‘Four E’s of Quality – Encourage, Excel, Evaluate, Ensure’ is a training course designed to offer a unique opportunity for different parties in language education institutions to gain a deeper insight into establishing and maintaining an institutional quality culture.

Designed by Eaquals accredited member, Özyeğin University School of Languages, and supported by Eaquals and Macmillan Education, the course was held between June 3rd and July 2nd, 2022 through a blended mode of delivery led by the course trainers Nergis Uyan and Özlem Baykan. The face-to-face component was held in İstanbul, Turkey and a learning management system was used for the online part. 15 participants from various higher education institutions in Turkey attended the course. There was a balance of state and foundation universities from different cities, and the participants included teachers, trainers, directors, vice directors, and coordinators. During the course, they were involved in face-to-face and online sessions, discussions, literature reviews, and tasks.

Following a short introduction to the course, Eaquals, and Macmillan Education, the focus of the first two full-day face-to-face sessions was on exploring the meaning and understanding of quality in profit/non-profit organizations and educational institutions; employee engagement and motivation, and the role of mission, vision, and values in ensuring quality. The three-week online component of the course delved into individual and institutional competence, professional development, and performance management. In one of the online sessions, we welcomed Chris Farrell who gave a session on the link between professional development and performance. The last two full face-to-face days continued with the sessions on effective leadership, quality assurance, and accreditation, and we finalized the course with the presentations delivered by the course participants.

Having completed the course successfully, the participants have already started implementing relevant practices at their own institutions. Some plan to establish new units like teacher development or curriculum and assessment or plan to prioritize collaborative professional development and use resources like the Eaquals TD Framework and the EPG to do self-assessment and identify the needs. Some aim to develop a performance management scheme and plan to use the Eaquals TD Framework and the AMCF. Some plan to develop a well-being plan for their institution while some others have already started looking into their organizational structure seeking ways to increase communication among different parties. And most of the institutions would like to get accredited, thus already started institutional self-assessment. It was quite rewarding to see how the plans and outcomes have been closely linked to the knowledge gained during the course.

 

The feedback received on the content, delivery, and benefit of the course has been highly positive, and the course has been quite inspiring having a big impact on the participants and their institutions. Therefore, we aim to continue this quality journey by offering the course at regular intervals to different groups of participants from various language education contexts.

We would like to extend our gratitude to Eaquals and Macmillan Education for their great support!

Below are some highlights of the course along with some feedback from the participants.“The reading texts and the online [resources] have really been beneficial. Thank you.”

“I am really concerned about the role of the staff in the journey of quality. I learned a lot of theory-based and practical ways to help the staff participate in the procedure voluntarily and effectively.”

“Analyzing Eaquals Framework for Language Teacher Training and Development, and the European Profiling Grid has been really informative, beneficial, stimulating and inspiring.”

“In the f2f sessions, the best part was the opportunity to discuss ideas and exchange information in group work discussions and then the whole-class talks, which were facilitated by pre/post-discussion input by the trainers.”

“Before any third party assurance, all relevant people should go through a training like this one.”

“A rewarding course with lots of insights.”                 

“An exceptional and inspiring training experience.”

 

Nergis Uyan                                                        Özlem Baykan

(Director, Ozyegin University)                       (Team Leader, Ozyegin University)