Violence in schools in Turkey shows an enormous increase in recent years. As it is becoming a serious problem in secondary schools, many violence cases are lasting in courts. In the current study, the aim is to examine and understand how secondary school students perceive violence and crime in schools. The study also aims to see if there is any relation between demographics and perceptions of students. In the current study, this relation is examined and understood through using descriptive statistics, such as mean and frequency analysis. The sample group of the study is composed of secondary students who live in different regions throughout the city, Kutahya. The results of the study show that students, who come from families with low socio-economic status (SES), perceive violence and crime differently than students, who come from families with middle or high socio-economic status

The planning of adequate control groups is a central aspect of educational research. Didactical studies, however, are often field studies encountering many problems of everyday classroom teaching? Recent research has indicated that teachers and their beliefs have an enormous influence on learning and retention. Taking this line of evidence further, a devil‟s advocate may emphasize that differences in treatmentcontrol designs may be not a result of the different instructional strategies but reflect differences between different teachers. In this study, we try to sort out this kind of “teacher effect” by comparing two approaches of a complex treatment-control group design. In the first approach we compare treatment and control groups that were taught by the same teachers (labeled „matched-pair tandem design‟), and in the second approach we compare the control group with an unrelated treatment group where different teachers taught the treatment groups („unrelated design‟). When comparing the „matched-pair tandem‟ design with the quasi-experimental approach, we found i) similar patterns in both educational experiments, and ii) higher effect sizes in the unrelated, quasi-experimental design.

An intervention study was set up through the School Civic Clubs to improve Botswana Children’s environmental knowledge, attitudes and practices. The underlying assumption in using this informal approach was based on the premise that the school time table is already overcrowded and that the infusion approach currently adopted in the country has not produced the desired results.  Hence, the Civic Clubs were introduced into ten Primary schools in Botswana. Using this informal approach, the children were given requisite training in civic and environmental issues, and they engaged in various activities for a period of six weeks. Data was collected before and after the project activities using two hundred members of the civic clubs and two hundred non-members of the club. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive analyses. Findings indicate a significant change in the knowledge and attitudes of the pupils after their exposure to the club activities. Also, there was a significant difference in the knowledge of pupils exposed to the EE club activities and those not so exposed. The interaction of pupils’ gender and class of study were also examined. Teaching children environmental issues through the School Civic Clubs was explored in the study, and the findings seem to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach as against the more theoretical classroom-based teaching currently going on in schools. The use of the Civic Clubs in promoting environmental education was therefore advocated by the study, both in Botswana and in other countries.

This study examines the effects of using historical microworlds on conceptual change in mechanics. Historical microworlds combine history of science and microworld through a computer based interactive learning environment that respects and represents historic conceptions or theories. Six grade 5 elementary students participated individually to five semi-directed interviews of forty-five minutes each where they interacted with an Aristotelian microworld, a Buridanian microworld and a Newtonian microworld.  diSessa‟s p-prim theory is used to analyze the conceptual dynamics that occurs when students use historical microworlds. Results show positive effects of using historical microworld on conceptual change such as (1) questioning the idea that any object in motion will eventually stop and (2) increasing the importance of contextual elements in the elaboration of explanatory models.

Now in its fifth year, PR2EPS is a National Science Foundation funded initiative designed to recruit high school students to attend college majoring in the physical sciences, including engineering and secondary science education, and to help ensure their retention within these programs until graduation. A central feature of the recruitment effort is a free, one-week residential summer science camp for high school students. This report describes the rationale for using a camp as a recruitment tool as well as the camp structure. Two focus questions are addressed: 1) How successful is the camp at providing a learning environment where participants can share their enthusiasm for science and brainstorm and apply solutions to challenging scientific tasks with their peers? 2) How successful is the camp at recruiting students into the physical sciences at this college? Quantitative data from pre- and post-camp and longitudinal surveys showing that campers are pursuing degrees in the sciences are substantiated in a framework of qualitative data collected during the summer of 2007 by a nonparticipant observer. Faculty similarly concerned with motivating high school students to major in the physical sciences and science education should find the report useful as several indicators show that most campers continue on their trajectory towards degrees in the sciences.

Based on students‟ alternative conceptions of the topics „electric circuits‟, „electric charge flows within an electric circuit‟, „how the brightness of bulbs and the resistance changes in series and parallel circuits‟, the current study aims to present a combination of different conceptual change methods within four-step constructivist teaching model. Therefore, the author assumes that such a design may give a chance to eliminate students‟ alternative conceptions fully. Also, some suggestions were made for further research.