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In this study, we examined STEAM education's reflections and implicit functions on children according to the views of early childhood and primary school teachers who applied STEAM education. We conducted the study within the scope of phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research designs. The participants were ten teachers who had previously received STEAM education and applied STEAM education in their classroom and were determined by the snowball sampling method. We collected the data with semi-structured interviews and analyzed them with content analysis. We explained our findings with three themes: 1) opportunities for collaborative learning with peers, 2) values, and 3) opportunities for skill development. According to the results, STEAM education encouraged children to make friends, work together, have fun, develop positive commitment, and take responsibility. STEAM education enabled children to cooperate, share, take responsibility, and develop friendships among children. In addition, STEAM education contributed to many skills of children, such as empathy, problem-solving, scientific process, analytical thinking, aggressiveness, self-control, and critical thinking. In this respect, the study provides evidence for the illusions of STEAM education for children.

This study aims to examine in-depth the practices and the problems of primary school teachers in identifying and eliminating reading and writing difficulties. The current study employed phenomenology method, one of the qualitative research designs and the data of the study were collected through observation and interview techniques. Criterion sampling, one of the purposeful sampling methods was utilized in determining study group. Six primary school teachers were selected in accordance with the determined criteria to collect the interview data. To collect observation data, 3 primary schools were selected and a total of 16 hours of observation was made. According to the findings, most of the teachers did not receive education about identifying students with reading and writing difficulties, conducting studies with these students, and preparing materials, activities, and etc. suitable for them. Moreover, primary school teachers expressed that although there were some disadvantages of inclusive education, students with reading and writing difficulties should continue their education in inclusive classes. However, the necessity of providing supplementary support to these students in addition to inclusive education was frequently emphasized. When the practices of primary school teachers with students having reading and writing difficulty were examined, it was observed that they generally used letter/syllable trinkets, gamification, letter cards, individual syllable work, memorization assignments, dictation work, story reading, drama and colored syllables. On the other hand, it was determined that methods, techniques or strategies that stated to be effective in the literature were either used very little or not at all in classrooms.

The inadequacy of experimental activities (or lack of equipment) in science courses in rural parts of Turkey negatively effects students' acquisition of scientific thinking and inquiry skills. The fact that success rates are notably low in international assessments demonstrates the necessity to adopt "different" approaches apart from the existing learning and teaching methods. From this point of view, a mobile science laboratory (MSL) was constructed to deliver outreach activities in the rural outskirts of a city in Turkey. Experimental activities were carried out in this laboratory for six months with 324 middle school students who responded to survey questions. The research was designed with multimethod: A combination of quantitative and qualitative data-collection strategies was used. The first part has 25 five-point closed-ended Likert-scale items, and the second part has two open-ended questions. The results of the study show that the students in the rural areas were pleased with the activities; they enjoyed learning science in the MSL, and their interest and curiosity for science contents increased. It will be suggested that the MSLs should be used in order to support the science literacy of students in the rural areas of Turkey.

ARKit is a framework which allows developers to create augmented reality apps for the iPhone and iPad. In a previous study, we had shown that it could be used to detect position in educational physics experiments and emphasized that the ability to provide position data in real-time was one of the prominent features of this newly emerging technology. In this study, we demonstrate an example of how real-time data acquisition can be employed in educational settings, report some of the limitations of ARKit and how we have overcome these limitations. By means of ARKit or a similar framework, ordinary mobile devices can be adapted for use in microcomputer-based lab activities.

Objective: The TURKMI registry is designed to provide insight into the characteristics, management from symptom onset to hospital discharge, and outcome of patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) in Turkey. We report the baseline and clinical characteristics of the TURKMI population. Methods: The TURKMI study is a nation-wide registry that was conducted in 50 centers capable of percutaneous coronary intervention selected from each EuroStat NUTS region in Turkey according to population sampling weight, prioritized by the number of hospitals in each region. All consecutive patients with acute MI admitted to coronary care units within 48 hours of symptom onset were prospectively enrolled during a predefined 2-week period between November 1, 2018 and November 16, 2018. Results: A total of 1930 consecutive patients (mean age, 62.0±13.2 years; 26.1% female) with a diagnosis of acute MI were prospectively enrolled. More than half of the patients were diagnosed with non-ST elevation MI (61.9%), and 38.1% were diagnosed with ST elevation MI. Coronary angiography was performed in 93.7% and, percutaneous coronary intervention was performed in 73.2% of the study population. Fibrinolytic therapy was administered to 13 patients (0.018%). Aspirin was prescribed in 99.3% of the patients, and 94% were on dual antiplatelet therapy at the time of discharge. Beta blockers were prescribed in 85.0%, anti-lipid drugs in 96.3%, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors in 58.4%, and angiotensin receptor blockers in 7.9%. Comparison with European countries revealed that TURKMI patients experienced MI at younger ages compared with patients in France, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The most prevalent risk factors in the TURKMI population were hypercholesterolemia (60.2%), hypertension (49.5%), smoking (48.8%), and diabetes (37.9%). Conclusion: The nation-wide TURKMI registry revealed that hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and smoking were the most prevalent risk factors. TURKMI patients were younger compared with patients in European Countries. The TURKMI registry also confirmed that current treatment guidelines are largely adopted into clinical cardiology practice in Turkey in terms of antiplatelet, anti-ischemic, and anti-lipid therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To the best of our knowledge, there is no up-to-date information regarding the presentation, management, and clinical course of patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) in Turkey. The TURKMI registry is designed to provide an insight into the characteristics, management from the symptoms onset to the hospital discharge, and outcome of patients with acute MI in Turkey. Methods: The TURKMI study, as a nationwide registry, will be conducted in 50 percutaneous coronary intervention-capable centers, selected from each EuroStat NUTS region in Turkey according to their population sampling weight, prioritizing the hospital volume in each region. All consecutive patients with acute MI admitted to the coronary care units within the 48 hours of the symptoms onset will be prospectively enrolled during a predefined 2-week period. The first step of the study has a cross-sectional design in which baseline information such as symptoms, risk factors, time periods at each step from the symptoms onset to revascularization, way of arrival to hospital, biochemical analysis, and in-hospital management and outcome will be assessed. The second step has a cohort characteristic in which the enrolled patients will be followed-up up to 2 years. Follow-up visits will be conducted at the 1st, 6th, 12th, and 24th month, and predictors and risk of cardiovascular events and implementation of guidelines will be assessed as secondary outcomes. Conclusion: The national TURKMI registry is expected to provide important information to improve the national policy regarding diagnosing, management, and outcomes of MI in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of transesophageal tissue Doppler echocardiography (TDE) in evaluation of the left ventricular functions. To this end, the data obtained by transoesophageal tissue Doppler echocardiography and by transthoracic tissue Doppler echocardiography were compared simultaneously. Methods: Nineteen consecutive patients (7 female and 12 male) underwent a clinically indicated study. In transthoracic (TTE) and transoesophageal (TEE) echocardiographic study, a Vingmed System Five Doppler echocardiographic unit (GE Vingmed) was used. For the assessment of the left ventricular function using transthoracic and transoesophageal TDE, the mitral annular peak systolic (S), early diastolic (E), late diastolic velocities (A), late to early velocity ratio (E/A), deceleration times (DT), left ventricular isovolumetric relaxation times (IVRT) were measured at the lateral, medial, anterior, and posterior corners at the mitral annulus by activating TDE mode in the transthoracic and transoesophageal apical four- and two-chamber view. Bland–Altman plots were used to compare the two measurement techniques. The differences between the groups were assessed by Mann–Whitney U test. All the data were expressed as mean ± SD. A P-value of <0.05 was considered significant. Results: There were no significant differences between two techniques in terms of blood pressure and heart rate. Two techniques were compared for the transthoracic and transoesophageal TDE parameters. Bland–Altman analysis showed comparable values for E, A, E/A, S, and mE/E, although the measurements of DT and IVRT were different. Conclusion: PW tissue Doppler echocardiographic approach during TEE may be suitable for assessment of the left ventricular function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]