Ahmet Kilinc

Factors Influencing Teaching Choice in Turkey

Why choose to become a teacher in Turkey? The authors examined motivations and perceptions among preservice teachers (Nu2009=u20091577) encompassing early childhood, primary and secondary education. The Factors Influencing Teaching Choice (FIT-Choice) instrument was translated into Turkish and its construct validity and reliability assessed. Altruistic ‘social utility values’ were the most influential, followed by the desire for a secure job. Intrinsic value and perceived teaching abilities came next, contrasting with higher ratings in Western studies, alongside prior positive teaching and learning experiences. Family flexibility, job transferability and social influences were moderate, and the negative ‘fallback career’ motivation lowest, although not far below the scale midpoint. Science-related teacher candidates scored more highly on fallback career, had chosen a teaching career the most recently, and were lower on almost all other teaching motivations, demonstrating a less positive motivational profile. Findings are interpreted in light of the economic development and role of the teaching profession in Turkey. Less adaptive motivations belonging to preservice teachers in scientific fields highlight potential risks and recruitment strategies to optimise teacher quality in those priority fields which further research could fruitfully examine.

Turkish Student Science Teachers’ Conceptions of Sustainable Development: A phenomenography

In creating a society whose citizens have sustainable lifestyles, education for sustainable development (ESD) plays a key role. However, the concept of sustainable development (SD) has developed independently from the input of educators; therefore, ESD presents current teachers with many challenges. At this point, understanding how stakeholders in the education sector (school students, student teachers, and teachers) view SD is of great importance. We selected a sample of 113 Turkish student science teachers from this body of stakeholders and distributed a questionnaire to them that included two separate sections. In the first section, questions regarding personal information such as gender, age, and year group were asked, whereas the meaning of SD was the focus of the second part. A phenomenographic approach was used to analyse student teachers’ descriptions of SD. The results showed that student teachers had a variety of ideas about SD that could be collected under headings such as environment, technology, society, economy, politics, energy, and education. In addition, we thought that gender, context-based issues, and informal experiences might be responsible for the variety of the responses.

An international study of the propensity of students to limit their use of private transport in light of their understanding of the causes of global warming

Previous studies have shown that there is what has been called a ‘gap’ between environmental knowledge and a willingness to act in a pro-environmental manner. For the individual, this gap is probably the result of the huge complexity of factors that affect behaviour. The way in which this ‘gap’ is sometimes identified in the literature, however, is also partly a function of the fact that much of the research in this area has compared environmental attitudes in general with a willingness to take actions that are specific. In the present study, we have circumvented this latter issue by exploring links between a declared willingness to undertake specific actions and the level of belief in the efficacy of those particular actions in reducing global warming. Here we report findings on actions concerning personal transport. Because the questionnaire was designed to provide quantitative measures, novel indices could be constructed that indicate, for example, the extent to which persuading people that an action is effective might increase their willingness to undertake it. Responses were obtained from students in 11 countries with different cultural mores. This enabled us to explore possible associations between a readiness to undertake specific actions and previously published socio-cultural indices. The implications for education about these issues are explored.

School Students’ Conceptual Patterns about Weight Gain: A preliminary study for biology teaching focusing on obesity

Obesity is a critical global public health issue. It leads to numerous health conditions that limit the quality and length of life, placing a huge burden on healthcare systems around the world. Scholars believe that the fight against obesity can be won only through multidisciplinary efforts. However, the literature on people’s understanding of obesity is limited, perhaps because this topic does not attract the attention of educators at the appropriate level. Although existing studies show that people lack understanding about the mechanisms of obesity, most of the arguments in these papers suffer from a lack of theoretical background and methodological problems. Therefore, we conceived the present study based on a sound theory (conceptual change) in order to understand school students’ conceptual patterns regarding weight gain, which is an important component of obesity knowledge. A written questionnaire probing the mechanism of weight gain was distributed to 151 secondary school students in the Turkish part of Cyprus. Content analysis was applied to students’ compositions. The results showed that students have six major conceptual patterns about weight gain. They also hold a range of misconceptions and misunderstandings, and sometimes have no conceptions. At the end of the paper, we discuss possible curricular and teaching implications based on the patterns and incorrect knowledge structures.

Could organisms and ecosystems be used as motivators for behaviour to reduce global warming? The views of school students

Global warming resulting in climate change is thought to be a serious threat to the environment and, consequently, to the worlds social, political and financial stability. Therefore, there is a serious need to identify strategies that are effective in promoting behaviour change to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. One possibility is to raise awareness of the potential detrimental effects of global warming on biological organisms, since such effects are concrete and may be emotive. This study examines the beliefs of Turkish school students about the possible effects of global warming on the survival of a range of organisms and ecosystems and, separately, explores students’ views about the importance of the survival of those organisms and ecosystems. Of the items raised by the questionnaire, those perceived to be the most endangered by global warming were polar bears, and those thought to be the most worth conserving were rainforests. In addition, Cluster Analysis revealed four subgroups of students: ‘more valuing extinctionalists’ (students who valued organisms or ecosystems more highly, and thought them vulnerable to global warming), ‘less valuing extinctionalists’, ‘more valuing non-extinctionalists’ and ‘less valuing non-extinctionalists’. Thus, although students hold a variety of pre-existing views, convincing more students of the importance of maintaining biodiversity, and increasing their awareness of the potential detrimental effects of global warming on various organisms and ecosystems may be one way of encouraging students to undertake actions to reduce global warming.

Fen ve Teknoloji Öğretmen Adaylarının GDO’lu Besinler Konusunun Öğretimine Yönelik Öz Yeterlilikleri: Bazı Psikometrik Faktörlerin Muhtemel Etkileri

Sosyo-bilimsel konular her gecen gun gunluk yasamda bir yer teskil etmekte ve bu tip konularda insanlardan karar vermeleri beklenmektedir. Bu calismada GDO’ lu besinlerle ilgili olarak gelecegin vatandaslarini yetistirecek olan Fen ve Teknoloji ogretmen adaylarinin bilgileri, risk algilari, tutumlari ve bu konunun ogretimine yonelik oz yeterlilikleri belirlenmeye calisilmistir. Calismada Ahi Evran Universitesi Fen Bilgisi Ogretmenligi Ana Bilim Dali’nda okuyan 3. ve 4. Sinif toplam 161 ogretmen adayi orneklem olarak secilmistir. Calisma betimsel ve nicel bir ozelliktedir. Veri toplama araclari olarak ‘Kisisel Bilgi Olcegi’, ‘GDO’lu Besinler Bilgi Testi’, ‘GDO’lu Besinlere Yonelik Tutum Olcegi’, ‘GDO’lu Besinlerle Ilgili Risk Algilari Olcegi’, ‘GDO’lu Besinlerin Ogretimine Yonelik Oz Yeterlilik Olcegi’ kullanilmistir. Verilerin analizinde yuzde degerleri gibi betimsel istatistiklerle Stepwise Regresyon gibi aciklayici istatistikler kullanilmistir. Orneklemdeki katilimcilar GDO’lu besinler hakkinda genel olarak bilgili, risk algilari yuksek ve olumsuz tutumlara sahiptirler. Ayrica GDO’lu besinler konusunun ogretimine yonelik olarak oz yeterlilikleri genel olarak orta duzeydedir.