“2010 Alumni’s Perceptions of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools Impact on Preparedness for University Studies and Careers”

Author(s):

Indira Abisheva(submitting)Aizhan Ramazanova(presenting)Zhanna Saltybayeva(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

11. Educational Improvement and Quality Assurance

Format:

Paper

Session Information

11 SES 13, Paper Session

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-26

13:30-15:00

Room:

OB-E2.14

Chair:

Samuel Gento

Contribution

In Kazakhstan human capital has been identified as one of the cornerstones for achieving the goal “to enter the club of top 30 most developed countries of the world” by 2050 (Nazarbayev, 2012), where the quality of education is considered a focal point (MOES, 2010). In 2008 by the initiative of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev to improve the secondary education across the country, Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS) were established as ‘pathfinders’ (OECD, 2014) or ‘flagships’ (Nazarbayev, 2010), which experience is being transferred to the mainstream school system in Kazakhstan.

The first Intellectual School was opened in 2009 in Astana city and had already the first graduating students in 2010. As both the number and size of the schools has grown in the intervening seven years, the number of alumni has grown correspondingly (2010 – 38; 2011- 109; 2012 – 367; 2013 – 433; 2014- 454; 2015- 1699).

This study is concentrated on the first cohort of alumni of the Intellectual School in Astana – 38 students, who are today continuing their study at university or starting their career path. Importantly, those students had only 1.5 years of experience in studying at NIS high school (Grades 10 and 11).

Although today the NIS system has been sufficiently changed in terms of curriculum, assessment, teacher professional development and learning resources, in 2009-2010 the system was a little different from the mainstream school. The Strategy of Intellectual School of the First President (2008) says, “The modern challenges requires from the Kazakhstani education system to bring up active, talented, highly educated, competent and highly qualified leaders” (p.2), which became a vision for NIS at that period.

Students’ or alumni’s’ perceptions related to their school experience are as important as those of other members of the school community, such as teachers, parents and administrators (Brooker and Macdomnald, 1999; Cook-Sather, 2006; Thiessen, 2006). According to Pike (1994), “the role of alumni surveys in evaluating educational programs is particularly significant” (p.105).

Thus, the purpose of the research is to investigate the impact of NIS schools in preparing students for their university studies and future careers in order to inform and improve practice across NIS.

The study was, therefore, guided by the following key research question: How did their school studies influence their university studies and future career? Three sub-questions were posed in order to answer the main research question:

- What is the alumni opinion about their study experience at NIS?

- What have been alumni’s main achievements after leaving school?

- What are alumni’s recommendations and suggestions for improving the quality of education at NIS for better preparedness for their university studies and future career?

The present research shows an attempt to measure educational outcomes based on alumni’s perspectives according to the vision of NIS and contribute to policy implementation. The longitudinal feature of this study will provide with tracking the impact of newly implemented initiatives on alumni’s attitude. There is a limited number of studies in Kazakhstan, which focus on students’ perceptions of their school education and the capacity of schools to prepare successfully them for their university studies and future careers. Moreover, as NIS gains the privileged status, which guarantees with sufficient financial support, including opportunities to employ highly qualified human capital (Shamshidinova, Ayubayeva, & Bridges, 2014), it can give some ideas on the return on investment. However, due to the short period of studying at NIS and selected students and teacher from the mainstream school system, it is questionable whether the contribution of NIS in significant in the achievements of those alumni.

Method

Mixed method was chosen for a “better understanding of a research problem and question than either method by itself” (Creswell, 2014, p. 565). Advocates of mixed methods argue that it is a crucial approach “that is driven by pragmatism, that yields real answers to real questions, that is useful in real world, that avoids mistaken allegiance to either quantitative or qualitative approaches on their own, that enables rich data to be gathered which afford the triangulation that has been advocated in research for many years, that respects the mixed, messy real world, and that increases validity and reliability” (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2011, p. 26). The sampling strategy was purposeful. 28 (74%) out of 38 alumni agreed to participate at the research. In addition, 12 teachers participated at interviews, and 17 parents – at telephone surveys. Because of the low response rate of university staff and employers, those data was not used for analysis. Two main research instruments were conducted – interviews and questionnaires. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with alumni and teachers. Newby (2010) argues that a semi-structured interview has advantages, as it allows some flexibility in questioning for deeper exploration of a problem and clarifications, and as a result can produce rich and even unexpected data, but requires more time, better preparedness, and scrutinizing of the interviewer. The data was analyzed using QDA software. Questionnaires were designed using Qualtrics software. For analysis, the interview data was organized by those themes and categories, which helped in determining the findings. Based on the research questions, interview questions and literature review, specific categories and themes were identified. Ethical considerations were considered to minimize various types of harm to participants involved in the study. During the data collection, the Informed consent form in duplicate were presented to every participant, which ensured that participants were acquainted with the study purpose, risks and benefits, their rights and guarantee of anonymity and confidentiality. Moreover, the research data was made secure in order to protect the confidentiality of the participants and ensure the safe custody of the data. Therefore, in this research, the main purpose is to combine the advantages of both methods to produce valid data in response to the research questions and to ensure a triangulation of data received from different resources: document analysis, students’, teachers’ and parents’ perceptions.

Expected Outcomes

In general, based on the data collected alumni were satisfied with studying at school and admitted that acquired knowledge and skills at school helped them to be successful at university, career and life. It is also evident from their achievements: high results on the final assessment (the Unified National Testing), 100% university entrance with the national and international scholarships, and participation at international projects. They admitted that more attention was paid for academic success and fostering leadership skills. Furthermore, selection of the best students from mainstream schools created strongly a competitive environment. The challenge was in developing values at school and lack of social and communicational skills. In addition, the students felt themselves too ward, so they did not have some responsibility in making decisions. Therefore, the alumni recommended cultivating values such as sense of belonging, responsibility, as well as academic success. As Davies reports (2006), students’ success is measured by not only by tests but also values and principles of the school where the students study and communicate with group mates (p. 13)”. While this study will add to the discussion in the Kazakhstani and international research community, its greatest relevance is to the informed development of implementation policies. Isaac (2001) argues “the absence of a research and knowledge culture in the ministries limited the extent to which there could be any systematic or empirical bases on which to draw the kind of textured information and analysis with which to devise sound educational policies” (p.162). The results from the research are used to inform NIS practice, and will be shared with higher education institutions, for further improvement and development.

References

Brooker, R., & MacDonald, D. (1999). Did we hear you?: issues of student voice in a curiuclum innovation. Journal of Curriculum Studies , 31 (1), 83-97. Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2011). Research methods in education (seventh edition ed.). London & New York: Routledge. Cook-Sather, A. (2006). Sound, Presence, and Power: "Student Voice" in Educational Research and Reform. Bryn Mawr College, 36 (4), 359-390. Creswell, J. W. (2014). Educational reserach: planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (fourth edition ed.). London: Pearson. Davies, B. (2006). Leading the Strategically Focused School. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Isaac, A. (2001). Education reform in the Eastern Caribbean: implications of a policy and decisions making program by an external donor. Mc Gill University. MoES. (2010). State programme of educational development in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011-2020. Astana: MoES. Nazarbayev, N. (2010, January). The annual address to the people of Kazakhstan. Nazarbayev, N. (2012, December). The annual address to the people of Kazakhstan. Newby, P. (2010). Research methods for education. London: Pearson. OECD. (2014). Reviews of National Policies for Education: Secondary Education in Kazakhstan . OECD Publishing. Pike, Gary R. (1994). The relationship between alumni satisfaction and work experience. Research in Higher Education. Vol. 35 (1), 105-123. Shamshidinova, K., Ayubayeva, N., & Bridges, D. (2014). Implementing radical change: Nazarbayev Intellectual schools as Agents of Change. In Bridges, Educational reform and internalisation: the case of school reform in Kazakhstan (pp. 71-82). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The Strategy of Intellectual School of the First President. (2008). Thiessen, D. (2006). Student knowledge, engagement, and voice in educational reform. Curriculum Inquiry , 36 (4), 345-471.

Author Information

Indira Abisheva (submitting)

"Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools"AEO

Research Department

Astana

Aizhan Ramazanova (presenting)

Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools AEO

Research Department

Astana

Zhanna Saltybayeva (presenting)

"Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools"AEO, Kazakhstan

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