Search

This phenomenological study examines academicians' beliefs and lived experiences of using tablet PC based on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Participants included 15 academic staff working in a university in Turkey. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews and subjected to content analysis. Main themes emerged from the data include reasons for purchasing tablet PC, usage patterns, professional and instructional implementation, comparison of tablet with other PCs, future expectations of tablets, and opinions about tablet experiences (performance increase, advantages, health issues). The results showed that academicians were satisfied with tablet PC and used it for presentation, social media, and routine tasks. However, they did not prefer it as a first PC option and they found it inadequate for all their works due to the limitation of subject-specific applications, incompatibility issues, difficulty in writing, and tendency to maintain previous PC usage habits. The findings did not indicate any reduction in the need and use of other PCs due to tablet ownership. Overall, this study supports the interaction of HCI components (user, tool, environment, tasks) and TAM components (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use) and their effects on the adoption and use of a technological tool.

Learning management systems (LMS) are web-based platforms used for enhancing and supporting classroom teaching or delivering online instruction. Much of the earlier research has focused on their technological features and implementations into instruction. However, investigating what and how teachers and students think about and experience with LMS based on their actual usage is needed to realize educational potential of these systems. This study aimed to investigate pre-service teachers' lived experiences about taking courses through Moodle LMS. The research was designed as a qualitative study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed through content analysis technique via Nvivo 7.0 software. The sample included 25 college students majoring in Computer and Instructional Technology Education at a state university in Turkey. Majority of the participants indicated that Moodle was user-friendly, beneficial and enhancer for interaction with both instructor and course content. Participants identified "assignments", "resources", and "forum" as the most effective instructional modules. On the other hand, some argued that Moodle could not provide face-to-face interaction like in the classrooms and thus it was not suitable for certain math and non-math courses requiring such interaction. They also found registration to course website as the biggest technical challenge.

This study aims to demonstrate the correlations between academicians' organisational commitment and their intention to resign from their job. For this purpose, first the concepts of organisational commitment and quitting the job were considered within the framework of relevant literature, and then hypotheses for the correlations were developed. 276 lecturers in total 198 of whom were teaching in faculties or departments of sport sciences and 78 of whom were teaching in foundation universities were included in this study. A personal information form in addition to Turnover Intention Scale developed by Rosin and Korabick (1995) and adapted into Turkish by Tanriöver (2005), and Organisational Commitment Scale developed by Meyer and Allen (1997) and adapted into Turkish by Varol (2010) were used for our purposes. In conclusion, it was found that academicians' intention to quit their job was low but their organisational commitment levels were high and that they had emotional commitment most--which was followed by normative commitment and continuance commitment. Lecturers employed in foundation universities had higher levels of intention to quit their job than those employed in state universities. Lecturers working in state universities had higher levels of emotional commitment than those working in foundation universities. It was also found that lecturers' rate of quitting the job was reduced as their levels of emotional and normative commitment increased in both state and foundation universities.

The present study aimed to apply Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) treatment to foreign language (FL) anxiety, a complex and multidimensional phenomenon that has been found to exert profound effects on many aspects of FL learning and performance. EMDR originally emerged as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and a great number of studies demonstrated empirically its potential for treating and coping with various psychological disorders. The present study used the Single-Case Design (SCD). EMDR was given to two volunteer adult EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners experiencing severe FL anxiety. The effect of the treatment on FL anxiety was tracked and measured by using two separate scales of FL anxiety and obtaining self-reports of distress from the subjects. The long-term effects of EMDR were checked through two separate follow-up assessments. The results clearly demonstrated that EMDR was effective in reducing FL anxiety and increasing subjects' positive cognition.

Contemporary studies have become interested in determining transformative effects of information and communication technologies on youngsters' social and cultural identity developments. Internet cafés are techno-social spaces where people access to digital media and interact with global cultural flows. Such interactions are profound because they fundamentally challenge diverse locality and traditional values. In this paper, we report the findings of ethnographic research study as a part of graduate thesis project about Internet cafés in Turkey. Our purpose was to find out how Internet cafés are being used by Turkish youth and how these sites affect their social, cultural, and educational experiences. We conducted intensive observations in three Internet cafés and semi-structured interviews with four college students. The results show that Internet cafés are being used mostly by male youngsters mostly for entertainment and communication purposes. Internet café usage are closely related to the emergence of techno-consumerist youth culture or lifestyle. This suggests that technology is more than a simple and neutral instrument that constitutes complex social and cultural dimensions which may involve profound alterations for people lives.

Contemporary studies have become interested in determining transformative effects of information and communication technologies on youngsters' social and cultural identity developments. Internet cafés are techno- social spaces where people access to digital media and interact with global cultural flows. Such interactions are profound because they fundamentally challenge diverse locality and traditional values. In this paper, we report the findings of ethnographic research study as a part graduate thesis project about Internet cafés in Turkey. Our purpose was to find out how Internet cafés are being used by Turkish youth and how these sites affect their social, cultural, and educational experiences. We conducted intensive observations in three Internet cafés and semi-structured interviews with four college students. The results show that Internet cafés are being used mostly by male youngsters mostly for entertainment and communication purposes. Internet café usage are closely related to the emergence of techno-consumerist youth culture or lifestyle. This suggests that technology is more than a simple and neutral instrument that constitutes complex social and cultural dimensions which may involve profound alterations for people lives. The following are appended: (1) Internet Café Observation Template; and (2) Interview Guiding Questions Form.

This study examined the relationships between university students' internet addiction and psychopathology in Turkey. The study was based on data drawn from a national survey of university students in Turkey. 174 university students completed the SCL-90-R scale and Addicted Internet Users Inventory. Results show that students who use internet six hours and more a day have psychiatric symptoms. Students whose addicted internet usage have psychiatric symptoms such as Somatization, Obsessive Compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation and psychoticism more than students whose nonaddictive internet usage. (Contains 2 tables.)

This paper reports the results of a needs assessment survey that was conducted to find out pre-service teachers' background knowledge, experiences and perceptions about their preparation for technology integration at a university in the Middle East USA. A questionnaire with both closed and open-ended items was administered to a group of student teachers. Participants seemed neutral with regards to feelings of being adequately prepared to use technology in their teaching but perceived that they needed more training. Majority knew how to use office tools, webpage design, and presentation tools. However, they did not feel comfortable using spreadsheets, databases, concept mapping, hypermedia, WebQuest, simulation tools, and video editing. In addition, the overall results suggested that pre-service teachers still used technologies within the objectivist model of teaching and learning. Based on the findings, teacher education programs need to provide pre-service teachers with additional and alternative technology training programs. The characteristics of such programs were discussed to help pre-service teachers learn how to use technologies as instructional tools to enhance their teaching and students' learning. (Contains 5 tables.)

This paper draws on a part of the doctoral research study that investigates the potential impacts of Internet cafe use on Turkish college students' social capital. In this study, Internet cafe usage was portrayed by the amount of time spent and the frequency of online activities engaged at the cafes. Social capital, on the other hand, was characterized by feelings about loneliness, quality of social network with family, quality of social network with friends, and pro-social attitudes. A quantitative research design with a survey technique was employed. The data were collected from 758 undergraduate students from the College of Education of a major Anatolian university. Multiple linear regression with simple slope analysis were conducted to determine the proportion of variance that Internet cafe use accounts for in social capital and whether participants' type of accommodation adds anything significant. Results indicated that (a) Internet cafe usage did not significantly influence on loneliness and pro-social attitudes, (b) spending more time at Internet cafes and frequent entertainment-based online activities led to a decrease in the quality of social networks with both family and friends, (c) frequent online communication activities led to an increase in the quality of social networks with friends, and (d) such effects were the same for participants who stay alone, stay with family, and stay with friends. It was concluded that Internet technology was more than a simple and neutral tool that may constitute complex social dimensions involving profound alterations for youth's social life. (Contains 5 tables.)

The purpose of this paper is to bring together various elements that portray the complex conceptuality of cultural identity within technological society. It engages in a theoretical inquiry into the questions of how the wide ranging uses young people are now making of new information and communication technologies and global media may possess the potential to transform their cultural identity and how educational institutions should understand and respond to this evolving cultural reality. In discussing these questions, it refers to recent theories of cultural identity, especially as they relate to the increasing volume of global flows of ideas and ideologies, people, finance and cultural practices, and specific theories about the nature of technology in terms of explicating the relationship between society and technology. Finally, it concludes with implications for educational practices of technology use.

The purpose of this paper is to bring together various elements that portray the complex conceptuality of cultural identity within technological society. It engages in a theoretical inquiry into the questions of how the wide-ranging uses young people are now making of new information and communication technologies and global media may possess the potential to transform their cultural identity and how educational institutions should understand and respond to this evolving cultural reality. In discussing these questions, it refer to recent theories of cultural identity, especially as they relate to the increasing volume of global flows of ideas and ideologies, people, finance and cultural practices, and specific theories about the nature of technology in terms of explicating the relationship between society and technology. Finally, it concludes with implications for educational practices of technology use.

Throughout the paper, the issues of individual differences in web-based learning, also known as online instruction, online training or distance education were examined and implications for designing distance education were discussed. Although the main purpose was to identify differences in learners' characteristics such as cognitive, affective, physiological and social factors that affect learning in a web-enhanced environment, the questions of how the web could be used to reinforce learning, what kinds of development ideas, theories and models are currently being used to design and deliver online instruction, and finally what evidence for the effectiveness of using World Wide Web (WWW) for learning and instruction has been reported, were also analyzed to extend theoretical and epistemogical understanding of web-based learning.

The main purpose of this research is to analyse whether there is a difference or not in levels of having psychological symptoms of the students of undergraduate program in elementary mathematics teaching. Another aim of the research is to determine whether the levels of having psychological symptoms of the students differ or not regarding various variables during undergraduate program in elementary mathematics teaching. Relational screening model was used in the study and it was carried out with 154 female, 76 male and in total 230 participants. The data were obtained by using personal information form and SCL-90-R scale. The data were tested with t-test and variance analysis methods in independent groups. Findings are as follows; 1) The levels of having psychological symptoms of the students during undergraduate program in elementary mathematics teaching differ according to gender variable. 2) Education type was found to be a factor in terms of depression in levels of having psychological symptoms of students. 3) The levels of having psychological symptoms of the students studying in elementary mathematics teaching differ according to grade variable. 4) The levels of having psychological symptoms of the students studying in elementary mathematics teaching differ according to the order of preference of department in terms of hostility. 5) When the levels of having psychological symptoms of the students studying in elementary mathematics teaching are analysed according to the reasons of choosing the department, it was seen that the differentiation occurs in terms of interpersonal sensibility and paranoid ideation. 6) Order of being born of the students studying in elementary mathematics teaching is not a factor in having psychological symptoms. (Contains 6 tables.)

School managers undertake an important duty in structuring of education institutions. In the study carried out in this context; anger conditions, continuity, and direction of anger, anger control levels and anger styles of school managers who are the decision makers in schools were examined according to the ages, working periods, duty types, ways to become a manager, perceived socio-economic level, number of children and birth order of the managers. The study was carried out with 113 school managers in total and the data was obtained using "Personal Information Form" and "State Continuous Anger Scale". The study was performed with relational screening method. Some results of the study can be stated as follows: The continuity of the anger felt by the school managers, repression of the anger, expression of the anger and anger control were found to be at medium level. Anger repression and control levels of the managers show difference in terms of working period. Perceived socio-economic level was found to be a factor in the expression of the anger felt. Birth order was found to be a factor in controlling the anger felt by the managers. (Contains 6 tables.)

This study focused on exploring Internet abuse among teenagers and its relations to some Internet usage patterns and demographic characteristics in a digitalizing country, Turkey. It was designed as a cross-sectional research on three types of school that differ in their academic performances. The data were collected from 1380 high school students through a paper-based questionnaire. The results identified a small portion of students as Internet abusers experiencing severe problems and one fourth as possible abusers experiencing occasional problems in their lives. Excessive use, tolerance, preoccupation with the Internet, and using the Internet to escape from negative feelings were the most frequently reported symptoms of disturbed patterns of online behaviors. One-way between-groups ANOVA tests revealed that Internet abuse differed significantly based on gender and perceived academic achievement with small effect sizes, and frequency of Internet use, dominant place of Internet use and dominant purpose for Internet use with medium and large effect sizes. On the contrary, no significant differences were found based on perceived socio-economic status and the type of school attended. (Contains 6 tables.)

This study explored (a) pre-service teachers' perceptions of using concept mapping (CM) in one of their pedagogical courses, (b) the predictive power of such implementation in course achievement, and (c) the role of prior experience with CM, type of mapping, and gender on their perceptions and performances in CM and achievement. The subjects were 89 pre-service teachers majoring in technical education in Turkey. Each participant developed five concept maps and shared them with classmates. The data sources included assessments of concept maps, midterm exam scores, and student feedback questionnaires. Overall, participants had positive perceptions about CM. They indicated that CM helped them prepare for class lessons and examinations, understand complex issues, and reflect on their (mis)understandings. CM significantly predicted course achievement. Gender, prior experience with CM, and type of mapping were found to be insignificant factors in their perceptions and performances in CM and in the prediction of achievement. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

This study examined the potential consequences of using student-filmed video cases in the study of classroom management in teacher education. Pre-service teachers in groups were engaged in video-recorded role playing to simulate classroom memoirs. Each group shared their video cases and interpretations in a class presentation. Qualitative data collection techniques were used to gather their experiences. Reflection papers written by 97 juniors were analyzed through content analysis and triangulated by group videos and case analysis reports. The results suggest that having pre-service teachers develop and analyze video cases can improve motivation, learning, empathy, and the construction of professional identity. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)