Volumen 12 (2022): Edición 3 (November 2022)

Introduction: A number of recent surveys have shown that college campuses are becoming intolerant of different viewpoints. Part of the mission of any college should be to create a space where different viewpoints can be debated in a healthy, intellectual way. To gauge the campus climate at their own University, the authors deployed a survey to business students asking how comfortable they were sharing and responding to different viewpoints.

Methods: Business students were surveyed for their attitudes towards diverse viewpoints. The survey instrument has been used at other colleges to survey students for several years.

Results: A portion of students are censoring their views on controversial topics. There is often a reluctance to present honest viewpoints in the classroom.

Discussion: Faculty needs to be mindful of the classroom environment they create. Colleges should be a major place where different viewpoints are discussed and debated.

Limitations: Only business students were surveyed. There may be different outcomes for students in other majors.

Conclusions: These results suggest that many students are self-censoring their views in class. Faculty should be aware of this and create an environment where different viewpoints are welcome.

Introduction: In the relationship between sports morality and the morality of everyday life, there are no relevant studies and researches to clearly demonstrate the direct connections between sports and moral behaviour. The aim of this study is to find out if there is a significant difference in the achieved level of moral competence of secondary school students - between those who engage in sports in their free time and those who do not engage in sports activities.

Methods: Quantitative research methods were used in the research, and for the purposes of expressing the level of moral competence of secondary school students, we used Moral Judgment Test (MJT). The MJT test expresses an individual’s moral competence through the C-score. 181 pupils of various grades studying at secondary school took part in the research. To verify the normality of the distribution of the C-score variable, we used the Shapiro - Wilk test, and for hypothesis testing, we used the two- sample T-test to test the mean value at known mean values of the distribution. Significance levels are set at p value <0.05.

Results: The results of the test of significant differences for individual grades of secondary school are interpreted as the results of the analysis of the impact of sports activities on the level of moral competence. Sports leisure activities have an impact on the level of moral competence of students in the 4th grade.

Discussion: The research confirmed that sports leisure activities contribute to a higher level of moral competence measured by the MJT test and expressed by the C-score value as the age of the pupils increases.

Limitations: The research was limited to students of one secondary school.

Conclusions: The result of the research, based on statistical testing, was the finding that leisure sports activities have an impact on the level of moral competence in upper secondary school grades.

Introduction: Open educational e-resources (OERs) are one of the informational resources that are openly available to all. Open educational e-resources provide learners with free access to high-quality educational content and materials. Learners should be able to use, read, adapt, and share these resources freely. In this study, we aimed to examine academics’ open educational e-resources usage intentions. We also tried to understand behavioral differences by collecting data from two different countries: Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Methods: The study employed a cross-sectional approach, which is one of the quantitative research designs. In cross-sectional studies, several variables (characteristics, behavior, attitude, etc.) are measured simultaneously. Data were collected using a questionnaire based on the quantitative research paradigm. In order to address the research problem, the two researchers of the current study developed this questionnaire based on field expert opinion, a literature review, and from the researchers’ experiences. The questionnaire was initially developed in Turkish and then translated into English. In the current study 67 participants from Turkey and 18 from the United Kingdom have answered all the items of the questionnaire.

Results: In this study, the academics were found to be more inclined to use existing resources (81.39% for Turkey, 72.72% for the United Kingdom) than to generate e-resources of their own (47.67% for Turkey; 50% for the United Kingdom). The frequency for the usage of open educational e-resources for Turkey is 97 and 6 for the United Kingdom. The frequency number of open educational e-resources per participant from the United Kingdom averaged as less than one. Similarly, academics did not find beneficial the use of social media (frequencies for Turkey and the United Kingdom is 136 and 45) and video-hosting sites (frequencies for Turkey and the United Kingdom is 93 and 31). We can see that the academics expressed benefitting from e-resources whilst preparing new content (X̄_TR=1.12, 82.09%; X̄_UK=0.78, 77.78%, respectively) or enriching current content (X̄_TR=1.25, 88.06%; X̄_UK=0.94, 83.33%, respectively); engaging existing content (X̄_TR=1.10, 80.60%; X̄_UK=0.89, 72.23%, respectively) or for preparing interactive course content (X̄_TR=0.73, 74.63%; X̄_UK=0.94, 83.33%, respectively). The participant academics from Turkey generally reported finding e-resources to be useful in the long term (X̄_TR=1.13, 83.59%), and think that they will contribute to their interdisciplinary studies (X̄_TR=0.81, 71.64%). Like the academics in Turkey, academics from the United Kingdom reported finding e-resources to be useful in the long term (X̄_UK=0.67, 66.67%). The academics from both countries stated that if they had more time (X̄_TR=1.13, 80.59%; X̄_UK=1.11, 83.34%, respectively), and if e-resources were customized more according to their needs (X̄_TR=0.61, 64.18%; X̄_UK=0.44, 55.56%, respectively), and they had a basic level of technology literacy (X̄_TR=0.76, 68.66%; X̄_UK=0.89, 68.34%, respectively), they would likely use and benefit from e-resources more frequently.

Discussion: Being familiar with open educational e-resources positively affects attitudes towards open educational e-resources; therefore, academics should be encouraged to become better acquainted with the development of open educational e-resources. However, academics are ready to use and develop open educational e-resources. Managers could help to incentivize academics in this regard. In the current study, open educational e-resources preferences seem quietly low. We can especially say that the academics from the UK stated that they rarely use open course materials to learn something. It may be necessary to increase the general awareness of academics about OERs for social media and video-hosting sites as they are among the less preferred OERs. In short, the habits of academics to use OERs can vary culturally. When we compare the results for the two countries, we can say that academics from Turkey have a more positive view of using e-resources for learning purposes compared to those from the UK. Academics from both countries find the use of e-resources useful in the long term, but especially participants from the UK have neither positive nor negative opinions (approximately 50%) about utility perceptions in terms of means of working interdisciplinary, contributing their career, getting certificates, enhancing their professional recognition, making different them from their colleagues, and increasing their level of professional satisfaction. When the necessary conditions are met, academics tend to use e-resources more, and they do not overestimate the problems they face, such as the language barrier.

Limitations: As one of the limitations of the current study, the data collected from the United Kingdom was considerably less than that collected from Turkey. Despite periodic reminders having been sent out with regards to the data collection form to academics working in the United Kingdom, only 41 instructors intended to answer the form and only 18 of those gave answers to all items of the questionnaire.

Conclusions: This research study has shown that academics both intend to and utilize educational e-resources (including open educational e-resources) for the purposes of their own professional development; however, the results of the study have also revealed the need to increase usage more widely in this area. The current study has shown that academics working in Turkey had slightly higher e-resource usage than those working in the United Kingdom. Additionally, it can be said that the open educational e-resources usage intentions of the academics from Turkey was higher as well. Whilst the results of this study are not generalizable due to the limited sample size, academics’ open educational e-resources usage intention is a promising topic of study for the future. Furthermore, it is clear that educational e-resources could be more widely employed for the purposes of professional development, regardless of the country or level of education.

Introduction: Assessment, historically, has been done in a summative manner in post-secondary education (HE). Whilst useful for the purposes of grading and assessment of competency, there is also increasing pressure from post-secondary education institutions to meet certain standards in terms of education quality and graduate numbers, putting pressure on teachers to produce evidence of students’ level of understanding and thus putting a greater emphasis on the use of summative assessments. The formative assessment approach for student learning is preferable in some fields, but how useful is this format for the science subjects?

Purpose: To discuss the utility of either summative assessments or formative assessments (or both) in science teaching at university level.

Methods: Exploration of the literature involving teaching science in university undergraduate courses (i.e., no formal search criteria).

Conclusions: A new category of assessment is needed - the integration of formative and summative assessment.

Introduction: Violence is a very complex and particular concept and it is difficult to make a precise definition, since acceptable and unacceptable behaviour patterns for each society vary according to social norms, time and value judgments of what harms that society. School violence results in students’ loss of concentration, poor academic success, bunking of courses, and depression. Violence is a global problem, solution depends on an integrated approach in which educators, parents and learners work together. Considering negative consequences of violence, reduction or even prevention of violence at school will not only increase quality of education and training, but also support education process to become more productive. The aim of this review is to examine studies on school violence in literature, to determine causes of violence at school and present suggestions for solutions. This type of study may also have the potential to shed light on future work on violence in schools. For this reason, the purpose of this study is to examine the studies on violence at school and to present a review on violence prevention.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the studies on violence at school in the literature and to compile the measures that can be taken to reduce violence in line with the recommendations stated in these studies. Violence is defined psychologically or physiologically as the unintentional negative action or force.

Methods: Considering the criteria of the study as a result of the preliminary examination, 66 articles were excluded and 42 articles were included in the study. Content analysis method was used to analyse the studies. First of all, data were coded and themes were formed. In order to confirm themes and codes researcher and a co-observer studied together.

Conclusions: As a result of the evaluation of studies on violence at school, the themes of gender inequality, personal factors, school organization and evaluation were reached. In studies conducted to prevent violence in the educational environment, it is stated that it is important to listen to students, to value students, to understand them, to provide a democratic environment in the school, to take measures in accordance with the different dynamics that direct the school, and to establish a strong bond between the school and the society and stakeholders. Suggestions of studies to prevent violence at school are explained in the themes of understanding, teachers’ dedication, acting together, collecting, recording data, early intervention, teacher training programs, positive school environment, improving students’ personal skills.

Introduction: The aim of this research is to design a tool (a scale) for measuring the quality of life of university students and to copy down its validity, use and reliability on six-dimension academic achievement: it touches family life quality, social life quality, personal happiness, life satisfaction and mental health.

Methods: 963 male and female students from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, for the academic year 2018/2019 were exposed to the application of the model (factor analysis) and the reliability coefficient was reached by using Roland and Kettmann equation (.773) and Spearman-Brown (.776) and Cronbach’s Alpha (.629).

Results: The feedbacks show that this tool for measuring ‘Quality of University Student Life’ is characterized and described as a good degree of stability.

Discussion: When using “factor analysis” tool, we conclude that the exit dimensions focus on two basic axes: the first axis related to public health, quality of education, Family life, life satisfaction, and mental health. The second one consists of the quality of social life and personal happiness. Since these results have given a good degree to some extent, we were commended for working in favour of this tool (a scale) to judge the life quality of university students majoring in psychology faculty at the university.

Limitations: The research and the questionnaire of the tool were applied to a group of psychology students at the national level which includes 963 male and female students with a percentage of 23.98%.

The questions of this tool were tested on a sample of 963 students at the national level who were randomly chosen from various disciplines of master’s degree in psychology. Research was conducted during the academic year 2018/2019.

Conclusions: The targeted instrument designed in this research which is “the factor analysis” has achieves a good validity and stability and has driven to two basic scales.

Introduction: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded in the post-war period and since then it has been working to combat the illiteracy of children, the youth and adults. A specific area in this context is the issue of second-chance education.

Purpose: The paper analyzes these UNESCO activities in the field of second-chance education, which allows individual target groups to obtain elementary education, respectively professional knowledge and skills for finding a job in the historical transformations as well as at present.

Methods: The main criterion was the perception of second-chance education in individual stages of educational reality, for which content analysis and comparison of the final reports of UNESCO conferences, its current educational programmes, as well as specific examples of educational activities were used.

Conclusions: Second chance education, with its specific position, content focus, target groups and organization, has become an essential part of educational systems not only in developing countries, but also in developed countries, because in every society, this issue is a current challenge for the educational reality.

Introduction: Several studies in the literature have investigated writing skills of students with visual impairment and low vision. However, no research was found to examine the written expression skills of students with visual impairment in terms of text cohesion, text coherence, text quality, text length, and writing time variables. A more comprehensive approach to research on the written expression skills of students with visual impairments and low vision is needed.

Methods: In this study, a cross-sectional design was employed to examine the written expression skills of students with low vision, visual impairment, and their sighted peers. Participants of this study consist of 344 secondary school students who were divided into three groups: Visual impairment, low vision, and sighted peers. During the application process, all students were given two different guidelines (six in total) for each text type (memoir, persuasive, informative) and asked to write about the instructions they chose. As a result, all students wrote three different texts. Texts scored on text length, writing time, text quality, coherence level, and cohesion levels. Descriptive statistics and statistical comparisons of groups were provided. Whether written expression skills of students differed according to groups was determined by one-way analysis of variance, which is one of the parametric tests.

Results: In this research, the mean of students with visual impairment and sighted peer’s text length and writing time differed statistically. And in this study, the average of students with visual impairment and sighted peer’s coherence level and text quality differed statistically.

Discussion: It can be stated that students with visual impairment do not consider their thoughts in integrity, have difficulty in concluding their articles, their texts remain as an introduction, and generally write low-quality texts. In this study, the mean of students with visual impairment, low vision, and sighted peer’s coherence level and text quality differed statistically. There are significant differences between students in all text types except for persuasive text. While there was no difference in memoir and persuasive text at the level of cohesion, were significant differences among students in terms of informative text and total scores. There are studies in the literature that are in line with these results. Thus, it can be said that results obtained from the present research are parallel to the literature.

Limitations: The results obtained from this research are limited to memoir, persuasive and informative texts. The variables are limited to text length, writing time, text coherence, text quality, and cohesion level. Having each student write three different texts simultaneously (consecutively) in a single session can be given as another limitation of the research.

Conclusions: In this research, memoir, persuasive, and informative text types were used. In future research, texts such as discussion and stories can be writing, or variables such as effort, motivation, and writing tendency can be examining. Further research on fluency and legibility regarding the mechanical aspect of writing can be planning, or spelling mistakes of students with visual impairment can be investigating. Experimental research focusing on teaching writing strategies can be done. Activities should be organized by teachers to motivate students about writing, encourage them, and increase their interests. If teachers include writing activities, this can serve to the improvement of students with visual impairments. Students who try to write should be supported. Considering the limitations of students with visual impairment in terms of writing skills, technologies that will serve these students’ better writing should be used.

Introduction: The present research aimed to review the qualitative aspects of communication between children and their caregivers. We focused on the presence of quality indicators, on the strategies we encounter in influencing language acquisition in the interaction between children and early childhood educators.

Methods: We examined the diversity, awareness and efficiency with which educators use communication tools and techniques in various preschool education situations for children under 3 years of age. In the empirical survey of day-care interactions a questionnaire was based on the evaluation and observation of questionnaire responses.

Results: The emotional and motivational basis of language acquisition is formed by the toddler’s social inclinations and attachment needs, as well as social inclinations, with his environment playing a prominent role in changing these processes.

Discussion: These interactions provide a framework for language acquisition, where in the classic case language acquisition is not guided, but takes place through everyday situations, through participation in authentic communication situations. The axiom is that language skills develop in language use.

Limitations: The questionnaire was validly completed by 60 people. The data collection concentrated on the region of southern and northern Transdanubia in Hungary. Although not in national terms, this offers the opportunity to evaluate and reflect on the situation at the regional level.

Conclusions: The professional communication and competent language development activity of educators’ results from the interplay of scientific-theoretical knowledge, implicit empirical knowledge, competence-oriented procedures

Introduction: Power relationships, which manifest themselves in all kinds of organizational environments, including educational institutions, manifest themselves as a necessity for teacher leadership in the classroom. It is necessary to use different types of power, which are multi-sourced and influenced by more than one variable, in classroom management to increase the quality of education. Due to these reasons, this study aimed to comparatively examine the types of power used by high school teachers in classroom management according to the opinions of teachers and students.

Methods: This research is a descriptive study in the survey model. The study group of the research consists of 187 teachers working in high schools in the central districts of Adana province and 950 students studying in these high schools. The “Personal Information Form (PIF)” and the “Instructor Power Types Scale (IPTS)” were used to collect research data. In addition to descriptive statistics, data were analyzed by the Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests.

Results: According to the data obtained in the study, it was determined that teachers used charismatic power and informational power most frequently in classroom management, and they used the power of understanding at least. It was observed that there was no significant difference according to variables in legitimate power and power of understanding among the types of power used by teachers in classroom management. It was revealed that the types of personal power, coercive power, charismatic power, informational power, and expert power differed significantly according to some variables. According to students, teachers use charismatic power and coercive power at most in classroom management and they apply the power of understanding less. Among the power types used by teachers, all other power types, apart from personal power, differ significantly according to various variables of students. There was no significant difference between teachers’ and students’ opinions in terms of using the power of understanding in classroom management. Furthermore, according to students, teachers use other power types (personal power, coercive power, charismatic power, informational power, expert power, and legitimate power) less than they think.

Discussion: The frequent use of informational power by teachers may be due to their desire to show these students preparing for the university that every knowledge is very important and necessary. Since the power of understanding is related to the items related to school attendance, this result obtained is thought to be influenced by the school attendance regulations in secondary education. Due to differences in the opinions of students and teachers, it can be said that teachers do not use these different types of power in classroom management as they think or cannot transform their intentions into behavior.

Limitations: It is obvious that these results were limited to the reached teachers and students in high schools. Another limitation was that the data within the study collected via PIF and IPTS.

Conclusions: In addition to these findings obtained with only quantitative data, it can be examined with classroom observations and student interviews how teachers apply the types of power they use in classroom management in the classroom environment, their effects on the environment, and which type of power is used in which situations.