Bachelor’s Degree: Preschool Education, Boğaziçi University (2010)

Master’s Degree: Psychological Counseling and Guidance, METU (2015)

Clinical Psychology, Istanbul Kent University (2019)

PhD: Learning Sciences Program, Boğaziçi University (expected December 2025)

Research Interests: Teacher education, outdoor education, educational environment and learning
design, children’s participation and agency, participatory research methods, well-being and social
emotional learning, transformative social and emotional learning approach, play and the right to play, play therapy and expressive therapy methods, teacher training, educational programs and
instructional design.

Gizem Alvan began her professional career at the Children’s Research Center Turkiye, where she
wrote research projects for children between 2011 and 2013. After teaching English as classroom teacher at Bilkent International Laboratory Schools from 2012 to 2016, she served as a school
principal and counselor at the Turkish American Association Preschool from 2016 to 2018. She
completed her second masters degree in Clinical Psychology at Istanbul Kent University in 2018 and 2019. Parallel to her masters, she received training in Child-Centered Play Therapy, Expressive Therapy Methods, and Art and Story Therapy from the American Play Therapy Association.

She began her doctoral studies at Boğaziçi University's Learning Sciences Program in 2019,
simultaneously working as a teacher at Terakki Foundation Schools and as an assistant principal
and consultant at Private YeniOkul Middle School. While specializing in learning sciences, she
also focuses on learning environment design, teacher training, and social-emotional learning. Her
doctoral research focuses on children's agency and participation in play, as well as power
relations within play.

Between 2020 and 2023, she participated in the development of early math and early literacy
skills programs within the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s “Yuvamız Istanbul Program”
and in teacher training as part of the program's implementation. She also served as an
educational consultant for various private institutions, participated in seminars and in-service
training, and organized training programs for families. During the 2024-2025 fall semester, she
taught courses in Curriculum, Early Childhood Education in Different Countries, and Language
Development in Early Childhood at Istanbul Kültür University as a part-time instructor.

As of September 2025, she started working as a full-time instructor at Özyeğin University, within
the Transformative Education Program within OLTE, teaching TRL 101 Introduction to
University Life and TRL 102 Personal Development courses and working on educational design
studies at the center.