The educational platform brought together more than 500 domestic and foreign teachers who were systematically engaged in Lesson Study.
The issues of forming a teacher's research culture and transforming the pedagogical profession were at the centre of attention. The event's key speakers were Stephan Clivas (Switzerland), President-Elect of the World Association of Lesson Studies (WALS), Peter Dudley (England), Honorary Fellow of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge, and Kulzada Kudaibergenova, Professor of the Kazakh National Women's Teacher Training University.
- Just six months ago, Astana hosted a significant event for the country's education system - the WALS 2024 conference. Continuing its traditions, we have prepared a large-scale programme to improve teaching practice. The circle of teachers involved in Lesson Study is expanding, and now not only teachers of Kazakhstani schools, kindergarten and college teachers, students of pedagogical universities but also our colleagues from other countries are becoming active participants,’ said Zhanbota Kabdykarimova, Deputy Chairman of the Board of AEO “Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools”.
Conference participants had the unique opportunity to connect to Camtree's global online platform Cambridge Teacher Research Exchange and its unique digital library. As part of the conference, an official launch ceremony of the online library was held with Professor Peter Dudley.
- Our aim is not only to support quality pedagogical research but also to make it accessible and understandable to teachers around the world. We hope that colleagues will be inspired by the ideas, implement their Lesson Study and share them on Camtree,’ emphasised Professor Dudley.
A special event was the participation of a delegation from Bishkek, where Lesson Study implementation is being realised with the support of CoE. Kyrgyz teachers presented the successes of the new project on the integration of research activities into educational practice.
An innovation of the conference was the real-time connection to a lesson in a Japanese school, where a Lesson Study is an important part of the educational philosophy. The conference programme included symposia, breakout sessions, panel discussions, master classes, mentoring hours and poster exhibitions demonstrating the best practices of Lesson Study.
It should be remembered that the Center of Excellence AEO "Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools" has been introducing Lesson Study into the Kazakhstani educational system since 2012.
