Satellite remote sensing has been largely adopted in all kinds of environmental applications as it has proved to be an excellent tool for research and decision-making purposes. It has also been recognized as an important educational tool in the past years. However, it has been insufficiently incorporated in school practice, especially at the elementary level. This article describes the use of remotes sensing as a tool to present science topics in the elementary classroom. A phenomenon-based approach was adopted to introduce the Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI) to eighty-one second and third-grade students. The students’ experiences in their learning environment were collected with the use of a questionnaire developed for that purpose. The pedagogical approach encouraged the students’ critical thinking and individual observations to try to explain the phenomenon working with the other students and the adults in the class- room. The phenomenon-based approach, along with the powerful visualizations of the remotely sensed data kept the students motivated and active. Seventy-one percent of the students reported that this was an engaging activity, and seventy-eight percent said that they would like to participate in similar activities in the future. The rest of the responses were neutral. None of the students were previously familiar with remote sensing or the UHI. This experience showed that it is critical to have adequate and appropriate resources readily available, as well as efficient facilitation in order to tackle this pedagogical approach. The activity was organized for Earth Observation Day (EOD), 2016, in the framework of a West Virginia View funded project. EOD is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) educational outreach event that occurs yearly and during which scientists, all of whom are experts in remote sensing and related geospatial technologies, are available to support teachers in their respective states.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between effective communication skills and verbal intelligence levels of Faculty of Sports Sciences students according to variables such as gender, department, age, academic grade point average (GPA), and way of taking the Effective Communication Skills (ECS) course. The correlational survey model was used in the research. The subjects were 230 volunteer university students, chosen by simple random sampling method. The Multiple Intelligence Areas Inventory and The Effective Communication Skills Scale were used. The result showed that there was a significant difference in favor of female students in terms of effective listening by gender. A significant difference was found in favor of the Recreation Department in terms of self-recognition/self-disclosure, I-language, and verbal intelligence sub-dimensions. A significant difference was found in favor of 21-23 age in self-recognition/self-disclosure sub-dimension by age variable. According to academic GPA, a significant difference was found in the verbal intelligence sub-dimension in favor of those whose academic GPA was 3.15-3.57. In addition, according to way of taking the ECS course, a significant difference was found in favor of the compulsory course in the sub-dimensions of ego supportive language, self-recognition/self-disclosure, and I-language. Besides, it was determined that there is a positive and significant relationship between students' effective communication skills and verbal intelligence levels. As a result, it has been determined that, in terms of the development of communication skills, it is important that the ECS course is included in the curriculum as part of the compulsory course.

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.

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.

Astronomy concept is regarded as one difficult topic in both teachers’ and students’ perspective even though it strongly appeals to the human mind. This concept requires imagination and the ability to use various skills and knowledge, for example, actual motion, relative position, and coordination of views from several points on the Earth to generate an explanation.  As mentioned in the literature, the teacher plays a vital role in the teaching and learning process. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate 45 in-service science teachers’ understanding of astronomy concepts in a professional development program and to diagnose the misconceptions regarding astronomy concepts. A two-tier test, open-ended questions, and a semi-structured interview were used to gather information on the understanding and misconceptions, particularly on celestial motion concepts. The data were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results pointed out that after the four-day professional development program, in-service science teachers gained significantly higher two-tier test scores. The highest progression was in the topic of the Sun’s apparent motion. However, most in-service science teachers still held some misconceptions relating to the concept of the seasons. The obstacles in teaching astronomy were also discussed. The study’s findings lead to the improvement of the professional development program for in-service science teachers required to teach astronomy concepts nationwide.

Today’s individuals are expected to have skills in many areas as a natural consequence of the advances that have been taking place in society and technology. Particularly in developed countries, these skills are also called 21^st century skills. Critical, creative and reflective thinking, problem solving and keeping up with the digital age (digital literacy) are some of these skills. Universities play a significant role in raising qualified individuals in our country. Updating the training programs, keeping up with the era and having a say in the digital world makes it a necessity for people who give education in these areas to be competent. From this point of view, this study aimed to explore the digital literacy levels of Turkish academics working in faculties of education and the perceptions of students towards technology integration competence of the academics. In this study, quantitative cross-sectional design was preferred. While selecting the participants, purposeful sampling method was used, and two different participant groups (academics and prospective teachers) were included in the process. Two scales with validity and reliability in the literature were used as data collection tools in the research. In the data collection process, firstly, a survey was administered to academics working in faculties of education, and then another one was conducted with prospective teachers. The results obtained were subjected to quantitative data analysis via SPSS 24 and AMOS 24 software, and descriptive and inferential statistics were generated. The results revealed that the variables of department, age and grade level created a significant difference in the digitalization of academics, whereas the gender variable significantly contributed only to the perceptions of prospective teachers.

Time management for educational leaders has remained highly relevant to scholars, policymakers and practitioners. We analyzed survey responses from 98 public high school principals to examine the congruency between average total hours they worked per week against the sum total of the average hours worked per week in each of five distinct categories of leadership tasks. The observed congruence was 0.32, while Cohen’s kappa coefficient was 0.10. Female principals tended to underreport, and male principals tended to overreport, total work time. Principals with doctorate degrees exhibited higher congruence than those without, and overreporting was inversely related to highest degree. Principals in charge of large teaching staffs were more likely than their counterparts to be congruent and less likely to overreport total work time. Self-report appears to be an inaccurate method to measure time use among high school principals. If time use is a key component of the quality of principal leadership, more detailed and robust techniques for collecting time use data should be utilized in future studies.

In this study in which case study – one of the qualitative research methods - was used, it was aimed to assess the effects of covid-19 pandemic on preschool education by teachers. Preschool teachers working in 14 provinces where the number of cases is high form the universe of the study. Sample group is 140 teachers in total. So as to get data for the study, survey questions prepared by the researcher and submitted to expert opinion and structured interview forms were used. The findings of the study are as follows: preschool children had feelings of anxiety, fear and longing all together during this process and they wanted to return to their schools as soon as possible. Similarly, most of the teachers were highly concerned and worried. The teachers attended online educations related to their professional development during the process of staying home. Before Covid-19 came to Turkey, the schools did not take any measures; then, when distance education started, all schools were disinfected, the materials and toys in the classrooms were put aside after disinfection. Distance education process was quite difficult in preschool education; all the teachers taught in line with their own initiatives. During this process, while the activities most preferred by the teachers were games and art activities, the activities having pandemic theme were experiments and dramas about hygiene. Distance education increased parent participation to preschool education and this had a positive effect on parent-child interaction. In the distance education process, by establishing platforms intended for preschools, suggestions to make more and professional activities, to have common actions in cooperation with schools and to train parents were made.

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.

Individuals’ engagement with reading and maintaining it depends on personal motivations. Having a multidimensional structure, reading motivation is affected by intrinsic factors. Studies on reading motivation can make a significant contribution to identifying students’ intrinsic motivation profiles closely, encouraging them to read, and increasing their reading engagement. The present study aimed to determine the individual and socioeconomic variables predicting middle school students’ intrinsic reading motivations. Employing the predictive correlational design, the study was carried out with 459 students attending six different public schools in the city of Sanliurfa. The participants were determined by stratified purposeful sampling method. The study data were collected by the Intrinsic Reading Motivation Scale and the Personal Information Form. According to the hierarchical regression analysis results, all the models constructed in the study were significant. All of the variables explained the intrinsic reading motivation with a 22% variance explanation percentage. As a result, it can be said that the change observed in intrinsic reading motivation variance mostly stemmed from reading engagement (ΔR²=.12), family (ΔR²=.07), demographic characteristics (ΔR²=.03), and school (ΔR²=.01), respectively. It can be stated that the predictors of the intrinsic reading motivation determined in this study should be taken into consideration by educators.

An empirical investigation of elementary school teacher candidates on classification activities dealing with animate and inanimate objects in terms of being living or non-living demonstrates that as the size of the objects increases, subjects are more likely to classify them correctly as either being an animal or having living characteristics. Despite a variety of misconceptions having an impact on the results, size magnitude is shown to play a significant role on proper classification. The subjects’ performance on these activities at an advanced stage of their preparation suggests that their factual and procedural knowledge are deficient due to a lack of opportunities for conceptual development of the items tested. The identification of the role of size on the proper classification of objects in the activities bears significantly on the science curricular structure at the elementary school level. As the results of this study indicate, both pre-service elementary school teachers and by extension their prospective students need longer practice dealing with living and non-living classification activities, particularly in tasks where the microscopic features of matter can be investigated so that the proclivity to regard size as the defining characteristic is effectively addressed.

Science literacy, which is included in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) as an assessment area, is an important research and discussion area of science education literature with all its dimensions. In this study, the clustering results of the students from 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries participating in the PISA 2015 test and sampled by systematic sampling method are obtained by K-Means Clustering and Two-Step Cluster Analysis using the factor scores and PISA science literacy average scores. It is thought that the study is of great importance in terms of dividing individuals into clusters according to science instruction methods and the mean of plausible values and having an idea about how each cluster is defined. As a result of the K-means cluster analysis, it was determined that the input variable with the highest level of importance in the formation of the first and third clusters in which the students with the highest scores were included was teacher-directed science instruction, and after this variable, the input variable with the highest level of importance was the perceived feedback from science teachers. Within the scope of the Two-Step Clustering Analysis, it was determined that teacher-directed science instruction has the most importance in terms of the decomposition of clusters, followed by adaptive instruction in science lessons in terms of importance level.

The study aims to analyze, in terms of content and process, the math talks between the mother and child during the shared book reading of the illustrated storybooks with math contents. The study group under the research is comprised of nine pairs of mother and child. The process of the study 18 videos which were recorded when two storybooks with math contents were read by the mothers. In the data collection process, each pair of mother and child together read two storybooks given to them in their home environment, and the entire process was video-recorded. Subsequently, interviews were held with mothers for identifying their views about supporting their children’s math skills. It was shown that the content of mother-child math talks in the home environment was mostly about the learning area of numbers and counting skills. It was a remarkable result that math concepts such as sorting/ranking and properties/features of objects were not in the contents of mother-child math talks. The results from interviews with mothers, it was inferred that the mothers viewed themselves as inadequate for talking to their children about math concepts, and performed the math talks mostly on the basic skills such as counting the numbers.

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.

The teaching and learning of mathematics in South Africa are conducted through the authorised Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT). South Africa has eleven official languages, and English is a Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) from the Intermediate and Further Education and Training (FET) Phase. This study explores teachers' views on code-switching as a communicative technique to enhance teaching mathematics in Grade 4 in selected primary schools in South Africa. This qualitative single case study employed the interpretivist paradigm and social constructivism theory. A convenient purposive sampling technique was used to sample six grade 4 mathematics teachers from three primary schools in the Alexandra township in South Africa. Researchers collected data through the use of semi-structured interviews, which were later analysed and discussed using themes. Findings indicate that teachers often code-switch from LoLT (English First Additional Language) into Home Language (H.L.) to enhance learners' understanding of the mathematics concepts. Researchers suggested the integration of code-switching into the curriculum policy and followed by in-service training for Grade 4 mathematics teachers in code-switching.

This study aims to determine the opinions of high school principals on their cultural intelligence levels, to determine the activities of these principals to increase their cultural intelligence levels, the advantages of their having a high level of cultural intelligence, the factors that prevent them from increasing their cultural intelligence levels, and their suggestions to increase their cultural intelligence levels. The data obtained from the interview forms were analyzed by the content analysis method. The findings were organized and presented under themes and sub-themes. The study group of the research consisted of 40 school principals working in Mersin central districts in the 2020-2021 academic years. According to the study results; most of the participants stated that they had a high level of cultural intelligence while some participants stated that they had a low level of cultural intelligence. Regarding the activities to increase their level of cultural intelligence, principals stated that they did activities such as increasing their knowledge, going abroad, and developing social relations. The principals expressed three different opinions on the advantages of having a high level of cultural intelligence: organizational advantages, professional advantages, and individual advantages. It was determined that factors preventing principals from increasing their cultural intelligence levels were factors unrelated to principal and factors related to principal. The principals expressed two different opinions on what could be done to increase their cultural intelligence levels: The things to be done by the superiors and the things to be done the principal.

What are missing in the U.S. education policy of “college for all” are supporting data and indicators on K-16 education pathways, i.e, how well all students get ready and stay on track from kindergarten through college. This study creates synthetic national longitudinal education database that helps track and support students’ educational pathways by combining two nationally-representative U.S. sample datasets: Early Childhood Longitudinal Study- Kindergarten (ECLS-K; Kindergarten through 8th grade) and National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS; 8th grade through age 25). The merge of these national datasets, linked together via statistical matching and imputation techniques, can help bridge the gap between elementary and secondary/postsecondary education data/research silos. Using this synthetic K-16 education longitudinal database, this study applies machine learning data analytics in search of college readiness early indicators among kindergarten students. It shows the utilities and limitations of linking preexisting national datasets to impute education pathways and assess college readiness. It discusses implications for developing more holistic and equitable educational assessment system in support of K-16 education longitudinal database.

Teacher morale affects all aspects of the school and education system. Yet, the current status of teaching does not provide a rosy picture as teachers are reported to be demoralized and stressed. This qualitative study explored teachers’ experiences that influence their morale. The study was guided by the research question: How do workplace experiences affect teacher morale in selected primary schools? Qualitative data were gathered through six focus group interviews with 36 teachers in four primary schools and were analyzed using a content analysis framework. Data revealed that teacher morale was low. Participants identified school climate factors such as inappropriate professional development activities and violence as threats to their morale. Furthermore, a lack of parental involvement in the affairs of the school was regarded as a setback by teachers. This study highlighted specific issues that influence teacher morale and contribute to the understanding of the state of their morale. The study recommends that more attention is given to ensuring that teacher morale is enhanced for educational goals to be realized. Improving teacher morale has many benefits in that it helps teachers to maintain a positive attitude and be happy at work.

Despite findings in the literature on its significance, the acclimatization of teachers into school units is not well organized. Hence, many newly appointed teachers fell as a “foreign body” into school, they do not interact with the other members of staff and they are not actively engaged in school life. This study aims to explore the factors involved in social behavior (collegial relations) among members of the educational community. These factors may affect the acclimatization/reception of teachers who, regardless of their teaching experience, are called to teach for the first time in a new school environment. According to the findings, it is essential the attitudes of teaching staff, in matters of cooperation, to be transformed and a collegial climate in schools to be established. To this end, fostering empathy among teachers through educational activities and enhancing opportunities for cooperation and teamwork inside and outside the classroom would be of significant contribution.

Technological advances and the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic have forced higher education institutions to be innovative in delivering education in their countries. E- assessment using e-portfolio illustrates the importance of assessment practices that promote constructivist perception, allowing students to create their own learning as active participants through innovative learning and assessment activities. The purpose of this paper was to explore lecturer’s understandings on the functionality of e-portfolio as an alternative assessment in an Open Distance e-Learning (ODeL). For this qualitative study, within an interpretative paradigm, interviews were conducted with four lecturers using thematic approach. The findings revealed that e-portfolio is beneficial for assessment in the ODeL as it allows students the opportunity to self-embrace their learning, e-portfolio enhances student-centeredness through authentic assessment practices. However, e-portfolio is not implemented to its potential due to challenges and constraints experienced by lecturers. Based on the findings, it is recommended that training workshops beneficial for lecturers should be conducted at the beginning of the course/module on how to create their e-portfolios. Furthermore, an e-portfolio assessment framework to be facilitated for the successful implementation of e-portfolio assessment strategy.