European Union Education Policies and Continuing Professional Development of Teachers in Turkey

• Main Author: Çetin Terzi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Informascope 2014-07-01
• Series: International Online Journal of Education and Teaching
• Online Access: http://www.iojet.org/index.php/IOJET/article/view/61

Education system is seen as a key element which triggers and initiates all kind of changes in the social systems. Significant social, economic, political, cultural and technological achievements have been gained in the societies which have made continuing development and change in their education system part of their culture. Educational systems always keep themselves dynamic by evaluating national and global changes as a crucial input while maintaining the transformation. Educational systems’ producing outputs affecting the other systems as a value by internalizing global changes makes necessary the continuing professional development of teachers, which are the most significant elements of the system. Continuing professional development of teachers become crucial within the scope of information-based economy or more generally the concept of lifelong learning, one of the most important value in the information society. In line with the changes in the duties of educational system, professional development, which contains pre-service and in-service training, to provide teachers needed knowledge, ability and attitudes have been discussed intensively in EU educational policies as in the many other countries. Turkey have tried to take an active role in the global and developing world. The most important elements in this effort are teachers who are the most crucial actors of educational systems. For this reason, in the EU negotiation process, to keep up with educational norms, as a requirement of harmonization process in the educational system, it is necessary to examine existing practices in Turkey by determining educational policies in terms of continuing Professional development of teachers. The aim of the study is to evaluate the existing applications in the Turkish Educational System in accordance with European Union policies in terms of continuing professional development of teachers. Keywords: teacher’ professional development, EU teacher education policies, Turkish teacher education policies