From the Editors

Abstract

Dear Colleagues

It is a great honour for us to welcome you as Editors of Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences, which has accepted publications indexed in qualified databases since 2006. Our main aim is to increase the quality of the journal day by day. We are ready to publish the new issue of Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences, which has seven articles written by authors from Nigeria, Cyprus and Turkey.

The aim of this issue is to give the researchers an opportunity to share their academic studies. First of all, I would like to thank all authors who have contributed to this issue. The focuses of the articles are varied. For example, Abdulrasaq Hamzat, Ganiyu Bello and Isaac Olakanmi Abimbola examined the effects of the computer animation instructional package on secondary school students’ achievement in practical biology in Ilorin, Nigeria. The researchers recommend that biology teachers should employ computer animation instructional packages to teach the practical aspects of photosynthesis, among other biology topics. On the other hand, Necla Işıkdoğan Uğurlu and Nilay Kayhan in their study intended to evaluate children with different special needs medically and educationally, and as a result of their evaluations, to identify families’ expectations, opinions and suggestions concerning the special education process, services and the functioning of special education institutions. The study results show that children who were diagnosed/evaluated at an early stage were integrated into education earlier and benefit more from special education institutions compared to other children.

Another study was conducted by Muhammet Bastug, Hasan Kagan Keskin and Mustafa Akyol. It was observed in this research how the endurance status of fluent readers and poor readers changed as the text became lengthier. A total of 40 students who were attending the 4th grade in primary school, 20 of whom were fluent readers and other 20 were poor readers, participated in the research. At the end of the study, it was seen that fluent readers’ reading rates did not differ significantly from the beginning to end of the text, whereas poor readers’ reading rates differed in favour of the first parts of the text. Also, the aim of the study of Gönül Akçamete, Nilay Kayhan, Emel Sardohan Yildirim constitutes what professional ethical principles in the field of special education should be, the degree of importance of these principles, and examining the extent of compliance of individuals working in special education with these professional ethical principles according to experts and teachers. Moreover, the purpose of this study was to develop a scale of principles in professional ethics for specialists and educators working in special education and to conduct its validity and reliability studies. As a result, the findings of this study showed that the scale is a valid and reliable tool that can be used with individuals who are working in the special education field. Another descriptive study conducted by Hünkar Korkmaz and Ahmet Altındağ had the aim to determine Turkish pre-service science teachers’ perceptions of an ideal teacher education system. The results of this study showed that Turkish pre-service science teachers defined an ideal teacher education system with the following components: the personality of the teachers, the teacher educators as possessing professional knowledge, teacher education curriculum and the professional development process. The aim of the study of Hayat Boz and Yakup Dağlı is to address the contribution of applying qualitative research methods for identifying educational activities planned for adults. Also, Deniz Özcan and Huseyin Uzunboylu in their study analyse the need for curriculum development of special education teachers who work at special education centres and schools with resource rooms with regard to different variables and determine their perceptions of self-efficacy.

I would like to express my thanks to all authors preferring the Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences to publish their articles, and to all reviewers working seriously in this process.

Best regards,

Editor-in-Chief

Prof. Dr. Huseyin Uzunboylu

Executive Editor

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cigdem Hursen