Although an increasing number of research studies in mathematics education have begun focusing their efforts on mathematical modeling as a need for change to convey mathematical ideas beyond schools, there is not enough information about the nature of the teacher knowledge for effective use of modeling in mathematics teaching and how this knowledge evolves. The goal of this study is to investigate teachers&rsquo / evolving knowledge when they engage in professional development activities based on lesson study cycle from modeling perspective. Professional development program of this study included a cyclical process. Lasting a month, each cycle consisted of meeting before the implementation of the model eliciting activity, implementation of the activity and meeting after the implementation. The study took five months and was conducted in two public schools. The participants were four in-service mathematics teachers where two teachers were selected from each school by purposive sampling. The study was designed as case study. Data analyses were conducted during and after data collection and with two approaches as with-in case and cross-case analysis. As the professional development activities created learning environments for the teachers to develop their models for teaching mathematics from a modeling perspective, the results of this study showed that the professional development program used in the study had a positive effect on teachers&rsquo / evolving pedagogical content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge based on the theoretical and empirical backgrounds in the literature. Besides, implications, suggestions for professional development, for teachers and for further research are provided.

Policy makers, school and district leaders, researchers, industry, and parents are all increasingly concerned with improving the quality of education in schools. Therefore, teachers need to welcome and keep themselves up-to-date about the improvements, developments, and educational reforms. At this point, in-service training of teachers is one of the most urgent concerns of teacher educators and policy makers. Although there is a widespread view on the importance of teachers&rsquo / professional learning, how design and process should be handled is still questioning issue. The purpose of this study was to determine the kinds and qualities of in-service training that teachers needed. Professional development designs&rsquo / three elements were highlighted in this research. Content refers what designer of professional development expects teachers to learn / form denotes the context, materials, schedule, and evaluation in which learning takes place / audiences are targeted group of teachers who needs to participate some certain programs. Via survey design / data were collected from 1730 teachers, and analyzed through ANOVA and Structural Equation Modeling. Teachers reported an occasional need for Guidance and Special Education, Preparation for Inter/national Exams, Self-development, Professional Teaching Knowledge, and Technology Use, and reported medium satisfaction with previous programs. They also reported their preferences for in-service training program format. All these results were discussed together, and combined as design elements of training programs. Determining what teachers need and prefer and how they learn best made it possible to provide suggestions for Turkish teacher training policy to maximize the match between teacher needs and the content and process by which those needs are met.

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of a staff development program designed through the cascade-training model by the MoNE on primary school English teachers and their actual classroom practices. In line with this, it aimed to establish a connection between aspects of planning, implementation, and evaluation of staff development and their impact on teachers and students. A qualitative case study was employed and data were collected from 10 teachers, eight teacher trainers, and three faculty members through semi-structured interviews. Moreover, 23-hour seminar and 50-hour classroom observations were conducted, and the documents related to the seminar and actual classroom practices of the teachers were analyzed to complement the interview findings. The results indicated that the effective practices (e.g., use of participant-centered approaches, English as the medium of instruction, practical ideas and suggestions and course book based activities) and ineffective practices (e.g., lack of needs assessment, traditional way of session delivery, and lack of follow-up) employed in the planning, implementation and evaluation phases of staff development had an impact on teachers&#039 / (1) pedagogical beliefs, (2) pedagogical content knowledge, (3) actual classroom practices, (4) personal and professional growth, and (5) students. The findings further revealed that these five levels of impact interacted with each other based on the characteristics of the teachers (teaching experience and gender), their motivation, self-concepts, and the teacher education programs they attended.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of constructivist learning process on preservice teacher education students&amp / #65533 / performance, retention, and attitudes in Classroom Management Course. In this study, an experimental design and a case study design were used together. The sample (n = 144) were third year preservice teachers at the Foreign Languages Education program at Middle East Technical University, Turkey. The experimental group (n = 76) was subjected to social constructivist learning process, while the control group (n = 68) was subjected to traditional instruction for eleven weeks. Data were collected through qualitative and quantitative methods. Findings show that posttest scores were not statistically different between the experimental and the control groups. However, a significant difference was found in the retention scores in favor of the experimental group. The conceptual change the learners went through was evident in their metaphorical images which tend to change from a more controlling image to images that depict leadership, sensitivity to individual differences, and student learning. Descriptive findings indicate that retention was fostered through constructivist activities that mainly included reflective writing, critical thinking, and problem solving. Factors such as active learning, meaningful and enjoyable learning environment, and the attitudes of instructors had a positive impact on student learning. Nevertheless, the load of reflective diary writing and portfolio preparation tasks, and collaborative work could be overwhelming and discouraging and these impacted negatively on learners&amp / #65533 / attitudes towards the course.

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 research study aims to investigate how cooperating teachers (CTs) in Partnership Schools working with pre-service teachers (PTs) from Universities in Ankara and Bursa reflect on challenges they face according to their own perceived roles and responsibilities in the process of implementing their complicated and demanding work to contribute to pre-service teacher training in schools. The present study specifically focuses on cooperating teachers&amp / #8217 / perceived challenges in relation to the feedback process and their cooperation with pre-service teachers to fulfill their roles and responsibilities to understand the nature of cooperating teachers&amp / #8217 / work, and how such recognition and understanding could empower all the parties involved- cooperating teachers and pre-service teachers with the aim of making the school experience more beneficial for pre-service teachers. The results of data collection show that CTs need further training in almost all aspects of their work directly related to the teaching learning environment in schools. Areas of their work that need improvement are also introduced, and recommendations to cope with challenges are presented.

The purpose of this study was (1) to explore pre-service science and mathematics teachers&rsquo / levels of computer self-efficacy and attitude towards computers, (2) to investigate the effects of gender, grade level, major of study, and computer ownership of pre-service science and mathematics teachers on computer self-efficacy and attitudes towards computers, and (3) to examine the relationship between computer self-efficacy and attitudes towards. For this study 650 students from two departments, which were Elementary Science Education and Elementary Mathematics Education, of three public universities in Ankara participated. Also, students were enrolled in first and fourth grades. The scales were administrated during 2006 Fall semester. Computer Self-efficacy Scale and Computer Attitude Scale which had four sub-scales, namely anxiety confidence, liking, and usefulness were used to determine pre-service teachers&rsquo / computer self-efficacy and attitudes towards computer levels. Moreover, the v questionnaire had some questions that asked demographic characteristics of participants. The results indicated that pre-service Science and Mathematics teachers had high computer self-efficacy and attitude levels. Furthermore, participants&rsquo / gender was not a significant factor on their computer self-efficacy and computer attitude except for liking sub-scale. Males liked more computer than females. Major of participants did not have any effect on computer self-efficacy and computer attitude. Grade level was an important factor for computer self-efficacy and attitude / fourth graders had higher scores on both scales. Computer owner participants had significantly higher scores of computer self-efficacy and attitudes towards computers. Finally, results showed that participants&rsquo / computer self-efficacy scores were related to sub-scale scores of computer attitude scale.

WebQuest is one of the popular technology integration strategies in school environment. This study is conducted to overcome existing problems for both teachers and students in higher education by bringing dynamism to existing approach. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to design, develop, implement the new approach of the WebQuest, and assess the experiences of the participants that they encounter in the dynamic WebQuest environment. The participants of this study were the students of two undergraduate courses offered by the Secondary Science and Math Education Department (SSME) and Computer Education and Instructional Technology Department (CEIT) of a private university. Seventy undergraduate students participated in this study. This study employed both qualitative and quantitative measures in order to develop explanatory thoughts about the WebQuest site, projects and perceptions towards the process and the project. The findings of this study showed that participants favored the WebQuest site and the project, which is dynamically created. Furthermore, they offered valuable suggestions to improve the effectiveness of the system.

The aim of this study is to investigate the environmental knowledge level of teachers, who teach the elementary science and technology course, and to explore possible relationships between environmental knowledge level and their demographic attributes. In this study, data was obtained by the instrument developed by the researcher to 183 teachers from 91 selected elementary schools throughout &Ccedil / ankaya and Yenimahalle districts of Ankara in spring 2005-2006 semester. The results of the study indicated that participant did not take adequate environmental education neither preservice nor inservice education. Teacher in the study used media (visual or printed) to reach environmental information. Majority of the teachers in the study had average knowledge about environmental concepts and only small number of teachers had adequate knowledge level about environmental concepts. The main predictor of teachers&rsquo / knowledge were teaching experience, class hours taught in a week and being a part of an environment project.

This study analyzes the preservice elementary mathematics teachers&rsquo / self efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancies about using manipulatives and investigates whether, or not, university and gender differences have any significant effect on their self efficacy and outcome expectancies. In mathematics education, students&rsquo / conceptions about abstract mathematical ideas and being able to convert them into concrete ideas are very important. For this reason, it is very beneficial to use manipulative materials in the mathematics lessons. However, most of the preservice mathematics teachers in Turkey lack knowledge about using manipulatives. The sample of present study consisted of 77 senior undergraduate students studying in Elementary Mathematics Teacher Education programs at 2 different universities located in Ankara and Izmir. Data were collected in spring term of 2006-2007 academic years. The survey items were adopted from previously developed teacher efficacy instrument, which partly ensures the items to be parallel with the existing theory about the construct. The survey consisted of three parts / demographic information, knowledge about the manipulatives, and &lsquo / The Instrument of Preservice Mathematics Teachers&rsquo / Efficacy Beliefs about Using Manipulatives&rsquo / (EBMU). The present study demonstrated that the gender differences did not effect preservice elementary mathematics teachers&rsquo / personal manipulative use teaching efficacy whereas the university differences had a significant effect on their personal manipulative use teaching efficacy. In addition, the gender and university attended produced statistically significant main effect on preservice elementary mathematics teachers&rsquo / outcome expectancies.