PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ INSTRUCTIONAL BELIEFS AND EXAMINATION OF CONSISTENCY BETWEEN BELIEFS AND PRACTICES

The purposes of this study were to determine preservice physics teachers’ instructional beliefs and to investigate the relationship between their beliefs and practices. The theoretical framework was based on the combination Haney & McArthur’s (Science Education, 86(6):783–802, 2002) research and Ford’s (1992) motivation systems theory. A multicase study design was utilized for the research in order to focus on a belief–practice relationship within several examples. Semistructured interviews, observations, and preservice teachers’ written documents were used to collect data. Results showed that most preservice teachers held instructional beliefs aligned with constructivist philosophy. Some of the preservice teachers’ beliefs were consistent with their practices while some of them presented different practices from their beliefs in different placements.     

The Effectiveness of Mime‐Based Creative Drama Education for Exploring Gesture‐Based User Interfaces

User interfaces that utilise human gestures as input are becoming increasingly prevalent in diverse computing applications. However, few designers possess the deep insight, awareness and experience regarding the nature and usage of gestures in user interfaces to the extent that they are able to exploit the technological affordances and innovate over them. We argue that design students, who will be expected to envision and create such interactions in the future, are constrained as such by their habits that pertain to conventional user interfaces. Design students should gain an understanding of the nature of human gestures and how to use them to add value to UI designs. To this end, we formulated an ‘awareness course’ for design students based on concepts derived from mime art and creative drama. We developed the course iteratively through the involvement of three groups of students. The final version of the course was evaluated by incorporating the perspectives of design educators, an industry expert and the students. We present the details of the course, describe the development process, and discuss the insights revealed by the evaluations.     

Reinterpreting City as a Critical Ground in Atelier 1 Projects: Some Prospects and Projections on Ankara

This article is based on the critical approaches developed in Atelier 1, an architectural design studio in the Gazi University Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture in Ankara, Turkey. The main theme of Atelier 1 Projects in the 2014–15 academic year was the ‘City as a Critical Ground’, in which the city, ground and criticism were discussed within the interdisciplinary theoretical field of architecture. Atelier 1, involving second, third and fourth year undergraduate students, reinterpreted and redesigned the urban ground of Ankara with a critical approach to reveal its unique identities and implicit values. Ground, accepted as the main critical material in the design process, was criticised not only in its physical sense, but also its social, cultural, political, economic, technological and even psychological aspects. The students were able to discover their own design methods from their criticisms of the urban ground, which also allowed them to determine their sites and programmes. In this way, Atelier 1 promoted freedom and flexibility as well as criticality in the design process, and pointed out that the relationship of architecture with city, ground and criticism should be discussed from a new theoretical perspective, primarily in the architectural design studio, as the core of architectural education. Atelier 1, as a theory‐based architectural design studio, motivated the students to develop a critical approach to the urban ground of Ankara so as to replace the rising formalism with criticism in architecture.     

Career Choices, Job Selection Criteria, and Leadership Preferences in a Transitional Nation: The Case of Turkey

This study explored the factors that influenced Turkish university students' career choices, job selection criteria, and leadership preferences. Participated in this study were 1,213 senior and junior management students from 17 universities across 6 regions of Turkey. Data collection was accomplished through a self-administered four-part questionnaire. Findings revealed that for the entire sample, having power and authority, peaceful work environment, opportunity for career advancement, and pay were the most motivating factors in job selection, whereas close supervision and guidance, praise from supervisor, feedback on performance, and sense of belonging were the least motivating ones. Charismatic leadership was found to be the most preferred style followed by participative, paternalistic, and bureaucratic styles. Finally, career choices were mostly affected by intrinsic factors (i.e., self aspirations), whereas interpersonal factors (i.e., significant others' expectations) were least influential. Findings were discussed in light of dynamic and changing cultural characteristics of the Turkish society.     

Structuring Cooperative Learning for Motivation and Conceptual Change in the Concepts of Mixtures

This study investigates the effect of structuring cooperative learning based on conceptual change approach on grade 9 students’ understanding the concepts of mixtures and their motivation, compared with traditional instruction. Among six classes of a high school, two of them were randomly assigned to cooperative learning group where students were instructed by Cooperative Learning based on Conceptual Change (CLCC), the other two classes were randomly assigned to traditional learning group where students were instructed by Cooperative Learning based on Conceptual Change without well-structuring the basics of cooperative learning (CLCC(?)), and the remaining two classes were randomly assigned to control group where students were instructed by Traditional Instruction (TI). Mixtures Concept Test (MCT), motivation section of Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) except goal orientation sub-scales, and Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ) were assigned to the sampled students before treatments are commenced as pretests and after treatments are completed as post-tests. According to post-test scores, there were statistically significant mean differences among the groups exposed to variations of cooperative learning based on conceptual change and traditional instruction with respect to students’ understanding the concepts of mixtures and their motivation. Results drawn upon this study revealed specifically that students exposed to CLCC had better understanding and lower alternative conceptions about the concepts of mixtures, perceived contents related to chemistry more valuable, felt greater control over their own learning, dealt better with sense of worry and emotionality during tests, adapted performance avoidance goals less, and mastery approach goals more than students instructed by CLCC(?) and TI.     

Comparing the effects of different book reading techniques on young children’s language development

The purpose of this research study is to compare the effects of digital, dialogic and traditional reading on children’s language development aged 48–66 months. Fifty-six randomly selected children enrolled in three different classrooms in a public preschool in Turkey participated in the study. The three classrooms were again randomly assigned as digital, dialogic and traditional reading groups. During the reading activities, a total of 24 storybooks were read by each group every three times in 8 weeks. While the children’s language scores (the receptive and expressive language scores) resulted in a significant increase in dialogic reading, the children’s language scores in a digital and traditional reading group slightly changed during the intervention. Alternatively, qualitative data suggested that the interaction between teacher and children and between children and children were very limited in a digital and traditional reading group and that limited interaction during reading was the underlying cause of the insignificant increase in children’s language scores.

     

Gesticulating science: Emergent bilingual students’ use of gestures

This article examines how emergent bilingual students used gestures in science class, and the consequences of students’ gestures when their language repertoire limited their possibilities to express themselves. The study derived from observations in two science classes in Sweden. In the first class, 3rd grade students (9–10 years old) were involved in a unit concerning electricity. The second class consisted of 7th‐grade students (13–14 years old) working with acids and bases. Data were analyzed by using practical epistemological analysis (PEA). When students’ language proficiency limited their possibility to express themselves, using gestures resulted in the continuation of the science activities. Furthermore, both peers and teachers drew on the used gestures to talk about the science content. In some situations, the meaning of the gestures needed to be negotiated. Regardless, the gestures were always related to language. Both students and teachers participated in this process, but the teachers directed the communication toward the goal of the lessons: learning how to talk science. The study contributes to the field by showing the importance of paying attention to and valuing bilingual students’ use of gestures as a way to express scientific knowledge. In addition, it demonstrates how teachers might draw on students’ gestures to teach science and discusses the importance of creating multimodal learning environments. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 55: 121–144, 2018     

Investigating the development of prospective mathematics teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge of generalising number patterns through school practicum

The purpose of this study is to investigate the development of three prospective elementary mathematics teachers?? pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of number patterns with its two components: (1) knowledge of students?? understanding and difficulties and (2) knowledge of topic-specific strategies and representations. For our investigation, we use Radford??s (ZDM Math Educ 40:83?C96, 2008) framework called ??architecture of algebraic pattern generalisation?? to redefine these two components of PCK in the context of patterns. A case study was conducted to explore the development of PCK through a school practicum course and to examine how observation of number pattern lessons in schools and discussions of these observation contribute to prospective teachers?? PCK. Analysis of the data indicated that observations and discussions of number pattern lessons resulted in considerable change in the way prospective teachers take into account students?? understanding of and difficulties with patterns, as well as in the way they use pattern-specific strategies such as algebraic pattern generalisation during their lessons.     

Pedagogy of Science Teaching Tests: Formative assessments of science teaching orientations

A critical aspect of teacher education is gaining pedagogical content knowledge of how to teach science for conceptual understanding. Given the time limitations of college methods courses, it is difficult to touch on more than a fraction of the science topics potentially taught across grades K-8, particularly in the context of relevant pedagogies. This research and development work centers on constructing a formative assessment resource to help expose pre-service teachers to a greater number of science topics within teaching episodes using various modes of instruction. To this end, 100 problem-based, science pedagogy assessment items were developed via expert group discussions and pilot testing. Each item contains a classroom vignette followed by response choices carefully crafted to include four basic pedagogies (didactic direct, active direct, guided inquiry, and open inquiry). The brief but numerous items allow a substantial increase in the number of science topics that pre-service students may consider. The intention is that students and teachers will be able to share and discuss particular responses to individual items, or else record their responses to collections of items and thereby create a snapshot profile of their teaching orientations. Subsets of items were piloted with students in pre-service science methods courses, and the quantitative results of student responses were spread sufficiently to suggest that the items can be effective for their intended purpose.     

3Hs Education: Examining hands-on,heads-on and hearts-on early childhood science education

Active engagement has become the focus of many early childhood science education curricula and standards. However, active engagement usually emphasizes getting children engaged with science solely through hands-on activities. Active engagement by way of hands, heads, and hearts are kept separate and rarely discussed in terms of getting all to work together, although inquiry-based education and student interest have been accepted as important in science education. The current study is an inquiry-based research. It aims to describe and examine projects and activity stations for preschoolers in a Turkish preschool classroom bringing together the pieces of the puzzle of science education, called here ‘Hands–Heads–Hearts-on Science Education'. The study, conducted from a qualitative-interpretivist paradigm, reveals that activity stations and projects create a context for hands-on (active engagement), heads-on (inquiry based or mental-engagement), and hearts-on (interest based) science education. It is found that activity stations and projects, when maintained by appropriate teacher-support, create a playful context in which children can be actively and happily engaged in science-related inquiry.