The purpose of this study was to explore and develop a better understanding of the implementation of alternative assessment in the young learner classroom. This in-depth, qualitative study focuses on teachers&rsquo / practices and beliefs, as well as the student perspective and the role of alternative assessment in the instructional process. Case studies were carried out on nine different English language teachers and their use of alternative assessment strategies and tools over a six month period in their first, second, third, fourth and fifth grade English classrooms. Data was collected through interviews, observations and relevant documents. Findings show that teachers use a variety of different alternative assessment methods and tools with varying degrees of regularity and effectiveness. Teachers believe that alternative assessment shows learning and interaction between thinking and learning, emphasizes the student as an individual and encourages active and autonomous learners. They also believe it promotes differentiated learning, clarifies expectations and motivates learners and teachers. Teachers believe that alternative assessment has a positive impact on the learning process and outcomes, as well as on the affective and cognitive development of the students. Six classroom implementation factors were determined to impact on the use of alternative assessment in the classroom: language ability, cognitive ability, planning, time, training and classroom environment.

This study aimed to investigate how teachers integrated the development of students&#039 / critical thinking skills into their teaching during the three major phases of their teaching, namely, their planning practices, interactive practices, and reflective practices and to evaluate the influence of their instruction as felt by students in fourth grade Turkish course. The study was conducted as a comparative case study in which three teachers from three different primary schools participated. Data were collected through classroom observations, interviews with teachers and their students, logs written by students and documents. The findings of the study indicated that, in the planning stage, factors such as autonomy, methodological stance and relevance played a role on the level of teachers&#039 / incorporation of critical thinking into the process. In the lessons, their classroom climate and management, perception of their realm of influence, their approach to challenge and tendency to create a common frame of reference were found to have an effect on the ways their students were involved in critical thinking processes. Furthermore, metacognitive skills and critical reading skills, together with others, were addressed by teachers in different ways. In their reflection, the way they referred to the strengths and weaknesses of their lessons and the way they evaluated their students&#039 / learning as well as their discrimination of thinking concepts and the ways they dealt with assumptions underlying students&#039 / reasoning involved elements revealing their approach to critical thinking. Among students, some interactive patterns, curiosity and interest constituted the factors that motivated students to think critically.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate environmental literacy of 6th, 7th and 8th grades primary school students in public schools of Bodrum, Turkey. The study was carried out during the spring semester of the 2006-2007 academic years. A total of 848 students enrolled in four public primary schools completed the 49-item Environmental Literacy Questionnaire (Kaplowitz &amp / Levine, 2005). The components of environmental literacy which are defined as knowledge, attitude, use and concern of students about environmental issues were examined by means of frequency distributions. Results displayed that although students had low levels of knowledge about the environent, they displayed positive attitudes and high levels of concern toward the environment. They were also aware of the importance of interaction between humans and the environment. Relationships among the components of the ELQ (knowledge, attitudes, uses, and concerns) have been analyzed by means of zero order correlations. The strongest correlation found between &lsquo / attitude and use&rsquo / and &lsquo / use and concern&rsquo / variables among the components of the ELQ indicating that the students with positive attitude towards environmental issues have positive views on environmental uses and service and students concerning about environmental problems have more positive views on environmental use and service. Canonical correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship, if any, between the background characteristics of students and the set of environmental literacy variables in the questionnaire. The results showed that students who were interested in environmental issues, who gave importance to environmental problems, who thought they had good knowledge about environmental issues, whose parents&rsquo / were interested in environmental issues and involved in environmental activities had better knowledge about environmental issues, more positive attitude towards environmental issues, more positive view on environmental uses and service and concern environmental problems. In addition, the results of analysis by means of Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) demonstrated that female students had more positive attitudes towards environmental issues, more positive views on environmental use and more concern about environmental problems than male students&rsquo / had but same level of knowledge on environmental issues.

An explanatory mixed method research design was utilized to examine the elementary teachers&rsquo / (classroom teachers) perceptions towards ICT integration in education and its effect on their teaching. In the first phase instruments were translated into Turkish and pilot tested with 282 classroom teachers. For the main study, the survey was distributed to classroom teachers in 90 schools in Ankara. With a 45% percent return rate, 1055 surveys from elementary teachers were used in the quantitative data analysis part. Two simultaneous multiple regression analysis were conducted and the results showed that teachers&rsquo / perceptions towards ICT integration in education and its effect on their teaching can be explained by different sets of variables where the most important one is teachers&rsquo / pedagogical beliefs. In the third phase, teachers were clustered under constructivist and behaviorist groups and ten teachers from each group were interviewed to reveal the differences on teachers&rsquo / ICT integration perception in relation to education and their teaching. The research result presented that elementary teacher pedagogical beliefs affect their perceptions towards ICT integration in teaching and learning process. Qualitative data analysis presented differences between constructivist and behaviorist group participants in relation to ICT integration in teaching and learning process.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of argumentation based instruction on sixth grade students

The purpose of this study is to investigate primary education teachers&#039 / perceptions about Total Quality Management (TQM) and the implementation degree of the principles of TQM in their schools / and to investigate whether there are significant differences between these perceptions of teachers in Curriculum Laboratory Schools (MLO) in which TQM principles are applied and teachers in non-MLO schools. For this reason, 16 primary education schools eight of which are MLO schools in different provinces of Ankara were randomly selected, for the sample of the study. Teachers in these schools were asked to fill out the questionnaire consisting of the proposala based on the principles of TQM. A total of 406 teachers completed and returned the questionnaires. Descriptives statistics were used to evaluate the data obtained. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to analyse whether there is a significant difference between MLO and non-MLO school teachers&#039 / perceptions related to TQM principles. The results indicated that there was no significant difference between the perceptions of teachers in MLO and non-MLo schools. Moreover, Chi-square test was used in order to analyse if there are significant differences in MLO and non-MLO school teachers&#039 / perceptions about the degree of the implementation of TQM principles. The results showed that there was a significant difference only in one TQM proposal related to TQM principles. It is implemented in MLo schools more than non-MLO schools.

The purpose of the study was to explore in what ways the principles of Multiple Intelligences Theory (MIT) are implemented on the 1st graders&rsquo / Literacy Education (LE), to find out the effects of the implementation on 1st graders&rsquo / tendency towards the course and their teachers / on the 1st grade teachers&rsquo / tendency towards their students / on the 1st graders&rsquo / literacy achievement / on improvements of the 1st graders&rsquo / multiple intelligences. The qualitative data were gathered through interviews, observations, checklist form, students&rsquo / drawings and writings about the LE, students&rsquo / portfolios, photographs, written document and Teele Inventory for Multiple Intelligences. Descriptive and content analysis were done. The study was conducted during the 2003-2004 academic year. Based on purposeful sampling methods, the participants of the study was comprised of one 1st grade classroom with 26 students, five 1st grade teachers from BaSkent University College AySe Abla Schools and four 1st grade teachers from Gazi University Foundation Private Primary School. The results of the data analysis indicated that the teachers&rsquo / main focus was on preparing learning activities while planning the LE lesson based on the principles of MIT. They had difficulty in preparing and implementing the learning activities for naturalistic intelligence. However, they prepared and implemented learning activities for linguistic, interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, visual-spatial intelligences easily. Also, the students willingly participated in the learning activities that were based on bodily-kinesthetic, visual-spatial, musical-rhythmic, interpersonal intelligences / that were based on their most dominant intelligences and that activated more than one intelligence. Also, when the students who faced difficulty throughout the LE were helped by using the way based on the students&rsquo / dominant intelligences, they overcame the difficulties. Besides, most of the teachers knew various assessment methods based on the principles of MIT, but they rarely used them. Moreover, the teachers&rsquo / views about the differences and similarities between the LE based on MIT and that based on traditional methods were different from each other. The effects of the implementation on the 1st graders&rsquo / tendency towards the course, their teachers / on the 1st grade teachers&rsquo / tendency towards their students / on the 1st graders&rsquo / LE achievement were positive. Also, some variations were observed in terms of the students&rsquo / multiple intelligences throughout the LE.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of multiple representations-based instruction on seventh grade students&amp / #8217 / algebra performance, attitudes toward mathematics, and representation preference compared to the conventional teaching. Moreover, it was aimed to find out how students use multiple representations in algebraic situations and the reasons of preferring certain modes of representations. The study was conducted in four seventh grade classes from two public schools in Ankara in the 2003-2004 academic year, lasting eight weeks. For assessing algebra performance, three instruments called algebra achievement test, translations among representations skill test, and Chelsea diagnostic algebra test were used. To assess students&amp / #8217 / attitudes towards mathematics, mathematics attitude scale, to determine students&amp / #8217 / representation preferences before and after the treatment representation preference inventory were administered. Furthermore, as qualitative data, interview task protocol was prepared and interviews were carried out with the students from experimental and control classes. The quantitative analyses were conducted by using multivariate covariance analyses. The results revealed that multiple representations-based instruction had a significant effect on students&amp / #8217 / algebra performance compared to the conventional teaching. There was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of their attitudes towards mathematics. The chi square analyses revealed that treatment made a significant contribution to the students&amp / #8217 / representation preferences. The results of the interviews indicated that the experimental group students used variety of representations for algebra problems and were capable of using the most appropriate one for the given algebra problems.

The purpose of this comparative case study was to explore English language teachers&rsquo / beliefs, assumptions and knowledge about learner-centeredness and the European Language Portfolio (ELP) and to see how they implement their understanding of learner-centeredness in their classrooms. The study was conducted at one public and one private primary school in Istanbul. Focus group interviews were held in each school with thirteen teachers of English and then individual interviews and observations were carried out with four volunteer teachers during the spring semester, 2004-2005. The four participant teachers were observed in their classrooms ten times along with before- and after-class observation reflections facilitated by the researcher. A follow up interview was conducted with each teacher at the end of the observations. In addition, these observations were accompanied by document analysis. Data from the interviews and before- and after-class reflections were inductively analyzed. For the analysis of observation data and documents, a learner-centered data analysis model was constructed by the researcher. The results of the data indicated that there were differences between public school teachers and private school teachers in the way they defined and implemented learner-centeredness. Lack of knowledge about the ELP was observed in both public and private school teachers. Results revealed that there is a need for in-service training programs that will cater for the needs of public school teachers if the aim is to implement learner-centeredness in schools.

Although geometry is important area in the mathematics curriculum, evidence from numerous research studies makes it clear that many students&rsquo / geometrical understanding is not at the level they need or are expected to be, especially in Turkey. The project-based learning approach offered to be one of the most effective learning tools to provide for the students an environment in which they can reach their own conclusions instead of just lecturing them, in the new mathematics curriculum in Turkey. In this study, the effects of project-based learning on the 7th grade students&rsquo / achievement in geometry and these students&rsquo / attitude towards geometry were examined. This study was conducted with a group of 24 seventh grade students in the Bilim College during the last five weeks of the 2004-2005 academic year. One group pre-test and post-test design was used. The instruments used for data collection are as follows: polygon, circle and cylinder achievement tests, geometry attitude scales, student survey forms, teacher&rsquo / s observation scales, and interviews. The data obtained was analyzed by a paired-sample t-test. The results from achievement tests and attitude scale indicated that project-based learning increased students&rsquo / geometry achievement and attitudes toward geometry, respectively. The student survey form and interview responses of the students, teacher&rsquo / s observation form responses of the teachers and the observation of the researcher also suggest that project-based learning increased their achievement in and their attitudes towards geometry as a result of making their own models, dealing with authentic daily life problems, determining the dimensions and the areas by trial and error. Moreover, this study helped grasp the attention and increase the desire to study particularly of those students with high capacity who performed unsatisfactorily due to their inclination to get distracted during classes. Providing those who were easily distracted and used every chance to disrupt the lectures with the opportunity to engage in something they could see as their own project brought about favorable results.