Understanding and addressing mathematics anxiety using perspectives from education, psychology and neuroscience

Mathematics anxiety is a significant barrier to mathematical learning. In this article, we propose that state or on-task mathematics anxiety impacts on performance, while trait mathematics anxiety leads to the avoidance of courses and careers involving mathematics. We also demonstrate that integrating perspectives from education, psychology and neuroscience contributes to a greater understanding of mathematics anxiety in its state and trait forms. Research from cognitive psychology and neuroscience illustrates the effect of state mathematics anxiety on performance and research from cognitive, social and clinical psychology, and education can be used to conceptualise the origins of trait mathematics anxiety and its impact on avoidant behaviour. We also show that using this transdisciplinary framework to consider state and trait mathematics anxiety separately makes it possible to identify strategies to reduce the negative effects of mathematics anxiety. Implementation of these strategies among particularly vulnerable groups, such as pre-service teachers, could be beneficial

At-risk student teachers’ attitudes and aspirations as learners and teachers of mathematics

This study explored foundation phase first year student teachers’ perceptions about mathematics. The focus on their attitudes towards mathematics in two roles – (1) as learners of mathematics, based on their prior experiences at school and (2) as aspirant teachers of mathematics for children in the early grades. Data sources were students’ drawings/collages as well as written interpretations and elaborations of the drawings/collages. The findings indicated that participants had generally negative attitudes towards the learning of mathematics. Factors such as the transition from primary to high school, teacher qualities and mathematics-related anxiety contributed to the shaping of their attitudes. It was encouraging to note that over half the participants expressed positive attitudes in their roles as future teachers, with all expressing the desire to provide better mathematics experiences to their future learners.IBS

The Gülen Hizmet Movement’s educational philanthropy: schools as enterprises of a civic society

The Gülen Hizmet Movement (GHM) is a largely progressive, pluralistic and transcontinental civic movement inspired by Islam, which makes it unique in the Muslim world. Similar movements exist but they are confined to single nations (eg. Indonesia’s Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama) and there are other transnational movements but they are not progressive in outlook (eg. Tablighi Jemaat). The financial dynamics of the movement, particularly the economic resources raised and deployed by Gülen-inspired schools (GISs) and how they function as business enterprises continues to be the subject of debate, criticism, and curiosity across the public sphere in its native Turkey, and research discourses on a global scale. The relatively few studies on the financial aspects of the GHM that have been published tend to arrive at widely varying conclusions. Not surprisingly, in general, scholars who are sympathetic to the movement and write from an insider’s viewpoint arrive at different conclusions to those who are outside of and are generally more critical of the movement. While the former argue that funding for the schools comes largely from within the greater Turkish community, the latter claim that the sources of funding include foreign agencies with their own agendas. Although these studies arrive at sharply contrasting positions, what they share in common is a lack of empirical evidence. This thesis interrogates the financial transparency of GISs, the economics of altruism, and motivations behind the philanthropic acts of financial supporters based on examination of financial bookkeeping and semi-structured interviews with 72 participants — mainly sponsors, financial managers and administrators of a GIS in Istanbul, Turkey, and in Melbourne, Australia — between 2012 and 2015. The empirical findings of this thesis elucidate the manner in which the people of Anatolia contribute their financial resources to the Gülen-inspired educational institutions until the institutions are financially self-sufficient. In addition, the findings of this research provide evidence that the adherents of Gülen live in order to give; hence their giving is not limited to zekat or ‘tithing’, the charity that is compulsory in Islamic faith. I argue that there is a significant difference between ‘giving zekat’ and ‘living to give’. In the difference between giving and living to give, the hizmet concept emerges and finds its foundation and meaning: endless service. One of the most important questions about the movement are those investigating how GISs function as businesses and about which sector the movement’s schools fit. The findings of my research challenge the studies that examine the role of money within the GHM and that categorise GISs as social businesses or profit oriented capitalist enterprises. I address queries through the lens of economic theories and conclude that while GISs share some similarities with ‘social businesses’ such as those promoted by Muhammad Yunus, they overwhelmingly do not meet the criteria of social businesses or for-profit businesses. Rather they are civil society enterprises of that operate with their own models originating from the hizmet concepts of philanthropy, voluntarism, and generosity, which in turn arise out of traditional Anatolian Islamic tradition

POTENTIAL OF BACTERIOPHAGES TO CONTROL BACTERIAL SPECK OF TOMATO (PSEUDOMONAS SYRINGAE pv. TOMATO)

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), is one of the widely grown vegetable crop throught the world. The bacterium, Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst), causes bacterial speck disease on tomatoes. Several control strategies are performed for disease management. As a strategy, bacteriophages, are natural enemies of bacteria and extremely specific to their targeted hosts without affecting any other bacteria. In this study, isolation of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato-lysing bacteriophages, potential of bacteriophages as biological control agents and efficacy of phages on other tomato infecting and saprophytic bacteria were investigated. Samples of tomato plants with typical symptoms of bacterial speck disease were collected from 17 tomato fields, 12 greenhouses and four nurseries in Adana and Mersin provinces in the Eastern Mediterranean Region of Turkey. The plaques (inhibition zones) were observed after 36 hours of incubation, and 47 putative bacteriophages were purified. Among the obtained bacteriophages, phage PH 33 isolate was completely (100 %) suppressed the growth of pathogen and increased the germination rate by %14.6, whereas the phage PH 34 was suppressed the pathogen by 65.8 % and increased the germination rate by 21.6 %. These phages (PH 33 and PH 34) had no inhibition effect on the other tomato bacterial diseases and the saprophytic bacterial flora on tomatoes. Both bacteriophages were specific to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. To our knowledge, this is the first detailed study about isolation of bacteriophages against Pst and efficacy of bacteriophages for biocontrol of Pst in Turkey