Department of Basic Education - Primary School Teaching

Hello, I am Gülşah Batdal Karaduman. I graduated from the Hasan Ali Yücel Faculty of Education, Department of Primary Education and Mathematics Education. Later, I completed my master's degree in primary education and my doctorate degree in special education and I still continue to teach as a lecturer in the department of basic education. The Department of Basic Education compromises of two sections, them being primary education and pre-school education departments. Our pre-school teacher candidates take courses that will help them in developing the cognitive, academic and sensory skills of children aged 0-6. They develop their skills for this field and become teachers. Likewise, our students in the primary education department start off their careers after graduating from our department by taking courses on the cognitive, academic and sensory skills of primary school students between the ages of 6-10. Students who graduate from pre-school teaching can work in institutions affiliated to the Ministry of National Education or private institutions. We do not have a private laboratory which belongs to our department, but we use science laboratories for our science lessons, in the same way, we use our computer laboratories in our computer lessons.Let me talk about our internship programs and the requirements to graduate. Our students have to partake in internships during the last two semesters, and we determine the internship schools, they complete these internships at schools affiliated to the Directorate of National Education (MEB). In this regard, we do not require them to complete a graduation project, but they have to successfully complete their internship courses. After they succeed, they have the right to graduate. As a part of Istanbul University - Cerrahpaşa, there are Erasmus, Mevlana and Farabi exchange programs offered to our students. We have an agreement with the University of Florida in Spain, which is currently offered for the primary education department students. Our students can benefit from 1-semester exchange programs thanks to this agreement. All faculty members within our department attach great importance to these international projects. They also organize many projects by including graduate, doctorate and undergraduate students, but we do not have a project that includes all faculty members of our department. Since the courses offered in the department of basic education are generally theoretical courses during the first three years, our students in the last year have a bit of a hard time when they go to practice schools as a part of the internship practice courses, but we, as advisors, try to help out all our students to facilitate their internship. Likewise, we try to prevent this by talking to our students beforehand, talking about the difficulties and challenges they may face as a part of their internship. My first advice to candidates who will choose the Basic Education Department is to get to know the age group of the students they will spend more time with after graduating from this department, and to figure out whether they will engage in activities with these age groups. Because there will be students in the 0-6 age group for the pre-school department and students between the ages of 6-10 for primary school teachers, we recommend that candidates who like to spend time with children and want to improve themselves in this field and help support the cognitive, sensory and academic development of children to choose this department. Candidates who’ll choose our faculty, especially our department, will find opportunities to work and participate in national and international projects with highly competent faculty members throughout their academic career. I wish success to all academic candidates who will choose Istanbul University -Cerrahpaşa, Hasan Ali Yücel Faculty of Education, Department of Basic Education.