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

Madde Seçim ve Parametre Kestirim Yöntemlerinin BBT Online Kalibrasyonda Ön Test Madde Parametre Kesinliğine Etkisi

Computerized adaptive test (CAT) has a possible risk that the quality of the item bank decreases over time due to the exposed items. The best possible and advantageous solution to this is to implement the online calibration. This study was aimed to investigate the effect of online calibration components on precision in parameter estimation and the cumulative sample size (specified to the calibration method). It was also aimed to transfer Joint Maximum Likelihood as a pretest calibration method to the online calibration procedure and assess this method’s feasibility. The simulation study was conducted under one-parameter logistic (1-PL) and two-parameter logistic (2-PL) model to compare the pretest item selection methods (Maximum Fisher Information-MFI, D-optimal value design-DVOD, and Bayesian D-optimal design-BDOD), the parameter estimation methods (Joint Maximum Likelihood-JML and Marginal Maximum Likelihood with One EM Cycle-OEM), the sample size of the random calibration stage (250, 500, and 1000) and the calibration sample size of per pretest item (250, 500, and 1000). The performance of these factors on the parameter precision was evaluated by calculating bias and root mean squared error (RMSE). The results indicate that the performances of item selection methods differ according to Item Response Theory (IRT) models and the parameter estimation methods. Among the calibration methods, OEM has successfully estimated the most precise item parameters although JML performed better in some conditions. The sample size of the random stage did not have a characteristic effect on parameter estimation. Lastly, the parameter accuracy gets higher as the calibration sample size increases.Bireyselleştirilmiş Bilgisayarlı Testler (BBT)’de maddelerin teşhir olmasından kaynaklı olarak madde havuzunun kalitesinin düşme riski vardır. Bunun için en iyi ve en avantajlı çözüm, online kalibrasyon prosedürünün uygulanmasıdır. Bu çalışmanın amacı online kalibrasyon bileşenlerinin parametre kesinliğine ve madde seçim yöntemi özelinde kümülatif örneklem büyüklüğüne etkisini incelemektir. Ayrıca çalışmanın diğer bir amacı da Ortak Maksimum Olabilirlik yönteminin parametre kestirim yöntemi olarak online kalibrasyon prosedürüne uygulamak ve uygunluğunun değerlendirilmesidir. Bir Parametreli Lojistik (1-PL) model ve İki Parametreli Lojistik (2-PL) model altında öntest madde seçim yöntemlerini (Maksimum Fisher Yöntemi, D-optimal Değer Deseni, Bayesyen D-optimal Deseni), parametre kestirim yöntemlerini (Ortak Maksimum Olabilirlik ve Marjinal Maksimum Olabilirlik ile Tek Beklenti Maksimizasyon Döngüsü), seçkisiz kalibrasyon aşaması örneklem büyüklüklerini (250, 500 ve 1000) ve her öntest maddesi için örneklem büyüklüklerini (250, 500 ve 1000) karşılaştırmak amacıyla simülasyon çalışması yapılmıştır. Bu faktörlerin parametre doğruluğu üzerindeki performansları yanlılık ve Hata Kareleri Ortalamalasının Karekökü (HKOK) hesaplanarak değerlendirilmiştir. Sonuçlar madde seçim yöntemlerinin performanslarının Madde Tepki Kuramı (MTK) modellerine ve parametre kestirim yöntemlerine göre farklılaştığını göstermektedir. Kalibrasyon yöntemleri arasında Ortak Maksimum Olabilirlik yöntemi bazı koşullarda daha iyi performans göstermesine rağmen Tek Beklenti Maksimizasyon Döngüsü madde parametrelerini en doğru şekilde başarıyla kestirmiştir. Seçkisiz aşama örneklem büyüklüğünün parametre kesinliği üzerinde karakteristik bir etkiye sahip olmaması elde edilen diğer bir sonuçtur. Son olarak parametre kesinliği kalibrasyon örneklem büyüklüğünün artmasıyla yükselmiştir

Türkiye’deki Araştırma Görevlilerinin Mesleki Sorunlarının İkili Karşılaştırma Yoluyla Ölçeklenmesi

In this study, the significance level of research assistants' professional problems was measured with the paired comparison method within the scope of "law of comparative judgment". In this context, research assistants' professional problems are investigated for gender, educational background and type of position. This study was carried out in the form of general survey model. The study group consisted of 555 research assistants working in public or foundation universities which are accredited by the Council of Higher Education in Turkey. The data collection tool is composed of two parts. The first parts asks for demographic information about gender, educational background and type of position while the second part inquires about the 8 professional problems (being directed to non-academic duties, lack of physical equipment, mobbing, foreign language proficiency, lack of guaranteed positions, financial problems, insufficient funds and heavy faculty works) given by the administration. The data was scaled via the third conditional equation on the full data matrix of Thurstone's law of comparative judgment. The results of the study indicated that the most significant problem research assistants face was economic problems. They were followed by mobbing, faculty workload, insufficientfunding, job security, non-academic duties, physical deficiencies and poor foreign language skills respectively.When the research assistants’ problems were analyzed in terms of gender variable, there was a meaningful difference in the scale values of mobbing. In fact, male research assistants puts mobbing in the sixth place while female research assistants regard it as the most important problem. Another variable is the educational background, it can be seen from the results that the most significant problem of those who have obtained their PhD degrees is lack of guaranteed positions. When research assistants’ problems were examined in terms of type of position, it was found that lack of guaranteed positions is the most important problem for research assistants of 50/d position