A Phenomenological Study on the Effectiveness of Curriculum and Course Information Packages in the Bologna Process

The aim of the present study is to analyze the School of Education and Department of Educational Sciences' curricula (program and course information packages) with respect to the Bologna process. Designed in line with phenomenology, the study focuses on the phenomenon of "the effectiveness of curricula with respect to the Bologna process". The data were collected by interviewing two separate focus groups of students and lecturers, and analyzed by using Miles and Huberman's stages. The results of the three research questions are explained in terms of preparation, implementation, follow-up and revision, and quality assurance. The results are as follows: Considering the positive aspects of the process, both lecturers and students agreed that the process eased access to information and course selection with the help of elective courses; however, all participants complained about the lack of information flow, unclear tasks and process, disbelief in the importance of the process, resistance to the preparation process, unfair work distribution, and the mismatch between competencies and courses. Lecturers also mentioned problems related to the revision and feedback processes

Development Of Exposure To English Scale And Investigation Of Exposure Effect To Achievement

An absence of a scale for measuring exposure to the English language, which has a significant effect on English achievement, was detected in the literature. For this reason, in this study, a six-dimensional scale was developed to detect the level of English language exposure and its construct validity was tested. The factor structure of the scale was determined by exploratory factor analysis with the data collected from 784 university students, 726 of whom are undergraduate and 58 of whom are Master's and Ph. D. students. Confirmation of the factor structure of the scale was carried out with a measurement model specified in a structural equation model. A structural equation modeling study was performed along with 233 students from English preparation classes at a university. In the structural model, the effect of exposure to English on the students' scores received from writing in English, speaking in English and the total score (grammar, vocabulary, reading and listening scores) was examined. It was found that exposure to English has a significant effect on all of the three variables. Exposure to English explained the variance of the speaking variable most, while that effect is the least for the writing variable.Wo

Investigation Of The Variables Affecting The Students' Science Achievement With Multilevel Regression Model

This study investigated the variables affecting the science achievement of eighth-grade students by multi-level regression analysis. The variables included in this research were students' attitudes, confidence level, value, engagement in science, socioeconomic status, school type, school region, and teacher experience. The study group consisted of 1049 students and 41 teachers. In the first research question, differences in students' science achievement scores among their schools were investigated. According to the results, the students' achievements differed among their schools. Approximately 16.3% of the differences observed in science achievement were stem from the differences among schools, and 83.6% stem from the differences among students. In the second research question, student characteristics that explain the differences among the science achievements of the schools have been examined. Students' socioeconomic level, attitude, and confidence level were only variables that have statistically significant relationship with achievement. Socioeconomic and confidence level variables have a positive effect on achievement, but attitude variable has a negative effect on achievement. In the third research question, student and school characteristics that affect science achievement have been examined simultaneously. The school characteristics that have been included in the regression model were teacher experience, region, and school type. It was determined that none of the regression coefficients for the school characteristics variables were statistically significant in the regression model.Wo