NU Graduate School of Education (NU GSE) in partnership with leading Finnish universities – Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK) and JAMK University of Applied Sciences (JAMK), launched a project to train university teachers.
Supported by the World Bank and the Kazakh Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the project aims to introduce an enhanced model of teacher education and to adapt 30 educational programs.
“Throughout the past year, the Ministry devoted considerable effort to advancing teacher education. A separate concept was adopted, and a specialized working group comprising representatives of pedagogical universities and NU worked together as part of this concept with partners from Finland, who were engaged in implementing the World Bank projects. As we embark on the next significant phase of project implementation, the focus is on disseminating knowledge among university teachers. Primarily, the program is designed to facilitate the transformation of educators, recognizing the imperative to address new challenges with updated content. This undertaking represents a substantial process that necessitates collective decision-making,” stated Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek, extending a warm welcome to participants via a video call.
The project will take place in both online and offline formats from January to June 2024 and will train 1,800 teachers from Kazakh universities, who will improve their competencies in trends in modern pedagogical education, student-centered learning, IT competence of teachers, and digital pedagogy. In addition, experts will conduct trainings on the professional development program in the field of educational leadership for 200 university teachers and 50 principals of rural schools, as well as trainings on CLIL technology – subject-language integrated learning – for 100 university teachers.
Welcoming the participants, Acting President of NU Dr. Ilesanmi Adesidla, congratulated the teachers on the start of the full-time course and noted the contribution of NU to the transformation of Kazakhstan’s education. Training within the program is conducted by Finnish and NU experts, including NU GSE Associate Professors Duishonkul Shamatov and Sulushash Kerimkulova, NU Associate Director of Academic Quality Aliya Suleimenova, NU Associate Director of Institutional Effectiveness Aizhan Mussina and others. Kazakh experts and 50 pedagogical developers from universities of the country were also involved in the project.
“This is a very innovative teacher education project within which we have just completed a very intensive teacher education project, in which 30 educational programs were changed according to competence-based education in pedagogical universities. Unfortunately, pedagogical universities have not been changed or reformed for the last many years. But this is the first initiative and GSE hopes that with this initiative teacher education in pedagogical universities will be improved and hopefully we will be getting very strong teachers in the future according to the best educational standards,” noted Duishonkul Shamatov, Associate professor at the NU’s Graduate School of Education, one of the couches.
“For our pedagogical capacity-building process to be sustainable, first of all, we need a systematic approach. In partnership with Kazakhstani teachers, we have prepared the content of the program. Our task within the courses is to create a new adapted syllabus for pedagogical universities. We as representatives of one of the best education systems in the world share our experience”, noted the trainer from HAMK University Irmeli Lignell.
Starting from January 15 to 19, parallel offline training will be conducted in Astana (NU), Almaty (Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University), and Shymkent (South Kazakhstan Pedagogical University). From January 22 to 26, additional training will take place in Pavlodar (Alkei Margulan Pedagogical University), Turkistan (Khoja Ahmed Yassawi International Kazakh-Turkish University), and Atyrau (Atyrau State University).
NU Graduate School of Education is a flagship in the process of transformation of the Kazakh educational system and constantly transfers experience by conducting special courses and programs for teachers and universities’ leadership. Thus, in 2023, the school organized a large-scale nine-month Executive University Leadership Program. About 100 top managers of 28 state universities in Kazakhstan underwent the nine-module training program, which included theory, innovative technologies and practical tools necessary for effective management of universities in a dynamic environment.
