Beginning teachers experience a variety of challenges and difficulties as they struggle to develop and progress in their teaching career. The following qualitative case study focused on a novice teacher’s perceptions concerning the mentoring experience she received in her practicum course at the American University in Dubai. The study was guided by the following two research questions: (1) What difficulties and challenges did the novice teacher face during her first year of teaching? and (2) What were the novice teacher’s perceptions of the mentoring strategies implemented in her practicum course? A questionnaire was sent to the participant during the summer break, and she was asked to answer demographic questions regarding the school and classroom she was teaching in. She was also required to answer in-depth questions regarding the difficulties and challenges she faced as a beginning teacher, the follow up sessions with her mentor, and her perceptions of the mentoring experience. Analysis of the data revealed three themes: difficulties and challenges of a new teacher, lessons from a mentoring experience, and characteristics of an effective mentor. The findings associated with this study are crucial in raising the awareness of school leaders to the needs of beginning teachers. This is an essential step towards working on designing and implementing effective mentoring programs that meet the needs and concerns of beginning teachers. 

This article is an academic commentary on the concept of sociology of education. The authors have ventured through the lens of Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition and discuss its impact might have had if the corresponding mode of education and pedagogy be carried out in reality according to what Arendt had inspired her readers.  A cross reference has been made on the recent 2017 early childhood reform document in Hong Kong on Play with the anticipated forms of education which the authors have perceived in Arendt’s The Human Condition, namely the ‘labour’, ‘work’ and ‘action’.  Discussions on the impacts of Arendt’s perceptions of ‘works of art’ and ‘vita activa’ in particular have been made if they are to be implemented in the early childhood classroom in Hong Kong.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the tendency to tolerance and helpfulness behavior in 4th grade primary school students. Relational screening model was used in the study. Simple random sampling method was used in the study. 265 students from the 4th grade of the primary school students have participated to the study. The data in the study were collected by using the scale of tolerance and the scale of helpfulness attitude. Descriptive statistics were used in the analysis of the data pearson product moments correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were used in the analysis of data. As a result, it was found that a medium level significant relationship in the positive direction existed between the tolerance tendency scores and helpfulness attitude scores of fourth grade students, that the value belonging to tolerance displayed a significant relationship with acceptance and empathy sub-dimensions and that all three variables together explained 24% of the helpfulness attitude. This result has also revealed a predictive relationship between students' tendencies towards tolerance and helpfulness attitudes. Based upon the findings, following recommendations have been provided.

School readiness is associated with children’s later school based-outcomes. School readiness covers skills, behaviors, and attitudes related to whole child development. It is a multidimensional issue regarding readiness in children, readiness for parents, and readiness for schools. Therefore, the issue concerns parents, teachers, and researchers. In the present study, a phenomenological research design was used to examine and compare parents’, pre-service and in-service preschool teachers’ views on school readiness. The participants of this study were 50 parents, 50 pre-service and 50 in-service preschool teachers. The participants were selected using the purposive sampling method. Semi-structured interview protocols were used to collect the data. The participants were asked four main questions regarding the definition of school readiness, factors related to school readiness, problems in school readiness, and their suggestions for improvements in school readiness. The findings revealed that the participants mostly defined school readiness from a maturationalistic perspective regarding children’s developmental domains, especially cognitive and psychomotor skills. Mothers and preschool teachers were described as the most effective people in the school readiness process. Participants’ explanations regarding problems in the school readiness process and their suggestions to improve children’s school readiness were discussed in light of the literature.

This is a qualitative case study of a gifted twice-exceptional student with impulse control disorder (ICD) co-diagnosed with depression. This study follows the ‘case study’ pattern (precedence). The data set of this study is composed of documents from a study involving a twice-exceptional student with adverse event sampling who has been selected through purposive sampling (activity papers, drawings), minutes of interviews with the  student’s mother and teachers and observation notes kept throughout the process. Data have been analyzed using the content analysis methodology. At the end of this study seeking to find out what this gifted student with impulse control disorder [ICD] co-diagnosed with depression goes through in the event of being also twice-exceptional and whether or not his/her condition of being gifted is overshadowed by him/her having psychological; the fact that disadvantaging traits of such twice-exceptional child has been found to dwindle almost down to none can be interpreted as the positive outcome of the effective approach towards the analyzed unit of the two emerging main categories, i.e. school and family.  The consistent and supportive attitudes of the family have ensured to eradicate the tantrums (temper fits) of the twice-exceptional child, toppled with treatment of the child and a fine administration of the drug doses. At school, on the other hand, the available supervision policy, intervention methodologies in support of treatment and the professional approach of the teachers have contributed to the formation of a socially-enabling environment for the twice-exceptional child, including, also, backing by his/her peers. Taking into consideration that mere drug treatment would not be sufficient, support of the family as well as of the school reveals that the symptoms linked with the depression-co-diagnosed-ICD of the twice exceptional child were prevented from suppressing the child’s giftedness. 

The aim of the study is to investigate the effects of formative assessment on prospective teachers’ academic achievement, attitudes towards educational measurement and self-regulation skills. In the study, quasi-experimental design including non-equivalent pre-test and post-test control group. There are 40 prospective teachers in each one of the experimental and control group which implemented in the scope of measurement and evaluation course in education faculty. Formative assessment was implemented within the 14-weeks in the experimental group, and summative assessment practices were done in the control group. According to the research results, it is determined that academic achievements of prospective teachers in the experimental group have differentiated significantly to academic achievements of prospective achievement in the control group. There is no statistically significant difference between prospective students’ attitudes towards measurement and self-regulation in the experimental and control group. However, it has been made out those prospective teachers’ attitudes towards measurement and self-regulation skills in the experimental group have been higher than the others’ in the control group.

The present study aimed at examining high school teachers’ attitudes towards information and communication technology (ICT) use in education. With this regard, we examined whether the teachers’ attitudes significantly differ according to their gender, age, teaching experience, ICT experience, ICT skills and ICT training. The participants consisted of 353 teachers working in different high schools in Ankara in the academic year 2016-2017. Research results illustrated that teachers have a high level of positive attitude towards ICT use in their classes, yet there is no significant difference between teachers’ ICT willingness by their gender, age, teaching experience, ICT experience, ICT skills and the number of ICT training they had.  However, they have significantly different negative attitude (ICT anxiety) towards ICT use in education by their ICT experience, ICT skills and the number of previous ICT training. 

The aim of this study is to reveal prospective teachers’ thoughts and observations about school principals. In the study, the qualitative and quantitative research methods were used together. In quantitative research method, a questionnaire was developed and survey research was conducted with the help of this questionnaire. In the qualitative method, the study of the phenomenology was preferred in order to reveal the experiences and meanings related to the phenomena. The sample of the study consists of 60 senior students at Bayburt University Faculty of Education departments of Primary Education and Science Education. The “Questionnaire of Perceptions of Prospective Teachers About School Principals” developed by researcher was used in this study. In addition, other data collection tool was the observation reports that prospective teachers observe and then write a day of school principals. SPSS package program was used in analysis of the quantitative data. Content analysis was used in analysis of the qualitative data.  Perceptions of prospective teachers about school principals were found to be positive and the study showed that gender and department didn’t affect the thoughts of prospective teachers.

This study aiming to determine the metaphorical perceptions of prospective teachers regarding Turkey’s education policies was modelled in the ‘phenomenological pattern’ which one of the qualitative research methods. The study group was 150 prospective teachers. Data was collected using a metaphor form and via focus group interviews. Descriptive analysis and content analysis techniques were used for data analysis. Prospective teachers produced 135 valid metaphors. The most frequently repeated metaphors were chameleon, jigsaw puzzle, play dough, exchange rate, seasons, Black Sea’s weather, domino stones, human life, Indian silk, swamp, traditional agriculture, tuning of the oriental instrument, vegetable soup, and weather forecast. The main categories were uncertainty, changeability, inevitableness, subjectivity, anxiety, desperation, instability, inconsistency, and awareness. The metaphors and focus group interview results show that the prospective teachers perceive negatively the frequent changing policies and educational practices.

Schools are at the forefront of the institutions that need to be in close relations with the social environment. In this regard, practices of the public relations are prominent. This obligation is also responsibility of the school principals, as there are no public relations units in public schools. The purpose of this research is to reveal the opinions of school principals about public relations practices at school. Research is a case study in which qualitative data is used. Semi-structured interview form created by the researcher were used as data collection tool by reviewing the literature and taking expert opinions. This data collection tool was implemented by the researcher to 13 school principals working at different levels of education. As a result of the interviews it is revealed that school principals had enough awareness about public relations, statements of public relations were correctly understood by the school principals, but routine activities had carried out rather than planned activities. School principals are warmly committed to having a unit of planned and specialized people on public relations in their schools. In this direction, it is suggested that the schools should be supported by public relations units or public relations specialists so that they can carry out activities related to the people in a more qualified and planned way.

The main purpose of this study is to compare the test forms to the midi anchor test and the mini anchor test performance based on item response theory. The research was conducted with using simulated data which were generated based on Rasch model. In order to equate two test forms the anchor item nonequivalent groups (internal anchor test) was used in this research.  The data were generated and analyzed using the R software. 100 replications were done for each different condition. The results obtained from this simulation study were evaluated according to the equating error (RMSE) and bias (BIAS) criterions. In the study, midi anchor generally produced better equating results than the mini anchor test with a few exceptions for most conditions.

One of the biggest criticisms of international law is the lack of effective enforcement, often compounded in human rights law by the system of treaty reservations that detracts from the main object and purpose of human rights protections. Ideally, once a country has ratified a treaty, it may create domestic law that provides an enforcement mechanism that may be lacking at the international level. However, in cases such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, one can see the limits of such an indeterminate system. The two questions being posed are: “Could the implementation of human rights education enhance enforcement within countries of international human rights accords?” and “How should one go about implementing a human rights education initiative?”To answer these questions, literature regarding human rights education initatives around the world were reviewed and focus was put on initaitves working to enforce international human rights law. From reviewing the literature, a major component of the effectivenss of a human rights education initiative is the quality of training the teachers recieved and the level of committment to the iniative by school administrations.

It seems that in the mind of the public, teachers have come to be defined by what they solicit (protection in the form of a union) and what they fail to elicit (passing scores for students on standardized tests) as opposed to what it is they do, which is teach. This misinterpretation may very well arise from the lack of clarity in defining the practice of teaching. Using the emerging recognition of non-human animals as social transmitters of information to provide insight into what teaching is from an evolutionary perspective, this paper explores the inextricable link between biology and educational philosophy. Using Dewey’s (1902, 1944, 1953) polymathic approach to investigating and understanding education as both a model and a foundation, this paper identifies nexus points between pedagogical theory, cognitive neuroscience, and ethology. The result is a redefinition of both the teacher and the act of teaching that has the potential to bring clarity to the purpose of a profession that has long suffered from public—and political—misperception.

The purpose of this study was to analyze how primary school classroom teachers experienced teaching poor students. This study was designed in a phenomenological approach. To fulfill the aim of the study, in-depth and focus group interviews were held as well as clasroom observations. The data gathered through interviews and observations was firstly transcribed and then content analyzig technique was embraced to be able to reach meaningful themes. As a result of analyzing process, two main themes were emerged. One of these themes was identified as ‘education and poverty’, and the other theme was identified as ‘effects of poverty’.

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of multi modal representations within writing to learn activities on students’ critical thinking. Mixed method was used. The participants included 32 students 5th grade from elementary school. The groups were randomly selected as a control group and the other class was selected as the experimental group. Data collection tools has been Critical Thinking Test (CTT) and writing actives. The students were asked to tell their peers about the subjects in the unit with a writing activity using the summary writing type. The students performed three writing activities, one preparation and two real practice activities, in this process. The most basic dissimilarity between the groups is the request of the use of multimodal representations asked from the students in the experimental group. The Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficent of the CTT was determined as 0.72. The results of this study show that the use of the multi modal representations in writing to learn activities improved the scientific critical thinking of the students.