“Education for 21st Century Skills: The Content and Methods of Education" Conference
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TÜSİAD organized the first of the series of meeting on "21st Century Skills and the Quality of Education"
TÜSİAD launched a series of meeting on "21st Century Skills and the Quality of Education", with the participation of local and foreign experts. The first conference of the series of meeting was held on June 26th, 2012, at the Sabancı Center in Istanbul. The title of the conference was “Educating for 21st Century Skills: the Content and Methods of Education”.
Welcoming speeches of the conference were delivered by Ms. Ümit Boyner, President of the Board of Directors of TÜSİAD and Mr. Cenk Çimen President of the Social Affairs Commission of TÜSİAD. Welcoming speeches were followed by the address of Mr. Enver Yücel, Chair of the Education Working Group of TÜSİAD.
In her speech Ms. Ümit Boyner noted that for a long time Turkey had to deal with the problems of quantity and access to education and she said: “We achieved a significant progress but deficiencies still exist. We have to increase the length of education period. However we must not forget that the real element which will make a genuine difference is the ‘learning’.” Ms. Boyner emphasized that acquiring the 21st Century Skills is a prerequisite to overcoming the “middle sized economy” and middle quality democracy” traps and she urged government authorities, scientists and business world to accomplish difficult but crucial tasks such as encouraging lifelong learning and skill development, or matching skills and appropriate jobs in the labor market.
Mr. Cenk Çimen’s speech underlined serious efforts of TÜSİAD about education as the basic determinant of the quality of the human resource. Mr. Çimen noted that TÜSİAD’s aim in this first conference is to discuss the topic of the quality of the education under the light of global developments. Mr. Çimen pointed out that in the last 50 years, the balance among various sectors is altered considerably, new professions emerged and as the technological progress accelerates in every profession more skills are required.
In Enver Yücel’s speech he noted that the 21st century skills have been playing an influential role in education and emphasized that learning the information itself will not be enough anymore; how it is thought, its content and the applicability of the knowledge to the real life are becoming crucial. Mr. Yücel underlined that the creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership should be a part of curricula. Mr. Yücel also addressed that the education is a dynamic concept and added that sustainability and quality are the indispensable elements of education. Mr. Yücel also noted that teaching the 21st century skills is essential for the future education of the kids and underlined the importance of early childhood education.
Two panels took place at the conference by the participation of the experts from abroad and Turkey. Presentations were made by the experts from diverse backgrounds, about creativity, innovation, intelligence, realigning the curriculum, effective teaching & learning, socializing of the youth and science & mathematics education at the first panel. Academicians from universities in Turkey and experts from Ministry of Education discussed the reform steps in Turkish education system for the 21st century skills at the second panel.
