Turkey’s Education Vision 2023 outlines the strengthening and improving the professional development of all foreign language teachers and aims to restructure and reform teacher training and professional development systems for teachers of English. To pursue this aim, the British Council started collaborating with the Ministry of National Education in Continuous Professional Development Programme to help teachers improve their language skills and knowledge to enhance classroom practices and improve learning outcomes.
Through this programme, Bekir Cetin has now become a master mentor trainer who can deliver a high-quality mentor training programme and provide tools for professional development for the English language teachers nationwide.
'With my good grades in National Exam and Aptis test, I was accepted as one of the 22 master mentors to be trained at Edinburgh College for two weeks. Being a part of the change in English language teaching was exciting on its own; moreover, the training process in Edinburgh was quite inspiring. Transferring the experience and knowledge I gained there to my colleagues in Turkey, has created more motivation, enthusiasm and excitement than I had expected.
Being in the sector for more than ten years, my experience as a trainee in Edinburgh helped me remember the importance of lifelong learning and in-service training. It shed light on my prospective teaching and training experience. With my newly learnt skills, I encouraged my students to use the language more and motivated them to express themselves. I can design my lessons for different needs and preferences of students and incorporate the techniques I learnt in my teaching, which resulted in increased student participation and engagement in the lessons.'
'This programme helped me catch up with the trends in English teaching, understand students' perspective more and upgrade my knowledge and skills to be a more efficient ELT educator.'