An Investigation into the Changes and Developments in Teaching Methods Applied in Ottoman Educational Institutions: Sati Bey’s Suggestions and Practices

Abstract

From the perspective of Turkish education history, it can be said that the teaching methods applied in the educational institutions of the Ottoman Empire had deductive characteristics. The application of the deductive method was carried out in various forms including memorization, repetition, comprehension, discussion and note taking. Since the transfer of lessons in primary schools and madrasahs, which were traditional Ottoman educational institutions, was predominant, memorization as a teaching method was also dominant. Along with the modernization period in the nineteenth century, with innovations in the social, economic and military fields of the Ottoman state, there were also changes and developments in the field of education. After the second Constitutional Monarchy, the Darülmuallimin (the teachers’ school for men), which was established in 1848, started to train more qualified teachers as part of the changes and developments in the historical process. The ideas, suggestions and practices of Sâtı Bey, the principal of the teachers' school in that period, as the key implementer of these changes are still considered important today. In this study, the necessity, importance and characteristics of the methods of takrir (‘explaining’) and tekşif (‘discovering’) in Satı Bey's thinking as opposed to memorization are emphasized. The findings show that the discovering method is more useful than the explaining method in terms of permanent learning as an alternative to memorization. Another finding of the present study is that methods of explaining and discovering cannot be applied in every academic course.