A Cross-linguistic Comparison of Phonological Awareness and Word Recognition in Turkish and English Comparaison entre la reconnaissance phonologique et la reconnaissance des mots en turc et en anglais Una comparación lingüística cruzada de la Conciencia Fonológica y del reconocimiento de palabras en turco e inglés

Phonological awareness has been demonstrated by numerous researchers to be one of the most powerful predictors of subsequent reading success. By considering these predictors as a starting point, the relations between children's phonological awareness developed at the pre-reading stage and their reading skills were examined and the influences of the features of various language systems and orthographies upon children's phonological awareness and subsequent reading abilities were studied. The results are important for developing new methods for teaching reading. In this research, besides studying the relationship between the development of children's phonological awareness and their subsequent reading skills, how the children's linguistic and orthographic characteristics of English and Turkish effect phonological awareness and subsequent reading success were also analysed. The aim was to recommend the most appropriate method for teaching reading and writing to children acquiring literacy in Turkish. The research was designed as a survey model. The participants of the study were 94 Turkish students (46 girls and 48 boys) attending two public primary schools and two public kindergartens in Istanbul during the 1994-95 educational year and 44 American students (17 girls and 27 boys) at different ages attending a public primary school and its kindergarten in Duluth, Minnesota. In this study, their scores in letter identification tasks (upper-case and lower-case letter identification), letter usage tasks, decoding tasks and various phonological awareness tasks were compared. Turkish and American students' scores in all tasks, as to grade, language and language unit variables were also analysed, and two-way ANOVA and correlations were also obtained. Whether grade, language and language unit independent variables and their interactions cause significant distinctions between the groups' scores was examined. The results of this study indicate that while Turkish kindergarten students are less successful than American students in the decoding tasks, Turkish primary school students score higher compared with American children at the same grade level. When the scores of Turkish and American students in phonological awareness tasks were compared, it was found that Turkish students scored higher in both grade levels than American students and it was ascertained that, particularly as the children became literate, the phonological awareness ability of Turkish students increased considerably. These results point to how the spoken language affects the development of phonological awareness and the contribution of this ability to learning to read in alphabetic writing systems. Il a été établi par de nombreuses études que la reconnaissance phonologique est l'un des prédicteurs les plus puissants de la réussite ultérieure en lecture. En prenant ces prédicteurs comme point de départ, on a examiné les relations entre la reconnaissance phonologique développée par les enfants à l'étape de la pré-lecture et leurs compétences en lecture, ainsi que l'influence des caractéristiques phonologiques et orthographiques de certaines langues sur la reconnaissance phonologique des enfants et leurs compétences ultérieures en lecture. Les résultats sont importants si l'on veut élaborer de nouvelles méthodes d'enseignement de la lecture. Dans cette étude, en plus de l'examen des relations entre le développement de la reconnaissance phonologique des enfants et leurs compétences ultérieures en lecture, on a analysé les conséquences des caractéristiques linguistiques et orthographiques de l'anglais et du turc sur la reconnaissance phonologique et la réussite ultérieure en lecture. L'objectif était de recommander des méthodes appropriées d'enseignement de la lecture et de l'écriture aux enfants de l'enseignement primaire turc. L'étude a été conçue sur le modèle d'une enquête. Les participants étaient quatre-vingt quatorze élèves turcs (46 filles et 48 garçons) de deux écoles primaires publiques et deux écoles maternelles d'Istanbul pendant l'année scolaire 1994-1995, et quarante-quatre élèves américains à divers âges (17 filles et 27 garçons) d'une école primaire publique et sa section maternelle à Duluth, Minnesota. Dans cette étude, on a comparé les notes qu'ils ont obtenues lors de tâches d'identification des lettres (reconnaissance des minuscules et des majuscules), tâches d'emploi des lettres, tâches de décodage et diverses tâches de reconnaissance phonologique. On a également analysé les notes obtenues par les élèves turcs et américains pour toutes les tâches, par variable d'année d'études, langue et unité de langue, et des analyses de variance et des corrélations dans les deux sens ont été obtenues. On a étudié si les variables indépendants d'année d'études, langue et unité de langue et leurs interactions causaient des distinctions significatives sur les résultats des groupes. Les résultats de cette recherche indiquent que, bien que les élèves turcs de maternelle réussissent moins bien aux tâches de décodage que les américains, les élèves turcs de niveau primaire obtiennent de meilleurs résultats que les américains de même année d'études. Lorsqu'on a comparé les notes des élèves turcs et américains en matière de reconnaissance phonologique, on a trouvé que les élèves turcs avaient de meilleures notes, aux deux niveaux scolaires, que les américains, et on a observé que, surtout à mesure que les enfants apprenaient à lire et écrire, la capacité de reconnaissance phonologique des élèves turcs augmentait considérablement. Ces résultats indiquent comment la langue parlée affecte le développement de la reconnaissance phonologique et le rôle joué par cette capacité dans l'apprentissage de la lecture dans les systèmes d'écriture alphabétiques. Numerosas investigaciones han demostrado que la conciencia fonológica es uno de los predictores más poderosos del éxito para leer subsiguiente. Teniendo en cuenta estos predictores como punto de partida, se examinaron las relaciones entre la conciencia fonológica de los niños desarrollada en la fase de prelectura y sus habilidades de lectura y se estudiaron las influencias de las características de los diferentes sistemas de lenguaje y de las ortografías en la conciencia fonológica de los niños y las habilidades de lectura subsiguientes. Los resultados son importantes para desarrollar métodos nuevos para enseñar a leer. En este trabajo de investigación, además de estudiar la relación entre el desarrollo de la conciencia fonológica de los niños y sus habilidades de lectura subsiguientes, también se analizó cómo las características ortográficas y lingüísticas del inglés y del turco de los niños afectaron a la conciencia fonológica y al éxito para leer subsiguiente. El objetivo fue recomendar el método más adecuado para enseñar a leer y a escribir a los niños que estuvieran aprendiendo a leer y a escribir en turco. El trabajo de investigación se diseñó como si se tratara de una encuesta. El número de participantes fue de noventa y cuatro alumnos turcos (46 niñas y 48 niños) de dos escuelas primarias del estado y de dos jardines de infancia también del estado de la ciudad de Estambul durante el curso académico 1994-1995 y de cuarenta y cuatro alumnos americanos (17 niñas y 27 niños) de diferentes edades que asistían a una escuela primaria del estado y a su correspondiente jardín de infancia en Duluth, Minnesota. En esta investigación, se compararon los resultados que obtuvieron en las Tareas de Reconocimiento de las Letras (Reconocimiento de las Letras Mayúsculas y Minúsculas), en las Tareas de Utilización de Letras, en las Tareas de Decodificación y en varias tareas de Conciencia Fonológica. También se analizaron los resultados de los alumnos americanos y turcos en todas las tareas, en lo que respecta al grado/curso, lenguaje y variables de la unidad de lenguaje y también se obtuvieron correlaciones y "two way ANOVA" (análisis de variaciones bidireccionales). Se estudió si el grado/curso, lenguaje y las variables independientes de la unidad de lenguaje y sus interacciones causaron diferencias importantes en los resultados de los grupos. Los resultados de esta investigación indican que aunque los alumnos turcos del jardín de infancia tienen menos éxito que los alumnos americanos en las tareas de decodificación, los alumnos turcos de enseñanza primaria obtuvieron mejores puntuaciones comparados con los alumnos americanos del mismo nivel de curso. Cuando se compararon los resultados de los alumnos americanos y turcos en las tareas de conciencia fonológica, se encontró que los alumnos turcos obtuvieron mejores puntuaciones en ambos niveles de curso que los alumnos americanos y se estableció que especialmente a medida que los alumnos aprendían a leer y escribir, la habilidad de la conciencia fonológica de los alumnos turcos aumentaba considerablemente. Estos resultados indican como el lenguaje hablado afecta al desarrollo de la conciencia fonológica y la contribución de esta habilidad para aprendar a leer en los sistemas de escritura alfabética.     

The effectiveness of problem-based learning on teaching the first law of thermodynamics

Background: Problem-based learning (PBL) is a teaching approach working in cooperation with self-learning and involving research to solve real problems. The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but that energy is conserved. Students had difficulty learning or misconceptions about this law. This study is related to the teaching of the first law of thermodynamics within a PBL environment.

Purpose: This study examined the effectiveness of PBL on candidate science teachers’ understanding of the first law of thermodynamics and their science process skills. This study also examined their opinions about PBL.

Sample: The sample consists of 48 third-grade university students from the Department of Science Education in one of the public universities in Turkey.

Design and methods: A one-group pretest–posttest experimental design was used. Data collection tools included the Achievement Test, Science Process Skill Test, Constructivist Learning Environment Survey and an interview with open-ended questions. Paired samples t-test was conducted to examine differences in pre/post tests.

Results: The PBL approach has a positive effect on the students’ learning abilities and science process skills. The students thought that the PBL environment supports effective and permanent learning, and self-learning planning skills. On the other hand, some students think that the limited time and unfamiliarity of the approach impede learning.

Conclusions: The PBL is an active learning approach supporting students in the process of learning. But there are still many practical disadvantages that could reduce the effectiveness of the PBL. To prevent the alienation of the students, simple PBL activities should be applied from the primary school level. In order to overcome time limitations, education researchers should examine short-term and effective PBL activities.     

The effect of web-based portfolio use on academic achievement and retention

The web-based portfolio emerged as a result of the influence of technological developments on educational practices. In this study, the effect of the web-based portfolio building process on academic achievement and retention is explored. For this purpose, a study platform known as a computer-assisted personal development portfolio was designed for 30 Turkish students who participated in a web-based portfolio process. The academic achievements of the students were examined through an experimental design in which participants were divided into an experimental group and a control group and given a pre-test and a post-test. The results of the study revealed that the levels of both academic achievement and retention in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group. Similar practices can be applied to the teaching of medicine, economics, physical sciences, humanities and other subjects in order to extend students?? performance and achievement levels.     

Teacher candidates’ self-efficacy beliefs and possible selves throughout the teaching practice period in Turkey

This research aims to study the change observed in self-efficacy beliefs and possible selves of teacher candidates regarding their first year in the profession after the completion of teaching practice. The research has a mix design method utilizing both qualitative and quantitative data collection tools. The quantitative part of the research has been prepared in accordance with pretest/posttest model with single group. In this context, 70 teacher candidates have been administered both “Teacher’s Sense of Efficacy Scale” and “New Teacher Possible Selves Questionnaire” at the beginning and end of the term as pretest and posttest in order to identify the change caused by teaching practice. With respect to the qualitative part of the research, ten volunteered candidates have been interviewed through semi-structured interviews following the termination of teaching practice. Joint interpretation of both quantitative and qualitative findings of this research indicates that teaching practice has an influence over self-efficacy beliefs and teacher possible selves of teacher candidates. In this research, overall self-efficacy beliefs of teacher candidates have been identified to improve after teaching practice. With respect to the dimensions of self-efficacy beliefs, the findings of this research point that teaching practice hasn’t produced any positive effects over self-efficacy beliefs of teacher candidates regarding class management, but levels of self-efficacy beliefs concerning student engagement and teaching strategies have improved after teaching practice. On the other hand, united evaluation of both quantitative and qualitative findings of this study shows that not much has changed regarding expected teacher possible selves, but not feared teacher possible selves of teacher candidates.     

Effect of emotion-aware interventions on students’ behavioral and emotional states

The goal of this research is to investigate the effect of emotion-aware interventions on students’ behavioral and emotional states. To this end, we collected data from 12 students in the 9th grade in a high school in Turkey. The data collection took place in two sessions of an English Course. While the students were reading articles and solving relevant questions, our data collection application running in the background recorded the videos of the individual students through a camera and captured students’ screens in a non-intrusive manner. In total, we had 12.5 h of student data. We employed the human expert labeling process (HELP) (Aslan et al. in Workshop proceedings at international conference on intelligent tutoring systems (ITS), pp 156–165, 2016) to have the data labeled (150 h of data labeling in total). The data collection application was designed in a way that it also collected emotional self-labels (i.e., emotional states as self-reported by students at any time of learning). We leveraged emotional self-label information to suggest various real-time interventions for the students. The results obtained using the final expert labels showed that the percentage of the students’ Satisfied state was significantly higher after interventions. The results also demonstrated that although the interventions were triggered by the emotional states as self-labeled by the students and tailored to improve such states, there was a major positive impact of these interventions on students’ behavioral states. This preliminary study showed that even with a limited set of emotion-aware interventions based on self-labels, students’ states could be impacted positively. Conducting large-scale pilots leveraging more advanced interventions is a future direction for our research.     

Do Pre-service Chemistry Teachers Reflect their Beliefs about Constructivism in their Teaching Practices?

This study aimed to explore pre-service chemistry teachers’ beliefs about constructivism and the influence of their beliefs in their teaching practice. For this purpose, semi-structured interviews were carried out with eight pre-service teachers in order to understand their belief structures. Pre-service teachers’ beliefs about constructivism were classified in three categories which are weak, moderate, and strong conceptions of constructivism. For detailed exploration, three cases of pre-service teachers representing these three categories were selected. The findings of this study showed that most pre-service teachers in this study did not have a strong conception of constructivism and the relationship between the pre-service teachers’ beliefs and their practice was not clear-cut.     

A Qualitative Examination of Science Teachers’ Emotions,Emotion Regulation Goals and Strategies

Research in Science Education - The purpose of the study was to examine science teachers’ emotions, emotion regulation goals and strategies during instruction, and the role of teaching...     

The Contribution of Constructivist Instruction Accompanied by Concept Mapping in Enhancing Pre-service Chemistry Teachers’ Conceptual Understanding of Chemistry in the Laboratory Course

The present study aimed to evaluate whether a chemistry laboratory course called “Laboratory Experiments in Science Education” based on constructivist instruction accompanied with concept mapping enhanced pre-service chemistry teachers’ conceptual understanding. Data were collected from five pre-service chemistry teachers at a university in Ankara by means of a concept test and semi-structured interviews. Results showed that pre-service teachers had some alternative conceptions about chemistry topics. Moreover, using constructivist instruction accompanied with concept maps as an instructional tool was effective to promote conceptual understanding. Participants thought that concept maps were useful especially in recognizing the relation between different chemistry concepts.