The Effect of Culture Integrated Language Courses on Foreign Language Education

When examined carefully, it is seen that there is not an available and detailed cttrriculum designed for the aim of foreign language teaching with integrated cultural items of the target language in the programs of the schools under authority of the Ministry of Education and Turkish higher education institutions. In recent years, the specialists have an agreement on the issue that foreign language instruction should be carried out by the means of target language＇s history, literature, geography and also its social characteristics. The idiom ＂it＇s raining cats and dogs＂ can be misinterpreted by a Turkish student without the knowledge of this idiom＇s story in English history as ＂Cats and dogs are pouring down from the sky＂. An important French architectural building ＂Saint Mary Cathedral, Notre Dame de Paris＂ can be misunderstood as ＂Our Parisian Woman＂ by a student who is unfamiliar with French culture. Both examples show that encountered foreign words and phrases can be misunderstood and mostly these words are perceived and interpreted according to learners＇ own cultural figures. The aims of this study are to show the significance of culture-based foreign language courses and to make a contribution to the literature by regarding the views of researchers beheving that culture and language are inseparable concepts. In this context, Erzincan University French Language Teaching Department students＇ opinions on the relation between culture and language learning were received with the application of qualitative structured written response method. Then, document analysis of written comments was evaluated. Consequently, the analysis on the participants＇ written comments showed that a culture integrated foreign language course can make positive contributions to students＇ learning, language learning process and learning environment.     

Can mission predict school performance? The case of basic education in Oman

This article reports on a study that examined the relationship between the mission statements and performance of Basic Education Schools in Oman. The process of mission statement framing was also investigated. A sample of 161 school mission statements was randomly collected from the Ministry of Education school mission portal database representing 19% of the total population. A sequential mixed method of analysis was chosen. The mission statements being classified with respect to 12 themes of which the most frequently of them appearing Academic Achievement (74.5%) and the least frequent Scientific Research Methods (26.1%).

Results show that Learning Outcomes Excellence significantly correlated with a theme around Reconstructing School Environment (r?=?0.243). Also, Islamic Values and Ethics significantly correlated with Scientific Research Methods (r?=?0.221). It was also appeared that school principals spent great efforts on designing school mission statements that directed schools towards achieving their purpose and improving their performance.     

Using the inquiry-based learning approach to enhance student innovativeness: a conceptual model

ABSTRACT

Individual innovativeness has become one of the most important employability skills for university graduates. In this paper, we focus on how students could be better prepared to be innovative in the workplace, and we argue that inquiry-based learning (IBL) – a pedagogical approach in which students follow the inquiry-based processes used by scientists to construct knowledge – can be effective for this purpose. Drawing on research which examines the social and cognitive micro-foundations of innovative behavior, we develop a conceptual model that links IBL and student innovativeness, and introduce three teacher-controlled design elements that can influence the strength of this relationship, namely whether an inquiry is open or closed, discovery-focused or information focused and individual or team-based. We argue that an open, discovery-focused and team-based inquiry offers the greatest potential for enhancing students’ skills in innovation. This paper has several implications for higher education research and practice.     

Building Reading Fluency in Developmental Readers

An increasing number of college students enrolling with poor reading fluency and comprehension skills pose a significant challenge to the college reading field in the absence of a strong understanding of the construct of reading fluency and its instruction. In order to contribute to this area of college reading, this article discusses instructional components that have been found to be effective in previous research in terms of their effectiveness and applicability for building fluent reading skills in struggling college readers.     

我曾经学过

I've learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved.     

Neuropsychological Assessment of First‐Year Architecture Students’ Visuospatial Abilities: Overview

First‐year architecture students are expected to utilise visuospatial abilities to generate/construct, retain, rotate and manipulate space mentally and physically through physical and digital representations. This study of 57 female and 23 male participants was conducted to investigate first‐year architecture students’ visuospatial abilities by means of the Beck Depression Inventory, Logical Reasoning Test and Judgment of Line Orientation (JLO) test. Participants’ sexes, cognitive development level, depression scale scores, university entrance exam results, vision disorders, physical competences, art training prior to university and error types were the study’s main parameters. The results showed that academic scores of the participants both to enrol in the program and complete the first‐year studio did not correlate with their JLO scores. Nondepressed participants performed better in JLO. Error analyses demonstrated that there is a concentration on certain items according to the test stimulus line positions, especially in females. Those who reported limited physical and visual competency made more mistakes in the same items. The study concludes that sex, depression, and individual differences in physical and visual competency, and art training, are significant variables for visuospatial performance. Judging visuospatial parameters through spatial design exercises is different from having proper methods and instruments to assess the achievements of the students regarding those abilities in architectural design education. It is important to map students’ visuospatial abilities individually from a developmental perspective. There is a strong need to develop 4D psychometric instrument to assess visuospatial abilities.     

Software and human agents in Knowledge Codification

In the age of digital networks and databases, gathering data is no longer a differentiating attribute. Instead, the onus is upon creating knowledge and codifying it into the organizational routine. The central theme of this paper is to offer a systematic knowledge codification routine that embodies specific agent attributes and best re-engineering practices. The knowledge process re-engineering schema is proposed as a routine comprising extraction, transformation, and loading to encompass seeking knowledge inputs, converting them based on context, and codifying knowledge for organizational reuse. Using the organization as the primary unit of analysis, the scope of our discussion explicates an agent-mediated process re-engineering model of knowledge creation and codification. The proposed re-engineering captures the synthetic transformation of data into information, information into explicit knowledge, the use of explicit knowledge as an input to tacit knowledge, and the codification of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in an attempt to shift the ownership and control of knowledge from the individual to the organization.     

WOMEN AND UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN TURKEY

An examination of the statistics indicates that Turkish women have made great strides with respect to their recruitment to positions at all levels in the higher education institutions of their country, particularly in such fields as medicine, the hard sciences, and engineering in which women in very many countries are usually thought to be underrepresented. The author attributes this achievement to the Republican ideology of post‐1923 Turkey, the opportunities which were opened to élite women by the correspondence of the latter with the developmental needs of the country, the availability of domestic service provided by non‐elite women, and the existence of family solidarity networks. Women, however, have not been so well represented in such fields as law and political science which, were traditionally close to the loci of political power. In recent years, however, with the expansion of the higher education system, competition between men and women for posts has greatly increased, and economic change and urbanization have dried up the supply of inexpensive domestic help and have stymied family solidarity networks. Thus academic women are increasingly beset by conflicts between their professional and their family roles. This new situation has caused Turkish women to lose ground with regard to recruitment to prestigious positions in higher education and to seek conservative Islamic solutions to the conflicts in question. Reforms based on a renewed Republican ideal are needed to improve the situation and to enable Turkish women academics to build on their past achievements.