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This study aims to investigate the futuristic visions of PhD students at Distance Education department of Anadolu University on the use of learning analytics (LA) and mobile technologies together.

This qualitative research study, designed in the single cross-section model, aimed to reveal futuristic visions of PhD students on the use of LA in mobile learning. In this respect, SCAMPER method, which is also known as a focused brainstorming technique, was used to collect data.

The findings of the study revealed that the use of LA in mobile can solve everyday problems ranging from health to education, enable personalized learning for each learner, offer a new type of evaluation and assessment and allow continuous feedback and feedforwards; yet this situation can also arise some ethical concerns since the big data collected can threaten the learners by interfering with their privacy, reaching their subconscious and manipulating them as well as the whole society by wars, mind games, political games, dictation and loss of humanity.

The research is limited with the views of six participants. Also, the sample of the study is homogeneous in terms of their backgrounds – their age range, their departments as PhD students and their fields of expertise.

The positive perceptions of PhD students provide a ground for the active use of LA in mobile. Further, big data collected through LA can help educators and system makers to identify patterns which will enable tailored education for all. Also, use of LA in mobile learning may stimulate the development of a new education system including a new type of evaluation and assessment and continuous feedback and feedforwards.

The widespread use of mobile technologies opens new possibilities for LA in the future. The originality of this research comes from its focus on this critical point.

This study aims to investigate the preferences of 96 educational researchers on the use of digital technologies in scientific research.

The study was designed as a quantitative-dominant sequential explanatory mixed-method research.

Despite the spreading use of advanced technologies of big data and data mining, the most preferred digital technologies were found to be data analysis programs, databases and questionnaires. The primary reasons of using digital technology in scientific research were to collect data easily and quickly, to reduce research costs and to reach a higher number of participants.

The use of digital technologies in scientific research is considered a revolutionary action, which creates innovative opportunities. Through digitalized life, probably for the first time in history, the educational researchers have analytical information, which we can benefit from more than the individual's own statements in research involving human factor. However, there are a few studies that investigated the preferences of educational researchers who use digital technologies in their scientific research.

This study involves the development of a PSPICE 5.4 package oriented model for the dynamic behaviour of a series excited synchronised slip ring induction motor including the bridge rectifier for rotor circuit excitation. Furthermore, in this study is aimed at investigating the synchronising behaviour for various rotor connections of a series excited synchronous motor formed by connecting a bridge rectifier input in series with the stator winding of a slip‐ring induction motor whereas the rectifier output feeds the rotor winding. The steady state behaviour of such a scheme in comparison to a separately excited one is well known, but the behaviour during synchronisation requires further study. Presentation of results obtained by a PSPICE based simulation and comparison with experimental results acquired during this study points to a model to account for design variations and additional circuitry. It is convenient to use this model in a drive system. The advantage of this simulation method over the others is that it does not involve the utilisation of specialised programs and mathematical difficulties such as the solution of stiff differential equations. Furthermore, steady state behaviour of the scheme is explained by means of a simple analysis and illustrated by test results.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent of total quality management (TQM) practices in primary schools based on teachers' perceptions, and how their perceptions are related to different variables.

In this study, a survey based descriptive scanning model was used. This study was carried out in Malatya city centre on teachers working at primary schools. Using stratified sampling method, 21 schools and 420 teachers working in these schools were selected randomly. A total of 396 of the questionnaires were validated and evaluated. A total of six‐dimensioned and a 60‐itemed questionnaire was administered to these teachers. Data were analysed by SPSS program.

In the perceptions of teachers, there were some problems with the indicators of TQM practices, especially on the dimension of change management. There were significant differences among teachers' perceptions on TQM practices depending upon the variables of branch, level of education and tenure, while there were no meaningful differences according to the gender variable.

The findings reveal the need for an effective change management, educating staff and utilizing human resources to attain a system‐wide quality improvement, to implement the principles of TQM.

Quality improvement is a continual process that should be taken up from the operational level to senior management. Primary schools, as the basic subsystem of educational super‐system, affect upper level schools with their outcomes. So TQM efforts at primary schools are fundamentally important to achieve a high quality education system. This paper sheds light on how to improve quality at this basic level.

The main purpose of this investigation is to find out the influence of empathic skills of managers on the success of schools.

In this study, survey based descriptive scanning model was used. This study was fulfilled in Batman city on teachers working at public and private primary schools in 2003‐2004 education year. According to the results of the central evaluation examination, schools were divided into three success groups (each group having seven schools). About 10 teachers were randomly selected from each of these schools, and then the 23 itemed questionnaire was administered.

As a result of the research it was seen that empathic skills of managers and school success had a very close relationship. There were meaningful differences between the first group and the other two groups. Successful schools' managers clearly had better empathic skills and unsuccessful schools' managers had little empathic skills. The same situation was seen between the second group and the third group as well.

The results of this research may be affected by local conditions in which it was conducted.

The empathic skills which are revealed as important indicators of success should be taken into consideration during the selection and training of managers.

This paper discusses the empathic aspect of school management which has been rarely taken up and displays the importance of empathic skills on school success.

The purpose of this research is to determine high school teachers' organizational commitment levels, their commitment focuses and variables to which their commitments are related.

A survey‐based descriptive scanning model was used. The study was carried out in Elazig city on teachers working in public and private high schools. Taking in the whole population, the questionnaire was administered to 1,017 teachers.

The results show that teachers' commitment focuses, their types and levels of commitment to these focuses vary according to their personal characteristics such as gender, marital status and tenure. Although female teachers are more affectively and normatively committed to the teaching profession than their male counterparts, they have low levels of normative commitment to the work group and low levels of continuance commitment (based on lack of investments) to the school in which they work. Married teachers are less affectively and normatively committed to the teaching profession than unmarried ones. However, married teachers' continuance commitment levels to the teaching profession and to the school in which they work are higher. As tenure increases, perceptions of investments having been made in schools increase and therefore teachers' continuance commitment levels to the focus of the school in which they work increase. Although one‐to‐five year tenured teachers have the highest levels of normative commitment to the teaching profession, they are the least affectively and normatively committed to the focus of work group.

The focus of the study is teachers working at high schools. Teachers working at various school levels may be committed to different focuses or to the same focus at different levels. It may be that a larger study across school levels would have revealed differences across them. Also, the underlying reasons why some teachers are committed to some focuses may be probed more profoundly.

Keeping in mind the importance of teachers' commitment to various focuses and its effects on school effectiveness, educational leaders should take necessary measures to remedy the troubles which cause teachers' lack of commitment. In this context, school leaders may attempt to strengthen: female teachers' weak normative bonds to the work group, married teachers' weak affective and normative bonds to the teaching profession, and new teachers' weak affective and normative bonds to the work group. The findings reveal the need for more supportive and integrative managerial actions to raise teachers' levels of commitment. School leaders may be more concerning and develop special strategies contingent on their employees' personal characteristics to create high commitment workplaces.

The relevant literature shows that the types and levels of teachers' commitment focuses are quite an under‐researched area and the study has contributed to one's understanding of these issues.

This paper is aimed to evaluate recently privatized 18 electricity distribution and retail companies, using the data and conditions at the time they were privatized. The main hypothesis of the study is that most of the privatized companies in this research are underpriced similar to previous experiences in developed and emerging economies.

Values of the companies are calculated considering the formal procedures of Turkish energy authorities. These companies are valued under the base, moderate and extreme scenarios created from different sets of assumptions considering conditions and existing data at the time they were privatized. Discounted cash flows (DCF) methodology is used in the estimations. The market prices obtained in their privatization tenders are compared with those theoretically calculated values (intrinsic prices).

The findings reject the hypothesis and indicate an overpricing in general in the privatizations of Turkey. Even the extreme scenario which gives the highest intrinsic values supports the findings.

Research is limited with 18 regional electricity distribution company in Turkey.

The paper is one of the initial empirical studies on the valuation of energy companies using DCF methodology in an emerging market.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that influence farmers' preference for the use of Islamic banks in Turkey and to investigate their knowledge level and perception about Islamic finance.

Survey data used in this study is obtained by drawing a sample of 1902 farmers who are members of the Agricultural Credit Cooperatives Union (ACCU) from 37 provinces of Turkey. Pearson's Chi-square test is used to analyze the association between the demographic features of farmers, conventional bank usage and Islamic bank usage. Binary logistic regression model is used to estimate the factors influencing the preference for Islamic banks. Explanatory variables include knowledge on Islamic banking and finance, perception of compliance to religion, saving ability and cost concern along with the control variables of Islamic bank branch number in the region and age of respondent. Robustness check is conducted via alternative models using ordinary least squares (OLS) and logistic regression.

Less than 10% of the participant farmers use Islamic banks and 59% declare they know nothing about Islamic banking. Age, education level, income level, nonagricultural income level, saving ability, duration of working in agriculture, land size and region are significantly related to farmers' preference of using Islamic banks. Knowledge level, perception of religious compliance, saving ability and cost concern are statistically significant factors that influence the probability of using Islamic banks.

This study does not include the analysis of the relationship between being religious and using Islamic banks because questions related to the assessment of religious practice were excluded due to the ACCU's sensitivity to investigate personal beliefs. Therefore, future studies can expand the scope of this research by investigating religiousness. The sample is chosen from the ACCU members who are already benefiting from a formal source of credit; therefore, the results should not be attributed to all farmers.

Islamic banks and microfinance institutions' further engagement in the agricultural sector and ACCU's implementation of Islamic finance instruments.

Islamic banks' further diversification in the agricultural sector and ACCU's implementation of Islamic finance instruments.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is the first to investigate the farmers' perception and preference of Islamic banking in Turkey. The sample size of 1902 is much larger and geographically diversified compared to studies in agricultural finance. This study will be valuable for the agricultural finance empirical studies in Turkey as well as an important addition to the emerging literature on Islamic finance.

During Gezi Protests of June 2013, hundred thousands of people from different and even opposite groups were together on the streets of Turkey against government for a month. The abruptness, severity, diversity and creativity of Gezi Movement make it unique among urban movements in Turkey. Protesters not only challenged the police violence and authoritarian policies but also defended public spaces of their city. My analysis of Gezi Movement is based on the comparison of Lefebvre, Harvey, and Bookchin who all integrated the critique of capitalism and revolutionary vision into urban movements. However, they are different in terms of what revolution, city, class, citizen, and urban social movements are. Gezi Movement is discussed through the similarities and differences of three approaches.

Gezi Movement is a good example of New Social Movements which lacks an organization, hierarchy and a leader. As an urban movement it provided a glimpse of heterotopia of Lefebvre where many different groups and identities challenge the abstract space of neoliberal capitalism. The protesters, as the producers and the consumers of urban commons claimed Gezi Park and Taksim Square as Harvey stated. The transformation of protests into neighborhood forums despite losing power and participation shows the civic potential of urban movement that may develop direct democracy of citizens as a revolutionary alternative to capitalism. The spatial analysis of Gezi Movement provided insight to the revolutionary potential of urban movements in neoliberal age.

Scheduling of aircraft maintenance operations is a gap in the literature. Maintenance times should be determined close to the real-life to schedule aircraft maintenance operations effectively. The learning effect, which has been studied extensively in the machine scheduling literature, has not been investigated on aircraft maintenance times. In the literature, the production times under the learning effect have been examined in numerous studies but for merely manufacturing and assembly lines. A model for determining base and line maintenance times in civil aviation under the learning effect has not been proposed yet. It is pretty challenging to determine aircraft maintenance times due to the various aircraft configurations, extended maintenance periods, different worker shifts and workers with diverse experience and education levels. The purpose of this study is to determine accurate aircraft maintenance times rigorously with a new model which includes the group learning effect with the multi-products and shifts, plateau effect, multi sub-operations and labour firings/rotations.

Aircraft maintenance operations are carried out in shifts. Each maintenance operation consists of many sub-operations that are performed by groups of workers. Thus, various models, e.g. learning curve for maintenance line (MLC), MLC with plateau factor (MPLC), MLC with group factor (MGLC) were developed and used in this study. The performance and efficiency of the models were compared with the current models in the literature, such as the Yelle Learning model (Yelle), single learning curve (SLC) model and SLC with plateau factor model (SLC-P). Estimations of all these models were compared with actual aircraft maintenance times in terms of mean absolute deviation (MAD), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and mean square of the error (MSE) values. Seven years (2014–2020) maintenance data of one of the top ten maintenance companies in civil aviation were analysed for the application and comparison of learning curve models.

The best estimations in terms of MAD, MAPE and MSE values are, respectively, gathered by MGLC, SLC-P, MPLC, MLC, SLC and YELLE models. This study revealed that the models (MGLC, SLC-P, MPLC), including the plateau factor, are more efficient in estimating accurate aircraft maintenance times. Furthermore, MGLC always made the closest estimations to the actual aircraft maintenance times. The results show that the MGLC model is more accurate than all of the other models for all sub-operations. The MGLC model is promising for the aviation industry in determining aircraft maintenance times under the learning effect.

In this study, learning curve models, considering groups of workers working in shifts, have been developed and employed for the first time for estimating more realistic maintenance times in aircraft maintenance. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the effect of group learning on maintenance times in aircraft maintenance operations has not been studied. The novelty of the models are their applicability for groups of workers with different education and experience levels working in the same shift where they can learn in accordance with their proportion of contribution to the work and learning continues throughout shifts. The validity of the proposed models has been proved by comparing actual aircraft maintenance data. In practice, the MGLC model could efficiently be used for aircraft maintenance planning, certifying staff performance evaluations and maintenance trainings. Moreover, aircraft maintenance activities can be scheduled under the learning effect and a more realistic maintenance plan could be gathered in that way.