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Some useful explanations and examples for humanistic environment in a school regarding curriculum, methods and facilities

Burcu, thank you for sharing. I must confess that I did not understand the difference between humanism and neo humanism:). They seemed almost the same to me. In the movie, children are running in the environment, observing the world, helping people, establishing love and trust with peers and etc. And their ages are small. I support the idea that small children should be made aware of their uniqueness. However, when they grow up, we will have to show them science, math, history and etc. The bulk of knowledge in the world and in our education might unable school to continue humanism in education. Actually, it means that especially for higher graders, we should use humanism as an element in classrooms, not a whole teaching strategy since as wee from the video, creating humanistic classroom is not feasible at all and may not be affordable for higher number of students. In the video they said that firstly they "choose" students. It means that, it is a private school. For private school, one can create almost % 100 percent humanistic environment. However, in public schools, teachers have to integrate humanistic elements into predetermined educational environments.

A friend of mine has been in Finland as a teacher. I will share the anecdote she told us. While she was in her first weeks, she gave homework since it is holiday tomorrow, I think she exaggerated the giving homework. Classroom teacher came near to her and said Seçil, what are you doing? Tomorrow is holiday, they need to rest. That's why I am very interested in.

Sinem, thanks for sharing. This is also another related article on Finnish Educational system http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/46581035.pdf

Another video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwD1v73O4VI

First, there should be simple changes in the classroom. Then more complex ones will be taken into consideration. What I mean is that for example most of the studies are nearly screaming that main problems of the education system, lack of teachers, lack of space which is suitable for learning, lack of classrooms. I can not say anything about their intent of refreshing the education system, but can't understand the ignorance of such physical problems. Maslow pyramid..

The system has not recognized that the curricula is not a seat that we can change constantly. They are also not aware that it is not easy to implement it with a sudden change.

Positive psychology should immediately take place in education. Without concentratig on anxiety, fear of a subject matter we as teachers should focus on enjoyment, fun related to the learning. A theory says that mind can not engage two of the issues at the same time; positive and negative issues. Negative issues are mostly make you prevent from going further with that subject matter, however positive issues do the opposite.

Sinem, I agree with you, I think that's why game-based learning, problem-based learning, anchored instruction that has elements of problem-based learning has started to gain importance in education. I did not understand the sentence "A theory says that mind can not engage two of the issues at the same time; positive and negative issues." Can you explain it please,

This is a lesson plan I prepared during my last year of college while I was taking school experience course and attending a public school as an intern. My proffessor Jale Çakıroğlu also liked this lesson plan very much and published it in her book named "Bilimin Doğası ve Öğretimi". Moreover, I also implemented it this semester with preservice teachers at METU. I took activity from http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/gr.fs.fd.html and adapted it into Turkish. I also made some changes to make it more appropriate for 6th graders. In this activity, students are active all the time. The teacher only provides them the required materials and answer their quesions to guide them. The students work in small groups to learn the nature of science aspects with an acitivity where they act as they are scientists. The evaluation is process based not product based and this is clearly explained to the students. Since I prepared this lesson plan, actually implemented it and saw that it worked perfectly I would not change anything, but I always welcome your suggestions. :))

Gamze, thanks for sharing the lesson plan. This is an exemplary lesson plan and let's talk about it in class.

Looking from the MI side to KPSS, it looks rather awkward, anyway. But this latest news make content knowledge upper front, pedagogical knowledge is the next. However, there is no place for pedagogical content knowledge to evaluate, which is also important knowledge type that a teacher should have.

Good point raised here Sinem. Knowing the content is not enough to teach a subject and that is why PCK has been implemented in the teacher education programs since 1980s. This particular knowledge, yet, is complex and cannot be measured with tests like KPSS.

Being impressed thanks to Dinçer's video show, I found a compilation of movies related to "idealist teachers." Of all, I have had a chance to watch Hababam Sınıfı, İki dil bir bavul and Stand and Deliver. If you're looking for something inspiring, bet it is worth trying some maybe during semester break!

Thanks for share. I noted some of them to watch as soon as possible.

Because of the recent changes in educational system, many teachers suffer from being redundant. Some of them are also paid less than the cleaning staff!

Several applications of Advance Organizers in one video. I really needed that since I had not be able to understand what is the real purpose of AOs since teacher activities about them had seemed to me that they do not converge. However, after watching the video, I think that advance organizers includes key components that students should know for using it to deepen their knowledge about a specific topic. To illustrate, in one practice, students ranked several telecommunication devices in terms of their importance before designing their own device. They first learned/remembered the key components of available devices and their importance and their use, and using this initial knowledge, they started to design a new device. Without examining prior devices (without looking at how telecommunication devices look like or how they function or what are their similarities or differences), it would be harder to think of a new device.

You are invited to the conference held in TEDU next Thursday (11.04.2013). I will be happy if you inform me before coming so that I can meet you at the very beginning. http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/ekonomi/22593138.asp

Sinem, I wasn't able to attend to this conference but I am curious to hear about your insights. Anything interesting?

I wanted to see all group members in this conference. It was a second episode of our visit for " Seven Schools in Finland" exhibition in Cermodern. There was a model school design with its learning hubs conducted by Canon design and Koç University. It is very unique in Turkey will be finished in 2014. All the learning environments were designed according to the students' learning. Most of the learning hubs, not classrooms, are not square or rectangle they are curvic. Outside of the school were built with the glasses in order to take advantage of the sunlight properly. School is in the area of 7000 m2 in Beykoz, İstanbul. Teachers who will be work in the school have been trained within the framework of nature of the model school, student-centered approach. As you remembered, in Cermodern I could not find the answer to the learning environment of Finland schools. This conference let me go one step further to imagine what constructivist learning environment is. The emphasis on importance of "Educational Architecture" is another issue I was enlightened. Maybe, we can attend the openning of the Model School. Thank you for your concern.

Here you can check the instruction materials that are used in our education.

They just ignore the English language teachers :((((

A text that I found while searching for something else. It was fun to read it.

Here is the course trailer I prepared for the new course that I will offer at METU in Spring. 

Hope to see a similar result for Fatih project.

Here I think the most important phrase is "when used properly". "Peggy Johnson, Qualcomm's president of global market development, believes that the improvement comes because students using smartphones have easier access to information at any time of day or night. They are also able to keep in contact with their classmates and even their teachers, which helps them stay on top of everything that goes on in school." When students have enough motivation to allocate more time to use these devices for such activities stated above, the finding that their learning is increased can be supported. Here again we reach the conclusion: How to use technology is important, since it is just a tool, and can well be used as a toy instead of educational material.

Is this a case of learning or transfering the existing information without assimilating or accommodating into the classroom environment via technology? I think the meaning of learning is also changing. In near future, there will be no learning like we do I guess.