Dear all,

Please find this week’s news and updates below:

1.Quality Talk Series #4: Professional Development

You are cordially invited to Quality Talk Series #4: “Professional Development”

“Quality Talks” is a series of online event organized with the collaboration of Ozyegin University and Macmillan Education. It aims at providing insight into quality assurance in education and language learning and teaching in the post-Covid era. The series will consist of multi-phased panel discussions and sessions focusing on quality during distance education and beyond from the perspective of learners, teachers, teacher trainers, managers, education faculty members and education specialists with a variety of background.

The fourth session of the event, ‘Professional Development’, will look at ‘quality’ from professional development angle and with views of experts from the field of education.

It will be held on Thursday, 24th at 15:30. The registration link can be found here.

QUALITY TALK SERIES #4 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Ayşen Güven works as Director Education for the British Council in Turkey. She has been working intensively on improving the quality of English provision in the higher education sector in Turkey at national and institutional level. Ayşen worked at an EMI university for 20 years as a teacher, trainer and supervisor, focusing on English for Academic Purposes (EAP), specialising in EAP curriculum design, reflective practice, leadership and change management. She is currently the co-ordinator of the IATEFL English for Specific Purposes Special Interest Group (ESP SIG).

Asst. Prof. Dr. Bahar Gün is the head of the Teacher Development Unit, Izmir University of Economics. She has 29 years of experience in the field of English language teaching (ELT). Her research interests include EFL teacher education in general, teacher cognition, reflective teaching and learning in particular. She is also a Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA) and In-service Certificate in English Language Teaching (ICELT) tutor, an OTA trainer; and a trained reviewer for Commission on English Language Program Accreditation (CEA). She has presented in many national and international conferences and extensively published in the field of English Language Teaching. She is the President of the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Turkey Association and a Board Member of Language education evaluation and accreditation board (DEDAK). She is also the coordinator of IATEFL Teacher Training and Teacher Education Special Interest Group (TTEd SIG).

Beril Yücel has been involved in ELT for 30 years as an instructor, teacher trainer, textbook writer and administrator. She holds a BA in ELT and an MSc in Educational Sciences from Middle East Technical University. Currently, she works as the Foreign Languages Department Director at Turkish Education Association (TED) Headquarters.  She is a member of Board of Directors of İngiliz Dili Öğretimi ve Mesleki Gelişim Derneği (TESOL Turkey).  Beril has extensive experience in teacher training and trainer training. She has taken part in many professional development projects both nationally and internationally. She presented at many conferences, published articles and chapters of books.  She is mainly interested in teacher education, educational administration, research and materials design.

Chris Farrell is Head of Training and Development with Centre of English Studies. He is a member of the Eaquals Board of Trustees, the Chair of the English UK Academic Advisory Board and a committee member with IATEFL TDSIG.

 

John O’Dwyer is Director of the Özel Bilkent Primary, Middle and High Schools, International Baccalaureate Continuum World Schools, on the campus of Bilkent University, Ankara. Formerly Director of Bilkent University’s School of English Language (BUSEL), he has many years of leadership experience in English-medium university language teaching and learning, and in curriculum change in the school sector. He has worked in Europe, Africa, and South East Asia as a teacher, teacher educator, consultant, and evaluation specialist. His PhD focused on curriculum evaluation, and his interests include in-service professional learning, inquiry-based learning, assessment, and the learning organization.

Nergis Uyan graduated from the Middle East Technical University’s Foreign Language Education Department and received her MA in Management in Education from Bilkent University. She completed Cambridge University DTEFLA (Diploma in Teaching of English as a Foreign Language to Adults) and Bilkent University ADEM (Advanced Diploma in English Language Teaching Management). She worked in several positions at Bilkent University School of English Language (BUSEL) including English Language Instructor, Head of Teaching Unit, Teacher Development Coordinator, CELTA Trainer and Member of BUSEL Directorate. She has been working as the director of Ozyegin University School of Languages (ScOLa) since February 2010.  She has joined the EQUALS Board as a trustee in 2018 April.

2. Study Center

We will continue offering outside class support to Prep students through our Study Center slots.

Below you can find the poster for the first half of the Summer School.  Students can receive individual support from Study Center instructors on the areas that they need to work more.

STUDY CENTRE SUMMER SCHOOL POSTER 1

3. University Student Psychological Counselling Team Webinar for ScOLa Instructors

Last week on Wednesday between 15:00-17:00 our University Student Psychological Counselling Team kindly gave us a session for us to reflect on the challenging pandemic period we’ve been through. The session started with a presentation where each member of the team presented their relevant content and at the end of the session they received our questions and provided us with the opportunity to talk about the issues we have been experiencing.

The session mainly aimed at offering a platform for us to share our experiences during the pandemic, talk about our needs, discuss how to maintain our psychological well-being, how to take care of ourselves and how to balance our relationships with our students while also helping them during this process.

The session will be repeated on Wednesday, June 30, between 15:00-17:00 for ML and UGE instructors. However, prep instructors who missed the first session can also join this one.

To be able to join the session, registration can be done through the link here.

Here is a screenshot from the session presentation from last week: