Journal of Higher Education and Science

236-254

Authors: Aslı GÜNAY, Murat Ali DULUPÇU

With the Public Finance Administration and Control Law numbered 5018 went into effect in 2006, the practice of performance based budgeting system focused on efficiency use of resources has begun in Turkish universities. This new system basically depends on strategic planning. Therefore, this study examined missions, visions, objectives and targets of the very first strategic plans of 23 Turkish public universities founded in 1992 prepared after the implementation of the law of 5018 by using content analysis method. In this context, the strategic plans of the universities were analyzed in terms of their missions, visions, objectives and targets, and also general trends and diversifications were screened out. In addition, some information were given about whether universities could reach their performance targets setting in their strategic plans or not at which level. Therefore, it is important to note that this study is the first comprehensive content analysis studying strategic plans of universities after the Public Finance Administration and Control Law numbered 5018 went into effect in Turkey.

263-271

Authors: Nagihan BOZTUNÇ ÖZTÜRK, Eren Halil ÖZBERK, Suzan Beyza KAPTI, Leyla YILMAZ FINDIK, Selahattin GELBAL, Yüksel KAVAK

This study aims to define the transition from education to work, employment and income rates of alumni graduated from Hacettepe University in 2012. The study is well worth studying as it gives data to evaluate the services of higher education, to plan the required arrangements and improvements. In this study, descriptive survey method was used. The study was conducted with 5004 who graduated from short and first cycle, 3162 (%63.18) of which were female and 1842 (%36.82) of which were male. The questionnaire was sent online via “Google Documents” and 1342 graduates filled the form and after data cleansing, 1313 questionnaires were used to analyze. The findings show that 77.38% of graduates work and 22.62% of them do not work. This indicates that three fourths of the graduates graduated from Hacettepe University in 2012 have a job. 55.12% of them works in the private sector, 44.49% of them works in public sector. Also, half of the graduates started their first job in three months and three fifths found a job in six months after graduation and most of the graduates found a job relevant to their study area.

285-291

Authors: Sadık KILIÇ

The aim of this study is to define the level of the relation between the required entrance criteria for master programs with thesis and the variable of academic achievement. The sample of study is 725 students who are entitled to register the master programs with thesis of Social Sciences Institute of Istanbul University in fall semester of 2007-2008 academic year. According to both results of multiple linear regression and logistic regression analysis conducted, entrance criteria predict the achievements meaningfully but weakly. Analysis results indicate that ‘Interview Score' and ‘Undergraduate Grade Point Average' affect degree attainment and ‘Graduate Grade Point Average' positively but, surprisingly, ‘Entrance Examination For Graduate Studies' score and ‘Foreign Language Examination' score either affect the achievement (degree attainment) negatively or do not affect it (Graduate Grade Point Average). At the end of the study, it has been concluded that the entrance criteria need to be revised.

304-315

Authors: Yakup KESKİN

The obligatory religion education in primary and secondary education programs and gathering high religious education under the roof of theology realized at the same period. In this period of 35 years, religion lessons education programs have developed according to changing conditions in terms of the program and especially after 2000, it has been prepared with the aim of forming student's individual belief. Religion lesson teachers are determined to be trained in the scope of ‘general sufficiency criteria' and ‘special branch sufficiency criteria' for religious culture and moral education branch prepared by Ministry of National Education and within the frame of ‘sufficiency in teacher training and educational sciences' which is a part of the Bologna Process. However, when the training process of religion teachers within the last 15 years is taken into consideration, it will be seen that there have been very different applications. Particularly, due to the instability in the policies of Council of Higher Education about training of teachers of religious culture and moral knowledge and religious vocational high school, the quality of primary school religious culture and moral education department is questionable. In this study, ‘Primary School Religious Culture and Moral Education Department Sufficiency Perception Scale' was developed in line with graduate teachers from primary school religious culture and moral education department in order to show the sufficiency of religious culture and moral education yetişdepartments. This scale, according to the view of graduate teachers, is putting forward the basic reasons about the insufficiency of special branch knowledge which is the most criticized part of the religious culture and moral education program. Also, it is putting forward the minimum standard of skills about using information, perception of self-sufficiency and independent research in the department. The data that will be gathered in the scale is significant, because it puts forward the precautions needed in the undergraduate education according to the range of schools at which religious culture and moral education teachers will work.

324-334

Authors: Atınç OLCAY, İbrahim YILDIRIM, Metin SÜRME

Providing the maximum benefit from tourism industry will be possible by an effective and high quality education system of tourism. Therefore, Student's internship training which will be carried out in accordance with the purposes at tourism companies will provide better preparation for their professions. As a result: the tourism industry's need to skilled manpower will be fulfilled too. Accordingly, Internship's capability to respond the requests and needs and the student's satisfaction of having internship training are very important. It is estimated that the students who are not satisfied with their internship can be doubtful about performing this profession. In this context; the purpose of the research is to identify the tourism student's opinions about internship training and at the same time to identify if there is a statistically significant difference between the student's gender and the sector that they have internship with the opinions about their internship training. With this purpose, questionnaires were applied to 126 students studying at The Vocational School of Higher Education for Tourism and Hotel Management at Gaziantep University. In conclusion, considering the views of the students about the internship program, it was seen that the students are generally indecisive. Nevertheless, there has been no statistically significant difference between the student's genders, the sectors they have internship training at and their opinions about the internship trainings.

347-360

Authors: Tuğçe TUNÇ, Sibel KILINÇ ALPAT

In this study, a valid and reliable chemistry achievement test consisting of multiple-choice questions was developed in order to measure the academic achievements of students related to electrochemistry subject in Analytical Chemistry course. The prepared chemistry achievement test was administered to a total of 340 students taking Analytical Chemistry course in faculties of education and/or science and literature of four different universities in the fall semester of 2013-2014 academic year for reliability and validity studies. The goals and target behaviors of the subject are identified by examining literatures and books regarding “Electrochemistry” subject in Analytical Chemistry lesson and Chemistry Achievement Test consisting of 50 questions was prepared. In order to ensure the validity of the test, three faculty members specialized in the field also gave their opinions about the test and necessary corrections were made in line with the received comments. Cronbach's α reliability coefficient was found to be 0.935 for prepared Chemistry Achievement Test. Item analysis of the test was performed by using ITEMAN item analysis program. With the item analysis of the test, the average item difficulty and item discrimination indices were calculated as 0.497 and 0.489, respectively. These results indicated that valid and reliable conclusions were obtained with the developed test. Item difficulty and item discrimination indices were found in discriminable levels. As a conclusion, (it can be said that) the Chemistry Achievement Test has adequate levels of reliability and validity and can be used to measure academic achievements of undergraduate students in “Electrochemistry” subject.