Congress of Passing Among Levels and New Models in Education From the Establishment of the Republic to the Present Day (16-18 January 2014 / Antalya / TURKEY)
24 June 2023
INVITATION TO THE CONGRESS
Turkey is said to have an important advantage because of its young and dynamic population when it is compared to the European countries in the 21st century. However, a young population alone has no meaning unless a good quality education is provided. Esteemed people of science, culture, education, politics and art are one of the most significant powers of that country in the international arena. Countries that have this asset solve both their problems and set examples to other countries with their policies in science, education and health by using different methods effectively and directing the world politics. Unfortunately, although Turkey has a very strategic location, it has yet to find sufficient solutions to its problems in the field of education which plays an important role in bringing up the future generations and thus it has difficulty finding a place among the countries that are able to direct world politics, economy and education. For this reason, it is of primary importance to make efforts in order to solve the problems in education. Among the major problems which are continuously debated about our education system are the placement of students into faculties or departments, examinations, passing among levels and private tutoring institutions.
Students were placed into faculties without an examination as there were not many graduates as a result of the low enrollment rate in the secondary education until the 1960s during the Republican era. When there was a demand exceeding the quota, they applied such methods as considering the priorities and recency, stopping the enrollment after accepting the applicants as needed, accepting the graduates of science or literature departments of high schools by taking the quality of the education provided in the faculty into account, arranging the applications according to the degree by high school graduation. There were eight universities in the 1960s in our country and they held their own university entrance examinations for the placement of the students.
After the Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM) was founded in 1974, examinations have been held by a single center with multiple-choice test procedure for about 40 years. When looked at the data of 1974, whereas there was a quota of about forty thousand at 13 universities in the country, this number has reached up to almost eight hundred five thousand at 174 universities in 2013.
As a result of the investments in the educational infrastructure, some progress has been made in the primary education, high quota numbers and field varieties have been achieved in secondary and higher education institutions. Consequently, enrollment rate on every level has approached the standards of the developed countries quantitatively in the present day. Within the Turkish education system, nearly 17 million students receive education in pre-school, primary and secondary education. In this education system which contains such a big scale of student population, it is a must to adjust passing among levels to the requirements of our age, to suitably place students into the fields and to reconsider the relationship between private tutoring institutions and schools.
Since the present implementations are carried out based on a multiple-choice test and students guided to memorize, Turkish educational system is being criticized. Most scientists claim that assessments and referrals based on test examinations negatively affect the acquisition of skills about learning and teaching and the process of scientific thinking along with causing the teaching of values to be neglected. The form of the university entrance exams affects the education received in the secondary education and the structure of the exams in the secondary education affects the education at primary schools directly. The key to success in the exams can be perceived as memorizing the subjects from which the questions can possibly be asked and solving the multiple-choice test questions successfully in an education system in which memorizing is brought to the fore. Exams that are considered as a means for supply and demand equilibrium have influenced the entire system during the course of time and started to be used by becoming the sole aim of the education system instead of the approach to education which should be based on analysis – synthesis skills as well as problem solving. As a result of this, education institutions are considered as institutions that force students to memorize and solve test questions perpetually, make the final year students dysfunctional and award them diplomas instead of such contemporary learning models and processes as teaching how to learn, learning in a laboratory and effective learning. It is a fact that a new generation cannot be nurtured in line with the purposes and the philosophy of education of the country with such educational institutions.
The case of private tutoring institutions has been a topic of discussion in daily politics for some time in Turkey and it has been debated whether or not they are necessary, that they cause inequality of opportunity or on the contrary, they provide equality of opportunity. As a result of the deterioration in the education system and the exams which are applied for passing among levels, private tutoring institutions have become widespread and part of the education system in Turkey over the years. On one hand, students are forced to compete by the exam-centered tutoring system that encourages them to study by memorizing, on the other hand, students have become the subjects of school education which aims to make them criticize, question and think creatively and productively but falls short of these goals within the current examination system. Thus, the acquirements targeted by the Turkish education system contradict with private tutoring and this causes major problems.
Taking these problems into account, Ataturk Research Center (ATAM) and Gazi Education Faculty of Gazi University have planned to organize an international congress in which the examination system, private tutoring institutions and new models in education will be discussed for the purpose of Turkey which will have reached the level of contemporary civilization. The main goal of this activity is to put out new passing models and disseminate scientific information to decision-makers and the public opinion in this field by addressing the reasons for the formation of passing among levels and passing with exams, the influence of the examination type on students, parents and school system, the roles of private tutoring institutions in equality or inequality of opportunity together with the realities of Turkey and the world.
CONTENT TITLES
1- Passing between grades
a) Passing among levels in Turkey
b) Passing among levels in the world
2- Examination System
a) The reasons of passing with exams
b) Evaluation of the methods and implementations of exams in terms of the education system
c) The possibility of passing among levels without exams
d) The model of entering secondary education after primary education without exams
e) The model of entering higher education after secondary education without exams
3- Private Tutoring Institutions
a) Why private tutoring institutions came into existence and how they developed
b) The place of private tutoring institutions in the education system
c) Socio – economic effects of private tutoring institutions
d) Private tutoring institutions and equality of opportunity
TERMS OF PARTICIPATION IN THE CONGRESS
Submission of Abstract and Full Text, Evaluation
Domestic and foreign academicians and researchers who study the relevant subjects are welcome to participate in the congress. For participation, paper proposals containing objectives, methods, resources used and possible findings with a maximum of 400 words must be sent as an attached Word file to kademelerarasigeciskongresi@atam.gov.tr until October 11, 2013. Paper proposals will be evaluated by the members of the Board of Science by taking their conformity with congress topics and scientific conditions and the originality of the studies into account. The assessments by the board members will be in the way of an oral presentation / poster presentation or rejection. The accepted papers will be announced to the related people on October 31, 2013 the latest and they will be asked to send the full text until December 16, 2013 so that they can be involved in the final program of the congress. A booklet of abstracts will be published prior to the congress and will be distributed to the participants. The papers which have been presented will be published in Congress Proceedings after their conformity with abstracts and scientific conditions is examined. The official languages of the congress are Turkish and English.
Presentation
The sessions of the congress will consist of 80-minute periods in which 3 papers will be presented and discussed. The papers presented during the sessions will be evaluated by the chairmen of the sessions according to a form and these forms will be taken into consideration in the process of printing papers.
Venue of the Congress, Accommodation and Trasnport
Participation in the congress is free of charge and accommodation expenses of the participants will be covered by Ataturk Research Center. Travelling and other expenses will be covered by the participants themselves. The congress will be held in Antalya on 16 – 18 January 2014.
FULL TEXT WRITING FORMAT FOR PAPERS
- The heading of the study must be written in bold, using capital letters; the text-alignment should be central and the name of the author should be placed just below, to the right. The academic title, institute and e-mail should be given in an unnumbered footnote at the bottom of the page.
- Following the heading and name, the Turkish and English summaries/abstracts should be written in size 10pt, each consisting of 400 words. The English summary should also include the English-language heading.
- The typeface should be Times New Roman, in size 12pt. Tables, footnote and references should be relayed in size 10pt.
- The study should be written in M. Word program, blocked according to an A4 paper size. Margins should consist of 2,5cm while the header and footer should be 1,25cm.
- There must be spacing between paragraphs. The indent: 0 cm, 6pt space-before: 6pt space-after, using single line spacing.
- Concerning references, the surname of the author, date of publication and page number should be given in this order in brackets as in the following example: (Çaycı, 2002:520). If referenced in a footnote, however, it should be expressed in a sequence following the name and surname of the author, the book title (in bold, articles expressed in quotation marks and italic), the publishing house, place of publication and page number. The sources used should be presented as mentioned in the footnote, in alphabetical order according to surname at the end of the article.
- Tables and graphics need to be individually numbered, giving their source directly beneath the table or graphic in size 10pt.
- Original documents, pictures (photos, images, etc.), maps which are not directly relevant to the study should not be presented within the article body but should be numbered and attached at the end of it. High-resolution images should be saved on a CD and submitted separately.
- The paper is to be from 10 up to a maximum of 20 pages
BOARD OF HONOR
Bülent ARINÇ
(Deputy Prime Minister)
Nabi AVCI
(Minister of National Education)
Prof. Dr. Derya ÖRS
(Chairman of Higher Institution of Ataturk Culture, Language and History)
Prof. Dr. Süleyman BÜYÜKBERBER
(Chancellor Rector of Gazi University)
Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali BEYHAN
(Chairman of Ataturk Research Center)
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Prof. Dr. Selma YEL
(Gazi University Faculty of Education / Member of ATAM Board of Science)
Prof. Dr. Hayati AKYOL
(Dean of Gazi Education Faculty)
Nihat BÜYÜKBAŞ
(Vice-chairman of Ataturk Research Center)
Prof. Dr. Adnan SOFUOĞLU
(Director of Hacettepe University The Ataturk Institute for Modern Turkish History, Member of ATAM Board of Science)
Prof. Dr. Necati Fahri TAŞ
(Vice-chancellor of Erzincan University, Member of ATAM Board of Science)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kenan OLGUN
(Yıldırım Beyazıt University / Member of ATAM Board of Science)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Uğur ÜNAL
(Director General of State Archives / Member of ATAM Board of Science)
BOARD OF SCIENCE
Prof. Dr. Hayati AKYOL(Gazi University, Dean of Gazi Education Faculty)
Prof. Dr. M. Bahaddin ACAT (Vice-chancellor of Eskişehir Osmangazi University)
Prof. Dr. Ali BALCI (Ankara University)
Prof. Dr. Vehbi ÇELİK (Mevlana University, Dean of Faculty of Education)
Prof. Dr. Süleyman DOĞAN (Ege University, Dean of Faculty of Education)
Prof. Dr. Burhanettin DÖNMEZ (İnönü University, Dean of Faculty of Education)
Prof. Dr. Tayyip DUMAN (Gazi University)
Prof. Dr. Firdevs GÜNEŞ (Bartın University, Dean of Faculty of Education)
Prof. Dr. Yüksel KAVAK (Vice-chancellor of Hacettepe University)
Prof. Dr. Selahattin TURAN (Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Dean of Faculty of Education)
Prof. Dr. Asuman S. SARACALOĞLU (Vice-chancellor of Adnan Menderes University)
Prof. Dr. Fatih TÖREMEN (Zirve University, Dean of Faculty of Education)
Prof. Dr. Cemal YILDIZ (Marmara University)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Oktay AKBAŞ (Kırıkkale University)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Şerafettin KARAKAYA (Akdeniz University)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Güray KIRPIK (Gazi University / Member of Ministry of National Education and Turkish Historical Society)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ferudun SEZGİN (Gazi University)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kseanela SOTİROFSKİ (Aleksander Moisiu State University, Dean of Faculty of Education Durres / ALBANIA)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa YAVUZ (Konya Necmettin Erbakan University)
SECRETARIAT AND CONTACT INFORMATION
Hüseyin TOSUN (ATAM Director of Scientific Studies), Assist. Prof. Dr. Seyit ATEŞ (Gazi University), Aynur YAVUZ (ATAM Assoc. Expert), Orhan NEÇARE (ATAM Assoc. Expert), Aslı AKDOĞANBULUT (ATAM Assoc. Expert)
Ziyabey Cad. No: 19
06520/ Balgat – ANKARA- TÜRKİYE / TURKEY
Tel: +90 312 2856551
Fax : +90 312 2855527
e-mail: kademelerarasigeciskongresi@atam.gov.tr
Web: http://atam.gov.tr