The main purpose of this research was to reveal the opinions of prospective teachers of special education teacher education program about special education schools and the special education field. This study was used the phenomenological designed. It involved 14 special education teachers of Harbiye Selman Nasir Eskicak Secondary School. The collected data were subjected to data mining by content analysis. Some results had been obtained regarding the dreams and problems and solutions proposed by prospective teachers in a special education institution and special education. It had been found out that prospective teachers design student-centered and differentiate the disability differences among individuals-oriented design when designing special education schools. In addition, they pointed out that there were some problems related to teachers, teaching environment, curriculum, legislation and parents in the field of special education. It had been seen that prospective teachers who produce solutions to these problems have awareness about the field. With the help of the results obtained from the study, suggestions about the special education field were developed.

Child Friendly School (CFS) is a democratic environment based on children's rights, where all students are accepted, teaching-learning processes are organized according to children's interest needs, health, safety and protective measures are taken for children and gender-based discrimination is not provided. Preschool education institutions, which are considered to be very effective on the future of the child and the society, should be child friendly in this way. The aim of this study is to identify the teaching-learning environment of independent kindergartens in the context of a child-friendly. The data of the study was obtained from the independent kindergarten in different socioeconomic environments with “CFS Diagnostic Form”. According to the results, it was seen that in terms of effectiveness, the physical areas and materials of the schools were sufficient, but the places and qualifications that increase the effectiveness of teaching were insufficient; in terms of inclusiveness, all children attend school without discrimination in terms of inclusiveness, but female students have low access to school; in terms of democratic participation, means are used to ensure communication with the environment, in terms of healthy, safe and protective environment, physical requirements are fulfilled, necessary measures are taken, but ventilation and out-of-school safety measures are not sufficient and in terms of gender sensitivity, there is no discrimination based on gender. It has been concluded that the independent kindergartens are largely child-friendly, despite some inadequacies.

The aim this qualitative study is to determine current situation of policy on teacher employment model in Turkey from the perspectives of contracted teachers. The sample of the study consisted of 24 forms and branch teachers who were determined with the method of convenience sampling. The inclusion criterion for the sample was being contracted teachers who were employed in the provinces of Erzurum and Sanliurfa in Turkey in the academic year of 2017-2018. The data of the study was collected by using a semi-structured interview form consisting of open-ended questions. The data was analyzed by using the qualitative research method of content analysis. The findings of the study were discussed under the themes of the objective of contracted teaching, its negative aspects, and the future of the practice and solution recommendations. According to the results of the study, the vast majority of the participants were aware of the objectives of the practice of contracted teaching. The participants thought that the practice provided continuity in instruction-teaching and teachers at the schools they were appointed to. The vast majority of the participants were of the opinion that the practice of contracted teaching led to status discrimination as tenured-contracted teachers, and this reduced their motivations and organizational commitment. They stated that this practice carried negative aspects in terms of postgraduate education and being prospective teachers.

The purpose of the current study is to investigate middle school students’ self-regulation skills and vocabulary learning strategies in foreign language. The sampling of the current study consists of 990 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade middle school students attending state middle schools in the Mentese district of the city of Mugla, Turkey in school year 2018-2019. As the data collection tools, the Perceived Self-Regulation Scale and the Vocabulary Learning Strategies in Foreign Language Scale were used. In the analysis of the collected data, frequencies, percentages, independent-samples t-test and one-way variance analysis (ANOVA), Post-Hoc Tests (Tukey and Dunnett’s C) and correlation analysis were used. The findings of the present study have revealed that the middle school students’ self-regulation skills and vocabulary learning strategies in foreign language are over the medium value. The middle school students’ self-regulation skills and vocabulary learning strategies in foreign language were found to vary significantly depending on gender, grade level, father-mother attitude and level of interest in English course. A medium, positive and significant correlation was found between the middle school students’ total scores of self-regulation strategies and vocabulary learning strategies in foreign language.

This research aims to explore the effectiveness of interdisciplinary education program based on multicultural education on the tolerance value, attitude and critical thinking skills of the fourth grade primary school students. Single group pre-posttest design has been used in the study. The research has been carried out with 30 fourth-grade students, at a primary school located within the district of Karakocan in Elazig during the 2015-2016 academic year. Among the participants, 15 are females and 15 are males. The research has employed Tolerance Attitude Scale developed by Kaptan-Yarar, tolerance value and critical thinking story tests and scoring rubrics. Descriptive statistics and dependent samples t-test have been used during data analysis. Research results have revealed a statistically significant difference between critical thinking scoring rubric, tolerance value scoring rubric and tolerance attitude scale pretest-posttest scores in favor of posttest. Based on these results, it can be said that the interdisciplinary curriculum developed based on multicultural education improves students' critical thinking skills, tolerance value and attitudes.

In this research, leisure activity engagement of students with intellectual disabilities was examined. This study aims to compare the engagement of students with intellectual disability in leisure time activities that they chose with the ones that were selected by their teachers. Four students diagnosed with intellectual disability at the age of fifteen participated in this study. While the dependent variable of the study is the students' engagement in the leisure time activities, the independent variables are the students’ and their teachers’ leisure time activity selections. The study was designed according to the alternating treatments model, which is one of the single subject research models. The study has revealed that enabling students to choose the leisure activities is more effective in increasing the engagement of three out of four participants in those activities.

The flipped classroom model is an educational model in which students study at their homes and reinforce their knowledge in the classroom with exercises and activities. This model is currently being used by many Turkish schools, especially the ones that give information technologies education. In this study, it is aimed to understand the learning experience by using this model in history lessons in higher education. For research purposes, 5 weeks long program was modified according to the Flipped Classroom (FC) model. This program was implemented and the views and opinions of the participants were collected with a semi-structured questionnaire. The study group is comprised of students that took Ataturk’s Principles and the History of the Turkish Revolution (APHTR) Course during the 2016-2017 fall period at Gazi University in Turkey. Phenomenological analysis was used for data analysis. The results show that the most of the participants see many opportunities in this model. These include the permanent learning, entertaining lessons, interaction, functionality, and high motivation. But the model also poses challenges. Those challenges are problems regarding the long educational videos, wrong content, technical problems, and activities. The participants recommended videos to include more animation and to be shorter, and activities to be improved.

In order to create a healthy social structure, there should exist common values and these values need to be transferred to next generations. In this transfer process, education plays a vital role in transferring values in society. Values are personal, moral and social emotions which help a human and a society survive. Being a society-oriented course, social studies has an important place in transferring values. The primary aim of the social studies course in our country is to raise good citizens. One of the duties of educational institutions, which intend to have students acquire behaviors aiming for the wellbeing and beauty of the society, is to give values education. One of the values included in the social studies course teaching program is the value of responsibility in a society. In this study, the 5th grade students' views of the value of responsibility were examined. A total of fifteen students, six male and nine female, participated in the study. In the study, the data collected via the semi-structured interview technique was analyzed according to qualitative research methods. According to the results obtained via analyzing the answers given by the 5th grade students participating in the study, it can be stated that the students had the value of responsibility.

The aim of this study was to investigate the digital literacy skills and metaphorical perceptions of teacher candidates. The mixed approach has been used in the analysis. The quantitative dimension of the study consists of the "Digital Literacy Scale" scores collected from the teacher candidates, and the qualitative component is made up of the metaphors they have developed about the definition of digital literacy. The study was carried out with 297 prospective teachers who are pursuing their education at the Faculty of Education in Turkey. When the results of the study were analyzed, it was found that there was no significant difference between the digital literacy scores of the teacher candidates and the departments in which they were trained, but there was a significant difference in the grade and device ownership variables. The definitions were reached as a result of the study of the metaphors that were grouped under the headings "vitality," "integrity," "guidance," "complexity", and "eternity."

Purpose of this research is to determine the perception of value of national boxers who study in physical education and sports department in universities. The research was evaluated with semi-structured interview method which is one of the qualitative research designs. The research group consisted of 11 national boxers studying at Gazi University Faculty of Sport Sciences, Firat University Faculty of Sport Sciences, Selcuk University Faculty of Sport Sciences and Mustafa Kemal University School of Physical Education and Sports in 2016-2017 academic year. Data were accessed through the Personal Information Form (4 questions) and Semi-Structured Interview Form (3 questions) prepared by the researchers. In the analysis of the data, content analysis method was utilized. As a result, national boxers who received sports science education at universities had value perceptions such as discipline, gentlemanship, self-confidence, respect, cooperation, responsibility, empathy, health, ambition, systematic work, tolerance and protection from bad habits and they also do not tolerate discrimination, violence and doping.

This study aimed to develop an instructional design that focuses on programming teaching for gifted and talented students and to investigate its effects on the teaching process. During the development of the instructional design; the steps of Morrison, Ross and Kemp Instructional Design Model were followed. Embedded experimental design, one of the mixed-method research designs, was used in the modeling of the study. The participants consisted of students studying at the Science and Art Center (BILSEM) (experimental group: 13 girls and 12 boys, control group: 10 girls and 15 boys). While the instructional design developed by the researchers was applied to the gifted and talented students in the experimental group, the standard activities used in Information Technologies and Software Courses at BILSEM were applied to the gifted and talented students in the control group. “Computational Thinking Scale (CTS)”, “Torrance Creative Thinking Test (TCTT-Figural)” and “Computer Programming Self-Efficacy Scale (CPSES)” were used to collect the data of the quantitative phase of the study. Qualitative data were gathered by using interview form, observation forms, and design thinking rubric. Two-Factor ANOVA Test, Bonferroni Adjustment Multiple Comparisons Test, and interaction graphs were used to analyze quantitative data while qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. The quantitative results of the research showed that the instructional design was effective on students' computational thinking and creative thinking skills, but not on programming self-efficacy. Qualitative findings revealed that the instructional design helped the students learn the computational concepts, use computational applications, and develop computational-perspectives. Also, students improved their design thinking skills to a certain level and expressed that they enjoyed the design thinking process, learned the course content, and experienced some difficulties.

This study was carried out to determine the effect of literature circles on the social skills of fourth-grade elementary school students. To this end, the study was designed as a quasi-experimental study and carried out on 74 students in a public elementary school in the Pamukkale district of Denizli, Turkey. The literature circles method was administered to an experimental group for 18 weeks. In the control group, activities continued in line with the current Turkish Course Curriculum. “School Social Behavior Scales” were used as a data collection instrument. A comparison of the scores on the scales revealed that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in favor of the experimental group. The results imply that the literature circles method had a positive influence on the development of the students’ social skills.

Kelley’s Discrimination Index (DI) is a simple and robust, classical non-parametric short-cut to estimate the item discrimination power (IDP) in the practical educational settings. Unlike item–total correlation, DI can reach the ultimate values of +1 and ‒1, and it is stable against the outliers. Because of the computational easiness, DI is specifically suitable for the rough estimation where the sophisticated tools for item analysis such as IRT modelling are not available as is usual, for example, in the classroom testing. Unlike most of the other traditional indices for IDP, DI uses only the extreme cases of the ordered dataset in the estimation. One deficiency of DI is that it suits only for dichotomous datasets. This article generalizes DI to allow polytomous dataset and flexible cut-offs for selecting the extreme cases. A new algorithm based on the concept of the characteristic vector of the item is introduced to compute the generalized DI (GDI). A new visual method for item analysis, the cut-off curve, is introduced based on the procedure called exhaustive splitting.

The study's goal was to examine the correlation between the computer programming self-efficacy and computational thinking skills of gifted and talented students. The capacity of the computer programming self-efficacy of gifted and talented students to predict their computational thinking skills were also examined. The relational screening model has been implemented in the research. The participants of the study were composed of 106 secondary school gifted and talented students studying the Individual Ability Recognition Program (IAR) at the Science and Art Center in the city center. Typical case sampling was applied for the student identification of the participants, 46 are female and 60 are male. Gifted and talented students' computational thinking skills were assessed using the "Computational Thinking Skills Scale” and the computer programming self-efficacy was measured by using the "Computer Programming Self-Efficacy Scale". Data were analysed by Pearson correlation analysis and simple linear regression analysis in statistical software SPSS 22. Research results found that there was a positive and high correlation between the computer programming self-efficacy and computational thinking skills. The gifted and talented students' computer programming self-efficacy demonstrated 31.5% of the total variance in computational thinking skills. This finding supports the claim which is present in the literature that self-efficacy in computer programming is the affective aspect of computational thinking skills. To predict computational thinking skills, it may be recommended to build multiple models for cognitive and affective skills of gifted and talented students.

The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the undergraduate programs implemented in different Foreign Language Departments on the basis of the pre-service teachers’ opinions by using the “Context-Input-Process-Product (CIPP)” model. The current research was conducted on 40 pre-service teachers from the German, Arabic, French, and English Language Teaching Departments of the Gazi Education Faculty of Gazi University in the city of Ankara in Turkey in 2017-2018 academic year. The study was designed according to the qualitative research model. In this regard, the study employed the phenomenological method. As the data collection tool, a semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers was used. In the analysis of the collected data, the descriptive analysis method was used. In the study, the context, input, process and product dimensions of foreign language teacher training programs were evaluated on the basis of student opinions. According to the results, the participants found the program sufficient in terms of reading, writing and listening skills but inadequate in terms of speaking skill. It seems that the participating students think that the foreign language teaching programs generally meet their needs but do not adequately meet their need for developing their speaking skill. It can be suggested that the class hours devoted to the development of the speaking skill should be increased. Arrangements such as using computer-based programs and increasing speaking lessons can be made for students to improve their speaking skill.

Within the scope of the research, which aims to determine the leisure literacy and leisure exercise levels of the university students who volunteer in sports organizations, it is aimed to analyze the relationship and the differences of certain variables with measurement tools, as well as to examine the relationship and impact between leisure literacy and leisure exercise. In this context, 207 sports organization volunteers who participated in the study participated in the data collection, as well as a demographic information form, as well as the “Leisure Literacy Scale” and “Leisure-Time Exercise Scale" was used. In this study, the internal reliability coefficient for the Leisure literacy scale was .94 and .70 for the leisure exersice questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, independent sample t test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test and Tukey (HSD-LSD) test and Pearson Correlation test and regression analysis were used for data analysis. The findings reveal that participants have high leisure literacy (81.25 ± 14.04) and men exhibit more active leisure exercise levels, certain variables change leisure literacy and leisure exercise levels. On the other hand, positive strong relationships between leisure literacy and leisure exercise were determined, and leisure literacy was found to have a positive effect on leisure exercise level. As a result of the research, it can be stated that the volunteer participants who take part in sports organizations and evaluate their leisure time actively, the literacy knowledge, background and action level for their leisure time is an important factor that makes individuals spend their leisure by exercising.

Citizenship is an act of being the ideal member of a society that “maintains and adapts to the culture of this society”, besides having a legal status with the duties and rights that the state imposes on the individual. This study aims to determine the citizenship perceptions of primary school teacher candidates and their ideal citizenship narratives.  The study was carried out according to the mixed research design. Three different measurement tools were used in the research and content analysis method was used for the analysis of data. According to the findings of the study, it was concluded that teacher candidates' perceptions of citizenship and ideal citizenship are similar. Accordingly, it was determined that they participated in the items related to traditional citizenship in the scales, and their perceptions of active/social citizenship were relatively low. It was also determined that all of the teacher candidates mentioned the courses they took during the university process in the differentiation of their ideal citizenship perceptions, and the ideal citizenship narratives were built on traditional citizenship as well as the perceptions of citizenship of the pre-service teachers.

Humans have had to immigrate from one country to another throughout the history because of economic problems, warfare, safety, etc. Warfare and migration definitely bring about traumatic incidents for all humanity. However, they are much more destructive for children. The current study aims to review the warfare-and-migration-themed drawings of the Syrian and Palestinian children living in Turkey as refugees in comparison to the Turkish children’s drawings. A case study design was employed as a qualitative methodology. 19 Syrian, 6 Palestinian and 25 Turkish children aged between 6-10 years studying in various primary schools in City of Istanbul made up the study sample. Children were asked to draw pictures of warfare and migration, observed and interviewed for data collection. Content analysis was used to determine the themes present in the qualitative data. The themes identified in the drawings were discussed referring to the literature and recommendations were made.

Shared leadership enables employees to develop positive feelings for their organizations and themselves. Especially, their devotional feelings and behaviours towards their organizations increase with the sharing of leadership. In this study, the shared leadership of the school and the organizational commitment levels of the teachers, their relationship with each other and the predictive status were examined. This study is a research within relational survey model. The data of the research were collected from 512 teachers in primary and secondary schools in Malatya districts of Turkey in the 2019-2020 academic year. The data were collected through the Shared Leadership Scale and the Organizational Commitment Scale of Teachers. For the analysis of the data, t-test, ANOVA test, correlation and regression analyzes were performed. According to the results of the research, shared leadership and organizational commitment levels in primary and secondary schools are high. There is a positively significant and moderate correlation between the shared leadership of the school and the organizational commitment of teachers. Shared leadership in primary and secondary schools positively and significantly predicts teachers' organizational commitment. For this reason, in order to increase the organizational commitment of teachers; it is important to create a sharing school life, in order to support teachers for the purposes of the organization and to include them in decision-making processes. According to the results obtained, it is recommended that young teachers with lower organizational commitment be given more duties, powers and responsibilities.

The goal of the study is to reveal the effect of activity-based media education on students' critical media literacy levels. A case study with fifth grade students was used in the study. A total of 18 students from a public school were participants. The data was gathered by a rubric and semi-structured interviews. Findings revealed that students have media literacy ability. Based on the result of the study, it can be suggested that either an independent media literacy course or a media literacy education integrated into other courses should be provided from the first grade. Furthermore, because of the fact that media literacy is closely related to critical thinking, teaching methods and activities in which students can gain critical questioning and thinking skills should be preferred.