Mehmet Ayar

The influence of globalization on teachers can be observed in the increasing numbers who seek jobs abroad. Globalization encourages teachers to seek better professional and living standards elsewhere. What attracts them to live and work beyond their own countries is dependent on their knowledge and skills and the value assigned to them in different places (Varghese, 2009).The recent increase in the number of these teachers reveals that they have been successful in applying their expertise in new situations, possibly by recasting their instructional methods to fit the culture of their students in their new destination country. Yet teachers are faced with challenges of several kinds during a move from their own country to the host country, or from one host country to another.Some of these challenges are associated with logistics, whereas others are embedded deep in cultural differences. For instance, initially, the job application and early initiation process can be expected to be cha...

FEN-TEKNOLOJİ-TOPLUM DERSİNİN FEN BİLGİSİ ÖĞRETMEN ADAYLARININ BİLİMİN DOĞASINA İLİŞKİN GÖRÜŞLERİNE ETKİSİ Bu çalışmada, fen-teknoloji-toplum dersinin fen bilgisi öğretmen adaylarının bilimin doğasına ilişkin görüşlerine etkisi incelenmiştir. Çalışmaya Fen Bilgisi Öğretmenliği Ana Bilim Dalı’nda okuyan 4. sınıf öğrencileri katılmıştır. Çalışmaya 55’i kız ve 57’si erkek olmak üzere 112 kişi katılmıştır. Çalışmaya katılan tüm öğrenciler Fen-Teknoloji-Toplum dersini alan öğrencilerdir. Çalışmaya katılan fen bilgisi öğretmen adaylarına üç farklı ölçek uygulanmıştır. Bunlar sırasıyla “Fen Bilgisi Öğretimi Tutum Ölçeği-II”, “Bilimsel Süreç Becerileri Ölçeği” ve “Değerler Ölçeği”’dir. Bilimsel Süreç Becerileri Ölçeği ile Değerler Ölçeği çalışmanın başında bir kez sadece katılımcıların bilgilerini öğrenmek için kullanılmıştır. Fen Bilgisi Öğretimi Tutum Ölçeği-II çalışmanın başında ve sonunda ön-test ve son-test olarak iki kez uygulanmıştır. Bununla birlikte, fen bilgisi öğretmen adaylarını...

Bu calisma kapsaminda, bilimin antropolojik ve sosyolojik acilari ile temellendirilen „otantik bilim uygulamalarini‟ vurgulamakta ve fen egitimi icin onerilerinden bahsetmekteyiz. Geleneksel fen egitiminin sadece „olagan bilim‟ olarak ogretilmesinin problemli oldugunu belirterek „bilimsel uygulamalarin‟ sosyolojik ozelliklerini yansitmadan ogretildigine dikkat cekmekteyiz. Bilimin antropolojik ve sosyolojik ozelliklerini kisaca tartistiktan sonra fen ogrenme ortamlarini tasarlamada ve bilimin dogasinin ilkelerini ogretmede bilimin sosyal esaslarini ve „uygulama topluluklari‟ kavramini icermesi gerektigini onermekteyiz. Daha sonra, yakin zamanda yapilan calismalarda „otantik bilim uygulamalarinin‟ ozelliklerini ele almaktayiz ve arastirmacilarin bu calismalarda „otantik bilim uygulamalarini‟ nasil kullanilabilir hale getirdiklerini tetkik etmekteyiz. Son olarak ise bilimin antropolojik ve sosyolojik acilarini kullanarak „otantik bilim uygulamalari‟ hakkinda ogrencilerin ve ogretmenle...

All the countries have an effort in cultivating environmentally literate citizens since the governments and citizens are responsible to protect the environment. Turkey is one of these countries which integrated environmental education topics and objectives into the science curriculum. Different frameworks have been developed to assess individuals' views about, attitudes and behaviors towards the environment and address environmental issues. These frameworks mostly focus on environmental literacy, but they do not emphasize environmental citizenship. Assessment of the curriculum through the lens of a framework that grounds on both environmental literacy and citizenship is important and needed in order to cultivate environmentally literate citizens. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the extent to which the newly developed science curriculum provided the opportunity to constitute environmental literate citizenship at the 5th grade level. We benefited a coherent framework gr...

Ethnographic Studies of School Science and Science Communities. (May 2012) Mehmet Cihad Ayar, B.S. /M.S. Bogazici University; M.S., Marmara University Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee, Dr. Cathleen C. Loving Dr. Bugrahan Yalvac In this dissertation I used the anthropological and sociocultural perspectives to examine the culture of school science and science communities. I conducted three independent studies. The first study is a meta-ethnography of three well-known case studies published in the literature. I analyzed these studies in order to identify the distinct characteristics of scientific communities and portray a picture of how science is practiced. The meta-ethnographic analysis reveals aspects of scientific practice that are insightful for the science educators and curriculum developers because these aspects are often neglected in school science even though they explain how science is done and accomplished in science communities. In the second study, I conducted an ethnograph...

This study is about the effect of the Our World exhibit at a science center on student visitors. It elicits students’ views about the exhibits, zones, and activities, along with their level of interest and experiences. Data from students (n=346) through a survey, field notes, observations and interviews (n=18) were collected. The findings indicated that curiosity and interest were triggers for visiting the exhibits at the center. Visiting the exhibits helped students acquire science content knowledge. However, limited social interaction was observed among the student groups due to the control of tour guides within a limited period of time. It was concluded that time restriction and crowding played a crucial role in learning about science at the center. It was recommended to allocate more time for free visits, organize smaller group visits, and repair setups under maintenance in order to enhance the effect of the exhibits on students.

ABSTRACT In this paper, we analyze the science activities offered at 7th grade in the Turkish science and technology curriculum along with addressing the curriculum’s original intent. We refer to several science education researchers’ ideas, including Chinn & Malhotra’s (Science Education, 86:175–218, 2002) theoretical framework and Edelson’s (1998) conceptualization of authentic science practices in our analyses. Our primary goal is to critique the science and technology curriculum and then offer alternative insights into learning science and doing science about force and motion concepts at 7th grade from epistemological and sociological perspectives. We introduce an Immersion Unit for teaching and learning the concepts of force and motion and discuss the elements of this immersion approach. Finally, we provide recommendations for designing and implementing similar immersion units for the science activities that are in practice.

This study is about the effect of the Our World exhibit at a science center on student visitors. It elicits students’ views about the exhibits, zones, and activities, along with their level of interest and experiences. Data from students (n=346) through a survey, field notes, observations and interviews (n=18) were collected. The findings indicated that curiosity and interest were triggers for visiting the exhibits at the center. Visiting the exhibits helped students acquire science content knowledge. However, limited social interaction was observed among the student groups due to the control of tour guides within a limited period of time. It was concluded that time restriction and crowding played a crucial role in learning about science at the center. It was recommended to allocate more time for free visits, organize smaller group visits, and repair setups under maintenance in order to enhance the effect of the exhibits on students.

ABSTRACT This paper aims to examine interpretive studies of science. Meta-ethnography is employed along with some enhancement strategies that support case collection, analysis, and synthesis. The study seeks to answer an overarching research question, "What are the descriptions of scientific practice portrayed by ethnographic studies of science?" Three ethnographies of science are selected and analyzed. The results are organized along three elements: (1) overview of the ethnographic studies, (2) key descriptors, and (3) synthesis. It is found that the three interpretive studies of science have two converging themes: material culture and discursive activity. Each interpretive study reveals its distinct aspects of scientific practice. It is concluded that the material culture is the primary actant that shapes scientists' further activities, credibility, and transformation of the community itself. The discursive activities inherent in scientific communities are a salient agency of doing scientific practice and the construction of scientific knowledge. Additional the paper highlights how the professional scientific laboratory is a system of literary inscription, the production of images, and reproduction of culture. It is suggested to extend studying other interpretive studies of science to enrich our understanding of scientific practice and inform the potential audience of this study to reconsider the practice of school science and its social structure.

ABSTRACT This paper aims to examine interpretive studies of science. Meta-ethnography is employed along with some enhancement strategies that support case collection, analysis, and synthesis. The study seeks to answer an overarching research question, "What are the descriptions of scientific practice portrayed by ethnographic studies of science?" Three ethnographies of science are selected and analyzed. The results are organized along three elements: (1) overview of the ethnographic studies, (2) key descriptors, and (3) synthesis. It is found that the three interpretive studies of science have two converging themes: material culture and discursive activity. Each interpretive study reveals its distinct aspects of scientific practice. It is concluded that the material culture is the primary actant that shapes scientists' further activities, credibility, and transformation of the community itself. The discursive activities inherent in scientific communities are a salient agency of doing scientific practice and the construction of scientific knowledge. Additional the paper highlights how the professional scientific laboratory is a system of literary inscription, the production of images, and reproduction of culture. It is suggested to extend studying other interpretive studies of science to enrich our understanding of scientific practice and inform the potential audience of this study to reconsider the practice of school science and its social structure.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to explore the socio-cultural practices and interactions of learning science in a science classroom within the concept of communities of practice. Our qualitative data were collected through observing, taking field notes, and conducting interviews in a public science classroom. Our study participants were a physical science teacher with more than ten-year teaching experience and twenty-two seventh grade students. We sketched two classroom vignettes that reflect the participation, practice, and community of the science classroom. The first vignette is a typical Initiation-Response-Feedback to transfer knowledge to students through a teacher lead discussion with the entire class. The second vignette is a laboratory activity designed to allow students to apply or discover knowledge through practical experience and to take responsibility for their learning through small group work. We identify the normative practices and routine behaviors of a science classroom through the material resources, and the differential modes of participation accompanied with roles and responsibilities. What we observed was that laboratory activities reproduced the epistemic authority of the Initiation- Response-Feedback rather than creating collective cognitive responsibility where students have the independence to explore and to create authentic science experiences.