No abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of school admin istrators, ICT coordinators and teachers regarding the concept of "technology". 87 participants completed the pro mpt "Technology is like…because…" by focusing on one metaphor about technology. Qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to figure out the metaphor categories and whether they differentiate according to participants' position, gender and age variables. Content analysis was used to analyze the perceptions of the participants. Findings of the study showed that the participants indicated 60 valid metaphors which were grouped into five categories: 1) Technology as a changing and developing entity (e.g. children, fashion); 2) Technology as a facilitator (e.g. key, organ); 3) Technology as a needed entity (e.g. food, air); 4) Technology as a useful and harmful entity (e.g. viruses, sugar); 5) Technology as a diffusional entity (e.g. octopus, ocean). It was found that the majo rity of metaphorical conceptualization categories aligned with "a useful and harmful entity" by administrators, "a facilitator" by ICT coordinators and "a changing and developing entity" by teachers. According to the findings of the quantitative analyses there is no significant relationship between the participants' perceptions of technology regarding age and gender. However significant relationship was found between the participants' perceptions of technology and their position.Keywords Technology, Metaphor, Administrators, ICT Coordinators, Teachers 1.IntroductionThere has been great increase in using information and commun ication technologies (ICT) in schools. The use of technology can be effective when these factors are presented in schools; available ICT resources which can be used in every area of the school, technical support for teachers, teacher training of ICT skills and effective ICT leadership (So mekh et al 2002). Teachers' knowledge and skills about ICT, co n fid en ce level, at t itud es to wards tech no logy , p edag og ical b eliefs regard ing th e value o f th e use o f technology have been suggested as effective barriers which hinder technology use in classroom (Lai, Pratt &Trewern, 2001). In fact, La m (2000) asserted that the main reasons for the teachers ' d ecisions reg ard ing techno logy depend on whether the teacher was personally convinced of the benefits of using technology for instruction. Hew & Brush (2007) ident ified the gen eral barriers typ ically faced by K-12 schools when integrating technology into the curricu lu m; resources, institution, subject culture, attitudes and beliefs, knowledge and skills, and assessment. They further describe the strategies to overcome such barriers; having a shared * Corresponding author: sirin.karadeniz@b ahcesehir.edu.tr (Şirin Karadeni z) Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/edu Copyright © 2012 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved vision andintegration plan, overcoming the scarcity of resources, changing attitudes and beliefs, conducting profession...

No abstract

Several studies have reported that being younger for grade increases the risk of having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis and being on ADHD medication among students. The aim of this study was to investigate this association in a low‐middle income country setting. Sample included 2,627 children from first to fourth grades. We compared students who were older than the 75th and younger than the 25th percentiles in consecutive grades. Teachers completed SNAP‐4 scale. Results indicated that teacher rated ADHD symptoms were 2.5 to 3.6 times more common in students who were younger for their grade, after age, gender, and Fluid IQ scores were controlled. Teacher SNAP‐4 scores were also significantly associated with grade. Our results suggested that the phenomenon of higher rates of teacher rated ADHD symptoms among younger for grade students was not limited to Western countries and that the teacher reported symptom loads were higher in these children.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between demographic and technology related variables with Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) of primary school teachers. The participants were 411 primary school teachers in the city of Edirne who volunteered to answer the online data collection instrument. The first part of the instrument consisted of items on demographics and technology use. The second part was the TPACK instrument developed by Schmidt, et.al (2009) and adapted to Turkish by Öztürk and Horzum (2011). The results showed that primary school teachers found themselves competent in TPACK, the ANOVA results show that there was not a significant difference between the level of the last attained degree of the teachers and the factors of TPACK; however, there was a significant difference between some of the factors of TPACK and the other variables: Teachers' TK showed significant difference in relation to gender; male teachers had a higher self-efficacy towards TK. Teachers with experience of 16 years and more found themselves more competent in CK and PCK compared to teachers with 1 to 5 years of experience. In addition, having an in-service training on technology had a positive influence on the development of teachers' TK and CK.