Mehmet Yıldızlar’s research while affiliated with Cyprus International University and other places

Advancements in science and technology launched a new age. The most important feature of this age which is called information age is the intense usage of information technologies and information production which became important rather than material products. All the societies have naturally entered into this process of transformation and change. Students should be conscious of the way they learn, have the skills of following their own learning, know their learning styles, know and select the strategies they can use while learning and learn how to use them in order to adapt themselves to this change. One of the most efficient ways of acquiring or making individuals acquire the skills of learning how to learn is to teach individuals how to use the learning strategies. The purpose of the present research is to determine whether learning strategies usage level of prospective teachers changes or not in terms of their gender, department of study, the time they spare for studying and their planning of studying.

Teachers need certain teaching skills in order to teach effectively. In-service teaching courses are important for teachers as they provide teachers with a sense of profession and experience as well as the joy and challenges of teaching. In-service teacher education courses were carried out with preschool teachers working in public preschools in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.The purpose of this study was to examine in-service teachers’ expectations from in-service teaching courses and their evaluations regarding the effects of the courses on teachers’ profession. The in-service courses comprised such topics as intuitive thinking in preschool children, creativity, development of mathematical thinking, functions of educational routines in preschool classes, enhancement of developmental areas with educational activity in preschool, child assessment and evaluation methods in preschool.The sample consisted of 178 preschool teachers working in public preschools in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.In this study, qualitative method was used. The data were collected through participants’ responses about their expectations and assessments to open-ended questions asked by researchers during the courses. A categorical analysis was employed for the qualitative data.The results of the study show that the highest expectation of preschool teachers is to gain new scientific knowledge about their profession. The other expectation is gaining specific information about subjects such as learning disorders, conflict resolution in the classroom and management of child behavior problems. Teachers specified that they achieved different perspectives about their profession at the end of the courses. In addition they desire to these kind of courses regularly during the academic year.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of musical math participants on academic success achievement and attitudes towards mathematics exercised in the second grades in elementary schools. This research, which is a kind of experimental pattern, is an example of preliminary and final test model with sampling and control. The subjects of the study consisted of 29 students in class 2-C (Control Group) and 29 students in class 2-B (Experiment Group) who were both chosen from 60.Yıl Elementary School, one of the central schools in Bolu. While forming the groups, the points received from Mathematic Achivement By Boful Success Test and Math Attitude Scale, which had been developed in order to measure the prerequisite behaviors were taken into consideration and two classrooms equal to one another were selected. In the research, Musical Math Games prepared for the subjects to be covered in May such as “Measuring of Lengths, Measuring of Liquids, Geometric Objects and Multiplication Table” were applied to the experiment group while the control group was taught math using conventional math teaching. In the research, for the purpose of gathering data, Math Success Test was used to measure the acquisitions in cognitive fields and Math Course Attitude Survey was used to measure behaviors in the sensory fields. Instruments used for gathering data were applied to the participants both at the beginning and at the end of the research so as to obtain the acquisitions of students related to cognitive and sensory behaviors in the matters determined in the research. The data was analyzed using statistical methods like arithmetic average, standard deviation and t of independence. The results indicated that math taught with musical math games was more effective in terms of students’ success and it was found out that teaching math using musical math games was more effective on enhancing students' attitudes towards the course in comparison to the conventional teaching.

In this research, thinking styles of teacher candidates were compared according to their demographic information such as department, age, sex, the educational level of their parents, time allocated to study and planning. The participants of the study 212 teacher candidates (118 female, 94 male) were enrolling at International Cyprus University in North Cyprus Turkish Republic. A Thinking Styles Inventory was employed as a tool to collect the data in the research. According to the results, it was found that the thinking styles differ according to participants' departments, sex, and time allocated to studying and planning.