This study was conducted in an attempt to integrate a number of cognitive, motivational and behavioral factors in elementary mathematics education, and to develop a theoretical model that explains the direct and indirect relationships among these concepts and their underlying dimensions. In particular, it was intended to examine the interrelationships among students&rsquo / achievement goal orientations, perception of classroom goal structure, self-efficacy, use of self-regulatory strategies, and academic achievement in mathematics. Participants were 1019 seventh grade students, enrolled in public elementary schools, located in four different urban and rural districts in Ankara. A self-report questionnaire and a mathematics achievement test were administered to the participants during their regular class periods. A pilot study was carried out with 250 seventh grade students, for conducting exploratory factor analysis. Structural equation modeling technique was used for data analysis. First, confirmatory factor analyses were conducted for each factor in the questionnaire. Then, a structural equation model was developed for the whole sample. Results revealed that students&rsquo / perceptions of classroom goal structure were directly linked to their adoption of achievement goal orientations. Among these goal orientations, only mastery goal orientation was associated with students&rsquo / use of learning strategies, which, in turn, related to their mathematics achievement. Among the learning strategies, only elaboration was significantly related to students&rsquo / mathematics achievement. Besides, self-efficacy was both directly and indirectly related to students&rsquo / adoption of achievement goals, use of learning strategies, and mathematics achievement.

This dissertation aimed to investigate the use of Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) as supportive materials in students&rsquo / learning process. In this respect, a MUVE named Quest Atlantis had been used by students in formal and informal learning settings. The students participated in a project that was developed based on an ecological problem resulted in fish decline in a river. As being a multiple case study research, data were collected from four separate cases, selected from three different places. Specifically, students&rsquo / and teachers&rsquo / perceptions were gathered, and challenges and barriers of implementations were investigated. The research results indicated that most of the students liked learning in environments using MUVEs. Besides being intrinsically motivated towards learning science topics, the students stated that it was a good way of reinforcing what they learn in school settings. Students found MUVEs effective learning environments as it allowed them to learn with active participation / rather than being taught as it usually happens in school context. The teachers had positive opinions about the use of MUVEs. They claimed that MUVEs have the potential to support students&rsquo / learning visually and let students learn through an inquiry-based learning approach with situated information to virtual settings. According to the teachers, MUVEs allowed various skill developments of the students and it created a dynamic learning environment in which students interacted and collaborated with each other. Even though students and teachers have positive perception about the use of MUVEs in learning setting, it is quite challenging to place these applications to learning settings, especially to formal ones. There are numerous challenges and barriers that can be faced with during the implementation process. In this research, the challenges and barriers are grouped under four main categories: 1) teacher related, 2) student related, 3) system related, and 4) technology related. When the implementation results of formal and informal learning setting were compared, it was possible to see how the very dimensions of formal learning settings made the innovative technology-based implementations difficult. On the other hand, informal learning settings were more flexible learning environments allowing a better learning experience for the students.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the views of upper elementary mathematics teachers and students about the use of manipulatives in teaching and learning mathematics. This study is a qualitative case study. The participants of this study were four elementary mathematics teachers in a private school and their 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. The data were collected through one-to-one interviews, observations and analyzing documents consisting of annual plan, daily plan, notebooks of students, and the field note that the researcher kept throughout the study. This study revealed that although all the teachers advocate the use of manipulatives in teaching mathematics, they use traditional teaching techniques in their classes. They mentioned different factors affecting their use of manipulatives in teaching mathematics such as not knowing how to use them, grade level, availability of materials, time constraints, students&rsquo / reactions (seeing them as a toy or not being accustomed to them), school administration, classroom management, not finding materials appropriate for the subject being taught and classroom size. In fact, these are the factors that are seen on the surface level. This study indicated that even when teachers are provided with training about the use of manipulatives, supported by the school administration, and provided with manipulatives, the use of manipulatives is largely determined by their views / beliefs about the nature of mathematics, how students can learn mathematics, the effect of manipulatives and their knowledge in using them. Students seemed to like learning by using manipulatives. When conditions were arranged for learning, they were willing to learn through manipulatives.

The purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of context based instruction over traditionally designed chemistry instruction on 9th grade students&rsquo / understanding of cleaning materials topic and their attitudes toward environment. Moreover students&rsquo / science process skills were measured for using as a covariate. Participants were 222 ninth grade students from eight classes in two different types of high schools in Ankara. Experimental group students were instructed with context based instruction and control group students were instructed with traditionally designed instruction through five weeks. Cleaning Materials Achievement Test and Attitudes toward Environment Scale were used as pre and post tests. Science Process Skills test was used only as a pretest. MANCOVA technique was used as a statistical analysis procedure. According to statistical analyses, there was a significant mean difference with respect to context based instruction and traditionally designed instruction on cleaning materials topic in favor of experimental group and no significant difference with respect to attitude toward environment. There was no significant mean difference with respect to school type in both Cleaning Materials Achievement Test scores and Attitude toward Environment Scale scores. Beside, science process skills were a strong predictor for understanding the cleaning materials topic. Four focus groups were conducted separately regarding the students&rsquo / career choices after the treatment to have an idea over the quality of the instruction in experimental group. Focus group results revealed that students were appreciated and more motivated with context based instructional design.

The aims of this study were to investigate the effects of drama based instruction on seventh grade students&rsquo / achievement on geometry (angles and polygons / circle and cylinder), retention of achievement, van Hiele geometric thinking level, attitudes toward mathematics and attitudes toward geometry compared to the traditional teaching / to get the students&rsquo / views related to the effects of drama based instruction on their learning, friendship relations, awareness of themselves, and the role of teacher and students / and to get the view of teacher who was present in the classroom during the treatment on drama based instruction. The study was conducted on three seventh grade classes from a public school in the 2002-2003 academic year, lasting 30 lesson hours (seven and a half week). v The data were collected through angles and polygons / and circle and cylinder achievement tests, the van Hiele geometric thinking level test, mathematics and geometry attitude scale, and interviews. The quantitative analyses were carried out by using two multivariate covariance analyses. The results revealed that drama based instruction had a significant effect on students&rsquo / angles and polygons achievement, circle and cylinder achievement, retention of these achievement, van Hiele geometric thinking level, mathematics attitude, and geometry attitude compared to the traditional teaching. According to the interview responses of the experimental group students and the classroom teacher, significantly better performance of the experimental group students was attributable to the potential of the drama based instruction to make learning easy and understanding better by / supporting active involvement, creating collaborative studying environment, giving chance to improvise daily life examples, giving opportunity to communicate, providing meaningful learning, supporting long-lasting learning and providing selfawareness.

The purposes of the study were / to investigate the effect of type of high school on spatial ability, to investigate the relationships between students&rsquo / mathematics achievements, logical thinking abilities and their spatial abilities and to investigate the effect of technical drawing course on the development of students&rsquo / spatial abilities. The study was conducted in Ankara with 251 9th-grade students who enrolled to general, Anatolian, foreign language, commercial vocational and industrial vocational high schools. Two measuring instruments were utilized: Spatial Ability Tests and Group Test of Logical Thinking. Spatial Ability Tests, which were developed by Ekstrom, consist of card rotation, cube comparison tests measuring the spatial orientation ability and paper folding and surface development tests measuring the spatial visualization ability. The tests were translated in to Turkish by Delialioglu, (1996). Group Test of Logical Thinking was developed by Roadrangka, Yeany, and Padilla and a Turkish version of GALT was developed by Aksu, Beberoglu and Payko&ccedil / (1990). In order to analyze the obtained data, one way ANOVA, correlation analysis and t-test were used. The results of the study indicated that / there is no significant effect of type of high school on students&rsquo / spatial abilities / there is a significant positive relationship between spatial ability and mathematics achievement / there is a significant positive relationship between spatial ability and logical thinking ability / there is a significant positive relationship between spatial ability and technical drawing achievement / and there is a significant development in the students&rsquo / spatial abilities of the students in the technical drawing course.

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of analogy-enhanced instruction on students&rsquo / achievement in function and attitudes toward mathematics. The study was conducted with 63 ninth grade students in one of the public high schools in Konya, Turkey during Spring 2005 semester. The experimental group received instruction with analogy-enhanced model. The control group received instruction with traditional method. The matching-only pre-test- post-test control group design was used in the study. The following measuring instruments were used to collect data: The Function Achievement Test, Mathematics Attitude Scale and open ended questions. The data of the present study were analyzed by using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and paired t-test. Results of the study indicated that: (1) There was a significant mean difference between students received instruction with analogy-enhanced models and those received instruction with traditional method in terms of the function achievement, (2) there was no significant mean difference between students received instruction with analogy-enhanced models and those received instruction with traditional method in terms of attitudes toward mathematics, (3) there was a significant mean difference between gained scores of students received instruction with analogy-enhanced method and those received instruction with traditional method in terms of attitudes toward mathematics.

The problem with which this study was concerned was that of determining which of the "Goals for Public School Education in Texas" were perceived as appropriate by local educators and students in smaller school districts and to determine the degree to which each of these goals was being implemented. This study had a two-fold purpose. The first was to compare the differences between appropriateness and implementation as perceived by senior students, teachers, administrators, and the composite group. A comparison between the three groups regarding both appropriateness and implementation was also made. The second purpose of the study was to determine if sex, ethnic background, and geographic location were factors when comparing perceptions concerning the appropriateness and implementation of the "Goals for Public School Education in Texas." The comparison between students, teachers, and administrators revealed a significant difference between the groups on each, of the eighteen goals regarding appropriateness. With regard to implementation, there was a significant difference between groups on eight of the goals. Differences were generally between students and teachers and students and administrators. The comparison between male and female students revealed that the female students perceived the goals to be more appropriate than did the male students. There were no significant differences between their perceptions regarding implementation. There were significant differences between Anglos, Blacks, and Mexican Americans on ten of the eighteen goals with regard to appropriateness and on three of the eighteen goals regarding implementation. Generally the Anglos perceived the goals to be more appropriate than the other two groups. Geographically there were significant differences between the regions regarding both appropriateness and implementation. Differences varied regarding perceived appropriateness. Central Texas generally perceived implementation higher than the other regions and West Texas generally perceived implementation lower.

Esse estudo buscou identificar e analisar as práticas desenvolvidas por psicólogos da rede pública de Educação, visando compreender desafios e possibilidades presentes no processo de construção de uma atuação coerente com as discussões presentes na literatura da área de Psicologia Escolar e Educacional, cuja perspectiva centra-se no processo de escolarização e nas relações de aprendizagem e desenvolvimento que se produzem no cotidiano escolar. Elegeu-se como método investigativo a abordagem qualitativa de estudo de caso, optando-se por acompanhar o trabalho de uma equipe de psicólogos escolares que atuam em uma Secretaria Municipal de Educação do estado de São Paulo. Para tanto, foram realizados os seguintes procedimentos metodológicos: a) acompanhamento de psicólogos em visitas a Unidades Escolares; b) participação em contexto formativo da equipe e c) entrevista coletiva. Esses momentos foram registrados em um diário de campo, privilegiando-se como método de análise os conteúdos presentes nas falas, nas ações e proposições apresentadas durante os encontros realizados. A partir desse conjunto de informações, temos a destacar os seguintes aspectos: a) um dos focos centrais de atuação do grupo de psicólogos diz respeito à implementação da política de Educação Inclusiva no município, acompanhando crianças incluídas na rede regular de ensino e assessorando escolas nesse processo. As estratégias de atuação incluem conversas com gestores e professores, observação dos alunos em sala de aula, reunião com pais, grupo com alunos; b) de maneira geral, destacam-se, nas ações dos profissionais, práticas e concepções coerentes com a perspectiva que considera a importância das dimensões sociais, pedagógicas, políticas e institucionais como constitutivas do processo de escolarização, de maneira a incentivar a participação de todos os atores escolares no processo de ensino e aprendizagem, a reflexão sobre práticas pedagógicas excludentes, e o investimento na formação docente. Também foram apontados alguns desafios: a) divergências de expectativas em relação ao trabalho de psicólogos na escola por parte de professores e/ou gestores, que ainda esperam uma atuação clínica do psicólogo na Educação; b) dificuldades em constituir espaços de intervenção mais coletivos nos quais professores e gestores possam trocar experiências e produzir reflexões juntos; c) ausência de reuniões entre a própria equipe técnica. Por fim, essa pesquisa permitiu compreender elementos presentes no processo de construção de uma atuação do psicólogo escolar numa perspectiva crítica no âmbito do ensino público, podendo assim contribuir para a elaboração de políticas públicas capazes de responder às necessidades reais das escolas / The objective of this study is to identify and analyze the practices developed by psychologists in the public education system in order to understand the challenges and possibilities in the development process of such practices. These practices are consistent with the recent literature of the School Psychology whose perspective focuses in the schooling process and the learning and development relations established between teachers and students in the school routine. The research method was based in a qualitative case study of school psychologists team, that works in an educational municipality department of São Paulo. For this purpose, the following methodological procedures were followed: a) monitoring psychologists visits in schools; b) participation in the formation moment of the psychologists team; c) one group interview. All situations were registered in a field diary and some of them were highlighted in the analyses. One of the most important actions of the psychologists team concerns the implementation of an inclusive education policy, which means supporting the children accepted in the regular school and helping schools in this process. The strategies include talking to principal and teachers; observing the students in the classroom; participating in meetings with parents; organizing focal groups with the students. In general, the professionals have practices and conceptions that value the importance of the social, educational, political and institutional aspects as constitutive elements of the schooling process. These practices also encourage: a) the involvement of all school actors in the process of teaching and learning; b) the reflection on excluding teaching practices; c) investment in teacher training. Some challenges were also highlighted: a) differing expectations of teachers and principal about the work of psychologists in school, the first one seems to be still awaiting for clinical psychologists performance in education; b) difficulties in constituting collective spaces of intervention in which teachers and principals can exchange experiences and ideas; c) lack of opportunities for exchange between the psychologists team. Finally, this research contribute to understand of some elements of the school psychologist\'s development practices in a critical perspective in the context of public education system, it also contributes to the elaboration of public policies to address schools concrete necessities

Professionals have found autism to be an enigmatic condition. While necessary biomedical research continues, a gap exists in the inclusion of parental opinions, knowledge, and experiences in educational planning for their autistic children. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to identify the factors that the parents felt contributed to the academic success of their autistic child in the public school classroom environment and ways in which their ideas might contribute to overall educational planning and classroom design in structure, curriculum development, and intervention strategies which might lead to reduced stress. Parental input was explored through semistructured personal interviews with 8 parents and the administration of a 32-question survey questionnaire to 109 parents of autistic children. A content analysis was done on the qualitative data, and an analysis of quantitative data reported the frequency and percentages of the participant responses. Findings from the data revealed multiple areas in need of improved educational services that include the classroom organization, educator training and knowledge about the autistic condition, educator support, effective communication, and behavioral management of the symptoms of autism. The social change impact from the study's findings have the potential to inform educational planning, foster collaboration, increase educator participation in autism training methods, secure necessary funding for evidence based autism educational programs, promote further research, and provide awareness of existing empirically based approaches designed to meet the needs of a vulnerable population.