A Study on Teacher Candidates’ Self-Efficacy, Motivation and Affection Levels for Children

The purpose of this research is to reveal the levels of affection for children, teaching motivations and self-efficacy beliefs of the teacher candidates studying in special education, pre-school and primary school teaching departments based on their gender, classroom and academic branches to showcase the correlations between the levels of the teachers’ affection for children, their self-efficacy beliefs and teaching motivations. The study group was determined with the criterion sampling method. 368 teacher candidates participated in this study: 108 from special education department, 136 from pre-school department and 136 from primary school teacher department. The data were collected by means of ‘Barnett Liking Children, Teaching Motivations and Perception of Teacher Self-efficacy Scales’. The data were analyzed using independent group t-tests, one –way analysis of variance, Pearson’s correlation analysis and simple linear regression analysis. The results show that the teacher candidates from the three departments have a high level of affection for children. Their motivations to teach and self-efficacy beliefs are higher than the average value. It is revealed that there is an average positive correlation between liking children and teacher self-efficacy in using teaching strategies. However, the data results disclosed that the teacher candidates’ self-efficacy beliefs, students’ participation, teaching motivations, and teaching strategies predict their affection for children significantly and positively. Teacher candidates should be enabled to establish direct experiences with the group they shall work with in order to develop the self-efficiency beliefs of them

Habilidad de cuestionamiento crítico en niños bilingües

This study reports the critical questioning skills of monolingual and bilingual children aged between 5 and 6. By examining their questions, this research employs Bloom’s critical questioning paradigm to explore whether monolinguals or bilinguals are better at generating critical thinking questions on two stories, one of which is about the forgetful girl and the other is about the snail yearning for the things he does not possess. The findings have implications for teacher educators working with pre-school monolinguals and bilinguals, since bilinguals outperform monolinguals in the story of the forgetful girl whereas monolinguals outperform bilinguals about the story of a snail, which leads to the idea that monolinguals are better at abstract thinking and bilinguals are better at overall higher critical questioning.La presente investigación reporta la habilidad de realizar cuestionamientos críticos de niños monolingües y bilingües de 5 a 6 años. Esta investigación emplea el paradigma de cuestionamiento crítico de Bloom para explorar si los niños monolingües o los bilingües son más eficaces para generar preguntas de pensamiento crítico en dos historias. Una de las historias es sobre una niña olvidadiza y la otra sobre un caracol que anhela lo que no posee. Los hallazgos tienen implicancias para los docentes que trabajan con preescolares monolingües y bilingües. Los niños bilingües superaron a los monolingües en la historia sobre la niña olvidadiza y los niños monolingües superaron a los bilingües en la historia del caracol. Los resultados indicarían que los niños monolingües son mejores en el pensamiento abstracto y que los niños bilingües son mejores en cuanto al cuestionamiento crítico

Strategies Used In The Turkish Lessons For The Reading Comprehension And Creativity Levels Of 6th Grade Students Who Have Positive Or Negative Attitudes Towards Reading

Bu araştırmanın amacı, okumaya karşı olumlu ve olumsuz tutuma sahip 6. sınıf öğrencilerinin Türkçe dersinde kullandıkları okuduğunu anlama stratejileri ve yaratıcılık düzeyleri arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemektir. Betimsel bir model niteliğinde olan araştırmanın evrenini 177, örneklemini ise 137 ilköğretim 6. sınıf öğrencisi oluşturmuştur. Araştırmanın verileri, Torrance Yaratıcı Düşünme Testi (Sözel A Formu), Okumaya Yönelik Tutum Ölçeği ve Okuduğunu Anlama Stratejileri Ölçeği ile toplanmıştır. Araştırmada elde edilen veriler SPSS programında çözümlenmiştir. Verilerin analizinde Ortalama, Standart Sapma, Varyans Analizi, Scheffé Testi kullanılmıştır. Bu araştırmada elde edilen bulgular, okumaya karşı olumlu tutuma sahip öğrencilerin okuduğunu anlama stratejilerini, okumaya karşı olumsuz tutuma ve orta düzeyde tutuma sahip öğrencilere göre daha sık kullandıklarını göstermiştir. Okumaya karşı tutum ile kullanılan okuduğunu anlama stratejileri arasında orta düzeyde anlamlı ilişki bulunmuştur. Ayrıca öğrencilerin yaratıcılıklarının akıcılıktan özgünlüğe doğru düşüş gösterdiği tespit edilmiştir. Ancak okumaya karşı tutumlarına göre öğrencilerin yaratıcılıkları arasında önemli bir farka rastlanmamıştır. The aim of this research is to study the relation between the reading comprehension strategies used in the Turkish lessons and creativity levels of 6th&nbsp;grade students who have positive or negative attitudes towards reading. The horizon of the research, which has a descriptive model, consists of 177 elementary students with 137 sample elementary students. The data of the research has been acquired from Student Information Form developed by the researcher, Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (A Form), Attitudes Towards Reading Scale and Reading Comprehension Strategy Scale developed by KILIÇ and AÇIKGÖZ. The data acquired from the research is analyzed in SPSS program. Average, Standard Deviation, Variance Analysis, Scheffé Test is applied for the analyses of the data. The discoveries in this research shows of the students who has a positive attitude towards reading uses reading comprehension strategies much more frequently than the students who has a negative or moderate attitude towards reading. According to the findings of the study: there is relation which is meaningful and moderate level between the reading comprehension strategies and attitudes towards reading. Also, it has been determined that the the creativity of the students falls form fluency to originality. Yet, there has been observed no important difference between students according to their attitude towards reading. </p