New Educational Trends in Turkey

By Ünsal Umdu Topsakal

This book contains eight chapters that analyze and discuss different themes and topics about new educational trends in Turkey.

Chapter 1 discusses the new methodological trends in higher education of Turkey. Several factors including the dynamism of internationalization having gained momentum with globalization, increasing demand on higher education, life-long learning routines, transnational student mobility, newer higher education providers, and increasing market-focused competition have affected not only the educational system in general but also institutions of higher education specifically.

Chapter 2 presents STEM education, which is accepted as one of the biggest educational movements in the last decade. It is a multidisciplinary, holistic approach, which aims to train students integrally in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines.

Chapter 3 introduces the socioscientific issues (SSI). Socioscientific issues are dilemmas about the environment, health, technology, and science and associated with both society and science, concerning both moral and ethical issues.

Chapter 4 focuses on model-based science education: the case of Turkey. Models have crucial roles in the practice of science. In this chapter, it is given that models and modeling in science education, mental models, conceptual models, computer-based models, and model-based learning as a theoretical framework. Furthermore, some studies done about teaching science through MBL in Turkey were given as examples.

Chapter 5 examines science literacy in Turkey. Science and technology are the most important indicators of improvement that countries achieved. In this century, societies have started competing against each other to be the leading country in science and technology. This chapter also discusses definition of science literacy and types of science literacy studies. Turkey is in a struggle on the international competition of science literacy appreciation by public, which is an ultimate indicator of the level of development.

In Chapter 6, the studies partaking in the literature about Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and the use of ANN in predicting academic success have been discussed, especially those done in Turkey. Besides the study principles of ANN, its preferability reason for prediction has been mentioned. The other studies in which ANN is used to estimate the academic success in the field of education have also been included. Compared to other methods, presenting the successful predictions of ANN applications is considered to cause ANN to be used more common.

Chapter 7 discusses the place of SOLO model in mathematics education. SOLO model can be used for evaluating students cognitive knowledge. In this chapter, research in mathematics education in which SOLO model was used is also mentioned. In recent years, interest in mathematics education research about SOLO model has started to increase in Turkey.

Chapter 8 focuses on problem posing in Turkish mathematics education. Problem posing, which teaching mathematics researchers have frequently emphasized in recent years, includes either posing new problems in terms of a given situation or reformulating the problem. In curriculums, while problem posing is widely used at primary school level, the importance given for problem posing has become less as the levels increased. Problem posing from Turkeys perspective can be said that teachers started to use activities for problem posing together with the shift to the constructivist teaching model in Turkish education system in 2005. In this chapter, it is also discussed that studies about problem posing in mathematics education.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jan 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781490779911

Ünsal Umdu Topsakal

Ünsal UMDU TOPSAKAL is Associated Professor of Science Education at Yildiz Technical University. She is working on Visualization in Science Education. She has a wide range of research interests including design and implementation of intervention strategies to challenge students’ conceptions, environmental education, socio-scientific issues, bioethics education and meta-analysis. She was academic visitor at Friedrich Alexander University (Germany) in 1999 and in 2002 and Reading University (UK) in 2010. She joined the long-running PALAVA teacher researcher group, based in Reading (UK). She is the author of lots of papers and acts as reviewer for a range of journals. She has roles as co-principles investigator, investigator and supervisor for science education projects.

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Copyright 2017 Ünsal Umdu Topsakal.

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ISBN

: 978-1-4907-7991-1 (e)

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Contents

Chapter I

An Overview of Stem Education

      Gulbin OZKAN

Chapter II

New Methodological Trends in Higher Education of Turkey

    Demet ZAFER-GUNES

Chapter III

Socioscientific Issues

    Ünsal UMDU TOPSAKAL

Chapter IV

Model-Based Science Education: The Case of Turkey

    Hasan Özgür KAPICI

Chapter V

Science Literacy in Turkey

    Muhammet Emin Mısır

Chapter VI

Artificial Neural Networks in the Prediction of Academic Success

    Elif Bahadır

Chapter VII

The Place of SOLO Model in Mathematics Education Sevda

    Goktepe Yildiz

Chapter VIII

Problem-Posing in Turkish Mathematics Education

    Zehra TAŞPINAR ŞENER

Preface

This book contains 8 chapters that analyze and discuss different themes and topics about new educational trends in Turkey.

Chapter 1 discusses the new methodological trends in higher education of Turkey. Several factors including the dynamism of internationalisation having gained momentum with globalization, increasing demand on higher education, life-long learning routines, transnational student mobility, newer higher education providers, and increasing market-focused competition have affected not only the educational system in general but also institutions of higher education specifically. Consequently, these have brought about new perspectives of higher education policies and have become important factors in how universities constantly change their scopes in which they will be in service and move the centre of change. The higher education system in Turkey is a subject which has been neglected for years and found it difficult to find itself a place in the top of the social agenda. It has been observed recently that there is a remarkable increase in interest in the subject both nationally and internationally.

Chapter 2 presents STEM education which is accepted as one of the biggest educational movements in the last decade is a multi-disciplinary holistic approach which aims to train students integrally in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. STEM education which is accepted as one of the biggest educational movements in the last decade is a multi-disciplinary holistic approach which aims to train students integrally in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines This chapter analyzes learning gains through STEM education, STEM education in international area, STEM education in Turkey and recommendations and educational implications about STEM education.

Chapter 3 introduces the socioscientific issues (SSI). Socio- scientific issues are dilemmas about the environment, health, technology and science and associated with both society and science, concerning both moral and ethical issues. This chapter also presents the SSI in the literature. In addition, it is discussed that socio-scientific issues in primary education program in Turkey and studies regarding socio-scientific issues in Turkey.

Chapter 4 focuses on model-based science education: the case of Turkey. Models have crucial roles in the practice of science. In this chapter, it is given that models and modelling in science education, mental models, conceptual models, computer based models and model-based learning as a theoretical framework. Furthermore some studies done about teaching science through MBL in Turkey were given as examples. Two main conclusions can be done for this chapter. One of them is that MBL studies in Turkey have usually done with pre-service teachers. Further studies are needed which will be done with middle and high school students. Another conclusion is the results of MBL studies in Turkey show that MBL usually has a significant effect on students’ understandings of concepts.

Chapter 5 examines science literacy in Turkey. Science and technology are the most important indicators of improvement that countries achieved. In this century, societies have started competing each other to be the leading country in science and technology. In this chapter also discusses Definition of Science Literacy and Types of Science Literacy Studies. Turkey is in a struggle on the international competition of science literacy appreciation by public, which is an ultimate indicator of the level of development. More than a decade, there have been some changes in science and related lessons’ curriculums, textbooks and teacher training courses in Turkey. Meanwhile, researchers have studied on the effectiveness of these changes and manifested them as academic articles, graduate thesis and action research.

In Chapter 6, the studies partaking in the literature about Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and the use of ANN in predicting academic success have been discussed, especially those done in Turkey. Besides the study principles of ANN, its preferability reason for prediction has been mentioned. The other studies in which ANN is used to estimate the academic success in the field of education have also been included. Compared to other methods, presenting the successful predictions of ANN applications is considered to cause ANN to be used more common.

Chapter 7 discusses the place of SOLO model in mathematics education. SOLO model can be used for evaluating students’ cognitive knowledge. In this chapter, research in mathematics education in which SOLO Model was used is also mentioned. In recent years, interest in mathematics education research about SOLO Model has started to increase in Turkey. The implementation of SOLO Model in Turkey varies according to the school type and mathematics subjects.

Chapter 8 focuses on problem-posing in Turkish mathematics education. Problem posing which teaching mathematics researchers have frequently emphasized in recent years includes either posing new problems in terms of a given situation or re-formulating the problem. In curriculums, while problem-posing is widely used at primary school level, the importance given for problem-posing has become less as the levels increased. Problem- posing from Turkey’s perspective it can be said that teachers started to use activities for problem-posing together with the shift to the constructivist teaching model in Turkish education system in 2005. In this chapter, it is also discussed that studies about problem-posing in mathematics education.

Editors

ÜNSAL UMDU TOPSAKAL

GÜLBİN ÖZKAN

Chapter I

An Overview of Stem Education

Gulbin OZKAN

Yildiz Technical University, Faculty of Education

Introduction

Problems and events that we encounter in our everyday lives are generally related to subject areas of multi-disciplines. Today, it is not possible to teach and analyze these problems and events in the narrow lines of a single subject. In this respect, multi-disciplinary approach develops as a natural result of the developing and changing information. Developing skills regarding the ability to understand the external world, making sense of information and to be able to think on it within the framework of knowledge and skills that learners gain from multiple disciplines in this way are becoming an essential objective (Turna, Bolat & Keskin, 2012). STEM education which becomes prominent these days is based on the idea of teaching Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics subjects, which form a basis for many disciplines, by utilizing an inter-disciplinary approach.

STEM is an interdisciplinary approach and it is a teaching system which ensures the integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines to the teaching environment by establishing connections among their applications (Bybee, 2010).

STEM education which is accepted as one of the biggest educational movements in the last decade is a multi-disciplinary holistic approach which aims to train students integrally in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines (Berlin & Lee, 2005). In this approach, teaching is carried out by using all these disciplines together at the same time in real world situations rather than teaching these subjects as separate and discrete subjects.

STEM education advocates an integrated approach in order to increase the number of students who will prefer STEM-related professions after their secondary education and to enable students to have a better preparation for science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. This shows the fact that STEM acronym means more than referring to these four integrated disciplines (Ostler, 2012).

In our age, rapidly developing technology brings many changes together with itself. Education should assist societies to be able to adjust themselves to these changes. Rather than traditional teaching, other teaching methods which are innovative, open to improvement, closely related to everyday life are needed. Since traditional teaching methods are insufficient to fulfill the needs of our age, the need for lifelong learning and improvements in teaching and learning environments have led to the development of new approaches in education. One of these approaches is called as STEM and it is open to improvements. Students should be taught about the source of information and how they will obtain this information, how they will evaluate this information and how they will use this information to solve problems (Van Till, Van Der Vleuten & Van Berkel, 1997). This kind of an education can be given by using STEM approach.

Teaching in STEM is shaped as a result of the teachers’ and students’ interests and their life experiences and it means teaching knowledge and skills specific to central discipline