Introduction by Marina Leight
For more than 10 years, leaders around the globe have talked about the knowledge economy and the critical need for knowledge workers. I am delighted to share the story of The Republic of Kazakhstan -- a country on the course to meet its goal of becoming one of the top 50 developed nations in the world.
Kazakhstan is on its way. The World Bank Institute's Knowledge Assessment Methodology (KAM) developed the Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) to assist countries in measuring their readiness for success in a knowledge economy. There are 140 countries that participate in the evaluation, ranked in four knowledge economy pillars: economic incentive and institutional regime, the innovation system, education and human resources, and information and communication technologies.
Since 1995, Kazakhstan has continuously improved its ranking and score. Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has made a substantial commitment to education by creating opportunities for all students -- from kindergarten classes to university lecture halls. With some of the world's largest companies coming to Kazakhstan -- Siemens, BP and Texaco among them -- there is a coordinated effort to create a skilled workforce.
Every now and then, you meet someone extraordinary, and such was my experience with Zhanseit Tuimebayev, Kazakhstan's Minister of Education and Science. He is polished, educated and highly accomplished, and he demonstrates a deep, personal commitment to the people of his country through a well-planned vision for education.
Tuimebayev has placed emphasis on curriculum mastery along with robust deployment of interactive technologies. Thousands of classrooms have been modernized, and the minister has accomplished a great deal by balancing accountability, training and universal access to technology.
What impressed me most were his closing comments to me: "Anyone's future depends on the people themselves. Thanks to all that technology has to offer, mankind has a brilliant future."
By Mark Gura
Which of the following statements is true?
If you chose letter F, you are better informed than almost everyone. However, if the information above was unfamiliar to you, it would be wise to read on. Remediation in this area may prove to be crucial as the United States prepares students to find their place in the world.
When asked what people would be surprised to know about Kazakhstan, Tuimebayev explained that "the world is only beginning to learn about Kazakhstan." The country -- which has the ninth largest land size among nations -- has only been independent for 17 years, having formerly been part of the USSR. For the majority who has hardly thought about Kazakhstan, this is only a glimmer of an important nation that has been overlooked.
Tuimebayev listed an impressive inventory of natural resources found in his country that includes crude oil, coal, uranium and natural gas, adding that, "Our greatest wealth is our wonderful people." It is the way this nation educates its people that creates a remarkable can-do attitude. The population is made up of about 130 nationalities, who according to Tuimebayev, get along well and are working together for common prosperity. He also said they have schools that teach the groups in their own languages, a feat of effective multicultural educational organization and implementation that other nations should admire, perhaps with jealousy.
A converged paradigm
In Kazakh schools, technology is an essential part of learning and teaching activities. Through use of technology devices, Kazakhstan is fostering the acquisition of 21st-century skills and supporting the country's push to redefine education, rather than playing catch-up with the educational vision of other, more well-known influential nations.
Recently, Converge Editor in Chief Marina Leight flew to London and conducted an interview with Tuimebayev, who is in charge of the nation's educational system. The government agency he heads is called the Ministry of Education and Science, a clear indication that Kazakhstan's educational paradigm is different than that in the United States, perhaps in ways fundamental to its success.
Science will be the subject that most defines global competitiveness as the 21st century continues to unfold. While most of the global educational community is trying to find ways to offer students a connection between science class and the real world, the Kazakh educational system is raising the bar for traditional learning.
Kazakh students begin conducting authentic scientific experiments early in their science education. During the conversation, Tuimebayev said Kazakhstan's "brightest students actually start doing science and scientific research while they are still at university," which is equivalent to high school in the United States. This reveals that for them, science is not a subject simply to be studied, but one in which achievement directly affords students the status of participating practitioner.
Education as the foundation
The blueprint from which the Kazakhs are working joins a powerful but realistic vision with a philosophy of teaching and learning, resulting in a bold action plan. Unlike other nations that have a vision for national progress and a vision for education, the Kazakhs appear to have a single vision: a vision in which education is such an integral component of progress that the two may be seen as one and the same. By viewing science as a medium to make the country a competitive world player, and by creating an inseparable role for education, the Kazakhs have developed a plan for the next decade and beyond. It is a strategic map that focuses on economic diversification and development of a knowledge-based economy, which will help the country become one of the world's most competitive economies.
"The competitiveness of a nation, first of all, is defined by the level of education," Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has repeatedly said. This encapsulates Kazakh attitudes about education. The road they are building for themselves to reach their goals features his directive to prioritize education and utilize new technology. The nation is implementing its 2005 to 2010 state program for educational development, and is deep into its 2008 to 2011 state program for science development.
What will make Kazakh students and graduates more competitive is the way digital technologies are integrated into the educational experience.
"We watch very closely what is going on in the rest of the world and therefore we acquire the latest, state-of-the-art technologies," Tuimebayev said. "We are really going all out ... implementing interactive processes in our classrooms ... we can see definite progress and results."
However, merely placing technology in classrooms is not enough. Technology draws its meaning and efficacy from its role to support and enhance teaching and learning.
"Just last year, we installed interactive equipment in 1,750 schools, and we did not do it in an ad hoc basis," Tuimebayev said. "We actually did a systematic allocation across the regions. We approached it from a countrywide point of view and provided appropriate content for every subject -- a curriculum that includes all the basic subjects ... all linked to the Internet."
For hardware and software to be transformative, there must be an evolution of teaching as well. Kazakhstan's model for this is to distribute the wealth of educational experience, using the Internet as a vehicle for distribution. That's why the country rapidly deployed, on an enviable scale, some of the best ideas and practices of virtual schooling and distance education.
"Every week our best trained teachers actually teach across the country," Tuimebayev said. "We distribute electronic teaching."
Given the tools
Technologies deployed in Kazakh classrooms are state of the art. More than 1,000 of its schools are equipped with computer-driven interactive whiteboards, which can be controlled by students and teachers via individual tablet PCs. Student response systems flesh out the picture, supporting teacher feedback and on-the-fly formative assessments. These are strategically placed in Internet-enabled classrooms used for math, language and other subjects, with a concentration in physics, chemistry and biology labs. These science learning centers are also equipped with mobile, handheld, data-logging devices that interface with a variety of digital probes, giving students access to the same technologies used by their scientific counterparts around the world. Rather than using the technology to supplement traditional textbook instruction, Kazakh students use eContent in science classes. Additionally, science and vocational courses are supported by simulation software.
While the digital equipment finding its way into classrooms in Kazakhstan is manufactured in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, Kazakh officials are proud that they are not merely purchasers of shrink-wrapped solutions. They judiciously select what seems to be appropriate for them, underlining their belief that choosing the correct technology platform is critical to success. Furthermore, Tuimebayev established a curriculum advisory body to work closely with partners.
Although their strategic plan accounts for growth in phases -- the earliest phase supports the nation's belief that much of the future lies in fields that require strong science education -- they also plan to extend the best of 21st-century learning to all, signaling that eContent resources and lesson materials will progressively cover more curriculum. Teaching, too, is being transformed with the establishment of centers of excellence to serve as models, online professional communities supported by resources such as Moodle to facilitate reflection and sharing of curriculum and more traditional professional development.
In addition to economy skills, they are fostering critical thinking skills, collaboration and creativity. Although Kazakh leaders have created a focus on science, information technology, vocational subjects, online learning and foreign-language learning, they also affirm their conviction to create 21st-century learning environments that will make all subjects more engaging and stimulating.
A 'coopetition'
Kazakhstan is well on its way to creating a model that transforms learning environments designed to inspire students to develop problem-solving skills and increase their creativity, especially in the sciences. The country is anxious to share its accomplishments with the rest of the world, and nations would be wise to join Kazakhstan to learn from its impending success and prosperity. There is something to be learned from understanding its approach to a modern education process. In our now flattened, globalized world view, educational competition may be profitably reconsidered as a sort of "coopetition" in which true partners compete, yet the goal is for all to win big.
By Wayne Grant
"The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet." --William Gibson
The representation of ideas as binary digits acted upon by powerful computer processing has transformed human thought and expression, creating profound implications for education in general, particularly in the sciences. Not since the invention of the printing press has a single representational form had such a profound effect on the creation, expression and communication of knowledge.
Every major science relies on digital technologies: first to make electronic measurements, then for modeling, and finally for simulating real-world phenomena. Consider, for example, the models and simulations that increasingly ground our understanding of macro events such as hurricanes and global warming, and micro events such as those connected with nanotechnologies and genomic encoding. The manipulation required to render such quantities of data into human-accessible form eclipses the human cognitive apparatus.
Notwithstanding this seismic shift in the bedrock of scientific thought and action, we still debate whether computing technologies contribute positively to science learning. From my perspective, this concern is lacking judgment. If education must prepare a scientifically literate population to cope with 21st-century issues, it makes sense that it must therefore embrace the tools that configure 21st-century science in the first place.
Simultaneously, this technology has increased global competitiveness and put in motion a gold rush, with nations scrambling to develop state-of-the-art knowledge-based economies. A growing number of countries position science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) as a cornerstone in the foundation of their economic reform movement. But what does 21st-century science education look like to them?
These emerging knowledge economies readily acknowledge that STEM education without technology is archaic. They recognize that science is technology -- and technology is science. Their leaders don't debate whether technology will improve learning. Instead they act decisively, systematically implementing a vision in which technology is no longer separable from scientific endeavor and, therefore, science education.
We have known for a long time that to foster an interest in science, we need to energize our students by involving them as scientists in authentic science experiments. This means that they must participate in scientific experiences similar to those that characterize scientific communities of practice. Among other things, students need to ask questions, make conjectures, collect data, make scientific explanations and construct arguments that account for their findings.
How would today's scientists do this? Scientists think, conceptualize, act and communicate with tools -- and in a medium -- configured by digital technologies. It's time to recognize that as the medium for scientific thought and action changes, the conception of science education must follow suit. It's time to let go of the stifling notion that computers only function as science-teaching machines and recognize, as a growing number of competitive countries do, that the scientific medium must truly configure science education.
1 United Nations Development Programme Report of 2007/2008
2 As reported by the U.S. Government's Energy Information Administration
*This story is from Converge magazine's Fall 2008 issue.
