This study aims to investigate the effect of gamification on fifth-grade students' academic achievements and attitudes towards mathematics course. For this purpose, the teaching process of the "fractions" as a subject of the mathematics course is equipped with gamification elements. The quasi-experimental design is preferred as the research design. Achievement test and attitude scale were used as data collection instruments. The participants of the study consisted of fifth-grade students (n = 46). The Pyramidal Design Model was preferred as the gamification design model in this study. Elements of this model were adapted to the class level of participants in this research. As a result of the study, a remarkable statistical difference was observed in the achievement test in favor of the experimental group. However, no major difference was observed in the attitude scale results. This study contains suggestions for the educational use of gamification based on research findings.

Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic in the world, all institutions of the society have been severely affected. Some of the consequences of this crisis had both positive and negative effects on certain areas. Among these, education is the one that will have the greatest impact on the future. This paper attempted to determine the perspectives of English language teaching student teachers and their instructors on distance education during COVID-19 pandemic. The participants of the study were 40 senior students from the English Language Teaching department and their 4 instructors from a Turkish state university. Both qualitative and quantitative research models were used in this study. Descriptive analysis was used for qualitative data whereas statistical procedure was applied for quantitative data. A questionnaire and semi-structured interview forms were employed as data collection instruments. The results revealed that student teachers and their instructors have both positive and negative opinions about distance English language teaching education during COVID-19 pandemic. One of the most frequently stated problems with distance education refers to student teachers' experiences of teaching practicum, whereas they had no difficulty in theoretical courses. The positive opinions are regarding time-space flexibility, reviewing lessons by recordings, self-paced learning, affordability, comfort, sharing a wide range of resources, instant feedback, whereas negative opinions are about technical problems, applied courses, lack of social interaction, assessment and evaluation, workload, health problems and low motivation. It is suggested that distance education training for both student teachers and instructors will be useful for future experiences.

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The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of Writing To Learn (WTL) activities on motivation strategies. For this purpose, a study group consisting of 9 th grade students was employed. The students participating in the research consisted of one control (n:30; 17 girls, 13 boys) and two experimental groups (EG1, n:31; 17 girls, 14 boys; EG2, n: 30; 16 girls, 14 boys). The research was conducted with a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design which is one of the quasi-experimental designs. The data of the study were collected using quantitative and qualitative data collection tools. Güdülenme Stratejileri Ölçeği (GSÖ) adapted to Turkish by Büyüköztürk, Akgün, Kahveci & Demirel (2004) was used as the quantitative data collection tool. The qualitative data tool of the study was the interview protocol asked to sample group selected from the experimental group students (EG1, n:3; EG2, n:3). In the light of the findings of the research, it was proved that WTL activities increase the motivation of the students. In addition, it was found that the feedback given along with WTL enabled students to be more motivated than the non-feedback given students. Based on the results of the research, it was suggested that WTL activities should be used to teach motivation strategies.

ÖZİyi bir öğretmen yetiştirme sistemi kuramsal bilgi ve uygulamayı bir araya getirmelidir ve öğretmenlik uygulaması nitelikli öğretmenler yetiştirmede önemli bir role sahiptir. Türkiye ve Finlandiya'daki İngilizce öğretmeni yetiştirme sisteminin öğretmenlik uygulaması kısmını karşılaştırmak ve Türkiye için önerilerde bulunmayı amaçlayan bu çalışma bir karşılaştırmalı eğitim araştırmasıdır. Finlandiya'da öğretmenlik uygulaması dört dönemi kapsarken, Türkiye'de bu süreç sadece iki dönem sürmektedir. Süreleri farklı olsa da her iki ülkede de kısıtlı sorumluluk ile danışman öğretmenin sistemli gözetimi altında gözlemler yaparak başlayan öğretmenlik uygulaması süreci kısa öğretim uygulamaları yaparak devam eder ve öğretmen adayının sınıf içi sorumluluğunun arttırılarak düzenli ve uzun süreli uygulamalar yapmasıyla sona erer. Finlandiya'da öğretmenlik uygulaması eğitim fakültelerine bağlı uygulama okullarında, Türkiye'de ise belli kriterleri sağlayan herhangi bir okulda yapılmaktadır. İki ülkenin öğretmenlik uygulaması arasındaki önemli farklardan birisi budur. Finlandiya ve Türkiye'de benzer şekilde öğretmenlik uygulamasının dört bileşeni öğretmen adayının kendisi, diğer öğretmen adayları, eğitim fakültesindeki danışman öğretim üyesi ve okuldaki danışman öğretmendir ve her iki ülkede de bu dört bileşenin arasındaki etkileşimin ve iletişim en iyi şekilde sağlanması gerektiğine vurgu yapılmaktadır.Anahtar Kelimeler: Öğretmen yetiştirme, öğretmenlik uygulaması, yabancı dil öğretimi, Finlandiya, karşılaştırmalı eğitim araştırması ABSTRACTAn effective teacher education system should unite theoretical knowledge and practice together and teaching practice has vital importance in training qualified teachers. This study is a comparative education research, which aims to compare the teaching practice period of foreign language teacher education systems in Finland and Turkey and to offer suggestions for Turkey. While teaching practice period lasts for four terms in Finland, it only lasts for two terms in Turkey. Although duration of these periods varies, teaching practice period, which starts with observations under the strict supervision of cooperating teacher and with limited responsibility, goes on with short teaching performances and finishes with extended and regular teaching performances with high responsibility in two countries. While in Finland, teaching practice is done in practice schools of education faculties, in Turkey teaching practice is done in any school which meets some criteria. This is one of the most important differences between two countries. In Finland and Turkey, teaching practice period has four components. These are teacher candidate, other teacher candidates, university supervisor from faculty of education and cooperating teacher from practice school. In both countries, it is emphasized that interaction and communication among the stakeholders need to be ensured.