KAPSAYICI ABE PROGRAMI UYGULAMALARINA ÖRNEK

Hello Dear ABE family,

My journey with the Amgen Biotechnology Experience (ABE) Program and becoming a volunteer teacher of this project started in 2016. Within the scope of the program, I had the opportunity to work with many different students from primary and secondary education levels in Türkiye (age, cognitive level, family, social environment, cultural structure, socioeconomic status, etc.), and to experience and implement ABE practices.

I would like to tell you about my experiences with the Individualized Education Program (IEP) students to whom I applied the ABE Program. IEP students consist of individuals with special education needs due to their mental, developmental or physical differences. In Türkiye, individual education programs are prepared and implemented for students with IEP in or outside the classroom, in line with their developmental characteristics, needs, interests, abilities and educational performance. IEP students in classes may generally have difficulty in expressing their thoughts in the classroom, having and maintaining internal motivation and attention, socializing, and establishing permanent and deep relations with their peers. As a teacher, I included these students in ABE implementations to support equal opportunities in education. My ABE implementations showed that aforementioned difficulties that can be commonly experienced with IEP students within educational activities can actually change.

During my lessons, I introduced my  IEP students to the ABE Program, and then asked them whether they would like to participate in the program. The students mentioned that the program would be a different experience for them as they had not done laboratory work in their previous educational lives. Throughout the ABE implementations, they experienced biotechnology laboratories in group work with their fellow classmates. I encouraged them to work with other students rather than forming groups amongst themselves. Throughout the group work, I observed their cohesion, motivation, and competence levels. In case they faced difficulties during the implementation, I facilitated peer learning by encouraging them to revisit the areas where they struggled with their group members. Sometimes I observed their peers helping these students, while other times I saw these students assisting their peers. Throughout my ABE program implementations, I observed that IEP students had better motivation compared to my students with normal learning levels. In laboratory implementations, they mostly performed the targeted skills (such as drawing and dispensing liquids with a micropipette, loading dye solutions on the agarose gel). Like all students, IEP students had also some difficulty in feeling the first stop on the micropipette. They got along well and collaborated with their classmates during the implementation. I also witnessed them occasionally guiding their classmates during micropipetting practice. They did the laboratories quite seriously and disciplined. These students could be observed as students who might often get bored in lessons, have difficulty sustaining their motivation, drift away from the lesson into their own imagination after a while, or occasionally exhibit behaviors that may disrupt the teacher's daily lesson plan. However, I did not experience any of these situations during my ABE implementations. I did not observe any loss of motivation in these students throughout the implementation process. While taking photos during the implementation, they did not shy away from being in the same frame with their other classmates; on the contrary, they were very eager. They were happy to be part of the ABE Program. They were pleased to be part of the laboratory experience and activities. Their excitement and pride were evident from their facial expressions and gestures.

As a teacher, I observe and believe that the ABE Program significantly contributes to those students especially their cognitive learning. The ABE Program offers positive experiences for all students, including IEP students, who have different backgrounds. Being involved in the ABE Program has provided, and continues to provide, very different academic and pedagogical experiences not only to my students but also to me as a volunteer teacher.

Gülhan Güçlü

Biology Teacher

Izmit Yıldırım Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School