Sustained professional development can support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) reform. The authors describe a 3-year study of sustained professional development for 3 diverse urban schools across the salient factors of fidelity of implementation of project-based learning, development of professional learning communities, and student achievement. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected. The students who experienced the greatest fidelity of implementation exhibited the greatest gains (d D 1.41-2.03) on standardized test scores, while those with the lowest fidelity of implementation exhibited negative gains (d D-0.16 to-0.08). Qualitative data indicated teachers perceived there were multiple benefits from the implementation of project-based learning.

There has been some criticism of the teacher education programs in Turkey, claiming that pre-service teachers were not ready for the profession. This study explored the mental readiness of pre-service teachers to facilitate integrated mathematics and science. Data were collected from pre-service teachers who were enrolled in either integrated or departmentalized teacher education programs. Data were analyzed using a three-way multivariate factorial analysis of variance model. The independent variables were program (integrated or departmentalized), department (mathematics or science), and gender while the dependent variables were the attitudes towards the integrated teaching and nature of mathematics and science. The results indicated that pre-service mathematics teachers in the integrated teacher education program had more favorable attitudes towards integrated teaching of mathematics than pre-service mathematics teachers in the departmentalized program. The study showed that the integrated program may be an effective alternative to the standard departmentalized teacher education programs in Turkey.

Türkiye'nin inovasyon kapasitesini arttırabilmesi için yüksek nitelikli Fen, Teknoloji, Mühendislik ve Matematik (FeTeMM) işgücüne ihtiyacı vardır. Yirmibirinci yüzyılın değişen şart ve problemleriyle birlikte takım çalışması ve disiplinlerarası yaklaşımları doğuran bu ihtiyaç, gençlerimizi ve özellikle kız öğrencilerimizi erken yaşlardan itibaren FeTeMM araştırmaları yapabilecek şekilde eğitecek öğrenme ortamlarının tasarımını ve bu tasarımları etkin şekilde kullanabilecek öğretmenlerin yetiştirilmesini gerektirir. Buna mukabil yapılan araştırmalar göstermektedir ki, öğretmenlerimiz mesleklerine etkin bir FeTeMM eğitimi verebilmek için gerekli bütünleşik öğretmenlik bilgisinden yoksun şekilde başlamaktadır. Bu makalenin amacı araştırmacıları FeTeMM eğitimi üzerine yürüttükleri çalışmalarının sonuçlarını TURJE'de yayımlamak konusunda cesaretlendirmektir.

The Turkish Disability Act introduced inclusive education to Turkey as a solution to the problems experienced by students with disabilities, including visually impaired students. The main purpose of this study was to explore the challenges faced by visually impaired students learning high school mathematics in inclusive classrooms in Turkey. The data were qualitative, consisting of interviews conducted with three high school graduates; they were analysed using the constant comparison method. In the interviews, students described the effects of various teaching methods on their learning and evaluated the social aspect (broadly speaking) of inclusive education. The results show that while the social needs of visually impaired Turkish students were adequately met through inclusive education, their academic needs were not, which we speculate to be partly because of mathematics teachers' negative attitudes towards inclusive education.