School principals' technology leadership competency and technology coordinatorship

The aim of this study is to determine the primary and high school principals’ competency in technology leadership and so to define implications for advanced competency. The population of the study was formed by 134 school principals in Maltepe and Kadikoy districts in Istanbul. On account of the fact that population was reachable, no specific sampling method was used for the present study. The research survey named NETS-A the Principal Technology Leadership Assessment (PTLA) was adapted into Turkish as a result of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) indicating goodness of fit indices in 3 dimension (CMIN/df=1.547/CFI= .913/RMSA= .082) and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) which revealed 3 factors explaining % 64 of total variance. Internal consistency reliability of the survey was determined with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α= .95). According to the results of the current study, school principals were adequate for technology leadership at a “significant” level (M = .85, SD = .54), while their competency in “leadership & vision” dimension of technology leadership has the lowest value (M = .78, SD = .68) compared to other dimensions. Additionally, it was found that female school principals are more adequate for “leadership & vision” dimension than their male colleagues (p< .05). Besides, it was determined that schools owning information technologies coordinator teacher are more adequate for “learning & teaching” dimension of technology leadership (p < .05)

Okullarda Dumansız Hava Sahası Ölçeğinin Türkçeye Uyarlanması: Geçerlik ve Güvenirlik Çalışması

Some-free zone policy came up with “Law for the Prevention of the Harms of Tobacco Products” introduced on November 7, 1996 in Turkey and later on it was revised on the basis of the previous law on January 3, 2008 so it was announced as “smoke-free air zone policy”. Thus the new implementation, inspired by the Spanish law, put an end to isolated smoking areas. As of May 19, 2009, indoor smoking was strictly banned in public institutions. Later on this was expanded for all business organizations in the wake of July 19, 2009. Teachers and school administrators have a relatively negative perception on smoke-free regulation in terms of their smoking habit (Fidan, Sezer, Demirel,Kara and Ünlü, 2006). Wold, Torsheim, Currie, and Roberts (2004) revealed that school managers and teachers keep on smoking in the school zone, especially outside the school building in seven European countries so that they legitimize smoking addiction in front of their pupils. From the viewpoint of teachers, Gözütok (1999) showed that when school administrators and teachers ranked descendingly 34 non-ethical behaviors for teachers, “smoking attitude in front of students” seems rather an admissible behavior and took the 30th place. Likewise, Güçlü (2010) cited that the research center of Democratic Educators Union declared that on account of the smoke-free law teachers set a bad example for pupils by smoking right outside the schoolyard. It is obvious that teachers and school managers as cigarette smokers are not suitable role models in education environment. As a matter of fact, the most important point determining the compliance with legal enforcement rely on the teacher and school managers’ perception on the smoke-free law so that it would be able to estimate how the policy can attain its “smoke-free, tobacco-free school” goal. The purpose of this study is to investigate the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of Ferré, Moyer and Nobiling’s Attitudes Towards Smoking Compliance Questionnaire released as part of Live Free-Tobacco Free Smoke Free Survey behalf on South Illiniois University. Method: Participants including teachers were recruited through Maltepe and Kartal districts in Istanbul and one hundred ninety-eight participants fulfilled the Turkish version survey with 15-items. They were assorted into two groups so that the first group consisted of one hundred twenty-seven teachers used for the structure validity study, and the other one consisted of seventy-one teachers used for the test-retest reliability study. In order to get the permission for translating the original survey into Turkish, we contacted Matt Moyer via email. Translated version of the survey After the survey translation into Turkish was done by a group including an linguist, an English teacher and a curriculum developer, it was appealed to various educational administrator’s view on Turkish version so as to confirm its content validity and cross-cultural conformity. Afterwards principal component and factor analysis, 27 % subgroup mean difference and test-retest reliability analysis was conducted through SPSS software. Findings and conclusions: Correlation matrix, KMO and Barlett’s pretests were conducted with the data collected from one hundred twenty-seven teachers’ questionnaire. Having examined the cross-correlation matrix regarding 15-items, it was found that there was no strong or weak correlation between them except third and thirteenth items. Later on, measure of sampling (MSA) table showed that two items has low anti-image values under .3 threshold value.Besides, Barlett’s test indicated that the sample was adequate to conduct a factor analysis with the current sample size. Based upon these findings and expert views, three inappropriate items was extracted from the Turkish version.For second step, principal component and factor analysis was used to describe variability among observed variables consisted of twelve items left. According to factor values, it was brought out that the Turkish survey has two factors, plus one general factor which explains % 56.87 of total cumulative variance while first factor got a share of 44.29 % and latter 12.58 %,respectively. When performed the same survey twice at the different moments of time -within two weeks for this study-, the test retest reliability findings indicated that pearson correlation values have ranged from .57 to .94. In other words, the result of measurement has not changed over time. As for the mean difference between two 27 % sub groups and internal consistency reliability findings, the current research showed that there was no significant different in the subgroup and upper group of the scale (p< .01). Besides, Turkish survey was approved with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α=0.87) in terms of its internal consistency. No doubt, smoking policy can be an effective tool for influencing pupils within and outside in school premises just as long as it could be sincerely confirmed by all educational stakeholders. So this study aimed to add a new dimension for smoking policy research in schools and other educational organizations by translating a well-known survey into Turkish. Therefore, it will provide to bring out how teachers and other educational components consider important smoking policies in schools such as smoke-free zone regulation. The results showed that the Turkish version of “Live Free-Tobacco Free Smoke Free Survey” is a valid and reliable instrument for assessment of school administrators and teachers’ attitudes towards smoking compliance

Eğitim Yöneticilerinin Teknoloji Liderliği Yeterlikleri Ölçeğinin Geliştirilmesi Geçerlik ve Güvenirlik Çalışması

The purpose of this paper is to develop a multiple item scale for measuring technology leadership competency of educational administrators. The population of the study was formed by 127 scho­ol principals in Maltepe and Kadikoy districts in Istanbul. To obtain content validity, expert panels composed of 6 academics and 1 local information and computer technologies (ICT) coordinator and they made review and rated the 56-items draft scale in terms of the relevance of each item with respect to study purpose (CVI=0.708). The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed the measurement model accounted for 65.35% of total variance and factor loadings ranged between .522 and .838 (KMO=.899, p<.001). Based on the model fit and modification indices, three alternative models were constructed thus it was found that 32-items five-factor structure (Model-4) was the best-fitting model (x2=645.527; x2/df= 1.416; CFI=.913; NFI=.759; RMSEA=.057). In the predictive validity study, the areas under the ROC curve for the entire scale were found to be 0.745 and .712, suggesting cut-off point of 121.500 and 123.500 for total score. Overall internal consistency reliability of the scale was found to be .943 with subscales ranging from .939 -.941. The split-half reliability was found to be 0.735. The values of item-total correlation ranged from .449 to .675

Professional self-efficacy scale for information and computer technology teachers: validity and reliability study

This study aims at developing a valid and reliable scale to measure information and communication technology (ICT) teachers' self-efficacy related to the Turkish national framework of ICT competencies. For statistical procedures, data were respectively analyzed with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Furthermore, test-retest procedure was carried out to confirm the time invariance of the scale. EFA results revealed that the scale's seven-factor structure accounts for 65.90 percent of total variance. CFA results produced an acceptable statistical support for model-data fit between the observed item scores and the seven-dimension scale structure (X-2/df = 1.98, RMSEA = .073, CFI = .86). The standardized regression weights between the latent and observed variables ranged from .57 to .89 and Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the scale sub-dimensions ranged from .80 to .88. Besides, the item-scale correlations varied between values of .53 and .79. As a result, the developed scale is a likert questionnaire and composed of 33 five-point items with seven sub-dimensions

Hogging the middle lane : how student performance heterogeneity leads Turkish schools to fail in PISA?

This study aims to analyse the relationship between students’ mathematics achievement in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 and the instructional climate-related factors in the index of principals’ perceptions (learning hindrance, teacher morale and teacher intention). As a preliminary analysis procedure, the chi-squared automatic interaction detection analysis was performed with relevant independent variables. Teacher’s achievement expectation from students and achievement-oriented behaviours were other significant predictive indicators on PISA mathematics achievement. Based upon these independent variables and standard deviation estimates of PISA mathematics scores, the present research developed a theoretical model by means of confirmatory factor analysis, explaining how students’ PISA mathematics achievement is associated with classroom and within school homogeneity through teachers’ expectation and achievement-oriented behaviours. Results showed that the developed model provided a great model-data fit. This model revealed that classroom achievement homogeneity and within school achievement homogeneity were the most important predictors on students’ PISA mathematics achievement

Öğretmenlikte Kariyer Basamakları Uygulamasına İlişkin Öğretmen Görüşlerinin Metaforlar ve Sosyal Ağ Analizi Yoluyla İncelenmesi

The purpose of this study is to investigate teacher views on teacher career stages and current implementations with regard to these stages. Using an original methodology, the study utilizes concept maps to analyze the metaphors which are elicited from the social network data. Social network data manifests teachers’ advice-taking preferences on education policy in the school network.Based on convergent parallel design, the study uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The population of this study consist of 48 secondary school teachers. The study utilizes purposeful sampling method.6 teachers from each career stage were selected for the study. The study includes 16 teachers who agreed to the interview and filled out the social network questionnaire. The results show that novice teachers who are in the first stage revolved around the theme of ‘source of light’. In relation to that, candle was a favorite image amongst the beginning teachers. On the other hand, the of ‘source of light’ and the image candle had the connotations of having weaknesses and feelings of desperations when some metaphors were analyzed. As for the expert teachers who are in the second stage, the codes of ‘self-interest’ and fate title’ come forward.Head teachers who are in the last career stage communicated conflicting views as implied by various low frequency codes. This result was attributed to lack of head teachers in the current teacher career system due to the suspension of new teacher development program. Inconsistency and ill-planning were rising themes when the metaphors regarding the teachers’ career development stages were considered.Social network analysis shows that there is a moderate positive correlation between networks of teachers who share similar metaphors about novice and head teachers(r=.301). Besides, there is a loose correlation between mutual network of teachers who seek advice on education policies and the network of those sharing similar metaphors about expert teachers (r=.193). Additionally, results showed that teachers’ reciprocal communication and advice-seeking in school networks were correlated in a positive way (r=.297)

Sosyoloji Dersi Öğrenci Algılarının Derse Verilen Önem, Sosyal Kazanım ve Öğrenme Ortamı Boyutları Açısından İncelenmesi

The purpose of this study is to investigate students’ perception of their high school sociology course. State schools instructing sociology lessons as a selective course in Maltepe district were selected as the research population with 795 high school students. By using cluster sampling method, 296 students were involved in the research sample. The data were collected through “Sociology Course Perception Scale” developed by the researchers of this study. The performed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that 3-factor structure accounts for 68% of total variance and the measurement model has an acceptable goodness of fit (X2/sd=2,803; GFI=0.896; CFI= 0.901; RMSEA= 0.078). One-Way ANOVA, ANCOVA and regression analyses were performed on the collected data. According to the research findings, students stated sociology course’s perceived importance and social attainments as “average level” and sociology course’s perceived learning environment as “low level”. It was found that students who have better marks in sociology course and GPA perceived sociology course higher level whereas others have lower perception of the course. At the end of multi-regression analysis, it was determined that students’ perception of the course’s importance and learning environment account for % 45 of social attainment perception. It was seen that while controlling for students’ perception regarding course learning environment, students’ perceived important scores did not differentiate for their grade point average and sociology course score

Liselerin Öğrenme Ortamlarının Belirlenmesine Yönelik Bir Kümeleme Analizi Çalışması

Learning environment profiles perceived in high schools were investigated by means of hierarchical cluster analysis. Employing stratified random sampling procedure, data was collected from 985 students at 22 schools, those who study in 6 general, 13 Anatolian and 3 vocational high schools located across 12 different districts of Istanbul. By hierarchical cluster analysis, students’ perceptions were clustered and classified into 4 school learning environment profiles, namely “technology-rich & ideal” (profile A), “positive” (profile B), “moderately positive” (profile C) and “negative” (profile D) learning environments. It was revealed that 42.7% of general high school students and 53.1% of vocational high school students perceived “moderately positive learning environment” in their schools on the first rank, whereas 41.8% of Anatolian high school students mostly perceived “positive learning environment”. “Technology-rich & ideal” environment was ranked first among vocational high school students with 11.2 %

Okul Müdürlerinin Etik Liderlik Davranışları ile Öğretmenlerin İş Doyumlarının Örgütsel Bağlılıkla İlişkisi

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of school principals’ ethical leadership behaviors and teachers’ job satisfaction over the predictability level of teachers’ organizational commitment. The current research is a descriptive study based on the relational model. The research population consists of 1220 teachers working at secondary public schools (Anatolin high school, science high school, vocational high school) located in Eskişehir downtown (Odunpazarı and Tepebasi districts). Seeing that the research population was accessible, no spesific sample method was used for data selection. After removing out the missing questionnaires, 940 teachers were included in this study. The research concluded that ethical leadership and teachers’ job satisfaction are predictor variables which have the biggest effect on teachers’ organizational commitment. Additionally, it was found that gender and school type variables predict teachers’ organizational commitment to a small extent. That is, when job satisfaction perception of male teachers working at Anatolian high school and ethical leadership increase, their organizational commitment perception is predictable associated with the increase concerned. Besides, the results evidenced that ethical leadership behaviors of school administrators is the main predictor to explain teachers’ job satisfaction while job satisfaction functions as a mediating variable of the relationship between ethical leadership and organizational commitment variables