Turkey

TUESDAY, APRIL 25

We arrived to the school at 09:00, and a group of student showed us the facilities of the high school. The Headmaster welcomed us at his office, where he invited us to a nice cup of tea. After that, the students led us to the library, where they presented the education system in Turkey, activities, clubs and the school projects such as Erasmus+ and eTwinning. They used the app Wordwall for us to play a game about our knowledge of Turkish traditions. Then, we met Dr. Caroline Fell Kurban and Doğu Paker Özdemir, members of MEF University, who gave us an interesting workshop on Flipped Classroom.

Dr. Fell made us summarize our project in the following 4 steps: situation, problem, response and evaluation. She also asked us to write some questions and our expectations for the workshop. She talked about the importance of developing a right order when applying Flipped Learning, as well as following the pyramid of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

After that, Mr. Paker, who is doing a PhD about Flipped Learning, took the word. He insisted on the relevance of using the steps of Bloom’s Taxonomy, and on the importance of transitioning from pre-class activities to in-class activities. In order to better understand this, we did a matching activity on Google Slides in pairs. We were asked to connect criteria to definitions.

To wrap the session up, Dr. Fell and Mr. Paker used the 3, 2, 1 technique. This consists of mentioning 3 take-aways of the workshop, making 2 questions, and giving 1 piece of feedback. It was really enriching!!!

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26

Chemistry teacher Şükriye Metinoğlu prepared two workshops to do with the Turkish students. For the first one, she shared a few videos of her students, in which they gave explanations about  acids and bases. Once we had watched them, we made a quiz on Wordwall, matching terms and definitions (pre-class activity). Then, we moved on to the in-class activity, which consisted of mixing products that the students had bought at the supermarket with indicators, to know their Ph scale. This experiment was carried out following all safety measures. Even if our chemistry skills were limited, we felt really comfortable at all times, because the students were there to help us and give us advice. The outcome was a really colorful test tube palette.

As a preparation for the second workshop, Miss Metinoğlu sent us a video about the history of candle making, another one of how to make candles at home, and a last one with a student explaining the process. After that, we moved to the lab zone, where we made our own candles, choosing the colour, scent and decoration. The result was lovely!

THURSDAY, APRIL 27

We met at Suadiye train station early in the morning to visit Bosphorus University for a training workshop on digital skills. There, we encountered the Head of Technology Department of the University, as well as her colleagues Dr. Mutlu Şen Akbulut and Dr. Duygu Umutlu, and we had lunch with them. After that, they led us to the conference room at the Education Department, where they started their workshop.

First, they talked about how they had dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in their lessons, and how it had affected their teaching methods. It was really challenging for them to engage their students by teaching and working remotely.

Secondly, they showed us how to flip our classes effectively. For that, they presented an experiment they made after Covid, trying to find ways to engage their students again when returning to face-to-face learning and to improve academic results. The outcome of this experiment revealed them that they only needed to develop one of the three interaction modes (Learner-Content, Learner-Instructor and Learner-Learner) so as to improve students’ online part-taking.

After that, they reviewed the Flipped Learning model with us, mentioning its advantages, problems and possible solutions. Then, they asked us to prepare a draft for a flipped learning project in groups, following these steps: identify a subject area; add a topic; specify grade level; design an example of flipped classroom and present it to the rest.

The final products of this activity were really creative and applicable to our teaching practice.

FRIDAY, APRIL 28

We met at high school at 09:00, where the lovely Turkish students were waiting for us, eager to show us their presentations about Turkish traditions, best places to visit in Turkey, Turkish superstitions and the historical development of Turkish language.

Mónica Muriel Ríos, from INCOMA, showed us a wide variety of co-operation games we can use in our lessons, such as Orange mediation, Escape roooms, Mao-Mao cards, and communication. In order to put one of them into practice, we played a communication game. She gave us each three sentences, and we had to collaborate and find out the target of the task.

After finishing the game, she explained her analysis of our group strategies and behaviour during the process, and the difficulties we had to face while trying to solve the problem.

To wrap the session up, Mónica used AhaSlides to help us do the final evaluation and feedback of our project “Breaking Walls with Flipped Classroom”. We were asked different questions so we could assess our strenghts and aspects to improve. It helped us reflect upon our project in an objective and realistic way. Thank you for that!

Finally, the Headmaster Alaeddin Gündüz gave us the certificates of attendance and wished us a safe trip back home.