The main purpose of this study was to investigate sixth, seventh, and eight gradeTurkish, English, Mathematics, Science and Technology, and Social Studies teachers&rsquo / conceptions of assessment. It was also aimed at finding out the differences, if any, in teachers&rsquo / conceptions of assessment according to their teaching subject, years of teaching experience, in-service training, and the undergraduate institution they graduated from. There were 414 teachers included in the study. Data were gathered through the short version of Teacher Conceptions of Assessment Scale (TCoA-IIIA), which had 27 items. Exploratory Factor Analysis results revealed that there were four factors in the scale which were called Student Accountability, School Accountability, Improvement, and Irrelevance like in the original scale. Then, the correlation results revealed that Student Accountability, School Accountability and Improvement conceptions were significantly correlated with each other at moderate level. However, Irrelevance conception did not have a significant relationship with other conceptions. The findings of Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) indicated that teaching subject and in-service training did not make any significant difference in teachers&rsquo / conceptions of assessment. However, years of teaching experience and undergraduate institution teachers graduated did significant differences in teachers&rsquo / conceptions of assessment.

This study is designed to investigate the relationships between cognitive, emotional, and intentional readiness of teachers towards organizational change and their resilience traits. The main assumption of this study is that readiness of teachers towards organizational change might be associated with their resilience traits. The study aimed at finding a correlation between readiness for change and resilience traits. The sample for this study was composed of 691 teachers who were working at primary and secondary public schools in Ankara. To assess the readiness of teachers, a new readiness scale was developed by the researchers and a previously used resilience scale was conducted to examine the resiliency level of teachers. The results of the multiple linear regressions between the variables of two scales indicated that some of the factors of resiliency were found to be significant predictors of readiness of teachers towards organizational change.

This study aims at finding whether reading about a specific topic/genre affects the writing outcome on the same topic/genre and the general writing performance positively in terms of content, organization, grammar, vocabulary and mechanics. This study was conducted with two upper-intermediate level EFL classes. Both groups were given a sample KPDS and a pre-test of writing at the beginning of the study. For five weeks, one of the groups received extra reading instruction with the usual writing instruction while the other group followed usual writing instruction only. Both groups&rsquo / performance was tested with a writing test at the end of each week and a post-test at the end of the treatment. The analyses of the data collected through these tests indicated that there were not significant differences between the mean scores of the two groups (p&amp / #61502 / 0.05). Hence it was found that the different treatments applied to the groups proved no difference in terms of improving students writing ability.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the in-service teacher training program implemented for the newly hired teachers in the School of Foreign Languages (SFL) at Middle East Technical University. The study was conducted with the help of three groups of participants who were the trainees who participated in the training program in the 2004-2005 academic year, the experienced teachers who were current members of the SFL and the teacher trainers. Data from the 12 trainees were collected through two questionnaires which were developed to identify the needs of the trainees at the start of the program and their degree of satisfaction at the end. Moreover, an interview was conducted with the trainees. Data from the 4 teacher trainers were collected through a questionnaire and it aimed to identify their expectations from and satisfaction with the program. 45 experienced teachers, on the other hand, were involved in the study to understand whether they need in-service training. The questionnaires included both Likert scale and open-ended items. Data collected through the instruments were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Closed-ended items were analyzed via the SPSS program and mean scores for each item were calculated. To identify if there is any statistically significant difference between the mean scores, a paired-sample t-test was calculated. The qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis. The results of the study revealed that the trainees especially need to improve their practical teaching skills which are immediately necessary in the new setting. Their degree of satisfaction was also found to be high. The results about the experienced teachers showed that they did not feel the need to enroll in an in-service training program. The findings about the teacher trainers revealed that they are generally happy with the program although they listed some suggestions for improvement.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between working memory, English as a second language and academic achievement of secondary school students between the ages of 12-14. The study also examines the effects of age and gender factors on working memory capacity and its relation with academic attainments. Data were collected from 12-14 year-old children (N=54) in two state secondary schools in Kirsehir, Turkey. Verbal working memory was assessed by a reading span (RS) test and a backward digit span (BDS) test. Academic achievement was determined by performance on basic secondary school courses which were English (foreign language), Turkish (mother tongue), Social Sciences, Mathematics and Science. The study examined the predictive role of working memory capacity on success on each course. The results revealed that verbal working memory tests significantly correlated with the tests of both general academic achievement (for RS: r=42, for BDS: r=43) and specific courses (.001&le / p &lt / .01). The results also indicated that verbal working memory capacity had a far more predictive role on school success for females than males.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the complaint speech act set used by Turkish EFL learners speaking to a commiserating and contradicting teacher. For this purpose, four kinds of data sources were used: twenty native English speakers&amp / #8217 / role-plays, twenty five Turkish native speakers&amp / #8217 / role-plays, forty students&amp / #8217 / role-plays and two native speakers&amp / #8217 / judgments on the students&amp / #8217 / production. The subjects were given two different situations. Their role-plays were audio taped and transcribed. The subjects&amp / #8217 / complaint speech act sets were analyzed, using a coding scheme from a previous study in the literature. The baseline and the interlanguage data were compared using SPSS to see to what extent they were similar and different, and to see whether or not the Turkish EFL learners made positive and negative transfer, and whether there were any features unique to the interlanguage of the learners. The findings of the study revealed that Turkish EFL learners produced a complaint speech act set when speaking to a commiserating and contradicting teacher. The components of the complaint speech act set realized by the learners were &amp / #8216 / complaint&amp / #8217 / , &amp / #8216 / justification&amp / #8217 / , &amp / #8216 / candidate solution: request&amp / #8217 / , &amp / #8216 / candidate solution: demand&amp / #8217 / , and &amp / #8216 / explanation of purpose&amp / #8217 / . When speaking to the commiserating teacher, the students made positive transfer in using the components &amp / #8216 / explanation of purpose&amp / #8217 / , &amp / #8216 / complaint&amp / #8217 / , &amp / #8216 / justification&amp / #8217 / , and &amp / #8216 / request&amp / #8217 / . They made negative transfer in using &amp / #8216 / demand&amp / #8217 / . The students speaking to the contradicting teacher made positive transfer in their use of the components &amp / #8216 / explanation of purpose&amp / #8217 / , &amp / #8216 / complaint&amp / #8217 / and &amp / #8216 / justification&amp / #8217 / . The component &amp / #8216 / demand&amp / #8217 / was subject to negative transfer.

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.

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.

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.