Curricula, Subjects and Course Hours
In Türkiye, curricula for all levels of education up to higher education are prepared centrally by the relevant units of the Ministry of National Education and submitted to the Minister for approval by the Board of Education. Teachers decide on teaching methods and learning materials, how exams, assignments, projects and practices will be conducted and how learning will be assessed in the light of the curricula. In courses where there are enough teachers to form a group, these issues are decided jointly by the teachers in the group. The Ministry of National Education determines the standards of textbooks and educational tools to be used in schools (Basic Law on National Education). Textbooks for upper secondary school students are determined by the Ministry and distributed free of charge. The qualifications, preparation, examination and evaluation of textbooks and educational materials are regulated in the Regulation on Textbooks and Educational Materials of the Ministry of National Education.
At the upper secondary education level, there are common and elective courses determined by the Ministry according to school types. Common courses in upper general secondary schools are as follows: Turkish language and literature, religious culture and ethics, history, geography, mathematics, history of Turkish Revolution and Atatürks’ Principles, physics, chemistry, biology, philosophy, first foreign language, physical education and sports, visual arts/music, health and traffic culture. Students choose elective courses from the categories of academic studies; human, society and science; religion, ethics and values; culture, arts and sports.
Within the scope of extracurricular activities, each student has to perform at least 40 hours of social responsibility program duty until graduation. In addition, within the scope of ‘Lifelong Learning/Certification’, students can voluntarily take courses from distance or face-to-face education modules and their certificates are recorded in their e-portfolios.
In addition, according to Article 1 of the Regulation on Social Activities in Educational Institutions of the Ministry of National Education, students may, in line with their interests and wishes, engage in student club and community service activities, which are defined as extracurricular social activities, as well as all kinds of excursions, competitions, publications, publications, demonstrations, theater, sports, debates and other similar activities.
The Century of Türkiye Education Model
The Century of Türkiye Education Model The Century of Türkiye Education Model addresses the knowledge clusters of the field with a holistic approach on the basis of skill weave to address all behavioral patterns of the individual. Our nation, which has a civilization heritage rising on values such as justice, wisdom, compassion, goodness, truthfulness, diligence, usefulness and beauty, is preparing for the future with decisive steps in the name of education in the Century of Türkiye. In order to contribute to the formation of a national personality above all ideologies and to create a society consisting of personalities with national consciousness, the Turkish education system aims for wise generations who are moral, virtuous, and who have the ideal of doing what is good, right, useful and beautiful for their nation and humanity. It is also among the principles of our education system to raise generations who think critically, solve problems, make decisions, have responsibility and ideals, and who are not only adaptable to civilization but also active civilization builders and developers. In this direction, the Century of Türkiye Education Model observes the balance of matter and spirit, mind and emotion, soul and conscience, human and society, and time and space in order to raise generations who have a sound mind, a sound heart and a sound taste, which are the basic concepts on which our civilization is built.The fundamental approach of the Century of Türkiye Education Model is illustrated in following figure.
Figure: The Fundamental Approach of the Türkiye Education Model
Within the scope of the Century of Türkiye Education Model, high-level thinking skills, conceptual skills, social emotional learning skills, discipline specific skills, literacy skills and the tendencies that have a triggering function in the utilization of these skills are defined. The curricula developed in this context were prepared in a spiral structure from pre-primary to the end of secondary education, taking into account all of the components defined in the model. Although it is seen that skills are also included in the previous curricula, the renewed curricula provided guidance on how and at which stage of the process skills would be taught. In the curricula prepared within the scope of the Century of Türkiye Education Model, the knowledge clusters of the field were structured on the basis of the skill pattern in each learning outcome, and concrete experiences were included in the learning-teaching practices on how to gain these skills to students.
In the curricula, the following three structures are integrated into all courses as cross-curricular components:
System Thinking: In the Century of Türkiye Education Model, system literacy consists of the integrated skills of “identifying the parts of the system”, “analyzing the system and its components, structuring the system”, “creating/selecting/using tools that predict system behaviors”, “solving problems in the system, transforming the solution suggestions developed for the sustainability of systems into action” and related process components. In this direction, it is aimed to act within the system thinking while structuring different literacy skills in the curricula. For this purpose, the integrated skills of the types of “information literacy, digital literacy, financial literacy, visual literacy, cultural literacy, citizenship literacy, data literacy, sustainability literacy and art literacy” included in the “Systems Thinking” curricula were determined by associating them with the integrated skills of systems thinking.
Social Emotional Learning Skills: Social-emotional learning skills refer to the skills necessary for establishing positive relationships with oneself and the environment, managing one’s emotions, empathizing, and thus developing a healthy self. From this point of view, although there are different classifications explaining social-emotional learning skills, a three-component social-emotional learning skill set, namely Self Skills, Social Life Skills and Common/Combined Skills, which are in an interrelated structure, has been defined in the Centruy of Türkiye Education Model.
Virtue-Value-Action Framework: In the Century of Türkiye Education Model, the values that lead a person to virtues and can be observed through their actions are conceptualized with the Virtue-Value-Action Framework. The main basis of the values in the model is our national and spiritual values, which are the references of our own civilization, and the universal dimension of values is not ignored. The main goal of the model is to move from actions to values, from values to virtuous people, and from virtuous people to the ultimate goal of “Peaceful Family and Society” and “Peaceful People in a Livable Environment”. The Virtue-Value-Action Framework presents a value framework clustered around umbrella values. Roof values refer to value structures that have intense intersections with all other values. The model includes respect, responsibility and justice as umbrella values. The values of thrift, patience, privacy, modesty, modesty, healthy living and diligence, which are important for personal life, are included in the human domain; the values of love, friendship, freedom, honesty, patriotism, helpfulness and family integrity are included in the family and social environment; and the values of cleanliness, sensitivity, aesthetics and compassion are included in the physical environment.
Similarly, as a requirement of a holistic academic approach, curricula are designed based on transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches in addition to their interdisciplinary nature in order to enrich teaching processes on the basis of skill pattern.
The Century of Türkiye Education Model which adopts a student-centered and skill-based education approach, brings radical changes in the measurement and evaluation approach. In the curricula developed within the scope of the model, Evidence of Learning aims to systematically monitor the development of students’ knowledge and skills and to continuously improve teaching processes by providing feedback. The pre-assessment process included in the curricula aims to determine students’ current knowledge and skill levels. This process evaluates students’ level of readiness for the learning process and provides the opportunity to adapt teaching strategies accordingly. Basic assumptions, on the other hand, refer to the knowledge and skills that students are considered to have gained from their daily lives or previous education processes. Basic assumptions are addressed in the pre-assessment process and, in this respect, constitute an observable and measurable stage of the instructional preparation process. In this context, the measurement and evaluation process in the Century of Türkiye Education Model is not only result-oriented and level-defining, but also formative and developmental.
Learning Experiences refers to the learning-teaching process based on meaningful relationships between learning outcomes, dispositions, inter-program components and evidence of learning. Learning and Teaching Practices refers to practices in which learning-teaching experiences are implemented in line with the targeted student profile and basic learning approaches. Differentiation refers to learning-teaching experiences related to various enrichment and support for students who differ in terms of learning profiles. Teacher Reflections refers to teachers’ self-evaluation of the strengths of the teacher and the program and the aspects that need improvement.
Innovations in the Century of Türkiye Education Model
The Model explains how temporal integrity, ontological integrity and epistemological integrity will be ensured while creating the student profile and how these perspectives will be completed with axiological maturity. These four integrity areas are divided into 10 sub-competencies and each of these 10 competencies is expressed as 6 different student outcomes.
This model aims to protect and develop the inherent characteristics of human beings, to create the integrity of personality, to ensure character development, to realize the human beings’ own abilities and potentials by centering on character development, and to establish a rational and moral harmony between society and human beings. It does not only focus on the mental and physical development of human beings; it aims to develop human beings in the integrity of knowledge, skills, dispositions, values, attitudes and behaviors.
The learning outcomes that students are expected to acquire in the curricula are combined with knowledge and field-specific skills, and a skills-based curriculum structure has been created by making them part of the learning process.
In the new curricula, raising nationally and morally equipped individuals is as important as the acquisition of skills. In the new curricula, 20 virtues, including justice, family integrity, diligence, friendship, sensitivity, honesty, aesthetics, privacy, compassion, modesty, freedom, patience, healthy living, respect, love, responsibility, thrift, cleanliness, patriotism and benevolence, and the values and actions related to these virtues come to life.
One of the most important innovations introduced with the Century of Türkiye Education Model is the differentiation section. With differentiation practices, it is prevented to ignore student differences, and it is aimed to create activities that provide social justice away from discriminatory and competitive mentality. Designs for enriched learning, differentiated practices (differentiated instruction) include learning experiences in which various ways are used for learners to explore the content presented, activities and processes are organized for meaningful learning of learners, and learners can make choices to demonstrate their learning.
Through school-based planning, contextual and environmental features were considered for the first time, and these features were incorporated into the new curriculum. School-based planning, which refers to the time allocated for activities such as research and observation, social activities, project work, local studies, reading activities to be carried out by the committee of teachers within the scope of the course, has given teachers the opportunity to adapt the curriculum.
The extra-curricular activities introduced by the Century of Türkiye Education Model aim to support mental, social-emotional, physical and moral development; to enable the application of acquired skills in real life, to enrich academic studies carried out in schools, to use time effectively and to increase aesthetic sensitivity. For this purpose, a social responsibility program and lifelong learning were added to the curriculum.
The aim was to reduce the density of the curriculum, which emerged as an important expectation as a result of the needs analysis; content that is useless other than being a cognitive burden for students, does not serve meaningful learning, and does not contribute to the development of life skills was removed from the curricula and content simplification was made by an average of 35%.
The holistic development of students constitutes the basic vision of the newly prepared curricula. In this context, social-emotional learning skills, which have an important function in preparing students for social life, are considered as a component of the curriculum. These skills are directly related to learning outcomes and contribute to the support of other components of the curriculum (knowledge, skills, values, dispositions) by finding a place in teaching-learning experiences.
An assessment and evaluation approach that prioritizes the holistic evaluation of students’ competencies in the knowledge and skills defined in the new curricula, as well as their development in dispositions and values, and supporting teaching and learning processes at the highest level with feedback has been adopted. With this understanding, it is aimed to provide a balance between diagnostic, formative and summative assessment methods in assessment and evaluation practices.
Through teacher reflections, the concept of continuous evaluation of teachers and especially of curricula has been developed. In this way, the quality of the programs can be improved by identifying the strengths of the program as well as the parts that need to be improved.
In TYMM two integrity areas that make up the students’ profile are divided into ten profile features. These profile features and their components are shown in figure below.
Figure: Student Profile of the Century of Türkiye Education Model
Teaching Methods and Materials
The curriculum is a guide for teachers. The curriculum includes the basic approach, specific objectives, unit/theme/learning areas, learning outcomes and duration of the course. The curricula also include domain skills, learning outcomes framework, learning outcomes, content framework, conceptual skills, cross-curricular components (social-emotional learning skills, values, virtue-value-action framework and systems thinking and literacy skills), interdisciplinary relationships, inter-skills relationships, evidence of learning and assessment and evaluation, learning-teaching experiences, differentiation, school-based planning, extracurricular activities and teacher reflections. Textbooks must be written based on these programs. Textbooks approved by the Ministry of National Education are distributed free of charge to students at all levels of education (public/private schools). In this context, the relevant central units provide textbooks, resource and auxiliary educational documents, course and laboratory tools and materials, printed educational materials, machinery, equipment and equipment needs.
Textbooks are reviewed and evaluated taking into account the need of all our students for easily accessible and interesting learning resources that contain moral, humanitarian, national, spiritual and cultural values, support the correct and beautiful use of Turkish, and are easily accessible for more effective learning. During the review and evaluation process, the Ministry of National Education Regulation on Textbooks and Educational Tools and the “Criteria and Explanations for the Evaluation of Textbooks and Educational Tools and their Electronic Contents” adopted by the Board of Education are taken into consideration. Each teacher is responsible for making the preparations required by the program for his/her course. At the beginning of the academic year in secondary schools, it is essential that each teacher makes an annual plan for the courses he/she teaches and that this plan is approved by the school principal. In education and training institutions, lesson plans are prepared and implemented in accordance with the annual plan by the class teacher, field teacher and/or group teachers.
In addition, in recent years, emphasis has been placed on investments to improve the information technology infrastructure. EBA is one of the key components of the FATIH Project, which aims to increase the quality of education, equal opportunities and improve achievement levels. EBA is a digital and social education platform created by MoNE, serving approximately 18 million students from pre-primary to 12th grade, more than 1.2 million teachers and parents.