Prof.Dr. ERCAN KİRAZ

Biyografi

Biography

Ercan Kiraz, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction

Dr. Ercan Kiraz completed his B.Sc. degree in Curriculum and Instruction at Ankara University, School of Educational Sciences in 1990, and was awarded with a scholarship by the Ministry of National Education (MONE) in accordance with the law 1416 to pursue a graduate degree in the United States of America.  He completed his M.Sc. in 1993, and Ph.D. in 1997 in Curriculum Development and Special Education field at the University of Southern California, Waite Phillips Hall School of Education. During his graduate studies, he concentrated on pre and in-service teacher education, interactive learning, academic collegiality, curriculum development, instructional design, and teaching modeling.  In 1997, he returned to Turkey, and started his academic career at Balıkesir University, Necatibey Eğitim Fakültesi. Later, he joined to Middle East Technical University (METU), Educational Science Department, and became an Associate Professor in 2004 and a Full Professor of Curriculum and Instruction in 2010.

Besides publishing numerous articles in national and international journals, Dr. Kiraz conducted many workshops, seminars, and in-service training programs for different state institutions, organizations, and public and private schools in order to help educators’ professional development. He also served as a consultant and contributed as an educational sciences expert for the State Development Plans, quality improvement commissions, USAID, Kazakhstan Ministry of Science and Education, Board of Education of MONE.  In 2008, he was invited to Turkish Republic of North Cyprus to lead the elementary school curriculum development process where he conducted hundreds of workshops and seminars, particularly constructivist educational approaches in the first place.

In 2011, he was awarded with a Senior Scholar Award by Fulbright Commission and joined to Arizona State University, School of Education to conduct research in instructional design approaches of American educators, and to share his experiences regarding Turkish instructional design applications.  Between 2013 and 2014, he worked at METU North Cyprus Campus and at the end of 2014 he moved to the United States and continued his academic career in California.

Ercan Kiraz believes that in the center of learning process a main emphasis should be placed on developing special learning environments that reveal active learning and cognitive movements.  For this, he conducted researches in the areas of school architecture and learning ergonomics, multiple intelligences theory, blended learning, active learning, educational ideologies, educational technology, and qualitative research techniques. He also supervised many M.Sc. thesis and Ph.D. dissertations in those areas.

In July 2016, he returned to Turkey and accepted a vice rector position to contribute to the “3^rd Generation Public University” mission at Abdullah Gül University.

As of today, he continues his scholarly work at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University.