Prof. Dr. İsmail Hakkı Mirici
Ins. Sinem Hergüner
Cemre Zengin
OUTLINE
 EFL TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN
TURKEY
 ASSESSMENT- EVALUATION
 SELF ASSESSMENT IN TURKEY
 EPOSTL AS A SELF ASSESMENT TOOL
 BOLOGNA PROCESS
 NATIONAL
QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK
FOR HIGHER EDUCATION IN TURKEY
 EFL TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN
TURKEY BOLOGNA PROCESS AND THE
EPOSTL
 SIGNIFICANT RESULTS OF CERTAIN
RESEARCHES ON EPOSTL IN TURKEY
•
THE EFL TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS
COVERS 4 YEARS.
•
THERE ARE MUST COURSES TOGETHER WITH
THE ELECTIVE COURSES LETTING THE
CANDIDATE TEACHERS TO GAIN THE
NECESSARY SKILLS AT THE END OF THEIR
EDUCATION PROCESS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
INSTUTIONS/ UNIVERSITIES.
THE EVALUATION AND THE ASSESSMENT
PROCESSES SHOWED DIFFERENCES ACROSS
UNIVERSITIES AND TRAINERS.
HOWEVER, ESPECIALLY AFTER THE
BOLOGNA PROCESS -THAT TURKEY ALSO
JOINED, THERE HAS BEEN AN ATTEMPT TO
PROVIDE PARALELLISM AMONG UNIVERSITIES
ACROSS THE EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES IN
TERMS OF THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND THE
HIGHER EDUCATION AND TARGET AIMS AT THE
UNDERGRADUTE AND GRADUATE LEVELS.
Assessment is the expression of the
results of the observation of a quality with
numbers or symbols, and evaluation can be
defined as a process of commenting on the
results of a survey based on a defined
criterion.
A qualified measurement and evaluation
process would determine whether the
process of education has come to a
successful end. Therefore, teachers are
expected to master these two phases.
Nail, 2013
The choices in the assessment and
evaluation processes having a significant role in
learning and teaching processes reflects the
quality of these processes as well.
Living in a modern world, and having the
aim in mind to grow up an independent
generation, there is an urgent need to leave the
traditional methods and tools and hold on more
modern ways of teaching and assessing to keep
up with the needs of the rapidly developing
world and to engage in this world as quickly as
possible.
The need to be qualified with respect to
assessment and evaluation for teachers
stands as a crucial property .
Daniel and King, 1998;
Zhang and Burry-Stock,
2003
In addition, they should be up-to-date in
terms of new methods and tools in their
fields. However, rather than alternative
assessment tools teachers are inclined to
prefer traditional ones in their teaching
pracitces.
In a study conducted among Turkish
language teachers in 2013 by Nail, it was
found that self-evaluation tools such as
portfolio, peer evaluation, rubric, control list
and observation forms were not used
properly.
Although these methods are included in
both
teacher’s
copies
and
student
workbooks, it is observed that they were not
given enough credit by the teachers.
The teachers indicated that these tools
are “time-consuming and too much
demanding”.
At that point, what comes in to the mind
is the education process the teachers have
been exposed to and experienced. As they
are not expected to utilize self assessment
tools in their own learning practices,
probably they aren’t mentally ready to use
these alternative assessment tools in their
teaching practices as well.
Here, the need to insert alternative
assessment tools into teacher education
programmes arise.
Evaluating teachers’ own teaching is a way to
identify the strong aspects of their practice, as well
as their weaknesses which may need to be changed
and improved.
Teachers should take initiatives
and responsibility to evaluate their teaching and
make improvements over time(Chan, 2010).
EPOSTL is a self assessment tool developed by
ECML for student teachers of languages to assess
themselves in terms of their professional skills. The
descriptors (can-do statements) in the self
assessment section are the outcomes of a long and
meticulous study. The dossier part on the other hand
gives the candidate teachers to keep record of their
own product throughout their educational process at
their departments.
Raising autonomous student teachers
who are aware of their own strenghts and
weaknesses would gurantee the autonomous
learners of languages. In other words,
autonomous teachers mean autonomous
learners. EPOSTL is not only a typical self
assessment tool but also a pedagogical tool,
which contributes student teachers to learn
about themselves and let them to set future
goals in the light of the descriptors.
“Europe is not only that of the Euro, of
the banks and the economy: it must be a
Europe of knowledge as well”.
Sorbonne Joint Declaration Paris,
the Sorbonne, May 25 1998
 In
many respects, the Bologna Process has
been revolutionary for cooperation in
European higher education. The decision to
engage in a voluntary process to create the
European Higher Education Area (EHEA) was
formalized in Bologna, by 30 countries
(The Bologna Declaration, 1999).
(EHEA)
As the main objective of the Bologna
Process since its inception in 1999, the EHEA
was meant to ensure more comparable,
compatible and coherent systems of higher
education in Europe. Between 1999 - 2010,
all the efforts of the Bologna Process
members were targeted to creating the
European Higher Education Area.
The Bologna Process currently has 47
participating countries and 49 signatories.
Turkey became a member country in 2001
together with Croatia,
Cyprus and
Liechtenstein.
At its inception, the Bologna Process was
meant to stregthen the competitiveness and
attractiveness of the European higher education
and
to
foster
student
mobility
and
employability through the introduction of a
system
based
on
undergraduate
and
postgraduate studies with easily readable
programmes and degrees. Quality assurance has
played an important role from the outset, too.
However, the various ministerial meetings
since 1999 have broadened this agenda and have
given greater precision to the tools that have
been developed.

The undergraduate/postgraduate degree
structure has been modified into a threecycle system, which now includes the
concept of qualifications frameworks, with
an emphasis on learning outcomes. The
concept of social dimension of higher
education has been introduced and
recognition of qualifications is now clearly
perceived as central to the European higher
education policies..
(EHEA)
They decided to strengthen and build upon the
intellectual, cultural, social and technical
dimensions of the European continent.
 These have to a large extent been shaped by its
universities, which continue to play a pivotal
role for their development.
 In olden times, students and academics would
freely circulate and rapidly disseminate
knowledge throughout the continent.
 Nowadays, too many of our students still
graduate without having had the benefit of a
study period outside of national boundaries.


An open European area for higher learning
carries a wealth of positive perspectives, of
course respecting the diversities, but requires on
the other hand continuous efforts to remove
barriers and to develop a framework for teaching
and learning, which would enhance mobility and
an ever closer cooperation.

Much of the originality and flexibility in this
system is achieved through the use of credits
(such as in the ECTS: Europeand Credit Transfer
System scheme) and semesters. This allows for
validation of these acquired credits for those
who choose initial or continued education in
different European universities and wish to be
able to acquire degrees in due time throughout
life.

Undergraduates should have access to a diversity
of programmes, including opportunities for
multidisciplinary studies, development of a
proficiency in languages and the ability to use
new information technologies.

At both undergraduate and graduate level,
students are planned to be encouraged to spend
at least one semester in universities outside
their own country. At the same time, more
teaching and research staff should be working in
European countries other than their own.

Thus, the fast growing support of the European
Union, for the mobility of students and teachers
should be employed to the full.
The framework mentioned here is the one
that is guaranteed to be completed by Bologna
Process countries in an effort to increase
the transparency, recognition and mobility in
higher education systems of these countries in
accordance with the objectives of Lisbon
Strategy published in 2000 by European Union
(EU) and with the objectives of Bologna
Process in which our country was included as a
member
in
2001.
Qualifications for higher education mean
what a person achieving any higher education
degree is supposed to know, do and be
competent about.
National Qualifications Framework,
On the other side, expresses the
qualifications for a national educational system
and the relation between these.
In other words, National Qualifications
Framework is a system in which qualifications,
which are recognized by national and
international stakeholders and can be related,
are structured within a certain organization.
Through this system, all the qualifications
for the higher education and the other learning
outcomes can be explained and related to each
other consistently.
The degree to which qualifications are
gained is measured objectively at the end of each
lesson/module as "learning outcomes".
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Presents certain explanation among the degrees based on
the learning outcomes;
Clarifies the purpose and outcomes of the qualifications;
Ensures that different qualifications may be related to one
another within an entire system;
Ensures the progress and transition among the degrees in this
way;
Presents a national modern outline that is leading the
education and determined by the stakeholders' participation;
Creates opportunity to understand, regulate and develop the
current qualifications;
Presents a content to design new qualifications;
 Enables
the reform of qualifications;
 Helps developing new qualifications in accordance
with the changing social needs;
 Displays the benefits and roles of qualifications for
the citizens, employers and all the members of
society;
 Clarifies different national roles and relations
between qualifications, recognition and mobility;
 Raises the awareness of citizens and employers
at national and international levels;
 Raises the attractiveness and recognition of higher
education abroad.
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Helps the students to choose their educational
programmes and lessons aware;
The students know in advance what competency
they will have achieving these lessons;
Clarifies what the students will learn with the
activities except from the educational programme;
Lessens the enclosures for students' mobility and
encourages the life long learning;
Clarifies the lateral and vertical transfers between
the educational degrees;
Maintains an extensive list of all higher education
qualifications and credit limits including sub
qualifications;
Helps, supports the learners and explains all the
educational opportunities for them in this way.
Helps them to understand what to-be employee
students will know, at what degree will they put
these into practice and what information and
competencies they will have at the end of their
graduation;
 Helps them to choose employees being more
aware based on the difference between the
degrees and for the employability in accordance
with the needs;
 Enables their participation to the development
of educational programmes in their related areas
and their transition of expectations.


EPOSTL BEING A DOCUMENT DEVELOPED BY ECML
ALSO REFLECTS THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND THE
BOLOGNA PROCESS, CONTAINIG THE LEARNING
OUTCOMES AS DESCRIPTORS.

ALTHOUGH THE EPOSTL IS NOT APPLIED PRACTICALLY
IN THE UNIVERSITIES ACROSS TURKEY. THERE ARE
THEORETICAL STUDIES TO RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT
THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS DOCUMENT .

HOWEVER, THE LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR VARIOUS
COURSES AT THE DEPARTMENTS OF ELT ARRANGED
ACCORDING TO THE BOLOGNA PROCESS SHOWED
PARALELLISM WITH THE DESCRIPTORS IN THEEPOSTL
TO SOME EXTENT.
A DIGITAL EUROPEAN SELF-ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR STUDENT
TEACHERS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES: THE EPOSTL
MİRİCİ&HERGÜNER, 2015
This study discussed and put forward some practical
suggestions on the functions and the effectiveness of the
EPOSTL in English Language Teaching (ELT) and German
Language Teaching (GLT) departments in a state university in
Turkey.
The results of the study revealed that the use of the
EPOSTL is helpful in developing student teachers’ metacognitive
strategies as autonomous learners, which is a key factor in
becoming teachers of foreign languages adopting the CEFR and
the ELP principles in their classes.
Student teachers of languages are in need of space
and time to reflect on their achievements so that they
personally
experience
self-directed
learning
as
autonomous learners, and become teachers who can also
provide autonomous learning facilities for the students in
their future classes,
the EPOSTL is a useful self-assessment tool to help
student teachers reflect on the progress and potential of
their learning and teaching,
.
Student teachers of languages can
familiarize themselves with the Common
European Framework of Reference for Languages
and the European Language Portfolio oriented
foreign language teaching practices when they
personally experience using the EPOSTL as a
standard European self-assessment tool,
As the EPOSTL holders, student teachers of
languages become efficient users of the Europass
documentation system, and create their own
Europass CV, Europass Language Passport and the
supplementary documents even before they
graduate from their department
HOW TO TURN THE EPOSTL INTO AN ELECTRONIC SETTING:
THE E-EPOSTL
MİRİCİ&HERGÜNER, 2013
There is a new generation entering into our
educational institutions and this era is theirs. It is a time when
children are born roughly between 1980 and 1994 (Prensky,
2001) as “digital natives”,
“Net Generation”.
These young people are said to have grown up with
information and communication technology (ICT) as an integral
part of their everyday lives imbuing them with sophisticated
technical skills and learning preferences for which traditional
education is unprepared (Bennet et. al, 2008).
There is a need for an educational reform to
accompany the technological developments the new
generation follows very closely.
One of the biggest problems facing education today
is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who weren’t born
into the digital world but even later in their lives adopt
most aspects of the new technology and who speak an
outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are
struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new
language (Prensky, 2001).
Being a digital material, EPOSTL is a practical
document for the digital natives. On the other hand, what
can make the EPOSTL more accessible and practical are
probably the internet and the recent technology. In this
study, thanks to the rapidly developing technology and its
facilities, the preliminary studies were started to transfer
EPOSTL into an electronic and online environment to have
the E-EPOSTL so that the teacher candidates can reach it
without any time or place constraints.
 Limesurvey.com
is an open source survey
application system which is written in PhP
language. It works on the Linux, an operating
system.
allowing users to quickly create
intuitive, powerful, online question-andanswer surveys that can workfor tens to
thousands of participants without much
effort.
 The
survey software itself is self-guiding for
the respondents who are participating
INCORPORATING EPOSTL (EUROPEAN PORTFOLIO FOR STUDENT
TEACHERS OF LANGUAGES) INTO METHODOLOGY COURSE


To determining the student teachers’ opinions about using the
EPOSTL in Methodology course.
8 student teachers -- semi-structured interviews.

Student teachers were quite positive about incorporating the
EPOSTL into Methodology course.

They believed that the
EPOSTL provided them to see their strengths and
weaknesses as they assessed themselves.
The EPOSTL helped them to be aware of their teaching.
The student teachers who were aware of themselves and acted in
their practice as to this awareness were reflecting on their
practice.
(Okumus&Akalın, 2015)
A
practical course that presents the chance
of self assessment and reflection is more
effective.
 The
student teachers also believed that
Methodology course with EPOSTL is more
effective due to these contributions. Given
these contributions of the EPOSTL, it is
suggested that EPOSTL be incorporated
into Methodology course.
Course name - Learning Outcome
ID
İDÖ382
- Students will be able to use and evaluate
Instructional
Technology and technology based language teaching
Materials
materials.
Design
Descriptor
Descriptor
Number
Resources no:11 I can use and critically assess ICT learning
programmes and platforms.
Course name Learning Outcome
- ID
İDÖ282
Special
Teaching
Methods I
Descriptor
- Students will be able to develop a lesson plan
with clear lesson phases.
Descriptor
Number
Lesson
I can identify time needed for specific topics
Planningand activities and plan accordingly.
Lesson
Content no:7
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THE
EUROPEAN
HIGHER
EDUCATION
AREA *http://www.ehea.info/articledetails.aspx?ArticleId=3
*http://www.ehea.info/Uploads/Declarations/SORBONNE_DECLARATION1.pdf
NATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK FOR HIGHER EDUCATION IN TURKEY
* http://tyyc.yok.gov.tr/
Mirici, İ.H., Hergüner, S. (2015) A Digital European Self-assessment Tool for Student
Teachers of Foreign Languages: The EPOSTL, TOJET:The Turkish Online Journal of
Educational Technology 14 (1): 1-10.
*http://www.tojet.net/articles/v14i1/1411.pdf
Çakır, A., Balçıkhanlı, C. (2012) The Use of the EPOSTL to Foster Teacher Autonomy:
ELT Student Teachers’ and Teacher Trainers’ Views. Australian Journal of Teacher
Education, 37 (3):1-18
Okumus K., Akalın, S. (2015) Incorporating EPOSTL (European Portfolio for Student
Teachers of Languages) into Methodology Course. International Journal on New
Trends in Education and Their Implications. 6 (1) :76-81
Mirici, İ.H, Demirbaş, S. (2013) How to turn the epostl into an electronic setting: the
E-EPOSTL, Proceedings Book INTE 2013 1 (1): 1446-1456
Nail, G. (2013) Preferences of Turkish language teachers for the assessment evaluation tools and methods. Educational Research and Reviews 8 (15): 1263-1269.
Chan, C. (2010). Assessment: Evaluating Your Own Teaching. Assessment Resources at
HKU: Hong Kong.
Daniel L.G, King D. (1998). A Knowledgeand use of testing and measurement literac of
elementary and secondary teachers. Journal of Educational Research. 91(6):331-344.
Zhang Z., Burry-Stock J.A. (2003). Classroom assessment practices and teachers’ selfperceived assessment skills. Applied Measurement in Education. 16(4):323-342
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