Philosophy of Education as an Academic Discipline in Turkey: The Past and the Present

This article aims to present the past and present state and future possibilities of philosophy of education as an academic discipline in Turkey as related to teacher training programs and academic studies in higher education institutions. It takes philosophy of education as consisting of the approaches that have emerged in its history. It has come to Turkey as a part of the modernization of education. It seems that during the Republican era in Turkey before World War II, mainly due to the dominance of the German conception of educational studies, the pedagogy and the history of pedagogy courses and the textbooks for them, which were central to the curricula of teacher training schools, contained the subjects of philosophy of education in its continental form; and after World War II philosophy of education is mostly understood, primarily due to Turkey’s changing international relations and the spread of American influence, as the isms and the doctrines approaches as found in the USA between the 1940s and 1960s, while other approaches in the field have been less influential. The article identifies how the restructuring of the teacher training system and the curricula of Faculties of Education in 1998 was a serious blow to the discipline, since it excluded philosophy of education from the curricula of teacher preparation schools, and the flourishing discipline thus lost its hold and importance in the undergraduate programs, and then in graduate programs. But the 2006 revision of the curricula has given a kiss of life to the discipline. There are reasons to think that it can recover in the coming period.

Implementation Matters: A Review of Research on the Influence of Implementation on Program Outcomes and the Factors Affecting Implementation

The first purpose of this review was to assess the impact of implementation on program outcomes, and the second purpose was to identify factors affecting the implementation process. Results from over quantitative 500 studies offered strong empirical support to the conclusion that the level of implementation affects the outcomes obtained in promotion and prevention programs. Findings from 81 additional reports indicate there are at least 23 contextual factors that influence implementation. The implementation process is affected by variables related to communities, providers and innovations, and aspects of the prevention delivery system (i.e., organizational functioning) and the prevention support system (i.e., training and technical assistance). The collection of implementation data is an essential feature of program evaluations, and more information is needed on which and how various factors influence implementation in different community settings.     

Challenges in Supporting Community Implementation of Science-based Programs: A Critical Review of Local Partnerships for Success Plans

This paper provides the opportunity to consider local challenges to implementing science-based programs. Wandersman et al. (American Journal of Community Psychology 2008) define three systems necessary to effectively implement science-based programming. These systems include the Prevention Support System, which is responsible for assisting communities in implementing effective practices; the Prevention Research System, which is responsible for developing and packaging prevention programming; and the Prevention Delivery System, which is responsible for delivering services. The authors conduct a content analysis related to six county level efforts to implement science-based programs in Ohio. These counties are part of a larger Ohio initiative referred to as Partnerships for Success. The authors suggest that local officials are quite skilled at accessing the Prevention Research System and providers at the local level represent an effective service delivery system. The authors contend that the Prevention Support System in these counties is capable of enhancing several functions related to local infrastructure but is deficient in other important elements.     

Mentor commitment in formal mentoring relationships

This research examined the role of mentor commitment relative to protégé perceptions of relationship quality within formal mentoring programs. Based on a matched sample of 91 mentors and protégés, the results indicated that mentor commitment related positively to protégé reports of relationship quality. This relationship was stronger for male protégés than for female protégés. The results indicated that protégés reported higher quality relationships when mentors underestimated their commitment to the relationship relative to the protégés estimate of mentor commitment. Suggestions for future research are offered.     

A longitudinal study of work-based, adult-youth mentoring

Using a longitudinal design, this study explored the relation of urban high school student attitudes toward school, work, and self-esteem beliefs to work-based mentoring, mentor satisfaction, and employment status. Participants included high school students taking part in a formal work-based mentoring program, students who established informal mentoring relationships at work, students who worked without a mentor, and students who were not employed during the academic year. While there were no significant group differences in the measures at the start of the year, results at the end of the year showed that students in the formal mentoring program believed more strongly that school was relevant to work than those who worked without a mentor. Students with mentors had higher levels of self-esteem than those who did not work. Students who were highly satisfied with their mentors had higher levels of self-esteem and believed more strongly that school was relevant to the workplace than students who did not work. The implications of these results are discussed and future research areas are identified.     

Master's Level Training in Industrial/Organizational Psychology: Does It Meet the SIOP Guidelines?

In order to assess the extent to which terminal master's level I/O programs were consistent with Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) guidelines, recent graduates of master's level I/O and related programs were surveyed. The survey focused on the competency areas emphasized in the SIOP (1994) guidelines: data collection and analysis competencies, core I/O competencies, and additional I/O competencies. Participants in the survey provided their perceptions of the coverage of the various competencies in graduate school as well as the importance of these competencies in their current jobs. The results of the survey show that current master's level programs are generally consistent with the guidelines. Both data collection/data analysis competencies and core I/O competencies were perceived as having been well covered. Further, these same competencies were for the most part seen as important in the participants' current jobs.     

The dynamic infrastructure of mind—A hypothesis and some of its applications

A mechanism underlying the computational properties of the cognitive architecture is construed based on a minimal list of operational clusters. This general processing mechanism constitutes the dynamic infrastructure of mind (DIM). DIM consists in categories of mental operations foundational for learning that contain inborn components called inner operations, which are self-developing in the interaction mind-environment. Within the DIM paradigm, the input cognitive systems are not domain specific or core-knowledge specific, they are operational specific and capable of further developments that become domain specific while experiencing the environment. Arguments for this construal come from three sources: literature review, data collected through classroom observations, and a four-year experimental study of teaching and learning mathematics in primary grades. The outcomes of that experiment led to a methodology of learning based on activating the operational infrastructure of mind, which enhances students' flexibility of thinking and predicts the capacity to solve creatively a variety of problems.     

Multicultural training practices in community psychology programs

Surveyed the directors of 56 community psychology graduate programs to assess multicultural training practices and attitudes. Although most program directors agreed that multicultural training is important in their mission to educate students, less than half the programs (48%) required their students to take any relevant course work and only half of the programs surveyed had any faculty who were members of an ethnic minority group and one third had only one such faculty member. Furthermore, less than half the programs had a combination of training opportunities in place to integrate classroom, research, and field experiences relevant to multicultural issues. Finally, only 23% of program directors believed their training programs were successful for most students, suggesting the need to improve training.     

Creationism in Twentieth-Century America

Creationism in Twentieth Century America: A Ten-Volume Anthology of Documents, 1903–1961 Gen ed. Ronald L. Numbers     

Generalization of parent-training results

Two experiments were conducted to assess the generalized effects of several different parent/teacher training programs. In Experiment I it was found that a brief demonstration of how to teach an autistic child new behaviors was sufficient to teach parents how to teach those children those behaviors. However, generalization to new child-target behaviors did not take place. Another parent training program, which did not demonstrate how to teach any one specific child behavior, but was based on teaching the use of general behavior-modification procedures, was effective in teaching the parents how to teach new child-target behaviors. Experiment II then provided analyses of the individual effects of several components of the generalized training program. The results showed that videotape illustrations of the procedures, without the presence of a master teacher, were sufficient to teach the adults. However, sub-parts of the videotapes produced highly specific training results, with each component changing corresponding areas of the adults' behaviors. Viewing of the entire package was necessary before the adults were able to improve the autistic children's behaviors. The study as a whole suggests the importance of obtaining multiple measures of the effects of parent and teacher training programs, including measures of acquisition and generalization of both adult and child behaviors.