variables was used in the research. The data gathered from 1801 student teachers who are attending at the fourth class of Departments of Computer and Instructional Technologies, Science, English, Elementary Mathematics, Grade, Social Studies, and Turkish Education in the Faculty of Education in Atatürk, Ondokuz Mayıs, Marmara, Gazi and Dokuz Eylül universities with using the ICT survey and perceived information literacy self-eff icacy scale (ILSES). The use of the ICT survey consists of questions related to student teachers' demographic information and ICT usage. Th e ILSES consists of question about perceived competencies on searching, using and producing the information. Frequency, arithmetic mean and one way ANOVA were used to analyze the data. For the significant results in p <.01 level, Scheff e test was used to find out which groups have caused the diff erence. Th e findings of the research revealed that most of the elementary student teachers use ICT frequently, at least at intermediate level and access ICT from multiple locations. Furthermore, elementary student teachers' computer experience; skills and frequency of computer and internet use, access opportunities to computer and internet has significant effect on their perceived information literacy self-efficacy.

The purpose of this study was to investigate classroom management and discipline problems that Information Technology teachers have faced, and to reveal underlying reasons and possible solutions of these problems by considering the views of parents, teachers, and administrator. This study was designed as qualitative study. Subjects of this study consisted of 14 school administrators, 14 teachers, and 17 parents. Three different, but parallel, semi-structured interview schedules were used for data collection. Data were analyzed through the use of content analysis method. As a result of this analysis, the problems associated with classroom management were grouped under following themes; lack of motivation, breaking the rules and routines, lack of infrastructure, insuff icient time management, ineff ective classroom environment, and lack of interaction in classrooms. On the other side, participants related these problems with following reasons; place and structure of the course in the curriculum, classroom environment, classroom size and lack of hardware, lack of rules, home environment and parents attitudes, lack of teachers' management skills and students attitudes. Finally, following solutions were suggested to overcome disciplines and classroom management problems; improvement in teachers' qualification, regulation at place and structure of the course in the curriculum, organizing motivational activities, using software which controls computers usage in classroom/lab, reorganizing classroom/ lab sitting plan, giving punishment, ignoring misbehavior, understanding reasons behind problems, meeting with parents and providing coordination among different subject communities (Zümre) in schools.

The principal aim of this study is to classify research on geography education performed in the process from 2000 to present, shed light on research hereafter, and determine the fields of geography education which should be given priority. The items that constitute data of this research are obtained as a result of data scan. As a result of archive scan, 33 magazines and papers submitted in the 20 national and international congresses and symposia between 2000 and 2009 are examined. Furthermore, post-graduate and PhD theses prepared in the field of geography education between stated dates are determined. Then, the obtained data were subjected to analysis of frequency, percentage, application and content to evaluate. In the analysis of data, these articles, papers, and theses were encoded depending on place, date, and number of publication and classified under 9 different subject titles. Consequently, a large part of studies were determined to have been in the fields of learning activities, measurement-evaluation, and program development.

In this study, the Classical test theory and generalizability theory were used for determination to reliability of scores obtained from measurement tool of mathematics success. 24 open-ended mathematics question of the TIMSS-1999 was applied to 203 students in 2007-spring semester. Internal consistency of scores was found as 0.92. For determination of interrater consistency, Kendall's concordance coeff icient was calculated as 0.52. Generalizability coefficient for mathematics scores was 0.92 and phi coeff icient was 0.90. The variance component of raters accounted for 2.1% of the total variance. According to all results, it was seen that measurement tool of mathematics success was reliable for determination of students' mathematics success. Although there was a difference between means of four raters' scores, it was found that there was consistency of their scores.

This study aims to compare the effects of activity-based instruction and traditional instruction on fifth grade primary school students' conceptual development of probability. The study was conducted through quasi-experimental method and carried out with 50 5th grade primary school students, 25 for experimental group and 25 for control group. The Conceptual Development Test consisting of 12 open-ended questions was administered to the students in the study before and after the treatment. Data were analyzed using independent samples t-test, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). It was determined that activity-based instruction was more eff ective in helping students develop the probability concepts than did traditional one.

The purpose of this study is to determine the preferences of Turkish academicians about the values of the most positive and negative characteristics that they want to see in their children, students, and colleagues. In this study, Bacanlı's (2002) 'the most positive' and 'the most negative' adjectives data gathering tool is used to collect the data. Th e population includes 75.000 academicians from public and private universities. Moreover, the sample, which consists of 3400 academicians, is selected by using systematic sampling. The survey method is used and frequency, percent, and Chi-square are conducted to analyze the data. When the results of the study are considered, the academicians valued that the most positive characteristics of their children is to be "honest," of their students is to be "hard-working," and of their colleagues is to be "open-minded." However, the most negative characteristic of their children is to be a "liar", of their students and colleagues are to be"inconsistent" in their behaviors.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between transformational school leadership and ethical climate. Th e participants were 764 teachers in 50 elementary schools in Nigde during the 2008/2009 academic year. Two distinct instruments were used in this study. The Principal Leadership Style Inventory developed by Leithwood and Jantzi (1991) was used for determining principals' transformational leadership style and the Ethical Climate Questionnaire developed by Victor and Cullen (1988) was used to determine the ethical climate. Pearson product correlation coefficient and simple regression techniques were used for data analysis. Results showed that principals carried out fostering group goals the highest and holding high performance expectations the lowest among transformational leadership dimensions. Elementary schools had caring at the highest level and instrumental at the lowest level as ethical climate types. All dimensions of transformational leadership were positively related to caring, law and code, and rules ethical climate types. The highest relationship was found between all dimensions of transformational leadership and caring ethical climate type. Instrumental ethical climate was negatively related to providing vision or inspiration, models behavior, fostering group goals, providing support and providing intellectual stimulation. Instrumental was not significantly related holding high performance expectations. Th e highest negative relationship was found between instrumental and providing support, models behavior. Independence ethical climate was positively related to providing support, intellectual stimulation and holding high performance expectations. Independence was not significantly associated with providing vision or inspiration, models behavior and fostering group goals. School transformational leadership was a significant predict of ethical climate. A simple regression analysis showed that approximately 40% of the total variance pertaining to ethical climate can be explained by transformational leadership behaviors.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the implications of Media Literacy Education (MLE) in Turkey by analyzing the Primary School Curricula in terms of MLE comparatively in Turkey, Ireland and Finland. In this study, the selection of Finland and Ireland curricula is related with those countries' being the pioneering countries in MLE and the structural differences in their curricula. In other words, the selection of these countries serves as a model in terms of approaching to MLE as a separate course (Turkey), in a strand unit (Ireland) and interdisciplinary manner (Finland). The method used in this study was document analysis. The documents analyzed in the study were the Primary School Curriculum of these countries and also documents, such as reports, books and journals, published by governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working on Media Literacy Education. Since a standard MLE for European countries does not exist, the curricula of Primary school education of Turkey, Ireland, and Finland were analyzed and interpreted in terms of (a) general outcomes and learning outcomes of the curricula, (b) content, (c) learning situation (methods and techniques) and (d) assessment and evaluation strategies. Th is study revealed that in the vision of Primary school curricula of Turkey, there are not any objectives related to MLE unlike Finland and Ireland Curricula. When analyzed the curriculum of each course this study also revealed that the objectives related to MLE are only implemented in Turkish Curriculum (1-5). On the contrary, in Ireland there are objectives related to MLE in English, Visual Arts, Mathematics, Irish language, and mostly in Science and Social Personal and Health (SPHE) curricula and it is included in the objectives of core curriculum in Finland. In addition to this, the objectives and learning outcomes of Turkey's MLE curriculum seems to aim at gaining knowledge and understanding the issues although they are focused on developing attitude, skills and values; and also developing active citizenship, intercultural communication, critical thinking skills and creativity in Finland's and Ireland's curricula. Considering the findings of the study, it is suggested that MLE should be a skill-based teaching rather than a stand-alone subject in Primary school curricula.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of teaching by utilizing cartoons on student success in the Turkish language courses in primary school secondary level students. Working group of the study consists of 54 students studying in primary state school in Sakarya province Hendek district. In the study, the 'Rule and Concept Test on Sound Knowledge' was used with Cronbach α value of .72. Mann Whitney U Test and Wilcoxon Test were used in analysis of the data. Moreover, an interview was conducted with the experimental group students. The QSR NVivo 7 program and content analysis were used in analysis of qualitative data. In the research, it is determined that teaching students with caricatures increases the Turkish language success; helps motivate them in the course; and increases participation, compared to the traditional method. Some suggestions are proposed on the use of cartoons in Turkish language grammar.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficacy and feasibility of using website in biology education. We have explored the World Wide Web as a possible tool for education about health and nutrition. Th e websites were teaching tools for primary school students. Control groups used the traditional educational materials as books or worksheets, and the experimental groups used prepared web-site as an educational tool. This experimental study confirmed the eff icacy of computer-based nutrition education in nutrition knowledge. Nutrition knowledge score of the experimental group was statistically non-significant as compared to control group both in posttest and retention test, which means that using website in nutrition education has similar eff ect on nutrition knowledge as traditional teaching. This, traditional teaching is still valuable compared to ICT approach in nutrition education.