The Future of Education

The impact of the recent technological developments has been felt in all aspects of life , and the ones who were born in the 50’s and 60’s have witnessed innumerable changes in the  societies in which they live and have tried to keep up with the innovations most of which were unpredicted before. In line with these changes, education throughout the World has been affected drastically because of the current needs and priorities of the societies. Education has become more learner centred and roles of teachers have been redefined. However teachers and teacher candidates are still regarded as change agents as they were in the past. In one hand,most of the teachers who are currently working are busy with fulfilling their teaching responsibilities by familiarizing themselves with the digital technology. Teacher candidates, on the other hand, prepare themselves for the requirements of their future career with their digital literacy.

 The purpose of this study is to focus on the foresights of the language teacher candidates at Mersin University, in the departments of English and Turkish Languge Teaching, as they are going to be the change agents in future educational settings. They have been asked to answer three open-ended questions and write freely about their predictions related to their teaching, learners, and instructional materials and technology, which they will be confronting a decade later. The content analysis of the qualitative data gathered from their writings have revealed their expectations about future classrooms and the roles they are going to play as professionals. The analysis has also provided valuable tips to be taken into consideration by the teacher educators. Consequently, this study has led to new questions to be posed both by the candidates and the teacher educators.

Key words: foresight of Turkish teacher candidates, teacher education