Our Mission & Vision
Our vision is to be pioneers in personal and professional development for educators, providing graduate-level courses to teachers working to improve themselves and deepen their impact on students. We are committed to elevating the quality of teaching and learning across the SEV schools and throughout Turkey, ultimately advancing best practice research and influencing teacher education policy.
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
– Alan Kay
Our mission is to be the leader in online and hybrid professional development for educators in Turkey. While technology used to be optional in education, it is now at the center of education. We support teachers and school leaders in navigating the digital transformation of education.
In collaboration with the educational leaders across the SEV schools, we work to facilitate relationship building and knowledge sharing between individuals and institutions—inspiring a passion for learning.
Through an iterative cycle of research and development, we strive to create cutting-edge tools, resources, and differentiated programs available on demand, so teachers can invest in their own learning and improve their professional practice.
We endeavor to innovate in the development and utilization of technologies to connect professional learning goals to world-class PD so that SEV school teachers continue to be leaders in student learning, online and in the classroom.
Our Philosophy & Approach
As adults, we do not learn new skills just in case, we learn them just in time. In other words, the professional development courses and activities you engage in should address genuine needs and solve real problems.
We recognize that, as teachers, you already have a busy schedule and demands on your limited time, so our courses are designed to allow for autonomy and flexibility—all course work can be completed around your schedule. We also believe that it’s important to take an active role in your learning by reflecting on past experiences, engaging with other teachers in critical analysis, and planning for implementation in your classroom.
Ultimately, our aim is to ensure that by participating in our courses, you can use what you learn to improve student outcomes. For this reason, each of our courses provides a structure through which, regardless of the level and subject you teach, you can benefit from applying best practice research into your planning, instruction, and assessment practices.
Each of our courses includes:
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Focus on student learning—all of our course content can be adapted to focus on different contexts and subject areas so you can improve how students learn while addressing the challenges they face
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Active learning opportunities—rather than passively listening to lectures or demonstrations, we invite you to address your unique challenges and reflect on student work in collaboration with peers
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Sufficient duration—the content of our programs addresses immediate needs while providing a structure that extends learning through at least 20 hours of intentional practice
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Collective participation—we work to engage cohorts of teachers from the same subject and/or level so that everyone has the opportunity to learn with someone facing similar challenges and built a genuine learning community
Our approach to program development has been based on the expressed needs and input from teachers and school leaders across the SEV schools so that we can address the challenges our teachers and school leaders face. While we began with a focus on managing the transition to online teaching and learning from the start of the pandemic in 2021, we continue to expand our course catalogue to address emerging needs in online, hybrid, and face-to-face settings.
