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Recycling applications and research on this subject are increasing and gaining importance due to their enormous potential in solving many environmental problems. This study, which was conducted to determine the attitudes of special education teacher candidates towards the environment and to determine whether these attitudes are different according to gender, age and class variables, is a Descriptive Single Survey Model. The study group of the research consists of a total of 120 special education teacher candidates (90 girls, 30 boys) studying at a state university in Turkey. According to the results of the research, when the mean attitudes of the pre-service teachers towards the recycling are evaluated according to their grade levels, it is seen that the attitude scores of the pre-service teachers studying in the 3rd and 4th grades are slightly higher than the averages of the candidates studying in the 1st and 2nd grades. However, when the scores of attitudes towards the recycling are evaluated according to the age variable, it is seen that the scores of attitudes towards the recycling increase as the age of the teacher candidates increases.

The aim of this study is to determine the attitudes of special education teacher candidates, who have great responsibilities in terms of environmental education, towards the environment and to compare these attitudes according to various variables. For this purpose, a 4-point Likert-type Environmental Attitude Scale consisting of 35 items was used as a data collection tool. The study group of the research consists of 120 special education teacher candidates. Whether the prospective teachers' attitudes towards the environment show a significant difference in terms of the independent variables of the research was investigated using the t-test for bivariate features and the ANOVA test for features with more than two. The results of the research show that the attitudes of teacher candidates towards the environment increase as age and class level increase, but there is no statistically significant difference between teacher candidates in terms of these variables.

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) can be defined as cumulative knowledge, beliefs, and practices transmitted from generation to generation, related to people's relationship with the environment. This study aims to determine the attitudes of gifted students towards traditional environmental knowledge and to examine them in terms of various variables such as age, class and gender. The study group of the research consists of 120 gifted/talented students (67 girls, 53 boys) studying at Manisa Science and Art Center. "Traditional Knowledge Attitude Scale (TKAS)" developed by Ugulu (2013) was used in the study. The t-test and ANOVA test were used to determine whether students' attitudes towards science showed a significant difference in terms of independent variables of the study. According to the results of the research, when the average of the students' attitudes towards traditional knowledge according to their grade levels were evaluated, it was seen that the eighth-grade students' attitude scores were the highest. In terms of gender, it was concluded that the attitude scores of female students were higher than male students. As a result of the statistical comparison of the attitude scores of the gifted students according to the independent variables of the study, it was concluded that the difference between the averages in terms of grade level and age variables was not significant, but there was a significant difference in favour of girls in terms of gender (p < 0.05).

In this study, pre-service teachers' views on inclusive education were evaluated from a quantitative research perspective. The survey model, one of the quantitative research designs, was used. The sample of the study consists of 482 prospective teachers studying at the same state university. The "Opinions Related to Mainstreaming Scale" was used to evaluate the views of pre-service teachers about inclusion. In the study, frequency and percentage values for each item were calculated for the data obtained from the study. In addition, Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated to determine whether there was a relationship between the sub-dimensions of the scale depending on the data collected. Although the results of the research are generally positive, the opinions of the pre-service teachers about inclusive education are inconsistent with each other, indicating that the knowledge and skill levels of the pre-service teachers about students with special needs are insufficient. It is important for a qualified inclusive education that teacher candidates who will start working in schools in the future develop positive attitudes towards inclusive education and have high levels of knowledge and skills.

This study was conducted using a qualitative approach as it aimed to evaluate the Science and Art Center Science Curriculum (SACSC), which was updated in 2020, within the framework of the context, input, process, and product (CIPP) approach by taking the opinions of science teachers working in Science and Art Centers (SACs) in Turkey. The data were collected according to the qualitative data collection method and a structured interview form was used as a data collection tool. The findings showed that science teachers working in SACs have generally negative views on SACSC based on the context dimension of the CIPP Model, while their views are generally positive based on input, process, and product dimensions. Based on the results of the research, it is recommended to conduct other comparative studies between the SACSC and similar curricula in other countries in order to reveal the relationship between the program components and the needs of children and society.

The main purpose of the present study was to determine and evaluate the heavy metals in soil, forage and blood plasma of horses in Central Punjab, Pakistan. Concentrations of metals, cobalt (Co), selenium (Se), manganese (Mn) and iron (Fe) in these samples were determined. Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer was used to determine the concentration of metals. The concentrations of all the analysed heavy metals differed significantly with different seasonal periods. The mean Fe, Co, Mn and Se values in blood plasma samples of 4 years (Cohort-8), 3 years (Cohort-9) and 2 years (Cohort-10) cohorts were 1.34, 0.18, 0.026 and 0.019 mg/L; 1.23, 0.17, 0.026 and 0.015 mg/L and 1.19, 0.15, 0.029 and 0.015 mg/L, respectively. No statistically significant changes were observed for heavy metal concentrations in plasma samples of horses according to two sampling seasons. The present results indicated that heavy metals in soil, forage and blood plasma samples were lower than the recommended critical levels except for the Mn accumulation in forage samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying individuals and students' attitudes towards environment and factors affecting students to be responsible individuals towards their environment may provide help towards the solution of environmental problems. In this study, it is aimed to evaluate environmental attitudes of high school students in terms of some variables. The sample of the study consists of 330 participants of whom 145 are male and 185 are female having studied in a High School in Balikesir (in western Turkey). In the study, as a means of data collection, Environmental Attitude Scale (EAS) and the personal information form have been used. The EAS which consists of 35 items is composed of 4 sub-dimensions as "Environmental awareness", "Attitude toward recovery", "Attitude toward recycling" and "Environmental consciousness and behavior". According to the findings, considering the analysis of the EAS, statistically a considerable difference was reached between the sub-dimensions of the EAS and the gender, grade and parent education level variables. However, a considerable difference was not found between the branch of students and some sub-dimensions of the EAS. "Items and Factor Structures of the Environmental Attitude Scale (EAS)" is appended.

In this study, artificial neural networks are suggested as a model that can be "trained" to yield qualitative results out of a huge amount of categorical data. It can be said that this is a new approach applied in educational qualitative data analysis. In this direction, a cascade-forward back-propagation neural network (CFBPN) model was developed to analyze categorical data for determine students' attitudes. The data were collected using a conceptual understanding test which includes open-ended questions. The results of this study indicate that using CFBPN model in analyzing data from educational research examining attitudes, behaviors, or beliefs may help us obtain more detailed information about the data analyzed and hence about the characteristics of the participants involved.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the opinions of the pre-service teachers toward teacher selection system and civil servant selection exam (KPSS). In this study, qualitative re-search methods and semi-structured interviews were used and researcher-made questionnaires containing open-ended questions were administered. The study group consists of 100 pre-service teachers from four departments (elementary education, biology education, Turkish education, and mathematics education) in Balikesir University (in western Turkey). Pre-service teachers reported that KPSS was not an appropriate examination to select a qualified teacher. Pre-service teachers suggest that both an oral and written examination process should be applied instead of KPSS.

The objective of this study is to analyze and determine whether a developed recycling education program would lead to a positive change in the conceptual understanding of ecological concepts associated with matter cycles by high school students. The research was conducted on 68 high school 10th grade students (47 female and 21 male students). The research has been contextualized as a quasi-experimental design model with pretest-posttest control group and the EECUT Test was applied to the students in the research group prior to and after providing them with the respective courses with an aim to determine the effects of the Recycling Education Program (REP) on the conceptual understanding of ecological concepts by high school students. Based on the results a significant difference in the conceptual understanding of the students included in the respective experimental and control group was identified in the answers given to the EECUT WC and EECUT CC questions.

In this study, pupils' constructions of some concepts related to biodiversity like classifying living things, variation in living things and ecosystem elements, and the concept of life were investigated in the light of constructivist theory of learning. For this purpose, a biological diversity conceptual understanding test formed by a series of open ended questions was developed and applied to 191 first class high school pupils in seven different high schools in the city of Izmir-Turkey. For the clarification of the responses taken from the test and to follow up some responses a semi-structured interview was developed and applied 14 pupils among the 191. Moreover, to understand the teaching style in seven different schools and to find out the reasons of some responses taken from the pupils a semi-structured teacher interview was developed and applied to seven teachers - one from each school. The results of the study implicated that although pupils' views towards living things and the nature were similar to holistic understanding, their constructions of the topics of nutrition relationship and energy flow were weak, and the idea of anthropocentric view in which human beings are in the centre of all living things were seem to be widespread among them. (Contains 1 table.)

Recycling and its applications are growing significantly due to the great potential for solving a range of environmental problems in society. Nevertheless, there are currently very few instruments that can provide valid and reliable data on students' attitudes toward recycling. In this regard, this article focuses on the development and validation of Recycling Attitude Scale (RAS). The items in the RAS were developed initially from the responses to three open-ended items by 53 tenth and eleventh grade students and literature review on recycling attitude. This initial form was pilot tested with 356 tenth and eleventh grade students and then subjected to exploratory factor analysis. Subsequently, the revised version of the scale was administrated to 694 tenth grade students, and the results were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis. The RAS consists of 21 items in three subscales, with responses recorded on a four-point Likert scale, options ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient (a) of the scale was found to be 0.87. The results indicate that the RAS a potentially valuable tool for both instructors and researchers in Turkey for the assessment of the attitudes toward recycling held by students in secondary education.