International Education Studies, cilt.14, sa.5, ss.95-108, 2021 (Hakemli Dergi)
In education, the importance of effective and behavioral transfer besides cognitive information is a fact. In this
sense, an educator is expected to be an example in terms of his behaviors as well as transferring his knowledge to
the students. The best way to raise good students and form the desired behavior in them is the educators who
personally touch the lives of their students being role models. In the Turkish academic world, M. Orhan Okay has
a remarkable place not only with his scientific studies but also with his “human work” upbringing style. This study
is carried out with document analysis which is one of the qualitative research methods. In this study, it is
underlined that Okay is a role model/an ideal educator, further every aspect of his ideal educationalism, which
complements his exemplary scientist identity, is emphasized. In this respect, besides being a well-equipped
scientist, he showed his students and the whole academic environment how an example of an ideal / role model
should be. In either way, he expected his students to do what he did personally (as an exemplary person in the
academic and non-academic world). In conclusion, it is hoped that the educator deformation which has increased
in recent years will disappear to a certain extent thanks to exemplary educators like Professor Okay.
Keywords: academic educator, ideal educator, Orhan Okay, students