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Students with visual impairment have the same range of mental abilities as their sighted peers. However, these students experience academic failure, especially in courses in which visual themes are dominant, as they cannot use their sense of sight to process information sufficiently. One of the courses that students with visual impairment have the most difficulty with is science as it contains many visual materials. This study aimed to determine whether students with visual impairment can learn the concept of sound insulation using tactile documents that highlight their haptic senses. The study was implemented in a state secondary school for the visually impaired, and 4 students with visual impairment (blind) participated in the activity. It was observed that all students actively participated during the exercise. The students stated that the practice was fun, instructive, and suitable for teaching the targeted concept.

The use of smartphones is increasingly gaining popularity in education. Students and teachers can determine scientific concepts using smartphones equipped with sensors such as Global Positioning System (GPS -- a navigation system that provides location information) and orientation (a device to measure coordinates according to a reference frame). In this study, two students and a research assistant determined the height of a flag pole using the smartphone app "ClinoPosition," which gathers data from its GPS and orientation sensors, and applying the "Haversine formula." This helped connect their day-to-day experiences to mathematics and technology.

In Turkey, a new Turkish High School Physics Curriculum (THSPC) was put into practice, starting initially with the Grade 9 in the 2008-2009 education-year. When compared with the previous ones, this curriculum emphasized the importance of students' active involvement in learning, use of real-life contexts and development of new skills. Even though what is intended with the new curriculum reflects the global trends in science/physics education, its success (or failure thereof) depends a great deal on teachers since they are the main actors to put the curriculum into practice. Whether teachers can implement the curriculum as intended by the curriculum developers remains an important question. A teacher's belief is an important factor, among others, that affects his/her implementation of the THSPC. In this regard, the aim of this study was to investigate physics teachers' beliefs related to the teaching of physics according to the THSPC. Four physics teachers from different schools participated in this study. Data were collected through interviews, classroom observations and an open-ended questionnaire. According to our findings, physics teachers believed that teaching physics based on the THSPC helped students use their skills, become more interested in physics lessons, relate physics to their daily life and understand physics better. However, teachers believed that factors such as students' interest in physics, the university entrance exam, inadequate laboratory facilities, limited lesson hours per week, and lack of information and communication technologies affected the implementation of the THSPC. For more effective implementation of the THSPC, making some changes in the curriculum should be necessary.

This study has been conducted to investigate conceptions of learning science (COLS) and personal science teaching efficacy belief (PSTE) of Turkish preservice elementary science teachers (PSTs) and to explore the relationship between these variables. Two instruments COLS questionnaire and PSTE subscale of Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (STEBI-B) have been administered to 379 PSTs from seven different universities. Descriptive analyses have pointed out that PSTs have higher level of COLS and moderately higher level of PSTE. The results obtained from the structural equation model have revealed that the conceptions "testing," "calculate and practice," "increase of knowledge," "applying" and "understanding and seeing in a new way" have significantly predicted PSTE. We have assumed that lower level of conceptions "memorizing," "testing," and "calculate and practice" predict PSTE by negative coefficients while higher level of conceptions "increase of knowledge," "applying" and "understanding and seeing in a new way" predict by positive coefficients. However, "calculating and practicing" has positively predicted and "applying" has negatively predicted PSTE. Considering the results, adaptation of inquiry- and argumentation-based learning and teaching environments in science teacher education, creating opportunities to develop PSTs' pedagogical skills about knowledge transfer and application, and utilization of diagnostic tools to pursue PSTs' development of COLS have been suggested.

The purposes of this study were to (1) adapt an instrument "The Conceptions of Learning Science (COLS) questionnaire" into Turkish, and (2) to determine Turkish science teacher candidates' COLS. Adapting the instrument four steps were followed. Firstly, COLS questionnaire was translated into Turkish. Secondly, COLS questionnaire was administered to science teacher candidates (n = 382) from different universities in different regions of Turkey. After that, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed with 160 participants. Finally, the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed with remaining 219 participants. At the end of the validation processes six factors were retained. It was concluded that the adapted version of COLS questionnaire could produce valid and reliable scores on Turkish science teacher candidates.

The purpose of this study was to a) investigate prospective physics teachers' views on their knowledge about new physics concepts introduced in Turkish High School Physics Curricula; b) investigate the sources of their acquired knowledge about these new physics concepts; and c) explore if there were differences in views on knowledge about these new physics concepts among prospective physics teachers of different genders, years of study and universities. A total of 98 prospective physics teachers from different two universities in the physics and physics education departments participated in this study. "Physics Concepts Knowledge Questionnaire" developed by the authors was administered to the participants. Descriptive statistics and t-test were used to analyze the data collected. No statistically significant difference was found in mean view scores of prospective physics teachers of different genders, in different years of study, and from different universities. Additionally, more than 50% of prospective physics teachers thought that they were not knowledgeable about 19 of the 32 concepts selected for this study. The results of this study also showed that prospective physics teachers did not consider themselves as knowledgeable enough especially about astronomy and sound concepts.

This study aims to explore the relationships among Turkish high school students' attitude towards physics, self-efficacy of learning physics, mathematics achievement, and physics achievement. To investigate the relationships, a unique questionnaire that identifies the attitude, self-efficacy and achievements were delivered to a total of 301 high school students. Then a hierarchical regression analysis was performed to reveal the relationships. The results of this study showed that whereas the dimensions "comprehension" and "requirement" in attitude towards physics positively and significantly predicted physics achievement, the dimensions "importance" and "interest" did not. Moreover, self-efficacy of learning physics and mathematics achievement were positive and significant predictors of physics achievement. Mathematics achievement was also the strongest positive predictor of physics achievement and this explained 18.8% of the variance in physics achievement. The students' physics achievement can be increased by developing their attitudes towards physics and self-efficacy of learning physics as well as increasing their mathematics achievement.

This study explores finding the areas of polygons with a smartphone light sensor. A square and an irregular pentagon were chosen as our polygons. During the activity, the LED light was placed at the vertices of our polygons, and the illuminance values of this LED light were detected by the smartphone light sensor. The smartphone was placed on a rotating time-lapse device, and this device was placed at the intersection point of the line segments in the polygons. These line segments were also connected to the vertices of these polygons; therefore, the square was composed of four triangles and the pentagon of five triangles. While the rotating time-lapse device was rotating around itself, it captured the maximum illuminance values of the LED light. Using these maximum illuminance values, we calculated the lengths of the line segments. In addition, we knew the period of the rotating time-lapse device and the duration elapsed between two consecutive maximum illuminance values. Thus, we could calculate the angle between two consecutive line segments. With these values, we could also calculate the areas of the triangles in the polygons. Then, the areas of these triangles were summed to obtain the areas of the square and pentagon.

Background: There are some theoretical evidences that explain the relationships between core beliefs (i.e., epistemological beliefs) and peripheral beliefs (self-efficacy in learning) in the literature. The close relationships of such type of beliefs with attitudes are also discussed by some researchers. Constructing a model that investigates these relationships by considering theoretical and empirical evidences can empower researchers to discuss these relationships more comprehensively. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships among Turkish high school students' scientific epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy in learning physics and their attitudes toward physics. Sample: A total of 632 high school students participated in this study; however, 269 female and 229 male (a total of 498) high school students' data were used. Design and methods: Three distinct instruments that measure scientific epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy in learning physics and attitudes toward physics were combined into a unique questionnaire form and it was distributed to high school students. To explore the relationships among these variables, structural equation modeling was used. Results: The results showed that scientific epistemological belief dimensions uncovered by the nature of knowing (source and justification) significantly and positively related to both self-efficacy in learning physics and attitudes toward other important physics dimensions. Additionally, self-efficacy in learning physics significantly and positively predicted attitudes toward multiple physics dimensions (importance, comprehension and requirement). However, epistemological belief dimensions related to the nature of knowledge (certainty and development) did not have significant impact on self-efficacy in learning physics or attitudes toward physics. Conclusions: This study concludes that there are positive and significant relationships among Turkish high school students' scientific epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy in learning physics and their attitudes toward physics.