Prof. Dr. Catherine Walter-Laager, Vice-Rector for Education and Training at the Austrian University of Graz (Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz) and Prof. Dr. Manfred Pfiffner from the Zurich Pedagogy University (Pädagogische Hochschule Zürich), the largest education university in Switzerland, came to the Pre-School Department of the Department of Primary Education of our faculty within the scope of the Erasmus+ Personnel Mobility Program and they had a meeting with our Dean Prof. Dr. Seyfi KENAN on October 30, 2023. During the meeting, after a developmental conversation about the education systems in different countries, ideas were exchanged on joint project work that could be done in the future. At the end of the meeting, our Dean presented them with various gifts, especially the commemorative plate for the 100th anniversary of our Republic and the 175th anniversary of our school.
Prof. Dr. Catherine Walter-Laager and Prof. Dr. Manfred Pfiffner gave a seminar to our students under the title "Quality in Early Childhood Education" in two sessions on October 31. At the seminar, they shared their experiences about pre-school education practices in different countries.
In her presentation, Prof. Dr. Catherine Walter-Laager discussed the importance of quality in early childhood education and the impact of professional behavior and competencies on child development. She emphasized the need for high-quality interactions and personalized attention for positive results. Prof. Dr. Walter-Laager discussed the role of didactics in guiding effective teaching and learning processes, as well as models of educator competence and professional action. It also examined fundamental questions in early childhood education about who one should learn from, what should be learned, and how learning should be facilitated. Professor Walter-Laager discussed various strategies and approaches to support children's development and learning, as well as tools and resources for measuring the quality of interaction.
In his presentation, Prof. Dr. Manfred Pfiffner discussed the importance and effectiveness of the use of digital resources in university teaching and learning. He emphasized the need for self-organized learning, digital teaching methods and blended learning. Teachers should be encouraged to acquire digital skills and schools should be encouraged to implement digital teaching methods on a wider scale. Professor Pfiffner talked about the positive impact of digital teaching and learning on students' willingness to learn and changes in their learning behavior, and emphasized that digital teaching and learning styles should have relevant, didactic and pedagogical value. In the last part of his presentation, Professor Pfiffner gave examples of how digital resources can be applied in the classroom and also mentioned the digital skills that teachers should have.
