Understanding Turkish students’ preferences for distance education depending on financial circumstances: A large-scale CHAID analysis

In the past, distance education was used as a method to meet the educational needs of citizens with limited options to attend an institution of higher education. Nowadays, it has become irreplaceable in higher education thanks to developments in instructional technology. But the question of why students choose distance education is still important. The purpose of this study was to determine Turkish students’ reasons for choosing distance education and to investigate how these reasons differ depending on their financial circumstances. The author used a Chi squared Automatic Interaction Detector (CHAID) analysis to determine 18,856 Turkish students’ reasons for choosing distance education. Results of the research revealed that Turkish students chose distance education not because of geographical limitations, family-related problems or economic difficulties, but for such reasons as already being engaged in their profession, increasing their knowledge, and seeking promotion to a better position.     

A nonparametric term weighting method for information retrieval based on measuring the divergence from independence

In this article, we introduce an out-of-the-box automatic term weighting method for information retrieval. The method is based on measuring the degree of divergence from independence of terms from documents in terms of their frequency of occurrence. Divergence from independence has a well-establish underling statistical theory. It provides a plain, mathematically tractable, and nonparametric way of term weighting, and even more it requires no term frequency normalization. Besides its sound theoretical background, the results of the experiments performed on TREC test collections show that its performance is comparable to that of the state-of-the-art term weighting methods in general. It is a simple but powerful baseline alternative to the state-of-the-art methods with its theoretical and practical aspects.     

Depoliticizing the European immigration debate: How to employ public sector innovation to integrate migrants

Immigration is a hotly debated and politicized policy area, one in which governments confront fierce opposition from populist parties and negative media narratives altering citizens’ perceptions of the issue. There is also growing scholarly interest in migration; new migrant integration research advocates for a conceptual shift away from focusing on migrant populations and towards rethinking host communities. At the same time, public sector innovation research is developing new approaches for how governments and public organizations can be innovative in dealing with grand challenges such as migration. The aim of this article is to merge these two subfields in order to answer a guiding research question: how can public organizations be innovative to promote integration for migrants? We suggest a typology of different innovation strategies that governments can adopt regarding integration, and we present five illustrative cases from European nations to examine how governments can innovate in order to integrate migrants. We find that governments can use multiple tools to promote integration and respond to grand challenges; governments can use various sources of innovation to address major barriers to migrant integration (e.g. language barriers, negative media and public opinion, and the difficulties of providing concrete assistance).     

Impact of the educational use of Facebook group on the high school students’ proper usage of language

This study examines impact of the educational use of Facebook group on the high school students’ proper usage of language. The study included thirty students who attend 11th grade in a high school in Trabzon, Turkey. Firstly, preliminary data about Facebook usage of students were obtained to understand the factors that motivate students to use Facebook and whether they use them for the educational purpose or not. Then, a Facebook group was created, in which a literature teacher was assigned as the guide of the group. This study lasted twelve weeks. The students’ assignments such as compositions, poems, and vignettes, discussions, the teacher’s views and observation, data from the interviews with participants were analyzed in this study. Results from this study indicated that that Facebook group was effective on issues such as development of writing abilities of students, communication and cooperation between teacher and students, and cooperation and communication among students. The original idea for this research was to determine that proper usage of language can be improved in social context if Facebook group is created as a flexible online community with interactive and reflective activities, effective tool of sharing and communication. This study demonstrates how Facebook can successfully be used in educational environment appropriately.     

Tumor marker requests in a general teaching Turkish hospital

Serum tumor markers may be requested inappropriately by clinicians. In this retrospective study, we aimed to investigate the appropriateness of TM requests in our hospital. Patients in the study were identified from the TM requests for 3 months between June–August 2004, using the laboratory database. A total of 2249 patients (1351 men, 898 women) were included in the study and there were 6570 TM requests. The number of requests were 1050 (16%) for Carbohydrate Antigen 19-9, 993 (15.1%) for Cancer Antigen 125, 941 (14.3%) for Prostate Specific Antigen, 921 (14%) for free PSA, 925 (14.1%) for Cancer Antigen 15-3, 788 (12%) for Alphafetoprotein, 730 (11.1%) for Carcinoembryonic Antigen and 222 (3.4%) for AFP/Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin. Our findings support the idea that for the evidence-based use of TM requests the education of clinical staff is required. Clear clinical guidelines including recommendations about the appropriate use of TM can be useful for this education process. Careful audit studies are also useful to determine the impact of these guidelines on the practice of evidence-based laboratory medicine.     

Approximations to the solution of linear Fredholm integrodifferential-difference equation of high order

There are few techniques available to numerically solve linear Fredholm integrodifferential-difference equation of high-order. In this paper we show that the Taylor matrix method is a very effective tool in numerically solving such problems. This method transforms the equation and the given conditions into the matrix equations. By merging these results, a new matrix equation which corresponds to a system of linear algebraic equation is obtained. The solution of this system yields the Taylor coefficients of the solution function. Some numerical results are also given to illustrate the efficiency of the method. Moreover, this method is valid for the differential, difference, differential-difference and Fredholm integral equations. In some numerical examples, MAPLE modules are designed for the purpose of testing and using the method.     

Cross-cultural experience in preservice teacher education

The study investigated the effect of international student teaching experience on the professional and personal development of preservice teachers. Within the framework of their internship program, 26 graduate students in a private university in Turkey had a two-month internship in a mid western state in the United States, the main component of which was a six-week student teaching experience in high schools. Student teachers worked with mentors in pairs or triads in six high schools in different subject areas. They got involved in teaching practices, technology seminars, and diverse cultural activities during their internship. The student teachers and mentor teachers were surveyed through e-mail and three student teachers were interviewed to evaluate the outcomes of the program. The findings of the current research suggest that the international student teaching experience and the overall internship program with its cultural components contributed in a positive way to student teachers’ professional and personal development and helped student teachers increase their cultural awareness. The findings also suggest that the presence of international students in US schools and society in general helped American students and people have a better idea of other countries and cultures.     

A Game Theoretic Approach to Peer Review of Grant Proposals

This paper studies the grant peer review process employed by the Turkish regional development agencies, which is adapted from a review procedure of the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency of the European Union. To model this process, we consider a Bayesian strategic-form game played by three reviewers who observe both a common and a private score signal about an evaluated project and assign their scores to minimize the sum of their disutilities from the false acceptance and false rejection of the project. We numerically compute the Bayesian Nash equilibria of this game and conduct several comparative statics exercises, after calibrating the model parameters accordingly. We also introduce two simpler review processes and compare their performances to that of the calibrated process in terms of outcome statistics, involving pass and fail rates of the evaluated projects, and manipulation statistics, involving the reviewers’ manipulation rate and size of scores.     

Is it dichotomy or tension: I am a scientist. No, wait! I am a teacher!

This study explores through a naturalistic inquiry the tensions between a science professor’s two enacted identities. More specifically, this study looks at how a biology professor’s identity-in-practice shifts and evolves over time through collaborations with a science education professor. These shifts were marked by an emphasis on teaching, rather than solely a focus on science. Data were collected through formal interviews and notes taken during planning sessions that took place between the biology professor and the science educator. Findings reveal that although the biology professor is able to reconcile both his science and teacher identity, structural elements of his workplace do not encourage him to enact his teacher identity. Recommendations for college science teaching are discussed.