Fluency and comprehension of narrative texts in Turkish students in grades 4 through 8

The present study attempted to extend our knowledge of the role of reading fluency in contributing to reading comprehension among Turkish students in grades 4 through 8. One hundred students at each grade level were administered assessments of reading fluency, word recognition automaticity and prosody, and silent reading comprehension. Word recognition automaticity was found to be a significant predictor of comprehension at all grade levels tested. Prosody predicted comprehension at all grades levels except grade 4. Regression analyses at each grade level indicate that, except for grade 4, word recognition automaticity and prosody, together contribute to the prediction of reading comprehension. The magnitude of fluency’s prediction of comprehension ranged from approximately a quarter to a third of comprehension. The results are discussed in terms of policy and instructional changes that may be considered for reading instruction for Turkish students.     

Why are some universities better? An evaluation in terms of organizational culture and academic performance*

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between organizational culture and academic performance among higher education institutions. The sample was composed of 647 faculty members working in the colleges of education, health, engineering, law, economics, and administrative sciences in four central research universities in Turkey. The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) was used to describe organizational culture, whereas University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP) data were used to investigate academic performance. A multilevel analysis in which one unit of analysis (i.e., faculty member) was nested within another (i.e., college) was performed. The original contribution made to the literature by this research is its examination of the relationships between organizational culture and tangible performance indicators (e.g., the number of academic publications and citations). Results show that three different culture types were observed in the universities: Innovative team culture, competitive culture, and hierarchic culture. Although significant relationships were found between academic performance and both competitive culture and innovative team culture, the sole significant predictor of academic performance was competitive culture. One particularly interesting finding was that whereas competitive culture was effective on quantitative indicators (i.e., number of publications and number of citations), only innovative team culture affected the indicators related to effectiveness (i.e., article impact level and citation impact level).     

Effect of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Helichrysum plicatum</Emphasis> DC. subsp. <Emphasis Type="Italic">plicatum</Emphasis> ethanol extract on gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity in rats

The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible therapeutic or protective effects of Helichrysum plicatum DC. subsp. plicatum ethanol extract (HPE) against gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity. Thirty-six Sprague Dawley male rats weighing between 200 and 250 g were used as live material. They were formed into six groups containing 6 rats each and were allowed to adapt to laboratory conditions for 7 d. Group I: control, 5% DMSO intraperitoneal (i.p.); Group II: HPE 100 mg/(kg·d) i.p.; Group III: HPE 200 mg/(kg·d) i.p.; Group IV: gentamicin as 80 mg/(kg·d) i.p.; Group V: gentamicin as 80 mg/(kg·d) i.p.+HPE 100 mg/(kg·d) i.p.; and Group VI: gentamicin as 80 mg/(kg·d) i.p.+HPE 200 mg/(kg·d) i.p. for 8 d. Following treatment, serum, liver, and kidney tissues were used to assess blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants, and lipid peroxidation. Gentamicin significantly increased serum BUN, creatinin, and liver and kidney levels of malondialdehyde (MDA). It also decreased the activity of catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and superoxide dismutase (SOD). Treatment with the HPE 100 mg/kg reversed gentamicin-induced alterations as evidenced by decreased serum BUN and creatinin, liver and kidney oxidant marker, and tubular necrosis as well as by an increase in antioxidant enzymes. It was found that HPE 200 mg/kg significantly increased liver and kidney tissue MDA levels in nephrotoxicity in rats. As a result, these findings support the proposition that HPE in 100 mg/kg dose demonstrates in the kidney and liver as free radicals and scavenger to prevent the toxic effects of gentamicin in both the biochemical and histopathology parameters.     

Education for Syrian Refugees: The New Global Issue Facing Teachers and Principals in Turkey

This study addresses the educational status and needs of Syrian school-age children at Turkish public schools and the perspectives of teachers and school principals who work with Syrian refugee students. Data was collected from an ongoing qualitative interpretive case study research project using semistructured interviews with teachers and principals who worked with Syrian refugees in 2 inner-city elementary schools in Istanbul, Turkey. The findings of this study indicate that state schools provide many Syrian children with access to education that addresses the needs and challenges associated with the refugee school-age children. For example, Syrian children are thought to have rights identical to Turkish children regarding access to a free education in the Turkish public school setting, and the government has allowed Syrian students to enroll in universities without examinations or without having to show proof that they had attended universities in Syria. However, language barriers with respect to speaking and understanding Turkish must be mitigated to integrate Syrian refugees into Turkish culture. The results of the study also indicate that Syrian students are in a constant state of depression and trauma due to war and migration. Because of language-related issues and limited access to everyday necessities, Syrian children are often in need of comprehensive psychological support. Thus, this study recommends that teachers and principals participate in professional training and development programs to be able to provide psychological support to students.     

Drawing Nature of Science in Pre-service Science Teacher Education: Epistemic Insight Through Visual Representations

Developing pre-service science teachers’ epistemic insight remains a challenge, despite decades of research in related bodies of work such as the nature of science (NOS) in science education. While there may be numerous aspects to this problem, one critical element is that the NOS is a meta-concept that demands higher-order cognitive skills. One possible strategy to facilitate pre-service teachers’ understanding of epistemic aspects of science is visualisation. Visual representations of objects and processes can be tools for developing and monitoring understanding. Although the NOS and visualisation literatures have been studied extensively, the intersection of these bodies of literatures has been minimal. Incorporating visual tools on the NOS in teacher education is likely to facilitate teachers’ learning, eventually impacting their students’ learning of the NOS. The objective of this paper is to illustrate how the visual tools of scientific knowledge and practices aspects of the NOS can be integrated in science teacher education in order to develop pre-service teachers’ epistemic insight. The paper presents an empirical study that incorporated visual tools about the NOS in primary science teacher education. Data on 14 pre-service teachers’ are presented along with in-depth case studies of 3 pre-service teachers illustrating the influence of the teacher education intervention. The qualitative analysis of visual representations before and after the intervention as well as verbal data suggests that there was improvement in pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the NOS. Implications for future research on visualisation of the NOS are discussed.     

Epistemic Beliefs about Justification Employed by Physics Students and Faculty in Two Different Problem Contexts

This study examines the epistemic beliefs about justification employed by physics undergraduate and graduate students and faculty in the context of solving a standard classical physics problem and a frontier physics problem. Data were collected by a think-aloud problem solving session followed by a semi-structured interview conducted with 50 participants, 10 participants at freshmen, seniors, masters, PhD, and faculty levels. Seven modes of justification were identified and used for exploring the relationships between each justification mode and problem context, and expertise level. The data showed that justification modes were not mutually exclusive and many respondents combined different modes in their responses in both problem contexts. Success on solving the standard classical physics problem was not related to any of the justification modes and was independent of expertise level. The strength of the association across the problem contexts for the authoritative, rational, and empirical justification modes fell in the medium range and for the modeling justification mode fell in the large range of practical significance. Expertise level was not related with the empirical and religious justification modes. The strength of the association between the expertise level and the authoritative, rational, experiential, and relativistic justification modes fell in the medium range, and the modeling justification mode fell in the large range of practical significance. The results provide support for the importance of context for the epistemic beliefs about justification and are discussed in terms of the implications for teaching and learning science.     

Multilevel Effects of Student and Classroom Factors on Elementary Science Achievement in Five Countries

This study examined the effects of individual student factors and classroom factors on elementary science achievement within and across five countries. The student‐level factors included gender, self‐confidence in science and home resources. The classroom‐level factors included teacher characteristics, instructional variables and classroom composition. Results for the USA and four other countries, Singapore, Japan, Australia and Scotland, were reported. Multilevel effects were examined through Hierarchical Linear Modelling, using the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2003 fourth grade dataset. Overall, the results showed that selected student background characteristics were consistently related to elementary science achievement in countries investigated. At the student level, higher levels of home resources and self‐confidence and at the classroom level, higher levels of class mean home resources yielded higher science scores on the TIMSS 2003. In general, teacher and instructional variables were minimally related to science achievement. There was evidence of positive effects of teacher support in the USA and Singapore. The emphasis on science inquiry was positively related to science achievement in Singapore and negatively related in the USA and Australia. Recommendations for practice and policy were discussed.     

The effects of Common Knowledge Construction Model sequence of lessons on science achievement and relational conceptual change

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the Common Knowledge Construction Model (CKCM) lesson sequence, an intervention based both in conceptual change theory and in Phenomenography, a subset of conceptual change theory. A mixed approach was used to investigate whether this model had a significant effect on 7th grade students' science achievement and conceptual change. The Excretion Unit Achievement Test (EUAT) indicated that students (N = 33) in the experimental group achieved significantly higher scores (p < 0.001) than students in the control group (N = 35) taught by traditional teaching methods. Qualitative analysis of students' pre‐ and post‐teaching conceptions of excretion revealed (1) the addition and deletion of ideas from pre‐ to post‐teaching; (2) the change in the number of students within categories of ideas; (3) the replacement of everyday language with scientific labels; and (4) the difference in the complexity of students' responses from pre‐ to post‐teaching. These findings contribute to the literature on teaching that incorporates students' conceptions and conceptual change. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 25–46, 2010     

Telefacsimile from a user perspective

A study conducted at Montana State University compared telefacsimile service with mail delivery. Recipients of telefax materials who answered questions about the purpose, timeliness, and quality of the materials were generally well pleased. Telefacsimile was found to be a cost-effective and efficient method of document delivery over long distances.