Yesterday was a bore so i did not blog about it. Sorry. All i did was play two hours of basketball and now i have a big blister on my toe! bummer.
This blog will be a long one without as many pictures (just to forewarn you). Today we had two educational classes One was given by the school of science education and the other by the faculty of agriculture.
The science education lecture was an interesting one with plenty of discussion. The school of education is the largest of Ataturk University (something like 8,000 students are enrolled). Most students are interested in studying primary education (K-8th grade) because the money is good and there are plenty of jobs available. The government has mandated that all children must complete primary education. This has therefore increased the demand for teachers. High school (secondary education) is not mandatory therefore many teachers are having a hard time finding jobs in the secondary educational system. One interesting fact is that there is a high demand for teachers in the disabilities arena (for the blind/deaf/ etc...) however many students do not want to go into in this area because they believe it to be too difficult.
You may be thinking do Turks have their classes in English? This brought up a big debate in the classroom and people told their stories regarding "dual translation". The Turkish professor (and many of the Taiwanese students) expressed that although it is important to use another language (AKA English is the most prominent second language) in the classroom, it does not allow students to understand concepts and ideas efficiently. "Dual Translation" means that foreign students must learn new concepts in their field (eg evolution) and its definition in their home tongue. They must then understand the concept in a foreign language (e.g. they must translate the word and its meaning from Turkish to English). The professor explained that students don't pay attention in classes taught in English. It is just too complicated. Therefore classes are now taught in Turkish. However for some reason their textbooks are in English. In America we should feel lucky that it is not a necessity to learn a foreign language to succeed in a profession. I learned Spanish for four years and i have nothing to show for it except for a couple of verbs and nouns.
Religion and science are considered to be two seperate entities in Turkey. Religion deals with beliefs while science deals in observations of the real world. Both are taught in primary education (this would not fly in america because of seperation of church and state). However Turkey deals with some controversial issues similar to ones found in the United States. Like the study of evolution.
Next we had a lecture given by a the professor in agriculture. His topic was called "Project Cycle" in which he described how students could organize projects, use them in the real world, and make them sustainable. 30 agriculture students came up with projects regarding farming education programs and received funding from the European Union to put their ideas into practice.
Quantity vs Quality - Turkey is neither a developed country nor a developing country. It is somewhere in between. In regards to agriculture they are more interested in feeding the masses rather than focusing on the quality of the produce. Therefore they focus on teaching farmers how to make greenhouses and produce more food in order to feed the masses. This is a problem that we do not have in America. We can eat anything we want wherever we want as long as we have enough money.
Two quotes from the professor:
1. "Resources are limited while problems are unlimited, therefore we must choose the right strategies and try and solve the most serious problems"
2. "Eradicate prejudice through knowledge"
After the lecture some students and I went up to the professor to ask him if he knew of any good shopping in Erzurum. He then turned to his colleague and told him to take us around Erzurum to show us some good shopping sites.... When they say that the Turks are hospitable they are correct. Our guide, Mustafa (like in the Lion King), not only took us shopping, but bought us tea, and then bought us dinner!! It was unbelievable! He wanted to show us all of Erzurum. We ate at the " Erzurum Homes" Which is a historical site that displays how traditional Turks lived. Here are some pics!
We will be going to the waterfalls tomorrow morning so i must be going to bed.
Iyi Aksamar (Good Night)
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