“The Lolelaplap (Marshall Islands) in Us: Sailing West to East (Ralik→Ratak) to These Our Atolls (Aelon Kein Ad) Ad Jolet Jen Anij (Our Blessed Inheritance from God)”

This paper discusses the expansion of Oceania through a Marshallese indigenous lens as a focal point. It explains that decolonizing methodologies allows reclaiming of space for mental liberation and reassurement of constitutional rights. It highlights similar occurrences of decolonization practices meeting resistance in the 21st century all while strengthening the human right argument that no human deserves any less than their fellow human brothers and sisters. It argues that an indigenous imagery can only be viewed through an indigenous lens where the researches’ level of purity is retained and unfiltered. It nevertheless argues that Marshallese ethnolinguistics reveal the same cultural practices in America, Judeo-Christianity, and Oceania thus dictating the reality that “we are the same not withstanding one stays here and one there (Bedbedjin Bedbedjen, Bedbedjinma wot Kwe)”. It further explains the importance in these similarities and how Marshallese spirituality predates introduced American Judeo-Christianity despite the latter attempting to marginalize the former. It concludes by stating that Marshallese contributions on the global stage are rooted in that culture of love (IaKwe) which is echoed by the custom(s) revealing the significance of Marshallese validation academically, spiritually, economically, & socially to prevent institutionalized discrimination. This paper ends stating that the agency to know one’s self and how one should fit in the world, is a human right in itself and Marshallese are entitled to this sense of self worth through knowing thy self by thy self where real thinking takes place in one’s own mind as we all live our own lives

The effects of the students’ cognitive styles of field dependent/independent and scientific thinking skills to the students’ understanding of the natüre of matter concepts and attitudes toward science

Çalışmanın amacı, ilköğretim sekizinci sınıf öğrencilerinin alan bağımlı/bağımsız bilişsel stilleri ve bilimsel düşünme yeteneklerinin maddenin doğası kavramlarını anlamalarına ve fen dersine yönelik tutumlarına etkisini incelemektir. Örneklem, Bolu il merkezinde bulunan 10 ilköğretim okulunda öğrenim gören 770 sekizinci sınıf öğrencisinden oluşmaktadır. Çalışmada dört veri toplama aracı kullanılmıştır: Saklı Figürler Testi, Bilimsel Düşünme Yetenek Testi, Maddenin Doğası Kavramları Testi ve Fen Dersine yönelik Tutum Ölçeği. Veriler, SPSS 13 de betimsel istatistik ve MANOVA kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. Çalışma sonuçlarına göre, öğrencilerin bilişsel stillerine göre maddenin doğası kavramlarını anlamaları arasında alan bağımsız bilişsel stile sahip öğrenciler lehine istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir fark bulunmuştur. Ancak, öğrencilerin bilişsel stillerine göre fen dersine yönelik tutumları arasında istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir fark bulunmamıştır. Ayrıca, öğrencilerin bilimsel düşünme yeteneklerine göre maddenin doğası kavramları anlamaları ve fen dersine yönelik tutumları arasında soyut düşünme yetenekleri lehine istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir fark belirlenmiştirIn this study the effects of the students' cognitive styles of field dependent/independent and scientific thinking skills to the students' understanding of the nature of matter concepts and attitudes toward science were investigated. Sample included 770 eight grade students at 10 junior high schools in Bolu. Four data collection instrument were used in this study: The Group Embedded Figures Test, Scientific Thinking Skills Test, Nature of Matter Concepts Test, and Attitude Scale towards Science. Data were analyzed using by descriptive statistics and multiple variance analysis (MANOVA) at SPSS 13.0. The study results revealed that the field dependent/independent students were statistically significant predictors of the students' achievements, in favor of the field independent students. However, there was no statistically significant difference between students' cognitive style of field dependence/independence and attitudes toward science. In addition, according to students' scientific thinking skills to understand the concepts of the nature of matter concepts and their attitudes toward science was statistically significant difference. This difference was in favor of the abstract thinking scientific thinking skill