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3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 127 Implementing and Evaluating a Teacher Education Program On Fostering Self- Regulated Learning Maria Kriekouki maria.kriekouki@yahoo.gr Irini Dermitzaki Past research has shown that self-regulated learning (SRL) skills promote effective studying and learning. However, students need instructional support for SRL and teachers should be able to foster active strategic learning and SRL skills. There is a need for further documentation on respective education practices in order to better support teachers to bring SRL in the classroom. The aim of the present study was to train elementary school teachers in a SRL skills instruction program and to support them in the implementation of the program in the classroom. The program lasts 14 school hours and aims at training students’ in applying text comprehension strategies, such as text orientation, self-questioning, and summarization, but also metacognitive skills, such as planning, self-monitoring and self-evaluation. Three female teachers and their 5 th and 6 th grade classrooms (N=53 students) participated in the study. The project lasted two school years. During the first year, the participant teachers observed the program implementation by the researchers and they participated in educational and training meetings before, during, and after this observation phase. The teachers also attended an introductory workshop on principles and practices of socio-cognitive approach of self-regulated learning process. At the second school year, the teachers applied in their classrooms the instructional program. In order to evaluate the program’s implementation both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. An observation form was filled in by the researchers for every teacher and every instructional unit separately. Moreover, notes and comments regarding the on- line program implementation were also collected by the researchers. The results showed that, overall, the participant teachers met the units’ defined goals and exploited the recommended discussion key points and the suggested material. The management of time with regard to achieving the instructional goals of each unit was relatively adequate. The teachers effectively taught cognitive skills to their students in order to support reading comprehension. However, the teachers needed further support to foster students’ metacognitive skills and to promote independent, autonomous, less teacher-regulated learning. After the teacher implementation phase, the intervention program was further updated and improved as regards its better adaptation to the classroom conditions. Teachers’ experience from the program implementation as recorded by semi-structured interviews will also be presented. The findings will be discussed with reference to teachers’ training in promoting SRL in the classroom. Keywords: self-regulated learning, teacher training, metacognitive skills 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 128 Teachers' Professional Development in Greece: An Open and Flexible Learning Environment or AaConfined and Rigid Education System? Maria Papadopoulou mpapado@sch.gr George Bagakis Contemporary education is facing a new challenge adapting to the "economy of knowledge", which means that teachers are obliged to respond to the newly formed, open and flexible learning environment in which they are required to initiate not only their students but also themselves. Therefore, the developments in education policy which have been observed in Greece over the last few decades constitute a part of wider reforms of educational goals and practices (both global and European) which exert intense pressure on national education policies. This study researches the educational environment that is emerging in the field of secondary education in Greece with a view to enhancing the life-long professional development of teachers. Specifically, this study records and examines the teacher training opportunities which have been publicized in schools, sent via email over a period of six months (analysis of 526 emails) as well as researching the bodies responsible for conducting the training, the recipients of the training, the various forms of training, the content, the methods used, the course length, certification provided, funding, the type of learning and the extent of each course's dependency on the Ministry of Education. In order to facilitate this study, it was necessary to adopt and implement the method of content analysis. Not only lexical but also thematic and semantic content analyses were used, in addition to inductive methods, examining from more specific cases to more general findings. According to the findings of the study, it can be ascertained that teachers are being required to handle a new learning environment which is open, flexible and multiform as well as autonomous and decentralized, functioning in accordance with the laws of the free-market by providing a wealth of goods from which each teacher is obliged to choose depending on his/her specific needs or preferences. The main characteristics of this new environment are; a personalized approach to learning, programs of short duration in order to address the new and continually increasing demands of the market, autonomy and decentralization with regard to the choice of organizations and programs, diminishing state involvement, an increase in programs regarding general topics and skills and a simultaneous decrease in the use of specialized scientific knowledge coupled with the widespread application of unconventional and atypical forms of learning in the field of formal education. All these factors are leading to a redefinition not only of teachers' professional identity but also their working conditions. Keywords: life-long professional development, open and flexible learning environment, autonomy, professional identity 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 129 Transforming Teacher Education Paradigm: A Reflective and Collaborative Approach Maria Sakellariou marisak@uoi.gr Eugenia Arvanitis International research over the last decades (Gulamhussein, 2013; Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993; Darling-Hammond, 1993; Darling-Hammond et al., 2009; Fishman & McCarthy, 2000; Hargreaves, 1994; McLaughlin & Talbert, 1993; Yoon et al., 2007), affirms that the traditional training model of teachers must give way to the creation of interactive, collaborative and reflective professional learning communities, where teachers not only consume, but produce knowledge in a collective way. Collaborative professional learning is regarded as an important factor enabling teachers to function as members of a professional community and to construct a collective intelligence (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012) through the creation and sharing of knowledge and best practices, continuous feedback and reflection. It also can serve as a vehicle for educational transformation building on cultural diversity and the variety of perspectives and practices existing inside and outside of the school community (Arvanitis, 2013; Gulamhussein, 2013; Darling-Hammond et al., 2009; Yoon et al., 2007). Thus, changing the model of teachers’ education (initial or lifelong) is a profound challenge for universities. Learning by Design (Kalantzis and Cope, 2005) is a school based approach which considers professional learning as a collective responsibility. It also provides an epistemological framework for (future) teachers’ professional learning enabling them to act as designers of knowledge using transformational learning activities (Kalantzis, Cope & Arvanitis, 2010). (Prospective) Teachers make use of social networking technologies (see. http://cgleaner.com) to design, document, publish and share their pedagogical scenarios. They become significant actors in the learning process seeking synergies for learning through an ongoing dialogue, feedback and reflection with their own colleagues (Little, 1999; McRae et al. 2001; DET, 2005; van Harren, 2007; Arvanitis, 2011). This presentation will discuss the Learning by Design trial at tertiary level, namely during students’ practicum. A survey with more than 207 undergraduate students at the University of Ioannina was designed to evaluate the usefulness of Learning by Design in promoting peer and collaborative professional learning. Student views were recorded on questionnaires during two distinct phases of the action research (January 2015 & June 2015). The findings of the questionnaires were triangulated with individual reflective diaries and student performance records collected during practicum rounds in kindergartens of Ioannina. The survey results (analyzed with SPSS), showed that students transformed their views and became more confident with their multiple new roles. Both intermediate and final phase findings highlighted the usefulness of the approach in transforming traditional views and practices. Keywords: Collaborative professional learning, Learning by Design, Teacher education, Undergraduate student's practicum 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 130 Teachers’ Professional Development Contributing to a Qualitative Education Maria-Eleni Sachou mar-sach@hotmail.com Konstantinos Chatzidimou Nowadays, due to the speedy scientific progress, teachers’ professional training is utterly mandatory. Both the new technologies introduced in the education field and the new perceptions formed make teachers’ professional development imperative for quality in education. The old model of the ‘wise’ teacher with the innate pedagogical talent is regarded as an obsolete perception in the field of education since the modern scientific concern requires a new role assumed by the teacher. Thus, nowadays, the teacher is considered to be a professional who should have special scientific knowledge and well psycho-pedagogical training. Teachers’ professional development begins in the first years of their studies and continues during their whole life. Teachers’ educational policy contributes to the teacher’s development since it defines the situation in which they work. Teachers’ training is considered particularly important as it enhances teacher’s existing academic and professional knowledge and suggests better ways to work and deal with problems. Training is a challenge procedure that aids, supports and offers opportunities to teachers’ professional development and to the quality of the educational system. It is mainly a function of teachers’ needs, identified by the previous basic education, their work and the educational system. Therefore, teachers’ training involves multiple training activities in order to cover the educational needs, which relate both to teachers’ personal and professional development and the quality of the educational system. This means that it is necessary to implement specific education policies which, in the context of a wider educational policy, promote teachers’ academic, professional and personal development. The current announcement will stress the need for the teacher’s professional development and its contribution to a qualitative education. Keywords: teacher's professional development, teacher's personal development, teacher's new role, qualitative education, educational policy, teacher's training 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 131 Action Research as an Alternative Teacher Professional Development Approach Marianna Lepida marian_23_l@yahoo.gr Katerina Veniopoulou This announcement refers to action research as an alternative teacher professional development approach. The first part focuses on teachers’ professionalism which arose as an important issue in 1980s and on the teachers’ professional development models which were formed during that period. Then, we present the basic characteristics and the process of action research in order to underline the essential role of teachers, who research and reconsider their own practice in classroom. We note that action research is based on a spiral process and the self- criticism of teachers, a fact that is connected to and promotes teachers’ professional development. More specifically, this characteristic underlines the central role of teachers in action research, who should reflect on research questions and issues of their daily practice, analyze them and reshape their practice in order to solve the problems they face and improve their performance. That entails a certain epistemological stance on behalf of teachers, who should give emphasis on a firm theoretical background which will support their action. This stance will help teachers distance themselves from their practice, examine it objectively, understand and interpret it deeper. So, after this analysis, we present an example of the implementation of action research by an Austrian teacher. The case study refers to the work of Ines Morocutti concerning English language teaching at a secondary school in Austria. The teacher applied action research in her classroom and involved other teachers at her school during the formulation of research questions and the conduction of her research. We mainly refer to her research approach and the way she reflected on her practice during the action research in order to highlight the importance of this procedure to solve problems in the classroom. The main idea is to illustrate the way action research can be incorporated and affect teachers’ practice. So, at the end of our announcement, we discuss the relationship between teachers’ professional development and action research under the light of empirical evidence and underline the importance of action research at the daily practice of teachers. Moreover, we highlight the essential role of teachers as well as school to promote that particular research approach and set it as an important issue for further investigation. Keywords: action research, teacher professional development, teachers as researchers 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 132 The Teacher's Role in the Digital Citizenship Formation in Kindergarten Marina Sounoglou masounoglou@uth.gr Aikaterini Michalopoulou Once children begin to visit the online world, it is necessary to do it safely and responsibly. The e-citizen is a functional point in everyone life. This research aims to study how teachers organize the daily program with activities in a digital frame in order to cultivate and shape the children’s views on the meaning of citizenship and how the notion of e-citizenship is formed. Previous researches say that the use of ICT in education is a real faction, so the cultivate of the e-citizenship is an essential factor in education. The school staff should emphasize the cultivation of digital citizenship and proactively implement a plan for integrating the digital age (Larson, Miller, Ribble, 2010). Ribble (2007, 2012) has also created a method for explaining and teaching the elements of digital citizenship through three concepts: "Respect, education and protection", starting as early as kindergarten: Starting with the concept of respect in ourselves and in others. Students need a clear understanding of what it means to be a digital citizen. The research methodology which used is the method of observation of 6 teachers in 6 classes of kindergarten about the ways of their teaching, how they develop the activities of the daily program and how they use the digital technology with the children. The outcomes of the research indicate that teachers did not use the digital frame because they did not have the necessary knowledge for use and handling. In contrast, children excelled in relation to the teachers because digital technology is their daily lives. Children are digital natives as mentioned by Ackerman (2014). A program of activities and guidelines have been proposed for teachers which will aim to better consolidate the characteristics of the concept of digital citizenship to kindergarten children to enable them to manage better their daily routine with concrete instructions to be better protected from malicious data the digital world and to judge the suitability of the software. Nurturing and shaping the notion of digital citizen, children have better control and autonomy, which give them guarantees for tomorrow role as citizens. For further analysis, we use bigger sample in order to have more specimen to analyze and have representative results to generalize them. Keywords: teacher education, digital citizenship, early childhood education 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 133 Can Students’ Cognitive Level Be Assessed Through Project Method? Markia Stamidou stamarkia@gmail.com Ioanna Pantelidi Venetia Kapachtsi Students’ evaluation is an integral part of the learning process. The choice of the technical evaluation, the way of application, and the measuring instruments depend on predetermined objectives of education. Modern social, economic and political demands require the establishment of an effective evaluation system which, on the one hand, enhances students’ skills necessary for discovering other aspects of their personality and on the other hand, assesses students’ cognitive level as well. The purpose of this research is to investigate, whether the teacher, using the project method, can assess students’ cognitive level reliably and effectively. It is a complementary research to a previous one, called “students’ evaluation in secondary education through the project method”. In the earlier studies, different skills were evaluated through the project method, apart from the cognitive one. So, this research is a comparative one between students’ evaluation through project method and the teacher-centered teaching method. Data collection, for the evaluation of students of the third class of High School, was implemented by two teachers in 16 teaching hours in total, in four classes of 20 students each, in Eastern Thessaloniki. The project method was applied to two of the four classes in the unit “European Union” of the textbook of Social and Political Education, while in the two other classes, the unit was presented through the teacher- centered method of teaching. The students in all classes were evaluated through the same written assessment. After three weeks, in order to have more reliable research results, a second evaluation phase was held with a repetitive test. The grading scale of the tests was from 0- 20 based 10. In order to facilitate the interpretation of the results, a numerical scale was performed corresponding to a five descriptive scale. The results of the research were encouraging in the quantitative assessment of students’ performance. The teacher can assess students’ cognitive level, equally effectively, through an alternative teaching method as with the use of the traditional teaching method. Keywords: student evaluation, project method, cognitive level 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 134 "Webinar...From an Esop's Fables to Puppet Theater: A Distance Learning Method for the Teachers" Martha Mavridoy marthanoire@gmail.com Evaggelia Nasta This article presents a pilot action about the education of teachers through a distance learning method called “Webinar”. Werbinars or web – lectures are getting more and more ground in the field of education and in the general training of every scientific field, because every webinar is a lecture or a presentation which takes place in the global web though internet and there is the possibility for someone to interact from distance with the presenter or the presenters in real time. On the other hand, Aesop is known all over the world and his myths are often used in preschool and school education in a lot of educational fields. Based on these two data –webinars and Aesop’s fables- this article shall present the process of teachers trained through a webinar about Aesop’s myths in puppet theater, which comprises a very important issue in pre-school education. However, teachers do not have the needed training. This action is taking place in collaboration with Aitoloakarnania’s scholar consultant and all the trainees will be called after the end of the web-lecture to answer an e-questionnaire about their experience from this particular webinar. Keywords: Webinar, Web-Lecture, Aesop, Puppet Theater, Education, Education of teachers 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 135 The Consequences of Poverty in Greek Primary School: The Role of the Counselor Melpomeni Christou mxristou9@gmail.com The purpose of this paper is to present the effects of poverty in Greek education and especially in primary school, which will include the exploited official figures relating to the situation in Greek schools on child poverty. At the same time, attempting through this work, to showcase the work and duties of school counselors, to me this way conceal the possible ways through which they may contribute with their work in tackling social phenomenon of poverty in primary schools. Poverty is a social phenomenon that now appears in every part of the world. Depending on where poverty occurs, i.e. in developed or developing countries, imparted a different approach (relative -absolute). In the case of the study of child poverty, the child is not considered as a unit, as in the case of an adult, but always within the context that surrounds it, namely his family and his school. The relationship between poverty and education is a relationship of interaction and complementarity: Poverty reduces the opportunities for access to education, and on the other hand, education is one of the main mechanisms by which it is possible for one to escape from the situation of poverty. This situation creates the following difficulty; the pupil from a poor family unable to proceed with the educational levels, which prevents both emerge from the situation of poverty. The social phenomenon of poverty is a persistent problem that concerns the world and its effects are visible in the living standards of families and their children. The issue of poverty in relation to children and the impact it has on their lives, has occupied a number of scholars for decades, as more research studying poverty rates which are per family. However, investigations have dealt with the procedures by which poverty impacts on children's education is extremely limited. This lack of research probably due to the minimal importance attributed to indirect effects can have poverty on education and children's lives. This brings up the relationship between education and social exclusion and poverty as well as, at the same time, the dimensions of child poverty so as recorded by international organizations and its impact on education with particular reference to the institution of the school counselor, his duties at the primary level and finally its contribution to tackling the phenomenon of child poverty in schools. Keywords: poverty, child poverty, social exclusion, education, role of the school counselor 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 136 Perceptions and attitudes of students of the Annual Programme of Pedagogical Training in the School of Pedagogical and Technological Education Michael Georgiadis mixalisg@sch.gr Andreas OiKonomou The aim of this paper is to explore the perceptions and attitudes of students of the Annual Programme of Pedagogical Training (APPT) in the School of Pedagogical and Technological Education (ASPETE) in Thessaloniki concerning the structure and content of the curriculum attended during the academic year 2014-2015. To achieve the aim of the study, a qualitative research was conducted in which semi structured interview was used as a tool for collecting the relevant data. The interview of this type was chosen as it allowed the collection of quality data and for processing the data a qualitative content analysis was used. Data was collected from a random sample of 30 students, while the questions posed in this study referred to the expectations of students concerning the curriculum, at the start of the course, their view on the components of the curriculum, at the end of the course, and suggestions from the students, as candidate teachers, for the improvement of their educational program. Finally, an attempt is made to interpret the perceptions of students about the topic under inquiry. The research conducted in this paper follows a previous one, on the same topic, which took place during the academic year 2010-2011. As the way of selecting candidate teacher-student for attending the ASPETE course has changed since then and admission to the School depends on the lottery results conducted for this purpose, the paper has a comparative dimension additionally, that is a part of the paper concerns the correlation of the results of this research with the results of the previous, when the student selection based on their academic qualifications. The conclusions drawn from the overall survey will feed in with new information on scientific research in the field of teacher education, but they can also be used in reconstructing the corresponding curricula. In the educational system of Greece the teacher training sector is in a transitional phase of restructuring partly due to the economic crisis. The results of this research could contribute to a restructuring based mainly on qualitative-pedagogical standards. Keywords: Teacher Training and Education, Teacher Training and Education Curriculum, Theory and Practice components in Teacher Education 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 137 Teacher Educators, Student Teachers and Quality in Teacher Education Michael Kamoudis mkamoudis@sch.gr The overriding aim of this presentation is to examine teacher education (TE) for school teachers in the light of current educational needs and challenges, with main emphasis on a deeper understanding of teacher preparation in higher education, the centrality of role of teacher educators, and the attitudes/dispositions of student teachers towards their TE program. The presentation highlights: 1) a theoretical framework of contemporary TE according to which TE is conceived as identity construction, viewed not as a static event but rather as a process which involves a personal, a professional and an environmental dimension. Under this perspective, for example, teacher educators can become aware of how their practices in TE value or devalue learning and teaching, while student teachers can approach education issues as a collaborative and shared commitment. 2) Preliminary findings from an ongoing PhD research study based on interviews with 4 th year student teachers in a Greek pedagogical department for primary school teachers as well as teacher educators working there. The qualitative analysis of interviews follows the process of modifying categories and statements about particular themes and drawing conclusions by comparing within-case and across-case themes. The preliminary findings underline inter alia the importance of reflection and dialogue in TE, the need for teacher educators and their student teachers to articulate their academic experiences, their personal expectations and educational vision for clearly defined outcomes that could be used to judge and ensure the overall quality of TE, which ultimately will strengthen the professional identity of the teacher community. Keywords: Teacher education; Teacher educator; Student teacher; Quality; Reflection; Attitudes; Dispositions. 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 138 Faces of Facebook in Teacher Training Michele Horowitz michele.horowitz@gmail.com Esty Doron Sivan Sarid Facebook celebrates its eleventh anniversary of existence this year (2015). Yet, there is a modicum of research devoted to its educational endeavors, and even less when that field is narrowed down to pre-service teachers in training. Two Facebook groups were created to accompany two separate groups of elementary school pre-service students – one group studying to be Hebrew literature teachers and the other teachers of English as a foreign language. The aim of this exploratory research is to determine the contribution of these two Facebook groups. Questions concerning the content raised by the groups, the processes the group participants underwent while being part of the group, and the contribution of a closed Facebook group, as perceived by the participants during their own training, were examined. The research methodology used in this study is both qualitative and quantitative allowing a statistical picture of the phenomenon on one hand, as well as an in-depth informative narrative on the other. 58 participants took part in this research voluntarily. The results indicated a high volume of participation in both groups, although the Hebrew group was more active than the English one. In depth analysis and subsequent tapering of the content resulted in the establishment of four main categories; subject matter, general education, parent-child relationships, and social issues being established. Marked discrepancies became evident particularly regarding the content and initiator of statuses for each group. Future implications of this study indicate that despite the different manifestations and management methods, different populations will find that a closed Facebook group has the potential to be an important tool and asset in teacher training. Keywords: Facebook; teacher training; pre-service; elementary school 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 139 Guidelines to Support the Development of Children’s Drawing Abilities in Education Monica de Chiro m.dechiro@unimc.it Paola Nicolini The main objective of the research is to create guidelines for teachers, educators and parents to support development of children’s drawing ability. Drawing ability requires the development of a complex series of skills such as fine-motor, cognitive, creative, visual, perceptual and affective skills. It is necessary to support children’s development using an approach that leverages awareness of the different phases of children’s development. The research study began in January 2014 with desk research on different authors who had investigated children’s drawing development. These authors included H. Luquet, V. Lowenfeld, W.L. Brittain, H. Gardner, O. Ferraris, G. Pinto, A.S. Bombi, R. Quaglia, C. Longobardi. The study then progressed with the tuning of an experimental method developed to observe children’s interaction with various playful drawing assignments. The experimental phase was conducted in collaboration with different level of schools between February and March 2015, preceded by a research study monitoring sample’s conduct in January 2015. The sample included children of 18 months to 7 years old, attending nursery, infant and primary schools. The observation, survey and analysis of data allowed identification of guidelines considered useful in supporting children’s drawing abilities and stimulation of their creativity. Keywords: drawing, fine-motor skills, education 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 140 Need for Teacher Development through Improving Quality of Question Papers of BISE in Pakistan Muhammad Saeed drsaeed1961@hotmail.com Afshan Naseem The role of teachers is pivotal in the process of Teacher Education (TE) in any country. One of the salient determinants of effective TE is the quality of assessment and examination practices. In Pakistan, like many other countries, along with formative classroom assessment techniques, public examinations at secondary school level are quite popular. In Pakistan, these exams are conducted annually by the divisional ‘Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education’ (BISE) from. The purpose of this study was to investigate how far the Mathematics question papers for grade 9 and 10 truly assess the students’ lower (knowledge and comprehension) and higher cognitive abilities (application and analysis), as described by Bloom (1956) and basic test construction rules available in literature. The sample was the question papers in the subject of mathematics at secondary level for the two school years 2012 and 2013. It was found that question papers largely assess students’ knowledge and comprehension; a few items can assess application and analysis ability. Since the cognitive abilities of synthesis and evaluation were not desired to assess in the national curriculum (2006) of mathematics, so these were not ignored. Overall the proportion of lower and higher cognitive abilities was 75% and 25% respectively which reveals that there was less emphasis on assessing students’ problem solving and analytical skills. The study suggests intensive training for teachers in test item construction, especially those involved in developing question papers for BISE. They should be equipped with the scientific procedure of developing papers, i.e. thorough understanding of curriculum, textbook/s and adequate skill of developing table of specification. Keywords: Teacher development, Test item construction, Mathematics question papers, BISE. 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 141 An Evaluation of the Professional Development System for Teachers in the Double Shift Teaching Dispensation Muhammadi Bisaso Ssali bisasossali@yahoo.com Improving education is often regarded as a priority for developing countries in order to promote long term economic development. Thus initiatives, both government and foreign-aid sponsored, aimed at improving education in developing countries abound. However, all too often the focus of such initiatives is limited to the development of new educational ideas, while the details of how the innovations will be implemented at school level are often neglected. This conceptual paper represents an effort to lay the groundwork for analyzing implementation of the double shift teaching system with particular reference to Uganda and teachers in particular. The paper draws on school development, educational change, and pedagogical literature in order to develop three major constructs upon which the double shift teaching approach as an educational innovation is built namely, Profile of Implementation, Capacity to Support Innovation, and Outside Support. It is being claimed that the education system is born of complexity that all learners cannot be absorbed within the available schools at ago. This pressure leads to a need for alternatives and the double shift system comes in handy to play a critical role in solving this complex jig-saw. However, what remains challenging is the nature of preparation, in form of professional development accorded to the teachers in order to perfect their work in the new system. This is premised on the view that with a double shift system, most of the elements of the teaching/learning processes, if not all, are bound to change which puts pressure on the shoulders of teachers. Teachers have to re-invent the wheel and teach in ways that they were not taught. This explains why the Teacher Development Management Systems (TDMS) and the Teacher Education Materials Development Program (TEMDEP) were conceived in the first place. The paper, therefore, will seek to explore, from a purely objective perspective, and in the context of a resource-constrained country like Uganda, the nature of professional development coupled with outside support that teachers undergo in the event of a double shift teaching system in schools, which is largely conceived as a sine-qua-non if teachers are to be able to contribute to effective implementation of the program, and support plausible innovations thereto. It is widely believed that such professional development would catapult the teaching/learning processes to greater heights within the double shift teaching dispensation lest the education system becomes lukewarm, ineffective and a looming failure. Keywords: Teachers, Double Shift, Education System, Implementation, Innovation, Management, Supervision, Complexity, Professional Development 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 142 Effectiveness of Turkish Teaching Program for Foreigners Mustafa Durmuşçelebi mcelebi@erciyes.edu.tr There have occurred rapid changes over the world together with the 21 st century. As a result of these developments, language teaching also has started to gain a special importance in the science world. On the one hand, the efforts to generate a world language, on the other hand, the efforts to make its mother language learnt as a foreign language… The aim of this study is to determine the difficulties that the foreigners encounter while learning Turkish as a foreign language. The universe of this survey model study consists of the foreign students studying in Kayseri in the Fall Term of 2014-2015 Educational Year. In the research into which students from 53 countries participated, two equipments were in use to evaluate the programs; that are the survey and the preliminary-final test. At the end of the research, the students stated that they could almost do the basic and middle level (a1,a2 and b1) behaviors necessary for the four basic skills. As the level of the skill increases, the success rate of the student’s decreases. Also, while the listening skill is the easiest one that learners could succeed, writing and reading skills stands out as the area that the learners have difficulty in succeeding. In the research, one striking point also is the absence of a specific language instruction program that is applied. Those that are related with the language teaching especially the relevant institutions of the state and the Turkish Language Departments of the Universities should immediately pay attention to the development of language teaching programs. Those should give place to many implicit programs such as learning environments, excursions and art activities so that the learners can improve their ability to speak in a natural way. There is a requirement for more applied researches in the area, preparation of lesson tools and lesson books in accordance with the needs. Keywords: Turkish teaching (instruction), foreign language teaching, the Turkish according to foreigners. 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 143 The Impact of Student Teaching Practice on the Effectiveness of New Teachers Mustafa Özcan ozcanm@mef.edu.tr Hürriyet Alataş The question of how to raise the academic success of students is the major concern of educators. On this research, we focused on the impact of teaching practice on the effectiveness of new teachers. Research shows that many new teachers are experiencing pedagogical, relational and psychological problems. The purpose of this research is to identify the problems that new teachers experience and propose solutions for them. We think that if there is a well prepared teacher for the profession in a class, success is very likely there. To be a competent teacher a teacher candidate should spend much more time under the supervision of mentor teachers and clinical faculty of education. In colleges of education in Turkey, teacher candidates don’t have enough opportunity to practice in a K12 school. Consequently, they graduate from university with insufficient experience and practice which lead to some problems in the profession. We implemented a survey with open-ended questions to 187 teachers in Istanbul and Van. First, we asked them how much time they spent in a K12 classroom and how many times they had the opportunity to teach to real students. Majority of teachers stated that they taught less than 10 hours, and the teaching practice courses could not prepare them for teaching profession. They stated that they needed more practice courses during the college years. Second, we asked them which difficulties they faced in their first years of the profession. Mostly, they stated that they had difficulty in communication with students and parents whose cultural background were different from theirs. Additionally, they stated that class management was another challenge for them in their first years. When they asked about their attitude towards their job, most of them asserted that in their first years they wanted to quit the job, but as they knew they couldn’t find a better job, they reluctantly continued teaching. Lastly, we asked the teachers if they had any guidance from their principal and/or mentor teacher. According to the answers, the principal and/or mentor teacher helped them when they had problems, but not always. As we can see, teachers have problems in their first years of the profession because of the insufficiency of classroom-teaching practice. In order to solve this problem, we propose a model in which 50% of teacher education is university-based and 50% of school based. Keywords: student teacher, teaching practice 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 144 Parents’ Guidance Needs and Resources during the Identification Procedures for Gifted and Talented Children in Şanlıurfa The purpose of this study is to investigate the guidance needs and resources of parents whose children participated in the identification procedures for the gifted and talented children, and as a result accepted or not accepted to Şanlıurfa Science and Art Center (BİLSEM) in Şanlıurfa/Turkey. With this purpose, a four-part (demographical questions, children related questions, parents’ guidance needs and sources questions, parents’ guidance experiences questions) survey was developed by the researchers. This survey was given to a total of 261 parents whose children were accepted (n=28) or not accepted (n=233) to Şanlıurfa BİLSEM at 2011-2012 academic year. Regarding the socio-demographic findings, 56% of the participants were composed of fathers, and 44% composed of mothers. More than half of the parents are in an age range of 36-45. Nearly half of them have undergraduate degrees (51%), and about a quarter of them are high school graduates (26%). The parents of children accepted to BİLSEM are more educated; they have higher income and have fewer children than parents of children not accepted to BİLSEM. In terms of the questions on parents’ guidance needs, sources and experiences, the results indicated that classroom teachers of children were the most benefitted resource of guidance for both two groups of parents (whose children were accepted-not accepted to BİLSEM) in all stages of the process (“application”, “testing”, and” learning the final decision for the children” stages). The other mostly benefited resources for parents whose children were accepted to BİLSEM were BİLSEM (39.3%) and school administration (39.3%). For the second group of parents, these resources changed with friends (28.6%) and family members (24.7%). When parents asked the most benefited guidance resource in general (except the identification process), once more classroom teachers reported as the primary resource for both groups of parents. Results regarding the guidance needs of parents indicated no significant effect of Children’s acceptance status on parent reported academic, social, and psychological/emotional problems of their children, and the opportunities provided by the families. Additionally, the majority of parents (86%) stated that they did not benefit from any school counseling and guidance services. Getting help from guidance sources outside of school was also quite rare among parents. Parents who used school counseling services or the services of other experts reported that assistance as insufficient. Keywords: Gifted and talented children, Science and Art Center (BİLSEM), parents, classroom teachers Nagihan Oğuz Duran noguzduran@hotmail.com Arif Belur 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 145 An Investigation of the Perceptions of Elementary School Students about “Democracy” Concept through Metaphors Nazli Gezgin nazli_gezginn@hotmail.com Türkay Nuri Tok Metaphor, the Greek word meaning transfer, has appeared throughout the ages in stories designed to elicit growth or change, including biblical parables, myths, legends, and fairy tales (Campbell, 1988). Since the early 1970s, metaphor has become of increasing interest to many disciplines. Metaphor, the subject of this research, is to apply something to a different thing and define by acting from a thing that has the similar qualities (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 2004). The English word “metaphor” which is used for different concepts like metaphor and imitation in Turkish has become one of the most important data collection methods in qualitative researches lately. This study aims to identify the way elementary school students’ view about democracy concept and the sources that affect their present perceptions and the following questions are aimed to be answered: 1) which means of metaphors do the elementary school students use to explain their existent perception about the term “democracy”? 2) Under which class can the metaphors of elementary school students regarding the term “democracy” be categorized? 3) Do the metaphors used by elementary school students regarding the term “democracy” make any difference according to their level of class? 4) Do the metaphors of elementary school students about democracy make any difference according to their gender? 5) What are the factors effecting the point of views of elementary school students about democracy? A total of 84 students, 37 girls and 47 boys have participated in this research who were 6 th 7th and 8 th grade students. Within this scope, the students who participated in the study were asked to fill in the open ended questionnaire composed of three parts which would demonstrate what they associated the concept of democracy with and why they did this association. This study was designed with a phenomenology approach which is one of the qualitative research methods. The participants in the study were chosen with the method of availability sampling. Qualitative research design will be used in data collection process and the process of analysis and evaluation of the developed metaphors will consist of four stages: (1) Naming, coding and eliminating stage, (2) Theme development stage, (3) Validity and reliability enabling stage, (4) Reporting stage. The analysis of the study is still in the process. Therefore, the finding, results and discussion sections haven’t been completed yet. Keywords: Democracy, Metaphor, Elementary Students 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 146 The Views of the Academic Members about the Role and Contributions of Scientific Researches and Academic Activities on Teacher Education Nidan Oyman nidanoymann@hotmail.com Universities and academic members working in these institutions have three main tasks: These tasks are education, scientific research and social benefit. The faculties of education have the primary duty as teacher training, as well as those tasks. In this context, it has been considered important to determine how these institutions and academic members who are responsible for teacher training and teacher education contribute to teacher education through their scientific researches, apart from their education curriculum. The purpose of this research is to find out the role of educational activities performed in faculties of education and academic members’ scientific researches in teacher education. Additionally, it is additionally the aim of this study to reveal the views of academic members in terms of what should be done for improving the effectiveness of the research and activities with regard to teacher education. The participants of the study are 20 academic members from four different universities taking place in the central region of Turkey. In this research, case study design which is one of the qualitative research methods has been used and semi-structured interviews have been conducted to obtain the data. For analyzing the views of the academic members, content analysis technique has been used. The findings concerning the role and contributions of scientific researches in teacher education will be presented as frequency tables. Several proposals about what kind of arrangements should be made in order to increase the effectiveness of these researches in teacher education will be put forth by the researcher taking into consideration the findings. Keywords: Scientific research, academic activities, academic member, teacher education 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 147 Transitional School-Based Program of Teachers' Professional Development in Greece: The role of the Teachers' School Association and the School Advisor Nikolaos Graikos graikos@otenet.gr The issue of teachers' professional development is one of the most difficult problems of the Greek educational system. Despite of the many efforts that have been made by the Greek State to train the teachers over the last twenty years, the results have not been quite satisfactory. The main disadvantage of these centrally planned programs is that they do not take into account the real needs of the teachers. However, the educational conditions in Greece are not ripe for fully participatory training models. According to the educational legislation, Greek teachers are not entitled to adequate training time. In addition, because of the past wrong programs they have not acquired the necessary training culture. Therefore, the teachers' professional development proposals that we analyze in this article, have a transitional character, combining international bibliographic standards and the realistic capabilities of the Greek educational system. The main features of our proposals are the establishment of school-focused educational communities of practice, which are based on the close cooperation of the teachers with the School Advisor under real school and classroom conditions. In our presentation we talk about the educational principles on which our proposals are based, the goals and the stages of our training procedures and the debate about their effectiveness. Keywords: teachers' professional development, communities of practice, Greek educational system, School Advisor 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 148 Students’ Misconceptions in Telecommunications Nikolaos Voudoukis nvoudoukis@aspete.gr Gerasimos Pagiatakis The present study focuses on the discussion and analysis of students’ misconceptions within the telecommunications module taught at the School of Pedagogical and Technological Education (ASPETE). The “Telecommunication Systems” course, as taught at ASPETE, introduces students to the principles and techniques of telecommunications and addresses topics such as basic concepts, signals and Fourier analysis, AM and FM modulation and transceivers, Pulse Code Modulation (PCM), and digital modulation techniques. The misconceptions, as were demonstrated in the exam papers of one hundred seventy two (172) students, who attended the course during the last two autumn semesters 2013-14 and 2014-15 (in both, the theoretical and the lab part of the course) were gathered, evaluated and analyzed. We observed that most of the students’ difficulties and misconceptions were due the lack of a proper background in mathematics and physics. For example, we noticed that some students had difficulties in understanding Fourier analysis which, in turn, prevented them from dealing with modulation and transmission techniques in a unified and scientifically sound manner. Other misconceptions were caused by the lack of a well-structured overview of the overall telecommunications subject (and the interrelations between the various telecommunication topics) though such an overview had been briefly presented during the first lecture of the course. On the other hand, awareness of possible misconceptions in telecommunications is expected to help future teachers to achieve a better understanding of the telecommunication subject and deliver telecommunications principles to their audience in a more efficient and comprehensible way. Keywords: engineering education, teacher education, telecommunications teaching, misconceptions 3 rd ISNITE 2015 International Symposium’ ‘New Issues on Teacher Education’ ‘September 11-13, 2015, University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece 149 In Service Education on ICT: Characteristics, Goals and Ambitions of Download 5.07 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
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