Perceived social support,quality of life and satisfaction with life in elderly people

The aim of this study examines the relationship between quality of life, satisfaction with life and multidimensional perceived social support in people aged 65 years and older. The implementation part of the study was carried out with elderly people living in the city center of Burdur, Turkey. Data were collected in March 2018 from 517 participants and then assessed. The results of the analyses revealed that perceived social support explained 11.7% of the total variance in the satisfaction with life, 22.1% of the total variance in the quality of life. In addition to, the perceived social support and the quality of life explained 28.6% of the total variance in the satisfaction with life. And the quality of life was the most influential variable on the satisfaction with life. The findings of this study suggest that making improvements to the elderly people social support and quality of life will increase their satisfaction with life.     

The relationship between Turkish pre-service ICT teachers’ educational philosophies and occupational anxieties

This study examines Turkish pre-service Information and Communication Technologies teachers’ educational philosophies and occupational anxieties. A total of 800 pre-service teachers participated in the study. Results showed that the predominant educational philosophies among the participants were the existentialism, progressivism, reconstructionism, and perennialism, respectively. Essentialism was the least preferred educational philosophy. In addition, the majority of pre-service teachers expressed a strong belief in both existentialism (95.6%) and progressivism (95.5%). The participants reported low levels of occupational anxiety. Pearson correlations showed very weak or no relationship between the educational philosophies and occupational anxieties. Implications are discussed.     

Utilization of biological variation data in the interpretation of laboratory test results – survey about clinicians’ opinion and knowledge

IntroductionTo interpret test results correctly, understanding of the variations that affect test results is essential. The aim of this study is: 1) to evaluate the clinicians’ knowledge and opinion concerning biological variation (BV), and 2) to investigate if clinicians use BV in the interpretation of test results.Materials and methodsThis study uses a questionnaire comprising open-ended and close-ended questions. Questions were selected from the real-life numerical examples of interpretation of test results, the knowledge about main sources of variations in laboratories and the opinion of clinicians on BV. A total of 399 clinicians were interviewed, and the answers were evaluated using a scoring system ranked from A (clinician has the highest level of knowledge and the ability of using BV data) to D (clinician has no knowledge about variations in laboratory). The results were presented as number (N) and percentage (%).ResultsAltogether, 60.4% of clinicians have knowledge of pre-analytical and analytical variations; but only 3.5% of them have knowledge related to BV. The number of clinicians using BV data or reference change value (RCV) to interpret measurements results was zero, while 79.4% of clinicians accepted that the difference between two measurements results located within the reference interval may be significant.ConclusionsClinicians do not use BV data or tools derived from BV such as RCV to interpret test results. It is recommended that BV should be included in the medical school curriculum, and clinicians should be encouraged to use BV data for safe and valid interpretation of test results.     

An Argumentative Tool for Facilitating Critical Evaluation

Science & Education - The aim of the present study is to explore pre-service elementary teachers’ evaluations of the evidence and models and their positions on a socio-scientific topic,...     

Large-scale change and survival of school principals in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Turkey possess one of the most vibrant educational systems in the World. This study specifically aims at revealing Turkish school principals’ perceptions about the large-scale changes imposed by the Ministry of Education and the strategies they follow for coping with these changes. The study was designed as a generic qualitative study. Twenty principals from different schools at different levels were identified through snowball sampling and semi-structured interviews were conducted with each of them. The decoupling between change interventions and the needed change, inappropriate change implementation process, the passive role of the school principals in the design phase of change interventions are some of the major challenges that school principals encounter. The passivity of the principals during design phase put them into a state of reluctant activeness to find out resources, create readiness and adopt a mediating role between top authority and the teachers in order to implement the imposed changes.     

Characterizing High School Students’ Written Explanations in Biology Laboratories

The purpose of this qualitative interpretive research study was to examine high school students’ written scientific explanations during biology laboratory investigations. Specifically, we characterized the types of epistemologies and forms of reasoning involved in students’ scientific explanations and students’ perceptions of scientific explanations. Sixteen students from a rural high school in the Southeastern United States were the participants of this research study. The data consisted of students’ laboratory reports and individual interviews. The results indicated that students’ explanations were primarily based on first-hand knowledge gained in the science laboratories and mostly representing procedural recounts. Most students did not give explanations based on a theory or a principle and did not use deductive reasoning in their explanations. The students had difficulties explaining phenomena that involved intricate cause–effect relationships. Students perceived scientific explanation as the final step of a scientific inquiry and as an account of what happened in the inquiry process, and held a constructivist–empiricist view of scientific explanations. Our results imply the need for more explicit guidance to help students construct better scientific explanations and explicit teaching of the explanatory genre with particular focus on theoretical and causal explanations.