The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which Constructivist Learning Environment (CLE) aspects exist in primary level 4th and 5th grade Science and Technology Courses in Turkey as perceived by students and their teachers. Secondly, the study aimed at finding out whether perceptions of students on CLE differ according to certain demographic variables. Finally, the study attempted to explore the extent to which the perceptions of teachers on administrative support have a relationship with their perceptions on CLE. Subjects of the study involved 1143 primary level 4th and 5th grade students in Turkey during 2006-2007 school year from 6 socio-economic development groups as determined by State Planning Department and their 264 teachers. Data were collected in 2006-2007 Spring semester through administration of two questionnaires to the students and the teachers. Data analysis was carried out through both quantitative (repeated measures ANOVA, frequencies, means, standard deviations, MANOVA) and qualitative analysis techniques. The results of the study indicated that students and teachers perceived the current learning environment to be often constructivist. In addition, the results revealed that perception of CLE differed according to socio economic status and technology use of students. Lastly, the results revealed that there is a significant but low correlation between teachers&rsquo / perceptions on CLE and their perceptions on administrative support they received. The results revealed that students should be provided with more facilities and teachers be provided with more in-service training opportunities.

ABSTRACT THE CONTRIBUTION OF COGNITIVE AND METACOGNITIVE STRATEGY USE TO SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS&rsquo / SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT AKYOL, G&uuml / ls&uuml / m M.S., Department of Elementary Science and Mathematics Education Supervisor : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ceren TEKKAYA Co-Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Semra SUNGUR January 2009, 97 pages The purposes of the study were to examine the differences in the level of students&rsquo / cognitive and metacognitive strategy use and to investigate the contribution of cognitive and metacognitive strategy use (rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking, and metacognitive self-regulation) to 7th grade students&rsquo / science achievement. This study also interested in exploring the relationships between students&rsquo / background characteristics (gender, prior knowledge, socioeconomic status) and the variables including students&rsquo / cognitive and metacognitive strategy use and science achievement. The study was carried out during 2007-2008 spring semester at 15 public elementary schools in Ke&ccedil / i&ouml / ren, district of Ankara. A total of 1517 seventh grade students who were volunteers and had permission from their parents involved in the study. Data were collected through Background Characteristics Survey, Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and Science Achievement Test and analyzed by using a One-Way Repeated ANOVA, Multiple Linear Regression Analyses and a Canonical Correlation Analysis. The analyses revealed that there were significant differences in the level of students&rsquo / cognitive and metacognitive strategy use scores. Besides, elaboration and metacognitive self-regulation strategy use made a statistically significant contribution to the prediction of students&rsquo / achievement in science (p&lt / .05). Metacognitive self-regulation strategy use was found to be the main predictor of science achievement (beta=.11). The first canonical variate indicated that prior knowledge, mother&rsquo / s educational level, father&rsquo / s educational level, number of reading materials at home, frequency of buying a daily newspaper, presence of a separate study room, presence of a computer with internet connection at home are associated with cognitive and metacognitive strategy use and science achievement.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of instruction based on problem-based learning (PBL) on 7th grade students&rsquo / science achievement, attitude toward science course and scientific process skills. The study was conducted in May 2007 with 141 students and four science teachers from four middle schools in G&ouml / lbasi district of Ankara. A total of eight classes were participated in the study. Four of them were assigned randomly to control group and four of them were assigned randomly to experimental group. There are two different experimental groups. One of the experimental groups was given the PBL instruction through individual work (PBL-I). The other group took the PBL instruction by making group work (PBL-G). Two classes were assigned randomly to PBL-I group and the remaining two were assigned randomly to PBL-G. Before starting the treatments a needs analysis was conducted to develop scenarios so that they can address students&rsquo / interests. Moreover, a pilot study was conducted in the previous academic year for the instructional materials and instruments developed by the researcher. Treatments, given by the teachers, continued up to five weeks. The control group was given traditional instruction, whereas, the PBL-I group took the PBL instruction through individual work, the PBL-G group took the PBL instruction via group working. The dependent variables of the study were attitude toward the course, scientific process skills, and academic achievement. The collected data were analyzed through MANCOVA. The analyses yielded that there is no statistically significant mean difference between groups on the scores of attitude, scientific process skills and academic achievement. In addition, aptitude-treatment interaction analysis was conducted. This analysis indicated that effect of the PBL instructions differ with respect to covariates. In other words, the PBL instructions work well in some levels of the covariates, while in other levels, traditional instruction yields better results. Qualitative data were obtained through students&rsquo / self-evaluations and interviews made with students and teachers. Document analysis was conducted for the data collected through self-evaluation form. This analysis showed that PBL students mostly engaged with doing research, designing and making experiments. However, students in the control group usually, listened to their teachers, write down definitions, formulas, graphs from their teachers, and solved problems requiring mathematical operations. According to the interviews, students in general are enthusiastic about the PBL instruction.

ABSTRACT THE STUDY OF SCHOOL - FAMILY COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LEVEL ON THE BASE OF PARENTS&rsquo / PERCEPTIONS &Ouml / zdemir, Nesli M.S., Department of Early Childhood Education Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Zeynep B. Erdiller September 2009, 117 pages Home and school are two important living and learning environment for children. In this regard, parents and teachers share mutual responsibilities in children&rsquo / s life. The relationship between home and school is a significant point in improving quality and sustainability of children&rsquo / s education and development. Thus involvement of parents in their children&rsquo / s learning has significant value for education. Parents are important stakeholders in parent involvement process. Their ideas, and attitudes toward parent involvement determined their participation and parent involvement process. This study was designed to describe the current situation in public elementary schools in terms of parent involvement activities by bases on parents&rsquo / perceptions. First of all the types of parent involvement activities that are conducted by schools and their frequencies were defined. Then parents&rsquo / perceptions about family-school collaboration activities were analyzed. Participants were required to fill out the questionnaire, &ldquo / School- Parent Cooperation Activities&rdquo / . The questionnaire consists of 25 questions. Nine questions are related with demographic information about participants. Fifteen questions are measured parents&rsquo / perceptions about parent involvement activities. The sample of study included in parents with children who attend to public elementary schools in Ankara in 2008- 2009 academic year. The study consisted of first, second, third, fourth, and fifth grades. Five hundred and one parents from different public elementary schools in Ankara were constituted the sample of the study. The results of the study showed that most frequently used activities, conducted outside of school, is homework assignments that parents and child work together. Inside of the school, face to face meetings with teachers and prepared school boards are most frequently applied parent involvement activities. Parents emphasized that they participate parent involvement activities when they find time to do this. Parent- teacher meetings and teachers&rsquo / invitations were powerful factor for parents to come to school and involve in activities. Parents did not participate in activities when they do not have to do it. Also not getting permission from work was another barrier for parents. Parents want to be organized more often conferences and parent education activities, and more often parent- teacher meetings. Education of parent about the needed topics related with children development and education was most frequently marked by parents as the most important function of parent involvement activities. Also raising funds for school was seen as the purpose of practicing parent involvement activities. Parents thought that teachers allow enough time for them and welcomes them with smiling face. According to participants, effect of school- parent cooperation activities was to potentiate their child&rsquo / s education and contribute to their child&rsquo / s development. Parents ordered five factors for effective parent involvement activities from the most important to least important ones / teachers&rsquo / attitudes, availability of time of parent involvement activities for parents, administration&rsquo / s relationship with parents, personal experiences and opinion of parents related with parent involvement, and content and availability of school&rsquo / s parent involvement program. Parents believed that school- parent cooperation activities conducting in their child&rsquo / s school were partial enough. Also good communication between teacher- parents and child is mostly chosen by parents. Keywords: Parent Involvement, and Elementary Schools

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of instructional comics on sixth grade students&#039 / achievement in heat and temperature. The population of the study was all of the sixth grade students in public elementary schools in Y&uuml / z&uuml / nc&uuml / Yil district. The sample of the study was 113 sixth graders from three public elementary schools in Y&uuml / z&uuml / nc&uuml / Yil district. In the beginning of the matter and heat chapter of science and technology course, the implementation started with the pretest. Then, a series of comics were implemented to the students for two weeks. Then, the implementation ended with the posttest. Data were analyzed through MANCOVA where the independent variable is the treatment implemented to the students. The dependent variables are students&#039 / achievement in heat transfer, enjoyment of science and perception of success in science. It was statistically found that there is no significant effect of the treatment on the combination of the dependent variables. However, when the effects of the treatment on the dependent variables is investigated separately, it was found that students in the treatment group got significantly higher scores than the students in the control group. On the other hand, it was also found that there is no significant difference in students&#039 / enjoyment of science and their perception of success in science between the groups. In addition, it was observed that instructional comics increase the participation of reluctant students.

The main purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of instruction with concrete models on eighth grade students&rsquo / probability achievement and attitudes toward probability. Another aim was to examine students&rsquo / views about instruction with concrete models. The study was conducted in a private school in a big city in Central Anatolia Region with 12 eighth grade students. Both quantitative and qualitative research designs were used. The treatment was applied by the mathematics teacher for 4 hours per week throughout 4 weeks. Probability Achievement Test and Probability Attitude Scale were administered to collect data. In order to analyze the data, Friedman and Wilcoxon tests were used. Also, the interview was carried out with 11 students to determine their views about the instruction. It was found that there was a statistically significant change in probability achievement of eighth grade students participated in the instruction with concrete models across three time periods. In other words, it was found that there were statistically significant positive changes in students&rsquo / probability achievement from pre-intervention through post-intervention and from pre-intervention through follow-up. It was also found that there was no statistically significant change in students&rsquo / probability achievement from post-intervention through follow-up. The results also revealed that there was no statistically significant change in students&rsquo / attitudes toward probability across three time periods. Moreover, according to findings of the interview it was determined that most of the students had positive views about the effects of instruction with concrete models on their cognitive processes and on their attitudes toward concrete models and probability lessons.

The purpose of this study is to investigate teacher background indices and their relation to mathematics achievement. For this purpose, the data collected from 146 Turkish mathematics teachers and 4498 8th grade Turkish students with the instruments - mathematics teacher background questionnaire and mathematics achievement test in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 2007) were analyzed by using the Pearson&rsquo / s Product Moment Correlation. The teacher background indices, constructed by TIMSS, were The Index of Teachers&rsquo / Reports on Teaching Mathematics Classes with Few or No Limitations, The Index of Teachers&rsquo / Emphasis on Mathematics Homework, The Index of Teachers&rsquo / Perception of School Climate, The Index of Teachers&rsquo / Adequate Working Conditions and The Index of Teachers&rsquo / Perception of Safety in School. The results of the correlation analysis yielded significant relationships except for the emphasis on homework. Students whose teachers characterized their school climate positive and their working conditions adequate got significantly higher scores. Moreover, for limitation to teach index variable, students having teachers who commented the related factors do not limit their instruction were found to be more successful than the other students. However, it is concluded that teachers in this study considered their school climate and working conditions as negative and thought there were lots of limitations to teach. On the other hand, although majority of the teachers reported that they feel safe in their schools, there were teachers who disagreed with the idea. This study includes some suggestions for further researchers to investigate the results of this study in detail and some implications to develop teachers&rsquo / perceptions positively.

In this study, the aim was to investigate the effects of the web-based internet search scaffolding tool (WISST) on the improvement of metacognitive skills of 7th grade students associated with their goal orientation. This study utilized a static-group pretest-posttest design. The first experiment group received web-based metacognitive scaffolding tool treatment / the second experiment group received teacher-based metacognitive scaffolding / and the control group had no scaffolding. The designed tool aimed to scaffold users throughout web searching by emphasizing certain metacognitive skills improvement. Three main instruments were used to gather data: metacognition inventory for Internet search (MIIS), patterns of adaptive learning scale (PALS), and achievement test. 76 7th grade elementary school students in Ankara, Turkey participated in this study. The data gathered from the participants were analyzed through quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods. The results of the study indicated that WISST tool helped students improve certain metacognitive skills including monitoring, planning, controlling, and strategy generation. Its unique effectiveness was on the improvement of controlling skills. Teacher scaffolding group was also successful in improvement of strategy generation skills. No effects of goal orientations on the improvement of metacognitive skills were found in the analyses. Within hierarchical regression models, only pre-MIIS scores significantly contributed to the model. Students having less improved metacognitive skills were found associated with less trials and less visits. Students having poor performance work grades were tended to copy-paste more, try less, and visit less. Task difficulty and task type was observed to influence the search patterns of students. Search patterns and reflections also indicated that scaffolded groups made positive difference in search patterns.

The aim of the study is two fold: (1) to determine middle grade students&rsquo / abilities in translating among representations of fractions concept and (2) to investigate the effect of grade level and gender on students&rsquo / abilities in translating among representations. In this study the &ldquo / Translations among Representations Abilities Test (TRAT)&rdquo / was developed and used as a measuring instrument. The study was conducted in 19 randomly selected public elementary schools throughout Yenimahalle and &Ccedil / ankaya districts of Ankara with a total of 1456 sixth, seventh, and eight grade students in 2005-2006 fall semester. Each student&rsquo / s responses which were considered as incorrect were examined according to their grade levels. Based on the findings, the most frequent incorrect response types, the easiest, and the most difficult items were identified. In addition to these findings, two-way analysis of variance model (ANOVA) was used in order to investigate the effects of grade level and gender on students&rsquo / total scores on the TRAT. To the results of the examinations of students&rsquo / responses, it was seen that students&rsquo / abilities in translating among representations of fractions were low. The most frequent incorrect responses were seen in translations which include number line models and region models representing improper fractions. The lowest mean score was belonged to the sixth graders / while the highest mean score was belong to the eighth graders. Results of the statistical analyses revealed that grade level had a statistically significant main effect on students&rsquo / abilities in translating among representations. Additionally, it was seen that, female students had higher mean scores on the TRAT than males.

For too long Sir David Lindsay of the Mount has been almost the exclusive concern of literary critics and ecclesiastical historians. This thesis aims to demonstrate that Lindsay and his works represent an invaluable source for a much broader study of Renaissance Scotland and that placing each in a proper historical and cultural context sheds an important light on some of the ideas and attitudes which shaped Scotland's political and religious culture during this crucial period. The thesis falls into three sections. The first offers a detailed examination of Lindsay's career, tracing his arrival at Court, his experiences during the minority of 1513-28 and his employment as a herald. Looking at the events of the 1530s, it argues that Lindsay's position is best seen both in the light of a developing humanist- influenced court culture and the emergence of religious controversy. It is suggested that, following the death of James V, Lindsay was much less closely associated with the Court and that this had important consequences for his political, religious and poetic development. Part Two stresses the hitherto little appreciated point that Lindsay was very much a political writer. Analysing his discussion of government, the section looks in particular at ideas of kingship and commonweal, assessing the extent to which Lindsay variously questioned or endorsed traditional attitudes and assumptions. This also involves a study of Lindsay's position as court-poet and those occasions of public spectacle with which he was involved. Completing the examination of Lindsay and his works, the thesis turns to questions of religion. Arguing that his work represents a more complex, often more ambiguous, but ultimately more satisfying, source than is generally appreciated. Part Three considers Lindsay's religious attitudes, examining what his poetry can tell us concerning the situation in Scotland on the eve of the Reformation.