International Eurasian Educational Research Congress Final Declaration

Dear EJERCongress Participants,

This year’s EJERCongress was hosted by Kocaeli University between May 21-24, 2024. Together with the president of the university, Prof. Nuh Zafer CANTÜRK, the co-chair of the conference and the Dean of the Faculty of Education, Prof. Elif ÇELEBİ ÖNCÜ, valuable faculty members, staff and students of the Faculty of Education, we presented a very beneficial and information-filled conference to the education community this year.

In addition to the nearly 700 papers presented face-to-face on the first three days and fully online on the fourth day, our participants benefited from the seminars of six invited speakers and also had the opportunity to listen to the presenters in two panels, five workshops, and one conversation hour. A total of 2,375 individuals registered for the conference. Two book signing events took place during the conference. This year, Prof. Ezel TAVŞANCIL was the guest for our Veteran Educator session, anually held and moderated by Prof. Mustafa GÜNDÜZ.

The Panel of University Presidents was moderated by Prof. Nuh Zafer CANTÜRK with the panelists of Prof. Ayşegül KOMSUOĞLU ÇITIPITIOĞLU, Prof. Hacı Ali MANTAR, and Prof. Muzaffer ELMAS. Our Deans panel was moderated by Prof. Dr. Elif ÇELEBİ ÖNCÜ with the panelists of Prof. Mahmut SELVİ, Prof. Aytaç GÖĞÜŞ, Prof. Alim KAYA, and Prof. Mutlu Nisa ÜNALDI CORAL.

     Our invited speakers and their presentation titles were as follows:

• Prof. Ahmet ARSLAN, “The Challenge of Turkish Education System with Philosophy”
• Prof. Aras BOZKURT, “Generative Artificial Intelligence in Education: The Inevitable Paradigm Shift”
• Prof. M. Alper ŞAHİNER, “Artificial Intelligence and Materials Science, Renewable Energy Research and Education”
• Prof. Jane M. WILBURNE, “Teaching Practices for Improving Teachers’ Self-Confidence and Pedagogical Knowledge”
• Prof. Michael DOMJAN, “What B. F. Skinner Got Right and Wrong about Conditioning and Learning”
• Dr. Gürkan SARIDAŞ and Prof. Funda NAYİR, “Using Q Methodology in Educational Research”
• Prof. Selçuk Beşir DEMİR, “Common Mistakes in Literature Review, New Perspectives and Databases”
• Prof. Ruken Akar VURAL, “Peace Education through Drama in Education: Experiencing the Possibilities of Encountering and Transforming the Other”
• Prof. Yavuz AKBULUT, “Common Methodological Problems Observed in Educational Research and Suggestions for Solutions”
• Prof. Luca TATEO, “Cultivating Diversity in Education”
• Assoc. Prof. A. Patricia Aguilera-HERMIDA, “Romantic Relationships, Dating and Marriage in Later Life”

EJERCongress has been and will continue to make a great contribution internationally. Participating in EJERCongress (1) creates an opportunity for academic networking, (2) helps participants to gain skills related to presenting papers in the conference and professional communication, (3) provides participants with up-to-date information about their field of education, (4) strengthens the resumes of the participants, and (5) enables our participants to gain a different and more creative perspective on their own work by listening to various information in different fields.

Another focus of EJERCongress is to assign tasks to students. Our students gain experience in both the conference and academic environment and write these activities on their resumes as a service to their field. Although these activities are not valued much in Türkiye, they are very beneficial in master’s and doctorate applications abroad and in receiving acceptance letters from abroad in order to apply for TUBITAK support. Such activities show the individual’s commitment and interest in the field.

 It is important for our conference to invite guest speakers from abroad to our conference and for them to participate face-to-face. Our guest speakers also help faculty members and students in Türkiye to create an academic network abroad.

In our awards ceremony, which we organized for the second time this year but started to support them financially for the first time, our awards committee deemed it appropriate to give the Best Doctoral Thesis Award to Dr. Nergiz TEKE and the Best Young Researcher Award to Dr. Ali TOSUN. Both categories received a prize of 15,000 TRY, sponsored by the Zeynep Ana Education and Health Foundation. We would like to thank the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Foundation and the Chairman of the Board of HBZ Holding, Mr. Kemal ARSLAN, for his support to our conference. We would also like to express our gratitude to Prof. Dr. Abdulkadir MASKAN from Dicle University who chaired the awards committee.

We look forward to meeting you at the XII EJERCongress,

 EJER Congress President: Ord. Prof. Dr. Şenel Poyrazlı
 Chair and Professor of Counseling Psychology
 Penn State University, Harrisburg, USA

 EJER Congress Vice-President: Prof. Dr. Funda Nayır
Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University, Ağrı, TÜRKİYE