COMMON AND BRANCH-SPECIFIC NEEDS OF TURKISH TEACHERS ABOUT IN-SERVICE TRAINING COURSES WITHIN THE SCOPE OF FATIH PROJECT

Main Article Content

Mustafa Sarıoğlu
Mehmet Saraç

Abstract

FATIH Project is regarded as one of the most inclusive ICT integration attempts in the history of Turkish education. This nation-wide project entails equipping each classroom with an interactive whiteboard and supplying each student with a Tablet PC. The in-service teacher training courses are by far the most crucial component of the project as teachers are the end-users of those facilities in classrooms. Despite the abundance of studies on the opinions and attitudes of teachers towards the use of ICT technologies in general, to our knowledge, there exists no research study which specifically investigates whether the views and in-service training needs of teachers differ according to their distinct subject areas. With this in mind, this qualitative study aims to explore the perceptions and needs of 35 Turkish in-service teachers from different branches about in-service training courses within the scope of FATIH project. The study adopted a case study design. The research site and participants were selected purposefully. The data were mainly collected through questionnaires, and the accuracy of these data was validated through semi-structured interviews conducted with 30% of the participants. The collected data were analysed through the content analysis method. The study findings revealed a good deal of research evidence on the divergent training needs of teachers from various subject areas. Thus, it suggested that in-service training courses should be planned and organised as branch-specific.

Keywords: FATIH project, information and communication technologies (ICT), in-service teacher training, integration of ICT into education, interactive whiteboard (IWB)

Article Details

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Articles
Author Biographies

Mustafa Sarıoğlu, Bursa Technical University, Turkey

Mustafa Sarıoğlu has been teaching English as a foreign language since 2005. He got his BA (2005) and MA (2014) degrees from ELT departments at Hacettepe University and Uludağ University, respectively. He is a PhD candidate in ELT at Anadolu University. He currently works as an EFL instructor in School of Foreign Languages at Bursa Technical University. His ORCiD ID is 0000-0002-0418-0200.

Mehmet Saraç, Uludağ University, Turkey

Mehmet Saraç is a PhD candidate in ELT. He has an MA degree from ELT department of Anadolu University. He is currently an instructor at School of Foreign Languages at Uludağ University. He has been teaching English since 2005. His ORCiD ID is 0000-0002-6639-9726.

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