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This study explores science teachers' questions encouraging students to see and speak about natural phenomena in novel ways. In particular, the teachers' challenging questions that may be instrumental in persuading students to see and talk about everyday events differently were qualitatively examined. The participants were 22 science teachers. Verbal data were analysed through classroom discourse analysis (coding and quantifying) regarding the type of challenging questions and the orientations of the challenging questions. Eight types of challenging questions occurred by different frequencies were detected: inviting students to make an emergent observation to contradict an uttered proposition, referring to everyday or routine cases to oppose a proposition, inviting students to test a proposition by referring to simple logic, playing devil's advocate role, prompting students to be internally consistent in idea sharing or challenging by monitoring, referring to alternative points of views to make inconsistencies explicit and public, confirming the impossibility of the proposed idea or requesting for clarifying the possibility of the proposed idea, putting student-led reasoning forward to contradict a proposition. The teachers displayed challenging questions to identify the differences between the students' and experts' conceptual tools and ontological commitments. The teacher questions identifying possible differences between the students' and experts' thinking and talking regarding the epistemological commitments were not frequently observed. Several recommendations were offered for teacher noticing and teacher professional development.

Purpose: This study explores the relationships between the cognitive demands of the questions asked by a teacher educator (TE) and prospective teachers' (PT) capacity for critical thinking (CT). Design/Approach/Methods: Participants comprised a TE and 32 PTs. The cognitive demands of the TE's questions and PTs' CT were analyzed using a systematic observation approach. Findings: Results indicate that there are tangible connections between the increasing mental demand of TE questions and PTs' higher-order cognitive processing. The PTs achieved higher-order CT when the TE asked more cognitively demanding questions. For instance, when the TE's questions were pitched at the cognitive demand levels--namely, the analyze, evaluate, and/or create levels--the PT answers were longer and reflected higher CT, such as inductive reasoning, suggesting new ways of thinking, or legitimating the arguments of others. Accordingly, results suggest that intentionally subjecting PTs to sustained higher cognitive demands via questions may help them reach their optimal CT capacity. Originality/Value: Although proposed teaching strategies have been invaluable in proposing content-specific interventions for fostering the CT of university students, how lecturers should use their questions to conduct such interventions has been overlooked. This study addresses this gap.

Applying a measurement instrument developed in a specific country to other countries raise a critical and important question of interest in especially cross-cultural studies. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is the most preferred and used method to examine the cross-cultural applicability of measurement tools. Although CFA is a sophisticated technique to investigate various equivalence types (structural, metric, scalar and alike.), it has some limitations. In light of the classical test theory, when a measurement tool is not invariant between countries, what factors contribute to the error variance become unclear. Also, CFA reveals little as to how dimensionality of the relevant measurement tool affects measurement invariance. Hence, a fundamental focus of this study is to examine the measurement comparability or cross-cultural applicability for different countries on an international assessment using generalizability theory (G-theory) in educational science studies. With multi-faceted design, the contribution of dimensionality to error variance is examined, as well. For illustration purposes, eight scales from PISA 2012 student questionnaire dataset related to attitudes towards mathematics are used. The study is based on data from Türkiye, Finland and USA. The unbalanced multi-faceted designs are performed using G String IV. In conclusion, almost all results supported all research expectations. From the estimations of the G-theory, it can be rightly deduced cross-nationally applicability of the attitudes towards mathematics scales from these research findings.

Considering both the ecological niches of fungi and the different benefits they provide to humans, it is expected that students have a high level of scientific knowledge about living things in this kingdom. In the study, it was aimed to examine the learning of secondary school students about living things in the fungi kingdom. The research, which was carried out as a case study, was carried out with 52 secondary school students studying in the Central Anatolia Region of Türkiye in the 2022-2023 academic years. In the research, it was determined that the students had misconceptions and lack of knowledge about the classification of living things in the fungi kingdom, their diet, ecological functions and their effects on human life. The students stated that fungi take place in the world of plants, feed by photosynthesis and are used in making yogurt. According to these results, it is recommended to conduct studies on textbooks, teaching methods and teachers that cause students' misconceptions about living things in the fungi kingdom.

The aim of this study is to examine the behaviors of married individuals to maintain relationships according to their gender and gender role attitudes. The study group of the study consisted of 177 (52.8%) females and 158 males (%) aged between 24 and 50 (vinculum =30.2), residing in Izmir, and having a relationship period of 2 to 20 years (vinculum =5.9). 47.2), a total of 335 heterosexual married people. As data collection tools in the research, "Relationship Maintenance Strategies Scale", "Gender Roles Attitude Scale" and "Personal Information Form" were used. Two-way MANOVA method was used in the analysis of the data. Findings from the two-way MANOVA analysis show that gender and gender roles have an impact on relationship maintenance behaviors. In this context, it has been determined that gender roles have a higher degree of influence than biological sex in maintaining relationships. According to the findings of the study, it was determined that female participants exhibited relationship-maintaining behaviors more frequently than male participants. In terms of gender roles attitude, It has been determined that the participants who have an egalitarian gender role attitude exhibit more frequent relationship maintenance behaviors than the participants who have traditional gender roles attitudes. As a result, gender and gender roles have a significant effect on relationship maintenance strategies.

In this paper, it is aimed to evaluate different aspects of students' response time to items in the mathematics test and their test effort as an indicator of test motivation with the help of some variables at the item and student levels. The data consists of 4th-grade Singapore and Turkish students participating in the TIMSS 2019. Response time was examined in terms of item difficulties, content and cognitive domains of the items in the mathematics test self-efficacy for computer use, home resources for learning, confident in mathematics, like learning mathematics, and gender variables at the student level. In the study, it was determined that all variables considered at the item level affected the response time of the students in both countries. It was concluded that the amount of variance explained by the student-level variables in the response time varied for each the country. Another finding of the study showed that the cognitive level of the items positively related to the mean response time. Both Turkish and Singaporean students took longer to respond to data domain items compared to number and measurement and geometry domain items. Additionally, based on the criterion that the response time effort index was less than 0.8, rapid-guessing behavior, and therefore low motivation, was observed below 1% for both samples. Besides, we observed that Turkish and Singaporean students were likely to have rapid guessing behavior when an item in the reasoning domain became increasingly difficult. A similar result was identified in the data content domain, especially for Turkish graders.

Rising CO2 concentration in the atmosphere is a matter of global concern and poses apprehension about how plants will adapt to the changing environment. Various studies have proved that under high CO2 levels, plant physiology alters and affects plant functioning. However, under elevated CO2, the stomatal characters and their relation with physiological responses are still not yet clear. To find out these changes in the stomatal parameters at ambient and two elevated CO2 (550 ppm and 700 ppm) levels, four genotypes of maize (Zea mays L.) viz. DHM-117, Harsha, Varun and M-24 were grown in open-top chambers. In the study, it was observed that the stomatal density increased, stomatal size altered, stomatal conductance (gs) and transpiration rate (Tr) decreased under elevated CO2 (eCO2) while photosynthetic rate (Pn), water use efficiency (WUE), yield and biomass, of which especially the reproductive biomass increased. Under eCO2, stomatal and physiological changes were genotypic and CO2 concentration specific. Increased stomatal density at eCO2 was mainly due to increased abaxial stomatal density. The improved Pn and reduced Tr at 550 ppm improved the WUE in the plants, while this response was not observed at 700 ppm. These results elucidate that this C4 crop responded positively to up to 550 ppm of CO2 concentrations, and beyond this, the impact was minimal.

Abstract Aim The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between anemia and basic and instrumental activities of daily living in older female patients. Methods 540 older female outpatients were included in this cross-sectional study. Anemia was defined as a hemoglobin below 12 g/dL. Patients’ demographic characteristics, comorbidities, Geriatric Depression Scale, Mini Nutritional Assessment, and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were also recorded. Handgrip strength (HGS) was measured with a hand dynamometer to detect dynapenia. Basic Activities of Daily Living (BADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) questionnaires were used to evaluate functional capacity. Results The mean age of the participants was 77.42 ± 7.42 years. The prevalence of patients with anemia was 35%. A significant difference was observed between anemic and non-anemic groups in terms of age, presence of diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension, coronary artery disease (CAD), chronic kidney disease (CKD), malnutrition, dynapenia, and MMSE, BADL and IADL scores (p

Pressure ulcers are common and painful wounds encountered in intensive care settings that are preventable. The aim of this study is to summarize the best evidence on the prevention and management of pressure ulcers, aiming to reduce their incidence and improve care quality by providing an updated resource. In addition to guidelines for pressure ulcer prevention and the latest published recommendations, new proposals from high-evidence studies were reviewed. Recent studies have shown an increase in research related to pressure ulcers, particularly highlighting the potential use of prone positioning, which was also utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic, in preventing pressure ulcers. However, guidelines for pressure ulcer prevention have not yet recommended this position at a certain level of evidence. The study also addresses the evaluation of risk factors using the Braden Scale, skin assessment and care, comparisons of support surfaces, comparisons of wound dressings, and educational strategies, all based on current research and evidence for preventing pressure ulcers. Thus, this study presents an overview of new approaches focusing on methods to prevent pressure ulcers, aiming to identify effective strategies based on current perspectives.

Solitude may often be confused with the concept of loneliness and perceived as a negative experience. However, when solitude is a choice, it can be a growth-creating and healing experience. In this study, a model examining the mediating role of mindfulness in the relationship between the preference for solitude and life satisfaction among university students was tested. A total of 261 university students participated in the study. A personal information form, the Preference for Solitude Scale, the Mindfulness Scale, and the Life Satisfaction Scale were employed to collect data. Results indicated that mindfulness was a significant mediator in the preference for solitude and life satisfaction link.

University rankings have gained prominence in tandem with the global race towards excellence and as part of the growing expectation of rational, scientific evaluation of performance across a range of institutional sectors and human activity. While their omnipresence is acknowledged, empirically we know less about whether and how rankings matter in higher education outcomes. Do university rankings, predicated on universalistic standards and shared metrics of quality, function meritocratically to level the impact of long-established reputations? We address this question by analysing the extent to which changes in the position of UK universities in ranking tables, beyond existing reputations, impact on their strategic goal of international student recruitment. We draw upon an ad hoc dataset merging aggregate (university) level indicators of ranking performance and reputation with indicators of other institutional characteristics and international student numbers. Our findings show that recruitment of international students is primarily determined by university reputation, socially mediated and sedimented over the long term, rather than universities' yearly updated ranking positions. We conclude that while there is insufficient evidence that improving rankings changes universities' international recruitment outcomes, they are nevertheless consequential for universities and students as strategic actors investing in rankings as purpose and identity.

Purpose: To perform tear meniscus particle analysis using anterior segment spectral domain-optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and ImageJ software in keratoconus patients. Methods: A total of 76 participants (76 eyes) were included in the study. A comprehensive analysis of tear meniscus parameters, including tear meniscus height (TMH), tear meniscus depth (TMD), tear meniscus turbidity (TMT), and percentage of area occupied by particles (PAOP) within the meniscus, was performed in kerataconus patients and healthy controls. Results: TMT was significantly higher in the keratoconus group, while PAOP was significantly lower (P < 0.05). However, TMH and TMD did not show significant differences between the two groups (P > 0.05). There was a negative correlation observed between TMT and PAOP. In binary logistic regression analysis, TMT and Schirmer score were found to be the most influential factors in predicting keratoconus (odds ratio [OR] = 0.995, P = 0.039 and OR = 1.143, P = 0.021, respectively). Conclusion: This study revealed novel findings on analysis of the tear film in keratoconus patients, with higher TMT and lower POAP levels in the keratoconus group compared to the healthy control group.

The aim of this study is to strengthen the unity, love, patience and trust between family members and to support parents to acquire effective parenting skills, based on Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy in Play Therapy (Peseschkian, N., 2016b). For this purpose, the philosophy, principles, content and methodology of Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy have been included in the context of play therapy. This study is a qualitative study on the practice of play therapy based on Positive and Transcultural principles in Turkish culture. Our model was tested with Positive and Transcultural Therapy and play therapy with 14 families. In our article, the process and content are given in detail with only one family out of 14 family and child sample groups. Parents and their children were included in the play environment and interacted with the therapist following the completion of the therapy. As a result, when the therapy sessions with the parents and the child are completed; It has been observed that openness, respect, acceptance and contact in family relationships increase, children gain autonomy, parents cope more effectively with the difficulties they face, and the children and parents adapt to each other. In general, this model will contribute to strengthening similar work of field workers.

Background: Optic neuritis, myelitis, and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) have been associated with antibodies against myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein-immunoglobulin G (anti-MOG-IgG). Furthermore, patients with radiological and demographic features atypical for multiple sclerosis (MS) with optic neuritis and myelitis also demonstrate antibodies against aquaporin-4 and anti-MOG-IgG. However, data on the diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, and prognosis in patients with anti-MOG-IgG are limited. Aims: To evaluate the clinical, radiological, and demographic characteristics of patients with anti-MOG-IgG. Study Design: Multicenter, retrospective, observational study. Methods: Patients with blood samples demonstrating anti-MOG-IgG that had been evaluated at the Neuroimmunology laboratory at Ondokuz Mayıs University’s Faculty of Medicine were included in the study. Results: Of the 104 patients with anti-MOG-IgG, 56.7% were women and 43.3% were men. Approximately 2.4% of the patients were diagnosed with MS, 15.8% with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), 39.4% with NMOSD, 31.3% with isolated optic neuritis, and 11.1% with isolated myelitis. Approximately 53.1% of patients with spinal involvement at clinical onset demonstrated a clinical course of NMOSD. Thereafter, 8.8% of these patients demonstrated a clinical course similar to MS and ADEM, and 28.1% demonstrated a clinical course of isolated myelitis. The response to acute attack treatment was lower and the disability was higher in patients aged > 40 years than patients aged < 40 years at clinical onset. Oligoclonal band was detected in 15.5% of the patients. Conclusion: For patients with NMOSD and without anti-NMO antibodies, the diagnosis is supported by the presence of anti-MOG-IgG. Furthermore, advanced age at clinical onset, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score at clinical onset, spinal cord involvement, and number of attacks may be negative prognostic factors in patients with anti-MOG-IgG.

Aim: The aim of our study is to compare the proteinuria levels measured by dipstick in complete urine analysis at admission with the proteinuria levels measured in 24-hour collected urine for patients hospitalized with a presumptive diagnosis of preeclampsia. By doing so, we intend to review the reliability of the widely used dipstick proteinuria in patients with preeclampsia.Material ve Metod: Urine specimens were obtained from 70 pregnant women visiting high-risk maternity centers at a third-level healthcare institution. Patients were divided into four groups based on their urine dipstick screening test results: negative, +1, +2, +3, and higher. Proteinuria was considered to be present if the urinary dipstick test showed +1 or higher, while protein levels measured in the 24-hour urine collection were considered to indicate proteinuria if they exceeded 300 mg. The degree of correlation between the urine dipstick test and both 24-hour urine samples and spot urine protein-to-creatinine ratio (Pr/Cr) was compared.Results: The mean age of the 70 preeclampsia patients in the study group was 31.7±6.2, and the mean gestational age was 32.5±4.6. The dipstick test was found to have a sensitivity of 81.4% and a specificity of 85.2%. The dipstick test results were grouped as 0, +1, +2, +3, and higher. Statistically significant differences were detected among the groups in terms of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, the amount of protein in the 24-hour urine, and spot urine Pr/Cr (p=0.001, p

Abstract Clinical data on the use of tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) in late-onset ankylosing spondylitis (LoAS) are limited. The present study aimed to evaluate efficacy, safety, and treatment adherence associated with the initial use of TNFi therapy in biologic naive patients diagnosed with LoAS. Patients whose age of onset was ≥ 45 years and

In the 21st century, the use of beneficial microorganisms as biological fertilizers has become a notable phenomenon, driven by the ongoing search for sustainable solutions due to environmental issues associated with synthetic fertilizer use. This study aimed to investigate the effect of bio-priming with plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) strains comparing them with synthetic fertilizer and rhizobium inoculation in Siirt ecological conditions. The field experiment was laid out according to a completely randomized design with four replications in the arable land of Siirt University (Siirt, Türkiye) during the 2019 summer season. Three synthetic fertilizer doses as diammonium phosphate (SF1: 100 kg ha-1, SF2: 200 kg ha-1, SF3: 300 kg ha-1) and seven biological fertilizer treatments (B1: TV61C, B2: TV62C, B3: TV126C, B4: TV24C, B5: TV53D, BMIX: TV119E+TV126C, RZB: Bradyrhizobium sp.) were compared with control (no fertilization+hydro-priming) in the study. The research results indicated that 300 kg ha-1 DAP and PGPB consortia showed the best results on agronomic characteristics. However, particularly when applied in the form of a consortium, PGPB strains exhibited performance very close to synthetic fertilization. Moreover, it was determined that 300 kg ha-1 DAP and PGPB consortia increased grain yield over hydro-primed plants by 54.6% and 42.4%, while they provided a net income of $654 and $721.6, respectively. Thus, bio-priming with PGPB increased higher net income compared with synthetic fertilizer due to lower treatment costs. In conclusion, bio-priming with PGPB strains has the potential of useful, sustainable and cost-effective strategy in cowpea production.

Abstract We aimed to investigate how factors such as age, education level, planned delivery method and fear of childbirth were affected in pregnant women before and during the pandemic. This cross-sectional study compared a pre-pandemic pregnant group (July 2019 and December 2019) and a pandemic group (November 2020 and May 2021) of patients at Kütahya Health Sciences University Evliya Çelebi Training and Research Hospital. A total of 696 pregnant women in their second trimester were included in the study. All of them were literate and voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. Data were collected with the Wijma delivery expectancy/experience questionnaire (WDEQ-A), and the outpatient doctor asked the questions face-to-face. The mean age of the pregnant women participating in the study was 31.6 ± 6.8 years. While the total Wijma score was 62.1 ± 25.1 in the pre-pandemic group, it was 61.3 ± 26.4 in the pandemic group, and there was no significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.738). Upon analyzing the fear of childbirth among groups based on education level, no statistically significant differences were observed between the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods within any of the groups. While 25.7% (n = 179) of all participants had a normal fear of childbirth, 22% (n = 153) had a mild fear of childbirth, 27% (n = 188) had a moderate fear of childbirth, and 25.3% (n = 176) had a severe fear of childbirth (Wijma score of 85 and above). When the pre-pandemic and the pandemic period were compared, the fear of childbirth was unchanged in pregnant women at all education levels (p = 0.079, p = 0.957, p = 0.626, p = 0.539, p = 0.202). When comparing fear of childbirth before and after the pandemic, it was found that patients with a high school education level have a significantly higher fear of childbirth. To alleviate the fear of childbirth in pregnant women who have completed high school, training or psychosocial support interventions may be prioritized.

Abstract Objective Systematic literature reviews (SLRs) are critical for life-science research. However, the manual selection and retrieval of relevant publications can be a time-consuming process. This study aims to (1) develop two disease-specific annotated corpora, one for human papillomavirus (HPV) associated diseases and the other for pneumococcal-associated pediatric diseases (PAPD), and (2) optimize machine- and deep-learning models to facilitate automation of the SLR abstract screening. Methods This study constructed two disease-specific SLR screening corpora for HPV and PAPD, which contained citation metadata and corresponding abstracts. Performance was evaluated using precision, recall, accuracy, and F1-score of multiple combinations of machine- and deep-learning algorithms and features such as keywords and MeSH terms. Results and conclusions The HPV corpus contained 1697 entries, with 538 relevant and 1159 irrelevant articles. The PAPD corpus included 2865 entries, with 711 relevant and 2154 irrelevant articles. Adding additional features beyond title and abstract improved the performance (measured in Accuracy) of machine learning models by 3% for HPV corpus and 2% for PAPD corpus. Transformer-based deep learning models that consistently outperformed conventional machine learning algorithms, highlighting the strength of domain-specific pre-trained language models for SLR abstract screening. This study provides a foundation for the development of more intelligent SLR systems.

ABSTRACTThe current study presents complex comparative classroom discourse analyses for understanding teacher educators’ and candidate teachers’ talk-based strategies for potentially fostering academically productive classroom talk. Two participants’ in-class teaching videos regarding talk move and interactional pattern typologies, as well as communicative approach orientations, were analysed. A multifaceted, comparative analysis was conducted to portray how and to what extent teacher educators and their students as candidate teachers enact different in-class practices surrounded by talk-based strategies in promoting intellectual activity. A systematic observation approach followed, including theory-laden and data-driven coding and quantifying the three interrelated aspects of the classroom talk for presumably promoting intellectual productivity. The educator used the talk moves more effectively than the candidate teacher to create an argumentative classroom setting, encouraging the students to comment on and enrich each other’s claims, encouraging the students to present reasonable arguments, and engaging the students in the metacognitive activity. The educator was also able to sustain more open-ended chains of interactions in addition to the interactive-dialogical communicative approach orientation compared to the candidate teacher. The qualitative and quantitative differences are discussed, and educational implications are presented, especially in teacher noticing.

IntroductionWe aim to provide guidance on outcomes and measures for use in patients with Alzheimer's clinical syndrome.MethodsA consensus group of 20 voting members nominated by 10 professional societies, and a non-voting chair, used a Delphi approach and modified GRADE criteria.ResultsConsensus was reached on priority outcomes (n = 66), measures (n = 49) and statements (n = 37) across nine domains. A number of outcomes and measurement instruments were ranked for: Cognitive abilities; Functional abilities/dependency; Behavioural and neuropsychiatric symptoms; Patient quality of life (QoL); Caregiver QoL; Healthcare and treatment-related outcomes; Medical investigations; Disease-related life events; and Global outcomes.DiscussionThis work provides indications on the domains and ideal pertinent measurement instruments that clinicians may wish to use to follow patients with cognitive impairment. More work is needed to develop instruments that are more feasible in the context of the constraints of clinical routine.

ObjectiveWe aimed to develop a distributed, immutable, and highly available cross-cloud blockchain system to facilitate federated data analysis activities among multiple institutions.Materials and methodsWe preprocessed 9166 COVID-19 Structured Query Language (SQL) code, summary statistics, and user activity logs, from the GitHub repository of the Reliable Response Data Discovery for COVID-19 (R2D2) Consortium. The repository collected local summary statistics from participating institutions and aggregated the global result to a COVID-19-related clinical query, previously posted by clinicians on a website. We developed both on-chain and off-chain components to store/query these activity logs and their associated queries/results on a blockchain for immutability, transparency, and high availability of research communication. We measured run-time efficiency of contract deployment, network transactions, and confirmed the accuracy of recorded logs compared to a centralized baseline solution.ResultsThe smart contract deployment took 4.5 s on an average. The time to record an activity log on blockchain was slightly over 2 s, versus 5-9 s for baseline. For querying, each query took on an average less than 0.4 s on blockchain, versus around 2.1 s for baseline.DiscussionThe low deployment, recording, and querying times confirm the feasibility of our cross-cloud, blockchain-based federated data analysis system. We have yet to evaluate the system on a larger network with multiple nodes per cloud, to consider how to accommodate a surge in activities, and to investigate methods to lower querying time as the blockchain grows.ConclusionBlockchain technology can be used to support federated data analysis among multiple institutions.

Accurate and effective reading depends on several variables such as the continuation of the reading activity at a certain speed, the understanding of what is read at a certain level, and having a positive attitude towards reading. In this study, research was conducted to determine whether there is any relationship between reading attitude and reading speed, and reading comprehension. A total of 400 students from the Turkish and Classroom Teaching departments of two different universities took part in the research carried out according to the relational screening method. After determining the reading speed and comprehension levels of the students, their attitudes towards reading were taken. Obtained data were analyzed using SPSS 21 program. As a result of the research, it has been determined that there is a positive and highly significant relationship between the average reading speed and the average comprehension level, between the average reading speed and the average attitude towards reading, and between the average comprehension level and the average attitude towards reading. The results obtained were discussed together with similar results in the literature.

Gifted students have a reading capacity above their level. The aim of this study is to improve the reading speed and reading comprehension levels of gifted students through training in speed reading techniques. In the study, in which a total of 100 participants from the 4th, 5th and 6th grades attending the Science and Art Center took part, 28 hours of training in speed reading techniques were given to the students. The study was carried out according to a nested mixed methods design, which is one of the mixed research methods. While the quantitative data of the study were collected according to the pretest-posttest model without a control group, the qualitative data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with the students in the study. At the beginning of the study, the students' initial reading speeds were taken through a narrative and an informative text, and then these students were given 28 hours of speed reading techniques training. At the end of the studies, the students' post-reading speeds were taken and the difference between the pre-tests and the post-tests was compared using the SPSS 21 program. At the same time, semi-structured interviews were conducted with each student who took part in the study during the 28-hour training period, according to the planning made. In the studies carried out, it was concluded that the education in speed reading techniques increased the reading speed and reading comprehension levels of the gifted students, that the students developed a positive attitude towards reading and made an important step in gaining reading habits, and that the studies carried out would be beneficial in terms of increasing the academic success of the students.

Science curriculums and curricular materials are essential guidelines in materializing effective science teaching. The primary goal of the current study aims to present a thematic analysis of the last three elementary and middle school science curriculums objectives released in 2013, 2017, and 2018 to determine whether they provide a base for science teachers to design intellectually demanding instructional tasks. This study conducted an in-depth document analysis to describe the curricular themes and objectives' intellectual demands beyond a mere description. Moreover, a critical document-based thematic analysis achieved a call for an in-depth interrogation of the intended science curricula. The current study reveals that the explored science curriculums mainly include physics-related and biology-related topics and chemistry-related topics. There is less place for the issues related to astrophysics and earth sciences. Although three curricular changes (2013, 2017, and 2018) were actualized to enrich the science curriculums' scope, intellectual capacity, and thematic variation, the conceptual emphasis seemed to be strictly copied over the years. The curriculums under examination appeared to let the teachers design high intellectually demanding tasks to teach science knowledge and epistemic practices, however, to a certain extent. It is concluded that the sharp decreases in the number of objectives observed in the abstraction zone may hinder teachers from generating teaching environments where students can transfer acquired knowledge and practices to external contexts. Educational recommendations are offered in the sense of curriculum development and teacher education.