People | Faculty of Education

Necmi Akşit (Assoc. Dean, Faculty of Education)
Necmi Akşit has a BSc and an MA in English Language teaching, and holds a PhD in Educational Science, all from Middle East Technical University. He began his career as a teacher of English at the Turco-British Association in 1989. He then moved to Bilkent University in 1990, and worked as instructor in the School of English Language for twelve years. Positions held included: Curriculum Coordinator, Head of Teaching-Unit (pre-sessional courses), and Head of English Language Support Unit (in-sessional credit bearing courses). He joined the Graduate School of Education in 2002, and has been teaching pre-service and in-service teacher education courses since then. He is now the Director of Teacher Education Program, called MA in Curriculum and Instruction with Teaching Certificate. Additionally, he is Assistant Director in the Graduate School of Education, Associate Dean in the Faculty of Education, and Director of MA in TEFL Program.

His research interests include Teaching English for Academic Purposes, Teacher Leadership, and Comparative Education, and Innovations and Advances in Qualitative or Mixed methods research, Policy Analysis, Evaluation, Citizenship Education

Tijen Akşit
Tijen Akşit holds a PhD in Educational Sciences, and an MA and a BSc in English Language Teaching. She has been affiliated with Bilkent University for more than thirty years. She started her career working as an English language instructor for 6 years at the English language preparatory program. Before holding various administrative positions at Bilkent, she was also employed as a full-time teacher, and as a Director of Language Studies at a K-12 school in Ankara for a year. Over the years she has taught tertiary level general English, and English for Academic and Specific purposes classes to undergraduate, and teacher education courses to graduate students. She has been teaching at Graduate School of Education since 2003. She is also Director of School of English Language and its Faculty Academic English Program. Dr. Aksit has been heavily involved in the design of quality assurance systems for tertiary level English language preparatory programs in Turkish universities working with Higher Education Quality Council Turkey. She is an Advisory Board Member of Association for Evaluation and Accreditation of Language Education. She is the author of the book titled Characteristics of Effective Schools and the Co-editor of Bridging Teaching, Learning and Assessment in the English Language Classroom. Aksit has also published on teacher appraisal systems, teacher action research, and teaching English for academic purposes.

Research interests: Teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP), English Medium instruction (EMI), Language teacher development, Quality assurance in English language teaching / education, Teacher leadership, Teaching English / Turkish as a foreign language

Anita Alexander
Dr. Anita Alexander is a mathematics teacher educator and educational researcher with over 15 years of teaching experience. Her primary research objective is to improve mathematics education at the undergraduate level by implementing inquiry-based learning to promote a conceptual understanding of essential concepts. In one recent mixed methods research study, Dr. Alexander found that students demonstrated higher levels of conceptual understanding of calculus when inquiry is present in the classroom, when educators engage their students, and when educators encourage collaboration. Her research includes examining teaching norms at the high school and undergraduate level. She also collaborates with early childhood mathematics education researchers with the overarching objective of vertical alignment.
Dr. Alexander teaches mathematics and mathematics education courses to undergraduate and graduate students. Previously, she taught mathematics at the high school level and presented at conferences on differentiated instruction and effective practice. She has also worked as a mathematics consultant with area schools, and assisted with grant-funded professional development for in-service teachers.

Armağan Ateşkan
Ph.D., Computer Education and Instructional Technologies, Middle East Technical University, 2008. Science and biology education, environmental issues.
Armağan Ateşkan (BS İstanbul Technical University, MA Bilkent University, PhD Middle East Technical University) joined the Graduate School of Education in 2002, teaching MA courses. She also worked at Özel Bilkent Lisesi as a biology teacher, and as an educational technologist at an international school in Belgium. Her interests are ICT in education, STEM education, international education, health education, sustainability and outdoor education. She has led international and national research projects at Bilkent.

Alipaşa Ayas (Dean, Faculty of Education)
Ph.D., Curriculum and Instruction, University of Southampton, 1993. Curriculum development, teacher education, concept development, assessment and evaluation.
Alipaşa Ayas (BS and MSc Karadeniz Technical University, MA New Brunswick University, PhD Southampton University) was lecturer, head of science and mathematics education, vice-dean and dean at Karadeniz Technical University from 1993 to 2010. He taught high school chemistry from 1994 to 1996. He has worked/directed on several projects related to improving the quality of education supported by nationally and internationally funding organizations at YÖK and Ministry of National Education. He also involved in developing several science and/or chemistry curriculum since 2010. He has published books, and articles in national and international journals. He joined Bilkent in 2010. He is now the Director of Graduate School of Education.

İlker Kalender
Ph.D., Secondary Science and Mathematics Education, Middle East Technical University, 2011. Computerized adaptive testing procedures, detection of creating/aberrant response patterns through software, educational technology.
İlker Kalender (BS, MA and PhD from Middle East Technical University). He joined Bilkent University in 2008. During his graduate studies, he worked mainly on measurement and evaluation procedures. His research interests are student evaluations of instruction in higher education and computerized measurement and evaluation techniques. He has also been working as a reviewer for journals such as Higher Education, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, Education and Science, Higher Education Research & Development.
Research interests: Factors affecting student ratings of instruction; Analysis of large-scale testing data (PISA, TIMSS, etc.); Test and item development; Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) procedures.

Seyit Koçberber
Ph.D., Computer Engineering and Information Science, Bilkent University, 1996. Information retrieval, database systems.

Jennie Farber Lane
Ph.D., Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2006. Biology education, education for sustainability, curriculum development.
Jennie Lane (BSc Florida Southern College, MA Columbia Teachers College, MSc University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, PhD University of Wisconsin-Madison) was the director of the Wisconsin K-12 Energy Education Program (KEEP) for 17 years before joining Bilkent in 2012. Prior to KEEP, she co-authored the Project WET Curriculum and Activity Guide, taught public school in New York City and Lewiston, Maine, and instructed pre-service teachers in Thailand and at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Her research areas include environmental, energy, and sustainability education.

Research interests: Environmental education, education for sustainability, science education: Teaching competencies, perceptions, action research (teachers); student perceptions, dispositions, and behavioral change; Curriculum reform and policy: Teacher’s role in development and evaluation; action research

Margaret Sands
PhD, Curriculum and Instruction, Nottingham University
Margaret Sands (BSc, PGCE London University, PhD Nottingham University) was Director of the PGCE program at Nottingham. Earlier, she was a school teacher in London, and then head of biology department at King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls. She was chief examiner for A-Level biology for the Joint Matriculation Board, and also a school inspector. She was the team leader of the World Bank Teacher Education Project at YÖK, 1994-1999. She is the author, co-author or editor of 40 books, including school textbooks. She joined Bilkent University in 2000 as Director of the new Graduate School of Education.