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The need for improving and evaluating students' cognitive skills, including problem-solving, has been highlighted in both the mathematics education literature and the curricula worldwide. The objective of this study was to assess the problem-solving skills of lower secondary school students using a teacher-based evaluation method, taking into account their grade level, gender, grade-point averages, and mathematics grades. To that end, the Problem-solving Skill Scale was administered to 39 mathematics teachers from 21 schools, for a total of 1010 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students. Based on the findings, it can be inferred that the students possess an adequate level of problem-solving skills; however, their level of proficiency differed significantly according to their grade levels, gender, grade-point averages, and mathematics grades. This identification of the students' problem-solving skills is expected to guide them towards activities and resources that align with their individual abilities.

As in all fields, values are an important component of classroom's affective environment in mathematics course, too, and have a significant impact on students' mathematical efforts. As it would directly affect classroom practices and learning, it is deemed important to determine preservice teachers' value profiles. This research aimed to address mathematical and mathematics educational values of mathematics students receiving pedagogical formation in terms of constructivist and positivist approaches and examine these values along with their opinions on the use of different teaching strategies, methods and techniques (SMTs) in courses. The participants were 288 mathematics students receiving pedagogical formation at two public universities. As data collection instruments, Mathematical and Mathematics Educational Values Scale and a written interview form were used to associate their values with their teaching preferences. The study concluded a significant difference in favor of constructivist values when comparing participants' levels of having positivist values with their levels of constructivist values. The findings achieved from the interview forms indicated that majority of participants preferred student-centered teaching strategies, methods and techniques; in other words, they regarded themselves rather as constructivists.

The aim of this study is twofold: to determine which knowledge type (procedural or conceptual) is predominant in basic mathematics topics among preservice primary mathematics teachers and the relation between these knowledge types. The study group consisted of 97 freshmen studying at Primary Mathematics Teaching Department. Case study method was used within the scope of descriptive approach. Participants were administered the Conceptual-Procedural Knowledge Test (CPKT), developed by the researchers, which consisted of questions that measured procedural and conceptual knowledge. Participant answers were analysed by an answer key and a characterization scale, and their levels were determined according to level ranges. Then, the frequency and percentage of the data were calculated and tabularized, and charts were used to make a two-way comparison of the relationship between procedural and conceptual knowledge. The study revealed that preservice teachers' procedural knowledge was concentrated at levels 2 and 3 whereas their conceptual knowledge at levels 1 and 2. Another result of the study is that while conceptual learning may support procedural learning the contrary is not necessarily true.

This study aimed to investigate the readability of the fifth-, sixth, seventh and eighth-grade mathematics course books prepared in deference to the 2017 curriculum and distributed to schools by MEB. This study utilized the descriptive document analysis which is a qualitative research method. Readability of the mathematics course books were subjected to a quantitative analysis by Çetinkaya-Uzun Readability Formula. Addressing the readability levels of the texts in secondary mathematics course books, this study performed analyses of average word and average sentence lengths of the texts in secondary school course books. These analyses showed that there is no linear correlation between grade level and word and sentence length averages. Readability scores and levels of the text in the analyzed secondary school mathematics course books are not in parallel with the grade level. Accordingly, readability scores of information and solution texts in the fifth-grade course book were lower than the scores in other grades' course books whereas readability scores of question texts were lower than the scores in all grades' course books but the eighth-grade course book. Readability levels of the text in the analyzed secondary school mathematics course book were found to be on frustration level and educational level. Course books should also include independent texts with readability scores and levels.

Storytelling is a popular instrument used in every domain of natural and social interaction for human communication and commonly used in classrooms to enrich the learning experience. With the use of technological tools in every field of our daily lives, its use in educational environments has become inevitable and in parallel with the development of these tools, digital stories have started to replace traditional storytelling. Digital storytelling offers advantages such as providing diverse applications in the classroom environment, personalizing the learning experience, being interesting, helping difficult subjects explained, addressing real-life-related situations, supporting active learning, allowing for the creation of costless learning environments, and improving motivation and achievement. Materializing a course such as mathematics in which abstract concepts are given, helping students use the learned information with stories and associate it with daily life, developing activities to make learning environments enjoyable when learning and applying by taking students away from the traditional understanding of instruction are considered some of the most important duties of teachers in this process. In accordance with the related considerations, this study aims to investigate the effects of mathematics courses instructed by association with digital storytelling on 8th-grade students' academic achievements and the teacher and student opinions on the application process. The study using the quasi-experimental method was conducted with 58 students. The Achievement Test, written opinion forms to receive student opinions and interview form for teacher were prepared by the researchers to this end. At the end of the study, although no statistically significant differences were found between the groups in the posttest and the delayed-posttest in terms of academic achievement score averages of the students in the experimental group were found to be higher than the score averages of the students in the control group. The results achieved in this study show that digital storytelling is a powerful instrument to create more interesting and enjoyable learning environments which facilitate association with daily life, allow for effective learning and participation. It was also stated that the students and the mathematics teacher had positive opinions on use of digital stories in the courses and its contribution to the courses.

Differentiated instruction is an instructional method complying with the constructivist approach that takes individual differences into consideration. Importance of pre-service education becomes apparent so that the differentiated instruction of which positive contributions such as having positive effects on students' academic achievements and enabling them to develop a positive attitude toward mathematics have been shown in mathematics education research can be applied in an efficient way. In this context, the purpose of this study is to examine elementary mathematics teacher candidates' competence of differentiated instruction and their opinions on the process during a pre-service education which has the components through which they become informed of the differentiated instruction method, develop differentiated instructional activities, these activities are observed by teachers and they discuss the effectiveness of the practices. The study group of the research was composed of 49 pre-service elementary mathematics teachers. Accordingly, competence level of differentiated instruction was found to be a value very close to the high level. It is thought that this study will provide information on the points to be taken into consideration in future studies to be conducted on obstacles and conveniences presented by pre-service teachers regarding the use of differentiated instruction method and the learning environment in the light of the practices.

WebQuests are designed to ensure meaningful learning by combining technology with a constructivist approach in the classroom setting. This study aims to examine the effect of WebQuests used in instruction on students' academic achievements and the student and teacher opinions on WebQuests. The participants of this study using the quasi-experimental method were composed of 78 ninth-grade students and five mathematics teachers. Within this scope, WebQuests for the attainments in the domains of Data, Counting and Probability learning in the ninth-grade curriculum were developed by the researchers. The academic achievement test developed by the researchers was applied to the experimental and control groups as pretest, posttest and delayed posttest. In the implementation process, the experimental group was expected to solve the non-routine problems within WebQuests. The student and teacher opinions on the implementation were received at the end. The SPSS software package was utilized for quantitative data analysis and the qualitative data were subjected to a content analysis in the study. Consequently, it was discovered that the WebQuest teaching strategy had a positive impact on the student learning retention. Furthermore, the themes obtained through teacher and student opinions and recommendations of the study emphasize important issues for future studies.

Recent developments in technology have changed the learner's profile and the learning outcomes. Today, with the emergence of higher-order thinking skills and computer literacy skills, teaching through traditional methods is likely to fail to achieve the learning outcomes. That is why; teachers and teacher candidates are expected to have computer literacy skills. Programming is the main focus of this study since it is an important part of computer literacy. The study aims to analyze mathematics education students' skills in the process of programming and their practices of integrating it into their teaching. The participants of the study are 42 third grade students of an Elementary Mathematics Education Program of a state university in Turkey. Within the study in which theory and practice was carried out simultaneously, the participants were taught the basics of programming and the algorithms with C programming language. The teacher candidates put the theoretical knowledge into practice using the visual programming application by MIT App Inventor at the computer laboratory. In addition, they used the MIT App Inventor visual programming environment to develop programs they will use in teaching mathematics in groups. Given the component of teaching of programming during this process, it is considered that the process of teaching in question will be effective in planning the teaching process of future studies. The reason is that not only it analyses the development of the variables used in this study but also because it takes into consideration the opinions of teacher candidates.

A natural outcome of change in technology, new approaches towards teaching and learning have emerged and the applicability of the flipped classroom method, a new educational strategy, in the field of education has started to be discussed. It was aimed with the study to examine the effect of using flipped classroom method in academic achievements and motivations of students and reveal the student opinions. The quasi-experimental method was used in this study and the participants were 50 sophomores studying Elementary Mathematics Education in a state university. The results of the study shows that the flipped classroom method does not have a significant effect on improving students' perceptions of technology use, and the students in the experimental group were more successful and had higher levels of motivation than the students in the control group. It was also revealed that the students had positive thoughts about the implementation of the flipped classroom method.

As it has changed all fields in our lives, technological advancements have also improved education in such a large extent that integrating technology into education is inevitable. For this reason, teachers and teacher candidates are supposed to get acquainted with technology related information and skills. This study was conducted to determine the pre-service mathematics teachers' opinions about information and communication technologies. A questionnaire was applied to 104 mathematics teacher candidates from a university in the Black Sea Region as the data collecting tool. The data was analyzed with statistical software (SPSS 13.0) in terms of average mean, standard deviation and t-tests. Current findings show that mathematics teacher candidates have positive attitude towards applying ICT in classroom settings. Results show no significant difference between the attitudes and owning a computer, using the internet and the department being studied; however there is a significant correlation between attitudes and gender; favoring males.

Especially in recentyears, it is began to seen that Turkey become to a more effective position in the field of economic, social and cultural field in the World and our country is among the priority countries in which students from different countries want to study where it is particularly relevant in terms of history and culture. However, reading in a foreign country undoubtedly brings with it some difficulties. In order for the students to benefit from the educational opportunities in Turkey at the highest level, studies should be carried out to identify and eliminate the problems they have experienced. In this direction, this study aims to examine the reasons for students' preferring Turkey and to determine the difficulties encountered that Turkish native foreign students who come to education faculties for higher education. The research, which was carried out by adopting qualitative research approach, was carried out with 18 students studying at Ömer Halisdemir University Faculty of Education. The research data were collected by a questionnaire form and semi-structured interviews. At the end of the research, it has been revealed that most of the students were satisfied with the program and they make their living by working. The main reasons to prefer Turkey for higher education are; more qualified education, liking and curiosity of Turkey, the possibility of having a good job and cultural similarities. It is also obtained from this study that economic problems are the most common problems faced by many students. In this direction, it is suggested to increase the scholarship opportunities for students who want to study with their own possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hacettepe University Journal of Education is the property of Hacettepe University Journal of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this study is to develop a scale to measure candidate teachers' utilization level of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This study was designed as a quantitative survey research. The validity and reliability of the scale were calculated with the data coming from 300 candidate teachers. The structural validity of the scale was sought with factor analysis and reliability was checked with Cronbach Alpha analysis. The factor analysis revealed that load of the factors ranged between 0,40 and 0,80, Kaiser-Meyer Olkin value is 0,90, and Cronbach Alpha value, internal consistency coefficient calculated for the sake of reliability, was determined as 0,91. The reliability coefficient values for each factor were; Anxiety 0,75; Confidence 0,76; Attitude 0,81; Esteem 0,84. At the end of the research, it was determined that the 30-item scale towards measuring candidate teachers' state of using ICT was a scale with proper reliability and validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Dicle University Journal of Ziya Gokalp Education Faculty / Dicle Üniversitesi Ziya Gökalp Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi is the property of Dicle University Journal of Ziya Gokalp Education Faculty and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)