Organisational barriers for women in senior management: a comparison of Turkish and New Zealand universities

This paper reports on the second phase of a multi‐country study examining cross‐cultural perspectives of gender and management in universities. The first phase of this research with eight countries found that the representation of women was consistently low, especially at Rector/Vice Chancellor level. In the second phase interviews were conducted with both male and female senior managers including current and former Rectors/Vice Chancellors. The focus of this paper is on the organisational barriers to women becoming and being managers in Turkish and New Zealand universities. Twenty‐four interviews were conducted in Turkey and 26 in New Zealand. Rectors/Vice Chancellors and other senior academic colleagues were found to be crucial in supporting academics into senior management. Barriers discussed include time management and role conflict between work and non‐work life.     

The Romany States of Education in Turkey: A Qualitative Study

This multiple case study aims to analyze education and living conditions of Romany students, their families, and their relation with the school. The study consists of three schools in ?zmir, where mostly Romany students are educated. Study group consists of fifteen participants in total, three school staff, one student from the secondary level and one parent from each school chosen by criterion sampling. Semi-structured interviews, observation notes, and documents are utilized in the study. Lives of the Romany which have turned into cultural destiny, how students reproduce the lives of their families and the role of school in this reproduction are revealed.     

The Reliability and Validity of the Fitjump Photoelectric Cell System for Determining Vertical Jump Height

ABSTRACT

The aim of this investigation was to assess the reliability and validity of the Fitjump system. Fifty-seven participants (age = 22.62 ± 5.24 years, height = 180.69 ± 12.53 cm, body mass = 75.61 ± 9.56 kg) performed three countermovement jump (CMJ) and squat jump (SJ) with a 1-week interval for test and retest reliability. For validity, the participants performed the same jump protocol on the force platform while being simultaneously measured with the Fitjump system. There was excellent test–retest reliability of the Fitjump system for CMJ and SJ with high intraclass correlation coefficient (ICCs) (0.97 and 0.97, respectively), low coefficient variation (CVs) (2.3% and 2.4%, respectively), and low typical error of estimate [(TEE (%)] (4.0% and 4.4%, respectively). For validity, ICCs were extremely high for CMJ and SJ (0.93 and 0.94, respectively), with low TEE (%) (2.9% and 2.0%, respectively). However, Fitjump overestimated jump height for CMJ and SJ (3.54 and 3.37 cm, respectively; p < 0.001) when compared with the force platform. As a conclusion, the Fitjump system demonstrated excellent test–retest reliability and high relationship with a systematic bias for validity. Therefore, the Fitjump system can be used as a portable tool for monitoring vertical jump changes over time, but it should not be used interchangeably with a force platform.     

Evaluation of School Administrators’ Brand and Crisis Management Skills on Disability Services

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to enable teachers to evaluate the crisis management skills of the administrators in terms of school development. The study has been carried out on a sample group consisting of 376 teachers (sample) working in 10 secondary schools and high schools. The study is a survey research based on the use of a quantitative method. In this survey, the scale of “the evaluation of the crisis management skills of the school administrators by teachers in terms of school development (OGAÖTDÖ)” developed by Tokel has been used. In addition, it has been analysed with the independent ANOVA test to determine whether or not it differs according to the factor of professional branches. When the research findings are examined, it has been determined that teachers answer positively to the question directed about crisis management skills of school administrators (X ? = 3.52) on disability services. As a result, it has been concluded that school administrators have adequate crisis management skills and they need a reputation for the quality.     

Isoinvariant linearization and analog splitting

It is shown that the conventional linearization scheme, used to reduce the dimensionality of many-fermion–nucleon operators (e.g. in deriving RPA equations), is inadequate for the neutronrich nuclei, i.e., it is non-isoinvariant. A similar but isoinvariant scheme is introduced and applied successfully in obtaining the analog energy splitting of a single-proton state in a neutronrich nucleus.     

Student teachers’ views of practicums (teacher training placements) in Turkish and English contexts: a comparative study

How student teachers experience their transformation into serving teachers in the liminal social spaces of the school-based practicum (teaching practice) is of key importance to them, their future students and their educators. The practicum is a challenging experience for student teachers, even with help from university and school-based mentors, as their knowledge of practice, power and culture in schools lacks sophistication. The practicum, an under-researched but important aspect of education, was investigated by this study by asking 480 student teachers in three universities in Turkey and England in 2010–2011 about how well their universities prepared them for the practicum, what made practicums successful and how practicums fostered their professional development. Participants generally thought the practicum helped them to develop skills in student and classroom management, in meeting students’ diverse learning needs, in recognising multiple students’ perspectives and in grounding their understanding of what it meant to be a teacher ‘for real’.     

Professional Journals as a Source of PCK for Teaching Nature of Science: An Examination of Articles Published in The Science Teacher (TST) (an NSTA Journal), 1995–2010

A number of science education policy documents recommend that students develop an understanding of the enterprise of science and the nature of science (NOS). Despite this emphasis, there is still a gap between policy and practice. Teacher professional literature provides one potential venue for bridging this gap, by providing “activities that work” (Appleton in elementary science teacher education: International perspectives on contemporary issues and practice. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, 2006) that can scaffold teachers’ developing pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching NOS. We analyzed articles published in the NSTA journal The Science Teacher (1995–2010) in terms of the degree to which they provide appropriate model activities and specific information that can support the development of teachers’ PCK for teaching NOS. Our analysis revealed a diversity of NOS aspects addressed by the authors and a wide range of variation in the percent of articles focused on each aspect. Additionally, we found that few articles provided robust information related to all the component knowledge bases of PCK for NOS. In particular, within the extant practitioner literature, there are few models for teaching the aspects of NOS, such as the function and nature of scientific theory. Furthermore, though articles provided information relevant to informing teachers’ knowledge of instructional strategies for NOS, relevant information to inform teachers’ knowledge of assessment in this regard was lacking. We provide recommendations for ways in which the practitioner literature may support teachers’ teaching of NOS through more robust attention to the types of knowledge research indicates are needed in order to teaching NOS effectively.     

Father Psycho-education Program for Developing Interaction with Children: Disability Program Development

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to indicate the effect of fathers’ psycho-education program on their interaction with their children. The participants of the study consisted of 10 fathers in experimental group and 9 fathers in the control group. Mixed research design was carried out. Quantitative data were collected using Personal Information Form, Child–Parent Relationship Scale and Father Involvement Scale. Semi-structured interview form consisting of open-ended questions was used. The fathers were trained for an eight-week period one week after the study group was provided with Fathers’ Interview Form as a pre-test. One week after the study was completed the same test was applied to fathers as the last test. The data obtained from the study were analysed using Non-Parametric Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test. The findings indicated that the training given to fathers increased their interaction with their children. The scores of fathers in the experimental group from the ‘Father Involvement Scale’ were significantly higher than those in the control group. The evaluation of the semi-structured interview questions in the qualitative part of the study, the responsibilities and roles of fathers in raising children altered after their involvement in the fathers’ psychoeducation program. This study proposes disability programand inclusion.     

Understanding community in synchronous online learning: do perceptions match behaviours?

ABSTRACT

The community of inquiry (CoI) framework is becoming increasingly popular in online learning. The relationships among CoI constructs (cognitive, teaching and social presences) were generally investigated through surveys. However, some methodological challenges were noticed in CoI studies such as the limitations in data diversity or data verification. Hypothesising that learners’ perceptions about CoI constructs may not reflect their actual behaviours, this study matches students’ perceptions and actual behaviours reflecting the CoI constructs in an online learning setting in a synchronous online undergraduate programme. Data from CoI surveys, online discussion records and observations were comparatively discussed. The results indicated that relationships between the behaviours and perceptions about CoI constructs were quite positive and students’ perceptions about CoI constructs almost matches with their actual behaviours. Thus, the study confirmed the power of determining the interactions reflecting CoI constructs in online learning within CoI surveys. It is hoped that the study may shed a light with its contribution in providing some evidence for the question of whether conventional data collection techniques in CoI studies is required to be revisited or not.     

Early cognitive and home environmental predictors of reading fluency and reading comprehension in Turkish-speaking children

In this study, we aimed to determine the early cognitive and home environmental predictors of reading in Turkish-speaking children. A total of 362 children participated in the study. We monitored the children for 3 years and assessed the home environmental variables and cognitive skills in kindergarten, reading fluency at the end of the first grade, and reading comprehension at the end of the second grade. We found that home literacy environment and socioeconomic status predicted early literacy skills in kindergarten as they also predicted reading fluency and reading comprehension through early literacy in later years. In addition, we found that phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and rapid naming predicted reading fluency, while language and verbal working memory predicted reading comprehension. The results of the study showed us that it is important to consider reading and reading comprehension in Turkish-speaking children holistically, together with cognitive skills and home environmental variables.