The current study aims at gaining insight into the effectiveness of the explicit and implicit instructions of the culture capsules through multimedia resources and tracks EFL learners|’ multicultural attitudes. The study sampled 43 advanced EFL learners who took part in speaking courses at Shoukoh and Safiran institutes. The researchers applied one-stage cluster sampling to select two groups of participants. The first group received both input (multimedia resources) and the explicit instruction of L2 culture capsules and the second group were exposed to the same cultural input through the implicit instruction. In order to track down the potential enhancement of the multicultural attitudes of the learners, Munroe and Pearson’s (2006) multicultural attitude scale (MASQUE) was administered to the respondents at the pre-test stage and after the treatment phase. In order to have an exhaustive analysis, the researchers evaluated different levels of multicultural attitude, that is, multicultural knowledge, care, and act. The findings of the study, through one-way MANOVA, showed that the learners in the first group significantly outperformed in multicultural knowledge (ρ=.001) and care (ρ=.039), but there was no significant difference between the groups regarding the multicultural act (ρ=.177) at p< .05 level of significance. Based on the findings, it can be suggested that the positive multicultural attitude can be achieved through the proper input and explicit instruction.

The purpose of this research is to examine preschool and first grade teachers’ opinions on the effects of school readiness to classroom management. The participants of this research consisted of the 18 preschool and 22 first grade teachers who work at public and private schools in the cities of Konya, Ankara and Kayseri in Turkey. Phenomenological research design is used in this qualitative study. In order to identify the opinions of the preschool and first grade teachers on the effects of school readiness to classroom management, an interview form comprised of open ended questions developed by the researchers was used. The data is gathered from the teachers’ answers given to the structurally prepared questions and the collected data is analysed through content analysis method. The result of the research shows that both the preschool and first grade teacher groups expressed that level of readiness has an impact on classroom management. The teachers in both groups have stated that it is observed learning difficulty in children with low level of readiness and boredom and impatience in children with higher level of readiness. At the end of this research the necessary suggestions were given according to the obtained findings.

Mass assessment of large samples' nature of science views has been one of the core concerns in science education research. Due to impracticality of using open-ended questionnaires or conducting interviews with large groups, another line of research has been required for mass assessment of pupils' nature of science conception meaningfully. Considering these issues, Chen et al. (2013) developed the questionnaire titled Students’ Ideas about Nature of Science (SINOS) to evaluate young students’ NoS views. This study targeted to translate and adapt SINOS into Turkish with the aim of measuring Turkish middle-school students' nature of science (NoS) views. Analysis results presented confirmation for the reliability and validity of Turkish version of the questionnaire with seven-factor structure as similar to the original questionnaire. The study concluded with recommendations for use of SINOS in Turkish context in order to improve NoS perspectives in national science curriculum.

In this study, we handled psychological well-being (PWB) and individual innovativeness (IND-INO) as personality qualities which an effective counselor needs to possess to meet the expectancies of clients in new era. Moreover, we tried to figure out (1) the similarities between counseling process and innovativeness process and (2) the congruency between PWB and IND-INO aspects. Predictive associational survey model were administrated to 655 counselor trainees. IND-INO Scale, PWB Scale and a questionnaire were conducted online. Data analyses were made by Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple linear regression techniques. Results showed innovativeness categories of counselor trainees that they were mostly early majority and early adapters. Significant positive correlations were found between PWB levels and IND-INO levels of counselor trainees. Multiple linear regression results showed that IND-INO characteristics explain 69% of the total variance of PWB as a whole.

The objective of the present study is to determine the effect of the “drama” method on students’ Turkish verbal skills and speech anxiety. Pretest-posttest experimental model with control group was utilized in the study. In the analysis of data obtained by Turkish Rhetorical Skills Scale (TRSS) and Speech Anxiety Scale (SAS), t-test statistics were used. The following results were obtained in the current study: 1. It was determined that “drama” instruction method was more successful than the instructional activities in the existing Turkish curriculum for development of Turkish rhetorical skills. 2. In minimizing students’ speech anxiety, “drama” method was found to be more successful than the instructional activities in the existing Turkish curriculum. These results demonstrated that “drama” method is an effective technique in development of students’ Turkish verbal skills and reduction of students’ speech anxiety.

As the seamless connection between language and culture is commensurate with related research carried on language and culture; language is greatly affected and structured by cultural values, attitudes and beliefs. The goal of the present study is to investigate and analyse English language teachers’ perceptions and opinions about the integration of target culture into the foreign language courses. In the same vein, this research aims at finding out the connection between the instructors’ thoughts about the integration of the target culture elements and students’ motivation in English classes. Having been randomly selected on a voluntary basis, the participants of the study included 7 English language instructors, working at a Turkish state university. Semi-structured interviews were implemented as the instrument to elicit data. The results were analysed qualitatively and indicated that the instructors espouse the incorporation of target language culture into the courses; however they cannot allocate enough time to have culturally embedded courses. They claim that these two inextricably connected fields are to be evaluated concurrently in L2 courses. As for the effects of target culture teaching on students’ academic achievement and motivation, they unanimously agree that it has a positive and motivating impact on their proficiency level of English. 

The study features two basic steps. The first step of the research aims to develop a scale to measure the attitude of preschool teachers towards the Persona Dolls Approach and to verify its validity/reliability through a general survey. The cohort employed in the research was drawn from a pool of preschool teachers working in and around the cities of Çanakkale and Mardin, Turkey during the 2011-2012 academic year. The first sampling taken with the purposive sampling method was carried out in June 2011 with 187 preschool teachers employed in schools in and around the city of Çanakkale. Validity was measured through the application of structure and scope verification procedures, while reliability was established using the test - re test method and internal consistency procedures. The resulting analyses presented a scale with KMO Value (Kaiser Meyer Olkin) of 0.812 and an internal consistency value of 0.916, where a value approximate to +1.00 indicates a high level of internal consistency. The second step of the research involved a cohort of 46 preschool teachers from Mardin and surrounding districts, 23 in the trial group and 23 in the control group. The aim was to assess whether the trial group teachers would present a change of attitude following a two-day training in the Persona Doll Approach. A pre test-post test and control group trial method was employed for this purpose. The groups were equalized taking into account the validity-reliability studies related to the teacher survey and attitude scales from the first step of research, and related and unrelated Group T Tests were applied in data analysis. At the conclusion of the experimental model, comparing pre and post-test results, significant levels of positive attitude change were perceived in terms of measurable variances among teachers in the experimental group receiving instruction in the Persona Doll Approach. These results would appear to imply the positive effects of training in the Persona Dolls Approach for teachers in the experimental group.

In language teacher education, beliefs of language teachers about language learning and teaching have a powerful effect on the way they teach. Therefore, the quality of teacher education programs should be considered as an influential variable that might cause changes in pre-service language teachers’ beliefs. The main purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify the beliefs future English language teachers hold toward learning and teaching, and the impact of the courses given in the program on altering their beliefs about learning and teaching a foreign language. The data gathered from twenty-three first year and twenty-one final year language teacher candidates through an openended questionnaire form were analyzed using content analysis. The results revealed that the program created an increase in their awareness and an improvement in their understanding of the processes inherent in foreign language teaching and learning.

The aim of this study is to examine the variability in and reliability of scores assigned to different quality EFL compositions by EFL instructors and their rating behaviors. Using a mixed research design, quantitative data were collected from EFL instructors’ ratings of 30 compositions of three different qualities using a holistic scoring rubric. Qualitatively, think-aloud protocol data were collected concretely from a sub-sample of raters. The generalizability theory (G-theory) approach was used to analyze the quantitative data. The results showed that the raters mostly deviated while giving scores to very low level and mid-range compositions, but that they were more consistent while rating very high-level compositions. The reliability of the ratings of high quality papers (e.g. g: .87 and phi: .79 respectively) was higher than the coefficients obtained for mid-range and low quality compositions. This result indicated that more reliable ratings could be obtained in the rating of high quality papers. The think-aloud protocol analysis indicated that the raters attended differently to different aspects of these three level compositions. Implications are given from performance assessment practice perspectives.