Kazakhstan Models Alignment of National Curriculum to Global Cities’ Student Learning Outcomes
Acknowledging the value of global competency is important, but education leaders must also take action to ensure that global competency is prioritized and taught alongside core content.
“The Codebook… is a very good framework to analyze the presence of global competency in the curricular content that you have,” said Dr. Madina Tynybayeva, President of Kazakhstan’s National Academy of Education.
Dr. Madina Tynybayeva, President of the National Academy of Education named after Y. Altynsarin, Ministry of Education, Republic of Kazakhstan, spoke at the Global Cities: Decade of Impact convening in Washington, DC on July 23, 2024 to describe the Academy’s partnership with Global Cities, Inc., a program of Bloomberg Philanthropies, to ensure alignment of Kazakhstan’s national curriculum with measurable, research-backed standards for global learning outcomes.
The example of Kazakhstan shows how national curriculum designers can use Global Cities’ Codebook for Global Student Learning Outcomes to validate elements of global competency that are already being taught in a curriculum and identify opportunities to expand globally-connected instruction across a country.
New Video: Ester Fuchs Interviews Madina Tynybayeva
A roadmap for answering questions
Global Cities has developed and implemented global competency curricula with educators worldwide for a decade through the Global Scholars virtual exchange program. Teachers widely agree that it is important to teach global competency but also express concerns about curricula priorities. How can they find the time to prioritize global competency? How can they integrate global competency into instruction? How can they assess what students are learning?
Global Cities’ Codebook for Global Student Learning Outcomes provides a roadmap for answering these questions by making it easier to recognize opportunities to connect required content and global competency learning for students of any age and in any subject area. This is a critical resource for classroom teachers looking for tools to infuse global competency into their day-to-day practice and governments looking to integrate global competency at state, regional, or national levels. Importantly, the Codebook is also a tool for observing and measuring students’ global competency development over time.
From October 2023 to February 2024, a working group from Kazakhstan’s National Academy of Education (the Academy) partnered with Global Cities to inform the Academy’s ongoing review of national learning objectives and assessment criteria. Using the Codebook in an analysis of one Year 4 course, the Academy was able to show where the specific knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors that constitute global competency are already woven into what teachers are required to teach, and where there may be opportunities to adjust the curriculum to further advance global competency learning and measurement of student progress.
A shift in national Curriculum priorities
Dr. Tynybayeva explained why this project was critical to advance important country-wide priorities for global competency teaching and learning:
In 2016, Kazakhstan made a major shift in its educational approach to focus on competencies and teaching knowledge and skills with real-life relevance, especially global competency. It was important for us to keep the values we had traditionally in our education system as an independent country, but we also understand that we have to be part of the global world. The Codebook with its four learning outcomes and 55 empirical indicators, is a very good framework to analyze the presence of global competency in the curricular content that you have. It shows how to identify those outcomes in student work to determine whether students are learning. The Codebook also can make the process of global competency assessment more relevant and valid, which is important as Kazakhstan advances criteria-based assessment of learning objectives.
Global Cities President and Founder Marjorie B. Tiven said:
We are proud to be working with Kazakhstan and delighted to partner with Dr. Tynybayeva, who shares our belief from the Global Scholars program in the importance of global competency learning, assessment and supporting teachers in the classroom. When government leaders demonstrate how global competency is a part of what students are required to learn, it gives teachers the freedom to prioritize and devote time to it in the classroom. It can also motivate teachers to learn how to teach and assess aligned indicators so global competency is integrated into instruction, engages students, and makes their learning observable. The Codebook is a tool that will help teachers imagine lessons in this new way and measure whether students are learning the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors they need to solve global problems in the future.
The Global Cities team provided the Academy with training on the Codebook and how it can be used to systematically identify alignment between curricula and global learning outcomes and empirical indicators. The Academy team used the Codebook to review the Year 4 World Understanding course objectives, an obligatory course specifically intended to foster global competency during the foundational years of primary education in Kazakhstan.
findings
The Academy found substantial overlap between the Year 4 World Understanding course objectives and the 55 empirical indicators that comprise Global Cities’ four global learning outcomes: Appreciation for Diversity, Cultural Understanding, Global Knowledge, and Global Engagement. The team identified 227 instances of alignment across the full academic year and for 43 out of the 55 indicators (78%) and created an alignment table to show the learning objectives and aligned indicators side by side. The number and variety of indicators which aligned, and their distribution throughout the World Understanding curriculum, affirms the relevance and usefulness of the Codebook for evaluating curriculum standards. Now that the Academy has established the alignment, they expect to use the Codebook to design learning activities, plan assessment and evaluate student work.
Dr. Madina Tynybayeva speaks with Global Cities Advisory Board Member Ester Fuchs, sharing findings with an international educator audience at the Global Cities: Decade of Impact convening in Washington, DC on July 23, 2024
Global Cities Chief Program Officer Megan Wilhelm reflected on the alignment process and findings:
The Codebook allows us to see familiar standards and content in a new way that can transform teaching and learning. By undertaking this alignment project, the Academy affirmed that the global competencies they value are reflected in the Year 4 World Understanding curriculum and pointed to specific places where teachers can explicitly teach and measure specific indicators. The working group also found ample opportunities in the curriculum for teachers to extend student learning by making connections to global competency or getting creative and designing new units and lessons that tie content and global competency together in a way that deepens students’ understanding or engagement.
Significance
Dr. Tynybayeva shared her view on the significance of the results and the response from teachers:
By using the Codebook, we revealed extensive alignment between Kazakhstan’s educational goals and Global Cities’ global student learning outcomes and empirical indicators, demonstrating the Year 4 World Understanding curriculum's relevance to modern requirements and challenges. Everyone who participated grew professionally because we learned what the Codebook is, what indicators of global competency learning are, and how we can apply them. The Codebook helps us to look differently at the content as we continue reviewing our national curricula.
The Codebook also supports effective teaching and learning strategies, which presents opportunities for teacher creativity and professional development. When we shared the Codebook and our alignment table with practicing teachers, they said that now they have different view on how they will be teaching World Understanding because the alignment table highlights the global competencies that you should pay attention to, and the Codebook helps them look differently at the learning objectives and content of the course.
The partnership of Global Cities and the Academy demonstrated how using the Codebook to find alignment between global competency and required curriculum standards can help governments determine the extent to which they’ve already prioritized global competency in the curriculum. It can be a catalyst for developing new professional development or curriculum materials designed to provide teachers with resources, training, and support to teach global competency and assess what students are learning.
New Video! Hear Professor Ester Fuchs interview Dr. Madina Tynybayeva on Kazakhstan’s curriculum reform. Click here to watch