Preschool Education

Hello there friends, I am Utku Arcan. A senior student at Başkent University. I study at the department of Preschool Education. This department was established with the goal to guide children throughout exploring their surrounding and discovering themselves. Aiming to train them to express themselves, in order to help increase their self-confidence and to help them adapt to their world and surroundings. Furthermore, while they are achieving big goals, we, as their teachers believe we must be there for them, and support them throughout this growth. Another important feature is that such materials that we offer, makes it easier for parents to adapt to the new experiences they encounter with their children. Our faculty is in the connected campus, right behind the faculty of Health Sciences. We take courses such as Anatomy, Physiology, Drama, Child Mental Health, and Children’s Literature. Not only do these courses improve our knowledge about children, they also assist in our personal development. We attain different points of view, learn new things and comfortably adapt to the children’s world. Our faculty is facilitated with visual arts and drama workshops, at which we do a lot of practice for many of our courses. Besides that, we have our Science Lab, where we implement and test various experiments first among ourselves before we go on internships and apply them with children. On our third year, we take an internship in schools. For those internships we go to certain places determined by our instructors, where we observe the performance of qualified and professional teachers. We learn about the gaps that we need to work on, about different ways to approach students, and detect how to prepare favorable activities for children through observations during the internship. Following up on that, before going on field for our fourth year teaching practice internship, we conduct classes individually among ourselves first, in order to design qualitative educational activities for children; using interactive communication techniques, and then we go on the internship. After graduating from this department, we can work as main teachers in kindergartens or nurseries. Otherwise, students who wish to be delegated to the state and work in state educational institutions can enter the KPSS (Public Personnel Selection Examination). Others who do not want to proceed with the teaching profession, can progress in writing children’s books, developing educational toys and other materials for children, or even work on designing cartoon costumes. They can also advance and work as preschool teachers in private educational institutions. If you continue watching this video, one of my friends who studies in another faculty will briefly tell you about her experience in Başkent University and how it’s like in their department.
I am Zeynep Ünlüer. A fourth year student in the department of Preschool Education, at Başkent University. I communicate well with children, I am said to be easily approachable, a very friendly person to talk to and this has made it easier for children to talk and interact with me, which is why, I have decided to become a preschool teacher. To me, being a preschool teacher is unique and important: as we offer our hearts to those little ones. I have done a lot of research and in the end I realized that Başkent University provides quality education and is very well equipped, making it a good structured university. I have also researched about the Faculty of Education as it is my interest and found out that Başkent University has remarkable faculties, as well as highly experienced and respected staff members. For those reasons, I chose Başkent University. In fact, Başkent University arranges many social, arts and sports activities. In addition to that, we have various opportunities to develop within our specific fields of professions. I mostly participate in seminars of profession development that offer certificate based programs. I also use sports facilities, but I can honestly say that I have mostly benefited from the library, which has become my living space due to the fact that I spend most of my time there. I use this rich library after my classes, when I need to conduct research, when I’m working on projects and on the weekends. After graduation, I have two goals in mind, the first is to complete my professional experience in the field of education so that throughout several years, I can have good teaching experience and then hopefully open up my own business. The second goal I have in mind is to continue as an academician here at Başkent University. Başkent University, before anything else, welcomes us as precious individuals. The departments’ staff members always give it their all; when it comes to difficult situations, they are always available to consult us and never hesitate to make time to listen to our concerns. After all, as preschool teachers, we are preparing individuals for the future. As we create and build the foundation of those individuals, and with every building brick, we establish in them the self-confidence they need and help them conduct a solid, strong base of self-development. Therefore, I think the profession of a preschool teacher is extremely important. I strongly advice those who seek to join this department, to come with an attitude of interest and desire.