European University of Lefke (EUL) Dr. Fazıl Küçük Faculty of Education organized a panel titled “The Past, Present and Future of Teaching Profession in Turkey”. Academician of Adnan Menderes University Prof. Dr. Asuman Seda Saracaloğlu and Academician of Girne American University Prof. Dr. Nejat Sefercioğlu attended the panel as speakers which was moderated by Academician of EUL Prof. Dr. Tanju Gürkan.

Saracaloğlu embraced the Profession of Teaching

Prof. Dr. Asuman Seda Saracaloğlu informed the participants about; the legal process required to become a teacher, qualities of teachers, competences of teachers, occupational abilities of teachers, and evaluation of the teacher performances.

Saracaloğlu listed the personal qualifications of teachers as; being democratic, fair, understanding, open to communication, cheerful, patient, humorous, confident, consistent, innovative, visionary, reliable, responsible, model, ethical, and humanist.  Saracaloğlu said that the roles of a teacher are; informativeness- instructiveness- expertness, facilitation- supportiveness- guidance, modelling-leadership-variation.

Saracaloğlu pointed out that teaching knowledge can be gathered under three headings as general culture, field education, and knowledge of teaching profession and described general knowledge of teachers as transferring the culture and standards of judgment to students, contributing to their socialization, being aware of the environment and cultural characteristics of the society, being sensitive to the events surrounding them, being able to follow developments, being aware of the problems related to the society and thinking about the solutions. Saracaloğlu evaluated the knowledge of teaching profession as, effective planning strategies, techniques of providing classroom management and motivation, recognition of the development and learning characteristics of students, teaching at the student level, time management, and measurement evaluation knowledge.

Saracaloğlu explained field education knowledge, how to teach field knowledge, how the teacher candidate will best teach the subject knowledge with examples and emphasized that field education knowledge is unique to teachers.

Sefercioğlu gave advice to the students about the profession

Sefercioğlu gave examples from Atatürk’s speeches and addresses about teachers, emphasized the importance that Atatürk gave to teachers and gave same advices to the students about the profession.

Touching upon the qualities that a teacher should have, Prof. Dr. Nejat Sefercioğlu said that a teacher should have the desire for being a teacher, adapt themselves to innovation regardless of their field, prepare themselves to the technology of the era, and should be loving, tolerant, idealistic and forgiving