‘Building Dancing’: Dance within the Context of Architectural Design Pedagogy

Recent theoretical and technological developments redefine the discipline of architecture substantially. Current day approaches in design pedagogy focus on personal and bodily experiences of the subject and the need for investigating new ways and methods to enhance awareness of spatial experiences is inevitable. In order to establish a heuristic understanding of embodiment in space within design pedagogy, collaborative studies of dance and architecture are important supports. This article introduces ‘Building Dancing’, which is an approach to embodied learning. The project is specifically designed and developed for students of architectural design and aims to integrate the existing body of knowledge and hands‐on exercises under a holistic framework. Within this study, the issue of embodiment is regarded not solely as a theoretical concept but a transforming method for achieving a conception of a reality and an understanding of architectural design processes.     

Project-based geometry learning: Knowledge and attitude of field-dependent/independent cognitive style students

The authors in a convergent parallel mixed method design aimed to investigate whether and how the geometry knowledge and attitude toward geometry of students with field-dependent/independent cognitive style improve differentially within a project-based learning environment. Quantitative data were collected from 97 seventh-grade students before and after the treatment. Repeated measures multivariate analysis of covariance results, controlling for gender and prior mathematics achievement, revealed a statistically significant main effect of time but not cognitive style. Follow-up repeated measures analysis of covariance by controlling the experiment-wise alpha level indicated that field-dependent, field-mixed, and field-independent students achieved a statistically significant mean increase for all measures. The qualitative (classroom observations and interviews with some students) data provided evidence that contextualizing, visualizing, and collaborating opportunities in the project-based learning environment made contributions for mean increase.     

CIRLab: A groupware framework for collaborative information retrieval research

In this paper we describe the design of a groupware framework, CIRLab, for experimenting with collaborative information retrieval (CIR) techniques in different search scenarios. This framework has been designed applying design patterns and an object-oriented middleware platform to maximize its reusability and adaptability in new contexts with a minimum of programming efforts. Our collaborative search application comprises three main modules: the Core, which supports various modern state-of-the-art CIR techniques that can be reused or extended in a distributed collaborative environment; the Facades Mediator, an event-driven notification service which allows easy integration between the Core and front-end applications; and finally, the Actions Tracker, which allows researchers to perform experiments on the different elements involved in the collaborative search sessions. The applying of this framework is illustrated through the analysis of the collaborative search-driven development case study.     

Social summarization in collaborative web search

A critical challenge for Web search engines concerns how they present relevant results to searchers. The traditional approach is to produce a ranked list of results with title and summary (snippet) information, and these snippets are usually chosen based on the current query. Snippets play a vital sensemaking role, helping searchers to efficiently make sense of a collection of search results, as well as determine the likely relevance of individual results. Recently researchers have begun to explore how snippets might also be adapted based on searcher preferences as a way to better highlight relevant results to the searcher. In this paper we focus on the role of snippets in collaborative web search and describe a technique for summarizing search results that harnesses the collaborative search behaviour of communities of like-minded searchers to produce snippets that are more focused on the preferences of the searchers. We go on to show how this so-called social summarization technique can generate summaries that are significantly better adapted to searcher preferences and describe a novel personalized search interface that combines result recommendation with social summarization.     

Roles,requirements and autonomy of academic researchers

As an indicator of nations' prosperity and economic competitiveness, research impacts the mounting roles and requirements placed upon academic researchers. Internationally, researchers are expected to effectively operate in the fast-changing and demanding research environment. Such effectiveness corresponds mainly to their ability to establish international and interdisciplinary collaborations, secure internal and external grants, and most importantly deliver tangible research outputs. As such, this desired research excellence impacts researchers' academic appointments, recognitions and promotions. Driven by research productivity and pursuit of academic excellence, researchers' individual autonomy may become restricted. This work is based on (a) an international study exploring research productivity within higher education institutions across 15 countries and (b) a relevant international literature review. The voices of 32 participants portray competencies required from and requirements placed upon academic researchers at their respective universities. Findings show that the role of academic researchers is changing and the requirements pose challenges to researchers' autonomy. The research productivity quest along with opportunity-driven decisions may not only restrict researchers' autonomy but also compromise their academic integrity.     

The contributions of relationships with parents and teachers to Turkish children’s antisocial behaviour

The present study examined the concurrent contributions of parent–child and teacher–child relationship quality to Turkish children’s antisocial behaviour, with a specific focus on the moderating role of teacher–child relationships (closeness and conflict) on parent–child relationships when predicting antisocial behaviour. Participants were 94 children (56 boys) with mean age of 7.05 years (SD = .88) enrolled in 24 classrooms from five elementary schools in a suburban school district in Turkey. Mothers reported on their relationship with children and teachers reported on their relationships with children as well as children’s antisocial behaviour. SAS PROC MIXED was used to test hierarchical regression models of children nested within classrooms. Results showed that teacher–child conflict moderated the association between parent–child conflict and children’s antisocial behaviour. Such that, higher parent–child conflict was related to higher levels of antisocial behaviour at the context of higher levels of teacher–child conflict. In addition, teacher–child closeness also moderated the association between parent–child conflict and children’s antisocial behaviour. Such that when teacher–child closeness was at average or high levels, lower levels of parent–child conflict was related to lower levels of antisocial behaviour. Teacher–child conflict was positively associated with children’s antisocial behaviour. Limitations and future directions of the current study are discussed.     

An evaluation of health and sexuality education in Turkish elementary school curricula

Research was undertaken to evaluate whether and to what extent the health‐related domains, including sexuality education, specified by the Development of Health Awareness in Adolescent Project Science Committee overlapped with the goals and objectives of the 2002/03 elementary school curricula (grades one to eight; ages 7–14 years) in Turkey. For this aim, the goals and objectives of the courses in the curricula that include health‐related and sexuality‐related subjects were compared by the seven domains with a total of 230 subcategories. The analysis demonstrated that 147 of the 230 subcategories matched the goals and objectives of the curricula with the highest frequencies in the domains of physical development, protection from detrimental‐external factors and healthy living habits. However, the domain of healthy beginning to life was found to have the lowest frequency. Moreover, subcategories such as pregnancy–birth, unintended pregnancy, sexual identity, changes in adolescence, sexual violence and abuse, birth control and sexual discrimination were not covered at all. These results are discussed in relation to the missing points that might have implications for policy and practice in health and sexuality education in Turkey.     

Teaching in rural Turkey: pre-service teacher perspectives

Despite preliminary findings that preparing teachers for rural positions is of great importance in Turkey’s conditions, little has been reported regarding the measures that need to be addressed in order to effectively prepare teachers for remote areas. In response to this gap, the present study aimed to provide some preliminary views about the expectations of pre-service teachers in relation to rural teaching from a qualitative research paradigm. Data were collected through an open-ended questionnaire from 115 senior pre-service teachers in a large Turkish university. Thematic analysis of the data revealed that participants had polarised views about the issue. While some of them viewed the experience positively, others highlighted the potential challenges. Pre-service teachers’ vague and dichotomous images concerning rural teaching suggested that they had some preconceptions formed through media representations or word of mouth. Implications for teacher education and professional development, along with directions for future research were included.     

Cyber Bullying @ Schools: What do Turkish Adolescents Think?

Cyber bullying is an emerging form of peer bullying, becoming prominent especially over the past decade. The aim of this study was to investigate through interviews the perceptions of Turkish high school students about cyber bullying. The sample consisted of six male and one female high school students all aged 15 years who identified as being active in cyber bullying. Findings were grouped under four main headings; acts of cyber bullying, reasons for cyber bullying, characteristics of cyber bullies and victims, and suggestions to prevent cyber bullying. The results were discussed in the light of relevant literature.     

Conceptual Understanding of Definite Integral with GeoGebra

This study aimed to determine the effect of a computer-assisted instruction method using GeoGebra on achievement of prospective secondary mathematics teachers in the definite integral topic and to determine their opinions about this method. The study group consisted of 35 prospective secondary mathematics teachers studying in the mathematics education program at a state university in Turkey. The study was carried out using an embedded design, and the Definite Integral Knowledge Test and an opinion form were used for data collection. Upon analyzing the data, the computer-assisted instruction method using GeoGebra was found to positively contribute to the success of teaching the definite integral topic. Prospective teachers stated that this method should be used in math courses as it creates a fun and interesting environment with dynamic learning elements, provides visualization and opportunities to learn mathematics through practice and exercises, enables thorough understanding and explication of skills, and makes way for conceptual learning instead of memorizing. Furthermore, this study was found to facilitate conceptual learning of the relationship between the lower sum, upper sum and Riemann sum.