Department of Turkish and Social Sciences Education - Turkish Language Teaching

I am Associate Professor Betül Batır, faculty member of the Turkish and Social Sciences Education Department. I graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Literature, Department of History. Later, I did my master's and doctorate on Turkish Education History. As of December 18, 2018, I obtained the title of Associate Professor of Education History. I teach Turkish Education History courses both in our department and in other departments, as an applied course on Community Service Practice in our faculty. I’m continuing with my studies on history. As the name suggests, our department consists of two main disciplines, which are Turkish and Social Studies Education. Our courses are provided by expert lecturers in both major disciplines. We have 240 Turkish Education Department students, and 240 Social Sciences Education Department students in each class with approximately 60 students. The courses we offer in the department can be divided into two categories, Turkish and Social Sciences. Since it is based on social studies and is an interdisciplinary department, Turkish is mainly used in social studies. Courses are given in the fields that make up the sciences, such as History, Geography, Philosophy, Law, Economics, Anthropology, Art History. In addition, the Ottoman Turkish course in the Turkish Education Department is provided to support both History and Turkish in order to preserve our language. In the Social Sciences Program, this course is given as an elective in the graduate program. Let me talk about the internships and graduation process. Our students have Teaching Practice and School Experience courses in their senior year, as our primary goal is to train teachers in our faculty. These courses are accepted as their internship. When our students make it to the last year, our students are placed in internship schools by our faculty's head of commission. The internships of the Turkish and Social Studies Department are provided without the students needing to do anything. In addition to the internship, there is a Social Service Practice course, which is given as a service course in the Department of Turkish and Social Sciences Education, which is also provided in other departments. In addition to gaining experience in schools and teaching practice, our students also do an internship with this course in order to be beneficial to society and to improve themselves in their profession by undertaking practices and activities such as teaching preparation. Our department students are provided with advantages abroad. Thanks to the agreement made with a university in Germany, our students can benefit from the Erasmus program. Our faculty member in charge of this program is carrying on with his duties. You have the right. We hold international and national events. Teachers and students in the Department of Turkish and Social Sciences Education also provide support for these events. Every semester, students conduct studies on subjects such as History, Geography, Philosophy, History of Art or Turkish. We organize a national event open to the participation of other students and faculty members, primarily our own students. We invite experts to enlighten our students to conferences.
When our students graduate from the Turkish and Social Sciences Education Department, they graduate by learning about two major fields that are intertwined. Therefore, they can become Turkish Teachers, Turkish Language and Literature Teachers or Social Sciences Teachers. If they complete their postgraduate education, they also have the right to work as branch teachers in History, Geography and Philosophy. If students complete their postgraduate education in other fields and develop their Ottoman Turkish and Old Turkish, they may have the right to work in public offices, even in archives departments. They have the right to tutor in private and public schools. Our students will not encounter any difficulties if they arrive here with a curiosity for and passion for Turkish and social studies. For example, if they come here without conducting research on the department, it will be difficult for them to learn the Ottoman language, but since we have faculty members who are experts in their field, we can help them out easily. Some of our foreign students may have difficulties learning the Turkish language. We overcome this problem with the extra activities our faculty members provide. Let me talk about some of the challenges the students may face in the Social Sciences department. We have faculty members who focus on different fields in the Social Sciences Department. Our students do not have a hard time in their field courses, but, they may have some difficulties in courses such as Introduction to Law, Introduction to Economics, as the courses from the Faculty of Law, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences keep the difficulty level higher. We observe that our students who want to become Social Sciences Teachers achieve this by studying a little more without encountering too many problems. Faculty members are student-oriented, trying to help in the best way possible. My advice to candidates who will choose our department is this; First of all, if you are going to be a teacher, you should come willingly, and not only for our department. You need to have general knowledge of Turkish and Social Sciences, and like Turkish, languages, history, geography, research, and reading. All teachers should like travelling. It is necessary to travel not just to see, but to observe and study. You should like visiting museums. You have to travel to cities. But as I said, you have to observe whilst you travel. That's why you need to have an investigative spirit and be open to the needs of the society. We will greet them as teachers. Our faculty is located in the Büyükçekmece Campus alongside other departments. Students who want to come to Büyükçekmece need to do preliminary research. If you’re worried about the commute, transportation facilities are provided by the administration of our university. There is a Student Cultural Center in the Büyükçekmece Campus of our university. Sports facilities, a library, study areas, dining hall facilities are provided inside. Our university is extremely willing to help you as much as they can. We await our friends who will arrive and wish to welcome them. I wish you all success.