On 9-10 March, in Eskişehir, Nergis Uyan, Esra Çelik Soydan and Selen Şirin Dülger ran a 2-day training with the participants from universities across Türkiye.

This training was the second in the series entitled “Effective Schooling for Quality Language Provision” organized by Macmillan Education with the collaboration of Eaquals, focusing specifically on professional development.

The event started with the welcome speeches of Erdem Hacıfazlıoğlu, Director of Regional Sales and Marketing at Macmillan Education, and Lou McLaughlin, Executive Director at Eaquals, which were followed by Nergis Uyan’s session “Overview of Professional Development”.  In her session, Nergis Uyan focused on the varying definitions of development for the whole school.

 

In the afternoon, in her session “Principles of Professional Development”, Esra Çelik Soydan focused on the constituents of CPD in language schools and the importance of principled decisions while planning PD activities including the principles of professional development and its close relationship with andragogy.  In the last session of the first day, Selen Şirin Dülger went over each principle mentioned in the previous session by providing real-life practices and tools to be used for PD activities in language schools.

The second day of the training was allocated for the topic of “Lesson Observation”.  To this end, the first session focused on the value of lesson observations in PD activities.  With all the parties involved during this process and varying perceptions, we discussed the ways of creating an observation culture in our institutions.  This session was followed by a small-group workshop session during which the participants had the chance to experience hands-on practice regarding pre- and post- stages of lesson observations, what to and how to give feedback on lesson plans and how to plan follow-up actions.  In the last session, we had a look at different types of lesson observations with their procedures, benefits and things to consider.

Throughout these sessions, it was aimed to create ample opportunities for the participants to reflect on the current practices they have in their institutions, to interact with the other participants from different universities and to get new insights on professional development activities to be used in their schools.

Based on the feedback collected at the end of each day, it was seen that the initial aim was achieved and the participants found the training quite beneficial from different aspects.

Below, you can find a selection from a high volume of feedback from the participants:

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  • I feel satisfied. It’s difficult to form a path individually and institutionally. However, after today some of my questions have been answered. It was worth attending the training.
  • I feel good-the sessions allowed me to sit down and think what we are doing as institution. It helped me make up my mind.
  • It was a nice day- I got all the detailed info about PD. It was good to see from the beginning- description of PD.
  • The program was really informative & well-organised.
  • I will try to implement the ideas & techniques that I learned through this training. I think I will benefit from them a lot.
  • I feel more motivated & encouraged. I feel what we are doing or trying to do has now become more meaningful.
  • Day one was quite informative. I knew the importance of the PD in teaching, but with all the useful information I got today, my assumption has become stronger. Now I believe even more that PD is as essential as the teaching itself.
  • I feel quite satisfied. I have learnt some crucial approaches to PD. I had a chance to deepen my understanding of PD and I have realized what we can do better.

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We would like to thank Macmillan Education and Eaquals for their effort in organizing this event and for creating this opportunity for us to run this training.

We are looking forward to our future collaborations.