This qualitative study aims to examine teachers’ opinions concerning the middle school curricula that have been in use for years, in order to determine its suitability for distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants consisted of eighteen middle school teachers from different subject areas in Turkey. A maximum variation sampling method was employed for participant selection. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Due to the pandemic, the interviews were conducted using video conferencing applications. The data was analyzed through content analysis. According to the findings, the teachers report that while they are effective in achieving cognitive objectives, they have difficulties in achieving affective and psychomotor objectives. In addition, the teachers do not prefer to design their own materials, rather they mainly benefit from ready-to-use materials during emergency distance education. The teachers also reveal that direct instruction and questioning were the teaching methods and techniques they preferred in online courses and that they were unable to adapt other methods and techniques to distance education, which resulted in students experiencing teacher-centered activities. Moreover, the teachers complain about students not attending the online courses on time or even at all, their disinterest, a lack of instant feedback, limited communication with students, and insufficient course lengths. Another critical finding was that the teachers only use homework, end-of-unit quizzes, and participation to online courses as measurement and evaluation tools and agree that they are unable to administer reliable and valid evaluation tools. The limitations of the study and implications for future research are later discussed.

In this study, it is aimed to reveal the media usage habits of secondary school children and their media literacy levels according to various variables. The study data were collected in 2017. It was determined that two of every three children used mobile internet, watched television for 1-2 hours daily and used the internet. The most popular activity among children was found to be watching television, followed by these activities: listening to music, using social networks, mobile phones, and the internet usage by one of every two children. According to demographic characteristics of children, it was found that while the media literacy level of men was significantly lower than women regarding gender, the same was valid for the children living in the Southeastern Anatolia region compared to those living in other regions regarding geographical regions. Moreover, it was determined that children's media literacy level increased as their grades increased. According to children's media usage habits, it was revealed that while media literacy level of children not using mobile internet was significantly higher than those using mobile internet, the same was true for children watching television for 1-2 hours daily compared to those watching 7-8 hours.

The aim of this research is to reveal academics’ awareness, attitude, and use of open access. In line with the research purpose, the survey research design is adopted. This research consists 151 academics from 12 basic research areas; eight of them being Professor Dr, 17 being Associate Professor Dr, 49 being Doctor Lecturer, and 77 being Research Assistant or Lecturer. A questionnaire consisting of 19 open access and five demographic information questions was used for the data collection tool. The research results show that 75% of the academics have open access awareness and that their awareness is generally created by information that they obtain through the Internet and their friends. In addition, most of the academics indicate that their awareness of open access has increased during the pandemic period. When considering the level of academics’ use of open access, it is found that 75% of the academics use articles in open access journals for their own research and 51% of the academics do not publish any articles in open access journals.

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Article Info AbstractGame arcades that have turned into an important socialization area for children in Turkey, can affect children in many ways. The aim of the study is to investigate the factors that affect the digital game habits of children and young people in game arcades. In this context, the effect of game, environment and peers on the habits of children that are gaming in game arcades were investigated. Qualitative research method was preferred in the study. The study group consisted of 50 male and 2 female participants randomly selected from four game arcades. Semistructured interview form was developed as a data collection tool and individual interviews were conducted with the children participating in the research. The findings show that children prefer digital games because they find it amusing, fun, enjoyable and exciting. Together with the changing game structure, it has emerged that multi-player online games affect the usage of game arcades of children. Children stated that they prefer to play in game arcades because they can be with their friends and there is no parental supervision. It was determined that children knew these environments through their friends and would not prefer these environments without their friends. Based on these findings, it was concluded that multi-player online games had an effect on the habits of children on using game arcades due to its facility of socialization with friends and playing without any restrictions.