Learning to become an advisor requires a lot of commitment and personal strength because as you l... more Learning to become an advisor requires a lot of commitment and personal strength because as you learn to help others find their own problems, so do you, the advisor-trainee, discover your own problems and challenges. As your advisees experience moments of self-doubt and insecurity, so do you, often mirrored in the question, “Will I ever become a good advisor?” Good advisors persevere through their struggles and, like their own advisees, they soon learn to find the joy in the self-discovery process. Finally, they emerge from the learning process having been transformed. We call them ‘advisors’ but the significance runs far deeper. Whether by accident or by design, the process of becoming an advisor is almost a mirror-image of the process the advisee undergoes as they too learn to transform themselves(Kato & Mynard, 2016). The new advisor has not only gained a deep understanding of themselves and how they overcame their struggles, they have also gained a deeper understanding of their advisees’ struggles. No longer abstract, the deep connections formed between advisor and advisee are now dynamic and almost tangible. The advisees may go on to graduate and leave school, but the new advisors remain, ever ready to advise and guide the incoming students in the next academic year.
This working paper elaborates on a series of written advising email exchanges conducted with an A... more This working paper elaborates on a series of written advising email exchanges conducted with an AYBU-SFL student who volunteered to become an advisee and receive online written advising from one of the researcher-LAs in this study. The study spans a period of seven months, final three months overlapping the pandemic-related lockdown during which instruction at the university was delivered online. The purpose was to exploit the strategies and tools of advising asynchronously via email utilizing Intentional Reflective Dialogue (IRD) to promote deeper reflection, while at the same time facilitating advisee engagement and encouraging advisee ownership by considering certain motivational processes, including emphasizing effort, creating hope, respecting power, building relationships, expressing enthusiasm, challenging and prompting. In the paper, the context and background, and the purpose are introduced briefly. Then the motivational processes used are presented with reference to the written advising data pointing out and illustrating how motivation-boosting elements were incorporated in this series of IRD email exchanges. Finally, the impact of exploiting motivational resources is further discussed so as to bring insights to how advisors’ focus on motivational elements while conducting advising sessions influence the overall flow with respect to advisee engagement and ownership of the process.
Learners are likely to grow autonomous through understanding causal relations and recognizing sel... more Learners are likely to grow autonomous through understanding causal relations and recognizing self-agentic responsibilities (Bandura, 2006). Once they are provided with an autonomy-supportive learning environment, they engage with one another in a purposive and proactive way, which may be referred to as agentic engagement. To this end, the focus of this paper is on the reflections of six peer advisors (PAs) at a medium-sized public Turkish university as they explored prominent characteristics of their advisor identity, with reference to the end-of-training appreciation cards that were presented by their advisor educators. Based on Benson’s contribution (2007) to the field illustrating the “interwoven” relationship of identity formation and autonomy development (p. 30), PAs’ reflections on their identity are observed to lead to the exercising of agency, which fulfills the basic psychological need of increased autonomy. This paper explores the interrelatedness of the key constructs of...
The global pandemic forced educational institutions worldwide to adapt to a new, fully online con... more The global pandemic forced educational institutions worldwide to adapt to a new, fully online concept of education and a rapid digitalization to keep providing their services to learners. This paper reports on the digitalization process of the Independent Learning Center (ILC) and the Learning Advisory Program (LAP) unit at Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University (AYBU), Turkey. The interrelated digitalization stories of the two units include the provision of learning resources and activities to learners with digital tools and their responses to the new format. Despite the challenges involved, the ILC has offered a considerably higher number of extracurricular activities than in face-to-face education days and reached a higher number of learners in the 2020-2021 academic year. As for the LAP, the participants’ reflections showed how opportunities for offering engaging activities in the LAP created a cascading impact of affordances for both the individual learners and the members of the l...
This one-to-one advising session was held as the final part of a six-week course; the final one i... more This one-to-one advising session was held as the final part of a six-week course; the final one in the Learning Advisor Training Programme offered by Kanda University of International Studies. Each of the four courses comprised weekly assignments and written final papers which helped novice advisors to read, practise and reflect on the basics, tools and field studies related to advising. Course 1 was completed in Japan and the subsequent three courses were completed online and supported by real time sessions with the instructors.
This paper contains the reflections of a novice advisor who had the opportunity to attend a thoro... more This paper contains the reflections of a novice advisor who had the opportunity to attend a thoroughly comprehensive four phase-training program, the first of which had the purpose of teaching the basics of advising (philosophy, strategies, knowledge, etc.) with hands-on practice. As for the practice, the trainees were assigned to have a practice session with a student near the end of the first phase at the Self-Access Learning Center (‘The SALC’) at Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) in Japan, where the training itself took place.
Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) and Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University (AYBU) ar... more Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) and Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University (AYBU) are collaborating on a learning advisory education program consisting of the modules of Getting Started, Going Deeper, Becoming Aware and Transformation. This training has been made possible with support from the 3934 BAP (Scientific Research Fund) at AYBU. The first module was taken by the participants face-to-face at KUIS and the second was completed with live online lectures or recorded sessions, set readings, practice tasks and online forum discussions. The aim of this document is to provide an account of the transformation process of instructors of English. The authors have focused on reviewing and reflecting on their recorded advising sessions, tools for advising, intentional reflective dialogue (IRD), dealing with emotions, giving positive feedback and researching advising in Module 2.
From a sociocultural perspective of autonomy, it is vital that learners can access information, i... more From a sociocultural perspective of autonomy, it is vital that learners can access information, identify their values, know themselves, and manage their cognitive and affective states in their learning environment, and voice their opinions within their community of practice. To provide its learners with autonomy-supportive and structured environments within its specific context, the Learning Advisory Program Unit (LAP) of Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University School of Foreign Languages (AYBU SFL) designed an extracurricular program, the LAP Club, which incorporated self-determination theory (SDT), PERMA-the five pillars of well-being, and intentional reflective dialogue (IRD) to promote advising practices. The resulting content was delivered following the phases defined in the equipped for future (EFF) framework and standards. In this qualitative research project investigating the participants’ perceptions of the efficiency of the program in promoting their well-being, a questionnaire...
The global pandemic forced educational institutions worldwide to adapt to a new, fully online con... more The global pandemic forced educational institutions worldwide to adapt to a new, fully online concept of education and a rapid digitalization to keep providing their services to learners. This paper reports on the digitalization process of the Independent Learning Center (ILC) and the Learning Advisory Program (LAP) unit at Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University (AYBU), Turkey. The interrelated digitalization stories of the two units include the provision of learning resources and activities to learners with digital tools and their responses to the new format. Despite the challenges involved, the ILC has offered a considerably higher number of extracurricular activities than in face-to-face education days and reached a higher number of learners in the 2020-2021 academic year. As for the LAP, the participants' reflections showed how opportunities for offering engaging activities in the LAP created a cascading impact of affordances for both the individual learners and the members of the larger community.
Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE, 2018
Many learners are now quite digitally skilled. However, this does not entail that they know how t... more Many learners are now quite digitally skilled. However, this does not entail that they know how to learn through digital technologies. Therefore, establishing an interactive virtual learning platform that connects everyone together in a classroom environment and helping learners become familiar with such media might serve a set of purposes in any educational setting. Today, with the advances in web-based learning technologies, a hybrid teaching methodology has become widespread: blended learning. It is a term used to describe the way e-learning is being combined with traditional classroom methods and independent study. Educators design online materials and utilize them in synchronous or asynchronous ways to suit the convenience of learners and instructors and program demands. In this study with a group of intermediate-level English language learners at the School of Foreign Languages of an English-medium state university, the goal was to enhance students' vocabulary learning performance by using synchronous and asynchronous games and activities that will activate and maintain intrinsic motivation in an effort to teach parts of speech and collocations over a period of eight weeks. The data consisted of a survey of students' reflections on their vocabulary learning experiences through digital games and activities. The findings were discussed with respect to the efficiency of incorporating synchronous and asynchronous learning materials.
Learning to become an advisor requires a lot of commitment and personal strength because as you l... more Learning to become an advisor requires a lot of commitment and personal strength because as you learn to help others find their own problems, so do you, the advisor-trainee, discover your own problems and challenges. As your advisees experience moments of self-doubt and insecurity, so do you, often mirrored in the question, “Will I ever become a good advisor?” Good advisors persevere through their struggles and, like their own advisees, they soon learn to find the joy in the self-discovery process. Finally, they emerge from the learning process having been transformed. We call them ‘advisors’ but the significance runs far deeper. Whether by accident or by design, the process of becoming an advisor is almost a mirror-image of the process the advisee undergoes as they too learn to transform themselves(Kato & Mynard, 2016). The new advisor has not only gained a deep understanding of themselves and how they overcame their struggles, they have also gained a deeper understanding of their advisees’ struggles. No longer abstract, the deep connections formed between advisor and advisee are now dynamic and almost tangible. The advisees may go on to graduate and leave school, but the new advisors remain, ever ready to advise and guide the incoming students in the next academic year.
This working paper elaborates on a series of written advising email exchanges conducted with an A... more This working paper elaborates on a series of written advising email exchanges conducted with an AYBU-SFL student who volunteered to become an advisee and receive online written advising from one of the researcher-LAs in this study. The study spans a period of seven months, final three months overlapping the pandemic-related lockdown during which instruction at the university was delivered online. The purpose was to exploit the strategies and tools of advising asynchronously via email utilizing Intentional Reflective Dialogue (IRD) to promote deeper reflection, while at the same time facilitating advisee engagement and encouraging advisee ownership by considering certain motivational processes, including emphasizing effort, creating hope, respecting power, building relationships, expressing enthusiasm, challenging and prompting. In the paper, the context and background, and the purpose are introduced briefly. Then the motivational processes used are presented with reference to the written advising data pointing out and illustrating how motivation-boosting elements were incorporated in this series of IRD email exchanges. Finally, the impact of exploiting motivational resources is further discussed so as to bring insights to how advisors’ focus on motivational elements while conducting advising sessions influence the overall flow with respect to advisee engagement and ownership of the process.
Learners are likely to grow autonomous through understanding causal relations and recognizing sel... more Learners are likely to grow autonomous through understanding causal relations and recognizing self-agentic responsibilities (Bandura, 2006). Once they are provided with an autonomy-supportive learning environment, they engage with one another in a purposive and proactive way, which may be referred to as agentic engagement. To this end, the focus of this paper is on the reflections of six peer advisors (PAs) at a medium-sized public Turkish university as they explored prominent characteristics of their advisor identity, with reference to the end-of-training appreciation cards that were presented by their advisor educators. Based on Benson’s contribution (2007) to the field illustrating the “interwoven” relationship of identity formation and autonomy development (p. 30), PAs’ reflections on their identity are observed to lead to the exercising of agency, which fulfills the basic psychological need of increased autonomy. This paper explores the interrelatedness of the key constructs of...
The global pandemic forced educational institutions worldwide to adapt to a new, fully online con... more The global pandemic forced educational institutions worldwide to adapt to a new, fully online concept of education and a rapid digitalization to keep providing their services to learners. This paper reports on the digitalization process of the Independent Learning Center (ILC) and the Learning Advisory Program (LAP) unit at Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University (AYBU), Turkey. The interrelated digitalization stories of the two units include the provision of learning resources and activities to learners with digital tools and their responses to the new format. Despite the challenges involved, the ILC has offered a considerably higher number of extracurricular activities than in face-to-face education days and reached a higher number of learners in the 2020-2021 academic year. As for the LAP, the participants’ reflections showed how opportunities for offering engaging activities in the LAP created a cascading impact of affordances for both the individual learners and the members of the l...
This one-to-one advising session was held as the final part of a six-week course; the final one i... more This one-to-one advising session was held as the final part of a six-week course; the final one in the Learning Advisor Training Programme offered by Kanda University of International Studies. Each of the four courses comprised weekly assignments and written final papers which helped novice advisors to read, practise and reflect on the basics, tools and field studies related to advising. Course 1 was completed in Japan and the subsequent three courses were completed online and supported by real time sessions with the instructors.
This paper contains the reflections of a novice advisor who had the opportunity to attend a thoro... more This paper contains the reflections of a novice advisor who had the opportunity to attend a thoroughly comprehensive four phase-training program, the first of which had the purpose of teaching the basics of advising (philosophy, strategies, knowledge, etc.) with hands-on practice. As for the practice, the trainees were assigned to have a practice session with a student near the end of the first phase at the Self-Access Learning Center (‘The SALC’) at Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) in Japan, where the training itself took place.
Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) and Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University (AYBU) ar... more Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) and Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University (AYBU) are collaborating on a learning advisory education program consisting of the modules of Getting Started, Going Deeper, Becoming Aware and Transformation. This training has been made possible with support from the 3934 BAP (Scientific Research Fund) at AYBU. The first module was taken by the participants face-to-face at KUIS and the second was completed with live online lectures or recorded sessions, set readings, practice tasks and online forum discussions. The aim of this document is to provide an account of the transformation process of instructors of English. The authors have focused on reviewing and reflecting on their recorded advising sessions, tools for advising, intentional reflective dialogue (IRD), dealing with emotions, giving positive feedback and researching advising in Module 2.
From a sociocultural perspective of autonomy, it is vital that learners can access information, i... more From a sociocultural perspective of autonomy, it is vital that learners can access information, identify their values, know themselves, and manage their cognitive and affective states in their learning environment, and voice their opinions within their community of practice. To provide its learners with autonomy-supportive and structured environments within its specific context, the Learning Advisory Program Unit (LAP) of Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University School of Foreign Languages (AYBU SFL) designed an extracurricular program, the LAP Club, which incorporated self-determination theory (SDT), PERMA-the five pillars of well-being, and intentional reflective dialogue (IRD) to promote advising practices. The resulting content was delivered following the phases defined in the equipped for future (EFF) framework and standards. In this qualitative research project investigating the participants’ perceptions of the efficiency of the program in promoting their well-being, a questionnaire...
The global pandemic forced educational institutions worldwide to adapt to a new, fully online con... more The global pandemic forced educational institutions worldwide to adapt to a new, fully online concept of education and a rapid digitalization to keep providing their services to learners. This paper reports on the digitalization process of the Independent Learning Center (ILC) and the Learning Advisory Program (LAP) unit at Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University (AYBU), Turkey. The interrelated digitalization stories of the two units include the provision of learning resources and activities to learners with digital tools and their responses to the new format. Despite the challenges involved, the ILC has offered a considerably higher number of extracurricular activities than in face-to-face education days and reached a higher number of learners in the 2020-2021 academic year. As for the LAP, the participants' reflections showed how opportunities for offering engaging activities in the LAP created a cascading impact of affordances for both the individual learners and the members of the larger community.
Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE, 2018
Many learners are now quite digitally skilled. However, this does not entail that they know how t... more Many learners are now quite digitally skilled. However, this does not entail that they know how to learn through digital technologies. Therefore, establishing an interactive virtual learning platform that connects everyone together in a classroom environment and helping learners become familiar with such media might serve a set of purposes in any educational setting. Today, with the advances in web-based learning technologies, a hybrid teaching methodology has become widespread: blended learning. It is a term used to describe the way e-learning is being combined with traditional classroom methods and independent study. Educators design online materials and utilize them in synchronous or asynchronous ways to suit the convenience of learners and instructors and program demands. In this study with a group of intermediate-level English language learners at the School of Foreign Languages of an English-medium state university, the goal was to enhance students' vocabulary learning performance by using synchronous and asynchronous games and activities that will activate and maintain intrinsic motivation in an effort to teach parts of speech and collocations over a period of eight weeks. The data consisted of a survey of students' reflections on their vocabulary learning experiences through digital games and activities. The findings were discussed with respect to the efficiency of incorporating synchronous and asynchronous learning materials.
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Papers by Gamze Guven-Yalcin