THE CAUSES OF ABSENTEEISM OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

The purpose of this study is to find out the causes of high school students’ absenteeism. Survey method was used. The population was comprised of 531 students in the public high schools. The data was collected with "The Scale of Absenteeism Causes" developed by the researchers. Cronbach Alpha was calculated as α=0.936. Findings show the causes of students' absenteeism aren't related to school, students themselves and their parent, however; student absenteeism causes partly from psychological reasons. Male students have more absenteeism than female students in terms of the causes of absenteeism sourced by school, students and psychological. Moreover; 9th, 10th and 11th grade students' absenteeism has bigger values than 12th grade students.  Article visualizations

The Implementation of Cooperative Problem-Solving Rubric Towards Turkish Fourth Grade Students

This study aimed to develop an analytical rubric for teachers to observe and evaluate students’ performance in showcasing the cooperative problem-solving process. Thus, a rubric was prepared. Angles to evaluate the student performance were included and a quad rank scale was used in the rubric. Dimensions used in the rubric were based on the PISA 2015 cooperative problem-solving dimensions. The weighted kappa coefficient was calculated for reliability. The validity of the rubric was provided by taking into the opinions of experts. The dimensions used were; common understanding, communication, respect, solving problems together, discussion, and finding common solutions. The weighted kappa coefficient of the rubric was 660 on common understanding; 644 on communication; 835 on respect; 829 on solving problems together; 825 on discussion, and 822 on finding common solutions. Additionally, the rubric was validated by controlling the content, structure, and validity criteria. The results showed that the cooperative problem-solving rubric was reliable and valid to evaluate cooperative problem-solving skills. The rubric presented a comprehensive assessment and scoring for cooperative problem-solving skills

The Scale Development Study on Class Teachers’ Perceived Self-efficacy in Creating an Effective Classroom Environment

The aim of this study is to develop a five point likert scale called “Class teachers’ Perceived Self-efficacy in Creating an Effective Classroom Environment.” Following this aim, a draft scale that included 44 items was developed and given to 248 class teachers working in Manisa and Uşak cities of Turkey. The principal components analysis was used in factor analysis of the scale in order to to examine structural validity. As a result of the analysis, 12 items were excluded and remaining 32 items were grouped into 5 factors. The explained variance is 65,157% of the total variance. The Cronbach’s Alpha value that indicates the internal consistency of the scale is 0,85. The scale is accepted to be valid and reliable according to these findings. Besides, item-total and item-remaining correlations that were analyzed through Pearson are significant (p<,001) and item discrimination that was tested for each item by applying t-test to the bottom and top 27% is also significant. After exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis was carried out and goodness of fit indexes were seen to be acceptable (RMSEA=0,075; AGFI=0,75; SRMR=0,69; RMR=0,68; CFI=0,92; NFI=0,92). Keywords: class teachers, class environment, self-efficac

CHALLENGES OF WRITING ENGLISH ACCORDING TO UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ VIEWS

This study aims to investigate the challenges of writing in English according to the students studying at Afyon Kocatepe University. In this study, it is also identified whether there are any significant differences between the groups in terms of gender, study area, study year, having a preparatory English education at the university, type of high school, having a family member who knows English Language, having foreign friends and the experience of speaking English in a social environment. The study population is consisted of 945 bachelor students whom have been identified through maximum variation sampling. Data collected by 5 Point Likert scale, has been analyzed through t-test, Mann Whitney U-test, ANOVA and Kruskal Wallis. Nearly 50 % of the students face challenges about writing in English due to the lack of knowledge of techniques necessary for writing.  Article visualizations

Relationship between Critical Reading Skills and Creative Reading Perceptions of Fifth Grade Students

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between critical reading skills and creative reading perceptions of fifth grade students. In the study, correlational research design was employed. The population of the study consisted of approximately 5000 fifth grade students studying at schools in the city center and at central village schools in Uşak Province, Turkey in the 2019-2020 academic year. The sample of the study consisted of 446 fifth grade students selected from this population through stratified sampling. To collect the data, the “Critical Reading Skill (CRS) Scale” and the “Perception Scale of Creative Reading” (PSCR) scale were used. In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics, correlation, one-way and two-way analysis of variance, regression analysis and one-way multivariate analysis of variance were used. As a result of the research, it was found that there was a positive and significant relationship between the critical reading skills and creative reading perception levels of fifth grade students (r =.886, p.01). In addition, it was found that critical reading skill was a significant predictor of creative reading perception (R2=.785, p.01). It was concluded that gender groups did not significantly affect the relationship between critical reading skill level and creative reading perception level of fifth grade students while average daily TV viewing time and the number of the books read in a month variables significantly affected this relationship. In addition, it was revealed that critical reading skill scores were significant predictor of creative reading perception scores. Lastly, our results indicated that critical reading skill level and the number of the books read in a month had common effect on the creative reading perception level of the students

THE SCALE DEVELOPMENT STUDY ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE SPEAKING SELF-EFFICACY PERCEPTION

The aim of this study is to develop a five likert scale called ‘Foreign Language Speaking Self-Efficacy’. A draft scale which includes 38 items has been given to 493 students studying in Afyon Kocatepe University, Foreign Languages School in Turkey. The principal component analysis has been employed in facto analysis of the scale to examine the structural validity. As a result of the analysis 14 items have been excluded and remaining 24 items have been grouped under 3 factors. The total explained variance is 57,428. The Cronbach’s Alpha value is .944 that indicates the internal consistency of the scale. Furthermore, item-total and item-remaining correlations are significant (p<.001) and item discrimination tested by t-test to the bottom and top 27% is also found significant. After exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis has been carried out and goodness of fit indexes are seen either acceptable or close to the acceptable values (RMSEA= 0,74; CFI=0,89; RMR=0,61; GFI=0,82; AGFI=0,78; NNFI=0,87).  Article visualizations

Developing an Attitude Scale for Discussion Ability of Pre-service Teachers

In this study, developing a scale to measure the attitudes towards the discussion ability of pre-service teachers indented. The application scale of the discussion ability was developed in the direction of the pre-service teachers. The scale is likert-type comprising of 57 items. The validity and reliability of the scale is done on the data gained from 200 students elected by the method of coincidental exemplification amount of the sophomore students. As a result of the factorial validity of the scale, items change between 0.59 and 0.76 and that the KMO Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value is 0.867 and the value of (Cronbach alpha) calculated for reliability study is 0.865. Findings related to the studies of validity and reliability show that the scale has a valid and reliable form.Bu çalışmada öğretmen adaylarının tartışma becerilerine yönelik tutumlarını ölçmek amacıyla bir ölçek geliştirilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Tartışma becerisine yönelik tutum ölçeği öğretmen adaylarının görüşleri doğrultusunda geliştirilmiştir. Ölçek 57 maddeden oluşan likert tipi bir ölçektir. Ölçeğin geçerlik ve güvenilirlik çalışması 4.sınıf öğretmen adayları arasından tesadüfi örnekleme yöntemiyle seçilen 200 öğrenciden elde edilen veriler üzerinde yapılmıştır. Ölçeğin KMO Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (Örneklem Oluşturma Uygunluğu Ölçümü) değerinin 0.867 olduğu, yapı geçerliliğini belirlemek amacıyla yapılan faktör analizi sonucunda ölçek maddeleri faktör yüklerinin 0.59 ile 0.76 arasında değiştiği, güvenirlik çalışması için hesaplanan, iç tutarlık katsayı (Cronbach alpha) değerinin 0.865 olduğu görülmüştür. Yapılan faktör analizi sonucuna göre ölçek üç boyutlu olarak yapılandırılmıştır, bu boyutlar; farkındalık, etki ve çekingenlik olarak belirlenmiştir. Geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışmalarına ilişkin bulgular, ölçeğin geçerli ve güvenilir bir yapıya sahip olduğunu göstermektedir

DEVELOPMENT OF REFLECTIVE THINKING SCALE FOR SENIOR PRIMARY EDUCATION STUDENTS

The main purpose of this study is to develop a Reflective Thinking Scale to determine the reflective thinking levels of secondary school students. In this study, criterion sampling was employed, one of the purposeful sampling methods. The sample of the study consisted of 300 students in 6th, 8th and 8th grades in Emirdag, Afyonkarahisar. The items in the scale were graded according to 5-point Likert type. The sub-dimensions of the reflective thinking scale are reflection about action, reflection during action and reflection for action. While developing the scale, literature related to the definition of reflective thinking, reflective thinking process, characteristics of reflective thinking individuals, types of reflective thinking, ways of developing reflective thinking were examined. After examining these, a pool of items was created for the purpose of the reflective thinking scale. 52 items were selected from the pool of items and a draft scale was prepared, and 25 students in the 8th grade were pre-tested. Then, the items were presented to the expert opinion and applied to the 300 students attending 6th, 8th and 8th grades. Factor analysis was performed on the collected data. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Barlet tests were performed to determine the suitability of the data for factor analysis. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value was found to be .900. Barlett's test was calculate as x2: 1859,813; sd: 231; p <.01. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted within the framework of the validity studies of the reflective thinking scale. Confirmatory factor analysis fit indexes are as GF1 = .86; AGF1 = .83; RMR = .078; NNF1 = .94; CF1 = .95 and RMSEA = .071. After the first level confirmatory factor analysis, the second level confirmatory factor analysis was performed.          Article visualizations