Reform In Turkey Research Articles

Investigation of Questions in Science and Technology Textbooks in terms of Requirements of the Curriculum after Educational Reform in Turkey

In this study, the pupose is to investigate the questions in science and technology textbooks in terms of number of questions per unit in line with unit weight that indicates relative number of questions their cognitive levels and adopted evaluation approaches in the curriculum. In two forth and two fifth grade texbooks, 3474 questions were investigated by using which content analyses method. As a result of the study, differences in distribution of the questions both in one textbook and between the texbooks were detected based on comparing weight of unit and weight of corresponding question number within that unit. It was found that numbers of the questions on input and processing skills as cognitive level determinants was more than number of output skill questions and over the half of the questions were located at in-text position.

Capital Flows and Policy Reforms in Turkey After the Crises

Capital flows are a key aspect of the global monetary system and have increased significantly in recent years. Capital flows can have substantial benefits for countries, including by enhancing efficiency, promoting financial sector competitiveness, and facilitating greater productive investment and consumption smoothing. Capital flows can also carry some risks; their size and volatility can also cause policy challenges and they can reduce discipline in financial markets and public finances, tighten financing constraints by restricting the availability of foreign capital. The global financial crisis has caused the swings of capital flows in financial markets and lead to policy reforms in developing countries. The aim of the study is to analyze the capital flows and policy reforms in Turkey after global financial crises. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n8p595

Rifat Atun: looking at the bigger picture

Rifat Atun: looking at the bigger picture

Offline: The Turkish paradox

Recall the headlines: “Demonstrations spread throughout Turkey” (IHT, June 3); “Turkey expands violent reaction to street unrest: hits medics and media” (The New York Times, June 17); “Turkish liberals turn their backs on Erdogan” (The New York Times, June 20). This was the inauspicious backdrop to a Ministerial Conference on Universal Health Coverage, held last week in Istanbul jointly between Turkey's Ministry of Health, Imperial College London, Medipol University, and The Lancet. Was it better to engage or disengage? I think we—together with Rifat Atun, who led the evaluation of Turkey's health reforms; Julio Frenk; Ala Alwan and Zsuzsanna Jakab, Regional Directors of WHO; Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Managing Director at the World Bank; and ministers and officials from over 30 countries—were glad we went. Because what Turkey has achieved with its Health Transformation Programme is nothing short of extraordinary. But no-one could ignore recent events. Turkey's democratic transition to universal health coverage“But now, because we've fallen under the spell of the West, we've forgotten our own stories.”Orhan Pamuk, Snow (2004) Full-Text PDF Universal health coverage in Turkey: enhancement of equityTurkey has successfully introduced health system changes and provided its citizens with the right to health to achieve universal health coverage, which helped to address inequities in financing, health service access, and health outcomes. We trace the trajectory of health system reforms in Turkey, with a particular emphasis on 2003–13, which coincides with the Health Transformation Program (HTP). The HTP rapidly expanded health insurance coverage and access to health-care services for all citizens, especially the poorest population groups, to achieve universal health coverage. Full-Text PDF

Universal health coverage in Turkey: enhancement of equity

Turkey has successfully introduced health system changes and provided its citizens with the right to health to achieve universal health coverage, which helped to address inequities in financing, health service access, and health outcomes. We trace the trajectory of health system reforms in Turkey, with a particular emphasis on 2003-13, which coincides with the Health Transformation Program (HTP). The HTP rapidly expanded health insurance coverage and access to health-care services for all citizens, especially the poorest population groups, to achieve universal health coverage. We analyse the contextual drivers that shaped the transformations in the health system, explore the design and implementation of the HTP, identify the factors that enabled its success, and investigate its effects. Our findings suggest that the HTP was instrumental in achieving universal health coverage to enhance equity substantially, and led to quantifiable and beneficial effects on all health system goals, with an improved level and distribution of health, greater fairness in financing with better financial protection, and notably increased user satisfaction. After the HTP, five health insurance schemes were consolidated to create a unified General Health Insurance scheme with harmonised and expanded benefits. Insurance coverage for the poorest population groups in Turkey increased from 2·4 million people in 2003, to 10·2 million in 2011. Health service access increased across the country-in particular, access and use of key maternal and child health services improved to help to greatly reduce the maternal mortality ratio, and under-5, infant, and neonatal mortality, especially in socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. Several factors helped to achieve universal health coverage and improve outcomes. These factors include economic growth, political stability, a comprehensive transformation strategy led by a transformation team, rapid policy translation, flexible implementation with continuous learning, and simultaneous improvements in the health system, on both the demand side (increased health insurance coverage, expanded benefits, and reduced cost-sharing) and the supply side (expansion of infrastructure, health human resources, and health services).

Financial protection in health in Turkey: the effects of the Health Transformation Programme

Financial protection should be the principal objective of any health system. Commonly used indicators for financial protection are out-of-pocket (OOP) payments as a share of total health expenditure and the amount of households driven into poverty by catastrophic health expenditures (CHEs). In the last decade, OOP health payments consisted of approximately one-fifth of the health finance resources in Turkey. Until the year 2008, Turkish health system covered different public and private financing programmes as well as different types of service provision. After 2008, universal financial coverage became a part of the Health Transformation Programme (HTP). This study aimed to evaluate the financial protection in health in the era of health reforms in Turkey between 2003 and 2009. Household expenditures were derived from nationally representative Turkish Household Budget Surveys (HBSs), 2003, 2006 and 2009. Proportion of households facing CHE and impoverishment are calculated by using the methodology proposed by Ke Xu. Probability of incurring and volume of OOP spending were assessed across the health insurance groups by two-part model approach using logistic and OLS regression methods. Our findings showed that the probability of incurring and volume of OOP spending increased gradually in publicly insured households between 2003 and 2009. However, there was a diminishing trend in CHE in Turkey during the period under consideration. The official data showing an ∼3-fold increase in per capita health care use since 2003 and our study findings on decreasing CHE in this period can be interpreted as positive impact of HTP. On the other hand, increased household consumption as a share of OOP health payment and the deterioration in the progressivity of OOP spending in this period should be monitored closely.

The Future of Democratic Reform in Turkey: Constitutional Moment or Constitutional Process?

The Future of Democratic Reform in Turkey: Constitutional Moment or Constitutional Process?

Health, Morality and Housing: The Politics of Working Class Housing in Turkey, 1945-1960

AbstractDrawing on the insights of the growing critical literature on urban governance and housing policy, this article seeks to analyze the specific field of social reform in Turkey in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, in which housing shortages for working class families were depicted as constituting a new social and moral question. Housing policy was born in the early 1950s, as links were established between external sanitary and moral conditions and the homes of the poor, and as rival parties competed to attract the votes of the growing laboring masses. However, neither the middle class reformers nor the political elite supported direct state intervention to provide social housing for low-income citizens. T h e chosen solution was encouraging home ownership through minimum public subsidies to workers' cooperatives. Yet, cooperatives continued to build largely middle class housing during the period, which was far too costly for workers, while unauthorized land appropriations and squatting became the primary mechanism through which the working poor could be incorporated into the urban fabric.

After the reform in Turkey: A content analysis of SBS and TIMSS assessment in terms of mathematics content, cognitive domains, and item types

Abstract The aim of this study was to compare SBS with TIMSS in terms of distribution of content domains (numbers, algebra, geometry, and data and chance) and cognitive domains (knowing, applying, and reasoning), and item types (multiple choice and structured response) as classified in TIMSS 2007 framework. The results of this study reveal that while there is considerable overlap in the content included in the SBS and TIMSS mathematics assessments at eighth grade, differences exist in the distribution of items with respect to cognitive categories and item types.

A Constructivist Analysis of Turkey- European Union Relations within the Context of Five Phase Spiral Model

This article analyzes the European Union-Turkey relations with regard to human rights reforms in Turkey and particularly the European institutions’ impact on reformation process. It will be argued that the EU has been an active leverage especially after the post-Helsinki period. In this regard, this work will propose that in the absence of domestic forces the European Union promotes progressive steps in Turkey. By analyzing this process and correlation, on the theoretical basis this article will use the Constructivist approach and the Five Phase Spiral Model, which introduce sociological point of view to world politics, underline importance of normative structures. Basically, this work assesses the usefulness and validity of model and Constructivism as an explanation of the changes in the Turkish government’s human rights practices.

Gender and Modernization in Turkey

This article aims to explain gender equality in Turkey. The gender concept which implies socially determined roles and responsibilities of men and women varies across different societies and in time. The gender is determined by multiple factors. Besides gender has an impact on every period of life in different ways. There can be inequality in using the opportunities, allocation and utilization of resources, accessing the services because of gender. Women have more disadvantages and lower social statuses compared with men are influenced much negative from so-called inequalities. Several reforms have been carried out since beginning of Turkish Republic in order to provide gender equality. These reforms aim to boost the woman’s economic, cultural and social development. However, today sex based inequality is one of the foremost current problems, although these reforms. When the status of woman in Turkey is examined, it is observed that education level of woman has low and involvement in business life is inadequate. Together with this fact, it is obvious that woman could not exceed gender role despite legal reforms in Turkey and take its place in political area. However, fertility conscious of women started to increase. Therefore, the rates of fertility decrease. To sum up, it was observed that today there are many stages in order to reach the level desired in regard to provide gender equality. Key Words: Gender in Turkey, Gender equality, The Status of Women in Turkey.

Enthusiastic Reformers or Pragmatic Rulers? The Central Bank Reform Agenda of the Turkish Political Elite and the EU Accession

This article examines the underpinnings of central bank (CB) reform in Turkey, with a focus on the role of external anchors, namely the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund. It argues that although international actors played a substantial role in triggering CB reform in 2001, they failed to determine its parameters. The high costs of CB reform in the calculations of the ruling politicians allowed the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey to gain partial operational autonomy, which fell short of fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria for accession to the EU. This article ends by arguing that due to the duration of high costs, the Bank continues to hold partial autonomy today.

QUALITY OF THE TASKS IN THE NEW TURKISH ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS TEXTBOOKS: THE CASE OF PROPORTIONAL REASONING

This study examines new Turkish elementary school mathematics textbooks to provide perspectives on the quality of the tasks related to the proportion concept and the ways they are presented. Tasks were analysed for several dimensions with a particular focus on their level of cognitive demands (LCD). Tasks were distinguished in two groups in terms of LCD: lower-level demand and higher-level demand. The findings revealed that 75 % of the tasks were related to higher-level demand in that they requested a certain level of interpretation, required connecting knowledge and procedures related to each other, demanded responses with some explanation and reinforced students’ non-algorithmic thinking. Only 25 % of the tasks were related to a lower-level demand, and these tasks could be resolved by recalling and implementing rules, procedures and factual knowledge without reflecting upon the meaning behind them. Most of the tasks were presented in multiple representations and framed in non-mathematical contexts. All these task characteristics indicate that the new elementary school textbooks have the capacity to promote students’ proportional reasoning. The findings also inform the international community about crucial aspects of the curriculum reforms in Turkey and provide suggestions for teachers and textbook writers concerning the quality of the tasks and their selection and implementation in the classrooms.

A Comparison of Changes in the Upper Elementary School (grades 6-8) Geometry Learning Area After the Educational Reform in Turkey

This paper aimed to present the changes in the upper elementary school (grades 6, 7, 8)geometry learning area in Turkey after the reform movement of 2004. The methodology of the study wasdescriptive and included content analysis in terms of objectives, geometry content, and time allocation ingeometry before and after 2004. A general conclusion of the study was that changes in the Turkishgeometry education at the upper elementary level have been mostly limited with the rhetoric after 2004.The most prominent change was that the notion of “drawing” was replaced by the notion of “constructing”in order to be consistent with the constructive approach of the post-reform mathematics program.

Türkiye’de yükseköğretim reformu ve ABD’de endüstri-üniversite ilişkisinin tarihi

This article investigates the historical transformation of the U.S. academia and presents a critical assessment of the Council of Higher Education's (YOK) plans for the higher education reform in Turkey. The argument is that the structure of the U.S. academia has been formed in the long-run and through various eclectic processes. Thus, the related practices in the United States cannot be taken as a guide for the sought- for reform in Turkey. The article supports this argument with a presentation of the studies on the history of higher education in the United States and uses the available data about the relationship between industry and academia in order to investigate Turkey's current needs concerning its higher education structure.

Lost in Europeanisation: The Western Balkans and Turkey

The article analyses the EU's impact on the rule of law in the Western Balkans and Turkey. It enquires into the reasons behind the patchy record of rule-of-law reforms in Turkey, Croatia and Albania by examining judicial reforms in response to the EU accession requirements. It argues that a credible EU accession perspective and an adequate degree of state capacity are necessary but not sufficient conditions for explaining the fluctuations in the rule-of-law standards in EU accession countries. The genuine, partial or non-alignment of the ruling elites' domestic incentives with the EU incentives is a key determinant of rule-of-law trends in the Western Balkans and Turkey.

The coherence of the curriculum, textbooks and placement examinations in geometry education: How reform in Turkey brings balance to the classroom

Abstract The aim of this paper is to investigate Turkey's upper elementary grades (grades 6 to 8) geometry education by looking at the compatibility between the curriculum, textbooks, and secondary school placement examinations at the same grade levels in that country. Historically, mathematics education in Turkey has revolved around the curriculum, textbooks and examinations; this study therefore aims to measure how compatible these components are after the reform movement of 2004. Pair wise comparisons included the following: the time allocation for the geometry learning area in the official mathematics curriculum at upper elementary schools during the post-reform period; the actual number of examples in the new textbook series; and the percentage of geometry questions that make up the total mathematics questions in the SBS examinations (level determination examinations – see below). This study suggests that the three aspects (curriculum, textbooks, and national examinations) of geometry education are now usually compatible in what is now the post-reform period in Turkey. Given that Turkish students tend to show poor performance in international and national competencies, future research is needed to analyse the implementation of the intended goals in Turkish classrooms. This study can also be used as an information source in any future reforms of the Ministry of National Education.

Ombudsmanship and Turkey's Europeanization in ‘World Society’

This article investigates Europeanization in a candidate country from a macro-sociological perspective. From the point of view of sociology, extant Europeanization studies treat culture only in a reductionist manner. In particular, ‘sender-receiver’ models overlook the domestic perceptions that translate, vernacularize or reframe exogenous conditionality. Furthermore, ‘goodness of fit’ approaches ‘bringing domestic agency back in’ misleadingly reinforce the image that the domestic and the external spheres are easily separated. By studying the ombudsmanship reform in Turkey, the article concludes that: (1) the content of Europeanization is not purely European; (2) the role for domestic norm entrepreneurs in leading cultural change is variable and constrained; and (3) domestic motivations for Europeanization include exogenous factors trespassing upon EU conditionality, that is, global culture/world society.

Kurdish Transnational Politics and Turkey's Changing Kurdish Policy: The Journey of Kurdish Broadcasting from Europe to Turkey

The bulk of scholarship on EU–Turkey relations has focused mainly on intergovermental or state–society relations, while the larger literature on enlargement and Europeanization has hardly paid any attention to the role of diasporas and immigrant communities as relevant political entrepreneurs in Europeanization processes. In this article, I examine the role and impact of the Kurdish diaspora and the transnational politics of Kurds on recent policy changes in Turkey, with respect to Kurdish broadcasting. Until 1990, the Turkish state officially denied the very existence of Kurds, today Turkish state television broadcasts programs in the Kurdish language. Other reforms have taken place as well. This has often been explained as a result of EU conditionality, yet, no studies have explored the fact that all of these different aspects of Kurdish cultural and educational activities that have begun to take shape in Turkey were actually first developed and implemented in Europe, by Kurdish organizations themselves. The analysis of ROJ-TV in Europe shows that this Kurdish satellite channel is a paradigmatic example of how ‘the diaspora strikes back’. I argue that the emergence of a state-sponsored Kurdish channel in Turkey is a further reaction by the Government to the existence of ROJ-TV in Europe, after initial efforts to shut down the station failed. I conclude that for a comprehensive understanding of Turkey's reform process the transnational activism of the Kurdish diaspora has to be taken into account.

The health sector reforms and the efficiency of public hospitals in Turkey: provincial markets

Turkey initiated the 'Health Transformation Programme' (HTP) in 2003 to align its health care system with the European Union and OECD countries. This study investigates the impact of these reforms on the efficiency of public hospitals. Our study would contribute to the existing literature with a comprehensive analysis of the health system in a developing country. We employ the data envelopment approach and the Malmquist index to comparatively examine before and after the reform years. Our analyses compare the performances of public hospitals served in provincial markets. Inputs of number of beds, number of primary care physician, and number of specialists, and how they are used to produce outputs of inpatient discharges, outpatient visits and surgical operations are investigated. Indeed, as the performance indicators dead rate, hospital bed occupation rate and average length of stay are considered. The HTP was generally successful in boosting productivity due to advancements in technology and technical efficiency but in the socio-economically disadvantaged provinces productivity gains have not been achieved. The average technical efficiency gains took place because of the significantly improved scale efficiencies, as the average pure technical efficiency slightly improved. Lastly, the hospital performance indicators have not improved in the short run. It appears that the expected benefits from the health reforms in Turkey have been partially achieved in the short run.