The purpose of this study was to analyze and interpret specific aspects and characteristics of classroom discourse of an elementary mathematics classroom. To examine the classroom discourse, a fifth grade mathematics classroom was observed during sixteen weeks, and twenty lessons in total. The analysis was based on two main categories: (1) Student Learning and (2) Teacher Moves. Student Learning further divided into two sub-categories as content and learning. Additionally, Teacher Moves also divided into content knowledge and pedagogy and creating learning environment sub-categories. Results of this study showed that despite the many efforts in mathematics education in Turkey and the accepted importance of student-centered classrooms / still in some elementary classrooms teacher-centered instruction continue to be dominating. Moreover, the teacher questions generally seemed to have short answer and low-level characteristics that require students to recall mathematical rules and procedures rather than high-level questions that require students to recall mathematics rules and procedures rather than high-level questions that require students think deeper and draw inferences on mathematical content. Although, the results did not meet the assumptions of discursive classroom at all / based on the results, it could be said that in classroom practices, mathematics teachers try to make connections between mathematical content and other disciplines where they tried to give examples from real-world situations and also encourage students in that way / as pointed out in new mathematics curriculum.

This study focuses on exploring the current (2009-2010) state of the English Language Teacher Education (ELTE) Program in Yemen. The current state of the program was investigated through exploring the beliefs of teacher educators, teacher candidates, and administrators. Additionally, available education policy documents were critically examined. A pilot study pointed to the need for interviews with various stakeholders of language teacher education. Multiple semi-structured interviews were designed and conducted. Three teacher educators and four recent graduates were interviewed. Three administrators in the Ministry of Higher Studies and Scientific Research were interviewed. Furthermore, two bureaucrats in the Ministry of Education together with two administrators in an Education Sector were interviewed. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. An extensive reading of the transcriptions led to the identification of major patterns. Several themes were found. These themes highlight various aspects of the ELTE program in Yemen. The findings showed that the ELTE program had neither clear-cut standards nor educational philosophy, and suffered from distinctive administrative and academic problems. The findings, furthermore, revealed that the education policy-makers paid little attention to the program improvement and the application of the strategies they had planned. Finally, despite the problems encountered, all participants agreed on the critical need for the ELTE program at Yemeni universities.

University departments that offer graduate programs require feedback to assess the quality of the education they offer. Feedback on the quality of education is provided in the form of program evaluation. In the general approach to program evaluation, outsiders, i.e., people who are not parts of a program, do the evaluation. This descriptive study starts out with the belief that the best feedback in program evaluation can only come from insiders, i.e., faculty, students, and alumni, who are parts of a particular program. In order to capture the perspectives of insiders on the quality related characteristics of a program, this study evaluated a master&rsquo / s degree program in TESOL (Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages) at an American university in a practical and cost-effective way, using a minimum number of evaluators. All faculty, students, and alumni of the program form the participants in this study. Regular program evaluation studies are conducted to do one type of evaluation only and they do not seek insiders&rsquo / opinions. Unlike such studies, this evaluative research study aims to go beyond that familiar narrow focus and provide a richer description of the program it evaluates. Its research design and the data collection methods employed in it are chosen to achieve that goal. These enable the present study to have a broader scope than those of the regular program evaluation studies as the collected data can be used for more than one type of analysis. The results of data collection show that all parties express positive opinion on the aspects of the program that are directly related to the teaching that takes place in classes. Areas of the program that need improvement are also introduced, and recommendations to overcome them are presented.

This study investigated the effects of journal writing with or without giving feedback and grade, compared to the traditional teaching on integral achievement of students with different learning styles. In addition, students&rsquo / ideas about the journal writing activities in the mathematics classes were investigated. The study was carried out with 87 first year engineering students at Atilim University from three classes. Two groups were assigned as experimental groups (EG1 and EG2) and one group was assigned as the control group (CG). Students in all groups received the same instruction on integral. Experimental groups (EG1 and EG2) also engaged in journal writing activities besides lectures. Journal writings of the EG1 students were graded and feedback was given. Journal writings of the EG2 students, however, were not graded and feedback was not given. Two open-ended achievement tests on integral were developed. One of them was used as pre-test / the other was used as post-test. In addition, Kolb&rsquo / s Learning Style Inventory was administered as pre-test to determine the learning styles of the students. Follow-up interviews were conducted with ten students from EG1 and EG2. Additionally, v classrooms were observed during the treatment. The results of the ANCOVA suggest that neither the groups&rsquo / achievement nor the achievement of the students having different learning styles in each group differ significantly on integral. The results of the interviews, however, showed that students found journal writing activities as an effective teaching method and wanted to be engaged in the activity for the future.