Journal on Efficiency and Responsibility in Education and Science

204-216

Authors: Zülal Ayar

The current zeitgeist in language teacher education dwells on teacher identity regarding it as one of the big buzzwords to explore and critically reflect teacher qualities from a socio-cognitive perspective. Drawing from this current trend, the research intended to disambiguate three English language instructors’ sense of self-efficacy, perceptions, professional identity and professional competence in one of the most established and prestigious state universities in the country through the qualitative case study method. After selecting ESP practitioners following convenience sampling, autobiographies, informal dialogues, classroom observations, opening interviews, post-observation interviews, and field notes were utilized to gather data. Having scrutinized the professional identities of instructors through the lens of self-efficacy beliefs, perceptions, and professional competence, the study exposed that professional competence came to the fore being the best mediator to gain awareness of professional teacher identity. However, self-efficacy did not subserve as a predictor in exploring the complexity of teacher identity due to discordance with perceptions and realities of identity issues. Finally, some suggestions for further considerations were stated to be operationalized within the EFL context of in-service language teacher education.

231-246

Authors: Oğuzhan Nacaroğlu, Oktay Bektaş, Mustafa Tüysüz

The study aimed to examine and compare the science self-regulation skills of gifted and non-gifted students in this study. Survey design, one of the quantitative methods, was utilized in the research. The sample of the study consisted of 263 gifted students enrolled in science and art center and 482 non-gifted students located in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. Science Self-regulation Scale was used as a data collection tool in the research. Independent samples t-test and one-way analysis of variance were used in the analysis of the data. The findings showed that gifted and non-gifted students had high self-regulation skills towards science. In addition, it was found that although there was no statistically significant difference between the average scores of gifted female and male students on the overall scale, there was a significant difference in the other group. Moreover, while the difference between the mean scores obtained in the dimensions of Refinement, Time Organizing, Organizing, Help Seeking, Metacognitive Self-regulation, and Repetition was in favor of gifted students, it was in favor of non-gifted students regarding the mean scores of critical thinking and effort regulation dimensions. The conclusion and implication were discussed in line with these findings.

258-269

Authors: Aneta Mazouchová, Tereza Jedličková, Lucie Hlaváčová

This paper aims to reveal the beliefs of students and fresh university graduates about teaching statistics during their university studies with focus on using statistical software. The objective is to detect the approach of faculties to statistics education and to find out which didactic materials and teaching methods are mainly used. Students’ opinions are captured by means of a questionnaire survey and analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results show the increasing importance of quantitative research and the necessity of improving statistical thinking. Unfortunately, the teaching methods used in various statistical courses are outdated and unattractive for most students. They call for an active and modern approach. Teaching statistics with the statistical software support seems to be the right way to make statistics accessible to students. The recommendation is to take students’ notions into account when preparing statistical courses.