Dear all,

Please find ScOLa Teaching and Learning Development Unit update for 2021-22 Academic Year Fall Semester below:

1. Professional Development Activities

1.a. Common Time Sessions 

There were two individual and two series of common time professional development sessions in the fall semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. All the sessions and meetings were held online synchronously. In total, 52 participants attended these sessions. We would like to thank our colleagues who gave the sessions voluntarily and the ones who attended and contributed to these sessions.

The presentation recordings and session materials are archived in  Z-Drive – TLDU folder, and could be accessed via the following link: http://\\10.100.10.12\ozyeginunv\z_old_SELI\AAA Level Folders\LS READ ONLY FOLDERS\TLDU\Professional Development Activities\2021-2022 Academic Year\Fall Semester

We are looking forward to sharing our ideas and expertise with each other in the future.

1.b. ScOLa Induction Program – Fall Semester

Our new instructors, 12 prep instructors & 3 ML instructors, have completed Fall Semester of ScOLa Induction Program.  During this program, our new colleagues attended individual and common needs sessions, completed diagnostic observation cycle and follow-up cycles. Below you can find the common-needs sessions delivered in the Fall Semester as part of the Induction Program:

  • How to plan a week incorporating all the resources
  • Lesson planning
  • How to give writing feedback
  • How to teach vocabulary in ScOLa context

We will continue with our needs-based program in the Spring Semester to ease our new colleagues’ transition period in their first year in our institution.

1.c. ScOLa Modern Languages sessions

This semester we planned and delivered two sessions designed specifically for Modern Languages Program based on the common needs of this program.

  • Lesson Planning Session
  • Student-Centered Teaching with Effective Scaffolding Session

We will continue organizing tailor-made sessions for the arising needs in our institution in the future.

2. Extra-curricular Language Development Activities for Students

2.a. Study Center 

In the Fall Semester, ScOLa Study Center – Study Slots were visited 139 times & Speaking Slots were visited 63 times by our students. Out of these 139 visits for Study Slots, 59 visits focused on grammar and 30 visits were to get writing support. In addition to our speaking slots, the students also visited the study slots 27 times to practice speaking.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, for the first time we could offer face-to-face meeting opportunities for our students in the Study Slots in addition to the online ones. 12 out of those 139 Study Slot visits were face-to-face ones.

We are happy to have been providing this extra support to our students and we hope to continue giving this support in the areas where students need extra guidance.

2.b. ScOLa Student Development Sessions

In the Fall Semester, we offered our students the following developmental sessions:

  1. How to be an Effective Online Learner by Mohammad Khari
  2. How to Study Vocabulary by Esra Çelik Soydan
  3. How to Study Receptive Skills (Reading and Listening) by Özlem Kaplan Snyder
  4. Guest Student Session
  5. How to Study Writing by Esra Çelik Soydan
  6. Effective Problem Solving Skills by Sultan Zeydan

In total, 425 students attended these sessions in the Fall Semester.

All the sessions have been recorded and the recordings are available on Z Drive for your reference under:

Z:\z_old_SELI\AAA Level Folders\LS READ ONLY FOLDERS\TLDU\Extra-curricular Activities for Sts\2021-22 Academic Year\Fall Semester\Student Development Sessions

2.c. ScOLa Clubs

This semester we, as ScOLa, ran one student club and that was A2 Speaking Club delivered by Esra Çelik Soydan. This club had sessions based on the weekly level objectives of A2 level so that our students could have a chance to develop their speaking while revising certain level objectives at the same time. At the end of the semester, 4 students were able to complete the club requirements successfully and get SEC101 credits.

We would like to continue offering these extra-curricular opportunities to our students in the following semesters so that they can have different options to be exposed to English in addition to their regular classes.

3. Blended Model Instruction – Evaluation Questionnaire

In the Fall Semester, we prepared a questionnaire for our students to evaluate the effectiveness of the Blended Model Instruction that we carried out for the first time this semester.

In total 219 students completed the questionnaire (A2: 37, B1: 139, B2: 43).

Through this questionnaire we aim to increase the effectiveness of teaching and learning at ScOLa in the following semesters and the results of this questionnaire will be shared with the relevant parties later for focused reflection.