The aim of this study was to investigate to what extent the preservice teachers perceived that they were ready for the teaching profession and the differences in preservice teachers&rsquo / readiness based on the year in the teacher education program, gender, high school type (teacher education high school or other), and existence of a teacher in the immediate family. The study was conducted at the Elementary Mathematics Education programs of universities in Ankara, Burdur, Bolu, Gaziantep, Izmir, Samsun and Sakarya in the spring semester of 2009-2010 academic year. The data were collected from 728 third and 4th year preservice mathematics teachers. Readiness of preservice mathematics teachers was assessed with a readiness scale which was developed by the researcher in the fall semester of 2009-2010 academic year. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. The results indicated that preservice mathematics teachers did not perceive their readiness at a high level. There was a significant difference in readiness scores for 3rd year preservice mathematics teachers and 4th year preservice mathematics teachers. It was found that the readiness of 4th year preservice mathematics teachers were significantly higher than the readiness of 3rd year preservice mathematics teachers. On the other hand, the results showed that there was no significant difference in readiness scores for female preservice mathematics teachers and male preservice mathematics teachers. Similarly, there was no significant difference in readiness scores for preservice mathematics teachers graduated from teacher education high school and preservice mathematics teachers graduated from other high school types, and between existence of a teacher in the immediate family of preservice mathematics teachers and nonexistence of a teacher in the immediate family of preservice mathematics teachers. Findings of the study indicated the need for improving the practice courses in order to increase preservice teachers&rsquo / readiness for the profession.

The purpose of this study was to investigate pre-service science teachers&rsquo / (PST) quality of written argumentations about socio-scientific issues in an online discussion environment in relation to their epistemic beliefs and argumentativeness. A total of 30 pre-service elementary science teachers who will teach elementary school science from 6th through 8th grade students after graduation voluntarily participated in this study. The sample was chosen by purposive and convenience sampling from the PSTs registered for the course named &ldquo / Science, Technology, and Society&rdquo / in the fall semester of 2009-2010 academic year at a public university in Ankara. In this study, the PSTs participated in an online discussion environment in which climate change, nuclear power, genetically modified foods, and human genome project issues were discussed for a total of four week period. The major data of this study were collected through the Epistemic Beliefs Questionnaire developed by Kuhn, Cheney and Weinstock (2000) and the Argumentativeness Scale by Infante and Rancer (1982). For the analysis of the quality of argumentations, an adapted version of Sadler and Fowler&rsquo / s (2006) argumentation analysis framework was employed. The results of the study illustrated that the PSTs frequently generated high quality argumentations for each socio-scientific issue which was interpreted as a positive indication that the online discussion environment was effective in promoting students&rsquo / argumentation. In addition, the results also showed that argumentation quality levels varied across socio-scientific issues. Another result of this study was that the PSTs&rsquo / argumentation qualities were higher for multiplist and evaluativist levels. Finally, the correlation results between argumentativeness and argumentation quality levels did not reveal a significant correlation between these variables. However, there was a significant correlation between epistemic belief levels and argumentativeness.

The purpose of this study was to investigate 7th-grade students&rsquo / typical errors and possible misconceptions in graphs concept before and after the regular mathematics instruction. The study was conducted in an elementary school in the 2nd semester of 2009-2010 academic year in Afyonkarahisar. A mathematics teacher and 71 7th-grade students participated in the study. The data were collected through achievement tests administered to the students before and after the instruction and interviews conducted with the teachers and the selected eight students based on the results of the pretest and posttest. The teacher&rsquo / s instruction was also observed. Students were not exposed to a special treatment, but rather the influence of regular mathematics instruction on a group of 7th-grade students from the four classes taught by the same teacher was investigated. The results of data analysis indicated that 7th-grade students had common typical errors and possible misconceptions about the usage, construction, reading, and interpretation of line, bar, and circle graphs before and after the regular instruction. The comparison of pretest and posttest results showed that while there were differences between the students&rsquo / errors and misconceptions in pretest and posttest, some misconceptions were decreased or increased, or did not change from pretest to posttest. The interviews conducted with the selected students addressed that the students had errors and misconceptions in graphs concept. Findings of the observation of teacher&rsquo / s instruction showed that the teacher did not fully discover and prevent students&rsquo / typical errors and possible misconceptions. Moreover, the findings of the interview conducted with the teacher indicated that her knowledge of students&rsquo / errors and misconceptions were limited. The results of this study showed that teachers&rsquo / planning was important in understanding students&rsquo / typical errors and possible misconceptions. Inservice training of teachers should put more emphasize in effective planning and understanding students&rsquo / typical errors and possible misconceptions.

The purpose of this study was to investigate predictive value of life satisfaction, academic achievement, number of clients, number of counseling sessions, and satisfaction level of supervision both in terms of quality and quantity in determining counselor trainees&rsquo / counseling self-efficacy levels. The sample of this study was the 470 voluntary senior counselor trainees (335 females, 135 males) enrolled in Department of Guidance and Counseling at eleven universities in Turkey. Participants were administered a demographic data form, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Counselor Self-Estimate Inventory and the Counselor Activity Self-Efficacy Scales. In the context of this study, the Counselor Activity Self-Efficacy Scales were translated to Turkish, validity and reliability studies were conducted. Additionally, reliability studies of the other scales used for the sample of the present study were conducted. Data analysis was carried out by Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis. Results of the study indicated that life satisfaction, number of counseling sessions and satisfaction with quality of supervision explained 13% of the total variance of counseling self-efficacy scores of the counselor trainees. Life satisfaction was found as the most important predictor of counseling self-efficacy, explaining 8.2 % of the total variance. On the other hand, academic achievement, number of clients and satisfaction with quantity of supervision were not found to be significant predictors of counseling self-efficacy.

This study mainly aimed at investigating the academic writing needs and writing self-efficacy beliefs of graduate students studying at an English-medium university, Ankara. Furthermore, such areas that have a crucial role in determining writing needs as the frequency of writing tasks, usefulness of written sources, perceived importance of academic writing, and role of Turkish while writing were explored. In this study, quantitative data via &ldquo / Academic Writing Needs Assessment Survey for Graduate Students&rdquo / were collected from 213 graduate students enrolled at Graduate School of Social Sciences. Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and multiple regression analyses were employed to analyze the data. The results of descriptive statistics indicated that the graduate students need a wider vocabulary repertoire in order to cope with the challenges of academic writing and they are mostly assigned longer research papers. In addition, using journal articles published in the area of specialization during writing was the most common method and more than half of the graduate students stated that when stuck with finding the right word, they first look for a Turkish word first. The exploratory factor analysis produced two factors and the regression analyses were carried out. The results yielded that the predictors accounted for 24% of the variance in productivity-related academic writing needs, and 22% of the variance in accuracy-related academic writing needs. For the productivity-related academic writing needs, writing self-efficacy and academic status made a significant contribution and for the accuracy-related academic writing needs, writing self-efficacy and English proficiency exam score were significant.

Through the widespread use of the Internet, WebQuest has become one of the popular techniques in a variety of fields of science and arts for teaching different age groups and levels. This study is conducted to research the effectiveness of this approach in English language learning and to determine possible problems in its implementation. Thus, the purpose of this study is to design, develop, and implement this new approach and to evaluate the learners&rsquo / experiences with it. The participants of this study were the students of a preparatory school at a state university. Twenty-five learners participated in this study. In line with the scope of the research, a WebQuest site was designed which require learners to complete a task related to the curriculum and learning objectives of their English courses. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques were employed to assess the learner perceptions about the WebQuest site design, the steps of the process, group work, and the contribution of the application to language learning. According to the findings of this study, participants appreciated the WebQuest approach and they provided important suggestions for future applications.

Physically Interactive Games (PIGs) have emerged as a new game genre and potential as an educational tool in classrooms. In PIGs, children are allowed to interact with game environment and solving problems by using their bodily movements and voices without using mouse or keyboard by being active physically and cognitively. Designing PIGs is critical and difficult process because it is vital that educational content and entertainment parts of a game should be balanced properly considering interaction between children and game environment. The current dissertation aims to explore principles of designing and developing physically interactive educational games for children. Mainly, qualitative data collection techniques were used in the study. Also, Reeves&rsquo / Development Research Model was administered under the Design-Based Research. Both Mathematics and Physical Education subjects were integrated within the game environments. Totally four physically interactive games were designed and developed. During the design and development phases, field experts, subject-matter experts and children&rsquo / s expectations, needs and recommendations were taken into account. During the development phase, 5 teachers with 3 Mathematics and 2 Physical Education teachers as subject matter experts participated to the study. Also, 10 v children with 5 boys and 5 girls participated to the design phase. In the implementation phase, 30 children with 17 boys and 13 girls participated in Pilot Implementation and 50 children with 27 boys and 23 girls participated to the Final Implementation phase. The study revealed that camera screen was the main deterministic factor in order to play physically interactive educational games properly. Girls and boys had different considerations about the developed games. The bigger camera screen physically interactive games had, the higher motivation children had during gameplay. At the end of the study, design principles of physically interactive educational games were defined.

This study aimed to identify the relationship between foreign language speaking anxiety and foreign language learning motivation. In addition to this, the motivational level of learners, the effect of gender on this motivational level and the relationship between motivational orientations were examined. Besides, the level of foreign language speaking anxiety that the students experience, the effect of gender on this anxiety and the relationship between foreign language speaking anxiety and students&rsquo / motivational level were also investigated. Finally, foreign language speaking anxiety was studied in detail via face to face interviews. Participants of the study included 383 pre-intermediate students at Afyon Kocatepe University English preparatory program. The data were collected via two questionnaires administered to these participants and 19 participants were interviewed to get in-depth data on speaking anxiety. The quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics. The content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. The results of the quantitative data revealed that students had a moderate level of foreign language learning motivation, female students were more motivated than males and motivational orientations were positively correlated on a moderate level. It was also found that students at AKU experienced a low level of foreign language speaking anxiety and female students got more anxious than males while speaking English in classroom atmosphere. Besides, foreign language speaking anxiety and foreign language learning motivation were found to be negatively correlated on a moderate level. Quantitative data of the study demonstrated that foreign language speaking anxiety is a separate phenomenon with its own sources, aspects, variables and effects on learners.

3D virtual worlds are emerging distance education technologies that offer collaborative learning environments and provide effective ways to apply task-based activities. The aim of this case study was to examine the contribution of task-based language learning in 3D virtual worlds to speak English as a foreign language among university preparatory class students in terms of anxiety, motivation, and self-confidence. Therefore, different English speaking practice tasks/activities were designed in Second Life. Participants had different roles based on the determined tasks and had speaking experiences with native speakers, friends, and instructors of METU preparatory school. Fifteen upper-intermediate level preparatory class students in the Department of Basic English at Middle East Technical University participated in the study which comprised a four week time span in May 2011. Data of the study included the qualitative data, gathered from the interviews. Those interviews were administered after the study to understand the effectiveness of task-based language learning in Second Life for students&#039 / anxiety, motivation, and self-confidence towards speaking English. According to the results, this study revealed important findings for language education field. The results of this study demonstrated the effectiveness of task-based language learning in Second Life environment which had positive impact on students. In this respect, it is suggested that the Second Life experience provided students to gain motivation and self-confidence and overcome their anxiety related problems towards speaking English. Therefore, this study may offer an insight for further studies to investigate the effectiveness of 3D virtual environments in language education, especially in Turkey.

The purpose of this study was to investigate mistakes made by elementary fifth grade students regarding basic fractional concepts and operations, and difficulties that they encounter. The other purpose was to investigate underlying misconceptions and reasons of those difficulties and mistakes. For this purpose, a mixed-method research combining quantitative and qualitative approach respectively was performed. Data were collected from elementary fifth grade students at the end of the spring semester of 2009-2010. Operation with Fraction Questionnaire (OFQ) was administered to 151 fifth grade students who were chosen from the two public elementary schools in Eskisehir province. By this way, difficulties that elementary fifth grade students encounter and mistakes they make regarding basic fractionalconcepts and operations was analyzed. Afterwards, sixteen of these students participated in a semi-structured interview which was designed to investigate underlying reasons and misconceptions behind those mistakes and difficulties. Results were presented in two phases. In the first phase, common mistakes and difficulties of students were analyzed in detail and representative examples of these errors were introduced. In the second phase, students&#039 / mistakes were grouped under five categories as: algorithmically based mistakes, intuitively based mistakes, mistakes based on formal knowledge on fractions, misunderstanding on problem, and missing information in solution. In this phase, misconceptions and underlying reasons of those mistakes and difficulties which students may encounter while learning fractions were described. Results revealed that there was evidence that fifth grade students made various mistakes regarding fractional concepts and operations in the fifth grade elementary mathematics curriculum and they had many misconceptions regarding fraction concepts and operations.