Organised by the Academic Union, TBS teacher training seminars presented by top education professors and experts continued this weekend. Prof. Soner YILDIRIM from the Middle East Technical University presented his seminar on "Neuroscience & Education: What we know about the physiologic basis of learning?" on Saturday, 28th of October, at the Tarabya campus.

Who is Prof. Soner Yıldırım?

Prof. Soner Yıldırım completed his bachelor’s degree at Hacettepe University, Faculty of Education, Department of Educational Sciences, Division of Curriculum and Instruction in 1990. He completed his masters program at Michigan State University in 1993 and then his doctorate program at University of Southern California in 1997 in the field of Instructional Technology. He has been working at the Middle East Technical University (METU), Faculty of Education as a faculty member since 1998.

Prof. Yildirim has been serving as international ICT consultant in various international organisations. He worked for the World Bank as an international expert in several Educational Technology projects. Between 2002-2006, he was the leading expert at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg for the project “Teaching & Learning in the Communication Society”. He has also been working as the National Expert for the European Training Foundation (ETF) for Vocational Education and Training (VET) projects.

Prof. Yildirim’s research interest includes technology use in education, social media, electronic performance support systems (EPSS), learning analytics and nomophobia.

The Seminar Programme featured:

  • How the brain learns.
  • What happens in the brain while learning verbal, textual or visual content.
  • What is the role of limbic system in the learning.
  • Which rules? Frontal cortex or Limbic System
  • How hormones affect learning
  • Social Media and the brain
  • What teachers can do to foster learning in the classroom: Evidences from Neuroscience

Specialist training programmes for all our teachers will continue to be offered in cooperation with the Academic Union. Professional development seminars will assist TBS to continue to place our students in world universities and to exceed their all-important educational needs beyond global standards.