Through the beginning of the millennium, the education environments have witnessed the introduction of information technologies and new pedagogies. Especially, the extensive use of Internet technologies as well as the networked learning made it possible to design and utilize new generation learning environments that are realistic, authentic, and engaging. By means of educational developments, alternative content delivery techniques or technologies have been implemented into the teaching environments throughout the years. In an effort to capitalize on the advantages of instructional delivery modalities and minimize the disadvantages, scholars started to combine the most functional elements of the instruction in these learning environments and that is universally called as ‘Blended Learning’. Although the blended learning as an instruction model has an increasing interest in the field of higher education, it is still in its infancy. The definitions of blended learning in the literature needs to be clarified or collocated for the readers, who would like to deal with blended learning in any level of instruction. Therefore, this chapter reviews the recent literature on blended and online learning and juxtaposes the definitions of the blended learning as well as the types of blended learning instruction that took place in the higher education environments.

The great use of technology in every part of life eventually forced educators to integrate up-to-date technologies into the teaching environments concerning the increased demands of millennial learners. Thus the teachers’ efficacy of technology integration into the teaching environments becomes a considerably vital issue besides the potential and positive roles of using the technology in the educational settings. The studies in the literature emphasize that increasing self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service teachers on technology integration during their education process will ultimately lead to successful technology integration in the future. Thus, it is believed that the studies examining the self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service teachers are worth conducting. Regarding this tenet, the present study intended to explore the self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service teachers enrolled in four different teacher education programs of a state university in Turkey. A total of 439 pre-service teachers (male= 145, female= 291, missing value=3) who enrolled in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades of English language teacher education (n=115), Primary school teacher education (n=115), Turkish language teacher education (n=92) and Science teacher education (n=117) programs have participated in the study on voluntary bases. The present study, which adopted a non-experimental quantitative research design, gathered its data through a self-administered Likert-type survey accompanied by some demographic questions. The statistical analysis of the quantitative data revealed that pre-service teachers have high self- efficacy in technology integration in general. Additionally, it is found that while technology integration self-efficacy of pre-service teachers show a significant difference in line with some majors and grade level variables, there found no difference in terms of the gender variable.

The purpose of the present study is to figure out the perceptions of pre-service teachers on the characteristics of ethical teacher and feasibili

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the influence of culture shock, acculturation strategies, and sociocultural adjustment on the perceived Turkish and English language proficiency of international students in Turkey. Data were collected from 3554 international students in Turkey whose native language was neither Turkish nor English, using the "Culture Shock Questionnaire", "Acculturation Measurement", and "Sociocultural Adjustment Scale". Data were analyzed using correlation and hierarchical multiple regression analyses. The results revealed that the perceived Turkish and English language proficiencies of international students in Turkey were moderate. Language proficiency, personal interests, and social participation factors of sociocultural adjustment and acculturation strategies, such as assimilation and integration, have a positive impact on perceived Turkish language proficiency. On the other hand, the interpersonal stress factor of culture shock and assimilation and integration aspects of the acculturation strategies were found to be the most critical determinants of perceived English language proficiency. Additionally, language proficiency, personal interests, and social participation factors of sociocultural adjustment and acculturation strategies, such as separation and assimilation, had positive effects, whereas the language proficiency factor of sociocultural adjustment and assimilation acculturation strategies had negative effects. The findings of this study indicate that acculturation strategies and sociocultural adjustment play a crucial role in the development of perceived target language proficiency.

In this study we aim to conduct a complete evaluation of the e-portfolio application in the distance teaching practice course that is part of the Distance English Language Teacher (DELT) program at Anadolu University from the perspective of three groups: university supervisors, preservice teachers, and cooperating teachers. Using a survey on the needs of preservice teachers and how well these were met according to the three groups’ perspectives, we gathered qualitative and quantitative data on the feasibility of the e-portfolio application. Our analysis of the findings revealed that all three groups agreed about the needs of preservice teachers. And despite some minor variance in the perspectives of each group, we determined that e-portfolio applications can meet the majority of the planning, teaching, and reflection needs in the teaching process. We offer suggestions to improve e-portfolio applications so they will better meet preservice teachers’ needs.