Kazakhstan builds basic understanding of ict in education

KAZAKHSTAN BUILDS BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF ICT IN EDUCATION

“We plan to introduce as many Partners in Learning curricula as possible, to improve teachers’ qualifications and those of school directors and department heads as well.”

The purpose of the paper is to identify trends and systematize theoretical approaches developed in the theory of education of Kazakhstan; to review and summarize new global challenges, related to the informatization of education. The trends of the large-scale updating of the content of education, dinamizing of the education process, diversification of education within the framework of the mega trend of the informatization of education were identified. The problem of the transition from the generation of the 20 th century to a new generation, from receiving knowledge by reading or from a teacher's monologue to the visual perception, dialogue or polylogue in the audience, was put in the forefront. These challenges should be explored by scientists. The continuity of didactic paradigms was described: Behaviorism→cognitivism→constructivism→connectivism. It was found that about 30% of the scientific research in the field of education, conducted in Kazakhstan, are explicitly focused on the study of the informatization of education. More than 35% of thesis researches are also explicitly focused on studying IT as their subject. Scientific schools in the field of the informatization of education in Kazakhstan, covering different regions of the Republic, were listed and summarized. It was found that in the Republic there are virtually no studies on thepsychological changes in thinking, memory, and attention in the process of active electronic and mobile teaching of a child.
Education Challenge The Republican Institute for Improving Qualification Standards for Teachers and Educators is responsible for improving the skills and qualifications of Kazakhstan’s primary and secondary school educators. One of the Institute’s current priorities is to develop teachers’ abilities to use information technology (IT). The Institute has an established system for developing the IT skills of Kazakhstan’s IT teachers. Now it wants to spread its efforts to all other teachers, so that technology can be used beyond the computer laboratory, to improve teaching in every classroom. Microsoft was asked to work with the Institute when the government of Kazakhstan signed the Partners in Learning Memorandum of Understanding in December 2004. Microsoft suggested to the Institute that the seven courses of the Partners in Learning curriculum could be very useful in helping all teachers, both IT and non-IT teachers, to understand and use new technologies to improve teaching and learning.

Solution. The seven courses of the Partners in Learning curriculum provide lesson plans, instruction handbooks, grading guides for teachers, and classroom materials for students. Educators are free to adopt the course content and materials in their entirety, or customise them to meet local needs. To assess the effectiveness of the Microsoft courses, the Republican Institute for Improving Qualification Standards for Teachers and Educators nominated 25 IT teachers to be trained on the Understanding and Building Basic Networks course. As IT teachers, they fell within the Institute’s existing plans for IT training, and were wellpositioned to assess the value of the course for IT teachers and non-IT teachers. In April 2005, the 25 teachers gathered in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city. There they were trained on the Basic Networks course by a local Microsoft partner, Alphatech. The response to the course was so positive that directly afterwards 23 out of the 25 teachers decided to enrol for the Microsoft Office Specialist certification, operated by another local Microsoft partner, Hightech for Human. Based on the response of the IT teachers, the Institute has decided to move forward with introducing other Partners in Learning courses as quickly as possible. In the 2005/2006 academic year, the Institute will seek formal approval from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, to introduce further courses covering a wide variety of technical and non-technical IT issues. These courses will be targeted at teachers, principals and managers, to enable Kazakhstan’s educators at all levels to understand and support the integration of technology into classrooms.

Адрес публикации: https://www.prodlenka.org/metodicheskie-razrabotki/325396-kazakhstan-builds-basic-understanding-of-ict-