The effect of pre-service science teachers' prior experiences on their interests about chemistry experiments

Bu çalışma, 04-08 Şubat 2010 tarihleri arasında İstanbul[Türkiye]’da düzenlenen 2. World Conference on Educational Sciences (WCES-2010)’da bildiri olarak sunulmuştur.The aim of the study was to examine the learners' interests about chemistry experiments based on their previous science experiences. Sample of the study consisted of 52 first year pre-service science teachers. The data gathered through chemistry experiments which preferred by the learners and an open ended survey. Results showed that participants prepared a chemistry experiment which they found easy to implement and understandable. It was also concluded that the experiments that have been chosen by most of the students have not been tried before for reasons such as lack of equipment or teachers not demonstrating experiments at the school

A study on learning environments of elementary school students taking social studies course: Bursa sample

Bu çalışma, 04-08 Şubat 2010 tarihleri arasında İstanbul[Türkiye]’da düzenlenen 2. World Conference on Educational Sciences (WCES-2010)’da bildiri olarak sunulmuştur.Schools as educational and instructional institutions are expected to be renowable ones where motivation is increased through establishing relationships between students' interests and needs and subject matters of social studies lessons are derived from daily life and events. Finalizing any learning activity at school by realizing it as aimed and hence having students succeed can be achieved only through establishing an effective and positive learning environment. The aim of the present study is to examine the opinions of the elementary school students taking the Social Studies course on learning environments

A case study: Self-efficacy beliefs of teacher candidates regarding developing educational software

Bu çalışma, 04-08 Şubat 2010 tarihleri arasında İstanbul[Türkiye]’da düzenlenen 2. World Conference on Educational Sciences (WCES-2010)’da bildiri olarak sunulmuştur.The purpose of this study is to analyze the self-efficacy beliefs of the teacher candidates towards developing educational software by some variables such as gender and grade and to investigate the correlation between self-efficacy beliefs and academic achievement. Sixty students participated to this study. Education Software Development Self-Efficacy Perception Scale was used as instrument. No significant difference was found between self-efficacy perceptions according to gender. Data analysis showed that fourth grade teacher candidates trust themselves more than third grade teacher candidates in terms of developing educational software. Also there was weak relationship between self-efficacy perception and academic achievement

Music teacher training institutions in Turkey and a research about today's general condition of these institutions

Bu çalışma, 04-08 Şubat 2010 tarihleri arasında İstanbul[Türkiye]’da düzenlenen 2. World Conference on Educational Sciences (WCES-2010)’da bildiri olarak sunulmuştur.Music teacher training process in Turkey started in 1924 in Ankara with the foundation of Musiki Muallim Mektebi (Music Teacher Training School). In years, the number of these institutions increased in different regions and reached the number of 23. Today, more than 800 students are being educated as a music teacher at these music teacher training schools. At all these institutions, centralized music teacher training curriculum that was prepared by the specialists working at Y.O.K. (Higher Education Council) is currently used. Despite that the same curriculum is used in each institution, there are variations among institutions both academically and physically, and even in the instruments that are taught and in their applications. In the present study the academic staff dispersions, building features, equipment adequacy, the variation of instruments that are taught, and the association with music establishments abroad of the institutions were investigated in order to determine the general conditions and the differences among the departments that graduating music teachers in 23 provinces. It is assumed that the current research will help in providing the necessary conditions to serve quality education for music teacher trainees as a result of determining the general state of the institutions that educate music teacher trainees. For this specific reason the present study is considered significant

Analyzing students' conceptualization through their drawings

Bu çalışma, 04-08 Şubat 2010 tarihleri arasında İstanbul[Türkiye]’da düzenlenen 2. World Conference on Educational Sciences (WCES-2010)’da bildiri olarak sunulmuştur.The aim of this study is to propose a categorization of concept drawings that permits the analysis of preservice primary teachers' conceptualization. Students were asked to draw a rectangle in the course of a mathematics lesson and a flower in that of science. The sample included 50 students from the primary education department at Uludag University, Bursa, Turkey. Their responses were analyzed using the same grid. Two main categories were distinguished: the drawing of a concept's structure (conceptual, iconic, redundant/missing drawing) and labeling/coding of the concept's parts (comprehensive, partial, incorrect labeling). The first finding shows that students who produced a response categorized as conceptual and iconic drawings were identified as in the comprehensive labeling category. Thus, there may be a relationship between conceptual and iconic drawings and conceptual comprehension. Another finding concerns the similarities in the categorization of responses for both maths and science questions. Students who made iconic and conceptual drawings were able to label more correctly than students who drew a redundant/missing drawing. In addition, it can also be said that for the biology drawing the whole flower was observed whereas in geometry an abstract subject which is not generally observed was made physical by the drawing

To what extent do different multiple intelligences affect sixth grade students' achievem

Bu çalışma, 04-08 Şubat 2010 tarihleri arasında İstanbul[Türkiye]’da düzenlenen 2. World Conference on Educational Sciences (WCES-2010) ’da bildiri olarak sunulmuştur.In this study, multiple intelligences (MI) of sixth grade students were investigated to determine the extent to which they affect the students' achievement on the topic of the particle model of matter. The study was conducted with four randomly selected elementary schools with a total 132 sixth grade students in the Spring 2008 semester. Pearson correlations and ANOVA tests results revealed that there were positive low correlations between achievement and mathematical-logical, visual-spatial, and interpersonal intelligences. Also, it was found out that bodily-kinesthetic learners' achievement level were lower than mathematical-logical, visual-spatial, and musical learners. Similarly, naturalistic learners' scores were lower than the mathematical-logical and visual-spatial learners