The main purpose of this study was to develop and administer a four-tier test for assessing Turkish pre-service physics teachers&rsquo / misconceptions about geometrical optics. Sixteen pre-service physics teachers, who were selected by maximum variation and convenience sampling methods from three state universities in Ankara, were interviewed in the contexts of plane mirrors, spherical mirrors, and lenses. From these interviews and the studies in the literature, the Open-Ended Geometrical Optics Test was developed. It was administered to 52 pre-service physics teachers from three state universities selected by purposive and convenience sampling. The responses of each subject for each item were categorized in order to determine the alternatives of the multiple-tier multiple-choice misconception test. The initial form of the test, the Three-Tier Geometrical Optics Test (TTGOT), was administered to 53 pre-service physics teachers from three state universities selected by purposive and convenience sampling as a pilot study. The analysis of the results of the TTGOT was used to revise the test items. Finally, the Four-Tier Geometrical Optics Test (FTGOT) was developed and administered to 243 pre-service physics teachers from 12 state universities in Turkey. The validity of the FTGOT scores was established by means of some qualitative and quantitative methods. The Cronbach alpha reliability coefficients were calculated for different test scores. Those for the total correct scores and standardized misconception scores (SUMM4) were found to be .59 and .42, respectively. Some misconceptions, which were held by more than 10 % of the pre-service teachers, were identified and considered to be significant.

iii ABSTRACT STUDENTS&amp / #8217 / PERCEPTIONS ABOUT ONLINE ASSESSMENT : A CASE STUDY Sanli, Refik M.S. Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology Supervisor : Prof. Dr. M. YaSar &Ouml / ZDEN SEPTEMBER 2003 ,105 pages For many reasons, the use of computer based of assessment is increasing. Although there is an increasing usage of computer based exams, there are not enough researches about student perception towards online assessment in general and perception of students towards categorized fields of online assessment systems. To figure out the students&amp / #8217 / perceptions of online assessment an exam web site has been developed and implemented. This web site is a database driven web site and containing multiple choice questions. This online assessment site used as assessment module of Masa&uuml / st&uuml / Yayincilik course given by Department of Computer Education, Kocaeli University. The perceptions of the students&amp / #8217 / towards online assessment have been evaluated in terms of User interface, Impacts on learning process, System usage and general opinions on online assessment. The aim of the study is to investigate students&amp / #8217 / perceptions of the use of CAA and to investigate the potential for using student feedback in the validation of assessment. The results indicated that students have positive attitudes against online assessment. Results of questionnaires showed that user interface of the assessment web site is proper and well designed but need to be further development. The system use of the web site is easy. The impacts of the learning progress of the web site are sufficient but assessment web site should be developed by enriching the system components meeting the student needs. Security should be ensured.

Introduktion Medicinsk vetenskap och sjukvårdens möjligheter att hjälpa utvecklas ständigt. Sjukvården idag kan i många fall ställa rätt diagnos och ge en effektiv behandling för att bota den som drabbats av ohälsa. Radiologiska undersökningar är ett viktigt hjälpmedel men innebär också risker i form av strålning samt felaktigt resursanvändande. Syfte Syftet med förbättringsarbetet var att skapa en bättre användning av radiologi och följsamhet till medicinska riktlinjer så att patienten får rätt undersökning utifrån sitt behov samt att resur-ser nyttjas mer optimalt. Målsättningen var att öka andelen berättigade undersökningar. Syftet med studien av förbättringsarbetet var att få en förståelse för vilka faktorer som påverkar remittentens val av radiologisk undersökning och därmed berättigandegraden vilka aktiviteter i förbättringsarbetet påverkar berättigandegraden och på vilket sätt Metod Interventioner i form av utbildning och mätningar användes för att höja berättigandegraden. Bedömning av berättigandegraden gjordes av en ST-läkare. En fallstudie med kvalitativ ansats genomfördes och fokusgruppintervju användes för att stu-dera förbättringsarbetet. Resultat Studien visar att berättigandegraden ökar något som ett resultat av de valda interventionerna. Utbildningen på plats gav också upplevda positiva effekter i form av bättre kunskap och lä-rande för deltagare. Analysen visade att osäkerhet som läkare upplever i sitt arbete med patienten kan härledas till kategorierna kunskap och krav. Diskussion/Slutsats Utbildning genomförd av radiologispecialist har visat sig vara framgångsrikt koncept. Mät-ningar som metod för lärande och förändring uppfattades istället som mätning för uppföljning. Förbättrad kunskap kring vilka faktorer som styr läkares val av undersökning har uppnåtts och områden för fortsatt förbättring har identifierats / Introduction Medical science and medical facilities and clinical possibilities to help patients evolve con-stantly. Healthcare today can often make the diagnosis and provide effective treatment to cure the victim of ill health. Radiological surveys are an important tool but also provide risks in the form of radiation, and improper use of resources. Purpose The purpose of the improvement work was to create a better use of radiology and adherence to medical guidelines so that the patient gets the right for increase based on their needs and resources will be used more optimally. The goal was to increase the proportion of eligible studies. The purpose of the study of the improvement was to gain an understanding of what factors affect physicians choice of radiological investigation and thereby provide entitlement degree which activities in the improvement process affects eligibility degree and in what way Method Interventions in the form of education and measurements used to improve eligibility rate. As-sessment of the eligibility rate was made by a resident physician. A case study with a qualitative approach was implemented and focus-group interviews were used to study the improvement process. Results Results indicates that the eligibility rate increased slightly as a result of the selected interven-tions. Education in place, however, gave perceived benefits in terms of improved knowledge and learning for participants. The analysis showed that the uncertainty that physicians experience in their work with pa-tients can be attributed to the categories of knowledge and requirements. Discussion / Conclusion Education conducted by a radiology specialist has is shown to be a successful concept. Meas-urements as a method of learning and change were perceived as measurement for monitoring. Improved knowledge about the determinants of physician choice of survey has been achieved and areas for further improvement are identified.

This study investigated the examinees&rsquo / perceptions about an online assessment tool and an online assessment center. In this study, a computer literacy exam (Bilisim Seviye Tespit Sinavi, BSTS) was delivered in purposively designed environment, an online assessment center, at CEC, METU (Continuing Education Center, Middle East Technical University). The data were collected from 117 participants through the &ldquo / User evaluation questionnaire&rdquo / , in depth interviews with 43 examinees and 7 experts. 7 participants and the experts were interviewed individually while the rest 36 participants were interviewed in 6 focus groups (composed of 6 examinees). Descriptive statistics, frequency distributions and comments of participants and experts were used to express the results of the study. The results showed that the examinees perceived the online assessment tool and the online assessment center suitable for delivering online assessments. However, both participants and experts reported that a few changes could be done to the interface of online assessment tool. They also suggested that the computer literacy assessments be more authentic.

In distance education, lack of face-to-face communication prevents instructors from observing students&rsquo / activities efficiently, especially in crowded sessions, and consequently they fail to effectively assess the performance of distant learners. On the other hand, in spite of being physically distant, instructor should monitor students&rsquo / activities and assess their performance effectively so that learners can be informed as quickly as possible of how well they are doing. This thesis aims to develop an e-learning tool for distance education that integrates asynchronous and synchronous learning environments to offer an enriched e-learning platform. The tool enables instructor to keep track of students&rsquo / activities, assesses learners&rsquo / participation during online synchronous sessions dynamically, and provides asynchronous access to assessment data after the lectures. In this way, it is aimed to monitor performance of distant learners by the instructor more efficiently.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the effect of Middle East Technical University&amp / #8217 / s Science Centre (METU SC) on students&amp / #8217 / attitudes towards science. The sample (N=251) consisted of 131 males (52.2%) and 120 females (47.8%). The age range of the students varied from 11 to 14 (M=12.71, SD=0.80). The attitude scale was administered before, immediately after, and one week after a visit to METU SC. Because of the limitations on sampling procedure two different research designs were used. Design 1 was a quasi-experimental design (46 students in experimental group, 46 students in control group) and attempted to determine the impact of METU SC on 6th graders&amp / #8217 / attitudes towards science with respect to six constructs of the attitude scale. Design 2 was a weak experimental design (N=159) and attempted to determine the impact of METU SC on students&amp / #8217 / overall attitudes towards science with respect to their gender, grade levels, and science achievement scores. The results of this study suggest that METU SC has high potential on increasing middle school students&amp / #8217 / attitudes toward science in several dimensions. Furthermore, this increase is independent from gender, science achievement, and grade levels. Also considering that this achievement was accomplished in quite a short time (approximately one hour), science centres can be used by educators as an effective way of increasing students&amp / #8217 / attitudes toward science.

The importance of learning mathematics and using it in daily life is obvious. On the other hand, the results from many national and international assessment studies show that the achievement of Turkish students are very far away from the bare minimum performance. However, in the measurement and evaluation procedures of both primary and secondary educational system, there is a lack of identification of this &ldquo / bare minimum&rdquo / or qualitative and clear descriptors for performance levels. A great importance is dedicated to the national exam results expressed in percentage terms of the correct responses, or in total score points in weighted scale scores, but there is still no system of presenting to students their scores with descriptions of these scores in terms of levels of skills that they did or did not reach. Therefore, this study has aimed to identify the knowledge and skills required for different performance levels defined by setting cut points for the results of a 4th grade mathematics achievement test. The test was conducted in 2007-2008 academic year with 269 fourth grade students in eight different private primary schools in Istanbul. Then, in 2008-2009 academic year, a group of ten teachers of mathematics and assessment experts took part in the study for identifying the performance level descriptors for 4th grade mathematics performance. Two different methods of standard setting were used. One of the methods was based on the oneparameter model of Item Response Theory (IRT) and mostly named as Bookmark Method. The method depended on the statistical identification of the cut points on the scale for performance levels such as Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. The other method was a judgmental method which required the participant teachers to classify the item as carrying the characteristics of performance levels, again, as Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. The study revealed that the item mappings from two methods were congruent to each other. There was a hierarchical ordering in terms of skills among the performance levels. Also, the results demonstrated that understanding and computation skills were heavily characteristics of Below Basic and Basic levels, whereas, problem solving skill was reached by the students of Proficient and Advanced levels.

As the amount of accessible and shareable knowledge increases, it is figured out that learning platforms offering the same context and learning path to all users can not meet the demands of learners. This issue brings out the necessity of designing and developing adaptive hypermedia systems. This study describes an agent-based adaptive learning framework whose goal is to implement effective tutoring system with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques and cognitive didactic methods into Adaptive Educational Hypermedia Systems (AEHS) in the domain of Unified Modeling Language (UML). There are three main goals of this study. First goal is to explore how supportive agents affect student&rsquo / s learning achievement in distance learning. Second goal is to examine the interaction between supportive agents and learners with the help of experiments in Human Computer Interaction laboratories and system analysis. The effects of the methodology that agents give misleading hints which are common mistakes of other learners are also investigated. Last goal is to deliver effective feedback to students both from IAs and tutors. In order to assess that UML-ALF has accomplished its objectives, we followed an experimental procedure. Experimental groups have taken the advantage of adaptive and intelligent techniques of the UML-ALF and control groups have used the traditional learning techniques. The results show that there is a positive correlation between variables practice score and number of agent suggestion which means, as the participants benefit from supportive agents, they get higher scores.

A STUDY ON SOURCES AND CONSEQUENCES OF ELEMENTARY STUDENTS&rsquo / SELF-EFFICACY BELIEFS IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COURSE KIRAN, Dekant M.S., Department of Elementary Science and Mathematics Education Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Semra SUNGUR September 2010, 98 pages The present study aimed at investigating sources and consequences of middle school students&rsquo / science self-efficacy beliefs. While mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and emotional arousal were examined as sources of self-efficacy beliefs, students&rsquo / achievement goals, metacognition, and effort regulation were examined as consequences of self-efficacy beliefs. Self-report instruments, Sources of Science Self-Efficacy Scale (SSSE), Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ), were administered to 1932 middle school students to assess variables of the study. Results showed that mastery experience, verbal persuasion, and emotional arousal significantly predict students&rsquo / science self-efficacy which was found to be positively linked to mastery approach goals, performance approach goals, mastery avoidance goals, metacognition, and effort regulation. In addition, a positive relationship was found between verbal persuasion and mastery approach goals. Moreover, findings revealed that approach goals were positively associated with metacognition and effort regulation while avoidance goals are negatively linked to effort regulation. Additionally, results indicated a positive association between emotional arousal and effort regulation.

The purpose of this study is to construct a valid and reliable mathematics related beliefs scale for determining preservice elementary mathematics teachers&rsquo / mathematics related beliefs in Turkey and investigating the impact of the gender and year level on the preservice mathematics teachers&rsquo / mathematics related beliefs. For the first purpose, the &ldquo / Mathematics Related Belief Scale (MRBS)&rdquo / was developed based on the combination of the belief frameworks in the literature. Data were collected from ten different universities from Ankara, Balikesir, Burdur, Bolu, Gaziantep, Izmir, Van, and Samsun in the spring semester of 2009-2010 academic year. A total of 584 third and fourth year preservice mathematics teachers participated in this study. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that MRBS was a valid and reliable scale which measured Turkish preservice teachers&rsquo / mathematics related beliefs. MRBS had two components &ldquo / constructivist beliefs&rdquo / and &ldquo / traditional beliefs&rdquo / of mathematics and teaching mathematics. There was a significant effect of gender on preservice teachers&rsquo / mathematics related beliefs. No significant difference in preservice teachers&rsquo / mathematics related beliefs was detected in terms of year level in the teacher education program. The MRBS could be used for investigating preservice teachers&rsquo / mathematics related beliefs in order to determine effective teacher education program experiences.