Tutor Teacher Training

25 BİLSEM teachers from the coordinator and partner institutions and three academicians as consultants participated in this training program. The main purpose of training counselor instructors is to train instructors who will assist participating teachers in face-to-face training workshops and especially in the project development stages. 100 participants who will participate in the teacher training will be divided into cooperative groups. It is planned that counselor educators will lead these collaborative groups. In addition, tutor educators must be able to create an online asynchronous training program (see 3.2.) for 100 participating teachers. Courses will be designed in relation to the content of the instructor training program. Additionally, this program will have a special section to teach how to design an online course on “Society 5.0” and “Design Thinking Model”.

While there was a plan to hold the trainer training program at 3ID LABS in Ghent, Belgium, the training location was shifted from Belgium to Turkey due to Belgium's 14-day quarantine rule for entering the country due to the Corona pandemic. 3ID LABS is a department within Artevelde University of Applied Sciences. This department specializes in project management training and applications of design thinking approaches. The center is not just a school, but also an educational institution where business people and students come together and can solve real problems of companies related to society and environment.

Develop an understanding of how LABS works (including the design thinking model)

1-2-3-4. Days

The course started with the introduction event called “Welcome to Artevelde University College Education Program and 3ID LABS”.

Instructors and their assistants offered participants the opportunity to experience the students' perspective. Thus, participants experienced how the learning process progresses within 3ID LABS. He gave information about LABS, its history, studio learning model, concept and way of working. To stimulate the intercultural aspect of 3ID LABS, the trainers also asked two graduate students from 3ID LABS to join different teams. On the first and second day of the training, the participants continued their work by being divided into collaborative groups. There were 5-6 people in each group to develop their projects using the design-oriented thinking approach. At the end of each step (Empathize, define, generate ideas, prototype, test), the groups gave a presentation in front of the instructors and other participants. This group was then given 5 minutes to answer questions and 5 minutes to receive feedback from the audience.

On the third day of the training, all groups made their presentations to the juries who connected to the class from Belgium via the internet. The jury identified 3 groups that would continue to develop their projects and the other groups were disbanded. Members of the disbanded group prepared a letter of intent to apply for a group and applied for a job. These groups were recruited after interviewing people who applied for jobs in their group.

5-6. Days

Each group continued the project development process with new group members. They prepared a final presentation and presented their projects.

The pedagogy adopted by the 3ID LABs team was conveyed to the guidance counselors and was intended to assist in the planning of the education to be given in BILSEMs (students) and face-to-face education (100 participating teachers) in Turkey. At the end of the training, participants are expected to have a basic understanding of how LABS works. In addition, the instructors enabled the participants to adapt what they learned to online education and face-to-face education in their own school environments and as counselors in this project.