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The purpose of this research was to investigate the potential relationships between self-regulated learning with regard to instrument practice, amount of instrument practice time, and Big Five personality traits. Participants were 172 preservice teachers enrolled in music teaching undergraduate programs of three universities in Turkey. Data were collected via a demographics questionnaire, musical behaviors questionnaire, the Big Five Inventory (BFI), and the Self-Regulated Learning in Instrument Practice Scale (SRLIPS). BFI includes neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness dimensions, and SRLIPS has forethought, performance, and self-reflection dimensions. The results revealed that preservice music teachers' last exam grade and daily practice hours on their main instrument and SRLIPS scores did not differ significantly by their year of study. Participants' last exam grades correlated significantly with their scores on the dimensions of conscientiousness, forethought, performance, and self-reflection. Daily practice hours correlated with the dimensions of conscientiousness, forethought, and performance. Years of playing the main instrument correlated significantly with performance dimension. Moreover, each SRLIPS dimension correlated significantly with each dimension in the BFI. Regression analyses revealed that forethought and self-reflection were predicted by conscientiousness and performance scores were explained by openness. Finally, last exam grade was predicted by forethought and conscientiousness dimensions.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between alternative certification preservice teachers' levels of depression, stress, educational technology anxiety, self-efficacy for educational technology, and attitude towards using technology in education to provide insight into the interplay between intrinsic factors affecting technology integration. Participants were 451 preservice teachers enrolled in the alternative certification program at a public university in the southwestern part of Turkey (N=451). Data were collected using the Educational Technology Standards Self-Efficacy Scale, Attitude towards Using Technology in Education Scale, Educational Technology Anxiety Scale, Perceived Stress Scale, and Beck's Depression Inventory. In addition to descriptive techniques, Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient and multiple linear regression were used for data analysis. Findings revealed that preservice teachers suffer from stress, depression, and anxiety, even more so than other undergraduate students. Age did not correlate with any of the parameters. Stress and depression did not differ according to gender; however, females were more anxious about using educational technology. Additionally, findings indicated bidirectional and cyclical relationships between emotional states, self-efficacy, and attitude. Finally, using educational technology for instructional purposes and for secondary purposes such as classroom management were associated with different sets of self-efficacy beliefs, and attitudes. Findings of the research were discussed and suggestions were made.

The purpose of the research was to investigate the relationships between alternative certification candidates' attitudes towards using technology in education and their use of social networking services (SNSs). Participants were 156 pre-service teachers enrolled in the alternative certification program at a public university in Turkey (N = 156). The research was designed as a correlational study. Data were collected by Attitude towards Using Technology in Education Scale in addition to demographics form including questions about SNS usage. Data were analysed by Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman's rank-order correlation coefficient. Alternative certification candidates had strong attitudes towards improving themselves in using technology in education. However, their attitudes towards using educational technology in instructional processes and classroom management were weaker. Alternative certification candidates were observed to be close to low-risk class of problematic social media use indicating negative emotional states. The results indicated that instructional programs that participants engaged in during their undergraduate studies seem to have an influence on developing familiarity with and competence in technology.

Purpose: The present study aims to develop a valid and reliable scale that measures attitude towards using technology in music education and to investigate pre-school and primary school pre-service teachers' attitudes towards using technology in music education concerning their demographic variables and musical experiences. Research Methods: A total of 640 students studying in pre-school and primary education departments at a public university in Turkey participated in this research (N=640). Data were collected using a questionnaire for collecting the demographic information and the musical background of the respondents in addition to Attitude towards Using Technology in Music Education Scale, which was developed by the researchers in this study. Findings: Analyses resulted in an 8-item Attitude towards Using Technology in Music Education Scale with a Cronbach's a of 0.931. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated a statistically significant model fit to the data with six indices indicating a good fit and three indicating a substantial fit. Attitude towards using technology in music education did not show any significant difference concerning gender and musical background. However, primary school pre-service teachers had a more positive attitude than those of pre-school pre-service teachers. Finally, age correlated with the attitude towards using technology in music education. Implications for Research and Practice: Attitude towards Using Technology in Music Education Scale is a valid and reliable research instrument. Having more experience in using technology or perceiving that the future profession and instructional program at the universities necessitate the use of technology improves attitude towards using technology. Positive attitudes of pre-service teachers, who feel themselves inadequate about using their voice and instruments, and have inadequate musical experience, maybe due to their belief that they will be able to compensate for these deficiencies in music with the opportunities offered by technology.

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a Digital Writing Scale that measures the perspectives of individuals on digital writing. A total of 615 preservice teachers studying in the faculty of education at a state university in Turkey participated in the study (n = 615). The data were collected in two phases for exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Three-hundred pre-service teachers participated in the first phase and 315 in the second phase of the study. In the analyses of the data obtained in the first phase, the exploratory factor analysis employed principal axis factoring technique with direct oblimin rotation and a two-factor model, both of which consists of 7 items, was obtained. The Cronbach's [alpha] coefficients were 0.851 for digital translating factor and 0.852 for digital reviewing factor. In the second phase, confirmatory factor analysis with maximum likelihood estimation demonstrated a statistically significant model fit to the data with five indices indicating a good fit and one indicating a substantial fit. The study, which endorsed the Hayes and Flower model and cognitive process theory of writing, resulted in a valid and reliable Digital Writing Scale. Digital Writing Scale is the first Turkish scale that measures the perspectives of individuals on digital writing. Factor scores did not differ according to sex or department of the respondents.

The purpose of this study was to develop a Turkish version of the Creative Self-Efficacy Scale (CSES) and to explore its psychometric properties. Participants were 489 preservice teachers enrolled in a public university in Turkey (n = 489). Two-hundred-thirty-five of 489 preservice teachers (48.06%) participated in the first study for the exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and 254 (51.94%) participated in the second study for the confirmatory factor analysis. Two-hundred-sixty (53.2%) of the participants were studying in preschool teaching and 132 (46.8%) were studying in classroom teaching programs. CSES, which is a 3-item Likert-type English questionnaire, was translated into Turkish by the researcher. Eight researchers who were expert in Turkish education, English language teaching, educational measurement and evaluation, elementary education and educational technology fields participated in the back-translation and expert review processes. Scale scores did not differ according to sex, age, grade or department of the respondent. However, creative self-efficacy was observed to be related to design self-efficacy.

This study examines the relationship between personal differences and use of Facebook by pre-service teachers and compares the results from Turkey and the U.S. In addition to the "big five" personality traits, attitude, motivation, and specific motives are also examined among personal differences. The sample consisted of 762 pre-service teachers who use Facebook. Regression analyses conducted on the data collected from the two countries revealed, firstly, that personal differences are associated with Facebook use. Secondly, however, the associations differed remarkably between the two countries. Even individuals with the same personal characteristics used Facebook differently between the countries. On the other hand, in both countries a strong privacy concern and a perceived 'unrealness' emerged as negative factors. Individuals who consider social networking services as a place to pass time are avid users in both countries, as well. Furthermore, agreeableness and friendship related to Facebook use were not factors in either country.

In addition to the undergraduate programs provided by faculties of education, in Turkey, Pedagogical Formation Education Certificate Programs are also provided by these faculties. Graduates of such programs are positioned as teachers in Turkey, the same as the graduates of faculties of education. Individual differences of teachers are of great importance in terms of closeness and determination toward students. In addition to personality, psychological features are also closely related to their professional competence and success, quality of education in general, and--maybe more importantly--the safety of the students. In this study, it was aimed to provide insight about the individual differences of students who attend pedagogical formation training by investigating the psychological status of those students through the analysis of the relationship between depression, anxiety, stress, coping by humor levels, humor types and their type of personality. It was observed that 40.2% of participants were in mild depression while 25.9% of them were in moderate to severe levels. Associations were investigated by point bi-serial correlation technique and it was found that those participants with Type A personality had higher levels of depression, stress, anxiety, and self-defeating humor style.

Printed educational materials such as teacher's handbook may affect the quality of education as much as teachers, curriculum, educational environment, and the other course materials. Perspectives of eighty-two pre-service elementary teachers regarding the activities and songs included in the teacher's handbook for music course were examined by content analysis for shedding light on the nature of the handbook and for producing knowledge about how an effective teacher's handbook for music course may be like. Even though the question was deliberately worded to let respondents express their both positive and negative views, the number of respondents who expressed positive views and the frequency of such expressions were considerably lower compared to the negative ones. Inappropriateness for age group and learning outcomes, insufficiency for facilitating learning, requiring hard-to-attain materials, and difficulty of application raised as major concerns for both activates and songs. Additionally, activities were argued to be repetitive and lacking entertainment while songs were criticized for their rhythm, melody, lyrics, quality, and practicability in the classroom.

In order to investigate the relationships between preservice music teachers' levels of career satisfaction, severity of depression, and perceived stress, ninety-four students enrolled in the music education BSc program of the faculty of education at a public university in southwestern part of Turkey were survey. Data were collected by Beck's Depression Inventory, Perceived Stress Scale, and Career Satisfaction Scale. Associations were analyzed by ANOVA, Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient, and multiple linear regression. It was found that preservice music teachers' stress and depression levels were significantly higher compared to previously reported means while career satisfaction levels were lower. Preservice music teachers' career satisfaction scores significantly differed according to the grade level. There was a strong positive relationship between severity of depression and perceived stress level while career satisfaction was weakly and negatively associated with both severity of depression and perceived stress. Finally, career satisfaction neither was a predictor of nor predicted by stress or depression.

The purpose of the research, which was the second phase of a two-phase study, was to reveal experienced educators' suggestions for solutions to the challenges to technology integration. Participants were 117 experienced educators as experts in their fields, selected and invited by Turkish Ministry of Education from among ministerial, provincial, and school level managers and experienced teachers to participate in a workshop on "goals and priorities of national education" (N = 117). Initially, suggestions of experienced educators on the solutions to barriers of technology integration were elicited from the participants of the sub-commission titled "Increasing the prevalence of the use of technological tools in education". Solution suggestions were developed into a questionnaire, which then was used to survey the workshop attendees. Data were analysed by principal axis factoring with direct oblimin rotation, Mann-Whitney-U and Kruskal-Wallis-H tests, as well as Spearman's [rho] correlation coefficient. Analyses revealed that, solution suggestions fall into three categories: Train, Allow Time, and Supply. In order to overcome barriers to technology integration, experienced educators suggested (a) improving the quality of inservice and preservice training, (b) allowing teachers more time by simplifying and reducing the number of courses in the instructional programs, and (c) supplying teachers with technology incentives, quality educational content, technical assistance, and information technology solutions. Analyses revealed that Train, Allow Time, or Supply did not differ according to sex, academic degree, or job position of the participants. However, older managers have been found to have slightly weaker beliefs in developing technology competencies through education.