For the first time in history, this prestigious international forum of the World Association of Lesson Studies (WALS) was held in the post-Soviet space. For five days, WALS headquarters operated in Astana, and Kazakhstan's capital simultaneously became the centre of global education.
The Center of Excellence officially took on the global baton of the World Association of Lesson Studies last year, with the historic decision made in Zwolle, the Netherlands.
The Kazakhstan forum expanded the geographical reach of the World Association of Lesson Studies, attracting leading figures from the global education sector. Renowned analysts from the UK, Singapore, Germany, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Austria, China, the United States, Hong Kong, and more than 30 countries brought new educational solutions to WALS-2024. The largest delegation came from Japan, where Lesson Study is an integral philosophy in national education, aligned with the country's cultural mentality. For the first time, African teachers from Malawi’s Nalikule College of Education, who began their Lesson Study training at the Kazakhstan Center this year, also took the stage at the World Association of Lesson Studies in Astana.
The strategic theme of WALS 2024, “Lesson Studies: Aspiring to Better Learning and Teaching,” brought together the world’s most successful educators, all interested in promoting Lesson Study and its implementation in schools across all five continents.
A record number of abstracts—over 850—were submitted to the Astana forum. The WALS Executive Committee particularly noted that the overwhelming majority of these were prepared by Kazakhstani teachers, affirming the country's leading role in the conference.
"More than five hundred Kazakhstani teachers arrived in Astana with questions on analysing the algorithms, challenges, and successes of their research practices. For them, the WALS-2024 conference in Kazakhstan was a unique opportunity to participate in a global forum," emphasized Anuar Zhangozin, Chairman of the Board of the AEO "Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools".
Throughout the Astana forum, delegates participated in over ten symposia, 70 poster sessions, numerous masterclasses, school visits in the capital, and media meetings, and presented 250 individual reports and TEDx talks. All sessions were dedicated to global trends in education—comprehensive lesson research and its significance for national curricula, comparing key algorithms in various cultural contexts, the mission of Lesson Study in teacher education and professional development, and other high-priority topics.
The importance of systematic research within the framework of Lesson Study was reaffirmed by the keynote speakers: Øystein Kristiansen from Norway, Darius Radkevicius from Lithuania, Sarah Seleznev from the UK, Shirley Tan from Japan, and Clara Kager from Germany. Together with the delegates, they analyzed strategic priorities in teacher research, regardless of national differences.
The Center of Excellence has been working to implement the global trend of "Lesson Study" in Kazakhstan's education system since 2012. We have come a long way to the point where we were entrusted with hosting the main forum of the World Association of Lesson Studies. WALS 2024 confirmed that all major achievements in global education are built on professional development. Lesson Study has fundamentally changed the self-identity of teachers, not only in Kazakhstan but in all countries where lesson research has been successfully implemented as a systematic practice," noted Zhanbota Kabdykarimova, Director of Excellence, who played a key role in bringing WALS 2024 to Kazakhstan.
Among the most popular events at WALS 2024 was a masterclass by the prestigious international journal "International Journal of Lesson and Learning Studies." Experts such as Sui Lin Goi (Netherlands Academy of Teacher Education), Shirley Tan (Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands), and Sharon Dotger (Syracuse University, USA) presented the key principles for successful collaboration with top global publications and the integration of Kazakhstani teachers into international education.
The most symbolic statement of WALS 2024 came from World Association of Lesson Studies President Catherine Lewis:
"Lesson Study reminds me of the Silk Road of the 21st century, a great highway that connects education across countries and continents. In just five days in Astana, a new precedent was set, and high educational standards of a global scale were established, both in terms of content and the organization of world-class events. Now we must expand Kazakhstan’s achievements, both in the implementation of Lesson Study and in hosting prestigious forums."
At the ceremonial closing of the Astana conference, the main baton of the World Association of Lesson Studies was officially passed to Hiroshima, Japan.
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