Emel Okur - Independent Researcher (original) (raw)

Papers by Emel Okur

Every Change Must Have a Cause”1: Some Ecological Incidents, Ecologically Responsible Behaviors, and Their Cognitive and Affective Roots

World Futures, 2025

It has been very normal to see environmental activists who glued themselves to paintings and cars... more It has been very normal to see environmental activists who glued themselves to paintings and cars on TV recently. The activists may think that they can change people’s perspectives by these protests. Who are these protesters to tell others what to do? What is their approach? Do they really show ecologically responsible behaviors? Carl Gustav Jung emphasizes that people should first turn to their inner worlds (Self) to be able to understand the outer world. This means we need personal inner change before telling people to change themselves. Christian mythology says “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19), this means “We created from soil and dust (birth) and we will return to soil and dust (death)”. It is thought that we are already a reflection of ecology therefore a priori knowledge is the root of ecological intelligence and holistic perspective in our minds and hearts. The aim of this paper is to present some examples of how we should look at the outer world while evaluating ecological incidents around us and our inner world. These examples are very simple responsibilities and show the components of the ecological intelligence in our minds.

Education Counts, 2024

In PIRLS 2021, New Zealand teachers were presented with a series of statements designed to gauge ... more In PIRLS 2021, New Zealand teachers were presented with a series of statements designed to
gauge their confidence using various instructional practices when teaching reading. Their
responses to the statements have been summarised into a single measure of confidence, which is
considered together with teachers’ background and experience, decisions they made to employ
different organisational approaches, and how often language skills were taught. The findings,
albeit limited to the teachers of Year 5 students in PIRLS, suggest a link between confidence and
the emphasis on areas of study as part of their formal education. There is also evidence of some
instructional practices being used more often during reading instruction by teachers with greater
confidence. It is recommended that the results feed into the development of additional questions
for the national version of the PIRLS 2026 Teacher Questionnaire that focus on knowledge of and
preparedness to teach language concepts and skills. There would be some benefit to investigate
further the core content of initial teacher education programmes

Affective Learning: Why We Need a Humanistic Curriculum

Life is a complicated journey and there are many internal and external pressures to fulfill our l... more Life is a complicated journey and there are many internal and external pressures to fulfill our lives. Education is one of the tools to handle these pressures. Currently most of the educational programmes in the world are based on traditional and technological perspectives which help people to reach out to their expectations such as career and money. Traditional and technological education programmes address the development of the cognitive domain of learning. Philosophers, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, and educators have begun to criticize the dominant side of cognitive learning since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Because there is a missing point in humans’ lives and this point is defined as affective development. Affective domain as a huge area inclusive of ego, motivation, concern, attitude, value, self-respect, ethics, self-control, curiosity, creativity, mental health, dependence, personality development, group dynamics and dreams. In terms of business, these concepts address soft skills. In terms of education, affective domain refers to humanistic curriculum and there are unique outcomes because of individual differences, backgrounds, and experiences. The aim of this study is to discuss why we need a humanistic curriculum because there has yet to be designed a pure humanistic curriculum.

Projects are usually designed to solve a problem or to add a value to the business environments s... more Projects are usually designed to solve a problem or to add a value to the business environments such as service, a result, or product. Every project has unique and non-repetitive features. However, projects have common features in terms of their success and failure stories binding around time, cost, and performance requirements. Failure stories usually have organisational and project levels challenges. These challenges are the same or similar for ecopedagogy-based environmental education (EBEE) projects as well. Ecopedagogy is a transformational way to social, political, ideological, and economic changes. The Agenda 21 refers to transformation of societies, however ecopedagogy first starts off from personal transformation. This transformation is based on critical thinking on how to solve socio-environmental problems. EBEE projects are pedagogical tools to teach environmental issues. The key points of ecopedagogy include protection of the natural environment (natural ecology), the impacts of humans on the environment (social ecology) as well as the influence over civilization and economic, social, and cultural composition (integrated ecology), therefore these projects should include a wide variety of topics. There are studies related to theoretical and practical sides of ecopedagogy but there have not been any studies related to the project management side of EBEE programmes yet. The aim of this paper is to present some organisational and project level challenges of EBEE projects.

Evaluation of Humanistic Curriculum Within “Accepted” Movie

Humanism is a perspective which centers upon human interests and values. It asks learners what th... more Humanism is a perspective which centers upon human interests and values. It asks learners what they want to be and how they want to be. Recently there have been dominant traditional and technological perspectives to education and this situation causes some problems because these perspectives service to society's expectations, not learners’ expectations. Humanistic curriculum might be a kind of antidote for technological and traditional perspectives. These perspectives mostly focus on cognitive development while humanistic perspective focuses on affective development. The aim of this study is to evaluate humanistic perspective and curriculum within the “Accepted” movie because the students are asked what they want to learn and how they want to learn in the movie. The methodology of this research is a case study within qualitative approach. The data are collected by discourse analysis. At the end of the study, three themes are defined in the movie: Materialistic expectations and disappointments; humanistic curriculum development; traditional curriculum vs humanistic curriculum. There is no pure humanistic curriculum so far therefore it is not known yet the outputs of it in the real world. New educational programmes based on humanistic curriculum might be developed and applied. There might be new studies to combine traditional curriculum and humanistic curriculum.

International Journal of Educational Researchers, 2022

Business environment and its expectations have been changing due to technological development. So... more Business environment and its expectations have been changing due to technological development. Soft learners are needed in professional life therefore adults can carry on their personal and professional developments throughout their lives. The aim of this paper is to present a new learning model intended for adults within lifelong and online learning. This model is named 'Mistakes Model'. The model is based on three concepts: adult learning, lifelong/ online learning, and self-regulation. The theoretical background of the model is based on Knowles' andragogy and Zimmerman's self-regulation concepts. The model presents a crash individual learning model for adults based on Knowles's explanation because Knowles suggests testing out new learning models for different learners in different situations. The methodology of this study is a case study within a qualitative approach and introspection technique within Sufism was used to collect data. There are three stages of the model: Knot stage, Interval stage, and Unknot stage. The model is successful in learning new knowledge and skills however it should be tested by different adult learners.

https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/\_\_data/assets/pdf\_file/0003/219252/Career-aspirations-in-STEM-Gender-differences-and-similarities-at-Year-9.pdf, 2022

This research is based on Missing out on half of the world’s potential: Fewer female than male to... more This research is based on Missing out on half of the world’s potential: Fewer female than male top achievers in mathematics and science want a career in these fields, published by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in April 2022. Using the IEA’s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 data for 45 countries and education jurisdictions, the
researchers found that lower secondary school boys were more likely than girls to want to pursue a career in mathematics and science; confidence in the subject was strongly associated with both girls’ and boys’ career aspirations, and achievement in the subject did not impact on boys’ views of pursuing a STEM career particularly one involving mathematics. New Zealand was not mentioned in the international research.

New Zealand’s TIMSS 2019 data is used to investigate the views of Year 9 students. We found that less than half of Year 9 students wanted to pursue a career in either a mathematics– or science related field. Year 9 boys like their international male peers were more likely to want to pursue a career in mathematics than Year 9 girls. However, unlike the international results, the likelihood of wanting a career in a science-related field was about the same for both Year 9 boys and girls. Like the international findings, confidence, and achievement in the two subject areas were related to their aspirations—particularly for boys wanting to pursue a mathematics career and girls wanting to pursue a science career.
The findings will be of interest to those interested in students’ career aspirations and confidence in STEM, gender disparities in STEM fields and interventions to improve these, and curriculum design.

Some effects of an unstructured outdoor activity on preschoolers: A case study from Aotearoa, New Zealand

Journal of Sustainability Education/ General Issue May 2022: Workings of Transformation, Part Two, 2022

Early childhood educators emphasize that outdoor education learning outcomes are very important f... more Early childhood educators emphasize that outdoor education learning outcomes are very important for preschoolers because early childhood education has a huge effect on the later stage of adulthood. Outdoor education can take place on playgrounds or in natural environments. The aim of this study was to determine some effects of an unstructured outdoor activity on preschoolers. A qualitative case study methodology was used in order to assess the effect of a bush explorer activity on children. In terms of establishing the research’s reliability, the qualitative analyses were supported by the triangulation data collection methods, which included non-participant observation and parents’ interviews. Content analysis was used in order to evaluate the data. According to the results, eleven different themes were determined: Problem solving, self-confidence, environmental awareness, observing and exploring, friendship and social skills, creativity, sharing experience, relaxing, having fun, conflict, and rejection. All themes, except conflict and rejection, are coherent with the literature.

International Electronic Journal of Environmental Education, 2020

It is stated that the roots of outdoor education philosophy are based on Comanius, Rousseau, Pest... more It is stated that the roots of outdoor education philosophy are based on Comanius, Rousseau, Pestalozzi and Dewey (Hammerman, Hammerman, Hammerman 1994). It is thought that Rachel Carson might also be added to this list. Comanius, Rousseau and Pestalozzi, who are 16 th and 17 th century philosophers, are accepted pioneers of modern education system although they had religious education (MacCulloch, 2009). Comenius says that every child even before starting to school should interact with a rock, a flower or an animal in order to understand a natural subject (Hammerman, Hammerman, Hammerman 1994). According to Rousseau, children can learn best from their direct experiences from the natural environment and this learning primarily comes from nature, people and objects around

The Effect of Ecology Based Environmental Education on Environmental Knowledge Gaining of In-Service Teachers

Environmental knowledge is important in terms of environmental studies because the correlation be... more Environmental knowledge is important in terms of environmental studies because the correlation between environmental knowledge, environmental attitude, awareness, and behaviour change are examined. The aim of this study is to evaluate the short and long term effects of an ecology-based outdoor environmental education programme on environmental knowledge gaining of the in-service teachers. Ouantitative approach is used and subject-specific outcome is focused. A multiple choice test is developed in order to have subject-specific outcome. The test is carried out as prestest, posttest, and after 6 month as postpost test. It is found that the ecology-based environmental education programme is effective on gainig environmental knowledge in the short term as high level. On the other hand the programme is also effective at the middle level knowledge gaining in terms of population ecology and the total score of the test in the long term.

Using Personal Selling and Promotion as a Teaching Method in Education: Some Examples from TUBITAK Environmental Education

One of the important characteristics of contemporary education is to build an effective bridge be... more One of the important characteristics of contemporary education is to build an effective bridge between theory and praxis. This bridge might be built by outdoor education. TUBITAK in Turkey is one of the institutions which supports outdoor educations. Literature shows that every environmental study has own outputs however there are no research how these outputs happen. When TUBITAK projects are evaluated in terms of environmental educations, it is pointed out that these education programs commonly use ‘promotion’, which is used in marketing, as a teaching method despite the fact that each of them has own education program. There has not been seen yet any study which uses promotion as a teaching method. The aim of this study is to show how some TUBITAK environmental education projects use promotion and how carry out it. The methodology is explorative case study. 6 environmental education programs were examined and tried to be determine promotion applications. The study showed that som...

An Intervention for Environmental Awareness: Ecopedagogy-Based Outdoor Environmental Education

Recently outdoor education has become an important teaching method in order to increase environme... more Recently outdoor education has become an important teaching method in order to increase environmental awareness. The aim of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of an ecopedagogy based outdoor environmental education program on environmental awareness. The research conducted on analysing the participants’ reflective writings at the beginning and end of the program by content analysis. It is found that ecopedagogy based outdoor environmental education is effective in order to increase environmental awareness and biodiversity awareness.

Environmental awareness is evaluated related to cognitive and affective areas so it might be cons... more Environmental awareness is evaluated related to cognitive and affective areas so it might be considered one of the important points in order to predict environmental behavioural change. One of the behavioural change models is ecological dynamics model (EDM) and this model’s characteristics overlap with ecopedagogy-based outdoor experiential education (EOEE) and the titles of Agenda 21. The aim of this study is to examine the efficiency of an EOEE program intended for in-service teachers on environmental awareness and to evaluate EDM within EOEE. Mixed methodology was used and the data were collected by an environmental awareness scale, participants’ diaries, non-participant observation, and meeting documents. The study found that the participants developed environmental awareness and tended to have holistic perspective at the end of the education. It is come up with that holistic perspective may be added to the EDM and this model can be checked out by mathematical models such as str...

This study aims at developing an environmental attitude scale based on two themes. The scale item... more This study aims at developing an environmental attitude scale based on two themes. The scale items were prepared by the researchers with the help of literature records and consultations with two experts. A survey consisting of 20 attitude questions was later applied to 208 teacher candidates who were selected among students attending Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University. Following the evaluation of the survey questions, 6 of the scale items previously identified were discarded. An Environmental Attitude Scale composing of 14 Likert type sentences was developed. KMO and Cronbach-alpha values of this scale were found to be 0.763 and 0.733 respectively. The Barlett Test Significance Value of this scale was smaller than 0.001. At the end of confirmatory factor analyses, the goodness of fit criteria's were found to be; X 2 /sd: 1.88; RMSEA: 0.066, SRMR: 0.062, CFI:0.90, IFI:0.90, GFI:0.92, AGFI:0.87.) SUMMARY Purpose and significance: A strong co-relation between environmental behaviour...

Çevre Farkındalığı- Çevre Tutumu Arasındaki İlişkinin Yapısal Eşitlik Modeli İle Sınanması

Cevresel davranis degisikligine ulastirma asamalarinda, cevre farkindaligi ile cevre tutumu arasi... more Cevresel davranis degisikligine ulastirma asamalarinda, cevre farkindaligi ile cevre tutumu arasindaki iliski uzerinde durulmaktadir. Bu iliskiyi belirlemek icin Yapisal Esitlik Modeli kullanilmistir. Arastirma sonucunda, cevre farkindaligi ile cevre tutumu arasindaki etki degeri, 0.81 olarak belirlenmistir. Farkindalik duzeyindeki degisim, tutumun da yuksek oranda degismesine neden olmaktadir. Arastirma modelinde, uyum iyiligi degerlerinden RMSEA, SRMR, GFI ve AGFI kullanilmistir. RMSEA: 0.000; SRMR: 0.039; GFI: 0.91; AGFI: 0.90 olarak belirlenmistir. Uyum iyiligi degerleri, modelin dogru secilmis oldugunu desteklemektedir

The Effect of a Sheep Heart on the Cognitive and Affective Area of the Elementary Students, Case Study: Canakkale, Science Camp

International Journal of Biology, 2013

Learning referred to the changing and expansion of the schemes in the mind of the child through t... more Learning referred to the changing and expansion of the schemes in the mind of the child through the addition of new knowledge. This determination is based on the cognitive area. The learning also happens in the affective area. The aim of this research is to study the effects of the usage of advanced organizer and haptic learning applications on the cognitive and affective learning area of the 5th grade students in Canakkale, Turkey. The activity has been applied on a sheep heart in a science camp. The data is collected within the mixed methodology, and evaluated within a case study. At the completion of the study, students were observed to acquire knowledge successfully and they had found the activity interesting and entertaining. As a result, it was concluded that the advanced organizer and haptic learning are effective on cognitive and affective learning area

The Effect of Ecological Dynamics Model on Behavioral Change, Direct and Indirect Actions

The main aim of environmental education is to change environmental behaviour and there are some m... more The main aim of environmental education is to change environmental behaviour and there are some models to get this output. One of them is ecological dynamics model (EDM). One of the teaching methods of environmental education is outdoor education. Ecopedagogy-based outdoor environmental education (EOEE) which is one of the main subjects of this research, and EDM are based on experiential learning and properties of EDM overlap EOEE's properties, except interdisciplinary property. Interdisciplinary perspective explains how an environmental education program should be. EOEE might be a kind of adaptation of EDM to education. The aim of this research is to evaluate the effect of EOEE and EDM on ecological behaviour change, direct and indirect actions within in-service teachers. Research methodology is qualitative approach. I observed and evaluated the participants throughout an EOEE program and followed them up after six months. I found that EOEE and EDM were successful in order to a...

Zero hour contract is an arrangement between employers and employees which does not include minim... more Zero hour contract is an arrangement between employers and employees which does not include minimum working hours and employees have to be available in order to work in any time. There is a legal definition of it in New Zealand recently however it might be carried out under casual contract which is legal. Zero hour contract is a big problem in terms of employees and ecoliteracy because it causes exploitation of the employees’ rights. The aim of this study is therefore to evaluate the applications of zero hour contracts within ecoliteracy in New Zealand. It will then focus on specific points, negative aspects -in terms of employees-, and the local implications of zero hour contracts. In conclusion, it may be said that the zero hour contract should be checked by the government regularly and employees’ rights should be protected legally in New Zealand.

The aim of this research is to evaluate the impact of an outdoor experiential environmental educa... more The aim of this research is to evaluate the impact of an outdoor experiential environmental education (OEEE) programme on the affective domain of adult participants – namely, in-service teachers from Turkey. Data collection methods such as; psychodrama, non-participant observation, open-ended questions and content analysis were used within a qualitative approach in a case study format. Activities in both the indoor and outdoor experiential programmes were designed in accordance with Kolb’s theory on experiential teaching. While the indoor activities were used for control group 1, and traditional methods used for control group 2; the outdoor activities were used for the experimental group. At the end of the research, the following terms emerged in participants’ expressions: ‘interest, anxiety, curiosity, motivation and complaint’. The most outstanding expressions belonged to the experimental outdoor group.

Artan cevresel baskilar nedeni ile bireylerin, kisisel sorumluluklarinin farkinda olabilmeleri ic... more Artan cevresel baskilar nedeni ile bireylerin, kisisel sorumluluklarinin farkinda olabilmeleri icin cevre egitimine daha cok onem verilmeye baslanmistir. Bu tur cevre egitimlerinden biri de sinif disi cevre egitimidir. Bu arastirmanin amaci, ekopedagoji temelli sinif disi cevre egitim programinin, katilimcilarin cevre farkindaligi uzerine etkisini incelemektir. Arastirmanin yontemi tek gruplu, ontest-sontest uygulamali kontrol grupsuz yari-deneysel desendir. Bu amacla TUBITAK tarafindan desteklenen 108B023 kodlu ‘Canakkale ve Yakin Cevresinde Ekoloji Bilinci Olusturmak Amacli Cevre Egitimi (2008)’ projesine katilan 27 kisiye, egitim oncesi ve egitim sonrasi cevresel farkindalik olcegi uygulanmistir. Olcegin Cronbach Alpha guvenirlik katsayisi 0.891 bulunmustur Olcekten elde edilen on test ve son test toplam puanlari, Wilcoxon isaretli siralar testi ile karsilastirilmis ve istatistiksel acidan anlamli bir fark bulunmustur (z = -4.542; p < .001). Bu sonuca gore ekopedagoji temelli ...