Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University (MAKÜ) Faculty of Education organized a meeting to develop cooperation in education.
A meeting was held in the MAKÜ Senate Hall to develop the existing and future collaborations with pre-school, primary, secondary, and high schools affiliated with MAKÜ and the Directorate of National Education. The meeting was attended by Rector Prof. Dr. Adem Korkmaz, Vice Rectors Prof. Dr. Durmuş Acar, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Karaca, Dean of the Faculty of Education Prof. Dr. Firdevs Savi Çakar, Burdur Provincial Director of National Education Nesrin Kakırman, Deputy Directors of National Education, academicians, and school administrators.
The opening speech of the meeting was made by the Dean of the Faculty of Education, Prof. Dr. Firdevs Savi Çakar. In her speech, Çakar said; “Our university has an updated protocol with the Directorate of National Education within the framework of cooperation in education. Before that, we also have ongoing studies. In this meeting, we aim to evaluate these studies, especially within the scope of the teaching practice continued by different faculties, to evaluate ourselves within the framework of the opinions and suggestions of our school administrators, and to continue our studies in the field of more qualified and effective teacher training by taking your opinions.”
Continuing her speech, Dean Prof. Dr. Çakar, who made a presentation about the studies carried out so far and the cooperation studies to be carried out in the future, said: “As the Faculty of Education, we are currently sending students to teaching practice in 11 programs. In the past term, approximately 1,090 of our students were in the schools of the Ministry of National Education in 43 schools. Our cooperation studies with the Directorate of National Education continue as MAKÜ and will continue with different projects.”
Rector Korkmaz: “A Classroom Means a Country”
Then, Rector Prof. Dr. Adem Korkmaz also made a speech. In his speech, Rector Korkmaz said: “When we talk about education, our relationship is not limited to the fact that our young people come to you for teaching practices as required by our legislation. When we look at education as a whole in terms of the future of our society, there are two serious components of education. This is an important meeting in terms of bringing together primary and secondary education with higher education, being able to talk about many issues, and having things to tell each other. Because we continue with the students you have trained. The only exception to this is foreign students coming from abroad. Apart from this, all our students come to us within the national education system, starting from pre-school. Here, we aim to both provide them with a profession and strengthen many values that you have laid the foundation for in these students and ensure their interaction in terms of being strong individuals for the future of society. While doing this, there are many issues that require us to provide feedback and quickly return to National Education. I think it is important that we discuss these issues together and regularly come together. It is not only the students of the Faculty of Education or the students who are studying or receiving formation for teaching, but it is also about receiving feedback from all our students who enter through our doors and reporting it back. One of the most important elements for all quality processes is a process called feedback. It is a structure where the results of the previous stage are evaluated and re-included in the system, and the system is revitalized at each stage of the cycle. Essentially, it is a quality process. Mehmet Akif Ersoy University also has a historical mission. It has an understanding of being involved in all processes of the city and town it is located in as an academy. This is already institutionalized in the Faculty of Education. It is also institutionalized in National Education. In all other areas, we have a tendency to transfer our existing academic knowledge to different levels with the studies carried out by our university. In certain areas, our university has been designated as a specialization area. Especially in terms of regional development, it is an approach that the state has concretized and turned into a state policy, especially in agriculture and animal husbandry. At the core of this approach are the successful studies that our Faculty of Education has been carrying out in cooperation with National Education and the education sector for years. The most important thing in these studies is a state of mental readiness. This strong relationship between the Directorate of National Education and our university, which has been going on for many years with you, our esteemed administrators, directors, and teachers, has created a motivation and a ground for us to go into the field and work in other areas as well. The notes we will take in this meeting also show a will to carry out strong studies and projects together in the coming periods. We entrust a classroom to our graduating student. A classroom means a country.”
Vice Rector and Acting Dean of the Faculty of Theology Prof. Dr. Mehmet Karaca also talked about the studies they carried out in cooperation with the Faculty of Theology and the Directorate of National Education. In his speech, Prof. Dr. Karaca said; “We also had joint studies with our Directorate of National Education in 2022. After the workshop we organized together with the academicians of our university and the esteemed teachers and administrators of our national education on religious education, we had the opportunity to evaluate the output of the general evaluation workshop on the fields of activity and the work to be done. It is clear that it has significant contributions in terms of the formation training of our students from the perspective of our university. During this process, we also had hundreds of events that we carried out jointly with our Directorate of National Education, especially regarding student communities affiliated with the Health, Culture, and Sports Department. Approximately 50% of these were implemented in schools under the umbrella of our Directorate of National Education. I think the activities carried out by our university students together with high schools and equivalent schools are a good collaboration.”
Finally, Dean of the Faculty of Sports Sciences Prof. Dr. Emrah Atay made a speech. Prof. Dr. Atay said, “The place where the knowledge we teach here is reinforced and the title of teacher is imparted to children is the practices and internships at school. In this respect, I thank you very much. On behalf of myself, you always treat us positively whenever we visit. You treat our children positively. I thank you very much for the interest, close relationships, warm contacts, and goodwill approaches you have shown to our students. I would also like to say that we only came together for teaching practice. From now on, we have a project prepared by the Faculty of Sports Sciences to promote sports in schools, and in the coming years, the Faculties of Sports Sciences will undergo a new restructuring. 6 + 2, that is, they receive 6 terms of education at the university and 2 terms in the field. We think that the field will only be schools in small places in this city. In this respect, I think we will need more cooperation in the future.”
After the speeches, school administrators also shared their opinions. After the meeting, Rector Korkmaz and Director of National Education Kakırman presented certificates of appreciation to the school administrators who attended the meeting. The meeting ended with a tour of the MAKÜ İstiklal Campus and lunch.
