“Why Do I Slog Through the Physics?” Understanding High School Students’ Difficulties in Learning Physics

The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable instrument to assess why physics courses are perceived as one of the most difficult courses among high school students and to investigate the reasons why students have difficulty in learning physics through this scale. This study includes the development and validation studies of the Difficulty in Learning Physics (DiLP-S) Scale for High School Students. A draft scale study was applied to a group of 1021 high school students. At the end of the study, a scale consisting of 25 items (α = 0.921) was developed representing 52.372% of the total variance. Based on exploratory factor analysis, it has been observed that the scale was grouped under three factors and the factors were respectively, “Teacher” (ten items, α=0.892), “Content” (ten items, α=0.853) and “Student” (five items, α=0.851). The values obtained from the results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (Chi-Square = 720.53 (p=0.00), df=272, p-value=0.00000; RMSEA= 0.064 and CFI = 0.97), put forward a good fit between the hypothesized theoretical model and the empirical data. According to results, students emphasize mostly the content of the physics course as a reason for perceiving it as difficult. Then, students, and lastly the teachers follow it. When the scale’s score means are compared according to the students’ class levels, it was found out that the 9th and the 11th grade students had more difficulty in learning the physics course than the 10th graders. When the students’ academic success in the physics course and the scale scores were compared, there was not a significant difference. Namely, whether they are successful or not, the students perceive the physics course to be difficult. Keywords: Difficulty, Learning Physics, Student, Teacher, Physics Conten

Fen Bilgisi Öğretmen Adaylarının Öğrenme, Öğretme, Ölçme-Değerlendirme ve Müfredat Yönelimleri

Bu çalışmada Fen Bilgisi Öğretmen Adaylarının fen öğretimi kavramları (yapılandırmacı-geleneksel), öğretim programı, öğrencilerin öğrenmeleri, öğretim yöntemleri ile ölçme ve değerlendirme bağlamında incelenmiştir. 3 farklı eğitim fakültesinin fen bilgisi öğretmenliği programında kayıtlı 3. ve 4. sınıf öğrencilere (n%253D388) yapılan pilot uygulama ile geliştirilen 38 maddelik ÖDMY Ölçeği Gazi Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesinde öğrenim gören farklı sınıf seviyelerinde 159 öğretmen adayına uygulanmıştır. Yapılan istatistiksel analiz sonuçlarına göre, öğretmen adaylarının sınıf düzeyi arttıkça yapılandırmacı öğretim kavramlarına daha çok yaklaştığı anlaşılmıştır. Öğretmenlik uygulaması (staj) sürecinin ise öğretmen adaylarının yapılandırmacılık kavramlarını geliştirdiği sonucuna varılmıştır

The evaluation of Turkish ministry of education and Canadian ontario state by comparing science and technology curriculum

Bu çalışmada Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı 2004 Fen ve Teknoloji Dersi Öğretim Programı ile Kanada’nın Ontario Eyaleti 1998 yılı Fen ve Teknoloji Dersi Öğretim Programı, temel alınan yaklaşım, içerik, amaç, öğrenme-öğretme süreci ve ölçme ve değerlendirme yaklaşımları bakımından karşılaştırılarak değerlendirilmiştir. Araştırmada nitel yöntem kullanılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda; programların kapsadıkları sınıf seviyeleri, öğrenme alanları, öğrenme alanları ve ünitelerin sınıflara dağılımı, program amaçları, programda yer alan kazanım sayıları ve kazanımların derecelendirilmesi bakımından farklılıklar bulunmuştur.In this study, Ministry of National Education 2004 Science and Technology Curriculum and Canadian Ontario State 1998 Science and Technology Curriculum have been evaluated by comparing the approach which is based, content, purpose, learning-teaching process, evaluating and assessment process. At the end of the research, differences have been found with regard to class levels of curriculums, learning areas, dispersal of learning areas according to the class levels, curriculum purposes, numbers of acquisition and grading of acquisition

Reply to Letter to the Editor: "Can ARNI Prevent Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity?"

We thank the authors for reading with great interest. In our study, as in previous studies, semi-quantitative histological analysis was performed.1 It was stated that the limitations of our study were that imaging methods, especially invasive methods and hemodynamic measurements, were not used. Doxorubicin (DOX)-induced cardiotoxicity can occur in acute and chronic periods. It is known in the literature that left ventricular systolic dysfunction accompanies DOX-induced ventricular-related acute arrhythmogenic events.2,3 In a recent study, it was found that natriuretic peptide levels predicted late-stage cardiotoxicity due to DOX.4 In our study, the ability of electrocardiography and natriuretic peptide data to predict both acute and chronic cardiotoxicities due to DOX has been already proven in clinical studies in the literature