Education policy in an era of neoliberal urbanisation: a case study of Istanbul’s school relocations

This article examines an effort to spatially re-organise urban public schools in the largest city in Turkey. Recently, the Turkish government has made an effort to relocate inner-city public schools in Istanbul to less desirable parts of the city. Analysing how education policy in the country is tied to wider political mechanisms and considering the results of the studies carried out in various parts of the world, this article argues that the interaction between education and urban life in Turkey displays unique characteristics in terms of the populations implicated in the policy change and the spaces transformed as a result. Two salient characteristics are the involvement of the secular middle class and the perception by them that school relocations entail de-secularisation of the city and the education system. The article argues that these characteristics should be conceptualised in the context of particular conjunctures of forces driven by different contradictions.     

Stimulators and barriers towards social innovations in public libraries: Qualitative research study

Public libraries have a huge potential to be creators and facilitators of social innovation in communities and society. Qualitative research based on interviews with 27 librarians showed that social innovation in libraries can take the form of educational and cultural activities, leisure and networking activities and social support services. The main goal of the research was to find out what factors support and make these innovations difficult in public libraries. A four-layer model of barriers and stimulators for social innovation is presented, which includes structural, local, organizational and personnel levels. The model could serve to inform librarians, their stakeholders and governments about all levels of barriers and stimulators connected to innovation of library services and social re-positioning of public libraries in the future.     

The Effects of a Coping Skills Training Program on the Coping Skills, Hopelessness, and Stress Levels of Mothers of Children with Autism

The aim of this study is to explore the effects of a coping skills training program on stress, and hopelessness levels and coping skills of mothers of children with autism the age range of children was 12–19 for the experimental group and 11–17 for the control group. Twenty mothers of children with autism were assigned to a treatment group and a no treatment control group. A pre-test- post-test no-treatment control group design was undertaken. After completion of the program, interviews were conducted with the mothers in the experimental group to get some qualitative data about the effectiveness of the program. The results revealed differences in hopelessness levels and the use of social support as a coping strategy; however, there was no significant difference in the use of avoidance and problem solving as a coping strategy and stress levels of mothers. Moreover, the interviews conducted with mothers indicated a positive effect of the program on the mothers of children with autism. The generalization of the results is limited as the sample consisted of ten mothers and long-term follow-up data were not collected.     

Primary school teachers as a tool of secularisation of society in communist Czechoslovakia

This study focuses on the secularisation of society in communist Czechoslovakia (1948–1989) as a process in which primary school teachers played an important role. It aims to describe and explain typical everyday situations in which teachers were forced to fulfil tasks in connection with the Communist Party’s politics of secularisation. The text is based on witness memories obtained through oral history interviews, and on examination of historical archival sources and legislation. The study shows that the situations in which teachers found themselves in connection with performing these tasks were often not easy to face. This was, on the one hand, due to the expectations of the political establishment that teachers would obey their instructions meticulously and without reservations. The teachers, on the other hand, strove to interfere in negative ways with the lives of their students (and their families) as little as possible.     

On the nature of problems

This paper is an attempt at clarifying the concept of problem, and originates from a concern for improving the teaching of problem solving.The following categories are identified and employed in the analysis of several examples of problems and related notions: (a) the formulation of a problem, i.e. the definition of the task to be performed, (b) the context in which the problem is embedded, (c) the set of suitable solutions, (d) the methods of approach that could be employed in solving the problem.Commonalities as well as contrasts among specific examples are used to identify important elements of problems. The study suggests a possible classification of types of problems of educational interest, and draws some implications for the choice and use of problems in classroom instruction.     

Efficiency of digital and non-digital educational games: A comparative meta-analysis and a meta-thematic analysis

Abstract

The present article attempts to reinterpret the findings of most recent studies investigating effect of using games for teaching purposes. A methodological approach combining a meta-analysis of quantitative data with qualitative ones was adopted in order to present the broadest picture of the current research on educational use of games. To this end, we conducted a meta-analysis of 180 effect size comparisons out of 154 empirical studies on the effect of both digital and non-digital games on academic achievement conducted during the period from 2004 to 2019 in order to determine the overall effect size of using games for teaching various subjects. The overall sample size of the studies included a total number of 12800 participants. Some moderator analyses were also carried out to determine the exact efficiency of educational games in terms of student levels, durations of implementation of game activities, school subjects in which games were used, class sizes, kinds of games and achievement tests used. The findings suggest that educational games have a positive effect on academic achievement and this effect is at a medium level (g?=?0.695). The highest effect sizes were observed in foreign language courses (g?=?0.87), small (less than 50) class sizes (g?=?0.87), and in non-digital games (g?=?0.90). Moreover, we conducted a meta-thematic analysis based on document analysis of qualitative studies in order to further consolidate the findings of the meta-analysis. The meta-thematic dimension of our study reveals cognitive contributions as well as drawbacks of game-based teaching, and provides suggestions for conducting educational games in a better way.