The article deals with training of highly qualified and competitive, with a sense of responsibility staff in higher educational institutions of the country due to the political and social — economic realities of social development. Under the state program offers the optimal ways to improve the professional development of teachers in leading foreign universities. The authors discussed the issues of improving information literacy, culture and competencies of teachers of foreign languages.
In recent years developments in technology have expanded the horizons for teachers to learn, share and network. Evidence suggests that the quality of teaching in the University has the most influence on learner achievement. If that is the case, then the effort to improve teaching is crucial for sustained improvement in learner achievement. It is therefore essential to understand and to share examples of practice in professional development. Systems need to be in place to ensure that such development programmes have a measurable impact on teacher and learner performance in the classroom. Moreover, professional development is not only a matter of providing training; it is also essential to have in place effective support and mentoring in the University to ensure the teacher’s learning is put into practice in the classroom. It is also true that informal aspects of professional development, such as professional reading, discussion and networking, can have a strong role in helping teachers develop.
Professional development should be relevant to individual teachers’ needs, but it should also meet the needs of the University in which the teacher works, and of the teacher’s wider role in achieving the educational objectives of the University system and country. As teachers continue through their careers they will need guidance on new skills and professional understanding. It is important that the systems are in place to provide these programmes and to support the teachers’ implementation of them in the classroom.
Everyone wants quality education for his or her children. The key to unlocking this quality depends primarily on teachers. Teachers need to be supported and motivated to enable children to achieve their potential. For this to happen, teachers need to have the opportunity to refresh and enhance their skills throughout their professional lives. A lifetime of teaching requires knowledge, skills and behaviors that continuously develop and evolve.
The Republic of Kazakhstan is the first Central Asian state — a member of the Bologna process and a full member of the European Higher Education Area. Date March 11, 2010 went down in history of Kazakhstan`s higher education as a day of signing of the Bologna Declaration by the decision of the Committee of Ministers of Education of the Bologna process (46 countries). The goal of Kazakhstan`s participation in the Bologna process — improving access to European education, further enhancing the quality and increasing the mobility of students and staff through the adoption of a system of comparable levels of higher education, the use of loans, issuance of graduates Kazakh universities European Diploma Supplement.
Joining the Bologna process Kazakhstan had committed itself to the implementation of its basic parameters, which are paramount to the European higher education and promote the European system of higher education around the world:
- three-level system of higher education;
- academic ECTS credits;
- academic mobility of students, teachers and administrative staff of universities;
- European diploma supplement;
- quality assurance of higher education;
- creation of a single European research
Kazakhstan’s higher educational institutions have adapted to the Bologna system requirements. Many universities are also being pushed to teach in English, to bring Kazakhstan within the orbit of the International scholarly community. After signing up to the Bologna Process initiated by the European commission, higher university education in Kazakhstan is separated into bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels. The requirements of Bologna system, a new policy of education in Kazakhstan need improving knowledge of teachers of higher institutions [1].
Nowadays, professional development is being delivered in a variety of ways to observe, judge a lesson and give feedback. Courses in continuing professional development (CPD) are one of the effective ways to get new professional experience and bright impressions. Courses are valuable for teachers as a means of allowing them to gain experience in teaching and learning. These courses focus on getting new methods and technologies on teaching.
The President of Kazakhstan N.A. Nazarbayev in his message to the people of Kazakhstan talked about the necessity of professional development for teachers. There are a lot of specialized scientific and national centres of professional development of teachers in Kazakhstan.
Joint stock company «National centre for professional development «Orleu» is one of the main centres in Almaty. The objective of «Orleu» is systematic professional development of teachers and international cooperation with leading educational organization. In the short term, it cooperates with a lot institutions in Düsserldorf (Germany), Valencia (Spain), New castle and Norwich (England) etc.
Last year we had a chance to participate in courses in professional development in Norwich Institute of Language Education (NILE). Those courses refer to the acquisition of skills and knowledge for our career advancement, to maintain and improve professional competence, and to keep abreast of new technology and practice. Having passed that course, we could take stock of our strengths and weaknesses by thinking through what skills we have already and identify ones that we need to develop and hone. The best tutors of NILE, as John Mc Mahon, Thom Kiddle, Alan Pulverness helped us to function more effectively, reflecting on our strengths and weaknesses. In order to select appropriate opportunities to enhance our skills we have learnt to function as a team, to assess speaking activity, to know some modern approaches, to use Information and communication technology in teaching and learning, to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of low and high technologies.
All of our lessons in NILE are based on thorough self-awareness and knowledge. Practical activities in teaching and learning English are ideal for teachers to use in practical lessons. We were learnt to work on unite platform with these programs as «Voice thread», «Weebly», «QR reader», «Goanimate» etc. These programs are necessary in teaching English to get a lot of intimate workshops, discussion or debate with teachers from all over the world. It is interesting to make cartoons and write own voice, participate in direct dialogues, share with your work with colleagues and comment. Each lesson in NILE is unique and full of impressions. Tutors of NILE helped teachers of English language to engage in new professional activities, peer observation, to try out different methods and approaches in class. We are provided with the modern approaches to learning and teaching English, ensuring the efficiency of the educational process and achievements of students, encouraging thinking critically [2].
The most interesting topic of the course was using information technology in educational process. There are many ways of information and communication technology (ICT) to involve in educational process. Apart from working on computers during the practical lessons of English, we found great possibilities in working on interactive whiteboards. All materials on the board can be saved and printed. It includes interactive exercises where words or pieces of a sentence can be dragged around the board. It is one of the great tools to introduce other types of technology in the classroom [3].
Having passed courses in Norwich Institute of Language Education we were introduced with many ways of using ICT in learning and teaching English. We were shown programs as «QR reader», «Goanimate» and «Voicethread».
There are so many technologies and approaches that teachers can use to get students interested and engaged in the educational process. QR reader means a quick response reader or code is a digital image that can be scanned without the beam of light needed to scan barcodes at the supermarket. It's used in advertising and marketing for smart phone users. They are often accompanied with a message «For more information scan this code». They can be scanned using one of the many free QR scanner apps available for smartphones and tablets. It can make a difference in the classroom. Instead of asking students to type in a long web address where they could easily make mistakes, a QR code will take them straight to a website. QR reader is perfect for students of all ages. QR reader can provide an alternative access format for students who need additional support in reading and writing. Using handheld devices such as iphone, iPad, Smartphone, or a computer, students are able to quickly gain access to information while also incorporating the use of their own literacy support apps or software. In English lessons QR reader can be used to play games in different topics such as travelling, shopping, family, education, health etc.
GoAnimate» is a cloud-based platform for creating and distributing animated videos. «GoAnimate» is a platform allows individuals to develop both narrative videos, in which characters speak with, lip-sync and move around, and video presentations, in which a voiceover narrator speaks over images and props, which may also move around. All video styles can be supported with background music and effects. At the end of 2012, over five million individuals, pupils, students were using «GoAnimate» to create videos.
«GoAnimate» provides users with drag-and-drop tools to access thousands of character models, backdrops and other assets to create scenario-based videos. The platform offers text-to-speech character voices with customizable environments. «Voicethread» program allows uploading images from scanner, digital camera, and phone and writing your own comment about this image. Our uploaded picture was sent to another teacher. Each teacher commented on the same pictures, creating a collaborative collection of responses. In practice, in language learning classes, students can scan and comment on writing pieces as part of a reflective phase of the writing process. It is a great way to review and apply key vocabulary. Teachers can use this tool to promote vocabulary development and oral expression.
In other words, ICT has a lot of possibilities to create your own films or cartoons, have blogs to communicate and share experience in teaching, interact with students and teachers, and check students’ assignments in written and oral form. ICT course covers some or all of the following aspects:
- Applications software for language teachers, e.g., word processors and presentation software
- The creation and use of multimedia materials based on commercially and freely available software and shareware
- Accessing language corpora and using concordances and text analysis programmes to create language materials for the classroom
- Core skills for the Internet, such as searching, creating and evaluating web pages communicating through forums, conferencing
- Experience with Read/Write web technologies such as wikis and blogs, and also with podcasts
- Access to professional development through participating in the ELT international community via the internet
- An opportunity to complete a small-scale project involving g. lesson plans, e-learning materials, website design.
All ICT programs and possibilities raise the quality of education, stimulate the students’ learning capability, motivate in learning English, and encourage students to work individually [4].
NILE cooperates closely with the University of East Anglia (UEA). We visited the University of East Anglia, introduced with the history and met with the students. It is a public research university with a large campus with own shop, library, campus kitchen. There are four faculties (Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Medicine and Health Sciences, Science and Social Sciences) and over 300 courses in this University. We had a lecture of a professor of this University Tomy Prince. He told us about cultural differences in the UK. We knew about Senate scales and the advantages of International examinations.
Owing to our courses in professional development we had an opportunity to work in NILE’s library which has a lot of books and possibilities to write research articles. The mission of this library is to support the educational and research needs of NILE’s teachers and students. In other words, NILE provides high qualitative courses in professional development to teachers. In the ever changing world of education, teachers need to grasp training opportunities with both hands. These courses give teachers opportunities to practice in English speaking countries what they learn over relatively extended periods of time. Moreover, courses provide an ideal environment for interaction among teachers from different universities of Kazakhstan. Tutors of NILE create together team-based professional learning that is blended with the core processes of teaching and learning English. As the approbation we carried out training seminars for teachers of schools, as well as in the management on development of languages Karaganda area.
After the course we began to realize that developing professionally means reading a lot, sharing experience as a teacher, as a learner, as a trainer, improving technical skills by allowing people to observe your lessons and to provide feedback. This kind of development had seemed possible for us as a trainer and for teacher-participants only during training events. In other words, when we have training we develop professionally but when we go back to our usual institutions to teach and have our routine work we don’t have any opportunity. However, through our involvement in the course we began to recognize that professional development is whole person development from inside and outside, and can occur formally during training or planned activities or informally in our daily reflection, thinking, while setting new action plans or goals, etc. [5].
Professional development through curriculum reform members we thought that we would improve our knowledge about syllabus writing, but in reality we have been developing a lot of other professional skills such as researching skills, observation skills, evaluating different teaching methods, course books and materials, setting goals, designing syllabus and curriculum, selecting materials, assessment tools and methods appropriate to a local context or target audience, developing materials, training sessions. Together with the development of professional skills, the course has helped to maintain, develop or increase our general knowledge and transferable skills such as problem solving, working in a team, thinking practically, being a leader, managing projects, learning from experience, organizing assistance and information, and communication skills. That is the beginning of a new development and this journey is endless. We are ready for this journey. Now most teachers are aware of communicative methods of teaching (e.g. project work, portfolio, round table discussion, etc.) and are using them in their practice. Most teachers know how to find, adapt and even design their own materials to suit their students’ needs and are happy with the opening up of choices.
References
- Government program of development of formation of Republic of Kazakhstan on 2011–2020, [ER]. Access mode: http://orleu-edu.kz/Education_ministr.
- Law of Republic of Kazakhstan «On education», 2007, [ER]. Access mode: http://online.zakon.kz/Document.
- Bates A.W. Managing Technological Change: Strategies for College and University Leaders, San-Francisco,
- Сouncil of Modern Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. A Common European Framework of Reference. Cambridge University Press, 2000. The main trends in higher education: global and Bologna measurement / Edit. by V.I.Baydenko, Astana, 2010.
- Laurilland Rethinking University Teaching? A Framework for the Effective Use of Educational Technology, 2-d ed. London, 2002.