Volume 4 Issue 4 (November 2018)
Structural Capital’s Contribution to Teacher’s Job Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Organizational Commitment
structural capital organizational commitment job satisfaction teachers schools...
This study analyses the relationships between schools’ structural capital, teachers’ organizational commitment and job satisfaction. 32 schools were selected randomly with cluster sampling method from the primary schools at Hatay city in the 2017-2018 academic year. Of the 300 questionnaires that were distributed, 264 were found to be validated and taken into analysis. The final structural equation model suggests that schools’ structural capital perceived by teachers is positively related to teachers’ organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Organizational commitment is a full mediator in the relationship between structural capital and job satisfaction. Teachers working at schools which are perceived to have a high level of structural capital, feel more committed to their school and thereby get satisfied with their job. School administrators are recommended to invest in promoting the level of school’s structural capital, if they want teachers to be more committed and satisfied which are key factors of performance at schools.
3
Picture in Children's Story Books: Children's Perspective
interpreting visual reading picture story books...
The aim of this study is to collect and analyze children's comments on the pictures in children's story books. Four students studied in the first grade of a public primary school in Adana participated in the study. The research model is an example of phenomenology among qualitative research patterns. Focus group method was used as the data collection tool and observation method was used in a second exercise to support the first method. In focus group discussion "The City on the Wind" by Behic Ak, selected as the Book 1, was reviewed along with 4 participating students. In the second exercise, the book named "The Little Match Girl" selected as Book 2 was reviewed. Descriptive analysis and document analysis methods were used in the analysis of the research data. Students' comments on the pictures were collected under four different themes. "Description" among these themes was the most common in student expressions. The sentences for the themes of superficial interpretation, imaginative interpretation and critical understanding were less frequently used by students. Another finding of the study is the number of words students used to describe the picture. Students built short sentences not exceeding 2-3 words.
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Family Attitude, Academic Procrastination and Test Anxiety as Predictors of Academic Achievement
academic achievement family attitudes academic procrastination test anxiety...
In this study, the relationship between high school students' test anxiety, academic procrastination behaviours, family attitudes and academic achievements were examined; the predicting of test anxiety, academic procrastination and family attitudes on the academic achievement was also investigated. The participants of the study were composed of 496 high school students. The end-of-term grade average of the students was defined as the criterion of their academic achievements. The students' test anxiety was measured by the Revised Test Anxiety Scale and the academic procrastination behaviours by the Academic Procrastination Scale. The family attitudes were measured by determining the frequency of the activities that support the academic achievement of the students. Data were analysed by correlation and regression methods. The findings indicate that there was a negative correlation between “achievement score” and “anxiety”, “test irrelevant thinking” and “academic procrastination” while there was a positive correlation between “achievement score” and “family attitude”. The findings also revealed that “tension”, “bodily symptoms” and “family attitude” significantly predicted the “end-of-term grade average” positively, while “worry”, “test irrelevant thinking” and “academic procrastination” significantly predicted the “achievement score” negatively. The findings were discussed in the light of literature along with the suggestions for further studies.
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Preservice Teachers’ Transforming Perceptions of Science and Mathematics Teacher Knowledge
science/science education mathematics/mathematics education teacher education teacher knowledge petsma...
Teacher Education Programs (TEPs) are intended to prepare students to become qualified professionals in the field of education. Yet, many preservice teachers (PSTs) have difficulty recognizing their new roles, not simply as students in the TEP, but as future educators. As PSTs progress through their coursework, field experiences, and student teaching, their perceptions of teacher knowledge evolves. Teacher educators may assist in positively influencing such transformation through reflective exercises, learning activities, and thoughtful discourse. The present research examines four classroom discussions centered on a mathematics and science activity. These discussions illustrate the changes in perspective with respect to mathematics and science teacher knowledge, among a cohort of elementary PSTs between the beginning and end of their first year in a TEP.
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Enhancing Critical Thinking in Malaysian Primary School Students through PLS Method
pictologics critical thinking imagination interview pls...
Pictologics (PLS) is a language teaching method which relies on imaginative usage of pictures. The current paper reports the effects of applying this method on enhancing critical thinking ability of the Malaysian students. 69 students (32 boys & 37 girls) in two classes in a public primary school in Penang, Malaysia participated in this study. The experiment covered ten 1-hour sessions which were all audio-recorded and video-taped. The main objective was to engage the students in short conversations in English by using new words that they were learning via PLS. The following qualitative instruments were employed in this study: interviews with the teachers, focus group interviews with the students, a group interview with students’ parents, class check-list of the students’ behavior during the sessions, photos, and video footages. The findings reveal significant patterns of critical thinking among the students such as recognizing and criticizing assumptions, giving reasons to support a conclusion, incorporating isolated data into a wider framework, and using analogies to solve problems. The author strongly recommends application of adopted PLS techniques to be used either alone, or combined with the other conventional language teaching methods.
2
Field Trial Analysis of Teaching Material Civic Education Based on Problem Based Learning (PBL) to Improve Student’s Outcome
pbl knowledge primary school civic education...
This research is part of developing study on the Civic education teaching material based on PBL. This research aims to determine the process of developing the teaching material of Civic education based on PBL for the fourth-grade of elementary school in order to improve students’ learning outcome. The result of the previous study shows that the teaching material does not currently fulfill the students’ need. Method of research used is a descriptive qualitative and quantitative. This research consists of two activities namely the composing of extensive and limited test. In the implementation, the extensive test has a broader scope than limited test. Methods of collecting data in this research are interview, observation, expert assessment and test. The instruments of this research are interview guide, field notes, expert assessment sheet and test sheet of the student learning outcome. Stages in this activity include the preparation of teaching material Civic education based on PBL, experts’ validation of Civic education teaching material based on PBL, and field trials. The result of this research is a draft of teaching material of Civic education based on PBL including introduction, content and closing. It is eligible used by nine experts. The student learning outcome that uses the teaching material Civic education based on PBL is improved.
2
Paternalistic Leadership Scale Turkish Adaptation a Validity – Reliability Study
paternalistic leadership paternalistic leadership scale research assistants scale development...
The first step towards discussing a phenomenon or a concept in depth and with powerful scientific principles and methodology is to develop, adapt and utilize tools that accurately measure and discover the problem. For this purpose, the present study concentrated on paternalistic leadership, which is a new concept in the field of management, and reliability and validity studies on the scale (PLS) that was used to assess paternalistic leadership by Cheng et al. (2004) were conducted to add the scale to the national literature. The study was conducted on the data collected from 326 (EFA) + 255 (CFA) research assistants to determine the validity of the scale. In a determination of the reliability of the scale, item-total point correlations and Cronbach’s Alpha internal consistency coefficient were used. In order to determine how the scale works in different cultural and qualitative samples, the adaptation version was discussed by comparing with the previous factor analysis studies of the PLS. The analysis showed that adaptation version of the PLS, with the structure of its 3 sub-dimensional and 23-items, will able to be used in studies aiming to determine the characteristics of paternalistic leadership in the organizational structure and management processes of universities for the researchers working in the field of higher education.
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Meta-Analysis of Organizational Trust Studies Conducted in Educational Organizations between the Years 2008-2018
meta-analysis trust organizational trust educational organization...
This research aims to combine the results of the studies conducted in educational organizations between the years 2008-2018 that investigated correlation between organizational trust, and organizational support, organizational citizenship, organizational justice, organizational commitment, mobbing, organizational silence, job satisfaction, organizational cynicism and ethical leadership and obtain an overall result. Within this scope, meta-analytic method was used in the study. A literature review was performed by using the concepts "trust" and "organizational trust". A total of 43 independent studies were incorporated into the research by considering the selection criteria determined by the researcher. The total sample size (teacher, academician and school administrator) is 22859. The studies included in the research were analyzed according to random effects model (REM). According to the results of the analysis, there is a high positive correlation between organizational trust, organizational justice [r = .70] and ethical leadership [r = .82]; a moderate positive correlation between organizational trust and organizational commitment [r = .51], organizational support [r = .57], organizational citizenship [r = .43] and job satisfaction [r = .61]. In addition, there was a moderate negative correlation between organizational trust, organizational cynicism [r = -.62] and organizational silence [r = -.30]; and also a low negative correlation between organizational trust and mobbing [r = -.24]. Based on these findings, the high level of organizational justice, organizational support and ethical leadership perceptions of the education stakeholders increase level of organizational trust; whereas the high level of organizational trust increases their job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behaviors and organizational commitment, and reduces organizational cynicism and organizational silence perceptions. In addition, employees' exposure to mobbing causes a decrease in organizational trust levels.
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The Effect of Mosaic Based Approach on Involvement Levels of Children
involvement mosaic approach preschool education...
This study was conducted to explore the effect of mosaic based approach on children’s involvement levels. In this study, experimental design with pre-test post-test retention control groups was adopted. A total of 52 children from two pre-schools formed the sample of this study. A total of 26 children, 11 girls and 15 boys, attending first pre-school in the afternoon formed the experimental group, and total of 26 children, 11 girls and 15 boys, attending second pre-school in the afternoon formed the control group. In this experimental design, “General Information Form” to collect information about the children and parents together with the Turkish adaptation of “Leuven Involvement Scale for Young Children” to assess children’s involvement levels. Children in the experimental children group received mosaic-based instruction 3 days weekly, for approximately 4 hour each day, for a total of 10 weeks. The data were analyzed by using the Mann Whitney U, Friedman’s Two-Way ANOVA Test and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. The results showed that mosaic-based approach created a significant difference in the involvement levels of experimental group respectively (p<0.05).
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