AJESI

The aim of this study is to adapt School climate index developed by Hoy, Page ve and Sweetland (2002) to Turkish. School climate is defined as the personality of a school and considered as an important factor for the affectivity, productivity and safety of a school. This scale adaptation study was conducted with the participation of 273 high school teachers working at different high schools in Niğde in 2015-spring term. First 5 language instructors translated the scale into Turkish and 3 language instructors back translated it. Then, for the construct validity and reliabilty of the scale, EFA and CFA tests were run. As a result of the exploratory factor analysis (EFA), KMO .899, Bartlett test x^2(351) = 2533,722 (p< .001) were found. Four factor structure was got that depicts the 70,12 % of the total variance. Item-factor structure got from the EFA has been tried for consistence with a model by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). In light of this, four-factor structure of the school climate scale has been approved. (x^2= 397,48; sd= 318, p<.01; x^2/sd=1.249). When fit indices of Confirmatory Factor Analysis were checked, RMSEA=.045, RMR= .034, NFI=.98, CFI=.98, IFI=.98, GFI=.81 were found. The coefficient of the total internal consistency is discovered .929, with respect to internal consistency for the subscales a.“Collegial leadership” (.948), b.“Professional teacher behavior” (.931), c.“Organizational vulnerability” (.917) and d. “Achievement pressure” (.945) were found. Accordingly of the EFA and CFA, the scale is a dependable and legitimate estimation apparatus.

Keywords: School climate, reliability, validity
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This research was done for the purpose of studying teachers’ ideas about the sufficiency of primary school 4th Grade Social Studies textbook’s contents to gain basic skills on the Social Studies Curriculum. The survey method, which is one of the research approaches for collecting quantitative data, analyzing them and using these data together, was used in this research. This research’s work group consists of 80 primary school teachers, teaching at 4th grade, from inside of 286 primary school teachers who work in 20 primary schools in Fatsa District of Ordu Province. The analysis of the data was done by using SPSS 22.0 statistical software programme on the computer and the frequency/percentage calculations, arithmetic mean, standard deviation were calculated after analyzing the properties of the range. The independent t-test, according to gender and education levels of teachers and Kruskal-Wallis Test, according to their occupational seniority, was used in the data’s analysis. Those who participated in the survey were 36.23 % female and 63.77 % male teachers. 71 % of these teachers are under-graduate and 29 % of them are associate degree graduate. But there are not any post-graduate teachers. It is seen that 84.05 % of the teachers have occupational seniority for 15 years and over, 5.8 % have it between 10- 14 , 2.9 % have it between 5-9 and 7.25 % have it between 1-4 years. To the results of the t-test data, it is identified that the scores do not change according to attendants’ gender or educational backgrounds. When Kruskal-Wallis Test’s results are examined, it was detected that the total scores the attendants got from the scale according to their occupational status do not show any significant differentiation statistically [χ² (3) = 7,412, p> 0.05].

Keywords: Social studies curriculum, textbook, teachers’ opinions, basic skills
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The purpose of this research is to determine the problems encountered by teachers in secondary schools and to evaluate these problems from the point of students, parents, and schools. In the research, case studies pattern and qualitative research methods were used. The study group is composed of 38 volunteer teachers who work in different branches in secondary schools in the academic year of 2015-2016. A semi-structured interview form was applied in the research; to identify problems faced by teachers with the students, the parents, and the school. According to the findings of this research, the major problems teachers have with students are listed as; cleanliness, responsibility, hard work, not doing homework, absenteeism, disrespect and lack of tolerance. The problems that teachers most frequently encounter with parents are; lack of educational support by parents, their indifference, and language - communication problem. The most common problems faced by teachers in the school are; smoking of students, lack of social activities and administration-teacher incompatibility. As a result of interviews and findings obtained in the research, As a result of annual educational programs for both parents and students and an effective education of values, at the schools; will reduce these problems to the minimum level.

Keywords: Middle school, social problems, student, parent, teacher
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The general aim of this study is to analyze the self-efficacy and learning styles and strategies of the student teachers, who are studying at Anadolu University, in terms of various variables. The singular research designs will be applied in order to describe the existing situation. The singular research design will be used to define self-efficacy perceptions and learning styles that student teachers have and the learning strategies they use. The research population of the study consists of the student teachers who were assigned by “convenience sampling” among the student teachers studying at different teacher education programs and levels at Anadolu University Faculty of Education. Three different assessment tool will be benefited for data collection. “Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale” will be used in order to assess the self-efficacy perceptions of student teachers. “Kolb Learning Styles Inventory III” will be applied to define the learning styles of the student teachers. And to define the learning strategies of the student teachers Learning Strategies Scale will be used. For the analysis of the data collected during the study statistical analysis and techniques such as frequency and percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance will be operated.

Keywords: Self efficacy, learning styles, learning strategies
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The purpose of this research is to compare Turkish and Canadian Social Studies Curricula in terms of values education. This research was conducted based on document review design which is one of the patterns of qualitative research approach. The K4-7 social studies curricula which have been implemented in Turkey since 2005 and the K4-7 social studies curricula which have been implemented in Alberta, Canada since 2005 constitute the data of this research. Data were analyzed using an inductive approach. The results of the research were obtained by interpretation of the findings with this process. According to the first result of the research, values in the Social Studies Curriculum in Canada are given as learning outcomes in a title of "values and attitude". When the number of values to be given to the students was compared to class levels, there is not much difference in the number of values to be given to the students in the 4th to 7th-grade social studies curriculum in Turkey. But in Canadian programs, although the number of values that intend to acquire students at the 4th and 5th-grade levels is intense, this number is decreasing at 6th and 7th-grade levels. According to another result, while intangible and tangible values are included in the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th-grade levels of the Social Studies Curriculum in Turkey, tangible values such as environmental protection and love of nature are frequently in the 4th and 5th-grade levels of Canadian programs. On the other hand, values related to democracy gain importance in the 6th and 7th-grade levels. In the direction of the results of the research, it is suggested that values can be given as learning outcomes in order to guide to teachers and the values to be included in the curriculum can be distributed in a balanced manner considering the value categories.

Keywords: Social studies, values education, curriculum
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Although citizenship education in England has been a statutory subject in the National Curriculum since 2002, schools have had independence in setting their own teaching programmes for the subject since a revision made in 2010. This led to different programmes being applied in almost every school and Citizenship became a school-specific subject. The purpose of this study is to discuss the social foundations, common strands and essential elements of the different Citizenship Education programmes in three secondary schools visited in London. Document analyses method was used in this qualitative research. The main documents reviewed for this study include the Crick Report (1998), the Ajegbo Report (2007), and the 2002, 2008 and 2013 Citizenship programmes. Citizenship programmes at three different public secondary schools in London were also reviewed. It is significant that there were still four common strands of the programmes in the schools visited even though each school can independently set their own programmes. These common strands were: rights and responsibilities, social participation, government and democracy, identities and differences. Additionally, these schools also had three common essential elements in the programmes: concepts, values and dispositions, skills and aptitudes. In spite of the revision made in 2010, schools are still following the recommendations of the Crick (1998) and Ajegbo Report (2007) on Citizenship Education. It is also noteworthy that the process of seeking a solution to certain social problems was the key for the introduction of citizenship education and revisions of the programmes in the years following 2002.

Keywords: England’s citizenship education, programme, social foundations, strands, elements
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