In the nineteenth century, specialization and segregation of land uses necessitated to identify formal spaces for child&rsquo / s play activity in the cities. In the late nineteenth century, &lsquo / &lsquo / traditional playgrounds&rsquo / &rsquo / were provided for children. However, formally designed, spatially segregated play space brought its own problems itself. Rapid changes in the urban pattern and dominance of cars in the urban environment restricted the safe accessibility of children to such play spaces by themselves. Also, &lsquo / &lsquo / traditional playground&rsquo / &rsquo / has been criticized because of its inefficiency to answer the needs of children and to contribute to the continuity of play activity. Due to the inefficiency of &lsquo / &lsquo / traditional playgrounds&rsquo / &rsquo / for the continuity of &lsquo / &lsquo / play&rsquo / &rsquo / , children prefer to establish their own informal play spaces, as it was before the introduction of formal ones. However, parental concerns regarding child&rsquo / s safety in the urban environment restrict the use of outdoor play spaces, especially the residential street which is the oldest traditional informal play space. For these reasons, children&rsquo / s play habits changed and children today are becoming more dependent to indoors. If child&rsquo / s developmental needs are considered, the contribution of outdoor environment to the development of children should be reevaluated by making comparison between formal and informal play spaces. Regarding children&rsquo / s needs and the contribution of outdoor environment to their development, some approaches have been developing and changing to design better play spaces. Thus, this thesis tries to clarify that what kind of approach would be efficient in order to provide permanent answers for the needs and rights of children and for the continuity of &lsquo / &lsquo / play&rsquo / &rsquo / in today&rsquo / s urban pattern.

The main purpose of this study is to understand the organizational structures of Islamist/Islamic women&rsquo / s NGOs and explain the network mechanisms of them in the context of new social movements. This study is based on a social movement research / thus, both organizational structures and network mechanisms of Islamist/Islamic women&rsquo / s NGOs are explained and analyzed in terms of the features of new social movements, to answer the question of &lsquo / whether Islamist/Islamic women&rsquo / s NGOs are potential and possible actors of a possible Islamist/Islamic women&rsquo / s movement in Turkey&rsquo / . The fieldwork of the present study was conducted on Islamist/Islamic women&rsquo / s NGOs, which were selected according to a purposive sampling. 4 NGOs were selected, of which founders and the active members are all Islamist/Islamic women, from 4 cities of Turkey, One NGO was selected from each city. The semi-structured interviews and deep interviews were the main data collection techniques used to get information about their organizational structures and network mechanisms. The responses were analyzed through the issues of organizational diversities, three different levels of network mechanisms, and networking types in the context of formation a new social movement. As network mechanisms, the three levels of networks defined in the study: relations with the state and local governments, networks with the NGOs outside the sampling group and networks among the NGOs inside the sampling group, in the framework of the role and potential of Islamist/Islamic women&rsquo / s NGOs to form an Islamist/Islamic women&rsquo / s movement.

In this study, reading motivations of university students enrolled in the preparatory school of a private university in Ankara were investigated. Firstly, the factors that constitute the reading motivation in Turkish and English were explored using a questionnaire which was adapted from the related literature. Then, the relationship between L1 reading motivation and L2 reading motivation was investigated. Next, the relationship between L1 and L2 reading motivation and L2 reading achievement was analyzed separately. In addition to the nature of reading motivation, students&rsquo / text selections and reading habits (how often, how long and how many pages they read) were included in the analysis. Finally, preparatory school instructors&rsquo / and students&rsquo / perceptions of reading motivation and the factors influencing it were scrutinized. In order to address the issues stated above, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected with the help of a questionnaire and semi-structured face-to-face interviews. A total of 273 questionnaires were collected from the students in two instruction levels. In addition, fifteen teachers and eight students were interviewed. The findings indicated that there is a slight relationship between L1 reading motivation and l2 reading motivation. Secondly, L1 reading motivation and behaviors made no significant contribution to L2 reading achievement. However, L2 reading motivation and behaviors were found to be significant contributors of L2 reading achievement. Among these, while the factor anxiety was found to be a significant factor in pre-intermediate level and the factor comfort was the significant factor in the upper-intermediate level. Among the text selections, students prefer to read, transactional texts had a positive correlation with L2 reading achievement. Finally, time students spend reading in English was found to be a significant contributor. Apart from the questionnaire data, the teacher interviews revealed that several other factors affect students&rsquo / reading motivation and their reading comprehension such as the classroom-specific motivational variables and the family and educational backgrounds of the students.

This study aims at finding out instructors&rsquo / perceived competencies in Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and Ministry of Education (MONE) competencies, and accordingly exploring strengths and weaknesses of the ELT undergraduate program as well as providing suggestions for a more effective and fruitful program. At the first phase of the research, a questionnaire is given to seventy-five participants, working in the department of Foreign Languages at various universities. For the second phase of the study, an interview prepared in the light of the questionnaire results is conducted with thirty-four of aforementioned participants. The results of this study illustrate that the participants find themselves more competent in learning, language proficiency, planning, instructing, and content than assessing, identity and context, and commitment and professionalism since the participants believe in the need of improving themselves in latter standards. Similarly, they consider the methodology, general education and language components of the ELT undergraduate program effective because they find those components practical and focused during the program while the literature and linguistics components are thought to be ineffective in preparing them for the profession as the methodology of these components, which is not integrated with ELT enough. Lastly, in the lights of these findings, some suggestions are made for improving the program. For further research, all ELT teachers&rsquo / perceptions in Turkey can be investigated and suggestions for a better undergraduate program can be asked.

This study aimed to investigate a) which type of written feedback (direct feedback or use of error codes) university prep-school EFL students with elementary level of proficiency prefer to receive on their written texts, b) whether or not the (mis)match between students&rsquo / preferences and received feedback affect their level of improvement in writing, and c) to what extent the students&rsquo / previous writing experience affect their preference for the type of written feedback. In order to determine the students&rsquo / preferences for a specific type of feedback and to find out their previous writing experiences, a questionnaire was designed. Moreover, the participants were given two subsequent writing tasks with the purpose of determining the level of improvement in their linguistic accuracy after receiving their (not) preferred type of feedback. The results show that the majority of the students in the preparatory class with Elementary level prefer to receive use of error codes in their written texts / however, giving them what they ask for may not contribute to their improvement as would be expected. Moreover, some conclusions are made as to the relationship between the students&rsquo / previous writing experience and their current practices.

Cancer is the collective term used to describe a diverse group of diseases that share certain hallmarks, which in turn enables the affected cells to sustain an uncontrolled cell growth. Despite the increasing efforts and advances in cancer therapies, cancers are still responsible for approximately 10% of all the deaths worldwide. Furthermore, the increase in the average human lifespan will further contribute to the cancer incidences. This brings the necessity to focus our efforts on early detection and effective diagnosis methods. With the advances in high-throughput genomics technologies, gene expression signatures have gained attention as a novel method in cancer diagnostics. These signatures are identified by simply comparing the expression levels of genes in tumor and control samples. Here, we propose an alternative method based on the probe expression level measurement of 3&rsquo / UTR of candidate genes. We chose breast cancer as a model and performed an in silico analysis on publicly available gene expression datasets of Affymetrix chips to analyse 3&rsquo / UTR shortening during breast cancer situation. Overall, our analysis suggests that shortening of 3&rsquo / UTR is a significant mechanism observed in breast cancer .

This thesis analyzes the persecution of Baha&rsquo / is in Iran within its historical and contemporary background. The thesis will give examples from the other minority groups in Iran and through this, the grounds behind the persecution of Baha&rsquo / is in Iran will be more elaborated in the light of state-religion, state-minority relations and also it will analyze the &ldquo / persecution&rdquo / phenomena in identity formation of Baha&rsquo / is.

Especially recently, cooperatives occupy the global agenda as efficient organizations that contribute to mainstream development goals. However, cooperatives, which may also emerge as grassroots organizations, could create an alternative through empowering women socially, economically and politically. In this respect, this study investigates the impact of women&rsquo / s cooperatives on women&rsquo / s empowerment in urban Turkey. Empowerment Approach composes the theoretical framework of this study. Primarily, the mainstream development approach, Women in Development approach and Gender and Development approach are analyzed critically which are the precursors of Empowerment Approach. Later, Empowerment Approach is analyzed, and benefiting from postmodern approaches that emphasize the importance of local ways of knowing and doing, empowerment is defined as a process that fulfills practical and strategic gender needs through power within, power with and power to, which are generative forms of power. Through field research conducted in Istanbul and its periphery, I concluded that: 1) Women&rsquo / s conceptualization of empowerment overlapped with my conceptualization of power with and power within. However women did not mention power to as power or empowerment. 2) Rather than practical or strategic gender needs, women mostly fulfill psychological and social needs through cooperative involvement. This category emerged as a third category that should be added to practical and strategic gender needs framework. 3) Women&rsquo / s cooperatives empower women through power within and power with, which in turn mostly fulfill social, psychological and practical gender needs. Power to is not revealed through cooperative membership which is in fact a sin qua non aspect of empowerment.

This purpose of this study is to find out the teachers&rsquo / perceived computer competencies and their expectations toward &ldquo / Bilgiye EriSim Portali&rdquo / prepared by Ministry of National Education. Study focused on 30 teachers and 5 administrators from six different schools in Ankara in 2005-2006 fall semester. A none-experimental descriptive survey research design was employed by administrating a 5-point Likert type Computer Competency Scale and an open-ended interview schedule. The statistical analysis of the data obtained through the Likert type scale questionnaire indicated that the teachers feel themselves partially competent about computers. The highest mean score for scale was observed for in Word Processing, and the lowest mean score was observed in Presentation and Desktop Publishing Software. It was also demonstrated that there was no significant difference between having a computer course and buying notebook given by MONE and computer competency score. It was found that although there was no significant difference in teachers&rsquo / perceived computer competencies in terms of gender, male teachers had higher mean scores than female teachers. It was revealed that the less experienced teachers&rsquo / mean scores are higher than the more experienced teachers&rsquo / mean scores. Even though there obtained differences in possession of computer at home and at school, it was not determined as a significant factor. The analysis of the qualitative data assisted the identification of expectations of teachers toward &ldquo / Bilgiye EriSim Portali&rdquo / . Under the light of the study results recommendations are suggested for both implication and further studies.

This study investigates the impact of computer games on students&rsquo / motivation. A computer game was created for this study by using Tomb Raider 4 Level Editor. The game covers photosynthesis, vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins and fat subjects of 5th grade science and technology course. Data was collected from 71 5th grade students of three primary schools. Students have played the game until the end of lesson than they were asked to complete The Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (IMMS). The study reveals that gender, weekly computer use and weekly game playing do not affect the impact of educational computer games on students&rsquo / motivation.