ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction sample issue for the teaching of socio-scientific issues: the endangered northern bald ibis nurcan uzel a * a gazi university, department of biology education, ankara, 06560, turkey abstract the prominence of socioscientific issues (ssi), that combine society with science, in education has grown in recent years. the northern bald ibis is important for science and society since it is an endangered species, it only inhabits one region in turkey and has a limited population worldwide. this study aims to ascertain the impact of the implemented ssi program on participating high school students from the area where the endangered northern bald ibis can be found, insofar as their conceptual knowledge and their opinions about the ssi. the study used a one group pretest-posttest design. the participants for the study were 75 students from a state high-school in the birecik district of şanlıurfa province. the study used and ssi program centred around interaction. the conceptual knowledge form and the scenario called “northern bald ibis under threat” were used as data collection tools before and after the ssi program. quantitative data analysis was conducted using paired samples t test and content analysis was employed to analyse qualitative data. the quantitative findings of the study show that implementation of the ssi program enhanced the level of conceptual knowledge of the participating high students who live in the area inhabited by the northern bald ibis. the qualitative data obtained in the study show that the high school students’ opinions changed following the ssi program. before the ssi program the students stated that they though hunting was the reason the northern bald ibis was going extinct whereas after the ssi program the students stated opinions related to agricultural pesticides as a reason for extinction. when it comes to suggestions to protect the northern bald ibis, this study observed that student opinions shifted from suggestions related to taking better care of the species before the program, to protecting the environment after the program. it was also observed that at the end of the ssi program students had a broader perspective on the issue and evaluated the issue using more scientific terminology. © 2017 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: socioscientific issues; ssi program; environmental education; conceptual knowledge, opinion 1. introduction questions such as “are cell phones bad for us? should animals live in zoos? which type of alternative energy is the best?” are familiar to science teachers but answering such questions scientifically is no easy feat (kahn & hartman, 2018). since both societal and scientific factors play key roles in these quandaries, they are dubbed socioscientific issues (ssi). topics related to biotechnology and environmental issues are grouped together as * e-mail address: nurcanuzel@gazi.edu.tr 316 uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 ssi to highlight the close relationship between science and society (sadler, 2004). today’s societies are often faced with ssi such as gmo, nano-technologies or climate change that create political and moral dilemmas. offering students opportunities to gain experience about this type of content in order to enable all people to become scientifically literate has become a necessity of science education (albe, 2008). meaning, a student who gains experience with a socioscientific issue will be better equipped insofar as attitude and implementation when they later face another socioscientific issue (sadler, 2009). in short, it is vital that students are informed of ssi so that they may become scientifically literate (atabey & topçu, 2017). the controversial nature of socioscientific issues is caused by facets that reflect well thought out and rational occurrences. socioscientific issues that have equally likely solutions can be approached differently by rational and thoughtful individuals due to personal priorities, principles and prejudices. individual perspectives can prompt people to see socioscientific issues very differently and cause them to advocate for opposing solution strategies (sadler & zeidler, 2005a). the content of socioscientific issues include the ethical aspects of science, the moral judgement of the students and the emotional development of the student (zeidler et al., 2002). ethical thinking enables the connection between scientific and non-scientific areas of study and furthermore between the students and the social, material, organic and physical world they inhabit (zeidler, herman, & sadler, 2019). ssi teaching also aids students in developing high level cognitive abilities such as critical thinking, decision making or knowledge the nature of science (evagorou, güven, & muğlaoğlu, 2014). the role of the teacher in teaching socioscientific issues is to encourage the student to make evaluations using proof based alternative arguments. the greatest challenge for a science teacher in the teaching of such issues is to be critical of their own beliefs in order to make way for the creation of new perspectives. teachers are responsible for offering their students opportunities to question their own belief systems so that they may make connections between the real world and the social world (zeidler & nichols, 2009). there are many defining factors within ssi teaching that are directly tied to the teacher. teachers’ attitude towards science education and their knowledge of ssi are two of the main factors in their competence in teaching ssi (han tosunoğlu & i̇rez, 2019). the teacher’s choice of topic is also just as important as the current state of resources and the willingness of the teacher (hancock et al., 2019). in education, the science of biology is one of the most important tools in helping the students understand themselves and their environment. to this end, students learn about how the heart works, how water travels through the human body, how to tell what area a plant likes to live in by observing its foliage or what problems a species of animal is likely to face due to changes in their habitat. all plants and animals have habitats that offer them the best chance of survival and most of the time these habitats are shared uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 317 with humans. while water is the habitat of the fish, the sky is the habitat of the bird. birds, which are one of the main rulers of the skies, share the skies with humans. according to kinslow and sadler (2017) students can form relationships with birds in a multitude of ways such as by observing birds in the school playground, keeping birds as pets or classifying birds. however sometimes humans have insufficient knowledge about these living beings we share the same sky, same water, same land with, even if they are included in the curriculum. uzel (2019) states that students living in the same area as he northern bald ibis do not know the species very well, to the point that they have insufficient or incorrect knowledge on these animals. the northern bald ibis only nest in birecik, şanlıurfa (kuru, 2013). also, the northern bald ibis (geronticus eremita) has been listed as a critically endangered, globally threatened species since 1994 (birdlife international, 2018). this endangered and protected species has an important place in turkish fauna. furthermore, there is work being done to repopulate this species and it is protected and watched over by the general public (mundan & çetin, 2012). due to these properties the northern bald ibis is important both socially and scientifically, making the study of this species a socioscientific issue. this study focuses on the northern bald ibis as a socioscientific issue. socioscientific issues are a good resource for learning and teaching biology (nurtamara, sajidan, & suranto, 2019). moreover, when the relevant literature is examined, it has been identified that within the field of ssi, ssi teaching is the least studied area (genç & genç, 2017) with more emphasis placed on descriptive studies, nuclear energy and gmos being the most researched topics (değirmenci & doğru, 2017) and prospective teachers being the most researched group (özcan & kaptan, 2020). this study aimed to identify the impact of the implemented ssi program on high school students living in the same area as the endangered northern bald ibis insofar as their conceptual knowledge and opinions about socioscientific issues. with this in mind the problem of the study was identified as “do students’ conceptual knowledge and opinions about ssi change after an ssi program is implemented to high school students living in the same area as an endangered species?”. the following sub-problems were researched according to the main problem identified: 1. is there a change in the conceptual knowledge of high school students living in the same area as an endangered species following the ssi program? 2. what are the opinions of high school students living in the same area as an endangered species on ssi before and after the ssi program? 318 uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 2. method 2.1. research design this study was an experimental study, conducted using the one group pretest-posttest research design. in this design, measurements are made before and after the experiment, following the application of an independent variable to a single group (karasar, 2012). in short, experimental studies are aimed at ascertaining the impact of the differences revealed by the researcher on the dependent variables (büyüköztürk et al., 2012). the one group pretest-posttest experimental research design to evaluate impact of the implemented ssi program on the conceptual knowledge of the students and their opinions about socioscientific issues. 2.2. participants the endangered northern bald ibis species, discussed in the study, can only be found in the birecik (şanlıurfa) region. the purposeful sampling method was used to identify the participants in the area for the study. the participants for the study were comprised of 75 students studying at a state high school in the birecik district of şanlıurfa province. as subjects related to the environment such as biological diversity, ecosystems, current environmental issues etc. were included in the 10th grade biology curriculum for the 2018-2019 school year, the program was implemented to 10th grade students. while the initial participants for the study was made up of 80 students, the participants were eventually made up of 75 students, taking into account full participation in all implementations. as the high school in question is an all-male high school, the participants are homogenous when it comes to the gender of the participants. gender is not an affecting factor in students’ abilities to make individual decisions as it pertains to an ssi program (rizal, siahaan, & yuliani, 2017) so, the gender make-up of the group is not a drawback. the aim, content, timeframe of the study alongside importance of confidentiality, attendance and volunteering were conveyed to the students in a preliminary meeting. also, the students’ privacy was protected by numbering them s1, s2, …, s75. 2.3. implementation of the study the central focus of this study is “the northern bald ibis”. this topic is important for society and science since the northern bald ibis is endangered, it can only be found in one area of turkey and its population is limited worldwide. thus, it falls within the boundaries of socioscientific issues. an ssi program was utilised to inform students about the northern bald ibis. this ssi program was developed by lee et al. (2012) and uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 319 lee et al. (2013) and centres around student interaction. the ssi program has two main traits. i. dialogical and interaction-based process: this process aims to give students a multifaceted perspective through group discussions. the students refer to all types of scientific information and documentation to prove their point of view and disprove conflicting opinions. this process not only gives the students an opportunity to look at the issue from different perspectives but also enables them to question their own opinions. the discussion topics presented to the students were also prepared with this in mind. ii. personal, social and global dimension: the topic is discussed at the personal, social and global level. the students evaluate the topic according to themselves, their families and immediate connections at the personal level, their region or their country at the social level, and internationally or worldwide at the global level. the implementation of the study took a total of 6 weeks, 1 week for pretests, 4 weeks for implementation of the ssi program and 1 final week for posttests. the ssi program was carried out by biology teachers working in the same high school and who had completed a post graduate degree (figure 1). figure 1. visual representation of study implementation throughout the four weeks allocated for the ssi program, one topic concerning the northern bald ibis was focused on each week. the topics in chronological order were the northern bald ibis in the world and in turkey, the northern bald ibis and birecik, environmental pollution and the northern bald ibis, protecting the northern bald ibis. each topic was presented to the student in two stages. stage 1: the topic was introduced using a short introductory presentation, a short documentary and news articles. special attention was given to including basic concepts included in the curriculum. at this stage, it is important to bring the students preexisting knowledge into the fold and make the topic interesting. stage 2: the students were split into two groups of 3 or 4 according to the total number of students. the group members were changed for each discussion topic. thus, the students had the opportunity to group up with different people each time and share their 320 uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 various opinions. the students were encouraged to better defend their opinions and more effectively disprove the opinions of others. then, the students were asked a discussion question. every group was asked to discuss the topic amongst themselves and reach a consensus if possible. the students were given homework that would require them to use any and all documents, films, advertisements, books, documentaries and the like to better prove their opinions in the following week. while the ssi program was being presented to the students, their relationship with nature, the current situation, past problems and possible future challenges were discussed. the students were encouraged to use different sources to argue their point of view. they were also asked to evaluate and share the information they gathered on the topic personally, familially, according to their inner circle, their home town, their country and the world alongside their feelings and personal experiences. 2.4. data collection tools the study had two data collection tools. the first was the “conceptual knowledge form”. first, the environmental topics covered in the grade 10 biology curriculum for the 2018-2019 school year that could be included in the topic of the northern bald ibis were identified. these topics were made into a list. these 18 concepts were evaluated by the researcher, the teachers carrying out the program and two educators in the field. the list was narrowed down by consensus to 8 concepts that could be included in the content concerning the northern bald ibis. these concepts were endemic species, endangered species, pesticide, bioaccumulation, biodiversity, ecological footprint, carbon footprint and water footprint. the students were asked about each concept in the question format “what is ….? explain.”. the time it took to answer the form used as pretest and posttest varied between 5-20 minutes. the second data collection tool used was the “northern bald ibis under threat” scenario found under the “socioscientific issues evaluation form” developed by çavuş (2013). the socioscientific issues evaluation form is based on socioscientific issues students may encounter in everyday life. the original form includes the socioscientific issues of organic agriculture, addiction, endangered species, environmental issues, products containing gmos, and nuclear power plants. the form is made up of three parts, the first two including demographic and descriptive information and the third including 11 open ended questions related to the socioscientific issues. this study used the northern bald ibis scenario in the endangered species topic. there are two open ended questions pertaining to this scenario. the questions for this scenario were presented to the students before and after the ssi program. the time taken to answer these questions was around 10-20 minutes. uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 321 2.5. data analysis the research conducted produced two types of data, qualitative and quantitative. the quantitative portion made up of the answers to the conceptual knowledge form was analysed using spss 22 statistics package program. each concept on the conceptual knowledge form was graded as 0, 1 or 2. as per this scale, questions left blank or answered incorrectly received a 0, incomplete answers, answers with correct explanations but incorrect examples or incomplete answers and correct examples received 1 point, and complete, correct answers received 2 points. for example, if a student defined the concept of biodiversity as “the genetic diversity in an area/diversity of species/diversity of the ecosystem/diversity of genetics and species/diversity of species and the ecosystem/diversity of genetics and the ecosystem” they would receive 1 point. thus, the lowest point total possible for the form was 0 and the highest was 16. before analysis skewness and kurtosis values were calculated for the normal distribution assumptions. according to these calculations skewness was 1.233 and kurtosis was .408 for the pretest, and skewness was -.716 and kurtosis was .406 for the posttest. parametric analysis is preferred in cases where skewness and kurtosis is between ±1.5 (tabanchick & fidell, 2013). paired samples t test was used to identify whether or not there was a significant change in the students’ point totals before and after the ssi program. paired samples t tests are used in cases where two measurements are made or points garnered in experimental or screening studies (büyüköztürk, 2012). a frequency distribution table showing the distribution of concepts before and after the ssi program was also used in analysing the quantitative data. the qualitative data source for the study was the scenario titled “northern bald ibis under threat”, found in the socioscientific issues evaluation form. two open ended questions were asked in this scenario. content analysis was used to analyse the data obtained from the answers to these questions before and after the ssi program. grouping similar data under certain concepts and themes is the basis of content analysis (yıldırım & şimşek, 2013). the reliability of the data analysis conducted on the open ended questions supplied to the students was calculated using the miles and huberman (1994) consensus and disagreement formula. the researcher and one educator in the field performed independent coding. the reliability between the two coders was found to be 83%. frequency tables and direct quotations were also used in the presentation of the data. 3. findings this study focused on the change in conceptual knowledge and opinions about socioscientific issues of high school students living in the same area as an endangered species before and after the implemented ssi program. to achieve this goal, a conceptual 322 uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 knowledge form and the northern bald ibis under threat scenario was implemented before and after the ssi program. this heading focuses in the data analysis results according to the sub-problems of the research. 3.1. findings related to the first sub-problem of the study the first sub-problem of the study was “is there a significant difference in the conceptual knowledge of high school students who live in the same area as an endangered species before and after the ssi program?”. the results of the t test related to this question are presented in table 1. table 1. results of t test for average pretest-posttest scores of high school students on the conceptual knowledge form test n  sd df t p pretest 75 0.43 0.64 74 -43.319 .000 posttest 75 12.73 2.46 a significant difference was identified between the pre and post ssi program conceptual knowledge of high school students living in the same area as an endangered species (t(74)=-43.319; p<.05). this result shows that the ssi program was effective in enhancing the conceptual knowledge of the high school students. frequency distribution for the scores the students received on the conceptual knowledge form before and after the ssi program are provided in table 2. table 2. distribution frequency of scores received on the conceptual knowledge form filled out high school students before and after the ssi program concepts test 0 points f 1 point f 2 points f endemic species pretest 73 2 posttest 1 18 56 endangered species pretest 60 15 posttest 12 63 pesticide pretest 71 4 posttest 10 65 bioaccumulation pretest 75 posttest 6 30 39 uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 323 biodiversity pretest 66 9 posttest 5 34 36 ecological footprint pretest 75 posttest 7 31 37 carbon footprint pretest 75 posttest 5 24 46 water footprint pretest 75 posttest 2 28 45 looking into the point distribution of the students’ answers regarding the 8 concepts they were asked about, it was identified that none of them received the full two points on any of the questions when they answered the questions before the ssi program (table 2). after the ssi program it was found that they left blank or answered incorrectly, thus receiving 0 points on, questions related to ecological footprint (f=7), bioaccumulation (f=6), carbon footprint (f=5), biodiversity (f=5), water footprint (f=2) and endemic species (f=1). apart from these frequencies all concepts were either partially or completely answered correctly. 3.2. findings related to the second sub-problem of the study in this study a scenario named “northern bald ibis under threat” was presented relevant to the sub-problem “what are the opinions of high school students living in the same area as an endangered species on ssi before and after the ssi program?”. the first half of the scenario called “northern bald ibis under threat” was presented to the students and the students were asked to list the reasons why the northern bald ibis was going extinct. the results pertaining to the content analysis of students’ answers to this question before the ssi program is provided in table 3. 324 uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 table 3. results obtained from content analysis of high school students’ answers given before the ssi program, explaining why the northern bald ibis is going extinct themes codes f human impact hunting 31 maltreatment 18 habitat 7 environmental impact lack of food 13 air pollution 11 agricultural pesticides 7 environmental pollution 4 noise pollution 3 species impact difficulty breeding 12 illness 8 migration 3 when the answers provided by high school students before the ssi program as to why the northern bald ibis is going extinct were analysed, three themes were identified (table 3). under the human impact theme, the code “hunting” (f=31) had the highest frequency and the code “habitat” (f=7) had the lowest frequency. it was identified that under the theme environmental impact the code “lack of food” (f=13) had the highest frequency. in the third theme, species impact, the code “difficulty breeding” (f=12) was the most frequent while the code “migration” (f=3) was least frequent. some examples of students’ statements given before the ssi program and related to the reasons why the northern bald ibis is going extinct are provided below. s13: northern bald ibis being shot due to bad hunting practices (hunting). s16: people ruthlessly harming the northern bald ibis are causing the northern bald ibis to go extinct (maltreatment). s5: as inhabited areas have grown the habitats of the animals have shrunk (habitat). s51: they are free animals but they are kept in cages. living in cages kills them (habitat). s42: they died of starvation because they couldn’t find food (lack of food). s48: they can’t live in dirty air (air pollution). s73: when their mate dies, they can’t find another one so they can’t breed (difficulty breeding). s57: they get deadly diseases and die (illness). uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 325 analysis of student statements shows that bad hunting practices, caging the animals or limiting their habitat are the main human impact stated as a reason the northern bald ibis is endangered. lack of food and inability to find a mate, illness, air pollution etc. are also provided as reasons the northern bald ibis is going extinct. content analysis results of the answers the students provided after the ssi program on the reasons why the northern bald ibis is going extinct are presented in table 4. table 4. results obtained from content analysis of high school students’ answers given after the ssi program, explaining why the northern bald ibis is going extinct themes codes f human impact hunting 17 habitat 15 maltreatment 14 environmental impact agricultural pesticides 69 air pollution 44 water pollution 31 environmental pollution 19 noise pollution 9 land pollution 7 waste pollution 2 species impact illness 3 migration 2 it was observed that the answers of high students as to why the northern bald eagle is going extinct given after the ssi program converged on three themes (table 4). it is seen that the codes “hunting” (f=17), “habitat” (f=15) and “maltreatment” (f=14) fell under the theme human impact and had close frequency values. the theme with the largest number of codes was environmental impact. in the theme environmental impact, the code “pesticides” (f=69) had the highest frequency while “waste pollution” (f=2) had the lowest frequency. under the theme species impact the codes “illness” (f=3) and “migration” (f=2) were observed. some examples of students’ statements given after the ssi program and related to the reasons why the northern bald ibis is going extinct are provided below. s34: they are shot by some hunters when they migrate (hunting). s15: because their habitat is shrinking, factories, industrial areas are growing, buildings and settlements are multiplying (habitat). 326 uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 s39: they can’t find soft rocks to nest on (habitat). s25: people are less aware than before and they are not valued (maltreatment). s72: most of them are gone because of pesticides (agricultural pesticides). s53: their food chain was faced with breaking down because of ddt (agricultural pesticides). s48: because of air pollution like car exhausts, factory smoke (air pollution). s3: carbon footprint: we could lower carbon emissions for the northern bald ibis and for us (air pollution). s22: our water footprint has grown. 2500 litres of water is used for one t-shirt we wear. the world is experiencing water scarcity (water pollution). s17: our ecological footprint harmed the natural system (environmental pollution). s10: plastic bottles, bags etc. are polluting the environment. it takes years for one piece of plastic to decompose in nature. also, earth loses its nutrients and minerals (environmental pollution). s40: noise pollution also endangers their lives (noise pollution). the statements students made about why the northern bald ibis is going extinct shows that the northern bald ibis being shot, industrial development, lack of awareness, use of ddt, growth of carbon, water and ecological footprint etc. were used as explanations. it was identified that student opinions as to why the northern bald ibis is going extinct changed after the ssi program. in general, all the themes and most of the codes were the same. however, the total frequency of the codes and the frequency in common codes were significantly different. while hunting (f=31) was seen as the main reason for the endangerment of the northern bald ibis before the ssi program, agricultural pesticides (f=69) were named the main reason after the program was completed. also, the codes “lack of food” and “difficulty breeding” seen in analysis of the pretest answers were not present after the program. it was observed that after the program, students used scientific terms such as ddt, pesticide, food chain, and carbon, water and ecological footprint in their statements. in the second open ended question in the “northern bald ibis under threat” scenario related to the second sub-problem the students were asked about precautions that needed to be taken to protect endangered species. to this end, the students were asked “what would you suggest to protect the northern bald ibis?”. results of content analysis pertaining to answers given by students before the ssi program are provided in table 5. uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 327 table 5. results of content analysis of high school students’ answers given before the ssi program and related to precautionary measures to protect the northern bald ibis themes codes f interventions related to human behaviour banning hunting 17 punishments 9 education 6 environmental protection 5 stopping the use of pesticides 4 valuing the species more 3 interventions related to treatment of the species taking good care 20 feeding them well 17 constructing large habitats 15 keeping them in cages 12 outfitting them with tracking devices 10 more breeding facilities 6 setting them free 6 preventing migration 6 medical treatment 4 according to the answers given by high school students before the ssi program, two themes were identified for the protection of the northern bald ibis. these to themes are interventions related to human behaviour and interventions related to the treatment of the species (table 5). under interventions related to human behaviour the code “banning hunting” (f=17) was the most frequent and “valuing the species more” (f=3) was the least frequent. in the theme interventions related to the treatment of the species, the codes “taking good care” (f=20), “feeding them well” (f=17) and “constructing large habitats” (f=15) were the most prominent. ten students did not answer this question. some examples of students’ statements given before the ssi program and related to how the northern bald ibis can be protected are provided below. s61: hunting should be banned (banning hunting). s12: people who harm northern bald ibis should be punished with jail time or fines (punishments). s26: they should be made comfortable and treated well (taking good care). s41: we should feed them well so they don’t go extinct (feeding them well). 328 uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 s21: to protect them we should build cages in forest areas to protect them from other predators (constructing large habitats). s54: we should keep them in cages so hunters can’t shoot them (keeping them in cages). s14: when they are set free, they should be followed with a tracking device (outfitting them with tracking devices). s73: we should build breeding facilities to speed up their breeding (more breeding facilities). s66: they should be allowed to be free. they are definitely going to go extinct but they should at least live out the rest of their days better (setting them free). s38: they should be prevented from migrating during migration season (preventing migration). s18: wounded or ill northern bald ibis should be taken to the veterinarian (medical treatment). it is observed that student answers given before the ssi program and related to precautionary measures to protect the northern bald ibis centred around hunting, constructing large habitats, and feeding and treating them well so they can live under better circumstances, giving them medical treatment, keeping them in cages and stopping them from migrating etc. results of the content analysis of the answers students gave after the ssi program pertaining to the second question provided in the scenario related to the second subproblem and related to the question “what would you suggest to protect the northern bald ibis?” are provided in table 6. uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 329 table 6. results of content analysis of high school students’ answers given after the ssi program and related to precautionary measures to protect the northern bald ibis themes codes f interventions related to human behaviour environmental protection 41 education 33 raising awareness in the media 32 stopping the use of pesticides 29 banning hunting 10 state protection 8 conducting projects 3 interventions related to treatment of the species constructing large habitats 35 more breeding facilities 15 taking good care 8 outfitting them with tracking devices 8 setting them free 6 preventing migration 5 students’ suggestions for precautions to protect the northern bald ibis which were provided after the ssi program converged around two themes (table 6). under interventions related to human behaviour the code “environmental protection” (f=41) had the highest frequency while “education” (f=33), “raising awareness in the media” (f=32), “stopping the use of pesticides” (f=29) followed. under the heading interventions related to treatment of the species the codes “constructing large habitats” (f=35) and “more breeding facilities” (f=15) had the two highest frequency values. some examples of students’ statements given after the ssi program and related to how the northern bald ibis can be protected are provided below. s56: factory chimneys should be equipped with filters, public transportation should be used, bicycles should replace motorised bicycles (protecting the environment). s11: carbon footprint, water footprint, ecological footprint should be prevented, lessened (environmental protection). s40: people should know that if one species goes away it is bad for all of us. when the northern bald ibis is extinct, they are responsible for the bad results that will occur (education). s19: if all people are educated on this issue, we wouldn’t need to do anything to protect them (education). 330 uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 s32: we should use social media to raise more awareness, we should warn young people (raising awareness in the media). s46: they should be shown more in cartoons, adverts and the news (raising awareness in the media). s9: the agricultural pesticide known as ddt should be banned (stopping the use of pesticides). s55: i suggest state representatives do better things and are more involved (state protection). s64: large farms should be constructed for norther bald ibis. one side of the farm should be rocky like their old nests. they should be able to live here like they lived in nature (constructing large habitats). s75: we need more breeding farms (more breeding facilities). s26: people who are going to take care of northern bald ibis should be well educated, interested and they should have special vets (taking good care). s30: i suggest they are set free because nature is better for them than cages (setting them free). it was observed that after the ssi program the students used phrases such as air, pollution, informing people about the issue, using more media publications and intervention from authorities when discussing suggestions for precautions to protect the northern bald ibis. it was ascertained that the ssi program impacted the students’ suggestions on the protection of the northern bald ibis. while the main themes remained the same before and after the program, the total frequency of the codes increased significantly after the program. it was also observed that the frequency of the codes that were present in both the pretest and the posttest increased significantly after the program. in addition, the most common suggestion before the program was “taking good care” (f=20) while after the program the most prevalent suggestion was “environmental protection” (f=41). also, after the ssi program the students didn’t make suggestions related to punishment, valuing the species, keeping them in cages, feeding them well or medical treatment. it is also clear that interventions related to human behaviour were the most prevalent suggestions after the program. it was also observed that students approached the situation from a wider perspective and used more scientific terminology after the ssi program. 4. discussion and conclusion this study picked the northern bald ibis as a socioscientific issue and reached the conclusion that implementation of an ssi program enhanced the conceptual knowledge of high school students who live in the same area as the endangered northern bald ibis. şahintürk (2014) found in an experimental study on middle school students that science activities supported by socioscientific discussion resulted in a meaningful increase in the uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 331 students’ level of knowledge. it was also found that the students’ opinions about socioscientific discussion experience positive growth. similarly, kırbağ, zengin, keçeci, and kırılmazkaya (2012) found in an experimental study on middle school students that online argumentation on a socioscientific subject enhanced the students’ success. yavuz topaluğlu and balkan kıyıcı (2017) ascertained that activities conducted outside of schools and related to socioscientific issues had a positive effect on middle school students’ conceptual knowledge. klosterman and sadler (2010) found an ssi program for high school students had a positive impact on their level of knowledge. zangori et al. (2017) conducted a study on high school students using a modelling-centred socioscientific issue (ssi) based curriculum. this study identified that the model had a very significant impact on helping the students understand the relationship between carbon cycling and climate change. the findings of the studies mentioned are in line with this study. this study used and ssi program to research how students’ conceptual knowledge and opinions about a socioscientific issue changed and the research ascertained that the ssi was effective. sadler, romine, and topçu (2016) found that using an ssi as a teaching tool was effective in teaching students about scientific content. in addition, nida, rahayu, and eilks (2020) conducted a study with teachers on ssi-based science education and found that teachers believe ssi-based pedagogies enhance the development of capabilities in students. espeja and lagaron (2015) found in a study where they implemented an ssi module that trainee teachers unfamiliar with ssi achieved complex conceptualization of ssi in a short amount of time, when the correct materials and strategies are used. the ssi program in this study utilised discussions. the aim was for the students to strengthen their own opinions, disprove conflicting perspectives and be exposed to multiple points of view. chung et al. (2016) showed that ssi instruction could contribute vastly to knowledge basic ideas, valuing the opinions of others and supporting their own ideas. chang and lee (2010) found that for the college students they studied, their values, worldviews, past experiences and families were effective in making decisions about ssi. sadler and zeidler (2005b) on the other hand found that an empathic approach was effective in the students’ decisions on ssi. dawson and carson (2018) identified that at the end of the argumentation they used for the instruction of socioscientific issues students realised the necessity of backing up their opinions with scientific fact. these studies support the finding of this study. this study used two open ended questions to see how students’ opinions on the northern bald ibis as a socioscientific issue changed by the end of an ssi program. the frequency of codes obtained from both open-ended questions increased significantly after the ssi program. before the program, the students said the main reason for the northern bald ibis going extinct was hunting, while after the ssi program, student opinions had 332 uzel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 315-335 shifted, naming agricultural pesticides as the main factor in the extinction of the northern bald ibis. on the issue of how to protect northern bald ibis, before the ssi program, the most common suggestion was to take better care of them while after the program, the more common opinion was one related to environmental protection. bakırcı et al. (2018) used the scenario “northern bald ibis under threat” in a study on middle school students. it was found then that the students thought the northern bald ibis was under threat due to bad hunting practices and environmental pollution. that study also found that the students thought the best way to protect the species was to place the species under protection and ban the hunting of the northern bald ibis. similarly, çavuş (2013) found that middle school students thought the reasons the species was endangered was environmental problems and bad hunting practices. the students also said the most important factor in protecting the northern bald ibis was to protect their natural habitat. seçgin, yalvaç, and çetin (2010), in a study on middle school students’ opinions on environmental issues, identified that the students stated the factors for the reason behind extinction of species has bad hunting practices. 5. suggestions in this study it was observed that the conceptual knowledge of high school students who underwent the ssi program was enhanced and that their opinions had changed. in addition, since the one group pretest-posttest research design was used, the efficacy of the ssi program could not be tested against a control group. it is suggested that similar studies are conducted with a control group to contribute to the literature on the subject. furthermore, including socioscientific issues in educational environments, such as the northern bald ibis, which is special in its circumstance, is important to raise awareness about such animals and to help students better understand their immediate surroundings. references albe, v. 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(2002). tangled up in views: beliefs in the nature of science and responses to socioscientific dilemmas. science education, 86(3), 343367. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.10025 copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21404 https://doi.org/10.1186/s43031-019-0008-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03173684 https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.10025 database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(1) special issue (2021) 437–449 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction 437 an investigation of pre-service teachers' motives for using instagram mehmet ramazanoğlu a *, esef hakan toytok b a siirt university, kezer campus education faculty, siirt and 56100, turkey b k.maras sütçü imam university, avsar campus education faculty, k.maras. and 46050, turkey abstract the aim of the study was to determine the motivations of pre-service teachers to use instagram program, which is one of the common social media tools, in the context of developments in information and communication technologies in order to achieve sustainable learning and examine them according to various variables. the study was designed via descriptive survey model in the quantitative method. the population of the research consisted of pre-service teachers who pursued their education at the faculty of education of siirt university in the spring term of 2018-2019 academic year. in the study, convenient sampling (easily accessible) and criterion sampling methods were utilized. in this context, 384 of the 495 scales distributed were returned and 56 of them were excluded from the research because they were not properly filled, 163 of them were excluded from the research because they did not meet the criteria; therefore, opinions of 165 preservice teachers were included in the research and analysed. personal demographic form and instagram usage motivation scale were used as data collection tool of the research. the results obtained in the research showed that pre-service teachers use instagram for social escape / relaxation and personal development / selfexpression the most with respect to their motivations to use instagram while they use it with the purpose of entertainment / habit the least. it was observed that instagram using motivations of pre-service teachers show significant differences in different factors according to gender, age, department and daily time spent in instagram variables. in addition, it was found out that pre-service teachers should be able to use the instagram program, which is one of the world-renowned social networking software, for a sustainable education and training life more dynamically and effectively. keywords: sustainability, instagram, social network, using motivation © 2016 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). 1. introduction developments in information and communication technologies affect the society in many ways. one of the important factors of the developments in information and communication technologies can be said to be internet technology. the internet is seen as a technology tool that enables people to access information easily. thanks to this * mehmet ramazanoglu. phone.: +905534147722 e-mail address: memedmustafa@gmail.com mailto:memedmustafa@gmail.com 438 m. ramazanoğlu,e.h.toytok / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(1) (2021) 437–449 technology, individuals can access lots of information quickly and safely. behaviours of individuals such as their lifestyles, ways of working and old habits in social areas and business life have changed with the spread of the internet (mustafa and şahin, 2013). users can easily share their thoughts and ideas via the internet (koçak, 2012). internet is the web 2.0 technology that enables users to communicate and access information (warschauer, 2009). with the development of web 2.0 tools, social network environments have become an indispensable communication tool in our lives (korkmaz, 2013). social network environments have spread all over the world in a short period of time since the day they were established and contain contents such as individual’s expressing themselves more easily in online environment, communicating, creating different environments, maintaining the communication, using the time efficiently, following friends and sharing which motivate using (alramadhani and şahin, 2018; becan, 2018). undoubtedly, instagram is one of the social network environments whose number of users has increased rapidly recently and which has over a billion users and the fastest growth rate (akkaş, bakırtaş, & çiftçi, 2020). instagram, which is a mobile social network site, is a mobile social network application offered to users by apple company in 2010 (dumas, maxwell-smith, davis, & giulietti, 2017; yeniçıktı, 2016; çetinkaya and özdemir 2014). instagram is a mobile-based social network site that allows sharing or saving photos and videos (bulut and doğan, 2017; kim, seely, & jung, 2017). instagram which is the combination of english words ‘’instant’’ and ‘’telegram’’ means instant telegram in turkish (türkmenoğlu, 2014). users can share photos and videos on instagram by adding a hashtag (#) that makes them discoverable on instagram (ramkumar, navarro, haeberle, chughtai, flynn & mont, 2017). creating a hashtag is important for users to have access to photography (türkmenoğlu, 2014). instagram’s being a platform that allows users to share their own lives quickly and enjoyably, being able to establish communication with users, like the shared photos and leave comments for them can be defined as the important components which make instagram take a place in the lives of individuals. when reviewing the literature, marcus (2015) compared instagram with other social network sites in his study. in the study, he stated that most of the posts shared on instagram are selfies. in another study which focuses on social media storytelling through instagram, it was stated that individuals share stories the way they want to see themselves, in contrast to their own self-behavior (kırık and yazıcı, 2017). aktan (2018) revealed motivation of the university students to use instagram and their instagram following behaviours. in the study, obtaining information and sharing dimensions came to the fore with respect to students’ motivation to use instagram while familiarity and expertise came to the fore in their instagram following behaviours. in another study on university students' motivation to use instagram, it was revealed that individuals engaged in social activities use instagram intensively (sheldon and bryant, 2016). in the research, which was examined in the context of the uses and satisfaction approach of university students’ instagram use, it was stated that 9 factors were effective in motivation to use (yayla, 2018). in this context, it should not be forgotten, that m. ramazanoğlu,e.h.toytok / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(1) (2021) 437–449 439 universities are the leading institutions in the service of the society by providing their opinions and showing their expertise with the scientific publications and projects they produce, the professions they train and above all, the issues concerning the society (uğurlu and kıral, 2011). these organizations are also in the process of developing lifelong learning skills of the individual in order to keep up with the rapid changes in the political, social and cultural areas in the rapidly developing and changing life in line with the needs of the age (poyraz and titrek, 2013). digital in turkey (2020) according to the report, turkey has 38 million instagram users. the fact that so many users have signed up for instagram and spend their time has made it important to investigate the motivation of users. when the studies in the related literature are examined, it is seen that there are very few studies on university students' motivation to use instagram, none of which is related to pre-service teachers. in this context, determination of pre-service teachers’ motivation to use instagram is important both for filling the gap in the literature and for the use of this software, which has a very widespread use, in the education process. in this way, it is thought that a contribution will be made for educators in terms of designing effective educational environments with the determination of pre-service teachers’ abovementioned motivations. the aim of the research is to determine the motivation of pre-service teachers to use instagram of which use has increased all over the world and which provides contacting with individuals and following them and examine it in accordance with various variables. according to this; 1. what is the level of pre-service teachers’ motivation to use instagram? 2. does pre-service teacher’s motivation to use instagram differ significantly with respect to gender, age, department and time spending independent variables? 2. method descriptive survey model, which is one of the quantitative research methods, was used in this study which aims to determine the motivation of pre-service teachers to use instagram. the descriptive survey model is a type of method which investigates and describes the conditions and features of the current situation without changing them (karasar, 2015). the population of the research consists of pre-service teachers who continue their education at the faculty of education of siirt university in the spring term of 2018-2019 academic year. in the study, convenient sampling (easily accessible) and criterion sampling methods were used to collect data. convenient sampling is a convenient sampling method created by the selection of items that are completely accessible easily and quickly (fraenkel, wallen, & hyun, 2012). criterion sampling is the study of situations that meet some predetermined criteria. these criteria are prepared by the researcher or a list of previously created criteria can be used (marshall and rossman, 2014). the criterion in the study was determined as the pre-service teachers' having an instagram account and using the instagram account for at least one year. 384 of the 495 questionnaires which were distributed in the study were returned. 56 of the 440 m. ramazanoğlu,e.h.toytok / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(1) (2021) 437–449 questionnaires were excluded from the research because they were not filled in according to the guidelines and 163 of them were excluded from the research because they did not meet the desired criteria. as a result, opinions of 165 pre-service teachers were included in the study and the findings obtained by performing statistical procedures with appropriate analysis procedures were tabulated. information related to the participants of the research is shown in table 1. table 1. demographic characteristics of the participants variables number of pre-service teachers (n=165) % gender female 95 57,6 male 70 42,4 department (sst) 29 17,6 (ct) 37 22,4 (st) 30 18,2 (tt) 33 20,0 (emt) 23 13,9 (cite) 13 7,9 age aged 20 and below 41 24,8 aged 21-23 101 61,2 aged 24 and above 23 13,9 note: social studies teaching (sst), classroom teaching (ct), science teaching (st), turkish teaching (tt), elementary mathematics teaching (emt) and computer and instructional technologies education (cite) personal demographic form and instagram usage motivations scale were used as the data collection tools of the research. the instagram usage motivations scale is a 5-point likert scale which was developed by yayla (2018), consists of 9 dimensions (35 items). cronbach alpha reliability coefficient calculations of the scale in the original study and in this study are presented in table 2. m. ramazanoğlu,e.h.toytok / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(1) (2021) 437–449 441 table 2. cronbach alpha reliability coefficient calculations factors number of items in the original study in this study entertainment/habit 7 ,838 ,866 social escape/relaxation 7 ,820 ,800 decision making/obtaining information 4 ,871 ,734 personal development/self-expression 4 ,811 ,725 friendship 4 ,777 ,743 social interaction 4 ,636 ,718 economy 2 ,529 ,560 following 2 ,620 ,574 personal presentation 1 according to cronbach alpha reliability coefficient values, it is stated as the following: (not reliable for 0 and 0.40, low reliability for 0.40 and 0.60, very reliable for 0.60 and 0.80, high reliability for 0.80 and 1.00) (murphy and davidshoper, 1988; özdamar, 2002). when the table 2 is analysed according to these values, the total scores of the factors (economy, following, personal presentation) were not included in the analysis section since the total scores of these factors are not reliable and the rule that there should be at least three items per dimension is not met. in the research, normal distribution of data was tested by looking at skewness and kurtosis values. since these values showed a distribution between -2 and +2, the data were considered to be normally distributed (george and mallery, 2010). accordingly, analyses were performed using parametric test techniques. although the data were collected at a ranking level with a likert-type scale, (strongly disagree: 1, disagree: 2, undecided: 3, agree: 4, strongly agree: 5) scores were given assuming that the collected data was equally spaced, scores obtained from all of the items associated with any of the dimensions and total score of the dimension were divided into the number of items related to that dimension and average score of the dimension was calculated. for the answers of the research questions, average score of the dimension was compared with the t test, one-way anova, scheffe and tukey tests according to the gender, department and age. in addition, frequency, percentage and arithmetic mean were used in the analysis of the scores of the instagram usage motivations scale. interpretation of scale dimensions was made through (1-1.79 for strongly disagree, 1.80 -2.59 for disagree, 2.60-3.39 for undecided, 3.40-4.19 for agree, 4.20-5 for strongly agree) scoring method. 3. findings in this section, findings related to the research questions are presented. 442 m. ramazanoğlu,e.h.toytok / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(1) (2021) 437–449 levels of pre-service teachers’ motivation to use instagram arithmetic mean and standard deviation values of pre-service teachers' motivation levels for using instagram are presented in table 3. table 3. pre-service teachers’ motivations to use instagram factors x ss entertainment/habit 2,556 ,933 social escape/relaxation 3,419 ,879 decision making/obtaining information 2,669 ,933 personal development/self-expression 3,453 ,883 friendship 2,678 1,065 social interaction 3,216 ,942 note: n = 165 when table 3 is analysed, it is seen that pre-service teachers mostly use instagram for social escape/relaxation ( x =3,41) and personal development/self-expression ( x =3,45) purposes while it is used for entertainment/habit ( x =2,55) purpose at the least. on the other hand, pre-service teachers preferred undecided option for decision making/obtaining information ( x = 2,66), friendship ( x =2,67) and social interaction ( x =3,12) in instagram usage motivations. examination of pre-service teachers’ motivations to use instagram according to gender, age, department and time spending independent variables in the study, the t-test findings regarding the average comparisons of the pre-service teachers' opinions about their motivations to use instagram by gender independent variable are presented in table 4. table 4. t-test findings of the participants according to gender factors gender x ss t p entertainment/habit female 2,5233 .865 -.534 .594 male 2,6020 1.025 social escape/relaxation female 3,3714 .857 -.824 .411 male 3,4857 .913 decision making/obtaining information female 2,5000 .915 -2.774 .006** male 2,9000 .915 personal development/self-expression female 3,5158 .866 1.063 .289 male 3,3679 .907 friendship female 2,6807 1.087 .027 .979 male 2,6762 1.043 social interaction female 3,2605 .939 .696 .488 male 3,1571 .951 note: n (female) = 95 ve n (male) = 70, p< .050*, * p< .010**, * p< .000*** m. ramazanoğlu,e.h.toytok / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(1) (2021) 437–449 443 when table 4 is analysed, it is found that there is a significant difference in decisionmaking/obtaining information factor in the pre-service teachers’ motivation to use instagram according to gender. (t = -2,277). when the rank averages are analysed, it is seen that instagram usage motivations of male pre-service teachers is higher in decision making/obtaining information factor. anova test findings related to the average comparisons of pre-service teachers' opinions about their motivation to use instagram by age in the research are presented in table 5. table 5. anova test findings by age of the participants factor age x ss f p description entertainment/habit under 20 2,42 0,83 1,204 .303 aged 21-23 2,56 0,95 aged 24 and above 2,80 1,05 social escape/relaxation under 20 3,23 1,00 1,602 .205 aged 21-23 3,45 0,85 aged 24 and above 3,61 0,77 decision making/obtaining information under 20 2,30 0,89 6,062 .003** under 20, aged 21-23 and aged 24 and over aged 21-23 2,73 0,92 aged 24 and above 3,09 0,86 personal development/selfexpression under 20 3,48 0,92 ,872 .420 aged 21-23 3,40 0,89 aged 24 and above 3,66 0,79 friendship under 20 2,51 1,19 1,462 .235 aged 21-23 2,68 1,03 aged 24 and above 2,99 0,97 social interaction under 20 3,37 0,93 2,146 .120 aged 21-23 3,10 0,95 aged 24 and above 3,47 0,88 note: n (aged 20 and below) = 41, n (aged 21-23) = 101, n (aged 24 and above) = 23, *freedom df inter-group degrees of freedom is 2, intra-group degrees of freedom is p< .050*, * p< .010**, * p< .000*** when table 5 is analysed, it shows a significant difference in the decision-making /obtaining information factor according to the age independent variable of pre-service teachers' motivation to use instagram (f = 6,062). according to the results of scheffe and tukey test which has been conducted to find the source of this difference, it is seen that the instagram usage motivation of the pre-service teachers who are aged 21-23 and who are aged 24 and above is higher in the decision making/obtaining information factor compared to those who are under 20. in the research, anova test findings regarding the average comparisons of pre-service teachers' opinions about their motivation to use instagram by their departments are presented in table 6. 444 m. ramazanoğlu,e.h.toytok / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(1) (2021) 437–449 table 6. anova test findings according to the departments of the participants factor department x ss f p description entertainment/habit cite 2,65 1,06 1,32 .25 classroom teaching 2,30 0,77 turkish teaching 2,70 0,88 elementary mathematics teaching 2,34 1,01 science teaching 2,64 0,95 social studies teaching 2,76 1,03 social escape/ relaxation cite 3,22 0,99 1,20 .30 classroom teaching 3,39 0,88 turkish teaching 3,61 0,89 elementary mathematics teaching 3,28 0,76 science teaching 3,23 0,84 social studies teaching 3,64 0,93 decision making/obtaining information cite 2,81 0,76 350 .88 classroom teaching 2,57 0,96 turkish teaching 2,67 0,89 elementary mathematics teaching 2,61 0,94 science teaching 2,62 0,82 social studies teaching 2,84 1,16 personal development/selfexpression cite 3,58 0,72 2,70 .02* between social studies teaching and classroom teaching classroom teaching 3,19 1,11 turkish teaching 3,52 0,74 elementary mathematics teaching 3,40 0,85 science teaching 3,26 0,74 social studies teaching 3,91 0,81 friendship cite 2,74 1,01 ,99 .42 classroom teaching 2,43 1,04 turkish teaching 2,72 1,10 elementary mathematics teaching 2,48 0,94 science teaching 2,84 1,07 social studies teaching 2,91 1,16 social interaction cite 3,29 0,99 3,27 .000*** between social studies teaching and elementary mathematics teaching classroom teaching 3,10 0,85 turkish teaching 3,32 0,89 elementary mathematics teaching 2,75 0,87 science teaching 3,09 1,03 social studies teaching 3,72 0,88 note: n (cite)= 13, n (classroom teaching)= 37, n (turkish teaching)= 33, n (elementary mathematics teaching)= 23, n (science teaching)=30 ve n (social studies teaching)= 29, * freedom df inter-group degrees of freedom is 2, intra-group degrees of freedom is p< .050*, * p< .010**, * p< .000*** m. ramazanoğlu,e.h.toytok / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(1) (2021) 437–449 445 when table 6 is analysed, it is seen that there is a significant difference in the personal development / self-expression (f = 2.70) and social interaction (f = 3.27) factors in the pre-service teachers’ motivation to use instagram according to the department independent variable. according to the results of scheffe and tukey test conducted in order to find the source of this difference, it is seen that the instagram usage motivation of the social studies teaching pre-service teachers is higher in the personal development/self-expression factor compared to the classroom teaching pre-service teachers while the instagram usage motivation of the social studies teaching pre-service teachers is higher in the social interaction factor compared to the elementary mathematics teaching pre-service teachers. examination of pre-service teachers' motivation to use instagram according to their time they spend daily on instagram. in the research, anova test findings regarding the average comparisons of the preservice teachers' opinions about their motivation to use instagram according to their time they spend daily on instagram are presented in table 7. table 7. one-way anova test findings for pre-service teachers’ time they spend daily on instagram factor time x ss f p definition entertainment/habit less than 1 hour 2,80 0,78 4,587 ,004*** between less than 1 hour and 6 hours or more 1-2 hours 2,47 0,91 3-5 hours 2,47 1,11 6 hours or more 1,64 0,52 social escape/ relaxation less than 1 hour 3,61 0,83 7,002 ,000*** between less than 1 hour, 12 hours, 3-5 hours and 6 hours or more 1-2 hours 3,45 0,77 3-5 hours 3,33 0,86 6 hours or more 2,20 1,12 decision making/obtaining information less than 1 hour 2,82 0,86 1,137 ,336 1-2 hours 2,58 0,96 3-5 hours 2,61 0,94 6 hours or more 2,34 1,25 personal development/selfexpression less than 1 hour 3,61 0,85 2,106 ,102 1-2 hours 3,37 0,90 3-5 hours 3,44 0,85 6 hours or more 2,84 1,02 friendship less than 1 hour 2,88 1,08 3,629 ,014** between less than 1 hour and 6 hours or more 1-2 hours 2,60 0,82 3-5 hours 2,67 1,26 6 hours or more 1,63 0,60 social interaction less than 1 hour 3,54 0,84 4,656 ,004*** between less than 1 hour and 3-5 hours 1-2 hours 3,11 0,81 3-5 hours 2,90 1,04 6 hours or more 2,97 1,34 note: n (1 hour or less) = 64, n (1-2 hours) = 51, n (3-5 hours) = 42, n (6 hours or more) = 8, freedom df intergroup degrees of freedom is 2, intra-group degrees of freedom is p< .050*, * p< .010**, * p< .000*** when table 7 is analysed, it is seen that there is a significant difference in the entertainment/habit (f = 4.587), social escape/relaxation (f = 7.002), friendship (f = 3.629) and social interaction (f = 4.656) factors in the pre-service teachers’ motivation to use instagram according to the time they spend daily on instagram. according to the results of scheffe and tukey test conducted in order to find the 446 m. ramazanoğlu,e.h.toytok / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(1) (2021) 437–449 source of this difference, it is seen that the instagram usage motivation of the group who spend less than 1 hour daily on instagram is higher in entertainment/habit and friendship factors compared to the group who spend 6 hours or more daily on instagram; instagram usage motivation of the group who spend less than 1 hour, 1-2 hours and 3-5 hours daily on instagram is higher in social escape/relaxation factor compared to the group who spend 6 hours or more daily on instagram and instagram usage motivation of the group who spend less than 1 hour daily on instagram is higher social interaction factor compared to the group who spend 3-5 hours daily on instagram. 4. discussion, conclusions and recommendations in this study, which aims to examine the motivations of pre-service teachers to use instagram, results regarding the motivations of pre-service teachers to use instagram and whether the motivations of pre-service teachers to use instagram change according to gender, age, department and time spending on instagram variables are presented. it has been found that pre-service teachers use instagram for social escape/relaxation and personal development/self-expression the most with respect to their in their motivations to use instagram while they use it with the purpose of entertainment/habit the least. however, yayla (2018) in his study stated that the most effective factor in instagram usage is entertainment/habit factor being in the first place. in the studies conducted by çakmak and baş (2017) and aktan (2018) studies, it was found that the factors of obtaining information and sharing became prominent in the reasons for the instagram usage of the participants. in the study, it has been found that male pre-service teachers' motivation to use instagram is higher in decision-making/obtaining information factor compared to the female pre-service teachers according to gender. in contrast, yayla (2018) in his study stated that female users attach more importance to decision making/obtaining information factor compared to the male users according to gender. in their research, sheldon and bryant (2016) stated that women use instagram more than men. in their study, balcı, bal, & dela (2019) revealed that female users attach more importance to surveillance and obtaining information dimensions of instagram usage motivations compared to the male users according to gender. in addition, aktan (2018) in his study has stated that there is not a significant difference in the factors by gender. üksel (2015), on the other hand, has found that female participants place more emphasis on obtaining information and decision making in their social media usage motivations than male participants. in the study, it is seen that it is seen that the instagram usage motivation of the preservice teachers who are aged 21-23 and who are aged 24 and above is higher in the decision making/obtaining information factor compared to those who are under 20 with respect to the age independent variable. yayla (2018) stated in his study that the instagram usage motivations of the participants did not differ significantly according to the age variable. in his study, üksel (2015) found that there was a significant m. ramazanoğlu,e.h.toytok / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(1) (2021) 437–449 447 relationship between entertainment and relaxation and economy factors in the motivations of users to use social media according to age and it was also stated that the participants who were aged 18-22 gave more importance to the entertainment and relaxation dimension and those who were aged 23-27 gave more importance to the economy dimension. in the study, it has been seen that the instagram usage motivation of the social studies teaching pre-service teachers is higher in the personal development/selfexpression factor compared to the classroom teaching pre-service teachers while the instagram usage motivation of the social studies teaching pre-service teachers is higher in the social interaction factor compared to the elementary mathematics teaching preservice teachers according to the department independent variable. in the study, a significant difference was found in entertainment/habit, social escape/relaxation, friendship and social interaction factors in the pre-service teachers’ motivation to use instagram according to the time they spend daily on instagram. according to the obtained date, it has been seen that the instagram usage motivation of the group who spend less than 1 hour daily on instagram is higher in entertainment/habit and friendship factors compared to the group who spend 6 hours or more daily on instagram; instagram usage motivation of the group who spend less than 1 hour, 1-2 hours and 3-5 hours daily on instagram is higher in social escape/relaxation factor compared to the group who spend 6 hours or more daily on instagram and instagram usage motivation of the group who spend less than 1 hour daily on instagram is higher social interaction factor compared to the group who spend 3-5 hours daily on instagram. in contrast, in the study conducted by yayla (2018), it was concluded that there was a significant difference in entertainment/habit, social escape/relaxation, friendship, social interaction factors and stated that motivation of the participants who use instagram for 3-5 hours is higher than those who use less than 1 hour. in the study conducted by aktan in (2018), it was stated that social media users who use instagram 5 hours or more daily use it mostly for obtaining information and sharing purposes compared to those who use instagram less than 1 hour and 1-2 hours. as a result, pre-service teachers can use instagram which is widely used in education, more dynamically as the use of social network softwares and related mobile network sites is becoming widespread in every field as well as in the field of education. thanks to these mobile network sites and softwares, educational environments can be separated from the traditional structure and differentiated which makes classes more interactive and effective. the obtained results are limited to 165 pre-service teachers who participated in the study. therefore, conducting similar studies with larger and different sample groups will help enrich the literature. this study is limited to quantitative data. similar studies can be carried out using also qualitative data. in addition, experimental studies on the relationship between instagram usage motivations and different variables can be conducted. 448 m. ramazanoğlu,e.h.toytok / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(1) (2021) 437–449 references akkaş, c., bakırtaş, h., & çiftçi, s. 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database connection failed! preparing university students in nigeria for global citizenship through virtual learning available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 47–62 ijci international journal of  curriculum and instruction  preparing university students in nigeria for global citizenship through virtual learning lilian-rita ifeoma akudolu a *, stella ekene ugochukwu b, eyiuche ifeoma olibie c a nnamdi azikiwe university, awka, nigeria b federal government girls college, onitsha, nigeria b nnamdi azikiwe university, awka, nigeria abstract the study sought to find out the extent undergraduate students in anambra state universities in nigeria possess the competencies for virtual learning and the extent they actually engage in virtual learning. the study which was a survey was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. stratified random sampling technique was used in selecting six hundred and forty (640) respondents from two universities. a 64-item questionnaire was used in collecting data which was analysed using mean and standard deviation. the major finding was that the students possessed virtual learning competencies but engaged in virtual learning to a low extent. the implication of low engagement in virtual learning is that it limits the global participation of these students resulting to their lagging behind other students in the international arena. © 2017 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: global citizenship; virtual learning; competencies; engagement; method; results 1. introduction the world is becoming increasingly interconnected and this necessitates a shift in educational endeavours from knowledge absorption to knowledge utilization and generation. the goal of education has shifted from mere preparation of learners for effective life in the local environment to include preparation for life in a fast changing world that technology has transformed into a global village. this technologyborne globalization necessitates a re-examination of the extent that learners are prepared for life in a globalized context. there is need to move the beacon from preparation for country-specific citizenship to that of global citizenship. however, unlike country-specific * corresponding author. tel.: +0-000-000-0000 e-mail address: lr.akudolu@unizik.edu.ng 48 l-r. i. akudolu et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 47–62 citizenship, global citizenship is not about geographical location but a way of approaching what we do and how we relate to people. it does not in any way imply lack of allegiance to a person’s country. rather it involves understanding and contributing to global events as well as using ideas from global events to improve life activities in the physical country or community. this paper presents the result of a study in which the researchers assessed the extent undergraduate students in universities in anambra state, nigeria are being prepared for global citizenship through virtual learning. the report starts with that of the literature review and then describes the method of study and the results. then based on the results, the readiness of the respondents to be prepared for global citizenship through virtual learning is discussed. 2. purpose of the study the purpose of this study was to determine the status of virtual learning among university students in anambra state of nigeria. specifically, the study was designed to ascertain the virtual learning competencies possessed by university students in nigeria relative to gender and the extent the male and female students engaged in virtual learning. 3. research questions and hypotheses the study was guided by the following research questions and hypotheses: 3.1. research questions 1. to what extent do male and female students possess the competencies for virtual learning? 2. what is the extent of male and female students’ engagement in virtual learning? 3.2. hypotheses ho1: there is no significant difference between the virtual learning competencies of male and female students. ho2: there is no significant difference between male and female students’ mean ratings of their engagement in virtual learning. 4. review of the literature global citizenship is a relatively new concept, although hower (2015, p.1) traced its origin back to 4th century greece “when diagenes declared himself a cosmopolitan, a citizen of the world”. over the years, more people started recognizing the fact that we all belong to a world community. this growing global identity results from developments in l-r. i. akudolu et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 47–62 49 information communication technologies (icts) and transportation technologies. these technologies are enhancing our ability to connect to people globally, participate in global economy, understand and demonstrate empathy to humanitarian disasters (israel, 2013, p. 1). however, global identity has never been as pronounced as it did in this present age especially in december 2015 when 195 nations met at the united nations framework convention on climate change (unfcc, 2015) in paris and adopted the famous agreement on climate change. while world leaders are reaching agreements on how to improve life for global citizens, it is necessary that citizens understand the roles to be played individually and collectively in the building of a world community. article 11 of the paris agreement (unfcc, 2015 p.27) mentions “education, training and public awareness, and transparent, timely and accurate communication of information” among the necessary tools for enhancing the capacity and ability of developing country parties. this reiterates the need to uphold the preparation for global citizenship as one of the goals of education in the present ict-dominated age. already, the united nations summit that took place in new york from 25th to 27th september, 2015, presented global citizenship education (gce) as target 4.7 in the document “transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development”. also gce is one of the key education objectives of unesco for the years 2014 to 2021. in this regard, in the global education first initiative, the united nations makes global citizenship the number three priority and declares that: the world faces global challenges, which require global solutions. -----------. it is not enough for education to produce individuals who can read, write and count. education must be transformative and bring shared values to life. it must cultivate an active care for the world and for those with whom we share it. education must fully assume its central role in helping people forge more just, peaceful, tolerant and inclusive societies. it must give people the understanding, skills and values they need to cooperate in resolving the interconnected challenges of the 21st century (united nations –un, 2015 p.1). in this declaration, the un presents not only the need for global citizenship education but also elements of global citizenship curriculum. global citizenship curriculum is not implemented in one school subject but cuts across the curriculum. it enriches and widens the dimensions of all school subjects (unesco, 2014). this is because global citizenship is “a way of living that recognizes that our world is an increasingly complex web of connections and interdependencies. one in which our choices and actions may have repercussions for people and communities locally, nationally or internationally” (ideas 2015, p.1). in another development, the un academic impact hub (2015, p1) presents global citizenship as “an umbrella term for the social, political, environmental, or economic actions of globally-minded individuals and communities on a worldwide scale.” no matter the meaning attached to global citizenship, two of its characteristics are awareness and active involvement. this implies that the global person is aware of the 50 l-r. i. akudolu et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 47–62 wider world, can address global issues, can work collaboratively with people from different cultural, social and religious backgrounds and can cope with unanticipated challenges in the world. above all, a global citizen has not only a sense of belonging to a worldwide community but also a sense of responsibility to contribute values and practices to the global community, to respect cultural diversity and to understand how nations are interconnected and interdependent. israel (2014, p.2) opines that “a global citizen, living in an emerging world community, has moral, ethical, political, and economic responsibilities”. there is need to prepare learners for this emerging world community through global citizenship education (gce) which is the type of education that “acknowledges the role of education in moving beyond the development of knowledge and cognitive skills to build values, soft skills and attitudes among learners that can facilitate international cooperation and promote social transaction” (unesco, 2014, p. 9). gce develops in learners knowledge, skills, values and attitudes they need to understand and contribute to the establishment of social and economic justice, as well as peace, inclusiveness, national and global harmony in the world. in fact, empowering learners with the knowledge, skills, values and attitude to engage and play active roles, locally and globally in resolving challenges and in contributing to a world that is not only just and peaceful but also “tolerant, inclusive, secure and sustainable”, is the goal of gce (unesco, 2014, p.15) one of the means for empowering learners to engage and play active roles locally and globally is by equipping them with the ability to connect to people and events locally and globally. the most basic means of this interconnection is through the use of information and communication technologies (icts). apart from the provision of internet and other online facilities that promote global citizenship, icts provide innovative learning approaches such as virtual learning. these ict-borne learning approaches are veritable gateways to global citizenship. they prepare learners to navigate the increasingly interconnected world. virtual learning, also known as digital learning or e-learning in its broadest sense, can be defined as learning acquired via any type of on-line media including the internet, intranets, extranets, satellite broadcasts, audio/video tapes, interactive tv and cd-rom. it is the utilization of technological materials that support communication and cooperation of learners in the creation and exchange of knowledge, skills, competencies, values and projects (boulton, 2013). it is computer-mediated technology based learning. while observing that mere use of computers at schools does not constitute virtual learning, beek (2011, p.v) states that “virtual instruction is provided by teachers working remotely or by specially designed software – or both – and delivered to students through computers or the internet”. in this regard, there are different forms of virtual learning and these include computer-based, internet-based, remote teacher online, blended learning and facilitated virtual learning (beek, 2011). virtual learning has also been l-r. i. akudolu et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 47–62 51 described as an enabling process, which is based on four components of: awareness, motivation, competence and student engagement (virtual learning academy, 2010). awareness is concerned with the knowledge and understanding of the meaning and benefits of virtual learning. motivation refers to the drive and interest in using the technology in all kinds of learning and development. competence refers to the knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors required for effective virtual learning. it also involves the possession of virtual literacy to understand information technology (it) messages. students’ engagements refer to the extent to which the students actually use or participate in virtual learning. as kharbach (2013) notes, when these four elements are in place, one would expect a possibility for students’ constructive participation in a technology-driven world. these elements empower people to participate in applying any new technology, designing new tools and having a meaningful role in society’s development and consequently, they provide a base for investigating the status of virtual learning among students in universities. in the present study, only two of these elements were instigated; namely: competence and students’ engagement. the purpose was to determine the status of virtual learning among university students in anambra state of nigeria and based on the findings, to ascertain the extent these students are being prepared for global citizenship. nigeria is a country of 182,202 million people (united nations, department of economic and social affairs, population division, 2015) and it is considered a major hub for commerce, culture and education in africa. there are at least nine virtual learning initiatives at various stages of development being carried out by the education coordinating agencies of government and the federal ministry of education (fme). among these virtual learning initiatives are the nigerian universities network (nunet) project; national open university of nigeria (noun) and national virtual library (federal ministry of education 2007, p.5). the nigerian universities network (nunet) project was embarked upon by the national universities commission with the aim to link all federal tertiary institutions in a countrywide electronic network. besides the nunet, a good number of tertiary institutions have gone ahead (mostly with donor and non-governmental support) to try and achieve some form of interconnectivity and other ict services in offices, libraries, research units and distance learning centers. universities in anambra state are among the institutions that have registered domain names in nigeria and each university has created some level of virtual environment. in fact, with the global explosion of ict, many students in universities in anambra state have increased access to virtual technologies such as gsm, smart phones, internet facilities and laptops. whether these students use the virtual technologies for learning has not been empirically established. all the universities in the southeast zone of nigeria have made ict literacy compulsory for students, and have gone ahead to facilitate ict possibilities by establishing ict centers. yet, many university students 52 l-r. i. akudolu et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 47–62 appear not to reap the benefits of virtual learning to transform their knowledge and lifecoping competencies. a visit to any cyber café in different university campuses and cities in nigeria shows a good number of students making use of the internet. there are no clearly defined answers as to whether these students have the competencies for making instructional use of the internet. do these students possess adequate competencies and manifest adequate engagement in virtual learning to the extent that one can infer their preparedness for global citizenship? this question presents the problem that motivated this study. 5. method this section presents the design of the study, sampling strategy and sample population, data collection and analysis as well as the limitations of the study. 5.1. research design and area of study a descriptive research design was adopted for the study which covered government owned universities in anambra state, nigeria. anambra state is one of the five states in the south-east geo-political zone of nigeria. there are two government owned universities in anambra state as at august 2012. one is owned by the federal government while the other one is owned by anambra state government. the universities are: nnamdi azikiwe university, (nau) awka and odumegwu ojukwu university (oou) igbariam, respectively. 5.2. sampling all the six thousand, six hundred and four (6,604) year three students in the two institutions constituted the population. data collected from the student affairs unit of the two universities indicated that oou had 1, 963 year three students while nau had 4, 641. stratified random sampling technique was used in selecting a sample of six hundred and forty (640) students from the two institutions. students in the universities were stratified into faculties. then four faculties were picked from each institution (total = eight faculties). from each of the selected faculties four departments were randomly selected, making a total of 16 departments. from each of the selected departments, twenty year three students (10 males and 10 females) were selected through purposive sampling. that gave a total sample size of 640 students. 5.3. data collection the instrument used for data collection was a researcher-developed questionnaire titledstudents’ virtual learning competence and engagement questionnaire (svlceq). the svlceq had three sections. section a comprised two open-ended l-r. i. akudolu et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 47–62 53 questions which sought information on the bio-data of the respondents. sections b and c sought information on competencies and engagement respectively and they had a total of 29 items (11 items for competencies and 18 items for engagement). the 29 items were structured on a modified 4point likert scale of very high extent (vhe), high extent (he), low extent (le) and very low extent (vle). instrument validation and reliability: the svlceq was content validated by two lecturers, one from curriculum studies and the other one from management and policy. based on their contributions, one item measuring competencies was restructured. for test of reliability, copies of the questionnaire were administered on twenty (20) year three students from delta state university, abraka. the collated scores were analysed using cronbach alpha method. this yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.89 which was considered satisfactory for the study. method of data analysis: data collected for the two research questions were analysed using mean and standard deviation. the ranges of scores were interpreted as follows: vhe was assigned 3.50 – 4.00, he was 2.50 – 3.49, le was 1.50 – 2.49 and vle was 1.50 – 1.49. for decision making, mean ratings up to and above 2.50 were taken as great extent (ge) while mean ratings below 2.50 were taken as low extent (le). the hypotheses were tested with t-test at 0.05 level of significance. 5.4. limitations one limitation of this study was the restriction of the sample to only third year students. although the findings of this study may hold reasonably true for other students in different academic years that were not included in the study, the generalization of findings to these other students is not guaranteed. 6. findings table 1. mean ratings of male and female students’ virtual learning competencies. items male students female students x sd rmks x sd rmks 1. ability to post comments, questions and 2.76 0.45 he 2.77 0.45 he answers on online discussion boards. 2. using online readings and links to the 3.08 0.35 he 3.15 0.36 he text-based course materials 3. ability to open and read documents in 3.61 0.74 he 3.64 0.69 he html, or pdf formats. 4. ability to turn in or submit assignments 2.03 0.76 le 1.86 0.69 le online with details 5. ability to log in to learning platforms, blogs 3.34 0.94 he 3.50 0.86 he and databases. 54 l-r. i. akudolu et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 47–62 6. ability to chat on the internet 3.32 0.53 he 3.38 0.54 he 7. networking with others involved in online 1.34 0.47 le 1.29 0.46 le education. 8. ability to obtain access to websites that 1.18 0.45 le 1.22 0.55 le require subscription 9. ability to use e-portfolio to share learning 1.35 0.48 le 1.28 0.45 le experience and gain feedback. 10. ability to use the web log for games 3.52 0.54 he 3.51 0.50 he 11. ability to use search engines such as 3.64 0.50 he 3.77 0.43 he google to find relevant learning materials. average 2.65 0.56 he 2.67 0.54 he key: rmk=remarks; he= high extent, le = low extent in table 1, only 4, 7, 8 and 9 were scored less than 2.50 by male and female students. with standard deviations within 0.45 and 0.76, the mean ratings for these items were close to one another. hence, to a low extent, the respondents possessed virtual learning competencies stated in these 4 items. the remaining 7 items had mean ratings up to and above 2.50 with standard deviations ranging from 0.43 to 0.94. this suggests that to a great extent, male and female respondents possessed the seven virtual learning competencies. the average means for the students exceeded the cut-off point of 2.50. hence, to a great extent, male and female students possessed virtual learning competencies. table 2. mean ratings of male and female students’ engagement in virtual learning. items male students female students x sd rmks x sd rmks l-r. i. akudolu et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 47–62 55 1. completed online quizzes and essays? 1.73 0.94 le 1.86 0.96 le 2. searched for course information in 2.10 1.01 le 2.00 0.99 le virtual libraries? 3. posted academic content on social networks 3.05 0.89 he 3.01 0.97 he such as facebook, linkedin, twitter? 4. used the chat facility as a learning 2.26 1.09 le 2.17 1.14 le space (virtual classroom)? 5. navigated several web links to read 2.97 1.15 he 2.94 1.18 he course content? 6. watched an educational video online? 1.77 0.42 le 1.69 0.46 le 7. contributed to a wiki? 2.65 0.68 he 2.55 0.74 he 8. commented on a blog? 3.41 0.91 he 3.47 0.88 he 9. started a learning platform discussion? 1.04 0.19 le 1.01 0.11 le 10. sent coursework to a lecturer electronically? 1.25 0.48 le 1.30 0.53 le 11. accessed interactive white boards? 1.32 0.47 le 1.32 0.50 le 12. used internet worksheets to write 1.55 0.51 le 1.53 0.50 le laboratory reports or essays?. 13. heard lectures from cell-phones, mp3 or 1.48 0.83 le 1.49 0.86 le podcasts? 14. chatted with a lecturer to clarify points 1.39 0.92 le 1.56 1.09 le made in class? 15. compared personal assignment with 1.43 0.50 le 1.46 0.50 le those of other students online? 16. taken a short online certificate course? 1.03 0.23 le 1.05 0.27 le 17. used cell-phones or mp3 to listen to 1.40 0.54 le 1.56 0.60 le online lectures? 18. attempted assignments with instructions 2.41 1.13 le 2.31 1.13 le and guide from online learning platforms? average 2.65 0.56 he 2.67 0.54 he key: rmk=remarks; he= high extent, le = low extent 56 l-r. i. akudolu et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 47–62 as shown in table 2, only items 3, 5, 7 and 8 scored above 2.50 in the columns for both male and female students. this indicates that to a high extent, the respondents engaged in the various virtual learning activities stated in these 4 items. the standard deviation for these 4 items ranged from 0.68 to 1.19, thus showing that the mean ratings for these items were not quite close to one another. the remaining 14 items had mean ratings below 2.50 with dispersed standard deviations ranging from 0.11 to 1.18. this suggests that to a low extent, both male and female respondents did not engage in the seven virtual learning activities. the average mean for both male and female students was 1.90. this is less than the cut-off point of 2.50. therefore male and female students engaged in virtual learning to a low extent. table 3. t-test comparison of the mean ratings of male and female students on their virtual learning competencies. category of respondents n x sd df cal. t critical t p male 317 29.20 2.03 630 1.21 1.96 0.05 female 315 29.39 1.97 as presented in table 3, the t-calculated of 1.21 is less than the critical-t of 1.96 at 630 degrees of freedom. the null hypothesis is therefore accepted. hence, there is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female students on their virtual learning competencies. table 4. t-test comparison of the mean ratings of male and female students on their engagement in virtual learning category of respondents n x sd df cal. t critical t p male 317 33.51 2.66 630 0.56 1.96 0.05 female 315 33.62 2.48 the analysis in table 4 indicates that the t-calculated of 0.56 is less than the critical-t of 1.96 at 630 degrees of freedom. the null hypothesis is therefore accepted. hence, there is no significant difference between the mean ratings of engagement of male and female students in virtual learning. l-r. i. akudolu et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 47–62 57 7. discussion the findings of this study indicate that to a great extent, male and female students possess many of the listed virtual learning competencies. specifically, many of the students possess competencies for posting comments, questions and answers on online discussion boards, using online readings and links to the text-based course materials; opening and reading documents in html or pdf formats; logging in to learning platforms, blogs and databases and using internet chats. many of the students also indicated that they could use the web log for games; utilize search engines such as google to find relevant learning materials without assistance. this finding is encouraging and a pointer to the fact that the country is making progress in this ict era. six years ago, olibie and akudolu (2009), in their study which investigated the extent of digital empowerment of university students in south east zone of nigeria, reported that although the students were aware of the empowering potentials of digital technologies, that they were not making adequate use of virtual learning due to the lack of both technical access and competencies. the present finding that the students possess virtual learning competencies matches the results of egbo, okoyeuzu, & onwumere (2011) and olasina (2012) who in their separate studies revealed that nigerian university students have high competencies to use different technologies and e-learning competencies respectively. it is also found that there is no significant difference between male and female students’ possession of virtual competencies. this finding of no significant difference in students’ performance relative to gender is congruent with ahmad (2012) who reports that many nigerian students possess various e-learning competencies irrespective of their gender. this finding may be because in nigeria, most university environments are bound up with the use of information and communication technologies. a majority of university students are surrounded by video games, ipods, mobile phones, and fast moving entertainment via tv and movies. the education system itself is becoming enriched with media and technology, and it is recognized that regardless of gender, students in modern society are technologically savvy and are in possession of several competencies that facilitate learning through technologies (egbo et al 2012, olibie, 2013). hence, corrin, lockyer and benneth (2010) call them the “millennial generation”, having grown up with technology and it is a part of their world. this study also reveals that in universities in anambra state of nigeria, only a few students engage in various virtual learning applications. areas of virtual learning with high levels of students’ engagement include: posting academic questions on social networks such as face books, linkedin, twitter, navigating several web links to read course content, contributions to wiki; and commenting on a blog. although this is a little step in the right direction, as it would facilitate the professional development of the students, one can see that other applications in virtual learning are not being maximized 58 l-r. i. akudolu et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 47–62 by university students in this information age. this finding is also in disagreement with the results of egbo et al’s study which shows that students of business in university of nigeria have reasonable experience with the use of virtual learning and research. above all, there was no significant difference between male and female students’ engagement in virtual learning. their levels of virtual learning engagement were both poor and did not align with other research findings that suggest that female students are more frequent users of virtual websites (liu & huang, 2008). achuonye (2004), also found out that more female students were personally connected to the internet than their male counterparts were, but that male students surf the internet more than the females. the finding of low level of students’ engagement in virtual learning justified the global information technology report (2012, p. xxiii) revealing that nigeria ranked 112 out of 142 countries surveyed for network readiness to participate and benefit from ict development. the findings of this study buttress the assertions of kamba (2009) that although all the tertiary institutions in nigeria have made ict literacy compulsory for lecturers and students, many institutions appear not to reap the potentials of ict such as students’ enhanced performances that could result from engagement in virtual learning. this also supports okebukola (2006) who affirms that the low level of ict utilization for student learning in nigerian tertiary institutions is a major challenge to the education industry. the issue of restricted engagement in virtual learning is by no means limited to the university environment in anambra state. indeed it is an issue that the education sector in many african countries need to attempt to deal with (world bank, 2002). most african institutions widely use traditional approach to education and do not allow students the exposure to virtual learning (kamba, 2009). under this situation, students would have no need to engage in virtual learning. also, this situation in anambra state of nigeria could be attributed to low level of virtual learning literacy and motivation among the students. engagement in virtual learning appears to be valued as having little or no role in supporting academic programmes for these students. and yet, one expects these students to compete favourably in a virtual world. olulube (2006) also reports that nigerian tertiary institutions are yet, to integrate ict in all spheres of academic endeavors. with this situation, one will agree with olibie and akudolu’s (2009) statement that it might take nigerian students 30 years to be empowered digitally to catch up with even south africa, and 50 years to catch up with america. this is truly a manifestation of digital divide. this trend if unchecked, might keep these students far behind in a world that is moving at a super – sonic speed. 8. the findings in relation to preparation for global citizenship the findings of this study show that the students are not yet being adequately prepared for global citizenship. a close look at the virtual learning competencies l-r. i. akudolu et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 47–62 59 possessed by the students would reveal that these competencies are not the core competencies for virtual learning. they belong to what corrin, lockyer & bennett (2010) call the peripheral or basic competencies required not just for virtual learning but for several computer applications. ironically, the students lacked the ability to turn in or submit assignments online with details; network with others involved in online education, obtain access to websites that require subscription; and use e-portfolio to share learning experiences and gain feedback. these areas of incompetence are those that could be said to be the core competencies in virtual learning (kharbach, 2013). also, the students’ low engagement with virtual learning (as identified in this study) robs them of the many opportunities to acquire global citizenship and develop as global citizens. an important aspect of global citizenship is the “development of knowledge, understanding, skills and values; learning about a globalized world; learning for life and work in a global society; and learning through global contexts” (learning and teaching scotland, 2011, p. 10). the development of these aspects of global citizenship can be enhanced tremendously through virtual learning. while sharing this view, lallana & uy, 2007; rakap, 2010; zheng, flygare & dahl, 2009 posited that with virtual learning, students gain new abilities and ways to participate and express themselves in a networked information technology driven society. also, mcalphine (2004:p. 120) noted that virtual learning facilitated by the internet and the ict revolution has created “sovereign learners” learners who are empowered because they have access to new learning opportunities; are able to acquire knowledge directly from others in faraway lands; and can access information to make their own choices about effective learning. these sovereign learners also have reliable and up-to-date information that allows them to become better educated, adequately empowered to “engage and assume active roles, both locally and globally, to face and resolve global challenges and ultimately become proactive contributors to a more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure and sustainable world” (unesco, 2014, p. 15) and to develop into globally responsible citizenry, with personal and social responsibility. however, it is difficult for undergraduate students in anambra state, nigeria to become sovereign learners or global citizens if they lack the ability to engage in virtual learning. the possession of competencies for virtual learning remains a dormant possession in the absence of opportunities to engage in and practise this mode of learning and this makes the development of global citizenship a mirage. 9. conclusions and recommendations the findings of this study provide a basis to promote fears that students are incompetent in virtual learning competencies which may have adverse influence on students’ engagement in virtual learning and consequently in their preparation for global citizenship. in the literature about virtual learning in education, new virtual educational 60 l-r. i. akudolu et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 47–62 provisions are being put forward, such as e-portfolios, electronic problem based learning, simulation and games as well as electronic thesis /dissertation support provisions. where students lack these core competencies, they are in a disadvantaged position and can neither reap the benefits of these applications in this information age nor be prepared for global citizenship. another implication of these findings is that students are generally motivated by ict facilities and these are the gateways to virtual learning. the implication of this students’ great motivation is that it has brought about great expectations that universities in nigeria cannot afford to fail to deliver on. this requires provision by administration in the areas of ict infrastructure and training of learning technologists. also, if lecturers themselves model virtual learning and communicate high expectations for virtual learning to the students, the students might become motivated to engage in virtual learning and invariably be prepared for global citizenship. based on the findings of this study it is recommended that:  universities should provide adequate, reliable virtual learning platform or software and tools to interconnect all students’ and lecturers’ virtual learning requirements.  government should intensify effort in the provision of digital technologies to the universities so as to enhance the ability of these universities to expose students to virtual learning.  lecturers should be encouraged to model virtual learning for students. they no longer need to limit their course instruction to self-prepared and face-to-face lectures.  students should train themselves to become competent in a range of virtual learning applications. they could use self-development programmes such as peer tutoring, and mentoring, to achieve this. 10. suggestion for further research variables other than the ones studied which might have influenced the findings include students’ departments and socio-economic status. it is possible that a cross sectional comparison of students based on departments might show some departments (such as computer sciences), having more knowledge, motivation, competencies and engagement in virtual learning than others. also it is possible that students from wealthier homes might have more access to virtual technologies than those from less wealthy ones. there is therefore the need for a replication of the study in anambra state to ascertain whether any significant differences would exist in virtual learning due to student’s department and socio-economic background. l-r. i. akudolu et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 47–62 61 references achuonye, k. a. 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(2009). style matching or ability building? an empirical study on learners’ learning in well-structured and ill-structured asynchronous online learning environments. journal of educational computing research, 41(2), 195-226. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! guided knowledge search during mathematical problem solving war news and media stereotyping faridah ibrahim 106 war news and media stereotyping faridah ibrahim, ukm chair/associate professor in journalism of the school of media and communication studies university kebangsaa, malaysia introduction we “witness” war every day and everywhere. in the morning papers, in the prime time news, magazines, internet and other communication channels war dominates the media. we watch and read about people trapped in the war zone, vehemently praying besides corpse who may be their friends or relatives and perhaps their loved ones. they were crying in helplessness, despair and anger and no one could give them a hand. this incessant and mournful event has become a never-ending story. since the existence of man on earth, war becomes so common to everyman, synonymous to food and clothes. surviving and dying are common. bombing of thousands of innocent people with sophisticated weaponry is common. but no one could stop the war. it involves human dignity, right and pride and more often than not war sometimes is a justifying cause for nation to protect their territorial rights and enduring values. war is a conflict of human justification, indignation and ego. because of this excessive ego, man uses his strength and weapons to undermine the enemy. war does not occur by itself. one cannot fight with one self. there must be two, three or more. human’s survival instinct and fear of threat evokes war. “either you are with us or you are against us” is a word of utterance that indicates differences or may be, animosities due to different identity, the color of one’s skin, religion and culture. and in the midst of this modern war, is the media, which help to convey news on war to millions of world population via the technologically savvy internet and the traditional media in the form of television and the newspapers. media coverage is integral to shaping the course of events in war and peace. with international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 technology that allows transborder flow of information and visuals within seconds, war news has become routine news of the day. without media images, nobody will know what is going on around the world. who is at war and how many were killed and how many people are suffering. it is the media which provide minute details about the warring states and without which, everybody will be in a state of ignorance. virtually on whose side are the media on? on one hand, one can see the media’s obligation in providing news-worthy information about war around us, and on the other hand, it is as if there is a symbiosis relationship between the media and the protagonist of war, for the media is said to benefit from war reporting. what roles are the media taking especially the media in developing country such as malaysia, which does not experience war? in whose words do the malaysian media subscribe to in explaining war to the people. this paper looks at the use and misuse of words where reporting is concern. through a qualitative and interpretive analysis of war news in selected malaysian newspapers, this paper tries to identify how war is reported, from which angles and in whose perspectives. war news: the of media the war between israel and palestine, for example, has been going on for years without any possible sign of a halt. in this war, the concept of “mine” and “yours”, dispute over territorial rights, pride, dignity indignation and ego have been preoccupied in the mind of both sides. the word “struggle” is deeply-rooted in the heart and mind of “patriots”, “jingoists” and “nationalists” of both sides of the warring states. this is only a small part of a current war but there are hundreds of other wars today (huntington 1997) occurring in different parts of the world, from a small to a big one and to the extent that we are unable to narrate the feeling and sentiment of those involved in the situation. we could hear their desperate whispers and cries of wretchedness through the mass media but 107 war news and media stereotyping faridah ibrahim we could not truly feel their actual agony. our feeling of understanding about war and war victims comes through watching prime time news and reading the morning papers. indeed, mass media has become active and powerful players in the war game. virtually they are playing on both sides. on one side is their obligation in telling the story of war and the other side is helping the nations that are involved in war, and nations’ leaders who are the protagonists of war, to create propaganda and the spirit of struggles. since the mass media of a particular state are the important vehicles especially in disseminating the spirit of state’s struggle, their role is strictly controlled and for this reason bias reporting apparently occurred. who are the protagonists of war? they could be the leaders of the warring states, the leader of the faction groups, fundamentalist and terrorist leaders, the army generals in some states, or even leaders of states (the so-called police state) which send troops overseas to help exterminate war. in the midst of these wars, war correspondents doing their duties in war zones will have no choice but to receive the information subsidy given to them by these protagonists. gandy (1982) writing about information subsidies contends that government and authorities attempt to control media access so as to exert influence over the actions of the media as well to control the flow of information. it is indisputable that the media played a significant role in time of war, and this can be seen during the u.s-afghanistan war and the u.s-iraq war (the first gulf war, operation desert storm in 1991 and the most recent u.s-iraq war in 2003). having learnt from the gruesome truth of the vietnam war, the u.s government has seen the media as the sine qua non in war coverage. in the numerous wars after vietnam that involve the u.s, it can be seen that the government has used the media as the conduit in their psywar strategy to gain public and political support. undeniably, war correspondents in these wars faced enormous difficulty in obtaining accurate information. as a result they became an unwilling but necessary part of the misinformation campaign. knightley (1991:4) contends that information manipulation has progressed since the crimea and reached deadly sophistication in modern wars. news management in the war 108 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 has three main purposes: to deny information to the enemy; to create and maintain support for the war; and to change public opinion and perception of the war itself. of these the third is by far the most important and the most menacing. most of the time, wrong, fabricated information becomes news, and this distorted news transcends through the globe providing information to the world audiences. everyone is aware with this situation. maslog et al. (2006) found in their study of framing analysis of the coverage of iraq war in five asian countries , that newspapers from non-muslim countries, except philippines, have a stronger war journalism framing, and are more supportive of the war compared to newspapers in the muslim countries. the inevitable question that was often posed is why are the muslims the target of animosity? why are the muslims being misunderstood easily? and why do we keep on reading and hearing about muslims being mercilessly slaughtered, intimidated and subjected to the worst form of aggression in various parts of the world? congressional quarterly (1981: 99) said that the negative image of islam is due to ignorance of the religion and because of the historical roots: numerous studies and books have been documented to describe the western portrayal of islam and the muslims, as can be traced for instance in edward said’s numerous books. leon uris in his bestseller, the hajj has described the arabs and the palestinians as lazy, boastful, deceitful, untrustworthy, doublecrossing, lustful, unreliable, murderers, thieves and rapists (uris in syed arabi idid and rahmah 1989: 6). since the suez crisis of 1956, the american media have painted a negative picture of the arab personality (suleiman 1968 and belkaoui 1978 in syed arabi and rahmah 1989:7). in the age of image and image-makers, every nation and its people seem to be conscious of their public image, particularly their image abroad. boorstin (in faridah 1984 p.40) who made a thorough study of pseudo-events said that the united states especially has become preoccupied with creating “favorable images” of itself overseas to the extent that american images today tend to overshadow american ideals. in a study of five 109 war news and media stereotyping faridah ibrahim world superpowers, reflected in two malaysian newspapers (faridah 1984), it was found that the image of the west particularly america and great britain, is largely an image provided by the international news agencies, associate press (ap) and reuters. media language today, western influence is no longer confined to just literature and folk culture. it has spread its roots in all forms with the proliferation of new communication technology through widespread use of television and computers, hardware and software. the dissemination of information and knowledge is inadvertently in the sophisticated language of the west especially english language. most television programs in many countries of the world, malaysia is without exception, are direct imports from western culture. the subtle penetration of western hegemony and propagandistic models come into play, as boorstin noted: abroad, some special accidental factors have been at work; our wealth, our technological ferocity, and especially our ability to make attractive motion picture. all these have enabled us to flood with american images, the people who have never heard of american ideals, and who do not know whether we have any ideals. our images suggest arrogance; in them we set ourselves up as a mold for the world.” (boorstin cited in faridah 1984:41) after the second world war, the media became a convenient tool for propaganda that used media language in a persuasive way. ironically, the state of the art pertaining to the word “propaganda” has been widely used under a different brand such as advertising, strategic advertising, public relations, public speaking and persuasion, effective public speaking, strategic communication planning and to name a few (mohd rajib and taylor, 2006). 110 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 indeed, the danger that confronts us now in the age of modernization and globalization is nothing less severe than in the second world war. the words of utterances, manipulation of words, distortion of words, words inferences and fabrication of words and meaning altogether bring about the immediate danger to the world today. language also has some magical powers. they could mesmerize people. of course it comes together with the content, persuading through effective public speaking, advertising, organizing human perception, propagandizing and through all sort of means; documents, words of utterances, persuasive speaking, writings and broadcasting certain issues and events that are powerful enough to change all together the perception of the receivers. all these meanings come through words and picture. indeed, the pen is mightier than the sword, as the saying goes, is never far from the truth especially in today’s war. words disguise thoughts, words lie and words influence said karl deutsch when he spoke of communication. and it is through words, written or spoken, that the ideas, feelings, thoughts and perceptions of people become clearer. general semanticist s.i. hayakawa (1979: 80) writing about language and meaning had said “words are more than descriptions of experience. they are evaluations.” war news that is brought to us via television and newspapers used words and vivid visual to show what is happening at the war zones. words have become the “weapons” of today’s turmoil. in modern warfare , or appropriately termed as semantics warfare, a new language was brought into being to soften the reality of war. bombing military targets in the heart of cities was called ‘denying the enemy an infrastructure’, people was labeled ‘soft targets’, saturation bombing was labeled ‘laying the carpet’ , when civilians are killed they are called ‘collateral damage’ , when smaller attacks are carried out they are called ‘surgical strikes’ and ‘friendly fire’; when civilians are killed they become ‘paramilitary’ or soldiers ‘disguised as civilians’. a report by journalists michael moran (2003) points out: “friendly fire by american forces killed one quarter of all the u.s troops who died in that war.” thirty-five of the 146 americans killed in 1991 gulf war were slain by their own side. 111 war news and media stereotyping faridah ibrahim and in the recent 2003 gulf war, ‘precision bombing’ landed in turkey saudi arabia, iran and killed syrians at the iraq-syria border. and any iraqi phone booth destroyed, becomes posthumously, a ‘command and control structure.’ (sainath 2003). hence, the story of wars has taken a new face. people do not see the gruesome face of war. they are more concern for other things – whether the war will affect them economically, socially or politically. regardless of ethnic origins and cultures, everybody is waiting to know who the winner is and who is the looser; who is powerful and who is not powerful; who is good and who is evil. the storylines range from war, conflict, catastrophe to calamities and also all inconvenient situations, are made convenient to the readers. these are profound advantages that media practitioners possessed, who through media language, have the power to persuade, manipulate and arrange words to make the presentation of news look greater and mightier. readers and audiences are unable to detect the false perceptive words because they are just like needles in the haystack. this is the most insidious part of journalism today that allows reporters’ prejudices permeated into the readers’ mind, where the words could either change the reader’s perception or else leave them in a problem world of psychoneurosis. to borrow lippmann’s (1922) famous adage: “ the picture in our heads” are absolutely true. with the advent of massive and organized persuasion techniques through the mass media the world become apart. gerbners and his associates (1986) who have conducted an extensive research and analysis, videotaping and carefully analyzing thousands of prime-time television programs and characters, found that the world portrayed on television is grossly misleading as a representation of reality. the construction and depiction of reality have always been surrounding the debates on media credibility. during political campaign, for instance, a typical political bigotry would be the process of persuasively expressing words of indispensable meanings confidently to confuse the masses. because rhetorical device such as words are so common to all man, thus no one pay attention to their meaning. for example, richard nixon’s 1968 112 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 political campaign pledged to secure “the honourable peace in vietnam”. his slogan and his actions were extremely veered and quite confusing. however, his scandalous activities, for example continued; he still mobilized his army in vietnam while clandestine and decoy were at the top of his administrative concern and the killing of civilians in vietnam was continuously in progress. the words honorable peace became meaningless and yet the american congress got up the nerve to push the war farther and farther (see phillip knightley in the first casualty 1975). early american patriots were able to increase revolutionary fervor by terming a minor skirmish with the british in the boston massacre. adolf hitler used the term red menace and jewish problem. the united states defense department used the term “ low-intensity conflict” and a lot more words of propaganda and persuasion has been using by the power that be via the mass media. the psychologist, gordon allport (1954) in nature of prejudice pointed out that it is a nature of language to divide and categorize the buzzing boom of information that comes our way every second and every day. understanding war from the perspective of general semantics thus far, we may reach an understanding of the way journalists report their news and how abstract terms have been used or misused. whether the terms are being coined by the journalists to make their writing task easy or the terms are being coined by the news sources, in this case the protagonists, to soften the reality of war, the underlying truth is that words, from spoken to written , have certain magical powers. they have power to create and to destroy; to influence and to change. in times of war, words become important tools for peace negotiations and conciliations or even making promises. words can also create animosities and annihilations (faridah and mohd rajib, 2003). according to the general semanticists, words such as communism, capitalist, racism, terrorism, fundamentalist, conservative, capitalist, dictator, etc. are all based on our own 113 war news and media stereotyping faridah ibrahim perception. human beings build words based on abstractions. to the semanticists, these abstract terms need to be clearly defined. journalists do have an ethical obligation – in the words of the society of professional journalists code of ethics – to ‘minimize harm.’ hence, the act of determining the use of appropriate words in the news and news headlines should be one of the very crucial tasks undertaken by journalists in the day-today newsroom decisions. on the use of abstract term, edward said (in mishka moujabber mourani aljazeera.info) had said, “we must dissolve worlds like ‘war’ and ‘peace’ into their basic elements to a deeper understanding of what they mean. it is time to tear language, and the experiences it communicates, away from humbling over simplications and reinvest it with nuance, depth and dimension.” hence, abstract terms need to be defined not just from the intentional meanings but also the extensional meanings so that they are free from manipulations. general semanticists assert that extensional orientation provides both clues and guidance in the search for adequate and precise language habits. like scientific method, extensional orientation utilizes discovery and verification procedures. if something has been discovered in the universe, then people using similar methods of observation should be able to conform or acknowledge it (mohd rajib ab ghani, 1984). the use of extensional orientation in everyday language could possibly avoid the bias inherent in writing and speaking. since one would have fewer tendencies to take what is said for granted and would question the meanings of words, there would be fewer tendencies for one to judge the behaviour of others (mohd rajib ab ghani, 1984). hence, the journalistic maxim of the 5w’s and 1h becomes an important tool in the quest for journalistic objectivity. a staunch follower of general semantics and former u.s statesman, s.i. hayakawa (1974) introduced three sentence types that may help reporters avoid ‘bias’ in news reports. these sentence types, derived from the fundamental teaching of general semantics (see alfred korzybski, 1950), are reports, inferences and judgments. while report sentence is capable of verifications, 114 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 inference could distort meanings and judgment sentence is a taboo in objective reporting. hayakawa’s three sentences types, also known as hayakawa’s trichotomy have been used extensively by researchers worldwide who study media language from the quantitative and qualitative content analysis perspectives (see bois, 1957; merrill et al., 1965; schiller, 1981; mohd rajib, 1984; faridah, 1984; mohd rajib and faridah, 1987; 1990; 1996; 2000; bell, 1991; chau pao ling, 1997; faridah, 2003). mohd rajib and faridah (1996) for instance, found in their study on human rights coverage in four malaysian leading dailies that 74.6 percent of the 2250 news analysed used facts and ‘objective’ sentences comprising of ‘report sentence-attributed’ which contained the verbs ‘says/said’, ‘according, to’, ‘told/tell’, ‘added’ and ‘informed’. chau pao ling (1997) studying on the image portrayal of malaysian and international female parliamentarians found that 73.8 percent of the 516 verbs analysed used the speech verb “say” in the star sample, while utusan malaysia recorded 66 percent. in another study (faridah, 2003) on the use and misuse of media language in 891 headlines from four malaysian mainstream newspapers found that headlines use appropriate report sentence type about 70.4 percent, while about 29.6 percent in the inference and judgment categories. this finding suggest for a sensitization program on media language and general semantics among reporters and subeditors. in the last decades, there have been numerous studies on the nature of prejudices, stereotypes, slants or biases from the perspectives of journalism and communication, social psychology, sociology and sociolinguistics. here, we are standing on ground that has been well-researched, but nevertheless, needs to be continued and pursued further in every possible dimension for greater understanding among mankind. according to a renowned journalism scholar john c. merrill (1983), stereotyping and prejudices are recurrent themes in explaining the public’s image of its government; a man’s image of his friends; people’s image of peoples of other nations; the journalist’s image of foreign people and leaders. distrust and 115 war news and media stereotyping faridah ibrahim misunderstanding among peoples on a global scale is a common phenomenon today. one area of prejudice and stereotyping that has long been overlooked and needs reemphasis is the use of language and words. and central to the usage of language and words is the media where their day-to-day activities and daily offerings involved the use of words to impart information in the form of news. language and words according to a neurologist and general semanticist, alfred korzybski, are only maps of reality. they are not actual territories, and that the very nature of words could lead human beings astray. in other words he and his followers such as s.i. hayakawa and wendell johnson believed that words are the source of human misunderstandings. war news and media stereotyping over the millennium, the world and its people witness all kinds of wars. world war, civil war, ideological war, religious war, guerilla war, terrorism, insurgency, brutality, conspiracy and murderous expression, and others – all these are part of the human condition. “war had been literally continuous, though strictly speaking it had not always been the same war…the enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil,” says george orwell in his book 1984. according to chris hedges, winner of 2002 amnesty international global award for human rights journalism, “war makes the world understandable, a black and white tableau of them and us. it suspends thought, especially self critical thought. all bow before the supreme effort. we are one. most of us willingly accept war as long as we can fold it into a belief system that paints the ensuing suffering as necessary for a higher good, for human beings not only seek happiness but also meaning. and tragically war is sometimes the most powerful way in human society to achieve meaning” (2003: 10). in the 1990s we witnessed various wars via the mass media: death of thousands in several warring states and millions in others. the media, both local and international, had showed war in afghanistan, sudan, rwanda, angola, bosnia, guatemala, 116 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 liberia, burundi, algeria, border conflict between ethiopia and eritrea, fighting in colombia, the never-ending israelipalestinian conflict, chechnya, sri lanka, southeastern turkey, sierra leone, northern ireland, kosovo, and the latest iraq. we also witness numerous acts of terrorism for instance 911 in america and the 7/7 bomb blast in the british capital. indeed, war reporting by the mass media has enormous implications for government, commerce and industry in many of these warring countries. their local and international investments as well as bilateral relations are mercilessly shaped by news reports. often times, because of lack of sensitivity towards local culture, media reports are bias and full of stereotypical generalizations. of course, favourable news coverage is a key factor in determining the success or failure of a country’s development efforts. so how does a non-warring country such as malaysia report the war? on a quick glance of media content, over a period of two months (march and april 2002) – in both print and electronic media alike it is found that war coverage is definitely not missing in the daily news diet. the two-month period in 2002 was purposively selected because of its representation of peacetime period, months after the u-s afghanistan war and months before the u.s-iraq war under the administration of president george w. bush. news about war come mostly from the international news agencies, reuters, agence france presse (afp), associate press (ap), to a lesser extent from the malaysian national news agency, bernama (basically non-combat military news) and also from other news agencies such as xinhua of china, yon hap of south korea, antara of indonesia, not forgetting cable news network (cnn) and al-jazeera. but of course, based on interviews with several media practitioners, the western international news agencies are the most popular among local media diet where war news are concerned. reasons for the choice is basically the news coverage from these western agencies are very advanced with accompanying up-to-date and superb visuals , news reels and actualities. how do we identify war news? basically war news comprise of events pertaining to military actions and acts of terrorism. 117 war news and media stereotyping faridah ibrahim military actions include issues on combat, armed invasion, military talks, supplies and provisions, armed deployment and the like. we also looked at efforts undertaken by governments and leaders, and also world organizations to resolve conflicts and try to achieve peace through diplomatic talks, relations and missions. over the period of study, about 138 or 15.8 percent out of 898 news items contained war news coverage. a closer look at the coverage of war news by these newspapers demonstrate that there are more issues pertaining to “terrorism” in the new straits times (nst) while more military news comprising of military actions and combat are covered in the star (ts), utusan malaysia (um) dan berita harian (bh) as demonstrated in table 1. table 1: types of news in four malaysian national dailies nst ts um bh military 7 (18.8%) 23(74.2%) 23(53.5%) 12(46.2%) diplomatic relations 12(31.6%) 2 (6.5%) 6(14.0%) 7(26.9%) terrorism 19(50.0%) 6(19.4%) 14(32.6%) 7(26.9%) issues pertaining to “terrorism” highlighted by these papers, especially nst were more on international discussions or talks on the issues and lesser on the act itself. some of the areas touched were efforts to define terrorism, global conference held to discuss issues on terror, the role that the united nations should play to stop blatant aggression while other news were on acts of terrorism such as suicide bombing and bomb blast. top coverage of war news in the malaysian media are the long-time israeli-palestinian conflict and the aftermath of war in afghanistan and also on iraq, being the next target of the u.s to exterminate terrorism (as the world had witnessed several months later). during this period of analysis, malaysia came out as an active country expressing views on “terrorism” and suggesting strategies to tackle “terrorism” without aggression, and dr mahathir mohamad (then, the prime minister) was seen to use international forum such as the oic to champion the cause. 118 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 countries frequently mentioned in the news pertaining to terrorism and war news were the united states, palestine, israel, lebanon, syria, libya, indonesia, philippines, iraq which was in the midst of a continuous crisis, while the philippines was encountering problems with the abu sayyaf group and the moro islamic liberation front (milf) and indonesia with its jemaah islamiyah (ji). the electronic media also showed similar trends as the print media during the period of study. like the malaysian dailies, the electronic media in this country is dependent on the dominant four international news agencies for foreign news with afp and reuters remaining their favourite suppliers of news, news reels, actualities and visuals. one news producer told the writers in an interview that these two agencies are popular among malaysian media organizations because of their “more or less” unbiased coverage. virtually on whose side are the media on? looking at the malaysian media, it can be seen that the media reflect the situation of the government and the society in which they operate. the principle of non-aligned remains intact within malaysian foreign policy and this is reflected in the mass media. malaysia within the non-aligned group, has assumed an active and assertive role. today in malaysia non-aligned does not mean just a passive adherence to the sanctimonious declaration of the principles and ideas of the non-aligned philosophy. it has long been the hope of malaysian leaders that the non-aligned movement must not remain mere ideals but must be translated into effective action to free the world from domination by the strong over the weak in all fields (munir majid quoting mahathir mohamad, 1983). the principles of non-aligned, termed simply as neutral, are reflected in the newspapers. there is a tendency within the media to combine news from the international news agencies, namely reuters, afp and ap and publish it under the, agencies. an editor said that this is one way, the gatekeepers try to increase neutrality and reduce biases (ahmad tali,b 2003). in whose words do the malaysian media subscribe to in explaining war to the people? with the shortage of trained staff, funds and equipments, the malaysian newspapers, like their 119 war news and media stereotyping faridah ibrahim counterparts in most developing countries are still dependent on the dominant four international news agencies for foreign news especially war news. only of late, after the 2003 iraq war that the malaysian editors see the need to train malaysian journalists to be war correspondents. we can see that gandy’s information subsidy model is applicable here. basically, war news sources come from the protagonist of war quoted by the news agencies. the following are several headlines that indicate this trend: ‘osama e-mail slams saudi peace plan’; britain boleh serang iraq tanpa mandat pbb – hoon/ translation: britain can attack iraq without un’s mandate – hoon’; ‘bush tuntut yasser henti pembunuhan/translation: bush demands yasser to halt killing’; ‘amaran keras putera abdullah kepada powell/translation: hash warning from prince abdullah to powell’. obviously most headlines, reflect what are being said in the news and sub-editors take queues from the lead paragraph to help them write the lead. however, sub-editors can choose the right words and terms and not trapped with labels and judgments. but sometimes due to insensitivity, we get such headline that could create more animosity, such as one particular headline published in utusan malaysia 13 april 2002 based on and afp’s news: dunia kian marah kepada israel, translation: “the world is angry with israel.” the question we may ask is what connotes the word ‘world’? is it representative of the whole world? after reading the whole news, we found that ‘the world’ means only france, germany and couple of southeast asian countries as suggested in the afp’s story. this study has shown that while care is taken by local gatekeepers to create a more presentable and objective war news by combining news from reuters, ap, upi and afp and place them under ‘agencies’, there are instances where the choice of “facts” in news and headlines can be badly assembled as shown in the afp’s news. by applying hayakawa’s trichotomy, the analysis show that all the four newspapers had achieved about 55 to 66 percent objectivity in presenting their war news but the remaining 36 to 45 percent of non-objective coverage remained questionable. using news from the international news agencies, the local media are still far from propagating world peace. it can 120 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 be seen that the option for peace journalism among local media practitioners is still at an infantile stage. how does the options of peace journalism entail? according to galtung (1986), the concept of peace journalism acts as a timely and welcome antidote to much of what passes for war journalism. his classification of war and peace journalism is based on four broad perspectives namely peace or conflict, truth, people and solutions. hence, peace journalism is an alternative, not polemic. the elements of peace journalism are not new; part political analysis, part investigative journalism, part socially responsible reporting, part advocacy journalism in the interests of peace. peace journalism proposes that journalists take up the role as educators who could well inform and educate the public on the background, contexts and origins of global media content, providing a multidimensional setting in their reports. these, of course need training, media literacy and sensitization programs, conducted among journalists and the public. recommendations based on some observations and a prescriptive analysis of media stereotyping in war reporting, initiatives could be taken to minimize prejudices and stereotypes, based on the following approaches: the educational approach or media literacy: this approach addresses the need to make people be critically aware of how media, especially the local and global media are organized; how they select and construct their media content , and what are the contents and why they are the way they are? media education or media literacy helps to sensitize media audience in terms of which global players and global media that are responsible media institutions and which are not. this also applies to local media institutions and practitioners. media literacy should begin from primary schools till the universities. in relation to this, the media and universities could help educate the masses on the roles of the media and media practitioners, both local and global. 121 war news and media stereotyping faridah ibrahim understanding how the media operate, will help sensitize people on the hidden agenda highlighted through selected issues. educating the media and the masses on peace journalism should be an immediate step to be taken. the mass media approach: media practitioners should be sensitized on the evaluation and selection of news and entertainment. they need to develop their own model and guideline in order to package their own media content . they need to come out with their own formula in packaging foreign and local content effectively. they also need to identify (via research for instance) effective ways to package news for the it savvy younger generations. war reporting should not be looked from a perspective that will perpetuate more animosities and divide warring parties into two dichotomies the good and the evil. it is the responsibility of the media and their war correspondents to highlight facts and events that could bring peace between the parties at war. war journalists should be given special training and exposure on peace knowledge and negotiations. the societal approach: local association at the community level and ngos should be active in distributing information via various media and multimedia channels (e.g. internet and blogs) and through campaigns, to educate societies on social issues and problems with regard to efforts to institutionalize peace journalism and the role of global media and their content. cultural, religious and educational roadshows should also be organized to publicise and sensitize people on these issues. the governmental-policy approach: the government need to review some provisions with regard to media conglomerates and mergers and identify relevant policies that will create a balanced media system that are beneficial to both the media and the audience. at the local level, the ministry of information need to create sensitivity programmes for the people where awareness training on media related issues, such as ownership, laws, social, economic, political and cultural influences of the media are being discussed continuously. knowledge obtained from all these 122 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 sensitivity training enhanced society’s understanding and experience, and hence will allow wiser media decisions and media consumption in the future. these sensitivity programmes should also be supported by research and development activities and statistical data should be collected continuously to gauge the effectiveness of these programmes. the scholarly approach: universities, scholars and researchers should team up in collaborative works and networking as well as undertake research on the various perspectives of global media. through research and development activities, they will be able to update information and knowledge , as well as to create a data base with regard to the global media and peace journalism option. with these data they will be able to make recommendations and offer guidelines to various institutions, governmental and non-governmental bodies. an important outcome from these research activities, would be the setting up of a peace journalism center in every country where monitoring of the development, operations and contents of the media, both local and global, can be done. conclusion while it can be seen that peace journalism is an option that media organizations and their war correspondents could take in drawing the line between good and biased news reports, it should be noted that news and information via the media is part of a larger industrial model that is being actively perused by local governments to develop their nations’ economy. a nation cannot progress and industrialise without information. on a positive note, various research by media and communication scholars have shown that the media are the catalyst that spearheaded progress. their important role in building a country’s national image and economy can no longer be denied. the question we are here to answer today is whether the invisible baggage i.e., the culture of news and information consumption among local people, that comes with the global media cost too much? this is where media literacy comes in. it 123 war news and media stereotyping faridah ibrahim is thus important that the media help to keep people on top of current issues. the media also are the vehicles by which people debate issues and participate intelligently in public policy discussion and make wise decisions. the media can help the ngos and community groups as well as activists and citizens at large to sensitize people regarding global media, global journalism and peace journalism options through campaigns and advocacy efforts. the media practitioners themselves should be sensitized on the importance of packaging news. they need to develop their own model and guidelines on how to propagate peace via news and information. media organizations should also be made aware of the use and misuse of media language visà-vis appropriate use of media language. they should be sent for short courses on general semantics in the media. only then, will they know how two-value orientation, of good versus evil, could create war and turmoil in societies and among nations. in democracies, people like to believe that what they are doing for themselves and or other people are right and what their countries are doing are generally good. to go to war, and not go to war or refrain from any kind of involvement in war all these have their own legitimate reasons. but when the media report war, under the notion of public’s right to know and upholding their social responsibility goal, the ‘story of war’ takes a different turn. parties to a conflict behave differently because the media is there, and will try to influence war news coverage to their advantage. managing public opinion and controlling people’s perception in time of war, through words maneuvering becomes a matter of great concern for the protagonists of war. but the media through words monitoring can even play a greater and more noble role. it is indisputable, taken together, the proliferation of new media technology, growing media conglomerates, professionals, norms and values and the onset of globalisation, the media is one powerful force that shape the lives and destinies of peoples and nations. and for the media, to be aware of the use and misuse of language, to be aware of what they say, what they do, how they say it and how they do it, they can achieve enough impartiality for practical purposes. 124 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 no one in this world wants to admit that he or she has a prejudice mind and are sometimes or most of the time, involve in stereotypical generalizations. any individual or citizens of a country tend to have a strong sense of belonging to one’s country and people. whatever terms that are used be it patriotism, nationalism or jingoism, they are only words and symbols, that are considered the most sophisticated kind of language. through an in-depth understanding of the meaning of words and languages uttered or used by the mass media, would make people or journalists more aware of the presence of prejudice and stereotypes. if people are aware of their prejudices, they are able to gauge and evaluate the intensity and try to reduce it before they express through human behavior that could be detrimental to the human race. references allport, g. w. 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(1986). dynamics of cultivation process. in j. byant and d. zillmann (eds). perspectives on media effectiveness. hillsdale, n.j: erlbaum, pp 102. hayakawa, s.i. (1979). through the communication barrier – on speaking, listening and understanding. new york: harper & row, publishers. hedges, c. (2003). war is a force that gives us meaning. new york: anchor books. hindley, g. (2003). the crusades. london: constable and robinson,ltd. knightley, p. (1975). the first casualty. new york: harcourt brace & jovanovich. knightley, p. (1991). here’s the patriotically censored news. index on censorship, no. 4 & 5 , p 4 – 5. korzybski, a. h. (1950). manhood and humanity: the science and art of human engineerings. 2nd. edition. lakeville, conn.: nonaristotelian library publishing co. kurzman, c. (ed.) (2002). modernist islam 1840-1940. a sourcebook. oxford: university press. maslog, c.c., lee, s.t. and kim, h.s. 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(http://man.sarai.net/piperman). syed arabi idid and rahmah hashim (1989). muslim media: some considerations. paper presented at national conference – communication from the islamic perspective. organised by the school of mass communication, itm, october 5 – 7 1989. westerlund, d. and svaubers, i. (eds) (1999). islam outside the arab world. london: curzon press. interviews with media practitioners from nst, ntv7, tv3, bernama, the star, utusan malaysia , berita harian and rtm in april and may 2003 by faridah ibrahim. 127 http://man.sarai.net/piperman database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! guided knowledge search during mathematical problem solving international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 39 alliance of civilizations: “islam and west” or among cultures globally? dr. ismail hakki mirici associate professor president, wcci turkish chapter board member, wcci international introduction the alliance of civilizations (aoc) was established in 2005, at the initiative of the governments of turkey and spain, under the auspices of the united nations. it aims to improve understanding and cooperation among nations and peoples across cultures and religions and, in the process, to help counter the forces that fuel polarization and extremism. the aoc is supported by a group of friends a community of over 80 member countries and international organizations and bodies. the aoc cooperates with various partner organizations such as unesco, council of europe, league of arab states, alecso, isesco and united cities and local governments. it is co-sponsored by various academics and statesmen from different parts of the world like professor mehmet aydin, state minister of turkish republic (co-chair); professor federico mayor, president of the culture of peace foundation and former director-general of unesco (cochair); mohammad khatami, former president of iran; sheikha mozah consort of the emir of the state of qatar and chairperson of the qatar bint nasser al missned foundation for education, science and community development; dr. ismail serageldin, president, bibliotheca alexandria; dr. mohamed charfi, former education minister of tunisia; andré azoulay, adviser to king mohammed vi of morocco; moustapha niasse, former prime minister of senegal; archbishop desmond tutu, the rt. hon. archbishop of cape town; hubert vedrine, former minister of foreign affairs of france; karen armstrong, historian of religion (united kingdom); professor vitaly naumkin, president of the international center for strategic and political alliance of civilizations: “islam and west” dr. ismail hakki mirici or among cultures globally? studies and chair, moscow state university; professor john esposito, founding director-center for muslim-christian understanding, georgetown university and editor-in-chief of the oxford encyclopedia of the islamic world; rabbi arthur schneier, president, appeal of conscience foundation & senior rabbi, park east synagogue; enrique iglesias, ibero-american secretary-general and former president of inter american development bank; professor candido mendes, secretarygeneral, académie de la latinité; dr. nafis sadik, special adviser to the un secretary general; shobana bhartia, managing director of the hindustan times, new delhi; ali alatas, former foreign minister of indonesia; professor pan guang, director and professor, shanghai academy of social sciences. the aoc has online facilities to introduce best resources, materials and practices on cross-cultural dialogue and cooperation projects as well a rapid response media mechanism to supply constructive database and opinion during times of increased tensions around cross-cultural issues. based on the recommendations made in the aoc high-level group report, its work is structured as in the diagram below and around the following three objectives (www.unaoc.org): 40 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 diagram 1. structure of the alliance of civilizations • co-sponsors: governments of turkey and spain) • high-level group: the un secretary general established the high-level group under the co-sponsorship of the governments of turkey and spain. it is composed of 20 prominent leaders in the fields of politics, academia, civil society, international finance, and media from all regions of the world. the high-level group has met five times since 2005, in palma de mallorca, spain between 26-29 november 2005; in doha, qatar between 25-28 february 2006; in dakar, senegal between 28-30 may 2006; in new york between 5-6 september 2006; and in 41 alliance of civilizations: “islam and west” dr. ismail hakki mirici or among cultures globally? istanbul, turkey between 12-13 november 2006, respectively. its recommendations specifically encompass strategies for developing better cooperative frameworks and partnerships that can be nurtured to achieve the goals of the alliance. it proposes educational approaches and methods for supporting the mobility of young people to promote values of moderation, cooperation and appreciation of diversity. • partner organizations and group friends: the aoc cooperates with various partner organizations such as unesco, council of europe, league of arab states, alecso, isesco and united cities and local governments, and is supported by a group of friends a community of over 80 member countries and international organizations and bodies. the un secretary general also established a voluntary trust fund, which was recommended in the high-level group’s report. the main objectives of the trust fund are to support: (a.) the projects and activities of the aoc; (b.) the activities and outreach initiatives undertaken by the high representative in his official capacity; and (c.) the aoc secretariat’s core operational and human resources needs. objectives: 1. develop a network of partnership with states, international organizations, civil society groups, and private sector entities that share the goals of the aoc to reinforce their interaction and coordination with the un system, 2. develop, support, and highlight projects that promote understanding and reconciliation among cultures globally and, in particular, between muslim and western societies. these projects should be related to the four main fields of action of the alliance: youth, education, media and migration, 42 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 3. establish relations and facilitate dialogue among groups that can act as a force of moderation and understanding during times of heightened cross-cultural tensions. in pursuing these objectives, the aoc maintains and demonstrates, through its choice of activities, a universal perspective. at the same time a priority emphasis on relations between muslim and western societies is warranted given that cross-cultural polarization and mutual fear are most acute within and between these communities and represent a threat to international stability and security (www.unaoc.org). aoc activities in turkey as one of the two leading sponsors of the alliance, the turkish government has been developing and supporting several projects, and has been organizing informative and encouraging meetings in the country. some of the meetings and the projects are as follows: 1. the meetings organized by the co-sponsor professor mehmet aydın, minister of state • supervisors’ meeting: professor halil i̇nalcık (bilkent üniversity), professor talat halman (bilkent üniversity) ankara, 5 december, 2005 • aoc information meeting: the ambassadors of european union member countries ankara, 8 december, 2005 • supervisors’ meeting: professor mehmet akif aydın, professor mustafa fayda, professor bekir karlığa, professor alpaslan açıkgenç, professor mete tunçay, professor tülin bumin, professor betül çötüksöken, fehmi koru, ali bulaç, kürşat buministanbul, 9 december, 2005 • international convention on migration: opening speech focusing on the aocistanbul, 8-11 december, 2006 43 alliance of civilizations: “islam and west” dr. ismail hakki mirici or among cultures globally? • press meeting: media representatives ankara, 13 december, 2005 • international conference on “women’s role in the aoc”: closing remarks of the conferenceistanbul, 28-29 february, 2006 • maltepe university conference on aoc: istanbul, 17 march, 2006 • 18th islamic conference: presentation on “aoc, living together and islam” – cairo, egypt, 5-9 april, 2006 • meeting with the islamic conference youth representatives: ankara, 14 april, 2006 • euro-med and foro-med common meeting on “aoc, peace in the middle east, palestine and iraq cairo, egypt, 22-23 april, 2006 • opening speech on “aoc and migration policy” at the international conference on “europe, turkish diaspora and migration”: istanbul, 27 april, 2006 • speech on “aoc and political values” at the nato parliaments assemblyistanbul, 2 may, 2006 • briefing with the representatives of the organization of european security and cooperation in europe and aoc co-sponsors – vienna, austria, 4 may 2006 • opening speech at the forum istanbul on “aoc and living together” – istanbul, 11 may, 2006 • opening speech at the “civilizations and world systems”istanbul, 12-14 may, 2006 • various articles released in various national newspapers and several television programs on different dates between 20052008 2. national projects these projects are accessible at http://www.medeniyetlerittifaki.gov.tr/projeler.htm 44 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 a. ministries of state project year(s) modernization of turkey through the perspective of the aoc 2009 the conference on ataturk’s vision of culture and civilization 2008 the conference on inter-civilization dialog and cultural diversity: media’s role 2008 the conference on alliance of civilizations in accordance with scientific developments 2009 the conference on islamic civilization and ottoman peace 2009 scholarships 2008-2009 the aoc academic board of publications 2008-2009 registered productions and translations concerning the aoc 2008-2009 the project on media literacy 2008-2009 protocol on publication ethic principles 2008-2009 the seminar on education for media 2008-2009 world children festival 2008-2009 projects on visual arts 2008-2009 the aoc media award 2008-2009 internet website and meeting point of civilizations 2008-2009 the aoc and training seminars 2008-2009 the world youth and dialogue conference 2009 three cultures, three cities, three sports 2008-2009 the human race one step two continents 2008 meeting of civilizations: international antakyarome cycling tour 2008 culture of sport and peace 2008-2009 the project on runners for the future 2008-2009 the week of youth 2008 middle and south east european turks – turkish youth exchange program 2008-2009 employment focused youth centers 2008-2009 social inclusion and employment of the youth 2008-2010 the youth social development program – the bridge of the youth culture 2008-2009 45 alliance of civilizations: “islam and west” dr. ismail hakki mirici or among cultures globally? studies on the turkish women who are living abroad 2008-2009 studies on struggling against human trade 2008 the aoc and religious-cultural activities 2008-209 activities of the experiences on living together in islam 2008 training program on preparing religious staff for international services 2008-2009 student exchange 2008-2009 international theology program 2008-2009 the project on inter-religious relations in terms of historical, doctrinal and functional dimensions 2008-2009 studies on informing turkish people living abroad on the aoc 2008-2009 bministry of inner affairs project year(s) projects which are harmonious with the basic principles of the aoc 2008-2009 cministry of foreign affairs project year(s) regional meetings: central asia, middle east balkans 2008-2009 summit meeting of africa 2008 struggling activities against religious, ethnic, cultural discrimination and islamofobia 2008-2009 dministry of education project year(s) the aoc and educational curriculum 2008-2009 course books 2008-2009 46 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 providing universal access/participation to/in elementary education 2008-2009 participation in the related international projects 2008-2009 democracy education and school councils 2008-2009 the portal of accessing knowledge 2008-2009 introducing historical heredity and cultural values to students 2008-2009 academic activities 2008-2009 the centers of fight prevention and solution 2008-2009 dialog studies 2008-2009 student exchange 2008-2009 comprehensive student project 2008-2009 scholarships 2008-2009 cultural and educational visits 2008-2009 eministry of labor and social security project year(s) activities related to migration and immigrants 2008-2009 diagnosis and national action plan on the employment of the youth 2008-2009 project on the introduction to the vocational education and employment 2008-2009 project on womenmen equality in employment and increasing women employment 2008-2009 intercultural apprenticeship project 2008-2009 fministry of culture and tourism project year(s) exhibition of the inter-civilization interaction 2008-2009 exhibition of the culture of living together from ottoman to republic 2008 exhibition of the handwritten manuscripts and rare works of art 2009 cultural bridge program 2008-2013 47 alliance of civilizations: “islam and west” dr. ismail hakki mirici or among cultures globally? aoc art activities 2008 mevlana documentary 2008-2009 documentary on the anatolia culture and civilizations 2008-2009 2008 frankfurt book fair host country-turkey 2008 european capital of cultureistanbul 2008-2010 the meeting of the mediterranean countries national library directors 2008 islamic history of science and technology museum 2008-2009 tourist guide training 2008-2009 youth tourism 2008-2009 map of religious tourism and religious-cultural activities 2008-2009 gministry of environment and forest project year(s) regional collaborative meetings concerning water 2008 regional collaborative meetings concerning environment and forestation 2008-2009 the activities stated above show how much the aoc is valued by turkey. almost every section of the turkish government either developed or supported a project which contributes to the dissemination of the principles introduced by the alliance. discussion on the approaches of the alliance it is an undeniable fact that most of the global problems concerning international and intercultural relations stem from educational problems. unfortunately, in most of the developing countries there is a serious education problem. only a minority of people receives good quality education and consequently has greater chance to have a good career in life. however, the majority has to struggle for better educational opportunities for their families. recep tayyip erdogan (2006), the prime minister 48 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 of turkey, points out that terrorism and violence are fed through illiteracy. therefore various international treaties and huge projects are aimed at overcoming the growing global illiteracy problem. lisbon strategies, bologna process, the eu life long learning projects and the pisa projects are only some of them. when the objectives of the aoc are examined it is seen that in some documents it identifies the focus group of the civilizations as “the west” and “the islam”. for example, jorge sampaio, high representative for the aoc (2007, a), underlines the significance of bridging west-islam divide and states that “… the emergence of the contemporary trend towards extremism is not specific problem of the relations between western and muslim societies”. however, sampaio (2007,b) also points out that the alliance deals with some major problems of our times such as how to bridge cultural and religious fault lines dividing societies; how to improve mutual respect and understanding between different communities and societies. similarly, in the same meeting it is also stressed that the top priority of the aoc is to work in closer collaboration with all partners, both within and outside the un system. asian, pacific, african, european and latin america regional bodies need to be mobilized to make the aoc a success. when these two different conceptual approaches are compared and contrasted, it can be seen that there is a confusion of concepts in the definition of “alliance”. is it an alliance of the west and the islam or an alliance of different religions and cultures without special reference to a particular region for a global peace? in the same vein zapatero, the prime minister of spain (2008), maintains that “the fact is, if the alliance of civilizations is a concept of a strategic, global nature, it will only be a success; it will only last over time, if we are able to give it a practical, specific content”. however, this specific content must also be planned in a global scale, covering all living cultures and societies. it cannot be claimed that religions belong to certain regions in the world. if the subject matter is islam, it has to cover all regions of the world including the west owing to millions of muslim citizens in the western countries. if the subject matter is civilizations, then the discussion for the global and universal understanding of the alliance should be based on the east, the 49 alliance of civilizations: “islam and west” dr. ismail hakki mirici or among cultures globally? north, the south even the north-east, south-west, not only on the west. zapatero (2008) focuses on the significance of the role of the alliance saying “…it does want to contribute to isolating extremist and intolerant discourses on the part of those who try to utilize religion or culture for political purposes. it does aspire to build bridges that can help us to manage the differences existing in the world, particularly those linked to religious or cultural issues”. therefore it should be remembered that for a global peace there must be a global understanding of the “alliance” covering all cultures and all religions regardless of their location. sampio (2007, c) reports that madeline albright argues that the resurgence of religious feeling will continue to influence world events, and he also maintains that to promote the idea that religion is one of the principle sources of harm and violence in the world is not only unfair; it is also dangerous because it diverts our attention from the political roots of most conflicts. erdogan, the prime minister of turkey (2005), stresses the fact that in the essence of cultures or religions there can be no motives of violence and conflict. sampio (2008) says that “to prevent polarization, confrontation, conflict and intolerance and to develop a culture of peace, understanding, tolerance and respect, we need universal values grounded on the common humanity shared by every man, woman and child on earth, regardless of linguistic, racial, religious and other differences”. similarly, on the website of the aoc (www.unaoc.org) in the recommended readings page it is reported that in the exploring misconceptions about the islamic world section, there is a daily lesson plan on the aoc by the new york times learning network. in this lesson, students learn about a united nations initiative to create the aoc to resolve conflict between the east and west. they then discuss and dismantle a number of misconceptions about the muslim world. erdogan, the prime minister of turkey underpins two significant facts as in the following: 1. we have to recognize humanitarian values rather than power based relations; 50 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 2. every culture has its unique contribution through universal values to the development history of the world suggestions it is not fair to claim that there is a “clash of civilizations” in the world. “alliance of civilizations” should be seen as an effort to establish and maintain sustainable world peace for the future generations. surely, it is not possible to pretend that there are no conflicts in most part of the world including the east and the west. these conflicts may stem from political or economical reasons. therefore if there is “clash”, this is not a “clash of civilizations”. this is a “clash of politicians” or a “clash of economies”. for instance, it is reported that “spanish prime minister jose luis rodriguez zapatero has come under criticism for posing with a palestinian scarf on his shoulders after accusing israel of using force "abusively" to defend itself”. despite the fact that a scarf represents islamic beliefs, the reaction to zapatero is against palestinian attitude in the region and this reaction is on behalf of israel’s policy in the middle east; not on behalf of christian or jewish beliefs. moreover, both palestine and israel are in the same region; one is not in the west and the other is not islam, and when the problems between these two countries are solved, it will simply mean that the problem between israel and palestine is solved. undoubtedly, labeling some regions as “islam” or “christian” means underestimating the power of the loving hands of god. for instance, a big percentage of the population of turkey is muslim but turkey cannot be called an islamic country. turkey is a young modern republic which appreciates democracy and secularism with its muslim, christian, jewish and other citizens. and as the citizens of this young republic, turkish people always value the great statesman, mustafa kemal atatürk’s motto, “peace at home, peace in the world”. similarly, the western countries cannot be labeled as “christian countries” due to their muslim, jewish, hindu or other citizens. countries have their governing systems and people living in a country have their beliefs called religion. despite the fact that religion is a 51 alliance of civilizations: “islam and west” dr. ismail hakki mirici or among cultures globally? common thick red line in the lives of human beings, countries should not be labeled in accordance with the characteristics of individuals however big portion of the population it may be. improving educational facilities concerning cultural diversity not only in the developing countries but also in the developed countries will be the most effective means of action for intercultural and inter-faith dialogue, mutual respect and understanding. most people in the developed western countries assume that islam is a threat to their social life. however, in islam, just like all other religions, fighting is forbidden. muslims are guided to love all creatures and they are reminded that a human being is the most beloved creature of god. in the holy book of muslims, koran, christ is introduced as one of the prophets who helped human beings find the way of the god. and all muslims believe in christ, which is not known commonly by most of those who have developed islamofobia. tony blair, former prime minister of britain (2006) introduces koran through his statement “the most remarkable thing about reading the koran in so far as it can be truly translated from the original arabic is to understand how progressive it is. i speak with great diffidence and humility as a member of another faith. i am not qualified to make any judgments. but as an outsider, the koran strikes me as a reforming book, trying to return judaism and christianity to their origins, rather as reformers attempted with the christian church centuries later. it is inclusive. it extols science and knowledge and abhors superstition. it is practical and way ahead of its time in attitudes to marriage, women and governance”. likewise, käser (2008) reports that “analysis on the media report of the aoc illustrates that western journalists are frequently unfamiliar or only very superficially informed about muslim culture, which often leads to misunderstandings and biased coverage focusing on marginal systems such as radical islam while ignoring the vast majority of muslims”. tony blair also says (2006) “there are those perfectly decent-minded people who say the extremists who commit these acts of terrorism are not true muslims. and, of course, they are right. they are no more proper muslims than the protestant bigot who murders a catholic in northern ireland is a proper christian.” 52 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 providing sufficient education for all, both in the developing and in the developed countries about different cultures, will contribute to internationally collaborative fight against terrorism. it should not be forgotten that terrorists cannot represent a society or a culture or a religion. when the conflicts in different parts of the world are closely examined, besides the education based reasons, it is also possible to realize that globalization matters due to the fear of homogenization and question of identity. from this viewpoint it is safe to assume that conflicts can partially be avoided through letting each culture find itself in the diversity. from this perspective blair (2006) points out “which brings me to the fundamental point. ‘we’ is not the west. ‘we’ are as much muslim as christian or jew or hindu. ‘we’ are those who believe in religious tolerance, openness to others, to democracy, liberty and human rights administered by secular courts”. therefore all political leaders, representatives of international and regional bodies, civil society groups and foundations should introduce some practical and feasible plans for promoting crosscultural understanding globally. considering the global scope of the objectives of the alliance we should focus on democracy, peace and collaboration for every single world citizen whoever s/he may be and wherever s/he may live. s/he can be a shepherd in the highlands of sweden, a business person in manhattan island of new york in the usa, a driver in lagos in nigeria or a student in manila in the philippines. conclusion unfortunately, it is a striking fact that in some parts of the world due to economic, social and political reasons, there are financial, educational and health problems which need urgent solution. as a result of such problems, sometimes cross-cultural problems may occur. the aoc has a significant role in building bridges between societies as well as in promoting mutual understanding and tolerance through reducing tensions and hostility within and among societies. the un secretary general, co-sponsors 53 alliance of civilizations: “islam and west” dr. ismail hakki mirici or among cultures globally? (governments of turkey and spain), high level group, partner organizations and group friends have exerted great effort in pursuing the objectives of the alliance. in light of the discussion in this study, it is safe to conclude that we need self-criticism, mutual understanding and dialogue, but the conceptualization of the problems should be revised and the general policy in the problem solving approaches of the aoc should be determined accordingly. the action plans have to focus on the consequent answer to the following question: is this an alliance of “islam and the west” or “among cultures globally”? references blair, t. (2006). a clash about civilization. speech by tony blair, 21 march 2006 http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=18735 erdogan, r.t. (2005). the opening speech, november, 27, 2005, mallorca http://www.medeniyetlerittifaki.gov.tr/basbakan_mallaorca_toplant i1.htm erdogan, r.t. (2006). the meeting of theory groups, march, 27, 2006, sudan (http://www.medeniyetlerittifaki.gov.tr/digertoplantilar_hartum2.ht m) http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/2010/et_2010_en.html http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/educ/bologna/bologna_en.html http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/index_en.html käser, m. (2008). civilizations: alliance or clash. commentary by myriam käser for isn security watch (09/03/08) (http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=18735) sampaio, j. (2007, a). civilizations and the challenge for peace: obstacles and opportunities. informal thematic debate of the general assembly. may, 11, 2007, new york (http://www.unaoc.org/content/view) sampaio, j. (2007, b). address to the aoc group friends (ministerial level). un ecosoc chamber. september, 26, 2007 (http://www.unaoc.org/content/view) sampaio, j. (2007, c). islamic conference youth forum for dialogue and cooperation (icyf-dc) integrational high level conference. 28 october2 november 2007, baku, azerbaijan (http://www.unaoc.org/content/view) 54 http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/educ/bologna/bologna_en.html http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/index_en.html http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=18735 http://www.unaoc.org/content/view http://www.unaoc.org/content/view http://www.unaoc.org/content/view international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 sampaio, j. (2008). address to the un human rights council high level segment. march, 3, 2008, geneva (http://www.unaoc.org/content/view) www.acer.edu.au/search/search.php?zoom_query=oecd&zoom_page=9 &zoom_per_page=10&zoom_and=0&zoom_sort=0 ). www.medeniyetlerittifaki.gov.tr/digertoplantilar_hartum.htm): www.medeniyetlerittifaki.gov.tr/digertoplantilar_kadininrolu.htm; www.news24.com/news24/world/news/0,,2-101462_1970868,00.html www.unaoc.org zapatero, j. l. (2008). the opening speech. inauguration of the first alliance of civilizations forum. january, 15, 2008, madrid 55 http://www.unaoc.org/content/view http://www.acer.edu.au/search/search.php?zoom_query=oecd&zoom_page=9&zoom_per_page=10&zoom_and=0&zoom_sort=0 http://www.acer.edu.au/search/search.php?zoom_query=oecd&zoom_page=9&zoom_per_page=10&zoom_and=0&zoom_sort=0 http://www.medeniyetlerittifaki.gov.tr/digertoplantilar_hartum.htm http://www.medeniyetlerittifaki.gov.tr/digertoplantilar_kadininrolu.htm http://www.news24.com/news24/world/news/0,,2-10-1462_1970868,00.html http://www.news24.com/news24/world/news/0,,2-10-1462_1970868,00.html http://www.unaoc.org/ database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! guided knowledge search during mathematical problem solving international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 73 possibilities and opportunities in dialogue among civilizations: inclusion of dalits in nepalese society som prasad niroula program coordinator south asia forum for human rights nepal in 1998, the un general assembly proclaimed the year 2001 as the united nations year of dialogue among civilizations. there are a number of possibilities and opportunities envisioned to be achieved in that proclamation. one which particularly concerns many marginalized groups worldwide is the possibility of “actively promoting a culture of peace – respect for one another – regardless of belief, culture, language, and not fearing or repressing differences within or between societies but cherishing them as a precious asset of humanity” (toh, 2008, 2). in 2005, the un established the alliance of civilizations (aoc) as a follow-up to the year of dialogue among civilizations. the aoc aims to improve understanding and cooperative relations among nations and peoples across cultures and religions, thereby helping to counter the forces that fuel polarization and extremism. while the alliance of civilizations appears to address global issues, many prejudices, misconceptions, and polarization take place everyday in villages, communities, and micro societies characterized by class, cultural, economic and political disparities. this paper will focus particularly on the dalits of nepal, how they have been excluded from mainstream nepalese society and the initiatives undertaken by the dalits themselves in solidarity with numerous local, national and international civil society organizations and the government to break down historical, cultural, attitudinal and structural barriers to their full participation in society. finally, some recommendations are offered for reforms in the educational system, particularly on teachers’ training and dalits’ access to education. possibilities and opportunities in dialogue som prasad niroula among civilizations: inclusion of dalits in nepalese society background the hindu civilization is one of the oldest civilizations in south asia. the hindu religion started with the indu valley civilization around 2600-1900 bc. hindu culture and religious practices are diverse and widely observed in the india subcontinent nepal, india, sri lanka and bangladesh and pakistan. majority of the hindus in the present context reside in india and nepal. they are minorities in pakistan, sri lanka and bangladesh. the caste system within the hindu religion, which is based on the notion of “pure” and “impure” has been practiced for a long time. the higher caste people (brahmins) were considered the “pure” or clean and the dalits (sudras) were considered “impure.” the basis of this division was the nature of work (labor) performed by each group. the dalits were assigned to work as tailor, blacksmith and leather worker. the castebased discrimination and the perpetuation of “untouchability” is the severest form of discrimination in hindu society. namala (2006) noted that there are about 167 million dalits facing castebased discrimination and exclusion in its most severe forms, such as untouchability. in 1963, the practice of untouchability was declared illegal in nepal. despite the legal ban, the practice of untouchability and denial of the basic human rights of people labeled as “polluted” or “impure,” a practice sanctioned by religious traditions, is the most insidious manifestation of caste-based discrimination. caste-based discrimination denies a fraction of society access to public services including water, education, health, land, employment, social services and other resources. the segregation and exclusion of the dalits from the mainstream of governance and institutions has been practiced since the beginning of hindu religion and cultural practices. it is therefore crucial that the notion of untouchability and impurity is challenged through inter-community dialogue among the dalits and non-dalits (brahmins, chettri and other communities). the practice of inter-community dialogue will decrease the agony of the dalits and promote cultural harmony among dalits and non-dalits. 74 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 the purpose of this paper is to briefly give an overview of the situation of the dalits. has nepal ratified the international instruments of human rights? who are the dalits? what obligations has nepal assumed to protect the rights of the dalits? what are the constitutional and statutory rights of dalits in general and their educational rights in particular? what is the nature of discrimination experienced by dalits? do they experience discrimination in educational institutions, especially, in schools? in addition, this paper will present a preliminary overview of the country’s economic condition, the status of education, and administrative structure and division. about nepal nepal is a land-locked country bordered by india in the south, east and west and china in the north. according to the 2001 census, the population of nepal is 23.4 million with about 60 castes/ethnic groups. the total land area of nepal is 147,181 sq. km. it has been divided into three geographic regions: mountains of the great himalaya in the north, middle hills with many river valleys, and southern plains also known as tarai. administratively it has been divided into 5 development regions, with 75 districts which are further divided into 3914 village development committees and 58 municipalities. the 1990 constitution of the kingdom of nepal and the 2006 interim constitution guarantee fundamental human rights and an independent judiciary. majority of the political parties have accepted liberal democratic practices as guiding principles for governance. agriculture is a prime factor of the national economy which provides livelihood for 80 percent out of 85 percent rural population. agricultural productions support 40 percent of the gross national product, industry and services provide 22 percent and 38 percent respectively. in the countryside, 44 percent live below the poverty line compared to 23 percent of the urban population. the country’s per capita income is $250 (cbs, 2001). 75 possibilities and opportunities in dialogue som prasad niroula among civilizations: inclusion of dalits in nepalese society the annual population growth rate is 2.4. the average family size is 5.45. the infant mortality rate is 66 out of 1000 live births. maternal mortality rate is 540 out of 100,000. the average life expectancy is 59 (hmg, 2002). according to the national human rights commission (2003, p. 84) about 47 percent of the children suffer from malnutrition. the national literacy rate is 51 percent which varies between the female (39 percent) and male (63 percent). nepal human rights report (2003, p. 3) stated that the literacy and participation of the dalits and janajaties is almost half of the national level literacy rate. the janajati are those ethnic groups who have their own territorial areas, mother tongue, religions, and cultures. nepalese scholars argue that the janajatis do not fall under the hindu caste-based hierarchical order (nhrc, 2003 p. 94). the social structure of nepal is complex based on the caste structure of the hindu religion. according to the hindu religion, brahma, the creator, created brahmin from his mouth, kshetria from his head, vaishya from his thigh and shudra from his feet. therefore from the very beginning of creation, the shudras are shown to have originated from the disrespectful part of the body of the creator, so they had to serve all other classes of people through manual work. kshetrias ruled the country, brahmins were the priests and vaishyas used to handle the economy of the country. mabuhang (2004) noted that the caste system is deeply rooted in nepalese society since the mall period in the 14th to the 17th century. the first shah king (ram shah) formally introduced the caste system in nepal. the first muluki ain (civil code) in 1854 codified the caste system according to the four verna of the classical vedic model including janjatiees (ethnic) peoples also who were not hindus. the wearers of holy thread (tagadhari) are put into the highest position, followed by alcohol-drinkers (matwali), impure but touchable castes (chhoi chhito halnu naparne) and impure and untouchable castes (chhoi chhito halnu parne). according to caste categorization, the brahmins are assigned to work as priests and advisors of the government. chetries are assigned as rulers and serve in military. the matwali (janjaties) are assigned to work as pastoral. the dalits, considered as untouchable, are groups of people who have different functions 76 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 like stitching cloths, blacksmith, preparing agricultural tool, and cobblers doing leather work. according to the 2001 population census, there was a total population of 30,30, 067 male and female dalits. of the 13.33 percentage of the total dalit population, 58.11 percent were the dalits who resided at the hills. the (30 percent) of the dalits consists of kami (blacksmith) where the lowest population which consisted of halokar (cbs, 2001). defining dalits the literal meaning of dalit is a person who is oppressed. in the context of south asia, dalit is a common term used to address the culturally, economically and socially marginalized people or community. gurung (1996) cited in dahal et al (2002) prefers to mention dalits as "caste groups." while the caste group gives a broad understanding of the categorization of different caste groups, it does not provide a deeper understanding in terms of the condition of the dalits. according to koirala (1996) cited in dahal et al (2002) dalit refers to a group of people who are religiously, culturally, socially and economically oppressed, who could belong to different language and ethnic groups. this definition is too broad since it includes all caste groups who are marginalized, like the newari society who are considered indigenous people. however, there are also different caste groups among the newars. thus it is essential to define specifically the dalits. bishwakarma (2001) prefers to use the term dalit exclusively only for the so-called “untouchables.” considering the different definitions, this paper conceptualizes the dalits as a group of untouchable people marginalized in the economic, political, social and cultural spheres in society. the problem of untouchabilities people belonging to lower castes or “untouchables” had led a miserable life for a long time. they were not allowed to acquire property, construct comfortable houses, touch higher caste 77 possibilities and opportunities in dialogue som prasad niroula among civilizations: inclusion of dalits in nepalese society people, and education was far beyond their reach. muluki ain (national code) of 1853 further formalized the caste system which created atrocities for lower caste people as they were further deprived of attending social festivals. the higher caste people invited damai (musicians) during marriage ceremonies. but they could not touch people or food at the festivals. the lower caste people were banned from taking part in any funeral gathering of higher caste people (brahmins and chettries). for similar kind of crimes, there were different punishments for different castes. if a dalit came across higher caste people, he/she had to make way for the higher caste people and salute them. the dalits were required to use formal and polite language. according to karel: many adolescents have lost friends once they have revealed their dalit identity. they have been mistreated and humiliated in school and have refused to go back to school for fear of being called "podes." parents note that many children in the community drop out of school due to discrimination, financial problems and some drop out in search of jobs (kharel, 2006: 6) a large number of dalits have changed their family name to look similar to the higher caste people. this process has somehow prevented the dalits from getting humiliated for a certain period of time. the humiliation on the basis of caste is not only limited to families but also in the school and public institutions like the village development committees and temples. there are many incidents where lower caste children are barred from drinking water in schools due to the untouchable stigma on them. unfortunately, the education system in nepal does not address discriminatory social and cultural values. the social structure is based on hierarchy where the high caste people have to be always respected by the lower caste. the lower caste people always have to address the upper caste people in respective words like hajur and follow without question, instructions from high caste people about social practices. the conception of superiority always dominates the so-called lower caste people. there is no dialogical interaction between the higher caste and 78 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 lower caste people. the higher caste people always dominate the lower caste people in terms of social participation and interaction. the caste superiority is therefore a real obstacle for dialogical interaction among the different groups in society and in schools. international normative framework on human rights education human beings are born with certain inalienable fundamental rights. the right to equality and peaceful existence are basic and inseparable rights of every human being. the 1948 universal declaration on human rights (udhr) identified human rights as fundamental to the achievement of peace and progress. based on the united nations charter and the udhr, various international covenants incorporated various aspects of human rights. nepal has signed and ratified international covenants and is working to implement and assimilate them into the mainstream development effort (hrap, 2004). article 13 of the international convention on economic, social and cultural rights is very clear about the state's obligation to “education for all.” this covenant recognizes that receiving a primary education is a right of all children. all member states of the un agreed that education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity, and shall strengthen the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms (un 1967, icescr, article 13). article 5 of the cerd mentions that the state has an obligation to promote the human rights of all disadvantaged groups. this article integrates the civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights and shows all rights are interdependent, indispensable and indivisible. furthermore, states have to guarantee the rights without distinction as to race, colour, nationaity or ethnic origin, to equality before the law (cerd, article 5). 79 possibilities and opportunities in dialogue som prasad niroula among civilizations: inclusion of dalits in nepalese society nepalese context of normative framework and fundamental rights the government of nepal is a state party to more than 16 international instruments of human rights. these include the major six conventions on civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights, racial discrimination, discrimination against women, rights of the child and against torture. these conventions provide a normative framework on rights to education and peace education. nepal adopted the international human rights instruments in its domestic laws. nepal's treaty act of 1990 is one of the very significant laws in nepal, which respects international laws not only in a moral sense but also as binding laws. section 9 (1) of the treaty act 1990 accords international treaties the same legal status as domestic laws. in case of conflict between the provisions of the domestic laws and the treaty, the treaty provisions do prevail over the domestic laws. such an application is extended only to those treaties which are ratified, acceded, accepted and approved by the parliament. moreover, the constitution of the kingdom of nepal 1990 and interim constitution of nepal 2006 guaranteed the following fundamental human rights: right to equality; right to freedom; right to press and publication; rights regarding criminal justice; right against prevention and detention; right to information; right to property, cultural and educational rights; right to religion; right against exploitation; right to privacy; and rights to constitutional remedy (constitution of nepal, 1990 and interim constitution of nepal 2006). while non -governmental organizations are promoting human rights education in nonformal and informal education, the government has not yet introduced human rights education in the formal school system. nevertheless, the government has prepared a national action plan on human rights. the government has committed to promote the international human rights instruments by legally ratifying the human rights conventions. notwithstanding all these instruments, the dalits of 80 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 nepal are still discriminated against in almost every aspect of their lives. discrimination faced by dalits the dalits have been marginalized in almost every activity in nepalese society such as access to natural resources, access to economic activities and educational institutions, and participation in socio-cultural practices and political institutions. educational status of dalits the dalits’ educational status is lowest compared with high castes brahmin, chhetri, newar and janajatis. the highest literacy rate for brahmins is 58 percent while the dalits’ remain at 23.8 per cent). table1: educational status of dalits caste / ethnic groups literacy rate (among 6 years and above population) brahmin 58 chhetri 42 newar 54.8 janajati 35.2 dalit 23.8 total in nepal 65 source: nesac, 1998 dalit students have been discriminated against not only by the wider society but by teachers as well. they have been facing problems of housing as well as equal participation in the classroom and outer activities. there are few cases about such discrimination of dalit students. shalik ram kharel threw out binod pariyar of bulingtar vdc-3 of nawalparasi district from his house after he came to 81 possibilities and opportunities in dialogue som prasad niroula among civilizations: inclusion of dalits in nepalese society know binod was a dalit boy. binod had rented a room at kharel’s house situated near janaki higher secondary school of gaindakot to sit in the upcoming school leaving certificate examinations. binod and prakash giri had rented the room on 13 february 2006 for two months. however after 13 days kharel asked both students to leave the room. kharel is an accountant at the janaki higher secondary school. however prakash giri said kharel threatened and accused him that he brought the dalit boy to his house without prior information. according to binod, kharel had confessed that his parents do not accept even the food he serves (jagaran media centre, 2008:1). the above incident illustrates the discrimination faced by dalit students even by members of educational institutions. dalit students have to suffer such discrimination which impacts on their pshychological well-being distracting them from concentrating on their studies. moreover, while the government has ratified the international instrument on human rights and accepted to offer free education, the dalits are still not entitled to free education. the students have to pay an admission fee which is a burden to the impoverished communities, particularly the dalit community. dalit students are barred from attending school due to financial constraints. it is difficult for the dalits to buy school dress and school supplies like paper, notebook, and pencil. though there is the provision of free education to dalit student up to the secondary level, the dalit students of nanda uma secondary school, odraha vdc-2 have been told to attend their classes only after bringing rs. 250 as the new admission fee. since then, the dalit students are tilling lands at the nearby districtudaypur, for generating money. khusilal paswan, manju kumari paswan, and durgi paswan of grade 6, 8, and 9 respectively, and dozens of others have left going to the school because of the same reason. manju paswan who passed the exam of grade five, quit going to the school when her mother was unable to provide her the admission fee (jagarn media centre, 2008:2). the stigma of untouchability is also a serious problem that dalit students have to face in school from a high caste teacher. 82 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 the case described below demonstrates the discrimination against dalit students practiced by teachers at school. six dalit students of fadkedhunga lower secondary school, majhphant parvat, were denied the vocational exam of cookery. they were 7 graders anita b.k., durga pariyar, tikaram pariyar, som bdr. pariyar, narayan pariyar and durge pariyar. subject teachers shankar g.c., kapur malla, tulasi paudel along with other students treated the dalit students very badly. when people from every walk of life protested against their discriminatory act, the perpetrators organized a co-fest, asked excuse in public, and provided rs. 35 thousand as compensation to the dalit students. however, the support from one of the teachesr influenced other nondalit students and they started abusing the dalits with vulgar words. the dalit students went to teachers kapur malla and tulasi paudel for support, but they were suggested to create musical environment by singing and dancing. they were termed as eaters of buffalo, non worshippers, etc. by the teachers. the dalit students returned home without getting a chance of sitting in the cookery exam (nepali, n.a). human development indicators of dalits the table below represents the human development indicators based on the average life expectancy and per capita and consumption in nepalese rupees. as indicated in the table, the situation of the dalits is worst compared to other caste/ethnic groups. the national average life expectancy is 55 in 1998 whereas the dalits is 42 years. similarly, the per capita income varies between high caste and lower caste people where dalits have almost half of the per capita income of the high caste. the millennium development goal (mdg) national need assessment report mentioned that: about a fourth of the children of primary school-going age are out of school, but also one half of those who enroll never complete the primary level. there are several reasons for such low completion rate. if social and economic constraints are important reasons, the education environment in the schools is also a factor. (mdg, 2006) 83 possibilities and opportunities in dialogue som prasad niroula among civilizations: inclusion of dalits in nepalese society table2: selected human development indicators by caste / ethnic groups, 1998 indicators (1usd= nrs. 74) caste / ethnic groups average life expectancy (in years) per capita income (in rs.) per capita consumption (in rs.) brahmin 60.8 9921 1533 chhetri 56.3 7744 1197 newar 62.2 11953 1848 janajati 53 6607 6911 dalit 42 4940 764 nepal (average) 55 7673 11866 source: nesac, 1998 the dalits’ condition in terms of life expectancy, income level and consumption are the lowest compared to higher castes. this shows that the dalits are marginalized in almost all kinds of economic activities. access to resources most of the dalits are deprived of land ownership. the categorization of occupational groups, the low caste people like kami (black smith), damai (tailor), are asked to carry out their occupations. further, dalits cannot compete with modern technology led by industrial productions, therefore they leave their traditional occupation. thus, they have to depend on subsistence agriculture, which makes land their prime assets. obviously, dalits have a hard time sustaining their livelihoods due to lack of land ownership. the agricultural wage laborers are paid very low wages. 84 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 table 3: landownership of the dalits land ownership status (%) dalit caste landless less than 5 ropanies 6-10 ropanies 11-20 ropanies more than 20 ropanies total cases kami 11.2 46.5 18.8 17.1 6.5 170 damai 28.8 55.1 11.5 3.2 1.3 156 sarki 7.6 47.8 24.2 16.7 3.8 157 badi 39.1 39.1 13.0 4.3 4.3 46 dhobi 33.3 66.7 3 doom 88.2 11.8 17 gaine 41.2 45.1 9.8 3.9 51 hudke 100.0 8 kasai 23.5 73.5 2.9 34 musahar 33.3 55.6 11.1 9 pode 21.7 56.5 21.7 23 total 23.0 48.7 15.6 9.6 3.1 674 source: fedo, 2002: 83 (table 3) the survey of fedo (2002) stated that about 23 percent of dalits are landless. the largest piece of land owned by kami is 17.10 percent of the total land coverage. in contrast, the hudke are 100 percent landless. thus, the dalits’ livelihood is dependent on being agricultural laborer due to the fact that many of them do not own any land. dalits have been marginalized in society, in a number of ways, from sharing the available resources in the community. the higher caste people do not share the same water source with lower caste people. most of the water sources are owned by the higher caste people in rural areas. the lower caste people have to fetch water from long distances. socio-cultural factors socio-cultural factors are important in education. research show that social discrimination by upper caste students and teachers is a major cause of a high dropout rate of dalit students. rasaili stated (2004 pp. 33) that “sometimes the dalit students can not 85 possibilities and opportunities in dialogue som prasad niroula among civilizations: inclusion of dalits in nepalese society drink water from the same tap used by the upper castes' in schools.” dalits are forbidden from entering social institutions, particularly the temple. the hindu considers the temple as a sacred place. the conflict arises in the entrance of temple between dalits and higher caste people. while the so-called lower caste people also belong to the hindu religion, the higher caste people continue blocking entry of the dalits into the temples. although they are members of the society, the dalits are still not allowed to share food, enter the temple and are restricted from various public places and functions. in schools, the dalit is not accepted in a peon post because the peon has to serve water, tea and food to the teachers. in restaurants they are forced to wash utensils. inter-caste marriage is restricted. there are numerous cases where girls and boys have to leave the village after entering into inter-caste marriage. neither the society nor the families accept inter-caste marriages. the higher caste people do not want to see dalits early in the morning. they regard it is an inauspicious encounter. they believe that their days will not be good once they encounter lower caste people in the morning. similarly, if they see a dalit at the first instance while leaving for a long journey, they believe their work will not be completed. the high caste people have numerous superstitious beliefs against the dalits. the dalits’ social status is always undermined by calling them 'ta' (thou). but the higher caste people expect to be addressed as 'tapai' (you) by the lower caste. similarly, the socialization process in the society teaches the rest of the people to address the dalits as 'ta'. discrimination against the lower caste people is rampant in society even though such discrimination is legally restricted. there are hundreds of prejudices on the “untouchables” influenced by cultural, religious and social contacts. access to social and political institutions a meaningful participation of the dalits in social and political institution would help to emancipate them from discrimination. 86 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 lawoti (2005) acknowledges that inclusion of marginalized people in socio-political institutions and activities, like attending schools and equal sharing of the benefit of the development would make their lives better. however, the table showing the representation in government offices of the state by castes, clearly demonstrates how the dalits are almost non-entities in government leadership. table -4: number of representatives on the top level of the state by caste/ ethnic groups, 1999 caste / ethnic groups sectors brahmin / chhetri newa r janajati dalit total constitutional commission 181 32 4 0 235 minister 14 6 2 0 25 general administrator 20 3 4 0 32 manager 159 20 36 4 265 political leader (central level) 97 18 25 0 166 local governor 106 30 23 0 190 national industry & business 7 20 0 0 42 education professional 75 11 2 1 96 culture corporation 85 22 6 0 113 science & technology 36 18 2 0 62 civil society 41 18 1 0 64 total 1011 231 108 5 1525 source: neupane, 1999. the above table indicates that high-ranking positions of government are filled by the high caste brahmin and chhetri, and newar. the dalits’ participation in governance is zero except 4 managers and 1 in education. in addition, the dalits have been restricted from certain occupations. they can perform only low paid manual jobs like cleaning and disposal of carcasses. a few dalits are employed in the security forces as cleaners. the 87 possibilities and opportunities in dialogue som prasad niroula among civilizations: inclusion of dalits in nepalese society participation of dalits in the social and political institution is negligible. the social exclusion of dalits is immeasurable in governance system. dalits initiatives for upliftment the dalit movement has started in nepal after the advent of democracy in 1990. the political parties, non-governmental organizations and social organizations have joined hands to combat discrimination against “untouchables” and caste-based discrimination. the development plan of nepal also involves mobilization of internal resources, training, sharing of experiences to bring about continuity and effectiveness in their organizations, programmes and resource identification. there are several international non-governmental organization (ingos) such as action-aid nepal (aan), save the children us, care nepal, and department of international development (dfid) working in the field of development for the dalits. their programmes are focused primarily on social transformation by raising awareness and public campaigns; economic development; career (personality) development with improvement in education, health and living conditions; and improving the participation in decision making process. in addition, deutche gesellschaft fur technische zusammenarbeit (gtz), lutheran world service, danish international development agency (danida), oxfam international, canadian cooperation office nepal (cco-nepal), united nations development agencies, plan international and others have also conducted programmmes on dalits and other disadvantaged groups. likewise, there are about more that 100 dalit organizations focused on dalit issues in nepal. dalit ngo federation (mother organizations of 101 dalit organizations) has been working as an umbrella organization of dalit-based organizations. its activities mainly focus on social enhancement, cultural change, women empowerment, income generation, legal awareness, etc. some ngos like iids (institute for integrated development studies), 88 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 rsdc (rural self-reliance development centre), atma nirbhar bikash monch (self reliance development forum) have made the dalits as their community. they are mainly focusing on poverty alleviation and improvement of living conditions of the dalit community. similarly, jagaran media center spreads information, message and education to raise dalits self confidence through programmes such as face to face, journalism training, katwal community radio program, jagaran lekhmala (paper series), etc. jun utthan pratisthan (jup) has been working to create an equitable society regardless of caste system and its mission is to empower and integrate the dalit community in the mainstream of national development. moreover, political parties in their election manifestos have made a commitment to the promotion and protection of dalits at various level. however, the implementation of many of their commitments remains on paper. dalits and other minority groups have insignificant presence in the government, public institutions and civil society organizations. the initiatives of governmental and non-governmental organizations to uplift dalits in the economic, social and cultural spheres have still a long long way to go. the official curriculum barely addresses the problem of the caste system in nepal. the text books also portray the practice of discrimination by mentioning the different layers of social status and segregation of the community based on the caste and work entitled to different groups. the segregation and division in the curriculum further strengthen caste and prejudice towards the dalit community. the government reformulated the curriculum after the advent of democracy in 1990 and signed the international instruments on human rights. the human rights report of nepal (2003) mentioned that the school curriculum should be amended to create awareness in society to give a respectful place to dalits. however, the curriculum and teachers training package has not been radically formulated to eradicate the age-long caste based discrimination on dalits. 89 possibilities and opportunities in dialogue som prasad niroula among civilizations: inclusion of dalits in nepalese society conclusion dalits make a large segment of nepalese society. they are industrious but most of them have been leading a miserable life. they have very low access to education, to economic opportunities and are discriminated against socially, culturally, and politically. their representation in governance is almost nil. their per capita income is 36 percent less than higher caste people. most of the dalits are landless, yet their livelihood is dependent on agriculture. the governance system that makes policies and programmes does not address the needs of dalits. dalit students face discrimination in schools as well as the wider community. teachers discriminate against dalit students by not allowing them to use the same pot to drink water at school. when they look for renting house, they are given low priority. they face discrimination from friends. they are given low priority in terms of accessing opportunities after they complete their education and go looking for jobs. this is obviously a failure of the educational institutions to provide nondiscriminatory education and to formulate policies to dismantle discriminatory practices. it is therefore most urgent that they are uplifted from such marginal existence so that they can flourish in a culture of peace and harmony. as discussed above, education is a foundation for personal and community prosperity. thus, this paper recommends that revisions be made of the current teachers training packages to include values formation education based on the normative framework of peace and human rights education. the teachers pre-service training should be based on nondiscriminatory principles in school or in community regardless of caste, class, gender and colour. the curriculum should be focused on the formation of values of love, harmony, cooperation, and promotion of the dignity of dalits. the government should encourage the employment of dalit teachers. moreover, dalits students should be provided sufficient scholarship quotas to increase their access to education. 90 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 references biswokarma, h..(2001). dalitko paribhasa dalit utthan vidheyakko sambandhama (definition of dalit in the context of the dalit upliftment bill dalit utthan vidheyak). kantipur daily, april, 2001. kathmandu: kantipur publication. dahal, d. r., et el (2002), situation analysis of dalits in nepal, national strategy report. nepal: national planning commission feminist dalit organization (fedo).(2002). dalits of nepal issues & challenges. kathamandu: author. government of nepal. 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(2006) interim constitution of nepal 2063. kathmandu: author government of nepal and undp.(2006). millennium development goals: need assessment for nepal. kathmandu: author hmg (1990). constitution of kingdom nepal 2047. kathmandu: his majesty of government of nepal. hmg and un country team (2002) progress report 2002 millennium development goals. kathmandu: hmg and unicef retrieved from world wide web: http://www.nepalnews.com.np/contents/englishdaily. jagaran media centre (2008:1) dalit student thrown out of his rented house. source: http://www.jagaranmedia.org.np/e-bulletin.php?id=247#1 [down loaded on may 22, 2008] jagaran media centre (2008:2) dalit student deprived of education. source: http://www.jagaranmedia.org.np/jagaran-media-nepaldalit-news.php?id=111 [saptari district, 10 may 2008] nepali, dilip kumar and majhphant (n.a) teachers practicing untouchability [http://www.jagaranmedia.org.np/jagaran-medianepal-dalit-news.php?id=29 ] kharel, s.(2006). the complexity of dalit identity and discrimination. a quaterly bulletin of jana utthan pratisthan, 6-7. koirala, b. n. 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(1948). universal declaration of human rights (udhr) retrieved from world wide web: http://www.un.org/overview/rights.html] on may 07,2007. 92 database connection failed! database connection failed! ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 279-295 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction action research journaling as a developmental tool for health and physical education teachers thomas g. ryan a a nipissing university, 100 college drive, north bay, p1b 8l7, canada abstract at present there is a global need to assume an inquiry stance to address problems to locate solutions, as complex problems surface in all walks of life. with new health and physical education provincial curricula emerging in 2019, the province of ontario (canada) is also making inquiry a priority. educators in ontario are expected to lead students in inquiry efforts yet in order to do this requires teacher training that is authentic, appropriate and professional. the purpose of this study is to examine how aspects of action research (ar) can be used to enhance and improve teaching with its inquiry-based learning elements that complement the role of educators and students alike. journaling in ar is an analysis mode that can help participants achieve certain resolutions within an educational landscape. ar can infuse and nurture teacher self-development within teacher training while improving interpersonal relationships and developing pedagogy via practical experiences. teacher change through ar occurs within the interactions, experiences and professional development that seems to imbue teacher training. © 2017 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: action research; journaling; inquiry-based learning; teacher development 1. introduction today a person wishing to become a health and physical education teacher in the province of ontario (canada) must undertake a two-year program of study culminating with a bachelor of education professional degree. once achieved the ontario graduate will usually apply to the ontario college of teachers and become certified. once certified a person may be hired to teach in the province of ontario. the training period in 2020 is both challenging and embraces the traditions long-standing in ontario education. one long standing tradition in education is inquiry, the ability to question, and to face both problems and dilemmas as a matter of praxis. praxis is informed committed action, that gives rise to knowledge rather than just successful action. it is informed because other people's views are taken into account. it is committed and intentional in terms of 280 ryan/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 279-295 values that have been examined and can be argued. it leads to knowledge from and about educational practice. (mcniff, lomax and whitehead, 1996, p. 8) however, being informed and intentional a person needs to be knowledgeable and work to maintain this status by seeking answers, clarifications and coping. a teacher is an inquirer who sees learning as experience and a central element of life itself. indeed, socrates stated that a life without inquiry is not worth living (fadiman, 1978). within the training of a health and physical education teacher in the province of ontario, preservice students are introduced, or at least they should be introduced to the ontario health & physical education curriculum with its inquiry emphasis (ryan, 2019). inquiry within the current ontario health and physical education curricular document is a four-part inquiry process linked to four questions and four areas of learning such as: “knowing yourself – who am i?; exploring opportunities – what are my opportunities?; making decisions and setting goals – who do i want to become?; and achieving goals and making transitions – what is my plan for achieving my goals?” (ontario ministry of education, 2019, p.38). the best approach to address each area is by using the inquiry framework as detailed in figure one. figure 1 inquiry framework for health and physical education: six components of inquiry-based learning. note: (ophe, 2015, p. 8). ryan/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 279-295 281 knowing what questions to ask can help student teachers, mentoring teachers and students “explore and learn together. students should have opportunities to participate in a wide range of activities . . . to enable them to develop inquiry and research skills and provide opportunities for selfexpression and personal choice” (ontario health & physical education, 2019, p.56). questioning is a means to explore, inquire and “research skills are critical to students’ success in all subjects of the curriculum and in all areas of their lives” (ontario health & physical education, 2019, p.78). inquiry and research are at the heart of learning in all subject areas. in health and physical education, students are encouraged to develop their ability to ask questions and to explore a variety of possible answers to those questions. teachers can support this process through their own use of effective questioning techniques and by planning instruction to support inquiry (particularly in the context of experiential learning. (ontario health & physical education, 2019, p.82) the ability to “respond to such questions helps students build their confidence and competence as they develop physical and health literacy. the teacher’s questioning also provides students with a model for developing their own habits of inquiry” (ontario health & physical education, 2019, p.82). an educator questioning instruction, pedagogy, and students is actually doing something that is very much a tradition in education (ryan, 2019). socrates provided educators with a system of questioning where everything is questioned and truth was approached only through dialogues or the play of minds (ryan, 2013). many dialogues can be thought of as art, open to criticism, especially when the interchanges are documented and given further consideration (ryan, 2013). human interchanges constitute pedagogy which is grounded and understood as the “interactions between teachers, students, and the learning environment and the learning tasks” (murphy, 2008, p. 35). it is through these interactions that pedagogy may be questioned as teachers in-training and in-service educators reflect upon (schon, 1983) authentic problems (dewey, 1897). these prudently developed questions and authentic problems are explored recursively (kolb & kolb, 2005) to realize solutions or coping mechanisms, in the case that a problem is not solved. this planned and playful process connects cognitive and affective modes as well as physical action, in order to play with problems (piaget, 1990). when combined, these modes and planned moves in the curriculum transport participants into the role of an action researcher (ryan, 2018). 1.1. purpose the purpose of this study is to examine how journaling within action research can be used to enhance and improve pre-service teaching with its inquiry-based learning 282 ryan/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 279-295 elements. pre-service teachers who adopt an inquiry stance in training often alter their approach by integrating inquiry-based instruction within planning and revisions. an introduction to journal writing is a means to promote reflection, while supporting professional development and ongoing revision of practice. 2. methodology: action research as a tool more and more, educators are realizing that action research (ar) is a process that allows and supports the exploration of teaching experience to realize “clarity and understanding of events and activities and use those extended understandings to construct effective solutions to the problem(s)” (stringer, 2007, p.20). when a person assumes “inquiry as stance’ as a grounded theory of action that positions the role of practitioners and practitioner knowledge as central to the goal of transforming teaching, learning, leading, and schooling” (cochran-smith & lytle, 2009, p.119), action researchers become professional developers of their own praxis (ryan, 2018). action research is a “systematic procedure completed by individuals in an educational setting to gather information about and subsequently improve the ways in which their particular educational setting operates, how they teach, and how well their students learn” (creswell & guetterman, 2019). ar “is not a panacea for all ills and does not resolve specific problems but provides a means for people to more clearly understand their situations and to formulate effective solutions to problems they face” (stringer, 2014, p. 8). kemmis (2009) believes ar, is a critical and self-critical process aimed at animating these transformations through individual and collective self-transformation: transformation of our practices, transformation of the way we understand our practices, and transformation of the conditions that enable and constrain our practice. transforming our practices means transforming what we do; transforming our understandings means transforming what we think and say; and transforming the conditions of practice means transforming the ways we relate to others and to things and circumstances around us. (p.463) ar is cyclical and recursive as researchers reflect, identify, examine and act upon their findings. action research allows educators the opportunity to be more effective in their teaching and in the development of their students (ryan, 2018). key features of ar seem to apply specifically to educators: 1. the recognition of the capacity of people living and working in particular settings to participate actively in all aspects of the research process; and 2. the research conducted by participants is oriented to making improvements in the practices and their settings by the participants themselves (kemmis, mctaggart, & nixon, 2014, p.4). ryan/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 279-295 283 it is this professional improvement and development mode that supplements preservice education classes and serves teachers in training who can use ar as a tool to examine, process and filter teaching experience (ryan, 2018). ar is premeditated and often methodical via a series of commitments “grounded in the ontological ‘i’ of the researcher, and uses a living logic; that is, researchers organize their thinking in terms of what they are experiencing at the moment” (mcniff & whitehead, 2006, p. 42). inquirybased learning is ". . . a system of learning that supports the development of students' problem solving and critical thinking skills, which is crucial for them in everyday activities" (maxwell, lambeth, & cox, 2015, p.3). within teacher training each strategic recursive step brings about new insights by looking within the moment of experience and equally back upon experiences (reflection) of teaching, for example, figure two details one ar step/phase that can be repeated again and again, recursively over time. figure 2. one action research cycle/phase/step (ryan, 2007). the challenge for pre-service educators is to capture, note, and reflect upon actions that happen quickly in new and unfamiliar, complex teaching environments. however, ar “can transform teachers, the classroom, and the school community” (ward & millar, 2019, p.42). a pre-service teacher (student-teacher) as action researcher benefits from new understandings, as can be seen in the following ar report developed by a student, as part of a classroom assignment within an ontario faculty of education teacher training program. the pre-service teacher was completing a practicum at a school and they had an opportunity to document their own professional development while completing a faculty of education class assignment. the student-teacher was teaching a grade nine health and physical education class and had an opportunity to act, reflect and revise 284 ryan/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 279-295 praxis over time. what follows are one source of data, the reflective accounts of a studentteacher. 2.1. ar reflective journal action: lesson #1 grade 9 boys “decathlon”-3000m plot-expectations: • initially i expected students to perform at a higher level than they were actually capable of. • i did not allow for the appropriate amount of time required to maximize students’ activity time. settingenvironment: • in the gym the students were off task initially. • there were various distractions to contend with: the other grade 9 girls’ class, the loft workout room where senior students were working out. • i had a few verbal reminders for students to focus their attention on me, and one proximity management strategy. characters-profile: • grade 9 students were new to the school, still learning the rules and regulations, 4 iep students, however, did not seem to be an issue with this subject. reflections: my perspective: • i would have all the students run at the same time next time as a few students took a long time to complete the 3000 m. • the students waiting for their partners were cold, inactive, and often off task. • after warm-up and stretching there was not much time left in class to do anything else. • i need to have better management of class initially before beginning the task. i need to take more time and be clear on the task to ensure students are on the right track. • i need to address any late students. • i need to have a better scoring system with students’ names on them borrow ahead of time from associate. • on the positive: • i spoke well with a voice that carried. for instance, we share gym time with grade 9 girls! • the students once on task were listening well and participated well. • i did not have any major management issues outside in the field. • i had all the materials i needed (was prepared mostly!) • i was prepared for any students with asthma problems, kept it for jp when he needed it. ryan/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 279-295 285 • the students i usually had to watch were all on task. • i used humour and patience well with class. • students asked appropriate questions. • i had students help with equipment at the beginning and end of class. • i had a grade 12 ta in the class with me who was given some responsibilities with a few “identified” students in case there was a need for additional help that i could not provide. revisions: • i took a little more time preparing the class before moving onto the next task. • i spent more time making sure if a student was late it was addressed. • i used more nonverbal strategies to stop off task behavior. • i stopped my “discussion” abruptly and waited until students were quiet and listening again. action: lesson #2 grade 9 boys “decathlon”-400m plot-expectations: • initially i expected students to perform at a higher level than they were actually capable of, run faster etc. settingenvironment: • in the gym the students were off task initially. • i had a few verbal reminders for students to focus their attention on me, whistle used outside when students were required to gather around so i could speak to them more effectively. characters-profile: • students were aware of the next event, most were not really keen on it(outside, cold, running again) reflections: my perspective • students were all listening well. minimal management issues. a.d. had one remark which i quelled with proximity. • all the students participated in the warmup, stretching and 400m, all on task. • great attitudes of the students. lots of cheering on during the races. • students all were aware of safety issues after the run; needed to keep moving, stretch again if needed, puffer for j.p. • several students were engaged in the activity, asking lots of questions, wanting to know “did i get gold? silver? etc. • we had to share the field with the grade 9 girls. at times there were a few problems with their proximity to us. revisions: • next time i would be more aware of the use of lanes in the 400m, outdoor track did not have any lanes, so there was a slight disadvantage for some of the 286 ryan/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 279-295 students, where they were supposed to be lined up. • next time i will speak to the other teacher in advance to prevent any overlap of events, also for safety issues (running into lanes, walking across the long jump track etc.) action: lesson #3 grade 9 boys “decathlon”800m plot-expectations: • initially students were expected to run the 200 m. i changed this to 800m as we needed a middle-distance run. students were unprepared for this so a little bit of complaining involved. setting-environment: • in the gym the students were in squads again asking a lot of questions this time regarding world records etc. i told them honesty since i had just changed the event, i did not have the information but would provide it tomorrow. students were satisfied with this explanation. • i had a few verbal reminders for students to focus their attention on me again. • i used a whistle outside when students were required to gather around so i could speak to them more effectively which proved once again to be quick and efficient. characters-profile: • students were not aware of this next event, most were not really keen on it (outside, cold, running again and windy) • used humor to lighten the mood. reflections: my perspective: • in general, students listened well to the teacher (me) followed instructions well. • all students warmed up and stretched, all on task. • heats of 6 were good but realized i could stagger them to complete the race more efficiently, so students were active a greater part of the time instead of waiting for the next race to begin. • there were a few students who did not want to compete in any event after the 800 m. i encouraged them to try a few to try and see if they could improve their results, so to keep on task, active. • my voice was clear. • management was fine, a few comments “from the peanut gallery”, i used proximity to control those, a few aside verbal comments to them. • b.o. is considered a “behaviour” student, yet i have not felt it an issue in my class! he is very eager to please, asks lots of relative questions to the class and situations we encounter in the decathlon. • students have accepted my authority as a teacher. revisions: • i would like to be more prepared with my knowledge so i can answer questions such as world records etc for the 800m. however, i do feel it is important to be ryan/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 279-295 287 honest with students if you do not know the answer. • i would like to use the whistle more often outside, it is a great management tool, quick and responsive. • for those students who were inactive during the runs i would like to get them involved in another task while they are waiting. maybe try having them help time, gather equipment more often, another practice event. action: lesson 4: grade 9 boys track and field unit test plot-expectations: • unit test to write for students. to complete test and then finish any decathlon event outstanding. • given consequences of talking/looking at other test papers. settingenvironment: • in the gym the students were anxious regarding test, gave them verbal instruction of their parameters and positive comments that they would do well, i would repeat questions etc. • i had a few verbal reminders for students to focus their attention on test. characters-profile: • students were aware of the test. • no special requirements for identified students. • reflections: my perspective: • students were on task! no problems with test, students listened to instructions well, were quiet, completed test. • my voice was clear when giving the test, students asked questions when appropriate (could you repeat that question please?) • i asked several students after the test how they felt they did: varied responses but most felt they did well. i am anxious to see their results. • i noticed that a lot of students left their decathlon tables to the end. they did remember my instructions that their results needed to be in table format. most students were eager to improve on their jumps, shot put, and discus. no repeats on any running event. • students enjoyed the decathlon; i gave them a lot of positive comments and encouragement. revisions: • an aside: today was a dress down day at the school. i wore jeans today, but i realized that in phys ed it is not appropriate. (we ask students to wear proper attire!) i will remember this as i need to be a model for the students. i did not receive a comment from any of the students but felt this to be a point to remember. 288 ryan/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 279-295 • i did not mark any tests; however, i will request if i can do this on my next placement. • surprisingly i enjoyed teaching this class the most. looking forward to november. action: lesson #1 grade 10 co-ed baseball plot-expectations: • skills and drills of baseball, scoring in baseball lesson on blackboard. • students were split in their knowledge and capabilities of baseball settingenvironment: • in the gym the students were off task initially, i asked them to be respectful and listen while i spoke as i would to them. • students were in their squads initially. • lots of nonverbal looks when students were talking. • i had a few verbal reminders for students to focus their attention on me after initial request. moved one student. • moved outside after skills and scoring concepts were demonstrated. characters-profile: • students were not very interested in playing ball, or listening to the concepts of it, used humor to engage them. reflections: my perspective: • initially i found it difficult to describe a few concepts just using the blackboard. • i felt my knowledge of the subject matter was not as clear as i would have liked it to be, nevertheless i was honest with the class to say i had learned a few new concepts of baseball recently as well. • my demonstrations using students seemed to be more effective. c.b. is our “resident expert” and i was pleased to have him participate in explaining more thoroughly certain concepts. • my associate also was able to assist me when i felt there was a need for it. • after asking a few times to listen and be honest and respectful, my management of the class was much better. the students were listening well and respectful in the gym. • my attempt at letting them “play impromptu pick up soccer” at the beginning of the class was not successful. the students said they didn’t know what to do. i told them to watch for another “impromptu pick up” next class at the beginning of the period. • participation was full, although some students still do not want to show much effort. • an attempt will be made to speak to 2 students who felt they did not want to participate properly today. ryan/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 279-295 289 • my voice was clear and concise. • my lesson plan once revised flowed well from one task to another in transition. • i felt more comfortable today overall with my responsibilities as a teacher. revisions: • i will take more time to explain concepts and have more knowledge of my lesson. • i will try to demonstrate to students’ concepts using more drills to teach a new skill. • i will take my time and not try to rush the material so that students can play right away. • i have decided to use my own management strategies even though they may differ slightly from that of my associate teacher. action: lesson #2 grade 10 co-ed baseball plot-expectations • review of skills of baseball, scoring in baseball lesson on blackboard continued. • review material for upcoming test the next day. • option of baseball or ultimate after lesson plan for students. settingenvironment: • in the gym the students were off task initially again i asked them to listen up to review the material for test next day. • lots of nonverbal looks when students were talking. • moved outside after skills and scoring concepts were demonstrated to play ultimate and baseball. characters-profile: • students were split with choice of baseball and ultimate. • lots of profanity used during ultimate game, reminded them of it, they usually were not even aware of it. • one student always worried the other team was cheating. i assured him they were not, and they required self-regulation of refereeing as in the nature of this sport. reflections: my perspective: • preparing students for testing is a valuable staple before each unit test. • students often will not volunteer that they are not sure of what is going on. today students were well informed and should be prepared for tomorrow’s test. • since it is the end of the unit and it is a baseball/ultimate unit i found the students appreciated a choice to play either in the second half of the period. • repetition of the skills and scoring is essential for students who have little baseball background, students would finally admit that they did not understand something when they realized they were being tested on it. 290 ryan/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 279-295 • i realize that i learned some new scoring skills and strategies. • visual demonstration proved to be the best teacher with all the baseball unit. • students were often using the verbal scoring on their own, self-refereeing, and asking their own questions during game plays. revision: • i would let a few more things go while outside on the playing field, let the students interact as they may unless there was an issue which required my intervention. • i will have a better knowledge of material before i teach it again! • i would probably ask students to stay in their squads right from the start of a blackboard lesson (alphabetical squads) to minimize off task behaviour. • i find the grade 10’s especially co-ed to be a challenging age group, i will have to use a lot of more humour and patience. action: lesson #3 grade 10 co-ed baseball/ultimate test plot-expectations • test skills of baseball and ultimate verbal test, written answers. • scoring, game situations, general knowledge tested. • do test without talking, complete and hand in. • free time would be student’s choice of game. settingenvironment: • in the gym the students were acting up a lot, even though a test was to be written. • gave them parameters of test, reminded them they were in grade 10 and they should know what was required of them during a test. • lots of nonverbal looks when students were talking, waited for them to be quiet before i started. characters-profile: • 12 students were away today. • told them i would repeat questions several times if needed. • b.b and n.c were testing me with questions unrelated during the test or speaking out with the answers. • i asked them to be quiet or i would take their paper away. reflections: my perspective: • hard to keep them on task (some felt they should ask a few “questions” during test. • i spent to long getting them ready for the test. next time i will get straight to the point. ryan/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 279-295 291 • 12 students were away today, i am not sure if they would get the same test. • students were not prepared although they knew the test was today. (no pen, no gym clothes) • was a great learning experience, i felt i was almost losing them for 5 minutes while i waited for them to be quiet. • i was not sure how far i would go if students continued to talk (would i really take away their test?) revisions: • this is my toughest class with management. • next time i will be more direct in my approach with expectations. • i found that humour really worked well in engaging students to participate in the class both verbally and physically. • 3 students can be destructive presences in this class. i will have to find a way to reach them. (interests outside the class??) • i will have to be a bit more patient with this class and remember they are still finding their way. • nonverbal proximity seems to help a lot, i will try and use this much more in november. in summary throughout my practice teaching i believe i had some excellent results with management strategies. to prepare myself for my next session in november i want to work on the following key elements: • i would like to be more prepared when it comes to the content of the lesson plan, use my resources more effectively, ask my associate for more help if required. • i would like to have a consistent routine with the students upon entering the gymnasium. i find there is too many distractions (the upper loft weight room, other classes running at the same time). • i would like to have an initial 5-10-minute game or warm up immediately upon entering the classroom to “get the ants out of their pants” and have them look forward to it each class. • there seems to be trouble with some students who do not have the proper “gym clothes”, i would like to try and find out why they don’t bring them or want to. • my grade 10 class is a challenge with management with 3 students in particular, how do i engage them? would finding out what interests them help? • during the next session i would like to incorporate students more when demonstrating drills or new skills. • i would like to use proximity more often with students instead of verbal requests when students are off task. • above all i want the students to enjoy being in my class, participate and feel they can come to me for help or just to talk. (ryan, 2005). 292 ryan/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 279-295 3. findings as detailed in the journal entry above, over a period of days this student-teacher acted, reflected and revised based on experience, reflection and knowledge of teaching. in each lesson reported in the daily journal a problem or question served “as a mechanism and catalyst to engage actively and deeply in the learning process” (blessinger & carfora, 2015, p. 5). planned revisions were eventually implemented in minutes via corrective actions. this trial and error approach helped this student-teacher reduce the pressure and stress they perceived standing in front of, and leading a class (ryan, 2018). being a professional educator is often an awakening and there is an ongoing need to professionally develop. professional development “should be developed so that it reduces rather than increases such pressures” (keegan, 2019, p.127), over time in a deliberate manner. as shown here, students can be taught how to reflect within the moment (schon, 1983), or reflect long after teaching, to document and communicate in a manner that enhances praxis. as pre-service students’ build self-confidence they begin to reflect authentically. this journaling within ar instigates feedback that can empower new teachers to overcome professional challenges. reflection via journaling enables growth and poise. this mode of inquiry is “constructivist in nature because it allows the student to take greater ownership of her/his learning by allowing them a means by which to construct their own knowledge rather than just having that knowledge merely spoon-fed to them by others” (blessinger & carfora, 2015, p. 5). it seems obvious that ar must be carried out by an educator, “it must become embedded in the teacher’s daily teaching practice and developed over time” (keegan, 2019, p.128). in the above journal the student-teacher makes reflective decisions to improve classroom communications, change implementation strategies and behave differently when confronted with certain situations in the future. the reflective journal is but one means to capture experience that can be examined, reviewed and revisited over time. action research as detailed herein utilizes a systematic procedure in an educational “setting to gather information about and subsequently improve the ways in which their particular educational setting operates, how they teach, and how well their students learn” (creswell & guetterman, 2019, p. 124). the student gradually was able to grasp the cyclical nature of this research mode as reflection led to a new ability to examine and act upon findings. our ar mode provided an opportunity for the student to be more effective in their teaching and in the development of their students (creswell & guetterman, 2019). this ryan/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 279-295 293 ar was a small-scale personal research project adapted to improve teaching and it was a tool to empower. 4. discussion in teacher training within an ontario faculty of education students are required to complete theory classes and teaching practicum in schools with teachers who mentor, observe and judge these student-teachers. student teachers have many questions about teaching and through classroom theory and experience in practicum student-teachers emerge with many of the questions answered, while locating coping mechanisms for questions left unanswered. each praxis issue is, at that moment in time, a sizeable problem or barrier in the way of success and this perception creates anxiety for the teacher in training who is trying to succeed both in faculty of education classes and the teaching practicum, to become an ontario certified educator. admittedly, ar is “not expected to be generalizable. it is intended to focus on an identified area of improvement in an individual classroom or in a particular school” (ward & millar, 2019, p.43). ar can be a shared process with other educators and as a group the professional development moves each participant forward, however, “teachers often find that some solutions identified by classroom researchers relate to their own circumstances; because of common foundations” (ward & millar, 2019, p.43). ar is a tool that can be used to prompt and cue the student-teacher to strive and focus upon key developmental goals. indeed, ar “can be a transformative tool for the environment and the curriculum, as well as for the child, the teacher, and the community” (ward & millar, 2019, p.43). 5. conclusions ar is an iterative process of planned action, reflection (zuber-skerritt, 2018) and revision that occurs over time (ryan, 2018). it is “concerned with developing practical knowing in the pursuit of worthwhile human purposes” (reason & bradbury, 2008, p. 4). a.r. fuses action while coupling “theory and practice, in participation with others, in the pursuit of practical solutions” (reason & bradbury, 2008, p. 4). a.r. is appealing, pliable, and inclusive as it seems to complement educational landscapes with it act, reflect and revise routine. most importantly, an action researcher “addresses a specific, practical issue and seeks to obtain solutions to a problem” (creswell, 2012, p. 577). a.r. is used “to improve the practice of education, with researchers studying their own problems or issues in a school or educational setting” (p. 592). 294 ryan/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 279-295 the ar journal in this article demonstrates a need to reflect on self in relation to others which is a fundamental developmental task within teacher training that impacts self-development in a professional manner. making sense in a practicum is a recursive cyclical exercise that is strategic and systematic within a particular context embedded in the education landscape. the teacher in this article takes actions, reflects upon these experiences and plans next steps or actions as a pedagogy which is something that helps pre-service teachers professionally develop and revise teaching plans, actions and decisions while in training to be a health and physical educator. the ar journal herein was a means to discover, decode, and process experiences to build self and professionally develop. this act of writing is a means to sort, identify and bolster evolving pedagogy. references blessinger, p., & carfora, j. m. 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(2018). an educational framework for participatory action learning and action research (palar). educational action research, 26(4), 513–532. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/2019-health-physical-educationhttp://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/2019-health-physical-educationhttps://teachingtools.ophea.net/sites/default/files/pdf/ibl_guide.pdf ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1193-1208 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction english as a foreign language teachers’ perspectives on new curriculum reform at algerian middle schools azzeddine boudouaia a * a school of education, central china normal university, wuhan, china abstract this study investigates teachers’ perspectives on english as a foreign language (efl) curriculum reform in algeria. the specific objectives of the inquiry are to examine teachers’ views about efl curriculum reform relevance and procedures and draw a conclusion from their perspectives. 176 efl teachers from middle schools in algeria are chosen to serve as respondents in this research. the requisite data collected through a survey and semi-structured interview. the spss (22) programme is used to analyse quantitative data, whereas content analysis is subjected to qualitative data. the study establishes that the majority of teachers consider reform as not relevant to them. the findings also show negative perspectives about procedures undertaken by the government. hence, the study implies that algerian teachers' views about the new efl reform are not in the same boat with the government's intentions and actions. this study recommends that efforts have to be made by the government and other decision-makers to rethink the reform and teachers’ needs and motivation. © 2016 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: efl teachers; perspectives; curriculum reform; middle schools 1. introduction this study is premised in the area of research, which suggests that understanding the teachers’ perspectives is one of the prominent ways to get better hindsight of curriculum reform effectiveness. the reason for this is that teachers are well familiar with curriculum elements and key actors in a curriculum implementation process (readickens & germaine, 1998). so, it is not easy to think that the curriculum implementation process and learning can be improved without the involvement of the teachers’ commitment (mckernan, 2008). teachers are the key players and main * corresponding author’s name: azzeddine boudouaia. e-mail address: azzeddine-saida@hotmail.com 1194 azzeddine boudouaia, / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1193-1208 decision-makers in the classroom; they are filters through which the planned curriculum can be applied. their voice and perspectives may glaringly represent an image of reform value and effectiveness. recently, a significant volume of research has been witnessed in the field of teachers’ perspectives about curriculum reform (bailey, 2000; altinyelken, 2010; park and sung, 2013; uztosun and troudi, 2015; ostovar-namaghi, 2017 and mbarushimana and allida, 2017; canaran and mirici, 2020). for example, ostovar-namaghi (2017) recognised the incompatibility between teachers and policymakers’ interests. teachers focus only on the classroom present environment. they ignore the curriculum, as its components are not relevant. in contrast, policymakers concentrate on broader issues that go beyond the immediate classroom walls as they serve the uniformity, convergent practice, and efficiency and covert privatization. in the same vein, uztosun and troudi (2015) investigated teachers’ perspectives about curriculum change at departments of the english language in turkey. they found that the change process neglects some essential steps of the curriculum development process, for instance, needs analysis, training programmes, and evaluation. furthermore, in another study about korean perspectives about reform and its implementation, park and sung (2013) recognised negative feelings among the participants, which in return influence their commitment to the implementation process. similarly, in his study, bailey (2000) claimed that although efl teachers have prominent roles in the curriculum implementation, their voices, perspectives, and feelings are snubbed. in addition, mbarushimana and allida (2017) studied curriculum reform in rwanda and teachers’ involvement in programmes of technical training (tvet). they focused on four variables: significance, preparedness, participation, and implementation. the authors showed that practitioners are satisfied and comfortable with the modalities of curriculum change. altinyelken, also, (2010) identified some hindrances related to curriculum and its implementation despite the enthusiasm from teachers toward the new-reformed curriculum. the obstacles are the length of the curriculum, the absence of suitable teaching and learning materials, large classes with a significant number of students, and inappropriate teacher training courses. it can be pointed out that the research studies reviewed above have successfully exemplified teachers’ perspectives on curriculum reform since different results and various contexts are presented. however, our close examination of the literature pertaining to the subject in question made us realize that teachers' views about the new efl curriculum reform in algeria have not yet been undertaken. several years have passed since started implementing the new curriculum in algerian middle schools, and evidence that if teachers have positive views about it is not clear yet. no published papers have been found reporting on this issue, except for few algerian studies, instead, were conducted about the first reform (bellalem, 2014; gherzouli, 2018). for instance, azzeddine boudouaia, / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1193-1208 1195 gherzouli (2018) studied english language teachers’ attitudes, perspectives, and views about the previous reform and its implementation. she found that all participants have dim and poor views about it. she confirmed that training programmes and support offered by the government left a small impact on teachers’ practices in the classrooms. bellalem (2014), on the other hand, explored english and french language teachers’ beliefs about curriculum innovation in algeria. he identified negative beliefs among the participants regarding the innovation due to a mismatch between their beliefs and reform. it has also been noticed that despite the interest offered by the algerian government to improve the educational curriculum, teachers had not been involved in the planning process. they are forced to accept and apply the curriculum content. at algerian schools, teachers are required and strictly enforced to comply with the national curricula as well as the ministerial instructions (law n° 08-04 of january 23, 2008, article 20). in this regard, the present work is designed to hover around efl teachers’ perspectives on new curriculum reform regarding the algerian context to bridge the gap in the literature and give tutors a chance to comment on the new curriculum. it is hoped that this research will have a significant contribution to literature as it addresses algeria as a new context of an investigation. the following questions guide this study: 1. do teachers find the new reform relevant to them? why? 2. how do teachers perceive the process of curriculum reform made in 2016? 3. what conclusion can we draw for efl teachers' views about the new efl reform? 2. method 2.1. research design in an attempt to answer the above-stated research questions, a mixed research methodology was followed. this design helps a researcher use different sources to gather the required data (creswell, 2002). adopting a mixed method can prove the validity of data collected from a single approach (tashakkori and teddlie, 2003). this study employed two research methods in data collection: a survey and semi-structured interview. 2.2. survey a survey was adopted to collect relevant data for this study; it can be employed successfully with many individuals in different situations targeting various issues (dörnyei, 2003, p.10). the authors developed the survey to be given to algerian 1196 azzeddine boudouaia, / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1193-1208 efl teachers to investigate their perspectives on the new efl curriculum reform relevance and procedures. the researchers separate three sections for the survey. the first section includes demographic information, gender, educational qualifications and teaching experience. the second section revolves around curriculum reform relevance, and the last section tackles curriculum reform process procedures. the survey consists of some items from kopweh's (2014) survey and some previous studies (altinyelken, 2010; uztosun and troudi, 2015; gherzouli, 2018) because the belief is that they are necessary to be examined for the algerian context, the items are the following: 1. proper management of curriculum reform enables the intended educational goals of a country to be attained. (kopweh, 2014) 2. my school/college received sufficient funding to procure enough books for the new curriculum (kopweh, 2014) 3. funding for obtaining ict materials was supplemented on time (uztosun and troudi, 2015) 4. in my school/college, sufficient training was done prior to the implementation of the new curriculum (kopweh, 2014) 5. my district has difficult terrain that makes it difficult to reach from the ministry. 6. my school was able to procure sufficient non-textual materials for the new curriculum (kopweh, 2014) 7. in reforming curriculum, communication between the various levels of the education system is crucial (kopweh, 2014) 8. the policymakers took into considerations the needs of your school to facilitate the implementation process (altinyelken, 2010) 9. the implementation of the curriculum was regularly and consistently monitored by the responsible authorities/inspectors (gherzouli, 2018) 5-point likert scale was used (“strongly disagree”, “disagree”, “neutral”, “agree” and “strongly agree”). cohen et al. (2009) advise the rating scale in inquiries that look for views and perspectives. since the reform was introduced in 2016, the participants were selected based on their teaching experience, i.e., those who have six years of teaching experience and more were called to participate in the study. after the instrument was made ready, it was sent via e-mails to 130 teachers in order to make sure that the questionnaire items meet the necessary standards. cronbach’s test was employed to test its reliability. results showed that the scale has a score of 0.76, which is acceptable. the survey was sent again via emails to 560 teachers working at different schools in algeria. the collaboration rate was unsatisfactory in that only 176 teachers answered positively. the, the results were analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (spss) 22. azzeddine boudouaia, / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1193-1208 1197 to detect the validity of the survey confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) using principal component analysis was used. the exploratory factor analysis (efa) generated three factors, which explains 42.2% of the total variance. the factor loadings of item 1 (proper management of curriculum reform enables the intended educational goals of a country to be attained), item 5(my district has difficult terrain that makes it difficult to reach from the ministry), and item 6(my school was able to procure sufficient non-textual materials for the new curriculum) are lower than .40. based on efa results, confirmatory factor analysis using lisrel 8.53 was used to examine the construct validity of the items. table 1: the cfa results for the examination. a x2 =287.27, df = 33, p= .00, rmsea =.077, nnfi =.85 and gfi = .85 b x2 =94.57, df =20, p=.00, rmsea =.057, nnfi =. 94 and gfi = .98 based on the table above, it was found that the indices of non-normed fit index (nnfi) and comparative fit index (cfi) were lower than .90 (x2 =287.27, df = 33, p= .00, root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) = .075, nnfi = .86, cfi= .89 and goodness of fit index (gfi) = .96); and the factor loadings of the items 1, 6, and 8 were less than .40. in addition, after deleting the three items, the goodness of fit indices appeared much better (x2 =94.57, df =20, p=.00, rmsea =.056, nnfi =. 96 and gfi =.98) and the factor loadings of all six factors were higher than .40. the reliability score was tested again, and the general analysis for the survey shows that cronbach’s alpha is 0.74, which means that the scale items are reliable. 2.3. semi-structured interview the interview was used in this study. the essence of this tool is that it yields rich comprehension of participants' experiences, views, needs, attitudes and reactions items original factor a revised factor b 1. proper management of curriculum reform enables the intended educational goals of a country to be attained. .23 _ 2. my school/college received sufficient funding to procure enough books for the new curriculum .69 .73 3. funding for obtaining ict materials was supplemented on time .78 .67 4. in my school/college, sufficient training was done prior to the implementation of the new curriculum .53 .49 5. my district has difficult terrain that makes it difficult to reach from the ministry .28 _ 6. my school was able to procure sufficient non-textual materials for the new curriculum .30 _ 7. in reforming curriculum, communication between the various levels of the education system is crucial .66 .64 8. the policymakers took into considerations the needs of your school to facilitate the implementation process .71 .74 9. the implementation of the curriculum was regularly and consistently monitored by the responsible authorities/inspectors .59 .63 1198 azzeddine boudouaia, / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1193-1208 to the problem (cohen et al., ibid). the type of interview adopted in this enquiry is linked to the purpose of fulfilment. the semi-structured interview is preferred as it provides access to perceptions, opinions, and practices to gain more clarification of provided answers. the instrument was developed based on reviewing some previous studies. its validity was checked by consulting university english language teachers, six efl middle school teachers having a good experience in teaching, and two efl supervisors of middle schools whose responsibility is to train english language teachers. from the survey’s participants, ten efl teachers were selected to be interviewed to thoroughly investigate their perspectives. a tape recorder was implemented to ensure participants’ expressions and words during the analysis stage. a thematic content analysis method was used to interpret the collected data. 3. results 3.1. background information this study included full-time public middle school english language teachers who were randomly chosen from different regions in algeria. statistical data about their demographics in terms of gender, educational qualifications, and teaching experience are addressed in the first section of the survey. the following table illustrates the results: table 2. demographic characteristics of the respondents the table shows that this study consists of 79.5 % of females and 20.5% of males. 59.7% have the license degree and 31.1% have master degree, whereas 9.1% have a doctorate. besides, 48.3% of the participants have 6 to 11 years of teaching experience, whereas 23.3% have 12 to 16 years of teaching experience. 17% have 17-21% years of demographic characteristics description respondents frequency percent (%) gender male 36 20.5 female 140 79.5 total 176 100.0 educational qualifications license 105 59.7 master 55 31.1 doctorate 16 9.1 total 176 100.0 teaching experience 6-11 years 85 48.3 12-16 years 41 23.3 17-21 years 30 17 22 years and more 20 11.4 total 176 100.0 azzeddine boudouaia, / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1193-1208 1199 teaching experience, and 11.4% have 22 years and more teaching experience. 3.2. curriculum reform relevance 3.2.1. survey results the first aim of this study is to find out whether the new reform is relevant for teachers or not. the second section of the survey included a dichotomous question about whether teachers find the new change pertinent to them. the results are the following: table 3: teachers’ viewpoints on curriculum relevance frequency distributions for answers about participants' views on curriculum reform relevance show that 80.7% find the reform not relevant; whereas only 19.3% indicate that it is suitable to them. 3.2.2. interview results to support the survey results, two groups of participants were selected from the participants of the survey. the first group includes four teachers who answered “yes” to curriculum reform relevance, whereas the second group involves six teachers who respond by “no.” such grouping aims to explore the teachers’ perspectives in-depth and offer study findings more confidence. teachers were asked to clarify the reasons behind the relevance and non-relevance of the curriculum. the questions are open-ended to allow the participants to explain them. their answers revolve around the following themes: 3.2.2.1. curriculum reform relevance reason: assessment of learners’ learning progress as far as the first group of participants is concerned, the participants showed that the reform is effective and suitable to assess learners' progress. teacher a declared: ‘the content of the current curriculum is based on mastering competencies and skills that help me know my learners’ strengths and weaknesses.” teacher d also contended: “this curriculum helps me to get a clear image of my learners’ potentials; it facilitates the frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent valid yes 34 19.3 19.3 19.3 no 142 80.7 80.7 100.0 total 176 100.0 100.0 1200 azzeddine boudouaia, / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1193-1208 process of assessment to know if i can go further in my course.” put in plainer wording, the new reform is competency-based, which has appeared, paving the way for teachers to identify the learners’ potentials. it helps teachers to denote whether learners have got the requisite competencies, which propels them to keep step with knowledge supplication. o’sullivan and burce (2014) explicitly reported that the featuring characteristic of competency-based education is it measures learning rather than time, and students’ progress by demonstrating their competencies. it means they prove that they have mastered the knowledge and skills -called competenciesrequired for a particular course, regardless of how long it takes. 3.2.2.2. curriculum reform non-relevance reasons the second group of participants who confirmed the unsuitability of the new reform to their teaching based their answers on some background issues, such as inability to involve learners in the learning process, difficulty of getting real discovery learning, and forcing teachers to follow the curriculum contents. the following sections explore these reasons in details. 3.2.2.2.1. inability to involve learners in learning some participants contended that learners are still passive receivers of knowledge rather than being active participants who take charge of their own learning. for instance, teacher b said: “so far i think this reform is not suitable to me because it is not clear and many lessons are so complicated... i consider this reform as passive in which learners’ participation in constructing the lesson is absent, so i am the one who is responsible for knowledge supplication.” teacher e declared: “the new curriculum reform has not met my needs yet... what we need as teachers is to boost learners' engagement and participation by providing as much as many opportunities for discovery learning.” when these two excerpts are examined, it seems that the sole focus of this new reform is total reliance on supplying new skills rather than engaging learners to construct knowledge by themselves. it appears that the change is evocative of the undeniable truth because of its content, learners become passive, and knowledge construction results just from the teachers’ part. however, in a competency-based curriculum, it is vital to involve students in tasks that enable them to gain hands-on experiences that have a far-reaching impact as far as their comprehension of the taught content is concerned (wangeleja, 2010). this finding might not flow together with sudsomboon’s assumption (2010) of teachers’ roles within a competency-based language teaching framework. he affirmed that in general assumptions of competency-based curriculum implementation, teachers are expected to change their role as knowledge transmitters and take the role of coaches and designers of instruction. azzeddine boudouaia, / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1193-1208 1201 3.2.2.2.2. difficulty of getting real discovery learning the study confirms that the new reform lacks providing ample opportunities to have real discovery play, thereby influencing teachers’ instruction. teacher c shared her perspectives as follow: “based on the comparison i made between the new reform content and my teaching in the classroom, the learning process is still traditional, i.e., my role is to supply information and learners just receive”; whereas teacher f avowed: “because of curriculum content and learners’ level, the teaching process is based only on providing knowledge in a very traditional way, and without having any opportunities for discovery learning.” teachers seem confused and astonished at the reform as discovery learning has lacked in the classrooms. this result can be bound up with the assumption that curriculum planners have been erected on, which is learners get into the classroom already mastering communication skills that would enable them to interact with tutors comfortably. admittedly, a glance at learners' communication skills may prove that their english proficiency is very low. having this reality which curriculum planners and policymakers reject may trigger teachers and learners to not fully and truly perform their roles. bobbit (1913) considered the first activity and target of curriculum development is to “discover the activities which ought to make up the lives of students alongside with the abilities and personal qualities necessary for proper performance.” 3.2.2.2.3. forcing teachers to follow the curriculum contents the findings show that teachers found themselves obliged to follow the curriculum contents and having little freedom and autonomy to adjust to the content. teacher c declared: “developing communicative competence cannot be accomplished by following only the content of the curriculum because the aim is very difficult for learners; rather, having the freedom to adjust to the content to suit learners’ abilities is required.” besides, teacher b added: “i can say that autonomy is absent in teaching; i cannot follow the content as it is because it does not suit my learners' level and my aims.” nevertheless, given this result, it is essential to note that constructing a cadre of competent learners requires sustaining freedom for teachers to select the most suitable teaching methods for pupils. autonomy may probably ensure teachers’ commitment to realize their learners’ potentials and attain reform objectives. kelly (2009) clarifies that there is a wide gap between the idea of a project held by its central planners and the realities of its implementation, if that is even the word, in the classroom by the teachers. the teacher, like the artist, the philosopher, and the man of letters, can only perform his work adequately if he feels himself to be an individual directed by an inner creative impulse, not dominated and fettered by an outside authority” (russell, 1950, p.159, cited in lamie, 2005). 1202 azzeddine boudouaia, / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1193-1208 3.3. curriculum reform process procedures 3.3.1. survey results another aim this research attempts to investigate is teachers' perspectives about curriculum reform process procedures. the following statements are included in the second section of the survey: my school/college received sufficient funding to procure enough books for the new curriculum, funding for obtaining ict materials was supplemented on time, in my school/college, sufficient training was done prior to the implementation of the new curriculum, in reforming curriculum, communication between the various levels of the education system existed, the policymakers took into consideration the needs of your school to facilitate the implementation process, and the implementation of the curriculum was regularly and consistently monitored by the responsible authorities/inspectors. the results are as following: table 4. teachers’ perspectives on curriculum reform process procedures as it is patent from the table above, teachers were not satisfied with curriculum reform process procedures. for instance, 36.4% disagreed with the statement of sufficient funding to obtain books was provided. teachers demonstrated the same views of ict materials funding 51.7%. teachers were asked too about policymakers and schools administration intervention. for example, 34.7% reported their disagreement about the existence of communication with the government and schools administration; whereas 34.7% declared that the ministry of national education did not monitor their statements 1-6 strongly disagree disagree neutral agree strongly agree f % f % f % f % f % 1. my school/college received sufficient funding to procure enough books for the new curriculum 56 31.8 64 36.4 12 6.8 27 15.3 17 9.7 2. funding for obtaining ict materials was supplemented on time 91 51.7 56 31.8 23 13.1 2 1.1 4 2.3 3. in my school/college, sufficient training was done prior to the implementation of the new curriculum 69 39.2 64 36.4 2 1.1 26 14.8 15 8.5 4. in reforming curriculum, communication between the various levels of the education system existed 51 29 61 34.7 21 11.9 18 10.2 25 14.2 5. the policymakers took into considerations the needs of your school to facilitate the implementation process 89 50.6 67 38.1 4 2.3 9 5.1 7 4 6. the implementation of the curriculum was regularly and consistently monitored by the responsible authorities/inspectors 40 22.7 61 34.7 30 17 33 18.8 12 6.8 azzeddine boudouaia, / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1193-1208 1203 implementation of the curriculum. the results also implied that 50.6% strongly disagreed that the ministry of national education took into consideration the schools’ needs to facilitate the curriculum implementation process. in comparison, 39.2% strongly disagreed that the ministry of national education provided sufficient training before implementing the new curriculum. 3.3.2. interview results during the interview, negative views about reform process procedures are also remarked. the participants’ answers revolve around two main issues, which are the unavailability of ict materials and unproductivity of training materials. the following sections explore these themes in details. 3.3.2.1. unavailability of ict materials supplication all teachers agreed that the government’s procedures through the ministry of national education were not valid, and employing adjustments are necessary. teacher c declared: “while in some schools, some modern technology tools, including interactive whiteboards, are available, whereas in my school, we do not have even cd-players.” teacher d also said: “whenever my school’s administration asked for more funds to cover supplication of ict tools in the classrooms, a response from responsible authorities is always too late.” these comments indicate that nonsupplication of ict materials led to poor management. such comments reveal that ict materials may be necessary for implementation survival and needed as essential elements to set the preconditions for real change in practice. however, ornstein and hunkins (2018) stressed the need to render teachers with more support to sense the real meaning of change. they stated: “curriculum designers must provide the necessary support for their recommended curricular innovations or modifications.” if the new reform aim is to get high-quality learning, teachers must be supported over time so that facilitation can be sensed. 3.3.2.2. unproductivity of training programs all teachers confirmed that training programmes offered by inspectors were passive. teacher a said: "the inspectors forced teachers to take part in the training programmes they organised, but they are useless since they do not address teachers' needs and expectations. most of these programmes are not practical. in other words, inspectors’ intention is to show to the official authorities they have finished with training programmes." parallel to this, teacher c affirmed: “all the training programmes organised by my inspectors were theory-based without any tangible illustrations. what we need are practice-based programmes. these latter may give me a good command and 1204 azzeddine boudouaia, / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1193-1208 understanding of how to deal with my learners.” when translating these excerpts, it can be averred that the training programmes were no more its aim as they functioned in a void. although the training programmes constitute a vital aspect in the implementation of the new reform, their effectiveness was not valid, which have a hand in fracturing teachers’ performance. nevertheless, several researchers have considered the importance of teacher training effectiveness for implementing a good competency curriculum in the algerian context (ameziane & guendouzi, 2005; guemide & benachaiba, 2012; boudouda & khelkhal, 2016). 4. conclusion it is worth mentioning that this study is exploratory; it is designed to investigate algerian teachers' perspectives on new efl curriculum reform of middle schools by tackling two main points: the new reform relevance and process procedures. the perspectives presented in this research show worryingly facts. the results conspicuously demonstrate that some teachers find the new reform relevant to assess learner’s learning progress whereas others consider it as not suitable for involving learners in learning, getting real discovery learning, and applying autonomy in teaching. the study also reveals that teachers have negative perspectives about procedures undertook by the government. to this point, the conclusion that can be drawn for this research is that algerian teachers’ views about the new efl reform and the government's intentions and actions are not in the same boat. the teachers’ perspectives presented in this research are considered as a warning call directed to the government, that this reform divorced from transparency reality. in this regard, it is clear that the ministry of national education has to look again at this reform and try to develop it based on teachers’ participation and viewpoints because their ideas and values, which by the end concretized the teaching process. by doing so, teachers will get a good command of dealing with reform faults and weaknesses. besides, there is a need to conduct regular analysis of teachers' needs and expectations to enable them to be fully involved in the teaching process. additionally, the ministry of national education and other agents, like schools' administration and inspectors, should support, guide, and train teachers and build their willingness and hopes regarding the reform policy application. this research presents a preliminary investigation of the teachers' perspectives on the new curriculum reform. our hopes are that this research may stand as a contribution to the literature of education in general and that of curriculum in particular. as far as there are different perspectives, the study provides further scientific evidence that there are critical problems in the curriculum and reform process procedures. this, in turn, can encourage other researchers to delve more into them and provide newly tested results and solutions. moreover, to the best of our knowledge, this azzeddine boudouaia, / international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1193-1208 1205 study is the first of its kind that investigated algerian english language teachers' perspectives of the new curriculum reform since its first implementation in middle schools in 2016. hence, taking the current study results into account may help the algerian government and instructional stakeholders improve the understanding of the topic find better ways to change and improve it positively. as a last word, a number of research suggestions on the topic could be made for the researchers. first, this study aimed to explore efl teachers’ perspectives on the new curriculum reform in algerian middle schools using both survey and semi-structured interview. a classroom observation could be a good research tool to gain more insights on the topic. next, the participants of this study are efl teachers from different middle schools in algeria; 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(2009). planning for educational change: putting people and their contexts first. london, uk: continuum. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1080/13664531003696659 https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccn024 https://www.ijern.com/journal/2015/november-2015/16.pdf microsoft word 20 ozel, gokmen.docx available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(1) (2020) 351–369 ijci international  journal  of   curriculum  and  instruction   university students’ views about genetically modified organisms: a case study çiğdem alev özela*, ahmet gökmenb a* gazi eğitim fakültesi, biyoloji eğitimi ana bilim dalı, ankara, 06560, türkiye bgazi üniversitesi, gazi eğitim fakültesi, biyoloji eğitimi ana bilim dalı, ankara, 06560, türkiye abstract today, genetically modified organism (gmo) is a popular socio-scientific issue and views on this issue directly shape people’s behaviors. this study aims to investigate university students’ views about gmos. a total of 200 university students from different faculties of a state university participated in the study. for data collection purposes face-to-face interviews developed by the researchers were conducted with the participant students. the convenience sampling technique and the maximum variation sampling technique were systematically used together to determine the participants of the study. the study was designed as a holistic single-case study. the data were analyzed using descriptive analysis and the content analysis. nvivo12 software, a qualitative analysis software, was used to organize the data and the results of the analyses were presented via frequencies and percentages. quotes from the themes were also included. the results revealed that the university students’ sources of information regarding the issue were mainly news, social media, and the school courses. it was nonetheless found out that they did not rely on news and social media. they indicated many food products with gmos were plants in particular. however, they are confused about situations like growing the aforementioned products in periods different than seasonal periods and using hormones and additives with modifying genetics. in accordance with the content analysis the views of the participants were collected under five different themes: genetically modified products, purposes of gmo use, gmo’s differences from other products, advantages of gmos, and damages of gmos. © 2017 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: genetically modified organisms (gmo); products; university students; views 1.  introduction the term biotechnology was first defined by karl ereky in 1919 as “all production procedures performed with the help of living organisms” (fári & kralovánszky 2006; hosseini, 2019). nonetheless, it is not actually a new science. for thousands of years, human beings have been practicing this science such as the production of food like wine, yogurt, or cheese, the domestication of plants and animals, and the production of medicine (harzevili, 2018; choudhury, kumar & sandeep 2017). over the past century, there have * çiğdem alev özel tel.: +0-312-2021910 e-mail address: cigdemozel@gazi.edu.tr   352 özel & gökmen/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(1) (2020) 351–369 been enormous developments in genomics and recombinant dna technologies, which lead to a change in the definition of biotechnology. modern biotechnology is defined today as a multidisciplinary science that changes living creatures and their products, or enables new production, to solve direct or indirect problems of human beings (fao, 2004; raju, 2016; gahlawat, duhan, salar, siwach, kumar, & kaur, 2018). it is today possible with recombinant dna technology, to create changes in the genetic material (dna) of organisms which do not appear with natural recombination/fertilization (who, 2016; fao, 2016). the current characteristics can be changed by playing with the gene sequences in the genetic material and the organism can be equipped with new characteristics by adding new genes, as a result of these changes. the organisms formed are called as a genetically modified organism (gmo) or transgenic organism, and their products are called genetically modified (gm) or transgene (zhang, wohlhueter, & zhang, 2016). these genetically modified microorganisms obtained through recombinant dna technologies, and products prepared by plants and animals are used in many fields today. the most common fields of usage are agriculture and livestock practices and medicine applications. the reasons like increasing population, decrease in cultivable areas and long periods of time depending on the generation of livestock practices in traditional agriculture have more directed scientists to studies on gmos. the economic effect of gm products is increasing exponentially. furthermore, the cost of products has also decreased due to gm plants that are resistant to weeds and pests (brookes & barfoot, 2014; james, 2013). another advantage of gm products is producing gm plants that are supported by vitamins a, c, or e or by changing protein and carbohydrates. gm plants are also known to have a therapeutic effect. eatable vaccines can be obtained with gm plants and the immune system can be stimulated (nicolia, manzo, veronesi & rosellini, 2014). in addition to the benefits of biotechnological gmo production on food for people’s future with the help of controlled and smart technologies, it may have some potential damages and risks. for example, gm products cause some concerns regarding the continuation of biodiversity and human health since it may create allergen and toxic effects. the enormous advances in biotechnology also underline the need to raise public awareness in the social, ethical, and economic fields where the effect of biotechnology is observed, to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of the use of gm products, a genetic engineering practice. studies are particularly needed to inform school-age children and young people. objectives determined regarding the issue in formal education play a crucial role to equip students with a scientific perspective (sinan, 2015). therefore, biotechnology topics are becoming more and more common in the national education program in many countries (steele & aubusson, 2004). studies on gmo mostly focus on individuals’ knowledge and attitudes regarding gmos (e.g., balemen, 2009; çiçekçi, 2008; dawson, 2007; gillian, 2009; gürkan, & kahraman, 2018; öcal, 2012; jiménez-­‐ salas, campos-­‐ góngora, gonzález-­‐ martínez, tijerina-­‐ sáenz, escamilla-­‐ méndez &ramírez-­‐ lópez, 2017; lópez montesinos, pérez, fuentes, luna-espinoza, & cuevas, 2016; yüce & yalçın, 2012). as a result, it was found that knowledge and attitudes of individuals whose information sources are based on formal education are significantly improved (gürkan & özel & gökmen/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(1) (2020) 351–369 353 kahraman, 2018; yüce & yalçın, 2012). studies also show that students have some difficulties in expressing gmo concepts (sıcaker & öz aydın, 2015), which are among the factors affecting negatively students’ perspectives. in order to prevent this situation, education programs, textbooks, and methods used while teaching the gmo concept should be considered. in fact, çıngıl barış, and kırbaşlar (2015) investigated the biotechnology concepts in middle and high school textbooks and the sufficiency of those books and found striking deficiencies in the books. altun, çelik, and elçin (2011) studied the effect of guide materials regarding biotechnology and molecular biology on student achievement and reported that the use of materials is effective to learn the concept. demirci and yüce (2018) applied a lab-supported education program to teach biotechnology and genetic engineering topics and increased students’ achievement and attitudes, and ensured the permanence of learning. however, most of the studies have a result-oriented perspective with a quantitative approach. researchers stated that qualitative analysis of the cases investigated may not cover the entire picture; therefore, qualitative studies can deepen the understanding (christensen, burke johnson, & turner, 2015). this study aimed to explore the views of university students, who were the prospective teachers, scientists, administrators, politicians, and most importantly parents, with a qualitative approach. the results of this study are thought to have a supportive effect on future studies made on gmos and the development of curriculum and textbooks, in particular. 2.  method 2.1.  design of the study this study investigated university students’ views about gmos and utilized the case study design, a qualitative research design. in case studies, the categories of events and behaviors are discovered by nature (yin, 1984; hancock & algozzine, 2006). this study addressed all aspects of the issue through the interviews (merriam, 1998). the study used the holistic single-case study design where a single analysis unit is considered, whose frameworks are set forth by yin (1984) (yıldırım & şimşek, 2013). 2.2.  participants the sampling technique of convenience sampling, a purposeful sampling technique, and the maximum variation sampling technique were used together. the convenience sampling was used to accelerate the study and to make the study more practical (yıldırım & şimşek, 2013) and the maximum diversity sampling was used to reveal different perspectives regarding the issue (patton, 2014). the participants were 200 university students from a state university. information about the participants was presented in table 1. table 1. demographic information about participants 354 özel & gökmen/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(1) (2020) 351–369 faculty grade level gender f % f % f % faculty of dentistry 3 1.5% 1 3 1.5% 2 female 2 1.0% 3 male 1 0.5% 4 other faculty of pharmacy 4 2.0% 1 2 female 1 0.5% 3 1 0.5% male 3 1.5% 4 3 1.5% other faculty of letters 20 10.0% 1 5 2.5% 2 3 1.5% female 18 9.0% 3 male 2 1.0% 4 10 5.0% other 2 1% faculty of education 53 26.5% 1 9 4.5% 2 14 7.0% female 49 24.5% 3 10 5.0% male 4 2.0% 4 19 9.5% other 1 0.5% faculty of science 23 11.5% 1 3 1,5% 2 3 1,5% female 16 8.0% 3 9 4,5% male 7 3.5% 4 6 3,0% other 2 1,0% faculty of law 7 3.5% 1 2 1,0% 2 3 1,5% female 3 1.5% 3 1 0.5% male 4 2.0% 4 1 0.5% other faculty of economics and administrative sciences 30 15.0% 1 11 5.5% 2 3 1.5% female 24 12.0% 3 6 3.0% male 6 3.0% 4 5 2.5% other 5 2.5% özel & gökmen/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(1) (2020) 351–369 355 faculty of engineering 31 15.5% 1 2 1.0% 2 12 6.0% female 12 6.0% 3 3 1.5% male 19 9.5% 4 12 6.0% other 2 1.0% faculty of health sciences 18 9.0% 1 8 4.0% 2 4 2.0% female 14 7.0% 3 6 3.0% male 4 2.0% 4 other faculty of sport science 3 1.5% 1 2 1 0.5% female 1 0.5% 3 2 1.0% male 2 1.0% 4 other faculty of medicine 8 4.0% 1 2 2 1.0% female 6 3.0% 3 2 1.0% male 2 1.0% 4 2 1.0% other 2 1.0% total 200 100% 1 43 21.5% 2 45 22.5% female 146 73.0% 3 40 20.0% male 54 27.0% 4 58 29.0% other 14 7.0% as table 1 indicates, the 200 university students were from 11 different faculties: faculty of dentistry, faculty of pharmacy, faculty of letters, faculty of education, faculty of science, faculty of law, faculty of economics and administrative sciences, faculty of engineering, faculty of health sciences, faculty of sport science, and faculty of medicine. of the participants, 146 (73.0%) were females and 54 (27.0%)) were males. the distribution of the participants was: 43 (21.5%) are first-grade, 45 (22.5%) are secondgrade, 40 (20.0%) are third-grade, 58 (29.0%) are fourth-grade, and 14 (7.0%) are at different grade levels (5th6th-, and extended etc.). 2.3.  data collection tools the data of the study were collected using the interview questions formed through the review of the current literature and the exchange of ideas with the experts. the reason for choosing the interview technique was to make an in-depth investigation of the knowledge and experience of the university students and to reveal their perspectives regarding the 356 özel & gökmen/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(1) (2020) 351–369 issue (best & kahn, 2017). opinions of two field experts and one assessment and evaluation expert were consulted while preparing the interview form. the criteria of determining the experts were: a) conducting studies on gmos (field experts), and b) having expertise in qualitative studies (the expert of the assessment and evaluation). these experts were consulted throughout the study. some examples of the interview questions posed to the participants are as follows: •   where did you hear about genetically modified organisms? do you trust these sources? •   do you think that genetically modified organisms are necessary? •   how does a genetically modified product differ from genetically not modified products? 2.4.  data collection the data of the study were collected via face-to-face interviews. the participants took part in the interviews on a voluntary basis. they were informed about the fundamental points like the topic and the average duration of the interview. the confidentiality of the data was further underlined. it was also emphasized that the participants have the chance to end the interview at any time they wish. during the interviews, a voice recorder was used following the permission of the participants. the interviews lasted between 7–12 minutes. 2.5.  data analysis descriptive and content analyses were used together to analyze the data obtained in the interviews. content analysis is an initiative aiming for the basic consistency and sensemaking of a voluminous qualitative material (patton, 2014). in the data analysis, the recordings were first transcribed and codes like p1, p2, p3, … were assigned to each participant. later, the students’ views were analyzed using nvivo software, and themes and categories were created. to demonstrate the results clearly, the data were digitized and the results were presented in tables using percentages and frequencies. all views were included in the study without any frequency limitation. yıldırım and şimşek (2011) stated that excerpts should be included to determine whether the views accurately represent the themes. to provide the reliability of coding, three different experts, of whom one is one of the researchers of this study, coded the data separately. the consistency of the coding was calculated using the formula by miles and huberman (1994) as “agreement / (agreement + disagreement) x 100” and it was calculated as .89, which is considered as sufficient according to miles and huberman (1994). the model figure regarding the views about gmos is depicted in figure 1. özel & gökmen/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(1) (2020) 351–369 357 figure 1. university students’ views about gmos the analysis made revealed five different themes: genetically modified products, purposes of gmo use, gmo’s differences from other products, advantages of gmos, and damages of gmos. the codes of the views of the university students about gmos are detailed in the findings section. 358 özel & gökmen/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(1) (2020) 351–369 3. results results on the distribution of the university students’ sources of information about gmos are presented in table 2. table 2. university students’ sources of information about gmos and their trust levels in these sources. source of information trust levels *f % f % news 153 76.5% yes 16 8.0% partially 23 11.5% no 114 57.0% social media 56 28.0% yes 17 8.5% partially 22 11.0% no 27 13.5% school and course 54 27.0% yes 41 20.5% partially 10 5.0% no 3 1.5% family and group of friends 17 8.5% yes 1 0.5% partially 4 2.0% no 12 6.0% have no idea 11 5.5% yes partially no scientific journals 9 4.5% yes 9 4.5% partially no *students were able to indicate more than one source. as table 2 indicated, the sources with the highest frequencies were news (f=153, 76.5%), social media (f = 56, 28.0%), and lessons and schools (f = 54, 27.0%). some students who indicated that they have no knowledge regarding gmos were also identified. it is however seen that the university students’ trust levels in the sources of news and social media, which are the main sources, were quite low. however, it is also seen that the university students who acquire knowledge regarding gmos in the formal learning process have a higher level of trust in sources of information. the following is an excerpt of one of the students regarding the issue: p17: i heard about gmos from lessons and on news. i trust them because the lessons on gmos were scientific but i do not trust the news. the university students’ perspectives about gm products are presented in table 3. özel & gökmen/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(1) (2020) 351–369 359 table 3. university students’ examples of gm products categories f examples of gm products f plants 393 tomato 91 corn 51 watermelon 42 strawberry 32 eggplant 28 soybean 24 banana 13 rice 10 apple 9 orange 8 sugar beet 7 pepper 6 plum 6 wheat 5 white mulberry 5 melon 5 peach 5 cucumber 4 sour cherry 4 lemon 3 grapefruit 2 green squash 2 potato 2 grape 1 apricot 1 animals and animal products 58 chicken 19 milk and milk products 12 egg 11 cattle 7 butter 5 sheep 4 take-home foods and other products 89 canned foods 34 packaged products 23 margarine 9 beverages 8 360 özel & gökmen/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(1) (2020) 351–369 meds 6 cosmetics 4 chocolate 2 chewing gum 2 hamburger 1 table 3 includes university students’ examples of gm products. the content analysis made indicated that there are three different categories: plants, animals, and animal products, and take-home foods and other products. the highest frequencies for each category were tomato (f=91), corn (f=51), and watermelon (f=42) in the plants theme; chicken (f=19), milk and milk products (f=12), and egg (f=11) in the animal and animal products; and canned foods (f=34), packaged products (f=23), and margarine (f=9). a quote from the interview with one of the participants is as follows: p103: gmos are applied to many plants such as tomato, cucumber, and eggplant to increase efficiency. i also think that the canned food we buy from markets includes gmos. the university students’ views about the purposes of gmo use are presented in table 4. table 4. university students’ views about the purposes of gmo use codes f % purposes of gmo use to produce more products in a shorter time 39 19.5% growing long-lasting products 27 13.5% producing hormonal foods 17 8.5% producing off-season vegetables and fruits 12 6.0% creating new products by grafting 10 5.0% to give resistance to species 9 4.5% make products look more beautiful 7 3.5% as table 4 shows, the university students mainly indicated “producing more products in a shorter time” (f=39, 19.5%), “growing long-lasting products” (f=27, 13.5%), and producing hormonal foods (f=17, 8.5%) as the purposes of gmo use. an excerpt from the interview with one of the participants is as follows: p71: growing and harvesting processes that take a long time are completed with gmos in a shorter time. the university students’ views about the differences between gm products and other products were presented in table 5. özel & gökmen/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(1) (2020) 351–369 361 table 5. university students’ views about the differences between gm products and other products codes f % differences between gm products and other products no decay and deterioration 52 26.0% difference appearance 45 22.5% different smell 28 14.0% different taste 26 13.0% production outside the season 14 7.0% contains preservatives and colorants 11 5.5% no cores 7 3.5% indication on the product label 5 2.5% as table 5 shows, the university students primarily listed these points among the differences between gm products and other products: “no decay or deterioration” (f=52, 26.0%), “different appearance” (f=45, 22.5%), and “different smell” (f=28, 14.0%). an excerpt from the interview with one of the participants is as follows: p23: vegetables and fruits with gmos are bigger and brighter. it does not smell at all. it doesn't taste good. the university students’ views about the advantages of gmos were listed in table 6. table 6. university students’ views about the advantages of gmos codes f % advantages of gmos longer shelf life 62 31.0% more production 29 14.5% faster production 23 11.5% cheaper prices 18 9.0% supporting development 8 4.0% use in treatments 7 3.5% help to prevent hunger 7 3.5% improving the quality of products 5 2.5% aesthetically adds beauty 2 1.0% as table 6 shows, the university students mainly listed “longer shelf life” (f=62, 31.0%), “more production” (f=29, 14,5%), and “faster production” (f=23, 11,5%) among the advantages of gmos. an excerpt from the interview with one of the participants is as follows: p186: with gmos, the shelf life of products gets longer. therefore, more products are obtained at a lower cost. the university students’ views about the damages of gmo use are presented in table 7. 362 özel & gökmen/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(1) (2020) 351–369 table 7. university students’ views about the damages of gmo use codes f % damages of gmo use harmful to health 182 91.0% decreased nutritional value 36 18.0% not natural 25 12.5% damage to the ecosystem 16 8.0% as table 7 shows, the university students mainly pointed out “harmful to health” (f=182, 91.0%), “decreased nutritional value” (f=36, 18.0%), and “being not natural” (f=25, 12.5%) as the damages of gmo use. a quote from the interview with one of the participants is as follows: p42: it is very harmful to human health. i know that it causes cancer. özel & gökmen/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(1) (2020) 351–369 363 4. discussion this study investigated university students’ views about gmos. the results obtained revealed that the university students know gmos mostly from the news (76.5%), social media (28%), and lessons and school (27%). the percentage of the students who stated that they do not have any knowledge regarding gmos was found to be 5.5%. the results showed that the information regarding gmos was mostly gathered from the news and social media. a similar result by öztürk and erabdan (2019) was reported stating that science teachers use social media to follow the trends in socio-scientific issues and to teach them to their students. similarly, media, as one of the main sources of information for people about gmos, a socio-scientific issue, (rzymski & królczyk, 2016) is a functional communication tool. furthermore, media is also an educational tool (arslan, 2004). mass media has the potential to directly affect and shape individuals’ views on gmos. however, it was also stated that university students do not trust their main sources of information. in the same vein, jurkiewicz, zagórski, bujak, lachowski, and florekluszczkiet (2014) studied secondary scholl students in poland and found that 64.1% of the students studied thought that media reports on gmos are unreliable. öcal (2012) examined science teachers’ level of awareness in biotechnology (genetics engineering) and put forward that teachers gain knowledge mostly from media communication tools such as the internet, tv, newspaper, and magazine. similarly, türker, koçak, aydın, i̇stanbulluoğlu, yıldıran, türk and kılıç (2013) reported that only 13.6% of the information nursery students acquire regarding gmos was from scientific books, and 54.9% of the information was from radio, magazine, newspaper, the internet, or tv. tanır (2005) studied with freshmen preservice science teachers and found that their source of information was written and visual media rather than the school; however, they consider these sources unreliable, which might be explained with the late integration of biotechnology topics into the curricula in turkey. nevertheless, the media's general stance regarding gmos (bubela & caulfield, 2004), which mainly emphasizes the negativities rather than reflecting the information objectively, clarifies that the views about gmos are expressed more negatively. the university students mainly indicated “producing more products in a shorter time” (f=39, 19.5%), “growing long-lasting products” (f=27, 13.5%), and producing hormonal foods (f=17, 8.5%) as the purposes of gmo use. when the students’ responses were further examined, it was determined that their information on the purposes of gmo use is partially true; yet, they mostly focus on food production and quality but they do not put enough emphasis on health-related practices in their views. it is also found that they confuse hormone applications and gmo practices, which might stem from the university students’ insufficient level of information regarding gmos. in fact, studies on gmos revealed that deficiencies in gmo definitions are observed in students who continue their education at university (çiçekçi, 2008; türker et al., 2013) as well as secondary education students (dawson, 2007). the university students’ views about the gm organisms and products they use individually were collected under there different categories: plants, animals and animal 364 özel & gökmen/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(1) (2020) 351–369 products, and take-home foods and other products. tomato, corn, and watermelon were among the responses with the highest frequencies in the gm plants category. similarly, türker et al., (2013) in their study stated that 32.4% of nursing students correctly identified the most cultivated gm plant like corn and cotton, while tomato and pepper were the leading products among gm products. hallman et al. (2013) reported that in the united states, 59% of consumers know that soybeans are sold as gm and that of the consumers, 56%, 55%, and 50% thought that tomatoes, wheat, and corn, respectively, were not labeled as gm, despite the mandatory labeling policy in the usa. they also indicated a watermelon grown in cages to give a square shape as a gmo. they, moreover, expressed gmos as the grafting of a branch belonging to a blackberry called a grafting pen, by grafting it into the white lip called the rootstock. as an example of gm animals, chickens had the highest frequency, which is thought to be related to obtaining chicken breeds with high meat yield and rapid development as a result of breeding and selection today. the university students considered these breeding practices as gm chickens. the students also considered the long shelf life of cans due to gmos, which is, in fact, because of the additives in cans. however, the production and import of foods involving gmos are forbidden in turkey, according to the regulation published in turkey in 2014. however, as a result of analysis performed against gene contamination, it is reported that if gmos are detected in products at 0.9% or below, this product will be considered as a gmo contaminant. it was concluded that if the genes detected as contaminants in products with gmo contamination are approved by the biosafety board, the products can be used in line with the purpose of approval (yılmaz, 2014). therefore, the examples set by university students as gm products in turkey are, in fact, not gm products. the university students’ views about the differences between gm products between other products involves many misconceptions and knowledge deficiency. genetics has been used to obtain higher productivity, large showy plants and animals by means of classical breeding practices for thousands of years in agriculture. today, breeding studies have started to be carried out by using the advantages of biotechnology in shorter periods by considering the results of very long generations with classical crosses. in this study, the university students mistakenly thought that when they consume gm products, they are able to realize this with their sense organs. for example, the fact that an agricultural product looks beautiful in shape, has no crooked shape, has excellent taste and smell, or looks large from normal and has a long-lasting shelf life and does not decay easily, causes students to believe that the genetics of these products have been altered. studies showed that products having eco-label on it has a psychological advantage over gm-label products (sörqvist, marsh, holmgren, hulme, haga, & seager, 2016). since there is no gm production and import in turkey, it is seen that students experience concept confusion about plants that are made of polyploid, plant growth regulator or hybrid plants with classical breeding. the university students mainly listed “longer shelf life”, “more production”, and “faster production” among the advantages of gmos. furthermore, the university students stated that the fast and over-production will solve hunger problems of the age, cause a decrease özel & gökmen/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(1) (2020) 351–369 365 in prices, and support the development of countries. jiménez-­‐ salas, et al., (2017) in their study stated that the participants consider gmos as an effective way to prevent hunger in the world. similarly, črne-hladnik, peklaj, košmelj, hladnik, and javornik (2009) reported that their participants find the use of gm corn plants useful. the university students were concerned about the fact that that the use of gm products can pose many health problems in both the short and long term, cause a decrease in nutrition values, vitamins in particular, and damage to the ecosystem. in particular, they said that they have learned from the media that gm products cause cancer. bawa and anilakumar (2013) stated that the transferred genes can have a toxic or allergic effect. sanchis (2011) found that some people who consumed corn with insect resistance genes had allergic reactions. herodotou, kyzaa, nicolaidoua, hadjichambis, kafouris, and terzian (2012) in their study found that students are of the opinion that gmos and gm products have some negative effects on environment and health. jurkiewicz zagórski et al., (2014) found that 57.4% of students studying in poland do not find studies on gmos reliable and think that they have negative effects on health. aleksejeva (2014) concluded that 40.9% of students believe that their genes will also change after consumption of gm tomatoes. mohapatra, priyadarshini, and biswas (2010) investigated teachers’ knowledge and attitudes about gmos and found that the vast majority of teachers found gmos mistrustful for the environment. they also indicated that pesticide proteins in gmos might have some indirect effects such as bioaccumulation on those who consume those products. 5.  conclusions it is realized that the university students have some knowledge deficiencies and concept confusions stemming from their sources of information, and display an intense negative attitude regarding gmos. gmos and biotechnology do not only affect one or multiple disciplines but also have social, economic and ecological effects in medicine, law, ethics, and other fields; therefore, they have the potential to direct the future’s world. for this reason, it is suggested to update curricula to equip students with direct and scientific knowledge regarding the issue and to integrate the related objectives in curricula. media tools are quite effective to inform people about gmos, as emphasized in this study. presenting informative visuals, videos, and public service ads about gmos in cooperation with scientists are thought to be effective to raise awareness among people regarding gmos. 366 özel & gökmen/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(1) (2020) 351–369 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(2016). genetically modified foods: a critical review of their promise and problems. food science and human wellness, 5(3), 116-123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fshw.2016.04.002 copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). guided knowledge search during mathematical problem solving a peace education unit kevin kester media and peace: toward dialogue among civilizations 150 a peace education unit media and peace: toward dialogue among civilizations kevin kester phd student, adult education ontario institute of studies in education university of toronto, canada preparatory reading for students: 1. murray, john p. (2007). children and television: using tv sensibly. south texas: mind science foundation. available at: http://www.mindscience.org/resources/msf10189_chldrntv gud-0407.pdf. 2. trautman, brian j. (2009). military recruiting advertising and media access undermine peace efforts, available at: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/41292. 3. students are also asked to select two short articles from readings available at the center for media literacy (www.medialit.org). students should select and read articles that are directly relevant to the flow of class dialogue, meaning that the topic of the articles is linked with previous class readings and discussions. students should be prepared to present key learning from the readings in class and bring reference materials for each article. readings available at: http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/rr3.php. http://www.mindscience.org/resources/msf10189_chldrntvgud-0407.pdf http://www.mindscience.org/resources/msf10189_chldrntvgud-0407.pdf http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/41292 http://www.medialit.org/ http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/rr3.php international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 introduction media heavily influences our lives and our perceptions of the world. for example, consider that by the time most us students graduate high school they will have spent nearly 15,000 hours in front of a television, compared with 11,000 hours in a classroom with a teacher (murray, 2007). hence, students spend more time with a television than a teacher. also, consider that nbc (the us-based national broadcasting corporation) is owned by general electric, one of the world’s largest weapons producers; this relationship between television programming and weaponsproduction certainly informs the types of programs shown on nbc. yet this relationship and the message embedded in it are hidden from most viewers. certainly nbc programming will support the worldview that heavy defense spending is a necessity and that evil threats lurk in the distance (trautman, 2009). television and mass media, then, is clearly an influential technology that informs our worldviews, beliefs and practices. when viewed uncritically, television and news media in particular, can give the viewer an illusion of objectivity and truth; when in reality it is produced with a specific bias according to the agencies’ worldviews and agenda, including the owners, advertisers, and varying constituencies who benefit from the specific construction of events. in this way, news media has the capacity to not simply inform the public, but to manipulate viewers via the use of language, emotion, and the visual display of stories. it is important to be a critical consumer of media, to be capable of uncovering, and critically reflecting on the ideologies and cultural nuances that are embedded in the message. furthermore, media is only one component of the broader systems of information production and consumption that develop an individual’s and collective society’s worldviews, including information absorbed from parents, teachers, faith-based groups, clubs and associations. these worldviews are formed through interaction with physical, mental and emotional stimuli and experiences that define an individual’s personal life as well as the 151 a peace education unit kevin kester media and peace: toward dialogue among civilizations collective histories of a people. as a result, exclusive and violent beliefs and behaviors shown in the media and learned from parents and teachers assist the cultivation of cultures of violence (as conceptualized in the theoretical work of freud, piaget, and bandura). these violent orientations or conflict-based worldviews include the notion that violence is a proper means of conflict resolution, the notion that competitive market ideology is the only or most advanced means of the global economic order, and the tenet that military strength is needed to protect citizens and special business interests from outside influences. yet other worldviews and possibilities do exist. cultures of peace might be said to be possible through transforming conflictbased worldviews toward unity-based worldviews (danesh, 2008) where violence is understood as a deliberate consequence of a choice, competitive market ideology is shown side-by-side with fair trade and shared commons, and military determinism is contrasted with human security and collective defense models. one might consider a dialogue among civilizations as both affirmation of the need for unity-based worldviews and as a strategy for positive and critical global transformation founded on dialogue, cooperation, and nonviolent conflict management. moving beyond the fragmenting paradigm of competitive market-ideology, violent conflict resolution, and a clash of civilizations, a dialogue among civilizations fosters peace through transformative global dialogue for international understanding, equity and non-violence. in conclusion, educators and learners must learn to facilitate critical awareness of the influence of mass media on framing global perspectives, international ethics and civic possibilities. furthermore, education should prepare learners with skills to engage critically with media, including reflection, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. one example of constructive media and civil society efforts to produce and monitor peaceful media is being led by the alliance of civilizations (aoc). the aoc media fund seeks to normalize images of stereotyped groups in mass media through critical partnerships with film agencies and distribution centers (alliance of civilizations forum report, 2008). therefore, noting the tremendous capacity of media to either support or undermine peacebuilding efforts at 152 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 local, regional and global levels, this learning unit aims to raise consciousness of, and action toward, the multiple links between culture and conflict as facilitated through contemporary media, where media is not merely the forum but also an actor. everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. universal declaration of human rights, article 19 level: high school and undergraduate courses (youth ages 1524) core subject: social sciences, history, geography, english, economics, arts, peace and conflict studies materials: newspapers, video camera, sample video segments from news stations, various art materials, handouts (attached) timeframe: 4-8 weeks (8 class hours) theme: a unit addressing: media and violence culture and worldview constituencies and prejudices gender and human rights dialogue and civilizations core concepts: various forms of violence in our lives impact of media violence on our lives instruments for mitigating violence global inequities as violence alternatives to violent conflict envisioning peaceful futures 153 a peace education unit kevin kester media and peace: toward dialogue among civilizations objectives: students will do the following by the end of the lesson: discuss the role of identity and worldviews in conflicts promote empathy, compassion and love reflect on the importance of cooperation and critical thinking in decision-making contemplate democratic processes for schools, media and civil society practice reflection and dialogue participate in critical and multicultural dialogue guiding inquiry: how do media promote peaceful or violent orientations? what are multiple forms of violence? how does dialogue promote cultures of peace? who has direct/indirect access to media decision-making and viewing? how does gender identity influence privilege and media access? what are ways individuals and communities can become involved locally to promote respect, multicultural dialogue and responsible media? facilitation strategies: the facilitator will use the following critical and cooperative learning methods: short introduction by teacher, brainstorming, group discussions, assessing violations of international human rights, role-plays, and group reflection. the timeframe of activities and discussions is open to the teacher’s discretion to allow for issues to be addressed in a proper manner (though this unit is estimated at 8 hours). 154 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 learning sequence lesson proper (7 weeks; students complete handouts 1-2). short abstract: students create groups and are given articles to summarize from a certain assigned ideology/worldview. the students are challenged to create a 7-10 minute news production using information from newspaper articles that resemble a perceived ideology. the presentations are recorded and replayed to the class for analysis and reflective discussion. schedule of lessons activity lesson 1 introduction, group making, viewing of news segments (handout 1) l2 research news networks (handout 1) l3 summary writing (handout 2) l4 summary writing/simulation practice (handout 2) l5 practicing and run-throughs (handout 2) l6 video-taping performances (handout 2) l7 viewing with all students (handout 3) l8 follow-up discussion(s) and activity (handout 3) and (handout 4) lesson 1 1. introduce activity and divide students into groups of 8 (adjust according to class size). 2. give each group 4 articles (headline/local news, international news, entertainment and people, and business and technology) from a select media source to summarize and present in lessons 3-6. 3. the groups should elect a leader and delegate responsibilities to group members. the group leader is responsible for keeping track of materials and ensuring group work is accomplished in a timely manner. the different segments—headline news, international news, 155 a peace education unit kevin kester media and peace: toward dialogue among civilizations entertainment, and business—should be distributed (2 people per segment) to group members. each of the groups should receive the same 4 articles so as to later explicitly illustrate the perceived differences in ideologies and worldviews. 4. watch/read news segments of the same events from various sources (television news or newspapers). reflect on the news segments and underlying ideologies. lesson 2 1. groups are assigned a network station (e.g. fox news, cnn, al-jazeera, bbc, and christian news). the groups are asked to research the network station to answer the following queries: 2. who owns the station? 3. who advertises for the station? 4. who benefits from the station? 5. who is the target audience? 6. allot students classroom time for research and group discussion in the computer lab(s) of the school (if available). 7. lead a class discussion with the information each group extracted about the networks. lesson 3 1. ask students to choose an ideological viewpoint, such as conservative, liberal, moderate, christianity, islam, judaism, north, south, white, black, indigenous, capitalism, communism, socialism, anglophone, francophone, etc, to be included into their presentation of the news. 2. students (in pairs) read, analyze and reconstruct the news segments according to their assigned ideologies/worldviews. 3. 156 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 lesson 4 1. students (in pairs) summarize their articles through their ideological lens. lesson 5 1. groups practice presenting their news segments (first, in pairs, and then the entire group). 2. make final preparations for videotaping (lesson 6). the teacher(s) will be in charge of videotaping in the next lesson at school. inform groups that they will have only one chance to present, so they must be prepared (no stopping and restarting—this is a performance). lesson 6 1. prior to class, teacher(s) will set up a separate classroom (for videotaping) to mimic a news set. while a group is being recorded in classroom 2, the other groups will prepare in the primary classroom. groups are recorded with each presentation between 7-10 minutes. lesson 7 1. view all of the performances (with dvd, vcr) and have groups take notes about the different presentations of the event(s). how do the various ideologies/worldviews affect the presentation of information/events? 2. lead an open class discussion about the different groups’ news segments. in what ways did the group presentations reflect stereotypes? how much of this originated with the broadcasting companies and how much was projected by the individual? (ask students to write a 1-page reflection for homework to be used in the final class discussion.) 157 a peace education unit kevin kester media and peace: toward dialogue among civilizations optional adaptations: students may make advertisements (e.g. commercials for restaurants, drinks, fitness programs) or weather information for intermission between news segments. these additional ads should add fluidity and relative content to the 4 news segments. facilitators may also choose to create fictional breaking-news-stories from conflict regions (e.g. israel/palestine, northern ireland, sri lanka, china/taiwan, india/pakistan). encourage students to research current issues in conflict regions. follow-up discussion and activity (handout 3) i. discussion: through small group and whole-class discussions, dialogue on the following questions at length. (some questions from center for media literacy) • what is media? • what types of media do you encounter/use everyday? • how do the media usually report on conflicts? • how do the media paint conflicting parties? • what makes it seem real? • what type of person is the watcher invited to identify with? • what ideas or values are being sold to us in this message? • who profits from this message? • what did the news segments have in common (e.g. camera, angles, focus)? what did you notice watching the simulations? • how were the news segments different (e.g. presenters, language, issues, values)? • to what degree did the presentations of the various cultures and worldviews accurately represent that culture? and to what degree did the presentations embody previous prejudices? 158 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 • what happens when a third party appropriates the identity and suffering of another? • what might the media do to circumvent dualistic paradigms toward inclusion and reconciliation? • what ideologies do we subscribe to in our personal lives? • how can the right to freedom of expression, as documented in the universal declaration of human rights, be used as moral support for indoctrination and homogenization of thought in schools and media; or, conversely, how can the same right be used to justify diverse opinions and worldviews? facilitation of discussion: write the collective ideas of the class from the questions above on the board. this allows students to visualize and connect a variety of views concerning media and intercultural understanding. ii. activity: in their original groups, a representative from each student group draws the world as perceived through the lens of the group ideology (e.g. islam and the middle east, christianity and the west, economic ideologies of the global north and south). the drawings may be literal pictures of geography (with particular regions emphasized) or representational symbols of major cultural, religious and political themes. each group draws with a specific colored marker on the whiteboard so as to visually differentiate between the different regions. then have an open discussion. first have each group explain their work and receive comments/questions from other groups. elicit similarities and differences between the groups. second, leaving the assigned ideologies behind, proceed to an open discussion on the role that ideologies and culture play in interaction between individuals, groups and states. where and how do ideologies divide people? where do ideologies unite people? can we transcend nationalistic and insular thinking toward unity-based worldviews? 159 a peace education unit kevin kester media and peace: toward dialogue among civilizations supporting documentation universal declaration of human rights (1948): article 19, everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. (available online at www.un.org.) hague agenda for peace and justice in the 21st century (1999): (40) utilize the media as a proactive tool for peacebuilding, the media play a vital, and controversial, role in situations of violent conflict. they have the capacity to exacerbate or to calm tensions and, therefore, to play an essential role in preventing and resolving violent conflict and in promoting reconciliation. apart from their traditional role in reporting on conflict, the media may also be used to build peace in a wide variety of alternative ways. special attention needs to be directed towards (1) promoting objective, non-inflammatory reporting of conflict situations so that the media serves the cause of peace rather than war and (2) to further explore the use of the media in creative new ways to build peace and promote reconciliation. (available online at www.haguepeace.org.) the earth charter (2000): (14c.) enhance the role of mass media in raising awareness of ecological and social challenges. (available online at www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/.) 160 http://www.un.org/ http://www.haguepeace.org/ http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/ international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 evaluation suggested evaluation procedures: have students keep a reflective journal throughout the course of the peace module and on the final day of the course, give students an opportunity to share reflections with their classmates. or a more intensive evaluation procedure may be the development of a portfolio that includes reflections, research articles, and the development of a peace-oriented project. if school structures require an examination, tests may be constructed with open-ended questions pertaining to an analysis of peace, violence and violations of human rights in the media. the instructor could also create a group evaluation that assesses problemsolving skills based on an example scenario that requires students to propose possible solutions to specific cases of violence in media. instructor’s reflection: what worked what didn’t suggestions for next time references alliance of civilizations (2008). forum report. http://www.unaoc.org/content/view/225/220/lang,english/. danesh, h.b. (2008). the education for peace integrative curriculum: concepts, contents and efficacy, journal of peace education 5(2): 157-173. earth charter, the (2000). www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/. hague appeal for peace (1999). the hague agenda for peace and justice for the 21st century. un ref a/54/98. www.haguepeace.org. 161 http://www.unaoc.org/content/view/225/220/lang,english/ http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/ http://www.haguepeace.org/ a peace education unit kevin kester media and peace: toward dialogue among civilizations murray, john p. (2007). children and television: using tv sensibly. south texas: mind science foundation. trautman, john p. (2009). media recruiting advertising and media access undermine peace efforts, retrieved june 2, 2009, from http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/41292. united nations (1948). universal declaration of human rights. general assembly resolution 217a (iii). downloaded from www.un.org. public domain. 162 http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/41292 http://www.un.org/ international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 student handouts for media and peace handout 1 analyzing news/ critical viewers analyzing the news programs (adapted from center for media literacy) after watching the sample news program in class, answer the following questions. who (who created this message?) what (what creative techniques are used to attract my attention? ) when (when has this worldview conflicted with other worldviews?) where (where is this ideology prominent in the world?) why (why is this message being sent?) how (how might different people understand this message differently from me?) research of news agency (i.e. bbc, fox news, cnn, al-jazeera) as the research component of this module, find background information on the news agency assigned your group. you may find information in books, magazines, etc., or on the internet. who owns the station? who advertises for the station? who benefits from the station? who is the target audience? 163 a peace education unit kevin kester media and peace: toward dialogue among civilizations handout 2 summary of news articles with your portion of the news (headline news, international news, business, or entertainment), consider the following points: who is in your story? what is your story about? when did it take place? where did it happen? why did it occur? how would this be perceived from your ideological viewpoint? 5 w’s: who what when where why summary ______________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ 164 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, july 2010 handout 3 concluding reflection write a 1-page reflection on the group work processes, ideological viewpoints, taping of the news program, review of the news, and your reaction to other groups. how did you work together as a group (were you cooperative, competitive, etc.)? how were the different ideologies presented? did your presentation come across to you as you had intended—is it what you meant to say and portray? ______________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ______________________________ 165 a peace education unit kevin kester media and peace: toward dialogue among civilizations handout 4 suggestions for dialogue participants dialogue invites us to engage with others in a collective process of thinking, understanding and making meaning of our world(s) of experience. dialogue offers us the challenge of listening for understanding. our task is not to agree or to persuade, but to open to the experience of a flow of thought and meaning. to participate in dialogue in this way is an act of courage. what makes this mode of communicating different from other discussions is, in part, the inner reflective work on the part of participants. the following are questions that may assist participants in shifting from our more familiar practices of defending our beliefs and opinions, to suspending our beliefs in order to uncover, and question, the assumption underneath them. what am i feeling in my body? how is my attitude affecting people? what are the different voices trying to convey? what voices are marginalized here? when do my thoughts stop my ability to listen? am i resisting something i hear? what are the facts? and what are feelings, memories, opinions and beliefs? what has led me to view things as i do? what assumptions lie beneath my question or my opinion? what themes or patterns are emerging from what is being said? could i perceive things in a new way? can i suspend my certainty? what am i missing that would help me to understand? what needs to be expressed here? what purpose would my statement or question serve? what is no one else saying? 166 database connection failed! culture of peace and care for the planet earth as predictors of students’ understanding of chemistry concepts available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36–53 ijci  international journal of  curriculum and instruction culture of peace and care for the planet earth as predictors of students’ understanding of chemistry concepts ngozi okafor a department of science and technology education university of lagos, akoka, +2348037121842, nigeria abstract this study focused on how culture of peace and care for the planet earth variables predicted public coeducational secondary school students understanding of chemistry concepts in anambra state of nigeria. three research questions guided the study. it was a survey and correlational research designs that involved sample of 180 drawn from six schools through a three-stage sampling procedures. culture of peace and care for the planet earth questionnaire (cpcpeq) and chemistry understanding test (cut) were used for data collection. their validity and reliability were determined using cronbach alpha and kuder-richardson formula 20 which gave indices of r=.71 and r= 0.78 respectively. linear regression and bivariate correlation analyses as well as one-way analysis of variance (anova) were used in data analysis. the results showed that for culture of peace, tolerance significantly predicted higher chemistry concepts scores while social movement significantly predicted lower concepts scores on chemistry understanding test. on care for the planet earth, adjusting thermostat significantly predicted higher scores while saving water significantly predicted lower scores on chemistry understanding test. the study recommended settingup of visionary chemists for environment and peace culture (vcepc) in all schools that would sensitize students on how to shun hostility, indoctrination and embracing effective methods of waste disposal. it concludes that everybody should go green, plant more trees, and promote mutual understanding, tolerance, peaceful co-existence and friendly environments as fundamental tips of peace culture and care for the planet earth that foster meaningful understanding of chemistry concepts among secondary school students. © 2016 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-ncnd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: waste control, tolerance, understanding test, scores 1. introduction 1.1. the problem early exposure of students to chemistry education is very important because it could foster: positive attitude; environmental knowledge; respect for unity and culture in diversity and social cohesion in coping with the challenges of the global world. students’ of today deserve all round chemistry education that does not glorify war but peace and careful management of the environment. the curriculum developers in nigeria have observed the problem associated with the waste management, violence ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 37 and ethnic conflicts and thus have made provisions for its inclusion in the school curriculum. every day, the atmosphere is polluted by the emissions of carbon (iv) oxide, methane, oxides of nitrogen and other pollutants. these emissions change the balance of gases in the atmosphere and cause climate change, global warming and degrade the ozone layer. chukwuka (2014) insists that every individual should acquire knowledge of environmental issues and other factors harming the planet earth. flaring of gases by some oil companies have also led to the environmental degradation (black rain drops). in nigeria, oil spillages damage the community farmland, pollute the air and destroy the ecosystem. most times the oil prospecting companies fail to care for the host community environments thus resulting to disputes and conflicts. existing conflicts among communities, ethnic groups, schools and homes worldwide cannot be adequately tackled if culture of peace characteristics are not practiced and sustained in the school system (akaamaa, 2013). he further emphasized that culture of peace should be upheld at all educational levels in nigeria because of the existing conflicts among communities, ethnic groups, schools/classrooms and homes worldwide. research studies on peace education explained that culture of peace is a major component in reconciling group identities within a frame work of social cohesion as to promote peaceful co-existence, confidence, cooperation and tolerance (king 2010 & niroula, 2010). uhemba (2013) described culture of peace as the fundamental human rights, selfawareness, trust, freedom from fear, non-confrontation, non-indoctrination and conflict resolution. the united nations (un) programme of actions in promoting culture of peace and goals of education stipulates ‘‘actively promoting a culture of peace, respect for one another regardless of belief, culture, language …’’ (niroula, 2010 & un,2013). these demand creating a range of cultural thought, tolerance, experiences, positive self-esteem, confidence, trust, cooperation and love among students that may foster conceptual understanding during the classroom activities for better academic achievement. similarly, the environmental educators pointed that the planet earth is in grave danger and at the risk of destruction if human activities are not adequately checked (chukwuka, 2014, spitzer, 2009 & wilson 2008). they stated that it is no longer an option to live without care for the planet earth since pollution has grown to its critical proportion and must be properly understood and addressed through proper education. 1.2. world’s conceptual views about education on peace and care for the earth the right to education was recognized when the world declaration on education for all (efa) was adopted at a world conference on education in jomtien, thailand, in 1999 (unesco, 2000).the conference declaration reference was on deficiencies of qualitative education that must be improved upon. the report suggested a framework of improvement on conceptual understanding that covers the interrelated components of the education system. conceptual understanding must be constructed in the learners’ cognitive structure and utilized in daily experiences if meaningful learning would take place (okafor & olayemi, 2014; warren & rosebery, 2011). ban ki-moon (2012) further, posited that, through education; children are taught not to hate, core 38 ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 values are strengthened, leaders with wisdom, compassion are raised and lasting culture of peace are established. he further asserted that the absence of peace has caused sufferings, citing not only open conflicts, but also the deadly effect of discrimination, terrorism and human rights abuses around the world. uhemba (2013) suggested that action on the culture of peace should be taken by all educators to ensure that school children learn in the environment that is devoid of unhealthy confrontation and human rights abuses. king (2010) explained that culture of peace is a major component in reconciling group identities within a frame work of social cohesion that promotes peaceful co-existence and tolerance. these demand creating a range of cultural thought, tolerance, experiences, positive self-esteem, confidence, cooperation and love among chemistry students that would foster conceptual understanding during the classroom activities. chukwuka, (2014) stated that through proper education people would be aware that carpooling allows sharing the cost of gas by cutting expenses to 50% or more and thus reducing air pollution. he outlined some effective ways of caring for the planet earth such as planting of more trees, recycling of reusable materials, avoiding plastics that do not bio-degrade, turning off electrical appliances not in-use and keeping environment clean from pollutants and other solid wastes. emphasis was laid on switching off car engine while waiting for the traffic signal to go green because, it reduces emission of carbon (ii) oxide and other harmful gases (wilson, 2008). these are part of knowledge which secondary school chemistry students are directly and indirectly exposed to in their environments. 1.3. purpose and research questions some secondary school chemistry students have difficulties in understanding some concepts in chemistry in spite of their consciously and unconsciously exposure to some culture of peace and care for the planet earth variables both at home and in the school settings. inadequate knowledge of environmental problem and issues in conflict resolution which are built up in their curriculum could be attributable to poor understanding of chemistry concepts. some studies have identified challenges of secondary school students understanding of chemistry concepts and learning outcomes such as representation of concepts at the microscopic and macroscopic levels ( okafor, yewande & okedele, 2014); poor awareness that over 2,300 chemicals detected in drinking water could cause cancer (spitzer, 2009 & wilson, 2008); inadequate laboratory utilization ( okafor & uzoechi (2012); ineffective teaching methods (okafor 2014; okafor, 2013a & 2013b; okafor & umoinyang, 2008) and attitudes to proper disposal of solid wastes (chukwuka, 2014). the objectives of this study therefore was to explore and identify the culture of peace and care for the planet earth variables that significantly predicted higher and lower scores of secondary school chemistry students in understanding of concepts and also to ascertain the extent to which gender was a contributing factor. the specific research questions for the study were: ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 39 rqi: what are the culture of peace variables that significantly predict students higher and lower scores in chemistry understanding test (cut)? rq2: what are the care for the planet earth variables that significantly predict students higher & lower scores in cut? rq3: to what extent could the effect of gender on culture of peace and care for the planet earth variables significantly predict students’ higher & lower scores in cut? however, literature is sparse on the predictive effects of culture of peace and care for the planet earth on secondary school students understanding of chemistry concepts. a contribution in that direction could promote cultural solidarity, foster harmony, promote proper wastes management and improve conceptual understanding among secondary school chemistry students in anambra state of nigeria. 2. method 2.1. sampling procedures the population consisted of all the public coeducational sss1 chemistry students from six educational zones of anambra state in nigeria. a three-stage sampling procedure was conducted. firstly, two educational zones that have 70% of coeducational schools were purposively selected. secondly, simple random sampling technique was used in selecting three schools in each zone that have two or more chemical based industries. lastly, in each of the schools, the class that has more than 30 students was randomly selected. 2.1.1. sample size a total sample of 180 students from six public coeducational schools participated in the study. the sample size however did not differ in any way from the target population. 2.1.2. measures and covariates culture of peace and care for the planet earth questionnaire (cpcpeq) and chemistry understanding test (cut) were used for data collection. the independent variables were measured on cpcpeq statements that had four point likert scales of strongly agree; agree; strongly disagree and disagree respectively. cpcpeq was in three sections. section a included items on students gender and age (see appendix 1). sections b and c, contained twenty statements in each that measured culture of peace and care for the planet earth respectively (see appendix 1). cpcpeq was developed by the researcher and every item was reviewed by the chemistry education evaluator. its reliability was determined using cronbach alpha which gave an index of r=.71 indicating its internal consistency. it was trial-tested on 50 secondary school chemistry students of two private schools that did not form part of the study. cut included nineteen (19) items that involved multiple choice and short answer / completion with a total score of twenty-seven (27) points (see appendix 11). the total 40 ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 scores of students earned points were used to measure the dependent variable of understanding of chemistry concepts. content validity of cut was established by chemistry education expert in test development who reviewed the content and found the items indicative of understanding of chemistry concepts. construct validity was also established by conducting factor analysis on a pilot sample. based on the data of the final sample, kuder-richardson formula 20 was used for the conceptual understanding of chemistry concepts scale and was found to be 0.78. according to devellis (2012), scales with reliability indices between 0.65 and 0.70 are minimally acceptable, between 0.70 and 0.80 respectable, and above 0.80 very good. thus the scale of understanding of chemistry concepts with a reliability of 0.78 was accepted. the respondents were then given the survey questionnaires or cpcpeq to complete and the chemistry understanding test (cut) to attempt (see appendices 1 and ii).research design 2.1.3. research design the study adopted descriptive survey and correlation research designs. there was no treatment and manipulation of variables but efforts were made in ascertaining the directions of correlation between the independent variables. concepts were drawn from two themes (chemistry & industries and chemistry & environment) as contain in the senior secondary school 1 (sss1) chemistry curriculum. 2.1.4. data analysis a bivariate correlation analysis was used to identify significant predictors related to culture of peace and care for the planet earth on the dependent variable. one-way analysis of variance (anova) was performed to indicate linear relationship among the predictor variables as well as criterion variable. then, the identified significant independent variables from the correlation matrix were subjected to a step-wise linear regression analysis to identify a smaller set of significant predictors of the dependent variable. statistical package for social scientist (spss) version 18.0 was used to conduct the above correlation and regression analysis. 3. result the analysis of the findings is delineated from the results of the research questions as stated below. 3.1. research question1: what are the culture of peace variables that significantly predict students higher and lower scores in chemistry understanding test (cut)? ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 41 table 1. model summary-analysis of variance table of culture of peace variables predicting higher chemistry concepts scores mode r r2 r2adjusted f7, 172 sig. of p. 1-8 .696 .484 .482 12.457 .000 table 1 shows that eight culture of peace variables such as: tolerance, collaboration, self-esteem, confidence, openness, conflict prevention, creativity and equitable resource distribution significantly predicted higher chemistry concepts scores in chemistry understanding test (f (7, 172) =12.457, p<0.05, r2adjusted=.482). the squared correlation when adjusted indicates that the eight variables accounted for 48.2% of the variance. table 2. table of coefficient of higher chemistry concepts scores variables b standard error beta t-value sig. of p. constant 18.867 1.463 12.762 .000 working together .864 .302 .150 2.861 .005 self-esteem .958 .333 .151 2.880 .004 openness .697 .282 .129 2.472 .009 confidence .786 .287 .143 2.739 .007 conflict prevention 1.043 .453 .121 2.302 .016 tolerance 1.334 .397 .176 3.361 .001 creativity 1.136 .425 .140 2.673 .008 equitable resource distribution 0.754 .346 .114 2.179 .036 significant at p < .05 level table 2 shows the culture of peace variables that significantly contributed to higher scores in chemistry understanding test. tolerance for peace to reign was the most significant predictor of higher chemistry scores (β=.176, t= 3.361, p<.05). the beta value indicates that for every unit positive change in tolerance, there is a corresponding increase of 0.176, higher score on chemistry understanding test. this was followed by self-esteem and working together (self-esteem: β=.151, t= 2.880, p<.05; working together: β=.150, t= 2.861, p<.05). the beta values for self-esteem and working together are indications that for every unit change in self-esteem and working together, there was a corresponding positive change of .151 and .150 respectively on higher scores of chemistry understanding test respectively among others. 42 ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 table 3. model summary-analysis of variance table of culture of peace variables predicting lower chemistry concepts scores mode r r2 r2adjusted f6, 173 sig. of p. 1-7 .623 .388 .327 8.639 .000 table 3 indicates seven culture of peace variables that significantly predicted lower concepts scores in chemistry understanding test which include: social movement, satisfaction, freedom from fear, peaceful marriage, status placement, non-violent communication and resolution training that show the following (f (6, 173) =12.457, p<0.05, r2adjusted=.327). the squared correlation when adjusted indicates that the seven significant variables accounted for 32.7% of the variance. table 4. table of coefficient of lower chemistry concepts score variables b standard error beta t-value sig. of p. constant 14.653 1.234 11.874 .000 satisfaction .754 .302 .149 2.497 .008 social movement 1.345 .396 .203 3.396 .000 freedom from fear .564 .271 .124 2.081 .056 peaceful marriage .956 .347 .165 2.755 .004 status placement .686 .293 .140 2.341 .014 non-violent comm. .789 .325 .145 2.428 .011 resolution training .691 .290 .142 2.383 .013 significant at p < .05 level it can be observed from table 4 that seven culture of peace variables significantly contributed to lower concepts scores in chemistry understanding test. social movement was the most significant predictor of lower chemistry concept score (β=.203, t= 3.396, p<.05). the beta value indicates that for every unit positive change in social movement, there is a corresponding increase of 0.203 in lower scores on chemistry understanding test. next significant predictors of lower concept scores were: peaceful marriage and satisfaction (peaceful marriage: β=.165, t= 2.755, p<.05; satisfaction: β=.149, t= 2.497, p<.05). the beta values for peaceful marriage and satisfaction are indications that for every unit change in each, there was a corresponding positive change of .165 and .149 respectively in lower scores of chemistry understanding test and among others. ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 43 3.2. research question 2: what are the care for the planet earth variables that significantly predict students higher and lower scores in chemistry understanding test (cut)? table 5. model summary-analysis of variance table of care for the planet earth variables predicting higher chemistry concepts scores mode r r2 r2adjusted f6, 173 sig. of p. 1-7 .893 .798 .794 231.998 .000 table 5 shows that seven care for the planet earth variables such as: adjusting thermostat, energy saving bulbs, switch off/unplug, proper vehicle maintenance, recycling metals, glass and newspaper, use of less pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers significantly predicted higher scores in chemistry understanding test (f (6, 173) =231.998, p<0.05, r2adjusted=.794). the squared correlation when adjusted indicates that the seven variables accounted for 79.4% of the variance. table 6. table of coefficient of higher chemistry concepts score variables b standard error beta t-value sig. of p. constant 20.086 1.353 14.7848 .000 energy saving bulbs 3.901 .322 .391 12.099 .000 switching off/unplug .799 .186 .117 4.293 .000 adjusting thermostat 7.691 .514 .620 14.957 .000 vehicle maintenance .903 .171 .137 5.287 .000 rechargeable batteries 2.101 .269 .240 7.801 .000 less pesticides & fert. 2.056 .214 .293 9.624 .000 recycling materials 2.767 .274 .420 10.104 .000 significant at p < .05 level table 6 shows care for the planet earth variables that significantly contributed to higher scores in chemistry understanding test. adjusting thermostat was the most significant higher predictor of chemistry concepts scores (β=.620, t= 14.957, p<.05). the beta value indicate that for every unit positive change in adjusting thermostat, there is a corresponding increase of 0.620 in higher score on chemistry understanding test. these were followed by recycling materials and energy saving bulbs (recycling materials: β=.420 t= 10.104, p<.05; energy saving bulbs: β=.391, t= 12.099, p<.05) and among others. the beta values for recycling materials and energy saving bulbs are indications that for every unit change in recycling materials and energy saving bulbs, there was a corresponding positive change of .420 and .391 respectively in higher scores on chemistry understanding test. 44 ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 table 7. model summary-analysis of variance table of care for the planet earth variables predicting lower chemistry concepts scores mode r r2 r2adjusted f6, 173 sig. of p. 1-7 .848 .721 .715 129.811 .000 table 7 shows that seven care for the planet earth variables such as: saving water, cut one tree and plant two, limit family size, save animals, go vegetarian, buy recycle products and buy organic foods significantly predicted lower scores on chemistry understanding test (f (6, 173) =229.811, p<0.05, r2adjusted=.715). the squared correlation when adjusted indicates that the seven variables accounted for 71.5% of the variance. table 8. table of coefficient of lower chemistry concepts score variables b standard error beta t-value sig. of p. constant 25.033 1.766 14.179 .000 limit family size 2.436 .222 .354 10.975 .000 saving water 2.728 .201 .400 13.562 .000 buy organic food 1.920 .225 .300 8.529 .000 buy recycle products 1.643 .214 .232 7.679 .000 save animals 2.595 .384 .215 6.756 .000 plant more tree. 1.338 .266 .162 5.030 .000 go vegetarian 2.400 .500 .154 4.800 .000 significant at p < .05 level it can be observed from table 8 the care for the planet earth variables that significantly contributed to lower scores in chemistry understanding test. saving water was the most significant lower predictor of chemistry concepts scores (β=.400, t= 13.562, p<.05). the beta value indicates that for every unit positive change in saving water, there is a corresponding increase of 0.400 in higher score for chemistry understanding test. this was followed by limit family size and buy organic foods (limit family size: β=.354 t= 10.975, p<.05; buy organic foods: β=.300, t= 8.529, p<.05). the beta values for limit family size and buy organic foods indicate that for every unit change in each, there was a corresponding positive change of .354 and .300 respectively in lower score on chemistry understanding test. 3.3. research question 3: to what extent could the effect of gender on culture of peace and care for the planet earth variables significantly predict students’ higher and lower scores in chemistry understanding test? ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 45 table 9. test of model coefficients and classification values chi-square df sig. omnibus test 11.031 3 .012 hosmer-lemeshow test 4.821 8 .705 cox & snell r square =.287 nagelkerke r square = .496 the overall percentage of correctness of classification is tabled to be 86.7%. table 9 shows the chi-square value for the omnibus test indicating the model that significantly predicts group membership (ϫ2=11.031, df=3, p<.05). hosmer-lemeshow test shows that the model is good with respect to the agreement between the observed outcomes and the predicted outcomes ((ϫ2=4.821, df =8, p> .05). if p is less than 0.05 then the model does not adequately fit the data and it means that logistic regression being contemplated is better not done. cox & snell r square indicated that the variance accounted for the predictors in relation to the criterion. this index indicated a 28.7% variance while nagelkerke r square indicated 49.6% variance that was accounted for. the overall classification shows that the model was correct for about 86.7% in classifying students into higher and lower chemistry concepts. table 10. summary of model variables variables b se wald df sig. exp. (b) care for planet earth -.314 .107 8.640 1 .003 1.002 gender 002 .024 .004 1 .948 .731 culture of peace .694 .236 8.643 1 .003 2.002 constant 1.344 1.661 .654 1 .419 3.834 significant at p<.05 table 10 shows that the wald statistic (w) analogous to test-statistic is in logistic regression. care for the planet earth and culture of peace variables significantly predicted higher and lower concepts scores in chemistry understanding test (care for planet earth: w=8.640, p<0.05, exp (b) =1.002; culture of peace: w= 8.643, p<0.05, exp (b) =2.002). the exponential b provides an alternative method of interpreting the regression coefficient. the care for the planet earth can be interpreted to be that as one unit increases in the predictor, the students who have higher chemistry concepts scores increase by 1.002 while that of the culture of peace one unit increase implies the odds of the students being classified into higher chemistry concept score increases by 2.002. 46 ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 in summary, care for the planet earth and culture of peace variables significantly predicted higher and lower chemistry concepts scores. tolerance among students was the most significant contributor to higher chemistry concept score under culture of peace variable while social movement was the most significant lower predictor. similarly, adjusting thermostat was the most significant higher predictor of chemistry concepts scores while saving water was the most significant lower predictor of chemistry concept scores on the care for the planet earth. gender was not a factor to be considered in the prediction of higher or lower scores on chemistry understanding test for the culture of peace and care for the planet earth variables respectively. 4. discussion 4.1. effects of culture of peace variables on students understanding of chemistry concepts in this study, a significant higher scores in chemistry understanding test were obtained among tolerance, self-esteem, working together, confidence, creativity, openness, conflict prevention and equitable resource distributions as shown in table 2 of the culture of peace variables (tolerance>selfesteem>workingtogether>confidence> creativity>openness>conflictprevention> equitable resource distribution). it supports this author’s assertion that creating cultural thought, tolerance, experiences, positive self esteem, confidence, cooperation and love among chemistry students could foster conceptual understanding during the classroom activities. it is also in line with the united nations (un 2013) resolutions that peace and non-violence should be promoted through education by revising curriculum to integrate tolerance, cooperation, dialogue, respect for human rights among others (uhemba, 2013). in addition, the study has proved ban kimoon (2012) statement that, through education; children are taught not to hate, core values are strengthened and leaders with wisdom and compassion are raised thereby establishing lasting culture of peace. since the above predicted higher scores in chemistry understanding, therefore families, schools and every nigerian should promote those variables for healthy living and learning outcomes improvement of school children. when adequately imparted on the students, they could also be the subtle weapons for reducing drop-out rates, fighting cultism and other social vices being upheld by some of the students due to poor educational background. therefore chemistry teachers should strengthened the above virtues among the students since the school environment that is free from conflict would enhance students’ performance and meaning understanding of concepts. in addition, social movement, peaceful marriage, satisfaction, non-violent communication, resolution training, status placement and freedom from fear as shown in table 4 of the culture of peace variables were most significant lower predictors of concept scores in chemistry understanding test. the lower prediction of the above variables could be due to students ignorant of the variables as they interact with their environment. this contradicts uhemba (2013) statements be describing the culture of peace as fundamental human rights, awareness of self, trust and openness, freedom from fear and socialization, nonconfrontation, non-indoctrination, conflict resolution, cultural norms and values since some ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 47 of these variables were lower predictors of chemistry concepts scores. in addition, some students are hardly aware of what happens around them, thus efforts should be made to expose them further on how to embrace those variables for adequate conceptual understanding. 4.2. effects of care for the planet earth on students understanding of chemistry concepts. the results presented in table 6 suggest that adjusting thermostat, recycling materials, energy saving bulbs, less pesticides & fertilizer, rechargeable batteries, vehicle maintenance and switching off/unplug significantly predicted higher scores in chemistry understanding test. on the other hand, saving water, limiting family size, buying organic foods, buying recycle products, saving animals, planting more trees and going vegetation significantly contributed to lower scores in chemistry understanding test as shown in table 8. the results corroborate with chukwuka (2014) statements that many people do not realise the harm done to the planet earth by idling car that wastes gas and pours pollutants into the environment. also, chemistry students should be taught environmental challenges using every day experiences for performance improvement (warren & rosebery, 2011). this also supports some researchers position that awareness on the need to adjust thermostat, carpooling, recycling materials, energy saving bulbs, less pesticides and fertilizer, rechargeable batteries, vehicle maintenance among others can be socially economical as well as reducing pollutants in the environment (spitzer, 2009; wilson, 2008). 5. conclusions peace culture and care for the planet earth are the means to remain afloat in conceptual understanding through chemistry education. it is fun to practice and sustain tolerance, positive selfesteem, cooperation and conflict prevention which foster sense of accomplishment. it is also imperative that chemistry students should acquire adequate knowledge of their environments especially in saving bulbs/electricity, water and vehicle maintenance which are relevant to some chemistry concepts taught in the classroom setting. everyone is encouraged to go green, plant more trees to add more life to the planet earth. also, promoting mutual understanding, tolerance, peaceful co-existence and friendly environments are fundamental tips of peace culture and care for the planet earth that foster meaningful understanding of chemistry concepts among secondary school students. 6. recommendation based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are hereby proffered:  all education stakeholders in nigeria and anambra state in particular should uphold the teaching of tolerance, self-esteem, cooperation, confidence, creativity, openness, conflict prevention, non-violent communication, 48 ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 resolution training among others to the students as to enhance concepts understanding, waste control and violence prevention.  schools and families should continuously create awareness on factors that negate care for the planet earth, culture of peace and possible ways of saving the earth from damage and violence.  chemistry teachers should educate students on recycling, reducing consumption and re-using waste materials, how to avoid plastics consumption because when they breakdown, they do not bio-degrade but photo-degrade. noting that break-down of such plastics into fragments readily soak up toxins, contaminate soil and water ways, thereby pollute the environment by entering the food chain.  chemistry students should be committed to keeping their homes, the neighbourhood and schools neat as to give the generation yet unborn a better life in the future.  visionary chemists for environment and peace culture (vcepc) should be set up in all educational institutions that would promote such virtues as: tolerance, creativity, conflict prevention and harmony in nigeria. it would also be an establishment whereby students acquire knowledge on effective methods of waste disposal through volunteer commitments.  pollution control should be enforced by anambra state government and school authorities as to give better life to children that would live on the planet earth in the generation yet to come.  peace culture and planet earth (pcpe) one month certification programme should be set-up so that on completion, participants would develop their own projects in their community, passing on the skills learnt to other people that are not privileged. acknowledgements my appreciation to professor uchenna udeani for her advice and suggestions. special thanks to dr. rachael yewande for analyzing the data as well as the 2013/2014 undergraduate and master’s students’ of chemistry education in the department of science and technology education, university of lagos for their assistance during data collection. references akaamaa, w.w.(2013). the role of education in building a culture of peace. inter-faith harmony integration and national development. paper presented at the united nations international day of peace, abuja, nigeria. september, 21. ban ki-moon (2012). programme of action on culture of peace. a statement made at the general assembly forum on promulgation of culture of peace at the unted nations headquarters , new york. chukwuka,o. (2014). it’s a revolution. diary january-december. green life pharmaceutical limited. lagos.nigeria. january-december. ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 49 devellis, r.f.(2012). scale of development. theory and applications. thousand oakes, ca: sage. federal ministry of education(fme) (2007). senior secondary school curriculum. abuja: nigerian educational research and development council. pp. 1, 8-10. harrris, i.(2004). peace education theory. journal of peace education. 1(1). pp 5-9. king, l. (2010). key issues in unesco policy on inter-cultural education. international journal of curriculum and instruction. dialogue among civiliztions.usa; world council for curriculum and instruction. pp 24-26. niroula, s.p.(2010). possibilities and opportunities in dialogue among civilizations: inclusion of dalits in nepalese society. international journal of curriculum and instruction. dialogue among civiliztions.usa; world council for curriculum and instruction. pp 73-74. okafor, ngozi.(2014). survey of learner-centered instructional techniques used by chemistry teachers in anambra state. journal of educational thought (jet), department of adult education, university of lagos. 5(1) pp 20-34 okafor, n, p. (2013a). a triadic play strategy for teaching science and mathematics in early childhood education. in ivowi,u.m.o(eds).seeking total quality education in nigeria. lagos: foremost educational services ltd. pp 96. okafor, n .(2013b). effectiveness of two modes of distance learning on nigerian college teachers meaningful understanding of chemistry concepts. journal of education and practice. beinjing. color works services limited. 4(1) pp. 36-37. okafor, n.p. & olayemi,o.o. (2014). evaluation of meta-cognitive skills acquired by fce(t), akoka vocational education student in introductory chemistry. benue state university journal of education(bsuje). makurdi publication of faculty of education, 13(2) pp.54-61. okafor, n.p, yewande, r.o & okedele, l.o. (2014). application of 3-dimensional technologies in undergraduate students understanding of difficult concepts in chemistry. a paper presented at the first annual conference of department of science and technology education, university of lagos, 1315 july. okafor, n & uzoechi, b.(2012).laboratory resources and utilization as correlates of chemistry students learning outcomes. journal of educational innovations. 5(1). pp 225-229. spitzer, n. (2009). five easy ways to love our planet: go green. available from: www.sheknows.com/home-andgardening/articles/807754/easy-ways-to-love-our-planet-go-green unesco (2000). world conference on education for all, jomtien, 1999 [online]. available from http;//www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-internationalagenda/educationfor-all/the-efa-movement/jomtien-1990/ united nations, (2013). united nations resolutions a/res/52/13: culture of peace and a/res/53/243, declaration and programme of action on culture of peace. warren, b & rosebery, a,s( 2011). using everyday experience to teach science. in warren & rosebery(eds.),teaching science to english language learners. building on studentsstrengths. usa. national science teachers association(nsat) press.boston: pp.42-47. wilson, k, (2008). underoneroof. kwilson@under-one-roof.net 50 ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 appendix a. inventory on culture of peace (cp) and care for the planet earth (cpe) instruction thanks in advance for your responses, kindly express your thought freely on the following items on culture of peace and care for the planet earth. section a biodata: please make a tick( ) of your choice from the provided options. 1.gender a. male ( ) b. female ( ) 2. age (a) 11-13yrs ( ) (b) 14-16 yrs ( ) (c )17-19 yrs( ) instruction please tick your response in the column that corresponds to your true feelings about the statements in sections b and c respectively on the four point likert scale; a = agree; sa = strongly agree; d =disagree; sd= strongly disagree. s/n section b: culture of peace sa a d sd 1. individuals that work together build support for peace culture. 2. respect to individual’s personality boosts its self esteem 3. peaceful relationship fosters confidence and trust 4. openness is synonymous to peaceful co-existence. 5. individuals should tolerate each other for peace to reign. 6. conflict prevention is better than war. 7. creativity promotes sustainable culture of peace 8 equitable resource distribution brings unity and peace to a nation. 9 active citizenship is next to peaceful coexistence. 10 .awareness of self (mind, body, emotion and spirit) promotes culture of peace 11 positive life transformation can foster peace in an individual 12 consciousness and social participation are likely to bring peace in a nation 13 equitable distribution of cultural resources does not indicate culture of peace 14 satisfaction is synonymous to culture of peace 15 social movement is an avenue of nurturing culture of peace. 16 freedom from fear is an attribute of culture of peace. 17 activity that develops peace culture is peaceful marriage 18 it is not good to equate individual’s status as a culture of peace. 19 non-violent communication enhances culture of peace. 20 sustainable culture of peace ethic is resolution training and consciousness ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 51 s/n section c: care for the planet earth sa a d sd 1. energy saving bulbs are good to be used at homes to conserve energy 2. it would not cost anything by switching off/ unplugging unwanted light. 3. it is good to adjust thermostat for energy conservation. 4. proper vehicle maintenance and carpooling save the cost of gas/petrol 5. recycling permits re-using materials many times and conserves natural resources. 6. recycling, reducing consumption and re-using waste materials counter the damage done to the earth. 7. there is need to say yes to metals, glass and newspapers recycling 8 cutting vehicle miles through combined trips, save fuel and reduce air pollution. 9 use of less pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers would reduce air pollutants that are harmful to plants and human health 10 saving drops of water will conserve water and make the planet earth a better place 11 plastics that break down to smaller fragments readily soak up toxins and contaminate soil and waterways. 12 plastics pollute the environment by entering the food chain. 13 it is good to nurture, nature by growing plants around the surroundings 14 to add life to the earth, more trees should be planted. 15 few family size can reduce harm done to the planet earth 16 animals should be cared for, and nurtured diligently with full dedication 17 it is nice to show love to the planet earth for making the future better 18 only recycled products should be on sale for every household 19 this is the right time to pay gratitude and care to the earth by planting trees and going vegetation 20 fast food wastes not properly disposed pollute the environment. appendix b. chemistry understanding test (cut) instruction: attempt all questions time allowed: 30minutes 1. acids have long been associated with the --------taste of some fruits such as lime and lemon. 2. acids have the ability to change litmus solution (vegetable dye) from -------to------- 3. acids dissolve in water to produce-----------ions as the only positive ions together with the corresponding negative ions and the process is known as------ 4. how many classes of acids exist? state them. 5. which of the acids occur as natural products in plants or animals materials. 6. bee’s sting is poisonous because it contains-------------- 52 ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 7. balance the equation below. h2so4 (l) + mg(s)------------> ? + h2(g) acid metal salt 8. classify the following under its respective acid groups. (cooh)2; h2so4; hno3; hcooh; h3po4; ch3cooh .(a)------------------------------------------------------------- (b)------------------------------------------------------------- 9. state two good effects of acids (a)-------------------------------------------------------------- (b)-------------------------------------------------------------- 10. state two bad effects of acids. (a)-------------------------------------------------------- (b)-------------------------------------------------------- 11. fine chemicals have the following characteristics except (a) they are produced to a very high degree of purity. (b) they are produced in a relatively small amount. (c ) they consist of drugs and chemicals. (d) they consist of paints and explosives. 12. the three important elements that have to be provided in form of fertilizers in adequate proportion are: (a) nitrogen, phosphorus and sodium (b) nitrogen, phosphorus and oxygen. (c) nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. (d) nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium. 13. the following are examples of heavy chemicals except (a) naoh (b) h2so4 (c) perfumes (d) nh3 14. bio-remediation is a method developed to destroy wastes that are (a) toxic (b) aromatic (c)alkaline (d) basic 15. one of the following is an undesirable substance released into the land, atmosphere, rivers and oceans that upset the natural processes of the earth (a) polymer (b) pollutant (c) polarizer (d) polysaccharide 16. one of the following is not the process for building up soil pollution (a) toxic compounds. (b) platinum compounds (c) radioactive materials (d) salts compounds. 17. any of these are used for disposal of solid wastes. (a) open dumping and sanitary land filling. (b) compositing and de-compositing. (c) incineration and accumulation. (d) combusting and oxygenation. ngozi okafor / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 36-53 53 18. describe two ways by which chemical industries have degraded or caused environmental problems (a)------------------------------------------------------------- (b)------------------------------------------------------------- 19. suggest two ways of reducing environmental problems (a)------------------------------------------------------------------------- (b)------------------------------------------------------------------------ thank you. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). references allen, i. e., & seamen, j. (2013). changing course: ten years of tracking online education in the united states. newbury port, ma: babson survey research group and the sloan consortium. guided knowledge search during mathematical problem solving international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 93 cultural diversity and education for sustainability jordi pigem university of barcelona rapporteur of the international experts’ workshop on faith-based organizations and education for sustainability barcelona, 22-24 march 2007. faith-based organizations and education for sustainability an international experts’ workshop on faith-based organizations and education for sustainability was held in barcelona in 200730 bringing together experts representing a wide range of approaches, including eight faith-based traditions (bahá’i, buddhist, christian, gandhian, hindu, jewish, indigenous, and islamic) to explore how the strengths and perspectives of faith-based organizations can be mobilized in the service of education for sustainability. this article summarizes the key discussions and outcomes that emerged during the workshop.31 one of the aspects that most deeply defines a culture or civilization is the way in which it accounts for the meaning and purpose of human existence. apart from the modern secular west (and all the societies under its influence), in most other cultures this has been provided by faith-based traditions. therefore, most of what is said in the following pages about faith-based traditions and education for sustainability can be equally applied to education for the dialogue among civilizations. as prof. mary evelyn tucker noted at the workshop, religions have always helped to shape civilizations and cultures through their stories, symbols, rituals and ethics. faith-based traditions add a broader, deeper and necessary dimension to the usually more technical and pragmatic focus of sustainable development. in fact, religions invented education and they can therefore play an essential role in education for sustainability, helping to tap into cosmologies, values, symbols, rituals and cultural diversity and education for sustainability jordi pigem celebrations that can inspire our journey toward a sustainable and life-enhancing world. cultures and religions are called to renew and transform themselves in order to face the unprecedented challenges of our time, to be concerned with the well-being of the whole earth community, and to discover and embrace their ecological dimension. this requires that cultural and faith-based traditions, without losing their identity and uniqueness, learn from each other and become much more aware of our human and ecological predicament. a time for radical transformation sustainability is not possible unless we overcome our worship of economic growth and our subtle identification of money with fulfillment. faith-based traditions have the possibility of presenting an alternative vision to counter the allure of endless consumption and endless economic growth, which is “devouring the planet and driving humans toward a precipice of no return.” we need positive alternative lifestyles that don’t depend on material things, and these can be most readily provided by religions. religions have the power to open us up to something bigger than our individual selves. in our time, as prof. tucker emphasized, “we are at the cusp of a big transition.” the uniqueness of this transition is widely acknowledged. as rachel carson wrote more than forty years ago, “we are challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves.” the earth charter states in its preamble that “we risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life”, and therefore “fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions and ways of living”.32 ours is “a new axial period” calling for pluralism and planetary awareness: our human and ecological predicament requires the cross-fertilization of all religious traditions. the humility to open up to the experience of other cultures and religions, to become intercultural and interreligious, is necessary for a viable human life on a sustainable planet. 94 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 as prof. tucker pointed out, sustainable development is usually regarded as “an uneasy alliance of ecology and economics”. this is, however, a very narrow conception. sustainability needs to be placed in a larger context that includes the following major elements: • planetary awareness • caring for future generations • nurturing bioregional cultures and local knowledge • expanding our ethical horizon • celebrating life the world’s cultures can play a major role in fostering this fivefold emerging sensibility.33 planetary awareness according to prof. tucker, in our day “all traditions are realizing that our common ground is the earth itself.” religious traditions are being called to come together (without losing their identities) and to renew themselves. we are learning to see people and planet as not separate. while the currently emerging planetary awareness is new in a number of ways, religions have traditionally embodied values that are akin to it. prof. tucker gave examples from three asian traditions: confucianism acknowledges the essential kinship of all beings among themselves and with heaven and earth, kinship that finds its highest expression in compassion. this kinship is expressed in the famous words from chang tsai’s western inscription (11th century): “heaven is my father and earth is my mother, and even such a small creature as i finds an intimate place in their midst”. the human is regarded as completing heaven and earth, rather than separate from the earth. 95 cultural diversity and education for sustainability jordi pigem daoism stresses the microcosm-macrocosm relation between the human and the earth, which are seen as interacting all the time. the qi running through the human body is the same qi circulating in the earth, and many practices related to daoism (like qi gong and acupuncture) build on this kinship between humans and nature. hinduism, similarly, expresses microcosm-macrocosm awareness in the concept of mahapurusha, the great person or cosmic person associated with the maintenance of all life. in the modern west, matter has been divorced from spirit, but in other traditions there is no such split. the daoist notion of qi refers neither to dispirited matter nor intangible spirit. billy wapotro explained that in his native melanesian culture, rather than living by “cogito ergo sum” they have traditionally understood that “it is the other who causes my existence:” “if the other doesn’t exist, i don’t exist; if the other suffers, i suffer.” note that in this context other is not restricted to fellow human beings: it includes the ocean, trees, stones, water and “the whole of creation.” each native clan is specifically related to a natural feature. many indigenous traditions have a sense that all things are connected. the hindu and buddhist notion of karma reflects a profound sense of the interrelatedness of all things, including our relatedness to other species. the interdependence of the whole of reality is even more profoundly conveyed by the buddhist notion of pratityasamutpada (“interdependent arising”). nothing is fully independent or isolated. our actions and intentions send ripples in all directions. caring for future generations prof. mary evelyn tucker began her keynote speech by asking the participants “to reflect on the well-being of our children — the children of every continent and the children of every species,” to think for the long term and to envision a lively planetary civilization for those who come after us. 96 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 “materialism has become the dominant faith of our world” and religions must now help to de-materialize our world view (dr. arthur dahl). one way of countering consumerism would be to set limits to the advertising industry and to explicitly teach children and adults how to critically evaluate adverts (rabbi waskow). in contrast with modern individualism, traditional sustainable societies had a sense of care for ancestors and for future generations. nurturing bioregional cultures and local knowledge among the estimated 7,000 languages spoken today, most of them indigenous and tuned to the ecosystems and rhythms of a particular bioregion, nearly 2,500 are in immediate danger of extinction. nurturing local cultures and languages is part and parcel of preserving the ecological integrity of a bioregion. the general and abstract knowledge that we draw from contemporary science needs to be complemented with the local knowledge still preserved by traditional cultures and indigenous peoples. they can help us to rediscover a sense of belonging to our place and to reconnect with the cycles of nature and the seasons. native culture and language “is the basis of our relation to life” (billy wapotro). sustainability requires the affirmation of local, place-based cultures and languages. there is a core link between cultural diversity and biodiversity. as susanne schnuttgen stated, education for sustainability must “take into account the cultural aspirations, identities, different ways of living, knowledge systems, values systems, religions, traditions and beliefs of all concerned,” while nurturing “the creative capacities and cultural expressions of human beings, in their multiple tangible and intangible forms, notably in seeking and imagining new ways of living together.” cultures and faith-based traditions should not give up their calling because the world has become secular. the belief in one truth that should be imposed on all cultures is to a large extent a western peculiarity. the modern, secular and scientific worldview cannot be taken, as is usually and implicitly done, as universal and superior to the views of nature from other cultures and traditions. these should be encouraged to step into an 97 cultural diversity and education for sustainability jordi pigem ecological phase (if they are not there yet) and treated as fully valid forms of understanding nature and our place in the cosmos rather than being treated, as is often the case, as mere folklore. embracing the pluralism that our age calls for implies that sustainability and environmental ethics must be place-based rather than universal: they should have diverse expressions according to the environmental context and the local culture, while keeping a strong sense of planetary awareness and kinship with other communities and other forms of life. we need formulations of ecojustice congenial to and emerging from every culture. one of the outcomes of the workshop was the need for international organizations to become more aware of the core link between cultural diversity and biodiversity. in fact, “sustainability” is best practiced by indigenous societies that are unfamiliar with such a term and are still rooted in their traditional culture, land and spirituality. the modern, secular and scientific worldview cannot be taken, as is usually and implicitly done, as universal and superior to the views of nature from other cultures and traditions. approaches to sustainability that subtly impose the currently hegemonic secular worldview over local and traditional knowledge, implicitly remove people from their sense of place and their cultural identity, and therefore go against the grain of true sustainability. education for sustainability must nurture local knowledge and cultural diversity. as has often been noted, we can only really care for what we love. we need awe and reverence for life, not just intellectual understanding. expanding our ethical horizon social justice has been an important concern in abrahamic religions. now we are called to extend our notions of justice, embracing the sacredness of all forms of life and granting rights to other species, ecosystems and the earth as whole. as thomas berry remarks, our moral concerns should include biocide and ecocide as well as homicide and genocide. this wider ethics calls for solidarity with the entire earth, ecological sustainability, lifestyles of sufficiency, and a more participatory politics. 98 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 we must renew our notions of “progress,” “prosperity” and “development.” much of what went under these names in the 20th century produced mixed blessings or had a boomerang effect. dr. mary joy pigozzi noted that “development” needs to embrace “well-being” and “spirituality.” one recent and significant step is to replace our zealous pursuit of a higher gdp (that knows of no other reality than money) with a more humane aspiration: gross national happiness, promoted in recent years by a number of international conferences and initially launched in bhutan. gross national happiness has four pillars: good governance, cultural autonomy, environmental justice, and an economy providing enough for basic needs in a sustainable way. sustainability is strongly related with our sense of place in the cosmos. we need a new relationship with ourselves, with nature and with the wider scheme of things. fazlun khalid, quoting richard tarnas, argued that since descartes, the modern world view has desacralized the world and, while claiming not to be anthropocentric, has subtly put the human mind at the centre of all things, cutting itself off from nature and the cosmos. religions provide a sense of belonging to the cosmos and can play a key role in shaping the new relation to the world that humanity is now called to embrace. as a western expert reminded us, the west has plundered the world and therefore it is hypocritical that we want to preach sustainability to other cultures. many participants emphasized that it would be totally immoral to tell people in the poor south not to have cars and hi-tech gadgets unless we ourselves grow out of our consumerist lifestyles. on the other hand, the west is now plagued with a host of psychological problems and new illnesses. people consuming more are no happier. for gandhi freedom arises from swaraj, self-rule: learning to rule our own selves. sustainability, likewise, must start in our own selves. “the means you use will become the ends you strive for” (martin buber). “be the change you want to see in the world” (gandhi). likewise, we must be honest enough to stop playing the game of denial. “our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” (martin luther king). we can not wait 99 cultural diversity and education for sustainability jordi pigem for presidents and “leaders” to lead us. as bernard combes and mary joy pigozzi stated, bodies like unesco can push initiatives forward “but these need to be initiated by people.” celebrating life celebration is essential, as victoria finlay emphasized. having fun is a good way of countering individualism and competition. faith-based traditions offer us a sense of beauty and harmony, often conveyed through inspiring aphorisms and stories that needs to be integrated into sustainability. festivals and ritual celebrations can enhance our awareness of the cycles of nature, the sun and the moon. in the andean region pratec is successfully reintroducing traditional agricultural festivities into the school calendar. most participants agreed that awe is necessary to achieve a sustainable life. the best of science can provide awe and wonder, but awe at the scientific, intellectual level, does not last and does not reach deep enough, while spiritual celebrations strike very deep in the heart of people. awe at life is most fully expressed through rituals. in most indigenous cosmo-visions, harmony with the local world or bioregion is achieved and sustained by ritual activity: “without it i cannot see how to achieve sustainable living” (jorge ishizawa). if religions are alive they have to keep renewing themselves, addressing the specific needs of the day. this is particularly true in our age of unprecedented challenges, in our “new axial period.” the symposia organized on the sea by orthodox patriarch bartholomew are an example of both ecological and interreligious awareness. transforming education from an intercultural perspective we need a new education, formal and non-formal, that fosters the five values discussed above: planetary awareness, caring for future generations, nurturing cultural diversity, expanding our ethical horizon and celebrating life. the un should support 100 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 efforts in this direction with more financial resources. there is also a perceived need to collect success stories of education for sustainability. many participants noted there are important obstacles when trying to introduce sustainability into formal education: • the curriculum is already full to the brim, and teachers are severely overworked. • the current formal educational system is geared towards quantifiable results rather than towards real learning (not to mention towards eliciting personal transformation for the sake of sustainability). • there are vested interests in the ministries of education, in the schools’ management boards and, last but not least, in the textbook industry. a number of possibilities were suggested: having more dialogue with curriculum planners and writers, involving scholars and historians of religion, making contents more appealing, developing educational materials with the children (it’s exciting for them to participate), and creating multimedia tools for children to create their own educational materials. fazlun khalid explained that environmental ethics is being introduced in islamic schools, and kirti menon reported that the school subject “life orientation” allows south african children to be exposed to the teachings of different religions. on the whole, though, it seems we must “reinvent the formal system” (bernard combes). as fazlun khalid observed, non-formal education is easier, faster, and more adaptable, free of the constraints that affect formal education. it is, in a word, more alive. rabbi waskow recommended informal educational activities like taking children out to the forest with spiritual books. formal or non-formal, education for sustainability should aim at learning to transform oneself and society and to love the natural world. and we must remember that children (and all people) need to make sense of what they are learning. the internet is a tool with many possibilities, and there are nowadays thousands of web pages devoted to sustainability. but it was noted that website-based knowledge can be abstract and 101 cultural diversity and education for sustainability jordi pigem disembodied (luring us into a cyberspace that obliterates the life of specific real places) while ecology has to do with feeling rooted in the land and connecting with actual plants and animals. besides, the world wide web is not truly worldwide: it only reaches the globalized world. we should never forget that in many parts of the world there is no electricity, so e-materials would be of no use there. therefore, e-materials should be geared towards teaching sustainability to those living in highly developed areas, where there is a major use of the internet. most traditional cultures perpetuated sustainable lifestyles over thousands of years through oral, non-formal education. formal education arrived with colonialism and still embodies an overt or implicit colonial drive, teaching the ways of the west with little or no respect for the local culture, history and languages, and therefore removing natives from their most direct ties with their bioregion. as reported by jorge ishizawa, traditional indigenous authorities in the andes attribute the present lack of well being and harmony in their communities to “a generalized loss of respect among all beings” in their local world. it is not only a matter of lack of respect between humans, but also (or mostly) of lack of respect of humans towards deities and towards nature as a whole. the local indigenous authorities see schooling as one of the major contributors to this situation: the school in the andean region has spread the modern secularist ideology of progress and has attempted to forcibly replace traditional ways of life by westernization disguised as modernization. pratec is helping local communities in the andean region to pursue their demand for radical cultural diversity in the school. they realize that the present educational system does not prepare young people for a good and sustainable life (parents are sorely aware of this fact). the new educational pact with the central government that the rural communities are now demanding is based on what is called paya yatiwi (in aymara, spoken in the area of puno) and iskay yachay (in quechua), meaning “two kinds of knowledge”. the rural communities want these “two kinds of knowledge” to be taught at school: their own and the modern project of literacy, science and technology. paya yatiwi / iskay yachay has three interrelated components: a) the recovery of respect in the 102 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 community (towards their deities, nature and among the community members themselves); b) learning to read and write while respecting and valuing their oral tradition; and c) teaching the “seven skills” that allow people to “pass life”, that is, to live a good and sustainable life. education for sustainability must clearly distinguish between two very different target groups: the 20 percent of humanity living “overdeveloped” lifestyles (including wealthy people in privileged areas of poor countries) must learn to undevelop, to reduce our current overconsumption and to find fulfilling lifestyles based on a much more moderate use of natural resources. but for the masses of the poor the challenge is totally different. the not-yet-overdeveloped rest of humanity, including all the poor in the south and all indigenous and traditional peoples, must learn to fulfil their needs (including running water, food security, and adequate health care) in a sustainable way and without falling into the lure of overdevelopment and consumerism. rather than being exposed to the subtle colonialism of advertising and of series like dallas, they should be offered models of non-material success. the lifestyle of the overdeveloped 20 percent of the world, besides consuming 80 percent of the earth’s resources, generates greed and envy. in fact, as was often noted at the workshop, not only should we, in the overdeveloped world, not preach sustainability to indigenous peoples: we should aim to learn from those who have been practicing sustainable lifestyles over the centuries. endnotes 30 this international experts’ workshop on faith-based organizations and education for sustainability was held in barcelona from 22nd to 24th march 2007, organized by unescocat — centre unesco de catalunya. besides a number of local authorities and unescocat staff, the following twenty-one international experts participated in the workshop: dr. abelardo brenes, university for peace / earth charter international, costa rica; bernard combes, programme for education for sustainable development, unesco, paris; somboon chungprampree, international network of engaged buddhists, 103 cultural diversity and education for sustainability jordi pigem thailand; dr. arthur dahl, international environment forum, switzerland; victoria finlay, alliance for religions and conservation, united kingdom; peter gicira, all africa conference of churches, kenya; jorge ishizawa, andean peasant technologies project (pratec), peru; fazlun khalid, islamic foundation for ecology and environmental sciences, united kingdom; dr. mathew koshy, joint ecological commission, india; kirti menon, gandhi centenary committee, south africa; dr. mary joy pigozzi, unesco high level panel on esd, usa; ranchor prime, friends of vrindavan, united kingdom; mayra rodríguez, ecumenical forum for peace and reconciliation, guatemala; hiro sakurai, soka gakkai international, japan/usa; susanne schnuttgen, division for cultural policies and intercultural dialogue, unesco, paris; michael slaby, earth charter international, sweden; christian teodorescu, ecumenical association of churches, romania; prof. mary evelyn tucker, forum on religion and ecology, harvard university, usa; philippe vaz, tariqqa al alawiyya, france; billy wapotro, alliance scolaire, new caledonia; rabbi arthur waskow, the shalom center, usa. 31 the full report of the workshop can be downloaded at http://www.arcworld.org/downloads/barcelona%20report.pdf. 32 see www.earthcharter.org for the full text of the earth charter. 33 there is a consistent overlap between the earth charter (widely regarded as a comprehensive and inclusive framework for sustainability) and the five core values that emerged in the workshop. however, some differences of emphasis might be pointed out. three of these core values seem to be sufficiently addressed by the earth charter. thus, planetary awareness is explicitly or implicitly present throughout it; expanding our ethical horizon to include issues of ecological justice is, likewise, present in many of the principles and paragraphs of the earth charter, and caring for future generations corresponds to principle 4. the remaining two values are somehow less represented, not appearing in the phrasing of any the 16 principles of the charter, but they are not missing: celebrating life is praised in the very last sentence of the earth charter, and cultural diversity is implicit or explicit in several subprinciples: 8b, 12b, 12d and 13f, as well as in “the way forward”. it is not surprising that a workshop drawing on the culturally diverse perspectives of faith-based traditions put more emphasis on cultural diversity and celebration. even if the creation of 104 http://www.arcworld.org/downloads/barcelona%20report.pdf http://www.earthcharter.org/ international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 the earth charter might be considered “the most open and participatory worldwide consultation process ever associated with the drafting of an international declaration”, from the perspective of faith-based traditions and non-western cultures it might not have given enough relevance to cultural diversity and celebration. 105 available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 64–72 ijci international journal of  curriculum and instruction  sports as a creative way to teach science jonan phillip donaldsona *, penny l. hammricha a drexel university, one drexel plaza, 3001 market street, philadelphia, pa 19104, usa abstract this study investigates the development of scientific concepts by participants in a program which addresses the creative diversity inherent in learning by using sports as the context through which scientific principles can be explored. through the vehicle of sports not only are students learning the underlying principles of science embedded in the mechanics of performing a sport, but they are also learning the scientific principles in an atmosphere that embraces the psycho-social-creative-emotional connection to learning. © 2016 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: stem, science, sports, girls, minority youth, psycho-social-creative learning, urban schools 1. introduction 1.1. background and overview our research addresses the creative diversity inherent in learning by using sports as the context through which scientific principles can be explored. through the vehicle of sports, not only are students learning the underlying principles of science embedded in the mechanics of performing a sport, but also they are learning the scientific principles in an atmosphere that embraces the psycho-social-creative-emotional connection to learning. for instance, in their everyday lives students learn how to ride a bike, throw a ball, and/or jump rope. they learn these activities in an environment that is noncompetitive and non-threatening academically. what they are not aware of is the scientific and mathematics principles laden in performing these activities. in the classroom students learn these scientific and mathematical principles in a context that is foreign to their everyday experiences. they learn about the trajectory of a golf ball without connecting this principle with the actual practice of hitting a golf ball. this line of research is unique in that the academic and the everyday experiences of students can be bridged through the creative process of using sports as a mechanism to * corresponding author. e-mail address: jonan.phillip.donaldson@drexel.edu donaldson & hammrich / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 64–72 65 learning science and mathematics. by using sports as a creative vehicle for learning scientific and mathematical principles, the program described here responds to the call for creating innovative and creative programs that provide access to cutting-edge strategies in promoting science literacy. 1.2. theoretical framework a current view of how individuals process information and construct meaning proposes several independent forms of information processing, including logical-mathematics, linguistic, musical, spatial, creative, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal and intra-personal (gardner, 1993). because individuals may differ in their specific profile of “intelligence,” education needs to be diverse in its offerings, both in terms of content and format of instruction. creativity is at the heart of human intelligence. fostering the development of creativity has increasingly been acknowledged as an important aspect of learning (wyse and ferrari, 205; collard and looney, 2014). the development of creativity can be fostered by designing environments, physical artifacts, and learning activities characterized by centeredness on student interests and on playful exploration (donaldson, 2016; davies et al., 2013). creative learning environments promote the experience of flow, which—as with other effective science, technology, engineering, and math programs—depends on alignment of learning activities with students’ skills, talents, and interests (rathunde and csikszentmihalyi, 2005; national research council, 2011). the previous decades have witnessed many voices calling for reform in the teaching of science and mathematics. over two decades ago in the united states of america, the federal government identified six national education goals which boasted that the united states would be first in the world in science and mathematics by the year 2000 (culotta, 1990; vinovski, 1996). policymakers, scientists and mathematicians have focused on change to develop the scientific and mathematical knowledge that will produce a healthy economy and maintain a meaningful democracy (tate, 1994, barlow, 1999). under the current administration, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) education is a focus of priority in funding and educational efforts (penuel, harris, and debarger, 2015; gonzalez and kuenzi, 2012). while standards provide a map for improving the science and mathematics education of all students, urban schools and the communities to which they belong face barriers to providing adequate science and mathematics programs. when examining the conditions of many urban schools and communities, the reform necessary to reach improved student achievement seems daunting (barlow, 1999; kozol, 2000; darling-hammond, 2010). in particular, minority students (i.e., african-americans, latinos and women) and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds confront great challenges in performing well in science, mathematics and technology related fields (kraft, papay, johnson, charner66 donaldson & hammrich/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 64–72 laird, ng, & reinhorn, 2015; foltz, gannon, & kirschmann, 2014; national academies, 2011; hammrich, 1997; hammrich, 1998; hammrich et.al., 2000; hammrich, 2002; hammrich, 2008; hanson, 1996; oakes, 1990; scheurich, et.al. 2010). national agencies such as the national science foundation and national science board have identified these challenges as being urgent, calling for innovative and creative programs to provide underrepresented learners with access to the most advanced tools in science, mathematics, and technology education (córdova, 2016; nsf 2014). the american association of university women publication gender gap: where schools still fail our children posits a variety of positive impacts that sports can have on children. girls and minority youth in the late elementary through middle school years tend to struggle with selfesteem, physical fitness, skill development, goal setting, and problem solving. sports are one ideal mechanism to reach girls and minority youth during these uncertain years in which they explore their self-identities (aauw, 1998). research links physical activity and involvement in sports for girls to higher self-esteem, positive body image, goal setting, academic achievement, social skills, and lifelong health (schaillée, theeboom, and cauwenberg, 2015; srikanth, petrie, greenleaf, & martin, 2015; aauw, 1998). abrahamson and lindgren (2014) argue that the intuitive mode of learning embedded in students’ everyday lives is of a different nature from the analytic mode common in the stem disciplines, and therefore students need embodied forms of learning to reconcile the modes of learning. facilitating this reconciliation can be accomplished through instructional practices which integrate embodied cognition where body-based learning facilitates cognitive processes of learning and embedded cognition where the physical and social context mediates learning (nathan and sawyer, 2014). the program in this study supports and furthers this vision by providing mathematical and scientific concepts through the vehicle of sports. in doing so, the program is reaching students on multiple levels of intelligence, engaging students in embodied and embedded cognition, and taking areas of student interest as a starting point for strengthening the education of students in science and mathematics. it also creates an authentic and diverse atmosphere in which girls and minority youth are empowered—an atmosphere which counteracts the obstacle to learning described by adrienne rich: “when someone with the authority of a teacher, say, describes the world and you are not in it, there is a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked into a mirror and saw nothing” (2011, p. 218). learning science through sports describes a world in which students see themselves. this program seeks to address equity in science by providing students exposure to science through sports. the program is designed for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade girls attending urban middle schools and furthers the vision of its predecessor programs (hammrich, 1997; hammrich, 1998; hammrich et.al., 2000; hammrich, 2002; hammrich, 2008). the program’s vision is to increase students’ positive attitudes, achievement, and donaldson & hammrich / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 64–72 67 exposure to science. what is unique is that the program teaches science concepts within the contexts of playing sports. by doing so, the program is successfully reaching students in a variety of ways and strengthening the education of students in science and mathematics by creating a unique and diverse pedagogical atmosphere. by using sports as a vehicle for learning scientific principles, the program is responding to the national call for creating innovative programs that provide access to the latest strategies in promoting science literacy. this study investigated the efficacy of a sports-based science educational program in improving participants’ understanding of scientific concepts. the research question was: do participants in a program for learning science through sports demonstrate greater understanding of scientific concepts? 2. method the sports program targets 6th 8th grade students and focuses on the use of sports as a vehicle for science exploration. the program provides hands-on, inquiry based sports science activities that allow students to develop a repertoire of experiences, which can then be used as the foundation for learning scientific concepts. there are a total of 8 sport science modules that focus on science and mathematics concepts in life, earth, and physical sciences. each module lasts for 5 weeks. the sports are golf, tennis, fencing, basketball, track and field, volleyball, health related fitness, and soccer. program components include an in school program, after school program, teacher training, family education and summer camp. in this within-group time series experimental study (creswell, 2012), the middle school students took individually administered preand post-tests covering skills and concepts inherent to the science and mathematics concepts they were exposed to in the sport. university science faculty developed the instruments. the students’ responses were openended allowing them to express their creative understanding of the content. sample questions include the following examples: what does the word velocity mean? what is speed? what is a projectile? what is a trajectory? each question was scored as correct or incorrect. there were four questions for each activity. in reporting the scores for each activity the four questions were grouped into either correct or incorrect for the entire concept. pretests were administered at the beginning of each module’s activity, and posttests were administered at the end of the module’s activity. the pretest and posttests were identical instruments. students’ grades from the beginning of the year to the end of the year were also compared to see if there were any gains in their academic achievement. also, parents were surveyed prior to and after their child’ participation in the program to see if their awareness to the connection between sport and science and mathematics changed. 68 donaldson & hammrich/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 64–72 3. results gain scores were analyzed using a simple t test. based on raw scores, the percentage of correct responses was used as the measure. the data consistently shows statistically significant mean increases from pre to posttest ranging from 27 to 60 percentage points (p < .001 in each case). looking at these gains in a different way, in every case, the lower quartile on the posttest exceeded the upper quartile on the pretest. all of the results from the program are summarized in table 1. table 1. preand posttest mean scores and standard deviations sport science n pre-test: m sd posttest: m sd gain tennis-geometry 52 29 22.1 84 17.3 55** fencing-forces 40 38 21.4 86 14.2 48** basketball-motion 32 27 16.5 77 23.3 50** golf-mechanics 50 34 19.4 93 8.6 59** volleyball-aerodynamics 48 28 19.4 77 22.5 49** soccer-mechanical engineering 35 28 19 88 12.2 60** track (field)-aerodynamics 33 36 22.3 90 12.5 54** track (running)-biomechanics 42 33 15.5 60 18.7 28** notes. scores are raw scores, reported as a percent of correct response. **denotes statistically significant gains (p>.001) additionally, we point out that of the sixth graders who completed the sixth grade program 67% returned as seventh graders. furthermore, 54% of all students who completed the seventh grade program returned to participate as eighth graders. we believe that these retention rates speak volumes about our students’ attitudes toward the program. also with respect to students’ grades at the beginning of the year compared to the end of the year, t-test results showed that the students achievement scores (grades) in both mathematics and science increased significantly (p<.05) during the year pre to post. another positive benefit of the program is that of the parents surveyed prior to and after their child’s participating in the program, parents increased their awareness of the connection of sport to science and mathematics by 60 percent (33% awareness at the beginning to 83% at the end of the year). 4. discussion the only quantitative analyses of the siss program we have been able to perform thus far are the analyses of simple gain scores of participants presented in the previous section along with their classroom grades in science and mathematics prior to and after participating in the program. with no potential comparison available as to what gains would be expected in a traditional approach to learning these concepts, we can draw no donaldson & hammrich / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 64–72 69 strong conclusions regarding the effects of the program at this point. thus, while these results are suggestive of a positive effect of the program, nevertheless they must be regarded as preliminary and not generalizable. however, we have ample qualitative evidence that the program has had a positive effect on the lives of many of the students. the journals kept by the middles school students are one source of such evidence. in reflecting about the program, the features cited most frequently by these students are that they are having fun (“this is fun”), enjoying the program (“i really like participating in this program”), and learning science and mathematics (“i am learning about angles, measurement, and reflection”). some of the students were able to see connections among the things they were learning in the program and what they are studying in school (“throwing a ball is like learning about trajectory in school”). 5. conclusions based on the significant increase in students’ understanding of science concepts through sports, it seems that sports provide a creative way to facilitate students’ cognitive understanding of science concepts. while programs that address the equitable achievement for all students in science and mathematics are not new, using sports as a vehicle through which science and mathematics interest and achievement can be attained is unique. this approach bridges the application of concepts embedded in science and mathematics to the mechanics of performing a sport. sports provide a unique and innovative approach to reaching students in a friendly atmosphere while learning concepts usually too abstract for them to grasp due to their limited experience and exposure. another unique feature of this project is the focus on middle school science and mathematics. it responds to a dearth of attention to this level in public schools and fills a gap in the relevant literature (meyer, 2011). middle school students often experience a drop in grades due to lack of organizational skills and difficulty adjusting to the requirements of several teachers. learning science and mathematics principles through participating in sports will help students through this transition phase and will reduce the chances of “falling through the cracks”. in conclusion, one project or one group of committed science and mathematics educators alone cannot tear down all of the barriers for students in the areas of science, mathematics, and technology. one set of dedicated teachers, mentors, or undergraduates by themselves cannot change the often negative course of employment or postsecondary education for future scientists or mathematicians previously described in the professional literature. but this project clearly is a start. ongoing, pro-active involvement by the students themselves can teach important science and mathematics skills, while simultaneously expanding new horizons through early transition awareness. 70 donaldson & hammrich/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 64–72 what became evident in the program implementation was that (a) intervention programs that are specifically designed to include role models have a strong and positive impact on students’ achievement in science and mathematics and assist to help identify with science and mathematics as possible areas for study or employment; (b) program interventions evolve in stages of development, growth, and change; and (c) parental behavioral expectations for their children have important implications for their interest and achievement in science and mathematics. in order to promote the sustained success of students in science and mathematics, there must be a conscious effort to provide support for collaboration among schools, parents, and the community as ideas for useful strategies are developed, implemented, and evaluated. what we have learned over the course of implementation of the program is that any such intervention program would be strengthened if designed such that: (a) students come to see the intervention program as an extension of their formal education; (b) older students serve as mentors and role models for younger students; (c) students are presented means for academic success; (d) students are presented with avenues towards possible careers; and (e) students are expected to succeed academically. using sports to teach science is one possible approach to academic enhancement for students living in the urban environment. the results indicate that the program is serving the population of students in a positive manner. references abrahamson, d., & lindgren, r. 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(2015). creativity and education: comparing the national curricula of the states of the european union and the united kingdom. british educational research journal, 41(1), 30-47. doi:10.1002/berj.3135 *a paper based upon work supported in part by a grant from the national science foundation (grant no. 0002073). any opinions, findings, conclusions, and/or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of nsf. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). database connection failed! ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 226-244 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction an analysis of turkish efl coursebooks in terms of intercultural communicative elements arif sarıçobana *, özkan kırmızıb a department of english language and literature, selcuk university, konya, turkey b department of english language and literature, karabuk university, karabuk, turkey abstract the present study was undertaken in order to analyze two elementary school coursebooks in terms of their intercultural content. the analysis was based upon yuen’s (2011) framework, which comprises of products, practices, perspectives, and persons. the category of products involves tangible products such as books or paintings as well as abstract products, such as oral tales or traditional dances. based on this framework, it is possible to categorize food, entertainment, tools, dwellings, clothing, laws, education, religions, or travel as products. the category of practices encompasses the behavioral patterns of a particular society such as customs and information about daily life, forms of address, use of personal space, and rituals. the third category, perspectives, is related to the underlying beliefs and values, inspirations, myths, superstitions, and world views of a given society. finally, the category of persons includes famous individuals and fictitious or unknown people from a particular society. the present study aims at analyzing the cultural content in turkish high school coursebooks, namely moonlight 7 and moonlight 8, based on this framework. the rationale behind sticking to yuen’s model is that it allows cultural content to be analyzed in an explicit and understandable way. © 2017 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: intercultural communicative competence (icc); icc models; elementary school coursebook 1. introduction 1.1. introduce the problem today, there is a wide consensus that interaction entails the ability to be able to accommodate conversations in intercultural contexts and, as baker (2015) states, knowledge of lexis, grammar and phonology of one language does not guarantee effective communication. moreover, with its incredibly huge number of speakers and geographical * arif sarıçoban e-mail: saricobanarif@selcuk.edu.tr sarıçoban& kırmızı/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 227 reach, english provides communication over boundaries and assumes the role to “convey national and international perceptions of reality which may be quite different from those of english-speaking cultures” (alptekin, 2002, p. 17). in a sense, the concept “interculturally competent” entails becoming knowledgeable about culture, social attributes, and thought patterns of different pertaining to groups of people from other countries along with their languages and customs. accordingly, intercultural competence can be viewed as one of the most important ingredients of communicative competence in addition to other competencies such as linguistic, discourse, and pragmatic competence. it is estimated that roughly 1.5 million people speak english as a foreign or second language worldwide (crystal, 2012), a number that far surpasses its native speakers. therefore, as argued by alptekin (2002) and cortazzi and jin (1999), the cultural values of the core countries should not be the only materials that are represented in language teaching materials. as a result of this, the focus in foreign language teaching has gradually proceeded towards intercultural aspects of learning, and the term “intercultural communicative competence” (icc) has steadily encompassed the concept of communicative competence. the terms “intercultural speaker” (byram, 1997; kramsch, 1993), which covers abilities such as self-reflection and being able to “mediate/interpret the values, beliefs and behaviours (the ‘cultures’) of themselves and of others and to ‘stand on the bridge’ or indeed ‘be the bridge’ between people of different languages and cultures” (byram, 2006: 12). the council of europe’s common european framework of reference (2001) also makes reference to these “intercultural skills” and views them as essential competences. recently, cross-cultural communication emerged as the most common way of communication as a result of the developments such as globalization, the development of the technology, and the like (zheng 2014). according to some prominent researchers, the nature of foreign language education has changed substantially as a result of the social and technological developments that occur worldwide and this puts a remarkable emphasis on the term intercultural communicative competence (baker, 2012; houghton, 2009; jenkins, 2009; rajagopalan, 2004; seidlhofer, 2005; sowden, 2012, noviyenty, morganna & fakhruddin, 2020). in a similar vein, byram & wenger (2018) state that more contact with multicultural users pave the way for intercultural dimension of the use of english worldwide. therefore, it is acknowledged that one of the basic objectives of language teaching must be to equip students with the necessary skills in terms of cultural elements (kramsch 2013; jin 2014). the close connection between language and culture has been extensively voiced. byram (1991), for example, states that “language should ‘unlock the door’ to the culture” (p. 17), indicating that learning a foreign language means being engaged in the associated culture, such as aesthetics, philosophy, history and science. in a similar vein, according to butjes (1991), the educational output of integrating culture in language classrooms 228 sarıçoban& kırmızı/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 must be conducive to the “individual’s enrichment through the acquisition of a wider world-view and through an access to the non-native cultural capital” (p. 8). therefore, most scholars or practitioners underline the need for a thorough and comprehensive understanding of language and culture so that their intercultural communicative competence can be improved (hişmanoglu, 2011). one recent term that has received attention quite recently is ‘intercultural awareness’, put forward by baker (2012). the term ‘cultural awareness”, which is related to national conceptualization of culture, focuses on both the ‘intercultural’ and ‘transcultural’ dimension. this means breaking away from cross-cultural comparisons, in which cultures are treated as particular entities that can be compared with each other, such as british culture or italian culture. as opposed to this, an intercultural approach explores communication on a platform where cultural differences are relevant to understanding but does not make a priori assumptions about cultural difference. in addition, as baker (2015) puts it, through the term ‘intercultural awareness’, it is possible to explore knowledge, skills and attitudes in a more holistic alternative, and thus avoids the problematic competence-performance distinction. to get an understanding of how ‘intercultural awareness’ is implemented in the classroom, it would be wise to examine the relationships between culture, language and communication through: exploring local cultures; exploring language learning materials; exploring the media and arts both online and through more ‘traditional’ mediums; making use of cultural informants; and engaging in intercultural communication both face to face and electronically (baker 2012). one of the most common and comprehensive intercultural communicative competence models was proposed by byram (1997), which views intercultural communicative competence in terms of four dimensions: knowledge, attitude, skill, and critical cultural awareness. knowledge dimension is related to knowledge of one’s own culture and the target culture. attitudes imply “curiosity and openness, readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and beliefs about one’s own” (p. 50). the term “skill” is related to the ability to interpret a document or event and seeing the connections between this event and one’s own culture. critical cultural awareness can be viewed as the ability to evaluate critically one’s own and other cultures and countries. in order to clarify the concept of icc, byram (2000) stated the following: [. . .] someone with some degree of intercultural competence is someone who is able to see relationships between different cultures both internal and external to a society and is able to mediate, that is interpret each in terms of the other, either for themselves or for other people. it is also someone who has a critical or analytical understanding of (parts of) their own and other cultures someone who is conscious of their own perspective, of the way in which their thinking is culturally determined, rather than believing that their understanding and perspective is natural. (p. 10) sarıçoban& kırmızı/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 229 it can be said that icc models are primarily concerned with socio-cultural appropriateness and communication strategies; nevertheless, as put by (byram 1997), they still suffer from an overreliance on an “idealized native speaker”. in the process of language teaching, practitioners most of the time assign a restricted focus on a closed system of syntax, lexis and phonology based on an idealized model of a ‘native speaker’. moreover, as indicated by leung (2005), even in cases where it is claimed that social context and social rules of communication are taken into consideration as a narrow set of ‘native speaker’ norms derived from the intuitions of teacher trainers or material writers. they ultimately boil down to a narrow set of ‘native speaker’ norms derived from the intuitions of teacher trainers or material writers. according to baker (2015), this clearly shows what forms a very weak picture of successful communication. 1.2. literature review a number of educators dealt with the monocultural content of locally published coursebooks in turkey. one such study was conducted by çakır (2010), in which the researcher focused on three english language teaching texts, spring 6, spring 7, and english net 8 in order to see their culture-specific elements. the results of this study indicated that cultural elements, such as idioms, superstitions, and other cultural references were not represented in these teaching materials sufficiently and this demonstrates that the target language culture was not the primary focus of the writers. one recent and insightful study was conducted by bada and ulum (2016), in which the researchers focused on turkish-authored coursebooks. they reached two important findings. one is that cultural elements from outer circle were frequently employed in the course books and cultural elements from outer circle countries mainly consisted of social, economic, political, geographical, entertainment and touristic. another recent and meticulous study was conducted by toprak and aksoyalp (2014). the researchers analyzed 14 coursebook published by oxford university press and longman. their study found that the core countries such as the uk and the usa were over-represented in course books. another interesting finding of the study was that there was a positive correlation between level and frequencies of cultural elements. similar cases are reported in other countries. pasand and ghasemi (2018) put forward that previous studies conducted on coursebooks and cultural representations indicate that culture is represented in a one-sided manner in most coursebooks and this is a point of criticism. besides, lang (2011) claims that coursebooks abstain from drawing a negative picture of the target culture so as to keep away from controversies. in iran context, for example, pasand and ghasemi (2018) state that the prospect series was examined in relation to the teachers’ attitudes toward the usefulness; nevertheless, there are no studies that focus on the intercultural elements presented in these series. pasand and ghasemi’s (2018) study found that cultural subjects are adequately represented, and 230 sarıçoban& kırmızı/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 the series focused more on local matters instead of intercultural elements. the authors argue that in order to foster students’ intercultural competence more these coursebooks must include more activities or tasks pertaining to other cultures. various methodological pathways have been followed in studies conducted on icc in turkey. sarıçoban & öz (2014) study aims at exploring pre-service english teachers’ intercultural communicative competence (icc) in a turkish setting and examining whether such factors as study abroad, gender and academic achievement reveal any differences in their icc in general. korkmaz (2009), for example, analyzed coursebooks based on four criteria, namely fictional or non-fictional texts, visual references, conversational items and listening parts. çakır (2010) conducted a study on course books by sticking to idioms, proverbs, and some festivals. in addition, çelik and erbay (2013) based their study on yen’s framework, which consists of products, practices, perspectives, and persons. in a recent study, çalman (2017) employed two different models to analyze a course book that was used for ninth grade high school students in english language teaching. the present study stuck to yen’s model in its analysis of the two course books written for grade 8 students in turkey. in another recent study, koç (2017) also used yen’s framework to analyze course books written for young learners and found that cultural elements in we speak english (5th grade) were frequent and have a relatively balanced focus on home, target, and international cultures while upturn in english (8th grade) included few cultural elements. 1.3. the rationale behind studying course books there is no doubt that course books are the primary content providers in language teaching process. they provide the general and specific learning objectives of language learning in a tangible way. therefore, coursebook selection assumes great significance. tomlinson (2013) quite rightly puts forward that language teaching materials are supposed to reflect both the home culture and the target culture. in a similar vein, shin et al. (2011) claim that the incorporation of various cultural and racial backgrounds must be among the fundamental purposes of coursebooks. the basic argument of earlier course books was to focus on the target culture only or native culture. today, however, this approach is not sufficient. as regards course books and intercultural elements, kramsch (1988) stated that besides quantitative aspects, qualitative aspects also assume importance. that is to say, the nature of culture to be taught is also important. hence, aside from whose culture to include, how culture is represented is also an issue and tends to be highly selective. elissondo (2001), for example, indicates that in course books latino cultures are represented in the form of middle-class, light-skinned europeans, whereas indigenous or black groups are presented as exotic or having assimilated to the otherwise homogeneous cultural image. another finding of elissondo’s (2001) study was that the dominating sarıçoban& kırmızı/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 231 middle class is shown as engaging in activities similar to globalized world cultures or stereotypical activities pertaining to specific cultures or groups. on the other hand, course books fail to include parts of the complexities of the lives of people in latin societies. therefore, there is a need to examine course books in terms of how they represent culture. studies that focus on cultural representations in language textbooks have proliferated as a consequence of increasing attention paid to the significant role of culture and intercultural competence in language teaching. viable international communication requires gaining insights into the “us” versus “them” dichotomy (kramsch, 2005). therefore, an important element of successful intercultural communication is to gain an understanding of other people’s language and their culture and maintain one’s own cultural beliefs. as such, the mastery of a pre-defined set of syntactical, lexical and phonological features is only one facet of successful communication (spencer-oatey & franklin 2009). these approaches and views have three fundamental aspects which, according to baker (2015), include; a. knowledge of different communicative practices in different socio-cultural settings; b. the skills to be able to employ this knowledge appropriately and flexibly; and c. attitudes towards communication that involve the ability to de-centre and relativise one’s own values, beliefs and expectations. in this sense, the decisions regarding whose culture to include to what extent are to be made by policy-makers and materials developers. 2. method the course book analysis within the scope of the present study was conducted based on descriptive content analysis through yuen’s (2011) intercultural communicative competence model. this framework divides cultural content into four main categories, namely products, practices, perspectives, and persons. products are related with concrete products such as books or paintings in addition to intangible products such as oral tales or traditional dances. within the context of the study, elements related to food, entertainment, merchandise, print, tools, dwellings, clothing, laws, education, religions, and travel were considered as products. it can be said that there are overlapping components in various icc models. products in this framework, for example, can be seen similar to the concept of “big c culture” put forward by adaskou et al. (1990). by the term “big c culture”, adaskou et al. (1990) refer to the media, the cinema, music, or literature. the second category is practices, which include the behavioral patterns of a particular society; these include its customs and information about daily life, forms of address, use 232 sarıçoban& kırmızı/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 of personal space, and rituals. in a similar vein, this category can be likened to the concept of “lower case culture” again put forward by adaskou et al. (1990). by this term, adaskou et al. (1990) basically mean the organization and nature of family, of home life, sense of interpersonal relations, material conditions, work and leisure, customs and institutions. the next category is perspectives, which covers the fundamental beliefs and values, inspirations, myths, superstitions, and world views of a particular society. finally, the last category is persons. this category encompasses well-known individuals and fictitious or unknown people from a particular society. in the present, study, the target culture countries were considered as uk, scotland, ireland, the us, canada, new zealand and australia. in addition, personal names, city names, names of schools or similar institutions were included and counted as one unit. all the components of the series, namely teachers’ book, students’ book and workbook, were included in the analysis. in the presentation, cultural elements pertaining to home culture, target culture, and international culture were presented so that comparisons can be drawn. 2.1. selected course books within the scope of the study, coursebooks titled as moonlight 7 and moonlight 8 were chosen. these books are designed from elementary schools. the books were written in 2017 and were selected as course books for five years as of 2017-2018 education year. one reasons for selecting this series is that they are selected as course books by the ministry of national education. both books contain 10 units. the units covered in both course books are given in the table below. moonlight 7 was designed for elementary school grade 7 and moonlight 8 was designed for grade 8. 3. results table 1. topics covered in moonlight 7 and moonlight 9 moonlight 7 moonlight 8 unit 1 appearance and personality unit 2 biographies unit 3 sports unit 4 wild animals unit 5 television unit 6 parties unit 7 superstitions unit 8 public buildings unit 1 friendship unit 2 teen life unit 3 cooking unit 4 communication unit 5 the internet unit 6 adventures unit 7 tourism unit 8 chores sarıçoban& kırmızı/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 233 unit 9 environment unit 10 planets unit 9 science unit 10 natural forces table 1 clarifies the topics that are covered in both coursebooks. as can be seen, the coursebooks follow a topic based fashion. topics seem to have been chosen from daily life. in particular the units titled as appearance and personality, sports, public buildings, environment, teen life, cooking, the internet, chores are highly relevant for daily life. in the analysis, it was seen that in “sports” unit, the target culture was predominant. in this unit, the sports “wingsuit flying”, a sports peculiar to france, was included as a part of intercultural knowledge. apart from that, some sports which have become common knowledge were not included in the analysis. nevertheless, peculiar sports such as “zorbing”, which is peculiar to new zeeland, were counted as elements of cultural knowledge. in terms of tv programs, target culture is overwhelming. in one activity, professor mehmet öz (a turkish medical professor located in america) was included as an element of home culture. in “animals” unit, no peculiar information was given about any peculiar animals in different cultures. the “parties” unit is also overwhelmingly composed of target culture elements. however, explanations are weak as to various kinds of parties. the “buildings” unit could have included some specific architectural aspects from different cultures. brief information could be provided for them. the unit could also include common places where people pass time such as coffee houses or what people from different cultures do in the mornings and what they eat or drink. apart from these, the unit about “food and drink” in moonlight 8 covers home culture, target culture, and international culture elements rather satisfactorily. for instance, it talks about how to make “mexican omlette”, which is a cultural element. table 2. purposes reported in “intercultural awareness” sections in moonlight 8 unit purpose activity & task unit 1 ------ unit 2 being able to recognize similarities and differences in teen culture in other countries by comparing music, movies, free time activities and home life listening & reading unit 3 being able to recognize cultural diversity in food choices through readings and discussion listening & reading 234 sarıçoban& kırmızı/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 unit 4 ------ unit 5 ------ unit 6 ------ unit 7 ------ unit 8 ----- unit 9 being able to recognize science as a common human endeavor. listening & reading, preparing a poster about inventors of the world unit 10 ------ table 2 presents the details about whether the coursebook includes any purpose statements about intercultural awareness and how these are catered for. it seems that only in three units there are objectives stated regarding intercultural awareness. in unit 2, the objective is to help learners recognize similarities and differences in teen culture in other countries by comparing music, movies, free time activities and home life. in unit 3, the objective is to help learners recognize cultural diversity in food choices through readings and discussion. finally, in unit 9 the objective is to help learners recognize science as a common human endeavor. these stated intercultural awareness objectives are catered for through listening and reading activities. table 3. the products category in moonlight 7 and moonlight 8 coursebook home culture target culture international culture total moonlight 7 13 (12%) 72 (66%) 24 (22%) 109 moonlight 8 18 (19%) 50 (52%) 29 (30%) 97 total 31 (15%) 122 (60%) 53 (26%) 206 table 3 presents the findings about the products category. as we can understand from the figures, in moonlight 7 home culture elements are represented 13 times, target culture elements are represented 72 times and intercultural elements are represented 24 times. in total, there are 109 cases of cultural and intercultural elements in moonlight 7. in moonlight 8, the number of home culture elements is 18, target culture elements are 50, and intercultural elements are 29. in total, there are 97 instances of cultural and intercultural elements in moonlight 8. table 4. sample list of products moonlight 7 home culture target culture international culture şahika ercümen göktürk nba walt disney marie curie ana ivanovic sarıçoban& kırmızı/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 235 tübitak underwater rugby zorbing (new zeland) the oprah winfey show the vampire diaries movies such as: • avengers • grown ups • hobbit movie world halloween nasa apollo wingsuit flying european football championship african safari table 4 presents sample items regarding products category. as was stated, products are related with concrete products such as books or paintings in addition to intangible products such as tales or traditional dances. technological devices can also be studied under this title. from table 4, it can be seen that the number of target culture elements seems to outweigh the ones pertaining to home culture and intercultural elements. as for home culture, the coursebooks include an important sports person (şahika ercümen), a satellite (göktürk), and a scientific body (tübitak – turkish scientific institution). as for target culture elements, the coursebooks include a lot of issues ranging from nba (national basketball association), walt disney to movies such as avengers, grown ups, or hobbit, and halloween or nasa. finally, intercultural elements include products like marie curie, ana ivanovic, or european football championship and african safari. the results indicate that the number of target culture elements are still high. table 5. sample list of products in moonlight 8 home culture target culture international culture cappadocia hagia sophia patara beach mount nemrut göreme fairy chimneys survivor big ben london eye mount etna the pyramids of giza the great wall felix hoffman sample list of products found in moonlight 8 can be found in table 5. from this table, we can understand that the number of home culture and international culture elements seem to be more than target culture elements. as for home culture elements, we can see cappadocia (a touristic place of natural beauty), hagia sophia (a religious bulding), 236 sarıçoban& kırmızı/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 patara beach (a beautiful beach in the south of turkey), etc. when it comes to target culture elements, we can see that there are three items, namely survivor, big ben, and london eye. finally, regarding intercultural elements we can see that moonlight 8 includes mount etna, the pyramids of giza, the great wall, and felix hoffman. table 6. content about practices in the series coursebook home culture target culture intercultural total moonlight 7 ---1 (100%) ---1 moonlight 8 1 (10%) 6 (60%) 3 (30%) 10 total 1 (9%) 7 (64%) 3 (27%) 11 as was stated, practices refers to behavioral patterns, customs, daily life, information about forms of address, the use of personal space, or rituals. in terms of practices, moonlight 7 includes only three instances and moonlight 8 includes nothing about practices. in unite 2, there is a part about barış manço. in this part, a short section or a reading passage about music habits of different cultures or the home culture could have been included. in “television” unit, “tv viewing habits of different cultures” could be included. in this unit, “address forms” could have been studied. moreover, a group work could have been designed in which students are assigned different cultures and they could be asked to present short monologues. in short, the “television” unit, could have been used more productively. in unit 2 in moonlight 8, there is a reading and listening exercise about “teenage life in britain”. it can be seen a good example within the context of practices. it talks about the daily lives of teenagers in britain and give detailed information both on teenagers and british families. apart from that, there is no mentioning of “forms of address” in both series. table 7. content about perspectives in the series coursebook home culture target culture intercultural total moonlight 7 1 (33%) 1(33%) 1 (33%) 3 moonlight 8 0 0 0 0 total 1 (33%) 1 (33%) 1 (33%) 3 as was stated, perspectives is related to underlying worldviews, beliefs, values, inspirations, myths, or superstitions of a group of people or a culture. the findings related to this dimension are given in the table above. as we can understand from the table, the moonlight series seems to be fundamentally weak in terms of perspective. in fact, there is nothing about perspectives in moonlight 8. in terms of perspective, some sarıçoban& kırmızı/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 237 informative and exemplary texts could be incorporated from the literature of different countries. they can be devised in the form of listening or reading texts because literature reflects the worldview of a culture. table 8. content about persons in the series coursebook home culture target culture intercultural total moonlight 7 7 (35%) 9 (45%) 4 (20%) 20 moonlight 8 1 (50%) ---1 (50%) 2 total 8 (36%) 9 (41%) 5 (23%) 22 finally, findings about the persons category are given in table 8. as we can understand from the table, the number of persons in target culture outweighs those found in home culture or international culture. interestingly, in moonglight 8 there are only two persons. in this category, by persons, famous people are meant. table 9 gives examples of home culture, target culture, and intercultural culture persons. table 9. sample list of persons in moonlight 7 and moonlight 8 home culture target culture international culture barış manço aziz sancar neslihan demir (volleyball) şahika ercümen (scuba diving) beyonce will smith brat pitt meghan tramer the wright brothers marie curie (france) anna kornikova (russia) ilker casillas (spain) ana ivanoniç (serbia) 4. discussion in literature, there is a common view that intercultural competence is rather undervalued within the context of communicative language teaching practices (tajeddin & teimourizadeh, 2014). the worldwide spread of english as a lingua franca, the towering status of the native speaker is questioned, and it is advised to include more elements from different cultures. however, as the present study indicated, the native speaker is still here to stay, and the target culture still dominates materials in language teaching. the present study found a dominance of target culture norms. similar results are reported in other studies in turkish context. arslan (2016), for example, worked on 3rd and 4th grade course books and found that home culture is the least represented and target culture elements are represented more than intercultural elements. the findings in the present study indicated that the moonlight 7 and moonlight 8 have a considerably higher emphasis given to target culture elements. this is in line with a number of studies conducted in turkish context (e.g. çakır, 2010). there are also other 238 sarıçoban& kırmızı/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 studies which found a relatively well-balanced emphasis attached to intercultural element, home culture elements, and target culture elements. çelik & erbay (2013), for example, studied spot on 6, spot on 7, and spot on 8 series and found a well-balanced focus of cultural elements. similar to the findings of the present study, their study also found very little attention paid to practices and perspective. within this framework, the practice dimension especially assumes importance in that it covers behavioral patterns, customs, daily life, information about forms of address, use of personal space, rituals. however, in the analysis, it was seen that this is the weakest part in coursebooks. it can be said that there is almost no reference made to practices or perspectives in home culture, target culture, or international culture. particularly, there is no reference to personal space in neither of the series, for example. however, this is highly important in communication. one explanation for this could be that teaching products is easier than focusing on practices or perspective, or secondary school children may be too young to grasp practice or perspective. however, as çakır (2010) also argues, materials should include lively aspects of culture such as superstitions, idioms, proverbs, sayings, and the details of daily life so that students’ awareness can be raised in these important features. these cultural elements could be studied comparatively by giving more examples from local culture. in a similar vein, liddicoat and scarino (2013) put forward that coursebooks and other materials are supposed to provide access to and insights as to the language and culture. therefore, a course book is expected to present forms of language along with ways of connecting language and culture. they suggest that target-culture perspectives and discourses should also be presented to learners. kramsch (1988) argues that the nature of how cultures are presented also assume importance along with the discussions related to whose culture to include in course books. it was mentioned in the introduction part that elissondo (2001) found that course books mostly focus on middle-class, light-skinned europeans in relation to latinos while indigenous or black groups are given as having assimilated to the otherwise homogeneous cultural image. in the present analysis, however, no reference was made to the lifestyles of target culture or other cultures. intercultural communicative competence can also be discussed within the context of english as a lingua france (elf). eil implies that english is not connected to any nation or culture. this means that cultures of inner circle countries are not any more relevant in the teaching of english as the source cultural content. in such a case, the required methodology does not have to be dependent on a particular culture but rather needs to implement more locally oriented cultural aspects. what leads many a scholar or researcher into the assertion that english must be viewed as an international language is the explosive growth of english around the world. notably, the number of native speakers is expected to fall behind the number of second language speakers (graddol, sarıçoban& kırmızı/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 239 1999). in this case, elf can be seen as, ‘fluid, flexible, contingent, hybrid and deeply intercultural’ (dewey 2007; jenkins et al. 2011: 284) and therefore has comprehensive implications for english language education and pedagogy. therefore, utmost attention should be paid to include international cultural elements in terms of not only products but also practices or perspectives so that, as suggested by baker (2012), culturally enriched activities can foster the interaction between global and local communication. moreover, intercultural communication and competence is also an area of study for translation studies. köksal and yürük (2020), for example, stress the vital role of translation in regard to intercultural communication and intercultural competence. when it comes to testing, davidson (2006, p. 709) makes the following point with regard to testing issues: there is a well-established and legitimate concern that large, powerful english language tests are fundamentally disconnected from the insights in analysis of english in the world context. these exams set forth linguistic norms that do not necessarily represent the rich body of english variety spoken and used in contact situations all over the world. there are a number of drawbacks of selecting an international variety of english. in the first place, selecting an international variety fails to take into account the reality of international communication and the use of eil. secondly, in cases of international communication, each speaker brings with him or her a special variety like chilean, indian, english, or american english (matsuda and friedrich, 2012). therefore, it will not be possible to provide a standard variety. more importantly, as the authors pointed out, sticking to one international variety will give rise to a super-national variety, which may turn out to be impractical and inappropriate. eil pedagogy “must consider the specific goals that lead learners to study english and not assume that these goals necessarily involve attaining full proficiency in the language” (mckay, 2003, p. 5). according to hino (2012), it is not correct to label outer circle as “norm-dependent” since this requires a slavish adherence to “norm-developing” inner circle countries. likewise, due to the international language status of english, mckay (2002) suggests that the international status of english is not solely confined to a great number of native speakers. thus, rather than sticking to the norms of the inner circle, hino suggests that original varieties may emerge, allowing local forms to be expressed in a more peculiar way. another important point that merits attention is that despite the fact that these series includes elements from international cultures, these cultural representations pertain to cultures of europe, particularly germany, france, and italy. cultural aspects from asian countries such as japan or china are severely few and almost no attention has been paid to african cultures. 240 sarıçoban& kırmızı/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 it is common knowledge that learners become more motivated to learn the target language on condition that cultural knowledge is presented to them in contexts relevant to their lives. this is supported in literature. for example, badrkoohi’s study (2018) indicated that when more intercultural elements are included in language classes, students’ motivation can be improved. to this end, as alptekin (1993) suggests, cultural comparisons can be used. this means that home culture should be integrated more in the process of language teaching. with regard to icc, byram (1997) stated that “when persons from different languages and/or countries interact socially, they bring to the situation their knowledge about their own country and that of the others” (pp. 32–33). in addition, byram (1997) also suggests that “part of the success of such interaction will depend on the establishing and maintenance of human relationships, something which depends on attitudinal factors” (pp. 32–33). the coursebooks examined in the present study do not include anything about equipping learners with positive attitudes towards other cultures. teachers can use role-plays or similarities between other cultures and home culture to help learners develop better attitudes to the target culture and other cultures. 5. conclusions several implications can be drawn from the present study. in the first place, out of the analysis in the present study, it was found that local cultural elements along with the cultural elements of inner-circle countries tend to dominate the coursebook. indeed, this is a general tendency in coursebooks all over the world (pasand & ghasemi, 2018). therefore, teachers and syllabus designers must pay utmost attention to providing the missing intercultural aspects to students. this means that teachers must use other materials to supplement the series and provide learners with appropriate cultural and intercultural information. this, however, requires teacher to have a sound knowledge in intercultural elements. therefore, as a suggestion, future studies should focus on measuring l2 teachers’ knowledge of intercultural 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(2016). intercultural communicative competence through lens of semio-ethnography: research on turkish international graduate students in the us socio-semiotic world (doctoral dissertation). yuen, k.-m. (2011). the representation of foreign cultures in english textbooks. elt journal, 65(4), 458-466. zheng, j. (2014). assessing intercultural communicative competence in college english teaching. international journal of english language teaching, 1: 73-77. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! guided knowledge search during mathematical problem solving international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 167 building religious pluralism: the interfaith youth core approach eboo patel founder and executive director interfaith youth core cassie meyer director, outreach education & training interfaith youth core we often begin our interfaith youth core workshops by asking the college students we work with to think about the last time they have seen religion on television, the last time they have opened a newspaper or turned on the radio to a story about religion. we ask them to generalize: what are the dominant stories of the role of religion in the world? “religion poisons everything,” the sharp subtitle of hitchens’ god is not great inevitably comes up, as does huntington’s “clash of civilizations.” “religion makes you judgmental;” “all muslims are terrorists;” “religion is opposed to science.” it is very easy to shout out the darker narratives. so, we ask: are there any positive stories that the students can think of? we will get some tentative thoughts about the possibility for religious groups to do good in the world, caring about things like aids or poverty or the environment, but these ideas are much less clear in their mind. now, we ask the students, how do these stories correspond to the reality of religion that they have lived? how do they correspond to the way that they are religious, or to the religious people that they know? and further, what, we ask, does it mean that the stories of religion that dominate our popular imagination building religious pluralism: patel & mayer the interfaith youth core approach are often so distant from the lived reality of religion that these young people know? we can, of course, point out that it is much easier for the news to tell stories of wars and conflict than of the every day, common life and common good that most of the young people we work with live out. that said, it is important to realize the disconnect here, and to ask how much the way we tell the story shapes the way the story is played out, or as zachary karabell has put it in peace be upon you, his look at 14 centuries of interreligious cooperation and conflict, …perhaps times of death and war leave a more lasting impression than periods of peace and calm. maybe turmoil and confrontations sear the memory more deeply. but there are consequences to our selective readings…history is a vast canvas, where it is possible to find support for nearly every belief, every statement about human nature, and every possible outcome of the present. that does make history any less important, but it is up to each of us to use it well (karabell, 2007, 5-6). the interfaith youth core is a chicago-based, international non-profit organization committed to working with young people and those who work with young people, to tell and build a different story about religion. what does it mean, we ask, to be living in a time of increased global interaction across differences, to be living in a time where young people are often at the forefront of this interaction? what kinds of stories, tools and skills are we giving young people to build positive relationships across those differences, particularly across religious differences? diana eck (2006), looking at the reality of religious diversity, observes that it is not enough to simply have diversity, the mere existence of difference in a common civic space, but instead, that diversity needs to be actively and intentionally engaged, in what she calls pluralism. similarly, ashutosh varshney’s ethnic conflict and civic life: hindus and muslims in india (2002) points to the importance of civic engagement. looking at demographically identical societies in india, varshney asks: “what leads one society to remain peaceful in 168 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 times of national ethnic conflict, while the other erupts in violence?” (2002, 81) varshney finds that it is interethnic or intercommunal networks of civic engagement, modes of association that bring together people across religious and ethnic differences for a shared investment in a given community. intentionally building such networks, varshney (2002) suggests, actually leads to a stronger and more peaceful civic society. drawing from both eck (2006) and varshney (2002), then, we define religious pluralism in three points: (1) a respect for individual religious identity (and equally, respect for those who claim no religious identity) (2) mutually enriching relationships across religious difference, and (3) the enactment of common action for the common good. by working with high schools, colleges and universities, civic institutions, and faith communities, interfaith youth core is building a movement of religious pluralism. our methodology takes the idea of religious pluralism and equips young people to enact it on a grassroots level, creating intentional networks of civic engagement through the following: story-telling. young people who participate in interfaith dialogue are often not scholars of their religious tradition. they are, however, scholars of their own experience, the experiences of being a young person of faith, living that faith out in a religiously diverse world. instead of having a dialogue that focuses on politics or theology, that asks, “what do christians, hindus and muslims think about the nature of god?” or starting a jewishmuslim dialogue with israel-palestine, we ask young people to tell stories: the stories of the ways that they live out their faith, the ways that they have experienced tradition. not only is storytelling an empowering practice, but it also is a pragmatic tool for dialogue: as one teller speaks, her story will often evoke a similar but different story in her listener, who is then empowered to tell his story. shared values. in the words of ethics philosopher alisdair macintyre, “i can’t tell you what i am to do unless i first tell you the stories of which i am a part” (1984, 216). religions themselves have stories to tell, and stories about how believers 169 building religious pluralism: patel & mayer the interfaith youth core approach are to act. we focus on these stories of action, and push towards the common good: what do christians, muslims, and jews all think about compassion? about mercy? about justice? about hospitality? the point here is not to be reductionistic, and we very deliberately emphasize that the ways that buddhists and jews understand hospitality are not very different. we are not saying that all religions are the same. instead, we are asking a question: if you believe deeply, as a religious person, in hospitality, might we not find a way to enact that hospitality collectively, even if the ways in which, and the reasons why we understand it are very different? might we not still work together, acknowledging our differences while also enacting our shared commitment to a common civic space? service learning. the third piece of interfaith youth core’s methodology picks up on exactly this question, suggesting one of the strongest methods for interfaith interaction are those which build precisely the networks of civic engagement that varshney (2002) points to. the practice of service-learning encourages young people not just to do service to their community, but to also learn from the community alongside which they are serving. it asks that those serving know deeply the work they are doing and why, and asks them to be invested in the well-being of the community far beyond the completion of a particular service project. when that shared investment and engagement brings together young people of different religious faith – or of no faith at all – they begin to see one another no longer as other or outside, but as partners in the common good. these three pieces are not meant to be linear, but rather complimentary, each feeding into and reinforcing the others. often young people will first encounter religious pluralism by first participating in an interfaith service-learning project, by first experiencing the reality of working with someone who is different than them, and only later having the opportunity to reflect and process this. just as frequently, the students we work with have been engaged in esoteric theological interfaith dialogue, and have never stopped to think about how they might work in the world with those they are dialoguing with. 170 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 the question, “what are the stories of religion being told in the world today?” resonates with students because it allows them to place the interfaith work they are doing or are striving to do on their campuses into a larger context, a context in which their peace-building might in fact have something to say about a socalled clash of civilizations. religious pluralism gives them a methodology to tell a new story. a case in point: in 2002, a group of three students – a jew, a muslim and an evangelical christian – were trained in the interfaith youth core’s religious pluralism methodology. their school – the university of illinois, urbana-champaign – had been fraught with interfaith tensions to the point of near-violence. returning to campus, the three students began a new program, interfaith action, which focused on bringing together students from different backgrounds for sustained, long-term service projects that strengthened the local community and allowed students collectively to explore their calls to service. over the course of the year, the interreligious conflict all but disappeared, and interfaith action continues to run exceptional programs, culminating each spring in a major, campus wide interfaith service project as a part of our days of interfaith youth service campaign. the three students involved have each gone on to become professional leaders in their respective religious traditions, and continue to foster interfaith work in their communities. references eck, d. (2006). what is pluralism? retrieved june, 2008 from http://www.pluralism.org/pluralism/what_is_pluralism.php. macintyre, a. (1984). after virtue (2nd ed.). notre dame, in: notre dame university press. karabell, z. (2007). peace be upon you: fourteen centuries of muslim, christian and jewish conflict and cooperation. new york: vintage books. varshney, a. (2002). ethnic conflict and civic life: hindus and muslims in india. new haven: yale university press. visit www.ifyc.org, or contact cassie meyer, director of outreach, education and training at cassie@ifyc.org. 171 http://www.pluralism.org/pluralism/what_is_pluralism.php http://www.ifyc.org/ mailto:cassie@ifyc.org database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! guided knowledge search during mathematical problem solving peace education for inter-ethnic and inter-cultural stephen langole solidarity in uganda: a curriculum agenda 56 peace education for inter-ethnic and inter-cultural solidarity in uganda: a curriculum agenda stephen langole institute of peace and strategic studies gulu university introduction uganda has a history chequered with inter-ethnic and intercultural tensions and conflicts, and these must have had a bearing on the violent conflicts that have been a common feature in the country. ijuka (1989) establishes that such inter-ethnic and intercultural conflicts manifest as prejudices, stereotypes and other subtle or covert forms of marginalization and hatred.27 ijuka’s research focused mainly on the public service but appears to mirror some other deep seated inter-ethnic “othering,” stereotypes and prejudices that obtain in the wider political, social and economic realms. aspects of these are well covered in barongo’s (1989) as well as in pinycwa’s (1989) articles. the inter-ethnic tensions and conflicts in uganda as will be exemplified are not in line with the need to educate for dialogue among civilizations whose importance was recognized way back in 1998, followed by the un’s proclamation of the year 2001 as the year of dialogue among civilizations. some of the highlights in the proclamation include the need for following: actively promote a culture of peace – respect for one another – regardless of belief, culture, language, and not fearing or repressing differences within or between societies but cherishing them as a precious asset of humanity; encourage openness to the positive side of globalization… globalization is not only an economic, financial and technological process; it constitutes a human challenge that invites us to embrace the interdependence of humankind and its rich cultural diversity (toh, 2008, 2). international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 in the proclamation, it was also recognized that education systems need reforms and the role of religions was recognized thus: educational systems need to guide children and youth to understand and respect cultural and faith diversity, and to promote peace in their societies and world; religion is an increasingly important dimension of many societies, a significant source of values for individuals, and can play a critical role in promoting an appreciation of other cultures, religions, and ways of life (toh, 2008, 2). this article is therefore anchored on proposing some aspects of educational reforms that can lead to the promotion of dialogue among civilizations with the hope that such reforms once realized will be holistic as to lead to inter-cultural solidarity within and beyond uganda. uganda has over 50 tribes or ethnic groups. the tribes of uganda are distinct groups of people bound together by customs, beliefs, language, tradition and practices. this article attempts to exemplify the existence of inter-ethnic or inter-cultural conflicts in uganda and also looks at whether or not an educational intervention or interfaith intervention would help in transforming these conflicts and if the former intervention is required what kind of curriculum would be appropriate at what levels. inter-ethnic conflicts in uganda this section will attempt to highlight some research based views concerning inter-ethnic conflicts in uganda. in ijuka (1989, pp. 167) inter-tribal views were sought in regard to inter-ethnic conflicts within the public service. the findings reveal mainly negative views concerning six different tribes as highlighted below28: tribe a “very hypocritical. very proud. very submissive.” “give a’s (sic) money and they will be okay.” 57 peace education for inter-ethnic and inter-cultural stephen langole solidarity in uganda: a curriculum agenda “very elusive. very nice on the surface but inwardly very malicious.” “very good diplomats because diplomats are liars. will stay with you and then stab you on the back.” tribe b “arrogant as a’s (sic). they look at others as inferior creatures.” “very arrogant. they don’t believe that other ethnic groups are also people.” tribe c “outright rude and violent.” “rude; have little respect for law, order, discipline.” “very aggressive, uncultured, undisciplined, ambitious.” tribe d “conmen and gamblers”, “more opportunistic than arrogant”; “very opportunistic. like chameleons; they will take on the colour of the political party in power at the time; will sing to the tune of any ruler, however cacophonous.” tribe e “what the master says – so do i say.” “submissive. always following the existing (political) order as though blown by the wind.” “non-alligned in political matters.” tribe f “crude, rough, highly united, industrious, no nonsense.” “generally hot tempered, aggressive but at the same time very good people to associate with due to their openmindedness.” “…strong, hard-working but like fighting and drinking.” these views exemplify that the tribes in uganda generally look at one another negatively and the sentiments have the potential to translate and often do translate into inter-ethnic tensions, suspicion, and disharmony or open conflicts. the colonialists also created other divisive labels; the northsouth divide in uganda with peoples of the former being 58 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 classified further as nilotics, nilo-hamites or sudanic and the latter as bantu. the latter were recognized as more politically organized and civilized (pinycwa, 1989). these classifications became a ground for political, social as well as economic marginalization of the north and favouritism of the south. the north, then comprising acholi, karamoja, lango and west nile basically became cheap labour reservoir for the “more agriculturally productive” south and also for recruitment of soldiers; a job taken as inferior by the southerners. ironically, the top political leadership of the 1960s, 1970s and to some extent 1980s were taken by the “northerners” with presidents apollo milton obote and his former army commander, idi amin sharing 21 years between them from independence in 1962 to 1985. these were not peaceful periods for these leaders, since sentiments like “we are tired of northerners” began cropping up by the southerners who felt their formerly organized kingdoms of buganda, busoga, toro and bunyoro were desecrated (pinycwa, 1989; barongo, 1989). obote lost power to amin in 1971. amin’s rule exposed the fallacy of assuming that “northerners” is a coherent group. on ascending to power, amin, a kakwa from west nile, killed scores of obote’s tribe and a related acholi tribe, thinking they were a threat to his rule and recruited mainly his fellow west nilers into the army. a combined force of ugandan exiles and tanzanian forces ousted amin in 1979 leading to revenge killing against the west nile tribes. a disputed general election in 1980 was to see obote regain his presidential seat. a southerner, yoweri museveni decided to challenge the “rigged” election by waging a successful guerilla war that elevated him to the presidential seat in 1986. museveni played on the regional sentiments, “we are tired of northerners” (barongo, 1989). this marked a period of perceived southerners or bantu dominance, which continues to the present. meanwhile prior to museveni’s ascendancy to power, a rift had also developed between the erstwhile close acholi and langi tribe. the army commander, general tito okello and his ally, bazilio olara okello, both acholi, deposed obote a langi in 1985 culminating in killing and looting in lango by a predominantly acholi army. 59 peace education for inter-ethnic and inter-cultural stephen langole solidarity in uganda: a curriculum agenda the election patterns today indicate that the “bantu government” is not popular to the majority of “northerners.” not surprisingly, the armed insurrections against the museveni regime since 1986 are predominantly by northerners. the war in northern uganda and inter-ethnic conflicts the war in northern uganda has also contributed to fuelling inter-ethnic conflicts. the longest of this war has been that of the lord’s resistance army (lra) that is composed predominantly of the acholi tribe. the lra has, however, wreaked havoc in most of northern uganda causing tension and sometimes open hostility against the acholi tribe with whom they are associated. in langole research (2007. pp. 33)29 respondents’ opinions were sought on issues of relationship amongst different tribes of uganda both within and outside gulu university; their freedom of expression and identities. opinions were also sought on whether the university education system enhances cultural respect, identities, solidarity. up to 80 percent of the respondents thought there is disharmony amongst the different tribes of uganda and 44 percent thought inter/multi-cultural education is not integrated in learning at the university. meanwhile 52 percent thought students’ politics at the university is not free of tribal sentiments. relationships between neighbouring tribes were found to be quite sour too, with 76 percent of respondents thinking there is no harmony between the acholi and langi tribes; 64 percent thought such harmony did not exist between the acholi and bantu tribes while 40 percent had the same opinion about relationship between the acholi and lugbara tribes. up to 40 percent of the respondents also thought inter-clan conflicts are significant in the internally displaced people’s camps (idps) hence the units of fragmentation are intra-ethnic or intra-tribe as well. 60 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 chart i: statement: there is harmony between different tribes of uganda inter-tribal harmony exists in uganda 4% 8% 8% 52% 28% strongly agree agree undecided disagree strongly disagree graph i: inter-tribal harmony exists in uganda 0 22.2 11.1 66.7 0 4 8 8 52 28 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 s tr on gl y a gr ee a gr ee u nd ec id ed d is ag re e s tr on gl y d is ag re e s tr on gl y a gr ee a gr ee u nd ec id ed d is ag re e s tr on gl y d is ag re e bantu nilotics/n.hamites series1 proportionately more nilotics and nilo hamites than the bantu tribes do not think inter-tribal harmony prevails in uganda. (source: langole s. (2007). project development report. upeace, costa rica). 61 peace education for inter-ethnic and inter-cultural stephen langole solidarity in uganda: a curriculum agenda formal and informal education and inter-ethnic/intercultural conflicts the history of uganda is part of the curriculum in the formal education in the country. hence a person who attends history class up to senior 4 would not miss the buganda crisis of 1966, sometimes also called the storming of lubiri (the buganda seat) by milton obote’s forces headed by idi amin, then obote’s army commander. this could later be interpreted as an affront by northerners against southerners that forced a whole kabaka (king) into exile. at the informal sector, songs can send a powerful message. of the 1966 buganda crisis, the acholi, generally good music composers, coined a very sarcastic song that can be loosely translated thus: the banana plantation got abruptly burnt kabaka you abandoned the plantation to fire though you may abuse obote in the english language you abandoned your banana though you abuse obote you abandoned your plantation the plantation got burnt abruptly kabaka you abandoned the plantation banana is a staple food of the baganda and here the acholi coined a mockery song about the desecration of a kingdom, the unseating of a king and the burning of a staple food. it is difficult to gauge the effect of this song but definitely it sends a bad message to the baganda. all these besides sentiments like “ka luloka odonyo i ker wa bitingo matafali ki wi wa me aa ki gulu wa kampala” meaning should people from the other side of the river nile (luloka) come to power, they will force us to carry bricks on our head from gulu to kampala. no wonder in the first few years after museveni came to power, there were derogatory songs about anyanya. anyanya was a nomenclature used for southern sudanese rebels in the 1970s and therefore the label as applied to northern ugandans had the connotation about their being foreigners. 62 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 in geography, northern uganda was referred to as the “dry north” or semi arid, yet ironically some parts of northern uganda register very high rainfall, have lush vegetation growth and possess great agricultural potential with flat terrain allowing mechanization. the population in the north is also sparse as compared to the south, a fact that the formal education system does not overlook and so with 21 years of northerners rule, questions began to be posed, “how can the minority (northerners) rule the majority (bantu southerners), and for that long?” the thematic curriculum introduced in 2007 for primary 1 and 2 is, however, a good one emphasizing unity with the aim stated thus: “to develop and cherish the cultural, moral and spiritual values of life and appreciate the richness that lies in our varied and diverse cultures and values.” in the curriculum preamble, the aim of education is stated as: “to promote understanding and appreciation of the value of national unity, patriotism and cultural heritage, with due consideration to international relations and beneficial interdependence” (ncdc, 2007: pp 6). hence if these can be translated into practice then they would facilitate dialogue among civilizations. mechanisms to realize inter-ethnic solidarity in ijuka (1989) different ways of dealing with ethnic conflicts are recommended by public servants with various frequencies. out of 55 suggestions, “educational reforms and efforts” top the list with 16 of the 55 suggestions followed by “reduction of political conflict outside the public service” (10 frequencies). other suggestions include “good, honest, sensible and selfless political leadership” (4) and inter-marriages (2). ijuka also recommends among others, such measures as politicization, posting people to work in areas other than where they originate, seminars and training, equitable distribution of resources and jobs, and strengthening the statutory appointing bodies. uganda has been having some civic education and religious education that should promote inter-ethnic and inter-cultural 63 peace education for inter-ethnic and inter-cultural stephen langole solidarity in uganda: a curriculum agenda solidarity. while civic education is now largely non-formal especially in preparation of voters prior to elections, religious education (re) still spans from primary education level to secondary levels as electives. one of the re pamphlets for ordinary level contains themes such as “order and freedom in society” with subthemes on “justice in society,” “service in society,” and “loyalty in society.” there is also an emphasis on christians as bridge builders. christians should work tirelessly for unity. all forms of divisions based on religion, tribe or race are abnormal in christianity. christians have a duty of stopping such divisions… christians should not develop a hostile attitude towards other religions. efforts towards reconciliation with other members of religions should always go on hence acting as bridge builders (nsamba, 1996 pp. 245-246). the thematic curriculum includes interesting themes of re that can promote inter-ethnic and inter-cultural solidarity. the christian religious education (cre) section carries the theme: “christians living together in god’s family” where pupils are expected to understand and appreciate the importance of living together in the home and the community, the nature and value of being a member of god’s family, appreciate god’s creation and the position of human beings in creation. competencies such as respect and care for neighbours, environmental conservation practices, community service, identification of people’s needs and the need to extend a helping hand to others and so forth are expected of the pupils. the pupils are also expected to embrace values such as love, forgiveness, loyalty, joy, humility, appreciation, happiness, peacefulness, togetherness, sharing, cooperation, belonging, hope, trust, patience, kindness, endurance etc. pupils are further expected to, amongst others, acquire life skills such as empathy, critical thinking, creative thinking, problem solving, communication, and interpersonal relationship. similar values, life skills and competencies that pupils are expected to embrace are contained in the islamic religious education section (ncdc, 2007 pp. 52-69). 64 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 the non-formal civic education programme would be useful in educating for dialogue amongst civilizations since it has themes ranging from nationhood, poverty eradication, democracy, governance and human rights, non-violent culture, unity and tolerance (kimbowa, 2006). however, the strands of peace education above seem to lack holism, are generally optional, not made attractive enough and not diffused at all levels as to engender a philosophy of peaceful living. for re at the higher levels of education, the learning strategy is examination-based using teacher to student pedagogy with limited options of methodologies and not enough efforts is made to take education to the villages or the non-formal sector. for civic education, it is periodic, normally conducted prior to major elections, it is largely donor driven and suffers funding problems. hence new innovations are needed towards educating for dialogue amongst civilizations. towards a philosophy and curriculum for inter-ethnic and inter-cultural solidarity uganda seems to lack a philosophy, curriculum and learning strategies that could engender inter-ethnic and inter-cultural solidarity. a fresh breath to the whole issue, however, seems to lie in the young thematic curriculum as will be exemplified later. to get a realistic philosophy of life and curriculum that addresses inter-cultural and inter-ethnic solidarity requires an exploration of some holistic forms of peace education and toh and cawagas (2004) six themes are definitely useful. these six themes are: • dismantling the culture of war and violence • living with justice and compassion • building cultural respect, reconciliation and solidarity • promotion of human rights and responsibilities • living in harmony with the earth • cultivating inner peace there are already some efforts towards embracing these holistic tenets in uganda. in my proposed curriculum for a 65 peace education for inter-ethnic and inter-cultural stephen langole solidarity in uganda: a curriculum agenda bachelor of community and peace education at gulu university (langole, 2007, pp. 63), the programme goals are stated as: “…to try to change the community values, attitudes and beliefs towards: • culture of peace and non-violence • living with justice and compassion • inter-cultural respect, reconciliation and solidarity • promotion of human rights and responsibilities • sustainable living • inculcation of inner/personal peace” courses were therefore proposed in line with the above themes in mind besides what the community expressed during the process of needs assessment. to build inter-cultural respect, reconciliation and solidarity also calls for a change in values, attitudes and beliefs against resorting to violence. it calls for peaceful negotiation, mediation and an understanding of diversities and differences that can then help to resolve conflicts. in other words, it calls for averting the culture of war and violence. inter-cultural respect, reconciliation and solidarity also calls for compassion and justice. it recognizes the fact that we are all humans with needs that may not all be fulfilled and that we may have solutions to fulfilling these needs and if so, our human solidarity would be enhanced if we extend that helping hand. these needs may also be rights issues. they may be rights to economic wellbeing, rights to participation in decision making, rights to freedoms and dignity, and others. inter-cultural or interethnic solidarity also requires that we should feel responsible in upholding the rights, dignity and freedoms of others including the marginalized. as humans, we share with all other species the responsibility of caring for the earth that provides us with livelihoods in one way or the other. this therefore calls for a feeling of global citizenship, wise and possibly equitable use of the earth’s resources and a culture of their protection and conservation with a mind for future use and the needs of future generations. it calls for sharing and avoidance of greed or consumerism mentality at 66 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 the expense of others. all these are issues about peace but peace, they say, begins in the minds of individuals. it is difficult to extend peace if we are not at peace with ourselves. hence, there is need to embrace personal peace that can radiate to others. we can get this inner equilibrium and tranquility through meditation, contemplation and connecting to our spirituality and to fellow humans. hence all the six themes are interconnected. a philosophy of life and curriculum that embraces all these themes would therefore call for courses around these themes, as well as peaceful strategies to implement such a curriculum. hence the proposed 3-year bachelor of community and peace education is endowed with courses such as: democracy and governance, human rights education, gender dimensions in armed conflict, religions and faiths: implications to peace and conflict, cultures and identity issues in peace and conflict, migration, refugees and internal displacement. other courses include: community mobilization and advocacy, globalization, conflict and peace, the environment, natural resources, peace and security, and sustainable development education. these courses, among others, try to capture all the six themes. curricula that instill a philosophy of unity in diversity amongst the citizenry are required but these also require a lot of political goodwill and platform, possibly involving the top leader of the country himself/herself. with that, it would be simpler to put up structures at the lower levels that can transmit and popularize such a philosophy. peace education at all levels; from the higher institutions of learning, teacher training institutions to secondary, primary and even at pre-primary levels should be the way to go. the young thematic curriculum is definitely a step in the right direction if only it could be well implemented. the curriculum is to be implemented in cycles. cycle 1 covers primary 1-3 and is to be implemented in the learners’ vernacular except in areas where there is no predominant or local area language. the curriculum is based on selected themes. for p2, the themes include: our school and neighbourhood, our home and community, our environment, peace and security and child protection. others are recreation, festivals and holidays and christians living together in god’s family for christians. 67 peace education for inter-ethnic and inter-cultural stephen langole solidarity in uganda: a curriculum agenda themes for islamic religious education include reading from the quran, tawhiid (faith), moral and spiritual teaching, history of islam and fiqh (practices) amongst others. the curriculum is meant to be “relevant to children reflecting their everyday interests and activities…” and the expected outcomes amongst others are appreciation of culture and role played in the community (ncdc, 2007. pp. 7). cycle 2 for p4 and cycle 3 for p5-p7, however, tend to depart from the peace pedagogy and revert to the traditional teacher to student centred examination based methodology. the pedagogy/learning strategies the ugandan p1 and p2 thematic curriculum is rich in proposed pedagogy with a child centred approach to learning and a progressive learner assessment as opposed to the examination based one. the content, concept and skills of subjects are rearranged within themes that are familiar to young children’s experiences and the teaching methodology emphasizes child’s activities rather than the teacher’s. this is meant to encourage participation and performance of all children. the suggested activities are intended to be enjoyable and include songs, games, acting, drawing, story telling, group or pair work etc. (ncdc, 2007 pp. 9). learner assessment is done by cumulatively observing and listening to children, looking at their exercise books, marking their handwriting and looking at the class work they produce with the aid of simple checklists. no separate assessment tests or examinations are set (ncdc, 2007. pp. 12). the idea of progressive assessment is good. there had been a lot of reliance on snapshot examinations and tests based on the learners’ ability to cram and regurgitate what the teacher has “imparted” mainly through lecture or chalk and talk method. teachers in uganda are generally taken as fountains of knowledge and the learners are mere recipients. to replace this “banking” approach, the learning strategies are in line with what is recommended by peace education scholars. for example, turay recommends a mix of lectures, 68 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 drama, panel discussions, debates, socio-drama, role plays, study grouping, story telling, use of proverbs, codes and recreation methods like music, singing, dancing and games as peace education pedagogy (turay, ed., 2004). others are snowball fights, the great wind blows, cat and mouse, dueling images that are all meant to be fun (hawkins, 2006). similar pedagogy is recommended by toh (2004). this author also strongly recommends the use of field visits, students exchange and various cultural activities such as simulation of rituals and the use of skilled, talented and resourceful “uneducated” people who could be invited as guest speakers. a local poet who sings his poetry on his/her harp could be invited to share the insights of his/her poems with a class. there are people in the community albeit unschooled who are teachers in their own ways and should be given the opportunity to share their skills, values and knowledge even in the formal educational settings. uganda is also rich with the cultural heritage of storytelling. these can be very useful learning methodology. other peace education initiatives in uganda acholi religious leaders peace initiative (arlpi) has a peace education component in their programme besides carrying out inter-tribal mediation. however, as the name suggests, there is emphasis on acholi region and the multi-faith organization comprises the orthodox, catholics, anglican and muslim faiths only (arlpi, 2004). this leaves out the adventists and the mushrooming pentecostal and baptist churches as well as the traditionalists who are as well very influential. these limitations are, however, understandable given the fact that this body was quite a reactive one to the northern uganda conflict whose main field was the acholi region and also that the pentecostal, adventists, baptists are break away from the mainstream churches and appear guarded against associating with them. meanwhile some of the traditionalists’ belief systems are world’s apart from the mainstream religious values. nevertheless, the 69 peace education for inter-ethnic and inter-cultural stephen langole solidarity in uganda: a curriculum agenda work and ideas from arlpi would be important in the process of developing a peace education curriculum for uganda. bishop nelson onono onweng of northern uganda diocese also initiated a peace education programme through an ngo, jamii ya kupatakanisa (fellowship of reconciliation) but the programme mainly benefits a small group of students at gulu vocational community centre for orphaned children (unesco, 2002). a project named revitalization of education participation and learning in conflict areas (replica) also has some strands of peace education benefiting some few schools in northern uganda but this too is donor driven and might have phased out by the time of writing this article (beps, 2006). suffice to say that a comprehensive peace education programme with government backing is needed to engender dialogue among civilizations. generational issues mahatma ghandi once said if you want to spread the culture of peace, start with the children. accordingly, it is easier to socialise children in peace values than to socialize adults. this is not to say that adults should not be included in the peace education project. however, children should be specially involved as they are yet the “uncorrupted” future generations whose belief systems and values can more easily be turned around towards the culture of peace and non-violence. the youth too should be specially included as they embody a lot of energy and potential that can be channeled into the right paths. suffice to say that despite these emphases, the entire society or community needs peace and they should be reached through peace education approaches including inter-cultural and inter-ethnic dialogue, respect, understanding and solidarity. summary and conclusions this article highlights some literature supporting the view that inter-ethnic or inter-cultural conflicts are a feature in ugandan society and that this antagonizes the spirit of initiating dialogue 70 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 among civilizations. it notes that formal and informal education in uganda have not been very useful in promoting the spirit of dialogue among civilizations notwithstanding that the 2-year old thematic curricula are steps in the right direction. it also notes the need for developing a holistic curriculum of peace education embracing the six tenets of peace given, their interrelatedness and ability to cross-fertilize. it recommends better teaching-learning strategies and learner assessment techniques. it also notes the limitations of the current peace education initiatives and recommends a special focus on children and youth, given their potentials for learning and acting for peace. it does not, however water down the need to involve a broad section of the community given the fact that values of inter-ethnic and intercultural solidarity need to be widely diffused in ugandan society, given its present social and cultural complexity. it can be concluded that there is need for peace education in uganda in its holistic form and at all levels, covering the six themes of toh (2004) as identified above. this, however, requires the goodwill and blessing of the political leadership and other educational stakeholders. there is therefore a need for lobbying. appropriately developed curricula that demonstrate the interconnectedness of the micro-meso-macro dynamics as a panacea for local, national, regional and global peace are very important tools to start with. 27 extract of the research report is contained in an article, “ethnic conflict within the public service” in rupesinge k. (1989). conflict resolution in uganda. oslo. international peace research institute. 28 the research report targeted ethnic conflict in uganda public service. eleven senior officers were interviewed and of 141 questionnaires administered across the spectrum of public servants ranging from senior personnel to junior and support staff, 56 were returned. different ethnic groups were targeted. 29 this research covered 25 respondents comprising staff and students of gulu university. they were drawn from different ranks/levels and ethnic groups. 71 peace education for inter-ethnic and inter-cultural stephen langole solidarity in uganda: a curriculum agenda references arlpi. (2004). acholi religious leaders peace initiative. gulu. brochure. barongo, y. (1989). ethnic pluralism and political centralization: the basis of political conflict. in kumar, r. (ed., 1989). conflict resolution in uganda. oslo. international peace research institute. beps (2006). basic education and policy support activity. article at http:/www.beps.net/basic_education/uganda_eduproject.htm hawkins, t. s. (2006). dramatic problem solving: interactive theatre based group facilitation for conflict transformation and social change. a training manual. ijuka, k. (1989). ethnic conflict within the public service. in kumar, r. (ed., 1989). conflict resolution in uganda. oslo. international peace research institute. kimbowa, j. (2006). civic education now and tomorrow. in ms newsletter, october, 2006 at http://www.ms.dk/sw41282.asp langole, s. (2007). envisioning the future as a curriculum agenda: the case for an undergraduate peace education programme in uganda. costa rica. upeace. ncdc. (2007). primary school curriculum for uganda. primary 2. kampala. national curriculum development centre. nsamba, e. (1996). religious education for o’level. religious education pamphlet. kampala. pinycwa, g. (1989). is there a northern question? in kumar, r. (ed., 1989). conflict resolution in uganda. oslo. international peace research institute. toh, s. h. (2008). unpublished guidelines on special issue for international journal of curriculum & instruction. australia. griffith university. toh, s. h. (2004). education for international understanding toward a culture of peace: a conceptual framework. in v. f. cawagas (ed.) education for international understanding toward a culture of peace. teachers resource book. seoul, south korea: asia-pacific centre of education for international understanding. turay, m. t. (ed., 2004). handout 28: quick summary of some methods for knowledge-based programs. in coady international institute training of trainers manual. unesco (2002). 2001 unesco prize for peace education. at http://unesco.org/images/00121262/126209.asp 72 http://www.ms.dk/sw database connection failed! ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction developing a curriculum for the transition program of special learners in the philippines greg tabios pawilen a *, isabelle s. sibayan b, sheena jade g. manuel c tina amor v. buhatd a university of the philippines los banos, laguna, philippines b division city schools of pasig city, pasig city philippines c,d, bureau of curriculum development, department of education, pasig city, philippines abstract this paper focuses on creating a curriculum development model and curriculum framework for the transition program designed for special learners with intellectual and physical disabilities. it explains the idea of a transition program in philippine context, discusses the curriculum framework, and proposes a curriculum development model for creating a relevant and responsive transition program. the curriculum framework for the proposed transition program curriculum includes five learning areas: (1) livelihood, (2) academic, (3) enrichment, (4) pre-vocational, and (5) care. all these learning areas are designed to help and prepare filipino learners with special education needs to be capable of engaging in entrepreneurship, pursuing further studies, or living functional lives. the curriculum development model for the transition program curriculum follows a linear-cyclical procedure starting with deliberations, development of curriculum philosophy and framework, identification of programs and strategies, development of curriculum materials and instructional resources, development of assessment framework and evaluation tools, and development of curriculum policies that will guide the teachers in implementing the curriculum. this model can be used for the planning and development of special education curricula for the k to 12 basic education programs in the philippines. © 2018 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: transition program; curriculum development model; special learners 1. introduction the republic of the philippines recognizes the right of every citizen to receive quality education. as stated in article 13 section 11 of the 1987 constitution of the philippines, the state “shall protect and promote the rights of citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such education available to all”. further, it shall “provide adult citizens, disabled and out of school youth with training in civics, vocational efficiency and other skills.” for this purpose, the state shall “create a functional basic * greg tabios pawilen. tel.: +63-929-300-298 e-mail address: gregpawilen@yahoo.com 2 g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 education system that will develop productive and responsible citizens equipped with the essential competencies, skills and values for both life-long learning and employment.” article 3 of presidential decree (pd) 603 established the right of children to an education “commensurate with their abilities and for the development of their skills for the improvement of their capacity for service to themselves and their fellowmen.” republic act (ra) 7277, known as “magna carta for disabled persons”, underscored the state’s duty to disabled persons, the scope of which includes the delivery of adequate access to quality education and sufficient opportunities to develop their skills. these commitments of the state are accomplished through the department of education (deped), which is mandated to ensure that every filipino learner with special education needs, regardless of age, and socio-economic status will have access to quality educational programs that will ensure his or her holistic development to become a functionally literate citizen. the purpose of this study is to create a curriculum development model and develop a curriculum framework for a transition program curriculum for public schools in the philippines. the transition program is one of the important projects of the deped to respond to the needs of special learners in the country. within the context of the k to 12 basic education program, the challenge is how to develop a good transition program curriculum and what type of programs should be offered. the curriculum development model presented in this paper is the first to be developed in the philippines for special education. for many years, special education (sped) has been in existence in the philippines and it has significantly improved the lives of special needs learners through the development and implementation of several programs designed to meet their unique needs. in collaboration with private schools, non-government organizations, and other government agencies, deped has carefully studied, planned and rolled out several special education curricula across the country in order to deliver quality and effective instruction for learners with special education needs. one of these programs is the transition program curriculum 1.1. the idea of transition program for special learners the transition program aims to help special learners become functional in spite of their disabilities. it aims to make them enjoy their daily lives, and empower them to become more useful and productive citizens. this program is not just a set of activities; it is an educational equity package that includes curriculum and policies that will support the education of special learners. g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 3 figure 1. conceptual framework for the transition program as shown in figure 1, the transition program includes the philosophy, legal framework, policies, and curriculum for special learners who are capable of being educated in either formal or non-formal learning systems. the philosophy component provides the overarching principles, commitment, and underlying values of the program. the educational policy component of this program ensures that there is an efficient system of support for the implementation of the program to ensure sustainability and continuity. the curriculum is a set of competencies, programs, and learning activities designed for all the learners under this program. the transition program is designed for special learners that are intellectually disabled and those that are physically handicapped. it is designed to meet their special needs and respond to their specific interests. it is like a care package that will empower the leaners in their transition from home to school, or from post-elementary or post-secondary to the world of work. in the transition program, the learners will also enjoy an education that will enable them to become functional in their everyday lives. the national council for special education (2014) identified several points where a transition program can be developed and implemented in the republic of ireland: (1) from pre-school to primary, (2) from primary to post-primary, (3) from post-primary to further or higher education, and (4) from education to adult life. similarly, the department of 4 g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 education of the province of nova scotia (2005) identified several types of transition programs based on four entry points: (1) home-to-school transition, (2) grade-to-grade transition, (3) school-to-school transition, and (4) school-to-community transition. these types of transition programs offer comprehensive curricular programs to respond to the transition needs of special learners. patton, cronin, and jairrels (1997) also identified several types of transition programs that are offered to learners with special education needs: 1. functional academic 2. vocational skills 3. community access skills 4. daily living skills 5. financial skills 6. independent living skills 7. transportation skills 8. social/relational skills 9. self determination skills all these types of transition programs aim to help learners with special education needs to function in their everyday lives. the goal of the transition program is always to capacitate the students and empower them to become functionally literate citizens like any other people in the society. 1.2. transition program in the philippines in the philippines, the transition program was already part of the special education program of the department of education; however, it was focused only on adult learners with special needs. transition program was viewed as a coordinated set of activities for a student designed within an outcome-oriented process that promotes movement from school to out-of-school activities. quijano (2007) presented the philippine model of transition that focuses on enabling every special learner for community involvement and employment. the model envisions full participation, empowerment, and productivity of those enrolled in the program. the transition program includes 3 curriculum domains: (1) daily living skills, (2) personal and social skills, and (3) occupational guidance and preparation. this model necessitates the need for support from professionals and other key people in the community in order for the g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 5 individual with special needs to attain independent living. according to gomez (2010), this model of transition program can also be used for children in conflict with the law (cicl). the transition program in the philippines could be expanded to many different possible points of entry that would extend the scope of transition program from young children to adults. these may include the following examples: 1. transition to school life – may include children and adult special learners who would like to attend or who have been assessed to be ready for regular school under the inclusion program. this may also include students who would like to learn basic literacy programs under the alternative learning system. 2. transition after post-secondary schooling – includes programs that will prepare special learners for vocational courses and on-the-job trainings. it may also include programs that will help students go to higher education if possible. 3. transition from school to entrepreneurship – includes programs that will allow special learners to become entrepreneurs in their respective communities. 4. transition from school to adult life – includes programs that will allow students to adjust and adapt to adult life. 5. transition to functional life – includes learning of life skills that will allow the special learners to learn how to take care of themselves and develop some special skills that they can use everyday. these entry points for students are important for planning an effective and efficient transition program that is truly relevant and responsive to the needs, interests, abilities, and aspirations of special learners. transition at any point is an important program to empower special learners to experience normal lives. the transition program aims to realize the aim of the k to 12 basic education program of producing holistically developed and functionally literate filipino learners in the context of special education. this qualifies it as an organic part of the k to12 curriculum by providing both academic and extra-curricular support systems to all special learners. 6 g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 1.3. looking at curriculum development models to develop a model for transition program some classic curriculum development models are discussed to thresh out the basic principles in curriculum development process that could help in creating a curriculum development model for the development of a transition program curriculum in the philippines. ralph tyler developed the first model of curriculum development in 1949. tyler argued that curriculum development should be logical and systematic. his model presents a process of curriculum development that follows a sequential pattern starting from objectives to content, learning experiences, and evaluation. tyler argued that to develop any curriculum, curriculum workers should respond to four basic questions: (1) what educational purposes should the school seek to attain? (2) what educational experiences are likely to attain these objectives? (3) how can these educational experiences be organized? and (4) how can we determine whether these purposes are being attained? nicholls and nicholls (1978) presented an interrelated procedure for developing the curriculum. the model prescribes five logical and interdependent stages that are continuous curriculum development process. the model starts with a situational analysis in which curricular decisions are made, followed by the selection of objectives and the other succeeding phases. the model is highly prescriptive and dynamic. the inclusion of situational analysis as part of the model is a valuable principle in curriculum development. it enables the curriculum workers to understand better the context in which the curriculum is being developed. by starting with situational analysis, curriculum workers will be able to collect data and the needed information from various curriculum sources and influences that are prerequisites in formulating curriculum goals and objectives. thus, if applied in college settings, faculty members need to conduct situational analysis before planning their syllabi and curriculum plans. this will make it possible for the curriculum to be more relevant and responsive to the needs of the students and the school. decker walker developed a model for curriculum development and first published it in 1971. in his model, walker was particularly interested on how curriculum workers actually do their task in curriculum development. as shown in his model, walker identified three phases in curriculum development, which he termed platform, deliberations, and design. in the platform phase, walker suggested that curriculum workers bring with them their individual beliefs, knowledge, and values. they have their own ideas about how to do their task and they are prepared to discuss and argue about them. deliberation phase, on the g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 7 other hand, involves identifying which facts are needed for means and ends, generating alternatives, and considering the consequences of these alternatives. this phase is also used in weighing alternative costs and consequences, and choosing the best alternative for the curriculum task they are about to do. the third step, which is the design phase, involves planning, decision-making, and the actual development of the curriculum. there are some principles that can be learned from these different models that are essential in creating a model for developing a transition program in the philippines. for example, pawilen (2012) identified several principles that are applicable in this study: 1. when developing a model for curriculum development, there is always the need for a clear and logical process. 2. variables that are influential in developing a curriculum should be specified. 3. models should reflect how educators plan and develop curriculum in any level. 4. models should be based on a curriculum theory. 5. each process in a model should specify areas where curriculum decisions are made; and 6. each model should reflect the major phases of curriculum development: planning, design, implementation, and evaluation. in the context of this study, it is necessary that the proposed curriculum development model for the transition program in the philippines should reflect these principles. the curriculum development model for the transition program curriculum should follow a logical process that describes the necessary tasks that teachers and administrators can follow. the curriculum development processes should be closely aligned with how the department of education develops various curricula. 1.3. purpose of the study this study has two main purposes: (1) to create a curriculum development model that could be used for the development of a transition program curriculum, and (2) to develop a curriculum framework for the transition program curriculum for public schools in the philippines. the study will also examine issues and problems encountered by schools and teachers in implementing the current transition curriculum. further, it will identify important principles that should be considered in the development of the proposed transition program curriculum. 1.4. significance of the study 8 g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 the study is useful in many ways. first, the proposed curriculum development model and curriculum framework will be used in the development of a new transition program curriculum in the philippines. other educators developing similar programs for special education may also adapt the model and the curriculum framework. second, this study will shed some light on the state of transition programs for special education in the philippines. finally, the result of the study will improve the development and implementation of the transition program curriculum in the philippines. 2. method this study is a descriptive research. it utilized data from the result of a series of roundtable discussions to plan and develop a relevant and responsive transition program for special education in the country. the study aims to answer the following questions: 1. what are the problems encountered by the schools and teachers in the implementation of the current transition program? 2. what are the important principles that should be considered in the development of the transition program? 3. what curriculum development model should be used in developing the transition program? 4. what is the proposed curriculum framework for the transition program? the study is a product of a five-day planning and situational analysis on transition program in the country. this study was participated in by fourteen (14) sped teachers, two (2) grade school master teachers, three (3) division supervisors, six (6) regional supervisors, and three (3) school heads who were involved in the implementation of the transition program and who are directly involved in the supervision of the transition program in different regions and provinces all over the country. all of them participated in big group and small group discussions where they shared their experiences and plans for the transition program in their schools, divisions, and regions. the results of the discussions and the experiences shared by the participants were recorded and discussed thematically based on the research questions. 3. results the result of the study is presented qualitatively based on the four research questions. the results of the discussion provided vital insights and principles that are valuable in the g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 9 development of a relevant and responsive curriculum for the transition program in the country. 3.1 what are the problems encountered by the schools and teachers in the implementation of the current transition program in the philippines? there were several issues and problems encountered by sped teachers and school officials on the implementation of the transition program. these are presented in table 1 in hierarchical order. table 1: problems encountered by schools on the implementation of the transition program  limited facilities and resources  lack of concrete policies and directions for the transition programs  few approved teaching items for special education teachers  limited curricular program offerings  limited understanding of parents on the nature of the transition program the school officials and teachers observed that the existing transition curriculum is somehow overlapping with the existing special education curriculum implemented in different sped schools and centers in the country. they also observed that the same curriculum is offered to students every year. the participants proposed that a separate curriculum should be developed for the students enrolled under the transition program. the program should expand its existing academic and pre-vocational programs to include interests-based and needs-based programs. it is also necessary to develop instructional materials and assessment tools for the program. this will guide the teachers and administrators in effectively implementing the curriculum. likewise, it is imperative to provide training for sped teachers and, if possible, the government should provide teaching items for teachers who will handle the existing programs. a curriculum policy should also be developed to help the administrators and teachers manage and carry out the transition program. the curriculum policy will guide administrators and teachers to effectively implement the transition program. the current transition program is also limited to adult learners. with the implementation of the k-12 education program, the teachers and supervisors expressed their desire to expand the program from early-childhood to adulthood. this will ensure that all learners with special education needs, regardless of age, will have access to any transition program offered in different schools. expanding the coverage of the transition 10 g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 program will also allow more programs and learning areas to be offered to the learners based on their needs and interests. table 2: problems encountered by teachers on the implementation of the transition program  limited instructional materials and resources  limited training for special education teachers on the transition program  lack of assessment tools  no provision for teaching assistants or shadow teacher table 2 shows the problems encountered by the teachers of the transition program. the teachers are committed to do their best to implement the program. they see their job as a sacred duty to help every special learner. however, they need instructional materials, training, assessment tools, and teaching aids to help them carry out their tasks. in many schools, the transition program teachers are also the regular sped teachers in the school. so, they teach in the regular sped program in the morning, and teach in the transition program in the afternoon. the teachers also expressed their concern to have a concrete admission and retention policy for the transition program. according to them, some parents considered the transition program as a venue for caregiving for their family members who are special learners. some parents do not actively participate in the school activities involving family members of special learners. sometimes, they are also not keen on attending parentteachers’ conferences to discuss the progress of the students. ensuring greater cooperation and involvement of parents in the transition program is essential. amidst all these problems encountered, the supervisors and the teachers are grateful for the support they received from parents and some local government units (lgu). according to them, some parents and lgus donated instructional materials that can be used for improving instruction. they also financed the improvement of the classrooms to make them more conducive for the learners with special needs. certain lgus also helped provide security for the schools, particularly for the students. these efforts are helpful in improving the delivery of the transition curriculum. collaboration with different government and non-government agencies is necessary in the implementation of any special education program. g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 11 3.2. what are the important principles that should be considered in the development of a transition program curriculum? there are principles that should be considered in the development of a relevant and responsive curriculum for a transition program in the country. based on the result of the discussion, the teachers, principals, and supervisors expressed ideas that the development of the transition program curriculum should be grounded on the following principles that put emphasis on placing important value for all special learners:  every human being is important. they have the right to quality education, training, and care.  all types of special learners in the philippines should have access to various transition programs that will enable them to enjoy life and become functional, regardless of their disabilities.  each special learner enrolled in any transition program should have a meaningful life-long education experience.  every special learner is capable of learning, and has special abilities, skills, learning styles, and talents that need to be developed.  the transition curriculum must offer various educational opportunities and programs based on the learner’s interests, abilities, capacities, strengths, and special needs.  learning in the transition program must be outcomes-based and activitycantered, leading to the development of important skills, abilities, talents, values, thinking skills, and life skills.  the transition programs, standards, and competencies are developmental, learner-cantered, and goal-focused. it should also be relevant and responsive to the philippine context.  the transition programs and learning outcomes must promote greater collaboration and partnership between and among teachers, school, family, community, and industry to ensure that all relevant information are shared and the necessary resources are put in place to facilitate a successful transition. 12 g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20  every program, standard, and competency must be planned with all the necessary administrative and instructional support system in mind.  the transition program should support and consider all existing legal frameworks concerning special learners. these principles will guide the curriculum developers in the development and implementation of the proposed transition program curriculum for public schools in the philippines. 3.3. what curriculum development model should be used in developing a transition program? the result of the discussion on the process of developing a relevant transition program for the learners led to the development of a curriculum development model. this model was presented to the supervisors, school heads, and special education teachers who participated in the focused-group discussion and it will be used in the development of the curriculum for the whole transition program in the country. figure 2. curriculum development model for the transition program deliberations development of curriculum philosophy and framework identification of programs and strategies development of curriculum materials and instructional resources development of assesment framework and evaluation tools development of curriculum policies g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 13 as shown in figure 2, the development of the transition program curriculum follows a dynamic curriculum development process. like any curriculum development model, it is linear and cyclical in terms of processes and procedures, but it also allows the curriculum developers to start from any phase. this is in consideration of the fact that there are several transition programs being implemented in various schools in the country. these phases are: 1. deliberations – include situational analysis whereby education leaders, teachers, and stakeholders will identify and discuss issues, problems, demands, and possibilities on the transition program for the special learners. this phase specifically includes the following: a. understanding the learners. the people involved in this phase may also examine carefully the needs and nature of the special learners who will be the beneficiaries of the transition program. b. examining current transition programs. this involves understanding the issues and evaluation results of existing transition programs. c. analyzing the function and nature of a transition program. the participants need to understand the nature and scope of a transition program for special learners. d. analysis of laws and educational policies. it is important to analyze the requirements of the law and the prescriptions of existing education policies on special education. e. understanding the society. this means understanding how the people view special learners and examining existing support system that the community provides to support the development of special learners. 2. development of curriculum philosophy and framework – involves the development of the curriculum design framework of the transition program after analyzing the result of the situational analysis or phase i. the curriculum design should reflect the k-12 curriculum. curriculum design process will include the following activities: a. development of a curriculum philosophy. the curriculum philosophy embodies basic and vital values and beliefs that will serve as basis for designing, implementing, and evaluating the curriculum. b. development of curriculum framework. the curriculum framework reflects the curriculum philosophy and the essential curriculum contents 14 g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 that should be included in the transition program. the framework should reflect the following principles:  learner-centered. it is relevant and responsive to the needs of the special learners.  competency-based. the curriculum design may also include the development of curriculum standards and competencies that will develop the necessary skills for special learners to become functional. 3. identification of programs and strategies – includes identification and development of specific programs and strategies for the transition program. it includes learning experiences and learning packages for the educational needs of the learners. the important activity under this phase is the development of curriculum standards and competencies for the different transition programs. 4. development of curriculum materials and instructional resources – is comprised of the development, selection, and production of curriculum materials and instructional resources that are needed in the implementation of the transition programs. this phase involves careful consideration of the following: c. academic skills development – takes into consideration the materials and resources that will help the learners develop their academic skills like reading, speaking, counting, and other skills that are relevant to them. d. technical skills development – looks into the materials and resources that will help the learners develop skills like baking, sewing, and other vocational and technical skills. e. motor skills development – includes the materials and resources that will help the learners in developing their motor skills. f. personality development – takes account of materials and resources that will further enhance the personalities of the learners. this may include but is not limited to learning how to comb their hair, brush their teeth, etc. g. social development – involves materials and resources that will help the learners interact with other people and in handling their emotions and behavior. 5. evaluation – consists of the following activities: a. development of assessment frameworks to evaluate the effectivity of the transition program; and g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 15 b. development of assessment tools to evaluate the progress of the learners. 6. development of curriculum policy – covers the development of policies to ensure that there are organizational and administrative support systems for the transition program. a. selection and retention of learners. it is necessary to develop policies for the selection and retention of students to guide teachers, administrators, and parents. b. protection of the learners. it is important to ensure that the learners’ rights, privacy, and dignity as human beings will be protected and respected. c. training of teachers and staff. it is important that the staff and teachers who will implement the transition program are well trained, skilful, and knowledgeable about special learners and in implementing transition programs. it is also desirable that their roles are clear to them. d. designing the learning environment. it is important that safety measures be guaranteed for all learners. it is also imperative to provide them a caring and loving atmosphere. e. partnership with lgus. it is important to collaborate with the local government units to ensure that they provide safety measures to protect the learners and ascertain public and government support to the transition programs. f. curriculum implementation. it includes selection of contents and utilization of instructional activities and materials that are relevant to the needs of the learners. it also includes guidelines in conducting activities for the learners. h. curriculum alignment. this includes finding ways to develop equivalency system with the curriculum offered by the technical education and skills development authority (tesda), and developing a system for aligning the transition program with the k-12 curriculum. the curriculum policies also include procedures and guidelines related to the planning and implementation processes, to quality assure the curriculum of the transition program. these curriculum policies will warrant the features and characteristics as well as the efficient continuity and sustainability of the program. 16 g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 3.4. what is the proposed curriculum framework for the transition program? in this paper, curriculum is defined as a set of learning activities designed to accomplish specific objectives. curriculum is also defined as a series of learning outcomes that include standards and competencies. the development of an ideal transition program will see more of these different learning activities designed to help special learners acquire important skills they need to become functional in everyday life. the standards and competencies will define the skills and the knowledge the learners need to perform their tasks daily. figure 3. curriculum framework for the transition program figure 3 shows the proposed curriculum framework of the transition program for the department of education as a result of a consultative workshop with different special education teachers, school heads, and supervisors from different parts of the philippines. based on the framework, the transition program is composed of five learning areas that the students may choose from, namely: a. academic curriculum – is a set of courses regularly offered to special students who are capable of learning academic skills under inclusion or through the alternative learning system scheme. the students in this curriculum are either those who are physically impaired and/or intellectually challenged. the assumption is that these learners are capable of learning academic subjects. g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 17 b. pre-vocational curriculum – is a set of pre-vocational and skills-based program that is offered to special learners. some of these pre-vocational skills include job-hunting, preparing for job interviews, and preparing resume or biodata. it also includes topics such as practicing proper work ethics, handling finances, and dealing with employers and co-employees, among others. c. livelihood skills – include activities and skills that will prepare students for several vocational programs like baking, producing candles, making decorations, among others. these livelihood programs are benchmarked with technical and pre-baccalaureate vocational programs to ensure coherence, alignment of curriculum to higher-level learning, and quality. livelihood curriculum also includes skills-based activities that aim to develop further the skills and competencies of the learners with the possibility of helping them become entrepreneurs. d. enrichment curriculum – includes special interest activities or modules that will enable the learners to learn additional skills. these adds-on projects are offered to learners who are enrolled under the academic curriculum, but wish to learn additional skills like those under the pre-vocational curriculum. e. care curriculum – is a set of support activities to help the learners in their needs. this curriculum is offered to special learners who are not capable of learning under the academic or pre-vocational curriculum due to their disabilities. the care curriculum may include life skills or self-help skills such as improving gross motor skills, basic socialization, toilet training, cleaning the body, or proper way of eating and drinking. these learning areas are different from each other, and each learning package may contain several modules or topics of interest; however, they can be seen as interdependent and purposively connected. for example, basic academic skills are a prerequisite to the pre-vocational package. one must finish or should be enrolled in the pre-vocational package in order to register in any of the enrichment courses offered. the courses under the enrichment-learning package should allow the learners to develop entrepreneurial and business skills. while taking an enrichment course, the learners may opt to take adds-on courses to harness further or learn another set of skills. the care curriculum is always an integral part of the whole transition program though it is mainly offered to students who may need additional special care depending on the severity of the learners’ disabilities. after the students have finished the transition program, an assessment will be given to examine or assess the readiness of the students to either take continuing education in college or through technical education and skills development authority (tesda) courses, or put up a business and be an entrepreneur, or stay at home and be functional. though the curriculum is a transition program for special learners, it is imperative to 18 g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 ensure the alignment of its academic curriculum to the k-12 curriculum. it is also important to align the curriculum standards and competencies to enable the learners to continue their studies with any tesda course appropriate to their needs, abilities, and interests. for those who would prefer to stay at home and be functional, or for those by any reason cannot proceed to continuing education or entrepreneurship, they may take adds-on courses or enroll in another pre-vocational course. the idea of the transition program curriculum is for every learner to be empowered as a functional human being in spite of his physical handicap or intellectual disability. the transition program curriculum aims to contribute to the total holistic development of every filipino special learner. 4. conclusion the story of the transition program for special learners begins with a strong conviction and commitment that all human beings are entitled to quality education. this paper attempted to systematize the process for developing a transition program curriculum by creating a model for curriculum development. the model is dynamic and linear. it presented various curriculum activities and development of possible support systems that are important in the development and implementation of any type of transition program curriculum. the curriculum development model in this paper presented a holistic and dynamic view of developing any transition curriculum for special learners. it presented the idea that any type of transition program should be part of a grand design of education for special learners. it attempted to systematize the process of curriculum development for special education. the curriculum development model for the transition program curriculum follows a linear-cyclical procedure starting with (1) deliberations, (2) development of curriculum philosophy and framework, (3) identification of programs and strategies, (4) development of curriculum materials and instructional resources, (5) development of assessment framework and evaluation tools, and (7) development of curriculum policies that will guide the teachers in implementing the curriculum. although the model was in designing a transition program curriculum at the national level, it could also be used in the context of regions, divisions, districts, or in local schools. curriculum development in the field of special education is quite different. the nature and needs of special learners demand that the process should be flexible for any possible curriculum change, revision, and variation. the process of curriculum g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 19 development does not stop with identifying programs and developing standards and competencies; it includes the process of developing curriculum materials and instructional resources. it also demands that part of the curriculum development process is the creation of curriculum policies and ensuring support structures for the implementation of the curriculum. the curriculum framework for the proposed transition program curriculum includes five learning areas: (1) livelihood, (2) academic, (3) enrichment, (4) prevocational, and (5) care. all these learning areas are designed to help and prepare filipino learners with special education needs to be capable of engaging in entrepreneurship, pursuing further studies, or living functional lives. this framework can be used for the planning and development of special education curricula for the k to 12 basic education programs in the philippines. references gomez, m. g. a. (2010). career planning for children in conflict with the law. alipato: journal for basic education, 5, 89-103. national council for special education (2014). children with special needs. information booklet for parents. ncse. trim, co meath nicholls, a., & nichols a.h. (1978). developing a curriculum: a practical guide.2nd ed. london: george allen & unwin. novo scotia (2005). transition planning for students with special needs: the early years through adult life. department of education, novo scotia. patton, j. r., cronin, m. e., & jairrels, v. (1997). curricular implications of transition: life skills as an integral part of transition education. remedial and special education, 18, 294–306. pawilen, g.t. (2012). a model for developing curriculum standards for preschool teacher education. education quarterly. 70, 14 – 25. quijano, yolanda (2007) transition program: a philippine model. proceedings of the 18th asian conference on mental retardation, november 18-23, 2007, taipei, taiwan. 1987 republic of the philippines constitution republic act 9442, “an act amending ra 7277 otherwise known as the “magna carta for disabled persons and other purposes” republic of the philippines. (1974). presidential decree 603: the child and welfare codetyler, r. (1949). basic principles of curriculum and instruction. chicago: university of chicago press. walker, d. f. (1971). a naturalistic model of curriculum development. in the school review. no. 80.1. pp. 51-65. 20 g.t. pawilen et al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 1–20 copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). guided knowledge search during mathematical problem solving educating for solidarity through dialogue garrone & price education for the dialogue among civilisations 140 educating for solidarity through dialogue education for the dialogue among civilisations brian garrone edmund rice education australia australia damien price edmund rice education australia australia within australian educational circles there is an increasing awareness of the need to educate young people not just to be able to thrive within the global context, but also to be able to respectfully collaborate to build a global community characterised by a commitment to justice and peace. due to the increasing inequalities present in our world, educators are seeing the need for formal schooling to be at the forefront of forming young people who have the knowledge, skills and attitudes to vision and act for a better world. edmund rice education australia (erea) over the last decade has begun a process of visioning what such an education could look like and implementing programs, whole school approaches and system initiatives to make it a reality. educating for a “dialogue among civilisations” is seen as one of the underlying values of this new vision. this article will explore how systematic change has been undertaken, present a framework for teaching and learning and highlight some of the programs that have been implemented in the erea community. the context edmund rice education australia (erea) is the educational system of the christian brothers in the australian setting. the international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 christian brothers first set up schools in australia in the mid 1800’s and have educated both young men and women for almost 150 years. for many years the christian brothers’ schools were characterised by academic success, strict discipline and providing opportunities for young people who were on the margins of australian society. in 2008, erea now comprises of over 40 schools, ranging from all boys boarding schools to flexible learning centres that provide educational opportunities for young people who have disengaged from mainstream education. the system, drawing inspiration from the irish educational liberator, edmund rice, has recently re-visioned its educational endeavour to focus on the “transformation of the minds and hearts of young australians to build a more just, tolerant and inclusive community.” this vision has been influenced by a new understanding of the educational philosophy of edmund rice and his focus on liberation through education, particularly the breaking down of unjust social structures through relationship building across faith and class divides. edmund rice: educational liberator edmund rice was an irish businessman who was born into the strongly nationalistic and religious society of poverty stricken 18th century ireland. the cultural and ecclesial mores of his day could have propelled edmund into an “us – them” modality that interpreted the events of daily life in terms of blame, rejection and fear of difference and denial of any semblance of shared humanity. however, edmund overcame this pervading culture and began a number of schools for the marginalised youth of waterford. the educational approach that edmund rice initiated deliberately challenged much of the divisive prejudice of his day. he sought to set up schools of the highest quality but welcomed into them both poor and rich, protestant and catholic, and established a curriculum that promoted liberation – not only from the effects of physical poverty but from the mindsets that impoverished people. edmund’s strong commitment to the education of all youth at the margins of society and to dialogue 141 educating for solidarity through dialogue garrone & price education for the dialogue among civilisations between catholics and protestants was counter cultural for that time (mclaughlin, 2006). this subversive approach meant that he sought not merely to liberate individuals through education, but also to change the social structures that kept people poor and marginalised. his deep belief in the dignity of all people led him to create an education system that lifted people out of poverty while educating them towards critically engaging in and recreating the world. edmund rice schools of the 21st century have sought to draw from this inspiration and develop an educational approach that continues this founding mission while responding to the unique needs of our time. reading the signs of the times: interfaith dialogue the leaders of edmund rice education have realised that a commitment to interfaith dialogue is essential to educating in the 21st century. to facilitate this development, educational leaders gathered in india recently to vision the future directions of ministries over the next six years. prior to this gathering, participants were invited into an interfaith immersion and dialogue experience with people of a variety of faith traditions. through this relational engagement a deep commitment to interfaith dialogue emerged: as we entered their sacred stories, temples, places of worship and rituals, sikhs, buddhists, hindus, baha’i, jains and muslims invited us into their lives. with growing awareness, we pondered the common search for the divine in these other religious traditions. we became aware also of their many ministries to the disadvantaged. our experiences deepened our understanding of the powerful presence of the spirit within these religions. searching questions surfaced for some of us. the mystery of god is deeper and more inclusive than we had ever imagined. it is indeed a revelation to discover how our concepts of god had been constrained within the horizons of our own tradition. (christian brothers congregational gathering, 2008) 142 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 this immersion and dialogue set the scene for a gathering of passionate people who sought to offer the powerful possibility that edmund rice’s educational endeavour could truly embrace the practice of “dialogue among civilisations,” leading to social transformation that builds a better world for all people. this has led to a renewed commitment to a pedagogy of justice and peace across edmund rice schools. transformational education: a framework at the heart of erea’s current approach to education in the australian setting is the value of relational solidarity leading to transformational action for a better world. a focus on an education for justice and peace is seen as fundamentally crucial if we are to prepare young people to engage positively and passionately with their communities and the world to build a culture of right relationships. a pedagogical methodology has been developed that consists of the raising of awareness, the nurturing of compassion and the engagement with action. this draws it’s inspiration from the peace education movement: raising awareness or knowledge formation entails the research and study of violent situations, their causes and consequences. building concern is about nurturing feelings of compassion for and solidarity with victims of violence. this step aims to transform feelings of helplessness by giving the learners a chance to imagine an alternative or a preferred situation. the final step is invitation to action. the development of genuine concern prompts learners to do something about situations of violence be it on a personal level, like personal change, or on a social level, like political advocacy or actions of direct service. (castro, galace & lesaca, 2005: pg 73) this methodology has been infused into three main pedagogical practices over the last decade: service and solidarity learning opportunities; immersion and twinning relationships with the majority world; and the engagement of teachers and young people in cross-cultural and interfaith dialogue that leads to 143 educating for solidarity through dialogue garrone & price education for the dialogue among civilisations action for justice. these pedagogical practices are placed within the context of adolescent development with its emphasis on identity formation and recognising the importance of a value based, outward looking and global ideology for young adults to feel a part of, so they too can take their place in society as future and present “makers of history” (flacks, 1988). some of these initiatives are briefly described. inter-faith formation of educators for a culture of peace through 2006/2007 the multi-faith centre, griffith university, organised for key educators from erea to participate in a series of in-service workshops on “interfaith dialogue for building a culture of peace.” these workshops facilitated the exploration and dialogue of the participants on issues and questions within and across faiths that pose challenges for building a culture of peace; raise their awareness on complex issues, problems, and conflicts of interfaith relationships and their impact on societal peace; deepen their knowledge and skills in integrating themes and principles of interfaith dialogue in their curricula and teaching learning strategies (toh, 2005). twenty erea educators participated in a number of workshops with dr virginia cawagas and professor toh swee hin from the multifaith centre, griffith university with the support of edmund rice education staff. a number of aboriginal teachers and faith leaders were invited to share their knowledge, perspectives, and experiences on selected workshop themes and issues. the final outcome of the workshops was a resource book for schools (cawagas, toh & garrone, 2007). included in this resource book were a number of modules for teachers that aim to promote justice and peace from an interfaith perspective. each of the modules has a focus on one of the particular themes of “educating for a culture of peace.” these modules were written by teachers who participated in the workshops and the ideas presented have been used with students in their schools. 144 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 global twinning and immersion programs increasingly schools have seen the need to engage young people with youth from the global south so together they can explore some of the pressing issues facing the global community. solidarity immersion programs have been organised between youth from australia and south africa, timor leste and the philippines. these programs enable young people from these countries to come together for an extended period of time and share cultures, explore the themes of justice and peace and collaboratively work out strategies for raising awareness about our common humanity. the impact of these experiences on the lives of young people can have lasting significance in their life’s choices as shared in the following reflections: throughout our epic journey in the african culture, our group was continually immersed in the strength and resilience shown by the south african people. their courage was a true example of human spirit. each moment in their presence, was an opportunity to learn. not only to learn, but to be inspired. the people of sa, through their personal struggles, rich experiences and powerful sense of faith taught us so many lessons. they taught us forgiveness and happiness, as well as the importance of a profound spirituality. for me, my spiritual journey began here at regina mundi, the infamous church of soweto. however, it did not end there, nor did it end when i left south africa. you see, during my experience my eyes were opened to breathtaking beauty in the face of adversity. it made me realise how important their faith is to them, and how important it is to me. caitlin (st james college) as we travelled through south africa, we were captivated by the beauty of the country and the warmth of the people within it, and yet i felt a twinge of unease in the pit of my stomach which only seemed to grow as it became closer to the date we had to leave. i kept asking myself, “what can we do? how can we witness so much inequality and pain and just walk away? since i’ve been back in australia i’ve realized something. you can’t walk away; you can leave a country like south africa but it never leaves you. that feeling of unease still sits in my stomach, but it’s not a feeling of despair or hopelessness. it’s a 145 educating for solidarity through dialogue garrone & price education for the dialogue among civilisations feeling of injustice, and it motivates every one of us that was involved in the immersion to continue to work for peace and global solidarity in our own communities. it’s a cliché that actions speak louder than words, but the truth is that it doesn’t matter how compassionate you are, if you talk endlessly about social justice but do not put your beliefs into practice. we learnt this from the passionate and dedicated young people of south africa who work to sustain and promote a better quality of life for their communities. we learnt this from nelson mandela, a man who gave 27 years of his life in prison because he believed in humanity. don’t fool yourself into being desensitised to the oppression of others. it’s easy to turn off the news and forget there is a world beyond our own, but it doesn’t matter if you can’t see people suffering right in front of you, because those people continue to exist. it is only when we step outside ourselves that we realize we’re part of a global family and we are all in this together. you have a choice. open your eyes. change your heart. live and act for justice. adriane (mount alvernia college) before we left the vibrant land of south africa, i made a promise to myself. i promised that i, mark atkinson, would be an instrument and leader of peace. i would bring about change in my life and others’ lives. back in australia, through small acts of kindness, i hope i have accomplished one small aspect of my promise. the next step is to inspire others to be brave and follow their own dreams, which, ultimately, will be brightening the future of our world. mark (st joseph’s nudgee college) the topic of social justice is often thrown around in conversation as a theoretical concept to be acted upon by other people, or as an institution you can throw money at and sleep better at night thinking you have contributed to the welfare of humanity. money can feed people. it can clothe them and buy them the necessities of life, but it is charity and it does not provide for a sustainable way to live. that doesn’t mean you should sit on your hands and accept the inequality of the world, on the 146 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 contrary; compassion without action is sentimental humbug. society requires us to contribute to humanity in different ways. sometimes we assume that people will be so oppressed that they cannot help themselves, but building relationships in which human beings can relate to each other in global solidarity can empower them, and is at the heart of social justice. adriane (mount alvernia college) local service and solidarity learning programs each of our schools has endeavoured to initiate programs that allow for relationships between students with those on the margins of society in their local communities. these programs, usually based around a service activity, have seen our students develop long term relationships built upon reciprocity and respect with people that previously they would never have associated with. examples have included hospitality vans with the homeless and tutoring for newly arrived refugees. the overwhelming sense from both the students and partners has been that the service activity is just the avenue for a deeper understanding, empathy and respect between each of the participants and those who they are partnering with. each of these programs is developed with extensive preparation and debriefing of the students leading to social analysis of the causes of oppression and solutions to these uncovered injustices. challenges and possibilities our involvement with these and similar programs have led us to recognise that the educational journey towards values development that embraces a deep commitment to justice and peace and prepares young people to have the knowledge and skills to “dialogue across civilisations” requires enormous time and energy from the entire erea community. there is a need for an extended, ongoing period of time where students can explore social issues within a peace building framework. a direct – “hands on” and “hearts open” approach is important to bring students into direct contact with those classed as “different” to 147 educating for solidarity through dialogue garrone & price education for the dialogue among civilisations them [economically, culturally, etc] so that a respectful and reciprocal relationship can develop that leads to an understanding and appreciation of personal and communal “story.” the presence of mentors to continually encourage the students to ask critical questions and to develop frameworks built upon justice and peace is also crucial. finally, the erea community needs to engage in a continual reflection upon experience in the light of a philosophy that espouses a dialogue between civilisations, between cultures, the breaking down of barriers and a belief in the dignity of all as brothers and sisters of a global family. as educators in edmund rice schools we have learnt that this is indeed a journey and that we have not arrived yet – much work needs to continue to be done. the great challenge for us as educators and for edmund rice schools in general is not to see justice and peace education, the initiatives named above and the whole global approach towards dialogue across boundaries as “one off” events or as “feel good” pedagogical tools that are distant from real life and academic achievement. there is a real danger of either/or; that we can be schools of academic excellence or schools that promote justice and dialogue leading to a better world. our vision is that ultimately edmund rice schools will be places where justice and peace initiatives are not seen as added extras but as core to the curriculum and culture of the school. this would enable our graduates to be young men and women who are willing and skilled to take their places in society as agents of change, able to critique injustice within society and motivated to initiate and participate in interfaith dialogue and social action. the respectful engagement with others, both locally and globally, through story, relationships and combined action can go much of the way to making this vision a reality. references castro, l., galace, j., and lesaca, k. (2005) peace education initiatives in metro manila, vol.4. manila: undp. 148 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 cawagas, v. f., toh, s. h., & garrone, b. (ed.) (2007). many faiths, one humanity. brisbane: multi-faith centre, griffith university & edmund rice education australia congregation of the christian brothers (2008) the spirit moving in our midst: be my disciple. munnar, internal publication. flacks, r. (1988), making history: the american left and the american mind. new york: columbia university press. mclaughlin, d. (2006), the price of freedom: edmund rice educational leader. melbourne: david lovell publishing. toh, s.h. (2005) the role of interfaith dialogue in educating for a culture of peace. plenary address at the third diversity forum, kolkatta, mar 1-4, 2005, australian multicultural foundation & the commonwealth foundation. 149 ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction analyzing research tendencies of elt researchers and trajectory of english language teaching and learning in the last five years erdal ayan a *, elif demirel b a department of computer education and instructional technology, hacettepe university, ankara, 06800, turkey b department of applied english and translation, ufuk university, ankara, 06836, turkey abstract owing to new advances in language teaching methodologies and integration of high technology tools as well as web applications, much scientific research has been recently published on english language teaching (elt) and learning (ell). yet it is still a significant question to investigate exactly what types of research topics are mostly studied among the researchers from different countries. the current research aimed at finding out the most frequent research contexts and topics in the last five years through analyzing research papers published in leading academic journals in the field, and compare tendencies of the researchers from different institutions and countries in terms of selecting their research context and topics, and to figure out the trajectory for future studies. in this study researchers used a corpus-based detection methodology composed of storing variable data in .txt files and analyzing variables over the concordancer. the corpusbased data from the variables were analyzed by means of a statistical software, known as jasp in order to clear out potential differences among the researchers. a short analysis of the data indicated that the researchers still focus on the key words such as explicit learning and knowledge, implicit learning and knowledge as well as age and bilingualism. it was also observed that meta-analysis is an important topic in the studies conducted lately. further results of the study could be beneficial for all followers including researchers and learners inside and outside elt and help people focus on less frequently studied contexts and topics. © 2017 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: research tendencies; trajectory of elt; elt/ell; corpus-based detection 1. introduction english language english language teaching is a promising field of study for many experts on language education and students from different fields of study all around the world. this is mostly because number of the students who want to take english language * corresponding author. tel.: +90-364-777-0252 e-mail address: erdal_ayan@yahoo.com 90 e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 education has dramatically increased since the 1950s. therefore governments tend to take political and educational decisions to direct and innovate their educational systems as well as to support schools with english language education. also decision makers and private businesses frequently encourage researchers to conduct research on improving new approaches, techniques and technologies for the purpose of meeting upcoming language needs of the new generation learners who are technology junkies. as a result, the researchers have noted novel ideas and developments in integration of language education in to instructional applications at schools in the last years. in accordance with that, there are many scientific research published over academic journals on english language teaching (elt) and learning (ell) in recent years. however, on the one hand, it is still a significant question to research that exactly what types of research topics are mostly studied among the researchers from different countries. what are the leading research groups on the world? even though there are many studies to clarify mostly studied topics and trajectory of the researches on elt by means of text/content mining methodology, and there are very few studies to compare research tendencies of the researchers. despite the fact that there are many papers reviewing literature, the scope of such studies are mostly limited. on the other hand, a corpus based detection methodology, which may illuminate those research tendencies and trajectory, and come up with descriptive results in the field, is actually missing. in sum, the current research aims at finding out the most frequent research contexts and topics in the last five years through analyzing research papers published in leading academic journals in the field, and compare tendencies of the researchers from different institutions and countries in terms of selecting their research context and topics, and to figure out the trajectory for future studies. in this study, the researchers hypothesize that there may be different tendencies among the researchers in terms of their selecting research contexts and topics, which should be revealed for future researches. researchers use a corpus-based detection methodology in this study, which is composed of storing variable data in .txt files and analyzing variables over the antconc. corpus-based detection method defines process of gathering textual data mentioned in the variables and analyzing them by means of antconc. the corpus-based data from the variables are analyzed by means of a statistical software, known as jasp in order to clear out potential differences among the researchers. potential results of the study could be beneficial for all followers including researchers and learners inside and outside the field of elt and help people focus less frequently studied contexts and topics. results of the studies using text/content mining are beneficial for all followers including researchers and learners inside and outside the field of language education and help people focus less frequently studied topics and areas. in this regard, the current paper is going to begin with illustrating novel research studies and literature reviews on text mining and findings of different researchers on how to analyze journal data. then, hypothesis and research questions will be clarified. methodology is going to be mentioned e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 91 in the following section. after that, data analysis and results are going to be followed. at the end, discussion and conclusion parts will take place. 2. literature review integration of internet and web applications is of great importance for many experts on english language teaching and learning as well as readers from different fields of study all around the world. google's ngram viewer is one of the closest examples for such applications which simply illustrate where certain words have appeared. nowadays, publishers of scientific journals are of huge digital contents for readers, and capabilities of the networks and computers are beneficial in terms of discovery of deeper knowledge for average users and researchers. moreover, text/content mining of journal articles, newspapers and other printed media and building up corpora for specific purposes in elt/ell have been on the rise since the 1990s (stubbs, 1996; burnard & mcenery, 2000; thompson, 2001; stuart & botella, 2009). for example, buckmaster (2015) writes that texts that will be used in the courses should be analyzed both pedagogically and linguistically before teaching and small scale corpora may particularly help teachers detect needs of the learners. bernardini (2004) and tsui (2004) attract attention to the functions of corpora building in efl/esl courses in terms of teachers’ novel positions as facilitators, corpus-based discovery learning, self-evaluation of students’ needs, learner autonomy, sequencing course contents in curriculum, teacher-teacher and teacherstudent interaction. according to their perspectives, having corpus based teaching methodologies may contribute a lot to active participation of the learners into teachinglearning processes and support the process of self-discovery. also, thompson (2001) investigates different types of citations used in phd theses in scope of academic writing in social sciences, humanities and science texts. in accordance with that, there are many scientific research published on language and linguistics in recent years. according to scimago journal rank indicator, there are 581 journals published in 2015. total number of documents published by these journals is 13.582 in 2015 and 45.573 in the last three years. h index of the ranking indicator showed that mean of the number of the articles which received citations in the period is 12.21. means and sums of the journal ranking (sjr), total references and total cites in three years were also mentioned in the following table (see table-1). 92 e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 table 1. descriptive statistics for various indicators h index sjr total refs. total cites (3years) valid 581 581 581 581 missing 1 1 1 1 mean 12.21 0.3478 906.9 60.30 median 5.000 0.1380 600.0 8.000 mode 1.000 0.1010 0.000 0.000 std. deviation 20.02 0.4732 1259 185.7 minimum 0.000 0.1000 0.000 0.000 maximum 171.0 3.403 1.118e+4 2226 sum 7093 202.1 5.269e+5 3.503e+4 the statistics by the same indicator also reveal that most of the journals were released in the european countries and the usa (see table 2). table 2. frequencies for country frequency percent valid percent belgium 20 3.4 3.4 czech republic 13 2.2 2.2 france 24 4.1 4.1 germany 65 11.2 11.2 italy 21 3.6 3.6 netherlands 63 10.8 10.8 poland 15 2.6 2.6 spain 43 7.4 7.4 united kingdom 126 21.7 21.7 united states 77 13.3 13.3 .... ... ... ... total 581 100.0 100.0 text/content mining is not an area-specific research methodology. together with support from corpora, it brings oversight and discovery of real knowledge and relationship analysis of the data produced by the researchers in various institutions. text/content mining technologies such as mendeley and citeseer as automated citation indexing systems are very popular among the publishers and readers, who want to take impressions before conducting their research and follow certain research groups during their research process (giles, bollacker, & lawrence, 1998). text/content mining is closely related to information processing. it has been a research methodology including computer based automated tools, techniques, latent semantic e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 93 indexing, n-grams depicting researcher's interests, topic models and sentiment analysis frequently employed by many researchers for different purposes nowadays (smit & van der graaf, 2012; soriano, au, & banks, 2013). for example, smit and van der graaf (2012) has listed following purposes; a) to identify and select relevant information, b) to extract information from the content, c) to identify relationships within/between/across documents and between incidents or events for meta-analysis, d) to improve information retrieval/navigation to the content of the publishers, e) to improve meta-data and semantic tagging of people, places and organizations, f) to create new products and services (36-41). in academic research articles, researchers are usually asked to provide keywords which characterize their research area and specific interest of the article itself. these keywords act like a digital identity for the research article, making it easily accessible through database searches. these keywords reported by the original researchers are carefully selected keywords act as reliable indication of scientific concepts referenced in them (wittaker, courtial & law, 1989). however, keyword analyses usually use textmining techniques to detect keywords from texts since different from research articles other kinds of texts do not provide a readily available list of keywords. keywords analyses based on text mining techniques derive keywords statistically and use the data for purposes of literary analysis and exploration of genre differences to name a few. the technique of statistically deriving keywords, however, is not free of criticism. for example conway (2010) reports that frequent words characterize texts better than keywords or key-keywords which are derived using more computationally intensive methods. in this study, a statistical keyword extraction method was not necessary since the keywords had already been reported by the researchers themselves. the purpose of the present study was to detect research tendencies, reported keywords provide sufficient and reliable information on this issue since the reported keywords are usually frequently repeated keywords in a research article. in text analysis or text/content mining, using keywords provides important information for carrying out in-depth analyses within texts or making comparisons across texts or corpora since keywords create intratextual or intertextual networks of meaning (stuart & botella, 2009). berber sardinha (1999) examines the benefits of carrying out key word analyses using concordancing tools, namely wordsmith tools. he notes that keyword analysis can serve to compare stylistic and developmental characteristics across texts while it can help to detect internal topic boundaries, and to distinguish between local and global topics or major or minor topics. more importantly, text/content mining allows researchers to visualize when certain topics have exactly been frequently studied and become popular research topics within years. such a visualization and conceptualization especially over 3-d mappings of evolution of the research field may definitely come up with formative and decisive data in 94 e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 terms of educational and instructional perspectives and purposes since those who are following the researchers in the field may simply decide what is missing in the field and focus more on these areas. smit and van der graaf (2012) have already foreseen that “content mining will expand into new areas, enabled by easier software tools and will develop further into automated information extraction from large sets of content” (44). text/content mining through building corpora makes it very practical and time-saving to mine and find out relationships between the research topics and upcoming tendencies of the researchers in the field without wasting time by reading detailed or limited literature reviews. it also makes it very simple to analyze non-uniformly structured texts and text archives, and change them into meaningful statistical data. there are similar advantages of text/content mining with corpus based methodology in that it provides researchers with overviews and detailed statistical analysis through vocabulary and word order carrying significant signals and reduces time to find relevant, informative and meaningful results dealing with the research field. this study navigates the topics and research areas over key words that researchers focus in the last five years in the field of english language teaching and learning. 3. hypothesis and research questions the current study is a significant descriptive research for both researchers, phd and master’s degree seekers as well as teachers and learners of english. the readers of the research may benefit a lot from the data presented, since it provides a broad photo of information on studies conducted by the researchers studying on elt and ell in certain institutions and countries. aforementioned studies and many other studies have focused on the frequencies of the key words and contextual relationships. these studies have come up with very unique results in terms of providing very informative data for the researchers and followers of the mentioned journals. however, it seems that the data and results from the research are missing and even disregarding certain information dealing with the most frequent key words in contexts and upcoming research topics. the researchers of the current study hypothesizes that there are different tendencies among the researchers in terms of their selecting research topics and keywords. in this sense, the following research questions were formulated; 1. what are the most frequently used keywords by the researchers in two journals between the years 2012-2016? 2. what are the countries and institutions that the research with high frequency keywords are conducted in the journals? e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 95 4. methodology the current study is a descriptive and comparative research based on qualitative and quantitative data collected by means of a citation manager, called zotero. the data was analyzed over a corpus corcordancer, named antconc. researchers have used a corpusbased detection methodology in this study, which is composed of storing variable data in .txt files and analyzing variables over the concordancer. the corpus-based data from the variables have been analyzed by means of a statistical software, jasp in order to clear out potential differences among the researchers in terms of the keywords they produced. the following parts are going to provide detailed step-by-step process of the research. 4.1. selection of the journals nowadays there are many academic journals and publications released on english language teaching and learning under title of language and linguistics. however very few of them have average international scientific standards to study on. for the current study, the academic journals known as modern language journal and language learning were selected as the scientific journals to conduct the research. the journals are two leading ones with high .pdf standards, which is extractable information including abstracts, names of the writers, journals, issues, publication dates, etc. their citations and frequency of publishing were highly regarded appropriate for the study. both journals are published four times a year, which means a volume composed of four issues and special issues in various months. both of them are indexed in both linguistics and education and educational research by twenty-five indexing services. the most common keywords used to define the scope and content of both journals are “modern, language, journal, modern language journal, mlj, languages, teaching, foreign, actfl, esl, linguistic, second, acquisition, translation, abstracts, surveys, news, research, french, german, spanish, english, analysis, periodical, article, reviews, studies, book, technology, instruction, language, learning, research, education, linguistics, studies, journal, acquisition, psychology, cognitive, science, education, neuroscience, ethnography, sociolinguistics, sociology, semiotics, semantics, periodical, analysis”. the impact factor of the modern language journal is 1.188 and ranking is 42/181 according to isi journal citation reports in linguistics in 2015. journal of language learning is of 1.869 impact factor and ranking is 10/181 according to isi journal citation reports in linguistics in 2015. according to google scholar metrics, its ranking is first in foreign language learning, second in language and linguistics and second in humanities, literature and arts. scimago journal ranking1 has also indicated informative descriptive statistics dealing with the ranking, h index, total documents published both in 2015 and within three years, references and citations (see table 3). 96 e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 table 3. descriptive statistics for the journals country title rank sjr h index total docs. (2015) total docs. (3years) total refs. total cites (3years) united kingdom language learning 7 2.473 62 50 186 2513 373 united states modern language journal 41 1.147 46 61 157 3477 229 4.2. tools for data collection and analysis as mentioned earlier, zotero was utilized in order collect data from the journal sites. the journal articles were downloaded from the journal database together with all necessary information (e.g. writers’ names and surnames, details of the publication including date of the article, all keywords and abstract of the research accompanying volume and issue numbers, etc.). all the data was stored under zotero’s library on a personal computer according to the years of publications. then the data was exported in to a .txt file with refworks tagged format. that format enabled the researchers to detect numbers of the keywords and length of the abstracts list and index the data (see figure 1). figure 1. tagged article data by means of that method 374 articles were downloaded and tagged in total. the tagged data has been later analyzed over antconc in order to detect frequency of key words and e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 97 clusters/n-grams. the analysis came up with informative statistical results on the frequency of use of the keywords by the researchers (see figure 2). figure 2. frequency of key words produced 4.3. process of research the study took three months and it was completed in three main steps; a) data collection, b) data synthesis/analysis, and c) reporting. the researchers began the study by defining the journals with high quality pdf standards (i.e. files were allowing to get titles, names of the authors and other variables like volume, issue numbers and publication years) and published regularly. citation indexes covering the journals and the citation metrics were also regarded. the articles from the journals were downloaded by means zotero. the articles were checked if they were written on elt or ell and the irrelevant articles were deleted from the files. then the researchers built up a small scale corpus covering the articles from the journals. when all the articles were completed, the articles were extracted from zotero’s store as .txt files. the format of the extracted files were regulated as refworks tagged, which provided automated tagging for the variables such as a1 for author, ab for abstract and k1 for keywords. during the process, it was realized that all the authors did not provide keywords in the same numbers; some of them wrote only three and some others wrote more than six. therefore, only five keywords and one author were defined in each article and if an article was missing keywords, then it was disregarded and deleted from the file. the files were purified according to the scope of purpose of the study. due to the fact that automated tagging system of zotero tagged all key words with k1 and authors with a1, the researchers had 98 e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 to re-tag all those variables. it was also realized that zotero randomly tagged keywords, and the variables such as names of the institutions and countries were missing in the pdf files, which challenged the process a lot. therefore it has to be mentioned that k1 is not always the first keyword defined by the authors. the extracted files were later transferred into antconc and the keywords were sorted out by means of concordance tool. the sorted keywords were copied into an excel file including other variables like name of the journal, year, author, title. the names of the institutions and countries were later added into the file after they were manually taken from the website of the journals. the most frequent keywords were defined by means of clusters/n-grams tools of antconc and all the keywords were listed in the excel file. the excel file was later analyzed via jasp and contingency tables were formed. the keywords with high frequency were used to find out the authors, institutions and countries that the research conducted. 4.4. limitations the study is limited to the articles produced between the years 2012 and 2016 and retrieved from the journals mentioned. special issues published in the journals were not downloaded but only regular issues were taken. only the most frequent keywords were surveyed in annual bases. the researchers with different institutions and countries were described according to the frequency of the keywords. the articles which were irrelevant and inappropriate for the study were disregarded. 5. findings the articles downloaded from the journals were analyzed initially over antconc and then jasp in terms of the numbers of the articles published in the last five years. the analyses provided descriptive results dealing with the keywords, authors, institutions and countries. first of all, it was found out that the average number of the published articles in modern language journal over the last five years was 40 while the articles published in language learning was 35. the number of the purified articles for modern language journal was 149 and for language learning it was 138 (see figure 3). e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 99 figure 3. number of journals and articles secondly, the compiled corpus provided informative data dealing with the keywords which were frequently used. accordingly, it was revealed through clusters/n-grams tool that the keywords defined as k1 mostly included words such as classroom, bilingualism, acquisition, age, cognitive, bilingual and computer (see figure 4). figure 4. frequently used keywords sorting out the whole corpus by means of concordancer tool indicated that the keywords frequently used were actually accompanied by various collocates. for instance, 100 e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 k1 classroom was collocated by the words such as “interaction, research, discourse, intervention and -based research”, k1 acquisition was followed by the words like “sequences, order, learning/development” and k1 cognitive was coming before such words like “diagnosis modeling, abilities, fluency, conflict, and skills”. (see figures 5, 6 and 7). figure 5. words collocated with “k1 classroom” figure 6. words collocated with “k1 acquisition” figure 7. words collocated with “k1 cognitive” in contrast to the k1 classroom, it was found that the keywords such as k1 bilingualism and k1 age (except for one case) were used without collocations (figures 8 and 9). figure 8. no collocated word with “k1 bilingualism” e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 101 figure 9. no collocated word with “k1 age” regarding all the keywords tagged, the most frequent ones were revealed through antconc’s clusters/n-grams tool. the cluster size was fixed as min.2 – max.2 and it was found that some of the keywords were repeatedly used in different frequency levels. for example, the keyword classroom was used 11 times as k1 and 3 times as k2. the keywords such as “explicit, implicit, longitudinal, teacher, reading, foreign” were among the ones which were frequently used in different levels (see table 4). table 4. frequency of keywords considering the first research question of the study, it was revealed that the production of the keywords changed from one year to another. 63 keywords were defined as the most frequent ones. and the rare keywords were excluded from the analysis. it became clear that some of the keywords were repeatedly used by the researchers. for example, k1 bilingualism is the most frequent one and densely used in 2016 and k1 age was mostly used in 2014 only. the analysis also showed that some keywords such as k1 heritage language and k1 linguistic relativity did not emerge before 2016. 102 e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 table 5. year based keyword frequencies year kwic1 yr 2012 yr 2013 yr 2014 yr 2015 yr 2016 total k1 bilingualism 0 1 1 1 5 8 k1 age 1 1 3 0 0 5 k1 advanced learners 0 1 1 0 1 3 k1 accent 0 2 1 0 0 3 k1 classroom discourse 0 3 0 0 0 3 k1 classroom-based research 0 0 1 2 0 3 k1 acquisition 0 0 0 1 1 2 k1 acquisition/learning/development 0 0 0 2 0 2 k1 efl 0 1 0 0 1 2 k1 conversation analysis 0 1 0 1 0 2 k1 elicited imitation 0 0 0 2 0 2 k1 heritage language 0 0 0 0 2 2 k1 interlanguage development 0 0 0 2 0 2 k1 language teacher cognition 0 0 0 2 0 2 k1 linguistic relativity 0 0 0 0 2 2 k1 meta-analysis 0 0 1 1 0 2 k1 adaptation 0 1 0 0 1 2 k1 aptitude 0 2 0 0 0 2 k1 associative learning 0 0 1 1 0 2 k1 classroom interaction 1 0 1 0 0 2 k1 classroom research 1 1 0 0 0 2 k1 communicative competence 0 0 1 0 1 2 k1 comprehensibility 0 0 0 1 1 2 k1 corrective feedback 0 0 1 0 1 2 k1 form-focused instruction 0 0 1 0 1 2 total 3 14 13 16 17 63 the second research question was about the institutions and countries that these researches with high frequency keywords were conducted. the analysis indicated that the frequent keywords were produced in very different institutions. however georgia state university, ghent university, indiana state university, lancaster university, michigan state university, university of amsterdam and university of alberta were the most leading universities in terms of the research institutions where these researches were completed (see table 5). e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 103 table 5. frequencies for institutions frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent georgia state university 3 4.8 4.8 14.3 ghent university 2 3.2 3.2 17.5 indiana university 2 3.2 3.2 20.6 lancaster university 2 3.2 3.2 31.7 michigan state university 2 3.2 3.2 39.7 university of amsterdam 2 3.2 3.2 60.3 university of alberta 2 3.2 3.2 100.0 total 63 100.0 100.0 the most frequent six keywords were defined in order to find the institutions where these keywords were produced. it was seen that k1 bilingualism was mostly produced in european universities such as ghent university, lancaster university and university college london. the second most frequent key word, k1 age was produced in the institutions located in korea, new zealand, spain, the uk and the usa. table 6. institutions according to frequent keywords kwic1 institution k1 accent k1 advanced learners k1 age k1 bilingualism k1 classroom discourse k1 classroom-based research total aoyama gakuin university 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 bar-ilan university 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 brigham young university 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 georgia state university 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 ghent university 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 indiana university 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 james madison university 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 korea military academy 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 laboratoire parole et langage 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 lancaster university 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 leiden university 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 lund university 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 universidad complutense de 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 104 e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 kwic1 institution k1 accent k1 advanced learners k1 age k1 bilingualism k1 classroom discourse k1 classroom-based research total madrid universitat de barcelona 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 university college london 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 university of alberta 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 university of leeds 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 university of nottingham 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 university of queensland 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 university of south florida 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 victoria university of wellington 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 virginia polytechnic institute 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 total 3 3 5 8 3 3 25 the locations of the institutions were also diverse from each other and there were countries from different continents. however, the institutions located in the usa, uk and canada were mainly leading. the institutions from european countries like belgium, holland, sweden and germany were followed. table 7. frequencies for location of institution frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent australia 3 4.8 4.8 4.8 belgium 2 3.2 3.2 7.9 canada 6 9.5 9.5 17.5 denmark 1 1.6 1.6 19.0 finland 1 1.6 1.6 20.6 france 1 1.6 1.6 22.2 germany 1 1.6 1.6 23.8 holland 4 6.3 6.3 30.2 iran 1 1.6 1.6 31.7 israel 2 3.2 3.2 34.9 italy 1 1.6 1.6 36.5 japan 1 1.6 1.6 38.1 e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 105 frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent korea 1 1.6 1.6 39.7 new zealand 2 3.2 3.2 42.9 singapore 1 1.6 1.6 44.4 spain 2 3.2 3.2 47.6 sweden 2 3.2 3.2 50.8 taiwan 1 1.6 1.6 52.4 uk 8 12.7 12.7 65.1 usa 22 34.9 34.9 100.0 total 63 100.0 100.0 6. discussion and conclusion all in all the current study described the frequent keywords used in the journal articles by the researchers from different institutions and countries. 287 articles from both journals were collected and compiled by means of zotero, purified and analyzed through a corpus detection methodology over antconc and a statistical analysis program. in accordance with the hypothesis and research questions, the most frequent keywords were defined in annual bases and the key words such as bilingualism, age, advanced learners, accent, classroom discourse, classroom-based research were the most frequent keywords produced by the researchers. therefore, it can be said that mentioning that most researchers tended to research on “bilingualism, age, and classroom” in the journals mentioned. it is an interesting result to visualize that the keywords beginning with “classroom” is one of the leading ones since it may indicate that the researchers still mostly study on classroom applications for english language teaching and learning. the institutions and countries where these studies conducted were also indicated. accordingly, the leading location of the universities was mainly in the usa but the european institutions were the places where the most frequent keyword, bilingualism, produced. all the data analyzed provided very limited results in terms of the frequency distributions and therefore it seems that more data is needed to reach more relevant results and comments. acknowledgements we hereby declare that this study is our unaided work and that this paper has not been submitted for any other degree or award before. this research was not financially supported by any turkish institution. the paper is an open access study and can be accessed by all interested researchers, teachers and learners. we hereby thank adriana ferreira r.s. silva, b.a. for her unique contributions, feedback and comments about the paper. 106 e. ayan, e. demirel / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 89–106 references berber sardinha, t. (1999) using keywords in text analysis: practical aspects. direct papers 42:1-8. são paulo and liverpool bernardini, s. (2004) corpora in the classroom: an overview and some reflections on future developments in j.mch. sinclair (ed.) how to use corpora in language teaching (pp.15-35). amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins publishing company buckmaster, r. (2015) text analysis and corpus linguistics for english language teachers. english ideas. burnard, l., & mcenery, t. (eds.). (2000). rethinking language pedagogy from a corpus perspective: papers from the third international conference on teaching and language corpora (lodz studies in language). hamburg, germany: peter lang. conway, m. (2010). mining a corpus of biographical texts using keywords. literary and linguistic computing, 25(1), 23-35 giles, c. l., bollacker, k. d., & lawrence, s. 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(1989). creativity and conformity in science: titles, keywords and co-word analysis. social studies of science, 19(3), 473-496. note: 1 see scimago journal ranking portal <http://scimagojr.com/index.php> copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 000–000 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction teacher autonomy on english communication courses in japanese universities paul anthony marshall a * a faculty of humanities, matsuyama university, ehime, japan. abstract this study aimed to examine university english communication teachers’ self-reports of teacher autonomy in terms of their own freedom to make decisions about the teaching and learning that occurs inside their classroom. results showed that teacher self-perceptions of both general and curricular autonomy were high. there was some recognition that although autonomy allows teachers to adapt to student needs, standards cannot be monitored and maintained without a certain level of top-down co-ordination. © 2017 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: teacher autonomy, language assessment 1. what is teacher autonomy? teacher autonomy has been used to mean teachers’ “freedom from control by others” (mcgrath 2000:101). in most cases, the ‘others’ would be government policy, educational authorities, and institutional or departmental managers. a variety of benefits have been linked to increased teacher autonomy, such as increased teacher motivation, reduced stress (davis & wilson, 2000), (pearson & hall, 1993), and increased empowerment and professionalism (pearson & moomaw, 2005). in the following section, some of the studies that have attempted to measure autonomy will be briefly examined. 2. how can autonomy be measured? researchers have been trying to measure student and teacher autonomy quantitatively for decades. charters (1974) developed the sense of autonomy scale (sas), to measure teacher autonomy. unsatisfied with this, chauvin and ellett (1993) created an * paul anthony marshall e-mail address: paulanthony.marshall@gmail.com mailto:paulanthony.marshall@gmail.com 2 paul anthony marshall / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2019) 000–000 alternative scale for measuring teacher autonomy, named attitudes of professional autonomy (apa). these scales were limited in their success and did nothing to prevent further alternatives from being introduced by subsequent researchers. they were attempting to overcome the naturalist argument that behaviour does not conform to laws in the way that temperature, distance, or weight do, and that it cannot be measured. however, both those who were attempting to measure autonomy, and those who thought it would never be possible agreed that “autonomy is difficult to isolate” (pearson & moomaw, 2006). pearson and hall (1993) trialled and validated a 20-item teacher autonomy scale (tas) on school teachers in the united states, which included teacher self-assessments on a range of aspects of autonomy including assessment, materials selection, and behavioural standards. they divided teacher autonomy into general autonomy and curricular autonomy, and hypothesised that perceptions of teacher autonomy among teachers would alter according to gender, age, experience, qualifications, and age-group taught. in particular, they expected that less experienced, and less qualified teachers would not perceive low autonomy as a negative condition, but that more experienced and qualified teachers would be much more likely to demand autonomy. none of the predicted correlations were found to be significant, except that middle school teachers scored significantly higher (meaning higher self-perceived teacher autonomy) than those from elementary or high schools. friedman (1999) conducted a quantitative study into israeli teacher’s ideal levels of autonomy related to 32 aspects of their working situation, such as ‘teachers decide on means and procedures of evaluating student achievement’. the investigation used a list of these aspects, for which 156 elementary school teachers rated their preferred degree of autonomy using a five-point likert scale. the 32 items were divided into six categories: establishing school identity and praxis, teaching and achievement evaluation, parental involvement, staff development, extracurricular subjects, and curriculum change and development. the results showed that teachers not only desired autonomy for pedagogical aspects of their work, but also on organisational factors of the institutions they work in. in a follow-up study published at the same time, friedman (1999) used a slightly changed list of the desirable aspects of autonomy identified in the first study to survey 650 primary and secondary school teachers. this time, teachers were asked to declare actual (rather than desirable) levels of autonomy in their current context for the various activities. this study again used a five-point likert scale and was given to teachers working in some schools known to have high levels of teacher autonomy, and other with low levels of teacher autonomy. for that reason, the results showed autonomy levels across the entire spectrum. friedman found it useful to subdivide the results according to paul anthony marshall / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2019) 000–000 3 four groupings: principle pedagogical, principle organizational, routine pedagogical, and routine organizational, depending on the institutional level, and type, of teacher autonomy. a very useful conceptualisation of autonomy was put forward by benson (2010) who considered student autonomy to lie between three points rather than the two points that researchers such as nunan, (1997), and aoki & smith (1999) insinuate by espousing that autonomy is a matter of ‘degree’ (murase, 2015:39). benson’s three points are student control, no control, and other control. if this were to be adapted to teacher autonomy, the three points might be considered teacher control, no control, and top-down coordination / collaboration. `no control` is possible if, for example, the institution does not dictate terms to the teacher and if the teacher does not have the necessary training or experience to take control of certain aspects of the language classroom such as curriculum design, pedagogy, or assessment. it stands to reason then, that ‘no control’ is a risk that is taken by an organisation if top-down coordination is weak, because it cannot be assumed that all teachers in an organisation have the necessary experience and motivation to take control. benson (2010) offers the useful analogy of ‘no control’ being a person who is driving but not fully in control of the vehicle. the concept of ‘no control’ is essential when attempting to measure autonomy. if teacher autonomy and top-down coordination are considered to be two opposite ends of a two-dimensional scale, then it is possible to get a clear idea of teacher autonomy levels by measuring top-down coordination. on the other hand, if ‘no control’ is added, resulting in a three-point, three-dimensional scale, it then becomes necessary to measure two of the constructs in order to estimate the third. benson (2010) makes this exact argument about the measurement of student autonomy. even though it may be useful to perceive autonomy in this three-dimensional way, so far it has not been quantitatively measured. it is clear from benson (2010) that measuring student autonomy quantitatively is a challenge that may not eventually be achieved. however, luckily, when applying this concept to teacher autonomy, there does appear to be a way. teachers are able to complete ‘autonomy self-assessments’ such as the teacher autonomy scale even if, in practical terms, esol students might not be able to. also, it could be hypothesised that locating the balance of teacher autonomy within this threepoint scale might be possible by adding constructs to the tas, as pritchard and moore (2016b) did, or in a more qualitative manner, by asking teachers whether they feel they receive enough support or have sufficient experience and training; identifying ‘no control’ might be as simple as identifying those teachers who give certain answers to these sorts of questions. lepine’s (2007) analysis of possible macropolitical, state-level, district-level, and campuslevel influences on teacher autonomy for elementary school teachers in the united states, identified government policy, school performance, and standardised testing, as major 4 paul anthony marshall / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2019) 000–000 influences. it was hypothesised that teachers in high-performance schools would be given more autonomy than their counterparts in low-performance schools. pearson & hall’s (1993) teacher autonomy scale was used to collect quantitative data from 25 elementary school teachers from each of two ‘economically diverse’ campuses, about their perceptions of teacher autonomy levels in their current contexts. the tas results showed that involvement in standardised testing, which was true for teachers of some grades but not others, did not appear to be related to teachers’ perceptions of autonomy. in general, teachers from the low-performance school perceived less autonomy than those from the high-performance school, but the results were not as stark as the researcher expected, nor is it reasonable to extrapolate these findings to the target population due to the low sample size. semi-structured interviews were then carried out with selected representatives from the high and low autonomy groupings identified by the tas study. the aim was to collect qualitative data which might lead to a deeper understanding of teachers’ points of view. the researcher used the tas results to form the basis for interview topics, which focused on teachers’ perceptions of their autonomy, and factors influencing it. additionally, neither the results of the tas, nor the actual amount of top-down (external) influence fully explained teachers’ perceptions of levels of autonomy as they were described in the interviews. also, factors such as teachers’ positive or negative experiences with externally imposed programmes can dictate their future attitude to top-down coordination and their perception of levels of autonomy. another interesting insight occurred when the interviewer elicited descriptions of resistance or conformity to top-down controls that reduce teacher autonomy. the interviews showed that teachers in the low-performance school were more likely to actively and vocally resist externally imposed programmes than teachers in the highperformance school. it was suggested that this is because externally implemented programmes, which are more common in low-performance schools, threaten a teacher’s sense of professionalism. it also became evident that some teachers may appear to agree with externally implemented programmes, but then once inside the classroom, just ignore them and teach their own content or use their own methods. lepine made it evident that there are several factors to be aware of in terms of damaging the generalisability and impact of a study into the measurement of teacher autonomy. the first of these is that a high number of survey non-respondents, known as ‘low response rate’ can be a serious limitation because it can mean that the surveyed sample is not representative of the entire target population. in this case sixty-four and fortyeight teachers were asked to take the teacher autonomy scale likert questionnaire. in each case, only 20-five agreed. in addition, lepine (2007) found that with a sample size of just fifty respondents for the tas, it was extremely difficult to achieve statistically paul anthony marshall / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2019) 000–000 5 significant results. when discussing implications for future research, lepine noted that teachers who actively engage in cooperation or ‘teamwork’ with other teachers may perceive this as a manifestation of, or an imposition on their autonomy. the semistructured interviews can be used to clarify this. finally, levels of teacher autonomy and teachers’ perceptions of levels of autonomy are two entirely different constructs that may or may not correlate. more recently, and focused on measuring learner autonomy, murase (2010) produced a 113-item likert scale called the measuring instrument for language learner autonomy (milla). the questionnaire was based on an elaborate four-dimensional model of autonomy consisting of technical, psychological, political-philosophical, and social autonomy. murase relied on 1517 first-year japanese university english learners from 18 different universities to rate their own constantly developing sense of language learning autonomy. while the sample size was impressive, when compared with pearson and hall’s (1993) teacher autonomy scale on which teachers rated their own freedom to make decisions, murase’s student autonomy seems much more difficult to pin down and quantify. consequently, the data seems much more open to interpretation for several reasons. firstly, the teacher autonomy scale has a very clear ‘maximum’ and ‘minimum’ value; if a teacher does not have any autonomy in curriculum design, for example, that means that the curriculum must be dictated from above. however, learner autonomy does not have an obvious ‘maximum’ value and is therefore rather akin to asking 18-year-olds to evaluate how mature or grown-up they are. murase herself acknowledges this issue: “to date, the construct of learner autonomy has been considered to be a matter of ‘degree’ by many researchers (nunan, 1997; aoki & smith, 1999; benson 2001). secondly, the extent to which the respondents understand the construct they are being asked to evaluate is of vital importance. after a relatively short amount of experience, a teacher ought to know quite plainly the extent to which they are able to make their own decisions about certain aspects of their profession. however, can 1517 18-year-old japanese students understand the concept of ‘learner autonomy’ enough to self-evaluate if they are not yet autonomous? it could reasonably be hypothesised that they are unlikely to be able to self-evaluate objectively. another possible complication with this study is that in japan, culturally, the concept of learner autonomy is somewhat alien (dias, 2000), and healey (1999) points out that ‘learner self-direction and autonomous learning are western concepts…(that) may not be as logical to others.’ 3. research questions how much general autonomy do teachers of english courses in japanese universities perceive that they have? 6 paul anthony marshall / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2019) 000–000 how much curricular autonomy do teachers of english courses in japanese universities perceive that they have? 4. participants in order to examine teacher perceptions of autonomy levels in their contexts, an online survey tool was created and used to collect data on the levels of general autonomy and curricular autonomy that teachers have. the study attempted to survey the attribute of autonomy in respondents who are representative of the target population of esol teachers in japan’s approximately 778 universities, of which around eighty-six are national, ninety-five are public and 590 are private (homma 2012). this equates to approximately 11% national, 12% public, and 76% private. the 18 respondents who completed the questionnaire were english communication teachers in a variety of public and private universities, based in cities and in the countryside in japan. they were known to the researcher and were contacted via email. it was hypothesised that despite the small number of respondents from each context, the data collection would yield measures of teacher autonomy that might be representative of the target population. 5. data collection instrument pearson and hall’s (1993) statistically validated 20-item teacher autonomy scale (tas) is one of the better-known measures of autonomy in the educational field. using a 4-point likert scale, participants were asked to react to the statements using one of the following responses: 1 = definitely true 2 = more or less true 3 = more or less false 4 = definitely false some may consider that offering respondents a 4-point likert scale, rather than 5 points, interferes with genuine opinions by not providing a neutral option. however, only allowing answers to be either positive or negative does have the advantage of creating more distinct groups of responses. (krosnick & presser, 2010). the 20-item survey is divided into 2 constructs. there are 12 items related to general autonomy, and 8 items related to curricular autonomy. these items were presented in paul anthony marshall / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2019) 000–000 7 the same order as they appear in appendix 1, which is the same order as pearson and hall (1993) presented them. it also includes several items which are ‘doubled up’ but presented in a positive and negative form. for example, ‘the content and skills taught in my class are those i select’ and ‘in my situation, i have little say over the content and skills that are selected for teaching’. as pearson & hall’s (1993) teacher autonomy scale (tas) instrument was designed for a different context, the online version of their survey used in this study begins by asking respondents to (anonymously) confirm their profession, specific employment status, and type of employer. the purpose of this was purely to confirm that respondents were all members of the target population. 6. results regarding respondents’ individual employment situations, all 18 respondents stated in their answers to question 1, that they work at universities in japan. question 2 found that 55.6% of teachers surveyed are in a ‘full-time, temporary’ contractual situation, whereas 44.4% are ‘permanent’. a variety of job titles were elicited in question 3 ‘what is your current position?’: 5 are lecturers, 5 are assistant professors with one of these on a non-permanent contract, 5 are associate professors, and 2 are professors. one respondent did not submit a job title. focusing on the 12 items related to the construct of general autonomy, 17 out of 18 respondents, think it is ‘definitely true or ‘more or less true’ that they are free to be creative in their teaching approach. 17 teachers also said that it is ‘definitely true’ or ‘more or less true’ that the selection of student-learning activities in their class is under their control. 12 out of 18 respondents think it is ‘definitely false’ or ‘more or less false’ that their teaching primarily follows approaches that are specified by the school. 17 respondents think it is ‘definitely false’ or ‘more or less false’ that they seldom use alternative procedures in their teaching. 16 out of 18 respondents think it is ‘definitely false’ or ‘more or less false’ that their instructional planning is dictated by district needs. all respondents think it is ‘definitely false’ or ‘more or less false’ that their jobs do not allow for much discretion by the teacher. 15 respondents think that it is ‘definitely true’ that they have control of scheduling in the classroom. nine of the teachers answered that it is ‘more or less false’ that they have limited latitude in how major problems are resolved, while other responses were quite equally distributed between the other three options. 17 respondents perceive themselves to have control over how classroom space is used, and the remaining teacher did not respond. 14 teachers disagreed that evaluation and assessment activities used in their classes are decided by other people, but four agreed. 16 teachers said that it is ‘definitely true’ or ‘more or less true’ that they select the teaching methods and strategies used with their students. 16 teachers responded 8 paul anthony marshall / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2019) 000–000 that it is ‘definitely false’, and two responded that it is ‘more or less false’ that they have little say over the scheduling of use of time in their class. moving on to focus on the eight items related to curricular autonomy, 16 of the 18 respondents said that it is ‘definitely true’ or ‘more or less true’ that what they teach in their class is determined for the most part by themselves, and that the content and skills taught are those they select by themselves. an even more convincing 17 out of 18 respondents replied that their teaching focuses on those goals and objectives that they select themselves. 15 out of 18 respondents said that it is ‘definitely true’ or ‘more or less true’ that the materials used in their classes are chosen for the most part by themselves. once again, 17 out of 18 said that it is ‘definitely true’ or ‘more or less true’ that in their teaching they use their own guidelines and procedures. 15 out of 18 think it is ‘definitely false’ or ‘more or less false’ that in their situation they have little say over the content and skills that are selected for teaching. 100% of teachers said that it is ‘definitely true’ or ‘more or less true’ that standards for their classes are set primarily by themselves. finally, 16 out of 18 think it is ‘definitely true’ or ‘more or less true’ that they follow their own dictates as to when and how topics are taught. at the end of the online tas, which was true to the original except for the additional items examining profession, specific employment status, and type of employer, one extra section was added entitled ‘please add any other comments if you feel you would like to’. this yielded some more descriptive insights into the contexts of individual teachers. the most insightful comments related to creativity and the regulation of courses were ‘i’m in a good teaching situation here and i appreciate it’, ‘there is some leeway if i prefer to teach a more active class even when the objective is receptive.’, ‘it often depends on the class, what dept. the class is under and who the coordinator is, some are very strict and tight with their recommendations, others allow a lot more flexibility’. the most interesting insights into curricular management were ‘i am a single vote among several staff and sometimes feel the content does not match my interest or approaches’, ‘although i appreciate the freedom given to me by the school in planning many aspects of the syllabus, i also think that a more coordinated program would bring more credibility to the department and offer all students equal learning opportunities, regardless of the teacher’. 7. discussion & conclusions the small number of respondents means that the results are not necessarily representative of the target population of english communication teachers in japanese universities. the insights into these contexts are not necessarily transferable to other paul anthony marshall / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2019) 000–000 9 contexts within japan. however, the conclusions drawn from this research might serve as the justification for further investigation. firstly, regarding the research question ‘how much general autonomy do teachers of english courses in japanese universities perceive that they have?’, it is clear from the responses that most teachers perceive themselves as free to be creative, to select activities, select teaching methods and strategies, to control the use of classroom space, have some discretion, and to control scheduling for their own classes. most teachers do not perceive that they seldom use alternative procedures, have limited latitude in dealing with problems, evaluation and assessment activities are decided by other people, teaching approaches are specified by the school and instructional planning is dictated by district needs. all of these results support the conclusion that the majority of teachers enjoy quite a high level of general autonomy, regardless of position or contractual situation. there are exceptions to this majority, however, and these will be examined in the discussion of the additional comments section. secondly, with reference to the research question ‘how much curricular autonomy do teachers of english courses in japanese universities perceive that they have?’, most teachers perceive that what they teach in their class, when and how topics are taught, the content and skills taught, the materials, the standards, the guidelines and procedures, and goals and objectives are determined by themselves. all of these results support the conclusion that the majority of teachers enjoy quite a high level of curricular autonomy, regardless of position or contractual situation. finally, concerning the additional comments, these might be interpreted in different ways by different researchers. for example, ‘there is some leeway’ gives the impression that the teacher is free to do what they want, within limits. this might mean so long as there are no complaints by students, or there might be pre-existing faculty guidelines. this could then possibly be explained by the comment ‘some coordinators are very strict and tight with their recommendations, others allow a lot more flexibility’, although this was made by a different teacher. one pattern that does seem to emerge from all of the results and comments, is that of variety. it seems that teachers enjoy a high level of autonomy and that there is little in terms of standardisation of curriculum, assessment, materials, within or between universities, faculties, departments, and courses. the comment ‘i am a single vote among several staff and sometimes feel the content does not match my interest or approaches’ shows that this individual department or faculty (several staff) selects its own curricular content by voting; meaning that it is probably not standardised within the university, nor year after year. this sort of departmental or faculty autonomy has implications for accountability and for consistency in learning outcomes, as demonstrated by the comment ‘although i appreciate the freedom given to me by the school in planning many aspects of the syllabus, i also think that a more 10 paul anthony marshall / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2019) 000–000 coordinated program would bring more credibility to the department and offer all students equal learning opportunities, regardless of the teacher’. again, this comment was made by a different teacher to the previous one, perhaps establishing that disconnected curricula is common practice in more than one context. despite the many benefits of teacher autonomy shown by existing research, such as increased teacher motivation and reduced stress, there can be negative implications. for high teacher autonomy to be a successful policy in terms of ensuring that students are receiving quality language instruction, it requires independent, motivated, and experienced teachers. however, high levels of teacher autonomy also imply that monitoring of standards, in terms of teaching, curriculum, assessment, and learning outcomes are not common practice. this is symptomatic of the higher-level issue of the preference in japanese society for the use of standardised english tests such as toeic to judge english proficiency. such practices have perhaps led to the lack of accountability in japanese higher education and might therefore explain the high level of teacher autonomy on university english communication courses. appendix 1: pearson and hall’s (1993) statistically validated 20-item teacher autonomy scale general autonomy likert scale: i am free to be creative in my teaching approach. 1 2 3 4 the selection of student-learning activities in my class is under my control. 1 2 3 4 my teaching primarily follows approaches that are specified by the school. 1 2 3 4 i seldom use alternative procedures in my teaching. 1 2 3 4 my instructional planning is dictated by district needs. 1 2 3 4 my job does not allow for much discretion on my part. 1 2 3 4 the scheduling of use of time in my classroom is under my control. 1 2 3 4 in my situation, i have only limited latitude in how major problems are resolved. 1 2 3 4 in my class, i have little control over how classroom space is used. 1 2 3 4 the evaluation and assessment activities used in my class are selected by people other than myself. 1 2 3 4 i select the teaching methods and strategies i use with my students. 1 2 3 4 i have little say over the scheduling of use of time in my classroom. 1 2 3 4 curriculum autonomy paul anthony marshall / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2019) 000–000 11 what i teach in my class is determined for the most part by myself. 1 2 3 4 the content and skills taught in my class are those i select. 1 2 3 4 my teaching focuses on those goals and objectives i select myself. 1 2 3 4 the materials i use in my class are chosen for the most part by myself. 1 2 3 4 in my teaching, i use my own guidelines and procedures. 1 2 3 4 in my situation, i have little say over the content and skills that are selected for teaching. 1 2 3 4 standards for my classroom are set primarily by myself. 1 2 3 4 i follow my own dictates as to when and how topics are taught. 1 2 3 4 references aoki, n., & smith, r. 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(1997). ‘strategy training in the language classroom: an empirical investigation’. relc journal, 28(2), 56-81. pearson, l. c., & hall, b. w. (1993). ‘initial construct validation of the teaching autonomy scale’. the journal of educational research, 86(3), 172-178. paul anthony marshall / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2019) 000–000 13 pearson, l. c., & moomaw, w. (2005). ‘the relationship between teacher autonomy and stress, work satisfaction, empowerment, and professionalism.’ educational research quarterly, 29(1), 38-54. pearson, l. c., & moomaw, w. (2006). ‘continuing validation of the teaching autonomy scale.’ the journal of educational research, 100(1), 44-51. prichard, c., & moore, j. e. (2016). ‘variables influencing teacher autonomy, administrative coordination, and collaboration’. journal of educational administration, 54(1), 58-74. prichard, c., & moore, j. e. (2016a). ‘the balance of teacher autonomy and top-down coordination in esol programs’. tesol quarterly, 50(1), 190-201. prichard, c. & moore, j. e. (2016b) ‘coordination, teacher autonomy, and collaboration in efl programs in japanese higher education’. jalt journal 38/2, november 2016. http://jaltpublications.org/node/3/issues/2016-11_38.2. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction speaking struggles of young efl learners çiğdem güneş a *, i̇skender hakkı sarıgöz b a gazi university, gazi faculty of education, teknikokullar, ankara, 06500 turkey b gazi university, gazi faculty of education, teknikokullar, ankara, 06500 turkey abstract english lessons are obligatory from second grade onwards in turkish state schools which means that language learners are exposed to english early on. despite an early start, language learners struggle to acquire foreign language speaking skills. the problem of speaking english is a frequently encountered topic of discussion in educational contexts. there are various factors that are listed as the possible causes of language learners’ incompetence in speaking english which have to be investigated. in order to explore the potential reasons behind young efl (english as a foreign language) learners’ difficulties with foreign language speaking skills 88 young efl learners were examined. the foreign language speaking delay inventory was created and applied to fourth-grade students from four intact groups of a primary school. data were analyzed through frequencies that were calculated for each answer provided to the inventory. the results indicated that the young efl learners in focus were eager to speak in the efl lessons but that some factors such as attitude, language aptitude, negative beliefs about foreign language speaking skills, and linguistic difficulties evoked a delay in speaking. © 2016 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: english speaking skills; foreign language learning; foreign language speaking delay; reticence; silence in the classroom; speaking anxiety; speaking delay; speaking english; speaking skills; young learners 1. introduction learning a foreign or second language, especially being able to speak the target language fluently, is a feature which is essential in today’s global community. language enables people to communicate without further problems and opens up new possibilities and perspectives. that is why an early start of foreign language instruction is asked for. it is believed that the earlier languages are acquired, the better is their mastery. in turkish primary schools efl (english as a foreign language) lessons are provided from second grade onwards (ministry of national education [mone], 2018). nevertheless, as previous literature indicates, there are still problems with regard to the * çiğdem güneş. tel.: +0-544-743-0628 e-mail address: ccigdem.gunes@gmail.com 1268 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 acquisition and use of speaking skills (british council & tepav, 2013) which have to be explored in detail so that a delay in speaking can be prevented. the current study aims to focus on the causes of foreign language speaking problems that could evoke a delay in speaking, and sets forward to give implications in order to improve language learners’ english speaking skills. with this aim in mind, the foreign language speaking delay inventory was created and used to collect data from 88 fourthgrade students enrolled in a primary school. 2. literature review the essential outcome of english instruction should be to develop learners’ willingness to use the target language for communicative purposes. willingness to communicate (wtc) indicates one’s readiness to start a discourse and is influenced by the speaker’s perceived communicative competence (macintyre, 2007). it is through fostering students’ wtc that their speaking ability can be increased (macintyre, 2007; macintyre, baker, clément, & conrod, 2001). though, it is not enough to foster learners’ wtc. there is also the need to lower the amount of speaking anxiety so that efl learners are ready to produce oral utterances without inhibitions (horwitz, 2010; horwitz, horwitz, & cope, 1986). further, to ensure spoken production learners’ levels of language learning motivation, which is affected by attitudes towards the foreign language, the community, and the speakers of the target language (gardner, 1990; shumin, 2002; spolsky, 1969), should be increased. that is why learners of english should not have any prejudices but positive attitudes towards the language they are learning and towards the culture and people of the language in question. the problems efl learners have related to the acquisition of speaking skills are frequently investigated. different studies tried to explore the reasons of speaking anxiety (atas, 2015; ay, 2010; çağatay, 2015; gartman, 2000; hashemi, 2011; he 2013; horwitz, 2000, 2010; horwitz et al., 1986; koçak, 2010; liu & jackson, 2008; mahmoodzadeh, 2012; mak, 2011; öztürk & gürbüz, 2012, 2014; subaşı, 2010; tianjian, 2010; woodrow, 2006; yalçın & i̇nceçay, 2014; zhang & rahimi, 2014), wtc (cao, 2011; cao & philp, 2006; kang, 2005; macintyre, 2007; macintyre et al., 2001; macintyre, baker, clément, & donovan, 2002; macintyre, burns, & jessome, 2011; macintyre, dörnyei, clément, & noels, 1998; peng & woodrow, 2010), reticence and silence in the classroom (aghazadeh & abedi; 2014; donald, 2010; jackson, 2012; lee & ng, 2009; liu & liu, 2011), and factors such as feedback (gumbaridze, 2012), use of technology (baniabdelrahman, 2013; diyyab et al., 2013; hwang et al., 2014; hwang et al., 2016; yen et al., 2015), and motivation in relation to speaking (dinçer & yeşilyurt, 2013). it has to be noticed that efl learners’ speaking skills are influenced by both internal (native language, age, exposure, innate phonetic ability, identity, language ego, and güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1269 motivation) and external factors (teaching context and learner autonomy) (nuraini, 2016). this indicates that language learning may be affected by many factors such as attitude, aptitude, anxiety, motivation, beliefs, language learning styles and strategies, learning context, efl teacher, materials, learner personality, and culture (gardner, 1990) which have to be taken into account in relation to speaking skills since these affective, sociocultural, and educational factors determine the level of interaction (jackson, 2012). the fact that there are various aspects that bear an effect on speaking generates numerous obstacles in speaking. these struggles are caused by linguistic difficulties, the excessive use of the mother tongue and inhibition which are attributed to the teachers’ beliefs about teaching speaking, teaching strategies, curriculum, extracurricular activities, and assessment (al hosni, 2014). scoring procedures, classmates’ mockeries (nazara, 2011), unwillingness to communicate (tok, 2009), problems with articulation (mohtar et al., 2015), cultural factors, fear of being despised, the teacher effect (savaşçı, 2014), psychological factors such as a lack of confidence (juhana, 2012; savaşçı, 2014), lack of motivation (derakhshan, tahery, & mirarab, 2015; juhana, 2012), anxiety (horwitz, 2000, 2010; horwitz et al., 1986; jackson, 2012; juhana, 2010; nakatani, 2010; savaşçı, 2014; tok, 2009), shyness (juhana, 2012; mohtar, abdullah, & mat, 2015), and fear of making mistakes (juhana, 2010; macintyre, 2007; macintyre et al., 2001; savaşçı, 2014) also prevent students from speaking up in class. in addition, inappropriate error correction methods may block fluency (gumbaridze, 2012). it appears that for students it is equipment and teachers that restrict the development of their speaking skills, while for teachers, time and classroom atmosphere are the most disturbing factors which slow down the development of learners’ speaking skills (soureshjani & riahipour, 2012). in addition, with regard to the turkish context, coskun (2016) reported that learners’ low speaking performance resulted from a heavy focus on grammar rules, structural differences between the native and target language, lack of experience abroad, limited speaking practice outside the classroom, speaking anxiety, teachers’ use of the mother tongue, and unsatisfactory teaching and learning materials. in order to eradicate the factors that cause problems in speaking, applicable speaking instruction needs more attention and priority (leong & ahmadi, 2017), learners’ needs have to be focused on, the environment and method for teaching speaking should facilitate learning (nuraini, 2016), and technology should be integrated into the lessons to enable learners to practice english speaking skills (baniabdelrahman, 2013; diyyab, abdel-haq, & aly, 2013; hwang et al., 2014; hwang et al., 2016; yen, houb, & chang, 2015). creative topics for speaking practice, learners’ confidence and speaking competence are also aspects that have to be focused on if the aim is to enhance the development of speaking skills for non-native speakers of english (boonkita, 2009). 1270 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 caused by or independent of speaking difficulties, reticence or silence in the classroom can also occur because of factors that block the articulation of spoken utterances. language learners who are hesitant to speak up in class are the main reasons for reticence and silence. students who refuse to actively participate in their own learning are reticent which hinders their learning, teacher effectiveness and classmate benefits of learning from silent students’ insights, observations, and experiences (mirici, 2010; liu & liu, 2011). factors that contribute to reticence are linguistic, psychological, and sociocultural such as communicative style (harumi, 2010), students’ personality, teachers’ negative feedback and an authoritarian approach to students (aghazadeh & abedi, 2014). cultural beliefs with regard to learning and teacher roles, fear of being misunderstood by learners, fear of losing face, and comprehensibility of input are other factors that foster reticence in the language classroom (donald, 2010). obviously, studies covering the reasons for problems that occur in speaking a foreign language are available but provide ambiguous results and take the adult perspective (e.g., high school, university) into account leaving young language learners out of focus. due to a lack of research that focuses on young efl learners’ foreign language speaking problems, the present study tries to emphasize young efl learners’ speaking difficulties that may evoke a delay in speaking. based on the outcomes of the study, the efl lessons could be planned in a way that matches the students’ needs and expectations which could help to increase their level of involvement in the foreign language lessons. with these in mind, the study aims to answer the following research question: what are the difficulties young efl learners face during speaking english as a foreign language? 3. methodology 3.1. setting and participants the study was conducted in a public primary school in turkey. four intact groups, which consisted of 88 fourth-grade students, participated in the study in the second term of academic year 2018-2019. the participants were chosen through convenience sampling since the researcher selected the target population based on geographical proximity, availability at a certain time, easy accessibility, and the participants’ willingness to volunteer (dörnyei, 2007). there were 43 male and 45 female participants who ranged between 9 to 11 years of age. all participants’ first language was turkish and they started to learn english from second grade onwards which means that they were already exposed to english for five school terms. these students participated in two english lessons per week each lasting 40 minutes. güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1271 since the foreign language curriculum assumes that fourth-grade students have reached a1 level in english (mone, 2018), the participants of this study were regarded as having the qualities of a1 level students. 3.2. instruments the items for the foreign language speaking delay inventory (appendix a) emerged with the help of an extensive literature review conducted in the field of foreign language speaking, and focus group interviews with fourth-grade students. the inventory was designed and applied to focus on factors that could influence speaking skills leading to a delay in speaking. the purpose of the inventory was to obtain a picture of the conditions, attitudes, and beliefs of the language learners from a sample drawn from the population. the interviews that served to create items for the foreign language speaking delay inventory comprised 39 main questions and 95 elaborating questions. these were conducted with 88 students in nine different focus groups. as young language learners “may be unable to work out the intentions behind questions and to judge the amount of information required” (pinter, 2011, p. 214), the inventory had to be designed in a way that was suitable for children and did not inhibit younger participants to answer the questions. that is why the standard likert scale was turned into a choice between (1) ‘yes,’ (2) ‘not sure’ and (3) ‘no.’ further, since it is better to make use of the learners’ first language in constructing instruments (pinter, 2011), the present inventory was designed in the mother tongue of the participants and comprised 128 statements that had to be answered in a 3-point-likert-type scale (appendix b). the 128 statements in the inventory were created to gain insights into the effects of 15 different factors on foreign language speaking. the inventory comprised (1) personal and affective factors (45 statements) such as personality (2 statements), practice (15 statements), motivation (9 statements), anxiety (3 statements), attitude (10 statements), attribution (6 statements); (2) environmental and social factors (44 statements) such as environment (7 statements), materials (4 statements), efl teacher (21 statements), classmates (12 statements); and (3) linguistic and cognitive factors (39 statements) such as beliefs (7 statements), wtc (12 statements), aptitude (7 statements), linguistic difficulties (6 statements) and strategy use (7 statements). further, the participants had to provide demographic data such as age, gender, english proficiency level and the amount of time they usually spend on language practice. with the aim of improving the quality and representativeness of the items, and to determine the content validity and how potential respondents will interpret the items, experts (two experts in the field of elt, two efl teachers, three primary school teachers to ensure that their students would understand the items, two teachers of turkish to ensure that there were no problems in the structure of the items) were contacted. the 1272 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 inventory was examined by primary school teachers since it was assumed that they were familiar with the students’ proficiency so that they could immediately tell if the language of the inventory was appropriate for the intended respondents. expert knowledge was asked for to assess how relevant the items are with respect to finding the causes of speaking difficulties that may lead to a delay in speaking. similar to cognitive interviews, a piloting with 20 third grade students was conducted in order to locate any unclear items, confusing instructions or words, and to ensure that the items were interpreted by the respondents in the manner that the inventory designer intended. third grade students were chosen for the piloting of the inventory to keep the universe and to ensure that fourth-grade students understand the items that were tested on a lower grade level. 3.3. research design the study is quantitative and consists of the inventory outcomes that were conducted with 88 fourth-grade students to explore the factors behind problems in speaking english that could evoke a delay in speaking. the study has a quasi-experimental design since intact class groups are included (dörnyei, 2007). in this kind of studies there is no need to worry about reduced external validity because these investigations take place in authentic learning environments using genuine class groups (dörnyei, 2007). because of the fact that a group of students in a specific area was investigated, the current study is a case study which explores the particularity and complexity of a single case (dörnyei, 2007). 3.4. procedure in interviewing young learners, the researcher has to take care to ground the questions in the discourse of the children (pinter, 2011) so that they are ready to share their thoughts and views with the researcher. in the current study, the regular efl teacher was the researcher and the interviewer. that is why it can be supposed that the participants were contributing to the research without inhibitions as they knew the researcher who accommodated her speech to that of the participants and ensured that they felt familiar. the interviews were conducted in february 2019 in different focus groups since “oneto-one conversations with a researcher are often difficult for children” (pinter, 2011, p. 212) and “talking to children in groups is one way of alleviating unnecessary stress, anxiety or feelings of embarrassment” (pinter, 2011, p. 212). these interviews aimed to generate items for the foreign language speaking delay inventory which is about efl güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1273 learners’ english speaking attitudes, behaviours and views about speaking english as a foreign language. the inventory aims to collect the reasons for young efl learners’ problems in speaking, especially the causes of a delay in speaking, and includes the following headings: 1. personal and affective factors (personality, practice, motivation, anxiety, attitude, attribution), 2. environmental and social factors (environment, materials, efl teacher, classmates), 3. linguistic and cognitive factors (beliefs, wtc, aptitude, linguistic difficulties, strategy use). for each of the 128 statements placed under the 15 factors examined, frequencies were calculated and graphics were created. the frequencies and graphics facilitated the comparison of the different factors included in the inventory, and allowed the researcher to determine the aspects that negatively affected speaking skills and might lead to a delay in speaking. 3.5. data analysis quantitative inquiry can be divided into two distinct phases: data collection and analysis. these phases follow each other in a linear manner (dörnyei, 2007). the researcher collected data through the foreign language speaking delay inventory which comprised 128 statements that the students had to rate on a 3-point-likert scale. then, the results of the inventory were visualized in graphics, and a percentage for each answer provided by the participants was calculated, so that these could be compared to each other. the outcomes of the inventory were listed under 15 different factors (personality, practice, motivation, anxiety, attitude, attribution, environment, materials, efl teacher, classmates, beliefs, wtc, aptitude, linguistic difficulties, and strategy use) which were categorized into personal and affective factors, environmental and social factors, and linguistic and cognitive factors. 4. results the foreign language speaking delay inventory was applied to 88 young language learners. except one student (male), who was an inclusive student following the individualized education program, everyone included in the study completed the inventory. the results for each of the 15 factors examined are explained separately. 1274 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 4.1. personality in this study, personality refers to introversion or extroversion. conclusions about students’ personalities were made based on the learners’ active or passive state in the efl lessons. in the inventory, 85% of the students stated that they wanted to participate in the efl lessons (figure 1). due to this, it was claimed that the majority of the participants was extroverted. that is why it was assumed that personality was not necessarily a factor that negatively affected speaking performance in the current case. since the majority of the participants was extroverted, it was expected that they would have a high willingness to communicate and participate in the speaking tasks which probably would eliminate speaking delay. figure 1. personality 4.2. practice the outcomes (figure 2) clarified that 74.71% of the learners practiced english at home through various materials (e.g., movies, songs, games). they watched movies in english (51.72%), listened to english songs (51.72%), and played english games (36.78%). as indicated by the results obtained from the inventory, there was a focus on all four language skills and grammar and vocabulary during the practice sessions. the participants did not distinguish between the four language skills since they stated that they practiced speaking (45.98%), listening (45.98%), writing (40.23%), and reading (48.27%) almost equally. they also worked on english grammar (67.81%) and vocabulary items (60.92%). further, 49% of the learners reported that they did their homework güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1275 regularly and did not have any difficulties to complete their assignments (40.23%) which were indicative of practice at home. another point to mention is that they completed the speaking tasks using english (58.62%) which signaled their preference for the target language. these findings indicated that language learners practiced several language skills and tried to make use of english in the foreign language lessons. this could have a positive impact on their speaking skills and may have hindered speaking delay. figure 2. practice 4.3. motivation the outcomes (figure 3) revealed that 71.26% of the participants stated that they enjoyed speaking english. they further asserted that they spoke english in the english lessons (55.17%) and at home (58.62%). although they reported that they spoke english at home (58.62%), only 21.83% reported that they spoke english with their family members, 19.54% reported that they spoke english with their friends, and 29.88% reported that they spoke english with their efl teacher. they clarified that they did not talk to their family members (55.17%) or friends (43.67%) in english. additionally, the 1276 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 participants indicated that they spoke english with foreigners (41.38%). they used english voluntarily (64.37%), were not forced to speak english (82.75%), and enjoyed speaking english (71.26%) which signaled language learners’ high motivation to speak english. they seemed to be motivated to converse in english which is an important requirement for developing speaking skills in english (dörnyei, 2001). the fact that the participants talked to their family members and friends in their native language and did not make use of the target language could be linked to the efl context in which the students felt no urge to use english or to their interlocutors’ limited communication capacities in english. the lack of an authentic context for communication could increase the probability of speaking delay to occur, but there was no hint of a low level of motivation that could affect speaking delay. figure 3. motivation 4.3. attitude the outcomes (figure 4) revealed that 40.23% of the participants thought that they were not fluent speakers and 78.16% stated that they had to practice in order to increase their speaking performance. this revealed learners’ negative appraisal of their own speaking performance and a negative attitude towards their english speaking skills which could evoke speaking delay. güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1277 figure 4. attitude 4.5. anxiety the outcomes (figure 5) revealed that 60.92% of the participants stated that they were not forced to speak and felt comfortable (54.02%) when they had to speak up in english in the efl lessons. the majority of the students announced that they were not anxious during the speaking process. they did not tremble (72.41%), did not have problems with breathing (77%), did not feel embarrassed (54.02%), were not anxious (67.81%), were not afraid to be laughed at (57.47%), or were not afraid to make mistakes (47.12%) while speaking english. further, the inventory revealed that 71.26 % of the participants did not feel more tense in the efl lessons than in any other lesson. in contrast, they stated that they felt even more relaxed in the efl lessons than in other lessons (60.92%). these results indicated that the participants did not have speaking anxiety which could be a factor that promotes speaking delay but which, in the current case, seemed not to affect young language learners’ speaking delay. 1278 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 figure 5. anxiety 4.6. attribution the outcomes (figure 6) revealed that the students had difficulties in speaking because of a lack of practice (40.23%). the participants did not agree that their problems in speaking arose because of a lack of understanding (45.53%), the efl teacher (83.90%), or their classmates (60.92%). the outcomes visualized that the participants attributed their failure to internal (their own practice which is controllable) rather than external factors (the teacher or classmates which are uncontrollable factors) which revealed that speaking delay was influenced by internal rather than external factors. güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1279 figure 6. attribution 4.7. environment the outcomes (figure 7) revealed that 52.87% of the participants thought that their environment was appropriate for speaking the target language. according to the results obtained from the foreign language speaking delay inventory, there were individuals who spoke english in the participants’ environment (45.97%), who could provide help with their english speaking skills (65.52%), and who used english out-of-class (49.42%). besides, the learners reported that they did not have to speak english in the classroom only (52.87%). these aspects pointed to the fact that the participants acknowledged that english is a language that can be used both in-class and out-of-class which serves to achieve communicative purposes. another factor to mention is that the participants’ families supported their language learning (77%) and wanted their children to learn english (72.41%). to conclude, the participants were satisfied with the environmental conditions for teaching and learning speaking skills which could lower young language learners’ foreign language speaking delay. the environment seemed not to have a negative effect on learners’ speaking skills in the current case. 1280 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 figure 7. environment 4.8. materials the outcomes (figure 8) revealed that according to the participants there were english materials in the classroom/school (48.27%). the learners stated that these were beneficial for learning english (70.11%), and helped them to speak english (70.11%). some participants (54.02%) stated that the number of materials used should be increased. the general tendency implied that the participants were satisfied with the materials used in the efl lessons and indicated that these were helpful for the participants in the speaking process. it was concluded that in the current case the use and number of materials did not affect the learners’ speaking skills negatively. güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1281 figure 8. materials 4.9. teacher the outcomes (figure 9) revealed that the teacher gave the learners the chance to speak english in the lessons (74.71%), and did not force them to speak up (82.76%). further, the participants declared that the efl teacher was supportive (83.91%) and provided lacking information and knowledge (87.35%). the students also indicated that their efl teacher encouraged them to speak english (68.96%), had a positive attitude when the students spoke english (86.21%), and did not interrupt them during the speaking process (83.91%). with regard to the language used in the efl lessons, the students’ answers provided to the inventory implied that the efl teacher mostly used english in the efl lessons (58.62%), and the students were in the opinion that the teacher should continue using english in the lessons (58.62%). they did not prefer the efl teacher’s use of the native language (54.02%) during the efl lessons. in contrast, they favoured the efl teacher’s use of the target language (58.62%). the results revealed that corrections took place after the students had completed their utterances (73.56%). the participants did not feel embarrassed (58.62%), were not anxious (71.3%) or afraid (74.71%) when there were corrections provided by the efl teacher. conversely, the majority of the foreign language learners felt easy (63.22%) and was happy (86.21%) when there were corrections. 1282 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 the results indicated that the students were open to corrections provided by the efl teacher which helped them to improve their english speaking skills. further, it seemed that the efl teacher was not a factor that triggered speaking delay in the current case. figure 9. teacher 4.10. classmates the outcomes (figure 10) revealed that the participants’ classmates did not laugh at them while they were speaking (60.92%). nevertheless, the participants stated that if there was laughter in the classroom, they felt depressed (43.67%) but continued speaking despite laughter (62.06%). further, the participants’ answers revealed that they did not think that they were the best english speaker in the classroom (58.62%). according to the inventory outcomes, there were students in the classroom who performed better in speaking (79.31%). despite this condition, they felt comfortable speaking english (66.66%). they did not feel intimidated by the existence of students who orally performed better (68.96%). the güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1283 results also indicated that the participants got help from their classmates during oral contributions (43.67%). to sum up, their classmates’ attitudes did not seem to lower the amount of the participants’ speaking performance. probably, classmates did not lead to speaking delay in the present case. figure 10. classmates 4.11. beliefs the outcomes (figure 11) revealed that there were various beliefs with regard to foreign language speaking skills. some students thought that they needed english for communication (34.48%) and that speaking english was beneficial (72.41%), whereas others stated that there was no need for english (40.23%). the majority of the participants reported that speaking english was useful (81.61%) and important (73.56%). the students acknowledged the crucial role of english but questioned its importance for the foreign language context since they stated that there was no need for communicating in english in the turkish context (40.23%). 1284 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 since beliefs influence the way people think (ellis, 2008), this factor might have an impact on speaking performance. depending on the belief (positive or negative), speaking delay might be affected both in a positive or negative sense. figure 11. beliefs 4.12. wtc the outcomes (figure 12) revealed that the students were willing to communicate (73.56%) and that they studied english voluntarily (72.41%). the participants expressed their need to learn to speak english (75.86%). the inventory results clarified that the participants learned english to be able to talk to foreigners (62.06%), to get a prestigious job (64.36%), to use it abroad (65.52%), to succeed at school (74.71%), to understand foreigners (64.36%), because of its status as a lingua franca (51.72%), to be able to speak more than a single language (72.41%), and for personal development (73.56%). the results indicated that the participants were willing to communicate in english since they were aware of the importance of a foreign language and the reasons for learning english. this showed that the students demonstrated a high wtc which probably would lower the possibility of speaking delay to occur. güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1285 figure 12. wtc 4.13. aptitude the outcomes (figure 13) revealed that 67.81% of the participants felt great when they practiced english. further, they stated that they were not bored (62.07%), confused (48.27%), or demoralized (77%) when they practiced english. despite the fact that the participants were eager to practice english, 60.92% of the participants were not sure if they spoke english well enough. only 13.79% stated that they were able to speak english very well. some participants stated that they could not speak english (51.72%). the majority of the participants (59.77%) desired an increase in the amount of the english lessons so that they could practice speaking. although the participants reported that they had no problems in practicing speaking skills, the inventory results indicated that they questioned their speaking competence and performance demonstrating a low language aptitude. this might be a possible booster for speaking delay in the current case. 1286 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 figure 13. aptitude 4.14. linguistic difficulties the outcomes (figure 14) revealed that 25.28% of the participants had difficulties in speaking english, while 39.07% of them reported that they did not have any problems, and 35.63% of them were unsure if they had problems with speaking skills. problems that were reported to occur during oral participation were vocabulary retention (55.17%), problems with sentence formation (32.18%), and problems with pronunciation (27.58%). nevertheless, the majority of the participants did not indicate great problems in speaking. the outcomes visualized that 28.73% did not regard forming sentences as a problem in speaking, and 28.73% did not have any difficulties with pronunciation, while some participants were unsure if they had problems with sentence formation (39.08%) or pronunciation (43.67%). most of the participants reported that they did not have great problems in speaking but indicated that they had difficulties with regard to remembering english words. the majority of the participants was unaware of their problems in english (42.53%) and stated that they were unsure if they had problems with regard to sentence formation or pronunciation. it can be concluded that the participants were not able to precisely state what kind of linguistic difficulties they had during the speaking process. in the present case there may be a speaking delay based on shortcomings in vocabulary knowledge. güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1287 figure 14. linguistic difficulties 4.15. strategy use the outcomes (figure 15) revealed that 71.26% of the participants knew that they could consult various people (e.g., parents, teachers, peers) or different materials (e.g., book, notebook, posters) (74.71%) for help if they had problems in speaking english. it was apparent from the inventory outcomes that the participants did not avoid speaking english because of problems they encountered during oral participation (55.17%). in fact, the participants reported that they knew how to solve problems that occurred during the speaking process (58.62%). some of them asserted that they would speak more if they had the chance to choose the topic (40.23%) or their interlocutors (41.38%) for speaking. since the participants implied that they knew how to cope with difficulties that could arise in the speaking process, the ability of effectively using strategies might have eliminated the occurrence of speaking delay in the present case. 1288 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 figure 15. strategy use the inventory results revealed that factors such as personality, practice, motivation, anxiety, attribution, foreign language environment, materials, efl teacher, classmates, wtc, and strategy use seem not to negatively affect young learners’ speaking skills, while factors such as attitude, aptitude, negative beliefs about foreign language speaking skills, and linguistic difficulties have a prohibiting influence on their oral performance. 5. discussion learners in foreign language contexts do not achieve fluency and cannot express their thoughts spontaneously (pinter, 2011). that is why an essential question to ask is what it is that causes problems in speaking english. the outcomes of the current research indicate that factors such as learner personality, practice, motivation, anxiety, attribution, foreign language environment, teaching and learning materials, efl teacher, classmates, wtc, and strategy use do not negatively affect speaking performance and do not need to be further focused on. apparently, young learners are eager to participate in speaking tasks which points out that they carry some characteristics of extroverted learners who prefer to actively engage in the lessons (myers, 1986). they are also involved in language practice at home and out-of-class which indicate that they focus on developing their language skills which is boosted through their high motivation to participate in speaking tasks. further, it appears that the learners do not fear laughter, the teacher’s corrections or feedback, and güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1289 are satisfied with the efl teacher’s teaching style. they report that they admire speaking english, and have the possibilities to take advantage of numerous sources such as books, notes, posters, the teacher or their peers when they are in need during the english lessons, especially during speaking activities. the inventory outcomes also give the impression that the foreign language environment does not have a negative effect on speaking. nevertheless, the fact that the participants talk to their family and friends in their native language and do not make use of the target language can be linked to the efl context in which the students feel no urge to use english or to their interlocutors’ limited communicative capacities in english. the lack of english speaking interlocutors and an authentic context for communication could increase the number of speaking problems, but the participants did not talk about the foreign language environment as blocking their speaking. conversely, the learners asserted that they are willing to communicate and not anxious to participate in oral tasks. previous studies revealed that speaking anxiety (horwitz, 2010; horwitz et al., 1986) or a low wtc (macintyre, 2007; macintyre et al., 2001), for instance, are some of the forces that keep students away from speaking english, but the participants of the current study did not indicate that they were anxious or feared speaking tasks. al hosni (2014) stated that it is the lack of involvement in real life situations, linguistic difficulties, anxiety of being laughed at, the teachers’ use of inappropriate teaching strategies and the use of l1 during language instruction that postpone efl students’ speaking skills which is contradictory to the outcomes of the current study. factors that irritate young language learners in the speaking process seem to be their attitude, aptitude, negative beliefs about foreign language speaking skills, and linguistic difficulties which need deeper investigation. to start with attitude, it is obvious that the participants have negative attitudes with regard to speaking. in order to ensure communication in the target language, learners’ attitudes towards speaking should be positive. learners with negative attitudes should be trained to regard language learning and speaking a foreign language as manageable. the same is valid for language aptitude and negative beliefs about speaking skills. learners should gain an awareness of the ways speaking can be practiced and learn how to cope with tasks that require oral production. they should see the need to communicate through the target language and their beliefs should be turned into the positive since beliefs influence the way people think and act (ellis, 2008). further, it is clear that there are many linguistic difficulties, although the participants indicated that they frequently practiced speaking. apparently, there is a lack of appropriate practice. the outcomes show that the participants attribute their failure to internal (their own practice which is controllable) rather than external factors (the teacher or classmates which are uncontrollable factors). this could reveal that problems 1290 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 in speaking are caused by internal rather than external factors which necessitate changing learners’ habits towards practice that could improve speaking skills. since internal factors are unstable and controllable (weiner, 1986), there is a chance to help the students to improve their speaking skills. further, due to the fact that the learners make internal attributions to speaking failure, the expectancy for overcoming problems in speaking rises and the amount of learners’ effort is more probable to increase. similar to the aims of the present study, nazara (2011) focused on students’ perceptions and beliefs about the development of efl speaking skills and found comparable results to that of the current case. nazara’s (2011) respondents placed importance on speaking and were eager to master speaking skills. this researcher proposed an environment with a low anxiety level in order to promote speaking skills since students reported that they were hesitant to speak because of their teachers’ scoring procedures and their classmates’ mockeries. relatedly, the participants in the current study gave importance to speaking and desired to use speaking for different purposes. they did not show any signs of hesitance in speaking and were satisfied with their efl teacher and classmates’ attitudes. in a different study, learners expressed their need to focus on communication in the lessons and to engage in out-of-class speaking activities to improve their speaking skills (coskun, 2016) which are indicative of the importance learners place on practice opportunities and speaking. fortunately, young language learners in the present study also seem to know the importance english bears and state that they learn english for communication abroad, for their later job, for self-development, and due to the status of english as a lingua franca. apart from these factors, there may be students who are reticent. liu and liu (2011) state that “reticent individuals refer to those who view themselves as incompetent communicators, and those who are measured against norms about appropriate levels of talkativeness in social situations” (p. 961). in the current case, learners reported that they were eager to speak up in class regardless of their proficiency levels. their wtc was high and they were motivated to participate in oral tasks despite negative determinants such as a low language aptitude, negative attitudes, linguistic difficulties or negative beliefs about the target language. that is why they were not classified as reticent learners. lastly, the ways to overcome speaking problems have to be scrutinized. hue (2010), for instance, provided efl teachers with a range of techniques to encourage reluctant students to speak in the language classroom. the researcher aimed to reduce the level of task difficulty through providing more time to do tasks, bringing the tasks within students’ experience, allowing students to collaboratively solve communicative tasks, providing students with task guidance, attending to individual students’ needs and ability, and promoting positive attitudes among students. in addition, changing students’ güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1291 negative beliefs and attitudes towards mistakes, boosting students’ self-confidence, lowering students’ anxiety in the classroom, and building a supportive learning environment could build up positive attitudes among students so that they feel motivated to speak in the language class (hue, 2010). teachers could also encourage peer support in the classroom, be sensitive when assigning students into groups, tolerate l1 use when appropriate, make the classroom environment a non-threatening place, and provide opportunities for students to speak english outside the class (hue, 2010). these implications would also help the learners in the present study and should be followed by efl teachers in order to give their students the chance to practice speaking skills in the classroom context. as the outcomes of the study reveal, learners’ negative attitudes towards speaking, low language aptitude, negative beliefs about speaking, and linguistic difficulties should be specifically focused on and dealt with care in order to cope with a possible delay in speaking. to do this, efl teachers should try to carefully eliminate young language learners’ negative beliefs about and their negative attitudes towards the target language. this could be achieved through fostering learner motivation and increasing their level of wtc with the help of tasks and activities that catch the attention of language learners and get them involved in the language courses. involvement would also enable them to overcome their linguistic difficulties that may block their oral contributions in that they would have more chances for oral practice. further, since young language learners are autonomous in that they can set learning goals, make choices, use some learning strategies and learning resources, and reflect on and evaluate their learning (güneş, 2019), they should be given the chance to choose among different speaking tasks and activities so that they are involved in lesson planning with a focus on their own interests and needs. 6. conclusion speaking is the language skill that enables individuals to communicate. it is through the communicative act that human beings express their needs, desires, ideas, and much more. for this reason, speaking in one’s native language and in the target language are crucial abilities. it is required to conceptualize efl learners’ speaking difficulties and their needs and expectations with regard to learning english. problems and other reasons behind efl learners’ hesitancy to speak english have to be explored. the present study is an attempt to address young language learners’ problems in speaking. it aims to spot young language learners’ difficulties with foreign language speaking skills which could lead to a delay in speaking. with this in mind, the present study applied the foreign language speaking delay inventory to 88 primary school learners, and frequencies were calculated for each item included in the inventory. 1292 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 based on the results obtained from the foreign language speaking delay inventory, it is clear that factors such as personality, practice, motivation, anxiety, attribution, foreign language environment, materials, efl teacher, classmates, wtc, and strategy use do not evoke problems in speaking performance, while factors such as attitude, aptitude, negative beliefs about foreign language speaking skills, and linguistic difficulties negatively affect oral production. with regard to the outcomes, it is apparent that there is a need to deal with factors such as young foreign language learners’ attitudes, aptitude, beliefs about foreign language speaking skills, and their linguistic difficulties (e.g., syntax, lexis) in order to solve the problems in speaking english as a foreign language. it is obvious that negative attitudes towards speaking, negative beliefs about speaking, linguistic difficulties and a low language aptitude may lead to a delay in speaking. that is why these factors should be eliminated by the efl teachers so that young language learners’ oral production is not inhibited. there are some limitations of the study. first, the foreign language speaking delay inventory was applied to 88 fourth-grade students from a single primary school. in order to get more generalizable results, the number of participants has to be increased and participants from different schools have to be included in the research. second, there were 128 items in the inventory which could be demanding for young language learners to answer. that is why the items included should be reduced in number or the inventory should be divided into two separate parts and conducted at two different occasions. future studies should focus on the issue of speaking problems in order to find ways to eradicate these. to delve 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(2014). efl learners’ anxiety level and their beliefs about corrective feedback in oral communication classes. system, 42, 429-439. 1298 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 appendix a. foreign language speaking delay inventory (english) circle the option that fits you. age gender i think my english is… . i practice english: … . 9 male good once a week/ twice a week/ 10 female average three days a week/ four days a 11 bad week/ five days a week/ six days a week/ everyday/ before the lessons/ after the lessons mark the appropriate box for each statement. factor statement yes. not sure. no. personal and affective factors personality i want to participate in the english lessons. i do not want to participate in the english lessons. practice i practice english at home. i watch english movies/videos at home. i listen to english songs at home. i play english games (e.g., via smart phones, computers). i practice speaking english most. i practice listening to english most. i practice writing english most. i practice reading english most. i practice english grammar most. i practice english vocabulary most. i do my english homework regularly. i have difficulties to complete my english assignments. i do not do english homework. i use turkish to complete the speaking tasks in the english lessons. i use english to complete the speaking tasks in the english lessons. motivation i enjoy speaking english. name: ______________________ surname: _________________________ class: ____________ güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1299 i speak english in the english lessons. i try to speak english at home. i speak english with my family members. i speak english with my friends. factor statement yes. not sure. no. motivation i speak english with my efl teacher. i speak english with foreigners. i speak english voluntarily. i am forced to speak english. attitude i cannot speak english fluently. i can speak english fluently. i have to study in order to be a good speaker. anxiety i feel pressure if i am forced to speak. i feel comfortable when the efl teacher wants me to speak although i have not volunteered. i tremble when i have to speak english. i have problems with breathing when i have to speak english. i feel embarrassed when i have to speak english. i feel anxious when i have to speak english. i am afraid that someone will laugh at me when i have to speak english. i am afraid to make mistakes when i speak english. i feel more tense in the language lessons than in other lessons. i feel more relaxed in the language lessons than in other lessons. attribution i have difficulties in speaking english because i do not practice enough. i have difficulties in speaking english because i do not understand english. i have difficulties in speaking english because of the efl teacher. i have difficulties in speaking english because of my classmates. i would not delay speaking if there were more speaking tasks in the english lessons. i would not delay speaking if i had the chance to communicate more in english out-of-class. environmental and social factors environment my social environment is appropriate for speaking english. there are people in my social environment 1300 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 who speak english. there are people around me who can help me with speaking english. factor statement yes. not sure. no. environ ment there is nobody who uses english out of the classroom. i have to speak english in the english lessons only. my family does not want me to learn english. my family supports my language learning efforts. materials there are english materials (e.g., posters, pictures, books, games) in our classroom/school. the materials (e.g., posters, pictures, books, games) in the classroom/school are beneficial for learning english. the materials (e.g., posters, pictures, books, games) in the classroom/school help me to speak english. there should be more english materials (e.g., posters, pictures, books, games) in the classroom/school. efl teacher my efl teacher gives me the chance to speak. my efl teacher forces me to speak english. my efl teacher supports me during speaking english if i am in need. my efl teacher does not support me during speaking english if i am in need. my efl teacher provides words or information that i forget during speaking english. my efl teacher does not provide lacking words or information. my efl teacher does not encourage me to speak english. my efl teacher has a positive attitude when i am speaking english. my efl teacher interrupts me when i speak english. my efl teacher speaks turkish in the english lessons. my efl teacher speaks english in the english lessons. my efl teacher should speak turkish in the güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1301 english lessons. my efl teacher should speak english in the english lessons. factor statement yes. not sure. no. efl teacher my efl teacher corrects my mistakes while i am speaking. my efl teacher corrects my mistakes after i have ended my turn. my efl teacher does not correct any mistakes that i make while speaking english. i feel embarrassed when my efl teacher corrects me. i feel anxious when my efl teacher corrects me. i am afraid when my efl teacher corrects me. i feel easy when my efl teacher corrects me. i am happy that my efl teacher corrects me because that way i notice my mistakes and make the necessary changes. classmates my classmates laugh at me when i speak english. my classmates laugh at me to upset me. my classmates laugh at me to hinder me from speaking. i feel depressed when my classmates laugh at me. i do not want to talk anymore when my classmates laugh at me. i keep speaking even if there is laughter in the classroom. my classmates do not listen to me when i speak english. my classmates help me when i am in need while speaking english. there are students in the classroom who orally perform better than i do. i feel intimidated when there are students who speak better english than i do. i feel comfortable speaking english even if there are students who speak better english than i do. i am the one who is the best in speaking english in class. linguistic and cognitive factors beliefs i need english for communication. 1302 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 speaking english is easy. speaking english is hard. speaking english is useful. factor statement yes. not sure. no. beliefs speaking english is important. speaking english is useless. speaking english will not benefit me. wtc i am willing to communicate in english. i study english voluntarily. i learn english because it is obligatory at school. i want to talk to foreigners in english. i want to learn english in order to get a more prestigious job later on. i want to speak english to use it abroad. i want to speak english to succeed at school. i want to speak english to understand foreigners. i want to speak english because it is a lingua franca. i learn english because i choose to be the kind of person who can speak more than one language. i learn english because i think it is good for my personal development. i do not need to learn to speak english. aptitude i feel great when i practice english. i am bored when i practice english. i am confused when i practice english. i feel bad when i practice english. i can speak english very well. i cannot speak english. i would like the number of english lessons at school increased so that i can practice speaking. linguistic difficulties i have difficulties in speaking english. i forget some words when i have to speak english. i have problems with forming sentences in english. i have problems with english pronunciation. language classes move so quickly that i worry about getting left behind. i do not have any difficulties in speaking english. strategy i know that i can consult others (e.g., efl güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1303 use teacher, classmates) if i have problems in speaking english. factor statement yes. not sure. no. strategy use i know that i can rely on different materials (e.g., book, notebook) if i have problems in speaking english. i avoid speaking because i have problems with this skill. i know how to solve problems that occur during the speaking process. i would speak english if i would be asked to give shorter answers. i would speak english if i had the chance to choose the topic. i would speak english if i had the chance to choose my interlocutor.  t h a n k y o u f o r y o u r c o o p e r a t i o n !  1304 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 appendix b. foreign language speaking delay inventory (turkish) bilgilerini yuvarlak içine al. yaşım cinsiyetim bence i̇ngilizce derslerinde i̇ngilizce çalışmak için başarı durumum… . ayırdığım vakit: … . 9 erkek iyi haftada bir/iki/üç/dört/beş/ 10 kız orta altı/yedi gün, derslerden kötü önce/ derslerden sonra i̇fadelerin yanındaki kutucukları kendi düşüncelerine göre işaretle. i̇fadeler evet. emin değilim. hayır. kişisel ve duyuşsal faktörler i̇ngilizce derslerine katılmak istiyorum. i̇ngilizce derslerine katılmak istemiyorum. evde i̇ngilizce dersine çalışıyorum. evde i̇ngilizce filmler/videolar izliyorum. evde i̇ngilizce şarkılar dinliyorum. evde i̇ngilizce oyunlar (örneğin cep telefonunda, bilgisayarda) oynuyorum. i̇ngilizce öğrenmek için en çok i̇ngilizce konuşma çalışması yapıyorum. i̇ngilizce öğrenmek için en çok i̇ngilizce dinleme çalışması yapıyorum. i̇ngilizce öğrenmek için en çok i̇ngilizce yazı yazıyorum. i̇ngilizce öğrenmek için en çok i̇ngilizce okuma yapıyorum. i̇ngilizce öğrenmek için en çok defterimdeki i̇ngilizce cümlelere çalışıyorum. i̇ngilizce öğrenmek için en çok i̇ngilizce kelime çalışıyorum. i̇ngilizce ödevlerimi düzenli olarak yapıyorum. i̇ngilizce ödevlerimi yaparken zorlanıyorum. i̇ngilizce ödevlerimi yapmıyorum. i̇ngilizce derslerinde konuşma etkinlikleri sırasında türkçe konuşuyorum. i̇ngilizce derslerinde konuşma etkinlikleri sırasında i̇ngilizce konuşuyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşurken keyif alıyorum. i̇ngilizce derslerinde i̇ngilizce konuşuyorum. evde i̇ngilizce konuşmaya çalışıyorum. ailemle (kardeşlerimle, annemle, babamla vb.) i̇ngilizce konuşuyorum. arkadaşlarımla i̇ngilizce konuşuyorum. i̇sim: _________________________ soyisim: ______________________ sınıf: ____________ güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1305 i̇fadeler evet. emin değilim. hayır. arkadaşlarımla i̇ngilizce konuşuyorum. i̇ngilizce derslerinde i̇ngilizce öğretmenimle i̇ngilizce konuşuyorum. türkçe bilmeyen insanlarla i̇ngilizce konuşuyorum. i̇steyerek i̇ngilizce konuşuyorum. çevremdekiler beni i̇ngilizce konuşmam için zorluyor. i̇ngilizce konuşurken duraksıyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşurken duraksamıyorum. i̇yi i̇ngilizce konuşabilmem için çalışmam gerekiyor. i̇stemediğim halde i̇ngilizce konuşmam gerektiğinde kendimi kötü hissediyorum. i̇ngilizce öğretmenim ben parmak kaldırmadan i̇ngilizce konuşmam için beni seçtiğinde rahatsız olmuyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşmam gerektiğinde titriyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşmam gerektiğinde nefesim daralıyor. i̇ngilizce konuşmam gerektiğinde utanıyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşmam gerektiğinde endişeleniyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşmam gerektiğinde birinin bana gülmesinden korkuyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşurken hata yapmaktan korkuyorum. i̇ngilizce derslerinde diğer derslere göre daha kötü hissediyorum. i̇ngilizce derslerinde diğer derslere göre daha iyi hissediyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşurken zorlanmamın sebebi yeterince çalışmamam. i̇ngilizce konuşurken zorlanmamın sebebi i̇ngilizceyi anlamamam. i̇ngilizce konuşurken zorlanmamın sebebi i̇ngilizce öğretmenimiz. i̇ngilizce konuşurken zorlanmamın sebebi sınıf arkadaşlarım. i̇ngilizce derslerinde konuşma etkinliklerinin sayısı fazla olsaydı, daha çok i̇ngilizce konuşurdum. çevresel ve sosyal faktörler çevrem i̇ngilizce konuşmam için uygundur. çevremde i̇ngilizce konuşan insanlar var. çevremde i̇ngilizce konuşmama yardımcı olabilecek insanlar var. sınıf dışında i̇ngilizce konuşan kimse yok. sadece i̇ngilizce derslerinde i̇ngilizce konuşmak zorundayım. ailem i̇ngilizce öğrenmemi istemiyor. ailem i̇ngilizce öğrenmemi destekliyor. sınıfımda/okulumda i̇ngilizce malzemeler (örneğin posterler, resimler, kitaplar, oyunlar) var. 1306 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 i̇fadeler evet. emin değilim. hayır. sınıfta/okulda bulunan malzemeler (örneğin posterler, resimler, kitaplar, oyunlar) i̇ngilizce öğrenmem için faydalıdır. sınıfta/okulda bulunan malzemeler (örneğin posterler, resimler, kitaplar, oyunlar) i̇ngilizce konuşmama yardımcı oluyor. sınıfta/okulda daha fazla i̇ngilizce malzeme (örneğin posterler, resimler, kitaplar, oyunlar) olmalı. i̇ngilizce öğretmenim i̇ngilizce konuşmam için fırsat tanıyor. i̇ngilizce öğretmenim beni i̇ngilizce konuşmam için zorluyor. i̇ngilizce konuşurken zorlandığımda i̇ngilizce öğretmenim bana yardım ediyor. i̇ngilizce konuşurken zorlandığımda i̇ngilizce öğretmenim bana yardım etmiyor. i̇ngilizce konuşurken unuttuğum kelimeleri ve bilgileri i̇ngilizce öğretmenim bana hatırlatıyor. i̇ngilizce konuşurken unuttuğum kelimeleri i̇ngilizce öğretmenim bana söylemiyor. i̇ngilizce konuşmam için i̇ngilizce öğretmenim beni cesaretlendirmiyor. ben i̇ngilizce konuşurken i̇ngilizce öğretmenim bana iyi davranıyor. ben i̇ngilizce konuşurken i̇ngilizce öğretmenim benim sözümü kesiyor. i̇ngilizce öğretmenim derste türkçe konuşuyor. i̇ngilizce öğretmenim derste i̇ngilizce konuşuyor. i̇ngilizce öğretmenim derste türkçe konuşmalı. i̇ngilizce öğretmenim derste i̇ngilizce konuşmalı. i̇ngilizce konuşurken yaptığım hataları i̇ngilizce öğretmenim konuşmamı bitirmeden düzeltiyor. i̇ngilizce konuşurken yaptığım hataları i̇ngilizce öğretmenim konuşmamı tamamladığımda düzeltiyor. i̇ngilizce konuşurken yaptığım hataları i̇ngilizce öğretmenim düzeltmiyor. i̇ngilizce konuşurken yaptığım hataları i̇ngilizce öğretmenim düzelttiğinde utanıyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşurken yaptığım hataları i̇ngilizce öğretmenim düzelttiğinde endişeleniyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşurken yaptığım hataları i̇ngilizce öğretmenim düzelttiğinde korkuyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşurken yaptığım hataları i̇ngilizce öğretmenim düzelttiğinde sıkıntı yaşamıyorum. i̇ngilizce öğretmenim hatalarımı düzelttiği için mutluyum çünkü böylelikle hatalarımın farkına vararak gerekli düzeltmeleri yapabiliyorum. i̇ngilizce konuştuğumda sınıf arkadaşlarım bana gülüyorlar. güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 1307 i̇fadeler evet. emin değilim. hayır. sınıf arkadaşlarım ben konuşurken beni kızdırmak için gülüyorlar. sınıf arkadaşlarım konuşmama engel olmak için gülüyorlar. sınıf arkadaşlarım ben konuşurken bana güldüğünde mutsuz oluyorum. sınıf arkadaşlarım ben konuşurken bana güldüğünde konuşmak istemiyorum. sınıf arkadaşlarım bana gülseler de konuşmayı sürdürüyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşurken sınıf arkadaşlarım beni dinlemiyorlar. i̇ngilizce konuşurken sınıf arkadaşlarım bana yardım ediyorlar. sınıfta benden daha iyi i̇ngilizce konuşan öğrenciler var. sınıfta benden daha iyi i̇ngilizce konuşan öğrenciler olduğunda derse katılmıyorum. sınıfta benden daha iyi i̇ngilizce konuşan öğrenciler olsa da derste i̇ngilizce konuşuyorum. sınıfta en iyi i̇ngilizce konuşan öğrenci benim. dilsel ve bilişsel faktörler i̇nsanlarla anlaşabilmek için i̇ngilizce konuşabilmem gerekir. i̇ngilizce konuşmak kolaydır. i̇ngilizce konuşmak zordur. i̇ngilizce konuşmak faydalıdır. i̇ngilizce konuşmak önemlidir. i̇ngilizce konuşmak gereksizdir. i̇ngilizce konuşmak bana yarar sağlamaz. i̇ngilizce konuşmayı istiyorum. i̇ngilizce dersine severek çalışıyorum. i̇ngilizce dersleri zorunlu olduğu için i̇ngilizce öğreniyorum. türkçe bilmeyen insanlarla i̇ngilizce konuşmak istiyorum. i̇lerde iyi bir işimin olması için i̇ngilizce öğrenmek istiyorum. türkiye dışında bulunan insanlarla anlaşabilmek için i̇ngilizce konuşmak istiyorum. okulda başarılı olmak için i̇ngilizce konuşmak istiyorum. başkalarını anlamak için i̇ngilizce konuşmak istiyorum. aynı dili bilmeyen insanlar tüm dünyada i̇ngilizce konuşarak anlaştığı için ben de i̇ngilizce konuşmak istiyorum. türkçe dışında farklı bir dil konuşabilmek için i̇ngilizce öğreniyorum. kendimi geliştirmek için i̇ngilizce öğreniyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşmayı öğrenmeme gerek yok. i̇ngilizce çalışırken çok iyi hissediyorum. i̇ngilizce çalışırken sıkılıyorum. i̇ngilizce çalışırken aklım karışıyor. i̇ngilizce çalışırken kötü hissediyorum. çok iyi i̇ngilizce konuşuyorum. 1308 güneş & sarigöz/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 13(2) (2021) 1267-1308 i̇fadeler evet. emin değilim. hayır. i̇ngilizce konuşamıyorum. daha çok i̇ngilizce konuşma fırsatım olması için daha fazla i̇ngilizce dersimiz olsun isterdim. i̇ngilizce konuşurken sıkıntılar yaşıyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşurken bazı kelimeleri unutuyorum. i̇ngilizce cümle kurarken zorlanıyorum. i̇ngilizce kelimeleri doğru okumakta/söylemekte zorlanıyorum. i̇ngilizce dersleri o kadar çabuk ilerliyor ki geri kalmaktan korkuyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşurken hiç zorlanmıyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşurken sorun yaşadığımda başkalarına (örneğin i̇ngilizce öğretmenime, arkadaşlarıma) danışabileceğimi biliyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşurken sorun yaşadığımda i̇ngilizce dersinde kullanılan malzemelerden (örneğin kitaptan, defterden) yararlanabileceğimi biliyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşurken sıkıntı yaşadığım için konuşmak istemiyorum. i̇ngilizce konuşurken karşılaştığım sorunları nasıl çözmem gerektiğini biliyorum. i̇ngilizce dersinde uzun cevaplar yerine kısa cevaplar verme şansım olsaydı daha çok i̇ngilizce konuşurdum. eğer hakkında konuşacağım konuyu seçebilseydim daha çok i̇ngilizce konuşurdum. eğer i̇ngilizce konuşacağım kişiyi seçebilseydim daha çok i̇ngilizce konuşurdum.  t e ş e k k ü r l e r !  copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). database connection failed! database connection failed! ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 71–84 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction does pronunciation instruction make any sense? efl learners and teachers’ beliefs ümran üstünbaş a * a bülent ecevit university, school of foreign languages, zonguldak 67600, turkey abstract pronunciation has been regarded as a neglected language skill and there is a lack of research on the nature of pronunciation instruction in the literature. thus, this paper presents the findings of a survey which investigates a) efl learners and teachers’ beliefs about the significance of correct pronunciation and its relation to other language skills, b) their preferences for explicit or implicit pronunciation instruction and whether background variables such as age or language level have an effect on these stakeholders’ views about pronunciation instruction. the study also examines whether beliefs about pronunciation instruction influence learners’ communicative competency and performance. in order to collect data, a 5-point likert scale questionnaire consisting of 54 items about related areas was administered to efl learners (n=642) and teachers (n=42) following its reliability analyses. the findings revealed that efl learners and teachers have a tendency towards implicit pronunciation instruction whereas their preferences are not totally in the similar vein. the study provides further data and evidence from the perspective of english language teachers and learners for the discussion of the effective way of pronunciation instruction. © 2018 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: efl learners; language teachers; beliefs; pronunciation instruction 1. introduction 1.1. beliefs about pronunciation instruction no matter how long history does pronunciation has in language teaching, it has been a neglected skill by language teachers according to some researchers (e.g., derwing & munro, 2005; derwing & rossiter, 2002; hişmanoğlu, 2006). on the other hand, the high importance of intelligibility which has been defined by derwing (2010) as “the degree to which a listener understands a speaker” (p. 29) has been highlighted by numerous researchers in the literature (eg., celce-murcia, brinton & goodwin, 2010; jenkins, 1998; morley, 1991). while intelligibility and the nature of pronunciation instruction have been prominent research areas of pronunciation instruction, the number of the studies on the * ümran üstünbaş. tel.: +90-372-266-5885 e-mail address: uustunbas@beun.edu.tr 72 ümran üstünbaş/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 71–84 teachers and learners’ beliefs about pronunciation instruction and classroom-based research on it has been limited, which has also been proposed by baker (2014) “… the teaching and learning of pronunciation in typical esl or efl classrooms has remained largely unexplored, indicating that research into current pronunciation-oriented teaching practices of l2 instructors is long overdue.” (p. 139) similarly, baker (2014) has proposed that the number of the studies and questionnaires on language learners and teachers’ views is not much. the findings of these studies have suggested that a number of teachers are not into teaching pronunciation (e.g., macdonald, 2002). to this end, two teachers in the baker’s (2014) study have stated that pronunciation teaching might be boring due to ‘overroutinization’ (prabhu, 1992) caused by the design of the followed course books and the course itself. on the other hand, for learners, who are the main character in a movie named ‘learning’ set in a classroom, pronunciation is so crucial that most of the students in derwing and rossiter’s (2002) study have stated that they are aware of their pronunciation needs and what matters in other speakers’ pronunciation. of all 100 esl learners in the study, 77 % have stated that they focus on their own and others’ pronunciation and 90 % of them have stated they would like to attend a pronunciation program if there is any. while the findings of the study demonstrate that learners are conscious of their learning needs and competencies regarding pronunciation instruction, more findings from different contexts and settings such as efl are likely to be effective in supporting these findings. considering language learners’ beliefs and competencies, one of the assumptions is that background factors such as age and language level may be a major factor determining them (e.g, derwing & munro, 2005; gatbonton, trofimovich & magid, 2005; lee, jang & plonsky, 2015; polonsky & oswald, 2014). in this sense, derwing and munro (2005) have concluded that pronunciation instruction has a positive effect on low level language learners while lee et al., (2015) have revealed no confirming findings. furthermore, age (e.g., muñoz, 2011) and ethnic group affiliation (gatbonton et al., 2005) have been suggested to be factors in second language pronunciation learning. additionally, lee et al., (2015) have proposed that the number of the studies on the effect of background on pronunciation learning be increased. since background is suggested to be significant in pronunciation learning, it may also be related to learners’ beliefs about pronunciation learning and instruction, which constitutes one of the research questions of this study. 1.2. explicit or implicit pronunciation instruction another unknown issue among the studies on pronunciation instruction conducted so far is the question of how to teach pronunciation (e.g., foote, trofimovich, collins & urzúa-soler 2016; gordon, darcy & ewert, 2013). in this respect, the effect of explicit and implicit pronunciation instruction has been investigated and the studies have set ümran üstünbaş/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 71–84 73 forth various findings and suggestions (e.g., couper, 2003; kissling, 2013; saito, 2011; 2012, 2014). most of these studies have supported explicit pronunciation teaching. for instance, derwing and munro (2005) have asserted that explicit instruction of pronunciation enables language learners to be conscious about the differences between their pronunciation and those of proficient speakers. moreover, saito’s study (2011) that was carried out with twenty japanese learners who learn english in an esl setting and that examined the effect of explicit pronunciation instruction on comprehensibility and accentedness has revealed a positive effect of this instruction type on comprehensibility while it has proved no effect on eradicating foreigner accent, which is another dimension of the studies in this area (e.g., levis, 2005). additionally, venkatagiri and levis (2007) have found out that explicit instruction enables learners to develop conscious knowledge of segmentals and suprasegmentals. couper (2003) has also revealed positive effect of explicit pronunciation instruction. a number of studies, however, have provided evidence in favor of implicit pronunciation instruction or they have revealed no evidence for the benefit of explicit pronunciation instruction. for instance, morley (1991) has proposed that learners can achieve intelligibility as long as it is taught as integrated into speaking classes rather than in isolated pronunciation classes. from the second perspective, in a study carried out with 95 first, second and third year spanish language learners, kissling (2013) has ascertained that it is likely to be nature of input, practice and feedback that facilitates pronunciation learning rather than how it is taught (explicitly or implicitly) since there was no obvious difference between the two methods in the conducted study. despite the discussion about the effect of explicit or implicit pronunciation instruction with variables such as what aspects and how to teach; intelligibility and accentedness, one issue neglected in the research area is how learners regard pronunciation instruction, which is supported by derwing and rossiter (2002) “although researchers and teacher educators have called for more attention to the incorporation of pronunciation instruction in language classes, with an emphasis on prosodic elements, the l2 learners’ responses suggest that they are either not getting instruction or, if they are, they are not benefiting from it.” (p. 161) considering this discrepancy, the aim of this study is to provide more support for learners and teachers’ beliefs on the controversial issues in order to lead future research and practices by surveying 642 efl learners and 42 teachers’ views. with this regard, the following questions were addressed in the study. 1. how do efl learners and teachers consider pronunciation in language learning? 2. is there a tendency towards favoring explicit or implicit pronunciation instruction? 74 ümran üstünbaş/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 71–84 3. are background variables such as age and teaching/learning experience effective in a) efl learners and teachers’ views about pronunciation and its instruction? b) efl learners’ communicative competency and performance? 2. method 2.1. setting the study was conducted in an efl context at school of foreign languages of a state university in turkey. the institution provides one-year long intensive english teaching to the students in their first year at the university before studying in their own departments. it is compulsory to study english in the first year as 30 % of some courses are conducted in english whereas it is optional to study english in departments in which language of instruction is turkish. therefore, each student starting to university whose departments require to have a good command in english takes a proficiency exam which consists of multi-choice items about grammar and vocabulary knowledge and those students who obtain more than 60 points in this exam carry on their education in their departments while the ones who have failed must take a one-year long compulsory language education in classes appropriate for their language level. considering the language level, the program starts with a1 level and ends with a2/b1 language level according to cefr level descriptions. learners are provided with 30 hours of integrated courses a week via daytime and evening education. an integrated course book in which all language knowledge and skills are presented in appropriate contexts is used as the main course material. in this sense, no language knowledge or skill is taught separately or no course is provided to teach these skills. as for the pronunciation teaching, it constitutes 5% of the overall proficiency and it is assessed in exams through a section for five points. likewise, the course book attaches importance to teaching the sounds with their symbols explicitly, so involves sections which focus on teaching a different sound in each one and provides exercises in order to practice the presented sounds. therefore, learners are supposed to recognize the sound and its symbol and discriminate it from the other sounds. in line with teaching, students are tested with similar kinds of exercises on pronunciation which is generally in the form of ‘circle the different sound’ in quizzes and proficiency exams. as well as noticing activities, students are also exposed to pronunciation instruction through other language knowledge and skills such as vocabulary teaching and listening. furthermore, one of the skills related to pronunciation is speaking since a part is allocated for pronunciation/ fluency in the rubric to assess speaking skill. now that students are exposed to pronunciation instruction in ümran üstünbaş/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 71–84 75 many ways, it is likely to be easy for them to associate it with other language skills which are included in the questionnaire. 2.2. participants in light of the aim and the research questions of the study, 642 efl learners with different language proficiency levels who have different backgrounds and study at the aforementioned institution and 42 teachers who teach them were selected as the participants of the study due to eligibility and convenience issues. each participant participated in the study on voluntary basis by informing their consent by signing a form developed by the researcher. both the students and teachers had different backgrounds. learners with various language abilities and levels are placed in appropriate classrooms and learn english for an academic year. basically, there are three language levels taught: a2, a1+ and a1 (from highest to the lowest). while a2 level and a1+ are compromised of the students studying in various departments, students in the evening classes constitute a1 level. of 880 students of the program, 642 from various proficiency levels participated in the study (see table 1). since a different course book which does not include a separate section for teaching pronunciation is used in english language and literature classes, b2 level students were not involved in the study. table 1. frequencies of efl learners the instructors working at the institution have different educational background. they studied at different majors before being an instructor at the school or a number of them carried on their education by getting ma or ph.d degree. on average, they have 3 years of teaching experience at the same school. (see table 2) table 2. frequencies of efl teachers gender (m=1.49, sd=.50) level (m=2.09,sd=.39) age (m=1.17, sd=.41) learning (m=2.41, sd=.80) female male 327 313 a2 a1+ a1 23 539 80 17-20 21-25 25+ 540 91 9 0-1 2-5 5+ 131 116 393 total: 642 missing: 2 gender (m=1.26, sd=.44) background education (m=1.43, sd=.63) teaching experience (m=2.14, sd= .89) female male 31 11 ba ma phd 27 12 3 0-5 6-10 10+ 11 16 15 total: 42 76 ümran üstünbaş/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 71–84 2.3. materials 2.3.1. questionnaires in order to collect data to address the research questions, two questionnaires were developed for teachers and learners by the researcher including three sub-sections and 5 point likert-scale (1= strongly disagree, 2= disagree, 3= maybe, 4= agree, 5= strongly agree) items in total. the questionnaires started with a section which included items about the background of the participants so as to associate them with the other variables of the study. these sections involved information about gender, age, the years of learning and teaching experience. additionally, the questionnaires consisted of beliefs about the significance of pronunciation skill (14 items); explicit or implicit pronunciation teaching (16 items) and its relation to other language skills (20 items). for instance, one of the items in the teachers’ questionnaire was “teaching sounds explicitly is essential.” one of the items in the students’ questionnaire was “learning the sounds with their symbols increases my motivation for learning english.” in terms of views about explicit and implicit pronunciation teaching. the developed items were supervised by two professionals in the field and they were administered to the students and teachers for a pilot study in order to check their reliability. during the pilot study, each comment and suggestion by the students and teachers was taken seriously in order to develop a more valid and reliable data collection material appealing to the purpose of the study. furthermore, cronbach’s alpha was used to determine internal consistency of the items and the results of reliability and the factor analyses which were conducted after reversing items revealed that all items in each section were internally consistent and valid with high reliability scores. the total reliability score of students’ questionnaire was α= 922, while it was α= 921 for the teachers. following the reliability analyses, the questionnaires were administered to the participants with their adjustments. 2.4. data collection with regard to research questions, a number of statistical analyses were conducted by using statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 21. to start with, descriptive statistics and normality tests were applied to all variables and the distribution of them were analyzed. since the variables had significant values, nonparametric tests were employed to compare groups. in order to address the first research question; descriptive statistics, mann whitney u and kruskal-wallis tests were employed to compare learners and teachers’ consideration for learning pronunciation and its association to other language skills. similarly, the same tests were conducted to compare their preferences for explicit or implicit pronunciation instruction. in order to address the last research question which investigates the relationship between the ümran üstünbaş/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 71–84 77 participants’ background and their beliefs about pronunciation, non-parametric mann whitney u and kruskal wallis tests were conducted and the results were interpreted in light of the related literature. 3. results 3.1. efl learners’ and teachers’ beliefs about pronunciation in language learning in order to address the first research question examining efl learners and teachers’ beliefs about pronunciation and its connection to other language skills, descriptive statistics combined with normality tests were conducted. regarding the significance of pronunciation, the questionnaire included items such as “i think correct pronunciation is highly important in foreign language education (m=4.41, sd=.78) “pronunciation activities must be increased in course books” (m=3.93, sd=1.03) and “i would like to be corrected when i make pronunciation errors” (m=4.22, sd=.92) in the learners’ questionnaire whereas teachers’ questionnaire included items such as “teaching pronunciation is highly important (m=3.9, sd=.75),“i think the number of pronunciation activities must be increased in course books” (m=3.29, sd=.10) and “my students would like to be corrected when they make pronunciation errors” (m=3.24, sd=.75). that the items were in a similar vein made comparing their beliefs possible. the findings of the analyses can be seen in tables 3 and 4. table 3. efl learners’ beliefs about pronunciation item tendency frequency percentage i believe that correct pronunciation is important (m=4.48, sd=.81) strongly agree 392 61.1 i think correct pronunciation is highly important in foreign language education. (m=4.41 sd= .78) strongly agree 341 53.1 i would like to have correct pronunciation (m=4.62, sd=.73) strongly agree 461 71.8 i think the number of pronunciation activities must be increased in course books (m=3.93, sd=1.03) agree 264 41.1 i study pronunciation through extensive activities such as listening to music, watching films. (m=4.06, sd=.96) agree 264 41.1 in-class pronunciation activities must be focused on. (m=4.13, sd= .88) agree 294 45.8 i would like to be corrected when i make pronunciation errors. (m=4.22, sd=.92) strongly agree 286 44.5 learning stress and intonation is highly important for correct pronunciation. (m=4.06, sd=.93) strongly agree 286 44.5 pronunciation errors hinder me from communicating with others. (m=3.52 , sd=1.18) a agree 207 32.2 pronunciation errors decrease my motivation for language learning. (m=3.02, sd= 1.29) agree 168 26.2 78 ümran üstünbaş/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 71–84 table 4. efl teachers’ beliefs about pronunciation as can be seen in the tables, learners and teachers have similar beliefs about pronunciation. however, it seems obvious that their beliefs differ to a certain extent. specifically, it emerged that while the teachers were sure about their beliefs, they did not have many ideas about their students’ beliefs considering the related items. for instance, the majority of the teachers selected “maybe” as an answer for the hindering effect of pronunciation errors on students’ communication with others whereas the learners selected “agree” as an answer. likewise, learners and teachers’ beliefs about language skills that are mostly associated with pronunciation were also distinct from each other. to this end, while approximately 50 % of the learners associated pronunciation with reading skill (m=3.87, sd= .96), 50 % of the teachers chose speaking as the related skill (m=2.93, sd=.99), but they both preferred implicit teaching and learning for the related skill, which is another dimension of this survey. ultimately, in order to better understand whether there is a connection between learners and teachers’ beliefs about pronunciation and its relation to language skills, a spearman rho nonparametric correlation test was conducted between the mean values of belonging to the participants since the variables did not have a normal distribution and the results suggested that there was no statistically significant relationship between learners and teachers’ beliefs (r(648)= .394, p<.05) 3.2. preferences for explicit or implicit pronunciation instruction item tendency frequency percentage i believe that correct pronunciation is important. (m=4.29, sd=.59) teaching pronunciation is highly important. (m=3.9, sd=.75) my students would like to have correct pronunciation (m=3.81, sd=59) i think the number of pronunciation activities must be increased in course books. (m=3.29, sd=1.04) i think my students study pronunciation better through extensive activities such as listening to music, watching films. (m=3.81, sd=1.13) i think in-class pronunciation activities must be focused on. (m=3.6, sd=.79) my students would like to be corrected when they make pronunciation errors. (m=3.24, sd=.25) teaching stress and intonation is highly important for correct pronunciation. (m=3.38, sd=.90) pronunciation errors hinder my students from communicating with others. (m=3.02, sd=.86) pronunciation errors decrease my students’ motivation for language learning. (m=3.02, sd=.89) agree 24 57.1 agree 21 50.0 agree 26 61.9 maybe 15 35.7 maybe/agree 14 33.3 agree/ strongly agree 20 47.6 maybe 22 52.4 agree 16 38.1 maybe 14 33.3 maybe/ agree 15 35.7 ümran üstünbaş/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 71–84 79 the second research question addressed whether there was a tendency towards favoring explicit or implicit pronunciation teaching and learning. in order to analyze the data, descriptive statistics and frequencies were carried out. the findings are illustrated in tables 5 and 6. table 5.efl learners’ preferences for explicit or implicit pronunciation instruction item tendency frequency percentage i would like to learn the sounds explicitly (m=3.99, sd=.94) agree 296 46.1 i would like to learn the sounds implicitly through vocabulary learning or listening to music (m=4.02, sd=.94) agree 311 48.4 learning the sounds with their symbols increases my motivation for learning english (m=3.47, sd=1.17) agree 210 32.7 learning sounds through various activities increases my motivation (m=4.08, sd=.92) agree 267 41.6 i like the activities in the course books which focus on teaching pronunciation (m=3.46, sd= 1.21) agree 217 33.8 i prefer activities which focus on the symbols of sounds (m=3.59, sd=1.18) agree 228 35.5 i have problems about learning sounds with their symbols (m=2.97, sd=1.21) disagree 178 27.7 indirect assessment of pronunciation should be preferred (m= 3.91, sd=.98) agree 277 43.1 table 6. efl teachers’ preferences for explicit or implicit pronunciation instruction item tendency frequency percentage my students would like to learn the sounds explicitly (m=3.45, sd=.80) agree 20 47.6 my students would like to learn the sounds implicitly through vocabulary learning or listening to music (m=3.6, sd=.76) agree 20 47.6 learning the sounds with their symbols increases students’ motivation for learning english (m=3.21, sd=.84) agree 17 40.5 learning sounds through various activities increases students’ motivation (m=3.93, sd=.71) agree 19 45.2 i like the activities in the course books which focus on teaching pronunciation. (m=3.55, sd= .77) agree 21 50.0 i like using activities which focus on the symbols of sounds in class. (m=3, 31, sd=.95) agree 18 42.9 my students have problems about learning sounds with their symbols (m=3.21, sd=1.04) agree 14 33.3 indirect assessment of pronunciation should be preferred (m=3.36, sd=.79) maybe/agree 17 40.5 as can be seen above, learners and teachers have similar beliefs concerning explicit or implicit pronunciation instruction except for a number of items. while they both preferred implicit pronunciation instruction integrated into other skills and knowledge; stated that pronunciation should be tested indirectly and found the course books as useful tools to teach pronunciation, there were differences between their beliefs 80 ümran üstünbaş/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 71–84 regarding learning sounds with their symbols. in this sense, learners indicated that they did not have any difficulty in learning these sounds and symbols whereas the teachers assumed that their students had difficulty in it. therefore, it can be deduced that teachers were not much aware of their students’ profile concerning their preferences for pronunciation learning. 3.3. the effect of background on learners and teachers’ beliefs the last research question examined the possibility of the fact that participants’ background had an effect on their beliefs and learners’ linguistics competence and performance. thus, a number of comparisons were made through mann whitney u and kruskal wallis statistics by considering variables such as participants’ gender, teaching and learning experience, language level and beliefs since the variables did not have a normal distribution (e.g., gender with skewness of .044 (se=0.97) and kurtosis of -2.004 (se=.193) for learners; skewness of 1.124 (se=.365) and kurtosis of -.777 (se=.717) for teachers, background education with skewness of 1.203 (se=.365) and kurtosis of .433 (se=.717) for teachers and learning experience with skewness of -.875 (se=.097) and kurtosis of -.905 (se=. 193)). the findings are as follows: 3.3.1 gender as an effective variable the first examined background factor was gender as an effective variable on learners and teachers’ beliefs. in this sense, their beliefs about pronunciation and the related language skill; explicit and implicit teaching have been associated with their gender. the findings revealed that there is no statistically significant relationship between the groups (learners; mdn=1; teachers; mdn= 1) regarding gender (beliefs; for learners {u= 355.5, p=.00, r=-1.5} and teachers {u= 167, p=.92, r=-1.3}, related language skill; for learners {u= 428, p=.00, r=-5.5} and teachers {u= 145, p=-.47, r=-1.1} explicit-implicit teaching and learning; for learners {u= 438, p=.00, r=-4.8} and teachers {u=155, p=.65, r=-6.9} indicating that gender is not an effective factor in language learners and teachers’ beliefs about pronunciation teaching and learning. 3.3.2. learning and teaching experience as an effective variable in order to investigate whether learning and teaching experience may be effective in these stakeholders’ beliefs, a number of nonparametric kruskal wallis tests were conducted and the results indicated no relationship between the variables by referring no effect of background variables on the participants’ beliefs about the pronunciation instruction (for learning experience and beliefs; χ2(2)=8.652, p=.013, p<.05; learning and related language skill; χ2(2)= 1.739, p=.419, p<.05; learning experience and explicitimplicit pronunciation instruction; (χ2(2)=2.252, p=.324, p<.05 with a small effect size; for teaching experience and beliefs; χ2(2)= 7.824, p=.020, p<.05; teaching experience and related language skill; χ2(2)=4.425, p=.109, p<.05; teaching experience and explicit ümran üstünbaş/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 71–84 81 implicit pronunciation instruction; χ2(2)= 6.467, p=.039, p<.05 with a small effect size). besides learning and teaching experiences as background factors, language level and age for learners and educational background for teachers prove no statistically significant relationship with the participants’ beliefs in question (for language level and beliefs; χ2(2)=13.58, p=.00, p<.05; related language skill; χ2(2)=7.964, p=.019, p<.05; explicitimplicit pronunciation instruction; χ2(2)= 17.98, p=.000, p<.05; for age and beliefs; χ2(2)= 3.899, p=.142, p<.05; related language skill; χ2(2)= 3.133, p=.209, p<.05; explicit-implicit pronunciation instruction; χ2(2)= 5.413, p=.067, p<.05). furthermore, educational background does not have a significant connection with teachers’ beliefs with small effect size (for beliefs; χ2(2)=.365, p=.833, p<.05; related language skill; χ2(2)= 5.472, p=.065, p<.05; explicit-implicit pronunciation instruction; χ2(2)= 1.887, p=.389, p< .05). consequently, in order to look through whether learners’ beliefs are related to language competency and performance, their scores from the pronunciation section in the proficiency exam and scores from the fluency/ pronunciation section in the rubric of speaking exam were correlated by conducting partial correlation by controlling the effect of beliefs and the results revealed no significant relationship between the variables (r=.114, p= .004) 4. discussion and conclusion the current study addressed how efl learners and teachers consider pronunciation in language learning and teaching and whether they prefer explicit or implicit instruction for that in light of background variables. as a whole, the findings revealed that while learners and teachers regarded pronunciation as a crucial language skill and they tended to prefer teaching/learning it implicitly, background factors such as gender, learning and teaching experience played no significant role in their beliefs and preferences. with this regard, these findings provide support for the research in the related field since researchers have stated that pronunciation studies have been neglected (e.g., derwing & munro, 2005; derwing & rossiter, 2002; hişmanoğlu, 2006). that the study was carried out with a relatively great number of participants (642 learners and 42 teachers) through a survey on beliefs reveals significant results for the literature since as baker (2014) has proposed, the number of the studies and questionnaires on language learners’ and teachers’ views is not much. the questionnaire used in the study included items targeting learners’ awareness of their own learning and teachers’ awareness of their learners’ needs. in this sense, the findings revealed that learners were aware of their own learning, which is in line with the findings of previous research. for instance, the participants in derwing and rossiter’s (2002) study stated that they were aware of their pronunciation needs and what mattered in other speakers’ pronunciation. on the other hand, the findings of this study revealed that the teachers were not completely aware of their learners’ needs as they stated that they were not sure about what mattered for their students as their answers were “maybe”. this finding may be associated with the 82 ümran üstünbaş/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 71–84 findings of macdonald’s (2002) study reporting that the teachers in that study were not much interested in teaching pronunciation probably due to its ‘boring’ nature caused by the ‘overroutinization’ (prabhu, 1992) of course book and course design. therefore, it may be concluded that it is essential to revise the design of course book and pronunciation courses considering the previous research and the participants’ responses in the current study in that they stated the number of the in-class activities and the activities in course books on pronunciation should be increased. another issue addressed in the study was preferences for explicit or implicit learning and teaching of pronunciation. in this respect, the learners and teachers both preferred learning/teaching pronunciation and testing of it as integrated into other skills. thus, these findings do not overlap most of the findings in the literature suggesting learners prefer explicit learning for pronunciation (e.g., couper, 2003; derwing & munro, 2005; venkatagiri & levis, 2007). for instance, derwing and munro (2005) have ascertained that explicit instruction of pronunciation enables language learners to notice the differences between their pronunciation and those of proficient speakers. likewise, saito’s study (2011) has revealed a positive effect of explicit pronunciation instruction on comprehensibility and accentedness. on the other hand, implicit learning preferences of the participants are in line with other findings in the literature (morley, 1991; kisling, 2013). in this sense, morley (1991) has indicated that learners benefit more in speaking classes in which pronunciation is integrated. the last but not the least, background issues have been addressed in the current study since it has been suggested that they might be effective in leading beliefs (e.g, derwing & munro, 2005; gatbonton, trofimovich & magid, 2005; lee, et al, 2015; polonsky & oswald, 2014). to this end, no major effect of background on the stakeholders’ beliefs emerged in this study while a number of studies have highlighted the effect of age (e.g., muñoz, 2011); language level (e.g., derwing & munro, 2005). conversely, lee et al., (2015) have revealed no confirming findings, which is in accordance with the findings of this study and they have also suggested that more studies should be conducted on the effect of background on pronunciation learning, which was one of the focus of the current study. in conclusion, the current study has focused on a number of issues on pronunciation teaching and learning such as beliefs, explicit or implicit learning/teaching from the perspective of learners and teachers and set forth evidence for the related discussion in the literature. since the findings reflect the views of participants from a specific setting, more studies with participants in various settings with different background may support the findings and contribute to the literature to enlighten the theories and practices of pronunciation instruction that has been claimed to be a neglected issue in the literature (e.g., derwing & munro, 2005; derwing & rossiter, 2002; 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(1991). the pronunciation component in teaching english to speakers of other languages. tesol quarterly, 25, 3, 481-520. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3586981. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.99 84 ümran üstünbaş/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 71–84 muñoz, c. (2011). input and long-term effects of starting age in foreign language learning, international review of applied linguistics in language teaching, 71, 197–220. doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/iral.2011.006. plonsky, l. & oswald, f.l. (2014). how big is ‘big’? interpreting effects sizes in l2 research. language learning,64, 878–891. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12079. prabhu, n. s. (1992). the dynamics of the language lesson. tesol quarterly, 26, 225–242. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3587004. saito, k. (2011). examining the role of explicit phonetic instruction in native-like and comprehensible pronunciation development: an instructed sla approach to l2 phonology. language awareness, 20(1), 45-59. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2010.540326 saito, k. (2012). effects of instruction on l2 pronunciation development: a synthesis of 15 quasi experimental intervention studies. tesol quarterly, 46, 842–54. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.67. saito, k. (2014). experienced teachers' perspectives on priorities for improved intelligible pronunciation: the case of japanese learners of english. international journal of applied linguistics, 24(2), 250-277. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12026. venkatagiri, h., & levis, j. (2007). phonological awareness and speech comprehensibility: an exploratory study. language awareness, 16(4), 263–277. doi: https://doi.org/10.2167/la417.0 copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction factors affecting students’ english proficiency in a turkish emi university: a phenomenological study bahar hasirci a *, gulcin cosgun b a ozyegin university, nişantepe mah., orman sok., istanbul, 34794, turkey b ozyegin university, nişantepe mah., orman sok., istanbul, 34794, turkey abstract this paper reports on an investigation of turkish english-medium university students’ perceptions of the change in their language ability and the factors affecting this change. results revealed that 1) when students are highly exposed to english and are expected to use it productively for their studies, they perceive that there is greater development in their language skills and abilities 2) students think that corrective feedback plays a crucial role in helping them focus their attention on the form 3) speaking is perceived to be the weakest and the least improved skill over the years. these findings suggest insightful implications for english-medium universities in turkey and all around the world. © 2017 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: english-medium instruction; higher education; language acquisition; language development 1. introduction with english being an indispensable requirement in various fields such as business, diplomacy, and academics, there is an accelerating movement from english taught as a foreign language (efl) to english being the medium of instruction (emi) in countries where english has been learned and taught as a second or foreign language (byun, chu, kim, park, kim, & jung, 2011; coleman, 2006; huang, 2006; kachru, 1990). this movement has had a noticeable impact on higher education since using english in higher education settings is believed to enable students to acquire higher english proficiency, and eventually have job prospects (cho, 2012). given the fact that there has been a worldwide “englishization” trend, it is important to explore whether students think that emi programs affect their level of english proficiency. * bahar hasirci. tel.: +90-535-644-5456 e-mail address: hasircibahar@gmail.com 96 b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 there have been some studies on the reasons for the popularity of emi and the challenges associated with this phenomenon but there are not many studies on students’ perceptions regarding the language development in an emi context. therefore, this paper aims at exploring students’ perceptions of the factors that affect students’ level of english proficiency in the context of a foundation university in turkey and shedding light on an area that has been popularly investigated in and around turkey in the last few years. 2. literature review 2.1. definition and language acquisition similar to dearden’s (2014) definition of emi as “the use of the english language to teach academic subjects in countries or jurisdictions where the first language (l1) of the majority of the population is not english”, in the context of the current study emi means delivering course content by using english language although the primary concern is not to improve students’ language ability. although the major aim of emi is not to improve the language skills of students directly, there is a relationship between language use in the classroom and language development. it is possible to explain this relationship referring to various theoretical perspectives. the first one is krashen’s (1987) comprehensible input, according to which, it is necessary to be exposed to “comprehensible input” to acquire a language. in order to acquire a language, learners interact in the target language in a meaningful way and communicate naturally, and they do not pay much attention to structures, or in other words, forms since they focus on conveying and understanding messages. as the aim of emi classroom is not to teach a particular grammar structure or improve their language skills, but to convey the content knowledge in a foreign language, students are more likely to find themselves in the conditions that krashen (1987) puts forwards as a requirement for language acquisition. similarly, vygotsky (1997) proposes an interactionist view to learning. the sociocultural theory of vygotsky puts emphasis on an essential and motivating factor which is meaningful interaction among learners and crucial to learning and development. for vygotsky “mediation” is an essential device for learning and mediation can be in the form of language, visual, material tools or the behavior of individuals in social interaction (appel & lantolf, 1994; donato & mccormick, 1994). it is possible to create a sociocultural environment in an emi classroom. lecturers and the tools used for delivering the content of the lessons can be great tools to help student mediate the language development process. in addition to the theories mentioned above, interaction hypothesis which was initially proposed by long (1981), states that participating in conversations with native speakers, which is possible with the modification of discourse and linguistic features, is essential for language development. for long (1981: 259) “input refers to the linguistic forms used” and “interaction is meant to be the functions served by those forms, such as expansion, b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 97 repetition, and clarification”. modification is essential as the input becomes intake for the learner. according to mackey (1999), long (1996) has added another important aspect to interaction hypothesis, that is the role of negative feedback in interaction. negative feedback may cause noticing of some forms: “it is proposed that environmental contributions to acquisition are mediated by selective attention and the learner’s developing l2 processing capacity.... negative feedback obtained in negotiation work or elsewhere may be facilitative of sl development” (long 1996: 414). this provides opportunities for students to notice the gaps in their language. noticing hypothesis also agrees with this claim by suggesting that when learners are made aware of their deficiencies and gaps in their interlanguage, they can improve their language use (schmidt, 1990). therefore, as the literature and the learning theories suggest, in an emi classroom, although creating a learning environment where there is exposure to the target language and opportunities for students to interact in a meaningful way, there also needs to be a room for negative feedback to help students notice the areas that need to work on to improve their language skills and proficiency. 2.2. challenges of studying in emi context studies have identified various challenges in emi context and some factors which may inhibit students’ development of language over time. in a study conducted by hellejaer and westergaard (2003) it was pointed out that a large number of students experience language problems during their undergraduate studies. due to students’ inadequate language proficiency, students reported that comprehension of lectures, conducting oral presentations and writing papers were the most challenging tasks. in order to reduce the amount of difficulty that students experience, the authors suggest that language support needs to continue throughout students’ undergraduate studies along with the content instruction. in kırkgoz’s (2009) study most students reported that their participation was inhibited due to insufficient practice in speaking and lack of confidence. this may result in resorting to l1 during seminars and lectures. similarly, kim, tatar and choi (2014) explored korean students’ experiences of emi courses and found out that students feel the need to use l1 in emi classes since they feel more comfortable. another study by hennebery et al. (2012) notes that non-native speaker students face the challenge of combining thinking skills with listening and speaking skills in lectures and interactive seminars in a foreign language and students express high anxiety in such skills. in the same study students were asked about academic writing and expectations of linguistic feedback. students reported that although they had valuable ideas, they did not know how to put them forward in an academically acceptable style and expressed their concerns in failing to convey their messages. most of the students expressed that they would like to be provided with comments on grammatical aspects of their work and would appreciate feedback on their use of vocabulary. this can also be supported by the study 98 b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 conducted by storch (2009) in order to investigate the changes in the learners’ academic writing after one semester of study in an l2-medium university. in her study storch found out that after a semester of study at the university, the learners’ writing improved mainly in terms of structure and development of ideas and some improvement was observed in the formality of learners’ language. however, there was no evidence of improvement in linguistic accuracy or complexity. she attributed this to the absence of feedback. coleman (2006) categorizes challenges regarding emi as student related and staff related concerns. student related concerns include students’ difficulty in understanding disciplinary knowledge, lack of interest from local students whose first language is not english, inability to participate in and speak fluently in lectures, incoming international students’ inadequate proficiency in the host language, inadequate cultural integration of international students, and lack of confidence and inability to adapt among local students. teaching staff related concerns involve reluctance of local staff to teach through english, the need for the training of the staff, native speaker tutors’ difficulty in adapting to nonnative speaking students, and difficulties in finding teaching materials. these factors may lead to inefficient content delivery, ineffective interactions between teachers and students, and students’ difficulty in theory conceptualization (kim 2002; klaassen & graaff 2001; olsen and huckin 1990). these findings are compatible with what kırkgoz (2009) found in turkish context. the major issues reported by the students were the inability to participate in and speak fluently in lectures, the frustration of reading a chapter in a disciplinary book and finding that not much in it makes sense, and enculturation difficulties that the students experienced in the process of adjusting to being a student in a new environment. although these findings suggest challenges due to language problems, when language problems are not addressed throughout their studies, these issues may inhibit language development indirectly. to illustrate, when students never receive feedback on their language use, the mistakes can be fossilized over time or students may miss the opportunity to develop their language skills. 2.3. perceived impacts of emi in his doctoral study with undergraduate students, rogier (2012) investigated the perceptions of students on the effects of emi on their language proficiency. the data he gathered from students revealed that students believed that their english language skills improved over the course of four years of emi, generally citing exposure to the language as the reason. in a similar study with korean undergraduate students, kim, kweon and kim (2016) found out that %24.6 of the participants felt that their english didn’t improve, 22.7% thought that their english improved and 51.3% were not sure of the impact of emi on their english proficiency. the authors concluded that from the students’ perspectives, the schools under study did not reach their main goal which was to advance students’ language proficiency. in the same study, students were asked to evaluate the change in b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 99 their language skills separately. students reported that the skill that improved most during emi was listening comprehension and they believed that their speaking ability improved the least. the authors attributed this to the characteristics of the korean learning environment where students are encouraged to produce the language orally and remain passive rather than productive. another study by lee (2014) shows that although emi classes aim to improve students’ communication skills in english, only 55 % of the students in korea were happy with their spoken english in their classes. emi classes did not meet the expected learning outcomes. as seen from this review, much present research has focused on the reasons and challenges that students experience in emi context. however, research is needed on exploring more the impact of emi on perceived language skills development. therefore, the following research questions are addressed in this paper: 1. what is the nature and essence of students’ lived experiences of english language use in their departmental studies? 2. how do students perceive the change in their language ability in emi context? 3. what are the factors enhancing students’ level of english in emi context? 4. what are the factors inhibiting or reducing students’ language development in emi context? 5. what are the students’ suggestions for universities which provide emi to contribute to their language development? 3. method this study undertakes a phenomenological approach to qualitative research. since “a phenomenological study investigates various reactions to, or perceptions of, a particular phenomenon” (fraenken, wallen & hyun, 2015: 430), the approach matches with the aims of the present study that is the in-depth investigation of experiences and perceptions of undergraduate students’ on their language development in emi context. multiple interviews with different participants sharing similar experiences were conducted and interviews consisted of open-ended questions aiming to enable participant to relieve the experiences they have had in their minds and describe them in detail which lead to discovery of common essence. 3.1. participants a representative sample of 12 students (table 1) from a foundation university in turkey was involved in the study since as merriam (2009) suggests, “unless you plan to interview, observe, or analyze all the people, activities, or documents within the case, you will need to do some sampling within the case.” the criteria for purposive sampling was that only the participants who were in their 6th to 10th semesters would be asked for an interview. 100 b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 the rationale behind choosing these specific students for sampling is that only after some exposure students can develop a repertoire of experiences and can start expressing the impact of these experiences on their language development. all participants were all turkish citizens and had been learning english as a foreign language for 12 or 13 years. the ages of students ranged from 21 to 23. two of the participants were male and the rest were female. in order to start their departmental studies, students have to pass an inhouse english proficiency test with a minimum score that is equivalent to ielts-6.5 or cefr high b2. those who cannot pass the proficiency attend a one-year intensive english program at the english preparatory school. table 1. demographic information of the participants 3.2. data collection the instruments used for data collection were semi-structured interviews. the objectives of the semi-structured interviews were to understand students’ perceptions of the impacts of emi, and to determine the factors that enhance and reduce language development in emi context. the general strategy for the interviews was to start off with demographic questions and then broad questions which were followed up on the interviewee’s responses, to capture her or his meanings (appendix a). the interviews were conducted individually, using a semi-structured interview protocol. the interviews took at school on an appointment basis. the interviewers were the researchers of the study. all the interviews were face-to-face meetings with each participant and were voice-recorded. they approximately took 15-20 minutes. before beginning to record participants’ voices, they were given the interview protocol and asked to sign the consent form. during the interviews, the researchers also filled in the contact summary sheet that miles and huberman (1994) suggested. three students started and completed the interview in english. one student wanted the interview to be in turkish and one started in english and later switched to turkish. 3.3. data analysis the researchers read the transcripts and contact summary sheets. then, both researchers coded the same data set individually and discussed initial difficulties which helped definitional clarity and also served as a good reliability check. since the research gender nationality faculty semester years of lang. learning exp age f % f % f % f % f % f % female male 8 4 66.6 33.3. turkish others 12 0 100 0 engineering psychology 10 2 83.3 13 6 8 over 8 6 4 2 50 33.3 17 12 13 4 8 33.3 66.6 21 22 23 4 4 4 33.3 33.3 33.3 b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 101 questions were under different categories, patterns and codes for these categories were identified to interpret and organize the data. a constant comparative method involving the simultaneous comparison of all units of meaning obtained and negative case analysis and discrepant data analysis involving the identification of data that are negative or discrepant from the main body of data collected were adopted. in addition to qualitative-theme based analysis, the number of each participant’s answer were counted to calculate the percentages of answers in each category. 3.4. reliability and validity of the study in the present study where there is so much interpretation and inferencing, in order to ensure high validity and reliability the suggestions and strategies provided by merriam (2004), seidman (2006), saldana (2011) and creswell (2009) are taken into consideration. therefore, before conducting the interviews, a demo interview was conducted to test whether what was intended to be collected could be obtained with the interview tools. the volunteering participant for this study provided feedback on the clarity of the questions. another way to ensure high validity was to provide rich and detailed descriptions of the findings. besides, the biases of the researchers were clarified which involved comments by the researchers about their interpretations of the interpretations which were shaped by their background. both negative and discrepant evidence are as much as possible were included in the analysis and discussion sections of the study for objectivity. more importantly, to increase inter-rater reliability, researchers used one transcription of an interview for standardization of the codes and compared the codings of all transcriptions with at least 80% similarity rate. the raters made sure that there is not a drift in the definition of codes, a shift in the meaning of the codes during the process of coding. this was ensured by constantly comparing data with the codes and by writing memos about the codes and their definitions. for higher level of reliability, an external auditor from a similar context provided comments to add to the objectivity to the findings and interpretations of the findings. finally, “member checks” in other words respondent validation was used. this means that the researchers solicited feedback on the emerging findings from some of the participants that they interviewed by taking the preliminary analysis back to some of the participants and asking whether the interpretation sounds true. this was successful in eliminating the possibility of misinterpreting the meaning of what participants say and do and the perspective they had on what is going on, and helped the researcher identify his/her own biases and misunderstanding of what was observed. 4. findings the findings from the qualitative analysis of student interviews are summarized and presented according to the order of the research questions addressed in the study. 102 b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 4.1. research question 1: what is the nature and essence of students’ lived experiences of english language use in their departmental studies? seven main themes emerged in terms of participant’s perceptions of the nature and essence of students’ lived experiences of english language use in their departmental studies. lessons mostly conducted in english all participants, which accounts for 100%, express that all the lessons were mostly conducted in english and the materials were in english, which creates a high exposure in oral and written form. below are some quotes from the participants: participant 1: “well, first of all, the biggest fact that i believe is that all lessons are in english. so…what do you do, i mean, the worst case scenario is …... you are exposed to english like 3 hours a day.” participant 4: “all the time professors use english in class and we need english to do our tasks.so…. as you said we are exposed to english all the time.” participant 5: “all my instructors are turkish. they always conduct lessons in english but they understand turkish.” participants 12: “well, all our courses are in english. so all of our assignments are also in english. we always study from english resources.” tendency to use l1 in lessons 8 participants, which accounts for 66%, stated that in most of the lessons students tend to ask their questions in l1 and they request to make their comments during discussions. they added that lecturers respond the students in english and translate students’ comments to english. below are some quotes from the participants: participant 2: “eeee…..not all our lessons are just strictly in english because sometimes people say “teacher, can you repeat that in turkish” or professors get tired and tells about you in turkish for 15 minutes but we have some foreigner students in our classes so it is not…. it cannot take that long. i mean it’s just really a problem” participant 9: “i think speaking in my high school it was better. we had foreign teachers, and we had to talk in english. it was a benefit for us. they did not understand us if we spoke in turkish. all of my courses were all in english. but here… i speak in turkish all the time. all my instructors are turkish. they always conduct lessons in english but they understand turkish.” participant 11: “all our teachers speak in english. we have international friends in the classes. but sometimes they say one or few turkish words. important words in turkish.” differences in departmental studies b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 103 8 participants, which accounts for 66%, compared the nature of the verbal and mathematical courses based on their experiences and their impact on their language abilities. below are some quotes from the participants: participant 2 (a computer engineering student): “it depends on the course we are taking. but generally we do mathematical calculations or design computer programs. immmmm, while doing these tasks, we generally do not need a lot of english…. in most of the questions we give mathematical answers… but…sometimes we have to write long paragraphs to answer the questions. as i said, we need english to understand the prompts and answer the questions even if we do not need it to write the answer.” participant 1 (an industrial engineering student): “i’m studying as a third year student. and…well, most of our studies were non-english. i mean they were in english but i didn’t have to –likeuse my english level because it is a lot of math and stuff…. but generally, eeee, it is not like the psychology or……. something more dependent like the other departments but still we are using a lot of english. i mean, even, even if the exams sometimes you have some like verbal questions in english and you have to answer them like half of the paper in english. so, i cannot say i’m not using it but we are not, like, writing a lot of essays.” participant 4 (a psychology department student): “i studied at industrial engineering for one year and then i moved to psychology department. and the two are very different from one another. it is so different to study a department about human beings in english compared to engineering in english…. in social sciences you need to read pages and pages of things and it makes it easy to understand but in engineering you need to understand each single technical term and it is very condensed information.” participant 8 (a mechanical engineering student): “in mechanical engineering, we don’t read the text book line by line. we try to understand the formulas.. it is more mathematical. so i think my reading didn’t improve much....... my departmental courses had no positive impct on my english. social electives are kind of good actually. i’ve taken history, marketing and psychology in english as an elective course. they developed my vocabulary knowledge. ” written production written production tasks which were namely mentioned by the participants as essays (4 times), reports (3 times), proposals (2 times), summary (2 times) and reflective paragraph (once) were mentioned by 12 participants, which accounts for 100%. below are some quotes from the participants: participant 1: “.... sometimes you have some like verbal questions in english and you have to answer them like half of the paper in english. so, i cannot say i’m not using it but we are not, like, writing a lot of essays.” participant 2: “since we write essays, my writing skills improved a lot.” 104 b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 participant 6: “in the 4th year we have more assignments, we started writing reports for our experiments and projects.” doing presentations 8 participants, which accounts for 66%, made an emphasis on doing presentations and their contribution to their language abilities. below are some quotes from the participants: participant 10: “we have progress presentations in the final year. each semester we have 2 progress reports and each has one presentation. in these we explain how much we have proceeded. presentations are 10 minutes and final presentation is 20 minutes. you really need to speak fast and you need to summarize because you can’t explain long. that’s why you really need to practice. i mean you really need to prepare que cards. that’s why you improve your english.” participant 12: “we also make presentations.” the nature of feedback and error correction according to what 8 participants (66%) report, the feedback received was on the content of the task. they also stated that they were corrected only when there was a breakdown in communication of the intended message. participant 1: “my teachers are generally more into more than your grammar or your english but more to what you are trying to explain. i mean they get it, so… because i guess they are all turkish and they may understand what you mean… so, i did not receive any bad concepts like “that was awful” that kind of thing but i heard some in some exams there are some troubles about the use of english because the teacher could not understand and i hear sometimes people want to write in turkish in the exams because they cannot express themselves in english as they want but as far as i know it is not allowed. may be a few words but not more than that.” participant 2: “actually, our lecturers do not focus a lot on the correction of the errors. they sometimes correct because they cannot understand. they ask what students mean and show the correct version.” participant 4: “i get feedback on my research proposals regarding organization, the content and the apa style. only one of my teacher is stuck with the correct use of words. he checks every word…..perhaps it helps me to learn more. i enjoy learning new words…but i am not sure if other teachers also do this.” participant 6: “no, no. but if teacher doesn’t understand me, then she asks me. she gives the correct way.” reading textbooks/articles 8 participants, which accounts for 66%, stated that they were exposed to english resources during their studies. below are some quotes from the participants: b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 105 participant 3: “well, we read texts from books or we read articles in english. sometimes we do research to complete our tasks.” participant 7: “i need to do pages of reading and it feeds into many things.” 4.2. research question 2: how do students perceive the change in their language ability in emi context? three main themes emerged in terms of participant’s perceptions of the change in their language ability in emi context. positive feelings all participants, which accounts for 100%, reported that they were happy to study in an emi programme. below are some quotes from the participants: participant 1: “i feel happy because english is becoming more than a must for an individual to progress on his or her career. not everybody has a chance to learn english before college years as the foreign language education is not as strong as it should be. so…. the best way to assure that is to get education in an english medium university.” participant 2: “i think it is beneficial to study in an emi university.” participant 3: “i think studying in an emi university is becoming necessary for every generation. english is a global language. so…. crucial for survival in the new world.” participant 5: “i feel like, i’m very lucky. my cousing graduated from x university and it is in turkish, not in english. that’s why he has an intermediate level english. i think it must be compulsory to study in english. because workfield, everybody knows english and it is not common that you do not know english. even if you know english, you have to know other languages.” improvement all participants (100%) stated that emi has a positive impact on their english in general. however, all participants also reported that some skills developed less than others. below are some quotes from the participants: participant 1: “eeee…… my grammar wasn’t so good. never, never been so good but it’s kinda improved i guess because we just write in english sometimes and ….eeeee…. i kinda realized that when i was doing my task i started thinking in english, which improved my english level a lot. so, i guess it is all fine for me.” “that’s definitely because i mean when i go to the lessons i sometimes couldn’t follow in english even though i was …eeeee…. i knew my level was fine but i was getting tired. because… i was always translating english to turkish in my head. but right now, it’s not like that. it’s just.. i mean…it doesn’t matter if the lessons are in english or in turkish and i just watch movies without subtitle problem. so, that kind of progress.” 106 b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 participant 2: “well, i can say that it improves my english skills a lot. especially my writing skills. since we write essays, my writing skills improved a lot.” participant 5: “that’s why i think my written english has improved….. i think speaking, in my high school it was better…..my listening has improved. reading… it’s not like, in mechanical engineering, we don’t read the text book line by line. we try to understand the formulas. it is more mathematical. so i think my reading didn’t improve much.” language progress over the years 4 participants (33%) reported that their level of english has improved more in the last 2 years of their departmental studies. participant 3: “when i was in my first year, it was difficult to take notes. i could not understand what my teachers said and could write fast. but now i am better. i can also write better essays. i used to write short essays now they are longer. sometimes i have difficulty because of word limits.” participant 6: “well, all our courses are in english. so all of our assignments are also in english. we always study from english resources. in the 4th year we have more assignments, we started writing reports for our experiments and projects. we also make presentations. we didn’t have a lot of writing assignments before. it was more about solving problems etc. you know maths… but this year, there is more english in my assignments.” 4.3. research question 3: what are the factors enhancing students’ level of english in emi context? two main themes emerged in terms of the factors enhancing students’ level of english in emi context. exposure to english all participants (100%) stated that exposure to english through both receptive and productive tasks contributed to their language development. below are some quotes from the participants: participant 1: “so, the biggest factor is that as i said, you are exposed to english like 3 hours for a day. and , of course tasks, the reports you make, exams when you study… eeeee… you just watch the video presentations that teachers post on lms. and i also like to scan the internet so…… i mean when you are studying to exams you view like thousands of webpages which are all in english of course. and….eeeee… i develop some research skills… so, basically the lessons, study program and of course reports i mentioned before they were helpful of course. eeee… so… basically everything is just pushing you to get your english better.” b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 107 participant 2: “all the time professors use english in class and we need english to do our tasks.so…. as you said we are exposed to english all the time… exposure to english all the time and doing tasks in english i guess. these are the factors that cause the change.” intrinsic motivation to study in emi context all participants (100%) expressed intrinsic motivation towards studying through english since they thought english was a real need when they moved to work life. therefore, they believed in the need of learning english. below are some quotes from the participants: participant 2: “we cannot escape from english if we want to get a good job in the future. we need to do research and we need english to do that. and…. english is a global language. we need it to travel and work in other countries…..…..since when students graduate they are going to face with a difficult global world, they need to learn english. and…emi universities provide this opportunity for them. even if we know the language we need to practice it not to forget. in emi courses students have this opportunity. they speak english with their professors and their friends. emi universities help students improve their english skills.” participant 3: “well, the 1st advantage for me is it is important for people’s careers. corporations are becoming multinational and if there is not a common language, we can communicate though, then there could be vital gaps in information and data. and….. another advantage is….. to understand and adapt to the technological world of ours we have to be fluent in english. a lot of webpages are in english. if you do research online, you need to be capable of understanding the information. emi teaches these to students. for example, x (english medium university) graduate is most likely to thrive in the new world than y university (not emi context) students. they are more capable of obtaining information about their interests, exploring other cultures easily, expressing themselves is a much better manner and developing new perspectives due to studying in english. i think that is all.” participant 4: “i enjoy and i learn more from the tasks that relate to my personal development. for example, in prep school we wrote about how to solve traffic problems. these are very childish to me and it creates resistance in learning. but here in departments things are more interesting. i want to repeat all the time. i feel more motivated.” 4.4. research question 4: what are the factors inhibiting or reducing students’ language development in emi context? three major themes emerged in terms of factors inhibiting or reducing students’ language development in emi context. lack of interaction among students 108 b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 two of the participants (17%) stated that the interaction pattern is always between the lecturer and the students. there is usually one-way communication from teacher to student, which was perceived as a factor that inhibits the improvement speaking skills. below are some quotes from the participants: participant 4: “my classroom environment doesn’t contribute to my language development. there is minimum talk among the students and it shouldn’t be this way. students usually only repeat what the teacher says with minimum english and they start in english and then they want to continue in turkish. the teacher asks “do you mean this?” in english and the teacher translates this into english.” lack of confidence two of the participants (17%) mentioned that personal characteristics may became an inhibiting factor for language development in emi programs. below are some quotes from the participants: participant 4: “i am already an anxious person. in crowded classes i feel intimated when everybody stares at my face. so i prefer to sit in the front desk where i turn my back to 50/60 students behind me. when i feel close to my teacher i feel better.” familiarity with tasks types two of the participants (17%) stated that being unfamiliar with the task type might be an inhibiting factor. below are some quotes from the participants: participant 1: “so, that was the challenging part because i’m not very familiar with the report style, we made some research on the internet and we tried our best and our teachers loved it.” research question 5: what are the students’ suggestions for universities which provide emi to contribute to their language development? two major themes emerged in terms of students’ suggestions for universities which provide emi to contribute to their language development. speaking all participants (100%) suggested that there should be opportunities for them to improve their speaking skills, which is perceived to be the weakest and the least improved skill over the years by the participants. below are some quotes from the participants: participant 1: “so, basically i mean the suggestion i would make is that lecturers might grade the speaking level of the students in lessons. may be it would improve the english level. it would also be nice having lessons strictly in english.” participant 2: “they can do something about speaking. many students have difficulty in speaking. i do not know what to do but teachers can do something about this.” b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 109 participant 3: “they can help us improve our speaking ability. this is the worst skill i have.” participant 4: “there need to be discussion clubs in which a small numberof students can speak freely… students should have the opportunity to discuss what they have written in their reflective papers rather than receiving grades on the completion of the tasks.” participant 5: “there needs to be more speaking about general daily topics and more interactive sessions….. students must talk in english” error correction: 6 participants, which accounts for 50%, suggested that their lecturers provide them with feedback on their language use in addition the feedback on task achievement. below are some quotes from the participants: participant 2: “i haven’t received feedback but i think it is useful for students. they can improve their english as well while learning the content of the lesson.” participant 3: “well, getting feedback on errors might be beneficial. why not? i would prefer it. i can improve my english more.” participant 5: “lecturers also need to give feedback on our english language during the exams. like they should write a note or something like you need to improve this kind of thing… because no one gives me feedback on my english. i don’t if it is better or worse? i don’t know if i’m doing the right thing or not.” findings which do not directly answer the research questions there was one area that emerged significantly during the analysis of the transcripts. the participants expressed the challenges of studying in an emi program. two main themes were identified regarding the challenges. language problems all participants (100%) reported that studying in an emi context is challenging for them due to insufficient level of english proficiency. below are some quotes from the participants: participant 5: “we had foreign teachers, and we had to talk in english. it was a benefit for us. they did not understand us if we spoke in turkish. all of my courses were all in english. but here… i speak in turkish all the time. all my instructors are turkish. they always conduct lessons in english but they understand turkish.” participant 3: “i think it is something challenging for students. you need to read difficult books in another language. sometimes you know the answer but you cannot explain it in english in exams.” participant 8: “in the lessons i’m usually like this: the lesson finishes and then i approach the teacher and i tell him that i have a question and i continue in turkish 110 b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 because i can express myself more effectively in turkish…. i think this slows down my learning process. i need to think 1.5 times more or 1.5 times to more research in order t comprehend that information. at that moment i consume all of my energy.” participant 12: “i think it is difficult to study in english. i spend more time to understand. there are many words i do not know. i mean i studied in prep school, but it was never enough. my first year was very difficult. but then it was ok. sometimes we cannot ask questions or understand problems. so i sometimes ask in turkish.” use of technical terms 10 participants (83%) stated that technical terms that they have to learn during their studies create a challenge for the either in their studies or during internships. participant 1: “i think one problem is it is difficult to learn technical terms. there are a lot of vocabulary items that we have to learn. they are necessary but of course it is difficult….. well, i do not know whether it reduces the development but there are a lot of technical terms that we need to learn. it is really difficult to cope with them.” participant 2: “when we do our internship we have difficulty because we do not know the turkish meanings of the technical terms. it is really difficult for us to do the internship.” participant 7: “when you work in the field, the most technicians and workers do not speak english and they only know turkish term and we don’t know them in turkish, so we don’t understand technicians and it is difficult. i̇t is difficult to tell them what to do.” recruitment provide dates defining the periods of recruitment and follow-up and the primary sources of the potential subjects, where appropriate. if these dates differ by group, provide the values for each group. 5. discussion the analysis of the twelve interviews revealed findings which address 6 major areas: the nature and essence of english language use in departmental studies; perceived changes in language ability; factors enhancing students’ level of english; factors inhibiting or reducing students’ language development in emi context; students’ suggestions for universities which provide emi; other findings: the challenges of studying in an emi program. the findings reveal that when students are highly exposed to english and are expected to use it productively for their studies, they perceive that there is greater development in their language skills and abilities. it is important to highlight that not all the departmental courses provide the same amount of exposure. the findings also suggest language development accelerates towards the final years of undergraduate studies due to tasks that require more student production. language development and acceleration in the last year b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 111 of studies can be explained by connectionist theory of language learning, which learner gradually develop their language abilities by making connections with linguistic features after high exposure (lightbrown & spada, 2006). the findings suggest that focused feedback on language accuracy is not very common in departments. however, according to schmidt’s noticing hypothesis, corrective feedback plays a crucial role in developing the foreign language skills (mitchell & myles, 2004). since there is no explicit error correction unless the meaning is hindered, students do not get the opportunity to find out their weaknesses and further develop their language proficiency. the findings of the previous research in similar contexts (hennebery et al. 2012; storch 2009) also claim that feedback on the use of language is necessary for improvement in linguistic accuracy. another important finding is that students show high instrumental motivation for learning and using english. they perceive that english language a necessity for academic and professional career, which is in line with the findings of huang (2015) and coleman (2006). one of the most important findings of the study is that speaking skills is the least developed skill, which was also found in the study of kim, kweon and kim (2016). this can be attributable to three different factors, which were suggested by the participants as inhibiting factors to language development. the first one is insufficient practice in speaking due to the lack of oral interaction between students and one-way communication (from teacher to students) during the lessons. this factor was also reported in kırkgoz’s (2009) study. the other factor is the tendency to use l1. as found by kim, tatar and choi (2014), students feel safer and more comfortable to pose their questions and make their comments especially when they are highly concerned with comprehending the content of the lessons. they prefer to clarify their issues in their native language. another factor that might be linked to aforementioned factor is non-native lecturers. since students know that they can be understood in their l1 and since lecturer allow for some l1 use, students resort to l1. there were other factors that students perceive as an inhibiting factor or a challenge of emi. students feel that personal characteristics, technical terms and unfamiliarity with tasks posed problems in their studies. however, these challenges are not peculiar to emi context and they could actually be experienced by any student undertaking an academic study. it is important to note that this study is limited by the data collection tool since one data collection tool, semi-structured interview, was used during the study. adopting other data collection tools such as observation and questionnaires may have helped the researchers to triangulate the data and have a more in-depth perspective regarding the impact of emi students’ language development. another limitation of the study is the number of participants since it limits the ability to examine the complex relationships between the constructs. future research would benefit from the use of a larger sample of participants and various data collection tools. 112 b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 6. conclusions three pedagogical suggestions have emerged to account for the perceived needs of students in an emi context. incorporating more speaking opportunities into programmes (either as a course component or as a separate discussion club) an effective way of increasing speaking opportunities is to ensure that learning environment is non-threatening. krashen’s (1985) affective filter hypothesis emphasizes that when students are under pressure and feel anxious their affective filter is high, which inhibits the intake of knowledge and language production. due to excessive levels of anxiety, learners may not be willing to speak in front of a group. therefore, in order lower learners’ affective filter and encourage them to speak more, lecturers need to make sure that students are not forced to perform when they are not ready or willing to do so. first, students can be encouraged to share their ideas in a small group or with a pair and report to whole class if the class size is very big. this might be beneficial for confidence building. another way of contributing to students’ speaking skill development, as suggested by participants, is designing and conducting sessions which require students to purely the discuss the subject content in small groups without grading them. giving focused feedback on the accuracy of language faculty members could provide feedback on language use as well as content so that students would have an idea about their language performance and have the opportunity to work on their weaknesses. schmidt (1990) also supports this claiming that noticing is a requirement for learning in his noticing hypothesis. he suggests that conscious attention should be given to input in order for l2 learning to occur. corrective feedback plays a crucial role in helping learners focus their attention on the form. offering elective courses to students to balance the exposure to english (i.e. engineering students taking elective psychology course) in order to compensate for the needs of students who are not equally exposed to language due to the nature of their departmental studies, universities can encourage students to take elective courses which provide higher exposure to english such as literature, history and psychology. to illustrate, students who are studying computer engineering may support their language development by taking these elective courses. helping with technical terms since all the participants mentioned the difficulties related to technical terms, students studying in the first year of their departmental studies can be offered courses specifically b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 113 focusing on the technical terms. another suggestion could be providing students with bilingual glossary of technical terms and their explanations. references appel, g. & lantolf, j, p. 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(1997). educational psychology. boca raton, fl: st. lucie press. appendix a: questions for semi-guided interviews with students a. demographic questions 1. how old are you? 2. what year did you graduate from high school? 3. did you study in the prep school before you started you departmental studies? 4. what is your major? 5. how long have you been studying at ozu? 6. how long have you been learning english? 7. have you ever lived abroad? b. student’s perceptions of emi 1. how do you feel about studying in an emi university? 2. according to your opinion, what are the advantages and disadvantages of studying in an emi university? please give reasons or examples from your own experiences. 3. what do you think about the impacts of emi on your level of english proficiency? 4. can you identify any changes in your level of english proficiency between the first year and the third year? 5. if yes, could you please tell us the factors affecting this change? c. the nature of the lessons/tasks/projects/assignments/activities (in and outside class) 1. what kinds of tasks/assignments/projects/activities do you need to do in your departmental courses? (inside and outside) how do these tasks contribute to your language skills (if they do)? 2. do you receive any feedback on the use/accuracy of your english or on your language performance? is it important for you? why/ why not? 3. are you exposed to english all the time? can you give examples? d. factors inhibiting/reducing language development what are the factors inhibiting/reducing your language development in your departmental courses/in emi context? e. suggestions 116 b. hasirci, g. cosgun / international journal of curriculum and instruction 10(1) (2018) 95–116 what can your faculty teachers/lecturers do more regarding language development during your studies? authors including an appendix section should do so after references section. multiple appendices should all have headings in the style used above. they will automatically be ordered a, b, c etc. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). database connection failed! ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 247–255 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction attitudes of turkish efl students towards learning english burcu şentürk bartın university, bartın 74100, turkey abstract the study investigated the attitudes of turkish undergraduate efl students’ attitudes toward learning english. the study was carried out with 60 students studying at bartın university the school of foreign languages in the 2018-2019 academic year by conducting a questionnaire designed on a five-point likert scale. the scales examined in the questionnaire were “integrativeness, attitudes to l2 community, cultural interest, attitudes to learning turkish, criterion measures, ideal l2 self, ought-to l2 self, family influence, instrumentality (promotion and prevention), and fear of assimilation”. the data were analyzed by using spss program. the results revealed that turkish efl students had positive attitudes towards learning a foreign language since they need it in their lives and for their career. © 2016 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: attitude, efl learners, motivation, professional needs 1. introduction the english language, “which plays a crucial role in worldwide affairs for business, research, and popular culture”, is undoubtedly the most commonly used international language of the world (şentürk, 2017). therefore, in many countries like turkey, it has extensively been taught in every stage of the education system. teaching english as a foreign language begins even in pre-primary school in turkey. however, while some learners learn it as ease and master it in a component way, some learners have difficulty in improving their language (akkuş-çakır & ünlü, 2019). to be able to understand the reason for it, a great deal of research has been carried out and second-language acquisition (sla) researchers have concluded that although the learners follow a general development process, they have different degrees of success. the question of “what makes some language learners more successful than others in the same opportunities?” has been tried to be found out by the sla researchers since the 1970s. finally, they agreed that there are some aspects that enhance language learning success. 248 b. şentürk / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 247–255 attitudes are important and are influenced by many things like parents, peers, and interactions with people. thus, attitudes “form a part of one’s perception of self, of others, and of the culture in which one is living” (brown, 2000; 180). in line with this background, this study looks into turkish first-year undergraduates’ attitudes towards learning english in an efl setting. therefore, the research question to be answered in this study is as follow: 1. what are the first-year turkish university students’ attitudes towards learning english? 2. review of literature attitude is described as “a tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain thing, idea, person, situation, etc.” for education, brown (2000) points out that teachers must be conscious that all learners have varying degrees of positive and negative attitudes and clarifies that by using different methods or/and activities, the students with a negative attitude may change their opinions. 2.1. attitudes and foreign language learning attitude has received significant attention in the field of education. it has been proven that the attitude is a part of learning and as a result it is an important part of second language pedagogy. it is believed that “attitudes towards learning influence behaviors like selecting books or speaking a foreign language” (kaballa & crowley, 1985 as cited in weinburgh, 1998). it is concluded that attitudes affect people’s inner mood, thus learning. chamber (1999) states that “learning happens more easily, when the learner has a positive attitude towards the language and language learning”. chamber (1999) affirms that successful learning depends on positive attitude towards language and learning; thus, it is an important part of success. studies of gardner and lambert (1972) support the idea that an individual needs positive attitude to enhance his/her achievement in language. brown asserts that (2000; 181), “that second language learners benefit from positive attitudes and that negative attitudes may lead to decreased motivation and, in all likelihood, because of decreased input and interaction, to unsuccessful attainment of proficiency.” 2.2. studies related to attitude toward learning foreign languages in literature b.şentürk / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 247–255 249 as attitude is accepted as a predictor of foreign language achievement, the numbers of studies have increased to examine it. there are many studies on the effects of attitudes on foreign language achievement. researchers have also studied on different variables and their relationships with language attitude and other variables such as attitude and language learning strategies (gan, 2004), attitudes and level of language achievement (graham, 2004), attitude and anxiety (levine, 2003) attitude and gender (karahan, 2007) and so on. one of the studies conducted in turkey on attitude is tarhan’s (2003). she studied on 982 students in 42 anatolian high schools. she conducted it to see whether the students had positive attitude or not. as a result of her study, it is proved that students have a positive attitude towards english. karahan (2007) studied the relationship between language attitudes toward english and gender. he surveyed over 190 eight grade students of a private school. the studies showed that female students have higher rates of attitude towards the target culture when compared to male students. dimitroff, dimitroff & alhashimi (2018) examined whether there was a relationship between the reported level of attitude towards english and engagement while learning english. the data indicated that there was a positive correlation between the two. the fact that there is a correlation implies the following – when students’ attitudes towards learning english increases, their feeling of engagement while learning increases as well. this, in turn, increases motivation as a whole. akkuş-çakır & ünlü (2019) investigated learners’ attitudes towards languages other than english. their study explored participant instructors’ views on students’ attitudes towards language learning. overall, it was found that students have positive attitudes towards learning languages and that the positive attitudes that the students display could be because of the fact that the languages included in the study were elective courses in both countries, which means most of the students take these courses just because they want to. this was confirmed by the focus group interviews as the teachers of both groups stated positive influence of being able to choose a course on students’ attitudes and motivation. 3. method 3.1. participants & setting the study was carried out at the department of basic english at bartın university, turkey. the students who volunteer to study english for general purposes study english during a complete academic year before they start their university education at their departments. 60 a2 level students of english participated in the study. the students were all four-year undergraduate students. at the beginning of the academic year, 250 b. şentürk / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 247–255 students took a placement examination and the students were divided into three levels (a1, a2, b1). the participants were generally from engineering, management and philosophy departments. 3.2. data collection instruments an attitude questionnaire adopted from dörnyei and csizér (2006) was used as an instrument in this study. it was also used by göztepe (2014). in the questionnaire, there were 43 items including questioning the degree of the participants’ opinions and feelings about learning english. table 1 below presents the information about the scales in the questionnaire: table 1: domains in the scale domains scale item no. integrativeness 7, 12, 17 attitudes to l2 community 8, 10, 11 cultural interest 13, 14, 15, 16 attitudes to learning english 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 criterion measures 24, 25, 26, 43 ideal l2 self 27, 28, 29 ought to l2 self 23, 30, 31 family influence 32 instrumentality promotion 9, 33, 34, 35, 36, 40 instrumentality prevention 37, 38, 39, 41 there are eleven subscales in the attitude scale. the first is integrativeness and cultural interest, which refer to the willingness to learn the language to communicate with the community members “(e.g. 17. how important do you think learning english is in order to learn more about the culture and art of its speakers?)”; attitudes to l2 community and learning english are related to the beliefs of the students towards the l2 community “(e.g.11. how much do you like to meet people from english-speaking countries?)”; criterion measures is related with the learners efforts to learn english and ideal l2 self proposes what the learner want to learn “(e.g. i would like to study english even if i were not required)”; ought-to l2 self is related with the expectations of the society “(e.g. my parents believe that i must study english to be an educated person.)”; and finally, instrumentality (promotion-prevention) refers to the idea that learning english is necessary for some personal goals like earning money or career building. participants made their responses on a 5-point likert-type scale (1= 'not at all, 5= 'very much'). 3.3. data analysis the questionnaires were analyzed using a statistical software program, spss version 22.00. while analyzing the quantitative data by means of spss, such tests as cronbach’s b.şentürk / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 247–255 251 alpha coefficient to see the reliability of the questionnaires; an independent sample t tests, descriptive statistics were run. 4. results 4.1. 1. what are the first-year turkish university students’ attitudes towards learning english? there were eleven subscales in the attitude scale and the mean scores for each domain is given in table 2: table 2: shows the means for all scales of the attitude scale domains scale item no. mean sd integrativeness 7, 12, 17 3.53 2.64 attitudes to l2 community 8, 10, 11 4.12 2.43 cultural interest 13, 14, 15, 16 3.60 3.50 attitudes to learning english 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 3.73 4.35 criterion measures 24, 25, 26, 43 3.94 2.43 ideal l2 self 27, 28, 29 4.13 2.09 ought to l2 self 23, 30, 31 3.96 2.14 family influence 32 instrumentality promotion 9, 33, 34, 35, 36, 40 3.96 3.60 instrumentality prevention 37, 38, 39, 41 2.79 4.38 4.2. integrativeness and cultural interest integrativeness is the desire to communicate with the members of the foreign community. it includes being part of the target community; therefore, it requires the people to respect to the culture and way of life. the mean score for this scale is m: 3.53 which shows that most of the students would like to be the part and have a positive sympathy to the language. since most of their plans for the future is to work abroad and have a good career, they are interested in learning about the culture and the life there. 4.3. attitudes to l2 community and to learning english according to the results of the scale (m: 4.12), it is clear that most students are willing to meet people from the target community. moreover, the scores for the scale that questions students’ attitudes towards learning english is m: 3. 73 which also shows that the students have a moderate feeling about learning english. these students chose to study english voluntarily for one year before they start their education in their departments. 252 b. şentürk / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 247–255 there may be some other factors influencing them to choose studying english, but the main motive was related to their future careers. therefore, it can be concluded that most of the students have positive attitudes to learning english. 4.4. criterion measures and ideal l2 self the mean score for the scale criterion measures is m:3.94 and m:4.13 for the ideal l2 self. the mean score for the ideal l2 self is the highest in the scale which shows that the students are eager to learn english for their own sake, they really wanted to speak the language accurately and fluently in the future. as stated earlier, these students study english voluntarily and they are aware of the fact that they need it for their future career. as a result, it is really worth mentioning that ideal l2 self, having the highest mean score in the scale proves that these students learn english for their own sake, they chose to study english for their success in their job, so most of them chose to study english on their own will. 4.5. ought-to l2 self the mean score of the scale is m:3.96 which has a moderate result in the questionnaire. the finding reveals that the students are aware that they need english for their jobs, they need to learn it to have a better future; therefore, rather than internal reasons they also have external reasons to learn the language. even though most of the students may have chosen to study english on their own, some also may have had a family influence to choose. however, after starting their education at the school of foreign languages, no matter what the starting motive was, they need to finish their education successfully having good grades from the exams. therefore, they are eager to finish their language education successfully and get a good a job in the future. 4.6. instrumentality (promotion-prevention) almost all participants (96%) agreed that english may enable them to have a good career and earn more money in turkey. on the contrary, the lowest mean score in the scales was instrumentality prevention (m:2.79) which expresses that the students main purpose to learn english is not to pass the english course, but for their future career. this result shows the importance of voluntary language education. since it is not compulsory to study at prep school for one year at bartın university, only the students who are willing to learn english chose to study at school of foreign languages, as a result, this result proves that they are really enthusiastic about learning english. so, their main purpose is not just to pass their class and start their department, but learn english well. since they study voluntarily, even if they fail their classes, they have the chance to start their b.şentürk / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 247–255 253 departments; thus, their aim is to learn the necessary skills and knowledge in english that they can use in their jobs in the future. 5. discussion & conclusion this study intended to seek efl students’ attitudes towards learning english. the findings affirmed that the students are generally motivated to learn the language for their professional needs. even though they are aware of the fact that learning a language is crucial in today’s world, they are forced to learn it. the most important finding of the study is “the ideal l2 self” which proves that these students chose to study english voluntarily for one year before they start their education in their departments. there may be some other factors influencing them to choose studying english, but the main motive was related to their future careers. therefore, it can be concluded that most of the students have positive attitudes to learning english. this is because of the fact that they want to learn english for their future career, so they need to speak it fluently and learn it accurately. since they all chose to learn english voluntarily at the beginning of the year, they are aware of the need to learn it. they had this internal force when they just started their university career. this proposes that they also have an internal motivation. this finding is in line with the akkuş-çakır & ünlü’s (2019) study in which they examined the attitudes of the learners towards languages. in their study, they concluded the positive attitudes students showed may be because of the fact that those courses were elective courses and the students chose to take them according to their wish. they also presented that teachers of these students’ stated that being able to choose a language course may lead to positive attitudes and motivation towards learning it. as another point, the lowest score in the scales was “instrumentality prevention” with a mean score of m:2.79. this scale supports the idea that students learn english to pass their language classes. however, since they study english voluntarily for one year, even if they fail their courses at prep school, they had the chance to start their education at their departments. thus, they are not afraid that they will fail while the students studying at prep classes compulsorily have the fear of failing as they have to repeat their class. this finding also supports akkuş-çakır & ünlü’s (2019) study in that they state that according to the teacher interview results, the negative attitude of the students to learn english even if they know the global status of it is because of the “required status of the compulsory english courses”. from a language learning perspective, there are some different factors influencing students to have a positive attitude towards learning english. this study proves that when students are provided with opportunities to decide on to study foreign language, they leverage efforts and resources effectively. students enrolled in prep class in this 254 b. şentürk / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 247–255 example have been characterized as holding positive attitudes towards the target language and as intrinsically motivated. therefore, if students have positive attitude towards learning english, their engagement increases which supports the study of dimitroff, dimitroff & alhashimi (2018) in that they also concluded that “more positive attitudes were associated with higher levels of engagement in english classes and vice versa”. this study underlined the importance of taking into account differences rooted in the factors related to the target language and its culture when designing or adopting approaches to help students to develop positive attitudes towards learning foreign languages and increase students’ motivation. nevertheless, there are several limitations to this study that suggest the need for future research. the current study was carried out with a small sample size at bartin university school of foreign languages; therefore, further research may be conducted with a large sample representing more widespread participants from different backgrounds and with a different purpose to study english. there may also be some comparisons about the attitudes of the students towards learning english with the students studying english at prep classes compulsorily and voluntarily. references carreira, j. m. 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(1996). language attitudes, motivation, and standards. in s. l. mckay, & n. hornberger (eds), sociolinguistics and language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. skehan, p. (1991). individual differences in second language learning. studies in second language acquisition, 13, 275-298. şentürk b. (2017). yabancı dil eğitiminde öz-değerlendirmenin gücü, karaelmas eğitim bilimleri dergisi, 5, 352-359. şentürk, b. (2017). the effect of different self-assessment tools on students’ attitudes towards learning english. unpublished doctoral dissertation. hacettepe university, turkey. tokoz göztepe, f. (2014). attitudes and motivation of turkish undergraduate efl students towards learning english language. studies in english language teaching. 2 (3), 314-332. yang, j. s. r. (2008). motivational orientation and selected learner variables in east asian language learners in the united states. foreign language annals, 36(1), 44-56. yu, b., & watkins, d. a. (2008). motivational and cultural correlates of second language acquisition: an investigation of international students in the universities of the people’s republic of china. australian review of applied linguistics, 31(2), 1-17. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). database connection failed! database connection failed! database connection failed! contribution of corrective feedback to english language learners’ writing skills development through workfolio based tasks available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 ijci international journal of  curriculum and instruction  contribution of corrective feedback to english language learners’ writing skills development through workfolio based tasks dilâra şaziye ataman a *, i̇smail hakkı mirici b a tobb university of economics and technology, department of foreign languages, ankara 06510, turkey b hacettepe university, faculty of education, ankara 06800, turkey abstract this study investigates the relationship between corrective feedback through workfolio based tasks and english language learners’ writing skills development. the study was carried out with 64 b1 level students at a foundation university in the city of ankara in turkey. the study took thirteen weeks during which the experimental group received explicit corrective feedback on their written tasks while the control group didn’t receive any feedback. throughout this process, participants took three progress tests. in addition to the quantitative data, qualitative data were also obtained via interviews with both instructors and participants. while the quantitative data were analyzed in independent samples t-tests through spss 20©, the qualitative data were interpreted on. results from the analyses show that there is a statistically significant difference between the experimental and the control group. the study also found out that while both females and males improved their writing skills, females in the experimental group outperformed the males in the same group. furthermore, students stated that getting corrective feedback was beneficial for them as they could learn from their mistakes and be more motivated towards the lesson. as for the instructors, they believed that corrective feedback sessions were useful for their students as they were low proficiency learners. to conclude, the results of the study show that corrective feedback does have a positive impact on improving writing skills and helps to motivate students as well. © 2017 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: corrective feedback; workfolio; writing skills; english language teaching 1. introduction 1.1. ineffective use of corrective feedback being one of the alternative assessment tools, portfolios are favored by many researchers and teachers. however, if they are not planned carefully or assessed accurately, learners will not be able to benefit from them as much as wished. as in the * dilara şaziye ataman. tel.: +90-312-292-4152 e-mail address: dataman@etu.edu.tr 2 d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 case of many teachers, they find portfolios time-consuming and tiring to prepare in order to monitor students’ work over a period of time. even when they follow what their students are doing, they generally don’t find it necessary to correct the mistakes on the assignments. most teachers prefer to use abbreviations such as ‘gr’ for grammar mistakes or ‘v’ for vocabulary mistakes. however, when the learner goes over the feedback provided by his teacher at a later time, he finds it difficult to understand what his mistake is and how he is supposed to correct it. he may locate the mistake with the help of the abbreviations, yet as long as he is not able to come up with the correct form, those abbreviations are of no use. therefore, the main purpose of this study is to investigate whether correcting learners’ writing assignments explicitly has a positive impact on the development of their written productive skills. 1.2. theoretical background how teachers are supposed to correct their learners is a question that has raised much interest in the field of english language teaching. since the article of truscott “the case against grammar correction in l2 writing classes” (1996), the subject matter has gained more popularity among educationalists and researchers (e.g., ferris, 1999). in his studies, he claimed that no research has proven the efficacy of cf in improving the accuracy of learners’ writings. the reason lying behind his theory is that correcting learners’ errors contradicts with the nature of second language acquisition (sla) theories supporting the acquisition of language structures in a certain order. furthermore, he believes that providing corrective feedback to the learners steals time of the teacher that can otherwise be spent on developing writing abilities of learners. he also states that correction has no place in classes as it is ineffective and harmful. he further questions whether teachers are capable of recognizing errors which, he believes, are difficult even for experts. even if they can succeed in doing so, it is not certain if they can explain the problematic structure to the learner, and even if teachers again succeed in explaining the problem, the learner may not understand the explanation, may forget it afterwards or may lack necessary motivation to apply the new knowledge in his following writings. he concludes his paper by saying cf leads to stress and demotivates learners. as opposed to truscott’s claims, ferris (1999) puts forward the idea that learners can benefit from cf if it is clear and planned carefully. although she levels with truscott at some points where she also believes that teachers may not be able to give consistent feedback willingly or students may not be able to understand the feedback being too unmotivated to prioritize it in their language learning process, she believes in the importance of strategy training for learners. as long as the teacher is prepared, practiced and prioritized this subject, students can and will benefit from cf. she agrees that “poorly done error correction will not help student writers and may even mislead them” (p.4). she also adds that truscott ignored the previous researches that contradict with d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 3 his opinions. he only included studies the participants of which are composed of college students unmotivated to revise their work. for truscott (2007), cf helps a learner notice the mistakes that s/he has made in a piece of writing and correct them in the following draft(s) of the same writing; however, it does not have any impact on a new writing work implying that cf does not lead to language acquisition. however, ferris (1999) claimed the opposite and stated that if cf is given consistently in a clear way, it will improve language acquisition. ellis (2009) also believed that whether it is a communicative approach or a structural one, cf contributes to language learning by fostering learner motivation and ensuring linguistic accuracy. despite the researchers that proved the efficacy of cf in language acquisition (e.g., sheen, 2007; ellis, sheen, murakami & takashima, 2008), sla researchers such as krashen (1982) disagrees that cf is effective. she acknowledges that errors are inevitable especially in early stages, and the immediate reaction to errors in this profession is to correct them, yet she believes error correction “has been a serious mistake” (p.74) because correcting errors has an impact on the affective filter of the learners causing them to be defensive and “try to avoid mistakes, difficult constructions and focus less on meaning and more on form” (p.75). according to burt (1975), only “global” errors should be corrected and not the “local” ones. the former type refers to the errors that distort the overall sentence having problems in syntax, word order or misplaced connectors. the latter error type, on the other hand, occurs in a morphological level or in grammar structures which affect only single elements. as for ferris (1999), cf should be given in “treatable errors” which generally occur in a rule-governed way. furthermore, ellis (1993) proposed that cf should be provided for structures that learners have problems with. however, vann, meyer and lorenz’s study (1984) found out that teachers value all errors as equals stating “an error is an error”. most studies agree on one conclusive point that explicit cf works better when combined with production treatment. therefore, “when individual factors, such as the learner’s proficiency and language aptitude, were taken into account, the more explicit feedback was of greater benefit to the more able learners” (ellis, loewen, & erlam, 2006, p.349).when learners are not able to self-correct their mistakes, providing explicit cf has proven to be effective especially in low proficiency level of learners (ferris, & roberts, 2001). as 1950s and 60s were times when errors were to be avoided by the learners, there was no discussion about when is the best time to provide the learner with cf. however, around the time when behaviorism started to be favored, teachers were required to give cf as soon as possible since it was feared that as long as a teacher remains silent about learners’ errors, they will not be aware that they made an error, hence internalizing that corrupted structure (quinn, 2014). as kulik and kulik suggested (1988), although 4 d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 delayed cf works better in laboratory settings, immediate cf produces better results in actual classroom settings. however, according to some researchers, when the learner is engaged with the second language (l2), he is testing his ability to construct new structures, so he, naturally, makes mistakes which clearly shows his development. therefore, the teacher should postpone giving cf to a point where he has analyzed this process and come to a decision about how to address it (e.g. corder, 1967 & fanselow, 1977). in the meantime, the teacher can also gather all incorrect structures that are common among learners and go over them with all the learners together. long (1977) also favored delayed correction as it does not interrupt the learner when he is experimenting with the language. once the learner is disrupted to be corrected, his anxiety level might increase leading him to make even more mistakes. however, despite all this interest and research, the answer to this question has not been found yet. although feedback is an important part of language teaching, researchers are not certain whether it has an impact on the development of second language (hyland & hyland, 2006). according to “output hypothesis” put forward by swain (1985), pushing learners to produce output helps them acquire a language. however, as gaining autonomy is of utmost importance in second language acquisition, providing input to the learner is also an important strategy to give cf. although a balance in the amount of usage of recasts and prompts has not been found yet, the former is known to allow teacher to gain control over language forms whereas the latter provides learners with the opportunity to notice their mistakes and self-correct them through different strategies. of all language teaching approaches, two seem to be the most common ones: communicative approach and form-focused approach. while the former approach puts great emphasis on fluency and conveying the message without regarding accuracy, the latter one aims to teach the learner correct usages of specific forms by providing him/her adequate practice opportunities (ellis, 2012; rahimi & zhang, 2014). therefore, researchers have been collecting information about the use of portfolios in language art classes since the end of the 19th century, but they couldn’t find any empirical research on the subject (tierney, carter, & desai, 1991). instead, they found out that teachers were standing up for the use of portfolios, but they didn’t have enough knowledge about how to integrate them into their classrooms. throughout the years of essay-translation, structuralist, integrative and communicative approaches, respectively, whole language approach has given much importance to the use of portfolios in a classroom context (heaton, 1988). since it views language learning as a process in which human communication and authenticity are the key terms in a humanistic and constructivist teaching environment, implementing portfolios in a classroom will facilitate learning by doing rather than trying to cover the curriculum (richards & rodgers, 2001). one of the most important benefits of portfolio is d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 5 that it can be used for both teaching and assessing. portfolios are generally evaluated either in a holistic manner in which the work is graded upon a general reading (grabe & kaplan, 1996) or in a multi-trait manner in which several drafts and improvement of students are evaluated over a period of time thus making the latter grading more preferable (hamp-lyons & condon, 2000).when they are in harmony with the curriculum, they also have the content validity, thus enabling to achieve instructional goals as well. using portfolios in education enables deduction about students’ knowledge, ability, and attitudes towards the lesson they are learning as they are compilations of students’ own works in their areas of interest (collins, 1992; goodman, 1991; o’neil, 1992). as dellinger (1993) states, portfolios not only increase the quantity and quality of students’ works, but they also serve as an enhancement tool for their cognitive development. o’malley and pierce (1996) make it clear when they say that unlike single test scores and multiple-choice tests, portfolios provide a multidimensional perspective on student growth over time. teachers can make more sense of what their students are actually capable of doing through portfolios rather than applying standardized tests to them. moreover, portfolios provide wash-back effect to the teachers so that they can detect the defects in their instruction and modify it accordingly. not only teachers but also program designers and administrators benefit from use of portfolios in assessment because they can monitor if their institutional goals are met. portfolios also evaluate a wide range of skills when compared to the traditional assessment tools. while students are using their meta-cognitive skills, they are able to learn to take responsibility and control of their own learning process. when they are actively involved in their own learning process, it increases student-teacher interaction as well (brown & hudson, 1998). 1.3. research questions throughout this study, it will be revealed whether learners improve their writing skills in the target language when they are explicitly corrected or not. moreover, the study also seeks to understand the attitudes and beliefs of learners towards portfolio assignments and corrective feedback. it will also provide an insight about the perceptions of teachers towards use of portfolios and correcting student work. therefore, this study aims to find answers to following research questions: 1. is there a significant difference between the control group and the experimental group in the diagnosis test? 2. is there a significant difference between the success of the control group and the experimental group in the first writing progress test? 3. is there a significant difference between the success of the control group and the experimental group in the second writing progress test? 6 d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 4. is there a significant difference between the success of the control group and the experimental group in the third writing progress test? 5. does the corrective feedback have a positive impact on learners’ writing skills development? 6. do the males and females in the experimental group significantly differ from those in the control group after the implementation in terms of developing writing skills? 7. do the students in the experimental group find the corrective feedback useful in terms of developing writing skills? 8. how do teachers feel about giving the corrective feedback in their writing classes? in this study, the word “portfolio” is used interchangeably with the word “workfolio”. the distinction must be stressed out here as the word “portfolio” may be confused with european language portfolio which consists of a wide range of activities while what the author tries to investigate in this study is the written work of students that they are supposed to keep in a folder throughout one semester. for this reason, the word “portfolio” refers to “workfolio” throughout this study. 2. method 2.1. setting and participants this study was conducted at the department of foreign languages at a foundation university in ankara, turkey. the participants involved in the study were students of preparatory classes. four classes were chosen according to the diagnosis test writing quiz results so that two can form the control group and the other two for the experimental group. all classes have nearly the same average score according to the diagnosis test results. in order to conduct an independent samples t-test, both control and experimental groups are composed of 32 students. in each group, 16 of these students are males, and the others are females since another independent samples t-test is conducted to see whether there is any difference in the academic success between genders as a result of corrective feedback procedure. all students, whose age ranks between 18 and 20, are from different departments such as electrical and electronic engineering, industrial design, law, economics, medicine etc., and all four classes are considered to be b1 levels according to cefr and have the same level of proficiency in english as a foreign language (efl). normally, instructors don’t have to give corrective feedback to the students as they only have to check if they have done the assignment. therefore, giving corrective feedback to two different classes, the experimental group, was unusual for this institution. as a result, the other two classes did not suffer from the absence of corrective feedback as the rest of the classes, except the experimental group, are also not getting any. d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 7 2.2. instruments the instruments of this study comprise a diagnosis test in order to select four equal classes and three progress tests which aim to evaluate students’ writing performances and compare their progresses accordingly. in addition, both the students in the experimental group and the instructors involved in this process were interviewed being asked whether they found this whole procedure fruitful. 2.2.1. the diagnosis test the diagnosis test used in this study was administered by the standards, measurement and evaluation unit in the third week of the semester. until the third week of the school, students learn how to write a paragraph with a topic and a concluding sentence and then two different types of paragraphs: “opinion” and “cause” paragraphs, and they are asked to write a “cause” paragraph in the test. after the diagnosis test is implemented, a standardization session is held with all markers by grading a randomly selected paper separately and sharing the results together so that everyone has the same score for that specific paper. every class’ papers are graded by a first and a second marker both of whom are not teaching the class whose papers they are grading, and the markers have to stick to the same rubric for reliability concerns. according to the writing results of this test, two groups with the same or very similar average scores are randomly selected for the study. 2.2.2. progress tests and workfolio tasks workfolio tasks used in this study aim to develop students’ writing skills, and progress tests’ aim is to monitor these developments. there are three progress tests in total which are given in three or four week periods. after the diagnosis test, both groups are given two writing tasks, and the experimental group receives explicit corrective feedback and re-writes their work with the necessary changes. some of the students may have to write a third draft because of not changing all the mistakes beforehand. at the end of this process, the first progress test is given to the students in the sixth week. the results of the groups are then compared to see if there is any difference between them. then, students are taught how to write an essay for a week and then assigned two essay writing tasks, and the experimental group goes through the same corrective feedback session while control groups’ papers are collected only to be noted in the assignment checklist of the instructor, and given back without any feedback. students now have their second progress test in the tenth week, and the researcher compares the scores of the students. lastly, students write two more essays to include in their workfolios, and the experimental group’s papers are corrected, and their mistakes are explained to them by their instructor. in the thirteenth week, the last progress test is given to the students to 8 d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 see if there is any statistically significant difference between the control group and the experimental group. all these tasks are provided by the curriculum development unit while the progress tests are implemented by the standards, measurement and evaluation unit of the institution. the six writing tasks and the exam questions for the progress tests are as follows: task 1choose one of the following topics and write your own effect paragraph. global warming missing a week of your classes quitting a specific bad habit brain-drain increase in population task 2choose one of the following topics and write your own comparison and contrast paragraph. two tv shows two technological devices studying online and studying on paper high school and university two holiday places progress test 1choose one of the topics below and write a welldeveloped comparison and contrast paragraph within 125-150 words. two different sports living with your family and staying at a dormitory working for a large company and running your own business task 3choose one of the following topics and write your own opinion essay with one body. even though they are not environmentally friendly, nuclear power plants should still be preferred because they can produce a lot of energy in a short time. do you agree or disagree? borrowing money from a close friend can/can’t harm the friendship in the long run. d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 9 in some countries, people are not allowed to smoke in public places and state buildings. do you think this is a bad rule or a good rule? parents should/shouldn’t give their children certain chores or tasks to do at home. task 4choose one of the following topics and write your own opinion essay with three bodies. social networking websites like facebook or instagram are/aren’t the end of privacy instead of the beginning of a new era. do you agree or disagree? modern technology makes/doesn’t make life more convenient. university students should/shouldn’t be given the right to choose their roommates. people who download music and movies illegally are punished in some countries. do you think this is a good idea or a bad idea? progress test 2choose one of the topics below and write a welldeveloped opinion essay within 250-300 words. driving age should/shouldn’t be raised to twenty-one. some people say that it is important to know more than one foreign language. do you agree or disagree? should recycling be obligatory for schools and businesses? task 5choose one of the following topics and write your own persuasive essay. instead of printed textbooks, students should use the e-books. do you agree or disagree? companies should allow their employees perform religious activities in their building. do you agree or disagree? countries should/shouldn’t have more women in their parliaments. is the use of surveillance cameras in public places such as parking lots a good idea or violation of privacy? task 6choose one of the following topics and write your own advantage and disadvantage essay. globalization studying abroad attending a private university large companies’ and industries’ moving to regional areas outside large urban centers 10 d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 progress test 3choose one of the topics below and write a welldeveloped advantage and disadvantage essay within 250-300 words. having olympic games in your own country putting the elderly in care homes or nursing homes increasing tourism activities in your country fig. 1. progress tests’ and workfolio tasks’ instructions 2.2.3. interviews in addition to above mentioned quantitative research, five random students from the experimental group and two reading & writing instructors teaching in experimental group’s classes and providing corrective feedback to them are interviewed about their attitudes towards the issue in hand. students and teachers’ opinions and experiences are taken into consideration while interpreting the results of the study. 2.2.4. research design throughout the study, one diagnosis test, six workfolio tasks and three progress tests are used. below can be seen the design of the research in a process flow diagram: fig. 2. research design d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 11 2.3. procedures the study, conducted at a foundation university, took thirteen weeks which constitutes the entire second semester of the institution. in the first week of the semester, students went through an orientation process which was about providing them with the syllabus so that they would know what they would be responsible for throughout the semester. they were also informed that their writing tasks would be included in their portfolios, and they would be graded according to these folders. in order to pass one module, they need to get at least 65 points, and portfolio grades constitute 7 points in total. as a consequence, students were highly interested in keeping a portfolio and writing every single task without missing any so that they could get full points. after they learned the course requirements, they started their third class in the first week with “introduction to writing”. students learned how to form a topic sentence, what major ideas and minor ideas are, how to support their ideas by adding examples, and how to finish a paragraph with a concluding sentence. they were also taught different methods of writing and had to complete some exercises related to the topic. in the second week, students learned to write an opinion paragraph with its necessary components. they were also presented with the opinion paragraph rubric if they happened to be asked to write an opinion paragraph in their writing quiz so that they would know how their papers would be graded and what was expected from them. after they finished their paragraphs, all papers were collected and read. then, instructors spared a class hour to provide oral feedback about their papers and how they could have written them better, but their mistakes were not corrected. in the third week, students were introduced to cause paragraph and taught how to write its topic sentence, give the causes and finish the paragraph by clearly wrapping up. after students completed their cause paragraphs, the instructors collected the papers to read and gave oral feedback without any correction during another class hour. at the end of the third week, students took their writing quiz in which a cause paragraph was asked them to write. just before the marking, all markers gathered in one room and graded one randomly selected student paper separately and then discussed their grades in each section of the rubric and in total so as to have standardized grading criteria. then, instructors were paired to read an exam pack, but no one was allowed to read the papers of a class that they were teaching. after being grouped, one instructor became the first marker reading the papers with a red pencil, and the other marker became the second marker reading the same papers again but with a green pencil. therefore, all papers were read twice, and both markers compared their grades at the end of reading session as they were not allowed to see each other’s rubrics beforehand so as not to get affected by the other person and to remain objective. finally, markers found their average scores for each 12 d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 paper and were supposed to re-read the ones that got a difference of 12 or more points between either marker. as there were 29 intermediate classes at that time, four classes were selected according to their first writing quiz results. before the exam, students didn’t receive any corrective feedback. the four classes with the closest diagnosis test, writing quiz, scores were selected to form the experimental and the control groups. the students started their fourth week by receiving oral feedback on their writing quiz papers. it’s of utmost importance in the institution that all students see their exam papers. then, they were taught a new paragraph type which was effect paragraph. from that time on, students’ writings were to be included in their portfolios. when students finished their first task, the papers were collected, and the experimental group’s writings were read in detail then their mistakes were explicitly corrected. in the next contact hour, their instructors gave their feedback and explained their mistakes and the corrected forms to them. next, students were supposed to re-write their writing tasks with the correct forms this time. instructors checked whether they had changed these mistakes, and required some of them to write a third draft. afterwards, all these drafts – firsts, seconds, thirdswere filed in their portfolios by the students. in the fifth week, students learned how to form a comparison/contrast paragraph with its necessary transition words and other components. once the students grasped the subject, they were given their second task and went through the same corrective feedback session. in the sixth week, students took their first midterm and were asked to write a comparison/contrast paragraph. as effect paragraph is very similar to cause paragraph which was tested in the diagnosis test, a comparison/contrast paragraph was considered to be more appropriate for this exam. after that, the exam papers were graded in the same standardized manner on the same day that the exam took place. instcructors graded the papers according to the comparison/contrast paragraph rubric. in the beginning of the seventh week, students were again given their exam papers to review. after the feedback session, the researcher carried out her study by comparing the results through an independent samples t-test in spss 20©. in this week, students were taught about how to write an essay. they were given plenty of exercises requiring them to form an introduction paragraph, a thesis sentence, a body paragraph with its topic sentence, and a concluding paragraph. now that students had a sense of writing an essay, their eighth week started with the instruction of how to construct an opinion essay with one body paragraph. as students could feel confused since that was their first time to write an essay, they read some example essays in their booklets and did related activities. after this procedure, they were given their task 3 and asked to write an opinion essay with one body paragraph on d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 13 one of the four subjects provided in their booklets. then, the instructors read the papers and explained the experimental group their corrected papers. students made the necessary changes in their second drafts and put both papers in their portfolio folders. ninth week was not very demanding for students as they were supposed to write an opinion essay for their fourth task but with three body paragraphs this time. while the control group wrote their essays, handed them in and took their papers back with a checked mark on them, the experimental group got explicit written corrective feedback on their papers. in the tenth week, students took their second midterm and were supposed to write either type of opinion essay on one of the three topics provided for them. after the standardization session, all papers were graded on the same day according to the opinion essay rubric which is the same for both types. students started the eleventh week by receiving oral feedback on their midterm papers. then, the researcher gathered her data and put them into an independent samples t-test again. throughout this week, students learned forming a persuasive essay – their fifth task. the experimental group’s drafts were stored in their portfolio folders. advantage-disadvantage essay was the last task of the students in their twelfth week. as soon as students understood the design of the essay and completed the exercises in their booklets, they started to write their last essay. their instructors collected the papers for one last time and corrected the mistakes. after receiving their papers back, all students put the last piece of portfolio task in their folders. in the last week of the semester, students had their final midterm in which they were required to write an advantage/disadvantage essay. once the marking was carried out according to the advantage/disadvantage essay rubric, the researcher put her last data for spss analysis. throughout this process, as students were made aware of the elements they were being assessed on by being provided with the rubric criteria, explicit corrctive feedback was provided for all of the following; grammar, vocabulary, transition, spelling & punctuation, evidence & example, coherence & cohesion, topic sentence & concluding sentence for paragraphs, topic sentence, thesis statement, introduction paragraph & conclusion paragraph for essays. although students had to finish their paragraphs/essays in one teaching hour as they had to be able to work in a limited time just like in a real exam, when some of the students couldn’t finish theirs because of personal reasons, their papers were also accepted on the condition that they would hand them the following day. lastly, now that the exam period was over, voluntary students and teachers were interviewed in the last week and asked about their feelings about the whole procedure. they shared their opinions about what they liked or disliked or whether they have 14 d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 benefitted from this. finally, they declared whether they would like to go through the same process again. 2.4. data analysis in this study, both quantitative and qualitative data were obtained in order to carry it out and come to conclusive results. the data gathered from the progress tests which aim to find out whether explicit corrective feedback can contribute to students’ academic success were analyzed through spss 20©. an independent samples t-test was run for every progress test in order to see if students’ scores differentiate in that particular exam. moreover, another independent samples t-test was run according to the average scores of all three progress tests to investigate the effects of explicit corrective feedback in the long-term. finally, as for statistical analysis, the last independent samples t-test was run between the scores of two genders to understand if any sex did better on the exam as a result of explicit corrective feedback. in total, there have been five independent samples t-tests for various purposes. moreover, students and teachers remarks during the interviews were also taken into consideration while interpreting the results of statistical data. 3. results and discussion the aim of the first research question is to find out whether students in the control and the experimental group differ significantly according to the results of the diagnosis test. table 1 shows the results of the diagnosis test of all 29 b level classes in order to demonstrate how the control and the experimental groups were selected. table 1. average grades of 29 b1 level classes in the diagnosis test rank class average grades rank class average grades 1 b7 83.88 16 b25 77.92 2 b13 82.05 17 b22 77.38 3 b27 81.88 18 b5 77.23 4 b12 80.76 19 b19 77.11 5 b10 80.7 20 b20 76.83 6 b29 80.61 21 b21 76.7 7 b9 80.27 22 b24 76.55 8 b14 80.05 23 b16 76.45 9 b8 79.54 24 b26 76.26 10 b4 79.53 25 b18 76.09 11 b2 79.47 26 b3 75.33 12 b11 79.38 27 b1 75.22 13 b6 79.25 28 b17 74.98 14 b15 78.73 29 b23 71.28 15 b28 78.16 d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 15 as can be clearly understood from table 1, the four classes with the closest results from the diagnosis test were b4, b2, b11 and b6 with the means of 79.53, 79.47, 79.38, and 79.25 respectively. therefore, the closest mean for the control and the experimental group is obtained when b4 and b6 form one group (m=79.39), and when b2 and b11 form the second group (m=79.42). additionally, the scores of these students were analyzed through independent samples t-test to understand if there is a significant difference between them. table 2. group statistics of diagnosis test groups n m sd std. error mean diagnosis test eg 32 79.39 9.52 1.68 cg 32 79.42 8.35 1.48 table 3. independent samples test of diagnosis test f sig. t df sig. (2-tailed) mean dif. std. error dif. 95% confidence interval of the dif. lower upper dt equal variances assumed .000 .991 -.014 62 .989 -.03125 2.23830 -4.50555 4.44305 equal variances not assumed -.014 60.974 .989 -.03125 2.23830 -4.50705 4.44455 as can be seen in table 2 and table 3, both the experimental group (eg) and the control group (cg) consisted of 32 students. the mean for the eg was 79.39 while the mean for the cg was 79.42. the standard deviation (sd) was found 9.52 for the eg whereas the sd for the cg was 8.35. as can be understood from the table, there was no statistically significant difference between the eg and the cg before the eg began to receive explicit corrective feedback on their papers, t(62)= -.014; p= .989 > .05. as a result, it can be concluded that the cg and the eg did not differ in the diagnosis test meaning that both groups were at the same level in terms of writing skills in the beginning of the semester. the second research question aims to find out whether the progress in writing skills of the cg and the eg differ significantly in the first progress test, which is midterm 1 in this case. table 4. group statistics of progress test 1 groups n m sd std. error mean midterm1 eg 32 83.47 5.84 1.03 cg 32 80.53 5.41 .96 as shown in table 4, there are 32 students in each group. while the mean for the eg was 83.47, it was 80.53 for the cg. the sd was found 5.82 for the eg whereas the sd for the cg was 5.41. since this was the first progress test after the eg received explicit corrective feedback on their papers, there is a 2.94 point difference between the mean 16 d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 writing grades of the students. the eg already started to make more progress in writing than the cg by getting higher scores. as can be seen in table 5, we can assume these groups are homogenous, p= .772 > .05. therefore, in the lights of the information in the first line, we can say that there is a statistically significant difference between the eg and the cg after the eg began to receive explicit corrective feedback on their papers, t(62)= 2.087; p= .041 < .05. therefore, it can be concluded that the cg and the eg started to differ in their writing skills. the purpose of the third research question is to find out whether the students in the cg and the eg differ in writing skills according to the second progress test results. table 6. group statistics of progress test 2 groups n m sd std. error mean midterm2 eg 32 85.20 6.47 1.14 cg 32 76.73 7.51 1.33 as table 6 demonstrates, the mean for the eg (n=32) was 85.20 while the mean for the cg (n=32) was 76.73. the sd was 6.47 for the eg, whereas the sd was found 7.51 for the cg. the difference between the means of both groups was 8.47 proving that the eg was getting better results on their written work thanks to the explicit corrective feedback provided for them. table 7. independent samples test of progress test 2 f sig. t df sig. (2-tailed) mean dif. std. error dif. 95% confidence interval of the dif. lower upper mt2 equal variances assumed .693 .408 4.833 62 .000 8.46875 1.75228 4.96599 11.97151 equal variances not assumed 4.833 60.681 .000 8.46875 1.75228 4.96448 11.97302 table 5. independent samples test of progress test 1 f sig. t df sig. (2-tailed) mean dif. std. error dif. 95% confidence interval of the dif. lower upper mt1 equal variances assumed .128 .722 2.087 62 .041 2.93750 1.40722 .12450 5.75050 equal variances not assumed 2.087 61.648 .041 2.93750 1.40722 .12418 5.75082 d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 17 we can understand from table 7 that the variability in both groups is nearly the same (p= .408 > .05). there is a significant difference in the scores of the cg and the eg, t(62)= 4.833; p= .000 < .05. these results suggest that explicit corrective feedback does have an impact on developing students’ writing skills. therefore, when students’ mistakes in written works are corrected, they can improve their writing skills better. the aim of the fourth research question is to find out whether and to what extent students in the cg and the eg differ in terms of progress they made in writing skills. table 8. group statistics of progress test 3 groups n m sd std. error mean midterm3 eg 32 84.64 6.42 1.14 cg 32 77.13 8.62 1.52 as table 8 shows, the mean for the eg (n=32) was 84.64 in the third progress test while the mean for the cg (n=32) was 77.13. there was a 7.51 point difference between the results of both groups. while sd for the eg was 6.42, it was found 8.62 for the cg. the experimental group outperformed the control group. table 9. independent samples test of progress test 3 f sig. t df sig. (2-tailed) mean dif. std. error dif. 95% confidence interval of the dif. lower upper mt3 equal variances assumed .918 .342 3.955 62 .000 7.51563 1.90040 3.71679 11.31446 equal variances not assumed 3.955 57.323 .000 7.51563 1.90040 3.71061 11.32064 table 9 shows that homogeneity between the cg and the eg was established, p= .342 > .05. there was a statistically significant difference between the cg and the eg, t(62)= 3.955; p= .000 < .05. research question 5 seeks to find out whether the students in the cg and the eg differ in terms of their progress in writing skills after the eg received 9-week explicit corrective feedback on their written production. for this purpose, students’ mean writing grades of all three progress tests were analyzed through an independent samples t-test. table 10. group statistics of averages of progress tests groups n m sd std. error mean averages eg 32 84.44 4.85 .86 cg 32 78.13 4.91 .87 18 d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 as in table 10, the mean for the eg (n=32) was 84.44 while the mean for the cg (n=32) was 78.13. the sd was 4.85 for the eg, whereas the sd was found 4.91 for the cg. the difference between the means of both groups was 6.31 which shows that the eg performed better in their writing exams when compared to the cg. table 11. independent samples test of averages of progress tests f sig. t df sig. (2-tailed) mean dif. std. error dif. 95% confidence interval of the dif. lower upper avr. equal variances assumed .417 .521 5.167 62 .000 6.30729 1.22073 3.86710 8.74749 equal variances not assumed 5.167 61.991 .000 6.30729 1.22073 3.86709 8.74749 an independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the development of writing skills of the cg and the eg. table 11 shows that both groups were homogenous, p= .521 > .05. at the end of the semester, when both groups’ all three writing grades were analyzed, the eg differed significantly from the cg in terms of the progress they made in developing their writing skills, t(62)= 5.167; p= .000 < .05 fig. 3. column chart of the eg and the cg over time d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 19 fig. 4. line chart of the eg and the cg over time figure 3 and 4 clearly show the difference between the progress the eg and the cg made. while the eg made progress throughout the whole explicit corrective feedback sessions, the cg showed some progress only in the first progress test after which they started to get lower scores from the other two progress tests. the results of the progress tests are in the same direction as the views of ferris and roberts (2001). when the level of the student is low, they are not able to self-correct themselves; therefore, giving explicit cf is an effective method. although ellis, loewen and erlam (2006) believes that explicit cf is more beneficial for the higher level students, the participants of this study are b1 levels and seem to have benefitted from the explicit cf sessions as seen in their writing exam results. as swain (1985) states, what helps students to acquire a language is to push them to produce the language. likewise, since portfolios are used as an assessment tool in the institution as suggested by brown and hudson (1998), students are pushed to write all six tasks in the institution if they want to get full points from portfolio assessment. as ellis (2012) and rahimi & zhang (2014) states, providing students adequate practice opportunities helps them learn the correct usages of specific forms in a language. although ferris (1999) stated that consistent corrective feedback given in a clear way improves students’ language acquisition, this study found out that explicit written corrective feedback helps students develop their writing skills. as opposed to truscott (2007) who states that corrective feedback is useful for the learners as they can realize their mistakes; however, it does not stop them from making those same mistakes in a new piece of writing, this study found out that the students in the eg outperformed those in the cg in all three progress tests meaning that cf does lead to language acquisition, 20 d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 and it is of great help for students in not only making them notice their existing mistakes but also refraining from making the same mistakes in their new written works. similar to what hamp-lyons and condon (2000) found out in their study, this study has conclusive data that when students’ written works are graded in a multi-trait manner which requires them to write several drafts, they demonstrate improvement. therefore, holistic grading supported by grabe and kaplan (1996) is not preferred. in contrast to the views that burt (1975) holds which favor correcting only global errors and not the local ones, the instructors in the eg gave explicit corrective feedback to both global and local errors. as results of the study suggest, correcting both these error types helps students improve their writing skills. just as vann, meyer and lorenz stated (1984), an error is an error. quinn (2014) states that if a teacher remains silent at the scene of a student error, the student may internalize that error. drop in the scores of the control group indicates that when the teacher does not provide corrective feedback, students may internalize their mistakes. however, the author believes that students should be given the chance to experiment with the language naturally making mistakes which will eventually lead to their development. otherwise, if the teacher disrupts the students while they are working on a written work, they may get anxious causing them to make even more mistakes. that’s why, in this study, students were provided with delayed cf as suggested by corder (1967), fanselow (1977) and long (1977). sixth research question aims to investigate whether males and females in the eg made more progress compared to those in the cg. table 12. group statistics of males groups n m sd std. error mean males eg 16 82.7188 4.52635 1.13159 cg 16 78.0208 5.28586 1.32146 table 13. independent samples test of males f sig. t df sig. (2-tailed) mean dif. std. error dif. 95% confidence interval of the dif. lower upper m equal variances assumed .288 .596 2.700 30 .011 4.69792 1.73976 1.14486 8.25098 equal variances not assumed 2.700 29.306 .011 4.69792 1.73976 1.14133 8.25451 table 12 states that in both the eg and the cg, there were 16 male students. the mean for the eg was 82.7188 while the mean for the cg was 78.0208. the sd was found 4.52635 for the eg and 5.28586 for the cg. as can be clearly seen, at the end of one d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 21 school semester with explicit corrective feedback, males in the eg performed better than the males in the cg with a mean difference of 4.698. table 13 shows that both groups had equal variances, p= .596 > .05. males in the eg differed significantly from the males in the cg, t(30)= 2.700; p= .011 < .05. table 14. group statistics of females groups n m sd std. error mean females eg 16 87.54 3.95 .99 cg 16 77.68 8.06 2.02 table 15. independent samples test of females f sig. t df sig. (2-tailed) mean dif. std. error dif. 95% confidence interval of the dif. lower upper f equal variances assumed 6.791 .014 4.396 30 .000 9.86458 2.24407 5.28157 14.44760 equal variances not assumed 4.396 21.811 .000 9.86458 2.24407 5.20832 14.52085 as in table 14, the mean for the females in the eg (n=16) was 87.54 while the mean for the females in the cg (n=16) was 77.68. the sd was 3.95 for the eg, whereas the sd was found 8.06 for the cg. the difference between the means of both groups was 9,86 which shows that the females in the eg performed better in their writing exams when compared to the females in the cg. table 15 shows that females in the cg and the eg were not homogenous, p= .014 < .05. however, even when equal variances are assumed or not, there is a statistically significant difference, t(21.811)= 4.396; p= .000 < .05. fig. 5. bar chart for the progress of males and females 22 d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 as figure 5 and table 13 and 15 illustrate, females in the eg developed their writing skills the most while males in the eg were the second in improving their written production, indicating that females in the eg scored higher than the males in the eg. however, as for the cg, males outperformed the females in terms of the progress they made in their written work. the aim of the seventh research question is to understand the beliefs and attitudes of the students in the eg with regards to cf. five students were willing to answer the researcher’s question and share their experiences regarding the topic. after students were asked their names and departments, the researcher asked them how they felt about the cf procedure, whether they liked it or not and requested them to state their reasons. “a complete essay without mistakes is very informative for us because of that, corrected mistakes by teacher compels me to do that in right way. in my opinion, if you are writing your essay by yourself, it’s a favor for your writing because you learn from your mistakes.”(st.1) “i think receiving feedbacks are an important factor for a good essay writing. after my teacher gives feedback to me, i usually take a note about my mistakes. when i study my writing quiz, i often review these notes. if i were a teacher, i would have given more homework then i would give more feedback. in my opinion, teacher’s giving feedback is really a beneficial way because writing skill is necessary for our work lives.”(st.2) “corrective feedback is one of the beneficial methods for my writing skill. it improved my writing skill. my teacher showed me my mistakes and i don’t do same mistakes anymore.”(st.3) “in my opinion, giving corrective feedback is a helpful way to learn rules. it is important to say children this sentence is wrong and you can make it true this way. when i take feedback, i try not to make the same mistakes in my essays. i learn a lot of grammatical rules with the help of corrective feedback.”(st.4) “normally i don’t understand my mistakes, but i believe corrective feedback helps to me to understand my mistakes. when i look at my essay, i don’t see any wrong. when teacher explains, i understand better and don’t do the same things again.” (st.5) as can be seen in the remarks of the students, all of them agreed that they benefitted from cf to a great extent. the reason lying behind this is also similar for all students. they believed that when the teacher provided them with cf, they could easily notice their mistakes. krashen (1982) believed that cf is not very effective since errors are inevitable and teachers’ to-go response to errors is to correct them immediately. she furthers this claim by stating that correcting those errors is a serious mistake as this procedure has a negative impact on the students’ affective filter and leads to defensive students who will try to avoid constructing difficult structures in order not to make mistakes and will concentrate more on forms rather than meaning. however, as can be clearly understood from students’ reflections, all students found cf effective, and none of them stated that they had problems with motivation, anxiety or self-esteem. these students did not affirm the existence of any kind of psychological or emotional constrains that they had experienced. on the contrary, as ellis (2009) put it stating that cf facilitates language learning by enhancing students’ motivation and assuring linguistic accuracy, all students were highly motivated towards cf procedure as they were quite d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 23 aware of the fact that cf was helping them to improve their writing skills. one of them even supported giving much more homework and cf correspondingly as they saw in their writing exams that they were getting higher grades and learning from their mistakes. especially when they tried new structures that had not been taught in their main course classes beforehand, but they learned the correct forms through writing, they felt more enthusiastic and motivated about the process because they started to see writing lessons as an opportunity to improve not only their structural writing skills but also their grammar. the purpose of the research question eight is to investigate the attitudes of the instructors teaching in the eg classes. both instructors agreed to reflect upon their experiences throughout this process. “as an instructor giving corrective feedback for many years, i personally believe that we shouldn’t provide corrective feedback to high level students. students should be able to understand the mistakes on their own with the help of the teacher and correct them themselves. however, as the level of my current class is not high, i have the obligation to correct their mistakes. despite this, there are still some students not being able to understand the mistakes they’ve made.”(ins.1) as the first instructor states, she has supported providing cf in her entire career. she holds the same opinion as ferris and roberts (2001) believing that low level students are not able to recognize their own mistakes and self-correct themselves; therefore, giving explicit cf is a beneficial teaching tool. however, she also stated that even with the cf procedure, some of her students were still not able to understand their mistakes. it can be concluded that truscott (2007) may have been right saying that cf does not lead to language acquisition. as for the second instructor, she said that: “i always give explicit corrective feedback to my students because they need guidance while learning a new language. i think it is important to correct all their mistakes and explain them why because pre-intermediate level students cannot come up with better and grammatically correct sentences after i give implicit feedback. however, higher level students write better essays with only a few mistakes. in that case, i correct grammar/vocabulary mistakes and talk to the students face to face in order to give ideas to improve the content. as my students are not motivated, implicit feedback, which turns into a challenging task, discourages them more. they do not attempt to correct their mistakes after implicit feedback believing they are not capable of writing better. however, when i give explicit corrective feedback, students understand why a sentence cannot be written in the way they do and this is encouraging.” the second instructor also believed that students with low proficiency levels should be provided with explicit cf. however, with higher level of students, she holds the opposite opinion as burt (1975) proposing that the local errors which only affect the single elements in a sentence must be corrected. she does not agree with vann, meyer and lorenz (1984) in their idea that an error is an error as high level students can self-correct themselves on other components of writing. moreover, she also favors explicit cf as it is motivating students especially the ones in our institution as they generally do not feel like putting more effort in their works and prefer the teacher to spoon-feed them. as a 24 d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 consequence, she also disagrees with the opinions of krashen (1982) in terms of affective filter. 4. conclusions in order to carry out this study, two groups needed to be formed. according to the writing grades of the diagnostic test that was employed in the third week of the semester after all students had been taught two paragraph types, two groups with the closest means were selected as the control group and the experimental group. moreover, these groups’ means were analyzed through an independent samples t-test to see whether these groups had differed significantly before the study took place. once the results showed that there wasn’t any statistically significant difference between these two groups, one of them was chosen as the control group and the other one for the experimental group. the mean score for the experimental group was found 79.39 (n= 32; sd= 9.52) while the mean score for the control group was 79.42 (n= 32; sd= 8.35), which showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the experimental and the control group before the experimental group started to receive explicit corrective feedback on their papers, t(62)= -.014; p= .989 > .05. it is clear that both groups were at the same level in terms of writing skills in the beginning of the semester. in the sixth week, students had their first progress test in order to find out whether the experimental group started to perform better in writing than the control group because the experimental group had already been receiving explicit written corrective feedback on their two writing portfolio tasks for three weeks. the results showed that the mean scores of the experimental group (n= 32; m= 83.47; sd= 5.82) was higher than those of the control group (n= 32; m= 80.53; sd= 5.41). as this was the first progress test after the experimental group went through a two-week explicit corrective feedback process, there was a 2.94 point difference between the mean writing grades of the students. the experimental group was making more progress in writing than the control group. therefore, it can be concluded that there was a statistically significant difference between the experimental group and the control group after the experimental group began to receive explicit written corrective feedback for every mistake on their papers, t(62)= 2.087; p= .041 < .05. after their exam, the experimental group continued to receive explicit corrective feedback on two more writing portfolio tasks for four weeks. then, they had their second progress test in the tenth week. the results showed that the experimental group got better writing scores (n= 32; m= 85.20; sd= 6.47) than the control group (n= 32; m= 76.73; sd= 7.51). the difference between the means of both groups was 8.47 which showed that the experimental group was benefitting from the explicit corrective feedback provided for them. according to the results of the independent samples t-test, the scores of the control and the experimental group differed significantly, t(62)= 4.833; p= .000 < .05. these results suggested that explicit corrective feedback did have an impact on d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 25 developing students’ writing skills. therefore, when students’ mistakes in written works were corrected, they could understand their mistakes, learn from them and get better writing results accordingly. the experimental group continued to receive explicit corrective feedback on their last two portfolio tasks for another three-week period. at the end of the thirteenth week, they had their third progress test in which the experimental group (n= 32; m= 84.64; sd= 6.42) again performed better than the control group (n= 32; m= 77.13; sd= 8.62). the results of another t-test indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the control and the experimental group, t(62)= 3.955; p= .000 < .05. when the mean scores of three progress tests were analyzed, it was found that the experimental group (n= 32; m= 84.44; sd= 4.85) improved their writing skills more than the control group (n= 32; m= 78.13; sd= 4.91). the 6.31 difference between the means of both groups and the t-test results showed that at the end of the semester, when both groups’ all three writing grades were analyzed, the experimental group differed significantly from the control group in terms of the progress they made in developing their writing skills, t(62)= 5.167; p= .000 < .05. therefore, it can be concluded that explicit corrective feedback had a positive impact on students’ academic success in terms of writing skills. although this study reached at conclusive data that explicit corrective feedback helped students improve their writing skills, it also investigated whether the females and the males in the experimental group differed significantly from the ones in the control group at the end of this corrective feedback procedure. in order to find out, another independent samples t-test was conducted. males in the experimental group (n= 16; m= 82.7188; sd= 4.52635) performed better than the males in the control group (n= 16; m= 78.0208; sd= 5.28586). as can be clearly seen, at the end of one school semester with explicit corrective feedback, the mean scores of all three progress tests of males in the experimental group were 4,698 points higher than those in the control group. therefore, the results showed that males in the experimental group differed significantly from the males in the control group, t(30)= 2.700; p= .011 < .05. as for females, the mean for the females in the experimental group (n=16; sd= 3.95) was 87.54 while the mean for the females in the control group (n=16; sd= 8.06) was 77.68. the difference between the means of both groups was 9.86 which showed that just like males, the females in the experimental group performed better in their writing exams compared to the females in the control group. although the female groups were found not to be homogenous (p= .014 < .05) even when equal variances were not assumed, there was a statistically significant difference, t(21.811)= 4.396; p= .000 < .05. apart from the quantitative data, qualitative data were also obtained through interviews with students and instructors. all students believed that they benefitted from corrective feedback sessions. they also stated that they learned from their mistakes and 26 d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 tried not to do the same mistakes again. thanks to corrective feedback, they even learned different grammatical structures through writing portfolio tasks. as for the instructors, both had nearly the same viewpoints towards this procedure believing that explicit corrective feedback was most effective when it was provided to lower level students. one of them also stated that corrective feedback may not have led to language acquisition as she encountered the same mistakes in her students’ writings in their new pieces of works. the other one was a strong advocate of explicit corrective feedback as she believed that providing implicit feedback discouraged her students, but when they received it explicitly, they were more motivated to participate in writing tasks.you may present the main conclusions of the study in a brief conclusions section. this section should not simply repeat the main findings and discussions but should attempt to draw conclusions that can be based on the findings of the study and under the light of the current knowledge. preferably, the section may provide the readers with future directions for research and practical implications. 4.1. recommendations for further studies since keeping portfolios generally comprises of different tasks, and in this study, only students’ writing tasks were taken into consideration, the grade that the students got for their portfolios could not be compared to the progress tests through spss analyses. although the study at hand dealt with only one aspect of portfolios, further studies may carry out the same procedures in different aspects or even multiple of them. then, they can investigate the relationship between portfolio grades and academic success of students. moreover, as this study was conducted with only 64 students in total, it is not very likely to make generalizations about the results. therefore, further studies may work with a greater number of participants so that they can reach at more generalizable conclusions. another recommendation is to conduct the same or a similar study with a different level of students. because this study was carried out with b1 level of students, it is not possible to assume that other levels of students will bear the same results. if this study can be done, then the contribution of explicit corrective feedback to students’ academic success will be proven correct for other levels as well. additionally, another research on the same subject can be carried out in a longer or shorter time period. as completion of the data collection in this study took thirteen weeks, it is not certain whether this amount of time was enough, longer or shorter for some groups. that is why the same study may be carried out with two pairs of experimental and control groups. while one experimental and control group might go through this process in a short period of time, the other experimental and control group d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 27 may have the same process in a longer time period. therefore, whether time limitation has an effect on the results can be clearly understood. furthermore, the focus of the experimental group in this study was on explicit corrective feedback with lower level of students. however, another study may be conducted with higher level of students who will receive implicit corrective feedback so that it can be made clear whether implicit corrective feedback and students’ academic success has the same relation with explicit corrective feedback and students’ academic success. finally, in order to find out whether males and females demonstrated a significant difference, both the experimental and the control group consisted of the same number of males and females in this study. in further studies, gender differences may be touched upon more by forming each group with only males or females. 4.2. pedagogical implications the results of the study propose some principles regarding corrective feedback that might be beneficial for teachers. to begin with, students should be made aware of the importance of receiving corrective feedback; therefore, teachers should inform their students about the whole procedure and set the goals together with their students. then, teachers should embrace the idea of corrective feedback no matter how much time it may take. that is why they should not refrain from correcting students’ mistakes in a consistent manner. moreover, teachers should determine which errors they want to correct, how they want to correct them and when they are planning to make the correction in the beginning of the school term and inform their students about these so that they can be a part of this process. furthermore, the feedback of the teacher should be so clear that when students revise their work at a later time, they must be able to make sense of the correction on their own. last but not least, teachers should monitor their students during this process in order to observe their development. references brown, j. d., & hudson, t. 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(1984). error gravity: a study of faculty opinion of esl errors. tesol quarterly, 18, 427-440. appendix a. interview with the students my name is dilara ataman, and apart from teaching at tobb, i am also a student at hacettepe university in the department of english language teaching. for my thesis, i would like to interview you and record your voice for transcribing your answer later on. as you know, your teacher has been giving you corrective feedback on your writing portfolio tasks. could you please tell me whether you benefitted from the corrective feedback process and state your reasons when you feel ready? student 1: a complete essay without mistakes is very informative for us because of that, corrected mistakes by teacher compels me to do that in right way. in my opinion, if you are writing your essay by yourself, it’s a favor for your writing because you learn from your mistakes. student 2: i think receiving feedbacks are an important factor for a good essay writing. after my teacher gives feedback to me, i usually take a note about my mistakes. when i study my writing quiz, i often review these notes. if i were a teacher, i would have given more homework then i would give more feedback. in my opinion, teacher’s giving feedback is really a beneficial way because writing skill is necessary for our work lives. student 3: corrective feedback is one of the beneficial methods for my writing skill. it improved my writing skill. my teacher showed me my mistakes and i don’t do same mistakes anymore. student 4: in my opinion, giving corrective feedback is a helpful way to learn rules. it is important to say children this sentence is wrong and you can make it true this way. when i take feedback, i try not to make the same mistakes in my essays. i learn a lot of grammatical rules with the help of corrective feedback. student 5: normally i don’t understand my mistakes, but i believe corrective feedback helps to me to understand my mistakes. when i look at my essay, i don’t see any wrong. when teacher explains, i understand better and don’t do the same things again. 30 d. ş. ataman, i̇. h. mirici / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(1) (2017) 1–30 i would like to thank you for your valuable opinions on the subject and sharing them with me. if you would like to know the results, i would be more than happy to inform you. here are my contact details: email: dataman@etu.edu.tr extension: 4152 appendix b. interview with the instructors my name is dilara ataman, and apart from teaching at tobb, i am also a student at hacettepe university in the department of english language teaching. for my thesis, i would like to interview you and record your voice for transcribing your answer later on. as you know, you have been providing corrective feedback to your students in your writing class. could you please tell me whether you found the corrective feedback process helpful for your students and state your reasons? instructor 1: as an instructor giving corrective feedback for many years, i personally believe that we shouldn’t provide corrective feedback to high level students. students should be able to understand the mistakes on their own with the help of the teacher and correct them themselves. however, as the level of my current class is not high, i have the obligation to correct their mistakes. despite this, there are still some students not being able to understand the mistakes they’ve made. instructor 2: i always give explicit corrective feedback to my students because they need guidance while learning a new language. i think it is important to correct all their mistakes and explain them why because pre-intermediate level students cannot come up with better and grammatically correct sentences after i give implicit feedback. however, higher level students write better essays with only a few mistakes. in that case, i correct grammar/vocabulary mistakes and talk to the students face to face in order to give ideas to improve the content. as my students are not motivated, implicit feedback, which turns into a challenging task, discourages them more. they do not attempt to correct their mistakes after implicit feedback believing they are not capable of writing better. however, when i give explicit corrective feedback, students understand why a sentence cannot be written in the way they do and this is encouraging. i would like to thank you for your valuable opinions on the subject and sharing them with me. if you would like to know the results, i would be more than happy to inform you. email: dataman@etu.edu.tr extension: 4152 copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). database connection failed! ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 209–220 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction students’ learning styles in vocational education halil kamışlı a *, mesut özonur b a final international university, turkey b cukurova university, turkey abstract this study set out to identify the learning styles of second year university students who received vocational education in order to contribute to the design of learning environments and activities. the study used a survey research design. the sample consisted of 651 second year university students. the grasha-reichmann student learning style scale (grslss) was used in this study as data collection instrument. the scale is a 5-point likert type scale and consists of 60 items. the grslss has six subscales (independent, dependent, participant, avoidant, cooperative, and competitive), each of which has 10 items. in this study, the cronbach’s alpha coefficient was found to be 0.83 for the total scale. in the process of analyzing the data, mean scores on the grslss were calculated to identify students’ preferred learning styles and the results were analyzed according to the range of mean scores (low, moderate, and high) for each learning style. finally, the distribution of the number of students across the six learning styles was analyzed. this study set out to identify the dominant learning styles of second year university students and found that competitive and cooperative learning styles were predominantly preferred by the students. © 2017 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: learning styles; grasha-reichmann student learning style scale; vocational education keyword 1. introduction the world has undergone a rapid and enormous change in recent years. this has led to a need to adapt to the speed of change and innovation in every field from manufacturing to education, health, and tourism. thus, it is of major importance to educate and train individuals who can design, produce and use technology in the fourth industrial revolution (4ir), which has introduced concepts such as digital factories, smart devices, robotics systems, sensors, autonomous systems, digital production, and integrated systems (lasa & kemper, 2014; tubas ustaoğlu & mayatürk akyol, 2018). indeed, the qualifications expected from individuals have also changed. therefore, to educate * corresponding author e-mail address: halil.kamisli@final.edu.tr 210 kamışlı & özonur/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 209–220 individuals equipped with higher-order skills, it has become mandatory to make an extensive change and transformation in all levels of education, especially universities, where professional skills are mainly acquired (yıldız aybek, 2017). vocational education, which focuses on professional competencies required by today’s world and aims to train high-quality labor force, plays a crucial role in facilitating human-oriented development (ministry of development, 2014). ever-changing and reproduced information and technological and business developments increase the importance of vocational education needed for qualified human resources (yıldırım & çarıkçı, 2017). therefore, it is of utmost importance to provide qualified education and training to human resources in accordance with the current and future needs of the industry. several critical factors affect quality education, such as teacher qualifications, learning environments and material, and student characteristics (ünal, 2017). previous research on education has shown that individual differences are important and essential for education and training, especially considering student characteristics (demir, 2010; güven & kürüm, 2006). learning is easier, more effective and more permanent in student-friendly learning environments that are sensitive to student characteristics (senemoğlu, 2007). each individual has their own learning style, which helps to learn information more easily through appropriate learning environments and materials (şen, 2018). quality education and skill development can be achieved through multifaceted learning experiences compatible with students’ learning styles and in which they can have an active role (benner, sutphen, leonard, & day, 2010; kaya & akçin, 2002). learning styles, among the most important factors that affect learning, are defined as personal qualities that affect learners’ ability to acquire information, interact with peers and teachers, and participate in different learning experiences (grasha, 1994). learning styles include learners’ preferences in different educational and instructional activities and refer to a general tendency for different ways of information processing (jonassen & grabowski, 1993). in a broad sense, a learning style is the most appropriate way for an individual to understand, perceive and use what they learn (özdemir, 2009). different methods are used to identify learners’ learning styles. several models have proposed so far such as gregorc’s mind styles model, the myers-briggs type indicator, the felder-silverman learning style model, hill’s cognitive style interest inventory, the dunn and dunn learning style model, kolb’s learning styles, and the grasha and reichman learning styles. this study used the grasha-reichman model of learning styles and the grashariechmann student learning styles scale (grslss), which was built on this model. the grslss classifies students’ real responses in learning environments as independent, avoidant, cooperative, dependent, competitive, and participant (grasha, 2002, p.128): kamışlı & özonur/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 210–220 211 independent: a group of students who like to think and have confidence in their learning abilities. they prefer to learn what they think is important and to work alone on course projects. they generally opt for independent study, self-paced instruction, assignments that allow them to think independently, projects that they can design, and student-centered rather than teacher-centered course designs. avoidant: a group of students who are not enthusiastic about learning and attending classes. they are indifferent to what goes on in class. cooperative: a group of students who believe they can learn by sharing their ideas and abilities. they like to collaborate and work with the teacher and others. their general classroom preferences include small group discussions, small seminars, and group projects. dependent: a group of students who need authority for what they have to do. they adopt a teacher-centered classroom design. competitive: a group of students who believe they need to compete with other students to be the center of attention and recognized for their achievement in the classroom. they prefer teacher-centered classroom environments. participant: a group of students who are willing to do more of the required and optional course activities. they enjoy attending classes. they prefer class discussions and class reading assignments. considering that students adopt an approach which is the most comfortable for them to learn (islam, 2019), there is a clear need to identify students’ learning styles to ensure quality education. individuals’ awareness of which learning style they have is a critical element that brings success in education, work, and social lives and as important as the fact everyone has their own learning style (biggs, 2001). given that learning styles are not the same for everyone, student characteristics should be identified to prepare learning environments suitable for students (peker & aydın, 2003). student characteristics, namely individual differences must be identified and taken into account to ensure qualified professional education. thus, an effective learning environment should be designed keeping in mind that each student has different learning styles. previous studies have confirmed that a learning environment based on learning styles is a crucial factor in increasing students’ academic achievement (dikmen, 2015; kaf hasırcı, 2005; topuz & karamustafaoğlu, 2013). this study set out to identify the learning styles of second year university students who receive vocational education in order to contribute to the design of learning environments and activities. specifically, the aim of this study was to identify the learning styles of second year university students using the grslss. 2. method 212 kamışlı & özonur/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 209–220 the study used a survey research design to identify the learning styles of second year university students. survey research tries to describe the current or past state of an event, a group or a phenomenon within their natural conditions (karasar, 2009). 2.1. sample the sample consisted of 651 second year university students. table 1 shows the descriptive statistics on the gender variable. table 1. descriptive statistics on the gender variable gender f % female 260 39.9 male 391 60.1 total 651 100 as seen in table 1, among the responding students, 260 (39.9%) were female and 391(60.1%) were male. table 2 displays the descriptive statistics on the second year university programs in which the students are enrolled. table 2. descriptive statistics on programs programs f % computer programming 140 21.5 machinery 32 4.9 winemaking 5 0.8 fashion design 19 2.9 accounting and taxation 61 9.4 electronic technology 50 7.7 real estate and property management 27 4.1 hair care 7 1.1 air conditioning 24 3.7 child development 84 12.9 interior design 10 1.5 kamışlı & özonur/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 210–220 213 electricity 49 7.5 tourism 20 3.1 automotive 23 3.5 construction 36 5.5 textile 21 3.2 electronic communication 6 0.9 radio and television 37 5.7 total 651 100 2.2. data collection instrument the study used the grslss (grasha, 2002). the scale was adapted to turkish by sarıtaş and süral (2010). the scale is a 5-point likert type scale and consists of 60 items. the grslss has six subscales (independent, dependent, participant, avoidant, cooperative, and competitive), each of which has 10 items. in this study, the cronbach’s alpha coefficient was found to be 0.83 for the total scale. scores for each learning style are rated as “low”, “moderate”, and “high”. table 3 displays the range of low, moderate, and high scores for each learning style. the study also used a personal information form. table 3. scoring of the grslss learning styles low moderate high independent [1.0-2.7] [2.8-3.8] [3.9-5.0] dependent [1.0-2.9] [3.0-4.0] [4.1-5.0] participant [1.0-3.0] [3.1-4.1] [4.2-5.0] avoidant [1.0-1.8] [1.9-3.1] [3.2-5.0] cooperative [1.0-2.7] [2.8-3.4] [3.5-5.0] competitive [1.0-1.7] [1.8-2.8] [2.9-5.0] 2.3. data analysis in analyzing the data, mean scores on the grslss were calculated to identify students’ preferred learning styles and the results were analyzed according to the range 214 kamışlı & özonur/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 209–220 of mean scores (low, moderate, and high) for each learning style, as shown in table 3. the distribution of the number of students across the six learning styles is presented in table 4. finally, the distribution of the mean scores on the grslss was analyzed for each learning style to determine the dominant learning styles of the responding students according to the programs in which they are enrolled (table 5). 3. results in this section presents the findings of the study. table 4 shows the mean scores of the responding students according to their preferred learning styles. table 4. students’ mean scores on the grslss low (n) moderate (n) high (n) x sd level independent 23 381 247 3.6966 .52315 moderate dependent 38 406 207 3.7980 .51271 moderate participant 109 394 148 3.6048 .63589 moderate avoidant 34 322 295 3.0415 .69614 moderate cooperative 69 170 412 3.6280 .68424 high competitive 16 131 504 3.3986 .78322 high as seen in table 4, the mean scores on the cooperative (3.62%) and competitive (3.39%) learning styles resided in the high range according to the range of mean scores. the mean scores on the other learning styles resided in the moderate range. table 4 also shows the number of students for each learning style. accordingly, among the students who preferred the independent learning style, 23 scored in the low range, 381 scored in the moderate range, and 247 scored in the high range. among those who preferred the dependent learning style, 38 scored in the low range, 406 scored in the moderate range, and 207 scored in the high range. among those who preferred the participant learning style, 109 scored in the low range, 394 scored in the moderate range, and 148 scored in the high range. among those who preferred the avoidant learning style, 34 scored in the low range, 322 scored in the moderate range, and 295 scored in the high range. among those who preferred the cooperative learning style, 69 scored in the low range, 170 scored in the moderate range, and 412 scored in the high range. among those who preferred the competitive learning style, 16 scored in the low range, 131 scored in the moderate range, and 504 scored in the high range. table 5 shows the distribution of students’ mean scores on the grslss according to their programs. table 5. distribution of students’ mean scores on the grslss by their programs kamışlı & özonur/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 210–220 215 programs i n d e p e n d e n t l e v e l d e p e n d e n t l e v e l p a r t ic ip a n t l e v e l a v o id a n t l e v e l c o o p . l e v e l c o m p . l e v e l computer programming 3.64 moderat e 3.75 moderat e 3.47 moderat e 3.14 moderat e 3.58 high 3.30 hig h machinery 3.70 moderat e 3.84 moderat e 3.65 moderat e 3.28 high 3.87 high 3.46 hig h winemaking 3.84 moderat e 4.00 moderat e 4.00 moderat e 2.60 moderat e 3.60 high 3.20 hig h fashion design 3.83 moderat e 3.84 moderat e 3.78 moderat e 2.8 moderat e 3.63 high 3.63 hig h accounting and taxation 3.75 moderat e 3.85 moderat e 3.59 moderat e 3.09 moderat e 3.42 high 3.42 hig h electronic technology 3.62 moderat e 3.68 moderat e 3.60 moderat e 2.84 moderat e 3.58 high 3.32 hig h real estate and property management 3.77 moderat e 3.85 moderat e 3.55 moderat e 2.85 moderat e 3.66 high 3.33 hig h hair care 3.71 moderat e 3.85 moderat e 3.71 moderat e 2.85 moderat e 3.57 high 3.42 hig h air conditioning 3.66 moderat e 3.95 moderat e 3.8 moderat e 2.79 moderat e 3.83 high 3.62 hig h child development 3.69 moderat e 3.80 moderat e 3.72 moderat e 2.84 moderat e 3.72 high 3.34 hig h interior design 4.00 high 4.00 moderat e 3.90 moderat e 3.20 high 4.00 high 3.90 hig h electricity 3.65 moderat e 3.73 moderat e 3.51 moderat e 2.97 moderat e 3.57 high 3.42 hig h tourism 3.75 moderat e 3.90 moderat e 3.70 moderat e 3.15 moderat e 3.75 high 3.30 hig h automotive 3.60 moderat e 3.87 moderat e 3.65 moderat e 3.26 high 3.52 high 3.47 hig h construction 3.77 moderat e 3.88 moderat e 3.55 moderat e 3.11 moderat e 3.75 high 3.41 hig h textile 3.71 moderat e 3.80 moderat e 3.57 moderat e 3.28 high 3.47 moderat e 3.52 hig h 216 kamışlı & özonur/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 209–220 electronic communicati on 3.66 moderat e 4.00 moderat e 3.66 moderat e 3.33 high 4.00 high 3.33 hig h radio and television 3.64 moderat e 3.64 moderat e 3.51 moderat e 3.13 moderat e 3.48 moderat e 3.35 hig h it is apparent from table 5 that the cooperative and competitive learning styles were the dominant preference according to the distribution of learning styles by the programs in which the students are enrolled in. the students enrolled in the interior design program also scored in the high range for the independent and avoidant learning styles, apart from the cooperative and competitive learning styles. additionally, those enrolled in the machinery, automotive, and electronic communication programs scored in the high range for the avoidant learning style, apart from the cooperative and competitive learning styles. the students enrolled in the textile program scored in the high range for the competitive and avoidant learning styles, rather than the cooperative learning style. 4. discussion and conclusion this study was undertaken to identify the learning style preferences of second year university students to determine their dominant learning styles. the study found that the mean scores on the competitive and cooperative learning styles were in the high range. learners with a competitive learning style tend to outperform in classes to stand out and be notable for their performance (grasha, 2002). a student who continues his or her education within the turkish education system has to take many exams throughout the period from primary school to university. therefore, students are or have to be in continuous competition throughout their education. it seems that this ongoing competition affects students’ preferences for learning styles and this may explain the result that the competitive learning style is a dominant preference. this result corroborates those of previous research (varışoğlu, 2018; khalid, akhter & hashmi, 2017; arseven, 2016; aydemir, koçoğlu, & karali, 2016; ural & morgil, 2016; kulac, sezik, ascı, & gürpınar, 2015; ford & robinson, 2015). based on the results of this study, the cooperative learning style is also a dominant preference of the students. learners who adopt a cooperative learning style enjoy working with teachers and other learners and believe that learning can be accomplished by sharing knowledge and abilities (grasha, 2002). the second year university programs in vocational education included in the scope of this study most often use project-based, group work, and cooperative learning methods. this situation also seems to affect students’ preferences for learning styles; thus, it may be a possible explanation for the result of this study. students need to collaborate and work on project assignments. students who are aware of this accordingly prefer a relevant learning style. the result kamışlı & özonur/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 210–220 217 that the cooperative learning style is a dominant preference is in line with those observed in earlier studies (khalid, akhter, & hashmi, 2017; bilgin & bahar, 2008). the study also analyzed the distribution of the number of students across the six learning styles according to the range of their mean scores on the grslss. it was found that most of the students scored in the high range for the competitive and cooperative learning styles. this result is consistent with the result that the mean scores on the competitive and cooperative learning styles were in the high range. finally, the distribution of the mean scores on the grslss was analyzed for each learning style to determine the dominant learning styles of the responding students according to the programs in which they are enrolled. the mean scores on the competitive learning style resided in the high range in all the programs. the mean scores on the cooperative learning style also resided in the high range in the programs other than textile, and radio and television. these results also run in parallel to the other results of the study. this result may be explained by the fact that the relevant second year university programs use project-based, group work, and cooperative learning methods in classes and students have to take several exams ranging from primary school to university. in addition, there are studies suggesting that there is a relationship between learning styles and vocational preferences, although there is no difference between the students' vocational preferences and learning styles in this study (eren, 2006; slaats, lodewijks & van der sanden, 1999; ergür, 1998). further studies are needed to clarify this issue. taken together, these results showed that the majority of the responding students predominantly preferred the cooperative and competitive learning styles. it is important for lecturers, who teach courses to these students, to take this data into consideration when planning the learning process. indeed, teachers’ awareness of which learning styles learners prefer helps them to provide effective guidance to learners during their developmental process. for example, a student who predominantly prefers the competitive learning style can be given responsibilities and encouraged to take leadership in classes in order to stimulate his or her learning motivation. group work or teamwork and experience sharing sessions can be effective for students who predominantly prefer the collaborative learning style (grasha, 2002). in a nutshell, if lecturers know students’ learning styles, it can offer an advantage in designing learning processes suitable for students. in this way, success can be achieved in vocational education which aims to train high-quality labor force in line with modern professional competencies. this success is of great importance in eliminating the need for qualified human resources that can adjust to technological and business developments and that societies need in order to achieve their development goals. this study set out to identify the dominant learning styles of second year university students and found that competitive and cooperative learning styles were predominantly preferred by the students. however, students who prefer learning styles different from 218 kamışlı & özonur/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 209–220 those preferred by the majority of students should not be neglected while planning learning processes. it is important to choose methods and techniques suitable for student characteristics in order to reach all students. the identification of learning styles preferred by students at the beginning of an academic year is considered necessary for the desired learning environments because every individual uses their preferred learning style throughout their education. it is thus of great importance for teachers to know which learning styles students prefer and to help them develop themselves in the direction of their preferences so that effective learning can be achieved. it is therefore recommended that learnings styles be identified and different teaching methods be used in classes with students with different individual characteristics and different learning styles in order to respond to the differences among students and provide equal and fair 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(2017). üniversite 4.0’a geçiş süreci: kavramsal bir yaklaşım. açıköğretim uygulamaları ve araştırmaları dergisi, 3(2), 164-176. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). database connection failed! database connection failed! the intersection of pragmatics and applied linguistics in teaching speech acts: apologies perspective available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 7(2) (2015) 1–17 ijci international journal of  curriculum and instruction  the intersection of pragmatics and applied linguistics in teaching speech acts: apologies perspective giti ehtesham daftari a *, zekiye müge tavil a a gazi university, institute of educational sciences, ankara 06500, turkey abstract this study dealt with the implication of the pragmatics research to efl teaching. the study explored the effect of implicit teaching of apology speech act by native english speakers in elementary, intermediate and advanced efl classrooms during eight successive weeks. the discourse completion test (dct) taken from tunçel (1999) with reliability of 75% was used as pre-test, and the dct taken from bataineh (2006) was used as post-test. the results of the data analysis revealed that learners’ use of apology speech act improved. we also observed that intermediate and advance level efl learners make different use of apology strategies depending on the situation. © 2015 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: speech acts, apology; efl learners 1. introduction in recent years, english as a lingua franca has emerged as a means of communication between speakers with different first languages, which drives english teaching to become increasingly important in non-english speaking countries. at the same time, english as a foreign language (efl) teachers are trying to improve english learners’ language competence comprehensively, so that english learners can communicate with english speakers effectively based on polite and proper verbal exchanges. however, despite being able to speak english fluently there is often a pragmatic dissidence in various speech acts that may reduce the communicative intent (cortazzi & jin, 2008; goh & kwah, 1997; rao, 1996; rao, 2002). in other words, a good-willed speech act in one culture may be considered ill-mannered in another, with a potential consequential result of misunderstanding or breakdown of an intercultural conversation, or may even cause offence to the other side. hence, it is believed that an effective and successful * corresponding author name. tel.: +90-312-212-6840 e-mail address: giti.ehtesham@gmail.com 2 g. e. daftari, z. m. tavil / international journal of curriculum and instruction 7(2) (2015) 1–17 communication between interlocutors rests upon proper and polite speech acts. successful communication not only involves the participants’ mutual understanding but also the polite and proper verbal exchanges. evidence shows that people with different cultural backgrounds find it particularly difficult to communicate with each other (fielding, 2006); also, the communication involving people from different cultures can go wrong more easily than those who share the same cultural background, because the meanings and understandings in some utterances associated with culturally specific conventions tend to be indirect and implicit. this means that a communicative flexibility is very important for comprehending the implied meanings behind some speech acts to achieve a satisfactory communication between culturally different interlocutors (gumperz & cook-gumperz, 1982; olshtain, 1983). according to leung (2005), communicative competence involves both linguistic competence and pragmatic competence. in other words, linguistic competence alone is not enough for a language learner to be competent as language is not just about syntax and lexis (krasner, 1999). language learners have to know the culturally proper ways to offer greetings, make requests, show apologies, express thanks, agree or disagree with others (peterson & coltrane, 2003). they should be aware of behaviors and intonation patterns which are appropriate in their own speech community but may be considered differently by others with different cultural backgrounds. language learners should also acquire pragmatic competence. possessing this capability, language learners will be able to identify how different communicative functions are realized in english and how these communications can be successful in certain situations (porter & samovar, 1991). therefore, efl teachers should help students develop both linguistic competence and pragmatic competence (gass & neu, 1996). teaching english as a foreign language that aims at providing learners with a means to communicate effectively in real life situation cannot be restricted to instilling linguistic competence, but also has to consider the learner’s need for acquisition of pragmatic competence, and thus, will reasonably provide contact with the culture related to the language (rathert, 2013). unfortunately teaching speech acts as a factor of pragmatic skill is not emphasized in most english institutes, high schools and universities; that can be the reason most efl learners often fail to recognize the correct function of speech acts in efl educational settings (olshtain, 1983; eslami-rasekh et al, 2004). regarding the importance of pragmatics and its implication in elt classrooms, the present study aims to investigate the act of apologizing with subjects from different levels of english proficiency in order to find out whether there are similarities and differences between their usage of apologies and whether they approach native speaker norms in using apologies. for this reason, the present study is designed to investigate the implicit teaching method of apology speech act and we intend to answer the following research questions: g. e. daftari, z. m. tavil / international journal of curriculum and instruction 7(2) (2015) 1–17 3 1) what are the formulas used by intermediate and advanced level subjects in apology situations? 2) are there any similarities and differences between their use of apologies? 3) do they approach native speaker norms in using apologies? 4) does implicit teaching of apology speech act by native speakers have any effect on efl learners' pragmatic awareness? 2. literature review the development of applied linguistics has caused more and more focus on the relationship between pragmatics and language teaching. the language philosopher austin (1962) was the first who introduced the concept of ‘speech act’, and his theory of speech acts was initially further developed by searle (1969). austin (1962) pointed out that, in their ordinary use of language, people not only produce utterances to merely say things about the world but also people produce utterances in order to do things. given the speech act as the basic unit of communication, searle (1969) places speech act at the very crux of the study of the language, meaning, and communication. he proposes some terms that are commonly used for such as request, promise, apology, compliment, complain, or invitation. these descriptive terms for different kinds of speech acts apply to the speakers’ communicative intention in producing an utterance. the act of apologizing is called for when there is some behavior which has violated social norms. when an action or utterance has resulted in the fact that one or more persons perceive themselves as offended, the culpable person(s) needs to apologize. we are dealing here, therefore, with two parties: an apologizer and an apologizee. however, only if the person who caused the infraction perceive himself or herself as an apologizer do we get the act of apologizing. the act of apologizing requires an action or an utterance which is intended to “set things right” (olshtain, 1983). as marquez-reiter (2000) states an apology is a “compensatory action for an offense committed by the speaker which has affected the hearer. according to bataineh (2006) apologies fall under expressive speech acts in which speakers attempt to indicate their state or attitude. they add that in order for an apology to have an effect, it should reflect true feelings. as searle (1976) states a person who apologizes for doing a expresses regret at having done a so the apology act can take place only if the speaker believes that some act a has been performed prior to the time of speaking and that this act a resulted in an infraction which affected another person who is now deserving an apology (olshtain, 1983). apology speech acts have been investigated cross-culturally in order to find similarities and differences between the languages (e.g. cohen and olshtain, 1981; olshtain, 1983; olshtain & cohen, 1983; blum kulka & olshtain, 1984; cohen et al, 1986; olshtain and cohen, 1989; owen, 1983). the studies have generally been carried out in situations where learners learn the target 4 g. e. daftari, z. m. tavil / international journal of curriculum and instruction 7(2) (2015) 1–17 language as their second language. the studies have shown that some learners employ language transfer from their l1, some learners approximate native speaker norms or some learners use completely different formulas different from the formulas they use in their l1 or l2. having carried out a study with 44 college subjects and comparing the use of apologies in hebrew and english, olshtain and cohen (1993) found that native speakers’ apology forms are patterned and nonnative speakers deviate from native speaker norms because of transfer and lack of proficiency. in a study on the use of apologies by turkish efl learners, erçetin (1995) stated that efl learners transfer the turkish speech acts into english (cited in tunçel 1999). she also carried out a study on the use of apologies and thanking with 129 efl learners at anadolu university, 50 native americans and british speakers and 44 native turkish speakers. he found out that efl learners exhibited transfer in the use of apologies from their l1 in some situations and he claimed that transfer of the rules of l1 can cause communicative misunderstandings and failures. olshtain (1983) carried out a study with 63 college subjects (12 native english speakers, 12 native hebrew subjects, 12 russian subjects and 13 english speakers learning hebrew at teacher’s college in jerusalem) to compare their apology usage. according to the results obtained from his study, he claimed that english speakers’ data differed from native hebrew data and they employed transfer. he used the categorization of cohen and olshtain (1981) such as: 1) an expression of apology (illocutionary force indicating device ifid) a) an expression of regret (e. g. i’m sorry) b) an offer of apology (e.g. i apologize) c) a request for forgiveness (e.g. excuse me, forgive me) 2) an offer of repair/redress (repr) (e.g. i’ll pay for your damage) 3) an explanation of an account (expl) (e.g. i missed the bus) 4) acknowledging responsibility for the offense (resp) (e.g. it’s my fault) 5) a promise of forbearance (forb) (e.g. i’ll never forget it again) in another interesting study, holmes (1995) looked at gender differences in apologies and found both similarities and differences between males and females. the most obvious differences of the study were the following three points: 1. women used significantly more apologies than men did. 2. women used most apologies for the hearers of equal power, while men apologized to women of different status. g. e. daftari, z. m. tavil / international journal of curriculum and instruction 7(2) (2015) 1–17 5 3. women used most apologies for female friends, whereas men used most for socially distant women. 3. methodology 3.1. subjects data are collected from both native and non-native speakers. subjects of this study are 20 intermediate level efl learners, 20 advanced level efl learners and 4 native speakers of english language (table1). the data gathered from these subjects will be used to find similarities and differences between the groups and data from the native speakers of english will be used to find the native norms. efl learners are classified according to their proficiency levels. their ages ranges from 16-25. native speakers of english are efl teachers and their ages ranges from 2336 and all of them have been in turkey for more than two years. table 1. information about the subjects subjects number male female age intermediate 20 9 11 16-25 advance 20 7 13 18-24 native speaker 4 3 1 23-36 3.2. instruments 3.2.1. pre-test the discourse completion test (dct) was taken from tunçel (1999) and it had been adapted from other dcts used in literature (cohen & olshtain, 1981, eisenstein & bodman, 1986, tillett & bruder, 1985 and bergman an& kasper, 1993; cited in tunçel, 1999:57). the original version of the test had been pilot tested before the actual study. the reliability of the test was 75%. the test in this study consisted of 8 situations which were taken from tunçel and they started with a description of the situation. the subjects were wanted to write the first thing that came into their minds. the situations in this study were organized according to the severity of the offense and social status of the apologizer and apologize (appendix1). 6 g. e. daftari, z. m. tavil / international journal of curriculum and instruction 7(2) (2015) 1–17 3.2.2. post-test the discourse completion test (dct) was taken from bataineh & bataineh’s 2006. the original version of the test had been pilot tested before the actual study. the test in this study consisted of 8 situations and they started with a description of the situation. the situations were organized according to the severity of the offense and social status of the apologizer and apologizee (appendix2). efl subjects were also given a short background questionnaire to have an idea about their age, sex and if they had been abroad. native english speakers also completed the background questionnaire, they wrote about their country of origin, age, sex and the duration of their residence in turkey. 4. findings 4.1. pre-test the aim of this study in pre-test phase was to compare and contrast the use of formulas of intermediate and advanced level subjects in situations which required apologies. the data revealed that the apology formulas of these two groups differed according to the situation. the formulas they mostly used were more or less similar in situations 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. in situations 1 and 2 they mostly employed expl and ifid+expl, in situation 4 they mostly chose ifid+expl, in situations 5 and 6 they mostly preferred ifid+repr, in situation 7 they mostly chose ifid+expl and in situation 8 their choice of ifid+repr and expl+repr were similar. in situation 3 the formulas they used differed. subjects in intermediate level preferred to use expl, forb, ifid+expl, and ifid+resp whereas subjects in advanced level used expl+repr, resp+repr, ifid+repr and ifid+resp+repr formulas. g. e. daftari, z. m. tavil / international journal of curriculum and instruction 7(2) (2015) 1–17 7 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 ils als ns fig. 1. situation 3. although the formulas they used were similar in situation 4, subjects in intermediate and advanced groups employed other strategies. intermediate level subjects preferred expl category mostly whereas advanced level subjects used ifid, ifid+repr and ifid+expl+repr. these categories were similar to the categories of native english speakers. fig. 3. situation 4. 8 g. e. daftari, z. m. tavil / international journal of curriculum and instruction 7(2) (2015) 1–17 in situation 8 intermediate and advanced level subjects’ use of formulas showed differences. subjects in intermediate level preferred repr, expl and ifid+expl mostly whereas advanced level subjects preferred ifid+expl, ifid+expl+repr.   fig. 4. situation 8 comparing the overall percentage of the use of apologies by the three groups, it is clearly seen that advanced level efl learners involved in this research study, approach the native speakers’ norms more than intermediate level learners. fig. 5. percentage of apologies use by elementary, intermediate and advanced learners in pre-test g. e. daftari, z. m. tavil / international journal of curriculum and instruction 7(2) (2015) 1–17 9 native speakers of english language mostly prefer to make expressions of apology rather than promising of forbearance (e.g. i’ll never forget it again) or acknowledging responsibility for the offense (e.g. it’s my fault). intermediate level learners try to explain the situation more than advanced level learners and native speakers; whereas in most cases advanced level learners explain less and prefer to make an expression of apology (e.g. excuse me). native speakers of english language are more likely to make an offer of repair than both intermediate and advance level learners. all subjects are similar in taking the responsibility of the situation or promising of forbearance. 4.2. post-test the aim of this study in post-test phase was to investigate whether implicit teaching of speech acts by native speakers of english language affects efl learners’ use of apologies. the results show that both intermediate and advance level learners have approached native speaker norms in using ifid (an expression of apology, illocutionary force indicating device) and repr (an offer of repair) in post-test. in using expl (an explanation of an account), intermediate level learners approach native speaker norms more than advanced level learners.                  fig. 6. use of expl by intermediate and advanced learners in post-test 10 g. e. daftari, z. m. tavil / international journal of curriculum and instruction 7(2) (2015) 1–17 regarding to results, intermediate level learners approach native speaker norms in using ifid (an expression of apology, illocutionary force indicating device), repr (an offer of repair) and expl (an explanation of an account) in post-test.                       fig. 7. use of ifid, repr and expl by intermediate learners in post-test in case of advance level learners results show the change in using ifid, repr and expl; however this change is not as sharp as in the case of intermediate level learners.            fig. 8. use of ifid, repr and expl by advanced learners in post-test   g. e. daftari, z. m. tavil / international journal of curriculum and instruction 7(2) (2015) 1–17 11 5. conclusion this research study was an attempt to investigate the effects of using implicit teaching of apology speech act by native speaker of english language. the findings of the study indicate that implicit teaching of apology speech act was useful. a second finding is that efl learners lacked pragmatic proficiency in english which makes them use some strategies extensively. speech act is a language area in which performance is not absolute; therefore, we can’t expect all learners to acquire perfect native like performance. we can conclude that intermediate and advance level efl learners make different use of apology strategies depending on the situation. in most cases, advance level learners approach native speaker norms better than intermediate level learners; however, in some cases, intermediate learners seem to use apology speech acts closer to native speaker norms. the results of post-test revealed that subjects from both groups changed their use of making apologies after taking lessons from native speakers in an implicit manner. a tentative list of apology strategies, situations, syntactic and semantic formulas, keywords of apologetic expressions and their sequence will enable syllabus designers to meet the immediate needs of l2 learners for apologizing. the syllabus designers need to expose the learners to the patterns used most commonly by english native speakers. in this way the l2 learners avoid using repetitive use of apology “excuse me”. 5.1. implications for teaching the act of apologizing requires an action or an utterance which is intended to set things right. whether a specific discourse situation calls for an apology and whether a certain utterance qualifies as such an apology will depend on both linguistic and pragmatic norms. teaching speech acts enables efl learners to become aware of the pragmatics conventions of language use and cultural differences which constitutes appropriate use in english. trying to realize when, why, and how to make use of an appropriate realization patterns is essential. efl learners often either fail to recognize these patterns or encounter constraints according to negative transfer in the recognition of various suitable sentences. teaching speech acts helps the learners choose right and proper reply when faced with a particular speech situation. 5.2. limitations findings of this research study are limited to speech act of apology; different studies on the other types of speech acts or other topics in pragmatics may lead to different findings. besides, with the low number of participants, the generalizability of the findings should 12 g. e. daftari, z. m. tavil / international journal of curriculum and instruction 7(2) (2015) 1–17 be interpreted with caution. more reliable and valid results might have been drawn with more subjects participated in the study. the results are limited to a language institution in turkey; therefore they should not be generalized to all english learners. due to lack of time, in the present research study the subject group took english classes with native speakers of english language for eight successive weeks; whereas longer period is needed regarding to the implicit way of teaching speech acts in the study. 5.3. suggestions for further studies findings of this research study are limited to speech act of apology; similar studies can be conducted in the other types of speech acts such as requests, questions, compliments, etc. other topics in pragmatics can also be studied. similar studies are suggested with cross-cultural and inter-language aspects; 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(2003). culture in second language teaching [electronic version]. center for applied linguistics. retrieved september 5, 2010. http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/digest_pdfs/0309peterson.pdf porter, r. e., & samovar, l. a. (1991). basic principles of intercultural communication. in l. a. samovar & r. e. porter (eds.), intercultural communication (6th ed.; pp. 5-22). belmont, ca: wadsworth. rathert, s. (2013). the language outside and inside the foreign language classroom: speech act theory and discourse analysis. the internet journal language, culture and society. http://ww.aaref.com.au/attachment.aspx?id=2267 rao, z. (1996). reconciling communicative approaches to the teaching of english with traditional chinese methods. research in the teaching of english, 30(4), 458-471. 14 g. e. daftari, z. m. tavil / international journal of curriculum and instruction 7(2) (2015) 1–17 rao, z. (2002). chinese students' perceptions of communicative and non-communicative activities in efl classroom. system, 30(1), 85-105. searle, j. r. (1969). speech acts: an essay in the philosophy of language. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. searle, j. r. (1976). the classification of illocutionary acts. language in society, 5 (1), 1-24. tillett, b., & bruder, m. n. (1985). speaking naturally. cambridge: cambridge university press. tunçel, r. (1999). speech act realizations of turkish efl learners: a study on apologizing and thanking. unpublished phd dissertation. eskisehir: anadolu üniversitesi. sbe. appendix a. discourse completion test dear respondent, i am conducting a research study in which i will be reviewing apology strategies used by efl learners and native speakers of english to draw some conclusions regarding the way in which we apologize. the information gathered from this study will be used only for my project. all information gathered for this project will remain anonymous. thank you, giti ehtesham daftari please do not write your name sex: ☐ male ☐ female age: _______ years nationality:_____________________________ native language:_____________________________ directions: please write your response in the blank area. do not spend a lot of time thinking about what answer you think you should provide; instead, please respond as naturally as possible and try to write your response as you feel you would say it in the situation. potential follow-up responses by the other person in each scenario have been left out intentionally. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1.you completely forget a crucial meeting at the office with your boss. an hour later you call him to apologize. the problem is that this is the second time you’ve forgotten such a meeting. your boss gets on the line and asks: boss: “what happened to you?” g. e. daftari, z. m. tavil / international journal of curriculum and instruction 7(2) (2015) 1–17 15 you: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2.you forget a get-together with a friend. you call him to apologize. this is really the second time you’ve forgotten such a meeting. your friend asks over the telephone: friend: “what happened ? ” you: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3. backing out of a parking place, you run into the side of another car. it was clearly your fault. you dent in the side door slightly. the driver gets out and comes over to you angrily. driver: “can’t you look where you’re going? see what you’ve done!” you: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4. you promised to return a textbook to your classmate within a day or two, after xeroxing a chapter. you held onto it for almost two weeks. classmate: “i’m really upset about the book because i needed it to prepare for last week’s class.” you: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5. you accidentally bump into a well-dressed elderly lady at an elegant department store, causing her to spill her packages all over the floor. you hurt her leg, too. it’s clearly your fault and you want to apologize profusely. you: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6. spending an evening at a friend’s apartment, you accidentally break a small vase belonging to her. you: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7. rushing to get to class on time, you run round the corner and bump into one of your fellow students who were waiting there, almost knocking him down. 16 g. e. daftari, z. m. tavil / international journal of curriculum and instruction 7(2) (2015) 1–17 you: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8. you have forgotten to return the book you borrowed from your professor. on the staff corridor you come across your professor. you: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… appendix b. discourse completion test dear respondent, i am conducting a research study in which i will be reviewing apology strategies used by efl learners and native speakers of english to draw some conclusions regarding the way in which we apologize. the information gathered from this study will be used only for my project. all information gathered for this project will remain anonymous. thank you, giti ehtesham daftari please do not write your name sex: ☐ male ☐ female age: _______ years nationality:_____________________________ native language:_____________________________ 1. you accidentally run into a well-dressed woman while in a department store. what do you say to her? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2. you showed up an hour late for a meeting with all your colleagues. what do you say to your coworkers and boss? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… g. e. daftari, z. m. tavil / international journal of curriculum and instruction 7(2) (2015) 1–17 17 3. you borrowed your professor’s book but have lost it. your professor now needs the book back. what do you say to him/her? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4. you were supposed to go a friend’s birthday party but forgot because you had a paper to finish. what do you say to them? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5. you forgot an important meeting with your boss. what do you say to him/her? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6. you were playing with a friend’s computer and erased the important paper she/he had been working on for the past two weeks. what do you say to him/her? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8. you accidently knock an elderly lady over when getting off the bus in a hurry. what do you say to her? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 1–17 ijci international journal of  curriculum and instruction  a comparative survey of environmental education goals between the unesco framework and 10th grade palestine curriculum muneer jebreel karama a * a palestine polytechnic university, college of applied science, hebron, palestine abstract the present research, being one string of the environmental education (ee), aims to study, and analyze ee objectives in the palestinian 10th grade textbook from an international point view , namely : to conduct a comparative survey of environmental education goals between the unesco framework and 10th grade palestine curriculum. to achieve this aim, the researcher refers to the unesco framework as a standard tool of ee, then analyzes the palestinian 10th grade textbook in light of this tool. the finding of the research indicated that there are partial consistently between the unesco ee, and palestinian 10th grade textbook in two levels of objectives (2 and 3), while there is no match on the other two levels of objectives (1 and 4), on the light of these finding the researcher recommends to policy makers, and the palestinian writing team of the environmental education curriculum to reform objectives on the light of international trends toward environmental education. © 2016 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: environmental education; ee; unesco framework of ee, comparative survey, 10th grade palestine curriculum 1. introduction environmental education (ee) has been developing many years ago. moreover it was considered as continuous process of outdoor education, and to respond to the world’s growing awareness about environmental problems. thus ee has become an important school curriculums around the globe. ee refers to organized efforts to teach about how natural environments function and, particularly, how human beings can manage their behavior and ecosystems in order to live sustainably. the term is often used to imply education within the school system, from primary to post-secondary. * corresponding author. tel.: +9-702-252-2508 e-mail address: muneerk@ppu.edu; ssmathebron@yahoo.com 2 muneer jebreel karama / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 1–17 however, ee is sometimes used more broadly to include all efforts to educate the public and other audiences, including print materials, websites, media campaigns, etc. related disciplines include outdoor education and experiential education (borah, 2007). mainstreaming environmental issues has been identified as a major goal of the palestinian education system. in association with the ministry of agriculture, the ministry of education has incorporated issues such as biodiversity into the national curriculum, to raise awareness of the problems facing the environment and to highlight solutions (communications office of the united nations development program, 2005). the palestinian national curriculum is one of the only in the arab world that teaches environmental studies within the core curricula. it is not only in the core textbooks; it also cover some concepts related to the environment in the science subjects, from grades 1 to 12. also it encourages the children to keep their land clean and respect palestine’s rich history and heritage. the ministry of education is very concerned with promoting environmental issues as a commitment for the future (communications office of the united nations development program, 2005). 2. definition of terms it is useful to begin this research by defining the most important concepts and terms that will be used in this study, so the researcher will define environmental education, environmental education focuses on, outdoor education, experiential education, stockholm declaration, the belgrade charter, and the tbilisi declaration. 2.1. environmental education (ee) there are many definitions of the term ee, but the most important one was given by unesco: “environmental education is a learning process that increases people's knowledge and awareness about the environment and associated challenges, develops the necessary skills and expertise to address the challenges, and fosters attitudes, motivations, and commitments to make informed decisions and take responsible action” (borah, 2007). 2.2. environmental education focuses according to unesco, environmental education emphasizes these themes: awareness and sensitivity about the environment and environmental challenges. knowledge and understanding about the environment and environmental challenges. attitude concern for the environment and help to maintain environmental quality. skills to mitigate the environmental problems. participation for exercising existing knowledge and environmental related programs. 2.3. outdoor education muneer jebreel karama / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 1–17 3 outdoor education means learning "in" and "for" the outdoors. it is a means of curriculum extension and enrichment through outdoor experiences (environmental management programs director, 2015). environmental education is often taught or enhanced through outdoor experiences. the out of doors experience, while not strictly environmental in nature, often contain elements of teaching about the environment. 3. experiential education this is “a process through which a learner constructs knowledge, skill, and value from direct experiences" (environmental management programs director, 2015).experiential education can be viewed as both a process and method to deliver the ideas and skills associated with environmental education. 3.1. stockholm declaration officially known as the declaration of the united nations conference on the human environment (giolitto, mathot, pardo and vergnes, 1997) .the document was made up of 7 proclamations and 26 principles "to inspire and guide the peoples of the world in the preservation and enhancement of the human environment.” 3.2. the belgrade charter the belgrade charter was the outcome of the international workshop on environmental education held in belgrade, serbia (giolitto, mathot, pardo and vergnes,1997). the belgrade charter was built upon the stockholm declaration and adds goals, objectives, and guiding principles of environmental education programs. it defines an audience for environmental education, which includes the general public. 3.3. the tbilisi declaration the tbilisi declaration: noted the unanimous accord in the important role of environmental education in the preservation and improvement of the world's environment, as well as in the sound and balanced development of the world's communities (auer, 2010).the tbilisi declaration updated and clarified the stockholm declaration and the belgrade charter by including new goals, objectives, characteristics, and guiding principles of environmental education. 4. ee goals ee goals have received serious consideration from many countries, and international councils, for example the european resolution on ee set the following goals: 4 muneer jebreel karama / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 1–17 “to increase the public awareness of the problems which exist in the field , as well as possible solutions , and to lay the foundations for a fully informed and active participation of the individual in the protection of the environment and the prudent and rational use of natural resources. (giolitto, mathot, pardo and vergnes, 1997). giolitto, mathot, pardo and vergnes (1997) conclude the following aims of ee in different countries of european union: 1. the transmission of knowledge. 2. the creation of new behavior patterns. 3. the development of values, attitudes and skills necessary to protect and improve the environment. 4. the development of awareness of the necessity to protect nature and the environment and of the complexity of the both the environment and the interactions between man and nature. similar goals set by the u.s.a such as developing the issue of responsible citizenry, educating citizens who protect the environment, and feel their responsibility to do so, as one of the main goals of environmental education in american (hoody, 1995). moreover, naee’s excellence in environmental education – guidelines for learning (k12), mentioned the major goals of ee: “ee should help learners to develop questioning and analysis , knowledge of environmental processes and systems, skills necessary for understanding and addressing environmental issues and personal and civic responsibility (the national american association for environmental education,1999) ”.on the other hand, unesco sets the following ee goals, as shown in table 1 (unesco, 1994). table 1. unesco goals of ee goal level sub –goals muneer jebreel karama / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 1–17 5 goal level i: the ecological foundations level 1. communicate and apply the major ecological concepts 2. apply a knowledge of ecological concepts to the analysis 3. apply a knowledge of ecological concepts in predicting the ecological consequences of alternative solutions to environmental problems. 4. understand the principles of ecology 5. apply a knowledge of ecological concepts. goal level ii: the conceptual awareness level 6. understand and communicate how man’s cultural activities (e.g., religious, economic, political, social and others) influence the environment from an ecological perspective 7. understand and communicate how an individual’s behaviors impact on the environment from an ecological perspective 8. identify a wide variety of local, regional, national and international environmental issues and the ecological and cultural implications of these issues 9. identify and communicate the viable alternative solutions available for remediating crucial environmental issues as well as the ecological and cultural implications of these various solutions 10. understand the need for environmental issue investigation and evaluation 11. understand the roles played by differing human beliefs and values 12. understand the need for responsible citizenship action 13. identify and describe a wide variety of successful local, regional, national, and international sustainable development scenarios. goal level iii: the investigation and evaluation level 14. apply the knowledge and skills needed to identify and investigate issues 15. demonstrate the ability to analyze environmental issues 16. demonstrate the ability to identify alternative solutions for important issues 17. demonstrate the ability to evaluate alternative solutions and associated value 18. demonstrate the ability to identify and clarify personal values 19. demonstrate the ability to evaluate, clarify, and change value positions in light of new information 20. demonstrate the ability to analyze a variety of successful sustainable scenarios. goal level iv: the environmental action skill level 21. demonstrate a competence with a variety of citizenship action skills 22. evaluate selected actions in light of their ecological and cultural implications 23. demonstrate the ability to apply one or more citizenship action skills. in conclusion the unesco ee goals are more suitable for this research for the following reasons: 1) it is a more comprehensive and holistic perspective. 2) it has coherence in its goals, and sub -goals. 3) it was approved internationally. 4) the researcher assumes all countries adopted it in their ee. thus, the researcher decided to include these goals, and sub-goals in his current study to compare the goals in 10th grade of the palestinian textbook of environment. 6 muneer jebreel karama / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 1–17 5. models of ee in the previous topic i mentioned the goals of ee from different point of view, now the question is “ how to implement these goals?” , so we need an effective model to achieve the goals of ee. reviewing ee literature i found tens of models, but i will briefly mention the most famous of them:  a 3-dimensional model (palmer, 1998), the major aim of this model is to develop knowledge about the natural system using research approach.  a model of ee by (giolitto et al, 1997), which consists of three core issues, namely: cognitive, ethical, and action.  a linear model of ee by sterling and cooper, 1992). this model began with awareness then understanding and knowledge, skills, attitude and values, and finally action.  a model of elements of ee by ( klimov and ukolov ,1994). which contains four issues: cognitive element, values, normative element, and action element.  a dynamic model of ee adopted from (palmer, 1998). its core includes formative influences which depend on knowledge, skills, and values which will form environmental ethics and awareness. so from the previous review of ee models we can define some common ideas between them such as environmental awareness and cognitive development, while we can also define some different ideas such as dynamic and static models. 5.1. what is the ee model in 10th grade of the palestinian textbook on the environment? after reviewing this book (palestinian ministry of education, 2011). the researcher deduced the following important finding:  it is focused on the cognitive approach.  it is descriptive.  it focused on the international environmental problems such as global warming, ozone, and acid rain. it has problem solving approach. on the other hand, the book lacks the following issues: research approach, experimental, dynamic, and more enrichment ee materials. moreover, there are numerous ways palestinian students can learn about the environment in which they live. experiential lessons in the school yard and field trips to are most effective and promote a holistic model, using sustainable practices in the classroom and school grounds and encouraging students and parents to bring environmental education into their home. review of research in ee muneer jebreel karama / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 1–17 7 the researcher reviewed the research literature in ee, and he had found different approaches, such as the environmental literacy component, affective attributes, ecological knowledge. socio-political knowledge ,knowledge of environmental issues, cognitive skills, additional determinants, and responsible behaviors. so the researcher narrowed the focus to research that related to this study. blum (1987) analyzed the results of the survey of environmental knowledge and attitude in four european countries, and came to the conclusion that 9th and 10th grade students have low environmental knowledge. meanwhile, brody (1996) assessed the 4th, 8th, and 11th grade students’ science knowledge related to oregon’s marine resources. the students tested showed understanding of concepts such as energy, nutrients and food webs. gambro and switzky (1996), found a small increase in environmental knowledge from grades 10th to grade 12. finally, arrasmith (1995) conducted research at northwest regional educational laboratory, and found about 75% of washington schools offer environmental education to 3rd to 8th grade students. 6. environmental education in palestinian textbooks teaching and learning ee in palestinian schools begins in 7th grade until 10th grade with two session per week. all textbooks that contain ee mixed with other topics such as health, so the title of ee textbooks have the name “health and environment”. before the launch of the national curriculum in the 2000/2001 academic year, teachers taught environmental studies from textbooks that used examples of foreign environmental issues. it was deemed fundamental for students to relate to the issues facing their indigenous environment and accordingly, an environment related course was developed and launched as part of the national curriculum in 2000. one of the main features of ee curricula was to introduce a new subject called ‘the science of health and the environment’ as an elective in years 7 to 10. the palestinian ministry of education has produced four textbooks relating to the environment, which were taught in 2005 to a total of around 450,000 students each year and currently 60% of students in years 7 to 10 are enrolled in the course. this is having a wide-reaching impact not only on the children, but entire communities as well. in addition to class time, schools also offer complementary activities including agro-biodiversity clubs and projects such as the upkeep of school gardens and school clean-ups. other subjects also complement the core environment curriculum, such as national education, which specifically highlights national environmental issues with campaigns such as ‘keep palestine green,’ and in civic education, students are encouraged to respect the environment and not to damage palestinian natural heritage. additionally, environmental summer camps are held annually. 8 muneer jebreel karama / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 1–17 in association with the global environment facility (gef), undp/papp has provided support to curriculum development with an environmental perspective. given that diversity within the palestinian environment is constantly declining due to a range of issues such as environmental degradation and over-cultivation of natural rangelands, educating the young about these issues is seen as essential. one of the main components of the gef program in palestine is building public awareness through the education system. it is seen as key to promote concepts of agro-biodiversity and biodiversity within schools and universities, so that they become part of the mainstream and accepted as the responsibility of all (communications office of the united nations development program, 2005). 7. the problem statement as palestine’s commitment to addressing key problems grows, the consistency between the content in the environmental book of the palestinian 10th grade of health and environment, and unesco framework on ee, needs to be investigated. the research questions are: 1) what environmental education topics are there in the environmental book of the palestinian tenth grade? 2) what environmental education topics are there in the environmental education published by palestinian 10th grade compared by unesco? 3) what kind of similarities and differences exist between the two? 7.1. research hypothesis to answer the previous question, the researcher formulated the following null hypothesis (which may be accepted or rejected): 1) the environmental textbook for the palestinian 10th grade has broad topics that covered environmental education globally. 2) there is significant similarity (or differences) between environmental education issues of 10th grade palestinian textbook, and unesco framework goals. 7.2. aim of this research the present research is design to detect the relationship between the content in the environmental book of the palestinian tenth grade and unesco framework, so the aim of this research is:  to understand environmental education issue as presented in the palestine textbook. muneer jebreel karama / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 1–17 9  to compare environmental education issues in palestine textbook , and unesco documents of the same issues i.e. to reveal the similarity, and difference of this topics , so we encourage similarity and include missing environmental objectives in 10th grade textbook  to raise awareness of most important topics on environmental subjects. 7.3. research design the researcher will conduct content analysis of the environmental book of the palestinian tenth grade in light of unesco educational environment framework, which has four major general domain (levels), and each level has subgoals. 7.4. health and environment in our life, grade 10. i will review the book including the most important features such as content, message, approach, relevance to palestine, and theoretical and practical contents, then comparing the results of content analysis ( on the domains of objectives ) with unesco framework of ee. 7.5. general overview of content the table of contents in the palestinian textbook consists of seventh chapters; chapter four and chapter five deal with environmental issues, the rest of chapters deal with health. chapter four contains two sections, the first about environment and development, while the second deals with society and environment. chapter five contains pure environmental issues, namely: global warming, ozone depletion, acid rain, and soil erosion. 7.6. message of ee in palestinian 10th grade textbook the message of these chapters directed students in this manner: “please think globally to resolve environmental problems” so the textbook uses a problem solving approach in dealing with environmental problems through the following steps: 1) environmental problems and issues 2) characteristics of environmental problems 3) characteristics of environmental issues 4) the role of human beliefs in issues 5) the role of human values in issues 6) identifying the issue 7) analyzing belief statements for underlying values 10 muneer jebreel karama / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 1–17 8) presenting examples (models) of issues which have been analyzed. 8. research results this research part will present the results of content analysis based on the unesco framework of ee were used to analyze the palestinian 10th grade content. it gives the comparisons of objectives for two of them through tables followed by results and comments from researcher. 8.1. analysis of content in depth first of all, i would like to present the content analysis of the whole book including environmental, and no environmental topics as on the following table: the book contains the following issues, as indicated in table 2. table 2. 10th grade content analysis chapter number chapter name content of chapter 1 health of family and society life stages. characteristic of childhood. unconscious urination. family organization. social roles and its effect. 2 infection diseases tuberculosis. viral hepatitis. hiv/aids hiv/aids transmission 3 healthy food food contamination and spoilage. food preservation. cooking. dining etiquette and table manners. applications. 4 environment and development environment and development. environment and society. 5 global environmental issues global warming. ozone depletion. acid precipitation. soil erosion. 6 first aid fractures and sprains and treatment methods suffocation epilepsy blood donation is the duty of humanitarians 7 clothing and sewing chosen a clothes sewing, and hand sewing stitches from the above table we can derive the following finding: the majority of the content was about health, and the minority of content about environment as the following figures indicates. muneer jebreel karama / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 1–17 11 figure 1. the content amounts on 10th grade textbook of ee the columns represent the number of subtopics of each chapter, so the total numbers of sub topics in the environmental equal to 6 compared to 19 topics on health issues, so the content needs more prototype environmental issues such as the following proposed topics: ecology, energy , green plants as the basis, water and allied problems, food production and hunger, protecting species , air pollution, waste water treatment , noise pollution, solid waste disposal, economic development and population changes, citizens’ response to issues and their effects, and so on. 8.2. the percentage weight of environmental contents on the book from the above analysis we can summaries the environmental and no environmental issue by the following figures. 12 muneer jebreel karama / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 1–17 figure 2. the percentage weights of contents on 10th grade we may also depend on the number of book pages to calculate the percentage weights as in the following diagrams. figure 3. percent of environmental and not environmental pages in 10th grade textbook 8.3. photographs the two environmental chapters contained a total of 27 photographs as in the following table 3. muneer jebreel karama / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 1–17 13 table 3. environmental photographs in 10th grade book photograph frequency photograph content 17 natural 10 artificial 0 natural modified the concept natural on the above table means a photograph that was taken by a camera of a natural scene, while the artificial means a figure, or diagram. meanwhile photographs haven’t natural modified pictures, such as before-after projects that show enhancements to the environmental situations. 8.4. objectives of ee in the book as we can notice from the previous analysis the book has two chapters related to ee, so we want to know about their objectives to compare them with unesco objectives. chapter four has the following objectives:  the role of every palestinian toward the environment, and to protect it.  to differentiation between rules, regulations, and standards that concerning environmental issues.  the role of society in applying the environmental laws.  to know the importance of the rules of law in protection of environments.  to memorize the local palestinian laws of environment. chapter five has the following objectives:  to discuss air pollution.  to know the bad effects of air pollution.  to explain ozone depletion  to know the reasons for soil erosion, and its bad effects.  to know how acid rain forms, and its bad effects. 8.5. comparative between the book objectives and unesco objectives secondly, and after defining the ee objectives in 10th grade, and ee in unesco we may set the following comparison in the next table 4. 14 muneer jebreel karama / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 1–17 table 4. comparisons between 10th grade and unesco level one objectives unesco ee objectives palestinian 10th grade ee objectives results goal level sub -goals goal level i: the ecological foundations level communicate and apply the major ecological concepts apply a knowledge of ecological concepts to the analysis apply a knowledge of ecological concepts in predicting the ecological consequences of alternative solutions to environmental problems understand the principles of ecology apply a knowledge of ecological concepts. do not exist. no objectives match at this level. it seems that there are no 10th grade objectives that match unesco ee at level one as indicted above, thus it is necessary to reform ee in this book in light of unesco ee objectives. table 5. comparisons between 10th grade and unesco level two objectives unesco ee objectives palestinian 10th grade ee objectives results goal level sub -goals goal level ii: the conceptual awareness level * understand and communicate how man’s cultural activities (e.g., religious, economic, political, social and others) influence the environment from an ecological perspective * understand and communicate how an individual’s behaviors impact on the environment from an ecological perspective * identify a wide variety of local, regional, national and international environmental issues and the ecological and cultural implications of these issues * identify and communicate the viable alternative solutions available for remediating crucial environmental issues as well as the ecological and cultural implications of these various solutions * understand the need for environmental issue investigation and evaluation * understand the roles played by differing human beliefs and values the role of every palestinian toward environment , and to protect it to differentiated between roles, regulations, and standards that concerning environmental issues the role of society in applying the environmental laws to know the importance roll of laws in protection environments to memorize the local palestinian laws of environment. it seems that there is some consistency between unesco and palestinian 10th grade ee objectives. muneer jebreel karama / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 1–17 15 * understand the need for responsible citizenship action * identify and describe a wide variety of successful local, regional, national, and international sustainable development scenarios. from the above analysis we can conclude that there is a relationship between unesco and palestinian 10th grade ee objectives at level two of unesco general objectives. table 6. comparisons between 10th grade and unesco level three objectives unesco ee objectives palestinian 10th grade ee objectives results goal level sub -goals goal level iii: the investigation and evaluation level apply the knowledge and skills needed to identify and investigate issues demonstrate the ability to analyze environmental issues demonstrate the ability to identify alternative solutions for important issues demonstrate the ability to evaluate alternative solutions and associated value demonstrate the ability to identify and clarify personal values demonstrate the ability to evaluate, clarify, and change value positions in light of new information demonstrate the ability to analyze a variety of successful sustainable scenarios. to discuss the air pollution to know the bad effects of air pollution to explain ozone depletion to know the reasons of soil erosion, and its bad effects to know how acid rain formed, and its bad effects. it seems that there is some consistency between unesco and palestinian 10th grade ee objectives. from the above analysis we can conclude that there is a relationship between unesco and palestinian 10th grade ee objectives at level three of unesco general objectives. 16 muneer jebreel karama / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(2) (2016) 1–17 table 7. comparisons between 10th grade and unesco level four objectives unesco ee objectives palestinian 10th grade ee objectives results goal level sub -goals goal level iv: the environmental action skill level demonstrate a competence with a variety of citizenship action skills evaluate selected actions in light of their ecological and cultural implications demonstrate the ability to apply one or more citizenship action skills do not exist no objectives matches at this level it seems that there are no 10th grade objectives match unesco ee at level four as indicted above, thus it is necessary to reform ee in this book in light of unesco ee objectives. finally, it is recommended to reform ee of 10th grade at palestine in light of ee frame work that trustworthy by unesco, especially the general objectives at level one, and four. 9. conclusion this research is a call for policy makers, and the palestinian writing team of the environmental education curriculum to reform objectives on the light of unesco environmental education. the finding of the research indicated that there are partial consistently between the unesco environmental education, and palestinian 10th grade textbook in two levels of objectives, while there is no match on the other two levels of objectives. it is a hope that more and more policy makers, and the palestinian writing team of the environmental education curriculum realize their powerful role in inspiring the quality of environmental education in the palestine. the government and other educational institutions may urge policy makers, and the palestinian writing team of the environmental education curriculum to improve on environmental education curriculum importance of change in the light of unesco environmental education goals. references arrasmith, d.g. 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(1995). the educational efficacy of environmental education: an interim report. california: state education and environment roundtable, page 14. klimov, a.v., & ukolov, a. i. (1994). the system of ecological education: the problems of the development of the universal system of ecological education. ukraine state university, pages 5785. palestinian ministry of education. (2011). health and environment in our life, grade 10, pages 3121. palmer, j.a. (1998). environmental education in the 21st century: theory, practice, progress and promise. london: routledge. sterling, s. and cooper, g. (1992). in touch: environmental education for europe. surrey, uk: wwf, panad house. the national american association for environmental education (naaee). (1999). excellence in environmental education – guidelines for leaning (k-12): executive summary and selfassessment tool. rock spring, page 31. unesco-unep international environmental education programme. (1994).a prototype environmental education curriculum for the middle school, environmental education series 9, pages 1-3. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 75–86 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction possible problems in online foreign language teaching at a university context erkan yüce a *, a dr., nevşehir hacı bektaş veli university, nevşehir, 50300, turkey abstract online language teaching and learning contexts yield both merits and drawbacks for professionals and learners. within this scope, this study investigated the views of instructors on possible problems of online foreign language teaching with regard to language skills, language areas, and classroom management. a questionnaire consisting of 19 items was developed and implemented by the researcher. the study involved 30 language instructors selected purposefully at a state university context in turkey, and they took part in the process voluntarily. they had varying educational backgrounds and teaching experiences. frequencies (f) and percentages (%) were used in analyzing the data. the results were reported descriptively at the end. the results demonstrated that the participants supported online foreign language teaching with regard to language skills and language areas while they considered some aspects problematic in relation to classroom management. finally, limitations of the inquiry and implications for future studies were discussed based on the results. © 2017 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: online; foreign language teaching; problems 1. introduction our age has been under profound transformations in terms of technology and its reflections in human life. traditional language teaching and learning environments have witnessed many innovative ways of teaching and learning recently. nowadays, conventional language classes, where a language teacher conducts his/her classes face-toface with a group of learners, can easily be carried into online language classes. computer technologies enable language learners to reach desired language classes although they are in different cities, countries, and even in other continents. films, radios, televisions, laboratories, audios, and videotapes can be exemplified among the * corresponding author name. tel.: 0 (384) 228 10 00 e-mail address: erkanyuce@nevsehir.edu.tr 76 erkan yüce/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 75–86 earliest forms of technology tools used in language education contexts, and these were followed by computer applications and interactive tools (cunningham, 1998; iandoli, 1990). understanding potentials of a computer may pave new ways to use its applications in teaching and learning. multimedia, the internet, and other distance learning tools are extensively benefited by both language learners and teachers to promote efficiency in language learning (liu, moore, graham & lee, 2002). today, learners can easily reach computer technologies wherever they are; and, tanyeli (2009) states that higher education institutions are the ones, which are more occupied by online language teaching programs than the other institutions. economic reasons are among the most effective ones contributing to the online delivery. there is an increasing demand in online and blended courses as financial pressure forces universities to adapt their traditional instructional methods into the web-based education environments. the demand for online programs and courses has increased in three quarters of the institutions due to economic reasons (allan & seamen, 2014). at this point, it becomes crucial to relate the technology-based tools implemented in educational settings to pedagogical bases in order to benefit from them. for this reason, a deep analysis of the web-based instruments has become very important in language teaching and learning to avoid their deficiencies (felix, 2003). technological evolutions have brought several disadvantages into question in its brief history along with their benefits as well. prosperous potentials of computer-based language classes may cause fear among some language teachers (bax, 2003). additionally, leaving class practices conducted in real classroom environments for online meeting points to cover lessons may not be pedagogically productive (anderson, 2008). furthermore, online language learning and teaching materials may become burdens for the professionals, who are not informed appropriately on technical issues. also, face-toface learning contexts can provide more nonverbal aids together with visual and auditory ones for language learners (axtell, fleck & turner, 2004). forming and facilitating trust among members of learner groups might be problematic due to insufficient face-to-face interaction deficiency (peñarroja, orengo, zornoza & hernández, 2013; meskill & anthony, 2014). not only language teachers but also language learners may fail in efficient efforts regarding language learning due to the different underlying principles of online language learning environments. language professionals who want to touch upon mental state of a language learner need to highlight a point for that learner (tomasello, carpenter & liszkowski, 2007). similarly, learners’ attentions may become another problematic issue in online language learning environments since mutual interaction may not cover other features of communication such as gestures and mimics. likewise, technical problems closely connected with deficiencies of computers or the internet itself comprise a large part of the disadvantages in implementation of online language classes, which can cause crucial learning problems (jolliffe, ritter & stevens, 2001). erkan yüce/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 75–86 77 online teaching has become very common for the departments which are located outside main campus areas. online classes seem very practical for these departments, which need to be carried out with the same syllabus especially for the first grade students, when there are time and instructor restrictions. the efficiency of online foreign language classes becomes a prominent issue for both departments and university students in order to keep up with the standard education. this study can be regarded as an important one because it investigated the foreign language (fl) instructors’ views on possible problems of online foreign language teaching at a university context. accordingly, three research questions of the study are: 1. what do language instructors think on possible problems of online foreign language teaching with regard to language skills? 2. what do language instructors think on possible problems of online foreign language teaching with regard to language areas? 3. what do language instructors think on possible problems of online foreign language teaching with regard to classroom management? 2. literature review technology has enabled language professionals to transfer traditional classroom materials to online environments without taking into consideration the pedagogical requirements regarding effective teaching and learning, which may cause some obstacles for both learners and professionals. the researcher discussed some recent research studies to reflect the present situation of online language learning and teaching at this part. ushida (2005) investigated the context of an online language course in second language learning in connection to learners’ motivation and attitudes. the participants were found to have high anxiety levels when compared to the learners of traditional environments at the beginning of the academic year. this may result from their insufficient familiarity with online language learning environment. nonetheless, the learners’ motivation and attitudes in terms of second language learning were found to be comparatively positive and stable within the online language classes. the results also showed that motivated language learners of online language classes studied systematically and productively in order to do their best to improve their foreign language skills. similarly, liu et al. (2002) noted that most studies provided enthusiastic and positive attitudes of language learners in terms of technology applications in second language learning area. additionally, coffin and mcintyre (1999) mentioned that the learners’ perceptions on the internet might contribute to their motivations to accomplish the internet-based learning tasks. also, the internet self-efficient learners may accomplish the activities in a learning environment on the web better than those who are 78 erkan yüce/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 75–86 not efficient enough (tsai & tsai, 2003; yang & lin, 2010). also, ritter (1993) stated that most of the students (92%) were in favor of learning vocabulary items through a computer program instead of following traditional ways. likewise, sung and yeh (2012) tried to explore university students’ perceptions in taiwan context with regard to technology application in learning foreign language. the results showed that the learners were satisfied with technology implementations in foreign language classes due to their practicality, availability when needed, and their adjustability to language levels. hou (2015) investigated the perceptions of the student teachers on an online learning experience. the results demonstrated that participants recognized presence of others to support and transform their language learning through online communication. online communication also provided multidimensional roles for the learners by paving way for a professional community. however, several problems of online language teaching were reported in the literature as well. negative results which stem from software problems in online language classes were reported. the application of word processing software may cause undesired consequences. as a result, language learners may turn to paper-based revisions instead of using computers (hyland, 1993). there are also some negative results in relation to application of word processing programs in classrooms. for example, hyland (1993) advocated that students tend to revise more with pencil and paper than on a computer. likewise, russel and curtis (2013) indicated that the learners’ online learning satisfactions were negatively affected in large classes. the interactions either studentstudent or student-instructor in terms of quantity and quality were quite limited as larger classes negatively affected the instructors in forming an efficient language learning environment with considerable numbers of participants. additionally, shaw (2013) recommended language programs designed for small group of learners in online forums both to encourage learners and to support student-student interactions to enhance performance in learning. to sum up, literature indicated both positive and negative sides of language teaching and learning in online classes. the present study investigated possible problems in online foreign language teaching with regard to language skills, language areas, and classroom management. 3. method 3.1. participants the instructors of a state university who had teaching experience on online language teaching were the participants of this study. they took part in the study voluntarily to share their experiences. there were 15 male participants and 15 female participants. 23 participants (76.6%) graduated from a department of english language teaching (elt), erkan yüce/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 75–86 79 7 participants (23.3%) graduated from a department of english language and literature (ell). 14 participants (46.7%) had a bachelor’s degree, 15 participants (50%) had a master’s degree, and 1 participant (3.3%) had a phd. 11 participants (36.7%) were between the ages of 25-29, 16 participants (53.3%) were between the ages of 30-34, 2 participants (6.6%) were between the ages of 40-44, and 1 participant (3.3%) was 45 years old. the participants had also different profiles in terms of their professional experiences. 11 participants (36.6%) had teaching experience between 1 and 5 years, 16 participants (53.3%) had teaching experience between 6 and 10 years, 1 participant (3.3%) had teaching experience between 15 and 19 years, and 2 participants (6.6%) had teaching experience for more than 20 years. the following table (table 1) summarizes demographic features of the participants: table 1. demographic profiles of the participants features category n % sex female 15 50 male 15 50 total 30 100 department elt 23 76.7 ell 7 23.3 total 30 100 educational background bachelor’s d. 14 46.7 master’s d. 15 50 phd. 1 3.3 total 30 100 age 25-29 11 36.7 30-34 16 53.3 35-39 40-44 2 6.6 total 30 100 experience (years) 1-5 11 36.7 6-10 16 53.3 15-19 1 3.3 20-above 2 6.6 total 30 100 80 erkan yüce/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 75–86 3.2. data collection instrument a questionnaire consisting of 19 items was designed to collect the data. each item in the questionnaire included five options for the participants to choose from i.e. strongly agree (sa), agree (a), undecided (u), disagree (d), and strongly disagree (sd). the questionnaire items focused on possible problems of online foreign language teaching in relation to language skills, language areas, and classroom management. eight items (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8) investigated the views of foreign language instructors on possible problems of online foreign language teaching related to language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). three items (9, 10, and 11) investigated the views of foreign language instructors on possible problems of online foreign language teaching in connection to language areas (vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar). last eight items (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19) tried to find out the views of foreign language instructors on potential problems of online foreign language teaching with regard to classroom management (technical, interaction, concentration, insufficient experience, attention span, the web tools, technological equipment). 3.3. piloting and data analysis three experts in different branches of educational sciences were consulted in the designing process of the questionnaire items. initial implementations of the questionnaire were regarded as pilot study. additionally, a computer program was used to calculate internal consistency of the questionnaire items. the results yielded high level of internal consistency, 0,889 (0.7 ≤ α < 0.9). the researcher implemented descriptive statistics to analyze data obtained from the questionnaire. frequencies (f) and percentages (%) were calculated through a computer program. the results were reviewed by another expert in the area. finally, the results were reported. 4. results possible problems of online foreign language teaching with regard to language skills were investigated in the first research question. the results obtained from the questionnaire items (1, 2, 3, 4) showed that most of the instructors were in favor of online foreign language teaching in terms of receptive language skills (reading and listening), and they disagreed with the idea that online foreign language teaching cause problems. 83.3 % (f=25) of the instructors did not think that online foreign language teaching is problematic for reading skill (1st item), and 73.3% (f=22) of the instructors did not think that online foreign language teaching is problematic for reading skill at esp classes (2nd item). furthermore, 90% (f=27) of the instructors did not think that it is difficult to improve students’ listening skills through online foreign language classes (3rd and 4th items). however, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th items in the questionnaire showed that the erkan yüce/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 75–86 81 percentages, which support using online foreign language teaching in fl classes in terms of productive skills (speaking and writing), were lower than the percentages obtained for receptive skills. 63.4% (f=19) and 53.3% (f=16) of the instructors thought that it is possible to improve students’ speaking skills through online foreign language classes (5th and 6th items) while 53.3% (f=16) and 56.7% (f=17) of the instructors thought that it is possible to improve students’ writing skills (7th and 8th items). the following table (table 2) summarizes the results as follows: table 2. possible problems of online foreign language teaching with regard to language skills questionnaire items sa a u d sd total f 1. it is difficult to improve students’ fl reading skills through online language classes. 4 1 19 6 30 2. it is difficult to improve students’ fl reading skills related to their subject areas (english for specific purposes/esp) through online language classes. 7 1 16 6 30 3. it is difficult to improve students’ fl listening skills through online language classes. 2 1 14 13 30 4. it is difficult to improve students’ fl listening skills related to their subject areas (esp) through online language classes. 2 1 14 13 30 5. it is difficult to improve students’ fl speaking skills through online language classes. 3 6 2 14 5 30 6. it is difficult to improve students’ fl speaking skills related to their subject areas (esp) through online language classes. 3 8 3 10 6 30 7. it is difficult to improve students’ fl writing skills through online language classes. 2 10 2 10 6 30 8. it is difficult to improve students’ fl writing skills related to their subject areas (esp) through online language classes. 2 10 1 12 5 30 possible problems of online foreign language teaching with regard to language areas were investigated in the second research question. 80% (f=24) of the instructors did not think that online foreign language teaching cause problems in teaching vocabulary (9th 82 erkan yüce/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 75–86 item). 70% (f=21) of the instructors did not think that online foreign language classes are problematic in teaching grammar (10th item), and 76.6% (f=23) of the instructors supported online foreign language classes in teaching pronunciation (11th item). the following table (table 3) summarizes the results as follows: table 3. possible problems of online foreign language teaching with regard to language areas questionnaire items sa a u d sd total f 9. it is difficult to teach new vocabulary items to students in fl through online language classes. 4 2 13 11 30 10. it is difficult to teach fl grammar through online language classes. 6 3 15 6 30 11. it is difficult to teach fl pronunciation through online language classes. 2 2 3 13 10 30 the last research question dealt with possible problems of online foreign language teaching with regard to classroom management. firstly, 15th item (instructors’ lack of experience, 83.4%, f=25) had the highest percentage among the other expected problems. secondly, technical problems (12th item; 60%, f=18) stemming from insufficient technological equipment (19th item; 66.7%, f=19), which may lead students to be unable to concentrate on (14th item; 63.4%, f=18) activities in foreign language classes were considered very problematic by the instructors. thirdly, the instructors thought that they may have problems in face-to-face interactions with students (13th item; 56.7%, f=17), and the face-to-face interactions among students (17th item; 56.7%, f=17). lastly, they thought that they may have problems in using the web tools (18th item; 56.7%, f=17); but, they did not think that they may have problems in paying attention to activities during classes (16th item; 46.2%, f=14). the following table (table 4) summarizes the results as follows: table 4. possible problems of online foreign language teaching with regard to classroom management questionnaire items sa a u d sd total f 12. i may come across some technical problems in an online foreign language classroom. 5 13 5 6 1 30 13. i may have problems in face-to-face interaction with my students in online foreign language teaching. 5 12 5 5 3 30 erkan yüce/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 75–86 83 14. students may have concentration problems in online foreign language learning. 5 14 5 4 2 30 15. instructors’ lack of experience can cause problems in terms of effective teaching in online foreign language classes. 11 14 3 1 1 30 16. i may not keep my attention longer in online foreign language classes. 4 6 6 10 4 30 17. online foreign language classes decreases the interaction between teachers and students. 5 12 7 3 3 30 18. the web tools can cause some problems in online foreign language learning and teaching. 17 6 5 2 30 19. technological equipment is not sufficient in the classrooms for online foreign language classes. 8 12 2 4 4 30 5. discussion and conclusion all in all, this study investigated the perceptions of foreign language instructors on the possible problems of online foreign language teaching at a university context in turkey. primarily, the study concluded that most of the participants did not think that online foreign language teaching may cause problems in terms of language skills. however, they were more in favor of teaching receptive skills (reading and listening) than teaching of productive skills (speaking and writing) when we compare the results. the results for language skills were in line with findings in the literature. for example, liu et al. (2002) mentioned promising effects of computer-based applications on language learning. secondly, most of the language instructors did not think that online foreign language teaching may cause problems in terms of language areas. this result supported the previous studies in terms of vocabulary acquisition (i.e. ritter, 1993). lastly, most of the language instructors thought that online foreign language teaching may cause classroom management problems in terms of technical issues, face-to-face interaction, concentration, efficiency of teaching, the web tools, and technological equipment. the result approved previous results indicated in the literature on classroom management in terms of student-to-student interaction and instructor expertise (i.e. russel & curtis, 2013), technical expertise (i.e. hampel & stickler, 2005; rogerson-revell, 2007), interaction (i.e. harrison & thomas, 2009; yang & lin, 2010), the web tools ( i.e. chacón-beltrán, 2014; yang & chen, 2007), technological problems (i.e. juhary, 2012), effective teaching (i.e. zamari, adnan, idris & yusof, 2012). in conclusion, after considering the results related to the possible problems of online foreign language 84 erkan yüce/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 75–86 teaching in relation to language skills, language areas, and classroom management; the language instructors did not regard online foreign language teaching as problematic in teaching language skills and language areas while they regarded it as problematic in terms of classroom management in relation to some issues. 6. limitations and implications this study was limited to a small number of participants who had teaching experiences on online foreign language teaching within a university context. also, data collection tool of the study was a mere questionnaire designed and implemented by the researcher. similarly, this study was carried out within the context at one of the public universities in turkey. for further studies, large numbers of participants from different universities can be included in research inquiries by designing and implementing multiple data gathering instruments. classroom management problems which stem from technical problems may be handled by technologically well-equipped classrooms. departments can provide training activities for language instructors to overcome unexpected simple technical problems. choosing well-designed and pedagogically efficient tools on the web which have interesting interfaces for learners can result in longer attention span. furthermore, cooperative learning activities through innovative and user-friendly multimedia tools can promote collaboration among learners. references allen, e., & seaman, j. 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(2012). students’ perception of using online language learning materials. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 67, 611 – 620. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). guided knowledge search during mathematical problem solving key issues in unesco policy on inter-cultural education linda king 24 key issues in unesco policy on inter-cultural education linda king director a.i. division for the promotion of basic education unesco multiculturalism is a reality in most countries of the world in the 21st century. there are very few nation states where only one language is spoken, or only one set of cultural patterns or religious beliefs the norm. it is a fact that we live in an inter cultural world, interacting everyday of our lives with people who speak different languages from us, eat different foods, believe in different gods (or none at all), and who bring up their children in sometimes radically different ways. nevertheless, most children, unless they are in culturally or religiously specific schools, interact on a daily basis with others who may hold different sets of values. where this is recognized and positively supported, it may be considered formally as inter cultural education, where it is not, it nevertheless exists (albeit at an informal level) although in this case it is more likely that there will be negative stereotypes which circulate within the school and are reproduced through ignorance and fear of other cultures and religions. much has been made recently of approaches to multicultural education and intercultural education. in general terms, inter cultural education implies a proactive stance on the part of schools to bring different cultural groups together to a situation of understanding, respect and dialogue. multicultural education often stops short of this goal, and seeks tolerance of other cultures rather than engagement and understanding. multiculturalism as a policy may even encompass integrationist, and assimilation approaches while paying lip service to the notion of cultural diversity. in terms of educational planning for multiculturalism, uniform solutions for educational policy are attractive in terms of administrative and managerial simplicity. textbooks and international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 learning materials produced in only one language and encompassing only national references to culture (leaving out the local languages or cultures) may seem more feasible and realistic. there is the position that through a ´one size fits all’ education, cultural difference may be minimized, leading, the argument goes, to greater social cohesion. but both arguments disregard the risks involved in terms of reduced learning achievement1, loss of cultural diversity and the promotion of learning to live together in one world as a precondition for peace. on the contrary, however the challenge must be for education systems to adapt to contemporary complex realities and provide a quality education which takes into consideration learners´ needs balancing these with social, cultural and political demands, and with economic development that, in turn, goes hand in hand with the eradication of poverty. culture and education: the crucial relationship although education may be formal, informal or non formal, most of what we commonly refer to as education pertains to the formal schooling system taking place throughout the different learning cycles in young people’s lives. school is hence the most visible educational institution, and its role is central to the transmission of knowledge and the development of competencies. it is a determinant factor in the evolution of societies and universal primary schooling is at the forefront of the millennium development goals established by the united nations to be achieved by 2015 2 reflecting, in turn, the importance of the dakar plan of action, which emerged from the world forum on education for all in 2000 and which set out six major goals including universal literacy, gender equity, quality education for all, universal primary schooling, early childhood education and education for life skills.3 increasingly, however, there has been a call for the recognition of different cultural identities in education and in broader public policies in general. indeed, the concept of multicultural citizenship, which supplements basic human rights with that of minority and cultural rights, has come to the 25 key issues in unesco policy on inter-cultural education linda king forefront in the work of the major development agencies, including the world bank and the united nations development programme.4 while cultural, religious and ethnic identities are not necessarily new in themselves, what is more recent is their role in demanding a say in national education policy thus expressing the need for their particular views of the world to be taken into consideration within the educational context. in discussing culture in this text, reference is made to all the factors that pattern an individual’s way of thinking, believing, feeling and acting towards other members of society. it has been defined variously in unesco documents as “the whole set of signs by which the members of a given society recognize …one another, while distinguishing them from people not belonging to that society”5 and as “the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of a society or social group….(encompassing) in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs” 6 culture is at the core of identity and is a major component in the reconciliation of group identities within a framework of social cohesion. language, moreover, is both the expression of a culture and the principal means through which culture reproduces itself. linguistic diversity is a reflection often as not, although not exclusively, of cultural diversity. both language and culture are at the core of education in different contexts and ergo of intercultural education. in turn, culture and education are intertwined, language itself ensuring the transmission of knowledge in the school or learning context. interculturality, on the other hand, refers to the relationships between cultures and, in this particular case, within the educational context. it presupposes cultural diversity in national settings and proposes dialogue between cultures with a view to promoting peaceful co-existence and tolerance of each other. a major challenge, nevertheless, when discussing the issue of education and culture is dealing with the inherent tension between diverse and competing world views, whether this be between groups that have recently migrated into territories previously occupied by other cultures and peoples, or between cultures and peoples that have long withstood the effects of 26 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 colonization from previous eras. although the circumstances and conditions may be different, the underlying dialectics are nevertheless the same, namely the “toing” and “froing” between diverse knowledge systems and their relation, in turn, to the structures of power, both economic and political, within nation states. it is furthermore, this relationship of knowledge, power and political context that determines the nature of the educational system and the place it accords to diversity and multiculturalism. unesco´s mandate unesco, as the united nations agency charged with monitoring and supporting the global trends in education, science, culture and communications, was mandated to support the development of “the means of communication between peoples and to employ these means for the purposes of mutual understanding and a truer and more perfect knowledge of each other´s lives”7. unesco was born with a post-war vision of utopian idealism, the key to peaceful relations between countries and peoples was, it was thought, the cultivation of knowledge and understanding. at that time, in the early forties, however, only 18 countries attended the first london conference and only 44 came to the constitutional conference held in 1945. the world map still reflected the dominance of imperialism and it was only in the sixties with the achievement of independence by african states that the current configuration of unesco membership came into being and was able to develop its now considerable influence on the world debate on education, science, culture and communication and the interaction between these. cultural diversity stenou8 has analysed the major unesco documents in regard to cultural diversity since its creation and has found that four main periods of thinking in the organization´s history may be observed. in the first place, in the years following the end of the second world war, unesco focused on education and knowledge as the key to peace. “the idea of pluralism, diversity 27 key issues in unesco policy on inter-cultural education linda king or interculturality was therefore linked to that of international, not intranational, differences….” culture itself was seen less as a question of identity than as of artistic expression. the second period witnessed the independence of many formerly colonial countries which now entered the international arena and whose justification for coming into existence as nation states lay, precisely, in their separate cultural identities. during this period, a growing resistance to the homogenizing forces of technology began to be evident coupled with a largely silent resistance to the dominance of superpowers, in the cold war context, by small states. the third period, she contends, constituted an extension of the second period whereby the notion of culture as political power became associated with the idea of endogenous development. the link between culture and development was associated with claims by developing countries to follow their own paths for development and to have the right to receive international funding for this. finally, the fourth and most recent period has been characterized by a link between culture and democracy, with an emphasis on the need for tolerance and understanding not only between member states but also within them. we may add to her analysis that this has been associated with accelerated globalization and corresponding demographic shifts caused by, on the one hand, increasingly mobile migratory movements and on the other, sharp drops in the fertility levels of industrialized countries coupled with the opening up market economies occasioning influxes of young immigrant labour from different cultural backgrounds into ageing, formerly monocultural and monolingual societies. the most recent period in unesco´s work in regard to cultural diversity is marked by the watershed of the post 9/11 period. in particular, the general conference of 2001 following shortly after the event itself, with all the debate and ramifications that ensued, unanimously approved the universal declaration of cultural diversity seeing this as an opportunity to reaffirm the need for inter cultural dialogue and to avoid what huntington had seen as the inevitable clash of civilizations 9. the focus was now on the concept of constructive pluralism and the organization´s medium term strategy for 2002 to 2007 explicitly states “the idea is to channel diversity towards constructive pluralism 28 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 through the creation of state and societal mechanisms to promote harmonious interaction between cultures. …the protection of cultural diversity is closely linked to the larger framework of the dialogue among civilizations and cultures and its ability to achieve genuine mutual understanding, solidarity and cooperation”. (stenou: 20). the unesco convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions approved in october, 2005 reinforced the ideas already expressed in the unesco universal declaration on cultural diversity of 2001 in regard to the role of education in protecting cultural diversity, stating that diversity can only be guaranteed through respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and through educational programmes which sustain these. dialogue between civilizations the notion of dialogue between civilizations to neutralize or substitute for the supposed clash theory put forward by huntington (op.cit) is now central to the thinking of unesco. the concept of “civilization” itself, moreover, is understood as “universal, plural and nonhierarchical… evolving through contact, exchange and dialogue…and is inherently inter cultural” 10. there has indeed been a shift in the organization´s thinking in regard to the notion of dialogue that has been documented in several texts.11 the movement for dialogue among civilizations has in turn motivated a considerable number of meetings and declarations which seek to move the agenda beyond merely stating the notion of goodwill between countries and cultures and towards seeking practical manifestations of that sense of community and tolerance. hence, an international ministerial conference on the dialogue among civilizations was organized in india in 2003, a regional forum on dialogue among civilizations held in macedonia in 2003, while in 2004, the tirana regional summit was convened on inter religious and inter ethnic dialogue in south east europe and finally in hanoi in the same year, there was an asia pacific conference on dialogue among cultures and civilizations for peace and sustainable development. then in 29 key issues in unesco policy on inter-cultural education linda king 2005 an international conference on fostering dialogue among cultures and civilizations through concrete and sustainable initiatives was held in morocco whose aim was to be “a launch pad for the development and adoption of series of concrete measures and activities”. at the rabat conference education was identified as a prerequisite for dialogue and inter cultural understanding. “there is a repeated appeal from governments, politicians, parliamentarians, educators, decision-makers and civil society representatives to use education as a privileged tool for fostering the dialogue among cultures and civilizations”.12 in particular, certain areas of education were singled out for emphasis to achieve this goal. citizenship education, for example, whose aim is to teach young people their legal rights and obligations, and to promote their commitment to shared values, equity and justice, tolerance and respect for the other. multicultural education, itself, was conceived as enhancing and improving knowledge of culture, civilizations, religions and traditions through teachers' guides and curriculum models as well as the revision of national textbooks and university curricula in key disciplines such as history, geography, philosophy, social and human sciences. particular emphasis was placed on the importance of textbook revision, for these: “present an opportunity for engaged dialogue between students, between teachers, and by extension between students and their families and ultimately between cultures”.(ibid) the need for these to be examined from a gender and a human rights perspective so as to eliminate stereotypes and promote a positive view of other cultures was emphasized. much of the discourse surrounding the dialogue between civilizations has been intertwined with that of the prevention of terrorism, and indeed dialogue is perceived as an essential preventative measure to undermine the bases of hatred and misunderstanding that provoke terrorist activity. in particular in 2004 the secretary general´s high level panel on threats, challenges and change made specific reference to the pivotal role of education.13 nevertheless we should be cautious about making assumptions in regard to the relationship, either in terms of promotion or prevention, between schooling and the 30 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 development of terrorism. research carried out on this issue has not brought forward conclusive evidence that this is in fact the case, and it is evident that simplistic assumptions far from clarifying matters, often serve to confuse or create further intolerance or negative stereotyping. 14 the alliance of civilizations (aoc) in 2005, the secretary general of the united nations convened a high level group to examine ways and means to reduce world tensions and contribute to the fight against terrorism. one area which was marked out for attention was inevitably the schooling system and education in general, this being the principal institutional context where young people learn to relate to others in society and the world, and develop their personal and social identities. school is where they learn about their own history, and sometimes, the history of other countries and their society´s place in the world. in particular, the group looked amongst other topics, at issues in global and cross cultural education, media literacy, teaching about religion, peace and civic education, higher education and teacher training and the role of the internet in education. a major recommendation of the aoc has been the importance placed on the question of world history. the need has been stressed to develop curriculum and further disseminate those curriculums already available on world history, and to train teachers able to communicate to students the commonalities in the history of the world and the multiplicities and connections contained therein. the report on education submitted to the high level group found that world history research and curriculum is not as advanced in muslim regions of the world as in north america, the far east and latin america and that this lacuna should be addressed by the aoc in its work. nevertheless, despite the fact world history studies are more developed in some regions, this does not of itself guarantee understanding and tolerance of other civilizations and their histories.15 the report also recommends further efforts in teaching about other religions in schools. 31 key issues in unesco policy on inter-cultural education linda king education in multilingual contexts language and culture are, it is often posed, two sides of the same coin. without language there is no culture, and language itself is the vehicle by which culture is communicated through collective memory and representation. linguistic diversity is closely linked to cultural diversity and in many contexts also to biological diversity where loss of local languages often implies loss of local knowledge of the ecology. questions of identity, nationhood and power are closely linked to the use of specific languages in the classroom. in fact, the choice of language (or languages) of instruction is probably one of the most hotly debated aspects of inter cultural education occasioning widely divergent views on all sides of the spectrum. while there are strong educational arguments in favour of the use of mother tongue instruction a careful balance needs to be made between facilitating learning and providing access to broader learning contexts. linguistic isolation from the rest of society is clearly a danger in minority language instruction, and policy makers need to be sensitive to the importance of bilingual models of instruction, and of avoiding the creation of museum cultures in ghettos on the margins of mainstream society. in this regard, there are certain guiding principles which have been produced throughout the years of unesco´s mandate for action in the field of languages in education and have been the subject of numerous debates and declarations. they may be understood in terms of three key positions: in the first place, unesco supports mother tongue instruction as a means of improving educational quality by building upon the knowledge and experience of the learners and the teachers. secondly, unesco supports bilingual and/or multilingual education at all levels of education as a means of promoting both social and gender equality and as a key element of linguistically diverse societies. and finally, unesco supports language as an essential component of intercultural education in order to encourage understanding between different population groups and ensure respect for fundamental rights. 16 32 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 inter cultural education unesco´s work on education in general, and inter cultural education, in particular, is framed within a number of standard setting instruments and documents, the major one of which is the universal declaration of human rights (1948) which states categorically that education shall be directed to the full development of human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. it shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial and religious groups and shall further the activities of the united nations for the maintenance of peace17 these principles are echoed in later standard setting documents, in particular the unesco convention against discrimination in education (1960), the unesco recommendation concerning education for international understanding, cooperation, peace and education relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms (1974), the international convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (1965), and the declaration in the elimination of all forms of intolerance and of discrimination based on religion or belief ( 1981). the 1966 international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights adds a central provision concerning the social empowerment of the individual through education by stating that “education shall enable all persons to participate effectively in a free society”18 while the 1989 convention on technical and vocational education explicitly states the need to take into consideration the cultural background of students and speaks of the importance of protecting the common heritage of mankind.19 the (1989) convention on the rights of the child, one of the most influential conventions in this regard, states explicitly that “the education of the child shall be directed to….the development of respect for the child´s parents, his or her own cultural identity, languages and values, for the national values of the county in which the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate, and for civilizations different from his or 33 key issues in unesco policy on inter-cultural education linda king her own.”20 similarly, the international convention on the protection of the rights of all migrant workers and member of their families (1990) emphasized that the teaching of the mother tongue and culture of the immigrants should be facilitated. more explicitly still, the ilo convention 169 which addresses the needs of indigenous and tribal peoples stipulates that “education programmes and services for the peoples concerned shall be developed and implemented….to address their special needs and shall incorporate their histories, their knowledge and technologies, their value systems and their social, economic and cultural aspirations...”21 specifically, in regard to inter cultural relations, it is required that “educational measures shall be taken among all sections of the national community…with the object of eliminating prejudices that they may harbour in respect of these peoples” (ref).22 yet there is an underlying tension, though not necessarily a contradiction, between both the universality of the human right to education and the right to hold distinct identities as manifest in the phenomenon of cultural pluralism. concepts of diversity, and indeed the reality of it, may inevitably create a need to accommodate different cultural and linguistic identities within a common national curriculum. the challenge is to be responsive to the expressed needs of specific societies. it may well be that different educational models emerge across regional, subregional and, indeed, local realities. while in some situations there may be expressed demand for an education that responds to and is inclusive of local cultural contexts, in others, this may be seen as marginalizing local communities from mainstream educational opportunities in the broader national context. nevertheless, this need not be the case, and there are many successful examples of inter cultural education that reflect the contexts in which children are growing up.23 the delors commission on education for the twenty first century established by unesco in 1993 to determine the emerging orientations of education policy in the world, set out four basic pillars of learning essential for the future of education. these were:24 34 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 -learning to know -learning to do -learning to live together. -learning to be of these, the third pillar is arguably the most important in terms of inter cultural education and learning. by learning to live together children “develop an understanding of other people and an appreciation of interdependence-carrying out joint projects and learning to manage conflicts in a spirit of respect for the values of pluralism, mutual understanding …and peace”.25 how may these pillars be translated into inter cultural education policy as understood by unesco? throughout the past sixty years of its history unesco has served as a global forum for dialogue between member states, and as a reflector of trends and new thinking on social, scientific and educational issues. an analysis of documents and recommendations produced over this period has led to the establishment of certain key principles in regard to inter cultural education which may be summarized as respect for the cultural identity of the learner through provision of culturally appropriate and responsive quality education for all, provision of the cultural knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to participate fully and actively in society, and provision of the cultural knowledge, attitudes and skills which enable learners to contribute to respect, understanding and solidarity among individuals, ethnic, social, cultural and religious groups and nations.26 as events and international politics continue to shape world history, so too will the focus of unesco in terms of policy which reflects the needs and concerns of member states in a changing global context. nevertheless, the organization´s central mandate as originally set out in its constitution to promote world peace through inter cultural dialogue remains as crucial as ever as we move forward through the 21st century. 35 key issues in unesco policy on inter-cultural education linda king endnotes 1 various studies have shown that children learn better when they learn in their mother tongue. see in this regard tucker, g.r. 1997 the use of first and second languages in education: a review of educational experience; mehotra, s. 1998 education for all: policy lessons from high achieving countries; unicef staff working papers and dutcher, n. 2001 expanding educational opportunity in linguistically diverse societies. center for applied linguistics, washington. 2 the eight millenium development goals include the achievement of universal primary education for boys and girls by 2015. see: www.un.org/millennium goals. 3 see unesco 2000 world report. education for all. 4 see for example, united nations development program, human development report 2004 cultural liberty in today´s diverse world. new york: undp; and the 2006 world bank report: cultural diversity and delivery of services: a major challenge for social inclusion 5 unesco 1992 international conference on education 43rd session. the contribution of education to cultural development. p.5 6 cf unesco 2001 universal declaration on cultural diversity 7 1945 preamble constitution unesco 8 unesco 2004 ed k. stenou. unesco and the issue of cultural diversity. review and strategy 1946 to 2004. 9 huntington, samuel 1996 the clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order. new york. simon and schuster 10 unesco 2005 report by the director general on the promotion of the dialogue among peoples. 171/ex.40 11 see in particular unesco 2004 new approaches and concrete actions in the dialogue among civilizations unesco 170 ex7inf 5 (executive board document). 12 unesco, isesco,alecso, oic, dcco, anna lindh foundation. 2005 background document : international conference among cultures and civilizations through concrete and sustainable initiatives. rabat 13 un 2004 a more secure world: our shared responsibility. www.un.org/secureworld 14 cf. douglass´analysis for the high level group of the alliance of civilizations of research findings on this issue, particularly in studies in pakistan and saudi arabia, which failed to find any clear linkage. 15 indeed, recent polls in us cited by douglass (op.cit.) suggest that is far from being the case, although a report published by the bbc ( 36 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 bbc world service 19.02.2007) comparing attitudes in 27 different countries found striking differences in attitudes even between european countries. 16 see unesco 2003. education in a multilingual world. ed. linda king 17 art. 26.2 universal declaration of human rights 1948. 18 art. 13, international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights. 1966 19 art 3 convention on technical and vocational education 1989 20 art 29 convention on the rights of the child 1989 21 art 27. ilo convention 169 concerning indigenous and tribal peoples in independent countries. 1991 22 ibid. art.31 23 see king,l. and s.schielman 2004 the challenge of indigenous education. unesco for a set of case studies on successful practice in indigenous and intercultural education in different regions of the world. 24 delors, jacques 1996 learning: the treasure within report to unesco of the international commission on education for the twenty-first century unesco 25 ibid. page 97 26 for further detail of these see unesco 2006, guidelines on intercultural education. references alliance of civilizations secretariat (2006) research base for the high level group report. education: analysis and existing initiatives. new york: s. douglass king, linda (ed.). (2006). guidelines on intercultural education. paris: unesco. king, linda (ed.). (2003). education in a multilingual world. education position paper. paris: unesco. king, l., & schielman, s. (2004). the challenge of indigenous education. practice and perspectives. paris: unesco. unesco, stenou, k. (ed.) (2004). unesco and the issue of cultural diversity. review and strategy 1946 to 2004. unesco, isesco,alecso, oic, dcco, anna lindh foundation (2005) background document: international conference among cultures and civilizations through concrete and sustainable initiatives. 37 key issues in unesco policy on inter-cultural education linda king unesco (2005) 171 ex/40 report by the director general on the promotion of the dialogue among peoples. unesco (2004) new approaches and concrete actions in the dialogue among civilizations 170ex/inf 5. paris: unesco. united nations development program, human development report (2004) cultural liberty in today´s diverse world. new york: undp united nations (2004) a more secure world: our shared responsibility. www.un.org/secureworld world bank (2006) world bank report cultural diversity and delivery of services: a major challenge for social inclusion. new york: world bank. 38 increasing diversity in international education: programming for non-traditional students through an alternative curriculum model available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 22–35 ijci international journal of  curriculum and instruction  increasing diversity in international education: programming for non-traditional students through an alternative curriculum model rebecca a. clothey a * a drexel university school of education, one drexel plaza, ste. 148, philadelphia, pa 19148, usa abstract this paper looks at an alternative curriculum model for study abroad designed specifically to address some of the needs of non-traditional students enrolled in an online education program. in order to meet the needs of non-traditional students and provide quality international programming for them, it is necessary first to understand their restraints to studying abroad, and then to design alternative educational models that can address these challenges. the paper describes the challenges of balancing the need to create quality international learning opportunities for education students, with the limitations faced by non-traditional online adult learners who have families and full-time jobs. it is based on an action research case study of two study abroad programs implemented for online students at a northeastern four-year research-one institution of higher education. © 2016 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: study abroad; online learning; non-traditional students 1. introduction 1.1. statement of the problem the demand for online learning has increased rapidly in the past decade. education providers worldwide are offering online courses and programs to increase flexibility in time and place of learning and to increase access to education for various groups, such as non-traditional students who need more flexibility in their schedules due to time constraints, as a result of family and work responsibilities, or because of geographic limitations (jakobsdóttir, 2008). accommodating this same group of students when faced with demands for face-to-face offerings becomes a unique challenge. * corresponding author. tel.: +1-215-895-5931 e-mail address: rac52@drexel.edu rebecca a. clothey / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 22–35 23 this paper looks at an alternative curriculum model for study abroad designed specifically to address some of the needs of non-traditional students enrolled in an online education program. in order to meet the needs of non-traditional students and provide quality international programming for them, it is necessary first to understand their restraints to studying abroad, and then to design alternative educational models that can address these challenges. the paper describes the challenges of balancing the need to create quality international learning opportunities for education students, with the limitations faced by non-traditional online adult learners who have families and full-time jobs. it is based on an action research case study of two study abroad programs implemented for online students at a northeastern four-year research-one institution of higher education. 1.2. scholarly background on higher education, non-traditional students, and study abroad although many educators extol the benefits of international education in general, and study abroad in particular as a way to facilitate cross-cultural awareness and global citizenship, study abroad opportunities continue to be dominated by white, middle class females. the institute for international education (iie) estimates that fewer than 36% of undergraduates who study abroad are male, and that racial and ethnic minorities account for only about 21% of the total us student population studying abroad (obst et al., 2007). this is despite the fact that the us post-secondary student body has in fact never been so diverse in terms of age, race, ethnicity, and gender. research also shows that students of education are among the least likely to study abroad, although they will be working with and shaping the future of children (stearns, 2009). the institute of international education (iie) annual report (2007) states “to succeed in a global economy and interconnected world, u.s. students need international knowledge, intercultural communication skills, and global perspectives” (p. 6). to this end, u.s. students have been going abroad in increasing numbers. nevertheless, students from certain groups remain underrepresented, including ethnic minorities, first generation students, and non-traditional students, despite the expansion of these populations into higher education. in fact, as a result of the massification of higher education in the united states, the proportion of white college students in the united states has declined between 1990 and 2009 from 78 to 62 percent, while racial and ethnic minorities have increased—blacks from 9 to 14 percent; hispanics from 6 to 12 percent; and asian/pacific islanders from 4 to 6 percent (snyder, 2011, 13). in addition, in 2009, 42 percent of us college–aged students were at least 25 years of age and 57 percent were female (clothey, et al., 2012), reflecting that tertiary education in the united states is no longer the domain of an elite, traditional college aged cohort of white male students. 24 rebecca a. clothey / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 22–35 much of higher education’s expansion is due to new avenues of access to higher education, which were previously closed to all but the elite. indeed, in recent years online enrollments have grown at rates far in excess of the total higher education student population. such demand is illustrated by online enrollment growth rates between 9 and 23% percent each year from 2003 and 2011, as compared with only 2.6 percent growth of the overall higher education student population in the same period (allen and seamen, 2013). furthermore, the number of students taking at least one online course has now surpassed 6 million, with at least one third of all students in u.s. higher education taking at least one online course (allen and seamen, 2013). according to aslanian and clinefelter (2013), the typical online student in the united states is a caucasian female, who is 35 and married. online courses are of particular appeal to students who need more flexibility in their schedules due to time constraints, as a result of family or work responsibilities, or because of geographic limitations. although white females are the most likely to study abroad, many of the constraints of online students are similar to those of students who are among those least likely to study abroad. despite a diversification of higher education in the us, carroll (1996) notes that study in a foreign country has been historically viewed as a privilege for wealthy students, and current trends show that this has not changed much over time (iie, 2007). research shows that populations that continue to be underrepresented in study abroad include minority students, male students, students with certain majors, and nontraditional aged students (stroud, 2010). perceived barriers to studying abroad among these populations include academic, personal and financial concerns (the forum, 2009). certain majors are also disproportionately represented in study abroad. stroud (2010) notes that among 1,485,000 bachelor’s degrees conferred in the united states, the largest number of degrees was in the fields of business (318,000), social sciences and history (161,000), and education (107,000). despite this, however, only 4% of education majors studied abroad in the 2012/13 academic year, compared with 20.4% of business majors (iie, 2014). furthermore, students pursuing a master’s degree are even less likely to study abroad than those who plan to pursue a bachelor’s degree or less (stroud, 2010). 2. method it is within the context of a desire to develop a quality curriculum for an online international education program for non-traditional students that this study was undertaken. the paper takes an action research case study approach. erfan and ravin (2013) define action research in education as an “inquiry conducted by educators in their own settings in order to advance their practice and improve their students’ learning” (p. 2). thus, in the interest of improving the international learning opportunities for students enrolled in one educational program, an action research approach was rebecca a. clothey / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 22–35 25 undertaken. in addition, yin (2009) suggests that case studies are an appropriate approach for studying a complex phenomenon with a particular context. this paper is an action research case study of one curricular setting within one tertiary institution, designed to examine the ways in which an international education experience can be implemented face-to-face for online students in that context. 2.1. site the programs discussed in this paper, and the site for the study, are situated at a private 4-year research university located in the northeast of the united states. thus, the educational programs offered at one tertiary institution comprise the boundaries for this case study (yin, 2009). 2.1.1. background to northeast university and online programs the face-to-face study abroad programs that are the subject of this paper were created based on demand from students enrolled in an online program in international education. the online program is based at a private comprehensive university located in the northeast of the united states. the institution has over 22,000 students and is ranked in the top 20 among largest private universities. the university is known for its experiential learning approach. for example, all undergraduates are encouraged to incorporate cooperative learning into their academic curriculum, which allows them to work for six months in a setting related to their major and receive academic credit toward graduation. all incoming freshmen students are also required to participate in service learning. the university is also recognized for its use of academic technology. it was the first in the united states to require all incoming students to have microcomputers, and was the first major university to operate a fully wireless campus. in addition, the university has offered educational programs online since 1996, which are designed for working professionals and corporations in the u.s. and abroad. a pioneer in online education, u.s. news & world report has ranked its online programs as being among the "best" in the fields of education, business, engineering, and library science (ne university website, 2012a). 2.1.2. international education program the study abroad programs were developed as a curricular offering of the master of science in international education (msie) program. the program was launched as a fully asynchronous online program in the fall of 2006 with 20 students. since that time the student body has grown to over 100 students located on every continent except antarctica. the program curriculum is composed of 15 3-credit courses, for a total of 45 credit hours. each course is taught over a 10-week quarter, which leads to the completion of the degree in 24 months for students who take two courses per quarter, four quarters per year (ne university, 2012b). 26 rebecca a. clothey / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 22–35 the promotional materials state that the master’s of science degree will “prepare students to work effectively with the complex global challenges, trends, and issues influencing education and learning in diverse parts of the world, including the united states” (ne university, 2012b). because of the interests of the students majoring in this field, they began making demands for an integrated study abroad component within the first year of the program’s launch. however, also because the program is by nature international, with a student body and instructors residing worldwide, it was difficult to conceptualize a study abroad program that would be appropriate for the population. a second issue was that the majority of the student body is comprised of non-traditional students. most students fit the profile of typical online students and also fall within one of the underrepresented groups for study abroad: they are full-time working professionals taking online courses because they do not have time to sit through face-to-face coursework several times a week. the program’s students range in age from 22 to 52, and many of them are also spouses, parents, and even grandparents, making additional demands on their time (brack, 2010). furthermore, the student population had presumably opted to enroll in an online program because of these demands, making the addition of a face-to-face study abroad program that would meet the needs of this student population very difficult to imagine. 2.2. data collection in order to assess the feasibility of offering a study abroad program and design an appropriate curriculum for this online cohort of students, two phases of research were conducted. during phase 1, an internal analysis of the program’s student body was conducted using a descriptive survey. in phase 2, a study abroad model was designed based on the responses collected during phase 1. evaluations and interviews were then conducted after the study abroad program was implemented, in order to assess the success of the model and modify it as needed. 2.2.1. phase 1 in january 2010, an online descriptive survey was used to gather demographics and information about participants’ interest in and availability or restraints for a study abroad program. the voluntary and anonymous web-based survey was distributed to 120 current students and alumni from the msie program via emails sent by the program manager. the survey was created and posted on the school of education’s survey system as part of one student’s final capstone research project (brack, 2010). 2.2.2. phase 1 results the phase 1 survey produced 40 responses, achieving a total response rate of 33.3 percent (brack, 2010). of the 40 responses to the survey, 72.5 percent were female and 85 percent were caucasian, which corresponds with the typical online student across the rebecca a. clothey / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 22–35 27 united states. approximately half of respondents (47.5 percent) were between the ages of 25-29; most others were older. slightly less than half (42.5 percent) were married, and 22.5 percent had children. while all respondents indicated a desire to study abroad with the program, approximately 68 percent of respondents noted that only a short-term study abroad program of one month or less would be a possibility for them. almost a fourth (24.33 percent) preferred a duration of only one to two weeks (brack, 2010). in an open-ended section of the survey, students identified barriers that would prevent them from participating in a study abroad program, revealing the time constraints and financial obstacles the majority of this population of students face. students noted barriers such as having to make babysitting arrangements for children while abroad, getting enough time off from work, the cost of travel as well as the cost of not working while traveling, and seasonal limitations. summer programs were noted as highly preferred by most respondents, the majority of who worked as teachers. though other research on barriers to studying abroad indicate that financial concerns are not the top limitation for most students due to financial aid opportunities (stroud, 2010), the survey reflected that in fact, for these students, time and money mattered a lot. as one respondent stated: “not working and having to pay all of the usual bills while abroad is not easy for adult working students” (brack, 2010). this is likely a reflection of the conflicting needs of non-traditional vs. traditional students. 2.2.3. phase 2 the results from phase 1 were used to help the program’s administrators to develop a study abroad program in phase 2 that would fit within the constraints of a majority of the program’s students and their schedules. based on the results of the phase 1 survey, as described above, it was determined that a short-term study abroad program, comprising no more than two weeks overseas, was the best way to realistically accommodate the demand for a majority of the students, a desire for hands-on international experience advocated by ne university’s experiential learning approach, and the program’s philosophy. phase 2 data was collected from two international study tours with online graduate students through on-site observations, informal interviews with participants, and student program evaluations. in total there were 23 study tour participants across both international study tours. the author, as a study tour leader, was a participant observer during both study tours described in this paper. according to merriam (2009), participant as observer may occur when the researcher’s observer activities are subordinate to the researcher’s role as participant. careful notes were taken during the study tours about the observations and reflections that were made during the experience (merriam, 2009), and feedback from the student participants was also recorded. students also were asked to keep journals of their own observations throughout their experience abroad. at each study tour’s conclusion, the university’s study abroad office conducted program 28 rebecca a. clothey / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 22–35 evaluations to generate feedback from participants about their experience (fitzpatrick, christie, and mark, 2009). the evaluation was based on a five point likert scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree) and included questions about the impact of the study tour such as “i had meaningful interactions with the local culture,” and “the study tour was informative and deepened my understanding.” open-ended questions included, “what three items helped deepen your understanding?” and “do you feel study abroad was a valuable addition to your educational experience?” internal program documents and public records were also reviewed to provide additional context and validity (yin 2009). 3. results: development of a short-term study abroad model according to the institute for international education (iie) (2007), recent growth in study abroad enrollment is due to study programs that offer shorter lengths of time than semester and academic year programs. more than half (approximately 56%) of u.s. students elect short-term study abroad programs (including summer, january term, and any program of less than 8 weeks), whereas semester study now accounts for only 39% of students studying abroad (iie, 2014). however, some study abroad advocates are wary of shorter-term programs, claiming that programs of longer duration provide better opportunities for deeper immersion in the culture (iie white paper, 2007). in response, in 2009 the forum on education abroad produced a list of nine standards of good practice for short-term education programs. these are listed below: 1. the program relates to the education abroad mission of the organization and has welldefined academic and/or experiential objectives 2. the program is reviewed in the light of its stated educational purpose for fostering student learning and development 3. the organization maintains clearly stated and publicly available policies on academic matters related to education abroad. 4. the organization maintains clearly stated policies on non-academic matters related to the educational experience abroad. 5. the program or its sponsoring institution provides advising and orientation support that is consistent with the program’s mission and the needs of its students. 6. the program maintains and makes publicly accessible, its commitment to fair and appropriate policies regarding student selection and conduct. 7. the program has adequate financial and personnel resources. 8. the program has established and continuously maintains effective health, security, and risk management policies, procedures, and faculty/staff training. 9. the program is organized in conformity with ethical principals and practices. (the forum, 2009) rebecca a. clothey / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 22–35 29 keeping in mind the forum standards of good practice and the msie program students’ limitations, it was decided that a short-term study abroad program of no longer than 2 weeks in duration would be integrated with a full 3-credit course, which would be offered online. the rationale was that a short-term standalone study abroad program would have less academic value for fostering student learning and development (the forum, standard 2) than one which was integrated into a full academic-term experience. in addition, it was believed that integrating a mandatory short-term study abroad component into a full 3-credit course would have potential to attract more students, because participants could take the course as part of the credits needed toward their graduation. furthermore, they would also be eligible for financial aid under the simon act, which allows students to use financial aid for study abroad if it is required for course credit. 3.1. online study abroad model the program’s first course with integrated short-term study abroad was offered in the summer of 2010. the forum standard 3 of good practice, “academic framework,” suggests that short-term study abroad programs seek “to integrate student overseas learning with requirements and learning at the students’ home institutions” (the forum, standard 3, 2009). the phase 1 survey also indicated that students wanted a course that was related to the program’s popular secondary concentration in peace education, and that students preferred to go to europe. because the msie program also had affiliated faculty who had expertise on this topic in northern ireland, and who also had experience organizing study abroad programming there, the course “peace and conflict resolution in northern ireland” was designed and offered as an elective course to satisfy some requirements of the peace education secondary concentration. coincidentally, the united kingdom also happens to be the most popular destination for study abroad among us students (iie, 2014). the format design incorporated eight weeks of coursework (as opposed to a regular summer quarter at the university, which would be ten weeks). during the first four weeks, students participated in class online, during which they learned about the history and key issues of the conflict in northern ireland and how education has been used to instigate or address these issues. this academic foundation prepared students for meeting in person in northern ireland, for 8 days of on-site lectures, meetings, and visits to key sites relevant to the peace building process. activities included lectures on integrated education in northern ireland, visits to the peace wall in belfast, and tours of historical sites in both belfast and derry. during one historical walking tour of derry, the group randomly encountered the irish 1998 nobel peace prize winner john hume, whom they had just read about in class the previous week. students were then able to ask him questions in person about what they had read about him. they commented 30 rebecca a. clothey / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 22–35 afterwards that this was an amazing example of experiential learning that could never have happened if they had not traveled to the country they were studying. when students returned from the trip they had another two weeks of class online, during which time they reflected on the experience and completed final projects related to the course theme. the first course and study abroad trip included eight students, 2 males and 6 females, which fortunately just met the minimum requirement for the trip to run. three out of eight of the people in the group were minorities; one student was married and a parent. all but one student was working toward a master’s degree in international education; one was getting a master’s degree in teacher education; all but one worked full-time and all were taking additional online courses even while abroad. because msie students are based all over the world, airfare was not included in the cost of the trip, instead, students were asked to meet their professor and program administrators at a designated date and time at the program’s hostel in belfast. it was not a surprise that students connected there from three different continents. though the majority flew in from various points in the united states, there was also a student who came to belfast from mexico, and another one from india. although the first group was considered small in proportion to the number of students in the master’s in international education program overall at the time, positive feedback from program participants confirmed that this model had potential to attract online students to a study abroad option. thus, a second trip was planned the following year. for the second study abroad program, a different three-credit course was offered, which was developed based on faculty interest and expertise. it was believed that master’s degree students who remain enrolled in the program for two years might go abroad twice if there were different opportunities each year. therefore, a new course, “internationalization and higher education” was planned. this course included a case study component on internationalization of higher education in china. though the course content was different, the format was the same. students had 4 weeks of content online introducing them to the main ideas of internationalization with specific examples pertinent to china. during weeks 4 and 5 of the course, students spent ten days together face-to-face in china with their course instructor, conducting site visits to chinese universities and educational providers. lectures by international education professionals at study abroad programs, chinese universities, private english language providers, and a provincial ministry of education were among the academic activities that were integrated into an intensive ten-day study tour. during the second course, students also flew to the program’s meeting point in beijing from different parts of the us, as well as from cambodia and japan. there were 15 participants, 6 males and 9 females, 2 who were minorities, and one who was recently married and a parent. in addition to the group having doubled from the previous year, rebecca a. clothey / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 22–35 31 another interesting difference in the composition of the student body was that a significant number of students from other education programs besides international education also enrolled in the course as an elective. though the international education students had been the target audience, there were also 5 students from the master’s program in higher education, and one teacher education major in the group. this result suggested that with an appropriate course theme, students from many education majors might be attracted to the course. this is worthy of consideration especially when planning appropriate study abroad programming for pre-service teachers. also noteworthy was that gender was more evenly balanced for the china trip than it had been for the trip to northern ireland. this is despite the fact that, as is typical for online programs, a large majority of students in both the international education and the higher education programs are female. in fact, according to a 2012 internal study, the university’s higher education program is 62% white and 73% female (“who we are,” 2012). 4. program results and discussion feedback from both post-trip evaluations was positive. all students indicated that their learning had been greatly enhanced by the study abroad portion of the course. benefits of the study abroad portion of the course identified by students included that they were able to: meet living history, better understand the context by interacting with local people, network with professionals in the field, and strengthen their resume. an added bonus of study abroad for the online population was that they could interact faceto-face with their classmates and professors; few of them had ever met prior to the study abroad excursion. the change in gender imbalance between the northern ireland and china trips warrants a closer examination. as discussed, much of the study abroad literature indicates that a gender imbalance exists in study abroad. however, study abroad in china tends to be an exception. men are far more likely to study abroad, and the gender china tends to be an exception. men are far more likely to study abroad, and the gender ratio is closer to 50/50 than in any other host country (brandauer, freyhof, and riley, 2011). feedback from american men who study in china typically emphasizes practicality and career considerations for going there (brandauer, et al., 2011). this would be a reasonable assumption in the case described here, as well, given that a larger proportion of higher education students participated in the second trip to china then the first trip to northern ireland. as chinese students make up the bulk of international students on us college campuses now, more higher education professionals are finding it necessary to have knowledge of chinese culture. however, none of the feedback on the program evaluation specifically identified a professional need to go to china or even a particular interest in china as a reason for participating in the trip. in fact, the stated 32 rebecca a. clothey / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 22–35 reasons for participating in the trip to china were similar to those identified by the students who had traveled to northern ireland. they included: wanting to experience another culture, and desiring a learning experience outside the online environment. those who had traveled to china and did indicate the influence of career in their decision to study abroad stated they wanted to study abroad because they wanted to work in study abroad. it is therefore difficult based on participant feedback to speculate whether the study abroad location impacted the gender balance. future planned summer shortterm study abroad trips that will be offered through the school of education will be to ghana and to vietnam; it therefore may be possible to examine whether location impacts the gender balance of short term study abroad more longitudinally. the second area where it is difficult to assess the success is in recruiting minority students. the proportion of minority students was low, especially to china. however, given that the school of education’s online programs’ minority population is also proportionately low, the minority population on both trips was representative. it should be noted that all of the minority students who participated in either trip had been abroad more than once before traveling with the programs described here. in contrast, there were caucasian students on both trips who had never before traveled abroad. three of the students who traveled to china had never left the united states, and one of these three also had extremely limited experience outside of her home state prior to the trip. lastly, although 22.5% of the respondents in the msie program internal review conducted in phase 1 were parents, only one parent participated in each of the two study abroad programs discussed in this paper, which is not a proportionate representation. nevertheless, given that childcare was identified as one of the main constraints against studying abroad for this online student population, this too is not a surprise. however, perhaps it is significant that there were any parents at all. 5. lessons learned and conclusion according to wheeler (2000), while enrollments in study abroad programs are increasing, stays abroad are growing shorter. in the past, short-term study abroad programs were considered undemanding and not valuable, but recent studies have shown that students who participated in short-term study abroad programs gained the same personal and intellectual growth as that which was attained from those who participated in traditional long-term study abroad programs. for online students who wish to have the experience of studying abroad and getting a taste of another culture but perhaps do not have the time, money, or resources to complete a traditional semester or year abroad, short-term programs are ideal. rebecca a. clothey / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 22–35 33 similarly, program evaluations indicated that program participants also gained a great deal from their short-term stay abroad. embedding the program within the context of a larger 3-credit online course ensured that students were able to maximize their short time abroad and gain a meaningful experience. hands on learning about the subjects they were studying in their online coursework, as well as the opportunity for face-to-face interaction added to the learning experience. furthermore, the format of the program attracted students who would not be able to study abroad in a more traditional academic format because of time or financial constraints, including older and part-time students, and parents. the short-term embedded experience proved to be the only way to provide this group of non-traditional online students a study abroad experience. though this action research case study discusses an experience with only two shortterm study abroad programs within one university’s school of education online programs, these cases revealed that the short term study abroad curriculum model embedded into a full-term online course worked well for the target population. however, several questions remain and warrant further investigation. among them are: 1. could the same model be successful for other populations? 2. could such a model attract underrepresented populations to study abroad within the undergraduate population? 3. what else can be done to attract underrepresented populations to study abroad? 4. can face-to-face study abroad be required for online students in an international education program, and if not, how can the cultural exchange aspect be facilitated online? the examples discussed here demonstrate that with proper planning, study abroad can be a viable option for non-traditional online student populations. as the us student population continues to become more diverse, education models and curriculum must change and respond to adapt to the changing student needs. if study abroad programs especially designed for target populations are more widely implemented, even students (such as the education students discussed in this paper) who face great obstacles can and should go abroad. however, for those students for whom a face-to-face learning abroad experience will remain impossible, online programs should maximize their potential for learning at a distance to provide high quality virtual cultural exchanges. acknowledgements the author wishes to thank patricia brack for her preliminary survey that facilitated the design of the short-term study tours. 34 rebecca a. clothey / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 22–35 references allen, i. e., & seamen, j. 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(2009). educating global citizens in colleges and universities: challenges and opportunities. new york: routledge. rebecca a. clothey / international journal of curriculum and instruction 8(1) (2016) 22–35 35 stroud, a. (2010). who plans (not) to study abroad? an examination of u.s. student intent. journal of studies in international education, 14(5), 491-507. wheeler, d. (2000). more students study abroad, but their stays are shorter. chronicle of higher education, (47), 12. who we are: a look at ne university’s mshe program. (2012). unpublished internal report. philadelphia: ne university. yin, r.k. (2009). case study research: design and methods. los angeles, ca: sage. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). guided knowledge search during mathematical problem solving international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 3 enhancing the dialogue and alliance of civilizations: perspectives from peace education toh swee-hin (s.h. toh) distinguished professor un mandated university for peace, costa rica introduction over the past few decades, the role of culture and intercultural themes and issues has been increasingly recognized as vital in understanding and shaping relationships among diverse communities and nations. as immigrants arrived in north america, europe, australia and new zealand to begin new lives, institutions from workplaces and bureaucracies to schools and families, began to adapt to the reality of cultural diversity. in the face of resistance and barriers raised by certain segments of dominant ethno-cultural groups and the continuing existence of discrimination and racism, policies of multiculturalism and multicultural education have nonetheless gained widening acceptance. due to the accelerating forces of economic globalization, hitherto relatively culturally homogenous societies are now also obliged to resolve issues of integration arising from the inflow of migrant workers and intercultural marriages. elsewhere, in places in which diverse ethnic, tribal and faith groups have lived together over many generations, the dynamics of modern political, economic and social formations and relationships have also catalyzed inter-group conflicts. in some instances, these conflicts have spawned xenophobia, ethnic cleansing violence and the horrors of genocide which all need resolution and reconciliation as witnessed tragically in, for example, rwanda, nigeria, indonesia, darfur, india and the former yugoslavia. within the broad field of peace education, the specific dimension of education for intercultural or multicultural understanding, harmony and cooperation has therefore gained enhancing the dialogue and alliance of civilizations: toh swee-hin (s.h. toh) perspectives from peace education substantive and widening visibility across formal and non-formal sectors (may, 1999; sefa dei & calliste, 2000; grant & lei, 2001). unless individuals are encouraged from an early age to respect cultural differences and to learn to live together peacefully, it is likely that seeds of discrimination will grow to bear fruits marked by racist attitudes and conduct, which can lead to extremist hatred and even violence. yet, as in virtually all other dimensions of peacebuilding and peace education, while progress can and has been made through good policies and effective implementation, fresh challenges will always arise in the context of changing societal and global realities. one such major challenge to intercultural understanding and education was initially sparked in the nineties by the concept of “the clash of civilizations” that the north american political scientist samuel huntington (1996) proposed. it did not take long, however, before the 9/11 attacks on new york and subsequent official and societal reactions and counter-reactions provided much fuel for this argument. as this paper seeks to show, there is an urgent need for intercultural educators committed to building a culture of peace to counter and transcend thinking and practice based on the worldview of a “clash of civilizations”. the acknowledgment of this need is reflected well in the growth of programs and initiatives to promote instead a “dialogue among civilizations” and its implications of intercultural and multicultural education over the past decade. from “clash of civilizations” to dialogue among civilizations in the 90s, the impact of culture on international relations was further highlighted by the thesis of the “clash of civilizations” formulated by samuel huntington in an essay related to us foreign policy and later in an elaborated book version. sparking considerable controversy, the thesis argued that the major source for international tensions, conflicts and wars would increasingly stem from “ideological” conflicts and differences between civilizations or broadest cultural entities. more specifically, the “fault line” between “islam” and the “west” is deemed to be especially deep and problematic. the 9/11 attacks on new york and subsequent implementation and expansion of the global “war 4 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 of terror” led by the usa and other allies in turn provided much political justification for this view and generated a rise in “islamophobia” in much of the “western” world (van driel, 2004). it did not take long, however, for this “clash of civilizations” thesis to be critiqued and challenged conceptually and politically. scholars such as esposito (1995) pointed out serious analytical flaws in the arguments backing this worldview, while leaders among south nations, notably former president khatami of iran, advocated instead for a “dialogue among civilizations”. instead of emphasizing conflicts attributed to differences, efforts need to be made to find common or shared values and principles leading to international understanding, respect, cooperation and conflict resolution and transformation and thereby peaceful relationships. this global movement for inter-civilizational dialogue has been increasingly reflected in inter-governmental circles as leaders and spokespersons for diverse nations acknowledged the dangers of leaving unquestioned a de facto self-fulfilling policy of civilizations “inevitably clashing”. hence 2001 was declared the un year for the dialogue of civilizations. among un agencies, unesco has in particular played a leadership role in promoting intercultural and inter-civilizational dialogue (see king in this issue). in recent years, turkey and spain has also mobilized a growing number of un member states to join the “alliance of civilizations” initiative as an organizational framework to promote dialogue among civilizations and cultures at local, national, regional and international levels (united nations alliance of civilizations, n.d.; mirici in this special issue). the year 2010 has been designated the international year for the rapproachment of cultures and much momentum and energies have been generated by a consortium of civil society organizations and international agencies for 2011-2020 to be commemorated as the international decade for a un decade of interreligious and intercultural dialogue, understanding and cooperation for peace. among faiths and religions, likewise, much progress has been achieved in building interfaith dialogue movement. in contrast to blaming religions for generating violence and fuelling 5 enhancing the dialogue and alliance of civilizations: toh swee-hin (s.h. toh) perspectives from peace education wars, interfaith dialogue advocates seek to enhance deeper understanding, respect for differences, and reconciliation among faiths. these global interfaith organizations like religions for peace, parliament of the world’s religions, and united religions initiative have regularly gathered in international, regional and local venues to share insightful experiences in how diverse faith communities are building a culture of peace in every region and continent. as these grassroots and global efforts to promote dialogue and peaceful relations among civilizations and cultures continue to expand, it is also clear that education plays a vital role. to be effective and sustaining, intercultural and inter-civilizational dialogue needs appropriate educational theory and practice. this article seeks therefore to highlight some key educational implications in building dialogue among civilizations and cultures. the efforts catalyzed in particular by the alliance of civilizations will provide one helpful building block. however, i will also emphasize the need to envision education for a dialogue of civilizations and cultures through a multidimensional and holistic paradigm of education for a culture of peace (toh & floresca-cawagas, 2000). in this regard, as also reflected in the other papers and annexes of this special issue of the international journal of curriculum and instruction, the work of advocates in specific fields of transformative education for peace will yield constructive ideas and strategies for the urgent project of deepening dialogue among diverse civilizations and cultures. from dialogue to transformative education for a culture of peace the urgent and challenging work of building a more peaceful world clearly benefits from ideas and initiatives such as the dialogue among civilizations and the alliance of civilisations. as noted above and as shown in a number of articles in this special issue, educators in many regions have been encouraged to integrate understanding and dialogue between cultures and civilizations into their curricula and institutions. furthermore, as noted in her reflections on programs and projects under the 6 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 auspices of unesco, king also provides a wide range of intercultural education initiatives whose principle, values and practices are similar to or complement dialogue of civilization visioning and practices. the declarations in this issue also exemplify the collaboration of many countries, institutions and educators in two conferences yielding helpful declarations for guiding ongoing for inter-civilizational dialogue and future activities. nevertheless, from a holistic peace education perspective, it is also essential to critically reflect on a number of themes and issues where promoting dialogue among civilizations and cultures as well as the efforts of the alliance of civilizations need to more fully consider the root causes of conflict and violence locally and globally. in addition, as explained later, it is vital to fully explore the role of active nonviolence in building peaceful relationships among cultures, civilizations and nations. broadening the theme of “islam and the west” in focusing strongly on the relationship between “islam” and the “west”, the alliance of civilisations initiative chose to highlight the political actions (e.g., military interventions in afghanistan and iraq and terrorist violence) of “western” states and extremist groups guided by distorted news coverage of islam. at the same time, the alliance of civilisations was properly critical of negative cultural responses to such religiously-motivated violence that lead to damaging stereotypes (e.g., “islam” justifies violence”) that fuel the expanding phenomenon of islamophobia. from a peace education perspective, the alliance of civilisations provides a significant demystification of views that unfairly label islam and muslims as inherently “supporting” terrorism. furthermore, another analytical and pedagogical strength of the alliance of civilisations framework lies in its acknowledgment that there exist interpretations of some believers which promote the oppression of women, honour killings and corporal punishment that violate human rights standards. such interpretations in turn need to be critiqued as contradictory to islam as a faith that is oriented towards peace. 7 enhancing the dialogue and alliance of civilizations: toh swee-hin (s.h. toh) perspectives from peace education besides these conceptual strengths, however, a number of limitations of the alliance framework need to be noted. to begin with, the use of the broad categorization of the “west” in its discourse is conceptually problematic and pedagogically inadequate. in civilizational terms, the “west” is usually seen as being rooted in certain dominant cultural and philosophical foundation, notably judeo-christian values, and worldviews from the roman and greek civilizations. yet the current cultural realities of “western” societies can no longer justify this longheld traditional social construction. with the growth of migration and in many situations, an increasing acknowledgement of indigenous peoples and history, the “west” is now very culturally diverse or multicultural. hence in terms of “islam and the west” relationship, muslims are already present and visible within contemporary western societal formations. it is true that this multiculturalism faces ongoing challenges, including racism, ethnic discrimination and social and economic inequalities faced by certain marginalized cultural or “racialized” groups. but not to also highlight the cultural diversity characterizing present-day western societies is to overlook the potential bridges of understanding that already exist within this broad civilizational category. for example, as earlier cited, there are many fruitful lessons of multicultural education available in the west that other civilizations, including islam, can find relevant and beneficial to their own efforts in building intercultural harmony within their social formation. another corollary limitation of the alliance of civilisations’ depiction of the “islam and the west” relationship is that the “west” is somewhat stereotyped for political actions (e.g., military intervention and global war on terrorism), as though all citizens of western nations are in favour of those policies. from a peace education perspective, it is vital to distinguish between leaders and political entities and citizens supportive of such militaristic or hegemonic policies from voices and movements within western societies who are working visibly to transform western states towards greater democratic accountability and a nonviolent role of their governments in the world. at the same time, such alternative perspectives also challenge the continuing 8 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 and sometimes even deepening institutional racism and other forms of cultural discrimination. promoting inclusivism and pluralism in short, the alliance of civilisations discourse on “islam and the west” does embrace helpful analyses of a number of root causes of violence and conflict in the world, including “islam and west” tensions. but it is also necessary to broaden the discussion to relationships between islam and multicultural societies. this then also calls for simultaneous transformation of societies, whether islam or judeo-christian traditions, that are institutionally dominant toward realizing the potential of cultural and civilizational diversity globally. thus the call for political pluralism in the alliance of civilisations high-level report (united nations alliance of civilizations, 2006, 5.10) needs to be accompanied by a parallel call for cultural and faith pluralism in muslim-majority countries. in this regard, as the recent asia-pacific consultation on the high-level report emphasized, the focus of the report on “islam and the west” needs to be broadened to include also the broad diversity of faiths, whether monotheistic or not (new zealand ministry of foreign affairs and trade, 2007). it should be acknowledged that one of the recommendations in the education section in the high-level report (6.8) calls for the education system, including religious schools, to “provide students with an understanding and respect for the diverse religious beliefs, policies and cultures in the world”. however, it is significant that in the conceptual part of the report, there is a lack of reflection on the theme of “exclusivism” and “inclusivism” within the theology of various faiths, including islam and other abrahamic faiths. as the growing movement of interfaith dialogue has shown, there is an urgent need for the education of faith communities and leaders towards greater inclusiveness and pluralism (coward, 2000). in this special issue, patel and meyer focus in particular on the creative initiative of the interfaith youth core approach to promote religious pluralism among youth. furthermore, interfaith 9 enhancing the dialogue and alliance of civilizations: toh swee-hin (s.h. toh) perspectives from peace education dialogue also seeks to reject exclusivist beliefs that lie at the roots of bigotry, distrust and disrespect which provides fuel for extremist attitudes and practices toward “others” identified as “false religions” (knitter, 1995; smoch, 2002; religions for peace, 2007; toh & cawagas, 2006; fitzgerald & borelli, 2006; the national summit of religious leaders toward a culture of peace, 2005). in this regard, as advocates of interfaith dialogue point out, the complementary role played by intra-faith dialogue is indispensable. faith communities need to look self-critically and introspectively at their own doctrines to re-interpret attitudes toward “other” faiths and to transcend extremist exclusivist views and practices. educating for forgiveness and reconciliation a theme which the alliance of civilisations discourse can emphasize more is the need to educate for forgiveness and reconciliation (gopin, 2001; lederach, 1999; helmick, 2001). these values and principles can be found within all faiths and cultures and civilizations in restoring relationships that have been fractured by conflicts, violence and injustices. however, as demonstrated by the global experiences of truth commissions, such as the post-apartheid truth and reconciliation commission process in south africa, practising and implementing forgiveness and reconciliation is never easy. restorative justice requires the “victims” to forgive and reconcile with “offenders” who in turn sincerely accept their accountability and are prepared to engage in responsible restorative actions. in this regard, one creative and inspirational grassroots project is the school for forgiveness and reconciliation founded by fr. leonel gomez (2006) in colombia acknowledging indigenous peoples in inter-civilizational discourse a further limitation in the alliance of civilisations discourse is that indigenous peoples and their ancient wisdom and knowledge is not mentioned. yet, worldwide, long before the era of colonies 10 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 and independence to nation states, many conflicts including very violent episodes have occurred due to colonization and the underpinning racist and ethnocentric assumptions towards indigenous peoples viewed as “inferior”, “backward” or “lacking civilization”. today, there are significant parallel conflicts continuing in modern independent societies. due to ongoing processes of modernization and globalization, indigenous peoples in many continents face serious threats to their cultural survival as well as violations of their human rights (bodley, 2008). hence in educating for the dialogue of civilizations, the problems of marginalization faced by indigenous peoples need to be integrated. consistent too with the principles of intercultural understanding and respect, learning from the wisdom of the elders with their profound and sacred sense of interdependence with all parts of the environment will benefit all humanity and nations (suzuki & knudtson, 1997). with the recent ratification of the international declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples and the presence of a permanent indigenous forum at the united nations, there is clearly much scope for synergy between the alliance of civilisations initiative and programs and un and other agencies and civil society organizations promoting indigenous survival and rights (unesco, 2006). overcoming tensions between civilizational/cultural worldviews and human rights turning now to the significant dimension of building a culture of peace, there is constant referral in the high–level report of the alliance of civilisations to the need to fully and consistently respect internationally agreed human rights standards and international law. specific rights mentioned include prohibition against torture, freedom of religion, and the right and freedom of expression and association (2.3, 5.12). as earlier mentioned, the alliance is openly critical of violations of human rights that can arise from distorted views of doctrines of various faiths, including islam. hence the alliance of civilizations movement clearly supports human rights education. however, from a holistic perspective of education for a culture of peace, the high level report can be challenged for not 11 enhancing the dialogue and alliance of civilizations: toh swee-hin (s.h. toh) perspectives from peace education discussing more fully the ongoing tension between certain faith beliefs or doctrines and human rights (runzo, martin & sharma, 2003; an-na’im, gort, jansen & vroom, 1995; sharma, 1994). these tensions apply notably in the areas of women’s human rights, reproductive rights, right to sexual orientation and right to conversion or leaving a faith. in implementing education for a dialogue of civilizations, it will be essential therefore for all faiths and cultures to self-critically interpret their doctrinal positions and beliefs in order to transcend those tensions, otherwise the human rights of some sectors of society will continue to be violated. in addition, as an-na’im (1992) argues, a cross-cultural dialogue on human rights is necessary and possible. uprooting structural violence in analyzing violence and conflicts in the world, the alliance of civilisations high-level report does recognize one of the root causes to be the economic disparities between rich and poor among and within nations (pg.7). the report argues that poverty can lead to despair, a sense of injustice and alienation that when combined with political grievances can foster extremism (pg.5). this calls therefore for an “aggressive” campaign for the “eradication of poverty” as advocated by the millennium development goals. however, there is hardly any analysis or explanation in the high-level report on the root causes of global poverty and the increasing disparities between rich and poor. the strategy to “eradicate poverty” is mentioned briefly in the report’s recommendations for action in the area of “migration”, where wealthier nations are exhorted to “meet their commitments of increased investment in the developing world, as this, together with good governance and capacity building efforts in developing countries, would help improve economic conditions in those countries “ (pg.20). from a holistic peace education perspective, this approach to understanding the politics and political-economy of global poverty is inadequate. certainly, within the dominant paradigm of economic “development” and globalization, increasing 12 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 investment in south countries is deemed essential for improving growth and prosperity, including poor sectors. however, there is a growing number of voices among analysts and especially civil society and people’s organizations representing marginalized sectors (e.g., rural and urban poor, women, indigenous peoples, and children) who are questioning this dominant paradigm (anderson, 2000; shiva, 2000,2005; bello,2009; brecher, costello & smith, 2002). through the enormous power of transnational corporations and international financial institutions, export-oriented growth policies, rapid extraction of natural resources, expansion of agribusiness, and national political and economic systems controlled by and disproportionately benefitting elites, this structural violence undermines the capacity of poor majorities to meet their basic needs despite toiling for the globalized economic machine. in sum, education for the dialogue of civilizations also needs to integrate perspectives and pedagogies from the field known as development education or education for local and global justice. promoting an “alliance of civilizations” would not successfully address the problem of rich-poor inequalities unless it engages in a critical dialogue on which paradigms of economic “development” serves the well-being of all peoples. unless the logic of excessive profits, greed, over-consumerism and accompanying corruption is replaced by a global ethic proposed by, for example, the parliament of world religions (kung & kuschel, 1994) or “shared security” as advocated by the religions for peace (2006), or the “globalization from below” movement (e.g., world social forum) (fisher & ponniah, 2003), then the poverty and inequality that the alliance of civilisations is concerned about will not be effectively overcome. increasingly influential also are the initiatives to replace orthodox indicators of economic “progress” (e.g., gnp and gdp) with alternative indicators such as genuine progress index (gpi) and gross national happiness (faris, 2009; van willenswaard, 2008). the conceptual arguments as well as pedagogical exemplars for integrating local and global justice themes in the dialogue of civilizations are found in two articles in this special issue, namely abdi and shultz’s case for a shared future through education for global social justice, and garrone and price’s 13 enhancing the dialogue and alliance of civilizations: toh swee-hin (s.h. toh) perspectives from peace education exemplar of a culture of peace curriculum for australian catholic school youth including interfaith dialogue and experiential learning in south contexts to cultivate values of justice and solidarity. civilizations, cultures and sustainable futures another theme that the high-level report only briefly touches on in its conceptual introduction is the “destruction of the environment” (pg. 7) which is “intensifying”. however, beyond this observation, the report does not link the ecological crisis with ongoing or potential conflicts and even wars, nor does the need to educate for sustainable futures or sustainable development feature in the recommendations for action. there is by now a wealth of evidence of social, economic and political conflicts and violence that can be attributed to contestation over the use and misuse of resources that impact adversely on the environment and the basic needs and rights of affected peoples (klare, 2002; barlow & clarke, 2002). wars over water as well as oil or other depleting resources are grim realities to be transcended. hence education for a dialogue of civilizations will need to synergize with education for sustainable futures that communities and agencies like unesco (n.d.) have been promoting under the auspices of the un decade of education for sustainable development. at the auckland asia-pacific response to the high-level report, i argued for the alliance of civilisations to enhance its attention to dialogue and cooperation among cultures and civilizations for environmental sustainability. in this regard, it is also relevant to note that in the interfaith dialogue movement, there is increasing awareness of the positive role that all faiths can play in building a greener world. “green theology” perspectives across all faith communities have lent momentum to the growing field of interfaith dialogue and action in such critical areas as climate change and other aspects of the ecological crisis, including the vital underpinning principle of living more simply in order to care for the earth (gardner, 2006; edwards, 2006; alliance of religions & conservation, n.d.; toh 14 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 & cawagas, 2009). likewise, indigenous peoples have contributed much spiritual and practical wisdom for more sustainable people-nature relationships. pigem’s workshop report in this special issue provides many similar insights on how faithbased organizations are promoting education for sustainability. last but not least, the alliance of civilisations can also undoubtedly benefit from dialogue and collaboration with sustainability movements such as the earth charter (n.d.) disarming and demilitarizing civilizations and cultures within a holistic framework of peace education, the field of disarmament education and education for nonviolence has been a central theme. in this regard, the clear commitment of the highlevel report for nonviolent and peaceful resolution of conflicts deserves to be praised. for example, resistance groups opposing foreign occupation “should be encouraged to pursue their goals through nonviolent participation in political processes and democratic representation” (pg. 16). leaders and governments are also questioned for using “counter-measures” against terrorism by “attacking” their adherents, since such tactics will likely only “inflame” more extremist sentiments. specifically on islam, the high-level report also appropriately demystifies the stereotyping of “jihad” as primarily armed violence in self-defense of one’s community. rather the greatest jihad is the inner struggle of each muslim of “good” over “evil” (pg.15). moreover, all religions or faiths do not condone or approve the killing of the innocents (pg.10). hence, although recognizing the unresolved israel/palestine conflict as a major root cause for fuelling resentment among many muslims globally and for extremists to “justify” their acts of terrorist violence, the report advocates for a multilateral and nonviolent peace process to resolve the conflict. while this perspective of the high-level report is helpful in moving toward disarmament and demilitarization in the world, a peace education framework sees the need for the dialogue among civilizations and alliance of civilisations initiative to be more assertive and holistic in promoting education for nonviolence. if 15 enhancing the dialogue and alliance of civilizations: toh swee-hin (s.h. toh) perspectives from peace education the doctrine of “just war” found in a number of faith theologies, or of jihad as a self-defense remain pivotal in a believer’s worldview, it can always be exploited by extremists and opportunists to recruit followers for violent action or reaction, hence aggravating cycles of violence and counter-violence, whether conducted by on-state groups or by states (kimball, 2003). education for a culture of peace on the other hand emphasizes the values, principles and strategies underpinning active nonviolent action (smith-christopher, 1998). in this regard, there is an ongoing movement among faiths and cultures to address the doctrinal relevance and validity of “just war” thinking and action. this is happening among muslim peace advocates (e.g., satha anand) who draw on islamic theology to argue for nonviolent conflict resolution approaches (paige, satha-anand, c and gilliatt, 1993), among christian peacebuilders who emphasize the role-model of christ as a nonviolent peacemaker (e.g., dear, 2004), and engaged buddhists like thich nhat hanh (2005) and sulak sivaraksa (2005) who emphasized in buddha’s words that anger, hatred and violence shall not cease with more anger, hatred and violence. education for the dialogue of civilizations hence draws on the spirituality of nonviolence that can be found within all faiths and civilizations, a theme that was mobilized in unesco’s (2005) declaration on the role of religions in the promotion of a culture of peace. this also requires not only a strong vision but crucially systematic training in the skills of nonviolent action. hence churches, mosques, temples, synagogues, seminaries, monasteries, madrasas and other places of worship and faithbased educational institutions face the challenge of transforming themselves as learning spaces for nonviolent action. langole`s article in this special issue reminds us of the positive lessons as well as challenges in overcoming intercultural and inter-ethnic conflicts in one african context, uganda, while niroula`s case study of nepal highlights the need to promote social, cultural and educational inclusion of the marginalized dalit people. 16 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 demystifying media and critical media literacy another important theme for consideration in enhancing education for a dialogue among civilizations is the role of the media. as ibrahim’s article in this special issue indicate, media can play a negative role in promoting a culture of war rather than a culture of peace. in a unesco forum in barcelona, i gave numerous exemplars whereby media has perpetuated stereotypes and representations of ``others`` that marginalize minorities and entire cultures (toh, 2004a). likewise, the high-level report of the alliance of civilisations also comments critically on the contribution that contemporary media in all its forms has made in promoting stereotypes and misrepresentations (pg. 30-31). it gives helpful recommendations for action on shaping media to present well-balanced portrayal of foreign cultures, objective reporting transcending stereotypes and misrepresentation, more accurate descriptions of culture, especially muslims, in films and positive applications of the internet and digital media. from a peace education perspective, these are all very relevant and essential implications for the role of education in promoting a dialogue among civilizations. however, there is a further need to critically understand the media as an institution well integrated into power structures at national and global levels. this helps to explain the biases and also the paradigms that give a selective presentation of world and national affairs, including conflicts and violence (herman & chomsky, 1998). apart from bolstering the power and control of leaders and governments, dominant media can also mask the geo-strategic interests of powerful states or coalitions in terms of rationales that fuel fear, distrust and suspicion or even hatred and enmity. in capitalist societies, such media is often also dependent on the economic support of the corporate sector (e.g., advertising, shareholders) and consequently less willing to encourage critical journalism that exposes structural violence and unethical conduct. education for a dialogue of civilizations hence need to promote critical media literacy so that learners, viewers and readers can critically analyze information presented as ``facts`` and ``truths``and uncover underpinning political and economic 17 enhancing the dialogue and alliance of civilizations: toh swee-hin (s.h. toh) perspectives from peace education interests shaping such representations (van dijk, 1995; kellner & share, 2007; toh, 2004a). in this special issue, kester has also shown how participatory pedagogical strategies are helpful for critical media literacy. at the same, time, peace educators are now able to refer learners to a range of alternative media that are willing to take risks in presenting realities with greater independence and structural analysis and give voice to the marginalized or oppressed but without indoctrination. cultivating the spirituality of inner peace finally, in this review of the theory and practice of promoting a dialogue among civilization, it is essential to raise the critical role that peace education plays in the cultivation of inner peace (thich nhat hanh, 2005; toh, 2004b). unless all cultures and faiths are willing to conscientiously develop the spirituality of peace within their members, all the implications for social or outer peace that a dialogue among civilizations in synergy with education for a culture of peace will be difficult to implement. through faith and culture-based strategies including meditation, contemplation, prayers and other parallel practices drawn from the wisdom of innumerable cultures and civilizations, all learners from young to old will be facilitated in forming and sincerely practising the values of compassion, love, respect, justice, integrity, active nonviolence and reconciliation vital to the building of a peaceful world. conclusion in sum, this essay has sought to acknowledge the positive contributions that the concept of dialogue among civilizations and its related movements, such as the alliance of civilisations, can make in promoting peaceful relations among peoples and nations of diverse cultures and civilizations. however, it has also endeavoured to show, through a detailed multidimensional analysis and practical exemplars, how inter-civilizational dialogue can be enhanced through synergistic collaboration with 18 international journal of curriculum and instruction vol. vii, no. 1, june 2010 the theory and practice of peace education. it is true that the high-level report of the alliance of civilisations does briefly recommend for action what it calls ``civic and peace education`` (pg. 25). regrettably, apart from the overriding emphasis on intercultural understanding and education, the report is lacking in giving a holistic appreciation of civic and peace education. it is hoped that proponents of projects and programs under the auspices of the dialogue among civilizations and alliance of civilisations will be open to integrating insights and lessons from education for a culture of peace. in this way, the dialogue of civilizations can realize more fully its potential of building a world in which diverse cultures and civilizations can live for and with nonviolence, justice, human rights, sustainability and an authentic spirituality of inner peace. references alliance of religions and conservation (n.d.) http://www.arcworld.org/ an-na’im, abdullah ahmed (ed.) 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(2004) confronting islamophobia in educational practice. oakhill, staffordshire: trentham books. van willenswaard, hans (2008) critical holism: a new development paradigm inspired by gross national happiness? in proceedings of the fourth international conference held in bhutan, november 24-26, 2008 . http://www.bhutanstudies.org.bt/main/gnh4.php 23 ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 172–189 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction an investigation of turkish novice efl teachers’ perceptions of lesson study i̇lknur bayram a *, özlem canaran b a ted university, ziya gökalp caddesi no:48 kolej, ankara, 06420, turkey b thk university, zübeyde hanım mahallesi elif sokak altındağ, ankara, 06070, turkey abstract this paper aims to investigate how three novice efl teachers perceived lesson study, a japanese professional development (pd) model, and its implications for their pd. this study was designed as a qualitative case study. the case in this study was three novice efl teachers, who carried out lesson study during 2016-2017 fall term at the department of foreign languages of a turkish foundation university, and their implementation of the model. data were collected using eight teacher reflective reports and audio recordings of 24 meetings. data were analyzed through conceptualizing, coding and categorizing. findings revealed that lesson study aroused teachers’ enthusiasm for conducting research and it also encouraged them to focus more on learning than teaching; however, the model was deemed demanding by the teachers who struggled to get accustomed to the pace of it. they suggested that a mentor would facilitate the process. in terms of its contribution to pd, teachers noted that lesson study encouraged them to pursue pd and reflect on their classroom practice. findings of this study suggest that lesson study might be integrated into the pd of novice efl teachers with minor adaptations and the help of a facilitator. the model might address the pd needs of novice efl teachers who seek to work in collaboration to reflect on their classroom practice. © 2019 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: novice efl teachers; lesson study; professional development; case study 1. introduction the transition process from a teacher education program to their first real workplace experience is demanding for novice teachers. varah, theune, and parker (1986) describe this transition process as a “sink or swim” situation in which novice teachers will either succeed in surviving in the profession or decide to leave it. the challenges novice teachers have to face in their initial years of teaching might put a great burden on teachers who * corresponding author email address: ilknur.bayram@tedu.edu.tr bayram & canaran / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 172–189 173 have to deal with many confusions and tensions in an educational context (farrell, 2006). if not adequately supported in this induction process, most novice teachers will feel isolated, stressed, inadequate, and frustrated (dellicarpini, 2009). pitton (2006) emphasizes that the teaching experiences of novice teachers are important determinants of their success; therefore, they should be given opportunities to reflect on their classroom experiences through professional development (pd). lesson study, a japanese pd model, is known to promote reflection, collaboration, observation and motivation (cerbin, 2011; dudley, 2015; fernandez & yoshida, 2004; lewis & hurd, 2011) and might therefore help novice teachers respond more effectively to the challenges of the teaching profession as well as facilitating their adaptation process. however, there seems to be only one study conducted in turkey by yalcin arslan (2018) to explore how conducting lesson study will affect pre-service efl teachers’ teaching practices, but novice efl teachers’ perceptions of lesson study and its impact on their pd is an under-researched area in turkey. this paper attempts to fulfill this need by addressing how lesson study is perceived by practicing efl teachers who are new to the profession. this study investigated how three novice efl teachers implemented lesson study and how their lesson study implementation impacted their pd. the purpose was to find out the perceptions of the participant teachers regarding the lesson study model so that factors that might facilitate or hinder the implementation of the model could be discovered and necessary precautions could be taken. 1.1. professional development for novice efl teachers novice efl teachers, sometimes called newly qualified teachers, are those who have completed their university degree in language teaching and have started teaching english in an educational setting “usually within 3 years of completing their teacher education program” (farrell, 2012, p. 437). the first years of teaching are considered to be particularly important because it is during this time that teachers decide whether to continue or stop their teaching career (faez & valeo, 2012). most novice teachers are required to fulfil the same tasks and respond to the same challenges as their colleagues who have a lot more experience than them (farrell, 2012) and findings of research studies show that there are a number of issues that pose a problem for novice teachers. these issues are reported to be about managing a class (akcan, 2016; mccormack & thomas, 2003; menon, 2012), curriculum and instruction-related challenges (rogers & babinski, 2002), teaching load (farrell, 2006), and insufficient guidance and administrative support (farrell, 2016). gordon (1991) lists the difficulties that wait for novice teachers as unclear expectations, difficult work assignments, insufficient resources, isolation, and reality shock. 174 bayram & canaran / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 172–189 making a meaningful difference in student learning is the principal aim of every educational institution, and research contends that this can be ensured through highquality teaching (mcrobbie, 2000). as darling-hammond (2012, p.9) points out “a highly skilled teaching force results from developing well-prepared teachers from recruitment through preparation and in-service professional development.” however, farrell (2012) indicates that there is a gap between pre-service and in-service education of teachers who face many challenges, which, as stated above, might range from issues related to lesson planning to identity development. to better deal with the challenges in the first years of teaching, novice teachers should be offered effective pd opportunities. gordon (1991) contends if these challenges are not addressed by schools, this results in teachers’ developing negative emotional and behavioral problems or their leaving the profession after two years. since novice teachers develop their capacity as professional teachers during the initial years of the profession, their in-service training is particularly important. they need to be supported in appropriate ways during their transition from being a student to becoming a teacher. however, the reality is that “supportive environments are the exception rather than the rule” (farrell, 2012, p.436), and most novice teachers lack this kind of support or are not satisfied with the way their in-service training is designed and delivered. the reason for this dissatisfaction mostly results from being exposed to pd activities such as one-off workshops, seminars or courses during which teachers listen and leave. borg (2015) lists many disadvantages of this kind of pd policy; teachers’ not taking ownership of their own pd, not playing an active and participatory role in deciding the content and the process of trainings, and overvaluing trainers’ knowledge and experience. kearney (2015) suggests that although research demonstrates that pd helps novice teachers adapt to their profession, the question of how to develop and implement successful pd programs for novice teachers seem to be unanswered. research studies underline what aspects of pd novice teachers are unsatisfied with. novice teachers do not have enough opportunities to observe their more experienced colleagues (mann &tang, 2012) and they perceive this as a drawback of the pd opportunities offered to them. although deemed an important aspect of pd by novice teachers (ekşi, 2010), sharing experiences and collaborating is reported to be lacking in pd offered to novice teachers (baecher, 2012). peer observation is known to contribute to pd because it facilitates collaboration among teachers (kasapoğlu, 2002); however, most novice teachers lack this kind of support. visionary pd practices that are collaborative, inquiry-based, context-specific, classroom-based and teacher-led (diaz-maggioli, 2004) might be implemented to address the concerns stated above. as a pd model including many characteristics of visionary pd practices (allison, 2014), lesson study might serve as an effective model for novice teacher pd. bayram & canaran / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 172–189 175 1.2. lesson study lesson study as a form of pd blends many characteristics of visionary pd. having originated in asia and been especially popular in japan since the late 1800s (angelini & alvarez, 2018), it spread to the west in the 2000s after the publication of stigler and hiebert’s book, the teaching gap (2009). it can broadly be defined as “a form of systematic inquiry that has well-established practices and processes” (cerbin, 2011, p. 4). teachers engaged in lesson study work together to plan, teach, observe and analyze “research lessons” (dudley, 2015). research lessons are real classroom lessons with students, but what differentiates research lessons from usual classroom lessons is the fact that they are planned jointly by the lesson study team, audio and/ or video recorded, watched by two or more teachers and analyzed and modified in view of teachers’ observations and student comments (lewis & hurd, 2011). the model is known to contribute to teacher pd in important aspects. it promotes collegiality among teachers (lewis & hurd, 2011), encourages teachers to reflect on their lessons based on their own observations and their colleagues’ comments (fernandez & yoshida, 2004), enables teachers to put themselves into their students’ shoes, which raises their awareness about student learning (lewis, 2002), and contributes to teachers’ research skills and increases their motivation (cerbin, 2011). perry and lewis (2009) report that lesson study improves teachers’ and students’ learning. although it offers a lot of benefits to teacher pd, lesson study has not gained much attention in the context of english as a foreign language (efl) around the world. it has recently been explored by researchers such as tasker (2014) to understand how teacher pd is influenced by participation in lesson study. yalcin arslan (2018) analyzed how it affects the pd of pre-service efl teachers in turkey. however, the model is not widespread among turkish efl teachers and there are not many studies in the field of english language teaching that specifically aim to discover how novice efl teachers practice the model and what issues and challenges they face in their implementations of lesson study (coşkun, 2017). taking this fact into account, this study aimed to explore how lesson study was perceived by and supported the pd of novice efl teachers working at the preparatory program of a foundation university in turkey. the research questions addressed in this study were:  how do novice efl teachers perceive lesson study as a form of pd?  in what ways does lesson study support novice efl teachers’ pd? 2. method this qualitative case study was conducted to develop our understanding of the nature of lesson study (strauss & corbin, 1994) when it is carried out by novice efl teachers, 176 bayram & canaran / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 172–189 and to satisfy our curiosity about research participants’ perspectives. (denzin & lincoln, 2011; fraenkel, wallen & hyun, 2011). the case in this study was three novice efl teachers and their implementation of the lesson study model. it was designed as a holistic single case study, since the case was a “common case”. (yin, 2014). 2.1. context of the study and the participants the study was conducted at the english preparatory school of a turkish foundation university in the fall semester of 2016-2017 academic year from october till february. the english preparatory school, at the time of the study, was offering general and academic english courses to 120 students with 18 efl teachers. dudley’s (2015) lesson study model had been piloted with the participation of three volunteer teachers in the spring semester of the 2015-2016 academic year and the possible issues that might be of concern to the researchers were determined and resolved (bayram & bıkmaz, 2018). the model, then, was introduced to the teachers in the department by the first author of this paper through an in-house presentation during which the pilot lesson study team also gave a talk about their lesson study experiences. at the beginning of the 2016-2017 fall term, volunteer teachers were determined through a survey conducted at the school and the participants of the study were chosen among the teachers who had three or less years of teaching experience. table 1. participant profile teacher gender age teaching experience t1 t2 female 24 1.5 years female 24 1.5 years t3 male 26 3 years as seen in table 1, the participants of the study were three efl teachers, one male and two females, whose ages ranged between 24 and 26. they had 12 hours of teaching load a week and had previously participated in traditional forms of pd activities within and outside the school. however, they had no experience of visionary forms of pd including lesson study. 2.2. lesson study implementation as stated earlier, the model was piloted and introduced to all the teachers in the english preparatory school a semester before it was implemented by the teachers taking part in this study. at the beginning of the fall term of 2016-2017, the three participant teachers came together and went through the following steps to implement the whole bayram & canaran / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 172–189 177 lesson study process as suggested by dudley (2015). the teachers held 24 meetings to finalize the lesson study process, each of which lasted approximately one hour. before the study, ethical permission was obtained from the university to access the setting and the participants. participants were informed about the aim, duration, and requirements of the research and their consent was also obtained. the teachers were assured that their privacy would be maintained and the findings of the study would only be used for research purposes. they were also informed that they could withdraw from the study any time they wished, and their withdrawal would cause them no harm. researchers tried to develop a trusting relationship with the participating teachers by being open to them regarding the aims of the study, respecting their time, energy, privacy and anonymity, and constantly negotiating with them throughout the process. step 1: introduction to lesson study (meetings 1 through 4): although a pilot lesson study had been implemented to inform the participating teachers, they were also provided with cerbin’s (2011) book “lesson study: using classroom inquiry to improve teaching and learning in higher education” as a reference book since they needed more comprehensive information about the process as they would actively implement one themselves. they examined the book chapter by chapter as they proceeded and did whatever was suggested when deemed necessary. in the meantime, they each wrote an essay on their teaching philosophies and then shared it so that they could get to know each other as professionals and talk about what their conceptualizations of teaching and learning were as well as how they implemented their philosophy in their classes. step 2: finding a focus (meeting 5): two teachers were offering academic presentation skills courses to turkish freshman students and one of them was teaching general english to non-turkish students who came to turkey to pursue their ma studies. their discussions regarding the problems their students faced centered on improving students’ speaking skills. in light of this focus area, they each developed research questions and decided to work on how students outlined their speech before they gave an oral presentation, what they tended to include in their outlines and what were the reasons behind these tendencies. step 3: planning the first research lesson (meetings 6 through 12): teachers collectively created the lesson plan for their first research lesson by paying special attention to students’ needs and interests. this was observed to be a unique experience for teachers because they had never designed a joint lesson before. they also applied the backward design (wiggings & mctighe, 2005) which enabled them to focus on learning outcomes before choosing instructional methods and assessment procedures. since dudley’s (2015) lesson study model required teachers to choose three case students from varying performance levels (high, average and low) to observe, teachers 178 bayram & canaran / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 172–189 selected their case students and created an observation protocol to facilitate their observations of these three case students. they also prepared consent forms to be signed by students before the first research lesson. step 4: implementing the first research lesson: during the 70-minute research lesson, one of the teachers taught the lesson while the others observed and took detailed notes related to students’ learning, especially focusing on the case students, their reactions to the instructions, their conceptions and misconceptions of the topic and the questions the students asked to their friends and teachers. the lesson was video recorded as well. after the lesson, each case student was invited for an interview (in turkish) to be conducted by the teachers in the lesson study team. questions asked to case students were; (1) what did you learn in this lesson? (2) what did you like most / least about the lesson? why? (3) we will modify the lesson and implement it in another class, what do you suggest we should change? the interviews lasted almost five minutes each and were recorded. step 5: reflection (meetings 13 through 17): after the first research lesson, teachers watched the video recording of the lesson, listened to the audio recordings of the case student interviews and reviewed their observation notes. during the first reflection meeting, the teacher teaching the research lesson shared her reflections with the rest of the group, and her comments were followed by those of the observers. the teachers analyzed the research lesson in light of the following questions proposed by cerbin (2011); (1) what did students learn as a result of the research lesson? (2) how did they learn? (3) how did the lesson work? (4) how did the lesson support student learning, thinking and engagement? in reflection meetings, modifications to be made in the research lesson were agreed upon and the lesson plan for the second research lesson was, then, finalized. step 6: repeating steps 4 and 5 (meetings 18 and 19): the implementation of and the reflection on the second and third research lessons were done as mentioned in steps four and five. research lessons were implemented with the participation of 40 students in total. step 7: sharing the results (meetings 20 through 24): for this step, the teachers, once again, analyzed all of the data they collected from three different research lessons, trying to come up with tendencies and similar patterns that would shed light on their research question. based on their findings, they wrote a final report as suggested by cerbin (2011) and also prepared an oral presentation to share their study and key findings with the rest of the teachers at school. 2.3. data collection and analysis data in this study were collected through teacher reflective reports and audio recordings of meetings. all reflective reports were archived and meetings were bayram & canaran / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 172–189 179 transcribed verbatim. all the data were merged and analyzed through content analysis to make inferences based on the research questions addressed in this study (krippendorff, 2013). the transcriptions were repeatedly read by the researchers to assign codes to phrases. codes were subsequently categorized into major themes. researchers analyzed the data individually and compared their analysis constantly to achieve inter-coder reliability. to further establish the validity and the reliability of our findings, the analysis was shared with a teacher pursuing her phd studies in elt along with the participating teachers. the analysis was finalized after the modifications were made based on their suggestions. reflective reports: taking into account the fact that critically examining their experiences, teachers can better understand their professional practices and daily routines (richards & lockhart, 1994), the participant teachers were asked to write eight reflective reports during the planning, implementation, analysis and reporting phases of the study. the reports were written after each of these phases. gibbs’ (1988) reflective cycle was used to facilitate teachers’ reflections. the teachers were given six questions to answer in their reflective reports considering the specific phase of the lesson study process they completed. the questions were: (1) what did you do? (2) how did you feel? (3) what went well and what didn’t go so well? why? (4) what lessons did you learn based on your experiences in this phase? (5) what would you do differently if you went through the same phase again? (6) how would you evaluate this phase regarding its impact on your pd? the reflective reports were written in teachers’ native language and archived by the researchers. audio-recordings of meetings: the teachers had 24 meetings in total to finalize the lesson study process. their meetings lasted approximately one hour each. thinking that their discussions in those meetings could furnish the researchers with valuable insights into the teachers’ understanding of the model, the teachers were asked to upon their consentaudio record each meeting by their mobile phones and share the audio files with the researchers at the end of the process. the meetings were conducted in the teachers’ native language. the data from reflective reports and audio-recordings of meetings were organized and archived by the researchers. the audio-recordings of the meetings were listened to and extracts from them which would help illuminate the research questions were transcribed verbatim. the data coming from different sources were analyzed to reach a detailed understanding of the teachers’ experiences. we went through the data by taking note of or highlighting key statements which we believed would help us understand how teachers experienced the lesson study process. the data was subjected to first cycle and second cycle coding methods as suggested by saldana (2009). in the first cycle, descriptive codes along with in vivo codes were assigned to similar data chunks. in the second cycle, some codes were eliminated from the data set, yet some others which were 180 bayram & canaran / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 172–189 similar to each other were merged together. by reorganizing the initially coded data and through pattern coding, more common categories / themes were developed from the data set (creswell, 2013). the coding was done separately by each researcher to increase the validity and the reliability of the findings. intercoder reliability was calculated as suggested by miles and huberman (1994), and it was found to be 84%. 3. results 3.1. teachers’ perceptions of lesson study our first research concern was to understand how the teachers perceived lesson study as a form of pd. the findings of the study indicated that lesson study was regarded by the teachers as a demanding process which, however, encouraged them to work in a more organized and systematic way. findings further revealed that the teachers needed the guidance of a more experienced teacher to implement the process better. first of all, the findings showed it took a lot of mental effort for teachers to understand the procedures of the lesson study model. they noted that: “t1: it seems easy, but it actually is very demanding. it is an intensive model and it took some time for me to understand what it was.” (rr) “t2: at first, i must admit that it scared me. i found the model confusing.” (rr) “t3: lesson study is really a challenging model for teachers. it’s like a puzzle, with a lot of unknowns.” (arm) the teachers added that lesson study had a systematic approach which required them to work in an organized and disciplined way. during the early phases of the process, the teachers seemed to struggle to get accustomed to the pace of the lesson study. they stated that: “t1: it takes a good deal of discipline and organization to do lesson study, and this might be demanding for teachers like us.” (arm) “t2: you need to plan things carefully such as meeting times, observations and keeping records if you want to keep the model going smoothly, and this might be time-consuming at times.” (rr) lastly, the teachers highlighted that the model required the help of a mentor or facilitator who would offer guidance for the proper implementation of the process. “t1: i wished to be monitored to be sure that we were on the right track.” (rr) “t3: i would like to have a more experienced teacher to guide us through the process.” (arm) bayram & canaran / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 172–189 181 the teachers’ perceptions about lesson study were observed to change especially after the analysis of the first research lesson because they experienced -in personwhat one lesson study cycle (planning, implementation and analysis) looked like and how it should be applied. one of the teachers said “things such as implementation, observation and analysis were gradually getting easier as we got accustomed to the model.” another teacher also commented “as we reached the end of the process, we thought that our hard work paid off and seeing the results of our study made us extremely happy and we felt like we finally discovered the delights of the lesson study experience.” the teachers also reported that lesson study generated their excitement about carrying out research as they became more and more curious while seeking answers to the research question. “t1: doing research was another thing that kept me focused during lesson study.” (rr) “t2: i have been excited about the results, from the beginning till the end.” (arm) “t3: it was rather mysterious because we did not know what kind of answers for our research question we would get.” (rr) in addition, the teachers mentioned that they became more interested in learning as lesson study helped them turn their focus from teaching to learning. in other words, the model enabled them to be more learning-oriented. “t1: lesson study reminded me that what students thought were as important as or even more important than what teachers thought about a lesson.” (rr) “t2: lesson study excited my curiosity about my students and my profession. it showed me that a lesson focusing on student learning would always be more effective than a lesson focusing only on teacher behavior.” (arm) “t3: considering the learning process is in the nature of lesson study and the model slowly trains you to focus on learning.” (rr) the findings of the study indicate that lesson study might seem very easy to conduct at the beginning. however, when teachers start to get involved in the different phases of the model, they tend to feel that implementing lesson study is more difficult than it seems. within the scope of this study, this was especially the case for the planning and analysis phases. another thing that caused problems for the teachers was the fact that the model had a cyclical pattern. so they had to finish one task before they started to do another one, which was reported to be not so easy considering the busy schedules of teachers. it was found out that the teachers were in need of a mentor teacher with experience both in teaching and the lesson study process to facilitate the implementation of the model. 182 bayram & canaran / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 172–189 the teachers in this study found the research component of the model motivating. seeking answers to their research question helped them maintain their interest and motivation in the different cycles of the model. another aspect of the model that generated teachers’ motivation was its focus on pupils and their learning. 3.2. how lesson study contributes to teacher pd our second research concern was to explore the implications of lesson study for the pd of teachers. the findings showed us that the model might contribute to teacher pd in important ways. firstly, it increases their motivation mostly because of the fact that it encourages teachers to collaborate. “t1: working together motivated us because we achieved more satisfying results whenever we worked collaboratively.” (rr) “t2: when we got lost during the planning or analysis stages of the model, the atmosphere in the group lifted our spirits.” (arm) “t3: thanks to my teammates, i believe that lesson study is a real motivation trigger.” (arm) secondly, the teachers commented that lesson study created an opportunity to get their colleagues’ and students’ opinions about teaching and learning. they said that: “t1: i have seen that different perspectives must be considered in the planning and teaching of a lesson.” (rr) “t2: for the first time in my teaching career, i witnessed how my colleagues designed a lesson and created lesson materials.” (arm) “t3: i realized that i was designing lessons all alone. lesson study made it possible for me to hear what others think about a lesson.” (arm) in addition, the teachers underlined that observing students and the learning process was a great experience for them in that it changed their focus from teaching to learning and enabled them to recognize the real potential of their students. “t1: i developed a new perspective into the learning process. before this experience, i used to be a teacher who created lessons focusing solely on how i would teach them.” (rr) “t2: observing a lesson opens up windows into students’ minds.” (rr) “t3: students surprised us in many ways. they responded in ways they had never done before. they came up with genuine ideas and suggestions. seeing a lesson from their eyes is really different from what we think of it as teachers.” (rr) finally, teachers also commented that the analysis of research lessons facilitated reflection about the strengths and weaknesses of their classroom practice. bayram & canaran / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 172–189 183 “t1: in the past i used to feel uncomfortable when something went wrong in my classroom, but now i see this as an opportunity to improve the lesson in a more conscious and careful way”. (arm) “t2: lesson study encourages you to think about your classroom practice, to research it in a way. and it helps you to do it taking the pluses and the minuses into consideration.” (arm) “t3: i used to think about my lessons before lesson study, but this was like a “i did this, but it didn’t work” kind of reflection. now i know how deep i can go while reflecting, and reflection in a conscious way has become a habit for me.” (rr) the results of this study demonstrate that lesson study enables teachers to work together, which results in a steady increase in their motivation. discussing other teachers’ and students’ ideas about a research lesson was reported to be an eye-opening experience for teachers because in their daily practice they usually work in isolation. student observations were reported to enlarge teachers’ view of their profession, enabling them to focus more on students and how they learn. the teachers also commented that by analyzing research lessons, they could become more reflective and consider more carefully what went well or bad in their lessons. 4. discussion this study presents findings about three novice efl teachers’ perspectives of their lesson study implementation at a foundation university in turkey. the findings of this study showed that lesson study is perceived to be a demanding model by teachers because of its systematic, collaborative and research-oriented nature, so care must be taken when implementing the model with novice teachers in order not to put another burden on their shoulders in addition to the challenges of being new in the profession. the teachers in our study suggested the presence of a more experienced teacher as a facilitator might greatly contribute to the implementation of the model as well as to raising teacher morale. one of the aspects that makes experienced teachers different from novice teachers is that experienced teachers have a “deeper understanding of students and student learning” (richards & farrell 2005, p.30). therefore, experienced teachers, acting as mentors, might offer invaluable help to novice teachers in their interpretations of student responses and reactions, which lie at the heart of lesson study. bieda, cavanna, and ji (2013) suggest a model called mentor-guided lesson study in which a mentor collaborates with the pre-service teachers during the different phases of the model. pre-service teachers experiencing the model report that lesson study when guided by a mentor helps them focus their attention on student thinking. it has been also 184 bayram & canaran / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 172–189 found out that the model increases the mentors’ capacity to facilitate the lesson study implementation of pre-service teachers, as well. our findings further suggested that working in a group increased teacher motivation. teachers conducting lesson study felt an increased sense of motivation because the model provided them with a safe environment in which they could work in teams supporting each other at all times. teachers’ attitudes towards professional development are reported to improve when they practice lesson study. this might be attributed to the fact that because they enjoy the lesson study process, they find joy in learning professionally as teams functioning together for a shared purpose (godfrey et al., 2019). as suggested by sali and keçik (2018), writing lesson plans is challenging for novice teachers. lesson study benefits teachers in this regard by enabling them to incorporate different perspectives into their lesson planning, which is reported to facilitate the lesson planning process. in addition, the model includes lesson observations helping teachers observe how their lesson plans are put into action and what kind of reactions they receive from students in a real classroom setting. this is an invaluable opportunity for novice teachers who need to try out their ideas to see whether they work or not in their unique learning environment. our findings support the view of day (1999, p.2) who argues that “teachers cannot be developed (passively). they develop (actively)” and argue that lesson study is a great tool to ensure the active participation of teachers in their own pd. unlike common pd practices that are offered to novice teachers where the main mode of learning is individual rather than collaborative (borg, 2015), lesson study creates a safe environment for teachers where they can openly share their ideas and participate in the decision making regarding the procedures of the model. pd plays a key role in the improvement of the quality of teaching and learning (muijs & lindsay 2008), and our study suggests lesson study can serve this purpose because it benefits novice teacher pd in many ways. in her study, yalcin arslan (2018) explored how lesson study impacted the pd of pre-service efl teachers and in line with the findings of this study, she found out that the model directed teachers towards learningoriented professional growth by enabling them to discuss the relationship between teaching and learning. previous research findings resonate with the findings of this study. we found that the cooperative relationship among colleagues, as stated by lewis and hurd (2011), increased as a result of lesson study. this had a positive impact on teachers’ motivation, a key factor in the pd of teachers especially in the early years of their career. lesson study is reported to improve teachers’ motivation as well as their research skills (cerbin, 2011). exploring their ideas about teaching with the participation of a group of teachers who come from similar backgrounds is reported to increase the confidence of teachers, which might affect their motivation positively (dotger, 2011). bayram & canaran / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 172–189 185 fernandez and yoshida (2004) highlight that lesson study provides teachers with opportunities to reflect on their lessons. in this research, teacher reflection was reported to be facilitated by lesson study, as well. our results are also in line with lewis (2002) who assert that teachers’ awareness about how students perceive lessons and in what ways they learn more effectively is facilitated through teachers’ engagement in lesson study. what practices in the classroom lead to more student learning is an important topic discussed by teachers engaged in lesson study (coenders & verhoef, 2019). teachers in our study also reported that lesson study helped them become more learning focused. if teachers practice lesson study continually, this might improve their capacity as teachers who habitually question whether or not their teaching results in more student learning. 5. conclusions freeman and johnson (1998, p.413) suggest that “we as teacher educators must begin with the activity of language teaching and learning; the school and classroom contexts in which it is practiced; and the experience, knowledge, and beliefs of the teacher as a participant”. this study attempted to take this view into account and focused on teachers’ teaching activities embedded in their school culture paying special attention to how they experience a specific pd model. however, further research needs to be conducted about how efl teachers conceptualize the model and in what ways it should be modified or supported so that it could be better integrated into the efl context. our experience with lesson study has shown that it is potentially an effective model on condition that facilitator support is provided to teachers. in our case, the researchers were also acting as administrators in the school, so administrative support was not an issue. however, without administrative support it will definitely be very difficult for teachers to make the necessary arrangements for lesson study. since this study was conducted with a small number of teachers, findings may reflect a limited perspective and; therefore, cannot be generalized to a larger population. the data in this study were collected in a three-month period. extending this time would definitely yield more reliable results. in addition to this, data collection tools in this study were limited to reflective reports and audio recordings of meetings. collecting data through observations, field notes and researcher diaries would enable researchers to cross check the data from more sources. taking these into consideration, we believe that the study might be replicated in different settings and a broader and more valid perspective might thus be adopted on how lesson study is perceived by novice efl teachers. references akcan, s. 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(2014). case study research: design and methods. los angeles: sage. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 20–37 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction the effects of peer feedback on the essay writing performances of efl students eren uymaz a * a first affiliation, address, city and postcode, country abstract the aim of this study is to find out the effects of peer feedback on efl students’ written performances in essay writing. for this end, this experimental study was conducted with a group of students (n=8) studying at the english preparatory school of a state university in turkey during the 2017-2018 academic year. students received feedback from their peers for the four different essay tasks for which they produced a first draft and a second draft during the course of eight weeks. students were also administered a written pre-test and post-test. the number of correct revisions in second drafts was calculated by using conrad and goldstein’s (1999) taxonomy. the quantitative data coming from pre-test and post-test were analysed statistically with spss by conducting paired samples t-test. the results showed that peer feedback helped students write 69% of the feedback points provided by their peers correctly. also, the written test results indicated a statistically significant difference between the pre-test and the post-test. in the light of these findings, it can be concluded that peer feedback can be an effective tool in improving students’ correct revisions in second drafts and it may help efl learners perform better in a written post-test © 2017 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: feedback; peer feedback; l2 writing 1. introduction feedback plays a crucial role to help a learner notice errors in a written text. it seems that no matter what the genre of a particular piece of text is, providing feedback is a part of l1 and l2 writing (ferris, 2003; k. hyland & hyland, 2006; pearce, mulder, & baik, 2009). according to hattie and timperley (2007), feedback is “information provided by an agent (e.g., teacher, peer, book, parent, self, experience) regarding aspects of one’s performance or understanding” (p. 81, parentheses are original). the presence of a feedback provider and a learner creates a mutual relationship, but it can be said that the agent takes on a more important role trying to pave the way for improvement of one’s * corresponding author e-mail address: erenuymaz05@gmail.com uymaz / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 20–37 21 written performance. in this sense, the agent expects the feedback receiver to reach a desired level of performance with the help of concrete comments and suggestions (boud & molly, 2013; glower & brown, 2006; wiggins, 1993). the feedback provider could be manifold, but teachers are seen as the main and most important source of feedback in l2 writing (hyland, 2004; lee, 2017). this is understandable especially in efl contexts given that teachers are the expert and knowing ones for low-proficient learners who are still at the stage of acquiring the language. however, when the sole source of feedback is the teacher, the writing activity itself might turn out to be a one-shot treatment where the teacher provides feedback and puts a grade on the paper to pass or fail the student. for this very reason, some writing scholars put forward the idea that writing is a process where a student can reorganize her/his ideas and correct committed errors on the way to the ultimate draft (raimes, 1985; susser, 1994; zamel, 1976, 1982). this idea of writing in stages (pre-writing, actual writing and revising) justified the use of students’ peers in the class as a feedback source and peer feedback activities have been widely used in esl/efl writing classrooms ever since (ferris & hedgcock, 2005; hansen & liu, 2005; mendonça & johnson, 1994; min, 2006; tsui & ng, 2000). in addition to being an alternative or complementary for other sources of feedback, peer feedback comes with advantages for language learners and teachers. the advantageous aspect of peer feedback was pointed out in a wide array of experimental studies both in esl and efl writing literature (berg, 1999; berggren, 2015; diab, 2010; hu, 2005; hu & lam, 2010; jacobs, curtis, braine, & huang, 1998; lundstrom & baker, 2009; mangelsdorf & schlumberger, 1992; miao, badger, & zhen, 2006; min, 2005; rahimi, 2013; ruegg, 2015; tsui & ng, 2000; villamil & deguerrero, 1996, 1998; wang, 2014; zhao, 2010, 2014). because of the advantageous use of peer feedback, it was intended to find out its effects on the written accuracy of efl students in this research.y 1.1. the advantages of using peer feedback in efl/esl classrooms in the available literature concerning the advantages of peer feedback, it is reported that peer feedback can have an affective advantage over teacher feedback; that is it creates an emotionally better atmosphere in the classroom and creates a sense of relatedness among peers (hu & lam, 2010; jacobs et al., 1998; zhao, 2010, 2014). also, some strand of research has shown that using peer feedback can increase student motivation towards the writing course and result in better revisions in subsequent drafts (lundstrom & baker, 2009; miao et al., 2006; wang, 2014). for teachers and students, peer feedback could be of great use to develop l2 writing teaching and learning (mangelsdorf & schlumberger, 1992; min, 2005; yu & lee, 2015; zhao, 2014). the 22 uymaz / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 20–37 advantages of peer feedback could be that students would have more chances of getting feedback, address to an audience that is similar to their level, increase their selfevaluation skills and become autonomous learners (hyland, 2000; rollinson, 2005; tsui & ng, 2000; villamil & deguerrero, 1998). also, they could benefit from seeing their friends’ errors by not committing the same errors in their written drafts (chang, 2015; mangelsdorf & schlumberger, 1992; zhao, 2010). the following part reviews some of the studies which showed the advantageous of peer feedback in l2 classrooms. diab (2010) worked with 18 students in a control group and 22 students in an experimental group in an efl setting to investigate whether trained peer feedback activities produce better revisions than trained self-editing activities for language errors like subject/verb agreement, pronoun agreement, wrong word choice and sentence structure (diab, 2010, p. 87). the study shows that students in the peer feedback group committed fewer errors in subject/verb agreement and pronoun agreement than the selfediting group. also, students in the peer feedback group showed instances of collaboration and meaning is negotiated between themselves, which is seen as an important opportunity for communicative behavior (rollinson, 2005; villamil & de guerrero, 1996). berggren (2015) investigated how peer feedback can enhance swedish lower-level secondary students’ writing abilities (berggren, 2015, p. 58). there were 26 students, who were in their eight year in a swedish lower secondary school. their levels ranged from b1 to b2 as defined by the common european framework for reference (cefr) (council of europe 2001). the participants were divided into two groups: fifteen of them were in class a and eleven of them were in class b. students’ revision changes between first and second drafts were identified and categorized according to its structure and organization, content, vocabulary and grammar upon receiving peer feedback. students also took a peer review training session before the study. the study indicated that students made a total of 495 revision changes in second draft. out of 495 revision changes, 284 of them (57%) were the result of peer feedback. results also showed that students increased their awareness of audience and genre and made changes on global aspects (content, organization) more than local aspects (grammar, vocabulary) (p. 63). berg (1999) found that peer feedback initiated critical thinking skills. when a student takes advice from the teacher, s/he accepts it without questioning its validity, but when feedback comes from a peer, s/he questions its validity, compares it with her/his own knowledge and then makes a decision (berg, 1999, p. 232). this process makes the learner revisit the embedded knowledge in her/his cognitive load and might help enhance the linguistic capabilities. tsui and ng (2000) conducted a research in a secondary school in hong kong with 27 chinese efl students to find out whether peer or teacher comments produce better revisions (tsui & ng, 2000, p. 147). the researchers aimed at identifying which feedback uymaz / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 20–37 23 type produced more revisions in subsequent drafts. at the end of the study, students who incorporated peer revisions more than the teacher comments found it beneficial to work with their friends while developing their writing. in peer sessions, students were able to explain what they meant in their texts to their friends, got help from their peers by making them explain their weak points and felt more comfortable with peer comments than teacher comments. this is mainly because peers are seen as more authentic audiences than teachers for students (jacobs et al., 1998; mangelsdorf & schlumberger, 1992; paulus, 1999; rollinson, 2005). thus, peer feedback has a great potential for collaborated language learning (villamil & de guerrero, 1996, 1998). miao et al. (2006) compared two classes, one of which received peer feedback and the other received teacher feedback. the statistical data on student texts and questionnaire indicated that students adopted teacher feedback more, but peer feedback was associated with a greater degree of student autonomy (miao et al., 2006, p. 179). 1.2. statement of the problem english preparatory classes at tertiary level institutions in turkey offer foreign language education to make students proficient enough to follow their studies in their prospective departments whose medium of instruction is, most of the time, english. while doing so, the main objective is to develop students’ main skills (reading, listening, writing, and speaking) and subskills (vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation) in the particular language they are learning. most of the time, teaching writing has to be performed within limited amount of weekly classroom hours and in crowded classes with different l2 backgrounds. this might turn teaching writing into a burdensome process both for students and teachers because teachers are expected to teach writing, give feedback and grade student papers in this limited amount of time. this might result in teacher burn-out and academic fatigue for students. in addition, dealing with limited amount of written drafts becomes the common practice among teachers rather than working with multiple drafts due to time constraints. 1.3. purpose of the study as for the tertiary level students, improving writing skills in english constitutes an important part of their academic lives because they are expected to show some degree of proficiency in writing academic papers in their related fields. it is important for them to put accurate and coherent pieces of written texts in the english language for their prospective studies. the researcher aimed at offering an alternative or complementary source of feedback for other feedback sources in tertiary level with the help of peer feedback. the present study aims to provide answers to the following research questions: 24 uymaz / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 20–37 1. to what extent does peer feedback help l2 writers produce correct revisions in second drafts? 2. does peer feedback create a statistically significant difference between the pretest and post-test results of the study group?. 2. method 2.1. research design this research is a preand post-test experimental study conducted with a group of students (n=8) who received feedback only from their peers. the primary source of quantitative data is the students’ written texts consisting of a first draft and a second draft. the other sources are quantitative pre-test and post-test (writing exam). the school of foreign languages where this study was carried out does not follow a component-based language program. that is, there are no specific classroom hours for writing and teachers do not use a course book to teach writing in the classroom. rather, each class has a total of twenty-three hours of english every week for eight weeks. the school administration gives a weekly syllabus to help teachers follow what should be taught in the classroom. in the weekly syllabus, teachers are directed about which pages to follow from the student’s book and the workbook on each day from monday to friday. they can also see the grammar points which should be covered during the week. photocopiable handouts are given to students for extra practice in reading, listening, writing, and grammar. according to the intermediate level syllabus of the school, students are expected to learn to notice the structure of an essay and write an opinion essay. the writing sections of the units in the student’s book are omitted to engage students with essay writing rather than teaching them how to write a paragraph about memories or say a a formal e-mail. no specific classroom hours were allocated to teach writing in the intermediate level syllabus, so the researcher decided to spend three hours every week for the writing instruction so that the remaining twenty hours could be spent to cover the other parts in the weekly programme. in the first week of the study, two hours were allocated for the peer review training session of the experimental group. the available research has pointed out that in order to conduct successful peer feedback practices, students need to take training on how to give peer feedback (berg, 1999; chang, 2015; hu, 2005; lam, 2010; lundstrom & baker, 2009; miao et al., 2006; min, 2005, 2006; rahimi, 2013; steendam et al., 2010; zhu, 1995). this training period was much briefer and less elaborate when compared with peer feedback training sessions in other studies (e.g., berg, 1999; hu, 2005). the feedback training session had to be conducted for two class hours due to the heavy uymaz / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 20–37 25 curriculum to cover and time consuming preparation of l2 student writers for peer review. it was thought that a longer period of time for training could make the class fall back on the schedule and be impractical. in the first hour of the training, students were taught how to comment on the linguistic errors in a text by showing examples from teachers’ comments on previous year’s student papers. after that, the teacher wrote sentences on the board containing grammatical errors, and students tried to find the correct linguistic code for the error. students wrote their first drafts in the classroom and on the last day of every week, teacher researcher distributed the papers to one of the peers and asked the peer to try to locate the error by using the code list for errors. after this procedure was over, participants wrote their second drafts in the classroom. finally, teacher researcher collected both drafts. this process was the same for the four essay tasks. 2.2. population and sampling the population of the study consists of english class students that attended the english preparatory class at a state university in ankara during the 2017-2018 academic year. the sample of the study consists of an experimental group and participants were intermediate level (b1) at the time of the study and they were randomly assigned to each class. that is, they got the university’s placement test at the beginning of the 2017-2018 academic year and were placed to elementary level according to their scores in the placement test. in the following months to april, they successfully passed the elementary and pre-intermediate levels and earned the right to get an intermediate level education. these intermediate level students were randomly assigned to each class by the school administration. class number 06 was selected as the experimental group. there were 8 students in total. 2.3. data collection tools 2.3.1. pre-test and post-test in order to see the level of the participants, a pre-test was administered. also, a posttest was administered at the end of the study to see whether there is any progress and a statistically significant difference. the writing test is an achievement test which was conducted during the classroom hour with an allocated amount of time. students were asked to write an essay type of text on their opinions for the given topic in sixty minutes for the preand post-test. they were not allowed to use any kind of dictionaries and their cell phones were collected in order to prevent any cheating which could have affected their performance and reliability of the test. the topic of the pre-test was “smartphones should not be allowed in the classrooms. do you agree or disagree? write an opinion essay of at least 180 words”. 26 uymaz / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 20–37 students were asked to write the same type of essay (opinion essay) for the post-test, but this time the topic was “online education is better than traditional classroom education. do you agree or disagree with this statement? write an opinion essay of at least 180 words.” the written performance of the students was assessed by three independent raters. two of the raters were teaching at the state university where this study was conducted and one of the raters was an outside rater who teaches english at preparatory level in another institution. all three of the raters are english instructors at tertiary level preparatory school of higher institutions. the assessment was performed analytically with the help of a writing rubric that was adapted from demirel (2009) (see appendix 1). the pre-test and post-test scores of the participants (see appendix 2) were gathered and in order to see the reliability of the scale, the pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were statistically calculated through spss. the following table shows the results of the pearson-product moment correlation coefficients table 1. pearson product-moment correlation coefficients rater 1 rater 2 rater 3 rater 1 pearson correlation 1 ,543* ,597* sig. (2-tailed) ,030 ,015 n 16 16 16 rater 2 pearson correlation ,543* 1 ,748** sig. (2-tailed) ,030 ,001 n 16 16 16 rater 3 pearson correlation ,597* ,748** 1 sig. (2-tailed) ,015 ,001 n 16 16 16 * correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). different authors suggest different interpretations for the correlation coefficients, but cohen (1988) suggests that correlation coefficients between .10 and .29 are small, between .30 and .49 are considered medium, and between .50 and 1.00 are considered large (cohen, 1988, pp. 79-81). as seen in the above tables, coefficients are above .50, uymaz / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 20–37 27 which attests to a positive correlation among the raters. the coefficient values indicate the reliability of the assessment rubric. 2.3.2. student essays participants completed four writing tasks. they wrote two drafts for four different writing tasks. in two tasks, students were given a statement and asked to give their opinion about the statement in essay format. in the other two tasks, students were given a topic and asked to write about the topic’s advantages and disadvantages by writing an advantage-disadvantage essay. details about these four writing tasks are as follows: 1st essay task: in the first essay task, students were given four statements and asked to choose one. they were asked whether they agree or disagree with the following statements: “strict parents raise their children well”, “young people who live at home with their parents have several advantages”, “modern technological devices have changed the way we communicate”, “watching tv or films is more enjoyable than reading books or magazines”. in the essay, the students were expected to state their stance and support it with relevant ideas. 2nd essay task: in the second essay task, students were given two statements and asked to choose one. they were asked whether they agree or disagree with the following statements: “love solves all the problems in a marriage”, “women are better teachers than men at primary school”. in the essay, they were expected to state their stance and support it with relevant ideas. 3rd essay task: in the third essay task, students were given five statements and asked to choose one. they were asked to write about the advantages and disadvantages of the following topics: “discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using credit cards”, “discuss the advantages and disadvantages of being a tour guide”, “discuss the advantages and disadvantages of winning the lottery”, “discuss the advantages and disadvantages of e-books”, “discuss the advantages and disadvantages of being rich”. 4th essay task: in the fourth essay task, students were given three statements and asked to choose one. they were asked to write about the advantages and disadvantages of the following topics: “discuss the advantages and disadvantages of having an important position at work”, “what are the advantages and disadvantages of living your whole life in your hometown?” and they were asked to write their opinions on the given statement “the internet has improved the freedom of speech. what is your opinion?”. 2.4. data analysis the researcher used the “spss 25.0” version to conduct statistical procedures. a paired samples t-test was conducted to see the difference between the pre-test and post-test of the study group. in order to find the inter-reliability of the three raters, the researcher used pearson product-moment correlation. in order to see the number of valid feedback 28 uymaz / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 20–37 points and correct revisions, the researcher and another colleague came together to decide which feedback is valid and which correction is successful and unsuccessful. there was 95% agreement on the number of valid feedback points and on the number of correct, incorrect revisions with ignored feedback. the researcher and another colleague classified revisions in terms of their success using conrad and goldstein’s (1999) taxonomy as successful revision and unsuccessful revision. conrad and goldstein classified revisions as “successful revisions are those solving a problem or improving upon a problem area discussed in the feedback; unsuccessful revisions are those that did not improve the text or that actually further weakened the text” (p.154). when there was not any attempt to correct the error or when there was a refusal of the feedback by the student, the feedback point was classified as ignored. the number of total words, the number of valid feedback points, the number of successful-unsuccessful and ignored feedback points were counted one by one and checked with a red ink pen. after that, the numbers were put into microsoft excel for each student and percentages were calculated for the feedback points, correct revisions, incorrect revisions, and ignored feedback points. 3. results 3.1. results of the number of feedback points and correct revisions in students’ second drafts (research question 1) the number of words, valid feedback points, successful revisions, unsuccessful revisions, and ignored feedback was tallied and tabulated through microsoft excel. the related results for the four drafts for each student can be found in the following table. table 2. the number of feedback points and its effectiveness in revisions peer feedback students words in draft feedback points revisions successful unsuccessful ignored student 1 707 66 54 8 4 student 2 592 34 25 6 3 student 3 571 39 22 6 11 student 4 725 56 45 4 7 student 5 727 67 55 8 4 student 6 552 40 27 5 8 student 7 703 52 26 11 15 student 8 688 48 24 11 13 uymaz / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 20–37 29 total 5265 402 278 59 65 percent of previous column 8% 69% 15% 16% *percentages are given to the nearest whole number. as can be seen from the table above, peers provided 402 valid feedback points to each other. this figure comprises 8% of the total words written in eight drafts of four different essay tasks. peer feedback group students responded to 278 (69%) of 402 feedback points correctly, 59 (15%) incorrectly and they ignored 65 (16%) of 402 feedback points. 3.2. results of the preand post-test scores of the experimental group (research question 2) analysis participants’ pre-test and post-test scores were statistically analysed with the help of the paired samples t-test. the following table shows the results of the paired samples t-test for the experimental group. table 3. paired samples t-test statistics mean n st. deviation t df sig. (2-tailed) pre-test post-test 48,38 64,38 8 8 10,197 10,967 -4,000 7 ,005 *p<0,05 as the above table indicates, there is a statistically significant difference between the pre-test and post-test results of the study group. the significance level of ,005 (p<0,05) indicates that there is a meaningful difference in the writing performance of the peer feedback group students at the end of the study when compared to the outset. 4. discussion when the number of successful and unsuccessful revisions with the number of ignored feedback points is examined, we can see peers revised 69% of the errors correctly in the second drafts. in addition, peer feedback students ignored 16% of the total feedback points and they revised 15% of the errors incorrectly. 30 uymaz / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 20–37 the reason why the students ignored the provided feedback might be numerous. they may have refused the feedback given by their peers or they might simply have forgotten to correct the error. l2 learners, especially the ones in efl environments, might have a tendency towards ignoring or rejecting the feedback provided by their friends (mangelsdorf & schlumberger, 1992; mendonça & johnson, 1994; zhang, 1995). however, it was observed during the peer feedback sessions that peer feedback activities provided students a chance to discuss the error and possible corrections together with their friends. this discussion process may have decreased the number of ignored feedback points. when peers could not understand a feedback point or could not find ways to correct the error, they could find the chance to construct meaning-making with their peers and this “peer-talk” happened in their l1 (turkish), which might have eased the revision process for the most problematic parts. while they were working on the error to correct it, they transferred their knowledge to each other and this resulted in correct revisions more than 50% of the errors. if they had a point that they could not understand, they did have the chance to elaborate on that topic by asking questions to their peers orally in their l1. participants of this study not only increased their awareness about the use of correct linguistic forms but also became more autonomous learners by being responsible for their own learning without a teacher. these findings are consistent with previous research of miao et al. (2006), rollinson (2005), diab (2010) who found better revisions for peer feedback receivers in subsequent drafts. when we compare the preand post-test results independently from each other, the progress is statistically significant. therefore, it can be said that the study group developed their writing skills at the end of the study thanks to peer feedback. the meaning-making opportunities that the peer feedback group had may have contributed to their performances to write better essays. during the peer talk, they elaborated on every problematic point in their first drafts on organization, vocabulary, grammar, and content. the use of l1 between peers may also have increased interaction and knowledge sharing. 5. conclusion and implications for teaching the immediate effect of peer feedback on the number of correct revisions is because of the fact that peers constructed the whole process of brainstorming, producing and evaluating together and this helped them to take more responsibility for their own learning. when we compare the student gains between preand post-test, it was seen peers made progress in overall scores of the essays. uymaz / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 20–37 31 the most important implication that can be drawn from this study for the language practitioners is that peer feedback has a great potential to be used in the classrooms. it challenges the idea of the traditional language classes that teachers can be the only reliable source of feedback for l2 writing. with the implementation of peer feedback, teachers take the facilitator role in the feedback process. students gather more autonomy and thus become more responsible for their own learning. since peers that would be working together generally happen to be in the same classroom and share the same level of language proficiency, the interaction between them could turn out to be more beneficial for the both parties. peer feedback training is an essential part of the peer feedback activities because most l2 learners are not aware of how to provide feedback to each other as students. they are generally used to getting feedback from their teachers and when teachers come up with the idea of doing peer feedback, the students might resent from doing such activities. peer feedback training activities give students an insight about the feedback process and help them become more aware of what they are writing. also, they get more audience awareness because their texts would be seen by other agents different from their teachers. in short, peer feedback has a great potential to be used in feedback practices for the writing course of tertiary level efl students. it creates a collaborative learning environment and this helps students share their knowledge and close the gap between them. it increases student autonomy and makes students more responsible for their own learning. peer feedback changes the common belief among the students that it is only the teacher who can give feedback. peer feedback results in more student gains in the number of correct revisions in the second drafts and helps students develop their writing in an eight-week period. references berg, e. c. 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(1995). effects of training for peer response on students’ comments and interaction. written communication, 12, 492-528. appendix a. assessment rubric for the pre-test and post-test *0 point for off-topic essays . * 0 point for different type of essay organization20 1520 all parts of the essay are present. there is a well-structured introduction, body and a conclusion. all paragraphs have topic sentences and supporting sentences. parts of the essay work together to make the message clear. 1014 all parts of the essay are present but not very well developed. e.g. at least one topic sentence has more than one controlling idea. and at least one supporting sentence is indirectly related to the topic sentence. 5-9 at least one part of the essay is missing. ideas are not accurately developed. topic sentences lack controlling ideas. supporting sentences are missing or completely unrelated with the topic sentence. 0-4 very weak structure. paragraphs are not divided properly or they are too short to explain an idea completely. content-20 1520 the essay is completely related to the given topic. has enough depth to interest the reader. addresses all aspects of the given issue. 1014 the essay deals with the topic given but a few unrelated ideas are presented. 5-9 the essay is partly related to the given topic. mildly interesting to read. does not address the issue completely. 36 uymaz / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 20–37 0-4 the essay is either unrelated to the given topic or the content is so weak that it does not raise interest in the reader. style-15 spelling 5 decide according to the number of spelling mistakes. punctuation 5 decide according to the number of punctuation mistakes. neatness 5 how well is the essay organized on paper? how well does it follow the format required? grammar-25 2125 few grammar errors that do not interfere with understanding. effective control of sentence structure, verb formation, agreement of tenses. effective control of articles and pronouns. 1620 errors which sometimes interfere with understanding. some control of sentence structure, verb formation, agreement of tenses. some control of articles and pronouns. 1115 frequent errors that often interfere with understanding. problems in sentence structure, verb formation, agreement and tenses. inadequate control of articles and pronouns. 610 frequent grammar errors make some portions of the essay incomprehensible. very limited control of grammatical structures. 0-5 the essay contains major and repeated errors. many unclear sentences. little or no control of sentence structure and verbs. vocabulary-15 1115 variety and accuracy in word choice, correct word formation. 610 reasonable use of vocabulary, some control of word formation. 0-5 noticeable simple, limited and misused vocabulary with many problems in word formation. appendix b. pre-test and post-test results of the experimental group experimental group pre-test scores post-test scores subjects rater 1 rater 2 rater 3 average rater 1 rater 2 rater 3 average 1 60 47 63 57 78 55 58 64 2 48 16 33 32 64 50 63 59 uymaz / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(2) (2019) 20–37 37 3 54 50 70 58 75 48 74 66 4 50 28 52 43 68 32 35 45 5 58 44 42 48 67 41 69 59 6 55 52 70 59 78 57 88 74 7 46 32 32 37 71 89 85 82 8 51 37 70 53 76 52 71 66 copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2017) 49–69 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction an investigation of foreign language courses with and without video technology i̇smail fırat altay a *, dalım çiğdem ünal b a hacettepe university, faculty of education , ankara 06800, turkey b hacettepe university, faculty of education , ankara 06800, turkey abstract in the twenty first century, technology has started to occupy much more place in the field of foreign language learning and teaching. depending on widespread use of internet and technological devices, video use has become more practical and easier in foreign language classes. this study aims to investigate the difference between classes with and without video use. in order to realize this, fourth year candidate teachers of english and german language teaching programs have been observed. depending on the three year longitudinal study, different aspects of video use have been investigated. firstly, classes have been observed with no video use. later same classes have been observed with video use. the video used has been left to candidates, so they can be teacher made, adapted or ready-made. both observations have been rated by using two questionnaires. the results have been compared considering classes without and with video and the amount of video use within three years. for data analysis, spss has been used. the results indicate that, learners are more motivated and successful in classes where video is used. besides, there is a decreasing resistance level among learners towards classes with video as the years pass. after results, finally, pedagogical implications have been presented to the readers. © 2017 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: video, practice teaching, technology, foreign language learning, foreign language teaching 1. introduction instructional materials have always formed an integral place in foreign language learning and teaching. with the development of technology and technological devices, foreign language learning and teaching has gained in different perspectives. one of them is use of direct teaching materials in and out of class. video can be considered as a practical and outstanding teaching material to be used. video as an instructional teaching technology, has gained in a strong and determining place in foreign language * i̇smail fırat altay. tel.: +90-312-297-8575 e-mail address: ifaltay@hacettepe.edu.tr 50 i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 classes and has been favoured both by teachers and learners. as çakır says, “video is stimulating and facilitating in target language” (2006, p. 67). but, what are the reasons that make use of video that attention taking? video has many advantageous uses for foreign language teachers and learners (biechele, 2006; rössler, 2007; sass, 2007). they will be presented here one by one. each of the uses add different values to learning and teaching process, so they had better be considered carefully. to start with, video presents interesting visual material to the classroom. the existence of such material in class worth considering. the reason is that not only children of twenty first century but also people from different age groups like to see motion picture in class hour. video adds joy and adds different taste to the content (lay, 2009). that is why, learners look for video use in teaching time. video has the advantage of referring to both eyes and ears. it is not only good for the use of visual learners but also remarkable for audio learners (rybarczyk, 2012). as is known, in classes addressing to as many senses as possible is a desired fact. video use makes it possible in this respect. learning a foreign language is far more different than learning grammar, syntax, phonetics and vocabulary of complete system. it requires cultural information, as well (welke, 2007). without mastery on target language speaking people’s culture, it is hard to climb over a certain level. at this step crosscultural competence seems like of paramount importance. therefore, as herron, dubrell, cole and corrie (2000) state, video brings culture of target language speaking people to the class for learners in economical and practical way. in addition to the culture, by having non-verbal elements in it, video has positive side of bringing semiotic elements of target language speaking people. at this step, besides verbal communication, learners are given the chance to decode messages given in nonverbal form. likewise, they learn to code their own messages without use of words. thus, video gives input about mimics, gestures, eye contact, proxemics and like. the input furnishes the learners with the capacity of producing output (akalp, 1999). use of video in foreign language classes is also very time saving. in certain appropriate occasions, by using video teacher saves valuable class time. this way, teaching becomes much more efficient and teacher will not struggle with other ways of teaching or exhibiting content. thanks to widespread use of internet, videos are available everywhere and they can be used in various ways. it is possible to find short videos that fit to different parts of the lesson for different purposes. they can be cut by the help of programs and combined when necessary. instead of a complete movie, specific parts can be utilized. as a consequence, with very little effort, videos make life easy for a language teacher and a lesson more enjoyable for learners (shrosbree, 2008). i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 51 authentic videos present opportunities for learners to view and listen to accents from native speakers of different sexes, ages, cultural and educational backgrounds and regions. learners have the chance to become familiar with phonetics and phonology of target language. this way not only their receptive skills improve but also productive skills develop in communicating with other party (çakır, 2006). the vocabulary used in videos are of great significance. they increase the vocabulary stock of foreign language learners. learners gain information about daily vocabulary in addition to culturally loaded words. this fact develops their lexicon and make them more proficient in improving their communicative competence (weyers, 1999). jean and basanta (2009) point out that dialogues observed in videos exhibit exemplary conversational strategies. foreign language learners are given the chance to improve their skills in carrying on speech by using examples. they use the input presented and apply similar ones. generally, such activities indirectly help them be proficient in using target language. it is evident that use of video in foreign language classes has many advantages. however, in addition to its advantages, video use may not be useful or may be disadvantageous if some significant remarks are neglected. thus, foreign language teacher needs to be careful in using video in his class (burger, 2010). if the following points are taken into account, disadvantages can be eliminated. initially, the amount of time spent in class for video needs to be worked on. only a short period of activity time should be devoted to video use. if this time limit is violated, learners are bored and the desired aim is not reached. however, what is this magical limit? there is no clear-cut information on the length of time, but it is advised to be appropriate to the age of the learners. young learners may lose their concentrations very easily, that is why one or two minute videos are very suitable for them. for adults, longer videos can be preferred. yet, whole class time should not be given to the video because in connection to the video, preor post-activities need to placed. thus, while arranging time flow, such facts should be dwelt on and time management must be made. secondly, content of the video watched should refer to the age and interest of the learners. if this is not realized, valuable class time is wasted. it is a fact that likes and dislikes of learners may be so much different from that of learners. teachers may ask for the ideas of other teachers, other people or learners in order not to make mistakes. for surprise videos, language teachers may make observations beforehand to understand what his learners favour. the video and the aim of the language course need to overlap as much as possible. otherwise, watching video will be like watching any television programme but nothing else. in order to avoid this unwanted consequence, language teacher needs to make his plan for the lesson and insert the video as an integral part of it not as an artificially added section. 52 i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 the level of the language in the video should match with that of the learners. if the level is lower, then the desired progress will not be reached. if the level is a lot higher than the level of the learners, then the learners may face a big gap and lose their motivation in reaching success. so, the level of the video should be either of same level with that of learners, or a bit above their levels. the quality of the sound should be high enough to avoid misunderstandings especially if there is a testing situation. as coniam (2000, p. 10) says “if the two speakers are of the same sex, it is difficult to differentiate”. thus, video helps us understand who is speaking and who is listening. high quality impedes misunderstandings among listeners. in brief, when used carefully, videos are of great help both to the learners and to the teachers. in doing this, primarily teachers have to be careful about the above-mentioned fact. if they do so, they can utilize the pointed-out advantages. therefore, much more fruitful outcomes can be observed in language classes. 1.1 origin of videos in foreign language classes videos used in foreign language classes may come from different sources. the most frequently used ones are ready made videos. such videos are available in various channels. teachers look for these materials, and if they believe that they are the ones that meet their needs, they can be used without any change. at this step, teachers do not make any change on videos like additions, cutting or combining some scenes or like. so, they are considered as ready-made videos. the second group of videos like the first ones. they are also produced by some people other than the teacher. the main difference between the first ones and this group is that the videos in this group are not used as they are. they are changed or adapted to the needs of the learners or the aims of the lesson. this change may include shortening by cutting some parts, adding subtitles, combining with other videos or deleting some scenes. the aim in making such changes is to fit the video to the aim of the foreign language class much more than the original form. the third category is composed of videos made or produced by the teachers themselves. thanks to developing technology in communication and recording devices, teachers themselves can record videos for classroom use. the materials prepared this way have the advantage of attaching the interest of the learners more than the other types because they are produced by their teacher especially for their needs. all in all, for foreign language classes are composed of three different types. they can be ready made, adapted or teacher made. each has its own advantage and ease of use. language teacher can pick up the one that meets his and his class’ needs more than the others. i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 53 1.2 ways of using video in foreign language classes the way that video is used in foreign language classes show great differences. language teacher can make use of video and recorded material in various ways (wehage, f. j., 1997). some of the basic applications that can be utilized in classes are presented here as techniques (çakır, 2006). the most common technique is active viewing. in active viewing, the learners see the video and beforehand they are given a task like answering questions. after watching the video, answers are given. aim is based on comprehension on viewing. as a second techniques, while viewing the video, the teacher freezes the screen and wants learners to predict what will happen next. basic aim to improve the imagination of the learners. they are expected to deduce information on what they have seen till the teacher freezes the screen. a third technique is silent viewing. in this technique, the learners watch the movie with sound off for the first time. during this watching, again they are expected to imagine what the characters are talking. later, they watch it again with voice on and check whether their guesses are correct or not. the opposite of sound off is vision off technique. this time, learners just hear but do not see the video during the first session. they make comments like what the characters look like, how they look like. later they watch the movie with both vision and sound on and check their guesses. guesses can be given both individually or in groups. another technique requires learners to view a scene more than once and act it out in front of the class. this technique requires complete understanding of the scene they watch that is why they have to be very careful till acting out. it develops not only communicative abilities but also semiotic competence since body langue is also expected to be used. another activity requires follow up exercises of any kind. this can be in the form of matching, discussion or completion. what learners are expected to do is to view the video fist and discuss the follow up speaking points. this is an activity that combines listening and speaking skills in addition to idea generation like opinion gap. in one other technique, the learners just view the video and voice the speakers on the visual cues they have at hand. in order to realise this, first they watch the video without doing anything and gain information on the general form of it. later, they dub the video. no doubt, this is not a low-level activity and needs to be used by learners of higher level (çakır, 2006). one last technique is using karaoke. as is known, karaoke has wide use in some cultures. it combines music and reading with intonation, rhythm and stress. erten (2015) points out that this electronic activity has the advantage of combining fun and language tasks in classroom. it does not only develop language skills but also improve familiarization with sounds, words, sentence structures and so on. 54 i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 in brief, video can be used in foreign language classes in very different ways. it does not only add visual side to tasks but also make the activities much more meaningful by adding fun. so, teachers should be motivated to use short videos in class not only to attract the ineptest of learners but also to add variety to the activities. what they need to do at this step is to consider the previously mentioned facts to avoid undesired consequences. 2. methodology 2.1 research design the manuscript is based on a three year longitudinal study which investigates teacher candidates’ use of video in teaching foreign languages. for three years, prospective english and german teachers has been observed during practice teaching. the teaching includes both courses with and without video use. it aims to investigate the courses that prospective foreign language teachers prepared and applied in the classroom. descriptive analysis was applied in this study in order to “evaluate prospective english and german language teachers’ courses with and without the integration of video technology”. besides, survey research model was used in the study because “it is aimed to describe a situation which was available in the past or is still available as it is” with the survey research model (karasar, 2005, p. 77). 2.2 setting and participants evaluation of the sample courses that were prepared and presented by the participants during three academic years is the data collected for this study. this study was conducted with 186 prospective language teachers who were studying in the department of foreign language teaching in a state university in ankara and taking practice teaching course during 2012-2013, 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 academic years. 49 of these participants were registered in german language teaching program and 137 of them were registered in english language teaching program (see table 1). table 1. demographic information about prospective foreign language teachers major and gender academic year total 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 f % english female 20 16 69 52 48 38 137 73.6 male 4 17 10 german female 15 11 20 16 14 11 49 26.3 male 4 4 3 total f 35 89 62 186 100 % 18.8 47.8 33.3 i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 55 as it can be seen in the table 1, 35 perspective teachers in 2012-2013 academic year, 89 prospective teachers in 2013-2014 academic year, and 62 prospective teachers in 20142015 academic year were observed in the lessons that they prepared and presented in the schools of ministry of national education where they were doing their practicum and evaluated accordingly. observation and evaluation of the courses prepared and presented by the prospective language teachers were done by the instructor of practice teaching course who are also the researchers of this study. during the study, each of 186 prospective english and german language teacher executed two sample lesson plan as part of practice teaching. while one of these courses was adapting video technology, the other one was not included video-based materials. 2.3 instrumentation and procedure this study aims to investigate the evaluation grades of the two courses with and without the integration of video technology and the differences between them. quantitative research is aimed. data was gained through two questionnaire in the form of a checklist. one of them was utilized after a class hour where video is not used. the other one was utilized after a class where video is used. the data collected for this study were analyzed through spss version 20.0. firstly, the average grades of the courses’ evaluation with and without the integration of video technology were examined. significant statistical values about the evaluation grades of practice teaching course, frequency, and percentage distribution, as well as mean and standard deviation are presented. besides, independent sample t-test were applied in this study in order to understand whether there is a significant difference between the evaluation grades of the students towards the two sample lessons with and without use of video technology. in other words, the problem whether the courses that were presented by the students included video-based materials or not affected the course evaluation grades was investigated with the use of independent sample t-test. independent sample t-test was applied for each academic year separately. the reason why independent sample t-test was preferred for this study is that the course with the integration of video-based material and the course without it are two different sample. lastly, anova was used in this study in order to understand whether there is a statistically significant difference between the practice teaching evaluation grades calculated based on the two sample courses which are with and without the use of video technology. also, after the application of one-way analysis of variance, post-hoc scheffe test was used to see the difference between the groups. “foreign language course evaluation questionnaire” which was developed by the researchers was used as the data collection tool in this study. this evaluation questionnaire which is a likert scale is consisted of 4 parts: 1. items in this part are aimed at answering “what has been thought?”. skills that are intended to be gained in the course are stated in the first part of the questionnaire. these 56 i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 skills are reading, writing, listening, speaking, vocabulary knowledge, pronunciation, grammar, and target language speaking culture knowledge (items 1-8). 2. items in this part are aimed at answering “how has it been taught?”. attention grasping, time management, associating the topics, effective communication, use of techniques, researches are studied in the second part (items 9-15). 3. items in this part are aimed at answering “how has it been learned?”. effective learning, participation level, success level, adapting to the techniques are looked for in the third part (items 16-20). 4. items in this part are aimed at answering “how was the success?” in this part, success grade of the prospective teachers as part of the foreign language course evaluation questionnaire has been investigated. (item 21). to realize this, teaching practice evaluation form has been used. this form is prepared by turkish higher education council, and fourth year teacher candidates are evaluated with respect to the content given in this content. their strengths and weaknesses are thought to be unearthed with it. it includes items which aim to measure both field knowledge and demagogical considerations like planning, classroom management and communication. it has been agreed that the distance between options are equal in the instrument and the borders are stated as following: never use (1), almost never (2), occasionally (3), almost every time (4) and frequently use (5). 3. results bases on the foreign language course evaluation questionnaire, some valuable data has been reached. the number and percentage of the alternatives for each item in the questionnaire has been given in table 2. table 2. distribution of points toward the prospective teachers’ evaluation of course with and without the use of video with the course material used, the prospective teacher ... n groups never use (1) almost never (2) occasion ally (3) almost every time (4) frequentl y use (5) x sd f (%) f (%) f (%) f (%) f (%) 1. aimed at improving reading skill in foreign language teaching. 188 with video 76 (%40.8) 52 (%27.9) 19 (%10.2) 5 (%2.6) 34 (%18.2) 2.2 1.4 without video 39 (%20.9) 52 (%27.9) 22 (%11.8) 15 (%8) 18 (%9.6) 3.0 1.5 2. aimed at improving writing skill in foreign language teaching. 188 with video 98 (%52.6) 40 (%21.5) 6 (%3.2) 11 (%5.9) 31 (%16.6) 2.1 1.5 without video 40 (%21.5) 75 (%40.3) 18 (%9.6) 18 (%9.6) 35 (%18.8) 2.6 1.4 3. aimed at improving speaking 188 with video 72 (%38.7) 51 (%27.4) 11 (%5.9) 15 (%8) 37 (%19.8) 2.4 1.5 i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 57 skill in foreign language teaching. without video 75 (%40.3) 66 (%35.4) 23 (%12.3) 6 (%3.2) 16 (%8.6) 2.0 1.1 4. aimed at improving listening skill in foreign language teaching. 188 with video 72 (%38.7) 32 (%17.2) 34 (%18.2) 18 (%9.6) 30 (%16.1) 2.4 1.4 without video 82 (%44) 66 (%35.4) 22 (%11.8) 5 (%2.6) 11 (%5.9) 1.9 1.0 5. aimed at improving vocabulary knowledge in foreign language teaching. 188 with video 50 (%26.8) 67 (%36) 30 (%16.1) 29 (%15.5) 10 (%5.3) 2.3 1.1 without video 59 (%31.7) 66 (%35.4) 31 (%16.6) 18 (%9.6) 12 (%6.4) 2.2 1.1 6. aimed at improving pronunciation knowledge in foreign language teaching. 188 with video 66 (%35.4) 72 (%38.7) 37 (%19.8) 7 (%3.7) 4 (%2.1) 1.9 0.9 without video 82 (%44) 46 (%24.7) 42 (%22.5) 7 (%3.7) 9 (%4.8) 2.0 1.1 7. aimed at improving grammar knowledge in foreign language teaching. 188 with video 52 (%27.9) 51 (%27.4) 18 (%9.6) 32 (%17.2) 33 (%17.7) 2.6 1.4 without video 60 (%32.2) 51 (%27.4) 23 (%12.3) 17 (%9.1) 35 (%18.8) 2.5 1.4 8. aimed at improving target language speaking culture knowledge. 188 with video 77 (%41.3) 64 (%34.4) 30 (%16.1) 9 (%4.8) 6 (%3.2) 1.9 1.0 without video 99 (%53.2) 41 (%22) 26 (%13.9) 14 (%7.5) 6 (%3.2) 1.8 1.1 9. has attracted the grasp of students’ attention. 188 with video 13 (%6.9) 5 (%2.6) 19 (%10.2) 45 (%24.1) 104 (%55.9) 4.1 1.1 without video 5 (%2.6) 53 (%28.4) 90 (%48.3) 35 (%18.8) 3 (%1.6) 2.8 0.7 10. has used the time effectively. 188 with video 13 (%6.9) 5 (%2.6) 12 (%6.4) 97 (%52.1) 59 (%31.7) 3.9 1.0 without video 2 (%1) 28 (%15) 92 (%49.4) 55 (%29.5) 9 (%4.8) 3.2 0.7 11. associated the topics very well. 188 with video 12 (%6.4) 7 (%3.7) 21 (%11.2) 80 (%43) 66 (%35.4) 3.9 1.0 without video 1 (%0.5) 23 (%12.3) 103 (%55.3) 51 (%27.4) 8 (%4.3) 3.2 0.7 12. communicated with the students effectively. 188 with video 12 (%6.4) 4 (%2.1) 16 (%8.6) 41 (%22) 113 (% 60.7) 4.2 1.1 without video 0 (%0) 42 (%22.5) 103 (%55.3) 34 (%18.2) 7 (%3.7) 3.0 0.7 13. has used the techniques purposefully. 188 with video 13 (%6.9) 4 (%2.1) 12 (%6.4) 63 (%33.8) 94 (%50.5) 4.1 1.1 without video 1 (%0.5) 23 (%12.3) 96 (%51.6) 55 (%29.5) 11 (%5.9) 3.2 0.7 14. has used suitable exercises. 188 with video 12 (%6.4) 6 (%3.2) 12 (%6.4) 78 (%41.9) 78 (%41.9) 4.0 1.0 without 1 15 107 51 12 3.3 0.7 58 i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 video (%0.5) (%8) (%57.5) (%27.4) (%6.4) 15. has used suitable approaches and techniques. 188 with video 12 (%6.4) 6 (%3.2) 10 (%5.3) 70 (%37.6) 88 (%47.3) 4.1 1.1 without video 1 (%0.5) 14 (%7.5) 116 (%62.3) 43 (%23.1) 12 (%6.4) 3.2 0.7 21. has been successful (depending on the mark gained) 188 with video 12 (%6.5) 0 (%0) 16 (%8.6) 149 (%80.1) 9 (%4.8) 3.7 1.8 without video 0 (%) 2 (%1) 128 (%68.8) 55 (%29.5) 1 (%0.5) 3.2 0.4 when the table 2 examined in order to “evaluate prospective english and german language teachers’ courses with and without the integration of video technology”, it is seen that the item “aimed at improving reading skill in foreign language teaching.” (x=3) in the first part has the highest average. the second highest average is seen again in the courses without the use of video in the item “aimed at improving writing skill in foreign language teaching.” (x=2.6). the highest average seen in the courses with the use of video is in the item “aimed at improving grammar knowledge” (x=2.6). it has been found that items, “aimed at improving target language culture knowledge in foreign language teaching” (x=1.8) and “aimed at improving listening skill in foreign language teaching” (x=1.9) has the lowest average in the courses without the use of video. when we look at the courses without the use of video, the lowest average is seen in 16. has had a productive course. 188 with video 13 (%6.9) 6 (%3.2) 22 (%11.8) 39 (%20.9) 106 (%56.9) 4.1 1.1 without video 0 (%0) 19 (%10.2) 124 (%66.6) 38 (%20.4) 5 (%2.6) 3.1 0.6 17. has increased the participation level of the students. 188 with video 12 (%6.4) 9 (%4.8) 25 (%13.4) 20 (%10.7) 120 (%64.5) 4.2 1.2 without video 0 (%0) 62 (%33.3) 112 (%60.2) 11 (%5.9) 1 (%0.5) 2.7 0.5 18. has increased the success level of the students. 188 with video 12 (%6.4) 10 (%5.3) 24 (%12.9) 64 (%34.4) 76 (%40.8) 3.9 1.1 without video 1 (%0.5) 47 (%25.2) 125 (%67.2) 12 (%6.4) 1 (%0.5) 2.8 0.5 19. has had the problems with adapting the students with the techniques used. 188 with video 60 (%32.2 2 (%1) 2 (%1) 26 (%13.9) 96 (%51.6) 3.5 1.8 without video 45 (%24.1) 17 (%9.1) 12 (%6.4) 36 (%19.3) 76 (%40.8) 3.4 1.6 20. has problems with the students about resisting the techniques used. 188 with video 60 (%32.2) 3 (%1.6) 3 %1.6) 25 (%13.4) 95 (%51) 3.4 1.8 without video 16 (%8.6) 48 (%25.8) 4 (%2.1) 55 (%29.5) 63 (%33.8) 3.5 1.4 i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 59 the two items which are “aimed at improving pronunciation knowledge in foreign language teaching” (x=1.9) “aimed at teaching target language culture knowledge” (x=1.9). in the 2nd part, the item “communicates with the student effectively” (x=4,2) has the highest average in the courses with the use of video. it has been seen that he second highest average is on the items “has attracted the students’ attention”, “has used the techniques purposefully” and “has used the suitable approaches and techniques” with the average x=4,1. the items “has attracted the students’ attention” (x=2,8) and “has communicated with the student effectively” (x=3,0) have the lowest average in the courses without the use if video. it is clear that the highest average is in the items “has increased the participation of the students” (x=4,2) and “has had a fruitful lesson” (x=4,1) in the courses with the use of video. the lowest average has been seen in the courses without the use of video in the items “has increased the participation level of the students” (x=2,7) and “has increased the success level” (x=2,8). it is found that evaluation scores of the prospective foreign language teachers are higher in the courses that they made use of video technology (x=3.7) than the courses that they have not made use of video technology (x=3.2) when the fourth part is investigated. in order to understand whether there is a significant difference between the evaluation grades of the students about the sample lessons presented using the video and without using video, an independent sample t-test was applied. table 3. independent sample t-test results of 2012-2013 academic year levene's test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means 95% confidence interval of the difference f sig. t df sig. (2tailed ) mean difference std. error differe nce lower upper poi nts equal variances assumed 105.925 .000 1.396 68 .167 .33741 .24165 -.14479 .81962 equal variances not assumed 1.396 39.280 .170 .33741 .24165 -.15125 .82608 60 i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 as it is seen in table 3, as a result of the independent sample t -test in order to understand whether there is a difference in the 2012-2013 academic year course evaluation grades of the prospective english and german language teachers based on the material used (with video-without video), the difference between the groups was not statistically significant (t=1.396; p<0.05). this shows that there is not a significant difference between the course evaluation grades of the lessons prepared with the videobased materials and without video-based materials. table 4. independent sample t-test results of 2013-2014 academic year levene's test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means 95% confidence interval of the difference f sig. t df sig. (2tailed ) mean difference std. error difference lower upper point s equal variances assumed 1.112 .293 -11.233 176 .000 -.65062 .05792 -.76492 -.53631 equal variances not assumed -11.233 172. 366 .000 -.65062 .05792 -.76494 -.53629 as can be seen in the table 4, there is a statistically significant difference between the groups based on the results of independent sample t-test which is conducted with the aim of determining whether the course evaluation grades of the prospective german and english language teachers change based on the materials used (with video-without video) in 2013-2014 academic year (t=-11,233; p<0,05). this difference is in favor of the lessons with the integration of video. in this respect, course evaluation grades of the foreign language lessons with the integration of video-based materials are higher than the grades of the lessons without the video integration. i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 61 table 5. independent sample t-test results of 2014-2015 academic year levene's test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means 95% confidence interval of the difference f sig. t df sig. (2tailed ) mean difference std. error difference lower upper poi nts equal variances assumed 2.726 .101 -13.857 122 .000 -.81413 .05875 -.93044 -.69782 equal variances not assumed -13.857 118.55 9 .000 -.81413 .05875 -.93047 -.69779 table 5 shows the results of independent sample t-test which was conducted to determine if 2014-2015 academic year course evaluation grades differ according to the materials (with video-without video) that were used by the prospective german and english language teachers. accordingly, the difference between the groups was found statistically significant (t=-13.857; p<0.05). the difference is in favor of the lessons with the integration of video-based materials in this year. as course evaluation grades of the foreign language lessons with the integration of video-based materials are higher than the grades of the lessons without the video integration, it is understood that the lessons with the use of video are more effective. table 6. results of one-way anova in three academic years sum of squares df mean square f sig. between groups 32.613 2 16.306 33.672 .000 within groups 88.621 183 .484 total 121.234 185 when the table 6 is examined, as a result of the application of one-way anova which was conducted in order to determine whether the evaluation grades which were obtained by observing the lessons with and without video usage differ according to the academic years, the difference between the averages of the groups was found statistically different (f=33.672; p<0.05). post-hoc test was used to understand the reason of the difference. levene test was used to test the homogeneity of the variance in order to decide which 62 i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 comparison test will be preferred, because there was homogeneity of variance, scheffe test was preferred (l=66.715; p>.05). the results obtained are presented in the table 7. table 7. the results of post-hoc scheffe test (i) year (j) year mean difference (i-j) std. error sig. 95% confidence interval lower bound upper bound scheffe 1.00 2.00 -.98803* .13884 .000 -1.3307 -.6454 3.00 -1.15155* .14713 .000 -1.5147 -.7884 2.00 1.00 .98803* .13884 .000 .6454 1.3307 3.00 -.16352 .11512 .367 -.4476 .1206 3.00 1.00 1.15155* .14713 .000 .7884 1.5147 2.00 .16352 .11512 .367 -.1206 .4476 *. the mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level. as seen in table 7, after the application of one-way anova which was used in order to identify if the course evaluation grades which were obtained by observing the lessons with and without video usage differ according to the academic years, scheffe test was applied. as a result of scheffe test, it is understood that there is a difference between both 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 academic years and 2012-2013 and 2014-2015 academic years. also, the difference between 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 academic years were not found significant (p>.05). 4. discussion and pedagogical implications the results of the study reveal the fact that video use has a significant place in foreign language teaching. with the development of technology and improvements about technological devices in classes, teachers find more chance to use recorded materials in teaching foreign languages. such materials can be ready made, adapted or teacher produced, the origin is not so much important; however, their actual use has some clear advantages. first of all, the findings made it clear that video use increases motivation among learners. since learners at primary, secondary and high schools are digital natives, it is impossible to motivate them with plain lockstep. therefore, foreign language teachers need to enrich their classes with technology like video. it is evident that video has the potential of presenting great deal of information in a short period of time by considering different learner types. according to the findings, it is possible to state that, in a class where it is used, video makes learners more alert, so more effective learning may occur. in the findings, it is also pointed out that via video use, foreign language teacher can teach language skills. prospective language teachers have been more effective in teaching reading and writing skills with integration of video. in addition to the i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 63 mentioned two skills, via video use, grammar teaching has been successful as well as teaching of other skills. the longitudinal study reveals the fact that each coming generation is more interested in having technology in class more than previous ones. in the observation of 2012-2013 prospective teachers, as a result of foreign language course evaluation questionnaire, it is noticed that learners are less motivated from video use whereas this fact changes and learners’ motivation go up in 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 observations. so, with each coming generation, use of video seems to be more effective and teachers are advised to use it to increase effectiveness of their class hours and success level of their students. short videos are time saving for busy teachers who need to catch up with syllabus they are given. it crystal clear that planning and timing are important considerations especially for state school teachers. however, thanks to available smart boards and possibility of finding appropriate videos for different aims, teachers have the flexibility to use videos for different purposes without violating their time use and changing their syllabus drastically. this was actually what the participants did in the study and the results exhibit the fact that they did not fail in motivating their students more than by using classical methods. compared to the class hours where video use was not utilized, 2012-2013 year showed no meaningful difference with respect to the success of the learners. by the way, success was measured by the responses of the learners given to the prospective students and points gained by candidate teachers as a result of foreign language course evaluation questionnaire. on the other hand, 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 years made it clear that there was a significant difference between classes where video was used and was not used. the consequences can be explained with the amount of media exposure and habits of the younger generations who favour more to digital content. so, they become more motivated and be more successful. to sum up, video use in foreign language teaching classes should be motivated by teacher trainers to teachers. twenty first century learners be more successful and be more motivated thanks to them. it does not matter they are teacher made, adapted or ready-made, but students like to have them in class a fresh breath. they refer to learners with different learning styles and thanks to cultural elements and semiotic features, they also present advantageous qualities which make the job of foreign language teachers more efficient. 5.0 conclusion as a consequence, the study reveals the fact that video as an outcome of educational technology is an important consideration in foreign language teaching classes. candidate teachers use, ready-made, adapted, or self-materials in this respect; however, the amount of the first one is definitely more than the others. video integrated teaching especially for reading, writing and grammar has been found very effective. the three-year study 64 i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 also makes it clear that video use increases the success level of candidate teachers. besides, learners in the classes do not resist use of video as an instructional material, and this is observed in an increasing trend in the three-year research. video technology is advised to be placed in language courses not only to increase success but also motivation of learners. thus, for learners, future teachers and teacher, video is advised to be used. references akalp, ö. (1999). improving the ways of communicative competence. unpublished graduate dissertation. hacettepe university, ankara, turkey. biechele, b. (2006). film/video/dvd in deutsch als fremdsprache. umbrüche. materialien deutsch als fremdsprache 76, 310-328. burger, g. (2010). die verwendung intralingualer untertitel beim einsatz audiovisueller medien: hindernis oder hilfe für den fremdsprachenerwerb. zeitschrift für romanische sprachen und ihre didaktik 4(1), 9-21. coniam, d. (2001). the use of audio and video comprehension as an assessment instrument in the certification of english language teachers: a case study. system, 29, 1-14. çakır, i̇. (2006). the use of video as an audio-visual material in foreign language teaching classroom. tojet, 5(3), 67-72. erten, i̇. h. (2015). using karaoke in language classrooms: exploring potentials and prospects. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 199, 589-596. herron, c., dubreil, s., cole, s. c., & corrie, c. 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(2007). viel weniger an film ist mehr! fremdsprache deutsch 36(1), 17-20. rybarczyk, r. (2012). zum einsatz von kurzfilmen im fremdsprachenunterricht am beispiel von werbespots. zeitschrift für interkulturellen fremdsprachenunterricht. didaktik und methodik im bereich deutsch als fremdsprache, 143-156. retreived april 26, 2016 from http://tujournals.ulb.tudarmstadt.de/index.php/zif/article/view/91/86 sass, a. (2007). filme im unterricht sehen(d) lernen. fremdsprache deutsch 36(1), 513. shrosbree, m. (2008). digital video in the classroom. the jalt call journal 41, 75-84. wehage, f.-j. (1997). einsatz von videos im daf-unterricht aus us-amerikanischer sicht. info daf 24(4), 523-529. welke, t. (2007). ein plädoyer für die arbeit mit kurzfilmen themenschwerpunkt: ausländer in deutschland/ landeskunde. fremdsprache deutsch 36(1), 21-25. weyers, j. r. (1999). the effect of authentic video on communicative competence. modern language journal 83, 339-349. appendix a. questionnaire for courses without video use never rarely occasionally frequently very frequently 1. the prospective teacher aimed at improving reading skill in foreign language teaching. 1 2 3 4 5 2. the prospective teacher aimed at improving writing skill in foreign language teaching. 1 2 3 4 5 3. the prospective teacher aimed at improving speaking skill in foreign language teaching. 1 2 3 4 5 4. the prospective teacher aimed at improving listening skill in foreign language 1 2 3 4 5 5. the prospective teacher 1 2 3 4 5 66 i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 aimed at improving vocabulary knowledge in foreign language teaching. 6. the prospective teacher aimed at improving pronunciation knowledge in foreign language teaching. 1 2 3 4 5 7. the prospective teacher aimed at improving grammar knowledge in foreign language teaching. 1 2 3 4 5 8. the prospective teacher aimed at improving target language speaking culture knowledge. 1 2 3 4 5 9. the prospective teacher has attracted the grasp of students’ attention. 1 2 3 4 5 10. the prospective teacher has used the time effectively. 1 2 3 4 5 11. the prospective teacher associated the topics very well. 1 2 3 4 5 12. the prospective teacher communicated with the students effectively. 1 2 3 4 5 13. the prospective teacher has used the techniques purposefully. 1 2 3 4 5 14. the prospective teacher has used suitable exercises. 1 2 3 4 5 15. the prospective teacher has used suitable approaches and techniques. 1 2 3 4 5 16. the prospective teacher has had a productive course. 1 2 3 4 5 17. the prospective teacher has increased the participation level of the students. 1 2 3 4 5 18. the prospective teacher has increased the success level of the students. 1 2 3 4 5 i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 67 19. the prospective teacher has had the problems with adapting the students with the techniques used. 1 2 3 4 5 20. the prospective teacher has problems with the students about resisting the techniques used. 1 2 3 4 5 21. the prospective teacher has been successful (depending on the mark gained) 1 2 3 4 5 appendix b. questionnaire for courses with video use a. the prospective teacher has prepared the video material on his own. b. the prospective teacher has adapted the video material. c. the prospective teacher has used a video material prepared by someone else. never rarely occasionally frequently very frequently 1. the prospective teacher aimed at improving reading skill in foreign language teaching. 1 2 3 4 5 2. the prospective teacher aimed at improving writing skill in foreign language teaching. 1 2 3 4 5 3. the prospective teacher aimed at improving speaking skill in foreign language teaching. 1 2 3 4 5 4. the prospective teacher aimed at improving listening skill in foreign language 1 2 3 4 5 68 i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 5. the prospective teacher aimed at improving vocabulary knowledge in foreign language teaching. 1 2 3 4 5 6. the prospective teacher aimed at improving pronunciation knowledge in foreign language teaching. 1 2 3 4 5 7. the prospective teacher aimed at improving grammar knowledge in foreign language teaching. 1 2 3 4 5 8. the prospective teacher aimed at improving target language speaking culture knowledge. 1 2 3 4 5 9. the prospective teacher has attracted the grasp of students’ attention. 1 2 3 4 5 10. the prospective teacher has used the time effectively. 1 2 3 4 5 11. the prospective teacher associated the topics very well. 1 2 3 4 5 12. the prospective teacher communicated with the students effectively. 1 2 3 4 5 13. the prospective teacher has used the techniques purposefully. 1 2 3 4 5 14. the prospective teacher has used suitable exercises. 1 2 3 4 5 15. the prospective teacher has used suitable approaches and techniques. 1 2 3 4 5 16. the prospective teacher has had a productive course. 1 2 3 4 5 17. the prospective teacher has increased the participation level of the students. 1 2 3 4 5 18. the prospective teacher has increased the success 1 2 3 4 5 i̇. f. altay, d. ç. ünal / international journal of curriculum and instruction 9(2) (2018) 49–69 69 level of the students. 19. the prospective teacher has had the problems with adapting the students with the techniques used. 1 2 3 4 5 20. the prospective teacher has problems with the students about resisting the techniques used. 1 2 3 4 5 21. the prospective teacher has been successful (depending on the mark gained) 1 2 3 4 5 copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 63-74 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction pre-service teachers understanding of problem behavior jonathan chitiyo a *, argnue chitiyo b, donna dombek c a university of pittsburgh bradford, 300 campus drive bradford, pa, 16701, usa b ball state university, 2000 w. university ave. muncie, in 47306, usa c university of pittsburgh bradford, 300 campus drive bradford, pa, 16701, usa abstract problem behavior is one of the most pressing issues in today’s classrooms. problem behavior not only interferes with the learning potential of the student exhibiting the behavior but has rippling effects throughout the entire learning environment. considering that problem behavior disrupts the learning environment for all students, it is crucial for teachers to adopt effective pro-active behavior management practices. the adoption of pro-active behavior management approaches is, however, dependent on teacher perceptions of the nature of the problem behavior. the purpose of this study was to examine 29 pre-service teachers’ understanding of the nature and causes of problem behavior. a secondary purpose was to determine their preferred behavior management approach. results indicated that the majority of preservice teachers believed that the school and classroom environments can contribute to the occurrence of problem behavior. in addition, the majority of students acknowledged that problem behaviors may be a manifestation of a disability. finally, the majority of participants affirmed the claim that pro-active behavior management practices are most effective in reducing problem behavior. recommendations and implications for future research are provided. © 2016 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: problem behavior, behavior management, school-wide positive behavior intervention support 1. introduction problem behavior (i.e., tantrums, self-injury, yelling, defiance, and aggression) has become one of the most pressing issues in school settings (sprague & walker, 2000; van acker, 2007). it is estimated that approximately 12-22% of school children display problem behavior (adelman & taylor, 2002; ducharme & shecter, 2011). these behaviors are regarded as problematic because they compromise the ability of teachers to educate students due to their incompatibility with engagement and academic oriented behavior. much * corresponding author name: jonathan chitiyo ph.d. tel: +1-814-362-5153 e-mail address: chitiyoj@pitt.edu 64 chitiyo, chitiyo, & dombek / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 63-74 instructional time is lost when teachers attend to problem behavior and this negatively impacts the academic performance of students (jez & wassmer, 2015). problem behavior can also interfere with instructional activities. for instance, talking loudly during instruction time is disruptive to the instructional environment and, in most cases, the students who display such behavior are avoided or rejected by peers, minimizing their opportunities to learn academic content during group work and non-academic activities (i.e., recess, lunch) (rohrbeck, ginsburg-block, fantuzzo, & miller, 2003). as a result, inattention to academic material and interactions with peers may indirectly minimize academic performance and the development of the students’ ability to use cooperative social skills in group settings. students who display problem behavior may also be excluded from the instructional environment through certain behavior management practices (i.e., time out), thereby, losing out on instructional time which may negatively affect their educational performance. in addition to interfering with the academic performance of students, problem behavior can also lead to teacher burnout and a substantial amount of research shows that student problem behavior is related to teacher burnout (emery & vandernberg, 2010; hastings & bham, 2003; grayson, & alvarez, 2007; shen, mccaughtry, martin martin, garn, kulik, & fahlman 2015). burnout often leads to low self-esteem and depression among the teachers which, in turn, can affect the academic performance of students (grayson & alvarez, 2007). when teachers have low self-esteem and suffer from depression, they are likely to be less competent and will miss out on work. because of behavior issues with students, otherwise competent teachers may even choose to leave the teaching field entirely. as a result, students are likely to perform poorly on academic assessments and other academic tasks because of missed instructional time due to teacher absenteeism or teacher attrition. additionally, when teachers leave schools, the previous held relationships and collaborations are lost. according to bryk and schneider (2002), the quality of relationships between teachers, and between teachers and students, is significantly related to student achievement and it may take a substantial amount of time to build and maintain new relationships which, in turn, may also harm the academic performance of students. considering all the possible consequences of problem behavior, its occurrence has garnered a lot of attention from educators, researchers, and policy makers (sprague et al., 2002). in addition to the challenges of providing instruction in core subjects, teachers are now faced with the monumental task of providing behavior and social skills instruction to students and developing effective interventions to address problem behavior. one preventative approach which is widely used in schools across the united states is the school-wide positive behavior intervention support model (swpbis). having its roots in applied behavior analysis, swpbis is a proactive behavior management framework delivering behavioral supports to all students (sugai & horner, 2002). the framework is comprised of three tiers (i.e., primary, secondary, and tertiary). refer to lane, robertson, and graham-bailey (2006) as well as sugai and horner (2002) for a detailed description of the three tiers. extant research shows that swpbis is effective in preventing the occurrence of problem behavior and providing students with much needed supports before they reach a crisis (chitiyo & may, 2018) chitiyo, chitiyo, & dombek / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020)63-74 65 the adoption and implementation of prevention focused behavior management practices (i.e., swpbis) is dependent on a number of factors, one of which is teacher perceptions of the nature and cause of problem behavior (davis, & sumara, 1997). existing research shows that teacher perspectives regarding the nature of problem behavior is a crucial element in the referral process and in the adoption and implementation of prevention focused practices as their perspectives will potentially influence their choice of behavior management strategy (chitiyo et al., 2014; mavropoulou & padeliadu, 2002). however, there is limited research regarding teacher perceptions of the nature of problem behavior (bibou-nakou, kiosseoglou, & stogiannidoi, 2000) in understanding the nature of problem behavior, a crucial component is to examine the factors that may be associated with its occurrence. first, skinner and hales (1992) indicated that teachers may perceive that problem behavior emanates from factors within the student. this view is commonly referred to as the psychodynamic or psychoanalytic explanation of behavior. second, according to alberto and troutman (1990), teachers may perceive problem behavior from a developmental perspective. thus, certain behaviors may be linked to the developmental stages a child goes through (skinner & hales, 1992). therefore, according to this theoretical perspective, children who display problem behavior may have experienced difficulties resulting in delayed development in different developmental domains. third, research indicates that children with disabilities are more likely to display problem behavior relative to their non-disabled peers including social and peer problems, conduct problems, attention challenges, hyperactivity, and internalizing problems (fauth, platt, parsons, 2017). from this assertion, it is assumed that disability may cause problem behavior or problem behavior may be a manifestation of a disability (athanasiou, geil hazel, & copeland, 2002; crone & horner, 2002). another assumption is that problem behavior can be a result of the environment (i.e., school or classroom environment). according to walker and plomin (2005), most teachers perceive the environment as the main cause of problem behavior overshadowing the other factors. finally, it is also assumed that the family and background of the student can be a cause of problem behavior. the belief is that students display problem behavior because of poor parenting skills and lack of discipline at home (chandler & dahlquist, 2006). a number of studies have shown that elementary teachers seem to attribute problem behavior to external factors such as family background or the upbringing of the child rather than school factors such as environment or other teachers (mavropoulou & padeliadu, 2002; bibou-nakou, kiosseoglou, & stogiannidou, 2000; soodak & poddel, 1994). it is important to note that, some explanations discussed above may be regarded as faulty in that they do not help in identifying the variables that strengthen and maintain problem behavior and as a result, little can be done to prevent its occurrence. given that some explanations may be regarded as faulty and may not lead to the development of effective proactive intervention strategies, the purpose of this study was to examine pre-service teachers’ understanding of the nature and causes of problem behavior. a secondary purpose was to determine their preferred behavior management approach 66 chitiyo, chitiyo, & dombek / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 63-74 method participants participants in this study were 29 pre-service teachers enrolled in a teacher education program in north-eastern usa. the sample comprised of 31% (n = 9) males and 69% (n = 20) females. fifty eight percent (n = 17) were early childhood education majors, 31% (n = 9) secondary education majors and 10% (n = 3) health and physical education majors. all the students were officially admitted into the teacher education program. so, they had taken all fundamental courses relating to behavior management, discipline and special education, positive reinforcement, shaping, and modelling (i.e., classroom management, development of children with exceptional needs, educating children with exceptional needs, special education law, and early intervention and child development). in addition, all the courses have a field component where students go into classrooms and either observe teachers using different instructional and behavior management practices or interview teachers on related subject matter. instrumentation data were collected via an online questionnaire. the questionnaire was an adaptation of a survey developed by chitiyo et al. 2014. the survey contained 12 items which were categorized into six factors relating to the cause of problem behavior i.e., disability, school related factors, classroom factors, home related factors, and media. the six factors measured the perceptions of in-service teachers regarding the use of punitive behavior practices. however, since the original instrument was focused on teachers currently on the job, it was modified to suit the context of this study. the resulting questionnaire consisted of three sections. the first section collected participants’ demographic information (i.e., gender, and program of study). the second section assessed participants’ understanding of problem behavior and their understanding of different behavior management practices. the items were assessed by 10 statements which were on a likert scale (i.e., strongly agree = 5, agree = 4, undecided = 3, disagree = 2, strongly disagree = 1). the items include: behavioral problems are a disciplinary problem not a disability, the nature of the school environment can contribute to problem behaviors, behavioral problems in school may be a manifestation of a disability, the classroom environment can contribute to the occurrence of problem behavior, punitive practices are an effective way of managing problem behavior, most behavior problems are caused by poor parenting skills at home, proactive behavior management practices are an effective way of managing problem behavior, teachers should continue to use punitive behavior management approaches when responding to the occurrence of problem behavior, and students display problem behavior at school because of lax school discipline policies. these items were grouped into four factors (i.e., disability as cause of problem behavior, school and classroom related factors, home relate factors, effectiveness of punishment-based behavior management approaches). the last section asked participants to indicate the extent to which they will use punitive behavior or proactive behavior management practices. this was also measured on a likert scale with responses ranging from very likely to very unlikely. chitiyo, chitiyo, & dombek / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020)63-74 67 2. results as previously discussed, descriptive statistics were used to analyze data. specifically, cross tabulations were computed to generate frequencies of participants’ responses to the items measuring their understanding of problem behavior. table 1 presents a detailed summary of participants’ responses to the items presented. the percentage of participants who responded positively to each item was generated by adding the percentages of those who “agreed” and “strongly agreed” to an item and the same was done for participants who responded negatively (i.e., disagree and strongly disagree) to each item. as previously discussed, the items that measured participants’ understanding of the nature of problem behavior were placed in four factors. the first factor related to school and classroom factors (i.e., the nature of the school environment can contribute to problem behaviors, the classroom environment can contribute to the occurrence of problem behavior, and problem behavior occurs because of lax school discipline policies). almost all the participants (90%, n = 26) indicated that the nature of the school environment can contribute to the occurrence of problem behavior with only three participants refuting the assertion. similarly, almost all the participants (97%, n = 28) also affirmed the assertion that the classroom environment with one participant neither agreeing nor disagreeing. for the last item in this factor, 27% (n = 8), agreed with the claim that students display problem behavior as a result of lax school discipline policies, with 38% of participants not sure and the remaining 34% refuted this claim. the second factor (disability as a cause of problem behavior) had two items (i.e., problem behavior in school may be a manifestation of a disability and behavior problems are a disciplinary problem not a result of a disability). for the first item, 72% (n = 21) of participants affirmed that problem behavior may be a manifestation of a disability, 24% (n = 7) were unsure and one participant disagreed. for the second item, 34% (n = 10) of participants affirmed that problem behavior are a disciplinary problem not a result of a disability, another 34% (n =10) were not sure, and 31% (n = 9) refuted this assertion. the third factor consisted of one item (i.e., most problem behaviors are caused by poor parenting skills at home). seventeen percent of the participants (n = 5) confirmed that behavior problems are a result of poor parenting skills, with 45% (n = 13) indicating that they were unsure and 38% (n = 11) refuting the assertion. the final factor related to behavior management practices and it consisted of two items (i.e., punitive practices are effective in managing problem behavior and pro-active practices are an effective way of managing problem behavior). a majority of participants (62%, n = 18) denied that punitive practices are effective in managing problem behavior, with 28% (n = 8) unsure and 10% affirming the assertion. regarding the second item, almost all the participants (97%, n = 28) affirmed with the assertion that pro-active behavior management practices are effective in reducing problem behavior with only one participant refuting this claim. the third part of the questionnaire asked participants to indicate the extent to which they would use proactive behavior management practices or punitive practices when they are currently on the job. for pro-active practices, 62% of participants indicated that they are extremely likely to use these practices and 38% are moderately likely to use them. regarding punitive practices, 38% 68 chitiyo, chitiyo, & dombek / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 63-74 (n =11) indicated they are moderately unlikely to use these practices, 14% (n = 4) extremely unlikely, 27% (n = 8) unsure, and 20% (n = 6) moderately likely table 1. percentage of participants’ responses 3. discussion problem behavior exhibited by students in schools interferes with effective learning of students by diverting teachers’ time and effort towards addressing behavioral issues at the expense of instructional activities. understanding sources or factors associated with occurrence of problem behavior in schools and the classroom is an important initiative in designing interventions or strategies that can help in the prevention or reduction of problem behavior. this study assessed pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the nature and causes of problem behavior in schools. the study utilized an online questionnaire consisting of 12 question items asking teacher candidates’ perceptions of causes of problem behaviors in classroom. item strongly agree agree undecided disagree strongly disagree the school environment can contribute to the occurrence of problem behavior 45% 45% 7% 3% 0% the classroom environment can contribute to the occurrence of problem behavior 45% 51% 4% 0% 0% problem behavior at school because of lax school discipline policies 27% 38% 27% 0% 7% problem behaviors in school may be a manifestation of a disability 7% 65% 24% 3% 0% behavior problems are a disciplinary problem not a result of a disability 3% 31% 34% 24% 7% most problem behaviors are caused by poor parenting skills at home 3% 14% 45% 35% 3% punitive practices are effective in managing problem behavior 10% 27% 35% 27% 0% pro-active practices are an effective way of managing problem behavior 45% 52% 3% 0% 0% chitiyo, chitiyo, & dombek / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020)63-74 69 consistent with previous findings of in-service teachers’ views on the influence of school and class environment on problem behavior, participants in this study indicated that such factors are more likely than any other factors to explain the occurrence of problem behaviors. there is a large body of research attributing the school and classroom environment as the cause of problem behavior (i.e., aldrige & ala’l, 2013; brennan, shaw, dishion, & wilson, 2012). scholars who subscribe to this assertion mention that both problem and appropriate behaviors are learned and maintained by the environment. since it is assumed that problem behavior is maintained by the environment, the best way to intervene and prevent problem behavior is to examine the particular environment in which the behavior is occurring to identify the variables that occur prior to or concurrent with the behavior (darch & kame’nnui, 2004). these variables are known as antecedents. after identifying the variables that trigger and maintain problem behavior, the next step would be to identify the consequence or the function of the behavior. after identifying all these variables, an intervention is then developed which will focus on changing the variables that trigger and maintain the problem behavior (carr, 1997). this pro-active way of managing problem behavior is the recommended way and the foundational premise on which the swpbis model is framed. as previously discussed, there is a growing body of research demonstrating the efficacy of swpbis in preventing and reducing the occurrence problem behavior. results also indicated that most participants believed problem behavior to be a manifestation of a disability more than they are a disciplinary problem. this finding is not surprising considering that there a number of studies showing that, relative to students without disabilities, students with disabilities are more likely to engage in problem behavior (alloway gathercole, kirkwood, & elliott, 2009; baker et al, 2003, eisenhower, baker, & blacher, 2005; emerson & einfeld, & stancliffe , 2010). over the past decade, an increasing number of students have been classified as having emotional behavioral disorders, autism spectrum disorders, learning disabilities or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (chandler & dahlquist, 2006). reid, trout and schartz (2005) reported that students with disabilities are more likely than students without disabilities, to exhibit disruptive or problem behaviors that interfere with their learning and the learning of other students. in another recent study, hausercram and woodman (2016) found that children with disabilities were susceptible to increases in internalizing behaviors than students without disabilities. teacher understanding of different types of disabilities and behavioral issues associated with them is important in guiding them on the selection of ideal instructional methods to address them. in addition, knowledge that a student has a particular disability may assist teachers in understanding the variables that may trigger or maintain problem behavior (chandler & dahlquist, 2006). however, it also important to mention that some researchers maintain that if behavior is attributed to disability, there is little that can be done to intervene because we cannot change the fact that the student has a disability (blair, umbreit, & bos, 1999). the other factor examined in this study was the influence of parenting skills on the occurrence of problem behavior. the influence of parenting skills and styles on child development and social functioning has also been researched (berlin & cassidy, 2000; mcloyd, 1998). a large body of research has shown that parenting which is characterized by 70 chitiyo, chitiyo, & dombek / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 63-74 harsh, arbitrary discipline or emotional detachment is associated with negative behavioral outcomes for children (belsky, 1999; berlin & cassidy, 2000; mcloyd, 1998). for instance, alizadeh et al. (2011) found a significant correlation between authoritative parenting style and both internalizing and externalizing behaviors among primary school children. however, there are mixed findings regarding the effect of different types of parenting styles on a child’s conduct and development. a majority of participants in this study were unsure about the assertion with only a few affirming the claim. this is not surprising as most of the literature on problem behavior refutes this claim. attributing problem behavior to parenting styles makes teachers and other school personnel blame parents and not focus on the problem behavior in the classroom. regarding the most effective behavior management practices, participants in this study refuted the assertion that punitive measures are effective in managing problem behaviors and this is consistent with previous research. since behavior serves a function, the use of punitive measures to address problem behaviors is criticized for not addressing the function of the behavior, nor equipping students with more appropriate replacement behaviors to achieve the same functions. the concept of punishment needs to be understood contextually. early research asserted a positive effect of punishment on reducing students’ problem behaviors (hall et al., 1971; lavoie, 1973; mcmillan, forness, & trumbull, 1973), but that was before knowledge on functions of behavior had emerged. with more contemporary research, traditional punitive methods are perceived as suppressive measures for unwanted behavior, but, do not address the appropriate behavior deficits in children. with increased training on classroom management strategies and positive behavior interventions, teachers are now more likely to use behavior management strategies that prevent problem behaviors from ever occurring in the first place. the participants in the present study indicated that they were more likely to use proactive behavior management strategies than punitive measures. this study is not without limitations. firstly, the sample survey was relatively small, thereby limiting the generalizability of the results. a larger sample size would have enabled a more comprehensive analysis to be made, especially regarding the perspective of different ethnic groups on causes of problem behaviors in schools. secondly, the instrument that used in the study consisted of closed ended responses, thereby not allowing participants to express their uninterrupted opinions about the cause of problem behaviors in schools. conclusion the purpose of this study was to examine pre-service teachers’ understanding of the nature of problem behavior. the results showed that the pre-service teachers surveyed in this study view the school and classroom environment to be the factors that are likely to account for the occurrence of problem behavior over other factors. this finding is consistent with previous findings on the perceptions of in-service teachers regarding the matter. the study is significant in reflecting an area of crucial importance in teacher training that prepares preservice teachers in better understanding of problem behaviors and deconstructing some of the preconceptions of behavior prior to entering the field. future researchers need to examine the factors that influence the adoption and sustainability of pro-active behavior management practices. chitiyo, chitiyo, & dombek / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020)63-74 71 references alberto, p. a., & troutman, a. c. 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(1999). child abuse: implications for child development and psychopathology (vol. 10). sage publications. hall, r. v., axelrod, s., foundopoulos, m., shellman, j., campbell, r. a., & cranston, s. s. (1971). the effective use of punishment to modify behavior in the classroom. educational technology, 11(4), 24-26. __________________________________________________________________________________ copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction an action research on developing english speaking skills through asynchronous online learning hale alkan a, nilay t. bümen b* a ege university, school of foreign languages, izmir 35040, turkey b ege university, faculty of education, department of educational sciences, izmir 35040, turkey abstract this action research aims at developing an action plan to alleviate foreign language speaking anxiety, and accordingly improving speaking performance. the study, which is a collaborative action research type, was carried out of 19 prospective chemical engineering students at the cefr-a1 level at ege university school of foreign languages (eusfl). the research took place over 12 weeks and the participants created whatsapp groups; the researchers sent them written or voice messages with english speaking tasks; and they performed these tasks and sent their voice messages to their groups. data were gathered through the turkish form of second language speaking anxiety scale (slsas) developed by woodrow (2006), participants’ speaking exam grades, and semi-structured interviews. the wilcoxon signed-rank test elicited a statistically significant change in english speaking anxiety of students; that is, their anxiety level decreased. the students’ speaking exam grade average was found 84.56% success rate. also, the results obtained from the qualitative data matched with the results of the quantitative data indicating that the asynchronous online english speaking group (aoesg) worked well to alleviate students’ english speaking anxiety and to enhance their speaking performance. © 2017 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: preparatory class at the university; foreign language speaking anxiety; english speaking skills; asynchronous learning; mobile-assisted language learning 1. introduction 1.1. background of the study knowing a language is frequently identified with speaking that language. since the ultimate purpose of learning a foreign language is to communicate through information exchange (mahripah, 2014), it is stated that language learners value speaking skills more. however, lots of students in turkey state that they understand, yet cannot speak english. one of the reasons for this is thought to be a foreign language speaking anxiety. minghe and yuan (2013) name anxiety as the biggest affective factor that complicates * corresponding author nilay t. bümen. tel.: +90-232 343 4000 – 5262, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1891-6589 e-mail address: nilay.bumen@ege.edu.tr https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1891-6589 128 alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 the foreign language learning process, and they state that “the most anxiety-provoking activity is speaking in front of others” (p. 50). within this context, asynchronous online learning shines out as an effective way of developing speaking skills because it can minimize the problems encountered in a language class and alleviate english speaking anxiety. asynchronous online learning is a flexible way of learning because it facilitates access to learning materials anytime, anywhere; it allows the learners to contribute to the activities until they feel ready; and it forms a basis for the students who tend to be shy and keep quiet in class to state their ideas in a more democratic platform (kung-ming & khoon-seng, 2009). besides, it promotes student participation since it enables multidirectional communication, meets the need for socializing by hearing voices peers’, is relatively easy, facilitates expressing an opinion and responding to others, makes communication healthier by adding emotion to the message sent, and decreases the risk of getting misunderstood (hew & cheung, 2012). it is considered that all these advantages play a significant role in alleviating students’ speaking anxiety as “asynchronous computer-mediated communication threatens less, allows students to learn at their own pace, enables self-reflection and provides more feedback” (gleason & suvorov, 2011, pp. 1-2). 1.2. aim of the study based on the professional experience of the first researcher of this research, the most difficult skill to improve at english preparatory (prep) schools of universities is english speaking skills. also, speaking anxiety is one of the most important problems observed in the language class. this is why the asynchronous online english speaking group (aoesg) is thought to familiarize students with their voice in english and help them practice more without peer pressure in class. therefore, the purpose of this research is to develop an action plan to alleviate foreign language speaking anxiety, a challenging issue for prep students, and accordingly to improve speaking performance. in this study, the researchers sought answers to the following questions: 1. according to the measurements done before and after the implementation of the action plan, is there a statistically significant difference between the participants’ english speaking anxiety level? 2. according to the measurement done after the implementation, what is the success percentage of the participants in the speaking skills exam? 3. what do the participants think about the aoesg? this research is considered important because most students have a chance to practice english in only english speaking classes, yet class sizes are usually big, and periods are usually few (sun, 2009). the aoesg is a co-curricular activity; thus, it is thought to enable the participants that cannot get many opportunities in the classroom to practice and form a basis to improve english speaking skills in a relatively controlled atmosphere. alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 129 also, there are lots of studies focusing on asynchronous online learning to alleviate speaking anxiety (i.e. bakar, latiff & hamat, 2013; gleason & suvorov, 2011; mcneil, 2014; pop, tomuletiu & david, 2011; poza, 2011; sun, 2009; tallon, 2009). however, there is no action research on this topic in turkey. this is why this research puts a turkish perspective on the relationship between foreign language speaking anxiety and performance. moreover, the fact that there are lots of studies on foreign language speaking anxiety (atas, 2015; baş, 2014; çağatay, 2015; han & keskin, 2016; hamzaoğlu, 2015; koçak, 2010; öztürk & gürbüz, 2014; tüm & kunt, 2013; yalçın & i̇nceçay, 2013) indicates that language learners in turkey have high english speaking anxiety, and there is a need for this kind of studies. hence, this action research is hoped to pave the way for the initiatives to decrease english speaking anxiety in english language teaching programs. besides, this research is the first academic-based action research at the school of foreign languages, ege university (eusfl), so it is expected that this research will function as a professional development model for the other instructors and promote using action research to solve the problems in class. 1.3. theoretical framework and literature review how individuals learn to speak in a foreign language and what variations are included in this process have been examined for so long. the characteristics of students and teachers, learning-teaching process, syllabus, and materials are some of the leading factors in speaking a foreign language. mahripah (2014) classifies these factors into three different groups: linguistic factors (phonology, syntax, vocabulary and semantics, and so on), socio-cultural factors (circle and family history) and psychological factors (factors that form personality such as motivation, anxiety, self-esteem, shyness, risktaking, empathy, extroversion). it is considered that both language learners' and teachers’ awareness of these factors contribute to speaking proficiency, which is associated with foreign language learning success; and therefore improves speaking performance. the literature review shows that several studies highlight a negative correlation between foreign language speaking anxiety and performance (chen, 2015; hewitt & stephenson, 2012; horwitz, 1986; suleimenova, 2013; woodrow, 2006). mcintyre (1999) stated that anxiety is one of the most important predictors of foreign language success. in these studies, it was also found that the more anxious especially the low-achievers who want to perform well in the target language are, the lower their speaking performance is. the ones who are more enthusiastic about and have a positive attitude towards speaking in foreign languages tend to show better performance. besides, the reasons for english speaking anxiety have been considerably examined (juhana, 2012; rafada & madini, 2017; woodrow, 2006). these studies conclude that the following factors increase foreign language speaking anxiety: having to perform speaking in class or at an exam; making mistakes, being mocked and consequently having the fear of negative evaluation; problems with grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation; not being allowed to use l1 in class and speaking with native speakers. to eliminate these factors, 130 alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 asynchronous learning appears to be a reasonable solution for developing speaking skills, and there are lots of studies that touch upon the relationship between asynchronous learning and foreign language speaking anxiety and/or performance. in one of these studies, it was determined that the speaking performance of the students who attended out-of-class german-speaking activities on a smartphone application increased (schenker & kraemer, 2017). mcneil (2014) reached the conclusion that in an asynchronous computer-mediated oral communication environment, listening to the recordings of peers, again and again, to understand them and using resources to reply have a strong connection with the decrease in foreign language anxiety. bakar, latiff, and hamat (2013) determined that the asynchronous online discussion group has a positive effect on developing speaking skills of low proficient students. pop, tomuletiu, and david (2011) concluded that asynchronous english speaking activities decrease students’ anxiety and increase their self-esteem and attitude towards speaking significantly. in another study, the students studying spanish at university were observed to decrease anxiety and fear of negative evaluation and to spend more effort producing the language when they used an asynchronous communication platform (poza, 2011). it was also determined that integrating the use of voice blogs into second language speaking class increased motivation and chances to practice and enabled students to recognize themselves and develop learning strategies (sun, 2009). the fact that computer-mediated communication could decrease anxiety was determined in another study, as well (tallon, 2009). all these studies highlight that e-learning is effective in decreasing speaking anxiety and increasing performance. smartphones are tailor-made for e-learning since they are easy to carry and able to connect to the internet. joining the e-learning process using a smartphone is actually joining m-learning (mobile learning), which is the portable version of e-learning. mlearning is becoming widespread because it offers numerous practicalities in language learning. moreover, the speaking feature of m-learning is quite important as it enables speakers to listen to themselves after recording their voice (miangah & nezarat, 2012). in the studies conducted in turkey, the effects of whatsapp (han & keskin, 2016), podcasts (hamzaoğlu, 2015), online tools (sağlam, 2014), or text and voice chat (özdener & satar, 2008) on speaking anxiety and performance were examined. therefore, it was determined that technology-supported applications decrease english speaking anxiety, increase participation and speaking performance, and give a chance to practice and revise. however, this research is believed to fill a gap in the turkish literature because there is no action research conducted with a1 level students at a prep school in turkey. 2. method 2.1. research design in this study, the authors decided to use collaborative action research because they aimed at finding a solution to the first researcher’s students’ problem. collaborative action research has been defined “both as university and school researchers partnering for action research and as a team of practitioners doing independent action research” (gordon & solis, 2018, p. 2). adams and townsend (2014) stated that collaborative action alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 131 research if conducted well has significant benefits on the individual, team, and school levels and can further lead students to improve their learning. 2.2. participants the first researcher had 28 prospective chemical engineering students at the a1 level at eusfl in the fall term of the 2015-2016 academic year. their language level was determined by the placement test conducted at the beginning of the term. chemical engineering is an english-medium department at ege university; and therefore, these students need to be proficient at english language skills to be successful in their major. the students all volunteered to take part in the research, but 19 students aged 17-24 were able to complete the asynchronous learning process. 2.3. action plan the research started on september 28, 2015, and finished on january 6, 2016 (12 weeks). before starting the aoesg activities, the students were informed about the research and applied the second language speaking anxiety scale (slsas) as a pretest. they then were informed about the action plan in detail and given the plan on november 9, 2015. their questions about the process were responded, and they signed an informed consent form. as for the themes of activities, they were chosen from the books speak now 1 and 2 used in the listening and speaking lesson because the students were thought to have sufficient vocabulary and grammar to talk about these themes. all the activities were parallel with the ones in the speaking exam at prep school, and they were compatible with technology because the participants used whatsapp to do the activities. they created six whatsapp groups with the peers they chose. there were four-five students in each group, yet these numbers changed in the process. they either directly used whatsapp to record their voice or used another voice recorder and sent it to their whatsapp group. and, they were expected to respond to the tasks by speaking english as long as they could. the activities were usually sent in the lunch break, and the students were asked to finish the related activity before the next one was sent. visuals were used, or only voice/written instructions were given in the activities. there were three activities (on monday, wednesday, and friday) for the first six weeks. yet, because of the midterm, the second activity in week 4 was canceled. for the last three weeks, the students were given only two activities (on monday and wednesday) based on their feedback on decreasing the number of activities. they were expected to do individual speaking tasks for the first six weeks and also paired ones for the last three weeks to get ready for the speaking exam. to do these paired activities, they came together with their exam partners, recorded their voice, and sent it to their group. the first researcher transcribed the participants’ speech and used the speaking assessment rubric (appendix a) of eusfl to give them written feedback on their performance on whatsapp after every 132 alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 three weeks. to get feedback on the activities, the students were sent an evaluation template based on edward de bono’s (1982) pmi (plus, minus, interesting) model on whatsapp and asked to send their feedback to the first researcher directly on whatsapp. therefore, they had a chance to evaluate the positive, negative, and interesting parts of the activities. they also gave ideas for change, which made the process more studentcentered. when the activities finished, the slsas was applied as a posttest on january 11-15, 2016. in the week before the speaking exam, six students were interviewed to give their opinion on the aoesg. the activities in the aoesg can be seen in table 1. table 1. activities in the aoesg weeks themes activities evaluation 1 slsas (pretest) 2 friends description comparing and making a decision (cmd) discussion pmi 3 family description cmd discussion pmi 4 daily life description cmd discussion pmi feedback to participants 5 hometown description discussion pmi 6 past description cmd discussion pmi 7 future description cmd discussion pmi feedback to participants 8 shopping description cmd pmi (evaluation of the activities for the last three weeks) 9 interests description cmd 10 jobs description cmd feedback to participants 11 slsas (posttest) interview with six participants 12 second speaking exam 2.4. data collection and instruments in this study, both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered to ensure triangulation (johnson, 2014); therefore, the students were applied to the slsas, their speaking exam scores were examined, and semi-structured interviews were held. 2.4.1. second language speaking anxiety scale (slsas) the slsas developed by woodrow (2006) is a likert-type scale with twelve items. the respondents are expected to choose the best option among not at all anxious (1), slightly anxious (2), moderately anxious (3), very anxious (4), and extremely anxious (5) when they speak english in twelve specified situations. in this research, the slsas was adapted into turkish to measure english speaking anxiety of the students as the participants alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 133 were at cefr a1 level. before deciding to use it, a psychological consultant was called upon to express an opinion on whether the scale really measures anxiety or not. then dr. lindy woodrow’s permission was granted via e-mail. then ten english language specialists and one turkish language specialist worked to ensure linguistic equivalence. a correlation analysis was done to quantify that. therefore, a group of proficient students at both english and turkish at eusfl was chosen with the support of their instructors using convenience sampling. they were informed about the purpose of the research, and the volunteers were asked to provide their personal information, which did not appear in the research due to ethical concerns. the original scale was applied online on april 15 (n=80) and the turkish form on may 3, 2015 (n=54) in the pilot process. the results show that there is a positive significant correlation between the original scale and the turkish form (r= .882; p < .01). after ensuring linguistic equivalence, confirmatory factor analysis was done using lisrel 8.71 statistical program based on the 455 students studying english at the cefr-b1 level at eusfl on may 20-22, 2015. the values can be seen in table 2. table 2. the slsas values after cfa (n=455) fit index acceptable fit perfect fit the scale values nfi ≥.90 ≥.95 0.96 nnfi ≥.90 ≥.95 0.96 ifi ≥.90 ≥.95 0.97 rfi ≥.90 ≥.95 0.95 cfi ≥.95 ≥.97 0.97 gfi ≥.85 ≥.90 0.93 agfi ≥.85 ≥.90 0.89 rmr ≤.050 ≤.080 0.069 rmsea ≤.050 ≤.080 0.084 x2 /sd ≤ 5 ≤ 3 4.24 as fit indices provided by marcholudis & schumacher (2007) and cited by seçer (2015) in table 2 are examined, the values indicate that the model tested is confirmed; and therefore, the scale has a model fit. x2/df is 4.24, and this refers to a moderate fit, which is acceptable (çokluk, şekercioğlu & büyüköztürk, 2012). 134 alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 figure 1. confirmatory factor analysis path diagram of the slsas as presented in figure 1, the turkish form is divided into two sub-dimensions as in the original form. factor loading values of the scale range from .43 to .96, indicating they are at the desired level. reliability coefficients regarding the factors of the scale were calculated to be .83 for in-class speaking anxiety and .85 for out-of-class speaking anxiety. consequently, the values obtained from the confirmatory factor analysis show that the turkish form of slsas can be used to measure english speaking anxiety levels of students learning english at prep schools. 2.4.2. exam scores to determine how the aoesg contributed to speaking performance, the students’ second exam scores in the fall semester dated january 18, 2016, were analyzed. since the only rater in the first speaking exam was the first researcher, these scores were not included in the scope of the research. however, there were three raters including the first researcher in the second exam to evaluate the students. the rubric can be seen in appendix a. the above-mentioned exam was prepared by the two instructors trained in the testing field and checked by the two others with the same qualification in eusfl. the speaking assessment rubric was both used in the first exam and the mock exam before the second one. it was revised thereafter. besides, because the themes in the exam were similar to alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 135 the ones in the lesson, and a mock exam was set before, the students were familiar with the exam content and evaluation process. the reliability of the three raters’ assessment was maintained through interrater reliability. the results can be seen in table 3. table 3. interrater reliability analysis in-class correlation coefficient %95 confidence interval lower bound upper bound single measures .831 .669 .926 average measures .937 .858 .974 as seen in table 3, the in-class correlation coefficient is .937, which refers to the perfect agreement (cicchetti & sparrow, 1981). this is why the scores given by the three raters are said to be very reliable. 2.4.3. interview form a semi-structured interview form was used to learn the participants’ ideas about the aoesg. this form was prepared after a detailed literature review of how to prepare effective qualitative interview questions (johnson, 2014; yıldırım & şimşek, 2013; bogdan & biklen, 1998), and the questions were submitted to expert opinion. the experts were the professors and english instructors working at ege university. pilot interviews were conducted with the two participants, the questions were tested, and the form was revised and made ready for use. there were also alternative questions in the interview form, and the questions were detailed using probes. six students were selected using maximum variation sampling after applying the slsas as a pretest and interviewed individually. according to the results, there were two slightly, six moderately and eleven very anxious students. two students from each group (with a higher level of anxiety) were interviewed. the semi-structured interviews were conducted at the end of the asynchronous learning process, after the application of the slsas as a posttest and a week before the second speaking exam in the week january 11-15, 2016. the reason for this was to make sure participants did not get affected by their exam performance while communicating their ideas about the speaking group. 2.5. data analysis spss 16.0 was used to analyze the quantitative data. wilcoxon signed rank test was done to determine the effect of aoesg on the participants’ speaking anxiety. “the wilcoxon signed-rank test is the nonparametric equivalent of the t-test for dependent samples” (büyüköztürk, çokluk & köklü, 2013, p. 215). there were 19 participants whose english speaking anxiety levels were determined before and after the 136 alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 implementation of the action plan. due to this small sample size, this test was thought to serve the research purpose. also, the students’ success rate in the speaking exam was calculated to determine the effect of aoesg on their performance. these students were assessed by three raters, and interrater reliability was calculated. content analysis was conducted to analyze qualitative data, and the interviews were analyzed inductively. the participants were reminded of the purpose of the research before each interview and told that their identities would be kept confidential. using a voice recorder with their approval prevented data loss. all the interviews were made in the same classroom after the classes were over. none of them were interrupted. qualitative data analysis started with the transcription of the recordings. later, the data set were read three times uninterruptedly and at least ten more times at intervals. before identifying the themes and codes, the literature was reviewed in detail, themes and codes list was formed, and this list was continuously renewed. data triangulation was used to check and establish validity. after the interviews, the transcriptions were sent to the participants for confirmation to ensure the correctness of their comments. besides, the thick description was employed while writing the findings. the participants’ names were not used but coded as p1, p2, and so on in the transcriptions and reporting for ethical reasons. the researchers made sure that the codes were keeping their meaning to establish reliability. 2.6 role of the researchers the first researcher had been teaching english for more than nine years at the time of the research. she thought that one of the biggest problems in developing english speaking skills was speaking anxiety. therefore, she embraced the idea that the aoesg would help students get used to hearing their voice in english and facilitate practicing english speaking skills without in-class pressure. the second researcher is a professor of curriculum and instruction, and she mentored many theses in english language teaching. as for english speaking anxiety, she encouraged the first researcher to use action research to find a solution to her students’ speaking problem. also, it is considered important for the researchers to be a part of the institution in action and teacher research since the research is usually the beginning of a longer, change-oriented process (glesne, 2013). the first researcher conducted this research in the institution she worked, in other words, in her own “backyard”. although this facilitated the adaptation process of the slsas, this brought along some ethical concerns. therefore, she informed all the participants about the research and got them to sign an informed consent form. also, the researchers left their personal bias aside during data analysis and activated their subjectivity when interpreting the results. they transcribed the interviews and shared the documents with the participants to provide confirmation. 3. results alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 137 the first research question was “according to the measurements done before and after the implementation of the action plan, is there a statistically significant difference between the participants’ english speaking anxiety level?” the results of the wilcoxon signed-rank test based on the pretest and posttest scores of the slsas show that the action plan elicited a statistically significant difference in english speaking anxiety (z = 2.660, p= .008). when the mean rank and sum of ranks are taken into consideration, the difference observed is in favor of negative ranks, which is the pretest score (table 4). besides, the effect size is .84 (r=z/√n), which cohen (1988) defined as large (büyüköztürk, çokluk & köklü, 2013). these findings indicate that the action plan worked well to alleviate the participants’ english speaking anxiety. table 4. the results of the wilcoxon signed-rank test (n=19) posttest–pretest n mean rank sum of ranks z p r negative ranks 15 10.73 161.00 -2.660* .008 -.84 positive ranks 4 7.25 29.00 ties 0 total 19 *based on positive ranks the second research question was “according to the measurement done after the implementation, what is the success percentage of the participants in the speaking skills exam?” to answer this question, the students were evaluated by three raters based on the speaking assessment rubric. the students’ average speaking skills score was 12.68 out of 15, and their success percentage was 84.56%. the raters’ scoring can be seen in appendix b. this shows that the action plan contributed to speaking performance. the third question was “what do the participants think about the aoesg?” to answer this question, semi-structured interviews were carried out with six participants who volunteered to participate. the interview questions made it possible to study the speaking group under three themes: objectives, content, and learning-teaching process. the themes-categories-codes list can be seen in appendix c. the categories are written in italics in the reporting. firstly, cognitive, affective, and psycho-motor objectives were reached under the theme of objectives. the cognitive objectives were distinguishing english speaking skills from the other skills and organizing english speaking around the main topic. p1 especially mentioned the difference between grammar and speaking skills saying “when i speak, if i start to think about grammar, i can’t speak … i’ve seen that even if one’s grammar is no good, they can express themselves by speaking.” p1 also stated the group helped him/her organize english speaking saying “when we were kids, we learned the question ‘what’s your job?’... now, after asking this question, i can ask ‘what else would you like to be? why?’ i think all these things are in the speaking thing [group]”. 138 alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 the affective ones were feeling less anxious while speaking english, being motivated to speak english, loving english, and getting used to hearing oneself speaking english. p2 talked about the decrease in his/her speaking anxiety saying “at first, i was trying to do [the exercises] when i was alone in the room. now it doesn’t matter even if they [my roommates] are in…now i am less anxious… it’s like i’ve gotten used to it [speaking english]. even if i can’t piece together [what i want to say], i say it is ok.” p2 also thought that s/he found the group motivating and said “the most successful part [of the group] was motivating us to speak because we have been really trying to speak, learning new words. sometimes i ask myself how i can say something [in english] in the lesson… [the group] also encourages us to speak english outside the classroom.” p1 held the idea that the students who practiced english only in the group might love english thanks to the group saying “some students in the classroom only listen to the lesson, study lesson and do your exercises. if they didn’t do your activities, for instance, i don’t think that they would feel closer towards english.” p3 said “i started to get used to my english voice… because at first, i listened, listened but couldn’t send [my recording] to the group… i read again and again... to make it better. i got used to it in time.” the psychomotor one was increasing english speaking performance. p2 stated that “i normally didn’t do that much research, but here [in the group] i say that a word doesn’t fit and look up in a dictionary. for example, i don’t know a [grammar] topic and use some books to learn how to use it… that’s why this activity improves us.” p4 expressed that “i used to think in turkish and translate the sentence into english at first. now i’ve realized that i started to think in english.” secondly, the first category was topics under the theme of the content. while the participants felt positive about taking a chance to speak about familiar topics, it was found that their individual differences shaped their views about the topics, and they could not speak enough about the ones they found difficult. p1 stated that “[the best thing about the group was that] the topics were about daily conversations. they weren’t randomly chosen, i think.” and p2 mentioned that “the topics we talked about in the group were related to the ones covered in the lesson, so we had a chance to reinforce them. i mean because we didn’t cover so different topics, both we reinforced the lesson and that helped us in the exam.” also, p3 mentioned a negative side of the topics because of his/her individual difference saying that “some of the activities you provided … required us to have general knowledge. for instance, we needed to do some research about a country … because i felt incompetent about such topics, i had a difficult time doing that.” the other category was the duration. the duration of the activities in the speaking group was found adequate, yet the frequency and the possibility of grading them might affect student participation and motivation. p4 stated that “if the activities are graded, [the group should last for] the academic year. if not, we could have done them once a week, and this could have lasted longer.” finally, under the theme of the learning-teaching process, five categories were reached: activities, tool, timing, participation, and feedback. the fact that the speaking activities were parallel with the ones in the exam was welcomed, and revising the types of activities based on the participants’ feedback was important. p4 mentioned that “the best part [of the activities] was working… together through the end… that led us to know alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 139 our partner. for example, we know how he/she will react to what [in the speaking exam] because we talked to each other before the exam.” also, the tool used in the research called whatsapp was liked due to its features. p3 said that “whatsapp is the most available for now, i think… it is good for sending voices, pictures, text messages.” also, the timing of the activities was asynchronous, which was thought to be positive because this gave flexibility to the participants. however, asynchronous activities made it impossible to create a platform for discussion, and the participants did not have to record their voice in one sitting. therefore, there was a need for synchronous activities that would be complementary to the asynchronous ones to develop speaking skills. p1 mentioned that “they [the activities] could be done at specific times… if it had been this way… it could have been different… more positive.” moreover, p4 said that asynchronous activities caused some individual negative situations. s/he stated that “the negative part actually stemmed from us: not recording our voice in one sitting. i realized once that [while recording my voice] i had said a sentence and paused the recording… then i stopped doing that.” unlike her/his peers, p6 stated that “it is more comfortable like this [asynchronously]. we do it in our free time. sometimes we can’t find a mutual time [to do the activities].” besides, the number of participants and their individual differences in each group affected their participation. p3 stated that “i felt sorry when not many people participated [in the activities] at first. when the friends in the group didn’t show enough interest. it affects one’s motivation a lot.” p3 also stated that sometimes s/he read from the papers while recording her/his voice because of “lack of self-reliance”. s/he said that “i can’t think well at that time. i think it would have been better…to making the activity better. or in order not to lose face in case, my friends listen.” p5 mentioned as the reason for doing the activities that “i thought it would improve me… it would be absolutely effective for my career… i also needed that.” although this research required voluntary participation, some participants also suggested involving aoesg in the curriculum based on compulsory participation. p2 stated that “if we want to contribute [to our lives], i think we should join. but if it’s graded, i mean when it’s compulsory, we don’t have the itch to do it, i guess.” unlike p2, p5 mentioned that “it works if it’s compulsory because… if it’s not, we know that nothing happens when we don’t do it.” moreover, determining the variety and frequency of feedback according to the participants’ features was thought to be necessary. p1 said that “i think i would like to do it [feedback session] face-to-face to open up the student more… i think i would try to meet the student individually as much as possible… there are students like me.” both the researcher’s and participants’ feedback were considered significant to foster studentcentered learning. there are different views on the researcher’s giving the participants feedback once every three weeks. p2 said that “it is not easy to understand how much we have improved doing three activities in a week… that’s why it is good you gave us feedback once every three weeks.” however, p6 mentioned that “it could have been better in individual terms if you had given us weekly feedback. sometimes i realize i have used some structures wrongly, after listening [to the recording] two or three times…my peers don’t realize them [my mistakes], either. you may realize them.” also, the weekly feedback 140 alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 gotten from the participants has positive reflections to make the process more studentcentered. p2 said that “it’s good you got weekly feedback [from us] because i think if something has a negative side in that week, you don’t do it in the next week.” 4. discussion the aoesg helped the participants’ speaking anxiety decrease and their speaking performance increase, asynchronous learning was found flexible, although supporting it with synchronous learning was thought to be a good idea, interaction among stakeholders played an important role in the learning process, motivation was an important factor to participate in the activities, creating a student-centered environment was necessary, and getting feedback from the researcher was essential to keep track of the development of speaking skills. these findings indicate that the action plan might serve the purpose of alleviating english speaking anxiety and increasing english speaking performance. the results of this research match the results of some studies in the literature. for instance, the results of studies indicating that asynchronous speaking activities facilitate speaking with self-confidence, and therefore decrease anxiety (sağlam, 2014), electronic environment decreases speaking anxiety because it decreases fear of negative evaluation (poza, 2011), computer-mediated communication reduces foreign language speaking anxiety (tallon, 2009; özdener & satar, 2008) bear similarities to the results of this study. since the participants prepared voice messages in english in addition to the inclass speaking activities, their motivation to speak increased as in sun’s (2009) study, and their self-confidence boosted, while their fear of making mistakes decreased as in hamzaoğlu’s (2015) study. furthermore, as in miangah & nezarat’s (2012) study, the participants had the opportunity to get familiar with their voice in english because they were able to listen to their recordings before and after they sent them to their groups, which helped decrease speaking anxiety. pop, tomuletiu & david (2011) mention that anxiety decreases in a safe environment where speakers address themselves to an audience. this suggests that although there was not a suitable discussion environment in the groups due to asynchronicity, which was found negative by both the researchers and participants, asynchronous activities were one of the factors contributing to the alleviation of speaking anxiety. in short, the starting point of this research was english speaking anxiety like some other studies conducted in turkey to develop foreign language skills (atas, 2015; baş, 2014; çağatay, 2015; han & keskin, 2016; hamzaoğlu, 2015; koçak, 2010; öztürk & gürbüz, 2014; tüm & kunt, 2013; yalçın & i̇nceçay, 2013), which indicates that foreign language learners in turkey have high speaking anxiety. there are so many studies determining asynchronous speaking activities increase speaking performance (akkaya-önal, 2015; andújar-vaca & cruz-martínez, 2017; bakar, latiff & hamat, 2013; schenker & kraemer, 2017; han & keskin, 2016; hamzaoğlu, 2015; özdener & satar, 2008; poza, 2011; sağlam, 2014). schenker and kraemer (2017) and sağlam (2014) stated that asynchronous learning allows practicing and revising; mcneil (2014) mentioned that the increase in the use of resources is related to the increase in foreign-language performance. in this research, asynchronous online alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 141 activities both helped the students reinforce what they learned in the classroom and increased their performance since they used multiple resources to do the activities. asynchronous activities give learners flexibility (jethro, et al., 2012) as in this research. as the participants used whatsapp, they were not limited in terms of time and location. although they found whatsapp satisfying and useful to develop speaking skills because of its services and user-friendliness, some other studies are indicating that participants perceive using technology as a less effective way to develop second language speaking skills after they use it (gleason & suvorov, 2011). even though asynchronous online activities made it possible for the researcher to know her students better and interact with them apart from class, her having to be available all the time on whatsapp to carry the activities out of working hours imposed a great burden on her as in bouhnik and deshen’s study (2014). it is stated that participants can increase interaction with their peers in asynchronous speaking groups (gleason & suvorov, 2011; poza, 2011), and the students who can listen to their own and their peers’ voice feel motivated to develop their language skills (pop, tomuletiu & david, 2011). however, in this research, the participants avoided communicating in the asynchronous platform as in another study (vonderwell, 2003), even though they all knew each other. they either sent their voice recordings but made no comment on their peers’ and therefore involved in almost unilateral communication as in chou’s (2002) study. besides, that some of the participants recorded their voice with no one around, or tended to read from their notes to make the recording when they felt anxious indicates that peer effect and fear of negative evaluation have an impact on foreign language speaking anxiety in the turkish literature (baş, 2014; öztürk & gürbüz, 2014) as well as in the international one (juhana, 2012; rafada & madini, 2017). it is suggested that the number of participants in an asynchronous learning group should be limited to 20 to facilitate interaction (romiszowski & mason, 2004). in another study, it is highlighted that having 10 participants in a group eliminates the burden on the researcher who wants to give individualized feedback (hsu, wang & comac, 2008). hence, the participants were asked to form groups of five on average with their close peers to be able to interact more in this study. working with close peers was thought to contribute to the alleviation of speaking anxiety because some studies are showing that the participants who do not know each other feel uncomfortable during interaction (vonderwell, 2003). moreover, both the participants’ language skills affected their speaking performance and their individual features affected their participation in the activities, although learners’ individual features, their pace of learning, motivation and language competency, which cause inequality in a speaking class, are said to be eliminated in a digital environment (pop, tomuletiu & david, 2011). also, it was found that different strategies should be used to motivate the participants and enrich learning outcomes as in hsu et.al’s (2008) study. researcher’s feedback is said to help improve participants’ performance (romiszowski & mason, 2004; sağlam, 2014; white, 2003). in this research, the first researcher gave the participants written feedback. however, giving voiced feedback to the participants in especially asynchronous online environments is thought to be more personal and triggers 142 alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 the participants’ sense of existence (ice, curtis, phillips & wells, 2007; olesova, richardson, weasenforth & meloni, 2011). ice et al. (2007) assert that voiced feedback decreases the researcher’s time spent on feedback, while it increases the quality of feedback. the fact that not giving feedback at the right time decreases motivation and affects the feeling of involvement, which affects learning outcomes a lot, is an issue encountered in this research, as well (vonderwell, 2003). besides, some studies highlight that in addition to the researcher’s feedback, peer feedback facilitates participants’ gaining control over asynchronous learning experience (white, 2003) and constructing the information in a cooperative way (chou, 2002). in this research, the participants did not give feedback on one another’s performance, though. as in some other studies in the literature (han & keskin, 2016; hsu et al., 2008), the feedback gotten from the participants helped them self-reflect and shaped their learning experience in a studentcentered way. 5. conclusions this action research helped decrease the students’ english speaking anxiety and increase their performance. also, asynchronous learning provided flexibility, interaction among stakeholders was important in the learning process, motivation played a determining role in participation, fostering student-centered learning was vital, and feedback from the researcher was indispensable to monitor the development of speaking skills. briefly, the advantages of asynchronous online activities far outweigh the disadvantages in terms of developing english speaking skills. keeping up with the changing technology is a must for the educational institutions that catch up with the times. hence, integrating asynchronous online speaking activities into the curriculum of prep schools appears to be a significant alternative to improve english speaking skills outside the class. 6. limitations and future research this research was conducted on a small group of participants; therefore, it has some limitations. however, based on its results, several suggestions can be made for future research. firstly, action research can be carried out with students at different proficiency levels, in different departments and schools, as well. secondly, the study can be turned into quasi-experimental research. the students in the intervention group can use an asynchronous online learning method, or the activities can be done synchronously and asynchronously by two different groups. which method is more effective in alleviating speaking anxiety can be examined. also, research can be done on the roles of the researcher and participants or types of feedback in an asynchronous environment. finally, international studies can be done to reveal the relationship between culture and foreign language speaking anxiety. alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 143 references adams, p., & townsend, d. 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(2009). the effects of computer-mediated communication on foreign language anxiety in heritage and non-heritage students of spanish: a preliminary investigation. texas papers in foreign language education, 13(1), 39-66. tüm, d. ö. & kunt, n. (2013). speaking anxiety among efl student teachers. hacettepe üniversitesi eğitim fakültesi dergisi, 28(3), 385-399. vonderwell, s. (2003). an examination of asynchronous communication experiences and perspectives of students in an online course: a case study. internet and higher education, 6, 77-90. white, c. (2003). language learning in distance education. ny: cambridge university press. woodrow, l. (2006). anxiety and speaking english as a second language. regional language centre journal, 37(3), 308-328. yalçın, ö. & i̇nceçay, v. (2013). foreign language speaking anxiety: the case of spontaneous speaking activities. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 116, 2620-2624. yıldırım, a. & şimşek, h. (2013). sosyal bilimlerde nitel araştırma yöntemleri (9. baskı). ankara: seçkin yayıncılık. 146 alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 appendix a. speaking assessment rubric very good (3 pts) satisfactory (2 pts) needs improvement (1 pt) n o e ff e c ti v e c o m m u n ic a ti o n ( 1 p t) ; n o a tt e n d a n c e ( 0 p t) in te r a c ti o n understands all the instructions/questions with little or no support and completes the task successfully. understands most of the instructions/questions with support at times, but can complete the task. understands only some of the instructions/questions, and requires a lot of support, so communication breaks down. s p o k e n g r a m m a r generally sufficient, level-appropriate and topic-related grammar to complete the task. frequent inaccuracies may arise, but attempts and manages to use mostly sufficient, levelappropriate, and topicrelated grammatical structures. mostly incorrect, insufficient use of grammatical structures to complete the tasks. v o c a b u la r y makes use of sufficient, level-appropriate, and topic-related vocabulary with little or no search for it. uses level-appropriate and topic-related vocabulary, but frequently repetitive. very limited range of vocabulary to express his/her ideas properly; mostly uses several isolated words and memorized phrases. f lu e n c y & c o h e r e n c e generally, responds promptly; fluent without hesitation. responses are phrases or short sentences, not just one-word answers. can use basic cohesive devices with ease. slow, hesitant and irregular speech at times, few unnatural pauses; but can continue. uses basic cohesive devices with relative ease. very slow, stumbling speech; no extended utterances; delayed responses. limited use of basic cohesive devices. p r o n u n c ia ti o n generally clear pronunciation of sounds; his/her speech is understandable. unclear pronunciation of sounds at times, which does not interfere with communication. major problems with pronunciation of sounds most of the time; often unintelligible. t o ta l 15 pts 10 pts 5 pts alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 147 appendix b. students’ speaking performance student rater 1 rater 2 rater 3 s1 15 15 15 s2 13 12 12 s3 12 12 12 s4 14 13 13 s5 15 14 13 s6 13 14 13 s7 15 15 15 s8 13 12 13 s9 13 13 11 s10 13 13 13 s11 13 14 14 s12 12 12 12 s13 14 13 12 s14 8 10 9 s15 13 13 13 s16 11 12 10 s17 15 14 13 s18 10 10 10 s19 13 13 12 appendix c. themes-categories-codes 1. objectives a. cognitive i. distinguishing english speaking skills from the other skills ii. organizing english speaking around the main topic b. affective i. feeling less anxious while speaking english ii. being motivated to speak english iii. loving english iv. getting used to hearing oneself speaking english c. psychomotor i. increasing english speaking performance 2. content a. topics b. duration 3. learning-teaching process a. activities b. tool c. timing 148 alkan & bümen / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(2) (2020) 127-148 i. synchronous ii. asynchronous d. participation i. participants 1. number of participants 2. participants’ individual features ii. type of participation 1. voluntary 2. compulsory e. feedback i. researcher’s feedback 1. types of feedback 2. frequency of feedback ii. participants’ feedback copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction teaching and learning in multi-graded classrooms: is it sustainable? hale erden a * a orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4177-6203, assoc. prof. dr., cyprus social sciences university, nicosia, mersin 10 turkey, cyprus abstract the objective of the current study was to determine whether it was sustainable to teach and learn in multigraded classrooms. this paper reports on an investigation into experiences of key stakeholders regarding difficulties and the factors contributing to the difficulties faced throughout the process of teaching and learning in multi-graded classrooms in north cyprus schools. the aim of the study was to identify the difficulties contributing to the learning and teaching in multi-graded classrooms and determine on the factors contributing to the difficulties faced according to the experiences, beliefs and perspectives by the core participants. the study employed the qualitative approach while collecting data, using interviews and observation checklists. semi-structured interviews with teachers (n=20) and administrators (n=10) as well as focus group interviews with students and their parents (n=100) were conducted to identify the difficulties as well as factors contributing to the identified difficulties faced throughout the multi-graded teaching and learning process. student observations were also employed in the classroom atmosphere. qualitative phenomenology design was used for data collection of the study. qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews and observation checklists, which were analyzed using content analysis. results maintained that there are certain difficulties and certain factors contributing to such difficulties. difficulties include management, effective teaching and learning strategies and assessment in the multi-graded classrooms. factors contributing to such difficulties cover organization of the curriculum, management in the classroom and lack of support. © 2016 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: assessing learning and teaching performance; classroom management; effective teaching strategies; planning teaching; sustainability * corresponding author name. tel.: +0-000-000-0000 e-mail address: hale.erden@kisbu.edu.tr 360 hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 1. introduction 1.1. introduce the problem teaching taking place in combined grades and groups in a classroom is better known as multi-graded teaching. one can only assume the difficulties teachers and students experience while teaching and learning take place in multi-graded classrooms. the innovation level and creativity level must become known in the teaching-learning environment to improve and make such actions sustainable. multi-graded teaching refers to teaching in a single class with more than one student grade level (berry, 2006; hargraves, 2000). a multi-graded classroom has only one teacher with more than one grade in the same class (little et. al, 2007; brown, 2010; thalheimer, 2010). the importance is on teachers’ understanding the process in order to create and implement in multi-graded classes and while shaping their methodologies (brown, 2010). similarly, maintaining effective learning for the students depend on schools’ being well-organized and well-resourced as well as having well-trained teachers (juvane, 2005). on the other hand, multi-graded teaching has its own set of challenges and benefits as well as special advantages, despite the constraints (little, 2004; beukes, 2006). studies concluded that multi-graded classes are necessitated due to the chronic scarcity of teachers, shortage of pupils, deficiencies in physical resources like an inadequate number of classrooms and the size of these classrooms (little, 1995; hargreaves, 2000; little, pridmore, bajracharya & vithanaphathivana, 2007; unesco iicba newsletter, 2010). similarly, they are associated with the countries, which are still developing and have wide variety of reasons for existing (wallace, mcnish & allen, 2001). their existing reasons include excessive socio-economic restrictions, shortage in population from the closer community, insufficient resources as well as communities’ conditions regarding geography and culture (wallace et. all, 2001). also, multi-graded teaching exist at schools in the areas where there is low population density, where there is a cluster of classrooms located at places, where there is inadequate number of teachers and students, where there is higher levels of teacher absenteeism and where there is multi-graded teaching and learning occurring due to pedagogical reasons (little, 2004). thus, multi-graded classes exist both in poor and developing countries as well as in rich countries (jordaan, 2006). similarly, multi-graded teaching is widespread both in rural schools as well as in urban schools (joubert, 2010). additionally, multi-graded teaching is associated with small schools in remote and sparsely populated areas (jordaan, 2006). also, multi-graded teaching, a pedagogic teaching strategy, is applied in rural schools mostly (makoelle & malindi, 2014). challenges faced by the teachers while learning in a multi-graded classroom include lack of suitable training, lack of enough support from key stakeholders, lack of proper resources and lack of enough number of organized workshops for the teachers of multi-graded classrooms. such kind of challenges does not make teaching and learning easier for teachers and school conditions as well as community conditions are not hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 361 conducive to desired teaching and learning outcomes. it should be accepted that due to challenges they face, teachers truly depend on their professionalism on teaching, their knowledge, which they define their knowledge as deep contextual, reflexive and adaptive, helping them to activate teaching and learning (ramrathon & ngubane, 2013). identified core aspects of multi-graded teaching are positioning the attitudes of teachers, increasing the level of awareness, adaptation of curriculum, expressing learning’s philosophy, designing learning materials, organizing the students socially, transforming the assessment systems as well as improving the significance of teacher’s knowledge and skills as essential aspects in multi-graded teaching (brown, 2010). similarly, identified key areas of multi-graded teacher training programme are the management of the classroom, the strategies for instruction, the curriculum itself, the materials for instruction and the involvement of the community (beukes, 2006). core aspects and key areas are fundamental issues require consideration while teaching and learning at multi-graded classrooms to manage effective and fruitful teaching and learning. an identified barrier to the multi-graded teaching is on managing the classroom because while one group is busy with a task, the teacher is busy with teaching another group (taole & mncube, 2012). it is observed that students end up finishing the learning tasks without supervision of the teacher. similarly, managing time effectively as well as maintaining parent and community relationships are the aspects needed to be promoted to build fruitful multi-graded teaching and learning experiences (mulyran-kyne, 2007). despite the difficulties faced, multi-graded teaching and learning involve some advantages such as having adaptable flexible schedules, creating more opportunities to promote and resourceful learning, to learn more in informal classroom atmosphere and with friendly relationships (jordaan, 2006). organizational strategies proven to be beneficial for multi-graded teaching and learning atmosphere include some schedules and routines promoting clear and predictable patterns, enhancing students’ responsibility in order to feed their own learning opportunities as well as using the time for promoting experiences on group learning across and within levels of each year, for developing skills and strategies allowing learners to maintain higher levels of independence of their individual learning or combination with others as well as for developing strategies and routines for promoting peer tutoring (pancoe, 2006). when there is not any different curriculum between multi-graded classrooms and mono-graded classrooms, and all grades use the same textbooks, then the national curriculum becomes flexible and graded. fewer amounts of trainings are supplied for multi-graded teachers. similarly, trainings supplied for mono-graded teachers are taught to be enough for multi-graded teachers since teachers of mono-graded are supposed to teach in multi-graded classes as well. being absent in getting appropriate and required training for teachers who teach in multi-graded classrooms, being absent in obtaining 362 hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 appropriate human, physical resources as well as being absent in maintaining the necessary support by the key educators block off delivering the quality training. building multi-graded teaching strategies have been impeded by the reality that most of the educators do not prefer to live in rural areas of the countries, where most of the multigraded classrooms have to be applied (taole & mncube, 2012). most of the teachers teaching at multi-graded classrooms revealed that they found multi-graded teaching difficult and challenging. they added that they were feeling alone and not know exactly what was clearly expected from them to do (taole, 2014). teachers teaching in multi-graded classrooms require having best skills on classroom management because they need to do appropriate planning of their classes in order to avoid being unnecessary (taole & mncube, 2012). tasks should be in parallel in each classroom where carrying out tasks in one grade may need higher level of contact by teacher-learner or lower level of contact by teacher-learner in another grade. strategies offered for a multi-graded classroom teaching and learning include process approach, moving from all-knowing facilitator, integrating related areas of the curriculum across grades and ensuring to form flexible groups in the classroom (beukes, 2006). similarly, approaches to curriculum for multi-graded classrooms are spans of multi-graded curriculum, differentiated curriculum, apparently one-graded curriculum, learner centered curriculum and material centered curriculum (little, 2004; little et al, 2007). multi-graded teaching has got three important approaches, which are called wholeclass teaching, learning-in-groups and independent working (jordaan, 2006). similarly, the approaches teachers use while teaching in multi-graded classrooms include twogroup approach (where two different groups come to together for pedagogical reasons), whole class approach (where all of the students sharing the same class study and learn at the same time) and mixed-approach (where mixed grade activities are offered) (jordaan, 2006; wallace et al, 2001). additionally, cooperative learning has been strongly suggested to be in use in multi-graded classrooms because cooperative learning is peculiar of involving all grades and student achievements; showing a great deal of subject matter, showing urban and/or rural schools and showing a common goal for learners of mixed ability as well as having increased acceptance among others, have positive self-esteem and providing positive interaction (fyfe, 2001). on the other hand, instructional strategies used in multi-graded classrooms are identified as peer-to-peer instruction, cooperative group work and individualized learning programmes (jordaan, 2006). similarly, peer-tutoring is a teaching strategy suggested to be used while teaching in multi-graded classrooms (jordaan, 2006; pancoe, 2006; wallace et. al, 2001). peertutoring has been defined as teaching of learner to learner (wallace et al, 2001) or teaching of older learner to younger learner (at higher levels), fast learner to slower learner (at the same levels), learning of two learners at the same level (through discussions helping each other to learn the topic better), and/or slower learners to fast hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 363 learners in the topics where slower learners are stronger (wallace et al, 2001). among the various teaching approaches, multi-graded classroom teachers require to choose the most appropriate approach while teaching in their classes. when the classroom approach has been preferred to use, then the multi-graded teacher should decide to the organization of the classroom. the organization of the classroom is important since each multi-graded classroom should have various appropriate approaches to adopt. the selected appropriate approach will firmly decide on the organization of the classroom, its environment and materials. activity centers are strongly suggested to organize in the classroom. each activity center, which is placed at the corners of the classroom in order not to disturb and block other activities, should be categorized according to its topics and themes (wallace et al, 2001). adopting workstations, activity centers and/or reading corners to facilitate learning of the students is also beneficial. activity centers, workstations and/or reading corners are required to involve various resources to help students’ learning better. teachers in such classes are required to feature new methods, be advanced and original while learning takes place as well as innovative and flexible while organizing the classroom to facilitate learning in various ways (ministry of basic and secondary education in collaboration with the learning initiatives for rural education, 2008; dima & borcos, 2005; hilberg, chang & epaloose, 2003; hill, 2000). 1.2. aim of the study the current study sought to determine whether teaching and learning is sustainable in multi-graded classrooms. specifically, this study was designed to identify the experiences, beliefs and perspectives regarding the difficulties faced while teaching and learning in multi-graded classrooms in north cyprus’ schools and to address the following research questions: what difficulties do teachers and students report that contribute to teaching and learning in a multi-graded classroom? and what factors were reported as contributing to the difficulties faced according to the experiences, beliefs and perspectives by the core participants? 2. method 2.1. research design to address the research questions, a qualitative research methodology was applied. the current study provided qualitative data to address the research question, which sought to explore the difficulties experienced and factors contributing to these difficulties throughout teaching and learning in the multi-graded classrooms. the responses of the participants were analyzed thematically using phenomenology, including exploring the difficulties and factors contributing to these factors. themes on difficulties and 364 hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 contributing factors to these difficulties, participants believed and experienced while teaching and learning in the multi-graded classrooms, were described throughout this study. 2.2. participant (subject) characteristics and sampling procedures in the current study, data were collected from 20 teachers (teachers teaching at multigraded classrooms of various schools in north cyprus) and 50 students and 50 parents (25 students from each grade with their parents; grade 4-to-grade 5; students’ ages ranged from 9-to-10 years) and 10 administrators serving in these schools where mg teaching and learning takes place to explore the difficulties faced in multi-graded classrooms. the students were chosen among the ones who were active in sports/music, had gpa between 8,50-10 out of 10 and were described as having higher level of interpersonal skills by their form teachers. the range of interpersonal skills were agreed to be ability to communicate, ability to show empathy, ability to work in a team, ability to negotiate-persuade-influence others, ability to resolve conflict-mediate, and ability to solve problems-make decisions. the teachers’ teaching experiences ranged from 5-to-15 years. only 8% of the teachers had less than 10 years of experience in teaching multigraded classrooms. only 2 teachers held bachelors’ degree, 18 of them held masters’ degree or pursuing their masters’ studies. purposive sampling was applied in selecting the participants to ensure that key participants were appropriately selected for the case. tustin, lightelm, martins and van wyk (2005) implied that the participants, chosen with a specific purpose and/or objective in mind, were intentionally selected for meeting the criteria of purposive sampling. 2.3. measures and covariates the semi-structured interview form1 was used to identify the difficulties teachers and students face while teaching and learning in a multi-graded classroom. semi-structured interview from2 was applied to identify the factors contributing to these difficulties. teachers and administrators were interviewed face-to-face. students and parents were focus-group-interviewed. observation checklists were used while observing the students in their classes on how they learn in their authentic environment. in the first phase of the study, the core participants were asked to identify the difficulties they face contributing to their teaching and learning in a multi-graded classroom. in the second phase of the study, the core participants were asked to identify the factors contributing to the difficulties identified in the initial phase of the study. in the current study, data were collected from 20 teachers, 100 students and their parents (50 students and 50 parents) and 10 administrators. primary qualitative data included semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews with basic questions to describe their experiences, beliefs and perspectives regarding the difficulties they face hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 365 while teaching and learning in multi-graded classrooms and then the factors contributing to these difficulties. an interview protocol was applied to guide the interviews. the focus of the interviews was on identifying the difficulties to describe them as variables and then the factors contributing to the identified difficulties. appointments were taken from participants to conduct face-to-face interviews and focus group interviews in each phase. students were observed in the real classroom atmosphere through observation checklists. convenient time for each participant or each group was arranged to process the interviews. the researcher tape-recorded the interviews, took notes during the interviews and ticked the checklists while observing the students in the classroom. the interviews were transcribed. the researcher read through all the transcripts, wrote down all the ideas that came to mind, selected one best interview and asked questions about it. then the researcher clustered similar topics together, identified major topics, unique topics and minor topics to elicit categories. topics were grouped. grouped topics yielded to connections and themes to determine. data for each category were gathered in one place. qualitative analyses were conducted with responses from the core participants in order to identify the difficulties contributing to the teaching and learning process of multigraded classrooms and to identify the factors contributing to the difficulties identified. responses ranged from one-word to short paragraphs of various sentences. in the current study, strategies from content analysis were used to analyze the data. several strategies were applied throughout the study to ensure trustworthiness of the findings. a team of academics from the educational sciences field was convened to review the data to supply the content validity. member triangulation was supplied through collecting data from teachers, students and administrators. data were collected, analyzed and interpreted impartially in order to avoid bias by the researcher. implications produced through the research generate enough information for the educational professionals. how data were collected, analyzed, how themes were derived and how the results were maintained were described in detail in the study in order to increase the opportunity of replication of the study. the qualitative data were analyzed through description of thematic interpretations and the quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, where procedures for various data collection and data analysis methods were explained in detail in the study. also, the interviews were recorded and preserved as a future reference for any independent researcher. data were collected, analyzed and interpreted impartially in order to avoid bias by the researcher. implications produced through the research generate enough information for the educational professionals. how data were collected, analyzed, how themes were derived and how the results were maintained were described in detail in the study in order to increase the opportunity of replication of the study. the qualitative data were analyzed through description of thematic interpretations and the quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, where procedures for various data collection and data 366 hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 analysis methods were explained in detail in the study. also, the interviews were recorded and preserved as a future reference for any independent researcher. 3. results findings from the analysis of the data suggested two primary core categories, several themes, sub-themes and the issues based on the primary categories, themes and subthemes. this section attempted to answer the research questions on what difficulties were faced while teaching and learning in multi-graded classrooms and what factors contribute to the difficulties faced according to the experiences, beliefs and perspectives by the core participants. the core categories emerged from the participants’ responses were difficulties faced on sustainability and contributing factors (see figure 1). figure 1. categories and themes 3.1. category 1: difficulties faced on sustainability these identified core categories included responses describing the significance of multigraded teaching and learning as well as the ways in which the core difficulties and the factors contributing to these difficulties gave rise to implications for the educational politicians and educational planners to give necessary support to the multi-graded classrooms. specifically, the core participants noted that difficulties include management in multi-graded classrooms; effective teaching and learning in multi-graded classrooms, and assessment of performances in multi-graded classrooms as themes. category 1 difficulties faced on sustainability category 2 contributing factors theme 1.1 management in multi-graded classrooms theme 1.2 effective teaching and learning in multi-graded classrooms theme 1.3 assessment of performances in multi-graded classrooms theme 2.1 organization of curriculum theme 2.2 management in the classroom theme 2.3 lack of support hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 367 3.1.1. theme 1.1: management in multi-graded classrooms illustrative quotes include the sub-themes regarding the theme management in multigraded classrooms as teacher, classroom and student. the sub-theme on teacher gave rise to the issues on managing professional knowledge and skills and managing research. similarly, the sub-theme on classroom gave rise to the issues on promoting positive pedagogical environment and managing highly interactional tasks. also, the sub-theme on student gave rise to the issues on engaging students, breaking isolation among students and having highly satisfaction by learners-parents-teachers (see figure 2). figure 2. theme 1.1 management in multi-graded classrooms the quotes regarding the theme management in multi-graded classrooms from the participants put forward that teachers and managers need to well aware of the varieties and levels of the students. their age, gender, family-based-background, socio-economicbased-background, abilities in learning and using language/s, skills and abilities of their ages, special needs in order to maintain powerful and effective educational outcomes. also, the teachers of such kind classes need to observe each student closely, keep an eye on their improvement and conduct researches in each step to make sure that each student promotes considerable development in the class. additionally, they should provide positive impact on the student achievement, be creative in managing and arranging the grades while planning the tasks, working plans and peer learning. teachers should be aware of the importance of focusing on the communication, reproducing learning tasks and shifting in the role of the responsibility because teachers should have more focus on learning of their students and each student may bring various educational needs into the classroom. t h e m e 1 .1 m a n a g e m e n t in m u lt ig r a d e d c la s s r o o m s sub-themes issues 1.1.1 teacher 1.1.2 classroom 1.1.3 student i. managing professional knowledge and skills ii. managing research i. positive pedagogical environment ii. managing highly interactional tasks i. engaging students ii. breaking isolation among students iii. having highly satisfaction by learners-parents-teachers 368 hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 the participants emphasized that every circumstance mentioned above should be a way of making each circumstance possible in order to supply better teaching and learning conditions. similarly, the participants emphasized that teachers of multi-graded classrooms are required to introduce new methods in order to keep each student busy in the real classroom atmosphere. also, the role of the students and the teachers should be made clear. the students should produce while learning, rather than listening to the teacher, the authority, all the time. by the same token, the teachers need to be innovative while developing, designing, applying, producing and reproducing the teaching and learning materials. 3.1.2. theme 2: effective teaching and learning in multi-graded classrooms next prominent theme emerged from the category on difficulties faced on sustainability was called effective teaching and learning in multi-graded classrooms. the theme yielded sub-themes on adaptation of lesson plans, production of teaching and learning materials and development of teaching strategies. the sub-theme on adaptation of lesson plans yielded issues on monitoring the progress of students whereas the subtheme on production of teaching and learning materials gave rise to issues on designing effective instructional materials and designing authentic materials. the sub-theme on the development of teaching strategies yielded an issue on teaching all groups together (see figure 3). figure 3. theme 1.2 effective teaching and learning in multi-graded classrooms t h e m e 1 .2 e ff e c t iv e t e a c h in g a n d le a r n in g i n m u lt ig r a d e d c la s s r o o m s sub-themes issues 1.2.1 adaptation of lesson plans 1.2.2 production of teaching and learning materials 1.2.3 development of teaching strategies i. monitoring the progress of students i. designing effective instructional materials ii. designing authentic materials i. teaching all groups together hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 369 the quotes regarding the theme effective teaching and learning in multi-graded classrooms from the participants emphasized that it was necessarily important to improve the education quality, plan lessons appropriately, and select week-activities in order to get ready for the timetable. also, quotes from the participants revealed that it was vital to save time in the classroom, maximize the time of students’ spending on learning tasks, develop adequate as well as proper instructional materials and encourage learners to produce their learning materials. teachers of such kind classrooms should add locally resources to the actual teaching and learning repertoire. they need to (re)design locally available materials by considering their local context and culture. teachers and higher-grade students while (re)designing the local materials may bring teaching and learning pieces closer both to the available resources and local conditions. designing authentic materials and activities with the involvement of the students and the related authorities will be helpful in mildly combining the curriculum and the local culture. therefore, the participants’ quotes put forward on the importance of designing authentic materials to promote local context and local culture. also, a multi-graded teacher is required to use time appropriately; be flexible while managing time; balance the attention of fast learners and slow learners; use fast learners as peer tutors to the weak students when they need extra attention because the teachers need to move from one group to another in the same class. similarly, a multi-graded teacher is required to be creative enough while managing the classroom, arranging the grades, groups and/or individual works either in the similar grade or group or independently. also, the teachers of such kind of classrooms should focus on teaching one-grade while the others work independently, and/or focus on teaching one subject to all grades and at varying levels of difficulty, and/or focus on developing activities for non-taught groups, and/or focus on developing peer, cross age and cross grade teaching strategies. 3.1.3. theme 3: assessment of performances in multi-graded classrooms the code on difficulties on sustainability generated a theme called assessment of performances in multi-graded classrooms. the theme yielded sub-themes on adapting on more learners’ assessment but less evaluation and (self) reflection of teachers and students. participants agreed that the issues on adapting on more learners’ assessment but less evaluation gave rise to adopt a cyclic process of assessment, assess prior knowledge of learners, reflect on teaching and strategies of assessment, revisit and replan the lesson, implement the lesson, identify areas where students need help and provide additional learning opportunities. similarly, participants revealed that the issue on (self)reflection of teachers and students gave rise to express self-criticism, be strategic and assertive as well as have strong will on making changes and sacrifices (see figure 4). 370 hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 figure 4. theme 1.3 assessment of performances in multi-graded classrooms the quotes from the participants regarding the sub-theme called assessment of performances in multi-graded classrooms put forward that a multi-graded teacher needs to design or produce every teaching and learning pieces as well as assessment strategies to meet the individual requirements of the students. this is because each student has got different backgrounds, learning styles and needs. therefore, strategies of each multigraded classroom teacher should meet such styles and needs of each student. (self)reflection is real necessity on the part of the teachers, which will facilitate the job of the teachers in order to identify children who are at-risk group, criticize the progress of the program, students’ progress and teacher’s progress while applying the program. therefore, each multi-graded teacher will be able to give extra attention to each student and make sure that they succeed. 3.2. category 2: contributing factors the next core category was called contributing factors and there were 3 themes emerged from the category. the themes were called organization of curriculum, management in the classroom and lack of support. t h e m e 1 .3 a s s e s s m e n t o f p e r fo r m a n c e s i n m u lt ig r a d e d c la s s r o o m s sub-themes issues 1.3.1 adaption on more learners’ assessment, but lessevaluation self 1.3.2 (self) reflection of teachers and students i. adapt a cyclic process of assessment ii. assess prior knowledge of learners iii. reflect on teaching and strategies of assessment iv. revisit and re-plan the lesson v. implement the lesson vi. identify areas where students need help and provide additional learning opportunities. i. express self-criticism ii. be strategic and assertive iii have strong will on making changes and sacrifices hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 371 t h e m e 2 .1 o r g a n iz a t io n o f c u r r ic u lu m sub-themes issues 2.1.1 having lack of innovativeness 2.1.2 challenging with teachers’ burn out i. new learning ii. old learning i. work overload 3.2.1. theme 1: organization of curriculum the theme on organization of curriculum gave rise to sub-themes on having lack of innovativeness and challenging with teacher’s burnout. the sub-theme on having lack of innovativeness yielded issues on new learning and old learning. similarly, the subtheme on challenging with teachers’ burn out gave rise to work overload (see figure 5). figure 5. theme 2.1 organization of curriculum the quotes regarding the theme organization of curriculum from the participants emphasized that whenever a topic has been introduced, the complexity of the topic should increase, and new learning points can be able to build upon the old learning points each time. similarly, the new learning point has been in relationship with the older one to be able to put the new learning and old learning in the context. teachers of such kind classes have work overloads since they have various grades in their classes to deal with each time. curriculum they use need to help them to promote positive outcomes especially while applying their teaching skills and facilitate inquiry-based, project based and constructivist approaches. therefore, teachers should be able to activate prior knowledge in order to build new learning on prior knowledge and to help their students to develop their levels. 3.2.2. theme 2: management in the classroom similarly, the theme on management in the classroom yielded the sub-themes on arranging climate of the school, designing atmosphere of the classroom and improving learners’ performance. the sub-theme on arranging climate of the school yielded an issue on arranging activity centers and workstations each corner and maintaining peace and being fair among students. the sub-theme on designing atmosphere of the classroom yielded an issue on teacher’s readiness whereas the sub-theme on improving learners’ 372 hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 performance yielded issues on learner’s diversity and complexity and level of interpersonal skills of the learners (see figure 6). figure 6. theme 2.2 management in the classroom the quotes regarding the theme management in the classroom from the participants emphasized that the atmosphere of the classroom should be healthy, inclusive and safe for each student from various backgrounds, abilities and needs. interactional tasks influencing and answering the needs of students from each gender promote participation and success of the students in the classroom. workstations and activity centers where each student find him/herself in the activity should be included inside the classroom. at each station and/or center, the student should have new information and/or activity to go further. therefore, activities and/or tasks should be arranged according to the level, age, interest and/or knowledge of the students. teachers of such kind of classes should be denoted with enough professional knowledge and professional experience. 3.2.3. theme 3: lack of support finally, the theme on lack of support gave rise to the sub-theme on lack of selfmotivation, lack of being open to personal professional development and lower level of motivation by managers. the sub-theme on lack of self-motivation yielded issues on wellorganized teachers, creative and flexible teachers, highly motivated teachers to work hard, resourceful teachers, self-directed teachers, highly motivated teachers cooperating with the parents, the community and the local authority, and willing teachers to develop cooperation and personal responsibility in the classroom and with the students. also, the sub-themes t h e m e 2 .2 m a n a g e m e n t i n t h e c la s s r o o m 2.2.1 arranging climate of the school 2.2.2 designing atmosphere of the classroom 2.2.3 improving learners’ performance issues i. arranging activity centres and workstations each corner ii. maintaining peace and being fair among students i. teachers’ readiness i. learners’ diversity and complexity ii. the level of interpersonal skills of the learners hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 373 sub-theme on lack of being open to personal professional development gave rise to an issue on need to feed teachers’ reduced motivation in attending in-service trainings. on the other hand, the sub-theme on lower level of motivation by managers yielded issues on creating a supportive school culture, providing opportunities to learn multi-grade teaching methods, monitoring progress of implementation, praising teachers and facilitating positive, cooperative interaction among teaching team-members (see figure 7). figure 7. theme 2.3 lack of support the quotes regarding the theme lack of support from the participants emphasized that a multi-graded teacher needs to work in collaboration with colleagues, parents as well as t h e m e 2 .3 l a c k o f s u p p o r t sub-themes issues 2.3.1 lack of self-motivation 2.3.3 lower level of motivation by managers i. well-organized teachers ii. creative and flexible teachers iii. highly motivated teachers to work hard iv. resourceful teachers v. self-directed teachers vi. highly motivated teachers cooperating with the parents, the community and the local authority vii. willing teachers to develop cooperation and personal responsibility in the classroom and with the students learning opportunities. i. creating a supportive school culture ii. providing opportunities to learn multi-grade teaching methods iii. monitoring progress of implementation iv. praising teachers v. facilitate positive, cooperative interaction among teaching teammembers 2.3.2 lack of being open to personal professional development i. need to feed teachers’ reduced motivation in attending in-service trainings 374 hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 with local authority in order to use available resources, to raise self-teaching and selfassessment methods to break isolation among students, to develop a school improvement plan, to mobilize support from interested, powerful, spontaneous as well as disinterested parents, and to gain support from local society leaders. similarly, a multi-graded classroom teacher should be ready to attend to the in-service training programs for getting more training, acquiring new skills, experiences and attitudes. multi-graded classroom teachers who are in favor of getting in-service trainings gain more experience, excel their teaching profession and share experiences from other colleagues from other schools. therefore, managers should encourage multi-graded classroom teachers in their schools to attend in-service programs and suggest the best strategies to the educational authorities how to organize and sustain such kind of trainings. 4. discussion promoting teaching and learning in multi-graded classes sustainably as a means of developing new and better practices, promoting regular reflection on the teaching skills, strategies and methods seems to be possible in every way by keeping the record of each student, by promoting teaching activities (how the lessons are planned, the classroom is managed, subjects are (re)scheduled, instructional resources are developed, appropriate tasks are assigned to guide and counsel students with various learning challenges, records of teaching and learning activities are kept, parents are directed in monitoring the progress of their children and local authority is assisted to arrange conditions of learning); by maintaining assessment from various ways (through principal and colleagues, as well as by getting informal feedback from students on what and why they (dis)like about the classroom atmosphere, on what individual lessons periodically reflect, on how activities were handled and on what kinds of results were achieved). multigraded teaching has positive contribution to human development sustainably (brown, 2010) and to students’ achievement (mcewan, 2008). it is better to integrate teachertraining program with multi-graded teaching strategies while carrying out initial teacher training studies of the teachers to make them know they may teach in a multi-graded school. also, there is a need to establish a well-coordinated support system from top to bottom level (from national level, provincial level and district level to school level) to facilitate teachers’ difficulties and challenges they face while teaching in multi-graded classrooms (joyce, 2014). the learning environment should be well designed and supported to enrich formal learning by integrating it with technology (mercier, higgins & joyce-gibbons, 2016). additionally, teachers are required to work-in-teams collaboratively, be friendly and agree to get support from workshops and school-based facilities (vithanapathirana, 2005). the practical section of the lessons yielded positive contribution to the students’ way of thinking regarding development on identity as teachers which also supported teachers’ hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 375 improvement, their awareness on the need of improving, shaping and reshaping their identity (seban, 2015). a finding by makoelle and malindi (2014) emphasized the importance of well-designing teaching practices to enhance multi-graded pedagogy and promote learning in such classes since knowledge and skills required for multi-graded teachers unfortunately were limited. therefore, well-implemented policies identifying, acknowledging the existence and supporting the multi-graded teaching in various environment and contexts have been required to adapt (taole & mncube, 2012). the practicum experiences by the applicants should be enriched in order to support the development of the students (seban, 2015). teachers should also be supported by appropriate knowledge about practices of multi-graded contexts and are required to collaborate to reflect and develop their practices (makoelle, 2014). 5. conclusions to conclude, in order to overwhelm the difficulties faced by the teachers and learners, such kind of teachers in multi-graded atmosphere should have various activities to do in order to maintain suitable teaching and learning conditions. the conclusions are as follows: 1. an arrangement of the classroom should be made according to combination of each grade. each student’s diversity, complexity, gender, age, family background, socioeconomic background, language level, abilities, skills and special education should be well known by the multi-graded classroom teachers to produce better learning because a student may learn through peers, self-directed, cooperatively and/or various learning styles. each variety should be an opportunity to promote learning. additionally, personalized teaching and assessment strategies are essential for a multi-graded classroom teacher to personalize the teaching as well as the assessment methods because each student’s needs, interests and styles differ and such teachers need to give response to the various backgrounds, learning styles and needs of each student. 2. activity centers and workstations should be established to allow various activities to take place at the same time. the atmosphere and climate of the classroom should be arranged in order to ensure that students have a healthy, welcoming, inclusive and protective classroom where students of various backgrounds and grades meet their learning needs. creativity of the teachers while managing such kind of classroom should be clear in arranging the grades and the groups as well as maintaining the individual work, which necessitate special attention to set up regular practices and promote new and advanced opportunities for each student. 3. various teaching approaches and teaching methods should be applied to keep attention higher and increase learning level of the students. curriculum, timetables and time should be flexible in case not to be able to implement 376 hale erden/ international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 359–378 curriculum and timetables properly because the teacher may need to move from one group to another. indeed, the teacher needs to balance the attention given to fast learners who may be responsible as student tutors since slow learners may need more attention. teaching and learning materials should be innovatively developed and reproduced. local resources may be used and/or made relevant to the local culture and local context in order to make teaching and learning closer to local conditions and available resources and/or materials. additionally, students with higher grades may be asked to involve in helping while producing the authentic and local materials to make curriculum and timetable relevant to the local culture. also, teachers need to work in collaboration with colleagues, students’ parents, managers, as well as local authority to support mobility and to gain support from local authority for developing the limited teaching and learning materials, for improving the school, for gaining parents and for carrying out selfassessment of the students. references berry, c. 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(2001). a handbook for teachers of multi-grade classes. unesco. ag 2i communication, 1. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2014.992632 https://doi.org/10.1080/0972639x.2014.11886690 https://doi.org/10.1080/0972639x.2012.11886653 https://doi.org/10.1080/0972639x.2012.11886653 ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction a study on the qualities of effective efl teachers from the perspectives of preparatory program turkish efl students murat hismanoglu a * a usak university, usak 64100, turkey abstract the purpose of the present study was to investigate the characteristics of effective efl teachers from the perspectives of preparatory program turkish efl students. to achieve this purpose, 93 preparatory program turkish efl students from the foreign languages school of a state university located in the west part of turkey participated in the study. the questionnaire designed by salahshour & hajizadeh (2013) was utilized in this study by the researcher with some minor modifications on it. the findings of this study showed that being enthusiastic and lively, having interest in his/her job and feeling responsibility for teaching, being creative and spontaneous, being self-confident, having a loud and clear voice and having patience with students were the prominent personal traits of effective efl teachers. the findings also revealed that the majority of the students viewed their teacher as an effective efl teacher because s/he presented the topic via a variety of examples, had adequate level of linguistic knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and communication skills and dealt with them individually and s/he was patient to them. lastly, the findings of this study regarding (a) command in english, (b) teaching methodology, (c) evaluation method, (d) amount of teacher’s emphasis on different language skills, (e) mastery over teaching, (f) teacher-student relationship and (g) classroom management were in line with those of previous studies conducted by other researchers in the related literature. © 2019 ijci & the authors. published by international journal of curriculum and instruction (ijci). this is an openaccess article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). keywords: effective teachers; efl; effective efl teachers; efl students; teacher qualities 1. introduction teaching is a multifaceted and intricate process and teachers are one of the most prominent components of this process. however, if teachers disregard the learners’ needs and expectations, not only teaching but also learning processes become demotivating and the efl classroom changes into a monotonous environment for students (baytur & razi, * corresponding author e-mail address: murat.hismanoglu@usak.edu.tr mailto:murat.hismanoglu@usak.edu.tr 102 hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 2015). in this vein, describing the qualities of a good efl teacher is crucial to develop and offer quality english language teacher training programs for pre-service teachers, professional development programs for in-service teachers and promote the teaching process itself (abu-rahma, 2007). who is an effective efl teacher? the one who speaks the english language both accurately and fluently; the one who deploys entertaining teaching activities skillfully; the one who can form a good friendship with his/her students or the one whose students get good grades in the english exams? (aydın et al., 2009). the answer to this question is not as simple as it seems to be on the surface. the concept of an ‘effective teacher’ has been defined by many researchers in the related literature. william & burden (1997, p. 5) state that an effective teacher is "one who understands the complexities of the teaching-learning process and can draw upon this knowledge to act in ways which empower learners both within and beyond the classroom situation." benson, schroeder, lantz and bird (2001) stress that an effective teacher is someone who presents information to students in a way that is obvious, comprehensible, and stimulating. according to cruickshank and haefele (2001), an effective teacher is someone who should contribute to higher level of student success and permanent learning. undoubtedly, all language teachers exhibit their individual characteristics when presenting new information and giving tasks to their students in the classroom. the qualities that effective efl teachers possess and display while presenting the new information and giving tasks to their students in the classroom have been identified by many researchers. however, most of these attempts to identify effective teacher characteristics exhibit more or less the same descriptions of effective teacher qualities. in the following section, cheung’s (2006), arıkan, taşer & saraç-süzer’s (2008) and vialle & tischler’s (2009) identifications of effective teacher qualities will be presented. cheung (2006) indicates that effective teachers are inclined to: • work in their jobs for longer timeframes; • give more time to teaching and curricular designing; • be willing to teach; • give importance to their students’ needs; • be understanding to the mistakes and errors made by their students; • deal with problem causing students for longer timeframes; • take an interest in and add to the learning encounters of their students arıkan, taşer & saraç-süzer (2008) describe the qualities of an effective teacher as: hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 103 • being friendly; • being young; • being enthusiastic; • being creative; • being humorous; • being fluent in english; • playing educational games; • teaching grammar effectively; • utilizing real life contexts to expound language items; • having correct pronunciation vialle and tischler (2009) defines effective teachers as: • being polite; • being intimate; • being tolerant; • being devoted; • behaving students equally; • motivating students • fitting to the proficiency level of students • being enthusiastic about teaching and assisting others. it is evident that the effectiveness of the teacher is directly related to the amount of learning that takes place in the efl classroom. the existence of an effective teacher in the classroom is a crucial factor that catalyzes students’ learning. even if all the other conditions are suitable, an efl teacher’s poor teaching performance in the classroom can reduce the amount of students’ learning remarkably (hajizadeh & salahshour, 2014). hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of effective efl teachers from the perspectives of preparatory program efl students. this study addresses the following research questions: 1. what are the characteristics of effective efl teachers according to preparatory program turkish efl students? 104 hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 2. do preparatory program turkish efl students think that their teacher is an effective efl teacher? 3. why do preparatory program turkish efl students think that their teacher is an effective/ineffective efl teacher? 4. what are three most important characteristics that an effective efl teacher should generally have according to preparatory program turkish efl students? 5. what are three most important characteristics that an effective efl teacher should generally not have according to preparatory program turkish efl students? by finding answers to the above mentioned research questions, the researcher hopes to help in-service efl teachers to evaluate their language teaching methods, techniques, principles and strategies, make necessary adaptations or changes in their teaching and cretate a more motivating classroom environment for their students. 2. literature review during the past twenty years, many researchers have focused on investigating students’ perceptions of the qualities of effective efl teachers not only in various international efl contexts but also in our national efl context. for instance, in the chinese efl context, cheung (2002) examined university students’ perceptions of the qualities of the good language teacher and it was reported that native english instructors utilized the english language more efficiently, presented the target language culture more skillfully and had higher level of english proficiency than non-native english instructors. however, it was also stressed in the study that non-native english instructors were better at english grammar than native english instructors. in the cypriot efl context, stella and dimitris (2013) examined cypriot efl students’ perceptions of the qualities of good efl teachers. the results of the study exhibited that cypriot efl students perceived effective efl teachers as those who took into account their students’ individual differences, language anxiety and capabilities and interests. the results of the study also exhibited that cypriot students preferred the language teachers who used technology successfully and involved their students in communicative classroom exchanges. to put it another way, the findings showed that cypriot efl students perceived instructional and/ or pedagogical skills as the most important qualities of effective efl teachers. in the iranian efl context, ghasemi and hashemi (2011), salahshour & hajizadeh (2013) and ramazani (2014) concentrated on investigating students’ perceptions of the qualities of effective efl teachers. for instance, ghasemi and hashemi (2011) explored students’ perceptions of the qualities of effective efl teachers based on three major categories: (1) content knowledge, (2) instructional knowledge, (3) socio-affective skills. it hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 105 was revealed in the study that students viewed some teacher qualities like proficiency in reading and speaking, the ability to increase students’ enthusiasm in learning english, constructing students’ self-reliance and incentive as globally approved features. it was also found in the study that students highlighted listening ability and structural ability as particularly prominent. in another study, salahshour & hajizadeh (2013) investigated 42 iranian students’ views of the qualities of good efl teachers by utilizing a 58-item questionnaire. the results of the study indicated that the most prominent ten qualities of effective efl teachers were: (1) being involved in his/her profession, (2) possessing a sense of liability for his/her profession, (3) being willing and active, (4) being self-reliant, (5) being prompt, (6) stimulating students to deploy l2 everytime, (7) presenting clear grammatical revision, (8) presenting through clarification during reading and listening activities, (9) stressing common spoken quizzes, (10) stressing all language skills, particularly speaking. ramazani (2014) also explored 384 university students’ beliefs about the qualities of effective efl teachers by utilizing a self-report questionnaire. the results of the study revealed that students perceived their efl teacher’s pedagogical knowledge as important as his/her socio-affective skills. the results of the study also unearthed that variables such as gender and achievement had an impact on students’ beliefs about the qualities of effective efl teachers. in the japanese efl context, edington (2001) investigated students’ perceptions of the qualities of the good language teacher by categorizing these qualities into three dimensions: personality, teaching skills and knowledge. it was found that smiling, being polite, liking all the students, making lessons appealing, appreciating students, showing respect to students, being cordial, behaving students fairly, being punctual, attempting to comprehend students’ personalities, being humorous, being ambitious, liking teaching and being calm were related to the personality dimension. it was also found that the teacher traits like talking aloud, writing openly, telling students interesting anecdotes, monitoring students cautiously, listening to students, conversing with students, advising students what to do, being good at presentation, being good at teaching, being experienced, being prepared for the lesson, being productive, struggling to stimulate students, utilizing a wide range of teaching techniques and deploying the up-to date instructional technology in teaching were related to the teaching skills dimension. lastly, it was unearthed in this study that being knowledgeable, being experienced and being open to learning what is new were related to the knowledge dimension. in the korean efl context, barnes and lock (2010) explored 105 freshmen university students’ beliefs about the qualities of good efl teachers by asking them to write the qualities of good efl teachers in their mother tongue. the findings of the study were reported in five categories comprising rapport, lesson delivery, fairness, knowledge and 106 hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 credibility and organization and preparation. korean efl students viewed rapport and lesson delivery as the most significant qualities of the effective efl teachers. especially, they regarded rapport as the most prominent quality of good efl teachers. in the taiwanese efl context, it was chen and lin (2009) who investigated 198 chinese students’ views of the qualities of good efl teachers by utilizing a 50-item questionnaire. the results of the study indicated that while the students viewed the instructional competence, personality, and teacher-student relationship as the most important features of an effective efl teacher, the instructional competence was regarded as less prominent than the other two dimensions, personality and teacherstudent interaction. in the thai efl context, wichadee (2010), chen (2012) and whichadee and orawiwatnakul (2012) focused on the students’ perceptions of the qualities of the effective efl teacher. for example, wichadee (2010) examined the thai efl students’ perceptions of the qualities of the effective english teacher relying on four basic categories of (1) proficiency in english, (2) instructional knowledge, (3) organization and communication abilities, (4) socio-affective abilities. the results of the study revealed that while the students gave importance to their teachers’ organization and communication skills most, the teachers gave importance to proficiency in english most with respect to the most significant feature in effective efl teaching. in another study, chen (2012) examined thai university students’ perceptions of the favorable and unfavorable qualities of efl teachers by categorizing the qualities into personal trait specific and classroom teaching specific qualities. the results of the study showed that students perceived emotion, politeness, justice, tolerance and liability as the personal trait specific qualities. the results of the study also displayed that students perceived modes of lesson delivery, language utilized in teaching, organization of classroom activities and establishment of classroom atmosphere as classroom teaching specific qualities. whichadee and orawiwatnakul (2012) also explored thai university students’ perceptions of the qualities of effective efl teachers within the framework of four basic categories: (1) proficiency in english, (2) instructional knowledge, (3) organization and communication abilities and (4) socio-affective abilities. it was found in the study that while both low and high proficiency students at bangkok university regarded organization and communication abilities as the most important qualities of effective efl teachers, they viewed proficiency in english as the least important qualities of effective efl teachers. on the other side, socio-affective skills were accepted to be the second most important qualities of effective efl teachers and instructional knowledge was accepted to be the third most important qualities of effective efl teachers. in the turkish efl context, arikan, taşer and saraç-süzer (2008), telli, den brok, and çakıroğlu (2008) and çelik, arıkan, and caner (2013) examined the students’ hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 107 perceptions of the qualities of the effective efl teacher. for instance, the study conducted by arikan, taşer and saraç-süzer (2008) aimed to investigate turkish efl students’ perceptions of the qualities of the effective english teacher. the results of the study showed that students identified their teachers as effective if they taught both formal and informal english, integrated games into their teaching and did pairwork/group work activities in the efl classroom. the results of the study also displayed that students gave more importance to their english language teachers’ personal features like willingness, productivity and fairness than their pedagogical abilities like using ict, teaching language skills and classroom management. similarly, the research study done in turkey by telli, den brok, and çakıroğlu (2008) revealed that the students attributed the highest significance to the quality of teacherstudent relationship. however, other features like content knowledge were viewed less important than teacher-student relationship. in another study, çelik, arıkan, and caner (2013) explored 998 undergraduate turkish efl students’ perceptions of the qualities of good efl teachers. it was found in the study that the students described pedagogyspecific knowledge, personal traits, professional skills, and classroom behavior as the most significant qualities of effective efl teachers. in the literature, some researchers have focused on investigating only efl teachers’ perceptions of the qualities of efffective efl teachers in various international efl/esl contexts. for instance, in the british esl context, borg (2006) examined efl teachers’ perceptions of the qualities of efffective efl teachers. the results of the study showed that efl teachers were dissimilar to teachers of other disciplines with respect to the nature of the subject, the content of teaching, the teaching methodology, teacher-student ties and differences beteen native and non-native speakers. in another study conducted in the iranian efl context, khojastemehr & takrimi (2009) investigated 215 iranian efl teachers’ views on the prominent qualities of successful efl teachers. the results of the study exhibited that iranian efl teachers viewed instructional strategies as more prominent for teacher effectiveness than other qualities. lastly, some researchers have focused on investigating both efl students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the qualities of efffective efl teachers in a variety of efl/esl contexts. to illustrate, in the iranian efl context, shishavan and sadeghi (2009) attempted to investigate both efl students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the qualities of efffective efl teachers by administering a questionnaire to 59 efl teachers and 215 efl students. the results of the study showed that while the students viewed the teacher’s positive personality as the most important qualities of effective efl teachers, the teachers viewed the command of l2, possessing correct pedagogical knowledge and the ability to utilize specific methods, techniques and principles as the most significant qualities of effective efl teachers. in another study, wichadee (2010) explored both 400 thai efl students’ and 53 full-time efl teachers’ perceptions of the qualities of effective 108 hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 efl teachers by utilizing a questionnaire. the findings of the study showed that while the efl students perceived effective efl teachers as those having good preparation, successful communication and a good personality, the efl teachers perceived effective efl teachers as those with good english language proficiency. 3. methodology 3.1. participants the participants in this study were 93 preparatory program turkish efl students from the foreign languages school of a state university located in the west part of turkey. the age of students ranged from 18 to 23, with a mean of 20. forty-seven students were male and forty-six students were female. sixty-one students were at a1 level (breakthrough), whereas thirty-two students were at b1 level (threshold). table 1 presents the distribution of respondents according to age, gender and english level. table 1. distribution of respondants according to age, gender and english level ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ frequency percentage (%) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ age 18-20 87 93.5 21-23 6 6.5 gender male 47 50.5 female 46 49.5 english level a1 (breakthrough) 61 65.6 b1 (threshold) 32 34.4 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ total 93 100 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3.2. research questions this study addresses the following research questions: 1. what are the characteristics of effective efl teachers according to preparatory program turkish efl students? 2. do preparatory program turkish efl students think that their teacher is an effective efl teacher? hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 109 3. why do preparatory program turkish efl students think that their teacher is an effective/ineffective efl teacher? 4. what are three most important characteristics that an effective efl teacher should generally have according to preparatory program turkish efl students? 5. what are three most important characteristics that an effective efl teacher should generally not have according to preparatory program turkish efl students? 3.3. instrument and data collection the data for this study were gathered via the questionnaire ‘characteristics of effective efl instructors’ designed by salahshour & hajizadeh (2013). the first part included a series of demographic questions about students’ age, gender and english level. the second part included sixty items based on a 4-point likert scale (from 1=not important at all to 4= very important) to unearth students’ perceptions with respect to personal qualities, command in english, teaching methodology, evaluation method, amount of teacher’s emphasis on different language skills, mastery over teaching, teacherstudent relationship and classroom management. in the original questionnaire, there were fifty-eight items in the second part. however, the researcher integrated two more items, emphasizing reading and emphasizing writing, into the fifth section of the questionnaire so as to provide the inner consistency of the related section. the researcher translated the questionnaire into the students’ mother tongue, turkish so as to ensure the clarity of the questionnaire items and made any necessary clarifications before and during the time the questionnaires were filled out by the respondents. to check the reliability, the instrument was analyzed through the cronbach’s alpha coefficient α = 0.91, which showed a high level of reliability. the questionnaires were administered to the preparatory program turkish efl students at a state university located in the west part of turkey (n=93) during december 2018. the return rate from these students was 100 % (n=93). after analyzing the collected data, 10 of these students were contacted again to have an interview. the purpose of the interview was to reveal students’ specific ideas with respect to characteristics of effective efl teachers. interview questions contained four items. these questions were asked to ten students and impressionistic transcriptions of the students’ responses to the questions were made by the researchers. the questions posed by the researchers in the interview were as follows: 1. do you view your teacher as an effective efl teacher? ( ) yes ( ) no 110 hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 2. why do you view your teacher as an effective / ineffective efl teacher? explain it briefly. 3. what are three most important characteristics that an effective efl teacher should generally have? 4. what are three most important characteristics that an effective efl teacher should generally not have? 4. results 4.1. students’ scores on questionnaire 4.1.1. personal qualities participants were asked to respond to 10 items to indicate effective efl teachers’ personal qualities. table 2 summarizes the results of descriptive statistics (percentages, means, and standard deviations) of preparatory program turkish efl students’ responses on effective efl teachers’ personal qualities. as shown in table 2, students identified the most important qualities effective efl teachers should have as being enthusiastic and lively (item 5, m= 3.88; sd= 0.32), having interest in his/her job and feeling responsibility for teaching (item 10, m= 3.88; sd= 0.32), being creative and spontaneous (item 6, m= 3.80; sd= 0.44), being self-confident (item 4, m= 3.61; sd= 0.65), having a loud and clear voice (item 7, m= 3.58; sd= 0.63) and having patience with students (item 9, m= 3.53; sd= 0.56). the teacher’s gender (item 1, m= 1.33; sd= 0.74), good appearance (item 3, m= 1.96; sd= 1.04), age (item 2, m= 2.05; sd= 1.04) and being punctual (item 8, m=2.82; sd=1.09) were found to be less important than the other qualities. table 2. percentages, means and standard deviations for effective efl teachers’ personal qualities __________________________________________________________________________________________ items percentage (%) _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ni si i vi m sd _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. teacher’s gender 79.6 10.8 6.5 3.2 1.33 0.74 2. teacher’s age 38.7 30.1 18.3 12.9 2.05 1.04 3. good appearance 44.1 26.9 17.2 11.8 1.96 1.04 4. being self-confident 2.2 3.2 25.8 68.8 3.61 0.65 5. being enthusiastic and lively 11.8 88.2 3.88 0.32 6. being creative and spontaneous 2.2 15.1 82.8 3.80 0.44 7. having a loud and clear voice 7.5 26.9 65.6 3.58 0.63 8. being punctual (in terms of starting the class 15.1 24.7 22.6 37.6 2.82 1.09 hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 111 and returning students’ papers) 9. having patience with students 3.2 39.8 57.0 3.53 0.56 10. having interest in his/her job and 11.8 88.2 3.88 0.32 feeling responsibility for teaching __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ overall score 3.04 0.68 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ scale: ni=not important at all, si=somewhat important, i=important, vi=very important 4.1.2. command in english participants were asked to respond to 5 items related to effective efl teachers’ command in english. as shown in table 3, accuracy of teacher structure (item 12, m= 3.88; sd= 0.43), accuracy of teacher vocabulary (item 11, m= 3.87; sd= 0.44) and accuracy of pronunciation (item 13, m= 3.82; sd= 0.50) were the most significant three qualities of effective efl teachers according to the participants. fluency in the foreign language (item 15, m=3.75, sd= 0.54) and accuracy of intonation (item 14, m= 3.64, sd= 0.63) were also perceived as significant by the participants. table 3. percentages, means and standard deviations for efl teachers’ command in english __________________________________________________________________________________________ items percentage (%) _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ni si i vi m sd _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 11. accuracy of teacher vocabulary 1.1 1.1 7.5 90.3 3.87 0.44 12. accuracy of teacher structure 1.1 1.1 6.5 91.4 3.88 0.43 13. accuracy of pronunciation 1.1 2.2 9.7 87.1 3.82 0.50 14. accuracy of intonation 1.1 5.4 21.5 72.0 3.64 0.63 15. fluency in the foreign language 1.1 2.2 17.2 79.6 3.75 0.54 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ overall score 3.79 0.51 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ scale: ni=not important at all, si=somewhat important, i=important, vi=very important 4.1.3. teaching methodology participants were asked to respond to 12 items with respect to effective efl teachers’ teaching methodology. as shown in table 4, using appropriate language teaching techniques (item 16, m= 3.67; sd= 0.53), encouraging students to use the english language all the time in class (item 27, m= 3.60; sd= 0.61), providing detailed explanations while doing reading/listening activities (item 18, m= 3.43; sd= 0.71), using the students’ native language when necessary (item 19, m= 3.38; sd= 0.75), providing 112 hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 explicit error correction (item 22, m= 3.35; sd= 0.71), going beyond the textbook when teaching (item 20, m= 3.23; sd= 0.78) providing cultural information about the target language’s culture (item 21, m= 3.15; sd= 0.93) were found to be the most significant qualities of effective efl teachers. however, use of pair work (item 24, m= 2.66; sd= 0.94), using pantomime, pictures and acting to clarify points (item 17, m= 2.63; sd= 1.09), use of group work (item 25, m= 2.55; sd= 0.93), giving regular homework tasks (item 23, m= 2.50; sd= 1.01) and using suitable amount of teacher talk (item 26, m= 2.40; sd= 0.98) were found to be less important than the other qualities. table 4. percentages, means and standard deviations for efl teachers’ teaching methodology ___________________________________________________________________________________________ items percentage (%) __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ni si i vi m sd __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 16. using appropriate language teaching techniques 3.2 25.8 71.0 3.67 0.53 17. using pantomime, pictures and acting to clarify points 19.4 25.8 26.9 28.0 2.63 1.09 18. providing detailed explanations while doing reading/ 1.1 9.7 34.4 54.8 3.43 0.71 listening activities (e.g., checking all the new vocabularies) 19. using the students’native language when necessary 1.1 12.9 32.3 53.8 3.38 0.75 20. going beyond the textbook when teaching 4.3 8.6 46.2 40.9 3.23 0.78 21. providing cultural information about the target 7.5 14.0 34.4 44.1 3.15 0.93 language’s culture 22. providing explicit error correction 2.2 7.5 43.0 47.3 3.35 0.71 23. giving regular homework tasks 18.3 33.3 28.0 20.4 2.50 1.01 24. use of pair work 11.8 31.2 35.5 21.5 2.66 0.94 25. use of group work 14.0 33.3 35.5 17.2 2.55 0.93 26. using suitable amount of teacher talk 18.3 39.8 24.7 17.2 2.40 0.98 27. encouraging students to use the english language 6.5 26.9 66.7 3.60 0.61 all the time in class __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ overall score 3.05 0.83 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ scale: ni=not important at all, si=somewhat important, i=important, vi=very important 4.1.4. evaluation method participants were asked to respond to 2 items regarding effective efl teachers’ evaluation method. as seen in table 5, asking students oral questions at the beginning of each lesson (item 29, m= 2.83; sd= 0.93) and giving quizzes frequently (item 28, m= 2.75; hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 113 sd= 1.00) were perceived as somewhat significant qualities of effective efl teachers by the participants. table 5. percentages, means and standard deviations for efl teachers’ evaluation method __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ items percentage (%) __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ni si i vi m sd __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 28. giving quizzes frequently 12.9 26.9 32.3 28.0 2.75 1.00 29. asking students oral questions 7.5 30.1 33.3 29.0 2.83 0.93 at the beginning of each lesson __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ overall score 2.79 0.97 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ scale: ni=not important at all, si=somewhat important, i=important, vi=very important 4.1.5. amount of teacher’s emphasis on different language skills participants were asked to respond to 6 items with respect to effective efl teachers’ amount of emphasis on different language skills. as seen in table 6, emphasizing speaking (item 31, m= 3.63; sd= 0.58) was found to be the most significant quality of effective efl teachers. emphasizing writing (item 35, m= 3.58; sd= 0.63), emphasizing vocabulary (item 32, m= 3.55; sd= 0.65), emphasizing reading (item 34, m= 3.54; sd= 0.65), emphasizing listening (item 33, m= 3.53; sd= 0.66) and emphasizing grammar (item 30, m= 3.48; sd= 0.68) were also perceived as the significant qualities of effective efl teachers by the participants. table 6. percentages, means and standard deviations for efl teachers’ amount of emphasis on different language skills _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ items percentage (%) __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ni si i vi m sd __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 30. emphasizing grammar 10.8 30.1 59.1 3.48 0.68 31. emphasizing speaking 5.4 25.8 68.8 3.63 0.58 32. emphasizing vocabulary 1.1 5.4 30.1 63.4 3.55 0.65 33. emphasizing listening 1.1 6.5 30.1 62.4 3.53 0.66 34. emphasizing reading 1.1 5.4 31.2 62.4 3.54 0.65 35. emphasizing writing 1.1 4.3 30.1 64.5 3.58 0.63 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ overall score 3.55 0.64 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ scale: ni=not important at all, si=somewhat important, i=important, vi=very important 114 hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 4.1.6. mastery over teaching participants were asked to respond to 8 items to indicate effective efl teachers’ mastery over teaching. as shown in table 7, capability to communicate ideas, knowledge, intended teaching items (item 36, m= 3.77; sd= 0.46), capability to answer students’ questions (item 39, m= 3.75; sd= 0.50) and use of efficient and adequate methods of elicitation while teaching (item 40, m= 3.59; sd= 0.59) were the three most significant qualities of effective efl teachers. ability to guide students to independent learning (item 41, m= 3.51; sd= 0.68), ability to identify the students’ learning styles (item 43, m= 3.41; sd= 0.77) and preparation and lesson planning (item 38, m= 3.38; sd= 0.76) were also identified as the significant qualities of effective efl teachers by the participants. on the other hand, knowledge of students’ specialist courses (item 42, m= 2.86; sd= 1.05) was found to be less important than the other qualities. table 7. percentages, means and standard deviations for efl teachers’ mastery over teaching ___________________________________________________________________________________________ items percentage (%) __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ni si i vi m sd __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 36.capability to communicate ideas, knowledge, 2.2 18.3 79.6 3.77 0.46 intended teaching items 37. knowledge of the subject matter 7.5 30.1 61.3 3.54 0.63 38. preparation and lesson planning 2.2 10.8 33.3 53.8 3.38 0.76 39. capability to answer students’ questions 3.2 18.3 78.5 3.75 0.50 40. use of efficient and adequate methods of elicitation 5.4 30.1 64.5 3.59 0.59 while teaching 41. ability to guide students to independent learning 1.1 7.5 30.1 61.3 3.51 0.68 42. knowledge of students’ specialist courses 12.9 24.7 25.8 36.6 2.86 1.05 43. ability to identify the students’ learning styles 2.2 10.8 30.1 57.0 3.41 0.77 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ overall score 3.48 0.68 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ scale: ni=not important at all, si=somewhat important, i=important, vi=very important 4.1.7. teacher-student relation participants were asked to respond to 12 items with respect to teacher-student relation. as shown in table 8, creating motivation (item 47, m= 3.80; sd= 0.44), helping to create self confidence in students (item 48, m= 3.80; sd= 0.49) and having respect for students (item 44, m= 3.79; sd= 0.45) were the three most significant qualities of effective efl teachers. attracting and maintaining students’ attention (item 49, m= 3.75; sd= 0.54), being kind and friendly with students (item 45, m= 3.73; sd= 0.55), hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 115 encouraging students’ participation (item 46, m= 3.73; sd= 0.55), providing appropriate feedback to students (item 52, m= 3.58; sd= 0.68), individual help to students (item 50, m= 3.51; sd= 0.76), knowledge of students’ mother tongue (item 51, m= 3.39; sd= 0.88), asking for students’ feedback about the class and teaching method (item 54, m= 3.30; sd= 0.85) and teacher’s being available outside of class (item 55, m= 3.25; sd= 0.88) were also found to be the significant qualities of effective efl teachers by the participants. however, having contact with the students’ parents (item 53, m= 1.86; sd= 1.15) was identified as the insignificant quality of effective efl teachers by the participants. table 8. percentages, means and standard deviations for teacher-student relation __________________________________________________________________________________________ items percentage (%) _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ni si i vi m sd _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 44. having respect for students 2.2 16.1 81.7 3.79 0.45 45. being kind and friendly with students 5.4 16.1 78.5 3.73 0.55 46. encouraging students’ participation 5.4 16.1 78.5 3.73 0.55 47. creating motivation 2.2 15.1 82.8 3.80 0.44 48. helping to create self confidence in students 4.3 10.8 84.9 3.80 0.49 49. attracting and maintaining students’ attention 1.1 2.2 17.2 79.6 3.75 0.54 50. individual help to students 2.2 9.7 22.6 65.6 3.51 0.76 51. knowledge of students’ mother tongue 5.4 10.8 22.6 61.3 3.39 0.88 52. providing appropriate feedback to students 1.1 7.5 23.7 67.7 3.58 0.68 53. having contact with the students’ parents 58.1 14.0 11.8 16.1 1.86 1.15 54. asking for students’ feedback about the class 3.2 16.1 28.0 52.7 3.30 0.85 and teaching method 55. teacher’s being available outside of class 3.2 19.4 25.8 51.6 3.25 0.88 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ overall score 3.46 0.69 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ scale: ni=not important at all, si=somewhat important, i=important, vi=very important 4.1.8. classroom management participants were asked to respond to 5 items related to effective efl teachers’ classroom management skills. as shown in table 9, maintaining order in class/class control (item 58, m= 3.55; sd= 0.69) and using class time wisely (item 57, m= 3.44; sd= 0.63) were found to be the most significant qualities of effective efl teachers by the participants. following the material specified and guidelines provided by the institution (item 59, m= 3.07; sd= 0.92), movement around the class (item 60, m= 3.07; sd= 0.92) 116 hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 and using white board efficiently (item 56, m= 2.92; sd= 0.98) were also perceived as the significant qualities of effective efl teachers by the participants. table 9. percentages, means and standard deviations for efl teachers’ classroom management ___________________________________________________________________________________________ items percentage (%) __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ni si i vi m sd __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 56.using white board efficiently 11.8 16.1 39.8 32.3 2.92 0.98 (using colourful markers and writing well) 57. using class time wisely 1.1 4.3 44.1 50.5 3.44 0.63 58. maintaining order in class/class control 2.2 5.4 26.9 65.6 3.55 0.69 59. following the material specified and guidelines 6.5 19.4 34.4 39.8 3.07 0.92 provided by the institution 60. movement around the class 6.5 19.4 34.4 39.8 3.07 0.92 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ overall score 3.21 0.83 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ scale: ni=not important at all, si=somewhat important, i=important, vi=very important 4.2. interviews 4.2.1. viewing their teacher as an effective efl teacher? in response to the first question regarding whether the students view their teacher as an effective efl teacher or not, while eight students (80%) indicated that they viewed their teacher as an effective efl teacher, 2 students (20%) stated that they did not view their teacher as an effective efl teacher. 4.2.2. reasons for preparatory program turkish efl students’ viewing their teacher as an effective/ineffective efl teacher? the participants were asked the reason why they viewed their teacher as an effective/ineffective efl teacher. related to viewing their teacher as an effective efl teacher, eight students expressed basically three reasons which were (a) presenting the topic via a variety of examples, (b) having adequate level of linguistic knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and communication skills and (c) dealing with students individually and being patient to students. the following quotations exhibit the views expressed by the participants: "i view my teacher as an effective efl teacher because s/he presents us the topic via a variety of examples. " (participant 15) hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 117 "in my view, my teacher is an effective efl teacher because she has adequate level of linguistic knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and communicational skills and she transfers her knowledge to us successfully." (participant 26) "my teacher is effective because she deals with us individually and she behaves us patiently." (participant 18) related to viewing their teacher as an ineffective efl teacher, two students indicated mainly two reasons which were (a) being inexperienced due to being young and (b) being inadequate in teaching speaking to students. the following quotations illustrate the participants’ views on why they regarded their teacher as an ineffective efl teacher: "i view my teacher as an ineffective efl teacher because she is inexperienced due to being young. " (participant 49) "in my viewpoint, our teacher is an ineffective efl teacher because she is inadequate in teaching speaking to us. we learn grammar but we cannot speak. i think that our lessons do not focus on speaking." (participant 89) 4.2.3. three most important qualities that an effective efl teacher should generally have according to preparatory program turkish efl students? in response to the third question related to the three most important qualities that an effective efl teacher should generally have, the majority of the participants stressed the prominence of (a) having a good command of the english language, (b) speaking english accurately and fluently and (c) being friendly. the quotation below display the participants’ views with respect to the three most prominent qualities that an effective efl teacher should generally have: "in my view, having a good command of the english language, speaking english accurately and fluently and being friendly are three most important qualities that an effective efl teacher should generally possess. " (participant 22) 4.2.4. three most important qualities that an effective efl teacher should generally not have according to preparatory program turkish efl students? in response to the fourth question related to the three most important qualities that an effective efl teacher should generally not have, most of the participants expressed (a) being impatient, (b) being dependent on the coursebook and (c) being disrespectful to the students. the following quotation illustrates the participants’ views with respect to the three most significant qualities that an effective efl teacher should generally have: "from my point of view, three most important qualities that an effective efl teacher should generally not have are being impatient, being dependent on the coursebook and being disrespectful to the students." (participant 28) 118 hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 5. discussion and conclusion in this research study, the characteristics of effective efl teachers were identified according to eight subcategories. related to the subcategory entitled personal qualities, the results of this study revealed that being enthusiastic and lively, having interest in his/her job and feeling responsibility for teaching and being creative and spontaneous, being self-confident and having a loud and clear voice were the five most important qualities of effective efl teachers from the perspectives of preparatory program turkish efl learners. at this juncture, it can be stated that the majority of previous research studies that have investigated effective efl teachers’ personal qualities emphasized being enthusiastic and lively (e.g. arıkan, taşer & saraç-süzer, 2008), having interest in his/her job and feeling responsibility for teaching (e.g. salahshour & hajizadeh, 2013), being creative and spontaneous (e.g. malikow, 2006), being self-confident (e.g. khaerati, 2016) and having a loud and clear voice (ribahan, 2018) as the significant qualities of effective efl teachers. relevant to the subcategory entitled command in english, the results of this study indicated that preparatory program efl learners perceived accuracy of (a) teacher structure, (b) teacher vocabulary, (c) pronunciation and (d) intonation as well as fluency in the foreign language as the significant qualities of effective efl teachers. these results are in line with the results of brosh (1996) who indicated that possessing knowledge and command of the target language was the desirable quality of effective language teachers. with respect to the subcategory entitled teaching methodology, this study revealed that utilizing suitable language teaching techniques, stimulating students to deploy l2 all the time in class, offering thorough clarifications while doing reading/listening activities, employing the students’ mother tongue when necessary, presenting overt error correction, going beyond the textbook when teaching and presenting cultural information regarding the target culture were the prominent qualities of effective efl teachers from the perspectives of preparatory program turkish efl learners. in this vein, it can be indicated that a plethora of previous research studies that have examined effective efl teachers’ qualities stressed utilizing suitable language teaching techniques (e.g. edington, 2001), stimulating students to deploy l2 all the time in class (e.g. salahshour & hajizadeh, 2013), offering thorough clarifications while doing reading/listening activities (e.g. kember & wong, 2000), employing the students’ mother tongue when necessary (e.g. chen, 2005), presenting overt error correction (e.g. rammal, 2006), going beyond the textbook when teaching (e.g. faranda & clarke, 2004) and presenting cultural information regarding the target culture (e.g. cakir, 2006; cheung, 2002) as the significant qualities of effective efl teachers. hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 119 regarding the subcategory entitled the evaluation method, this study showed that asking students oral questions at the beginning of each lesson and giving quizzes frequently were the significant qualities of effective efl teachers from the perspectives of preparatory program turkish efl learners. these findings were in line with those of previous studies conducted by baytur & razı (2015) and farahian & rezaee (2012) that stressed giving quizzes and asking students questions in teaching. related to the subcategory entitled the amount of teacher’s emphasis on different language skills, the results of this study showed that emphasizing speaking was the most prominent quality of effective efl teachers. the results of this study also indicated that emphasizing writing, vocabulary, reading, listening and grammar were also the significant qualities of effective efl teachers from the perspectives of preparatory program turkish efl learners. these results were in parallel to those of the study conducted by salahshour & hajizadeh (2013) that emphasized the importance of speaking as well as the importance of other language skills in l2 teaching. relevant to the subcategory entitled mastery over teaching, the results of this study unearthed that capability to communicate ideas, knowledge, intended teaching items, capability to answer students’ questions and use of efficient and adequate methods of elicitation while teaching were the three most important qualities of effective efl teachers. several previous studies (e.g. çelik, arıkan, & caner, 2013; ramazani, 2014; stella & dimitris, 2013) also emphasized the prominence of efl teacher’s instructional and/ or pedagogical skills as the most important qualities of effective efl teachers. to illustrate, çelik, arıkan, and caner (2013) found that the students identified pedagogyspecific knowledge, personal traits, professional skills, and classroom behavior as the most important characteristics of effective efl teachers. with respect to the subcategory entitled teacher-student relation, the results of this study indicated that creating motivation, helping to create self confidence in students and having respect for students were the three most significant qualities of effective efl teachers from the perspectives of preparatory program turkish efl learners. at this point, it can be indicated that most of the previous research studies that have investigated teacher-student relation highlighted creating motivation (e.g. vialle and tischler, 2009), helping to create self confidence in students (e.g. ghasemi and hashemi, 2011) and having respect for students (e.g. edington, 2001) as the significant qualities of effective efl teachers. regarding the subcategory entitled classroom management, the results of this study revealed that maintaining order in class/class control and using class time wisely were the most significant qualities of effective efl teachers from the perspectives of preparatory program turkish efl learners. the results of this study also revealed that following the material specified and guidelines provided by the institution, movement 120 hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 around the class and using white board efficiently were also the significant qualities of effective efl teachers. in this vein, it can be stated that most of the previous research studies that have investigated classroom management stressed maintaining order in class / class control (e.g. badshah, 2016), using class time wisely (e.g. nghia, 2015), following the material specified and guidelines provided by the institution (e.g. salahshour & hajizadeh, 2013), movement around the class (e.g. wall, 1993) and using white board efficiently (e.g. mercer, hennessy & warwick, 2010) as the significant qualities of effective efl teachers. in this research study, ten of the preparatory program efl learners were also asked four interview questions so as to unearth their specific ideas with respect to the characteristics of effective efl teachers. in response to the first question regarding whether the students view their teacher as an effective efl teacher or not, eight students indicated that they viewed their teacher as an effective efl teacher. in response to the second question regarding the reasons why they viewed their teacher as an effective efl teacher, they indicated basically three reasons which were (a) presenting the topic via a variety of examples, (b) having adequate level of linguistic knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and communication skills and (c) dealing with students individually and being patient to students. in the literature, many research studies emphasized the importance of (a) presenting the topic via a variety of examples (e.g. case, 2013), (b) having adequate level of linguistic knowledge (e.g. arıkan, taşer & saraç-süzer (2008), pedagogical knowledge (e.g. çelik, arıkan, & caner, 2013; ramazani, 2014; stella & dimitris, 2013) and communication skills (e.g. wichadee, 2010) and (c) dealing with students individually and being patient to students (e.g. vialle and tischler, 2009) as effective efl teacher characteristics. in response to the third question regarding the three most important qualities that an effective efl teacher should generally have, the majority of the participants emphasized the importance of (a) having a good command of the english language, (b) speaking english accurately and fluently and (c) being friendly. in the literature, there are research studies that stress the significance of a) having a good command of the english language (e.g. wichadee, 2010), (b) speaking english accurately and fluently (e.g. arıkan, taşer & saraç-süzer, 2008) and (c) being friendly (e.g. baytur & razı, 2015). lastly, in response to the fourth question regarding the three most significant qualities that an effective efl teacher should generally not have, most of the participants expressed (a) being impatient, (b) being dependent on the coursebook and (c) being disrespectful to the students. at this juncture, in the literature, there are research studies that indicate (a) being impatient (e.g. edington, 2001), (b) being dependent only on the coursebook (richards, 2001) and (c) being disrespectful to the students (e.g. edington, 2001) as the undesirable characteristics of effective efl teachers. hismanoglu / international journal of curriculum and instruction 11(1) (2019) 101–124 121 finally, it can be indicated that both the quantitative and the qualitative findings of this study are complementary to each other and these findings are beneficial not only for in-service efl teachers but also for pre-service efl teachers. in-service efl teachers should attribute importance to how turkish efl learners identify the qualities of effective efl teachers and they should adapt, develop or modify their teaching techniques, strategies and principles so as to meet their students’ needs and expectations in the efl classroom. likewise, pre-service efl teachers should also try to learn what qualities are described as the qualities of effective efl teachers and why these qualities are appreciated by the turkish efl learners before they begin the teaching profession. thus, being aware of the qualities of effective efl teachers from the perspectives of turkish efl learners, the efl teachers can create a motivating classroom environment where a successful communication can be realized between the teacher and the students. references abu rahma, m. 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(2010). defining the effective english language teacher: students’ and teachers’ perspectives. in stoke, a.m (ed.), jalt2009 conference proceedings.tokyo: jalt. wichadee, s., & orawiwatnakul, w. (2012). characteristics of effective language teachers as perceived by low and high proficiency students. european journal of social sciences, 31(3), 425-438. williams, m., & burden,r.l.(1997). psychology for language teachers: a socialconstructivist approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (cc by-nc-nd) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). ejal article template available online at ijci.wcci-international.org international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 ijci international journal of curriculum and instruction a swot analysis to raise awareness about cyber security and proper use of social media: istanbul sample nilgün tosuna*, murat altinözb, emil çayc, turan çi̇nkiliçd, sevinç gülseçene, tülay yildirimf, muhammed ali ayding, bilgin meti̇nh, zerrin ayvaz rei̇si, nafiz ünlüj a*assoc. prof. dr., trakya university, faculty of education, computer education and instructional technologies department, edirne, turkey bistanbul directorate of national education, provincial deputy director of national education, i̇stanbul, turkey chalkalı ise multi-program anatolian high school, information technology teacher, i̇stanbul, turkey dtasev shoes and saraciye m. and technical anatolian high school, information technology teacher, i̇stanbul, turkey eprof. dr., istanbul university, informatics department, i̇stanbul, turkey fprof. dr., yıldız technical university, faculty of electrical and electronics, department of electronics and communication engineering, i̇stanbul, turkey gassoc. prof. dr., istanbul university-cerrahpaşa, computer engineering department, i̇stanbul, turkey hassoc. prof. dr., boğaziçi university, department of management information systems, i̇stanbul, turkey iassit. prof. dr., istanbul university-cerrahpaşa, informatics department, i̇stanbul, turkey jassist. prof. dr., istanbul technical university, informatics institute, i̇stanbul, turkey abstract internet is a cyber-ambient where the number of users is increasing consistently as a result of wide opportunities those are provided and where access can be ensured with information technologies. today, via internet and social media where the number of users reaches billions, the samples of committed cybercrimes and cyber-attacks are increasing throughout the world. for this reason, it is inevitable to raise awareness in the society about cyber security and social media use. raising awareness also can be done by providing education for all sections of the society. it is aimed to bring the expert person who has knowledge and experiences to provide support about creating substructure of education about both cyber security and using social media, by considering potential of institution and organization, and these sharers hosted by istanbul provincial directorate of national education and it is aimed to make cooperations. in line with this aim, cyber security and proper use of social media workshop was realized in istanbul on 17-18 february 2018. in discussions made within the scope of the workshop, the participants made swot analyses on behalf of using social media properly and to raise awareness for cyber security. in that study, information will be given about these analyses performed for istanbul province. keywords: cyber security; social media; awareness; swot analysis 272 tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 1. introduction cyber security is considered as an important problem for many countries in recent years when internet and social media use are intensified. increasing cyber wars those are considered as dangerous as the wars made by weapons, made countries take measures about this matter. it is clear that it will be effective by educating the individuals. as david kevin mitnick, a worldwide famous computer hacker, stated, human being is the most vulnerable ring of security chain. the base for creating a national cyber security, is to create an individual cyber security culture. within the scope of efforts to create awareness for national and individual cyber security, some studies are performed in turkey. one of them is cyber security and proper use of social media workshop which is the subject of this statement. the purposes of that workshop realized in istanbul on 17-18 february 2018, can be stated as follows; to raise awareness on out students about cyber security, to ensure that they are able to take basic level security measures, to provide opportunity for the student to make career planning in the field of cyber security by attracting attention about lack of experts in this field and effects of the cyber war that is experienced in the world, to provide education for preventing victimizations experienced on social media accounts, to clarify the students about cyber ethic and technology addiction, protecting personal privacy, cyber bullying, digital footprint, to increase readiness level for future occupations and social media expertize. various institutions and organizations provided supports for the workshop: 1.presidential department of corporate communication 2.ministry of national education head council of education and morality 3.ministry of national education directorate general for innovation and education technologies 4. boğaziçi university 5. istanbul university 6. istanbul universitycerrahpaşa 7. istanbul technical university 8. istanbul medeniyet university 9. trakya university 10. yıldız technical university 11.public prosecutor of istanbul 12. istanbul police headquarters directorate of anti-cybercrimes 13. tübi̇tak bi̇lgem 14. havelsan tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 273 15.information and communication technologies authority 16. turkish informatics association 17. informatics innovation association 18. bt risk data security 19. gais security within the scope of the workshop, the groups were created to discuss cyber security and proper use of social media. in each group; there were two moderators, 42 teachers from different branches from various types of schools, academicians those are experts in their fields, related non-governmental organization (ngo) and invited representatives of corporation. the groups performed below ones about cyber security and proper use of social media; they presented current problems for istanbul province (in terms of students, teachers and supervisors and parents), they performed swot analyses to solve these problems, they presented suggestions for solutions. swot analysis is a method used commonly to determine and analyze resources of an organization and elements around that in four dimensions such as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (samejima, shimizu, akiyoshi and komoda, 2006). swot analyses should aim to ensure that skills and assets those perceived by the organization, are recognized and assessed by the sharers of the organization. the perspectives of the sharers should also be taken into consideration (piercy & giles, 1989; wilson & gilligan, 2005). for these reasons, in this workshop that was performed by focusing on istanbul province, the sharers from education area and the sharers from cyber security area were brought together, about cyber security and proper use of social media, determining pushing forces and limiting factors, interpreting them and providing solutions were planned and realized. 2. method in this study, the data obtained from the participants of cyber security and proper use of social media workshop held in istanbul about cyber security were associated with a field literature review that was realized by the writers. within the framework of the information obtained, the current situation involving the students, teachers, administrators and parents of the institutions that are dependent on the ministry of national education in istanbul was tried to be revealed through a swot analysis. the study is important as it is the first swot analysis conducted on this subject in istanbul. it is considered that the analysis made for istanbul city, and the issues addressed and highlighted within the scope of the analysis are important for other cities too. it is hoped 274 tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 that the information provided by this analysis will guide decision makers and implementers in establishing cyber security policies on individual, institutional and national. 3. swot analyze performed in the workshop 3.1. strengths 1) having opportunity to reach parents of student in primary, secondary and high schools. 2) importance of support from decision makers. 3) existence of school-parent unions. 4) importance and estimable religious values in internet ambient. 5) measurement and assessment easiness about cyber awareness and being able to make central examinations. 6) having sufficient documentation and material regarding the subject. 7) sufficiency of human resources those can support the process. informing parents about cyber security and making warnings about students are easy in primary, secondary and high schools because school managements have communication with school-parent unions, teachers and parents consistently. this communication can be realized face to face and periodical meetings as well as electronic environments. especially there are many whatsapp groups those created by teachers and parents. besides, social media accounts and web pages of schools are other environments used for electronic communication. ministry of national education department of information technologies published school internet web pages directives on 05.06.2018. with this directive, principles and rules those are required to follow about service application, management and publishing organizational internet web pages of state schools depending to ministry of national education and the organizations using meb.k12.tr domain name (ministry of national education department of information technologies, 2018). there are organizational internet webpages those actively used by all schools in istanbul as well as turkey (for instance; turgut reis i̇lkokulu (turgut reis primary schools) official webpage http://silivriturgutreisio.meb.k12.tr/, genç osman i̇mam hatip ortaokulu (genç osman religious secondary school) official webpagehttp://gencosmaniho.meb.k12.tr/, beşiktaş anadolu lisesi (beşiktaş anatolian high school) official webpagehttp://besiktasanadolu.meb.k12.tr/). it is aimed to ensure that new generation and many parents are social media user, to make and establish communication information exchange with students and parents via establishing organizational social media account by school managers and via establishing personal http://silivriturgutreisio.meb.k12.tr/ http://gencosmaniho.meb.k12.tr/ http://besiktasanadolu.meb.k12.tr/ tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 275 social media accounts by teachers. şehit er müslüm zengin i̇lkokulu (şehit er müslüm zengin primary school) facebook account https://tr-tr.facebook.com/%c5%9eehit-erm%c3%bcsl%c3%bcm-zengin-ilkokulu-1435944160035148/, i̇stiklal ortaokulu (i̇stiklal secondary school) instagram account https://www.instagram.com/istiklalilkortaokulu/, pertevniyal lisesi (pertevniyal high school) twitter account https://twitter.com/pertevniyal, can be given as examples for organizational social media accounts of schools. besides, it is also procedural easy to make coordination and cooperations between ministry of national education and all dependent departments. this situation is one of important factors empowering to take measures. another strenght is the subject of religious values. religious values such as respect, love, empathy, moral and ethical those the society holds and the society has to hold, are valid and valuable also for internet environment. if new generation is education in an equipped way in terms of moral and cultural values, this education will have positive reflects also on internet environment. from this point of view, rules of good manners project was started in 2017 by istanbul provincial directorate of national education with the title of “a kind generation will raise from istanbul”. the purpose of this project is to give rules of good manners those are obtained by social learning from elders such as grandmother or grandfather, to students in school environment in today when these rules cannot be learnt due to family structure getting smaller, intense working lives of parents. the rules will not be given within the scope of a course, an environment will be created by teachers, these will be tried to be learnt by brainstorming and social learning (güncel eğitim, 2017). as it was stated in ministry of national education’s school-parents union’s regulation, “in order to realize integrity between school and parent, to ensure communication and cooperations between parent and school, to support education and training developing activities and to meet obligatory needs of school and education and training for the students having lack of financial opportunities, unions those have no legal entity are established within the bodies of schools” (ministry of national education regulation, 2012). due to the fact that school-parents unions those are operational in the school dependent on ministry of national education, are consistently and effectively in communication with parents, they can easily perform warnings about wrong behaviors and awareness and developments of both parents and students regarding cyber security. besides, these unions have power to undertake an important task about ensuring participation in these activities for parents and to realize awareness activities for parents. one of the important basic units of social culture is religious values. it can be said that loving people and respect are the common elements of almost all religions. if we love people, and respect their ideas, choices and preferences, we create a peaceful living https://tr-tr.facebook.com/%c5%9eehit-er-m%c3%bcsl%c3%bcm-zengin-ilkokulu-1435944160035148/ https://tr-tr.facebook.com/%c5%9eehit-er-m%c3%bcsl%c3%bcm-zengin-ilkokulu-1435944160035148/ https://www.instagram.com/istiklalilkortaokulu/ https://twitter.com/pertevniyal 276 tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 environment. in case of a contrary situation, disorder, crime, injustice and violence occur in the society. for this reason, religious values in the lives of societies, are security and peace elements in material and nonmaterial aspects. these are also important factors in creating culture. transferring these values from one generation to another has importance in terms of both existence of the society and culture and peace. but if digital environment behaviors are transferred to students by matching with religious values, it can be said that cybercrimes can be prevented in a big scale. another subject that is stressed as a strenght in swot analysis, is the easiness of preparing required measurement tools to determine and to assess cyber security awareness before and after training to be given. also practicing these tools in central examinations for wide masses, is possible in the system of ministry of national education. teachers have occupational knowledge and skill about measurement and assessment subjects. for this reason, it is predicted that there will be no problem about using measurement and assessment tools. besides, there are many examination realized by ministry of national education centrally. open education secondary school, open education high school, open education, religious vocational high school and occupational open education high school examinations, primary school and secondary school scholarship examination, e-examination for motor vehicle drivers trainees and central examinations can be given as examples (ministry of national education, 2019). existence of various resources to be used and developed to create cyber security awareness, was also stated amongst strengths. in the webpage of education informatics network (eba) that was developed by ministry of national education, contents those were developed by teachers, safe internet and social media use, informatics safety, personal safety are presented under various titles. to make the subjects permanents, animations, drawings, pictures and games are also used in addition to direct instruction (eba, 2019a). besides, there are web pages those were prepared for different age groups by information and communication technologies authority (btk) (güvenliçocuk, 2019; güvenli web, 2019; i̇hbarweb, 2019; i̇nternet yardım, 2019). it is also possible to encounter with webpages where these types of informing resources were given by antivirus development companies (eset, 2019; kaspersky, 2019a). these webpages are updated consistently by experts, teachers, academicians, cyber security and informatics experts. existence of sufficient human resources those have knowledge and skill to have tasks in all activities, projects and works those were realized and to be realized about cyber security and proper use of social media, is amongst strengths. today when cyber wars, cyber-attacks and hence cyber security come to the front, the number of teachers, academicians, informatics experts, psychologist, psychiatrist, nongovernmental organizations and police department employees those support to raise awareness of tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 277 children and youth for cyber security and to direct them to the occupations related with cyber security, cannot be underestimated. 3.2. weaknesses 1) low level of awareness of teachers about cyber security 2) low level of absence of awareness of teacher about internet ethic knowledge. 3) preferring weak passwords. 4) using non-licensed softwares. 5) lack of public service ads. 6) making telephones used by others. 7) shared internet use. 8) lack of rules of good manners. 9) not knowing /no paying attention for privacy of persons and personal information concepts. 10) existence of e-mail accounts those are not used actively. 11) keeping cyber awareness posts on school boards for a short time. 12) not performing two factor authentication while entering into accounts. 13) lack of keeping social media literacy and ethic subjects in teaching programs. 14) lack of coordination and cooperations between organizations. 15) lack of awareness and knowledge about rights and responsibilities in the scale of studentteacherschool managerparent. 16) low level of using social media platforms by teachers and student for educational purposes. 17) insufficiency of auditing content in social media use. 18) lack of definitions of occupations related with social media and education and directing. 19) having no place in legislations about penalties in social media platforms those are correspondences of crimes made in real life (the content of current legislation is to prevent behaviors those are considered as crime in social media). according to statement from teachers taking place in workshop groups, there are complaints from students in ministry of national education regarding that teachers reveal weakness about cyber security. a part of teachers have behaviors those are wrong and calling danger such as interesting with their personal mobile phones for a long time during courses, opening computers taking place in teachers’ lounge for use of students without auditing, leaving from these computers by not making safe exit from personal accounts those are entered with passwords, not coding private files and folders. these behaviors may cause harm for organization or teachers by having benefit from security gaps of some students. in addition that social media use increases, unauthorized shares for photograph and video shots in classroom and school by teachers and students come to 278 tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 the agenda. against this situation, ministry of national education published a public mandate in 2017 to prevent negative results. these statements were given in social media public mandate (ministry of national education law services general directorate, 2017); “ information is received by out ministry regarding that images of activity, actions and situations those are performed during courses and free times in schools, are taken by students, teachers and managers in our schools and organizations, voices are recorded or video shots are taken; and these ones are uploaded on internet web pages later and shared in social media environments. informing shall be ensured regarding that sharing all types of voice, text, image and video records on internet or on different digital or pressed environment regarding persons by students having education and all personnel of ministry of national education working in schools or organizations by province, district, school or organization managers, are conflicting with the constitution, international contracts and the law numbered 1739; and these actions are regulated as crime in turkish criminal law and required measure to prevent these situations will be taken. besides, required legal proceedings will be initiated within the frame of related legislation regarding the ones those are determined as they upload and share all types of voice, image and video records those will have negative effects on psychological and social aspects of these persons, on general network environments and the ministry will be informed about the results.” in addition that this and similar legal regulations, it is an important subject to support teachers about cyber security with inservice trainings. besides, it is required to place cyber security subjects sufficiently in course contents of faculties of educational sciences. when course contents of faculty of educational sciences those were updated n 2018, are examined; it has been seen that cyber security subject was given in basic level in internet ethic and security course that is given in computer and instructional technologies education department. in informatics technologies course given in other departments, safe internet use takes place just as a sub-title subject (the council of higher education, 2018). it is required to ensure that cyber security subjects those covering required information and skills for teacher candidates, are placed in syllabus with more details and for a longer period. lack of knowledge regarding creating a strong password, is also another important factor in cyber security gaps. the password is an important weapon ensuring our safety in internet environment. it is required to stress this fact for the users. besides, we should learn how to use lineaments, retina and fingerprint those we have naturally, as passwords. we should prefer two stages password entries in case on entering internet web pages. if we cannot produce password, we should take assistance from professional web pages those were prepared about this matter. using licensed operating system and anti-virus in the devices we use to enter to internet, is an important measure to be taken again various cyber threat. individuals generally avoid using licensed software due to high cots. this situation causes cyber tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 279 security for both individuals and corporations. some education institutions are taking steps about removing this problem with collective license contracts. istanbul has wide opportunities about delivering public service ads to wide masses. on vehicles and areas those are used by millions of people every day such as bus, minibus, metro bus, metro, tram, marine transportation, airports and stops, public service ads can be used for awareness of cyber security. one part of the workshop participants addressed insufficiency of these public service ads. one part of the teachers who participated the workshop, mentioned that the students share their personal mobile phones or internet connections with their friends. mutual used mobile phones and internet connections are amongst important factors threating personal cyber security. measures such as avoiding mutual uses expect very needed conditions, not to share passwords in case of using mutually, preventing to reach applications and files with passwords, should be taken. if password is shared, it should be changed immediately. many businesses offer free publicly available internet connection services under the name of customer satisfaction. the biggest threat for such connections is the ability of a hacker to positioning himself/herself between you and the port. in other words, instead of communicating directly with the access point, you send your information to a hacker who is forwarding them to another location. hackers can easily distribute malicious softwares using a publicly available unencrypted connection (kaspersky, 2019b). use of such links should be avoided unless it is very necessary. internet ethics and rules are a set of rules those should be followed while using various sites and social networks. the use of internet without knowing these ethical rules and internet ethics, brings a large number of cybercrime, criminals and victims. ethical rules and internet ethics are important topic of cyber security training. the ability of children and young people to have sufficient and accurate information about internet ethics and rules can be related with providing rules of good manners. individuals who grown up rich in terms of human, cultural, global and religious values will use these acquisitions into behavior in every real and virtual environment. in this sense, it is important to have rules of good manners course in the curriculum. in some schools, it is covered in the scope of guidance course. some schools, with the participation of non-governmental organizations and experts invited to the schools, teach rules of good manners. the character education project in the light of values initiated by the uşak national education directorate in 2015 can be given as an example to these studies. within the scope of this project, it is aimed to explain one of our national and spiritual values every month (and to keep them alive in schools (uşak directorate of national education, 2015). since 2011, antalya directorate of national education has been carrying out values education activities supported by workshops, projects and in-school and out-of-school practices (antalya directorate of national education, 2017). with such practices, it will 280 tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 be ensured that children and youth learn both the rules of good manners and their traditional values and carry what they have learned into cyber space. another important weakness is that especially children and youth cannot be aware of personal information and private information concepts. they sometimes share their personal or private information and sometimes others' personal or private information with everyone on internet. these shares both constitute a crime factor and give opportunity to swindlers and cyber bullies. in addition, all internet shares, comments and likes, called digital footprints, may come across children and youth as a negative factor in business and academic career planning. according to recent researches, 29% of university admissions officers search candidates on google and 31% of them visit students' social media profiles. in employments, it is stated that the candidates are frequently consulted on the internet to evaluate how they look at google (ekoruma, 2018). therefore, the concepts of personal information and privacy should be thought to children and youth and the effects of positive digital footprint should absolutely be explained. an important situation that is seen from time to time, is to use inactive e-mail accounts for illegal or unethical works as a result that this e-mail address is out of the use of that individual without his/her knowledge and being used by another person. for example, microsoft closes accounts those are not used actively for more than 5 years. closed account names can be used to open new accounts (kayhan_n, 2018). individuals should be informed about this. according to the teachers those participated to the workshop, posters and banners about cyber security those hang on school boards are collected in a short period. it is not possible for students, parents and teachers to benefit from these visuals sufficiently. however, these boards can be used for multi-purpose. successful students can be announced on these boards. colorful and impressive shares can be done to raise awareness on any subject. such shares are both interesting and can create funny learning environments (red17, 2017). teachers should be encouraged to use the boards more effectively in schools, and in some cases parents should be directed to these boards. the most important task in this regard belongs to the school administrators. it is recommended to use two-stage authentication entries for access to environments with a high level of private information such as social networks and e-mail accounts. against any password theft, the user is warned by sms as a guarantee and it is ensured to log in with another instant password. the purpose of sending an instant password is to ensure that the person who will log into the system is the right person. individuals do not use this staged entry because they sometimes do not know and sometimes it takes time. in entries to virtual environments such as facebook, twitter, instagram, linkedin, snapchat, reddit, pinterest, tumblr, slack, dropbox, evernote, pay pal, ifttt, lastpass, yahoo, apple, microsoft, amazon, dashlane, wordpress, godaddy, sony tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 281 playstation those have millions and even billions of users, it is possible to use two-stage authentication (griffith, 2019). the fact not having a course on the proper use of social media in it is one of the major disadvantages of educating children and youth about the subject. according to the workshop participants, this situation has an important place among our weaknesses. in the turkish national education system; information technologies and software courses are thought as elective courses at primary school level. in this course, cyber security issues are quite superficial and are grouped under a few titles (eba, 2018a; eba, 2018b; eba, 2018c; eba, 2018d).the same course is thought as a compulsory course in the 5th and 6th grades of secondary school. in the two units of the course, some subjects of cyber security are tried to be explained (eba, 2018e; eba, 2018f). computer science course is thought as compulsory in some high schools and elective in others. this course is divided into units as setup 1 (eba, 2017) and setup 2 (meb, 2017), in the first setup, ethical, security and society subjects take place. in primary, secondary and high school levels, it is inevitable that the courses which have the knowledge and skill acquisitions under the name of cyber security or another should be included in obligatory programs. in some countries, initiatives have started about this matter. for example, in israel, in collaboration with the ministry of education and the army, it has been decided that cyber security issues are thought in 20 high schools throughout the country (cyber bulletin, 2015). the uk has developed a digital training program called cyber discovery program with a budget of £ 20 million to increase the interest in cyber security among young people. within the scope of the program prepared for online and offline problems faced by young people aged between 15 and 18, young people receive training against fictional hackers (cyber bulletin, 2017a). at purdue university northwest in the usa, a halfmillion-dollar was funded for the students for the preparation of a curriculum about cyber-security. with this allowance, the authorities stated that they will raise the awareness of high school students about cyber security and encourage them to think about a career in this field (cyber bulletin, 2017b). there are institutions and organizations in turkey operating about cyber security and cyber security training. information technologies and communications authority (btk), cyber security council dependent to btk, telecommunications communication presidency (ti̇b), national cyber events intervention center (usom) dependent to ti̇b, digital turkey platform, turkish armed forces cyber defense center presidency, police department for anti-cybercrimes, havelsan, aselsan, istanbul metropolitan municipality art and occupation training courses (i̇smek) and public education centres (hem) and tübi̇tak bi̇lgem cyber security institution, information technologies and internet security association (bti̇der) can be mentioned amongst the most wellknown institutions with their works about cyber security and trainings. besides, istanbul commerce university, istanbul universitycerrahpaşa, istanbul city university, marmara university, kadir has university and bahçeşehir university are 282 tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 some of the universities in istanbul and those have undergraduate and postgraduate programs about cyber security. in 2019, ministry of national education and presidency defense industry department signed occupational and technical education development cooperation protocol. with this protocol, it is aimed to train teachers and to improve capacity in many subjects and areas including cyber security (akşam, 2019). on the other hand, btk academy provided certificated educations to 1872 students within the scope of summer technology camp in 2019 on digital issues, including cyber security (btk, 2019). the secure internet truck, which was launched in cooperation with btk and bti̇der, visited some schools in istanbul in 2018 and tried to inform the students (bti̇der, 2018). turkcell, one of turkey's leading communications companies, organized trainings in order to raise new cyber security experts for turkey in last 3 years. in 2019, 24 students received cyber security trainings for 10 days (sabah, 2019). according to the participants of the workshop, there is not enough coordination and cooperation between these institutions and ministry of national education to realize cyber security education and awareness activities. the coordination and cooperation of the people, institutions and organizations that use it systems and infrastructures will increase the impact of cyber power. international cooperation and coordinated action are also needed to detect and counter attack in cyberspace (şenol, 2017). in social media, there are problems especially sharing personal and private information. these shares can be done not only by children and young people but also school managers, teachers and parents. after some complaints, ministry of national education tries to prevent unauthorized and improper shares with social media use in schools with public mandate named law services general directorate. having shortcomings about sharing private and personal information of other people and individuals, unauthorized shares and penal sanctions, was stated amongst weaknesses by the participants of the workshop. another important subject that was pointed by the teachers participated to the workshop, was that not to use social media for education purposes. it was stated that teachers need to be educated and directed about this matter. using social media for education purposes can be a tool to make social media be used by students together with teachers with correct aim and positive targets. in social media platforms, inappropriate, illegal and dangerous content can be complained. but not everyone knows how to do it or ignores, or passes over. in this case, it is emphasized that the content shared on social media should be controlled by a system supported by a filtering or artificial intelligence technology. social media platforms, which have been on the agenda with their multi-purpose usage in recent years, have also led to the emergence of some professional fields. social media expertise, social media activity expertise, social media legal consultancy, blogger, seo expertise, google adwords account management are some of them. in order to raise tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 283 qualified manpower needed for these new and agenda occupational groups, schools that will provide gradual education starting from an early age should be established. because turkey and istanbul have more than this human potential. in order to promote and encourage these professions, informing children, young people and families, getting support from guidance counselors, and attracting attention with effective visuals such as public service ads can be mentioned. the teachers participating in the workshop pointed out that these professions were not promoted sufficiently. 3.3. opportunities 1) easiness for accessing internet and social media throughout the country. 2) having individuals using social media intensively. 3) being able to follow developments in the world regarding cyber security as the country. 4) demonstrating threats in internet. 5) raising awareness by pointing out material loss. 6) bitcoin owners having need for protecting their assets. 7) existence of potential power of z generation. 8) having students who have interest and skill for informatics technologies. 9) existence of occupation and business areas related with social media and cyber security. 10) need for protecting game accounts and youtube channel accounts. 11) reaching a wide mass by loading content related with cyber security on eba an ministry of national education informatics system (mebbi̇s). according to hootsuite and wearesocial companies’ january 2019 survey results, in turkey with a population of 82.44 million and the number of active internet users is 59.36 million. 56 million of these people access internet with mobile devices. 84% of active internet users access the internet every day regularly. according to the same report, the number of active social media users in turkey is 52 million. 44 million of these people connect to social media with mobile devices. the average daily use of social media in turkey was determined as 2 hours 46 minutes. additionally, the average number of social media accounts per capita is 9.7 (dateportal, 2019). these figures show that internet and social media usage in turkey is carried out at higher rates. intensiveuse of internet and social media, creates an important opportunity for turkey to follow developments about cyber security in the world and turkey. besides, it may be easier to inform individuals about dangers and threats that may be encountered in internet environment by using the power of internet and social media. this can be seen as an important opportunity for individuals to raise awareness on cyber security and to provide training on this subject. 284 tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 with the cooperation between btcturk which is turkey’s first and the world’s 4th crypto currency exchange and istanbul university statistics research and application center, a research that is named understanding bitcoin, was conducted. according to the data obtained from individuals and corporate participants between the ages of 15-55, 25% of the participants answered that bitcoin is an investment instrument. according to the research, while interest in bitcoin continues to increase, bitcoin goes before the stock and government bond in the future (köse, 2019). bitcoin, which is not subjected to the regulation, is not centered and solely aroused by computer skills, has opened a new door for cyber attackers. bitcoin which is followed with attention by international finance environments with its market values exceeding 1 billion dollar, has been started to be subjected robberies consisting very big amounts. attackers those deceive bitcoin owners with sociale engineering tactics, ensured that the users reset their passwords by entering into e-mail accounts. the attackers, who also took digital wallets, received approximately $ 1.2 million dollars. since bitcoin transactions cannot be undone transactions and users cannot officially document this situation, it is not possible to return the stolen money to the original owners (trendmicro, 2019). bitcoin owners, who are the target of such a serious threat and danger and whose usage rate is increasing, will feel the need to protect their assets and to take precautions. this can be transformed into an opportunity to create cyber security awareness. according to official data, as of may 2019, 3 million 175 thousand 285 students have education in pre-school, primary and secondary education in istanbul (governorship of istanbul, 2019). these figures indicate the existence of a very serious z generation in istanbul. one of the most important characteristics of z generation is that they see themselves as experts and competent in use of information technologies (fernández, f.j., & fernández, m.j., 2016). social networks are also their main and natural communication platform. they can do multiple works at the same time. they decide quickly (nagy & székely, 2012). all of these characteristics will make it easier for decision makers and educators for z-generation cyber security education. delivering cyber security contents to this generation, which spends some of its time on the internet and social networks during the day, will not be difficult. another advantage of z generation potential in istanbul is that these children and young people can contribute to meet the needs of educated and equipped individuals in the field of cyber security. nowadays when concepts such as artificial intelligence, robotic and internet of object are heard oftenly and studies are performed about this field, it is indicated that cyber security expertise, information security engineering, cyber security analyst and security management expertise occupations will be amongst the most favorite occupations in near future (indigo, 2018). besides, social media research expertise, distance education consultancy, forensic it expertise, site acceleration engineering, ethical break team tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 285 volunteering, intelligence analyst, digital finance analyst and virtual service expertise will be amongst the occupations to be needed in the field of cyber security (koyuncuoğlu, 2017). z generation in istanbul and the potential of talented students in the use of information technologies can be seen as important factors and opportunities for ensuring adequate employment in these important occupational areas of the future. in january 2019 research of hootsuite and wearesocial companies, the most used social media in turkey was determined as youtube with 92 % rate (dateportal, 2019). around 2 billion people visit youtube every month. the number of videos watched in a day is 5 billion. the video duration is 300 hours per minute. the most famous youtuber earned about $ 180 million (yıldız, 2019). given the financial benefit of being a youtuber by opening a channel, the tendencies of young people and children in this direction can be considered usual. considering this fact, many youtube channel began to be opened in turkey. some of the channel owners are children. for the most popular youtube channels in 2018 established by children, oyuncak avı (toy hunt) (5 million followers), prenses elif (princess elif) (4 million followers), oyuncak oynuyorum (i play with toys) (3 million followers), ceylin h (1.250 million followers) and prince yankı (520) million followers) can be given as examples (fulin, 2018). in addition to the security of the channel owner's personal data and content, cyber security of channel subscribers can be considered as issues that need to be raised frequently as the number of channels increases. channel owners, who do not want to lose their followers and data, will surely make attempts about cyber security. similarly, there will be a need for online gamers to protect their personal information and the security of the devices to which they connect to internet. it can be said that having a youtube channel and playing online games have an important place for raising cyber security awareness and spreading to large masses. eba is a social education platform which is online, provided free for use of teachers, students, students of faculty of educational sciences and academicians by ministry of national education innovation and education technologies general directorate. with this platform, it is aimed to support the use of effective materials through information technologies and to ensure the integration of technology into education. eba has been actively used since 2012 (eba, 2019b). on the other hand, mebbi̇s was opened for use in 2007 and it is a system providing easiness to students and parents and providing technology-based and rapid transactions instead of unnecessary and long-term written documents. this system allows all the necessary procedures to be carried out in the process from the time a student enrolls in a school until graduation (hürriyet, 2018). due to the fact that both sites provide service for many students, teachers and academician, educational content, banners, announcements etc. shares regarding cyber security can be delivered to wide masses quickly. these sites can be considered as opportunity for cyber security. 286 tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 3.4. threats 1) existence of fake mobile accounts. 2) unconsciously uploading mobile applications. 3) harmful softwares. 4) social media use in early ages. 5) sharing personal information unconsciously on sociale media. 6) cyber threats on internet. 7) corporations collecting personal information unconsciously or purposely. 8) wrong use of whatsapp by parents. 9) encouraging using internet in late hours. 10) having no password policy. 11) not oftenly auditing internet cafes. 12) access easiness for contents consisting sexual, violence and hatred elements for individuals those should not reach 13) hiding negativities experienced on internet and sociale media due to pressure from the society, not sharing this kind of things with related persons and organizations. 14) not perceiving that social media experiences are equal to the ones in real live. one of the most important factors posing a threat to internet platforms and social media is fake accounts. fraud and cyber bullying incidents are frequently encountered with these accounts. there are many websites that provide information on how to determine whether an account is a fake account (computer hope, 2018; dodaro, 2018; richards, 2018). users should be informed about whether an account is a fake account. according to january 2019 data of 2019 report of digital that is published by wearesocial and hootsuite companies, mobile application were downloaded for 2.8 billion times in total in turkey and the amount of money spent on mobile applications is calculated as 360 billion dollars (bayrak, 2019). some of mobile applications those attract attention that much and used, unfortunately consist of some harmful codes those were developed for password and data robbery. some mobile applications, on the other hand, demand interesting access and usage rights such as answering via access to contact list, images and messages. it is unfortunate that many of material and nonmaterial damages are accompanied by approving the areas in which these requests are written without being read carefully or approving them without being aware of the dangers. for this reason, mobile applications have been mentioned as a threat by many of the workshop participants. tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 287 the case that individuals start to use social media in very early ages, was considered amongst weaknesses. social media research conducted by totallyawesome in 2018 demonstrates that in indonesia, malaysia, singapore, thailand and vietnam, 90% of children aged 4-12 use social media platforms such as facebook, instagram and youtube. in a study conducted by cyber security malaysia with more than 8,000 primary and secondary school students in 2017, it was determined that almost half of the students aged between 7 and 9 had social media accounts. this ratio was found as 67% for children between ages of 10 and 12 (thomas, 2019). in a study conducted in turkey, it was determined that beginning to use social media ages interval was founds as 7-9 (habertürk, 2013). in another study conducted with children between the ages of 6-15 in 2019, the age of starting to use the internet was found as 9 years. in the same study, it was determined that the rate of internet use among children aged 6-15 was 70% (habertürk, 2019). internet and social media, which are used unconsciously without sufficient education yet, can cause cyber security weaknesses by children. in particular, preparing an environment for cyber bullying, virtual exchanges and sharing of information without consent of parents are important threats to risk cyber security. another important cyber threat is that companies and institutions share their personal data with third parties without obtaining approval from individuals. these unauthorized shares threaten the personal safety of individuals and cause many unnecessary and tiresome advertisements and e-mails. privacy act that was entered into force in 2016 in turkey, it was tried to minimize cyber threats. every internet user and commercial company should be informed about the law. together with that social media becomes widespread, whatsapp that is used much in turkey, is a preferred virtual communication channel in teachers-parents, parentsparents communication. this information is statements of teachers and school administrators participated to the workshop. according to statements of the same participants, some parents share in groups at any time of the day and do not hesitate to share the data they are not sure. it is stated that there are many examples where personal and private information and visuals are shared. such shares are extremely wrong in terms of both internet ethics and individual cyber security. some internet service providers make campaigns reducing usage fees after midnight in order to ease internet traffic. since may 1, 2017, data use and downloading processes between 02:00 am and 08:00 am, have not been assessed within the scope of fair usage quota, thanks to this, it has been provided that the users use internet more easily in nights (hürriyet, 2017). some telecommunication companies also have such campaigns (turktelekom, 2019). children and youth using internet until late hours with the attraction of this situation, can be target for cyber bullies and swindlers. additionally, this situation provides easiness for entering dangerous games working with directives 288 tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 after midnight such as mavibalina (blue whale) and mariam. for this reason, aftermidnight internet use campaigns can have threating element features. according to statements made by the participants of the workshop, many internet users around do not have a healthy password policy. password policy is important not only for access to websites, but also for wearable technologies and internet of things that are becoming an important part of life. these policies are an important part of individual and corporate cyber security. according to the participants of the workshop, observing the students and their environment, passwords that are easy to remember are preferred. these passwords can also be broken easily. writing passwords as note on papers those can be reaches easily by everyone and taking as note on mobile phones, are also one of the most common mistakes. using the same password for all the accounts is also another serious mistake. for the ones having trouble to create strong passwords and to remember them, password manager softwares can be benefited (çavuş, 2018). sometimes, it is also seen that passwords can be shared with aclose friend, date or spouse. in addition to the passwords such as retina, face, fingerprint and voice those we have naturally, some sites use pattern passwords to enter (şahin, 2017), it was stated that 40% of android mobile phone owners use pattern password. according to a research made by visa europe in england, fingerprint scanning is the most attractive authentication method for z generation. dna samples and body chips are less interested (visa, 2016). setting up password policies individually or as a corporation has become easier with technological advances. it is possible to be protected against many cyber threats with a strong password policy. there are more than 23 thousand internet cafes operating in turkey and a big part of them are registered in istanbul (internetcafedestek, 2014). with the decision taken by btk, even though internet cafe operating was determined by the rules, especially existence of internet cafes being operated by not being registered and insufficiency of audits are amongst important cyber security threats those attention was paid by the teachers participated to the workshop. not following the rule for age restriction for entering into cafe, using improper programs and sites by young aged ones, not making security camera records, not using software filters or licensed anti-virus, are amongst problems in internet cafes. the participants stated opinions about making audits more oftenly. one of the most important threats to social media security is the ease of access to inappropriate content. since there is no age restriction in opening a social media account and there is no obligation to provide accurate personal information, the shares can be seen as uncensored and unfiltered. this situation can negatively affect children and youth psychologically and sociologically. as a measure, families can use paid or unpaid parental filters. these filter programs can be run on pc or mobile devices (dr.fone, 2019; güvenli web, 2017). it is important to inform parents and encourage them to use filter tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 289 programs. for this purpose, activities can be organized in parent meetings and in schoolparent unions. posters can be hung on the boards. public service ads can be used. another important threat is that the negativities experienced in the internet and social media are not shared with the related authorities. cyber bullying has an important place among these negativities and is especially emphasized in this workshop because the most of cyber bullying cases are encountered at the children at end of primary school period and at the beginning of secondary school period (kidshelpline, 2019). in particular, cyber bullying cases in social media are oftenly hided from relatives of cyber victims. as well as children and youth, it is obligatory that parents and teachers should be informed about measure, complaint, legal rights and responsibilities against cyber bullying cases. lack of information is also considered as an important threat to ensure social media security. this phenomenon is really common in children and youth and it is absolutely wrong: “this is social media, virtual world. i write whatever i like to, i share whatever i like to, none of their business. who will see, who will know. i am free in here.” this wrong opinion, unfortunately causes that children and youth commit a cybercrime and leads them to be victimized. it should absolutely be thought that internet and social media are public spaces, it is same as real life that we have legal responsibilities against individuals in public place in real life and there are crimes and penalties for crimes in social media. in new media and ethic workshop result statement that was realized in 2017, these sentences attract attention: “the existence of a part thinking that making shares in social media those are not ordered, go beyond the limit, is freedom, democratic right, freedom of speech and additionally, the case that this part is becoming dominant; are very serious problems in terms of community health care and education of youth generation (tarmer çalıştayları 1, 2017). when both these determinations and statements of the participants of the workshop are taken into consideration, it can be said that shares and behaviors of children and young people on social media and internet platforms must be gained through education and kept under control. 4. conclusions as a result of the cyber security and proper use of social media workshop, which was held with the participants working on the proper use of social media and cyber security; the problems that were experienced in istanbul center were put forward. the factors that may be effective in the formation and elimination of these problems were determined by swot analysis. in the light of this analysis, the participants proposed solutions for available problems. all the data produced within the workshop were presented to the relevant managers as a report. it is thought that obtained data is important to raise awareness of students, teachers, parents and school administrators about cyber security. it is also expected that this data will be motivational to take effective steps such as 290 tosun et. al. / international journal of curriculum and instruction 12(special issue) (2020) 271–294 taking place in international business unions, establishing cyber security high schools and having more 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