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The aim of this study was to determine whether the reliability of raters was provided by assessing reading prosody using the Multidimensional Fluency Scale (MDFS). The study was completed with a cross-sectional design, and in line with this, the prosodic reading skills of 41 fifth-grade students were rated by elementary school classroom teachers and Turkish language arts teachers using the MDFS. Data obtained from the ratings were analyzed with the many-facet Rasch model (MFRM). When the findings are investigated, the reading prosody rubric used in the research served the purposes of the reading prosody criteria, the subdimensions of the rubric could be reliably differentiated, the determined criteria were reliable, and the criteria categories appear to be adequate. Additionally, the severity and leniency of raters were found to differ, and Turkish language arts teachers were found to perform more severe ratings than classroom teachers. It was found that raters were ranked reliably in terms of severity/leniency, and that their levels of severity/leniency differed from each other. Another result obtained is that the prosody criterion that students completed with the most difficulty was phrasing. Therefore, it was concluded that the MDFS is a reliable rubric and that researchers and teachers can reliably use it to assess prosodic reading skills.

This research aimed to explore the elementary school classroom teachers' perceptions of technology integration into teaching literacy skills. A total of 122 elementary school classroom teachers working at different elementary schools from the middle socioeconomic status setting, enrolled in the study voluntarily. In this study, a self-report questionnaire developed by the researchers was used. The data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to get descriptive statistics (frequencies) corresponding the research questions. The research findings indicated that most of the elementary school teachers employ different perspectives, including whole language, literature-based and balanced instruction, and curriculum and related textbooks to teach literacy skills. In addition, the findings showed that teachers use technology to increase the effectiveness of teaching literacy skills and their goals of technology integration to teach literacy skills differentiate. The teachers also benefit from the social media applications and professional organizations in increasing their awareness of technology integration into teaching literacy skills. These results expand our understanding of Turkish elementary school classroom teachers' technology integration into teaching literacy skills by revealing their perceptions.

This research aimed to examine the effects of process-based writing modular program on writer identity. Process based writing modular program has been developed by considering process-based writing approach. In this study, quasi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest was used. The research was carried out with six second grade students. The data was collected through semi-structured interview questions and content analysis method was used in the analysis of the data. The results showed that process-based writing modular program supported the students to think more about the writing subject. In addition, it was found out that the students were more positive about the editing and sharing of the writings they wrote. After the program, it was seen that the students gained sensitivity not only in terms of content but also in terms of formatting. In this process, it was determined that students diversified their writing content and subjects and became willing to write in different text types. In addition, it was found in the post-interview that the discourse about the importance of writing to the students increased.

The current study aimed to explore the effects of interactive read-aloud with children's picture books on third-grade elementary school students' financial literacy attitude and behavior. A pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental research design was employed. The sample of the current research consisted of 46 third-grade elementary school students. We randomly assigned two preexisting third-grade elementary school classrooms to the treatment and control groups that appeared similar considering the pretest scores of the groups. While interactive read-aloud was used in the treatment group, just reading read-aloud activities occurred in the control group. The implementation process took four weeks. Before and after the implementation, the measurement tool was administered to the students in the groups. A one-way analysis of covariance was used for the posttest scores of the students in the groups. The analysis revealed that there was a statistically significant difference in favor of the treatment group.

This correlational study aimed to explore the relations of background knowledge, automaticity (rate), prosody, and strategy use with reading comprehension (KAPS model of reading comprehension) in the written Turkish language context with 207 fourth grade students. Successful comprehension requires readers to make meaning out of what they read. Our KAPS model of reading comprehension hypothesizes relations of background knowledge, fluency components (rate and prosody), and strategy use with reading comprehension components (literal and deep) in the Turkish language and addresses the direct effects of these predictors on the reading comprehension of fourth grade students. The results showed that, whereas fluency and strategy use made statistically significant contributions to reading comprehension, background knowledge did not. Based on the results, the study affirms the importance of automaticity in word recognition, prosody, and comprehension strategies in contributing to reading comprehension in Turkish and, as such, should be given priority for literacy instruction in Turkish.

This study explores the impact extended participation in literature circles had on the reading attitudes of university-age preservice teachers following their involvement in literature circles for one academic year, as part of their training. The participants of the study consisted of 21 pre-service teachers with a low or moderate level of reading habits and reading attitudes. The research was conducted through a mixed methods approach. Although both quantitative and qualitative data were collected in the study, particular emphasis was given to the data collected from the qualitative part (quan+QUAL). In line with the quantitative data, it was concluded in the study that extended involvement in the literature circles had a positive effect on the reading attitudes of the pre-service teachers. The qualitative data, which was obtained through interviews, revealed four themes. The themes emerged as love and desire for reading, benefits of reading, importance of reading and reading habits as a result of the analysis. The results obtained from the research are important in terms of contributing to the improvement of pre-service teachers who will play important roles in Turkey's becoming a literate society.

This study aimed to explore the opinions of the preservice teachers about the children's picture books related to single-parent families. A total of 61 preservice teachers majoring in English Language Arts participated, and the data were collected with semi-structured interviews. The data of the research were analyzed using a content analysis method. The trustworthiness of the present study was increased by using peer debriefing and member checking methods. The research findings showed that the preservice teachers who participated in the study liked the children's picture books, but were not sure whether they were appropriate to read these books to students. In addition, the participants criticized the books in terms of cultural and peritextual features, content and diverse family structures. Most of the participants did not find the books appropriate to the Turkish cultural context and noted that they would not read the books in their future classrooms. More research related to this topic needs to be conducted in order to shed light on the underlying reasons of the results obtained from the present study.

This study aims to investigate digital literacy perceptions of preservice teachers, and to identify quantity characteristics of first and second year preservice teachers' digital literacy at a public university in Turkey. That is, pre-service teachers' perceptions of digital literacy and their patterns of knowledge and use of digital literacy were measured within the scope of this study. Multiple sources of data, including a Likert scale and open-ended questions were collected to address the topic. Various statistical techniques and tests such as ANOVA, t-test, and Tukey HSD test were used in the analysis of the obtained data. Qualitative data was analyzed by using the content analysis method. The findings indicated that the model showed a good fit with the data and standardized regression weights indicated that attitude, technical, cognitive, and social factors were significant predictors of digital literacy. In addition, it was identified that the pre-service teachers had high and positive perceptions of digital literacy. However, it was observed in the open-ended questions that they lack the refined cognitive skills to find, evaluate, create, and communicate. The findings were then discussed in light of the relevant literature.

This research investigated how interactive book reading activities affect elementary school students' reading fluency and reading comprehension skills. The research was performed in 2017-2018 academic year with 705 students (358 males, 347 females) studying at four state schools of low socioeconomic level in Polatli district of Ankara. 309 of the students were in the second grade, 200 of them were in the third and 196 of them were in the fourth grade. The implementation stage of the research was conducted in the interactive reading classrooms established at the four schools. These classrooms were equipped with wallpapers, shoe racks, stools, bookcases, puppets, wooden geometric shapes, hanging lights, light-proof curtains, material cupboards, computers and sound systems so that the students might feel that they were in a different environment and might gain different learning experiences. Pretest-posttest one-group quasi-experimental design was used in the research. Students' reading fluency and reading comprehension skills were measured before and after the procedure. The findings showed that the interactive book reading activities performed during the study revealed a significant difference in favor of students' posttest scores in regard to reading fluency and reading comprehension. The results were discussed within the context of the related literature and recommendations were made accordingly.

In this study, it was aimed to investigate the contributions of support and class belonging to teacher self-efficacy. A total of 357 teacher candidates from the different departments enrolled in the Pedagogical Formation Education Certificate Program at a state university in the Aegean Region of Turkey participated in the study. Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale, Psychological Sense of Membership Scale and Perceived Support Scale were used to collect data. To examine the relationship between variables, structural equation modeling technique was utilized in the MPLUS program. It was found that the teacher candidates received the most support from their families and the least support from their instructors. Analysis revealed that the support received from the instructors was statistically significantly related to all the sub-dimensions of teacher self-efficacy. Findings showed that class belonging was positively related to all of the sub-dimensions of teacher self-efficacy. Findings suggest that when teacher candidates receive support from their classmates and instructors, their sense of class belonging would increase and eventually, their teacher self-efficacy would grow up

This study aims to examine the contribution of the perceived support and sense of class belonging to pre-service teachers' career motivation. A total of 670 pre-service teachers majoring in various teaching areas including science, social studies, Turkish and mathematics at a state university in Aegean Region participated in the study. Self-report questionnaires including the FIT-Choice Scale, the Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale, and the Support Scale were used as data collection tools. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was utilized to determine the extent to what level of the variance explained in the motivational factors and the perception about teaching by support and sense of class belonging. Results of analysis showed statistically significant relations between sense of class belonging and the FIT-Choice scale. Additional to this, it was found to be statistically significant relations between the support types and the FIT-Choice scale, while support from instructors was the strongest predictor of motivation. Future directions and implications were discussed.

The purpose of the current study is to determine teachers' opinions about professional development schools. In the current study; one of the mixed methods, the convergent design was employed. The sampling of the quantitative dimension of the study is comprised of 256 teachers working in 21 elementary and secondary schools in the city of Mugla. The teachers participated in the study on a volunteer basis. The sampling of the qualitative dimension of the study consists of 26 teachers selected from among the 256 teachers. The data of the study were collected through the Professional Development Schools Scale and an interview form. The quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data were analyzed by using the inductive content analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the teachers have positive opinions about professional development school applications, they want more developed school-university cooperation, and they think that teacher-academician and teacher-teacher relationships need to be developed. The opinions of academicians working in education faculties about professional development schools can be elicited. A pilot study of professional development school can be conducted in Turkey. [This study was presented as an oral presentation at the conference "International Conference on New Horizons in Education" held on 17-19 July 2017, in Berlin, Germany. This article is presented in both English and Turkish.]

The current study aimed to evaluate the classroom teachers' opinions about in-service training process. Thus, the current study was designed as a descriptive case study. A total of 28 classroom teachers constituted the sample group of the research. The research process was carried out on the classroom teachers working in state elementary schools in the city of Mugla. A semi-structured interview form was used as the data collection tool in the research and the data were collected through focus group interviews. The results showed that teachers experienced significant problems related to in-service trainings and they found such trainings useful for their professional development. Moreover, the teachers made different suggestions for the improvement of these trainings.

The aim of this study is to determine the effects of a Process-Based Writing Modular Instructional Program (PBWMIP), supported with graphic organizers and formative assessment, on second-grade primary school students' writing compositions and attitudes toward writing. This quasi-experimental research design study was conducted with 40 second graders who were chosen for either the experimental group or the control group. Data was gathered through written texts and attitude scales related to writing. Pretest and posttest scores of the experimental and control group were analyzed with a two-factor ANOVA test. The results indicate that while there was a statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of the quality of writing compositions in favor of experimental group, there was not a significant difference between the groups in terms of the students' attitudes toward writing.

Turkish students on average had lower scores than OECD countries on mathematics, science, and reading at international assessment programs. As PISA measures the extent to which 15-year-old students are prepared to handle the challenges they may encounter in their future lives, and evaluates students' ability to reflect and to apply their knowledge and experience to real-life situations, low scores on this assessment should be investigated carefully. Therefore, in this study we aimed to explore the relationships between new literacy skills, reading, mathematics, and science performance of Turkish students. The results showed that new literacy skills measured in PISA had two dimensional structure including at and outside of school new literacy skills. These new literacy skills were shown to predict reading performance significantly, at school negatively and outside of school positively. It was also shown that reading performance and new literacy skills were effective in the prediction of both mathematics and science performances.

The study first aimed to reveal self-reported computational thinking and new media literacy skill levels of first-year engineering students with various demographics such as gender, departments, and internet use frequency. It was then aimed to test whether there is a significant relation between computational skills and new media literacy skills. The study group consisted of 112 engineering candidates who were enrolled at the engineering faculty of a university in Mugla city in Turkey. The Computational Thinking Scale and the New Media Literacy Scale were used as the data collection instruments. Means and standard deviation were used for descriptive analysis. One-Way Analysis of Variance, two-tailed independent samples t-Test, Tukey HSD test and simple regression were used for statistical analysis. Findings suggest that engineering student participants consider their computational thinking and new media literacy skills to be sufficient. In addition, while the variables such as gender and department were not found to be affecting to the computational thinking and new media literacy levels, internet use frequency was found to be affecting. Furthermore, the study results indicated that the relationship between participant' computational thinking and new media literacy level is statistically significant and positive. Our study adds to the growing body of literature on new media literacy skills through improving computational thinking skills. Findings are then discussed in lights of the relevant literature.

Reading fluency is one of the underlying factors of successful language curricula and it is also one of the defining characteristics of good readers. A lack of fluency is a common characteristic of struggling readers. There is a growing body of research that demonstrates proficiency in reading fluency is important for success in learning to read English. While the role of reading fluency is increasingly recognized as important for literacy acquisition in English, less is known about the role that fluency plays in literacy acquisition in other languages. The present manuscript aims to shed light on the impact of reading fluency in the Turkish language context, and also to provide some practical implications for Turkish stakeholders in education system to improve Turkish children`s reading fluency and thereby also improve Turkish children's overall reading proficiency.

The present study attempted to extend our knowledge of the role of reading fluency in contributing to reading comprehension among Turkish students in grades 4 through 8. One hundred students at each grade level were administered assessments of reading fluency, word recognition automaticity and prosody, and silent reading comprehension. Word recognition automaticity was found to be a significant predictor of comprehension at all grade levels tested. Prosody predicted comprehension at all grades levels except grade 4. Regression analyses at each grade level indicate that, except for grade 4, word recognition automaticity and prosody, together contribute to the prediction of reading comprehension. The magnitude of fluency's prediction of comprehension ranged from approximately a quarter to a third of comprehension. The results are discussed in terms of policy and instructional changes that may be considered for reading instruction for Turkish students.

Aim/Purpose: The principal aim of this study was to reveal digital citizenship levels of preservice teachers enrolled in 1st and 2nd year in the education faculty at the Mugla Sitki Koçman University in Mugla, Turkey. Pre-service teachers' perceptions of digital citizenship and their patterns of knowledge of digital citizenship were explored. Background: This study examines the concepts of digital citizenship, including digital communication, digital rights / responsibilities, critical thinking, digital participation, digital security, digital skills, digital ethics, and digital commerce, of pre-service teachers and their interaction with instructional technology. This research study will inform policies and strategies to enhance teacher trainings and education in Turkey. Methodology: A mixed methodology of data sources including a survey and open-ended questions were collected to explore pre-service teachers' perceptions of digital citizenship. The Digital Citizenship Scale was used as the quantitative data collection instrument. Various statistical techniques and tests such as ANOVA, t-Test, and Tukey HSD were used in the analysis of the data. Contribution: This study contributes to existing literature knowledge by demonstrating the patterns of digital citizenship that influence Turkish pre-service teachers' professional development and deepening the discussion of change in policies and strategies in education programs in Turkey. Findings: Results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference of digital citizenship scores of male and female pre-service teachers with male participants scoring higher than female participants. However, participants' mean scores did not significantly differentiate by their departments. Similarly, it was observed that participants' mean scores did not significantly differentiate by the high school types. As far as parent educational background was concerned, the mean scores of the participants did not indicate a significant difference by the education level of the mother, but the scores differed significantly by the father's education level. Similar responses emerged in the open-ended questions. Participants expressed that they felt competent in digital communication and digital participation and their parents are partly influential in the improvement of these skills. In addition, the majority of the participants stated that the major they enrolled did not have any contribution to their digital skills so far. Recommendations for Practitioners: Recommendations for practitioners to include in their teacher education programs training pre-service teachers to become digital citizens. Recommendations for Researchers: Recommendations for researchers to include identifying practical activities that enhance pre-service teachers' digital citizenship skills. Impact on Society: The findings and results of this study will help display a universal digital citizenship model for pre-service and veteran teachers in Turkey as well as to strengthen their interaction with instructional and information technologies through policy and strategy changes in educational settings. Future Research: Further studies should be undertaken, especially in developing countries. Future research can further explore pre-service teachers' perceptions of digital citizenship such as digital rights, responsibilities, and ethics as well as evaluating the opinions of school administrators, students, and parents regarding their perceptions of digital citizenship in educational settings.

The present study aimed to explore the relation between students' oral reading efficacy, reading comprehension, and academic performance on a nationwide high school placement exam (TEOG). The students were selected from a public middle school. The students' oral reading efficacy, comprehension, and TEOG achievement scores were obtained to figure out the relations between them. The students' TEOG results were obtained from the school administration. The findings revealed that there were statistically significant relations between oral reading efficacy, reading comprehension and TEOG achievements. Particularly, students' reading comprehension and accuracy skills together explained 57% of variance in overall TEOG achievements.

The aim of this research was to examine Turkish pre-service teachers' knowledge and perceived self-efficacy beliefs toward using expository text as an instructional tool in their future classroom settings. The research sample were 346 pre-service teachers who studied in different teacher preparation programs which included elementary classroom and middle content classrooms (for example, science, social studies and Turkish language arts) teaching professions. A teacher efficacy inventory and a knowledge test about using expository text were developed and administered to the pre-service teachers in a public university in Turkey. The research findings showed that there was a small but positive correlation between the pre-service teachers' self-efficacy beliefs scores and the knowledge test scores in spite of the small correlation coefficient between the two variables. In addition, the pre-service teachers rated their self-efficacy beliefs as efficacious in using expository texts in their future classrooms. They also identified themselves as having medium level knowledge about use of expository text. Results indicated that while there was not any significant difference regarding pre-service teachers' perceived self-efficacy mean scores in terms of gender, the pre-service teachers' knowledge mean scores about using expository text differed from each other according to gender. Moreover, findings revealed that the pre-service teachers' perceived self efficacy beliefs and knowledge varied significantly from each other according to their training programs. The pre-service teachers' knowledge had significant differences among course years, in contrast to this, their perceived-self efficacy beliefs did not differ from each other according to course year. Additionally, the interaction between course year and training programs had significant effect on the teachers' perceived self-efficacy beliefs and knowledge about using expository text. (Contains 2 tables.)

The purpose of this study was to explore whether there was a significant correlation between vocabulary and reading comprehension in terms of text types as well as whether the vocabulary was a predictor of reading comprehension in terms of text types. In this regard, the correlational research design was used to explain specific research objectives. The study was conducted in Ankara-Sincan during the 2008-2009 academic years. A total of 120 students having middle socioeconomic status participated in this study. The students in this research were in the fifth-grade at a public school. Reading comprehension and vocabulary tests were developed to evaluate the students' reading comprehension and vocabulary levels. Correlation and bivariate linear regression analyses were used to assess the data obtained from the study. The research findings indicated that there was a medium correlation between vocabulary and narrative text comprehension. In addition, there was a large correlation between vocabulary and expository text comprehension. Compared to the narrative text comprehension, vocabulary was also a strong predictor of expository text comprehension. Vocabulary made more contribution to expository text comprehension than narrative text comprehension.

The aim of this study was to examine fifth grade elementary school students' listening and reading comprehension levels with regard to text types. This study was conducted on 180 fifth grade elementary school students in Sincan-Ankara in the spring semester of the academic year 2008-2009. The comprehension test was administered to students. The results revealed that the students comprehended the narrative text better when they heard it read by the instructor versus when they read text independently. However, it was concluded that there was no significant difference in comprehension expository texts between students who read the text those for whom the text was narrated. Moreover, the achievement of Turkish class was a predictor variable in reading and listening comprehension of students.

This study aimed at learning parents' ideas about the values aimed to be taught in Social Studies lessons in the 4th and 5th grades of the primary education and about values education. Study data were collected by administering "the Values Education I" and "Values Education II" questionnaire forms developed by the researchers. The views of 378 and 387 parents who filled "the Values Education I" and "Values Education II" questionnaires respectively were collected. The results obtained in the light of the collected data are as follows: parents of the students attending at the 4th and 5th grades of primary education used 19 different values to define the values that have to be taught; they listed the reasons of value education as "success, socialization, democratization, self-improvement of the children", "peace" and "necessity to teach these values." Parents deemed both themselves and the school sufficient in terms of values education and they thought that the main responsibility of giving values education belongs first to parents and second to school. Parents gave priority to the values such as "patriotism," "honesty," "attaching importance to family unity," "responsibility," and "hardworking."

This study examined the oral reading fluency of 4th graders with respect to prosodic characteristics. Seventy 4th graders participated in the study. They were initially asked to read a grade-level passage and their reading was video recorded. Their reading errors were identified and their word correct per minute (WCPM) was determined. Their oral reading skills were also evaluated with respect to prosodic characteristics by using the Multidimensional Fluency Scale criteria. The results showed that their WCPM was close to the norms of the 4th grade. However, a significant part of students (40%) were noted to have problems with prosodic reading skills. Further, a positive and meaningful relationship was observed between WCPM and prosodic reading skills. It was concluded that activities and studies promoting prosodic reading skills should be given more emphasis in primary schools.

The Common Core State Standards suggest that an appropriate goal for secondary education is college and career readiness. Previous research has identified reading fluency as a critical component for proficient reading. One component of fluency is word recognition accuracy and automaticity. The present study attempted to determine the word recognition accuracy and automaticity indicators for incoming college students and to examine the relationship between oral reading rate and ACT scores. Knowledge of such performance may provide secondary literacy educators with another tool for assessing reading proficiency and college readiness. Eighty-one students were asked to read a college-level narrative passage. Mean student accuracy and automacity scores were determined, as well as correlations between accuracy, automacity, and students' ACT scores. Results suggest a moderate and significant relationship between measures of automaticity and both the ACT reading subtest and ACT composite scores.

One of the most important aims of teaching reading is to help students acquire fluent reading skills. With this aim in mind, this study attempted to support a student with difficulty to become a fluent reader by improving his reading skills using a fluency instruction method called repeated reading. This study was performed with an elementary school student experiencing reading difficulty in Turkey's Kirsehir province in the spring semester of the academic year. The study continued for about 10 weeks and had positive improvements on the student's reading comprehension, automaticity and accuracy skills. The views of the student's parents and class teacher also supported these improvements.