“Learn”
Since 1877, TERAKKİ believes that knowledge and learning are life-long and essential not only for academic achievement but also for being always ahead in life.
In 2017, its 140th anniversary, TERAKKİ launched a project called “Learn” in order to explain why learning is essential.
This project will explain that one needs to learn to share, have access to accurate and reliable information, and learn relentlessly in order to get prepared for life, get to know oneself, to always be ahead.
Our logo symbolizes the need to keep having a curiosity of a child, pursue dreams, keep in mind that there is no single truth, have access to a part of a large-scale entity of knowledge, and be flexible to achieve these.
Falling into the trap of ceasing learning
Since its foundation Terakki has always believed in the power of being able to reach a part of a large-scale entity of knowledge and the necessity of being flexible for all of this while giving importance to preserving the curiosity of a child, pursuing dreams, and not forgetting that there cannot be a single truth as we learn.
The physical conditions, rules, roles, and relationships that would encourage learning, as well as the school’s climate and values are undoubtedly the most important elements of good education.
As a school, we have initiated a project that would reveal the importance and the role of lifelong learning, not coming up with ideas without having knowledge, and not taking action without learning as we leave 140 years behind.
Terakki will explain why it is necessary to learn with this project called ‘Learn’. Through the activities within the framework of the Learn project, it aims especially for adults to learn how to look for and find out the source of accurate and reliable information. With the project adults are expected to learn how to listen, to set their search for meaning on accurate and reliable information, to keep being conscientious and understanding in different parts of their own and others’ private, social, and business lives.
We believe that life experiences will only gain value in this way and that we would contribute to raising happy and successful generations with this life experience.
With this project Terakki Foundation will explain that learning should not be limited to one’s profession.
Terakki started the project by initiating a study with one of Turkey’s leading public survey institutions in order to learn the current situation in our environment and first of all learned the opinion of its own students related to such a project. Then the survey that would be carried out following the “deep interview” method was started. During these interviews, it was aimed to come up with information that will provide reference points for the transformation of the concept of “learning”. The definitions of a very broad concept such as “learning” that varies according to the individuals were stated. Definitions to provide guidance for future studies were obtained.
At the beginning of this year, we talked to a group of parents at a roundtable meeting about the concept of learning, the place of learning in life, learning and endurance, what ceases learning, and whether the learning impulse had anything to do with upbringing. We listened to the meaning of the success according to our parents, their opinions about professional learning and non-vocational learning.
At the end of this year, we came together with our teachers in both campuses and shared the content and development of our studies. We received their contributions and suggestions.
This work, which seeks to ensure that learning is on the agenda of each individual, will continue with the identification and handling of areas of priority.
Terakki is Sharing its Knowledge and Experience
“Terakki is Sharing its Knowledge and Experience” is a support programme that aims to carry what TERAKKİ has acquired, its cultural richness, principles, and enlightment since 1877 over to the future generations.
Terakki Foundation and Schools aimed to meet its responsibility of enriching the education world and its environment in the fields of science, culture, and art through its contributions with the help of the project titled “Terakki 130+” which was initiated in 2009. TERAKKİ, which celebrated its 140th anniversary in 2017, will continue its 130+ Project under the name “Terakki Sharing What it has”.
SCIENCE
Terakki Laboratory Fellowship Project
Young chemists at Terakki share their laboratories with sister schools and conduct experiments.
Terakki, by opening its own laboratory facilities to students of school which do not have sufficient laboratory equipment, performs a peer-learning based practice which is the first and the only example in our country. With this project which has been initiated within the framework of the activities related to the International Year of Chemistry in 2011, our High School Chemistry Department shares the experience of its teachers, students’ knowledge and laboratory equipment with sister schools in Istanbul that do not have the opportunity and the facilities to conduct experiments in its current laboratory classrooms.
Terakki Laboratory Fellowship Project, which supports the reinforcement of what students have learned by carrying out experiments related to the standards pertaining to the topics studied throughout the year and development of the skills, enables students to discover, explain the events that occur in the lab, participate in team work, establish new friendships, fulfill the responsibilities given, and develop their communication skill.
947 guest students from 50 schools took part in our project in 8 years.
Moreover, Terakki carried the Laboratory Fellowship Project to the international platform eTwinning in 2014-2015 academic year and realized a project called “Making Experiments – Learning Different Cultures”. With the Music School of Komotini in Greece, it created the opportunity to share laboratory and music experiences and to get to learn a different culture.
CULTURE
Dream, Do not Fall
Our project titled “Dream, Do not Fall” was re-structured as the continuation of the community service projects which were was initiated in 2015 at Terakki under the title “A Gypsy Pink Dream” which was based on literature and social sciences disciplines and in 2017 it took the name “Dream and Do not Fall Project”. With this project, Terakki aims to provide sustainable benefit by designing activities for the students they are in contact who have abilities but were not able to find opportunities to develop them in order to eliminate inequalities that rise from natural differences in academic and cultural fields.
In line with this aim, a variety of workshops are being organized in our Tepeören Campus in which high school students of Terakki would share their experiences with the participating students in a way that supports the academic and social skills and abilities.
Writing Skills Symposium
Scientists and authors share their thoughts with teachers.
Through the Writing Skills Symposium, Terakki offers an efficient learning and sharing environment to participants from Istanbul and other cities and carries out a series of activities that dwell upon what could be done to develop writing skills and how this could be achieved in learning environments.
In the Writing Skills Symposium, organized by the TÖGEM (Terakki Learning Development Center) team and the Turkish and Turkish Language and Literature teachers and conducted the first symposium in the 2011-2012 academic year. The participants study the writing activities carried out in and out of class in order to improve writing skills at primary and high school levels and the assessment practices. Moreover, in line with the needs in this field, workshops are being organized with the participation of scientists, experts of the field, and authors from different disciplines aiming to produce and derive new learning activities and assessment tools so that they could share their opinions and thoughts with the participants.
Terakki reached over 200 teachers at the 1st Writing Skills Symposium in which 13 different presentations were given. With a higher number of participants and a richer content, the 2nd Writing Skills Symposium held in the 2013-2014 academic year brought together nearly 300 participants from Istanbul and other cities and 15 field experts in a productive sharing environment. In the 3rd Writing Skills Symposium held in the 2015-2016 academic year Terakki brought together almost 350 private and government school teachers from Istanbul and different cities of Turkey with authors and experts in the field.
Creative Drama Bridge Symposium
Teachers and candidate teachers told about their educational experiences and learned together.
Terakki provided the teacher a guiding role and opportunities that are experience based and focus on learning by doing/ experiencing and implemented many learning-teaching methods.
In the symposium, which was organized by our Creative Drama teachers for the first time in the 2010 – 2011 academic year, for the second time in the 2012 – 2013 academic year, and for the third time in the 2014 – 2015 academic year, Terakki shared the drama practices carried out for creative drama and education with the teachers and candidate teachers in other schools and contributed to the field of creative drama and established new bridges.
Examples of drama used for creative drama and education were shared in the Creative Drama Symposium with the teachers and candidate teachers from Istanbul, Kocaeli, Izmir, Bursa, Sakarya, Yalova, and Ankara. For the first time in Istanbul, with the support of the participants who had the opportunity to share their experiences in oral presentations and workshops held in the symposium, a school had the chance to share their educational experiences in the field of drama with more than 200 applicants from different cities.
CLAR – Child Labor and Rights
The students in Terakki became the voice of child workers.
Terakki students, with the website they prepare in 2009 on “Child Labor in Turkey” developed their thinking and research skills and shared the solutions they came up with related to the elimination of the problem with other schools. They became the voice of the child workers who had difficulty in having their voices heard in community in order to develop their teams and increase their power.
Empowering Families to Ensure Gender Equality for Children
The students in Terakki fought against discrimination.
In order to ensure gender equality among children, Terakki hosted the training program of the project carried out by the Istanbul Bilgi University Children’s Studies (ÇOÇA) for the counselors under the title “Empowering Families to Ensure Gender Equality for Children” in the 2009-2010 academic year.
Within the scope of the protocol signed with Istanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education, psychological counselors from approximately 40 schools across Istanbul were informed on gender equality and cooperated in project activities.
ART
Children’s Musicals
TERAKKİ Musical Actors were on stage with the professional actors and musicians.
Terakki’s first and only musical project prepared in collaboration with Sahne Istanbul in the 2009 – 2010 academic year to instill in children love for classical music and put on stage with dramatic editing was the Children’s Musicals Series. In this project Terakki students who were 7-12 years old were on stage with professional actors and musicians for the musicals where drama, music, and dance were employed together.
Our students strengthened their communication skills as they went through the basic education process in the fields of drama, music, and dance with the help of professional instructors, while discovering various ways of expressing themselves through different art disciplines. Moreover, our students, who learned to approach people, events, and phenomena from different perspectives, revealed their creativity and acted empathically while taking on the roles they played. They shared a common stage in their individual and multiple adaptation exercises and developed their self-confidence while learning how their actions could affect other people and how to correct their mistakes.
The series was directed by Ali Artaç, the General Art Director and the Musical Director was Emel Özer as Ayfer Artaç prepared the texts of the Children’s Musicals Series and Özkan Turgay prepared the musical side of the series.
Our first children’s musical was “Mozart and its Fairies” in 2011, our second musical was “Beethoven and the Land of Dreams” in 2012, our third children’s musical was “Bach: Magical Music Box” in 2013, our fourth children’s musical was “Vivaldi: The Fairytale Museum” in 2014, the fifth one was in 2015 with the title “Tchaikovsky: The Play Tree”, and in 2016 it was “Mozart’s Diary” as our sixth children’s musical.
Children’s Musicals were staged at Terakki and at various cultural centers several times a year, reaching approximately 10,000 children.
The Works titled “The Future Metaphor” and “Delivery”
In the futurist art event, the students at Terakki met with different approaches of inquiry.
Terakki sponsored our High School Turkish Language and Literature teacher Ali Konbal who participated in Turkey’s first Futurists Summit held at the Lütfi Kırdar International Congress and Exhibition Center in 2008 with two of his works titled “The Future Metaphor” (A reversed view with a future index on the mass urbanization model that determines the external life of today’s people) and “Delivery” (A skeptical glimpse into the creation of the person of the future through “stereotyping” as an endless reading).
Ali Konbal displayed his two works at Terakki under the theme “projecting the future at Terakki” as an installation created through an interaction with Terakki students in 2009. Our alumni had the opportunity to see the exhibition at the Alumni Day.