Project summary

In the framework of the Kazakh government sponsored Bolashak Program, thousands of students and staff have studied in western countries over the last 20 years. 62 Kazakh university staff members were trained for three months at ICLON, from 2014 until 2016. Ten of them were involved in two follow up Erasmus staff exchange projects. Through this new Erasmus+ application we extend and deepen our cooperation, by closely involving secondary schools in the Netherlands and Kazakhstan in the cooperation.
The Erasmus+ mobility project serves as a follow up to the mutual training activities described in the above. It has the title: teaching and learning English language and subject content in secondary and higher education and concentrate around CLIL and ‘English as a Medium of Instruction’ (EMI). The program also concentrates on the links and interaction between university teacher training, secondary schools and (in Kazakhstan) private pro-viders of zprofessionalization programmes.

zInternationalization strategy

ICLON adheres strongly to the Leiden University zinternationalization policy through its strong international research programme, its teacher training (World Teacher Program), training for university staff on ‘teaching and learning in the international classroom’ and through the execution of training programs for foreign higher educa-tion institutions. The Government of Kazakhstan is pursuing the zinternationalization of higher education since its independence in 1991. In this context, Kazakhstan has encouraged the implementation of the European struc-ture of academic, a national quality-assurance system and a Western-style credit system.

From March 2016 onwards, different staff members from four Kazakh Universities visited ICLON for a week each. In addition, in the same period, the staff of ICLON visited our Kazakh partner Universities.
In 2016 our programme concentrated on Blended Learning and Early Career Research. In 2017 and 2018, the topic was Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and Inclusive Education.

While in the Netherlands, Kazakh staff was intensively exposed to these topics through workshops and school visits. In Kazakhstan, workshops on these topics were jointly prepared for university and secondary school tea-chers in Nur-Sultan, Almaty, Pavlodar and Aktobe. Many one-day toone-week workshops were given over the period, in which over 400 universities, secondary and primary school teachers participated.
Our projects also have a range of spin-off results, including internships of ICLON students in Kazakhstan and close cooperation, including pupils exchange.

Selection of project results

• Workshop on the Development of Inclusive Education and CLIL Methodology at KAZGUU University, by trainers Henk Frencken and Daan Romein: [http] kazguu.kz/ru/2019/10/11/seminar-po-razvitiyu-inklyuzivnogo-obrazovaniya-v-kazahstane-i-metodologii-clil/
• Two day workshop held at KAZGUU University in October 2019, during which 140 teachers from all levels of education were trained in a practical approach to Inclusive Educati-on: Facebook.com/DutchEmbassyKazakhstan )

Continuing in 2019

This 2018 Erasmus+ ICM project also resulted in a forth Erasmus+ project in 2019. Visit the Kazakhstan 2019 page for more details.