Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) refers to a neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests itself and continues during the disorder’s course with symptoms of inadequacies in social interaction and communication, limited and repetitive behaviors and limited interests. It was stated that the burden and fatigue stemming from the long-term care of the child, changing family roles and routines, difficulties encountered during diagnosis and access to services, getting insufficient information about the diagnosis, the need for information to access appropriate education and rehabilitation services and the economic burden caused by satisfying this need, and the difficulties in participating in social life account for burnout in parents of children with ASD. The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between parental burnout, and the perceived social support level of parents of children with ASD and their satisfaction level from this support. In addition to this main purpose, (a) the relationship between parental burnout level, and the ages of the children with ASD, the time since diagnosis and parental age, and (b) whether there is a difference in the parental burnout level according to parental education level and gender were examined in the study. Data was collected from the parents of 296 children who met the criteria for participation in the study using the Participant Information Form, Parental Burnout Scale and Revised Parental Social Support Scale. The study results revealed that there was a weak and moderate negative relationship between perceived social support and parental burnout.

Digital storytelling has undergone extensive study in different content-areas, but its naturally-combined use with collaborative writing for skills development, and reflective practice remains underresearched in pre-service EFL teacher education. This study undertook joint tech-enhanced retelling of L2 texts by 56 Turkish EFL teacher candidates, rubric-based peer and teacher assessment of final products, comparative analysis of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) between outliers, and process evaluation using the significant learning taxonomy to explore impacts on L2 writing performance, academic learning, and personal growth. Despite assigning lower scores than the teacher-assessors, especially to the top-performers, the majority of peers successfully fulfilled the job, effectively performed the future reviewer role, and positively reacted to co-construction, and technology integration. CAF and reflection analyses indicated that the biggest difference between the highest- and lowest-scoring groups lay in grammatical accuracy, and lack of mutual interaction could account for the less cooperative group’s poorer performance. The classification of their post-task responses into six kinds of learning gains (foundational knowledge, application, integration, human dimension, caring, and learning how to learn) also revealed that their collaborative digital storytelling experience (CDS) elicited more procedural, critical, creative and practical thinking on the academic learning front, while disciplinary and integrative thinking may have declined due to more immediate preoccupation with task achievement. Their critical thinking was mainly organised around consensus-reaching, fluctuating membership, and logistical challenges, and most demonstrated a clear understanding of the role of positive group dynamics in group outcomes. Despite heightened awareness of the performance-boosting, character-forming, and motivational benefits of collective scaffolding and multimodal meaning-making, a minority could also discern the instrumentality of innovative teaching techniques in their future classroom practices.

This study was designed to investigate the applicability of the IES/NSF pipeline-of-evidence protocol in ascertaining why two notable educational initiatives spearheaded and financially supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation achieved or not the goal of improved academic outcomes for K-12 public school students. Our interest was not whether there is a sufficient body of high quality research evidence to support the two initiatives but whether the research considered by the Gates Foundation established the likelihood that the initiatives would be successful and worth the decision to dedicate substantial funding, time, and effort required for each versus the many competing programs seeking sponsorship. We found that in the case of Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching, efficacy and effectiveness research were absent and the Gates foundation discontinued grant support because the initiative had not achieved the goal of improved high school graduation and college attendance among low-income minority students. In the case of Early College High School, we found empirical evidence was manifest at all but the effectiveness stage of the pipeline and the initiative continued to receive funding. Our findings support the importance of widening the net of methodologies that constitute a framework for elements needed to make predictions of effectiveness for any given intervention before investing in scale-up initiatives and the need for private foundations to be transparent in their decision-making process to enable others to scrutinize the research that informs the design of initiatives.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Personalized Book Advice Smart Application on secondary school students’ motivation as well as determining the views of students, teachers, and parents regarding the application. In the research, a mixed method approach, in which quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis methods are used together, was adopted. In the quantitative part, 585 secondary school students, 300 of whom are in the experimental group and 285 in the control group; In the qualitative part, 105 students, 6 teachers and 247 families were included in the research. Similarly, the qualitative of the study involved 105 students, 6 teachers, and 247 parents. In the quantitative part of the research, data collected with the Reading Motivation Scale developed by Durmus. In the qualitative part, the data were collected through a questionnaire. The quantitative data were analyzed using parametric descriptive statistics, while the qualitative data were analyzed using descriptive analysis technique. According to the findings obtained from the research, there is a significant difference in reading motivation of secondary school students in terms of post-test scores. It is seen that the students like to read adventure books and think that the books proposed by the application are suitable for their interests. Teachers state that they find the application successful, and they like that the application forms reading habits, and recommends books according to their interests, moreover, the recommended books are suitable for the students’ levels. On the other hand, the teachers think that teacher control is necessary. Additionally, parents state that they like the application because it recommends books according to the children’s interests and those recommended books were suitable for their levels, however, they added that the number of the books needs to be increased.

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 purpose of this research is to test the theoretical model developed for the mediator role of perceived organizational support in the relationship between organizational identity and organizational stress. The research is conducted with 320 teachers who work in preschools, primary schools, elementary schools, and high schools. The data were collected using organizational stress scale, perceived organizational support scale, organizational identity scale, and personal information form. The direct and indirect relationships between perceived organizational support, organizational stress, and level of organizational identity were analysed using the Structural Equation Model. The proposed structural model was verified by the analyses. It is observed that the relationships between all variables in the research have significant values and their goodness of fit indices were within the acceptable level. The results of the analyses showed that, organizational identity significantly predicts organizational stress and perceived organizational support. It was also found that the impact of organizational identity on organizational stress was fully mediated by perceived organizational support. According to these results, organizational support plays a mediating role in the relationship between organizational identity and organizational stress.

This study explores the impact extended participation in literature circles had on the reading attitudes of university-age pre-service teachers following their involvement in literature circles for one academic year, as part of their training. The participants of the study consisted of 21 pre-service teachers with a low or moderate level of reading habits and reading attitudes. The research was conducted through a mixed methods approach. Although both quantitative and qualitative data were collected in the study, particular emphasis was given to the data collected from the qualitative part (quan+QUAL). In line with the quantitative data, it was concluded in the study that extended involvement in the literature circles had a positive effect on the reading attitudes of the pre-service teachers. The qualitative data, which was obtained through interviews, revealed four themes. The themes emerged as love and desire for reading, benefits of reading, importance of reading and reading habits as a result of the analysis. The results obtained from the research are important in terms of contributing to the improvement of pre-service teachers who will play important roles in Turkey’s becoming a literate society.

This study was conducted to investigate prospective teachers' spiritual well-beings and life satisfactions in terms of specified variables. 298 students from various departments of universities participated in the study. The Spiritual Well-Being Scale developed by Paloutzian and Ellison, and adapted to Turkish by Eksi and Kardas, the Life Satisfaction Scale developed by Diener et al. and translated and adapted to Turkish by Koker and a Personal Information Form prepared by the researcher were used in the study. This study was a descriptive study based on survey model. The study data were subjected to normality tests and analyzed accordingly. Mann Whitney U Test, Kruskal-Wallis H Test and Spearman Rho correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data. Results of the study, indicated that spiritual well-being levels of prospective teachers significantly varied by gender, year of study, field of study and educational status of father. Life satisfaction levels of prospective teachers significantly varied by field of study. Furthermore, there was a moderate positive correlation between total score for spiritual well-being and life satisfaction.

The aim of this study is to identify whether high school students encounter any difficulties in mathematics and reveal the reasons for such difficulties. The participants of the study, which was a descriptive case study based on qualitative understanding, were a total of 164 students, including 85 students from Anatolian High Schools and 79 students from Science High Schools. Approximately 11% of the participants said they had no difficulties in math, whereas 99% of the students from Anatolian High Schools and 78% of the students from Science High Schools said they had difficulties in mathematic. Their thoughts about the reasons for such difficulties were analyzed by content analysis method considering the type of high school they attended. The findings obtained revealed that the difficulties encountered by the participants in mathematics were teacher-, content- and student-based. Anatolian High School students stated that they intensely faced teacher-based difficulties, whereas Science High School students stated that they faced content-based difficulties. It's expected that the results of this study may contribute to studies to be conducted to increase student success in mathematics education and provide ideas for further studies.

Speaking is considered as a challenging skill to improve as it is a productive one which requires the learners to be unique and creative in the way they express themselves. Therefore, teaching speaking takes the attention of the researchers in the field of English language teaching. Therefore, the way “speaking” was integrated into the curriculum of a School of Foreign Languages in one of the state universities in Istanbul was investigated by the researcher to find out whether the speaking component of the program helped students improve their oral language proficiency and to learn both efficiency and sufficiency of it from the perspectives of the students as well as the instructors in that institution. For this purpose, eight students within the program were taken into five different speaking tests in five different weeks sequentially and were interviewed by the researcher afterwards. Additionally, six students who had taken this program of the school previously and were taking their departmental courses at the time of the study were also interviewed to give them the chance to reflect back on their past experiences as learners who applied the knowledge they had acquired from this school. Six different instructors working in this institution were also interviewed. One of them was also observed in her real class environment. Results showed that the program was found “efficient” in some aspects such as the importance given to “speaking” but there were some points that needed consolidation just like the materials.

Contemporary studies related to teacher autonomy mostly deal with research into how autonomy is perceived by teachers and which variables it is associated with. On the other hand, there are very few studies dealing with how teachers’ instructional autonomy over the curriculum is reflected in the education process. The aim of this study is to reveal in depth the practices carried out in the context of instructional autonomy by science teachers who have different levels of autonomy. The study is based on data gathered from eight teachers employed at different schools in the province of Izmir in Turkey. Interviews, observations and documents were used for collecting the data. The results reveal that while teachers with high instructional autonomy successfully apply contemporary teaching methods, alternative evaluation techniques, high-order thinking skills and effective classroom management, teachers with low instructional autonomy fall short in all of these areas.

This paper investigated how puppetry could be used to improve the standards of early childhood science education. This study determined the effect of a puppet-making and puppetry workshop on preservice preschool teachers’ beliefs and attitudes towards science education and looked into their experiences during and after puppet-making. Although participants faced some difficulties during the workshop, they developed numerous socioemotional skills. Puppetry activities can help preservice teachers learn how to deliver child-centered, stimulating, and interactive classes. Using puppets in early childhood science education can help teachers develop positive attitudes towards science and offer students high-quality, engaging, and creative activities.

The aim of this study is to obtain classroom teachers' views on the problems experienced in the literacy process by foreign students in the first grade of primary school, which constitutes an important part of language acquisition. A qualitative research approach has been adopted in the research. The data were obtained using a semi-structured interview form. With the semi-structured interview form created by the researchers, the opinions of the teachers working in the city center of Malatya in Turkey in the 2017-2018 academic year and having foreign students in their class were received. The data collected in line with the opinions of the teachers were analyzed with content analysis. As a result of the data analyzed, the opinions of the teachers were collected under 5 titles; "The problems experienced by foreign students in the process of adaptation to the school", "The problems experienced by foreign students in the stages of the literacy process", "Teacher’s problems in the education of foreign students", "Teacher’s solutions regarding the problems experienced by foreign students in education", and "System suggestions of teachers for the education of foreign students". Teachers mostly experienced problems in writing during the preparation stage, language-related problems in the perception of the sound, pronunciation problems in reading letters, and comprehension problems in syllable-word-sentence-text creation when starting independent literacy.

In the field of education, globally, teachers are recognised as important contributors in shaping learners’ interaction in a cooperative learning environment through effective lesson planning. There is a plethora of research conducted internally on lesson planning, as a critical instructional competency for good teaching and as a purposeful activity that precedes the delivery of instruction. This study aimed to explore Life Orientation teachers’ lesson planning incorporating a cooperative teaching and learning approach in secondary schools in De Aar, South Africa. The researchers adopted a mixed-methods phenomenological research design. Seven Grade 10 Life Orientation teachers were purposely selected to collect semi-structured interviews data, non-participatory observation, and document analysis. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis and supported with the literature review and the theory underpinning this study. This paper suggests an enactment between teachers’ subject and pedagogical content knowledge and instructional material. Lastly, it is also evident that many teachers lack knowledge, insufficient instructional resources, and an understanding of effective lesson planning to implement a cooperative teaching approach.

This study aimed at investigating the outcomes of the cooperation practices, which were utilized to enhance the quality of work-integrated learning at Nong Khai Technical College. The investigation covered the following three aspects: 1) the changes that had arisen from the development of specified indicators; 2) the learning that occurred, and 3) the body of knowledge, which had been obtained from the practice. A participatory action research methodology was adopted during two semesters. There were 19 teachers and 30 students involved in the project. The results of the study revealed three key features. Firstly, the post-practice evaluation in both the first and the second cycles was higher than in the pre-practice evaluation. Secondly, the researcher, research participants and the college learned from various issues of the practice. This learning included gaining an awareness of the importance of collaborative work, the importance of studying the theoretical perspective in order to enhance the existing knowledge and experiences, and the importance of planning, practice, observation, and reflection in comprehensive work. Finally, the knowledge gained was found to correlate with Kurt Lewin's Force-Field Analysis which consists of the following elements: 1) expected change, 2) driving factors for change, 3) resistance to change, and 4) overcoming resistance.

Fictional characters give literary works a sense of reality. The actions of fictional characters play a crucial role in children's personality development. Young readers who lack critical reading skills are more likely to incorporate fictional characters into their lives because they have a hard time telling reality from fiction. Therefore, we should determine how children perceive fictional characters and teach them that they are imaginary figures. In this way, we can help them approach those characters' actions from an external and critical perspective. This study adopted a qualitative research design (case study) to investigate secondary school students' perceptions of fictional characters. The sample consisted of 45 secondary school students (28 female and 17 male). Data were collected through interviews and document review techniques. Data were analyzed using content analysis. Results showed that participants were more likely to be interested in and identify with characters with appealing personality traits. They had four types of approaches to fictional characters: (1) Wanting to change the storyline depending on what the fictional character goes through, (2) being influenced by them, (3) seeing them as role models, or (4) ignoring them. They wanted to change the storyline, especially when the villain got what he wanted or when the hero or the victim was unhappy, suggesting that they mostly took the protagonist's side (the good guy). While most participants attributed an ontological meaning to anthropomorphic characters, the symbolic meaning became of secondary importance. They were more interested in and identified more with characters with good living conditions and no death experiences.

The article focused on the use of assessment for learning in promoting active learning and learner participation in mathematics. Assessment for learning (AfL) has been found to enhance learning and improve performance. However, teachers’ use of AfL to enhance active learning has not been clearly outlined. This study is part of the broader research study that explored mathematics teachers’ use of AfL to enhance mathematics teaching and learning in primary schools in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg. A case study research-type and a qualitative approach were used to collect data from mathematics teachers. Nine teachers were purposefully selected from whom data were collected using semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation. The findings revealed that teachers had limited pedagogical knowledge in using AfL to promote active learning in their classrooms. They failed to apply a learner-centred approach that promotes effective learner participation in mathematics classrooms. Therefore, it is recommended that teachers undergo ongoing continuous development on classroom time management and planning for the effective use of AfL.

This study seeks to reveal the perceptions of pre-service visual arts teachers on social justice through art-based practices focused on social justice. Designing on visual phenomenology, this study was performed in the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. Five different activities involving visual inquiries are presented to reveal the perceptions of the pre-service teachers on social justice. The research participants are 35 (13 male, 22 female) sophomore-level pre-service teachers. The data are obtained through course documents, reflective diaries and semi-structured interviews. The data are then analysed through content analysis; reliability and validity are ensured through triangulation. This study identifies four different themes: association, questioning, transformation and reflection. The findings show that the pre-service teachers questioned common issues related to social justice. It was observed in the activities performed in this study that the pre-service teachers identified the visual themes. They mentioned common social justice issues based on the things they experienced and their observations. These are such as women's rights, violence against women, children's rights, LGBT, animal rights, language and religion differences, income imbalance, racism, and discrimination. The issues they questioned were the direct expression of the individual experiences of the pre-service teachers through visuals.

In this article, we present some core ideas underpinning research that takes a Designs for Learning (DFL) approach guided by theoretical considerations and choices, as well as by practitioners’ challenges and inquiries. These choices shape, and are shaped by, DFL’s research goals and motives, theoretical orientation, research objectives, questions, and practitioners’ participation and ethical considerations. Further, we present and discuss how DFL as a research approach compares to other design-oriented research strategies. Even if a DFL research approach shares several similarities with other approaches of inquiry, we argue that it remains primarily oriented towards knowledge areas that relate to understanding and developing learning and teaching – both in formal education and in informal settings such as museums.

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has increased anxiety and stress among teacher education managers and has given rise to the question of whether they have the competencies to execute their operational responsibilities productively. The theories of resilience and transformational leadership underpin this study in which teacher education managers’ resilience and their responsiveness to the well-being of staff executing their operational practices in an open distance e-learning context were explored. A qualitative approach was adopted and virtual video conferencing interviews with teacher education managers were used to explore how they mitigated their strategic and operational roles and their managerial functions to ensure the well-being and organisational performance of staff working from home. Results revealed the experiences of distance managers to have been positive in that they implemented organisational strategies to mitigate the challenges faced to ensure wellness and performance among staff working from a distance. Further research applying a mixed-method design should be undertaken to determine how resilient managers and staff working from home are. That may yield different results.