Journal of Higher Education and Science

1-7

Authors: Cemalettin BAYDAĞ

This research has aimed to investigate the effect of music education on handicapped individuals’ developmental features. Music education is one of most significant keys in the development of handicapped individuals as it motivates them to be more sociable, helps those individuals to gain gesture coordination, enables them to join a special group and to solve a problem with cooperative learning, contributes to their cognitive, affective, mental, linguistic and psychomotor development, helps them to transfer these acquisition and development to their lives, and supports individuals in becoming environmentally- conscious and acquiring sense of responsibility. In this qualitative study which is based on literature review method, the formative contribution of musical education to different handicapped groups has been emphasized on. Unfortunately, in our country, the number of study on music education and on handicapped content is so limited that this study is very valuable in terms of a fresh contribution to this field. In this context, the notion that this study will light the way of future studies is pleasing.

24-35

Authors: Fulya SINACI ÖZFINDIK, Ozan HOVARDAOĞLU, Seda ÇALIŞIR HOVARDAOĞLU

This study investigates the project details and results of “Inclusive - Barrier Free Campus Design Education for Disabled University Students” supported by Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) 4004 Nature Education and Science Schools Program. Barrier-free campus design and implementations do not include a simple process of getting the ideas from users at the focus of the barrier-free design process, but comprise a process in which direct interaction between the designer and the user is required. Inclusive and user-centered designs regard the dimension of participation and improve the active participation of individuals in decision-making processes. The project was carried out within the framework of a five-month program including eight-day education in Erciyes University Campus. 30 disabled and undergraduate students at higher education institutions in Kayseri came together with the instructors and experts under this project and worked on inclusive-barrier free design. Through the project, the students were primarily informed theoretically focusing on visual and auditory interactive applications in order to learn design knowledge in a comprehensible manner and to develop their scientific and creative thinking abilities related to learn by doing. Field surveys were practiced based on site evaluation of the project area and workshops were realized to identify the spatial problems of the campus and to develop spatial solutions for problems. The acquired information was expressed by the students in written, drawn and visual representations. Students evaluated their perceptions about campus under the heads of campus life, functions, security, belonging, happiness and accessibility, and described the problems they faced on campus and developed solutions for interior design, outdoor design and social life. Pre-test and post-test were performed with the participants at the beginning and at the end of the education to measure the impact of the project on the participants and to evaluate the achievement of the project. The tests were based on the variables of environmental awareness, social initiative, design, accessibility and barrier free design. Statistically significant differences were found in pre-test and post-test applications. The increase in the post-test results compared to the pre-test results and the increase calculated for each factor in the post-test met the foreseen expectations before education. This increase showed that the aim and objectives of education were also reached statistically. This type of education is thought to be guiding for new practices on inclusive design of built environments, particularly in higher education institutions.

45-55

Authors: Aylin ÇAKIROĞLU ÇEVİK, Ayşe GÜNDÜZ HOŞGÖR

In Turkey, women acquired the right to obtain higher education in 1914. Women’s demand for higher education, the increased number of high schools and the needs of teacher-training schools for girls led to an increase in the number of women in higher education over time. After the nation-building process in 1923, new universities were opened across the country and the number of women in higher education has increased from 22 (0.73%) (in 1914) to 3 675 986 (47.5%) (in 2018-2019). Within this framework, this paper aims to explore how female students’ profiles have changed over the last 100 years. What is the social make-up of the female students who enrolled in universities nowadays? What are the differences and/or similarities among women who attended the universities as first women students and those of today? Drawing on the Eurostudent Survey IV (2011), these questions are elaborated regarding women’s socio-demographic, family and educational backgrounds. Outcomes are discussed within the context of the modernization history of Turkey.

66-77

Authors: Asiye GÖLPEK KARABABA

Accounting course is one of the most important and most challenging courses of students in the economics and administrative sciences faculties of universities. This concern changes the attitudes of students towards the course and increases the negative attitudes towards the course. This research aims to evaluate students’ attitudes towards accounting course within the framework of interest, anxiety and necessity. The sample of this study included 300 students studying at Hasan Kalyoncu University Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences (FASS) in the academic year of 2017-2018. A questionnaire was applied to the selected students and 168 questionnaires were taken into consideration. Exploratory Factor Analysis (CFA) was applied to the scale and the results were evaluated with Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). In KFA, the scale consisting of 15 items (eight items), anxiety (four items) and requirement (three items) was collected under three factors and 61.816% of the total variance was explained. It was found to be sufficient for analysis. In the CFA, there was a high (-0.76) inverse relationship between interest and anxiety; high in the same direction between interest and requirement (0.94); a negative (-0.70) correlation was obtained between anxiety and necessity. The reliability of the scale was found to be highly reliable (0.80≤α<1.00), and it was found to be quite reliable (0.60≤α<0.80) in the dimension of anxiety and necessity. In the analysis, the necessity and general attitude towards accounting course were higher in female students; the interest in the accounting course (0.003<0.05), the anxiety (0.002<0.05), the necessity (0.001<0.05) and the general attitude (0.038<0.05) in favor of the students of the business department; (0.001<0.05) and necessity (0.008<0.05) variables were found to be significantly different in favor of 3rd grade students. However, these variables did not show a significant difference according to the grades of the students (interest: 0.542>0.05; anxiety: 0.541>0.05; requirement: 0.704>0.05 and general attitude: 0.690>0.05).

88-95

Authors: Omer OZER

Universities offering English Medium Instruction (EMI) programmes have been gaining in popularity in higher education across the globe. The reasons why students favour EMI programmes and how the medium of language affects employment outcomes have been a matter of debate. However, lecturers’ views on the quality of EMI programmes are often ignored, although they are of vital importance as lecturers are key actors in the process itself. This paper both examines the language-related challenges which academics experience when adjusting to the demands of EMI and also provides an overview of teaching practices in EMI undergraduate programmes. To this end, the study seeks to shed light on three research questions: (1) Which teaching practices do EMI lecturers use? (2) What are EMI lecturers’ views on the implementation of EMI? and (3) What areas of improvement can be identified to enhance the effectiveness of EMI through in-service training? The study comprises quantitative and non-experimental research; it was based on the findings of a survey of academics working in a state university in southern Turkey. To investigate the faculty members’ views, a questionnaire was developed based on a literature review and expert opinions and was distributed to 113 faculty members of different academic ranks. Overall, the results show that the content lecturers seemed to be using a variety of methodological teaching practices in class. However, the use of the native language by lecturers to help students’ comprehension needs to be studied carefully. Most of the participants agreed that EMI necessitates tailored training. The faculty members also believed that there has to be a collaboration between the content lecturers and the language teachers in the Preparatory Year Programme (PYP). By examining content lecturers’ teaching practices and views on the implementation of EMI, the findings of this study can help university administrators to evaluate and enhance the effectiveness of EMI programmes.

103-113

Authors: Meltem KÜRTÜNCÜ, Hicran YILDIZ, Aylin KURT

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between childhood traumatic experiences and close relationships in university students. The universe of this descriptive, cross-sectional study consisted of all first-year students studying in the field of health at Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University in 2016-2017 academic year and the sample of the study included 830 students who agreed to participate in the study among these students. Data were collected using “The Descriptive Information Form” prepared in line with the literature by researchers, “Childhood Trauma Scale” and “Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory”. The data were evaluated in SPSS 22.0 program. Means, percentages, independent samples t-test, Pearson correlation test and One-Way ANOVA test were used for data evaluation. The mean age of the students was 19.25±1.68 and 72.3% were female. 20.4% were nursing students. 8.3% of the students stated that they had nuclear type families and 44.3% of the students reported that their parents were separated for a period. 57.3% of the students described their parents’ parenting attitude as protective. Women, those who live alone with their family or friends, those who have a period of separate parents, those whose mother has a doctorate degree, whose father is illiterate, who have a high level of income and those who received psychological help in the last year and those who did not have any friends had more traumas (p<0.05). It was found that as physical and emotional traumas experienced during childhood increased, avoidance in close relationships increased (p<0.05) and as the physical, emotional and sexual traumas experienced during childhood increased, avoidance increased (p<0.001). It is needed to focus on the research about investigation of childhood neglect and of children and adolescents in order to establish healthy relationships in later life, to increase the number of research to determine the factors affecting the traumatization by examining the family structures of children raised in different socio-cultural structure.

126-133

Authors: Mehmet Fatih KÖSE, Mehmet KORKMAZ

This study seeks to adapt the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument to Turkish and to assess whether its psychometric properties are suitable for use in higher educational institutions. Since the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument is heavily used in the international higher education literature, evaluating whether the psychometric properties of this scale are appropriate for a Turkish cultural context has increased in importance. This importance is further compounded when one considers that competition in higher education has taken on a global and intercultural dimension and that the internationalization of higher education has witnessed a rapid increase in recent years. Despite this scale’s extensive use within Turkish literature on higher education, no study testing its validity was found. The study group consisted of 417 academic personnel employed in Turkish state and foundation universities. The study’s findings revealed that three types of organizational cultures existed in universities: innovative team culture, competitive culture, and hierarchal culture. A CFA confirmed that the three-factor model of the scale exhibited acceptable fit. Both the scale’s discriminatory power and the internal reliability values for its sub-factors were found to be high. The study’s findings present strong evidence indicating that the Organizational Culture Evaluation Scale constitutes a valid and reliable measurement tool for assessing organizational culture in universities.

144-152

Authors: Ayşegül KOÇ, Esra TAYAZ, Erdal CEYLAN

Nursing education in Turkey is given in different diploma degrees as a bachelor, master’s degree, and doctoral education. One of these is Internal Medicine Nursing Doctorate education. The aim of this study was to highlight the importance of doctoral training for the nursing profession and to present numbers of current students, new registry, and graduates from internal medicine nursing doctoral education according to years. Data from Internal Medicine Nursing PhD program from 1999-2000 academic year to 2016-2017 were examined. In this data, the number of new enrollments, the number of students, and the number of graduates are evaluated. The data up to 2013 were taken from Measurement, Selection, and Placement Center, and the data for the following years were received from the Council of Higher Education. The number of new registries and graduate students before and after 2010 was examined as two different periods. Accordingly, it was determined that there were 74 newly enrolled students and 31 graduate students in total, from 1999-2000 academic year to 2009-2010 academic year. In the following period between 2010-2018, although the data of 2 years are missing, the number of new registry and graduated students was 116 and 62, respectively. Although there is an increase in the number of students doing a doctorate in the field of Internal Medicine Nursing every year, it was seen that the number of institutions providing education on the basis of the Department of Internal Medicine Nursing and the number of doctoral students are still not at the desired level.

166-177

Authors: Sezan SEZGİN

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are free courses provided by different universities or independent instructors, which may have massive learner numbers. In the context of lifelong learning, MOOCs present self-regulation based learning experiences for both individual and professional development. This study is a qualitative holistic single case study that seeks to examine the views of preservice teachers in the field of instructional technologies about the course designs of programming related MOOCs. Accordingly, 34 preservice teachers in the field of Computer and Instructional Technologies (CEIT), participated in the study. Participants completed at least one MOOC through the semester. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather the views of participants. Inductive content analysis steps were conducted to examine the data obtained. Content analysis of views of participants revealed nine different themes, namely; narrative-instructor, feedback-technical support-mentoring, presentation, practice, knowledge readiness, media attributes, assessment-evaluation, course duration, language barriers, and advertisements. It was also identified that the views of preservice teachers are mostly (71%) positive about MOOCs. In the context of themes revealed, several suggestions were made in reference to online course design and using MOOCs in specific topics as programming education.

183-192

Authors: Özge KINIK, Hatice ODACI

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate academic procrastination behaviors of university students based on some individual variables such as gender, whether to use alcohol and smoking, whether to have a mobile phone and personal computer with internet access, the period of daily Internet use, the purpose of internet use, whether to choose the department willingly and satisfaction of the present department and some environmental variables faculty, grade, accommodation, whether to have internet access in accommodation. The study group consisted of 615 (71.3%) female, 242 (28.1%) male, and 5 (.6%) no-gender-stated university students who studied at a state university in north-eastern Turkey. The age of the students in the study group ranged from 17 to 40, and the mean of ages was 20.88 (Df: 2.40). The data of the study were collected with a Personal Information Form and Academic Procrastination Scale prepared by the researchers. The study concluded that academic procrastination behaviors of university students differentiated depending on the use of alcohol and smoking, whether to choose their department willingly, the satisfaction of the department, the period of daily Internet use and the purpose of internet use; however, there were not significant differences between those behaviors and gender, faculty, grade, accommodation, whether to have internet access in accommodation and whether to have a mobile phone and personal computer with internet access. The findings were discussed in the light of the literature. It is thought that the results of the study are important for determining some individual and environmental variables that affect academic procrastination behaviors of university students, and they may be a guide for field researchers.