On August 24, 2020 on the basis of Kazakh Ablay khan University of International Relations and World Languages, an extended meeting of the RUMS UMO on the groups of educational programs “Training of teachers on languages and literature” and “Languages and literature” was held in the framework of the August Republican Meeting.
At the meeting were summed up the results of the project “AE MOOC Facilitated Sessions”, which was held from February 2020 to May 2020 with the support of the Regional Office of English and the U.S. Embassy, which was attended by the PPS of the Department of Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication of the PU “Bolashaq Academy”.
A group of researchers: Letiyakina Tatiana Agadyimovna – project coordinator, President of “KazTEA”, Anna Kalizhanova – Master of Philological Sciences, senior lecturer of the Department of Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication, project trainer, and Ibraeva Bayan Mukushevna, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Professor of the Department of Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication at the Bolashaq Academy, a participant of the project, made a presentation on “The role of facilitators in the professional development of teachers in blended learning.
In their presentation, they touched upon the role of facilitators in professional development of teachers in blended learning. It was noted that in order to raise awareness of MEP participants, fixing and analyzing the material, with its further application in a new context, it is necessary to hold additional sessions off-line or online. During these sessions, the facilitator is able to develop or select additional platforms and tools according to the level of training of students and their interests.
The webinar also touched upon the problems of low attendance of some students (about 65% of school teachers were able to complete 2 courses and about 60% of undergraduate students, while university teachers showed the result – 75%), which is directly related to the technical training of students, Internet competencies, their language level and attitude towards self-education.
Speakers noted that the professional development on the platforms of Mass Open Online Courses requires active participation of students in terms of study and application of the material.
At the end of the speech, it was noted that the project participants highly appreciated the assistance of facilitators in studying technical vocabulary and organizing discussions on the studied material by the example of local context.
