The main aim of environmental education is to change environmental behaviour and there are some models to have this output. One of them is ecological dynamics model (EDM). One of the teaching methods of environmental education is outdoor education. Ecopedagogy-based outdoor environmental education (EOEE) which is one of the main subjects of this research, and EDM are based on experiential learning and properties of EDM overlap EOEE's properties, except interdisciplinary characteristic. Interdisciplinary perspective explains how an environmental education program should be. EOEE might be a kind of adaptation of EDM to education. The aim of this research is to evaluate the effect of EOEE and EDM on ecological behaviour change, direct and indirect actions within in-service teachers. Research methodology is qualitative approach. I observed and evaluated the participants throughout an EOEE program and followed them up after six months. I found that EOEE and EDM were successful in order to achieve ecological behaviour change, direct and indirect actions.

The paper critically analyses the quality deterioration of the teacher preparation programme keeping the ultimate aim of teaching in mind. The qualities that a teacher should possess were discussed followed by the role and relevance of accreditation in maintaining quality. The shortcomings of accreditation are highlighted. The importance of attractive remuneration for teaching profession is stressed. The author tries to highlight the lacunas in teacher education programmes with a stress on the significance of support mechanism and professional development programmes for novice teachers. The role of teachers in the society should be kept in mind, right from the selection of teacher trainees to teacher education institutions till they are evaluated finally to make them fit for the purpose. The paper suggests a revamping of the teacher education programme as well as the accreditation procedures and stress that it should be more realistic.

This study was carried on to determine the methods and techniques used in classrooms by science teachers in science and technology department of education faculty at state university. 24 teacher trainers who taught all courses within the department in 2013-2014 academic year and 21 prospective science teachers who attended to these courses involved in the study. The data was obtained through questionnaire and semi-structured interviews from the teachers and semi-structured interviews from the prospective teachers. The questionnaire data was presented in tables related to various variables such as gender and experience in teaching whereas the interview data was presented as qualitative method in question and answer format. Furthermore, the opinions of teachers and the prospective teachers were compared. It is seen in the data that there is no difference among the teacher trainers in using methods and techniques related to their gender but the number of methods and techniques which make the students active become less when their teaching experiences increase. When we classified the teachers related to their field of study, it was observed that the teachers who teach courses of education used the same methods and techniques in their classes and there were no differences among the teacher trainers who teach courses of field education related to their methods they used. As a result from the study that the teacher trainers used traditional methods and techniques in their classes and it can be said that if the teacher trainers cannot enrich their teaching methods and techniques in their classes, the expected pre-service education quality cannot be obtained. In the end of the study, the necessary suggestions were given to the authorities to whom it may concern.    

This research aims to determine whether teacher applicants’ writing concerns meaningfully differ from several variables (gender, department, to like or not to like reading). The research was made with descriptive research method based screening model. Study group was formed from 244 teacher applicants who are studying in the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University Faculty of Education at the departments of Primary Education Mathematics, Science, Classroom, Social Science and Turkish Teaching in 2012-2013 education-training year spring semester. 26 itemed “Writing Concern Scale” which was developed by Daly-Miller and translated in Turkish by Özbay and Zorbaz (2011) was used as the data collecting means in the research. Item internal coefficent of consistence (Cronbach-Alfa) was found 90. According to the results of the research it is spotted that gender variable makes no meaningful difference on writing concern; in the variables of loving reading books and writing; that those teacher applicants who like reading have less concerns about writing. From the point of department variable: while teacher applicants who have prejudice on writing and who are at the different dimensions of sharing their writings have the same level of concern; a meaningful difference was spotted between those who are studying at the Turkish and Mathematics Teaching at the dimensions of appreciation of writing and evaluation of writings.

This research applied metaphor analysis to investigate elementary school student teachers’ conceptions of technology. The sample included 160 student teachers who were studying at first, second, and third grades of an Elementary Teacher Education Program in 2010-2011 academic years. A questionnaire form was prepared in order to elicit information about the perception of teacher candidates for the concept of technology. In the first section of the form, they were asked to provide personal information, while they were asked to complete the sentence “Technology is like … , because … ” in the second section of the form. Metaphors created by the candidates were analyzed and classified under eight categories. Participants produced 154 distinct mental images clustered into nine conceptual categories that characterize technology as required, constantly changing, developing, providing benefit, leading to addiction, useful and harmful, progressing so fast and making life easier. Overall, the results suggest that student teachers’ conception of technology is restricted and mostly focuses on artifact and technical dimensions. Unfortunately, none of them created a metaphor including learning or teaching technologies.