Socioscientific-Issues Based Classroom Intervention on Grade 10 Students’ Learning Achievement and Scientific Reasoning

Socioscientific-issues based instruction can promote science to students as a tool for necessary learning in the disruptive world. This instruction helps students critique and response as its nature of science, gaining higher-ordered thinking, and discussing with scientific reasoning. The objectives of this study were to compare learning achievement and scientific reasoning of grade 10 students. The topic “DNA technology” was employed with 90 grade 10 students from 2 classrooms. The quasi-experimental research was designed by comparing learning achievement and scientific reasoning between 2 learning organizations. The research tools were socioscientific-issues based and inquiry-based lesson plans, the achievement test consist of 30 items of 4 choices multiple test and scientific reasoning test. The statistic used to test the hypothesis was independent t-test. The results indicated that students had no difference score of learning achievement between learning organizations. While socioscientific-issues based learning had score of scientific reasoning higher than inquiry-based learning at the .05 level of statistically significance. The study can summarize that socioscientific-issues based learning can promote scientific reasoning to science classroom.

The Relationship between Body Appreciation Levels, Eating Attitudes and Physical Profiles of Turkish Elite Artistic Gymnasts

Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behavior in athletes may occur when sports and social pressures require an ideal body standard, if the athlete perceives that his or her body does not conform to this ideal. For this reason, the aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between artistic gymnasts’ (AG) physical profiles, body appreciation levels and eating attitudes. A total of 32 elite AG (Turkish National Team), 13 women and 19 men, participated in this study. Height and body analyzes of the participants were measured. Body appreciation levels were determined by the Body Appreciation Scale (BAS), and eating attitudes were determined by the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26). With the Training Information Form, information about training frequencies and durations was provided. Comparative analyzes of the BAS and EAT-26 results of elite female and male gymnasts were performed. The physical profiles, eating attitudes and body appreciation levels of female AG were evaluated and the relationship between them was determined. While no significant correlation was found between the BAS, EAT-26 and physical profiles of the elite male AG, a negative significant correlation was found between the BAS and body mass index (BMI) of female elite AG (p < 0.05). It was concluded that while BMI rates of elite female AG increased, their body appreciation levels decreased. The BAS results of elite AG’ were found to be significantly higher than those of elite female AGs (p < 0.05).

Investigation of the Relationship between Academic Self-Concept and Academic Self-Efficacy of University Students Receiving Sports Education

In this study, it was aimed to examine the relationship between Academic Self-Concept and Academic Self-Efficacy of university students studying in the field of sports sciences. The population of the research consists of a total of 619 students from the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades of Karabük University Hasan Doğan School of Physical Education and Sports, while the sample group consists of a total of 241 students, 88 of whom are female and 153 are male. “Personal Information Form”, “Matovu Academic Self-Concept Scale” developed by Liu and Wang (2005) and later adapted for university students by Matovu (2014) and adapted into Turkish by Cantekin and Gökler (2019), and the “Academic Self-Efficacy Scale” developed by Kandemir (2010) were used as data collection tools in the research. The data obtained were analyzed with the SPSS-24 Package Program. At the same time, Pearson correlation analysis, Independent-Samples t-test analysis, One-Way ANOVA (One-Way Analysis of Variance), Tukey multiple comparison were used in the analysis and interpretation of the data. While there is a significant difference between the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (ASES) and Self-Efficacy for Academic Effort, one of its sub-dimensions, according to the gender of the students, there is no significant difference between it and the other sub-dimensions. According to the grade levels of the students, there is a significant difference between the total of ASES and Self-Efficacy for Handling Academic Problems, one of its sub-dimensions, while there is no significant difference between it and other sub-dimensions.

The Effect of Technology Use on Employability Perception

The study aims to examine whether the use of technology has a predictive effect on the employability perceptions of university students studying in the field of sports sciences in terms of variables of gender, department and foreign language knowledge levels. The sample of this study, that aims to examine the predictive effect of the level of technology use of students studying in the field of sports sciences on their perceptions of employability, and to examine these concepts in terms of gender, department, working in the fields of sports sciences and level of foreign language knowledge, consisted of a total of 232 participants, 101 females and 131 males. In the study the “Employability Perception Scale” (EPS) developed by Rothwell et al. (2008) and adapted into Turkish by Karlı (2016), and the Technology Use Scale (TUS) developed by Zincirkıran and Tiftik (2014) were used. According to the results of the analysis, a significant difference was found in the use of technology in terms of foreign language knowledge (p < 0.05). No significant difference was determined in terms of FAI and TSK and other variables. Finally, it was determined that the use of technology had a 22% effect on the perception of employability. As a result, it is possible to state that the employability perceptions and technology use levels of the students studying in the field of sports sciences are high, and the use of technology is a significant predictor of the employability perception.

The Effect of Sport Activities on Self-Confidence Levels of 13-14 Year-Olds

This study is conducted to determine the effect of the sport activities on the self-confidence levels of 13-14 year-olds. Self-confidence formation starts especially at ages of 13-14 and affects the success of the individuals. Therefore, whether sport activities have any effects on self-confidence and whether the demographic characteristics affect self-confidence are analyzed in our study. Total of 272 individuals, 159 individuals participating in sport activities and 113 individuals not participating in sport activities at Ilkadım, Carsamba and Bafra Youth Centers providing services under the scope of the sport activities by the Samsun Youth and Sports Provincial Directorate in the season of 2018-2019 have participated voluntarily in this study. In this research, survey method among the methods used in applied research is preferred. As the data collection tool, a survey form consisting of two sections is used. In the first section the ‘Personal Information Form’ prepared by the researcher is used. In the personal information form, demographic information as father’s employment status, mother’s employment status, mother and father’s marital status, number of siblings and familial income status are included. In the second section, the ‘Self-confidence scale’ developed by Akın (2007) is used. Acquired data is tested at 95% confidence level with the aid of SPSS program and the significance level is determined as 0.05. In the light of the date in the study, before the statistical analysis was begun, normality assumption and homogeneity tests are applied, as the result of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Levene tests conducted it is determined that the data has normal distribution (p > 0.05). As the data shows normal distribution, it is decided to conduct parametric analysis. In comparison of the groups, independent sample t-test and one way ANOVA analyses are used. According to the acquired data and the analyses conducted, as the result of comparison of the Internal and External Self-confidence scores of the individuals participating in the sport activities according to the father’s employment status, mother’s employment status, mother and father’s marital status, number of siblings and familial income status, it is concluded that there is no significant differences. Whereas in the gender variable, while there is no significant difference in the Internal Self-confidence sub dimension, in the External Self-confidence sub dimension it is found out that the males have significantly higher scores compared to the females. Also it is seen that the self-confidence levels of individuals participating in sport activities are statistically higher than the ones who do not participate in the sport activities (p < 0.05).

The Visibility of the Dısabılıty in Terms of the Social Model: Para Shooting Sport Sample

The body is one of the ways people express themselves. This is true not only for people without disabilities, but also for people with disabilities. Physical education and sports are one of the methods of disabled people to express themselves physically in society. The aim of this study is to contribute to increasing the visibility of disability in sports in terms of the social model. Yöntem: The sample of the study consists of 11 physically disabled national shooting athletes who have the right to participate in the 2021 Paralympic Games. In the study, a semi-structured interview technique was used in which theoretically, according to De Pauw, his/her thoughts on the visibility of disability in sports were used. In this study, in which qualitative research methods are used, descriptive analysis of the data is performed using both content analysis and in-depth interview. Bulgular: In the study, the demographic characteristics of the participants were determined. In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 people (4 women and 7 men) who voluntarily participated in the study. Findings obtained from the data after the interviews; The sub-theme of the “obstacles to participation in sports” theme is lack of materials and facilities, the sub-theme of the “attractiveness of the Paralympic Games” is the inadequate promotion of the Paralympic Games, the sub-themes of the “reaction of the social environment” are being congratulated as a positive reaction, and the shooting sport is not known as a negative reaction determined.

Cycling as a Part of Recreation: An Awareness-Exploring Study

This study aimed to explore the awareness among individuals engaged in recreational cycling about the benefits of cycling. The study consists of 66 participants in the age group of 18-30 who are interested in recreational cycling in the province of Sakarya. The “Recreation Awareness Scale” developed by Ekinci and Özdilek (2019) was used as a data collection tool in the study. In the study, skewness and kurtosis (kurtosis) were evaluated to ensure the normal distribution of the data in addition to descriptive statistical methods such as percentage and frequency. As a result, we found the data to be normally distributed and, thus, utilized the parametric tests. Accordingly, the groups were compared using a t-test and an analysis of variance (ANOVA). In addition, we performed a Tukey test to find out the group(s) as the source of difference. Then, Pearson’s correlation analysis was performed to see the association between two continuous variables. The results revealed that the participants did not differ significantly on pleasure/entertainment, social/achievement, and self-development subscales by gender. Yet, the mean scores of the participants differed significantly on the social/achievement and self-development subscales by educational attainment. The post hoc test suggested that those having a high school degree got significantly higher scores on the social/achievement subscale than the participant with an associate degree. Moreover, the high school graduates obtained higher scores on the self-development subscale than those with a secondary school, associate, and undergraduate degree. Considering the relationship between recreation awareness and age, the Pearson’s correlation test revealed significant positive relationships between age and the participants’ scores on the social/achievement and self-development subscales. Yet, we could not find a significant relationship between age and the pleasure/entertainment subscale.

A Study on Vitality and Happiness Levels of Sports High School Students

The present study is aimed at determining subjective vitality and subjective happiness levels of sport high school students and to examine the levels based on certain variables. Relational screening model was used in this study. The sample of the research consisted of a total of 185 students, 113 (61.1%) male and 72 (38.9%) female, who continued their education at “Trabzon Sports High School” in 2019-2020. “Personal Information Form” designed by the researcher, “Subjective Vitality Scale (SVS)” and “Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS)” were used as data collection tools in the research. It was accepted that the research data showed a normal distribution according to the skewness and kurtosis values. Accordingly, descriptive statistics were used as a statistical method in the analysis of the data, and T-Test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation and regression analyzes were used for independent groups.In line with the research analysis, it was found that the students of sports high schools had above-average levels of vitality and happiness. It has been observed that the subjective vitality and happiness levels are higher among male students and students affiliated with a sports club (licensed/unlicensed). In addition, it was concluded that the subjective happiness and vitality levels are higher among students who do team sports and those who have longer years of practising sports, and no significant difference was determined according to the variable of socio-economic status of the family. As a result, it was found that there was a high (.81) significant positive correlation between subjective happiness and vitality. Another important result is that subjective vitality (66%) has an important role in predicting subjective happiness.

Evaluation of Universities’ Distance Education by Students and Academicians in the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) Period: A Qualitative Research

The aim of the study is to evaluate the perspectives of students and academicians about distance education implemented by universities in the epidemic period and to determine the advantages and disadvantages of distance education to get an overall perspective. In the study, the data were obtained as a result of in-depth interviews with 12 students and 13 academicians. MAXQDA analysis program was used to analyze the data. The coded data were themed and analyzed. As a result of the analysis, concept maps were created and the analysis process was completed with interpretation. Conclusion of this study, the advantages and disadvantages of distance education applied by universities during the coronavirus period were evaluated. Recording the classes within the scope of distance education has given students the opportunity to review the classes. In this process, it is seen that education/training activities continue without any limitations on time and place. With distance education, it became possible to teach more than one class simultaneously. In this way, it became possible to reach more students in a shorter time. However, it has been found that the level of interaction between the academician and the student decreases in the distance education classes. As such, a decrease in motivation has been detected. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a rapid transition to distance education was made, and this rapid transition caused infrastructure and system problems. On the other hand, it is understood that a sound measurement and evaluation cannot be made in the exams applied in the distance education process.

Investigation of Employability Perceptions of Sports Science Students

This study, which was conducted to examine the employability perceptions of students studying in the field of sports sciences in terms of gender, department, type of university, work in the field of diploma and level of foreign language knowledge, was designed according to correlational survey and causal comparison methods. In determining the sample of the study, accessible sampling method, which is one of the non-random sampling methods, was used. The sample in question consists of a total of 206 participants, 99 females (48.1%) and 107 males (51.9%). As a measurement tool the “Employability Perception Scale” (IEAS) developed by Rothwell et al. (2008) and adapted into Turkish by Karlı (2016), was used in the study. According to the results of the analysis, a significant difference was determined in terms of gender variable in the University Prestige sub-dimension (p < 0.05). No significant difference was determined in terms of other sub-dimensions and variables. As a result, it is possible to state that the employability perception of the students studying in the field of sports sciences is high, that the female participants perceive their university as more prestigious than the male participants, and this contributes positively to their belief that they can be employed in this situation.