The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between gender, self-control, emotion regulation, rumination and test anxiety. In other words, the study aimed at investigating how well each of the mentioned independent variables contributes to explain variance of test anxiety. The participants (N=188) were reached by convenient sampling procedure. The sample consisted of preparatory students studying in a private university in Ankara. Data were collected by a demographic form and four scales as Test Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1980), Self-Control Scale (Tangney, Baumeister, &amp / Boone, 2004), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross &amp / John, 2003), and Ruminative Response Scale (Treynor, Gonzalez, &amp / Nolen-Hoeksema, 2003). For this study, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was utilized to examine the data. The results revealed that gender, self-control, two emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and suppression) and also brooding as a ruminative response significantly correlated to test anxiety of university students. Furthermore, self-control and cognitive reappraisal were found to be correlated with test anxiety stronger than the other independent variables. Reflection as another ruminative response was not found to be correlating with test anxiety within the suggested model. The findings obtained from the present study are discussed with regards to the related literature, and conclusions were drawn accordingly.

ABSTRACT EFFECTS OF VERBAL FEEDBACK AND SELF-EVALUATION ON LEARNING FUNDAMENTAL BASKETBALL SKILLS M&uuml / ft&uuml / ler, Mine M.S., Department of Physical Education and Sports Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Sadettin Kirazci September 2005, 82 pages The study investigated the effects of verbal feedback in KP forms and self-evaluation on learning two fundamental basketball skills, dribbling and lay-up, which were novel to the participants (N = 75) who were 4th &ndash / and 5th &ndash / grade level students in a public elementary school. The students were assigned to one of four different treatment groups: (a) control group, (b) verbal feedback group (VF), (c) self-evaluation group (SE), and (d) self-evaluation + verbal feedback group (SE+VF). Students&rsquo / performances on each task were evaluated by two independent observers on a 5-point Likert type scale in which the scores were given from 1 representing very poor to 5 representing very well. During acquisition phase, students were given 14 trials on two separate days. However, for the retention phase, the students were given 4 trials without receiving treatment conditions. The acquisition data were analyzed with a 4 (Group) x 4 (Block) analyses of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures on the block factor. The retention data were analyzed by, a 4 x 2 (Group x Block) repeated measure ANOVA. In the acquisition phase, subjects in the control, VF, and SE+ VF groups performed significantly better than those in the SE group in both dribbling and lay-up tasks F (3,71) = 8.72, p &lt / .05 and F (3,71) = 7.05, p &lt / .01 respectively. However, in the retention phase, performance scores of the tasks for the students in VF group surpassed the other experimental groups F (3,71) = 9.42, p &lt / .05. and F (3,71) = 4.02, p &lt / .05 respectively.

In this study, factors affecting eye tracking measures and achievement in multimedia learning were explored. Familiarity, redundancy, and control are three important factors, which affect the levels of achievement in multimedia learning. In this study, three experiments were conducted in which the main effects and interactions of familiarity, redundancy, and pace investigated. In Experiment 1, a chemistry lesson with narration were studied twice as multimedia lesson. In Experiment 2, different group of participants studied two versions of chemistry lessons. Both versions had subtitles / however, in one version in Experiment 2, narration was removed from background during the experiment. In Experiment 3, different group of participants studied two versions of mechanism lessons. One of the mechanism lessons was system-paced. The other one was also self-paced / however, in this one, the learner decided to proceed to next slide as his or her own choice. After studying lessons, participants completed an achievement test, which consisted of recognition, recall, and transfer questions. The results showed that fixation count, fixation duration, total fixation duration, and total visit duration showed significant differences as well as interactions as per fragments, familiarity, areas of interest, and type of images, varying in accordance with the lesson type. The correlations among scores of achievement tests and eye tracking metrics were also reported. The results are discussed within the scope of cognitive theory of multimedia learning design principles and cognitive load theory in the conclusion chapter.

This study aimed at determining the prevalence rate of bullying and victimization among middle school students and investigating the role of locus of control, self-esteem, parenting style, loneliness, and academic achievement in predicting participation in bullying and victimization. The sample consisted of 742 participants recruited from 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Results revealed that of the total 742 students: 4.6 % of the students were bullies, 21.3 % were victims, 6.5 % were bully/victims, 44.7% were pure not involved and 22.9 % were not involved. Regarding the types of bullying, the most common bullying behavior used by the bullies and experienced by the victims was verbal bullying. When gender and grade level were investigated in relation to bullying, meaningful gender differences were found. However, no significant grade level differences were found. The binary logistic regression analysis indicated that / female students who involved in bullying had low acceptance/involvement and academic achievement scores, but higher loneliness and psychological autonomy scores. Furthermore, male involved students had external locus of control, higher self-esteem, and loneliness scores, and lower strictness/supervision scores. Logistic regression analysis also revealed external locus of control and higher loneliness scores / but lower acceptance/involvement and academic achievement scores among the victim group.

The current study seeks to investigate pre-service elementary mathematics teachers&rsquo / (PEMTs&rsquo / ) self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies within the context of their teaching practices in the field work. It was aimed to explore the SRL processes and strategies of four PEMTs while preparing mathematics lessons at their practice schools. In addition to PEMTs&rsquo / SRL strategies, the changes and adaptations through their teaching practices and reasons of those changes were also examined in the study. In total 22 pre-interviews and 22 post-interviews were made through the study. Observations were also performed for each teaching practice. Besides observations, PEMTs&rsquo / end of semester reflection papers in the context of Teaching Practice course were examined in the study. In addition to those multiple data sources, initial interviews representing detailed information about the participants were also analyzed. The overall data were analyzed by using the SRL framework combined and adapted from Zimmerman&rsquo / s and Pintrich&rsquo / s SRL models. The findings of the pre-interviews revealed that PEMTs began with a &lsquo / lesson planning process&rsquo / reflecting the forethought phase. This phase included searching resources, arranging and organizing the available sources, asking for help and feedback when needed, mental planning of the lesson, and setting goals for the teaching session. These strategies were considered as cognitive self-regulation strategies. In addition to cognitive SRL strategies, motivational factors such as self-efficacy, perception of task, and intrinsic interest were appeared in the study. Post-interviews reflecting the self-reflection phase revealed that PEMTs had a self-evaluation process covering various issues for their teaching sessions as a final step through the study. Finally, it was seen that contextual issues related to teaching practice played a substantial role in PEMTs&rsquo / SRL strategies.

This research inquires into whether the motivation of students learning English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at the upper-intermediate level improves when thematic instruction is employed in the classroom. This is the first time that a theme-based integrated skills approach was implemented at the Department of Basic English (DBE), METU at the intermediate and upper-intermediate levels. With the outcome of the needs analysis carried out by the administration, it was realized that students at the preparatory school needed to use integrated skills as reflected in &lsquo / real life&rsquo / . Moreover, thematic instruction was seen to be a requisite in the new curriculum since content is a key motivating principle. Hence, since one of the main concerns was the motivation of students attending courses at the preparatory school, there was a need to examine whether using this mode of instruction at the upper-intermediate level was able to ameliorate student motivation. For this research, firstly a pilot study and then qualitative analysis using in-depth interviews developed on the basis of the pilot study was employed. Therefore, using a triangulation of different kinds of data on related questions, interviews were carried out with 14 students on three separate occasions at the end of each span from the upper-intermediate group, two administrators and six upper-intermediate instructors. From the point of view of the students it appeared that generally content encouraged learning and improved English proficiency if the themes/topics were found to be of interest. However, the degree of impact of the themes and topics on student motivation largely depended on whether the student was intrinsically motivated or not. If the student was intrinsically motivated, content had a nominal affect on motivating them. The study showed that if the themes are linear and have a parochial focus on topics, too much time is spent on a theme, a redundancy of lexical items are taught, unnecessary details are included, and difficult and academic language used, these led to student demotivation in respect of content. Thus, indicating a greater variety of content was needed.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of gender and perceived career barriers in career commitment of university students. Participants were 437 (231 females, 206 males) volunteered students from the five faculties of Middle East Technical University (METU). A pilot study was carried out with 285 (122 males and 163 females) volunteered students of METU for the adaptation of Commitment to Career Choices Scale (CCCS). The results of exploratory factor analysis yielded a 28&ndash / item scale with two factors / Vocational Exploration and Commitment (VEC) and Tendency to Foreclose (TTF). As for the main purpose of the present study, CCCS was administered to the students together with the Perceived Career Barriers Qustionnaire measured by 11 barriers identified by the researcher as personality characteristics, interests, ability, gender effect, vocational knowledge, economic gain opportunity, employment opportunity, work conditions, other life choices (e.g., marriage, child, etc.), expectations of family and expectations of partner. The results of multiple regression analysis revealed that VEC scores as measured by CCCS were predicted by three independent variables of vocational knowledge, employment opportunities and personality characteristics. This result indicated that the students who had high perception of barrier on vocational knowledge, employment opportunity and personality characteristics had low commitment to their career choices. The second regression analysis revealed that TTF scores as measured by CCCS were predicted only by employment opportunities, indicating that the students who had higher perception of employment opportunity as a barrier also had lower level of tendency to foreclose and they had a tendency to evaluate different career options. Findings are discussed within the framework of career counseling research and practice.

This study aimed to examine the role of secondary appraisal of the event, cognitive appraisal of the situation, emotions experienced and coping styles used after a real life stressful event that university students experienced. Five hundred and sixty students (271 females and 289 males) from Middle East Technical University voluntarily participated in the study. A pilot study which consisted of two stages, interviews and survey was conducted before the main study in order to test the appropriateness and applicability of the appraisal and emotion measures. Cognitive Appraisal of the Situation Scale (CASS), Emotions Checklist, Cognitive Appraisal of the Emotion Scale (CAES) and Coping Styles Scale (CSS) were used to assess cognitive appraisals, emotions and coping styles. Stress level, harm/loss and threat appraisals of the stressful events, cognitive appraisal of situation, emotions experienced by the individuals after the stressful event, cognitive appraisal of the emotions and coping strategies used by the participants were the variables used in the structural equation modeling (SEM). The results of the analysis revealed that, problem focused coping was predicted by positive emotions and cognitive iv appraisal of emotion. Emotion focused coping was predicted by negative emotions, stress level and secondary appraisal. The results also yielded that cognitive appraisal of emotion was a moderator variable between positive emotions and problem focused coping. Findings of the research were discussed in the framework of Cognitive Theory of Emotions and Interactional Model of Stress and Coping.

In this research four models derived from Terror Management Theory (TMT) were tested by using structural equation modeling.. These models were developed for testing different theoretical alternatives in relation to psychological mechanisms explaining the subjective well-being as an outcome of fear of death. The first two models were based on the original Terror Management Theory. The first supposed that death anxiety as a catalyst motivates individuals in two defenses: developing culturally committed personalities by validation of cultural worldview and thus enhancing self-esteem. The second indicated that every individual had two options in the face of death: enhancing their self-esteem or committing to cultural worldview, in turn, improves the well-being of the individual. The last two models were identified by taking attachment as an alternative variable. In the third model, attachment styles of the individuals were presented as a third defense mechanism in addition to self-esteem and cultural worldview in TMT. They were assumed as mediator variables in the model between fear of death and subjective well-being. The last model treated attachment as a mediator between fear of death and distal defenses of self-esteem and cultural worldview. The results indicated that only the last model was entirely supported.. The lack of support for the first two models might be an indicator of the invalidity of the model in cultures that are not individualistic. For the last two models, the results suggested that attachment was crucial in understanding the relationship between fear of death and subjective well-being from a TMT perspective.