Becoming a Thinking School for Student Development

Becoming a Thinking School for Student Development

As part of its efforts to develop critical thinking skills and make an innovative and interactive understanding of education widespread, ERG has organized teacher trainings at Hasköy Secondary School under a protocol signed with the Istanbul Provincial Directorate for National Education. The first stage of the training program lasted 11 days and took place from February-March 2013, while the second stage took 12 days and took place between September-November 2013.

The training program lasted 23 days in total, 20 of which were attended by all branch teachers, while Science, Mathematics, Turkish, English, and Religion and Ethics teachers took an extra three-day program planned specifically for their own branch. Featuring an innovative and interactive design, the trainings covered many subjects, such as learning and teaching processes and teachers’ and students’ roles in the classroom, with various exercises enabling teachers to develop their own pedagogic practices and work on a basis of questioning/critical thinking. According to preliminary evaluations, participants agree that these efforts should be made widespread.

ERG-UNICEF-MEB Joint Research Project Publications

ERG-UNICEF-MEB Joint Research Project Publications

ERG, initiated three separate research projects in January 2011 with the collaboration of UNICEF and the MoNE General Directorate of Primary Education. In the first research project, the effect of economic crisis on the student attendance to school was examined in the light of e-school data and policies developed for a more effective use of the e-school system. The second research focused on which features of students were the determinants of access to secondary education, the report aimed to bring recommendations toward increasing access to secondary school. In the third research, results of a field research on the ways in which primary schools create and use resources formed the basis of model building activities in order to make resource use more equalitarian and efficient.

Turkey’s FATIH Project: A Plan to Conquer the Digital Divide, or a Technological Leap of Faith?

Turkey’s FATIH Project: A Plan to Conquer the Digital Divide, or a Technological Leap of Faith?

Turkey is embarking on one of the world’s largest educational technology projects: putting tablet computers in the hands of every student from grade 5 to 12, and interactive whiteboards in every classroom. With FATIH (The Movement to Enhance Opportunities and Improve Technology), Turkey’s Ministry of National Education is in a unique position on the world stage: the project is nascent and grandiose enough to at the same time affect real and lasting change; and become a model for a host of other nations looking for effective ways to prepare their children for leading roles in the global knowledge economy. Though massive in its planned scope, the goals and approach of FATIH are little understood.

In 2013, ERG teamed up with Research Triangle Institute(RTI International) to study Turkey’s FATIH project.  For ERG, this has been considered as a major part of its ongoing efforts of monitoring education policy issues and a thorough evaluation of FATIH necessitated cooperation with a research center endowed with comprehensive international experience regarding ICT in education. RTI, an international non-profit organization implementing education reform projects worldwide, welcomed the opportunity to learn more about the implementation of FATIH in collaboration with ERG in order to contribute to the recommendations based on experiences of other large-scale ICT in education programs worldwide.

ERG and RTI have collaborated on preparing a policy brief titled “Turkey’s FATIH Project: A Plan to Conquer the Digital Divide, or a Technological Leap of Faith?”, which aims to analyze FATIH through the lens of ongoing and previous international large-scale ICT in education experiences, and to use those experiences to suggest ways in which this important investment in educational technology can lead to the best possible learning outcomes for all students in Turkey.  

With this policy brief, ERG and RTI hope to help inform the general public about FATIH and contribute to the facilitation of constructive dialogue.

Do Private Tutoring Centers Provide Equality of Opportunity and Quality in Education?
In Notes

Do Private Tutoring Centers Provide Equality of Opportunity and Quality in Education?

Recently, Turkish government announced a policy plan which demands that private tutoring centers will either be closed down or be relocated in the formal education system by converting themselves into private schools. The government proposal caused a big –and controversial- public debate on various aspects of private tutoring, particularly in terms of its effects on education outcomes, equality of opportunity in society, and on who benefits from private tutoring and how much.  By publishing the policy note presented in this email, ERG aims to make an informed and constructive contribution to the public debate in Turkey on private tutoring centers.

With this note, Education Reform Initiative (ERG) aims to help steer recent debates on the state of private tutoring centers (PTCs) in the right track. A common phenomenon in Turkey regarding changes in education policy is the prevalence of unproductive discussions that are far from the essence of the issue at hand. Furthermore, the fact that such radical and complex changes are brought to the public agenda in a hasty and polemical manner is a problem in itself. Along these lines, debates on PTCs, which directly affect many people, should be steered towards a more constructive platform where the issue can be discussed with an evidence-based and holistic approach.

Education Monitoring Report 2012

Education Monitoring Report 2012

Education Reform Initiative (ERG) continues to present a consistent, comprehensive, and critical evaluation of the education policies and their implementation through its annual Education Monitoring Reports. Education Monitoring Report 2012 is the sixth of these, and in accordance with previous reports, it evaluates the main developments in Turkey’s education system under four main components (students, teachers and learning processes, content of education, and learning environments), as well as in terms of governance and financing. Moreover, the chapter on educational outcomes, which was first introduced in the 2010 report, has been enriched with more analytical content.

The predominant topic of this year’s report is the possible impact of the regulations regarding Law No. 6287, the legislation commonly known as “4+4+4,” on education. Among other topics addressed in the report are financing of education; attendance in pre-school education; developments in special education; an analysis of teacher supply and demand; the FATİH (Movement to Enhance Opportunities and Improve Technology) Project whose implementation gained momentum in 2012; changes in weekly course schedules; curriculum and materials; and a review of the newly introduced elective courses. The report finally presents an analysis of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) results.

Education Monitoring Report 2012 is the outcome of various information gathering and sharing processes. As well as visits, observations and assessments conducted by ERG throughout the year; the data provided by MoNE and other institutions in the Journal of Announcements (Tebliğler Dergisi) have been examined within the context of the questions raised in the report. Additionally, three background reports have been prepared by experts from outside ERG: Prof. Sinan Olkun studied the curricula and course materials for the Mathematical Applications course; Mine Yıldırım evaluated the new elective religious courses in terms of human rights standards; Assoc. Prof. Tülin Güler and researcher Mefharet Veziroğlu examined the curricula and course materials in transition to primary education. Apart from these, a background report that addresses the state of education in Van after the 2011 earthquakes was penned by the organization Gündem: Çocuk! at the end of 2012.

Education Monitoring Report 2011

Education Monitoring Report 2011

Turkey still lacks a comprehensive education strategy.

The need for a medium term plan to develop and implement education policies persisted in 2011. Following his appointment as the Minister of National Education in 2011, Mr. Ömer Dinçer’s strategy meetings on teacher policies and vocational and technical education were valuable efforts that could respond to the need for a holistic strategy. However, Turkey’s education policies continue to suffer from the absence of a thorough study which designs and monitors policies and strategies among different components of education with wide participation.

Neither the high-level policy documents nor the ruling party’s election manifesto included a legislative proposal on the “4+4+4” compulsory education system. Moreover, the legislative proposal drafting process was neither participatory nor data-based. Effective shortly after its first appearance on the public agenda, the Primary Education and Education Law no. 6287 brought about changes in the school starting age and primary schools, introduced new programs and elective courses at the lower secondary level and made upper secondary education compulsory. While fundamentally altering the educational system, it also caused uncertainty. This unplanned alteration not only jeopardizes progress made in the education sector but also creates significant challenges in the areas of governance and financing for Ministry of National Education.