Investments in knowledge bring better returns

Education is the best investment of our time. The Bolashak program is the best and most advanced program in the post-Soviet space and one of the best in the world. Over 30 years of the implementation of the Presidential Scholarship, about 12 thousand highly qualified specialists have been trained. This list includes AlmaU faculty. They shared their thoughts on the experience abroad.

Education is the best investment of our time. The Bolashak program is the best and most advanced program in the post-Soviet space and one of the best in the world. Over 30 years of the implementation of the Presidential Scholarship, about 12 thousand highly qualified specialists have been trained. This list includes AlmaU teachers Bodaubaeva Gulmira Akhanovna and Umirzakova Dinara Kaldybekovna. They shared their thoughts on the experience abroad.

1. Please tell us why you chose the University of Illinois? What attracted you to this university?

The University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign - UIUC is one of the most prestigious US universities that has been operating for 155 years. Among universities, UIUC is ranked in the top 20 universities and in the top 5% in academic rankings around the world. More than 51 thousand students and graduate students study at the university, more than 2.5 thousand teachers work, 11 of them are Nobel laureates. This is a whole independent student city with a developed modern infrastructure, which includes a unique university library, the second largest in the United States after Harvard, centers for many start-ups and well-known companies: Yahoo, Capital One, Dow, State Farm and many others. others. We are not the first teachers who did an internship at UIUC, earlier in 2021 Kuanysh Abeshev, Dean of the School of Digital Technologies and Asel Arynkyzy, Vice-Rector for Academic Development, who recommended UIUC as an internship base for AlmaU teachers, underwent an internship at this university.

2. What subject did you do your internship in? What is the feature?

The internship program was held in the specialty "Pedagogical Innovations". The peculiarity of the program was the study of modern approaches and aspects for the formation of an effective structure of the training course, the creation of educational design, familiarization with the methods of online teaching and learning, and more. etc. The program itself was full of various events, within which we attended various seminars, trainings, workshops, as well as review classes by leading teachers of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

3. Let's remember the first day of the internship. How did she go?

The first day of our internship began with a visit to an event that took place on March 4, 2022, which was organized by the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. This unique Annual Faculty Retreat - "Breaking Down the Garden Walls: A Promise of Access to Success", which brings together teachers, is to share knowledge about teaching and learning. There were interesting presentations by speakers on topics related to learning, developing relationships, building teacher-student partnerships, student assessment, using educational information resources, and presenting student projects. We are very lucky because this large-scale event is held every year and we were lucky to be participants in it on the very first day of our internship.

4. Did you encounter any difficulties during the internship? If so, please tell us a little more about it.

During the internship, we did not have any particular difficulties, maybe at first there was some feeling of excitement and worries about the change in the situation, the time zone, since the time difference with the United States, time in Kazakhstan is 12 hours ahead. At first, everything was new and unfamiliar for us, but thanks to the interaction with the specialists of the Department of Global Education and Training, which is the inviting party, the adaptation was easy.

5. What are your impressions of the internship?

Great internship experience! I got the opportunity to do an internship at one of the top US universities. From the inside, I studied the education system and new learning technologies that are used in one of the most developed countries in the world. And this was naturally reflected in my views, I received new knowledge and skills that I am going to apply already here, in Kazakhstan, within the walls of ALMAU.