Journal of Higher Education and Science

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.