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Contribution: This article provides evidence on the influence of serious games (SGs) in software engineering (SE) education on students' scores, exam attendance, and chance of passing. It also highlights the impact of teachers' experience with the implementation of SGs as a learning approach on the aforementioned metrics. Background: Although there are previous studies validating SGs in SE subjects, examining the effects that SGs and the expertise to implement them can have on students' academic achievement by means of rigorous scientific methods is lacking. Research Questions: Do students achieve better academic results when SGs are used? Are the exam attendance and chance of passing higher among students enrolled in courses that use SGs compared to those following a traditional approach? Does the teachers' expertise with SGs have an impact on students' achievement? Are students satisfied using SGs in SE courses? Methodology: A controlled experiment was conducted on undergraduate students who were enrolled in an SE course during the years 2012/2013-2013/2014 and 2021/2022 to compare the effects of SGs with traditional teaching on students' achievement in this subject. The students from the academic year 2012/2013 attended traditional lectures only, while the students from the academic years 2013/2014 and 2021/2022 had SGs incorporated within their lectures, led by teachers without and with expertise to deploy SGs, respectively. Findings: Students' scores are higher when SGs are used compared to traditional teaching. Teachers' experience and expertise are key factors to improve the chances of attending and passing the final exam when SGs are used.

The synthesis of a [2]rotaxane through three- or five-component coupling reactions has been adapted to an organic chemistry experiment for upper-division students. The experimental procedure addresses the search for the most favorable reaction conditions for the synthesis of the interlocked compound, which is obtained in a yield of up to 71%. Moreover, the interlocked nature of the rotaxane is proven by NMR spectroscopy. The content of the sessions has been designed on the basis of a proactive methodology whereby upper-division undergraduate students have a dynamic role. The laboratory experience not only introduces students to the chemistry of the mechanical bond but also reinforces their previous knowledge of basic organic laboratory procedures and their skills with structural elucidation techniques such as NMR and FT-IR spectroscopies. The experiment has been designed in such a customizable way that both experimental procedures and laboratory material can be adapted to a wide range of undergraduate course curricula.

PURPOSE: To examine associations of prenatal biomarkers of pesticide exposure with birth size measures and length of gestation among newborns from the Infants Environmental Health (ISA) birth cohort, Costa Rica. METHODS: We included 386 singleton liveborn newborns with data on birth size measures, length of gestation, and maternal urinary biomarkers of chlorpyrifos, synthetic pyrethroids, mancozeb, pyrimethanil, and 2, 4-D during pregnancy. We associated biomarkers of exposure with birth outcomes using multivariate linear regression and generalized additive models. RESULTS: Concentrations were highest for ethylene thiourea (ETU, metabolite of mancozeb), median = 3.40; p10-90 = 1.90-6.79 µg/L, followed by 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCP, metabolite of chlorpyrifos) p50 = 1.76 p10-90 = 0.97-4.36 µg/L, and lowest for 2,4-D (p50 = 0.33 p10-90 = 0.18-1.07 µg/L). Among term newborns (≥37 weeks), higher prenatal TCP was associated with lower birth weight and smaller head circumference (e.g., β per 10-fold-increase) during the second half of pregnancy = -129.6 (95% confidence interval [CI] = -255.8, -3.5) grams, and -0.61 (95% CI = -1.05, -0.17) centimeters, respectively. Also, among term newborns, prenatal 2,4-D was associated with lower birth weight (β per 10-fold-increase = -125.1; 95% CI = -228.8, -21.5), smaller head circumference (β = -0.41; 95% CI = -0.78, -0.03), and, during the second half of pregnancy, with shorter body length (β = -0.58; 95% CI = -1.09, -0.07). Furthermore, ETU was nonlinearly associated with head circumference during the second half of pregnancy. Biomarkers of pyrethroids and pyrimethanil were not associated with birth size, and none of the biomarkers explained the length of gestation. CONCLUSIONS: Prenatal exposure to chlorpyrifos and 2,4-D, and, possibly, mancozeb/ETU, may impair fetal growth.

To constitute awareness of climate change, hearing the solutions of students in their words and seeing visual products by creating experiences in schools is vital. This case study was limited to sequential implementations of climate change in the natural sciences teaching process in 5th grade. After an education process on using Pixton, 12 students transformed their learning into digital comics. This research aimed to reveal the problems created by students through digital stories about climate change, solutions they suggested for climate problems, and aesthetic subtleties they applied to express themselves. Digital comics created by students, researcher notes, observations, and students' view forms were used as data collection tools. Finally, vital solutions to problems such as global climate change, pollution, destruction of the natural environment, and extinction of living creatures were created by students during this case. Important solutions consisting of preventing global warming, making peace with nature, vital measures and efforts to protect the soil were suggested. Besides, interesting aesthetic subtleties such as storification, positioning of the characters, place preferences, expression of emotions, and time depiction were applied. Teachers can use comics to see students' tendencies, raise awareness, encourage them, and help them develop solutions for current socioscientific problems.

COVID-19 has had serious consequences in all areas of social life, including education. In this period, distance education appeared as an inevitable solution. Even today, when the pandemic process is over and re-normalization has begun, online teaching environments have become such an indispensable part of education systems that it has been decided that a certain proportion of the courses will be conducted online in universities. For this reason, determining student experiences in online courses is important in planning the future of distance education. Since academic performance is the output of the teaching process, students' academic performance is one of the topics of interest in higher education research. There may be different factors affecting the academic performance of students in the distance education process, which imposes more responsibility on students and requires self-control. This study aimed to examine the relationship of academic performance in the distance education with home infrastructure, student interaction, computer skills, academic satisfaction. This research is based on a large-scale study, "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of higher education students", examining the pandemic's impact on higher education student perceptions in 2020. It has been observed that home infrastructure has a significant impact on the student's academic performance. The infrastructure increases the interaction of the student. When home infrastructure is taken as a control variable, students' computer skills are the highest predictor of their perception of academic performance, followed by their online interactions and, finally, perceived satisfaction. Today, pandemic conditions are still ongoing. In addition, even as the pandemic ends, online education has become an indispensable part of our education system. Therefore, the findings of the research would be beneficial for the ongoing planning process.

In parallel with the increase in social expectations regarding education and its outcomes, studies on school effectiveness continue unabated. The ability of educational organizations to provide qualitatively higher education has become the focus of the researches. In this direction, school governance, the adaptation of governance principles to educational organizations, has come to the fore. The purpose of this research is to examine school effectiveness and to determine the significant variables in explaining school effectiveness. The study group of this research consists of 502 teachers working in Yozgat. Within the scope of this research, CHAID analysis was used to explain school effectiveness with school governance with the factors -"participation," "transparency," "rule of law"- and teachers' demographic variables. In terms of demographic variables, teachers' age, gender, union membership, education degree, seniority, working time with the current manager, year of employment at the current school were analyzed. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that the first significant variable in explaining school effectiveness was rule of law. Participation was found to be the second significant variable in predicting school effectiveness. It was inferred from the finding that adopting accountability within the rule of law dimension at school means taking steps to monitor the school's performance. Therefore, the rule of law has an impact on school effect. Furthermore, it was observed that accountability and equality practices positively affect school effectiveness. Based on the results, it was concluded that that better school performance can be increased depending on good governance practices like of the rule of law and following a participatory policy.

Ergonomics courses typically cover a range of topics related to the design and organization of workplaces to optimize human performance and well-being while minimizing injury risk and discomfort. This study introduces the PBL application steps to attract attention to the importance of noise not only in workplaces but also in daily life. The driving question is determined as "How can we assess and minimize the perceived daily noise exposure of people to sustain hearing health?". Then, the students are asked to evaluate the PBL activities at the end of the term. Among the students who completed all activities, 60% strongly agreed, 32% agreed that PBL contributed to the understanding of the subject, and only 8% stated that PBL didn't make a significant contribution when learning the topic of concern. The PBL framework developed for "noise" has the potential to be enhanced and adapted for other topics in this course.

Viruses target mitochondria to promote their replication, and infection-induced stress during the progression of infection leads to the regulation of antiviral defenses and mitochondrial metabolism which are opposed by counteracting viral factors. The precise structural and functional changes that underlie how mitochondria react to the infection remain largely unclear. Here we show extensive transcriptional remodeling of protein-encoding host genes involved in the respiratory chain, apoptosis, and structural organization of mitochondria as herpes simplex virus type 1 lytic infection proceeds from early to late stages of infection. High-resolution microscopy and interaction analyses unveiled infection-induced emergence of rough, thin, and elongated mitochondria relocalized to the perinuclear area, a significant increase in the number and clustering of endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondria contact sites, and thickening and shortening of mitochondrial cristae. Finally, metabolic analyses demonstrated that reactivation of ATP production is accompanied by increased mitochondrial Ca2+ content and proton leakage as the infection proceeds. Overall, the significant structural and functional changes in the mitochondria triggered by the viral invasion are tightly connected to the progression of the virus infection.

The rapidly developing technology has affected our lives in many ways. The Internet has now directly affected our daily and business life, our education system and even our social life. For this reason, there is a need to develop some new skills required by our age in education. The concepts such as "Life and Career Skills", "Learning and Innovation Skills", "Information, Media and Technology Skills" have also entered our lives as the 21st century skills. This study aimed to investigate to what extent the 21st century skills were included in English language teacher training programs; to compare the perspectives of students and academics of the related programs with the program and to discuss the effectiveness of the program in terms of developing the 21st century skills. For this purpose, the study adopted mixed methods research design based on both qualitative and quantitative data. The data were collected using triangulation method via document analysis, questionnaires for students and academics and face to face interviews. In addition, the ELT department programs of randomly selected Faculties of Education of 4 different universities were examined. The results have revealed that the curriculum provided by the Council of Higher Education are applied in all the participating ELT departments, and it aims to develop the 21st century skills in prospective EFL teachers at some points. However, the course contents of the curricula in those departments are limited to some of the skills which may break the integrity of the 21st century skills in professional life reflections. The participant academics and students believe that some of the components of the 21st century skills are included in their course contents but not completely. The students do not feel confident about handling the 21st century skills in a real-life implementation.

Listening is one of the fundamental skills of language, and it is a skill that individuals will need throughout their lives, both in their educational years and in their social lives. From this point of view, the acquired skills for listening should be carefully examined. Because a problem to be experienced during the skill acquisition process can trigger anxiety. Increasing the frequency of use of listening/viewing strategies in order to reduce anxiety will have positive results. The proper acquisition and development of this skill, which has such an impact on a life of an individual, is an issue that needs to be emphasized. The aim of the present study is to determine the relationship between middle school students' use of listening strategies and their listening anxiety. The required permissions were obtained for the study and ethical rules were followed. The study group of the study included 265 middle school students who were randomly selected in the center of Kars. The data were collected with the "Frequency Usage of Listening/Viewing Strategies Scale" and the "Listening Anxiety Scale for Middle School Students". According to the results obtained, there were significant differences in terms of sex and age variables. It was determined that difference was in favor of female students. Furthermore, significantly positive relationships were found between the listening anxiety scale and the dimensions of the usage frequency scale of listening/viewing strategies. According to these relations, the use of listening/ viewing strategies decreases as anxiety increases.

In the 21st century, skills and knowledge of teachers are expected to meet the needs of the 21st century citizens. Therefore, Hacettepe University English Language Teaching (ELT) Department has also decided to redesign its curriculum by taking into account the issues CoHE (2020) has declared. For this purpose, this study aims to examine the opinions of the internal and external stakeholders to determine their needs regarding the new curriculum. In the study, mixed methods research design was adopted based on both qualitative and quantitative data. The participants were composed of internal and external stakeholders of Hacettepe University ELT Department. A total of 284 people, from different stakeholder groups (faculty members, students, alumni, in-service teachers, and employers) participated in the study. Data were obtained from six different data collection tools consisting of various adapted questionnaires and interview forms. Collected data were analyzed separately appropriate to their types. Quantitative data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, and qualitative data were analyzed with content analysis. Findings indicate a consistency in the expectations of the stakeholders as they all demand a more practice-oriented curriculum with extensive content knowledge-based course content, along with a more effective practicum. Even though these findings may reflect the needs of many ELT departments' stakeholders in Turkiye, these should not be interpreted as the total and only needs of every ELT department across Turkiye. Therefore, similar studies should be replicated by institutions as each institution's stakeholders may have context-specific needs.

The aim of this study is to explain the case that preservice teachers will enable alternative experiences to today's visual arts education by using alternative ceramic firing techniques. In this study, qualitative research was carried out using a single-case study during the 2018-2019 academic year. Six preservice teachers were chosen using the criteria of having the necessary knowledge and skills for ceramic training and teaching, and for being educated in the Fine Arts Education Department. In the collecting data part of the research, the techniques of alternative firing such as; fumed firing, raku firing, saggar firing, and obvara firing techniques were practised in the context of this study. The main research data were based on the observation data collected through the process of the practices which were conducted by the artist- researcher. In addition to observations, a data set was gathered to understand and describe the case such as; lesson instruction materials, diaries, self-evaluation forms, and product evaluation forms. The data was analysed using a descriptive framework based on art education and teacher training literature. The findings of the study represent seven themes; "Adaptation of learning to school conditions", "Organising practise steps", "Motivation for creative experiences", "Suggestions for professional practices", "Suggestions for problems", "Adaptability to teaching" and "interaction during the teaching process". According to the findings, it can be stated that the alternative firing techniques transformed into alternative ways for teaching processes in visual arts education through this case. Consequently, the discussion topics are as follows: "Alternatives motivate creative experience"; "Adapting the alternatives to school conditions"; "Organising steps for alternative practises"; Transferring alternative experiences to professional lives".

This paper analyzes the effects of internationalization seen through the Erasmus program in teacher education programs. The study's importance is that teacher training is generally funded for local environments by state systems; subsequently teacher candidates have less opportunity for global curricula. One of Turkey's most vital tools for internationalization is the Erasmus exchange program. Thus, this study focuses on interviews with teacher candidates having international exchange experience and teacher educators involved as program coordinators in their own education faculties. Twelve participants from different teacher training areas at diverse universities were interviewed. The research findings reveal that students' social and cultural skills developed more than their academic competencies and professional teaching skills. Although the program makes an essential contribution to internationalization on both individual and institutional bases; we reveal that course selection problems, difficulties in academic recognition processes, foreign language problems, and the lack of possibility of taking the practicum course abroad have adverse effects on the process. This research addresses knowledge gaps in internationalization policy as teacher candidates, and teacher educators' voices are not heard in such initiatives. The study suggests that education faculties need solid foundations for internationalization efforts.

This study aims to investigate the hopelessness and life satisfaction level of adolescents after the COVID-19 pandemic. The population of the research consists of 133 women and 77 men, a total of 210 high school students aged between 15-18, who live and study in the TRNC during the 2021-2022 academic year. Personal Information Form, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and Beck Hopelessness Scale were used in the study. In order to apply the data collection tools, the relevant forms and scales were transferred to Google Forms and shared with the adolescents who were educated in different high schools, selected with a simple random method, and volunteers were asked to fill in these forms. Based on the relational results between the Hopelessness Scale and Satisfaction with Life Scale, it has been determined that there are statistically significant and negative correlations between the scores of the adolescents. According to the data obtained from the hopelessness and life satisfaction scale, it was concluded that no significant difference was observed according to gender, grade level, separation or separation of parents, death of one of the parents, or both being alive and living with their families. In addition, as a result of the research, no significant difference was found in the level of life satisfaction of the adolescents according to the number of siblings, a significant difference was found in the levels of hopelessness, and it was determined that the adolescents with five or more siblings were found to be higher than the adolescents who had no siblings, it has been concluded that adolescents with lower income levels have less life satisfaction.

While noticing has received extensive attention from researchers with regards to pre-service and in-service teachers, there has been little research on how pre-service mathematics teachers respond to student thinking in the mathematical discussions. The aim of the study was to investigate pre-service mathematics teachers? (PSMTs) ways of responding to student thinking and the extent they focused on student thinking while responding to them. Two PSMTs? planned lessons were observed by the university supervisor and the cooperating teacher. Data was collected through lesson plans, video recordings of the PSMTs? teaching and the observation notes by the supervisor. The constant comparative method was performed throughout the qualitative data analysis. The results initially revealed that although PSMTs could use different types of actions such as eliciting, repeating, redirecting, teaching and encouraging to respond to student thinking during their teaching experiences, their responding to student ideas did not follow a single path or a pattern for their lessons. In terms of the ways of responding, PSMTs dominantly used eliciting, repeating, and evaluating, while explaining, extending and probing student thinking were less preferred. The results provide important cases to help mathematics teacher educators to understand the PSMTs? ways of responding to student thinking and their tendencies towards being able to focus on student thinking while responding to them. Finally, the paper discusses the educational implications of the results.