Journal of Higher Education and Science

425-435

Authors: Mahmut ÖZER

Vocational and technical education is a field of education on a global scale due to its importance in the economic development of countries. Countries reorganize, revise and transform vocational and technical education according to the current situation and orientations of their economies. In this context, the vocational and technical education of each country reflects the realities of their own country. The 2023 Education Vision, announced by the Ministry of National Education, also provides a new road map for vocational and technical education in line with the realities of the country. The new roadmap envisages a dynamic vocational education contruction that is sensitive to the sector and constantly updating itself according to the country’s priorities. In this study, the targets developed for vocational and technical education based on the 2023 Education Vision and the steps taken in this context are presented.

451-456

Authors: Tuba ŞAHİN ÖREN, Veli Erdinç ÖREN

This study was planned as a descriptive study to determine the satisfaction of the students who completed vocational training within the context of 3+1 Training Models which have been started to be implemented in ‘Business Administration, Tourism and Hotel abl, Chemistry and Chemical Processing Technologies, Furniture and Decoration’ programs. The population of the study was 59 students who have completed the vocational training course within the scope of 3+1 Training Models in Banaz Vocational School. Out of 59 students, 59 of them participated in the study. Collected data was analyzed with SPSS, which is statistical analysis software. As a result of the study, it was determined that the students in the sample were significantly satisfied with the expectations of the vocational training courses of the 3+1 Training Model and satisfied in the professional sense. It was observed that the students who have successfully completed their vocational training know the sector they are studying and enhance their communication skills by experiencing the working life. In this context, it was determined that students are less concerned about getting a job after graduation after completing the professional practice within the scope of 3+1 Training Model.

471-479

Authors: Sevgi ÖZDİNÇ, Yağmur BİÇİCİ, Miraç ÇAMUR, Fatma Nesrin TURAN

The aim of the study is to determine professional anxiety levels of undergraduate students who have physiotherapy and rehabilitation education. The professional anxiety questionnaire developed by the researchers and the state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI TX 1-2) were applied on a voluntary basis to physiotherapy first grade and fourth-grade students in the 2016-2017 academic year. In this study which was planned as cross-sectional and descriptive, the difference between genders and classes was investigated in terms of each scale. While no statistical difference between genders was determined in terms of three scales, the statistical significant difference between classes was determined in terms of professional anxiety questioner’s items (p>0.05). While anxiety about professional competence was higher in the first graders, the future and employability anxiety was higher in the fourth graders (p>0.05). We were pleased that the educational process supported students’ professional competence anxiety in this study. We consider that increasing activities such as career days will be useful for reducing the future and employability anxiety.

488-501

Authors: Hakan ANAY, Ülkü ÖZTEN, Meltem ÖZTEN ANAY, Yiğit ACAR

The study presents and opens into discussion the essential findings of a research that focuses on doctoral dissertations in the field of architecture/architectural design completed in the last 20 years (1995-2014), aim of which was expressed as ‘to provide a panorama of the state of doctoral research in the field of architecture/architectural design at the beginning of the 21st century.’ Beside the general information about the investigated 240 theses, with this respect, the findings coming from the ‘qualitative’ investigation of the issues coming out of the theses, like themes, content, material, methodology, sources, and relations with other fields were presented structurally, and were discussed and interpreted with reference to the context of the research. The findings show that the increase observed in doctoral studies was gathered around the circles/research traditions of so-called ‘core universities.’ On the other hand, it seems that it must be questioned what the increase in numbers (the quantity) brings us in the direction of ‘quality’, and if the definition and the content of the doctoral research was transforming from being a unique type of research, having its own specificities, into something being ‘just a stage in the career of an academic’ or not. Architecture/architectural design doctorates seem to address themes those could be embedded within both local and global contexts. With this respect, it was observed that topical issues such as ‘housing,’ or ‘urban problems’ that are towards the pragmatic/architectural practice attract more attention. Parallel to this, digital/computational design/architecture, a phenomenon that belongs to the present age, so popular and so much addressed that, it seems to be nearing to constitute almost an autonomous field in itself, and it seems to affect other ‘traditional’ themes in architecture such as architectural education. The research showed that doctorates conducted in the field of architecture relies on knowledge from other fields; with this respect, its relation especially with arts and social sciences and humanities has its own specificities and worth to mention. Doctorates seem to be nourished by two major resource pools, one local the other, global. With this respect, a problem in accessing global (first hand, original) sources was identified, and this issue was related with a lack of knowing a foreign language. It was argued that inability to access such sources might lead to problems in quality of research and lack in depth as well. One could mention a body of “local” sources written in Turkish, addressing local issues, and a body of doctoral research nourished by this framework and contributing back to it as well. On the other hand, such a framework, even considering the ‘translated texts’, seems to be addressing only a limited range of issues that seems to be falling short of demands, if one considers the epistemological “richness” of the field. Viewed as a whole, the present study turns the essential information about uninvestigated and ‘unworked,’ body of doctoral research to-the-date, into a “visible” entity, thus turn them into something that could be shared and discussed. With this respect, it is expected to help in understanding the research environment in doctoral studies in architecture and the basic characteristics that constitute this environment, and it is thought to be beneficial in developing strategies towards solving the problems it posed, as a resource in planning, renewing and orienting doctoral programs/education both in the scale of institutions and the country, and finally as a departure point, a foundation for the follow-up research.

512-521

Authors: Selin ATALAY

The definition of higher education is going through a rapid transformation where higher education is seen as a strategic commodity with a high profit potential. Actors involved in an increasingly commodified higher education arena are taking different positions in this changing context. Neoliberal ideology is taken as the basis of the transformation of higher education. Academics taking the role of service providers are losing their professional positions where students are being regarded as customers in the ‘Neoliberal University’. This implies a change in the relationship between institutions, academics and students which will be analyzed throughout this paper. The paper takes the point of view of academics, bringing in results of a qualitative PhD study conducted with 28 academics working in public and foundation (private) universities located in the cities of Istanbul and Izmir. The case presented in this study will be analyzed as part of the discussion on the changing nature of higher education in which academics are increasingly being controlled through their relationship with their students and the effects of the increasing demands of the students taking the role of customers. This analysis is a part of a broader discussion on how the academic profession is changing under the context of the ‘Neoliberal University’.

532-541

Authors: Esra ERET, Oya YERİN GÜNERİ, Yeşim ÇAPA AYDIN

Faculty mentoring programs are implemented in higher education institutions to support faculty development. Within this respect, the aim of this study was to explore the views and suggestions of mentors and mentees in relation to the effectiveness of the mentoring program in a large state university in Ankara. The study had a qualitative design and semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect data. The sample included 8 mentors and 9 mentees. The qualitative data obtained through interviews were analyzed using descriptive analysis. The results showed that peer mentoring program contributed to professional development of mentees. The mentors also highlighted the benefits of mentoring program for their career. Both mentors and mentees also provided noteworthy suggestions on how to increase effectiveness of the mentoring program.

552-566

Authors: Emrah ÖZTÜRK

Nowadays protection of the environment and natural resources as a whole has become very important. Consequently, environmental policies and regulations of countries focused on pollution prevention strategies. However, specialists in the related fields with technical knowledge and accumulation are needed in order to apply the pollution prevention approaches. In order to meet this requirement, education issues based on the pollution prevention approach should be included in the undergraduate programs of universities. Environmental engineering is one of the most appropriate engineering branches in this field to handle the issues completely. Therefore, the courses focused on pollution prevention are needed more in environmental engineering education. In this study, the course catalogs and course contents of the environmental engineering departments at 46 universities in our country have been examined in detail and total 180 undergraduate courses were evaluated by employing multiple criterion analysis (MCA) in terms of pollution prevention contents. According to the obtained results, although the pollution prevention based approaches were among the aims of environmental engineering education, average 1.8% of 180 undergraduate courses were pollution prevention focused. Besides, 11% of the environmental engineering undergraduate courses contributed to pollution prevention and 5% were completely pollution prevention oriented. In addition, suggestions were presented about environmental engineering undergraduate education such as meeting existing needs, contributing to the sustainable development of our country, protection of our environment and natural resources and increasing employment opportunities.

574-582

Authors: Buse ARAL, Enisa MEDE

The purpose of this research study is to find out the impact of emotions on the well-being of the English Language Preparatory Program instructors working in private (non-profit, foundation) universities in İstanbul, Turkey. Specifically, this mixed method study aims to investigate the emotional well-being (positive and negative emotions) of the instructors, to explore to what extent year of experience affects their emotions, and lastly, to find out the reflections of the participating instructors leading to change in their emotions. The quantitative data were obtained through a Teacher Emotion Inventory (TEI) Scale (Chen, 2016) administered to 66 EFL instructors from five different English Language Preparatory Programs (ELPPs) in İstanbul while the qualitative data including instructors’ opinions about their feelings were gathered from teachers’ reflections written by 28 participating instructors. The findings of the study showed that participants mostly experience positive emotions. Moreover, it was also found that the years of experience had a positive impact only on the participants’ emotions of joy. However, there were also other remarkable factors affecting instructors’ emotions and emotional well-being regarding their students, personal life and institutions. Based on the findings, recommendations to foster positive emotions in preparatory programs were provided in the study.

593-604

Authors: Ali DİNCER, Hatice Kübra KOÇ

Faculty development in higher education is a promising area of research, which requires further study in terms of present-day academics’ needs. Considering the necessity of English in academia, this study aimed to determine the academics’ language needs and to test the effectiveness of an academic development training designed based on the identified needs. Then, a multiphase mixed methods design was adopted to answer the aims. Accordingly, a needs analysis survey regarding the English language requirements of university faculties was conducted across 105 faculty members in Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University, a Turkish state university. In addition, 35 out of the members completed an intensive three-week English conversation and academic writing program designed in accordance with the language needs of the academics. The changes between the pre-test and post-test scores for the academics were investigated, with a focus on the willingness to communicate in English, and perceived self-efficacies in English speaking and writing. Further, the academics’ opinions on the training program were collected with open-ended interview questions at the conclusion of the course. The needs analysis survey results indicated that the majority of academics believe their English is either at a beginner or elementary level, and that they require English to fulfil several academic purposes. The findings relating to the effectiveness of the training program showed significant differences in the academics’ pretest and post-test scores, in favor of the post-test scores, regarding willingness to communicate, and perceived self-efficacies in speaking and writing. The findings from the open-ended questions about the program confirmed the effectiveness of the course and highlighted the necessity to improve foreign language proficiency levels in university faculties through similar language training programs. In light of the findings, implications for the internalization of the higher education institutions are discussed at the end of the paper.

619-625

Authors: Hatice ODACI, Özge KINIK

In this research, the attitudes of university students toward receiving psychological services were investigated according to a variety of demographic variables (sex, previously receiving psychological service, faculty attended) and the aim was to determine the correlation between university students’ attitudes toward receiving psychological services and their self-control and self-esteem. Designed with correlational pattern, the study group for this research comprised a total of 576 university students, 376 females (67%) and 190 males (33%), attending a variety of faculties (Faculty of Education, Faculty of Architecture, Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Science, Faculty of Communication) at Karadeniz Technical University in the 2016-2017 spring semester. The ages of students included in the study group varied from 18 to 39 with a mean age of 20.70 (SD=2.16). Data was collected using the Personal Information Form prepared by the researchers, the Attitudes to Seeking Psychological Aid Scale Short Form (Türküm, 2004), Self-Control Scale (Duyan, Gülden and Gelbal, 2012) and Two-Dimensional Self-Esteem Scale (Self-love and Self-efficacy scale) which was adapted to Turkish by Doğan (2011). It was found that the attitude scores of the students regarding receiving psychological services significantly differed according to sex, previously receiving professional psychological services, and the faculty attended. Additionally, the attitudes of university students about receiving psychological services had significant positive correlations with self-control and self-esteem. In light of these findings, it can be said that attitudes toward receiving psychological services are directly or indirectly affected by the well-being status of the individual and that it is an important variable affected by many factors.

221-226

Authors: Mahmut ÖZER

The Measurement, Selection and Placement Center of Turkey, which was initially established to conduct central examination and placement for the entry to only higher education institutions, has increased the number of exams it conducts in line with the demands in the country within the years. Thus, besides the entrance examination for higher education, it has become an examination center for examining the foreign language level and an examination center in various fields to be used for personnel selection to public institutions and organizations. This institution makes the examinations and evaluates the candidates according to the results. Approximately 10 million candidates participate in the exams conducted by the Measurement, Selection and Placement Center almost every year. There is no other examination center in the World in terms of the variety of the exams it conducts, the number of candidates participating in the examinations, and in terms of the center’s duty of placement as well. This study deals with the new goals, strategic preferences and new directions for the future of the Measurement, Selection and Placement Center, which successfully fulfills its increasing responsibilities over the past 44 years.

236-244

Authors: Hıdır APAK

Education in the field of social services began in 1963 in order to raise intermediate staff members, however it could not become present and widespread until 2008. Social services associate degree education started in 2008 and has been developing rapidly since 2013. In this study, the current situation of social services associate degree education in Turkey by October 2017 was focused It was aimed to give a snapshot of the social work education in Turkey and to develop recommendations accordingly.

254-263

Authors: İlhan ATİK

The concept of production with the industrial revolution; using production factors, has changed from “the same quantity as the standard business processes to the most possible quantity, the cheapest and the fastest production”. However, the development of societies and the transformation and globalization that have taken place with the rapid change in communication and information Technologies have altered expectations from the workforce. Today’s business world expects employees to understand production processes that include dynamic systems and processes, to adapt to change and to learn continuously and to be able to re-incorporate change, rapid learning, and learning into the system and process. This change has made vocational colleges an important part of the competitive global economic order. In our country, the relevant ministries, higher education institutions, sector representatives and local governments raise their efforts to solve the problems of vocational education and to raise the workforce in a way that can meet the needs of our country and a significant amount of resource is used in line with this purpose. But the results are that the vocational training activities are not in line with the market conditions, the graduates can not find a job and our country can not have a competitive workforce, as the results of this research, international evaluations and also our country’s labor force profile are taken into account. Developed countries have begun to use an approach recently defined as Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) Trainings to combat similar problems, especially to increase the qualifications of the engineer-level workforce. STEM Trainings is an approach that incorporates all phases of education, allows the theoretical knowledge to be transformed into practice and product, and creates an environment in which the contents of the science intersect each other at different points. This study examines the benefits that FTMM education can provide for associate degree education by expressing vocational education and problems in our country.

271-279

Authors: Fatma Fulya TEPE

This study aims to understand if women academics in Turkey experience their double shift as a role conflict or role expansion. Previous studies on women academics in Turkey generally found that most of them experience their double shift as a role conflict. This study is a qualitative research made with 14 women academics. The findings suggest that they experience role conflict and role expansion simultaneously during their double shift. The present study supports previous international and national research suggesting that women academics’ role conflict is accompanied by their role expansion and thus breaks the old role conflict - role expansion dichotomy. Moreover, according to this research, voluntariness in acquiring new roles might be significant when it comes to explain how women academics in Turkey interpret their double shift as a role expansion.

298-304

Authors: İlker KÖMÜRCÜ

In this study, it was aimed to investigate the relationship between the academic achievement levels of conservatory students and the exam scores considered in the selection of students to conservatories. The research also sets out to determine the predictive power of these variables on the academic achievement of the students. This quantitative study adopts a correlational research model. Correlation and regression analysis were used to determine the relationship between the predictors and the predicted variables. As a result of the analyses, it was determined that the equation showing that the scores obtained in higher education exam, special talent exam and secondary school achievement scores have an effect on the academic achievement of the conservatory students was significant. It was also revealed that at least one variable entered this equation. Higher education exam and special talent exam scores alone predicted the academic achievement averages of the conservatory students at a significant level. On the other hand, it was understood that the secondary school achievement score did not seem to have any significant effect on academic achievement alone.

314-326

Authors: Derya YORGANCIOĞLU, Sevinç TUNALI, Meltem ÇETİNEL, Gülce KIRDAR, M. Aygün AŞIK

One of the factors that support learning in education institutions is the design of learning spaces. In this study, the concept of design is used as an activity of organizing environment/space conditions to apply education programs effectively. The aim of this study is to identify spatial features that support more effective learning/teaching experiences for students and academicians, and to develop a model for the evaluation of learning spaces. The study focuses on the relation between learning/teaching experiences and the spaces where these experiences occur in university campuses. It emphasizes that ‘learning space design’ is one of the fields to support learning at every level of education. Learning space has been a topic for academic research in educational sciences and architecture since the beginning of the 2000s. These studies point to the need to reconfigure learning spaces in accordance with innovative learning theories and learning strategies. Learning space is examined with regard not only to physical but also to pedagogical elements. Emphasis is placed on investigating the spatial features of flexible spaces that can be adapted to changing user needs, are technology-enhanced and learner-centered, and support dialogical and co-learning and learning by doing. The study brings together pedagogical and architectural perspectives to deal with the topic of learning spaces on university campuses. It inquires into the changing concepts of learning and teaching in 21st century and highlights that the profiles of learner (student) and teacher (academician) are also changing. The article focuses on the academician, student and the learning space where learning takes place. The teaching / learning experiences of academicians and students and how these are affected by learning spaces are analyzed through a pedagogical perspective. With a study including academicians and students as active participants of teaching/ learning processes, the different/ common problems, needs and expectations of these parties are revealed.

336-347

Authors: Süleyman DOĞAN

This research aims to determine 2023 goals of the rectors of the Turkish universities founded in 1992, and what they can manage to do in line with these goals. Within the scope of the research, various face-to-face interviews were conducted with a total of 12 state university rectors out of 23 rectors of universities established between the dates from December 2014 to April 2017. As a result of the research,the goals and visions of the rectors are as follows; to be a world university, to be an innovative and entrepreneurial university, to establish the institutional identity of the university, to be open to vision and change and to motivate employees and students. It is believed that these universities will play an important role in local, reginal and national development thanks to the right development strategies. The results of this study were discussed in accordance with the related literature.

368-377

Authors: Cihan KOCABAŞ, Yusuf ALPAYDIN

The aim of this study is to examine the missions and visions of technology development areas (technoparks/technopolis) in the context of university-industry cooperation. The web pages of the 52 technology development zones that were active were scanned and the mission and vision expressions of the 34 technology zones that can be accessed online were used as data in this study. The research is in the screening model and the analysis of the mission and vision texts is done by using QSR NVIVO 11 software. The main themes, themes and codes obtained by classifying the expressions of mission and vision according to subject and qualifications are included in the findings of the research. The frequency values of the references and references for the codes forming the theme are shown in the tables. According to the results of the research, it can be said that the technological development regions are aware of their duties at the point of establishing industrial cooperation with the university. The results of the research highlighted the possibility that some of the technology development regions’ vision and missions were taken from another similar establishment. It is also seen that the same issues, which some of the technology development zones have adopted as a mission, are regarded as a vision according to another technology development zone.

388-391

Authors: Gökçen BAŞARANOĞLU

The aim of this study is to present the application of the objective structured clinical examination at the vocational health school, anesthesia program. This study was conducted in November 2017. The study group comprised 9 (26.5%) males and 25 (73.5%) females. Objective structured clinical examination: was applied to the students of anesthesia program. The cost of the exam was calculated. A questionnaire was given to the students at the end of the exam. Three students (8.82%) stated that the exam was easy; 28 (82.3%) students indicated that the use of clinical information in practice is demonstrated best through objective structured clinical examination. 34 students were taken for the examination and a total of 217 Turkish liras and 68 Turkish kurus were spent for the simulated patient and stationery expenses. The majority of students found the exam comprehensive, standardized, less biased and reliable. Competence, knowledge, skills, communication are important in vocational health school training. Objective structured clinical examinations assess students in this respect and for this reason it may be useful for the education of vocational health school students.

401-409

Authors: Duygu SAĞLAM, Elif AKDEMİR

Efforts to evaluate foreign language preparatory programs at Turkish universities have gained importance in recent years. Since the curriculum of each university carries its own characteristics, it should be examined separately. For this reason, this survey study is designed to determine the opinions of students about the curriculum of English preparatory program implemented at Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University The School of Foreign Languages in the academic year of 2017-2018. The questionnaire prepared by Cengizhan (2006) aiming to determine the opinions of the students regarding the curriculum for the English preparatory program was used for this purpose. It consists of the following factors: the aims of the program, learning - teaching process and evaluation dimensions. The cross-sectional survey design was used in the study. Data were collected from 249 preparatory class students. Findings revealed that the opinions of the students related to the curriculum used in the foreign language preparation program were positive in general. However, the direction for development is that it is necessary to organize the learning objectives in a way that the student needs are met better. Also, regulations should be made for students to gain confidence in communicating in the foreign language. As another finding of the study, no significant difference was found in any factors examined in relation to gender. Qualitative studies should be conducted to look into the reasons why students expressed positive opinions in further studies.

001-021

Authors: Halil Kürşad ASLAN, Murat ASLAN

Middle-income trap is a status of stagnation in economic growth when countries reach middle-income levels in the simplest terms. The country has to enter into a process of fundamental restructuring in its economy in order to reach high-income from the middle-income levels. This restructuring process should be technology and innovation centered. On this regard, it is important to note that it would be the privilege of only a handful of countries which can afford to invest large enough research and development funds and facilities in the world economy; this is all about scale economies and only limited number of achievers would be able to get into the premier technology and innovation league. Under this competitive environment one of the most critical conditions of this restructuring process requires the most effective usage of national resources particularly human capital for higher education and technological production. This research takes development and middle-income trap concepts from the economics and combines them with the international relations discipline; thus, it concentrates on the role of higher education system regarding innovation and technology production in an interdisciplinary way. In the mainstream international relations theories one of the most important assumptions is that there is no centralized world government; and due to this fact states try to take every necessary precaution to protect their own security and interests in an anarchic global system based on brutal competition. From this perspective this research concentrates on the position of higher education systems in the production of technology and human capital, as well as in national innovation strategies, of countries targeting high income groups like Turkey. A systematic analysis is carried out in the context of the development of human capital which is the most important factor in the higher education system and national innovation strategy of Turkey which has the aim of achieving high income and human development levels. Inputs, outputs and process control stages of Turkey’s higher education system are elaborated. Research questions to be answered are “Should the global political economy is considered with a holistic view in the context of information economy and interstate competition where one might locate the position of Turkey?” Additionally, what could Turkey do to move its position to advanced levels? What types of reforms have successfully been completed in the higher education and national innovation policies in those few countries that have managed to overcome the middle income trap? What does Turkey need to do to achieve high human development and advanced income levels?

029-040

Authors: Sevgi YILDIZ

The fact that gender studies at the academy focuses on women is due to the fact that women are more disadvantaged than their male colleagues. Women academicians are researchers, teachers, even if the numbers are few, they are the administrators, the parents, and the wife and the list can be extended. However, the disadvantages women experience in academia can be an advantage for men. For this reason, it may be a more holistic approach to create a theory for male academics to take advantage of. In this study, it was aimed to portray the difficulties of being a female academician in Turkey in the light of national and international literature. In addition, the picture reveals a relatively different female academics profile in Turkey, especially in the developed western countries. According to this, being a female academician in Turkey requires confronting the main responsibilities of gender roles such as multiple responsibilities, non-representation in management, and minority in areas of higher interest such as science. However, it will not be right to put the low representation of female academics, particularly in the administrative processes and in the fields of science into gender-only perceptions. This may be due to natural gender and female scholars’ own preferences. The in-depth study of the field will be clarified. Despite all the negative situations, female academics are happy in Turkey, satisfied with their work and love to be academics.

051-061

Authors: Seyithan DEMİRDAĞ

Quality of life is affected by people’s cultures, situations, expectations, goals, standards, and value systems. This study aims to determine the quality of life of students in terms of their relations with academicians, other students and administrative personnel, opportunities offered by the university, and their satisfaction level with their university in three major Turkish universities in 2016-2017 academic school year. A total of 417 participants including 131 males and 286 females were selected through a non-random selection. The study included a mixed method approach. The survey model of descriptive method was used in the quantitative part of the study. The qualitative part of the study included a semi-structured interview technique involving open ended questions. The quantitative data was analyzed according to the research questions using one-way analysis of variances (ANOVA), Pearson’s correlation, and stepwise regression analysis. In addition, content analysis method was employed to analyze qualitative data. The findings showed that university students were uncertain about factors affecting their quality of life.

073-081

Authors: Ümmühan AVCI, Halil ERSOY

The aim of this study is to adapt the Learning Motivation in Computer Programming Courses Scale developed by Law, Lee ve Yu (2010) to Turkish. In order to determine its validity and reliability, the scale consisting of 19 six-point Likert-type items within six factors (individual attitude and expectation, challenging goals, clear direction, reward and recognition, punishment and social pressure and competition) was applied to 312 engineering faculty students at a private university. When the results of the confirmatory factor analysis were examined, it was confirmed that the scale had six factors, and the goodness of fit indices are at an acceptable degree. The reliability of the scale was assessed by the Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficiencies were found to be 0.90 for the whole scale and between 0.71 and 0.83 for the factors. These results show that scale is a valid and reliable measuring tool for learning motivation in computer programming courses.

095-105

Authors: Ümit KAHRAMAN, Kazım ÇELİK

Academic staff working at universities have to carry out scientific researches as well as having the teaching load. Meanwhile their families’ expectations cause them to have conflicts with their work and families. The aim of this research is to determine the relationship between work and family burdens according to the perceptions of academics and the conflicts they have experienced between their work and their families. The data of the study were collected via an online questionnaire with the participation of academicians from Pamukkale University and Usak University. According to the results of the research, the academicians have a moderate level of work and family load, and at the same time they have a moderate level of work-family and family-work conflict. According to the results of the correlation and regression analyzes performed, a positive moderate relation was found between workload and work-family conflict. Work and family load is a significant predictor of work-family and family-work conflicts.

111-116

Authors: Zümrüt GEDİK, Huriye TOKER

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between attitudes toward the disabled and social desirability among university students as well as examining attitudes toward the disabled based on sociodemographic characteristics. A total of 190 students who were studying at various universities in Izmir completed the sociodemographic information form prepared by the researchers, the Attitudes Toward the Disabled Scale, and the Social Desirability Scale. According to statistical analyses, the social desirability score correlated only with the “compassion” subscale of the Attitudes Toward the Disabled Scale. Total scores indicated that females had more positive attitudes toward the disabled compared to males. Participants who were studying at foundation universities had higher social desirability scores compared to those studying at public universities. Finally, state university students scored higher on the “resource distribution” subscale of the attitudes toward the disabled scale compared to foundation university students, meaning that state university students had attitudes that were more positive toward resource allocation for the disabled.

127-135

Authors: Gamze KASALAK, Mehmet ÖZCAN

The aim of this study is to carry out the validity and reliability study, and the adaptation of the “Cynical Attitudes towards Collage Scale” to Turkish developed by Brockway, Carlson, Jones and Bryant (2002). Study group 1 includes the linguistic equivalence study conducted to determine the consistency between the Turkish and the English form of Cynical Attitudes toward College Scale. The study group 1 constitutes 3rd grade teacher candidates of English Language Teaching Department at Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University in the academic year of 2016-2017. In study group 2 constitutes teacher candidates who are studying in the 3rd and 4th grades of Education Faculty departments of Science Education, English Language Teaching, Mathematics Education, Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education, Social Science Education, Turkish Language Education and Psychological Counseling and Guidance at Akdeniz University in the academic year of 2016-2017 who were determined based on convenience sampling method. Based on the findings, it can be said that the Cynical Attitudes toward College Scale is a data collection tool suitable for assessing cynical attitudes towards a higher education institution of students. Students who are studying in academic units of other higher education institutions can use this scale, which is adapted based on the view of students of a state university education faculty.

145-161

Authors: Gökçe DİŞLEN DAĞGÖL

Human learning is multi-dimensional and progressive in nature, and it lasts a lifetime, getting influenced through a variety of elements. One of those elements, that is students’ own mental lives, nurture and complete this process since students’ standpoints pertinent to learning can give a certain shape to their own learning and provide insight into their stance as language learners. Misconceptions or negative beliefs also have a role in shaping this process. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the sense of helplessness felt among the university students learning English as a foreign language and the probable reasons behind learned helplessness in EFL context. The data were gathered from a state university in Turkey and the participants of the study were chosen via “Purposive Sampling”. A total of 35 students, which include freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors participated in the study. Data were collected through Learned Helplessness Scale, open-ended learned helplessness questionnaire and grid table. The quantitative data were analysed with the use of SPSS, on the other hand, the qualitative data were subjected to content analysis. Thus, the present study used mixed research design. The study findings pictured two groups of students with and without learned helplessness, and uncovered the students’ self-concepts as language learners and beliefs on learned helplessness in learning English.

172-183

Authors: Mustafa SARIOĞLU

The relevant literature reveals no consensus on whether new vocabulary items should be presented in semantic or semantically-unrelated sets in L2 classrooms. Actually, there is an excessive amount of research evidence on the interfering effect of teaching semantically-related words at the same time. However, the majority of these studies have been carried out under strictly-controlled laboratory conditions, so there is still need for more classroom research on this controversial issue. The present study aims to investigate the effects of presenting novel words in lexical sets versus semantically unrelated sets on students’ acquisition of these words in a real classroom setting. The participants, 44 Turkish EFL learners, were taught 12 English target words in either semantic or unrelated clusters. The vocabulary instruction was given through pictorial flashcards accompanied by several sentential contexts, which supplied the participants with several meaningful encounters with the target vocabulary items. The results indicated that both types of vocabulary instruction provided EFL learners with effective recognition and production of the target words immediately after the treatments as well as two weeks later. These findings revealed no statistically significant difference between clustering words in semantic sets and unrelated sets. Hence, the current study did not find out any interfering effect of teaching semantically related words simultaneously in a real classroom condition.

194-201

Authors: Gözde ŞENSOY, Hande AKIMAN, Kemal BALKAN, Yağmur Simge GÜL, Adil KAVAL, Abdullah SEVİNÇ, Gürkan YEĞİNTÜRK, Aslı Uz BAŞ

The aim of the study was to determine academicians’ and students’ perspectives on university counseling centers. The study consisted of seven academicians and 40 undergraduate students. Academician and student perspectives were investigated with the use of semistructured interview forms. The interview form for the academicians included four open-ended questions while the student interview comprised seven open-ended questions. According to the results of the study, it was either that based on the academicians’ and students’ opinions, university counseling centers did not provide enough service or the academicians and students did not have an idea about this topic. Academicians stated that students mostly sought help for romantic relationships, family issues and vocational issues. Students, on the other hand, indicated that they needed help with their exam anxiety and personal issues at most. Academicians also needed guidance on acquiring the skills to communicate effectively with their students and on directing their students to psychological services. Students preferred having the counceling center in the faculty where they studied or in a location within easy reach. The large majority of students stated that they would seek help from such a counceling center and regularly allocate time to psychological services if their university had these centers. Participating students also indicated that they would most likely apply to these centers for such topics as career counseling and exam anxiety and for learning to study regularly. While students mostly preferred receiving individual counseling services, this was followed by the students’ desire for receiving group counseling services.

211-220

Authors: Könül ABASLI, Yener AKMAN

The purpose of this study is to examine the metaphorical perceptions of international students in Turkey about multicultural education. The study group is composed of 117 international students who are studying in different cities in Turkey. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews and electronically. Descriptive analysis with a qualitative approach was used to analyze the data. The findings of the study indicated 76 metaphors produced by international students. These metaphors were grouped under six conceptual categories in terms of their common characteristics. For the definition of multicultural education, the metaphors of “rainbow (n=17)”, “garden (n=7)” and “sea” (n=5) were mostly used. Additionally, it has been identified that metaphoric perception of both general and some demographic variables such as gender and educational level are compatible.