Progressive Educational Actions in a Post-Soviet Republic: Meaningful Collaborations and Empowerment
Abstract
As the last Soviet republic to become an independent nation, Kazakhstan has worked diligently to transform and develop its educational system including systemic changes related to decentralization, financing changes, and the shift to a credit system. A professional health sciences education workshop delivered in Kazakhstan exemplifies progressive educational approaches. Attendees were educators from universities across Kazakhstan. The workshop was the product of collaboration between educators in the United States and Kazakhstan. Team-based learning was both a pedagogic method and topic of the workshop. Technology played a central role in the workshop, as it was integral to workshop development, collaboration, and evaluation. Furthermore, technology became a key content area of the workshop, as the educators presented advances in technology and specific tools to aid in the education of future medical professionals in Kazakhstan. In the months following the workshop, attendees embraced the challenge to take what they have learned back to their own universities by telling their stories. Using the collaborative learning approach and technological tools from the workshop, the attendees‘ spirit of sharing reflects the dynamic development of education in Kazakhstan in the post-Soviet era
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