CIU Organized a Seminar for the Sedat Simavi Industrial Vocational High School Teachers

Cyprus International University (CIU) Faculty of Education, Guidance and Psychological Counseling Program Lecturer Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gürcan Seçim provided in-service training for Sedat Simavi Industrial Vocational High School teachers regarding supportive programs following the Coronavirus pandemic process.

Coping with stress and motivation was the main theme of the training seminar organized for 56 teachers from Sedat Simavi Industrial Vocational High School.

In the seminar, Seçim stated that people face many obstacles in their daily lives like accomplishing their goals for the future, and added that many factors such as accumulated work, loss of time, work fatigue, inability to focus or even start working on something, all cause stress.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Seçim stated that all these problems resulted in not being able to start work or finish it at the targeted time, and noted that the main problem was lack of motivation.

Stating that it is important to be motivated to achieve success, Seçim said, “The factor that will provide motivation and keep it alive is having a plan. A plan is synonymous with having a clear roadmap in mind for the outcome we desire.”

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Seçim talked about how some goals would be more difficult to attain and more challenging compared to others. She said, “ the main condition for overcoming all the obstacles that we may encounter in reaching our target is to have a realistic plan we could adhere to at all times.”

Seçim pointed out that the feasibility of the plan should be checked at all times and see if it is still doable, and also be updated as necessary and continued with determination, Seçim said, “Our plan should define the workloads realistically, rank them in terms of priorities, facilitate time management and even show internal and external resources for the support we will receive when we need it.”

In addition to talking about planned progress, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Seçim emphasized that stress is a factor that may cause a delay in starting the work in line with a goal that seems particularly difficult or tiring or to even leave it though we have started working on it.

For this reason, Seçim said that the first step is to recognize the symptoms of stress and take the necessary measures to cope with predictable stress factors. She noted that when faced with stress, it is important to use emotional, behavioral, mental, and physical coping skills.

At the end of her speech, Dr. Seçim stated that the critical key to success in maintaining motivation and stress management is knowledge, awareness, planning, and determination.