Süleyman Nihat Şad

Honeymoon with IWBs: A qualitative insight in primary students' views on instruction with interactive whiteboard

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the views of primary students about interactive whiteboard [IWB] use in their classes from attitudinal and pedagogical perspectives. Research was designed as an empirical approach to phenomenology. Data was collected from fifty primary students (fourth to eighth) through focus group interviews. Nvivo 9 qualitative data analysis software was used to analyze data. Results showed that students like instruction with IWB especially for such reasons/capabilities as practical and economical use, better visual presentation, and test-based use. Students were predominantly uncomfortable with the technical problems. They believed that instruction with IWB positively impacted their learning especially because of visualization and contextualization, effective presentation, test-based use, and motivational factors. Finally it was inferred that IWBs were not used to their full potential, and both technical problems and common practices indicated that teachers were still at an initial stage of transmission to instruction with IWB and they needed both technical and pedagogical training.

Prospective Teachers—Are They Already Mobile?

This research study investigated the prospective teachers’ purposes of using mobile phones and laptops, as well as the significant differences across genders and grades. Furthermore, the frequency of connecting to Internet via both mobile devices was investigated comparatively. The study was designed based on cross-sectional survey and casual-comparative methodologies in order to first determine specific characteristics of the relevant population, and to determine the possible causes for differences in terms of variables investigated. A total of 650 prospective Turkish teachers participated in the study. The results point out that, compared to mobile phones, laptops were used more frequently for various purposes, particularly the educational ones. However, in-class use of both laptops and mobile phones for educational purposes was not very common. Mobile phones were used less for educational purposes, but more for communication and entertainment purposes. Though there were statistically significant differences in terms of some purposes, given the lack of practical significance, both male and female prospective teachers can be said to use mobile phones and laptops for various purposes with similar frequencies. The same was also true for the grade variable: all prospective teachers from first to fourth years used mobile phones and laptops for various purposes with similar frequencies in practice. The present study also revealed that, for prospective teachers, connecting to the Internet via mobile phones is not very common and even significantly less common than doing so via laptops. The findings in general suggested a need to raise awareness among prospective teachers about the mobile learning potential of mobile phones in general and in-class use of laptops in particular.

A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Contemporary Learning Approaches on Students Mathematics Achievement

The purpose of this research is to synthesize the results of experimental studies which investigated the effect of certain contemporary learning approaches including cooperative learning, multiple intelligence-based learning, problem-based learning, and constructivist learning approach on students’ mathematics achievement via meta-analysis method. In order to collect the data, first the inclusion criteria were determined and a coding form was developed. As a result, the meta-analysis involved 47 experimental studies published between 2005 and 2014, which investigated the impact of contemporary learning approaches on learners’ mathematics achievement. Based on the findings obtained from 2627 subjects who took part in these studies, a synthesis was done about the impact of contemporary learning approaches on mathematics achievement. The analysis based on the random effects model revealed that using contemporary learning approaches have a significant (p .05). However, it was found that group size had a significant negative effect on mathematics achievement in the lessons conducted in accordance with the contemporary learning approaches (z=-2.12076, p< .05), i.e. as the number of students decreases, the better results are achieved from contemporary learning approaches in terms of learners’ math achievement.