Journal of Higher Education and Science

419-429

Authors: Emine CABI, Halil ERSOY

This study aims to investigate distance education implementations in higher education of Turkey from 2010 to 2016 by numeric data. For this purpose, the numbers and distribution of students at vocational schools, undergraduate and graduate level programs being executed totally in distance education method were analyzed. While it was possible to reach to the numbers of distant students at vocational schools and undergraduate levels between 2010 and 2015, only 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 years’ data were been able to obtained at graduate level. Moreover, the change in the numbers of distant students by years was investigated. Hence it is a case study, it portrays the existing situation longitudinally. In this context, it is believed that the study will contribute to the actions targeting to open new distance education programs.

441-452

Authors: İdris GÖKSU, Yusuf İslam BOLAT

The purpose of this study is to set forth the current situation of academic studies and to make an evaluation in terms of some variables by making a descriptive analysis of the initial results of the academic incentive application carried into effect in 2016. The data related to academic incentive commission evaluation results belonging to 86 of the total 107 state universities were obtained from the web pages of universities and these data were entered into the form consisting of title, gender, faculty and score headings. The data obtained in this study in which the survey model is used as a research method, were evaluated by making an examination in terms of regions, universities, units, title, gender, minimum score, maximum score and incentive rate. Furthermore, academic incentive scores were compared to 2015-2016 URAP rankings of universities and the resultant change was analyzed. It was observed that according to the results obtained; Hacettepe, Ege, Gebze Technical, Selçuk and Atatürk Universities come into prominence on the basis of academic incentive rate; Kastamonu, Niğde, Istanbul Medeniyet, Ege and Selçuk Universities on the basis of academic incentive averages; the faculties of pharmacy, sciences, aquaculture, engineering and agriculture on the basis of faculties. It was seen that the title-based incentive rates are as follows; associate professor, professor, assistant professor, research associate and the other. Considering the gender-based academic incentive rates, it was seen that 25.61% of males and 18.02%of females get academic incentive payment. It can be said that the academic performance is low in general when considering that the overall academic incentive rate is 22.58% and the academic incentive rate of 52 universities is below 20% among 86 universities and the academic incentive rate reflects the academic performances of universities. It is believed that the results obtained from this study are important for the universities and academic staff to make an evaluation about their academic performances.

462-472

Authors: Sakine SİNCER, Gülsün ATANUR BASKAN

This study aims at analysing the relation between culture of fear and burnout according to the perceptions of academics working at universities in Ankara. A total 416 academics 210 of which are female and 206 of which are male have participated in the study. “Culture of Fear Scale” developed by Ashkanasy and Nicholson, and adapted into Turkish culture within the framework of this study as well as “Maslach Burnout Scale” developed by Maslach and Jackson, and adapted into Turkish culture by Ergin , have been used as the data collection tools in this study. The data collected within the framework of this study have been analysed by conducting descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentile, arithmetic mean and standard deviation as well as t-test, one way variation analysis, Kruskal Wallis H test and Mann Whitney U test, Pearson Correlation and Structural Equation Model. The construct validity of the data collection tools has been tested by confirmatory factor analysis. At the end of the study, the level of culture of fear perceived by the participants has been found to be low. Moreover, participants’ level of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization has been found to be low whereas their level of perceived personal accomplishment has been found to be high. It has also been found out that there is a statistically significant, positive and moderate relation between the level of culture of fear perceived by the academics and their level of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization while there is a statistically significant, negative and moderate relation between their level of culture of fear and personal accomplishment. Besides, it has been concluded that culture of fear is a significant predictor of all the sub-dimensions of burnout.

484-493

Authors: İlhan ATİK

The technologies used in information, production and service are constantly changing. The social, political and economic situation at the global level puts pressure on local employment conditions. In a complex world, being a young employee requires complex thinking skills such as analyzing, evidence and problem solving evaluation, and good communication skills. Such skills are not only the skills necessitated by an elite segment as in the past, but the skills that almost all citizens need. Our country has a significant competitive power with its young population. In the future, by educating this young population with the right vocational education, there is a potential to be a promise in business areas where technology is heavily used. However, despite the transfer of increasing financial resources to educational activities every year, the expected success from education cannot be achieved. This problem is especially witnessed in schools that offer vocational and technical education. Especially in recent years, many countries are reviewing their education systems in international evaluation studies such as PISA (Program for International Student Assessment), TIMSS (Third International Mathematics and Science Study) and PIRLS (Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study). These countries have learned the extent to which educational reforms and investments they have undertaken over time has an impact on the academic achievement of their students. Studies carried out at this international level, including our country, show that our country faces significant problems in terms of students, parents and school administrators and teachers. In these evaluations; pre-school education is not widespread and students who cannot reach the level of basic knowledge at primary and secondary school level continue their education without class repetition. Also, school management, parent and guidance teachers are not consulted effectively about the educational problems of the child. When it comes to vocational education, it is observed that the students with the lowest education achievement prefer these institutions and the concern about not being able to work after graduation has a negative effect on education, which affect both students and teachers negatively. By referring vocational training and the work carried out by our country in this regard, problems and solution proposals will be tried to be presented within the scope of PISA 2015 results.

504-514

Authors: Emine Ferda BEDEL

The purpose of this study is to determine relationships among academic procrastination, mindfulness and metacognitive awareness with its two sub dimensions, knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition in first year pre-service early childhood teachers. A sample of 145 pre-service early childhood teachers completed the measures of academic procrastination, mindfulness and metacognitive awareness. Correlation analyses revealed that academic procrastination was negatively related to mindfulness (r=-.47, p<.01), overall metacognitive awareness (r=-.40, p<.01), knowledge of cognition (r=-.40, p<.01) and knowledge of regulation (r=-.44, p<.01). Regression results indicated that the measures of mindfulness and regulation of cognition accounted for 37% of the variance in academic procrastination. Current results indicate that while mindfulness and metacognitive awareness, knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition scores decrease, academic procrastination scores increase. Also, regulation of cognition and mindfulness are significant predictors of academic procrastination.

523-533

Authors: Aysun ÖZTÜRK, Mehmet Çağatay ÖZDEMİR

The purpose of this research is to evaluate United States language education program which is carried out at Gazi University from the included faculty members’ point of view, to determine existing problems and to propose suggestions for better implementation of the program if possible. For this purpose, the case study design which is one of the qualitative research designs was implemented, and the interview technique was used as a data collection technique. The interview questions were prepared by the researchers; the validity and the reliability were ensured by the expert opinions. The interviews were conducted with 12 faculty members from each academic position, who have been in 4 different universities as a part of the program. The results obtained can be summarized as such: all faculty members are generally pleased to attend to the program. However, the aspects which are seen as problems are identified as such; (1) departmental inequivalence at the correspondent university, (2) limited duration of the program, (3) lack of quality in the educational staff of the program, (4) spending too much time with Turkish colleagues which restricts practice of English. Most suggestions proposed by the faculty members are identified as such; (1) only assistant professors should be sent abroad for the language education, (2) associate professors, professors and the ones who have long term abroad experiences should be sent for the purposes such as scientific research, acculturation, etc., (3) the duration should be arranged according to the purposes but the duration of the language education should be arranged at least six months, (4) the universities should be carefully examined to have departmental equivalences, and (5) the language education programs should be prepared with higher quality.

546-553

Authors: Feriştah DALKILIÇ, Ömer AYDIN

In this research, which aims to reveal the causes of non-attendance of the students who are studying at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences in Dokuz Eylül University and examines the effect of the absenteeism on the students’ success status, association rules were created by using Apriori algorithm, which is one of the data mining techniques. As a result of the research, it was determined that gender, current semester and academic year, studying in formal or secondary education, general success status had effects on absenteeism tendency. Moreover, it has been observed that type of transportation has no significant effect on the absenteeism while the satisfaction from the faculty, resident place and its distance to the faculty affects the absenteeism behaviors.

565-577

Authors: Sefa USTA, Yusuf SAYIN, Yiğit Anıl GÜZELİPEK

The main aim of this study is to determine the problems experienced by the foreign students who study at Karamanoglu Mehmetbey University and in Karaman Province, and to develop solution strategies for them. Within the scope of the study, firstly the conceptual framework related to the topic has been discussed and a field research has been conducted for the foreign students studying at University. The theoretical framework of the study is based on “Integrative Communication Theory”. The questionnaire method has been applied to determine the perceptions of the foreign students educated at the university and the city. The analysis of the quantitative data obtained has been made by statistical programs. The findings collected from the study have been evaluated in terms of opportunities and risks. For foreign students while the city’s being devoid of traffic problems, its proximity to major cities, the interest of advisors in students’ concerns, and the meticulous conducting of international student exchange programs are among the opportunities; the lack of an airport in Karaman and the lack of social activities and the absence of a separate language-learning unit are regarded as a risk.

593-600

Authors: Turgay HAN, Hacı Hasan YOLCU

The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which a total of 569 undergraduate students from a rooted (n=109), young (n= 352) or brand-new (n=108) called Turkish university according to their years of foundation are satisfied with a) the technology support and services provided by the universities for learning purposes, b) the use of technology for administrative purposes and c) their overall experiences with the technology used at universities. The “Technology Expectations and Experiences of Students” questionnaire, which was adapted to Turkish by researchers, was used as the data collection tool. The findings showed that the participants were moderately satisfied with the offered campus technologies but their expectations were not met overall. In addition, a significant difference was found in terms of student satisfaction with technology support and the offered services between the students of well-established universities and those of old-brand new universities. The study can be valuable in guiding universities in terms of the technological support and services they provide to their students.

611-616

Authors: sra ERET ORHAN, Yeşim ÇAPA AYDIN, Oya YERİN GÜNERİ

Many higher education institutions in Turkey are putting noteworthy efforts to improve the quality of the education and the services they provide to students. As part of these efforts, some of the universities are making decisions and changes which affect the whole educational and instructional activities. Since it is an accepted reality that the effectiveness of education is one of the major influences on students’ success at university, faculty members are also expected to do their best to increase the quality of their instruction and courses. Using a course syllabus is regarded as one of these ways. Defined briefly as a contract between instructor and students about a course, course syllabus provides the students with written information with regards to certain components of a course -from its objectives to the resources to be used. A course syllabus, given at the very beginning of a semester, not only serves to communicate necessary information about courses to students but also plays an important role in stimulating their learning. Within this respect, this paper aims to inform readers about course syllabus (its purpose, importance and components) and to serve as a practical guide for preparing an effective course syllabus. The study comprises a review and analysis of the existing literature and the sources provided by the teaching and learning centers of higher education institutions. Additionally, a total of 28 course syllabi from different higher education institutions all around the world were also examined.

627-643

Authors: Feride ÖKSÜZ GÜL, Yusuf ALPAYDIN

In developing countries like Turkey, universities are expected to contribute to the formation and implementation of knowledge and social development. This is the case not only for developing countries, but also for developed countries. The modern university concept is based on these foundations. Similar to modern universities in other countries, our universities also bring the dimensions of education, knowledge and economy together. Therefore, the purpose of universities and establishing research and application centers at universities are to identify the social needs and problems and to find solutions accordingly. Research and application centers are those universitybased institutions in which mostly interdisciplinary studies are conducted and they are supported by governmental agencies, private companies or other institutions. Although the effectiveness of these centers, which work in connection with the rectorship or other units is arguable, many research and application centers have been established in our country especially at state universities. The purpose of this study is to examine the information presented in Web sites and the regulations of research and application centers established before 2000. In this document analysis, firstly, the numerical data were examined by using percentage and frequency values. As a result, the distribution of these centers in private and state universities was found out. In the second phase, research and application centers were classified under 13 categories according to their research areas and five categories were selected among those which had the highest number of centers. The regulations, goals and activities of 3 centers from each category were subjected to content analysis. According to the findings, there are 73 state and private universities which were established before 2000. There is a total of 1677 research and application centers at these 73 universities according to the information retrieved from their web sites. 1211 of these centers have online access. However, the information shared by the centers in online platforms varies significantly. In our country, research and application centers are concentrated in regions where more early established universities are located. In addition, Istanbul and Ankara, which have more universities than other cities, affect the number of centers in the regions. It is also seen that 466 centers are not accessed online at all. An analysis of regulations show that those centers which work in the same domain and share the same name display many differences both in terms of their goals and areas of activity. These differences are remarkable especially in activity areas. According to data obtained from the regulations, activity areas fall into the categories of research, application, technology/material/program development, finance and consultancy. The research and application centers at different universities vary in the way they pay attention to and put emphasis on these categories. . It is also observed that research and application centers do not work very actively and those centers which are more active give more importance to practice rather than research. Centers such as ongoing education and distance education, whose focus is not research, and research hospitals seems to work actively.

651-656

Authors: İpek GÖNÜLLÜ, Şengül ERDEN, Derya GÖKMEN

Empathy is an important attribute in the physician-patient relationship and promotes patient and physician satisfaction. It must be taught and promoted during medical education. However, many of the studies about empathy show that empathy declines during medical school education as the year of study increases. The aim of this study was to measure and examine the levels of student empathy during medical education at Ankara University School of Medicine. Study participants were all medical students from the first to the fifth year of the program and the ‘Student Version (S-Version) of Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy’ ( JSPE-S) was used to measure the level of student empathy. The study utilized a cross-sectional design and sub-scale scores were analyzed in terms of gender and year of study. Mann- Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis variance analysis were used to compare the sub-scale scores in terms of gender and year, respectively. The results showed that the second year students` JSPE-S scores were significantly high for “perspective taking” and “compassionate care” whereas the third year students` JSPE-S scores were significantly low for the three sub-scales (p<0.001). Additionally, the scores of internship time decreased gradually as the year of study increased. Females’ JSPE-S scores were significantly higher for “perspective taking” and “compassionate care” (p<0.001). In this study, the students’ empathy levels were examined with a self-report scale. The results indicated that medical student empathy declines as the year of study gets higher. More studies are needed to determine whether the decline in empathy scores are due to cohort effects or to the changes occurring during medical education.

177-184

Authors: Mahmut ÖZER

Internationalization of higher education constitutes one of the most important fields on which all the countries around the world develop their policies by considering it as a dimension strengthening their higher education systems. Countries compete each other to increase the number of foreign students they have. Beyond the opportunities offered by countries, changes in the policies towards foreigners can directly affect the development of internalization of higher education. Recent developments in the United States of America and in England may particularly cause breaking points in the flow of foreign students. Having the biggest higher education system in Europe, Turkey shows tendency to have a stable increase in the number of foreign students in recent years. In this regard, this study deals with the last 15 years of internalization of higher education in Turkey, analyses the strengths and weaknesses based on the data, evaluates the possible opportunities for Turkey in the light of recent developments and tendencies in internalization worldwide and offers suggestions.

192-199

Authors: Yegane GÜVEN

Association of Dental Education in Europe is an educational association in Europe that strives for excellence in Dental Education. The association undertakes visitations to dental schools both within and outside Europe and prepares a report according to the schools’ self assessment document. This case study related to education is very helpful for accreditation purposes. Association of Dental Education in Europe visited six dental faculties between 2007 and 2015 in Turkey and detected some insufficiencies. Visitors recommended an integrated approach to teaching and learning and an integrated patient care. The increasing number of students was reported to be a weakness of dental faculties and to affect the quality of the dental education programme. In this study, the results of visitations reports were discussed. The aim of this work is to provide a guide to the faculties that will invite the Association of Dental Education in Europe and to gain time to prepare for accreditation.

211-220

Authors: Mehmet YAVUZ

This study aims to understand the institutional transformation of university with historical perspective.The university has been presumed as an institution of Western civilization within a perspective that extends from medieval times to present. It is possible to identify two different university model in this time period; medieval university and modern university. Also the modern university model is divided into four sub-models within itself; German, French, English and American. Both distinctions about university are explained by the political and economic conditions of the period and the country that the university belongs. The differences pointed out by these distinctions are embodied in the context of the university’s missions and autonomy concept. A new university model called entrepreneurial university model is discussed within the context of information society in current literature. These discussions are also included at the end of the study.

225-234

Authors: Fatih CAMADAN

This study aims to find out whether or not the observed level of aggression in university students varies according to different demographic variables. These variables include grade level, gender, perceived parenting styles, the place where students lived before the university and monthly economic income level of family. The study group consists of the students studying at seven state universities located in different regions of Turkey: Cumhuriyet University [Central Anatolia Region], Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University [Marmara Region], Çukurova University [Mediterranean Region], Dicle University [South Eastern Anatolia Region], Dokuz Eylül University [Aegean Region], İnönü University [Eastern Anatolia Region] and Ondokuz Mayıs University [Black Sea Region]. The Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire was used to collect data. In order to determine the validity of the scale for this research, ‘Deterministic Finite Automat (DFA)’ was recalculated again. Also, Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency coefficient was recalculated again for the reliability. The obtained results revealed that the factor structures in the original scale are validated for this study and the measurement instrument was found to be reliable for this research. In addition, the Personal Information Form was prepared and given to the participants by the researchers in order to obtain different demographics about them. Various statistical analyses were performed with the data obtained through the form and scale. As a result of the analyses, the aggression level of male students was found to be significantly higher than the females. The level of aggression of the students who perceive their parents’ attitudes as authoritarian was found to be significantly higher than those who are exposed to protective and democratic parenting attitudes. In addition, the students who perceive their fathers as indifferent yielded higher aggression scores than those perceiving their fathers as democratic. Aggression scores of the students whose families have a monthly economic income between 0-1000 TL were found to be higher compared to those with a monthly income over 3000 TL. On the other hand, no significant difference was found among the university students’ aggression levels according to the grade level or the place where students lived before the university. These results were discussed by comparing with the other research in the literature. Some of these results show similarities with the previous research findings, while differences were seen in some findings. As a conclusion, various proposals were put forward for future research and implementations that can be done about these obtained results from the study.

247-255

Authors: Leyla YILMAZ FINDIK, Suzan Beyza KAPTI, Nagihan BOZTUNÇ ÖZTÜRK, Eren Halil ÖZBERK,

Education is the key factor to build and sustain the future of nations and it stands at the center for smart and sustainable growth. Investing on education especially on higher education, is essential for growth and employment as a more skilled and well educated workforce will support further productivity gains, innovation and wealth. Correspondingly, this results in growing and diversifying of higher education system in all countries to compete world-wide in recent decades. The Turkish higher education system has been facing an unprecedented transformation in the last decade. This transformation has been driven by economic and demographic changes. Higher education in Turkey is changing and opening up to increase in size and to respond to increasing demands from society with the efforts of competing in world-wide. The aim of this study is to investigate the quantitative changes in higher education in Turkey shedding light on the expansion in terms of universities, institutions, students, academic staff and schooling ratio in the last fifteen years starting from 1999 till 2015. The results indicate that Turkey has seen a rapid expansion and a substantial rise in the number of enrollment rate in higher education since 1999 but still not enough when compared to OECD countries.

267-281

Authors: Nazife KARADAĞ, Servet ÖZDEMİR

The aim of this study is to evaluate the process of doctoral education from the viewpoints of faculty members and doctoral students. ‘Case study’ method was employed for a detailed understanding of the participants’ views on the current postgraduate education processes. The participants of the study were composed of doctoral students and faculty members offering doctoral courses and supervising dissertations. Criterion sampling, which is a type of ‘purposeful sampling,’ was used as the sampling method. Data were collected through semi-structured interview protocols prepared by the researchers. In the processes of data collection, one- on- one interviews were made with the faculty members whereas focus group interviews were conducted with doctoral students. The findings of the study and the suggestions made for future were presented from the viewpoints of the faculty members and doctoral students. They included the aim of doctoral education, knowledge, skills and competencies aimed for doctoral students , qualifications of doctoral students who will begin doctoral education, qualifications of academic advisors, the relationship between faculty members and doctoral student, doctoral education processes, assesment and evaluation processes, technological equipment and infrastructure services, departmental culture, and the problems during the doctoral education process.

294-304

Authors: Mustafa ÖZGÖL, İsmail SARİKAYA, Mesut ÖZTÜRK

The study was conducted with the aim of evaluating distance education applications in formal education from the viewpoints of students and teaching staff. Accordingly, five teaching staff offering distance learning courses at a university located in eastern part of Turkey were interviewed. Interviews were also made with six students who were enrolled in formal education at that university and were taking courses in distance format. In this study, ‘case study’ method as one of the qualitative research designs was used for a holistic and indepth examination of the problems encountered in distance education applications in formal education. Data were analyzed with content analysis. The findings related to students resulted in four categories with 20 codes falling under these categories. Similarly, the findings obtained from teaching staff yielded four categories with 25 codes under these categories. This study is considered to guide the educational institutions that are planning to adopt distance education or those that have just adopted distance education. It is also deemed to help institutions take precautions related to the possible problems that can be faced in distance education applications.

312-320

Authors: Oya TAMTEKİN AYDIN

Recently, the increasing competition in higher education has attracted attention by many researchers. They have emphasized that the aim of the growing competition between universities is to increase the number of students, the research performance and get research support, find qualified faculty members, and receive financial contributions. This paper aims to draw attention to “research performance” which is a significant part of the competition among the universities. In connection with this goal, the study tries to outline the results of an extensive literature review in the field of higher education research performance. Firstly, literature regarding research performance, its definition as a concept, and its indicators are discussed. Then, the factors influencing research performance are presented in a comprehensive manner. At the end of the study, a conceptual framework that will be useful for all university staff is provided. Understanding the concept of research performance and the factors affecting research performance can help relevant authorities improve their current positions.

333-352

Authors: Yılmaz SOYSAL, Hatice TANIK

In this study, two academics’ who have been employed in a private university teaching barriers and accompanied attributional reasoning were examined in the context of their belief systems with regards to learning, teaching and knowledge. This study was conducted with a basic qualitative perspective. By means of qualitative data gathering and analysis, it was aimed at estimating how the relation between teaching barriers and attributional reasoning was influenced by pedagogical-epistemological belief systems of scholars. Qualitative data was collected through two different semi-structured interview protocols and gathered data was analyzed with an inductive and interpretivist manner. The scholars’ beliefs systems’ divergences (teacher-centered vs. learner-centered) allowed to explore the presumable relation of barrier-attribution in the context of pedagogical-epistemological belief systems. It was found out that the scholar who has adopted the more learner-centered modes of teaching favors more internally-oriented, controllable and non-stable attributional styles in illustrating her barrier-attribution relation. In contrast, it was also detected that the scholar who has held more teacher-centered teaching beliefs is liable to make attributions to overly external, non-controllable and stable factors in illuminating her barrier-attribution relation. Major outcomes of the study are evaluated by means of psychological (i.e., attribution theory) and instructional (pedagogical-epistemological beliefs) lenses and suggestions are offered in the context of higher education.

369-377

Authors: Sevda KÜÇÜK

The aim of this study is to reveal preservice teachers’ experiences toward situated learning based educational technology instruction. This research is a case study and data was collected through a semi structured interview form. The focus group interviews were conducted with 11 groups (33 female, 3 male) which were selected randomly from 65 sophomore preservice teachers who studied at Istanbul University Science Education department. Based on the content analysis of data, “Course Outcome Attainments” and “Project Process” themes were revealed. It was determined that preservice teachers felt themselves like a teacher in the implementation process. They gained experience using educational technology tools with their practical applications, and increased their self confidence. It was revealed that some of the preservice teachers felt frustrated due to ill-structured tasks in the beginning, but in later times this issue was eliminated thanks to group work. They were satisfied with this method because they were able to work freely. It was also determined that communication and interaction level was high between students thanks to group work. A fun learning process took place and groups created quality judgment criterias based on consensus among all group members and then they tried to developed quality materials. The results can be a pathfinder for situated learning based educational technology instruction implementations.

392-402

Authors: Burhan FINDIKLI

Governance in higher education, both at institutional and systemic levels, has experienced substantial changes within recent decades because of a range of world-historical processes such as massification, growth, globalization, marketization, public sector reforms, and the emergence of knowledge economy and society. These developments have made governance arrangements and decision-making processes in higher education more complex and multidimensional more than ever and forced scholars to build new analytical and heuristic tools and strategies to grasp the intricacy and diversity of higher education governance dynamics. This article provides a systematic discussion of how and through which tools prominent scholars of higher education have analyzed governance in this sector by examining certain heuristic frameworks and analytical models. Additionally, the article shows how social scientific analysis of governance in higher education has proceeded in a cumulative way with certain revisions and syntheses rather than radical conceptual and theoretical ruptures from Burton R. Clark’s seminal work to the present, revealing conceptual and empirical junctures between them.

012-023

Authors: Engin DEMİR, Cennet GÖLOĞLU DEMİR, Mehmet Çağatay ÖZDEMİR

Despite the changes made related to academic promotion and appointment over the years in Turkey, there have been two main criteria: academic publications after PhD and foreign language proficiency. It commonly known that faculty members come across several problems during the process of attaining the title of associate professorship and these problems affect the academic environment in several ways. The purpose of this study is to reveal the faculty members’ views on the academic promotion in postdoctoral process and provide further suggestions.. Data were gathered through a semi-structured interview form including 10 items prepared by the researcher and analyzed through content analysis. In addition, a criterion table comprised of 25 items was applied to the participants before the interview. These criteria were determined by the InteruniversityBoard of Turkey and other universities. 18 faculty members marked the criteria they consider essential. Participants consisted of faculty members from science, social and medical fields. Results of the study revealed that faculty members considered associate professorship exam and foreign language exam necessary. According to the faculty members, the criteria related to publishing international articles and lecturing at undergraduate and graduate levels were especially very important among all criteria and the current system had a determinant role in the faculty members’ behaviors and academic publications. Faculty members stated that foreign language exam did not measure language proficiency accurately ; academic positions were not assigned fairly; there were some problems about the quality of academic publications, ethics and being a scientist. Similarly, they clearly stated that the society did not rely on scientists. The results gained in the study corroborate the need to review the academic promotion and appointment process. An increase in the number of such studies that examine faculty members’ perceptions is recommended due to their potential for providing a basis for future.

028-040

Authors: Aysun KAPUCUGİL İKİZ, Muhammet DAMAR, Güzin ÖZDAĞOĞLU, Cenk ÖZLER, Yasemin ARBAK, Pınar TUNCEL, İlgi KARAPINAR, Recep YAPAREL

For the purpose of providing a better quality of service for their students, higher education institutions develop both academic and social strategies that will meet students’ expectations, and they can monitor the performance of the related activities efficiently by integrating them into their strategic plans. Although students’ expectations from the institutions in which they are registered can be provided directly through feedback mechanisms, there is a need for a sustainable system through which students’ opinions on all of the services are gathered in a systematic way. In this regard, the objective of this study was to design an information system measuring the satisfaction level of the students about the services/ facilities provided by the university on a regular basis and reporting the results of the measurement to the university management in a certain format. In this descriptive research that was carried out within the scope of Dokuz Eylul University quality assessment, evaluation and assurance activities in higher education, an electronic form was developed which was integrated into the Dokuz Eylul University Information System. Through this form, particular questions were asked covering many service dimensions, i.e., infrastructure facilities, the provided services, educational and career development, approaches of the university towards the students, communication with students, attitudes of students towards the university, etc. The evaluations of students’ feedback were performed based on descriptive statistics, and an additional assessment scale was also generated to classify and order the overall satisfaction levels as primary priority to improve, secondary priority to improve, opportunities available, and the areas where the university is strong. This system helped to make decisions for the improvements in required fields, generated inputs to the strategic plan of Dokuz Eylul University for determining policies and goals to increase the quality of education, student satisfaction and provided a capability for performance evaluation in the achievement of these goals by systematic measurements.

051-058

Authors: Hilal BÜYÜKGÖZE, Şefika Şule ERÇETİN

The current study focuses on the relationship between organizational attraction perceptions and perceived individual-organization compatibility of university students toward the organizations they would like to work after university graduation. The participants consisted of 253 university students including 161 females and 92 males. Participant age ranged from 19 to 28 years (range = 9, X = 21.26, SD = 1.619). Of the participants, 106 were juniors (41.9%), and 147 were senior year students (58.1%). The ‘Applicant Attraction Instrument’ of Rau and Hyland was used to measure the organizational attraction perceptions of the university students. Participants’ perceived individual-organization compatibility was assessed with the ‘Perceived Person-Organization Fit Instrument’ developed by Cable and DeRue. While the reliability of the scales used in the study was examined by the calculation of Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficients, the validity was investigated by conducting confirmatory factor analysis on LISREL software. Findings indicated a positive and moderate correlation between organizational attraction perceptions and perceived individual-organization compatibility among university students toward the organizations they would like to work after graduation (r = .615). Further, participants’ organizational attraction perceptions were found to explain 38% of the variance in their perceived individual-organization compatibility. Results suggested that stronger perceived organizational attraction of an aimed organization relates to greater perceived individual-organization compatibility for undergraduate students. The results of the study are discussed with the relevant theories and literature on the issues.

067-077

Authors: Somayyeh RADMARD

By investigating international students’ reasons for choosing higher education, this study attempts to reveal the factors influencing students’ tendency for international education with various descriptive statistics. The study is based on the scanning method. The international students studying at universities in Ankara in the academic year 2011-2012 were selected as the investigated population of this survey. A total of 545 students selected using the ‘appropriate sampling method’ from the research population constituted the sample of the research. The data were gathered through distributing a questionnaire composed of three different sections which was designed by the researcher. The data were first explained in terms of their frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Little research has been conducted on international students in Turkey. According to the findings of this study, The majority of the students studying in Turkey come from Turkish-speaking neighboring countries. The findings of the present study also reveal that there seems to be no systematic policy for attracting international students to Turkey. Students’ academic accomplishment has been negatively influenced by their low level of proficiency in the Turkish language. In addition, international students also suffer from difficulty in becoming accustomed to their social environment. According to the findings of the study, most international students have economic problems. Despite these problems, the majority of the international students in Turkey were satisfied with their education. In order to maintain the satisfaction of international students, adopting both long-term and short-term strategies and policies by government is recommended. Having a positive attitude towards Turkey can be considered as one of the reasons to select Turkey as a destination for higher education. In general, the findings of the study illustrated that international students selected Turkey mainly due to their cultural proximity, Turkey’s comparatively developed economy and access to high-quality higher education.

091-098

Authors: Tuğçe TÜRTEN KAYMAZ, Şahika ŞİMŞEK ÇETİNKAYA, Elif BAKIR, Yeter Sinem ÜZAR ÖZÇETİN, Şenay GÜL, Nilay ERCAN ŞAHİN, Fatma USLU ŞAHAN, Seher BAŞARAN, Zahide TUNÇBİLEK

This study was conducted to investigate the data about the Bologna Process on the websites of universities’ undergraduate nursing programs in Turkey. In this descriptive study, all state and private universities which have BSc Nursing Programs and are within the scope of the Council of Higher Education of Turkey were included. Data were collected between May 1st and June 1st, 2015 by searching the websites of universities that were included in this study. An Evaluation Form that was developed by the researchers was used to collect data. Data were analyzed by using frequencies and percentages. We found that 77.2% of the universities included in the study were state universities and information about the Bologna Process could be found by using the website link on the main page in 65.3% of these universities. The majority of the universities (87.1%) had general information about their program but 44% did not take the European Credit Transfer System into consideration on compulsory lessons and 41% of them on elective lessons. It was found that the majority of essential nursing lessons held by eight departments in BSc of Nursing programs had an Information Package of Lessons (68.1%-77.6%) and that this package contained information on the European Credit Transfer System Credits in 72.3%-82.7% and calculations of student workload in 54.2%-65.6%. In conclusion, the universities with BSc Nursing Program did not have full information about the Bologna Process on their websites. We recommend making the necessary updates on these websites according to the standard format of the Council of Higher Education of Turkey to avoid giving inadequate and false information about the Bologna Process.

099-117

Authors: Elif BAHADIR

Postgraduate education, which is regarded as necessary in the field of education in order to improve the qualifications of teachers seen as culture workers, has become more important than it used to be. In this context, the attitudes of prospective teachers toward pursuing a postgraduate education are crucial. In this study, all of the components, including grades, scores and the attitudes of prospective teachers were interpreted by a fuzzy logic-based evaluation for admission to postgraduate education. The attitudes of the underpostgraduate students towards postgraduate education were determined according to ‘the Postgraduate Attitude Scale’. The students’ four year college grade point averages and ‘academic personnel and postgraduate education entrance exam’ scores were also taken into account, and their eligibility for postgraduate education was assessed by using fuzzy logic rules. The study was conducted with 155 prospective teachers who were underpostgraduate students in the program of mathematics teaching for elementary school. During the study, after the test operation was done with one-third of the data, an 80.77% result of the general prediction rate was obtained. These results were further analyzed in detail, and 76 out of 96 students who were eligible for postgraduate education and 48 out of the 59 remaining students were predicted correctly. The data obtained from the study was assessed using fuzzy logic methods, and this approach has proven to reach more effective and accurate results.

132-138

Authors: Semahat AYSU

The aim of this study was to investigate the discourse markers used by 104 elementary-level prep class students studying at Namık Kemal University in Turkey. Students were required to write a paragraph with 80-100 words as part of their mid-term exam in the academic year of 2013-2014. A small-size corpus was constructed by using these writings. The corpus was analyzed via a software program called as AntConc 3.2.4. in order to find out the types and frequency of discourse markers. It was revealed that 180 discourse markers were used by elementary-level students: ‘and’ was used 98 times, but occurred 51 times, ‘because’ was written 18 times and other discourse markers of ‘then’, ‘so’, ‘also’, ‘too’ and ‘still’ were used 7, 2, 2, 1, 1 times respectively. Furthermore, according to Fraser’s (1999) taxonomy of discourse markers, 180 discourse markers were grouped into four categories. It was found out that 101 markers were elaborative markers, 52 were contrastive markers, 18 were causative markers and 9 were inferential markers.

150-162

Authors: Yılmaz TONBUL

This study aimed to develop suggestions for the management of the Institute of Social Sciences on the effective execution of postgraduate education. A ‘mixed’ design was used. Data collection tools were applied directly to student population without the use of any sampling method. For advisors, criterion sampling was used.The participants of the study were composed of 207 postgraduate students registered at the Institute of Social Sciences and 39 instructors at Ege University. The student data were collected via the Supervisor Evaluation Scale and interview guide consisting of open-ended questions. The instructor data were collected during semi-structured focus group interviews. The participants stressed the informative, supportive and instructional roles of the institute for improving the quality of graduate education. In addition, differences as well as commonalities between the expectations of the students and those of the instructors were detected. The students’ expectations from the institute were the protection of students’ rights, mediation, ensuring the diversity of elective courses, the proper teaching of the courses in accordance with the nature of graduate education, and provision of information about career, time and stress management. Besides, the instructors’ expectations included attracting qualified candidates to programs, informing students, supporting the students with cadre and scholarship, reducing bureaucratic procedures, regulating the processes of supervisor selection and thesis proposal, providing access to resources during the processes of both course work and thesis writing, and forming colloquiums. The institute’s existing structure, authority distribution, staff and budget resources were found to be inadequate for increasing the quality of postgraduate education. Regarding the course and thesis stages, one third of the supervisors were evaluated as insufficient by the students. Many suggestions related to practice were made with respect to the findings.