Problem statement

According to the NIS development strategy, Nazarbayev Intellectual schools (NIS) “are intended to act as experimental sites offering innovative educational programmes development, monitoring, research, analysis, approbation, introduction, and implementation of modern educational programme models at several levels of the education system from pre-school through to high school”. The network of NIS functions in all the main cities of Kazakhstan. There are overall 21 schools, and they offer multilingual (Kazakh, Russian and English) education focusing on science and mathematics.

NIS students are considered learners with solid academic knowledge and high performance in mathematics and science. They gain knowledge of the subject and skills necessary in modern society – critical and creative thinking, problem solving, computational thinking, functional literacy, and so on. Therefore, teaching and assessment focus on improving and evaluating learners’ higher-ordered thinking skills. For instance, students are asked to justify their choice, explain different ways of solution, create IT and science projects. Although teachers adapt their teaching resources and methods, there is a high correlation between learners’ progress in the classroom and summative assessment results. Teachers also mention this issue; students lack analysis skills that are important for summative assessment performance. For example, students struggle to answer questions requiring justification, discussion, explanation, comparison, examination, and argumentation. The problem exists not only for learners but also for teachers. Teaching and supporting such students require from educators ongoing professional development.

PBL (problem-based learning) is highly encouraged at NIS in Uralsk to teach gifted children. However, PBL is comparatively ‘new’ for the teachers; therefore, teachers lack a widespread conceptual understanding of this method.

It is essential to study the use of PBL in teaching science and mathematics to improve learners’ higher-ordered thinking skills, teachers’ pedagogical understanding and teaching quality.

Background information

PBL allows students to acquire new knowledge and skills by solving a specific problem (Hmelo-Silver, 2004). Students take full responsibility for the learning process by solving real-life problems; they develop their XXI century skills which require people to be more successful in modern society. Scholars have enough research on the role of problem-based learning in education and its application in gifted students’ education (VanTassel-Baska, 2003; Hmelo-Silver, 2004; Han, 2017).

According to VanTassel-Baska (2003), in PBL, a group of four or five students works together to solve a real-life problem that is ill-structured.  Gallagher (2012) states that an ill-structured problem differs from a well-structured problem in this way:

• Gather more information to solve the problem,

• A single formula or path should not solve the problem,

• As new information becomes available, the solution to the problem changes,

• Students cannot be sure that they have found a 100% correct answer.

There is a lack of literature about the implementation of PBL and its influence on teaching and learning in the Kazakhstani settings. Only the basic concepts and guidelines are provided in the framework of the “Development of Talented and gifted students” program, developed by the Centre for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University (2011) for NIS.

Purpose of the study

This action research aims to study the use of PBL to develop students’ higher-ordered thinking skills in mathematics and science and evaluate the role of collaborative research as part of teachers’ professional development at NIS in Uralsk. 

Research questions

The research questions, which guided the study, are:

1. How to enhance students’ higher-ordered thinking skills by implementing PBL in teaching mathematics and science at NIS in Uralsk?

2. How does the collaborative action research of science and mathematics teachers improve teachers’ conceptual understanding within the professional community?

Methodology The action research design was chosen to address the research questions. According to McGee(2008), there are several reasons why action research is the best for teachers. First, the research process is manageable by practitioners. Second, it plays an enormous role in improving the quality of the teaching and learning process. Third, it is beneficial for the purpose of professional development. Forth, it provides a professional community of teacher-researchers at schools. Most of the works of literature indicate the significant role of action research in teachers’ professional development. All stakeholders of the educational system benefit from action research, which is the self-directed and cyclical process of studying practice. There are four main stages in action research – planning, acting, developing, and reflecting. A group of six teachers (two computer science teachers, one biology teacher, one physics teacher, one math teacher, one chemistry teacher) worked together to address the research questions. All teachers were experienced and had at least ten years of teaching practice. The focus group was formed according to teachers’ professional development goals. The common issue was a high correlation in summative assessments and a lack of higher-ordered thinking skills. Specifically, the biology teacher aimed to develop learners’ research skills; computer science, math, and chemistry teachers focused on analysis; the physics teacher concentrated on problem-solving skills using PBL. According to Blooms’ Taxonomy, research, analysis, and problem-solving skills are higher-ordered thinking skills (Watson, 2020). The main stage in action research is teaching, which includes lesson planning, teaching, observation, and reflection. Each of the teachers provided at least three lessons. The teachers allocated every Tuesday for the action research. During such meetings in a collaborative environment, the teachers could exchange experiences and teach what they learned to each other. For instance, the Teacher of computer science used ill-structured problems, where students identified the facts, anonymous information, and follow-up actions independently, to teach grade 7 Informatics’ learning objective ‘to create and edit raster graphics at the elementary level’. Following the algorithm helps them solve the problem and create new knowledge and skills.

Findings According to teachers’ feedback, there are some difficulties for teachers to use PBL in the classrooms; • it takes time to prepare resources (especially designing the ill-structured problems), • difficulties in determining the adequacy of the resource level (proficiency), • students’ nonpreparation to work independently (requires time to adapt), • lack of literature available in Russian or Kazakh. As a result, collaborative research has increased teachers’ creative, research, and teamwork skills. Usage of problem-based learning has increased students’ independent learning, creativity, research, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. This is evidenced by students’ quality of learning and performance. Science and mathematics summative assessment results demonstrated decreased correlation compared to previous ones from 30% to 15%. According to the participants, a conceptual understanding of problem-based learning has been formed. The final stage of the action research was to propose a teachers’ guidebook on problem-based learning methods in science and mathematics classes. The NIS Press Office accepted the guidebook and published it. The guidebook aims to share the teaching resources prepared by the teachers and research results with other Kazakhstani teachers. In conclusion, teachers studying and teaching within collaborative action research believe that adapting and using PBL in the classroom would be effective. The team achieved the research goal and found out how to use PBL to improve the higher-ordered thinking skills of math and science students. Moreover, collaborative planning and critical feedback positively changed lesson planning, teaching, allocating resources, assessment, and feedback.

1.Gallagher, S. A. (2012). Adapting Problem-Based Learning For Gifted Students. Methods And Materials For Teaching The Gifted. 413 – 443. 2.“Development of Talented and gifted students” program (2011). Center for Gifted Children at Johns Hopkins University. 2.Han, K.-S. (2017). Why & How We Apply PBL to Science-Gifted Education? Creative Education, 8, 912-924. https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2017.86066 3.Hmelo-Silver C.E. (2004). Problem-Based Learning: What and How Do Students Learn? Educational Psychology Review. 3(16), 4.McGee, A. (2008). Critical reflections of action research used for professional development in a Middle Eastern Gulf State, Educational Action Research, 16(2), 235-250. doi:10.1080/09650790802011882 5. VanTassel-Baska, J. (2003). Selecting Instructional Strategies for Gifted Learners. Focus on Exceptional Children. 3 (36). DOI: 10.17161/fec.v36i3.6801. 6. Watson, S. (2020). Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in Education, ThoughtCo, 26. https://thoughtco.com/higher-order-thinking-skills-hots-education-3111297.