Educational Process: International Journal

106-115

Authors: Mustafa Savci, Ferda Aysan

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between impulsivity, social media usage, and loneliness and to test the structural hypothetical model developed based on the literature. The study was conducted on 307 (164 female, 143 male) university students. Data collection instruments of the study were the Barratt Impulsivity Scale Short Form (BIS-11-SF), Social Media Usage Scale (SMUS), and UCLA Loneliness Scale Short Form (ULS-8). The measurement models of the latent variables were tested initially and it was observed that the scales of the latent variables were efficient enough to be included in the structural equation model. In addition, the suggested hypothetical model was tested. According to the analysis, it was observed that impulsivity directly, positively and significantly predicts social media usage, that social media usage directly, positively and significantly predicts loneliness, and that impulsivity indirectly, positively and significantly predicts loneliness.

128-138

Authors: Mustafa Kutlu, Mustafa Pamuk

The purpose of this study is to examine the social and emotional loneliness of university students based on the five basic needs set by Glasser. The Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale and University Students Basic Needs Scale were used in this study. A total of 371 students, 206 (55.5%) female and 165 (44.5%) male, who were studying in the Faculty of Education, participated in the study. Correlation, kurtosis, skewness values, Cronbach Alpha internal consistency coefficients, t-test, simple and multiple regression analyses were conducted throughout the study. According to the study findings, social and emotional loneliness does not differ according to gender. It was observed that survival, power, freedom, and fun, which are among the basic needs, do not predict social and emotional loneliness. Only love and belonging were observed to predict both social and emotional loneliness

152-166

Authors: Secil Eda Kartal

Schools, the where educational activities are carried out, are among the major institutions society considers as important. Schools undertake strategic responsibilities in maintaining cultural values and conveying them to future generations. The primary responsibility in achieving these missions is assigned to the school administrators. The purpose of this study is to determine the perceptions of school administrators on institutional culture. This is a qualitative study conducted on school administrators who were selected based on the volunteering principle. Perceptions of school administrators concerning their institutions’ culture and the differences between their institutional culture and other institution’s cultures were determined and analyzed. Findings of this study suggest that school administrators have both positive and negative opinions regarding their institutional culture and cultural difference. While love-respect, collaboration-solidarity and common history were prominent positive opinions; lack of communication, lack of shared values and low expectation were prominent negative opinions. In addition, participants stated the environment as a crucial factor when defining culture.

22-37

Authors: Mustafa Turkmen

Cartoons and animated films occupy a significant proportion of a child’s viewing time, but may be considered questionable in terms of their content. Although parents prefer such films in order to shield their children from daily problems and potentially harmful images in the media, examination of their content has so far been limited. In this study, violence depicted in popular animated cinema films was analyzed using content analysis, tabulating categories and frequency. Twenty-three animated films from among the 100 highest-grossing feature films of all time were examined. Results indicated that the most violent physical elements were punching and kicking, the most violent verbal elements were taunting and threatening and there were 18 scenes of killing. It is concluded that the frequency of the violence shown in some of the animated films may be disturbing for the healthy mental development of young children.

54-64

Authors: Aytunga Oguz, Neriman Ataseven

The aim of study is to determine the relationship between metacognitive skills and motivation of students in the education faculty. Research in correlational survey method includes 520 university students. “Metacognitive Skills Scale” and “Academic Motivation Scale” are used for data collection. Descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlation Coefficient, t test, ANOVA were used for data analysis. According to findings, there is a positive and significant relationship in low level between metacognitive skills and IMTK, IMTA, IMES, EMID, EMIN, and EMER and a negative and significant relationship in low level between metacognitive skills and AMOT. A significant difference is found on students’ metacognitive skills according to grade, status of reading in a month and whether or not having taken a lesson on learning strategies. Furthermore, a significant difference in students’ EMID, EMIN, and AMOT according to gender and field, in IMTK, IMTA, IMES, and AMOT according to status of reading in a month and in IMTA and IMES according to whether or not having taken lessons on learning strategies was found.

76-90

Authors: Lutfu Cakir, Ibrahim Kocabas

The purpose of this study is to examine the mentoring process in the education of gifted students and to develop a model applicable for the Turkish Educational System. The data of the study were collected through a literature review and focus group interviews. The study was conducted on one public and one private education institution for gifted students in Istanbul, Turkey. Purposeful sampling method was used in this study. A total of nine group interviews were carried out on 43 shareholders, the administrators, teachers, parents and student sub-groups, of the institutions in the sample group. The interviews were recorded and the recordings transcribed and analyzed through content analysis. As a result of the study, the establishment of a mentoring model was suggested under the Ministry of National Education, General Directorate of Special Education Guidance and Counseling Services, Department of Special Talents Development and issues such as model development, mentor and service area selection, matching, system operation and feedback were examined in detail.

18-30

Authors: Uzeyir Ogurlu

Ostracism has an influence on psychological and social functioning. The aim of this study is to examine ostracism among gifted students, with regard to gender and grade levels. Also, the relationship between ostracism and intelligence level was investigated. The study was conducted in a gifted education center, with 94 gifted students who were attending middle school (grades 5-8). The Ostracism Experience Scale for Adolescents and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Revised Form were employed as data collection tools. According to the findings obtained from the study, it is concluded that ostracism did not differ in terms of gender among gifted students. Besides, being socially excluded may be higher in 8th grades than 6th and 7th grades. Also in the study, a positive correlation was found between intelligence level and ostracism. Discussion and suggestions were also provided based on the results.

45-55

Authors: Enis Harun Baser, Emin Kilinc

The purpose of this research is to investigate pre-service social studies teachers’ global social responsibility levels from national, action-oriented, altruistic, and ecological aspects by considering gender, course year, academic success level, membership of a non-governmental organization, and where they lived before attending university. The author applied the descriptive survey model for this study in order to investigate pre-service social studies teachers’ global social responsibility level. Participants of the study were selected through cluster random sampling from public universities in the Marmara, Aegean, and Central Anatolia regions of Turkey. The sample of the study consisted of 463 pre-service social studies teachers enrolled at either Afyon Kocatepe University, Usak University, Anadolu University, or Istanbul University. In order to analyze the data, one-way variance analysis (ANOVA), multiple comparison test (Post-Hoc) and independent samples t-test were used. The results indicated that there was no significant difference on participants’ global social responsibility level by considering gender and course year. However, the results showed that pre-service social studies teachers who are members of any non-profit organization have higher levels of action-oriented responsibility, ecologic responsibility, and altruistic responsibility, than those who are not. Moreover, pre-service social studies teachers who lived in middle-sized city prior to attending university have more global social responsibility than those who lived in a village.

71-86

Authors: Serife Kalayci, Kim Raymond Humiston

The purpose of this study is to investigate prep class university students’ attitudes towards collaborative tools used in Moodle. Also it was aimed to find out whether or not there is a difference in students’ attitudes towards traditional and collaborative activities. The participants of the study, 28 non-English major university students, who had three-hours of Self Access Centre lessons per week, used a virtual learning environment named ‘Moodle’ for two hours each week. In order to investigate the attitudes, the participants were administered a computer readiness scale at the beginning of the study. At the end, a questionnaire was administered, and to support the data, screenshots of the activities were taken and twelve participants were interviewed. Results show that the collaborative tools in the virtual learning environment have significant positive effects according to the participants’ opinions. The students have significantly positive attitudes towards the collaborative tools, although they have not had enough experience of collaborative work. Also the students do not reflect positive attitudes towards traditional activities and, accordingly do not use them much.

19 – 34

Authors: Ali Riza Sekerci, Nurtac Canpolat

Aim of this research is to evaluate the impact of argumentation in the chemistry laboratory on conceptual comprehension of students. This research follows a triangulation design, categorized under mixed-method design variations, which include both qualitative and quantitative research designs. The research is conducted with 91 first grade university students studying in two different classes of the Department of Science Education, Kazım Karabekir Education Faculty at the Ataturk University, located in eastern Turkey. One class was randomly designated as the experimental group, with another as the control group. Research data was collected via a General Chemistry Laboratory Concept Test (GCLCT) containing 33 items, a test containing ten open-ended items, a semi-structured interview form, and a written feedback form, all designed by the researchers. Data from the GCLCT were analyzed through predictive statistics method, while data from the open-ended questions, semi-structured interview and written feedback form were analyzed through the descriptive analysis method. It is concluded from this research, that there is statistically significant difference between the GCLC post-test averages of the experimental and control groups. It was found that when compared to the control group, the proportion of experimental group students who answered the GCLC post-test items correctly is higher. In addition to this, the proportion of students who demonstrated misconceptions were higher in the control group students compared to the experimental group. It is concluded by this research, that argumentation provides more effective results in terms of comprehension of fundamental chemistry concepts, when compared to a traditional approach.

52 – 64

Authors: Milan Kubiatko, R. Serkan Arik

Attitude is a dual-poled essence: possessing positive thoughts on a course or subject, liking a course or exhibiting positive affective nature in relation with it, or having negative thoughts on a course or subject, disliking it or exhibiting negative affective features in relation with it (Bloom, 1979). Attitudes are different from opinions, values and beliefs. Attitudes and opinions resemble each other, but they differ from attitudes in terms of degree of generalizability and the measuring technique. Opinions are personal reactions to specific occurrences and conditions. But attitudes should be taken in a more general sense, as they influence people's reactions against sets of events and groups of people, in a more broad sense. The teaching profession has been mentioned among the favorite occupations, and researchers wanted to know if attitudes have anything to do with this tendency. It has been a subject for many researches that attitudes towards teaching profession differ by gender (Cook & Medley, 1954; Capri & Celikkaleli, 2008; Cetin, 2003; Dogan & Coban, 2009). The aim of this research is to determine the impact of gender variable on the teaching profession via meta-analysis method. Effect models specified for meta-analysis have been compared. This research covers the results of meta-analysis combining 27 researches determined useful by master's theses and doctorate dissertations which take gender as the variable. Effect size of the gender in relation with the attitude towards the teaching profession is found to be 0.301 for the fixed effect model, and 0.304 for the random effect model. When a frequency table for directions of effect sizes is created, 20 researches (74%) showed a positive effect size. Together with this result, 74% of the researches explain that females have more positive attitudes over males. Absence of any 0 effect size in this research explain that there has been no research indicating that attitudes towards the teaching profession do not differ between males and females. It has been concluded that medium differences exist according to Cohen's classification, and small differences exist according to Thalheimer's classification. It has been inferred from these findings that gender is an important variable in terms of attitudes towards the teaching profession, and that the medium effect it possesses over attitude should be examined.

19 – 35

Authors: Tugba Hosgorur, Seda Apikoglu

This study aims to determine the relationship between school administrators’ anxiety levels on authority use, and their burnout levels. Designed using the correlational survey model, participants of this study are 273 primary, middle and secondary school administrators in the province of Mugla, in Turkey. Data was collected using Scale on School Administrators’ Anxiety on Authority Use, and the Burnout Scale. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Kruskal Wallis H test, and multiple regression analysis. The findings indicate that school administrators’ anxiety level for authority use at medium for personnel affairs dimension, and at low for educational affairs, disciplinary and order, and management dimensions.

47 – 58

Authors: Tuncay Yavuz Ozdemir, Mukadder Boydak Ozan, Ismail Aydogan

In the information era that we experience today, there is a rapid change in the methods, techniques and materials used for education and teaching. The usage of information and communication technology-assisted teaching materials are becoming more commonplace. Parallel to these developments, the Ministry of National Education took steps to develop IT substructures of all schools in the country and implemented many projects. The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not the multimedia lesson content used by teachers affect effective learning. This study is a qualitative study, conducted with 45 teachers working in primary schools during the 2011-2012 academic year. According to the study findings, participants believe that using multimedia lesson content during lectures increases student motivation, makes students more curious and interested, and think that using multimedia lesson content has positive effects.