Language is the most basic tool for communication. There are four basic areas of skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Each skill has a special importance in itself. Therefore, development of all skills will be beneficial for individuals. Writing skill is separated from other skills in that it has permanency. With writing, knowledge transfer could be realized through ages. People used the writing skill at points where oral expression was insufficient. Although writing skill is so important, it is the most challenging skill. This shows that writing skills should be developed with new methods in which students will be more active, rather than with traditional methods. The traditional method gives importance to the product that is produced at the end of the writing process instead of the writing process. However, this method prevents the development of writing skills in students. Nowadays, new methods have emerged out of the traditional method, and these methods gave importance to the process, not to the product. One of the methods that prioritize the process is the 4 + 1 Planned Writing Model. This model aims at the development of the student's writing skills and the active participation of the students in the process. When the fact that even the students whose native language is Turkish have difficulties in writing is considered, it is obvious that writing skill will become even more difficult for students who learn Turkish as a foreign language. These students' alphabets may be different and this may force them to improve their writing skills according to other skills. In these respects, it will be easier for those who learn Turkish as a foreign language to develop their writing skills with 4 + 1 Planned Writing Model. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of 4 + 1 Planned Writing Model on the development of writing skills and writing self-sufficiency levels of students. The participants of the study, in which the pre-test post-test empirical model was used, were 12 students who learnt Turkish as a foreign language. The study lasted 10 weeks. In the study, the data related to the development status of students' writing skills were obtained by evaluating the texts written by the students at the beginning and at the end of the study. The data related to the writing self-efficiency were collected by the Writing Self-Efficacy Scale. The statistical analysis of the data was made by SPSS 21.000.

The aim of this study is to compare the messages in the narrative text written by first- and fourth-grade preservice Turkish teachers in order to assess their positive or negative views. To this end, 13 first- and 13 fourth-grade students of the Turkish Language Teaching Department of Van Yüzüncü Yıl University were asked to complete a narrative text. Data were analyzed using content analysis. Texts were assessed both as a whole and as a unit. Result showed that fourth graders used more positive sentences than first graders. The analysis of sentences as a whole revealed a difference between male and female participants. However, it was not statistically significant. The analysis of sentences as a unit revealed that male participants had significantly more positive views than female participants. The reasons for the significant difference between first and fourth graders are that before starting higher education, students have high expectations, which are, however, not fully met, and various reasons arising from universities or cities. The difference between male and female participants might be due to the fact that the latter have higher expectations and are more perfectionist than the former.

Virtual reality, although it is in the real world, is a three-dimensional simulation model that brings users to a different environment with computer-generated graphics, video and audio, and enables communication with the media. Virtual reality is the imitation of the physical structure from a real-world or an imaginary world in a computer-generated environment. Augmented reality is the combination of the real world with the virtual world, the creation of enriched environments using virtual objects, the combination of physical reality and digital holograms, or the creation of a virtual world suitable for the purpose by using digital products. The aim of this study is to determine the opinions of teacher candidates studying in the faculty of education in terms of augmented reality, virtual reality and digital games depending on some demographic variables. The working group of the study consisted of teacher candidates studying in different departments of the Faculty of Education of Mustafa Kemal University in 2018-2019 Academic Year. Mixed model and General survey model were used in the study. In order to determine the opinions of teacher candidates, Using Digital Educational Plays Scale was used as a data collection tool. As a result of the research, there was no statistically significant difference between the opinions of the teacher candidates about the use of digital educational games in terms of the affective component, perceived usefulness, perceived control and the scale generally in terms of the scale, however, however, it has been concluded that there is a difference in favor of women in sub-dimension of affective components. In addition, in the research, teacher candidates were not afraid to use computer, but they were afraid of playing computer games.

The teaching of life skills has an important place in primary school programs which are the first step in gaining basic knowledge and skills about life. Since 2004-2005, life science teaching has been established to provide basic life skills. In this context, it is important that classroom teachers who will gain these skills should be informed about these skills. This study examined what pre-service teachers understood from the concept of “basic life skills”, how they dealt with the concept and what they associated the concept with. For this purpose an open-ended questionnaire was administered to 132 pre-service primary school teachers studying at Gazi University and Ankara University in the 2017-2018 academic year. The screening model was used in the study and the data were gathered by descriptive analysis. As a result of the research, it can be said that even if the majority of the class teacher candidates hear "basic life skills", the rates of hearing the concept of “basic life skills” in the life science course are low. In addition, basic life skills are often defined as “maintaining daily life” and “meeting their own needs without needing anyone else”. However, it has been observed that the class teacher candidates perceive the concept of “basic life skills” as “self-care skills” in general. In addition, pre-service primary school teachers pointed out that the teaching of life skills could be done by using different methods and techniques that are effective by the student, and they also emphasized the context of family, school and environment.

Turkish textbooks are important tools for gaining skills and competencies identified in curriculum. Textbooks should be designed to contribute to students’ basic language skills as well as high level thinking skills in alignment with curriculum. The texts to be selected for textbooks should be prepared in alignment with the targeted skills and learning outcomes in terms of visuals and content. Textbooks kids encounter during elementary education play an important role in their upbringing as individuals with reading habits in later phases of their education. Therefore, texts to be included in textbooks should be selected carefully to reflect the best examples of text types, to be compatible with the child’s language and meaning universe, and should be understandable. In this study, the readibility levels of texts in Turkish course textbooks were analyzed. Readibility levels reveal the comprehensibleness of texts. Readability depends on the number of words in a sentence and syllables in a word. First the average word and sentence length were calculated and then the readibility scores of texts were calculated. Two formulas adapted to Turkish were used in identifying the readibility levels of texts. The findings were analyzed comparatively. The results showed that the readability levels of narrative texts are easier compared to informing texts.

The purpose of this study is to determine the varying effect sizes of teachers’ perception and opinions about organizational citizenship behavior in accordance with gender. All quantitative studies dealing with the organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) of teachers in Turkey is taken into the scope of the meta-analysis. 38 studies included in this review were collected from the National Thesis Archive, ULAKBIM, Google Academic, ERIC and EBSCO databases. Total number of samples in this study composed of 18954 (teachers); 9622 of which are female teachers whereas 9322 of which are male teachers. In addition, several variables such as publication type, publication year, the region used for the research and educational level, instruction level, scale type and researcher’s gender that could not be included in the evaluation as a moderator in primary researches were analyzed. In accordance with the results of this study, an effect size with statistical significance at an insignificant level was determined on the part of female teachers according to fixed effect model (d=0.02) and random effect model (d=0.03). In the consequence of the moderator analysis conducted, and educational level (p=0.75) were determined to be moderators. Moreover, effect sizes obtained from the studies showed that gender difference has a tendency to decrease by year. No effect of the region in which the research was conducted (p=0.31) the scale type used for the study (set or developed) (p=0.90) publication type (p=0.29) and the researcher’s gender (p=0.97) as a moderator was determined. As a result, gender may not be recommended to be used as a significant variable for the future studies dealing with teachers’ opinions about OCB. Apart from the gender variable, meta-analysis studies can be conducted using personal and professional traits, which are expected to affect teachers' OCB perceptions. 

The aim of this study was to determine how efficiently different countries, comparatively, use educational inputs, which are considered to affect information and communication technology literacy. The study was designed using the survey model. The study was conducted with data belonging to 21 countries participating in the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICIL) 2013. The data of this study were grouped as educational inputs and educational outputs. The educational inputs were the ratio of school size and teachers, the ratio of school size and number of computers, the ratio of school size and number of computers available for students, the ratio of school size and number of computers with access to internet/World Wide Web, and the ratio of school size and number of smartboards. The educational outputs were determined by the average student grades obtained in ICILS 2013. The data were analysed with data envelopment analysis. The research results revealed that relatively, Australia, Canada (Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario), Denmark, Korea, and Norway were the countries with total efficiencies. It was determined that with the exception of the Czech Republic, all the countries without total efficiencies had the characteristic of increasing returns to scale. According to the projections that were put forward for countries to become totally efficient, the most reduction recommendations were received for the inputs for ratio of school size and teachers by Argentina (Buenos Aires); for ratio of school size and number of computers, ratio of school size and number of computers available for students, and ratio of school size and number of computers with access to internet/World Wide Web by Turkey; and for ratio of school size and smartboards by Thailand. That is to say, these countries were the ones least able to use these inputs efficiently.

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of cooperative learning and models on the conceptual understanding of the chemical reactions. The sample of study was comprised of 71 preservice science teachers from the first grade of science teacher education program. Quasi- experimental method with pre-and post-test of quantitative research was used. This study was carried out at General Chemistry Laboratory I course and was applied to two experimental and one control group. At the first experimental group (CMG, n=25), cooperative learning and models were implemented together, and cooperative learning was implemented on the second group (COG, n=23). On the other hand, there was no intervention on the control group (CG, n=23), in which traditional laboratory model was used. To collect data, Chemical Reactions Concept Test (CRCT) was utilized. It was found that cooperative learning with models increased the conceptual understanding about chemical reactions in this study. 

The aim of this study is to review the relationship between the time management skills and cyberloafing behavior of school managers. Descriptive survey and relational research models were used in this research. Data was collected from 181 school managers at official elementary schools, secondary schools, and secondary education schools in the district of Nizip in Gaziantep during the 2017-2018 school year. A “Time Management Scale”, which looks at time planning, the effective use of time and the dimensions of time traps together with a “Cyberloafing Scale” which is composed of both significant and insignificant cyberloafing dimensions were used as data collection tools in the research. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The research concluded that the better the school managers were at time planning and using their time effectively, the less prone they were of falling into time traps. In other words, the better their time planning and effective use of time, the more their significant and insignificant cyberloafing behavior decreased.  As a result of the regression analysis, it was seen that only time traps, among the sub-dimensions of time management, significantly predicted cyberloafing behavior.

The purpose of the current study is to reveal the effect of teaching the phrase-meaning relationship through digital storytelling on academic achievement and retention. The study employed the mixed method. In the quantitative part of the study, the factorial design, one of the experimental designs, and in its quantitative part, the case study were simultaneously used. The study group of the current research is comprised of 8th grade students attending two different classes. As the data collection tools, a personal information form, an academic achievement test and an open-ended questions form (OEQF) and a semi-structured interview form administered to the experimental group students were used. In the analysis of the qualitative data, descriptive statistics such as arithmetic means, standard deviations, percentages and frequencies were used. The normality of the data distribution was tested through skewness and kurtosis coefficients and these coefficients were found to be between +1 and -1. Moreover, the z statistic calculated by dividing the skewness coefficient by its own standard deviation was tested. As an additional proof to the normality of the distribution, Shapiro Wilk test was administered; and the equality of the variances was tested with Levene test. In the within and between-groups comparisons of the pretest and posttest achievement scores of the experimental and control groups and their retention test scores, two-way variance analysis  was used. The data collected through the OEQF and interviews conducted with the experimental group students were analyzed by using the content analysis and descriptive analysis techniques.In the current study, it was concluded that the instruction given to the experimental group students for them to understand the phrase-meaning relationship by using the digital storytelling more positively affect the secondary school 8th grade students’ academic achievement and retention of what they have learned when compared to the traditional means of instruction given to the control group students.  

Students are expected to recognize the vocabulary items appearing in a text in order for reading to be meaningful. The evaluation of word recognition is commonly considered in educational applications in order for reading to be meaningful for students and to identify and correct mistakes.  This study aims to exhibit the effectiveness of the inventory whose stages of preparation and implementation were process-based and which was developed for word recognition on determining the first graders’ word recognition levels. For this purpose, the Type 1 development research type of design and development research model was used to develop an instrument for students’ word recognition levels and thus to demonstrate its applicability. The study group was composed of 85 first graders who had been chosen in convenience sampling method. Student Information Form, Word Recognition Inventory-1 (WRI-1) and Word Recognition Inventory-2 (WRI-2) were used as the tools of data collection. Variance analysis (ANOVA) and independent groups t-test were used in comparing the students for WRI-1 inventory which met the conditions for normal distribution whereas Kruskal Wallis and Mann Whitney U-test were used in comparing the students for WRI-2 inventory which did not meet the conditions for normal distribution. Consequently, it was found that the inventories, whose stages of preparation and implementation were process-based and which were developed to determine students’ word recognition levels, were effective in determining the primary school first graders’ word recognition levels.

This study examines the occupational problems of educational branch managers in local educational directorates as well as their expectations and suggestions on these problems. The study aims to reveal the problems of the branch managers regarding their occupational rights, assignments and duty place changes, roles and status, and their rise in their career steps based on the participants’ opinions and suggestions. In the study, a phenomenological model was used, and qualitative data was collected via standardized open-ended interviews. The working group, determined by snow ball sampling, was composed of 61 branch managers working in 30 different provinces and seven different regions across Turkey. The findings of the study revealed that the branch managers working in local directorates think that their salaries are lower than other educational managerial positions; their workload is quite heavy; they don’t have enough authority, although they have too many responsibilities. The participants also made suggestions for increasing branch managers’ salaries and wages by granting seniority, authority and special service compensation; raising additional indicators for retirement; and having more in-service, postgraduate and doctoral training opportunities. More than 2000 branch managers work in local educational directorates in Turkey however no scientific research about the problems of this local staff has been carried out so far. This study is likely to be the first specific research entirely carried out for local educational branch managers. By means of the study, it is also expected that the occupational problems of this managerial position will be better noticed in local educational management system.

The goal of this research is to detect the opinions of secondary school administrators regarding the use of mobile technologies for educational purposes. 15 secondary school administrators form the participants of this research. The data of the research are collected in the fall semester of the 2017-2018 educational year. The work is designed through the qualitative research model. The personal information form and the semi-structured interview form are prepared by the researcher while collecting the data. The data obtained have been resolved by using the content analysis method. According to the obtained findings from this research; secondary school administrators have expressed that they use mobile learning in their teaching practices “in need of momentary information”, “momentary communication”, and “in the transfer of the audiovisual data used in the courses to the smart board”. The administrators have expressed that while choosing the mobile technologies they take into account the content of the course and the features of the action which is going to take place during the course. It has been stated that with the use of mobile tools for educational purposes, there has been seen positive changes in the teaching activities and that the courses has started continuing more effectively and efficiently, and that they benefit from the audiovisual materials more during the course, and that by moving away from the traditional teaching method the student starts learning more active and enjoys.

This study aims to explore Turkish young woman’ family triangulation experiences. The phenomenological research design of the qualitative tradition was utilized. The sample of the study comprised 10 Turkish young women who were selected through convenience sampling. During the data collection, semi-structured interviews were preferred. Data analysis were also conducted via content analysis. Participants reported insufficient problem/conflict solving ability of their parents where causes mediator role of children. Holding a parental role, defending the one parent as participants perceive he/she is weak, and feeling caught in the middle were the factors in relation to mediating pattern. A number of participants described the children and fathers in their own families as scapegoats. Coalitions were one of the most frequently reported theme and mainly indicated mother-children pulled in and father ‘outsider’ form of a triangular relationship. Triangulated children expressed emotional reactance of angry, distant and disappointment as they play a mediating role during the conflicts. Only one participant was able to act without dragging into conflicts and maintained a balanced position of triangulation. Moreover, all findings of the current study were briefly discussed in the context of the value of children theme as it is the fact that material/economic expectations of parents sharply decrease, and emotional expectations increase from children.  

In the age of globalization and information and technology, changes as in all the fields of human life are being actualized in the education systems, too. It is of great importance for the teachers who are the most notable agents to transfer the changes to the next generations to be equipped with skills and knowledge so called 21st century skills in their pre-service education and start their profession. In this respect, the prominence of these skills in pre-service teacher education curriculum is a subject to be considered. With the constant emphasis on technology age, Computer and Instructional Technologies (CEIT) teacher candidates should have 21st century skills in terms of their contribution to their students as well as the schools they will work in. In this study, the “Multidimensional 21th Century Skills Scale” developed by Çevik and Şentürk (2019) was applied to 123 teacher candidates studying CEIT Department of Gazi University, Gazi Faculty of Education in 2018-2019 Spring Semester. The CEIT curricula were also examined in terms of their inclusiveness about the 21st century skills. The analyses of the scale indicated that CEIT teacher candidates’ scores are generally high for the scale overall but highest in Career consciousness and lowest in Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills sub-dimensions.  It is also seen that 21st century skills are generally reflected in the CEIT curricula with the courses and their contents especially in the updated curriculum which shows that curriculum development processes were performed according to the changes and needs in the world. Further studies could be conducted for the efficiency of the updated curriculum in the following years.

This study seeks to assess how Turkey’s Ministry of National Education has implemented strategic management and planning by examining the views of upper-level administrators employed in Ministry’s central and provincial administrative bodies concerning the strategic management which is a legal obligation for all educational institutions across the country. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 upper- and middle-level administrators. The findings on participants’ responses to the research questions were subject to descriptive analyses. The findings of the study are interesting as reveal that the top down reforms and legal obligations do not guarantee adequate and effective implementation in practice. Upper- and middle-level administrators emphasize that a strategic management and planning culture has not been established in Ministry of National Education and the strategic management and planning process has become a weak formality, which increases the workload rather than being an effective management tool. The study revealed that instead of strategic management and planning being to a technical process, measures need to be taken to facilitate its transformation into a cultural process. Strategic management and planning needs to consider together as a whole every stage of each process. The centralist approach should be abandoned and local mechanisms’ areas of influence need to be increased. It is an important research area that more comprehensive evaluation of the centralist strategic management approach based on strategy transfer from the center to the local level.