Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century

discussions and other activities remained teacher-led …. At no time during the
lesson was there room for student- or group-initiatives, or student-led activities’
(Steiner-Khamsi and Stolpe, 2006, p. 119).
The coding data cannot tell us whether this kind of gap between policy and practice
has been addressed in recent years, but research on individual countries suggests
that progress may require more time. Researchers generally acknowledge that
understandings of student-centred approaches among educators in the region
can differ significantly from those espoused by overseas researchers or officials
from the foreign aid community, especially because values such as collective
identity and solidarity, respect for teachers and elders in general, an emphasis
on effort and conventional views of academic achievement remain central to
local visions of the nature and purpose of schooling. For example, research has
indicated that the cultural beliefs and practices of Kazakhstani teachers are hard
to reconcile with student-centred and collaborative approaches (Burkhalter and
Shegebayev, 2012, p. 59). And a study of Kyrgyzstan concludes that the majority
of teachers, students and institutions there are not adhering to a studentcentred
approach (de la Sablonnière, Taylor and Sadykova, 2009).
There is a mismatch
between attempts to
reform curricula and
teaching methods,
and lack of reform
to systems for
assessing student
performance
The coding data show that education policy and
curricula in the four countries extensively refer
to student-centred approaches (see Table 6.1). 88
A significant gap between the stated aspirations
of reformed national curricula — which appear
increasingly competency-oriented — and approaches
to assessing educational performance — which
still largely adheres to the established practice of
testing mastery of knowledge and set formulae —
characterizes schooling systems throughout the
region. The mismatch between attempts to reform
curricula and teaching methods, and lack of reform to systems for assessing
student performance, is vividly illustrated by the following comment from a
Mongolian schoolteacher:
At our school we frequently use interactive teaching methods from
September through March. In April, we refocus on content so that our
students pass the exam in June. (Steiner-Khamsi and Stolpe, 2006, p. 112)
88 The very high number of references in documents for Kazakhstan can be partly attributed to
the coder’s propensity to overcode, as compared to other coders, coupled with the volume
of documents analysed.
196
Chapter 6: Central Asia and Mongolia