Taner Altun

The present study aims to examine the usefulness of 47 stories which were developed as learning materials within the scope of the ALIS-T (Alternative Communication System – Design) Project. This project aims to develop a graphical symbolic system which is relevant to Turkish social and cultural systems of understanding. In the study, stories were developed (generated) by a Turkish Language and Literature academic taking the objectives of primary 1st year life science, Turkish, and mathematics curricula into account. Stories, which consist of a setting, characters, and plot were developed. The stories were presented to 5 teachers who teach to hearing impaired students in order to check the appropriateness of each. Those teachers’ views were taken into account about the positive/negative effects of stories in the learning and teaching activities. On the other hand, all stories were elaborated by teachers in terms of whether they met the objectives of curriculum and were useful in developing the literacy skills of hearing impaired pupils. Teachers were asked to do any
alterations or corrections needed to make stories compatible with curriculum objectives. Obtained data were analyzed descriptively. All participants stated that each of the stories were beneficial and usable for teaching and learning activities. They emphasized that sentences should be short, clear, and comprehendible and found that stories which were too long should be corrected. On the basis of teachers’ feed-back, 39 stories were re-designed and corrected. 8 stories which were found to be unsuitable were excluded from the study.

This study aims to identify the problems of students with broken families during the teaching of  “My Unique Family” theme in Life Science and views of teachers about this theme in primary schools. Case study approach adopted in the study and study group consist of 13 primary teachers and 12 students with broken families from selected 3 primary schools. Data gathered through non-participant observations, semi-structured interviews and document analysis techniques. Obtained data were analyzed with descriptive methods. In the study results show that student with broken families were not able to fully participate in activities required in “My Unique Family” theme and found out that emotionally they were negatively affected during the activities. It was also found that teachers were facing various problems while carrying out activities in this theme, feel lonely and were not able to obtain sufficient support from school guiding services. It is suggested that Life Science
curriculum should be re-designed taking students with broken families; teachers should be informed about those
students through in-service education and provided with effective school guiding services.

The aim of this study is to elaborate the place of dershanes (private education centers) which prepares
students to national exams within the education system through the views of students, teachers and parents.
In this vein, the sample of this study consist of 31 teachers who work in a private dershane in Trabzon, 52
eighth grade students who attend to this organization and parents of those selected students. The descriptive
survey model has been used in the study. Findings of the study are based on literature search and analysis of
employed questionnaire. Data collection tool was developed on the basis of questionnaires used by Turkish
Ministry of National Education and EARGED directorate’s research in 1998 titled “The place and Future of
Private Dershanes in Turkish Education System”. Teacher, student and parent evaluation questionnaires which
were used by the Ministry of National Education were adopted to this study. Some items of the questionnaire
were removed or re-organized and final questionnaire were generated and used for data collection. The reason
for attending to dershanes were examined in terms of teachers, students and parents’ views. In general,
findings of the study illustrates that overcrowded classrooms in state schools, being in a class where academic
achievement level of students is too low; incompatibility between school exams and national exams and need
for reorganization of school curricula according to central examinations were reported as the main reasons for
students to attend dershanes. At the end of the study some recommendations were given about increasing the
quality of teaching in state schools in order to decrease the students’ dependency to dershanes.