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New education reforms, good or bad?

 
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sixthchild



Joined: 18 Apr 2012
Posts: 298
Location: East of Eden

PostPosted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 2:50 pm    Post subject: New education reforms, good or bad? Reply with quote

So the new 4+4+4 system kicks in this year and a whole lot of ballyhoe its creating if you read the Turkish English press.
Apparently the idea of sending their little babies to school is too much to bear at 60 months!!!!
I started at 48 months and the concept that starting young has never really caught on over here ,has it?
I think one of the main reasons the kids are so thick is that they stay out of school too long,when they get there there are switched off anyway!
Not much hope for the future generation with parents like that.
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billy orr



Joined: 15 Jul 2009
Posts: 229

PostPosted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 2:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You need to find out more about what is actually happening. Of course, children can start learning at 48 months, but what they need to be taught in an appropriate way.

You would not have had a very happy start to your time in school at 48 months if you had had to follow the curriculum for children aged 6-7 years. Especially if your teacher had received no training whatsoever as to the educational and physical needs of children aged 4.

The first year age has been lowered by a year, but the curriculum for the first year has not changed, and the only in-service training for the teachers has been a meeting informaing them of the content of the new law.
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Sashadroogie



Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise

PostPosted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 6:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What changes to the curriculum are needed? For tots or teens it's the same portrait of Ataturk, the same İstiklal Marşı : )


Hic!
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Dedicated



Joined: 18 May 2007
Posts: 972
Location: UK

PostPosted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 8:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

sixthchild,

The majority of children in Europe don't start primary school until the age of 6 or 7. Finland and Sweden don't start until 7 years old, and Norway until 1997 was also at 7, now 6 years old alongside Denmark. Other countries (mostly European) that I know start at 6 years old are Italy, France, Brazil, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Holland Poland, Singapore, USA.

Steiner/Waldorf schools worldwide start at 7. They all believe that children should develop cooperation and communicative skills before formal learning of maths and reading. Early childhood learning is experiential, imitative and sensory based.

So why should Turkey be any different? Finland is regarded as having the finest primary education in the world, but then all Finnish teachers must have an MA.
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billy orr



Joined: 15 Jul 2009
Posts: 229

PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2012 4:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree with the point made by dedicated that it is best to start formal schooling at the age of 6 or 7 and not earlier. However, it is worth remembering that the success of Finland is based not so much on the late start for the primary schools, but more on the excellent, comprehensive nursery education that is part of their system.
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sixthchild



Joined: 18 Apr 2012
Posts: 298
Location: East of Eden

PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2012 12:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well there we have it, confusion already. I started my formal education before the age of 5 many many many many years ago and I always believed that starting any kind of education early was a good thing, look at early learning centres, look at the Montosourri (yes I know) schools, kids as young as 3 learning another language!
This is a far cry from what I have witnessed in this country, 6 and 7 years of age is not the best time to start, its a late start and you see it in the poor social, cognitive and critical thinking development later on, not enough stimulation see!
Those parents who want to keep the kids at home are just turning them into little cabbage patch recruits who can't even tie their shoelaces til they are teenagers.
The big concern right now is finding enough classes for all these first years, clearly this was not thought out very well, but well we all know why that is the way it is. The other side is the teachers themselves, how do they use the current curriculmn on these kids? Don't use it, try something else like getting them to write their name and teach them the alphabet, that should keep them busy while someone cobbles a proper programme together, god its hardly rocket science,yabancis do it all the time, don't we?
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spiral78



Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 11534
Location: On a Short Leash

PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2012 1:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Other countries (mostly European) that I know start at 6 years old are Italy, France, Brazil, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Holland Poland, Singapore, USA


Actually, you're incorrect about 'Holland.' Dutch children start very early, often at 4 and always by 5. The Netherlands has got the 9th best school system in the world according to the OECD in 2008.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_Netherlands

I started at 5 in the US, as did many of my friends.

I agree with the notion that it's about age/stage-appropriate curriculum.
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Dedicated



Joined: 18 May 2007
Posts: 972
Location: UK

PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 10:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I stand corrected, spiral78. It was actually a Dutch neighbour who said he had started at 6, but I never checked it out.
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sixthchild



Joined: 18 Apr 2012
Posts: 298
Location: East of Eden

PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 7:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have recently read that parents who want their children to skip school this year run the risk of them having a black mark on their education record before they even start!
Apparently the certificate they need to do this would put a question mark on thier mental state as well as their ability to follow school procedure!
I really don't see what a child has to lose by starting school early, especially when so many are deprived of it.
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billy orr



Joined: 15 Jul 2009
Posts: 229

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 5:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you are in Turkey, 6thchild, have you tried asking some Turkish parents (especially with children at state schools) about why they are concerned?

Piloting and a major programme of in-service training is supposed to accompany major changes to education policy. There has been no piloting, and in-service training so far has not started. Unless you count as in-service training the reading of a letter by school principals informaing teachers of the change, and yesterday's long video lectures from the Minister of Education and the head of the natşonal training organisation.
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sixthchild



Joined: 18 Apr 2012
Posts: 298
Location: East of Eden

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 12:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Billy

Yes, like you I live in TR, have done for the best part of a decade and a half. No, I don't bother to talk to parents of students who go to state schools or any schools for that matter, when you do you will understand why the kids are the way they are. Getting them into to school as early as possible will hopefully give them the chance to grow up with their peers and interact with each other, you know normally!!!!
This in-service training of which you speak, well everyone knows its pretty much a cobbled together affair, just to put everyones mind at rest and give the ankle biters something to do for the first six months.
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