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This article reports the evaluation of three EFL textbooks which are used in Afghan lower secondary schools by employing a document analysis approach. Two evaluators took part in the study, where they independently evaluated the textbooks of grades 7-9. This study employed a 33-item checklist designed by the researchers, adopting or modifying items from three checklists in the existing literature. All the items were organized under six headings, namely, content, grammar, vocabulary, skills, exercises and activities, and attractiveness of the text and physical make-up. The evaluation of the textbooks highlighted a number of serious problems that deserve close attention. The study closes with a series of recommendations to guide EFL research in the Afghan context.

Study objective: This research attempts to reveal the education faculty instructors' views on the concept of global citizenship. Method: The research utilized a phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research designs. The participants of the research consisted of seven education faculty instructors who work at a higher institution in Turkey during the 2019-2020 academic year and who were selected by the convenience sampling method. This research employed a semi-structured interview method. Thus, a semi-structured individual interview form was prepared by the researchers as a data collection tool. The first part of the form includes questions related to the participants' demographic information and the second part holds five questions regarding their views on global citizenship. The open-ended questions were prepared in line with the research questions by taking into consideration the relevant literature and two experts' opinions to ensure scope validity. Content analysis was used during data analysis. Result: Research findings revealed that the instructors mostly focus on "values and attitudes" dimension of the global citizenship including respect for differences and values, sense of belonging, tolerance, concern for global issues, dedication to equal rights and sensitivity to global issues. Besides, all instructors were found to express that global citizenship is a must for pre-service teachers for both themselves and their professional life. All participants were identified to do practices in different ways by intermingling the issue of global citizenship with their course during the educational process to raise their students' awareness towards global citizenship, and they mostly faced student-based challenges during the practices. The instructors mostly recommended that seminars should be organized in advance to raise both students' and instructors' awareness.

Purpose: Recent trends have encouraged the use of alternative assessment tools in class in line with the recommendations made by the updated curricula. It is of great importance to understand how alternative assessment affects students' academic outcomes and which techniques are most effective in which contexts. This study aims to examine the impact of alternative assessment techniques on achievement. Research Methods: In the study, a meta-analysis was conducted to combine the effect sizes of the primary studies during data collection and data analysis. Findings: Data analysis indicated that alternative assessment techniques have a significant and positive effect (d = 0.84) on students' academic achievement. Such techniques have been found to be more effective in Mathematics courses (d = 0.84), and the effect of using portfolios in class (d = 1.01) is worthy of note. In accordance with the moderator analysis, whereas the effect sizes do not significantly vary in terms of subject matter and type of alternative assessment technique, there is a significant difference in the effect sizes in terms of school levels of students. Implications for Research and Practice: The results highlighted portfolios as a highly effective assessment technique for students' academic achievements, and it revealed the impact of alternative assessment techniques on enhancing academic outcome. However, the low effectiveness of authentic assessment at the primary level may be associated with the development of creativity and critical thinking skills over time.

The aim of this study is to analyse the effect of task planning with mind maps on the self-regulation strategies and motivational beliefs of pre-service teachers. A quasi-experimental design, with a pre-test and post-test control group, was applied in the research. The research group comprised of 60 pre-service teachers taking "Teaching Principle and Methods", in the second year at the Faculty of Education Elementary School Department at Mersin University, Turkey. Students in the experimental group planned their tasks individually by means of a mind map, whereas students in the control group directly realized their task. Before and after the experiment, both groups completed the "Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire", while students in the experimental group also completed the open-ended questionnaire. The research results indicated that there was a meaningful difference between the self-regulated learning of both groups, in favour of the experimental group. Pre-service teachers comprising the experimental group stated that planning by means of mind map had positive effects on the use of self-regulation strategies and their motivation.

The aim of this study is to research the effect of school practices on teacher candidates' sense of efficacy relating to planning, implementing, evaluating drama activities, and the sense of general efficacy relating to use of drama in education. The study was conducted with 52 students attending the 2nd year of their course of study in Mersin University, Faculty of Education, Department of Preschool Teacher Education. In the study, a quasi-experimental model involving a pre-test and a post-test control group was used. During the lesson held with the experimental group, teacher candidates applied and evaluated the drama activities that they developed themselves in preschool education institutions. During the lesson held with the control group, drama activities were limited to classroom applications. Prior to and after the implications, sense of efficacy relating to drama activity planning, implication, evaluation, and general efficacy of both groups were measured using the "Sense of Efficacy Scale Relating to Use of Drama in Education" which was developed by the researcher. Also teacher candidates in experimental group were directed to answer an open-ended question. The results of the research revealed that the efficacy of the teacher candidates in planning, applying, evaluating and general relating to using drama activities varied significantly in favor of the experimental group between the experimental and control groups. The teacher candidates in the experiment group reported that school practices improved their efficacy relating to use of drama in education.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the exploratory and predictive relationships between secondary school students' human values and their motivational beliefs and self-regulated learning strategies and thus to test the relevant model was developed. A correlational filed study was used in this research. The sample of the research consisted of a total of 794 students studying at six different secondary schools in Istanbul. Research data were collected by "Human Values Scale" and the "Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire". The exploratory relationships between secondary school students' human values, motivational beliefs, and self-regulated learning strategies were analyzed using the software AMOS 16 following the "Structural Equation Modelling". Results indicated that human values were significant predictor of motivational beliefs and motivational beliefs were significant predictor of self-regulated learning strategies. Also, the study results indicated that human values were not significant predictor of self-regulated learning strategies, but had an indirect effect on self-regulated learning via motivational beliefs. These results revealed that the values were important variables that effect on students' learning and motivation.

This case study investigated math and science teachers' perceptions about the use of creative drama during a digital story (DS) creation process for educational purposes. A total of 25 secondary science and math teachers were selected according to criterion sampling strategy to participate in the study. Data were collected through an open-ended questionnaire and unstructured interviews and then analysed through open coding. Study results showed that most of the science and math teachers had positive opinions about the application of creative drama during the DS creation process. Moreover, the teachers indicated a general preference for using creative drama in their classes to capture students' attention or prompt them to think about their stories at such stages of the DS creation process as scenario design and final presentation. Participants also identified potential obstacles in using creative drama during the DS creation process as teachers not having expertise in creative drama, student inexperience and inappropriate physical conditions of schools.

The purpose of this study is to investigate primary school teachers' realization levels of self-regulated learning practices and sense of efficacy and the relationship between their realization levels of self-regulated learning practices and sense of efficacy. Survey research was conducted on 400 primary school teachers from 20 elementary schools in Mersin, a city in Turkey. The schools in the sample were determined randomly. The research data were collected by "Self-Regulated Learning Inventory for Teachers" developed by Lombaerts et al. and adapted into Turkish by the researcher and "Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale" developed by Tschannen-Moran ve Woolfolk Hoy and adapted into Turkish by Capa et al. According to the results of the research, teachers realized self-regulated learning practices at the "very often" level and perceived themselves as quite efficient. It was also found that there was a significant relationship between primary school teachers' realization of self-regulated learning practices and their sense of efficacy.