The aim of the study is to investigate pre-service middle school mathematics teachers&rsquo / critical thinking processes through statistical and probabilistic knowledge in the context of popular media texts. The study was conducted with a qualitative case study method. Participants of the study consisted of four senior pre-service middle school mathematics teachers enrolled in a public university. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with the participants. Analysis of the data was conducted on the basis of two dimentions / critical thinking skills, and statistical and probabilistic knowledge. The results of the study indicated that pre-service middle school mathematics teachers reflected different critical thinking skills and made use of different statistical and probabilistic knowledge in different contexts. They mostly reflected interpretation skill on the basis of their statistical and probabilistic knowledge. Moreover, to what extent they made use of critical thinking skills was differentiated on the basis of their statistical and probabilistic knowledge. They reflected complicated critical thinking process dealing with conditional probability statements. They had difficulty with probabilistic statements underlying conditional probability especially in this process.

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att jämföra de två byggproduktionsmetoderna, industriellt/prefabricerat byggande och platsbygge. Vi undersöka om någon av metoderna är fördelaktigare än det andra, samt varför man allt mer använder sig av prefabricerat. Jämförelsen behandlar främst aspekterna byggtid, ekonomi och kvalitet. Genom en litteraturstudie och intervjuer med aktiva personer inom byggbranschen har vi införskaffat oss det material vi behöver. Att bygga och montera så mycket som möjligt inne i fabrik gör att kvaliteten ökar då materialet inte utsätts för fukt och kyla före montering. Huset byggs upp mycket fortare då byggarbetsplatsen endast blir en montageplats av olika färdiga delar. Materiallager på bygget försvinner då delarna levereras när de ska monteras. Levereras elementen i tid minskas också byggtiden, vilket i sig innebär lägre kostnader. / The main purpose with this diplomawork is to compare the two production methods, premanufacturing and on-site construction. We want to investigate if one of the methods is more advantageous than the other and why premanufactured elements are used more often. The comparisons mostly consider aspects of building time, economy and quality. We gathered the material we needed through a literature study and by interviewing active persons in the building industry. Building as much as possible in a production hall increases the quality since it’s not being exposed to moisture and cold before assembly. The house is built much faster when the building site becomes a montage place with different finished elements. There is no material storage at the building site since the elements are delivered when it’s time to assemble the specific element. If the elements are delivered when needed, building time will decrease which means reduced costs for the whole project.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationships of learned resourcefulness and conflict behaviors of university students. The sample of the study consisted of 393 (253 females, 140 males) volunteered undergraduate students from Faculty of Education in Middle East Technical University in Ankara. The data were gathered by administering two instruments, namely Rosenbaum&rsquo / s Self-Control Schedule (SCS) and Conflict Behaviors Questionnaire (CBQ). The results of MANOVA employed to CBQ scores revealed significant main effects for learned resourcefulness groups and gender. The interaction effect of gender and learned resourcefulness levels was not significant. The results of ANOVA yielded a significant difference between high and low learned resourcefulness groups in collaborating behavior, indicating that, as compared to low resourceful group, high resourceful group reported higher usage of collaborating behavior in conflict situations. Findings also seemed to suggest that, in conflict situations, those in the high resourcefulness group tended to use compromising behaviors more than those in low resourcefulness group. No significant difference was found in any of the other conflict behaviors as a function of learned resourcefulness.

This study was conducted to investigate Turkish secondary school students&rsquo / perceptions of their science teachers&rsquo / interpersonal behaviour / teacher profiles and variables affecting Turkish students&rsquo / perceptions of their teachers&rsquo / interpersonal behaviour. Also, differences in perceptions between Turkish students and their Dutch counterparts were examined. Finally, students&rsquo / affective learning outcomes were related to their perceptions of their teachers&rsquo / interpersonal behaviour. Data were gathered from 7484 secondary school science students (grades 9-11) in 278 classes from 55 schools in thirteen cities of Turkey and collected with a specifically constructed and adapted Turkish version of QTI and translated version of TOSRA. This data set was compared to Dutch data set that contained 8503 students, located in 27 schools and 301 classes. Descriptive statistics and multilevel analysis with three levels (student, class and teacher) were conducted. Students&rsquo / perceptions on the QTI scales were aggregated to the class level and compared to an existing QTI-based typology of teaching styles. Significant differences were found between countries in terms of students&rsquo / perceptions of their teachers&rsquo / interpersonal behaviours as well as different distribution of teachers&rsquo / profiles over countries and subject. Turkish teachers&#039 / interpersonal profiles only marginally differed from existing profiles. Additionally, several teacher, student and class characteristics showed statistically significant associations with students&#039 / perceptions of teacher Influence and Proximity. Finally, students&rsquo / perceptions of their teachers&rsquo / interpersonal behaviour were related to their affective learning outcomes, to several student, class, teacher background characteristics and to the subject taught.

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.

This study investigated the students&rsquo / perceptions about a web based course. Their perceptions about course materials, level of communication, online course support, and satisfaction were discussed in this study. In this case study, Information Technology in Education II (CEIT 112), an undergraduate course at the department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology (CEIT), Middle East Technical University (METU) at 2004/2005 spring semester was taken into investigation. Totally 34 1st year CEIT students attended the course in the term and participated to the study. The course was delivered via web based instruction. The data were collected by using a survey instrument at the end of the term and analyzed using descriptive statistical analyzing methods. Frequency distributions for demographic data about the students and the statements evaluating different aspects of the course were obtained. Results showed that students&rsquo / feelings about course materials, online course support, level of communication and satisfaction were neutral. The study results may be used in evaluation of web-based instruction environment for the instructor and the department. They may give clues in order to create an effective learning environment in the future design of the course.

Water frogs are one of the most interesting vertebrate groups, showing great diversity and complexity in their reproductive modes, ecology and evolutionary relationships, and with many cryptic species due to high morphological similarity. For many decades, a single species, Rana ridibunda, has been suggested to exist in Turkey. However, the application of new morphometric, molecular and bioacoustic techniques has recently revealed the occurrence of several distinct water frog taxa in Turkey. In this study, 340 bp long mtDNA ND3 region in 195 specimens was sequenced and subjected to phylogenetic analyses to detect geographical structure and species boundaries. Neighbor joining tree, minimum spanning network, SAMOVA and AMOVA were used to understand relationship within and among clades. Population demography was studied through mismatch distribution and neutrality tests. Results indicated that populations in southwestern Turkey show high diversity and strong geographic structuring. In Turkey there are four major maternal lineages, each probably representing a species: Thrace lineage represents Rana ridibunda Pallas 1771 in European Turkey / Ceyhan lineage indicates an unnamed taxon in Cilicia plain / South-central lineage occurs at the Lake District, Antalya, Konya and Karaman provinces and represents Rana caralitana Arikan, 1988 / Anatoliaca lineage (occuring in Asiatic Turkey except for central southern Turkey, Rhodes &amp / Karpathos, northeastern Syria, and probably also Iraq and Transcaucasia) is designated either as Rana cerigensis Beerli, Hotz, Tunner, Heppich, and Uzzell 1994 or as a new subspecies of R. caralitana, based on the degree of reproductive isolation present between the last two lineages.

The purpose of the study is to investigate how well the mathematics achievement is explained by the students and school related factors. Also, to what extent students and school related factors components are accounted for students&rsquo / mathematics achievement in answering reasoning level questions and basic mathematical knowledge questions will be investigated. This study will basically combine students&rsquo / questionnaires items with their mathematics achievement scores obtained from mathematics achievement tests items. According to content and cognitive domains three achievement tests were prepared from TIMSS-2003 released mathematic items. Student questionnaire consist of combination of items from TIMSS-2003 and TMSS-1999 student questionnaires. The seventy six items selected from the students questionnaires were analyzed using principle component factor analysis and ten interpretable dimensions were found. Based on the result of the factor analysis, variables were generated by selecting the observed variables with highest loadings. These variables were: socioeconomic status, perception of success, teacher centered activities, students centered activities, out of school activities, out of school activities II, school climate, reason for being successful in mathematics, homework and computer. The data which is used in the study gathered from four socially and economically different schools in Ankara and the final sample of the study consisted of 426 elementary school students. This data was analyzed by using regression analysis. Regression analysis results indicated that socio-economic status was the strongest factor explaining mathematics achievement. Other important variables were the perception of success, use of computers and homework activities. Socioeconomic status and perception of success have positive relationships with mathematics achievement, while homework and computer have negative relationships. These four variables account for the 30.1 % of the variance in mathematics achievement. Other variables did not significantly contribute to mathematics achievement in the regression model. Students&rsquo / achievement in basic mathematical knowledge was explained by the same variables which were socioeconomic status, perception of success, homework and computer in the same way. However, achievement in reasoning level explained by socio- economic status, perception of success and homework. The use of computer factor did not contribute the achievement in reasoning level.

The concept of personal vision refers to teachers&#039 / ideal perception of education (teaching and learning, classroom management and educational implications for the society). Teacher&#039 / s personal vision is how he or she wants these dimensions to be. This case study analyzed personal visions of teachers at a rural primary school and investigated the effects of the school context on teachers&#039 / personal visions. The data were collected from ten teachers through utilizing the semi-structured interview method. The researcher analyzed the obtained data through cointent analysis. The results of the study revealed that teachers&#039 / visions considered education as a lifelong process involving a student-centered, democratic classroom environment where learning differences were given importance to / and meaningful learning and process evaluation were highlighted. According to the teachers, this educational process would lead a democratic society where science, moral values and citizenship values prevailed. The results also showed that the school context was not supportive for the teachers to achieve their visions.

This study intended to investigate the role of perceived social problem solving, narcissism, self-esteem, and gender in predicting aggressive behaviors of high school students. The sample consisted of 825 participants recruited from five high schools in Ankara. Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ), D&#039 / Zurilla and Maydeu-Olivares Social Problem Inventory-Revised (SPSI-R), Ames, Rose, and Anderson Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) were used as the data collection instruments. Standard Multiple Linear Regression Analyses were performed to investigate predictive value of social problem solving (i.e., negative problem orientation, rational problem solving, impulsivity/carelessness style, and avoidance style), narcissism, self-esteem, and gender in understanding high school students&rsquo / aggressive behaviors (i.e., physical aggression, anger, hostility, and verbal aggression). Results of the present study indicated that gender, narcissism, impulsivity/carelessness style, negative problem orientation, and rational problem solving were significantly related to adolescents&rsquo / physical aggressive behaviors. However, self-esteem and avoidance style did not significantly correlate with physical aggression. Moreover, negative problem orientation, narcissism, impulsivity/carelessness style and gender were significantly related to anger / conversely the relationship between anger and self-esteem, rational problem solving, and avoidance style were not significant. Furthermore, although there was a significant correlation between hostility and negative problem orientation, self-esteem, narcissism, and rational problem solving, there was no significant relationship between adolescent hostile behaviors and avoidance style, impulsivity/carelessness style, and gender. Finally, impulsivity/carelessness style, narcissism, rational problem solving, and gender were significantly related to adolescents&rsquo / verbal aggressive behaviors, nevertheless self-esteem, negative problem orientation, and avoidance style did not significantly correlate with verbal aggression. Theoretical and practical implications and recommendations for future research have been presented.