Good Afternoon Dearest Guests,

It is with great pleasure that I deliver this closing speech to such a distinguished audience.  An audience which has collectively provided us with two outstanding days of effective, innovative, influential and thought-provoking educational festival-meetings and poster sessions. I am confident that these meetings and poster sessions will result in credible applications for the Turkish Educational System and for education in the global world as well. 

Before continuing my speech on behalf of the Organizing Committee, I would like to take the time to gratefully acknowledge those individuals and institutions who have contributed in various ways to this symposium.  First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to the president of Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Professor Gökay Yıldız, and to his team.  Without the Professor's strong support and encouragement, this symposium would not have been held.

I would also like to share with you one of my memories about Dr. Gardner. Many years ago, in the early 1980’s (in those days some of the participants in this hall had not even been on this planet yet!!!), I read Dr. Gardner's book, entitled "Developmental Psychology."  After reading it, my thought was that I wished that "I" could have written this book, instead of Gardner!  I absolutely admired him as a psychologist in those days and continue to have strong admiration for him today as an educational policy maker.

At this time, I would like to reflect and think about some of the questions which have been brought up within the last two days based on the speeches, discussions and posters we've heard.

How can we generate innovative intelligence?
How can we design creative learning environments; how can we design brain friendly teaching-learning environments, which result in an effective teaching-learning process catering to an individual’s needs for living, managing and leading the VUCA world.  By "VUCA"  I mean, Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and filled with Ambiguity, world.  What kind of treads must be gained by individuals to deal with and develop such a VUCA world in the 21st Century.

Last, but not least, a crucial question which needs to be answered is, "how we can create a sustainable, creative and innovative world based on ethical and respectful thinking as world citizens." What are the responsibilities of currently developed and future developing countries together with individuals residing in the global world?
I would like to share an excerpt from Dr. Berliner's speech at the AERA Curriculum SIG meeting in 2009. This excerpt illustrates how we can implement Multiple Intelligences, develop creativity, and five minds in Turkey, and in the world.

Quote:

In 1780, John Adams wrote in a letter to his wife, Abigail, the following:
"I must study politics and war that my sons have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."

‘This is the perfect quote to start a discussion of Curriculum for American Schools at the start of the 21st century’, says Berliner.
For Adams, a former school teacher, the ultimate goal of education in a free society was to foster the arts. War was a necessity so that his children had freedom. But the freedom was to generate wealth by means of the commercial and agricultural skills that the new nation needed for its survival, independent of European powers. Adams knew, however, that the ultimate goal of education for a free person was the liberty to appreciate and participate in the arts.

For more than nearly a decade, David Berliner has criticized American Education policy because the curriculum is based on high stakes testing and ineffective education policies. Education by these means does not motivate or encourage an individual to develop higher order thinking skills, critical thinking, creativity, or writing and problem solving – the stuff of genius.[

As we have seen, the matrix of educational problems and ultimate goals of education are very similar throughout the world. As Turkish educators, we also criticize high stakes testing, curriculum, ineffective teaching-learning environments, and incompetent policy makers.

Nearly 86 years ago, and more than 100 hundred years after John Adams, there lived a man called Atatürk, he was the founder of the Republic of Turkey.  Atatürk won the war for Turkish independence, while at the same time, he gave priority to education, art, sports, fine arts, as well as improving the economy, sustaining survival of the nation and becoming a member of the contemporary world. He was an extraordinary leader, soldier, politician, and economist, but most importantly he was an educator. After the Turkish Independence War and establishment of the Turkish Republic (1923), the overall literacy rate was merely 6-7% throughout the entire nation. While the literacy rate for women was even less than that.

Atatürk sought education for every individual, especially villagers, girls and women, in occupations such as scientists, artists, musicians, authors, poets, farmers, traders, and even as pilots, in order to catch up with and become a contemporary civilization.  In short, he and his colleagues worked to generate creative and problem solving individuals by establishing learner friendly teaching-learning environments – establishing museums, art houses, convention centers, farms, zoos, libraries, music halls, etc.  In those days, Dr. Gardner had not yet fully conceptualized the Multiple Intelligences Theory, even though it was utilized and implemented successfully in many cases.

Unfortunately, there later came a time when the Turkish education system slipped backward due to the inadequacy of politicians and poor practices.  Politicians adversely affect and too easily change educational implementation with empty fashion slogans; without deep investigation and preparedness. In this way, serious educational problems are created and once established they are an uphill battle to solve.

Therefore, the unintentional result has been for the teaching and learning process to become drill oriented and teacher dominated, which in turn has resulted in boredom and dislike of the subject matter.  Under these circumstances, learners find it difficult to acquire higher order thinking skills – which is essential for individuals in the 21st century’s VUCA world. Particularly, the current trend of the broad and sweeping use of high stakes testing in Turkey and the world is misguided and wrongly emphasizes rote learning, instead of extensive and all-encompassing intellectual skills.

Contrary to this trend, our challenge for the 21st century and the new millennium is to cultivate creative, flexible, disciplined, synthesized minds with regard to ethical and respectful minds.  The development of ethical and respectful minds is an especially crucial element in any discipline, activity, or profession in making a better world.  Because discoveries in every field are unimaginable; machines may become much faster and smarter than ever before; understanding of genetics may lead to unbelievable engineering, perhaps even the cloning of human beings.  In such a world, what is the colossal question to be answered by educators, policy makers, parents and every citizen in the world?  – How to prepare, nurture and cultivate individuals to cope with, survive, overcome and improve an unimaginable world with a sense of responsibility; with a sense of ethics. In short, how can we generate a sustainable world for every individual's happiness and prosperity, for every nation's happiness, and for every country's happiness within these unimaginable discoveries?  It is not an easy question to answer, but I think nurturing and cultivating ethical and respectful minds, by investigating every case rather than broad generalizations, are the key points to attaining a sustainable world for every individual, for every nation and country within the global world.

Thank you all very much for your attention and patience. It is my sincerest hope that the work which we have done in these two days has contributed towards making this world a much better place in which to live!!

Prof. Dr. Nuray Senemoğlu
Member of Organizing Committee