M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction - Master's degree
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Item Open Access 6th grade students' perceptions of blogs in an English class(Bilkent University, 2012) Kattsir, ElanThis study uses mixed-methods research to investigate how a grade 6 English class in Turkey responds to the use of blogs. It explored students' perceptions of and attitudes towards using a class, community, and student blogs, both overall as well as in relation to their application to learning, writing, and the social aspects of a utilizing blogging. Additionally, key features of blogs and the teacher’s insights into the challenges and strengths of blogging as a teaching strategy were examined. The participants were 38 grade six Turkish-national students at a private, Englishlanguage-medium school in Ankara, Turkey, who utilized blogging as part of their learning activities during a 10-week period in 2011. Prior to, during, and after the blogging activity, surveys, semi-structured focus groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Analysis of the data revealed that students had very favorable attitudes towards and perceptions of blogging as an educational practice. Students were nearly unanimous in their general favorability towards blogs, though community blogs were less favored.Item Open Access A comparative content analysis of two children’s mathematics books: The cat in numberland and jayden’s rescue(Bilkent University, 2023-09) Akyol, Firdevs MeltemChildren’s mathematics books are receiving increasing attention by teachers and parents around the world. However, the choice of these books is highly depending on the popularity of the book or the publisher’s suggestion lists. This study aims to shed light to how to measure the quality of children’s mathematics books and observe the addressed mathematical skills and outcomes of it. By descriptive analysis of the content analysis and the content domain specific typology, this study shows two different methods to evaluate different aspects of any children’s mathematics book. In this study two children’s books were analyzed: Jayden’s Rescue and The Cat in Numberland. The results of this study show that the two books have different mathematical skills and objectives, and different approaches to mathematical modelling. The authors' different motivations shaped these outcomes, skills, and levels for these books. The Cat in Numberland introduces sophisticated topics like countable infinities to its inquiring readers whereas Jayden’s Rescue helps its readers to gain problem-solving skills for their mathematics lessons.Item Open Access An action research into a hands-on solar energy activity, adapted to enhance students’ understanding of selected physics concepts and to advance their awareness of renewable energy(Bilkent University, 2017-06) Yıldırım, TuğcanThe present study uses action research to investigate how a hands-on solar energy activity that highlights selected physics concepts could be used to enhance participants’ understanding of physics concepts as well as their awareness of renewable energy sources. Moreover, the purpose of the study was to learn if an activity related to building a model solar car could be integrated into a physics class. Often this activity is extracurricular; therefore, it was performed to assess the challenges, conditions, and benefits of conducting the activity during class time. It was implemented at an international school in Turkey with 14 students. The quasi-experimental research design was used by dividing participants into two groups: a control and an experimental group. Only the experimental group received the intervention which is the solar-powered car design activity. Hence, the researcher was able to compare whether the activity had a better influence on participants’ renewable energy awareness and related physics concepts knowledge by means of a pre-test and a post-test. In addition to the pre-test and the post-test, follow-up interviews were conducted with five participants and an expert teacher. In conclusion, the researcher found indications that the activity may work in a regular physics class. Furthermore, the students who participated in the activity showed improvement in terms of renewable energy awareness and selected physics concepts. Nonetheless, these results only provide descriptive information due to the small sample size and the short period of implementation time which was two weeks; however, this study holds an important place that may lead to a larger study. Through this study, the researcher shared his reflections on the implementation process and developed skills on how to integrate a hands-on into a lesson.Item Open Access Addressing challenges during emergency remote teaching: exploring the habits of mind of experienced EFL teachers(Bilkent University, 2022-06) Şahbaz, LeylaThis present study aimed to investigate the challenges and strategies teachers report during emergency remote teaching and explored what intelligent behaviors and Habits of Mind are evident when teachers explain how they organize and address these challenges. This narrative inquiry study was carried out at a private university in Ankara. All participants in this study were experienced EFL instructors at preparatory school at a private university. Three in-depth unstructured interviews were conducted with participants as the data collection tools. The researcher used the conceptual framework developed by Altan et al. (2019) for analysis to explore the connection between participants’ shared experiences and their dispositions as Habits of Mind. Findings reveal that participants use certain intelligent behaviors associated with Habits of Mind during emergency remote teaching. Given the novelty of remote teaching, institutions may need to identify the professional dispositions that an effective educator needs to have in online environments. Profiling these professional dispositions could reveal an indication of the probability that they may foster their dispositions toward remote teaching.Item Open Access Analysis of cultural representations in translated literary works taught in IBDP Language A(Bilkent University, 2021-10) Öz, GözdeThe International Baccalaureate Program, Language A: Literature (Turkish) course aims to “make students respect different cultural perspectives and help understand how these perspectives shape meaning” (IBDP, 2011). In order to achieve this aim, there is an obligation to read and analyze translated works in lessons. This study examines the cultural representations found in two sample translated works, Madam Bovary and Fathers and Sons, which are frequently studied in the Language A: Literature (Turkish) courses of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. These translated works were analyzed through the method of content analysis within the framework of Standards for Foreign Language Learning designed by the US Department of Education and National Humanities in 1996 and adapted by Yuen (2011). During analysis, the cultural representations in these works were tabulated under the titles of person, product, perspective, practice, and were labeled according to the cultures they represent. The results of the study indicated that western and European cultures, especially France and Russia are predominantly represented in these translated works. It was also found that other cultures had little representation. The results of this study have implications for teachers as to how to approach such literary texts studied in the Language A: Literature (Turkish) courses considering the related objectives of the IBDP program.Item Open Access An analysis of research in english for academic purposes(Bilkent University, 2016-09) Pehlivan, ElifThis study reports written content analysis results of published research in the field of English for Academic Purposes. The research questions of this study are: What are the most common journal article types published in the field of EAP? What are the most common topics covered in published journal articles in the EAP research? What are the most common purposes, research methods and main issues employed to research the most common topic in EAP? Articles published in The Journal of English for Academic Purposes between the years 2002 and 2014 were analysed using the content analysis technique. The findings showed that, mostly original research articles were written to cover the topic of writing. Majority of the articles employed corpus analysis with the purpose ‘to explore’. Further research is recommended to study the published research in the field of English for Academic Purposes.Item Open Access An analysis of student perceptions and teacher intentions of blended learning in Computer and Instructional Technology Teacher Education Program(Bilkent University, 2011) Azgur, Mehmet SerhatOne of the key concerns of teacher education is to facilitate the development of the teaching talents of pre-service teachers with scaling technologies and pedagogy of the 21st Century. Teacher educators also need to enhance pre-service teachers’ curriculum by modeling good teaching methods. This study explored another side of blended learning methods and tried to uncover students’ perceptions of what their instructors are practicing. Social relations that are created by blended learning methods are also explored. Instructors of Computer and Instructional Technology Teacher Education Department (CTE) and their respective students were participants in the study to investigate the departmental use of blended learning methods. Total of 44 students and 12 teachers participated in the study. Only students of preparatory school and freshmen are not included because of their lack of sufficient number of courses where blended v learning methods are used. Data collection tools in the research included interviews and questionnaires aimed to assess students’ perception of blended learning methods together with the interviews and questionnaires of the instructors of the CTE Department in order to understand what blended learning methods were practiced. The data collected from both interviews and questionnaires were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative techniques. The findings revealed that although 4th and 5th year students are aware of the different applications of blended learning and the intentions of teachers who used this approach, we cannot generalize and say the same for all CTE students. Yet another finding is that participants thought that Learning Management Systems (LMS) improve the student-to-student and teacher-to-student relations in instructional settings. Additionally, the majority of the students think that computer literacy affects the success of blended learning applications unlike the beliefs of instructors.Item Open Access Ankara ilinde Uluslararası Bakalorya Diploma Programı'na dâhil olan ve olmayan on ikinci sınıf öğrencilerinin okuma alışkanlıkları ve okumaya yönelik tutumları(Bilkent University, 2013-05) Keleş, Ajda BüşraThis study aims to examine the reading habits and attitudes towards reading of all twelfth grade students in the schools offering International Baccalaureate Diploma Program according to being an IBDP student, gender and department variables. The data gathered from the questionnaire conducted on 107 twelfth grade students in two different schools, the interviews with 10 IBDP students and 3 interviews with their teachers in Ankara. The results showed IBDP students read more than the others, girls read more than boys but there is not any difference according to their departments. Besides, IBDP students have higher attitude in “enjoyment” subscale, girls have higher attitude in all subscales.Item Open Access Application of food fermentation practical work in classes(Bilkent University, 2021-08) Yılmaz, Burçin ArslanThis study investigates the integration of food fermentation practical work into national and international curricula and teachers’ perceptions of its implementation in classes. Content analysis was used to determine the incorporation of food fermentation practical work into IBDP, IGCSE, MoNE biology and MoNE science curricula to develop a framework. Furthermore, a food fermentation workshop is organized for teachers and their curriculum integration study in the workshop used for triangulation. After the workshop, semi-structured interviews were used to gather data about teachers’ perceptions on the application of practical work of food fermentation in classes. Food fermentation practical work was found to be applicable in 75% of the MoNE biology curriculum units, and in 67% and 62% of the IBDP and IGCSE biology curricula, and 36% of the MoNE science curriculum. The findings suggest that all teachers’ views about the use of food fermentation practical work in classes were positive in terms of contribution of practical work on learning, making abstract topic more permanent, improving students’ recall level and eliminating misconceptions of the topic, and improving students’ manipulative, creativity, communication, responsibility skills. It is found that teachers who have resources such as laboratories, allowed time in curriculum for practical work, the support of school administrations, availability of ready-made materials and in-service trainings on practical work, are more willing to implement food fermentation practical work in their classes. Moreover, practical studies of food fermentation were found appropriate for extracurricular activities and interdisciplinary projects by the teachers.Item Open Access Application of the Rasch rating scale model with mathematics anxiety rating scale-short version (MARS-SV)(Bilkent University, 2012) Kurum, HilalThis study aimed to explore the relationship between students’ mathematics anxiety and their mathematics achievement by applying the Rasch Rating Scale Model to investigate whether mathematics anxiety is debilitative or facilitative for their mathematics achievements. For data analysis, the study employed the Rasch Rating Scale Model on an instrument called Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (MARS-SV) and examined the differences between the students’ MARS-SV mean scores and the applied Rasch measures. The study was carried out with 79 ninth grade students from different classes in a private high school, Ankara. In the first phase, these students’ school exam marks were obtained. MARS-SV was administrated to the 79 students and then descriptive analyses applied to MARS-SV data. The correlation between the students’ mean scores on the MARS-SV and school exam marks was computed. In the second phase, the Rasch Rating Scale Model was applied to the MARS-SV raw scores to give Rasch measures for mathematics anxiety. The correlation between these Rasch measures and the students’ mathematics school exam marks was computed. Also a descriptive analysis was applied to the Rasch measures.It was found that there were moderate negative correlations between students’ mathematics exam marks and the two types of anxiety measured by the student mean scores (r = -0.40) and the Rasch measures (r = -0.45). The finding indicated that the mathematics anxiety was debilitative for students. In conclusion, the Rasch analysis provided the more reliable measure of student anxiety, which approaches more to the normal distribution. In addition, it provides a practical conversion table from a raw score of anxiety to its counterpart Rasch measure.Item Open Access Approach to critical thinking in the Turkish Language and Literature curriculum: a content analysis(Bilkent University, 2021-10) Emir, DenizThis study first intends to explore the philosophical stance of the Turkish Language and Literature curriculum, which was redesigned in 2018, to assess extent to which it is conducive to development of critical thinking skills. Then, it aims to analyse its approach to developing critical thinking skills. To these ends, the researcher primarily used the curriculum ideologies as conceptualised by Schrio (2013), and the notion of critical thinking as conceived by Davies and Barnett (2015) as lenses. The researcher used content analysis to answer the research questions, and based on analysis, the researcher first discusses the philosophical stance of the Turkish Langue and Literature curriculum in relation to in relation Schiro’s four ideologies: Scholar Academic, Social Efficiency, Learner Centered and Social Reconstruction. Then, the researcher discusses the results in relation to three movements as put forward by Davies and Barnett (2015).Item Open Access Art in the middle school mathematics classroom : a case study exploring its effect on motivation(Bilkent University, 2013) Okbay, Ulfet ErdoğanThe purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore and understand how the use of art-based mathematical activities affected motivation of grade 7 mathematics students in Turkey. Activities were used in one lesson a week for six weeks. Pre- and post-surveys measured students’ enjoyment, self-efficacy, and academic effort. Data were collected during the intervention period through focus group discussions. The discussions and survey results highlighted the key informants for interviewing. The statistical analysis indicates that using such activities in the classroom gives rise to no significant change, positive or negative, on the three constraints: enjoyment, selfefficacy and academic effort. However, group discussions and interviews of the key informants suggest that some students were affected by the intervention. Students with analytical aptitudes experienced a decrease in motivation; those who liked art were inspired and motivated. Integration of mathematics and art allowed students to view mathematics from a wider perspective than before the intervention.Item Open Access Assessing international mindedness in staff at an IB PYP school in Erbil(Bilkent University, 2017-03) MacPherson, AlannaThis action research explored using an assessment tool to assess international mindedness with the multi-cultural and multi-lingual staff of one International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP) school in Northern Iraq. The study went on to explore the staff’s reactions to and reflections on the tool and international mindedness as well as the administrators’ reactions and reflections on the analysis of the staff responses. The study gathered data from staff using surveys before taking the Global Competence Aptitude Assessment (GCAA) and used surveys and focus group interviews to gather data after the GCAA was completed. The data analysis from the GCAA found a significant difference in international mindedness between two groups of staff members – those from Iraq and surrounding countries (Turkey, Greece, Azerbaijan) and staff from Western countries. Staff from both groups found the GCAA to be written from a Western business perspective and they disliked the style and amount of questions in the GCAA. Administrators at the school reflected that information from the GCAA could lead to the development of a more internationally minded teacher induction program and on-going professional development about international mindedness in the school. The PYP coordinator, as the action researcher, found that the GCAA and focus group interviews identified gaps in the understanding of international mindedness of the staff. Identifying the gaps in understanding completed the first part of the action research cycle that can then lead to further discussion and development of the meaning of international mindedness across the school and how that meaning is developed further.Item Open Access Assessment literacy perceptions of tertiary level English language professionals(Bilkent University, 2022-09) Kılıç, PınarThe aim of this study was to explore the assessment literacy perceptions of English language professionals. This mixed method case study was conducted through surveys and interviews with English language professionals at the English preparatory school of a foundation university in Ankara, Turkey. The survey items were adapted from Kremmel and Harding (2020) with the purpose to explore the perceived assessment literacy levels of English language teachers. The survey was completed by 23 English language teachers, four assessment specialists and seven academic leaders. In addition, 10 teachers, four assessment specialists and seven academic leaders were interviewed to explore the perceived relationship between their assessment literacy and teaching quality. Descriptive statistics were used for quantitative data analysis. The interview data were categorized based on the assessment literacy dimensions specified in Taylor’s framework (2013) and analyzed through thematic content analysis. The results indicated that English language teachers are moderately knowledgeable and slightly skilled in assessment literacy dimensions. The study also concluded that English language professionals establish a meaningful relationship between several dimensions of assessment literacy and their teaching quality. The overall results suggest that English language professionals need to be provided with further training to improve their assessment literacy and to empower assessment for learning.Item Open Access Attitudes, beliefs and challenges of Turkish mathematics teachers while teaching mathematics in a second language(Bilkent University, 2018-05) Yeşilkaya, MerveSome high schools in Turkey provide medium of instruction in English. Mathematics, science and social science courses are taught in English in these schools. This study explored attitudes, beliefs and challenges of high school mathematics teachers who work in institutions where medium of instruction is in English. Furthermore, this study investigated difficulties students face with when they learn Math from Turkish teachers from these teachers‟ perspective. Eight private high schools located in Ankara, Ġstanbul and Erzurum where the medium of instruction is in English were selected as sample and 50 out of 72 teachers participated in the questionnaire from these schools. Of these, five teachers from three private schools located in Ankara were chosen in order to conduct the interview and lesson observations by purposeful sampling method in regards to their questionnaire results. This study utilized mixed-methods approaches. Results of this study were analyzed using descriptive statistics and qualitative data analysis methods. According to the findings of this study, a majority of Turkish mathematics teachers have negative attitudes towards teaching mathematics lessons in English. According to the general results, some of the factors leading these teachers to have negative attitudes and beliefs are University Exam reality in Turkey, English background and proficiency of teachers, English proficiency of students, mathematics lessons being abstract in nature, students‟ lack of mathematical terminology knowledge and participation of the students in the lessons. According to the interview results, it was found out if the teachers have issues while teaching the lesson in English and the fact that teachers‟ preference of medium of instruction differed depending on the teachers‟ own English levels.Item Open Access Biology teachers’ perceptions about field trips and their pre-service preparation(Bilkent University, 2018-09) Soysal, GamzeRecent studies have shown that although being aware of the considerable supplementary benefits of field trips for biology lessons in high school, biology teachers complain about difficulties when planning and implementing field trips. In addition to these barriers, teachers indicate that their pre-service preparation for field trips is insufficient. Thus, the current study investigated biology teachers’ (N=39) perceptions about field trips and related pre-service preparation. Survey data was collected from 10 public and four private schools in Ankara. The significant findings showed that as the years of teaching increased, the teachers considered field trips more challenging especially for providing student safety and being supported by administration. Additionally, the results indicated that the biology teachers with an undergraduate degree considered field trips more challenging than teachers who had earned their Master’s or doctorate. Furthermore, while private school teachers had higher confidence levels and considered field trips more beneficial, public school teachers focused more on the challenges. There were notable differences between male and female teachers regarding perceptions of financial constraints, parental support for field trips and confidence level. Moreover, the field trip activities in pre-service preparation were seemed they were restricted to participation level. Lastly, to eliminate the challenges and include field trip related objectives to classroom lessons, this study suggests adding various field trip activities by teacher education institutions than participation.Item Open Access Block-based coding in K-12 education: a systematic literature review(Bilkent University, 2022-02) Köksaloğlu, CemreThis study aims to determine the methodological tendencies and outputs of the studies conducted on the use of block-based coding tools in K-12 education by systematic literature review. According to their demographic characteristics, a total of 59 full-text research articles were analyzed through thematic content analysis. In addition, learning domains were explored in the research articles, and results were revealed by themes regarding the impact of block-based coding in K-12 education on learning domains. Research findings display that most of the research articles were published in 2019, commonly using the mixed-method research, and they were carried out with middle school level students with less than 50 sample sizes. This review also found that most research studies were conducted in the United States and in the Computer Science subject area. Finally, the most frequently used block-based coding tool was Scratch and problem-based learning approach was the most used considering the teaching/learning approaches. Besides, the cognitive domain was explored mainly in the research articles. The results of the research articles indicated that block-based coding tools improve the following skills regarding cognitive abilities: computational thinking, problem-solving, algorithmic and reflective thinking, critical thinking, and creative thinking skills. Moreover, results for interdisciplinary learning and gender differences regarding the cognitive domain were also found. Additionally, block-based coding positively affected students' feelings regarding the affective domain. Lastly, whereas students had positive attitudes towards coding, negative attitudes were also reported.Item Open Access C-Stream: A coroutine-based elastic stream processing engine(Bilkent University, 2015) Şahin, SemihStream processing is a computational paradigm for on-the-fly processing of live data. This paradigm lends itself to implementations that can provide high throughput and low latency, by taking advantage of various forms of parallelism that is naturally captured by the stream processing model of computation, such as pipeline, task, and data parallelism. In this thesis, we describe the design and implementation of C-Stream, which is an elastic stream processing engine. C-Stream encompasses three unique properties. First, in contrast to the widely adopted event-based interface for developing stream processing operators, C-Stream provides an interface wherein each operator has its own control loop and rely on data availability APIs to decide when to perform its computations. The self-control based model significantly simplifies development of operators that require multi-port synchronization. Second, C-Stream contains a multi-threaded dynamic scheduler that manages the execution of the operators. The scheduler, which is customizable via plug-ins, enables the execution of the operators as co-routines, using any number of threads. The base scheduler implements back-pressure, provides data availability APIs, and manages preemption and termination handling. Last, C-Stream provides elastic parallelization. It can dynamically adjust the number of threads used to execute an application, and can also adjust the number of replicas of data-parallel operators to resolve bottlenecks. We provide an experimental evaluation of C-Stream. The results show that C-Stream is scalable, highly customizable, and can resolve bottlenecks by dynamically adjusting the level of data parallelism used.Item Open Access A case study exploring the intercultural sensitivity levels of native English and native Turkish language instructors teaching at universities in Turkey and the U.S.A. respectively(Bilkent University, 2019-01) Sinclair, Seher TürkyılmazThis case-study explores Intercultural Sensitivity (IS) levels of three American English language teachers in Turkey and three Turkish instructors of Turkish in the USA before, during and after a yearlong sojourn in order to identify experiences influencing IS. A mixed-method research design was adopted: quantitative data were collected through pre- and post-surveys as a baseline to document their characteristics related to IS levels; the qualitative data were collected through survey forms, semi-structured question forms, and interviews. Results revealed that Turkish instructors’ IS showed positive change after their sojourn, while American instructors’ IS revealed no difference. Substantial changes in impressions about the home and host cultures were evidenced. Positive variations in instructors’ IS were: the number of foreign languages known; previous international experience; advanced level of knowledge in the host language; previous intercultural training; and a higher international-ness level in the host institution. The coping mechanisms used by instructors involved: understanding the social and cultural characteristics of home and host cultures; increasing knowledge of the host language; proactive interaction in the host culture; accepting and respecting differences; and, avoiding continuous comparisons between cultures, open-criticism and tension-raising discussions. The perceived changes affecting IS negatively were: individualistic and collectivistic cultural differences; a lack of information about host culture and preparedness for the sojourn; and, dealing with bureaucracy in the host culture. The orientation programs and support mechanisms in host institutions affected perceived changes in IS positively.Item Open Access A case study on primary school students' perceptions about their use of language learning and reading strategies and strategy training(Bilkent University, 2011) Wilkes, Jane CrawfordThis study looks at the language learning and reading comprehension strategies of students in 3rd – 8 th grades. The study takes place at Bilkent Laboratory and International School, which is a bilingual school in Ankara, Turkey that combines curricula from the Primary Years Program (PYP), International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), the International Bachelorette (IB), and the Turkish Ministry of Education. The first part of the study consisted of administering two surveys- the Strategy Inventory of Language Learning (SILL) and the Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS). The surveys were administered to students in 3rd – 8 th grades, along with a short demographic survey to provide language profiles for the students. The second part of the study involves the implementation of a Strategy Training Program (STP) designed by the researcher. The STP was designed around a list of language learning and reading comprehension strategies compiled by the researcher based on research and teaching experience. There were seven participants selected from the fourth and fifth grades at BLIS. Data was collected from student notebooks, the researcher‟s journal, interviews, and the surveys administered before and after the training program.