ASIAN JOURNAL OF INSTRUCTION

18-30

Authors: Fatma ERDOĞAN, Sare ŞENGÜL

The reflection has been referred to as inquiry into one’s experience. Reflective activities encourage one’s to analyse their performance. In this context, it can be said reflective thinking had a critical place in education. Reflective thinking, which is be defined as questioning self action when it is happening and then organizing general information by thinking on the self action again, is considered as an important element for the teacher training process. The purpose of this study was to investigate the pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ reflective thinking levels towards mathematics point of view elementary pre-service mathematics teachers’ characteristics. This research was based on a relational survey method which is one of the general survey models. This research was carried out in the spring term of 2013-2014 academic year, all studying at the Marmara University, Education Faculty, Department of Teacher Training in Mathematics at Elementary School Level. The sample of the study consisted of 108 pre-service elementary mathematics teachers at the third year of their four-year mathematics teacher graduate program. To determine the pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ reflective thinking levels, data were collected using the “Reflective Thinking Scale” developed by Kember and his colleagues (2000) and adapted into Turkish by Başol and Gencel (2013). Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of Reflective Thinking Scale was found 0.75. Descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test and analysis of variance were employed to analyze quantitative data. According to the descriptive result, the average value of the levels of pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ reflective thinking levels towards mathematics was 2.85 (df.:1.46). Results of the study revealed that pre-service elementary mathematics teachers have middle level of reflective thinking skill. According to the results, while there were significant differences in pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ views about reflective thinking levels towards mathematics in terms of the variable of the gender, there were not significant differences in reflective thinking levels towards mathematics in terms of the variables of the pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ education types and highschool the person graduated. According to the results of the data analysis, it was seen that the female pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ reflective thinking levels towards mathematics were significantly higher than male pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’. With regard to research findings, suggestions were offered for future studies by emphasizing the necessity for measures to increase pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ knowledge on reflective thinking as well as its use. Keywords: Reflective thinking, pre-service teachers, mathematics education, elementary

41-52

Authors: Aynur GÜLCAN, Pervin NEDİM BAL

Although importance of investigating positive concepts is huge for a healthier life, in our country there are few studies investigating psychological well-being, happiness and life satisfaction. Optimism, happiness and life satisfaction are considered as important concepts of positive psychology. This study aims to investigate the effect of optimism on happiness and life satisfaction. The sample of the study constitutes of 394 (225 female/169 male) young adults who study in university. In order to obtain data,”The Satisfaction with Life Scale” (SWLS), “The Life Orientation Test” (LOT), and “Oxford Happiness Questionnaire Short Form” (OHQ-SF) were used. To evaluate the data descriptive statistical methods (Number, Percentage, Average, Standard deviation) were used. T-test was used for comparison of quantitative data. The correlation between dependent and independent variables of the study is tested with Pearson correlation analysis, and the effect was tested with regression analysis. Findings are calculated in 95% confidence interval, and 5%significance level. Findings of the study indicate that optimism is positively correlated with happiness and life satisfaction. In accordance with these findings, we can say that in our country insufficient studies were conducted to investigate psychological well-being, happiness and life-satisfaction while investigating positive concepts is important for a healthier life. There must be more studies in this area. Key Words: optimism, happiness, life satisfaction, young adults

64-76

Authors: Osman AKTAN

In this study, the concordance of the values in "100 Basic Works", recommended by the Ministry of Education for elementary schools, and the values specified in the list of elementary schools religious culture and knowledge of moral curriculum was examined. Qualitative research method was benefited in the study. The data source for the study is the "100 Basic Works" recommended by the Ministry of Education for elementary schools The study group is a total of twenty-one (21) books out of "100 Basic Works" including twelve (12) local and (9) foreign writers. Those books, which were grouped according to numbers of pages, were chosen by maximum diversity sampling method. The values in the domestic and foreign authored books that make up the study group were analyzed and the values in the domestic and foreign authored books were determined. It was determined that the most common values in the domestic and foreign authored books were love, charity, respect, aesthetics, friendship, courage, compassion, honesty, good faith, reliability, self-sacrifice and value of responsibility. It was determined that the least common values were scientific, protecting the fiduciary, respect for places of worship, sensitivity to the historical heritage, respet for Turkish Flag and National Anthem, the conscious of democracy, sensitivity to the natural environment, mannerliness, paying attention to be healthy, thriftiness and value of respect for Tukish elders. It was determined that among the books that were examined, the value "chastiy" which take place in religious culture and knowledge of moral curriculum was absent in both local and foreign books. In religious culture and knowledge of moral curriculum, respect for places of worship and chastity in local authored books could not be found. It was determined that in religious culture and knowledge of moral curriculum, independence, love of nature, protecting the fiduciary, being of ghazi, mannerliness, tolerance, chastity,appreciation, love of nation, , paying attention to be healthy, martyrization, sensitivity to the historical heritage, thriftiness, respect for Tukish elders, respet for Turkish Flag and National Anthem in foreign authored books were absent. Key Words: Religious Culture And Knowledge Of Moral Curriculum, Values Education, 100 Basic Works

86-101

Authors: Ertuğ CAN, Orhan BAKSİ

The aim of the study is to investigate the effect of the attitudes and behaviors of students in classroom to teachers' classroom management success, and to develop recommendations for the area. This research has been carried out via face to face interviews with the secondary school 6th, 7th and 8th grade students and branch teachers in Istanbul province, in the district of Pendik. The working group was consisted of 11 branch teachers and 15 students. According to research findings, teachers in the classroom are faced most with lack of attention, lack of interest, argumentations and unauthorized conversations with friends as undesirable student behaviors. Teachers usually try to resolve unwanted behaviors by verbal warning, speech out side the classroom and using body language. According to the opinions of teachers, to be successful at classroom management, Teachers state that the training received at the university is not sufficient in terms of classroom management, and there are positiv eeffects of school management, classroomclimate and students' positive attitudes and behaviors in the classroom to the achievement of teachers' classroom management. Teachers state that exhibition of negative student behaviors in classroom cause teachers toexhibit negative attitudes to the class. According to the students' opinion, teachers generally warn the students verbally who have unwanted behaviors such as disturbing the flow of lecture, not listening to the lessons in the classroom, and disrespectness and unauthorized speech and they reward the positive by the high note or greetings. Teachers determine the classroom rules with the students. Students state that teachers exhibit negative attitudes and behaviors to the classroom such as various criminal practices, getting angry and shouting against negative student behaviors. According to the results of the study, students' attitudes and behaviors directly affect the success of the classroom management of the teachers and change the teacher attitudes and behaviors to the classroom. According to survey findings, with the effective education of teachers through pre-service and in-service training, collaboration with parents, informing the students and the support of the school administrations, the negative effects of student behaviors in the classroom to the teachers’ classroom management can be reduced. Keywords: Teacher, student, classroom management, attitude, behavior.

116-127

Authors: Banu USLU, Aysel ÇAĞDAŞ

The purpose of the present study is to find out the effects of sub-social characteristics, mother’s education level, the number of siblings and gender on 7-8 and 9 year-olds’ (N=257) perception of understanding social and moral rules. The population forming the study is the students attending elementary schools of Directorate of National Education in the province of Konya during the academic year 2004-2005. Of these 257 students as the study sample, 89 students represented the city culture, 78 of them represented the town culture, and 90 of them represented the village culture. In order to determine children’s perception of understanding moral and social rules, ‘Perception of Understanding Moral and Social Rules Scale’ (P.U.M.S.R.S), adapted from Smetana (1981) and developed by Nobes and Pawson (2003), is applied. According to the findings regarding children’s Perception of Understanding Moral Rules, the mother’s educational background is effective on children’s Perception of Understanding Moral Rules (U.M.R) in terms of seriousness and alterability of rules sub-dimensions. Besides, socio-cultural level of students found to be effective only in sub-dimension of authority contingency. Moreover, influences of gender is found effective only in lack of rules sub-dimension considering the total score average. Considering the findings regarding children’s Perception of Understanding Social Rules, the mother’s educational background was significant in terms of the average score of those who were educated and illiterate regarding the alterability of rules sub-dimension. There were no significant differences in any of the sub-dimensions considering the number of siblings. All differences in the present study are discussed as significant at the p< 0.05 level or greater. Keywords: Perception, moral, social, elementary school

135-148

Authors: Gül KOZALAK, Ali ATEŞ

This study was carried out to determine the acceptance levels of the theory of evolution by the first class students who studies Science Faculty at university. The problem sentence of the research; Are there a differentiation between the acceptance levels of the theory of evolution and the first class students of the Science Faculty? Research group covers 88 students studying in the Physics,Science and Biology departments of Ahmet Kelesoglu Teacher Education and Training Faculty in Necmettin Erbakan University. In the search, 5-point Likert-type scale was used for the acceptance of the evolution theory called Reliability of the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution developed by Rutledge and Sadler (2007). The total safety coefficient of the test Cronbach α =0,74. Descriptive statistical analysis was used for acceptance levels of the theory of evolution. Students state their acceptance levels of theory of evolution as ‘Undecided’ except for ‘The Age of the World’ in the general of the scale and among the sub dimensions. Key Words: EVOLUTİON THEORY, ACCEPTANCE, UNİVERSITY STUDENTS

157-171

Authors: Hidayet TOK, Savaş BERK

In this research, the training of teachers of children with autism, autism in children was undertaken to determine the difficulties encountered in mathematics teaching. Screening model with qualitative research design was used in this study. The study sample formed with 10 teachers in special education and rehabilitation institutions affiliated to the Ministry of Education with 10 teachers in Gaziantep Autistic Children Education Center and Business Education Center a total of 20 teachers located in Gaziantep Şahinbey district. In order to identify the difficulties faced by children with autism in mathematics education research, developed by the researcher "Difficulties in Children with autism Teaching Mathematics Intervention" was applied. The findings obtained from this study are as follows: 1.Attitudes towards learning mathematics children with autism vary as non-autistic children. Considering individual differences in children with autism attitudes towards learning mathematics it was observed that different. 2. Mathematics learning levels of children with autism has been shown to vary depending on the desired subject to be taught in math class. 3. Children with autism in mathematics courses in "rhythmic counting, simple level Addition and Subtraction Placement" on issues such as teaching were found to be more successful. 4. Children with autism in mathematics lessons in "Problem Solving, Multiplication-Division" was seen as they have difficulty in teaching the subjects. 5. In mathematics teaching children with autism "Lecture, benefit from the concrete object, question-answer" have been shown to use as teaching-methods and techniques. 6. Persistence in mathematics in children with autism "to practice with different examples to use in daily life, independent repetition, making applications at different times" and have been shown to measure. 7. In mathematics teaching children with autism in the family "collaboration with the teacher, to the home of what was covered again, checking assignments, the student encouragement, patience and follow-up training" as well as expectations, have been identified. Key words: Autism, mathematics teaching, difficulty

186-197

Authors: Şadiye DEMİR, Feryal ÇUBUKÇU

The language teaching method ‘Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling’, developed by a Spanish High school teacher named Blaine Ray in the 1990s, aims to develop fluent speech in language learners. ‘Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling’ arouses considerable interest in terms of its variety of teaching techniques and its high influence of two prevalent notions in foreign language teaching- Total Physical Response and the Natural Approach. ‘Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling’ sees comprehensible language input, which prompts learners to speak fluently and correctly in the target language, making the language classroom interesting and frequent repetition of vocabulary or language structures, as important ingredients to language acquisition. The purpose of our study is to reveal whether the language teaching method ‘Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling’ (TPRS) has any impact on lexical competence of preschool students, who learn English as a foreign language in Turkey, and whether there is a gender difference in terms of achievement. This quasi-experimental study was conducted in two preschool classes consisting of 39 students of the MEV College Private Schools Güzelbahçe during the academic year 2013-2014. In our study, 20 new lexical items were taught in the experimental group through TPRS and in the control group through the Communicative Approach. The researcher, being the teacher at the same time, applied a pre-test to the students in order to test their lexical knowledge before the intervention. During the four-week treatment period, the researcher taught the 20 target words to the experimental group with the TPRS method and to the control group with the Communicative Approach. After the intervention, both groups took post-tests, which were analysed statistically. The results showed that the experimental group, who was taught the target words with the TPRS method, statistically outperformed the control group in the post-test. Additionally, there was no significant gender difference in the post-tests in terms of achievement. Based on the study findings, it can be concluded that the TPRS method is effective on lexical competence and should be used in lexical teaching. Key Words: TPRS method, lexical competence, preschool students

18-26

Authors: Eren Can AYBEK, Döndü Bahar ŞAHİN, Hayriye Merve ERİŞ, Ahmet Salih ŞİMŞEK, Mustafa KÖSE

Many studies examining on the comparison of computer-based tests and paper-and-pencil tests are available in the literature. These studies are applied to various fields, variables and workgroups. So it is important to compile and review these studies by using meta-analysis for reaerchers and authorities. In this paper, a survey of the studies on comparison of student performances in paper-based and computer-based tests is presented. By considering these studies, a meta-analysis on the comparison of students’ achievements for paper-based and computer-based tests is provided. To determine if the studies included into meta-analysis have bias, Funnel Graph and Begg-Mazumdar correlation test are utilized for sensitivity analysis. Influence quantities pertaining the studies are analyzed by using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software. Results of heterogeneity test are analyzed to determine the best effect model and then it is seen that effect quatities shows normal distribution. Based on that, Fixed Effect Model is selected. Hedge’s g coefficient is used to calculate the common effect. There are two basic restrictions of this study. First, due to the lack of time, it could not be possible to reach all studies available for the comparison of paper-based and computer-based tests. Second, results of the meta-analysis are not compared with respect to the topic fields. It could be better to compare the results for topic fields as future prospect. According to 35 findings related to the 9 different studies included to the meta-analysis, no reasonable difference is observed for paper-based and computer-based tests for 29 comparisons, and some reasonable differences are observed 6 ones. Common influence quantity obtained from all the studies is found as -0.09. This necessarily means that the differences between scores obtained from paper-based and computer-based tests corresponds to 0.09 standard deviation, which is not a considerable influence quantity. In other words, according to the meta-analysis results, there is no substantial difference for the students’ performance in paper-based and computer-based tests. As a result, even though it is not inconvenient to use paper-based tests, it should be determined while preparing a computer-based test whether student achievement is affected by applied test form via some trial applications. Keywords: Computer-based test, paper-based test, meta-analysis.

38-51

Authors: İhsan ONAY, Yaşar ÇELİK

One of the indicators of development of society is education levels. Education levels of advanced societies is higher than other societies. The secret of this success is attributed to the importance of education and research activities. Numerous studies in the literature have been made to self-esteem and scientific attitude. But, there is no research examining the relation of these concepts. In this study is investigated the correlate between self confidence and scientific attitude of sixth grade students. These corelation is investigated in following sub-dimensions; gender of students, education level of mother and father, income level. The research sample is consist of total 400 students, 195 girls and 205 boys, in the central district of Samsun Province in the second period 2013-2014 academic year. To determine level of self confidence of students are used "the Piers-Harris Children's Self-esteem Perception Scale" (Oner, 1996). To determine level of scientific attitude of students are used “Scientific Attitude Scale” developed Moore and Foy (1997), adapted to Turkish by Demirbas and Yagbasan (2006). Pearson Corelation value has used as data analysis method in study. As a result of study found that a relationship intermediate level between self confidence and scientific attitude. Whereas found lowest level correlation between groups according to gender variable. But this correlation level higher girls than boys. It found that lowest level correlation between self confidence and scientific attitude according to father’s education level variable. It found that lowest level correlation between self confidence and scientific attitude according to mother’s education level variable. But there is reverse correlation between self confidence and scientific attitude according to mother’s education level. Also It found that lowest level correlation between self confidence and scientific attitude according to family income. But, if family income level of students' lower than TL 850 or more than TL 2001, it is seen that at the level of this correlation is increases. Keywords: Attitude, Scientific Attitude, Self Confidence

60-68

Authors: Ahmet SAPANCI

Due to the biological and psychological differences between individuals, learning processess vary from person to person. One of the main reasons of learning differences between individuals is learning styles. Learning style is a concept which expresses receiving, processing, remaining and recalling new information. It is known that learning styles affect learners’ learning behaviour. Since learners have different learning styles, their receiving, interaction and response behaviour also vary (Junko, 1998). Learning styles manipulate students’ learning preferences therefore it is crucial for a teacher to determine students’ learning styles during planning and practising learning activities in class. In this way learning needs of students are provided in a more sensitive manner. Learning styles have significant impacts on academic success which is one of the major aims of schools. Academic achievement affects students’ lives in a lot of ways. If students experience academic achievement at school, they also realize that if they make an effort for their aims, they can reach success as well. Even though learning styles are not the only determinant of academic success but they have distinctive factors on it. For this reason in this study the relationship between the learning styles and the academic success of students has been examined. The method of the study descriptive which aims to determine the existency and degree of correlationship between two or more variables. In order to examine the relations between the learning styles and academic achievement were one-way-ANOVA analysis was used. 1207 students studying in Abant İzzet Baysal University Faculty of Education in academic year 2008- 2009 participated in the study. To assess the learning styles of the students, Kolb Learning Style Inventory, developed by David A. Kolb (1985) and adapted to Turkish by Akkoyunlu and Aşkar (1993) were used. In this adaptaion study the reliability coefficient was calculated as; for concrete experience .58, reflective observation .70, abstract conceptualising .71, active experince .65, abstract-concrete .77, active-reflective .76. Overall reliability of the inveontory is found as.72. The results of the present study indicate significant differences between learning styles and levels of achievement and this difference is due to the fact that the average for achievement of the converger learning style is larger than that of the diverger learning style. Keywords: Prospective teachers, learning styles, academic achievement

16-26

Authors: Serkan TİMUR, Şirin YILMAZ, Betül TİMUR

As the technology develops, as a result of its integration in educational sphere, with an approach considering individual differences, contemporary societies aim at educating individuals, with active roles to reach knowledge, who are able to think fast and creatively and construct knowledge in their own minds. Computers and computer technologies have become indispensable elements of human life as the progressing technology is widely used. Educating qualified individuals in educational institutions is made possible when individuals use their knowledge and skills properly. In modern societies, it is tremendously important for teachers and students to be skilled in computer technologies in terms of their individual development and information literacy. Many studies have been and are being conducted on individuals’ computer skills and attitudes towards computers. Computers have considerable emphasis in our daily lives. Therefore, students are taught computer classes from elementary levels on. Attitudes are among emphasized elements within learning and teaching process. The purpose of measuring attitudes for education and instruction may be about predicting individuals’ behaviors to be exhibited in time or further and, based on this, altering the existing or constructing novel situations. The current research aims at determining middle school students’ attitudes toward computers and examining these on various variables. The study used a qualitative survey model. “The Computer Attitude Scale”, developed by Loyd and Gressard (1984), translated into Turkish by Berberoglu and Calikoglu (1991), and re-adapted into Turkish by Serefhanoglu, Nakiboglu, and Gur (2008), was used as the data collection tool. The study sample consisted of 195 middle school students who attended 5th grade (41), 6th grade (49), 7th grade (62), and 8th grade (43) at a high-SES school in the city of Sakarya. Analyses showed that middle school students’ attitudes towards computers did not differ on the grade level and ownership of a computer whereas students’ attitudes towards computers significantly differed on gender and curiosity levels towards computer-related news and information. Suggestions, based on findings, about the study and for future research were included in the current study. Key Words: Attitude towards computers, Computer, Attitude, Middle School Students

46-55

Authors: Mustafa KOCAARSLAN

Improving the quality of the education systems and thus, accelerating development and progress is an issue in the agenda of our country as in other countries around the World. It is often emphasized that the curriculums are not effective enough to realize the aforementioned objectives although they are continuously revised in line with the rapid and unpredictable development of technology. In this process, teachers, as they were in the past, stand out as the indispensable element of the education systems and keeps its significance. The main purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes of prospective teachers towards teaching as a profession in a newly established education faculty and to determine whether there is a difference between their attitudes and variables as gender, registered type of program, presence of the teacher in the family and parent’s education level. The sample of this study which was used survey model consisted of 260 students who enrolled in programs of Classroom Teacher Education, Science Education, Social Studies Teacher, Elementary Mathematics Education and Religious Culture and Moral Education in Education Faculty of Bartin University in the 2012-2013 academic year. In this study was used the scale of attitudes towards teaching as a profession developed by Tanel, Şengören ve Tanel (2007) and which has Cronbach Alpha reliability of α = 0.87. In the analysis of the data, Independent-Sample t Test, One-Way-Anova and Scheffe Test were used. The findings indicated that the attitudes of prospective teachers participating in this study towards teaching as a profession were in the range of “I agree” and positive. According to our findings that female prospective teachers had more positive towards teaching as a profession than male prospective teachers and also prospective teachers enrolled in Classroom Teacher Education program had more positive attitude towards teaching as a profession than prospective teachers enrolled in Science Education program. Furthermore, it was determined that variables as presence of a teacher in the family, parent’s education level does not affect the attitudes of prospective teachers towards teaching as a profession. When the importance of attitude towards teaching as a profession is considered in terms of Professional development, it is highly important that all teacher training institutions should act responsibly and be engaged in activities that will improve teachers' attitude towards their profession. It is suggested that studies focusing on comparing prospective teachers' attitudes from first class to senior class and revealing the factors effective during this process should be carried out. Key Words: The attitude towards teaching as a profession, prospective teachers

64-79

Authors: Osman AKTAN , Ülker AKKUTAY

In this research preschool education in Turkey and countries that are succesful in OECD's PISA programme was evaluated comparatively. Qualitative survey method was used in research. Research's data source is 34 OECD countries. Criterion sampling method was used to define study grup. In study grup there are seven countries , our country, Korea, Japon, Finland, Estonia, Switzerland, Holland , that are in first ten countries as a result of OECD's 2012 PISA programme. Preschool education was investigated in Turkey and OECD' s countries. Datas were given in tables comparatively. Although preschool education isn't compulsory in OECD's countries, the rate of schooling in preschool education is so high. In OECD's coutries the rate of preschool education is parallel to the rate of woman employment. Our coutry is under the average of OECD's countries in the rate of schooling in preschool education, teacher career situation, number of student for a teacher, per capita expenditure in education, the rate of education budget. Also our country has the lowest rate in study grup. It is necessary that familes should be made conscious of preschool education and physical situation of schools should be improved to increae schooling in preschool education in our country. Preschool education should be compulsory at least 1 year before primary school and free of charge to become prevalent. Key Words: OECD, preschool education, kindergarden.

18-28

Authors: D. Bahar ŞAHİN, H. Deniz GÜLLEROĞLU

In the devolopment process of likert type scales, which is one of the techniques for measuring the attitude, the item discrimination index can be computed using different techniques. This study is correlational research study to investigate the psychometric properties of scales. To analyze students’ attitude towards physics laboratory course, “Attitude Scale Towards Physics Laboratory Course’’ was developed by researcher. The general aim of this research is to analyse the psychometric properties of scales developed through item analysis techniques that are used to select items for likert-type attitude scales. For this purpose, “Attitude Scale Towards Physics Laboratory Course’’ was developed and administered to 486 university students who were studying science education at the faculty of education. According to the data obtained from pre-testing, different item analysis techniques were used in order to determine the discrimination power of each item relating to the attitude measured through the scale. Statistics for item scores were determined via the tecniques of correlation, t-test, simple linear regression and factor analysis. The first twenty items producing the highest value constituted the ultimate form of scales. Two factors which laboratory Importance and laboratory exhausting were obtained. First factor (Laboratory Importance) explaining 28.028% of the cumulative variances where as second factor (Laboratory exhausting) explaining 13.625% of the cumulative variances.Total addition of these two factors to cumulative variances is 41.653%. According to factor analyze, first 20 items are selected. Physometric properties of scale is related to physometric properties of item in this scale. The purpose of four different scale which are conducted different iteman alysis from first tentative scale is tofind which analysis is best result in terms of validity and relability. Consequently, the physometric properties of the scale is linked to the correctness of decision. According to findings, one of the four techniques as item analysis technique is used in this study, because there is no difference between these four different techniques. A significiant diffirence was not found between the reliability coefficents of the scales developed through four different tecniques-keeping the number of items to be selected for likert-type scales constant. It was observed that there was no difference between the ranking consistency of the scales developed via different tecniques Keywords: Attitude scales, reliability coefficient, item analysis.

44-55

Authors: Osman AKTAN, Serkan PADEM

The purpose of this study is to detect the morals included in Primary School 5th grade Social Sciences textbook. The method of the research is based on qualitative research methodology. The data source of the study is composed of a 5th grade Social Sciences textbook which was distributed to Primary schools for free by the Ministry of Education in 2010-2011 education year. The sample of the study consists of 3 texts randomly chosen out of each unit, which are 24 in total. Morals were detected by examining and analyzing the texts. Among the text examined in the study, the most common morals were found to be peace, succeeding, cooperation, love, responsibility and charity. The least common morals were found to be open-mindedness, caring family unity, reliability, being idealist, belief of national unity, kindness, freedom, self-confidence, patience, cleanness and being open to innovation. The top 5 morals which also take place in Social Sciences curriculum was responsibility, charity, cooperation and peace. Caring family unity, being fair, freedom, cleanness and patriotism, which are also in Social Sciences curriculum, were found to be the least common ones. Morals such as independence, sensitivity, honesty, tolerance, hospitality and caring about being healthy, which can be seen in Social Sciences curriculum, were found not to have been included in the texts. In the end, the importance of choosing the right texts to teach morals to children and representing the morals included in the curriculum was emphasized. Key Words:Values, values education, reading text, Social Studies Teaching Program, values education, 100 Basic Works

9-19

Authors: Murat GENÇ, Tülin GENÇ

The purpose of the study is to determine the candidate teachers’ attitudes towards environmental problems with respect to some variables. The descriptive survey method has been used in the research. This research was gone through with 45 candidate teachers who attend to the department of class teaching in Education Faculty. In this research, “Environmental Attitude Scale” is used a way of data collecting. Inner consistency is found α=.82. Five-likert scale was used for the survey. p<.05 meaningfulness level was taken into consideration for the test of meaningfulness of groups. The maximum grade which can be taken from the scale is 105, and the minimum is 21. For the analysis of the data was used percentage, mean, standard deviation, Anova statistics and t test to determine whether the candidate teachers’ attitude change meaningfully according to various differences. The surveyed students were 64.4% girls (n = 29) and 35.6% men (n = 16).. Students' "Environmental Attitude Scale mean score was 85.11 ± 8.92. Students were received the high points from scale items “The people who drop litter or spit must be obstructed (4.49)”, "in the ozone layer thinning all the people are threatening (4.40", “Meetings which protesting technology products that harm the ozone layer should be held (4.33)” and the low scores were determined of the items " Malnutrition in underdeveloped countries is a result of environmental problems (3.53)”, “the United Nations, including any corporations or institutions must not involved to country of its natural resources as they wish to use (3.67)", “Use of natural gas at home and offices cannot contribute to the solution of the air pollution problem ( 3.73)”. Consequently, what is confirmed is that the candidate teachers’ attitude towards the environmental problems do not show a meaningful difference according to gender, education level of mother and father, economic situation of the family, neighborhood where they lived the longest, whether they smoke or not. However, it was found that significant differences according to home where they live during their training. Key Words: Environmental education, candidate teachers, attitude towards environment.

30-41

Authors: Süleyman GÖKSOY

The main purpose of this study is to analyse the applications in Turkey and in European Union countries about compulsory education and the duration of compulsory education by comparing them. These topics have been argued densely in recent years by all parts of society, especially by politicians. This study includes historical developments of compulsory education, the duration of compulsory education, different phases of compulsory education and sample applications in various countries. European countries are making reforms in prolonging the duration of education to age 18 in order to provide their citizens the basic knowledge, skills and abilities, improve the quality of human resources and secure the national future. They are also encouraging the students about having a basic education certificate. 12 year full-time compulsory education applications are seen as an appropriate attempt for Turkey to participate in the race of improving the qualities of human capital in countries. As a result of the research about compulsory education, it is emphasized that 8-year compulsory education process in Turkey were less than the one in European countries and Turkey fell behind European countries in terms of compulsory education even in 2006. Extending the compulsory education process to 12 years will increase the quality of vocational and technical education. In order to provide more efficient and more qualified education, more material and human resources should be devoted and conditions should be improved qualitatively and quantitatively. It is also emphasized that necessary measures in 12-year compulsory education should be taken in advance in order not to encounter with the infrastructure problems which have been experienced in 12-year compulsory education. Thus, in order to provide Turkey's participation to the race of countries which aims to improve the quality of human capital, 12-year compulsory education applications are seen as appropriate and even belated attempts. In this context, Ministry of Education is holding some regulations, such as providing necessary infrastructure, physical place, educational material and equipment, training educational staff, adapting and improving educational programs. As long as these regulations, completions and restorations go on at the current speed, expected features in our children can increase. Key Words: Education, school, scmpulsory education.