Distinguished Teachers Honored
The University is pleased to announce the recipients of the Distinguished Teachers of the Year Awards for 2013. Asst. Prof. Tolga Bölükbaşı, Prof. Özer Ergenç, Prof. Ezhan Karaşan, and Asst. Prof. Mustafa Nakeeb were chosen for demonstrating outstanding teaching abilities and for contributing to students' academic and intellectual development. Bilkent News asked this year's Distinguished Teachers for their thoughts on receiving this award.
Asst. Prof. Tolga Bölükbaşı, Department of Political Science and Public Administration
I am truly delighted and honored to receive the Bilkent University Distinguished Teacher Award. I have felt very fortunate and privileged to be a part of the Bilkent community of learners ever since I stepped into my very first class here. I humbly receive this award as an appreciation of the approach I take to learning in the classroom and beyond, which is based on several principles: reflexive-empathic explanation, remaining curious, engaging respectfully, instilling enthusiasm and empowering continuously. I also receive it as a celebration of my day-to-day interaction with members of this community: my students, my colleagues, administrators and staff. On this occasion, I would like to express my deep appreciation of those who have learned before me (some of whom I was fortunate enough to learn from), those who learn with me and the many others who will continue to learn after me. Thus I would like to dedicate this award to my teachers and students, past, present and future, with the hope that they will inform and inspire the peers of my son and the following generations of learners in forming independent, well-informed, intelligent and discriminating judgments on the pressing challenges and controversies of their times. I pass on my hopes to all of them, that they may remain curious about the world, and respect as well as challenge received wisdom.
Prof. Özer Ergenç, Department of History
I feel very honored to have received the 2013 Bilkent Distinguished Teacher Award. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Bilkent administration, my colleagues and my students.
If I were to comment on my teaching philosophy, I should firstly mention that I learned how to teach in a mentor-apprentice system. My knowledge in the area of history was shaped mostly by outstanding historians, which I consider a great opportunity in my academic career. If you were to ask me about the relative share of this mentoring in my pedagogical knowledge as well as my personal teaching skills, I can say that it had a huge impact on me, especially the mentoring of Halil İnalcık.
Secondly, I can say that "teaching" represents a reciprocal process for me. I see my students, who constitute the essence of my "teaching," not as passive recipients but as active participants in the classroom. Inasmuch as I "teach" my students, I can say that my students equally "teach" me in terms of their stimulating questions, insightful comments and their critiques concerning Ottoman history in general. Consequently, I continue to learn and develop new methods and approaches through interaction with my students, and this enriches my teaching experience.
As a result, I can say that my "teaching" is an ongoing process, in which I not only "teach" but also "learn."
Prof. Ezhan Karaşan, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
I am deeply honored to receive this prestigious award. I feel extremely lucky to be able to teach subjects that I truly treasure to enthusiastic young learners at Bilkent. Teaching and learning are two interwoven activities. Most often during lectures, I find myself being transformed from a teacher to a learner when challenged by excellent questions from my students. The interactive classroom environment allows me and my students to feed each other with knowledge as we learn together. As students become more comfortable during lectures, they gain confidence to ask more questions as part of the critical learning process. I believe that this interactive process provokes students to start thinking more deeply and inspires them to continue learning.
This is the greatest award that a teacher can ask for, since it comes about through the direct support of his/her students. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my past and present students and my colleagues for writing those wonderful support letters. I also want to thank my students for keeping me passionate about learning and teaching. I would like to thank the EEE Department nomination committee for nominating me and for expending a significant amount of effort in preparing the nomination folder.
Asst. Prof. Mustafa Nakeeb, Program in Cultures, Civilizations and Ideas
I am extremely honored to have been selected for this year's Distinguished Teacher Award at Bilkent University. I would like to thank all of my former students in Humanities and Philosophy, particularly those who have written letters of support on my behalf.
I consider myself very fortunate to be able to teach. It is an endeavor that I both respect and love, and I truly feel as though I would not be happy doing anything else. Being recognized for excellence in teaching here at Bilkent is particularly gratifying, as the vast majority of what I know and have been able to achieve in my teaching is a direct result of my experiences at this institution, either in the classroom with bright and interested students, or in consultation with the very many excellent teachers I have had the opportunity to work with here at CCI and Bilkent more generally.
Learning is much more important than teaching, as one is an end and one merely a means. To think that I have been at all successful in effecting learning is a great comfort to me, and I thank my own students for their learning, my colleagues past and present for their support, and Bilkent University both for the opportunity given me to practice this craft, and for this award.