What was it like for you?

Abstract

As LEAs and schools develop their inclusive policies and practices, arguments about how to provide the most effective education for pupils with EBD continue. Is it possible to provide high quality education for this group in mainstream schools whilst not adversely affecting the education of the other pupils? What are the consequences of placing the most disturbed pupils in special schools? What do the pupils themselves think? This article draws on findings from 26 interviews with former pupils of an EBD residential school. We were interested in their opinions about the quality of education and care they received at the school and the impact of the placement on their experiences as young adults. Overall, despite some concerns, the former pupils have very positive memories of the school and felt that it had helped them to overcome their learning and behavioural difficulties. The findings have key implications for the development of policy and practice.     

Development and validation of a modified Turkish version of the Teacher Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (TCLES)

The Constructivist Learning Environment Survey is an instrument used for assessing students’ and teachers’ perceptions of their learning environments. The Teacher Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (TCLES) was created to better enable teachers and researchers to determine teachers’ perception of their use of constructivist approaches in their classrooms. This article reports the development and validation of a modified Turkish version of the TCLES with 449 teachers chosen randomly from primary schools in Turkey. The validity of the TCLES was investigated by means of explanatory and the confirmatory factor analyses, whereas the Cronbach alpha coefficient was used to assess the internal consistency of the scales. The factor analyses were carried out to check the factor structure of the Turkish adaptation of TCLES. The factor analysis revealed that the Turkish adaptation of the original survey consisted of 30 items with the same six-scale structure as the original survey.     

TURKISH AND U.S. ATTITUDES TOWARD AGING

As people live longer and the number of older adults increases worldwide, it becomes important to understand the factors that influence how we understand and perceive our own aging as well as how we construct our attitudes toward older adults. Although studies have indicated that later adulthood can be a healthy, productive, and satisfying time of life, ageism or prejudice and discrimination against older adults and a fear of the aging process, continues to be a widespread phenomena. The purpose of this study was to compare attitudes and anxieties toward aging of young and middle-aged men and women from the United States and Turkey. The results indicate that significant country and gender differences exist in how people feel about getting older and the age at which they consider themselves to be “old.” Contact with elders as well as education regarding the process of aging appear to have a significant impact on attitudes toward aging.     

Child abuse in Turkey: an experience in overcoming denial and a description of 50 cases

OBJECTIVE: To share the experiences of the first clinical multidisciplinary child abuse and neglect (CAN) team in Turkey with international child abuse community. METHODS: The authors established the first Turkish CAN follow-up team at Dr. Behcet Uz Children's Hospital. Following a training program in five teaching hospitals in Izmir, the authors kept a record of every case diagnosed with CAN from these hospitals between 1996 and 1998. The demographic, epidemiologic, and medical features of this case series are summarized. RESULTS: Fifty cases were diagnosed and followed-up. Seventy-six percent of patients were reported from Dr. Behcet Uz Children's Hospital. Age and sex distribution was 9.2 +/- 6.7 years and 46% male, 54% female, respectively. The offenders were only father in 38%, only mother in 28%, and multiple in 34%. More than three CAN risk factors were present in 94%. Of the children reported 44% survived, 14% died, and 42% were lost to follow-up. Sixteen percent were free of reabuse, and 42% survived with handicaps. CONCLUSIONS: Child abuse and neglect is a reality in Turkey. The team's work increased pediatricians' awareness of CAN. Reporting these cases to Social Affairs Bureau was established for the first time in Turkey. Physicians in Turkey need training to diagnose and properly report CAN. The implemen tation of a national CAN prevention program is an urgent need for Turkey.     

Detecting shilling attacks in private environments

Privacy-preserving collaborative filtering algorithms are successful approaches. However, they are susceptible to shilling attacks. Recent research has increasingly focused on collaborative filtering to protect against both privacy and shilling attacks. Malicious users may add fake profiles to manipulate the output of privacy-preserving collaborative filtering systems, which reduces the accuracy of these systems. Thus, it is imperative to detect fake profiles for overall success. Many methods have been developed for detecting attack profiles to keep them outside of the system. However, these techniques have all been established for non-private collaborative filtering schemes. The detection of shilling attacks in privacy-preserving recommendation systems has not been deeply examined. In this study, we examine the detection of shilling attacks in privacy-preserving collaborative filtering systems. We utilize four attack-detection methods to filter out fake profiles produced by six well-known shilling attacks on perturbed data. We evaluate these detection methods with respect to their ability to identify bogus profiles. Real data-based experiments are performed. Empirical outcomes demonstrate that some of the detection methods are very successful at filtering out fake profiles in privacy-preserving collaborating filtering schemes.     

Digital exclusion in Turkey: A policy perspective

This article explores the patterns of the digital divide in Turkey and analyzes policies related to this issue. Our analysis reveals that the digital disparities are interwoven with other social inequalities. This finding is parallel to the conclusions of previous research which suggests that digital exclusion can have a ‘reinforcing’ effect on social and/or economic inequalities. Having considered the current range of policies targeting either ICT access or skills, we argue that techno-centric solutions with huge budgets occupy the policy agenda at the expense of more sophisticated programs that take into account the social context of digital exclusion. These policies fail to address the most disadvantaged groups. Those who are old, disabled, female and reside in rural areas are less likely to be internet users and existing policies do not reach out to these groups.     

The effect of a conceptual change approach on understanding of students’ chemical equilibrium concepts

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of a conceptual change approach over traditional instruction on tenth‐grade students’ conceptual achievement in understanding chemical equilibrium. The study was conducted in two classes of the same teacher with participation of a total of 44 tenth‐grade students. In this study, a pre‐test/post‐test control group semi‐experimental design pattern was used. During teaching the topic of chemical equilibrium concepts in the chemistry curriculum, a conceptual change approach was applied in the experimental group whereas traditional instruction was followed in the control group. Data were analysed with an independent samples t‐test, and an analysis of covariance using the pre‐test scores as the covariate. The results showed that the conceptual change approach was statistically more effective than traditional instruction in terms of students’ conceptual understanding. After the six‐week intervention, interviews were conducted with 18 selected students in the study. In the interviews a prevailing alternative conception was detected beside many alternative conceptions. When they were asked to compare equilibrium constants of two different reactions they mostly responded to mean that ‘the bigger the mol number of the products, the bigger the equilibrium constant’ without considering what proportions the reactants were transformed into products in a reaction. Also, in this study a two‐tier multiple choice test was developed related to chemical equilibrium to detect students’ concepts and alternative concepts.     

Provision of Counselling Services in Secondary Schools: A Survey of Local Education Authorities in England and Wales

This paper explores the current state of counselling as provided by local education authorities (LEAs) to secondary schools in England and Wales. A questionnaire was sent to all 172 LEAs in England and Wales. The data suggest that the counselling provision is highly variable and somewhat fragmented in scope. The data also indicate that the perception of the role of school counselling services by educational professionals varies considerably, and that there were a number of issues concerning integrated versus decentralized forms of provision. The study has a number of implications for the main stakeholders, including schools, LEAs, pupils and parents, concerning future developments in this increasingly important policy area. These relate to minimum qualifications for counsellors, confidentiality, accessibility to pupils and funding.     

Turkish classroom teachers' views on school readiness: a phenomenological study

In a democratic education system, it is important to provide equal opportunity to every child. Both educators and researchers acknowledge a gap between students who attend school ready to learn and those who do not. School readiness prepares students for this learning. The purpose of the study was to ascertain Turkish classroom teachers’ expectations of first-grade students in terms of school readiness. To achieve this goal, Turkish classroom teachers’ views on school readiness were collected. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews with nine Turkish classroom teachers. Data were analysed using phenomenological study techniques. Seven major themes were derived from the data analysis: health screening, fine motor skills, self-confidence, self-expression, willingness to learn, toilet habits and negative transfer. Implications are discussed and recommendations are made for future studies.     

The new Turkish early childhood teacher education curriculum: a brief outlook

This article aims to describe and reflect on the new early childhood teacher education curriculum in Turkey. The new curriculum is part of a large-scale reform agenda to improve education at all levels. The article begins with a brief history of early childhood education and early childhood teacher education in Turkey. Then, the needs for the curriculum revision and major characteristics of the revised curriculum are discussed. The article concludes with brief discussion about the innovations and suggestions for future research dealing with the implementation and effectiveness of the revised curriculum