ISSN 0798 1015

Vol. 38 (Nº 35) Año 2017. Pág. 34

Training instructors in higher education: Kazakhstan context

Formación de instructores en la enseñanza superior: contexto de Kazajstán

Saltanat RYSBEKOVA 1; Tuyakbai RYSBEKOV 2; Bayan SHINTIMIROVA 3

Received:14/06/2017 • Approved: 25/06/2017

Content

1. Introduction

2. Results

3. Discussion

4. Conclusions

References

1. Introduction

Higher education is the key to the economic growth of the country (Barro, & Lee, 2013, pp. 184-198). In the post-Soviet countries, the problem of development of the national education system is even more acute than in other newly formed states: in spite of the relative quality of education in the past due to the closure of the educational system (Johnson, 2008, pp. 159-176), to perform the educational tasks in an open society and multi-party democracy is more difficult, than under the totalitarian regime (Heyneman, 2000, pp. 173-191), because we have to take into account the international standards.

In despite of the attempts at the reform, the current system of education in developing countries does not meet the modern requirements of the labour market (Ibraimova, 2002 pp. 27-30). While the alternatives for the Western education are not found, in practice the outdated approaches are used, adopted in the Soviet system of higher education (Akhmetbekova et al., 2013, pp. 540-542).

In developed countries, the reform of the higher education system in general and the insertion of teaching educators in particular, reveals a number of difficulties. There are the additional difficulties and problems in developing countries and post-Soviet countries, resulting from historical, social and economic reasons.

2. Results

2.1 Pros and cons of teaching educators

The reform and the improvement of the education system on a national scale is, in general, a profitable venture. A major study of the impact of education for 1950–2010 years has shown that the coverage of the population in secondary education significantly positive effects the level of income at the national level (Barro, & Lee, 2013, pp. 184-198). Higher education also has a wide range of positive effects: the personal, financial and other lifelong benefits of graduates, as well as the direct and indirect benefits for society (Baum, Ma, & Payea, 2010). Accordingly, higher levels of education, including higher education, are leading to an increase in the country's economic indicators.

The increasing of the quality of higher education is achieved in two ways of the interrelated transformations: the organisational changes and the increase of the level of teaching in higher education. The first group of parameters includes the autonomy of the university, the access to higher education, curriculum optimisation in connection with the labour market requirements, elimination of the corruption and the transparency of the selection procedures and evaluation. The second group of parameters assumes the improvement of teaching skills, namely the professional competence of teachers in the higher education system. The features that ‘interfere’ the teaching process and direct impact on the behaviour of the teacher during the learning process belong to the first group of parameters.

The organisational ‘impediments’ are particularly characteristic of the higher education systems of the post-Soviet countries, as the Soviet approaches to the organisation and teaching methods, in spite of the changes after the collapse of the USSR, still continue to influence the educational system, though in a weakened and veiled form. For the Soviet higher education system, were characteristic the following features (Johnson, 2008, pp. 159-176):

1. the lack of the private educational institutions and any alternative models of education, in addition to the state program;
2. the dissociation of the theoretical university education and researches in the industry institutes under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences, and applied military studies;
3. the inefficient of the financial and human resources usage, the hindered mobility within the educational system and between it and other systems;
4. the lack of a critical point of view, and alternative explanations in the field of all social sciences;
5. the focus on the mass access and rapid quantity increase of the students, non-systematic attention to the qualitative characteristics of teaching and learning.

At this point, there is pluralism and the possibility of choice in the higher education systems of the post-Soviet countries, but there is also corruption, artificial barriers of the mobility of teachers and students, academic detachment from the material and the research practices and generally outdated and somewhat authoritarian approach in teaching are the realities of higher education. In post-Soviet countries, teachers of higher educational institutions in most cases do not pass an additional pedagogical training (Andreev, 2014, pp. 38-40), therefore, in their work, they translate the approaches, which their teachers of the old system taught them.

There are two ways of transformation of the educational system – the organisational changes and the improving of the teachers’ professionalism. They are not mutually exclusive, but complement each other. While the organisational changes are, for the most part, in authority of state regulation, the universities within its autonomy and practices of the education system can influence the system from the ‘inside’, through the additional education of their colleagues. It is worth noting that, if there are not solved such important issues as corruption and the lack of teaching materials, in this case, any changes of the system from the ‘inside’ will be hampered and distorted.

For the country of any level of economic development, if its leadership is interested in raising the level of education, it is important to ensure the transparency of selection procedures for students and teachers, fair and objectively justified competition between the educational institutions. Particularly acute this problem is in developing countries, where, in particular, the personal relationship between the government and universities lead to a less transparent financial support (Schiller, & Liefner, 2007, pp. 543-556), and the university management system is not adapted to work in the conditions of market economy and new educational standards (Khairullina et al., 2016, pp. 2711-2726).

With the increasing of globalisation processes, there is a need to review the curriculum of higher education. The objectives of the new programs are the accordance to high international educational standards for the promotion of research and production of new knowledge, which is a priority for developed countries, and ensuring the graduates the necessary skills for professional activity and the formation of human capital. It is necessary, first, in the developing countries (Schiller, & Liefner, 2007, pp. 543-556). Achieving these objectives is possible in one common way – the development of the research activities and the improvement of teaching.

Improving the teaching through the insertion of the teaching educators has proved that it is effective in practice. The additional pedagogical training for teachers of higher educational institutions promote the use of student-centred approach to teaching, as well as the increasing of the teachers’ self-confidence as the profession representative (Postareff, Lindblom-Yla¨nne, & Nevgi, 2007, pp. 557-571), and the extended training and additional classes after the main course make these changes more stable and convex (Postareff, Lindblom-Yla¨nne, & Nevgi, 2008, pp. 29-43). In turn, the educators' adoption of student-centred approach to teaching leads to the students' deep approach to learning (Entwistle et al., 2000, pp. 5-26; Gibbs, & Coffey,  2004, pp. 87-100), which contributes to further academic success.

A similar trend is also observed in the secondary education. The academic achievements of students are significantly positively associated with such criteria of teachers’ professionalism as full certification as a teacher, education in teaching a particular subject, the teaching experience of 3 years or more. As well as a summary measure of professionalism, including all four criteria, but not with the criterion of education in a particular subject area (Akiba, LeTendre, & Scribner, 2007, pp. 369-387). In Finland, which showed the highest achievements in the field of secondary education, the results of PISA project (Programme for International Student Assessment), special emphasis is placed on the education of teachers, this profession is prestigious, highly paid and desirable for applicants (Simola, 2005, pp. 455-470).

Therefore, the education that provides the skills how to teach, more conducive to academic and scientific achievements than education that gives knowledge of what to teach.

At the same time, the effectiveness of additional education for higher education teachers remains as a contentious issue. If the comparison of teachers’ groups, which passed and do not pass the additional training, does not show significant differences between the groups on the scales of opinions and teachers’ aspirations, it says that the training should be aimed not at specific beliefs and techniques, but on the educators' underlying conceptions of teaching and learning (Norton et al., 2005, pp. 537-571). This is indicating the clearly different impact on differently built programs. Another factor, which is complicating the assessment of the effectiveness of additional teacher training is a motivational factor. If as a result of this training teaching skills have increased, it may not be the result of the training, but the teacher’s desire to improve in teaching (Postareff, Lindblom-Ylänne, & Nevgi,  2007, pp. 557-571), namely the teacher even in the absence of mandatory training would be looking for new information and applying innovative approaches.

The complexity of evaluating the effectiveness of teaching educators is not showing the ineffectiveness of such measures. However, it demonstrates the need for caution in the insertion, further modernisation and impact assessment of additional educational programs for university professors.

2.2 Problems of the insertion of teaching educators

One of the problems is a temporary loss of confidence by the university teachers in themselves and their professionalism during the additional pedagogical training. In the self-esteem of teaching skills and confidence, the teachers’ scores, who began the training, are falling markedly in comparison with the initial level, while after the end of the program they increase significantly. At the end of training, the teachers and their students have noted an increase of their professionalism (Postareff, Lindblom-Ylänne, & Nevgi, 2007, pp. 557-571). The mechanism of this phenomenon is the following. The initial level of training puts the teachers before the fact of a difference between the level of pedagogical skills and the one that ‘should be’ and could have been, while in the absence of training the participants have not thought about such a difference. The temporary loss of self-confidence, of course, is not a pleasant condition for the teachers themselves and can affect their teaching level, but in the end the quality and effectiveness of teaching increases. The way to mitigate the effect of a temporary loss of self-confidence by teachers can be the acquaintance of them with the possibility of pre-emergence and psychological mechanisms of this phenomenon.

A further problem of the insertion of teaching educators is the duration of the training. In order to achieve the two objectives of pedagogical training – sustainability of the results, and the levelling of the effect of temporary reduction of self-confidence – it should last at least 1 year of regular classes (Postareff, Lindblom-Ylänne, & Nevgi, 2007, pp. 557-571). The additional educational training, in addition to the standard 1-year program, provide more sustained improvement in 2 fields – the ways of learning and self-confidence in yourself  as a professional (Postareff, Lindblom-Ylänne, & Nevgi, 2008, pp. 29-43). Therefore, in the insertion of the programs, aimed at the teaching educators, we need to take into account the time, financial and human costs of the organisation, which will deal with such training.

Even when the university teachers are professionals with the experience in teaching, but in the school, the adapting time of the changing of the professional identity from the school teacher to teacher-educator takes 2 to 3 years (Murray, & Male, 2005, pp. 125-142). Therefore, the effectiveness of teaching in higher education depends not only on teaching methods, but also on the specific conditions of the university environment. To facilitate a more rapid adaptation and greater efficiency of teachers, who used to be schoolteachers, during teacher training should make special emphasis on two areas: the development of the pedagogical skills for an audience of higher education and the beginning of the research activity.

The insertion of the compulsory teaching educators at the national level takes more time than the process of adaptation of teachers and the beginning of the receiving benefits for their activities. In Norway, the insertion of the compulsory teacher training in 10 universities across the country took about 5 years due to the institutional inertia and, in some cases, lack of staff (Trowler, & Bamber, 2005, pp. 79-93). Therefore, in the insertion of such reforms, we should beforehand realistically assess the possibility of universities, methodological support and qualification of trainers, as well as to take into account that the hierarchically organised structures, such as universities, are characterised by a certain amount of resistance to any innovation.

Another problematic field, associated with the insertion of the teaching educators, is the question of motivation of teachers to participate in the training. In particular, it may be controversial question of a combination of one of the two priority areas of the university teacher – research activity and the actual teaching. The experts, conducting researches at the universities, are required to engage in teaching, and in the case, where the researcher should be taught, but does not want to do this, additional education in teaching is perceived as a waste of time (Postareff, Lindblom-Ylänne, & Nevgi, 2007, pp. 557-571). The situation is complicated by the fact that the more prestigious is the university, the more its leaders are interested in the researches and less in the teaching (Trowler, & Bamber, 2005, pp. 79-93). Therefore, the effectiveness of the teacher training is reduced by virtue of the teachers’ unconscious resistance or the quite consciously resistance of the university administration. The way of a realistic forecast of the effectiveness of the teacher training for teachers, who do not want, but are obliged to engage in teaching, could be preliminary finding of motivation. In such a situation, it is likely to push off on the goals of professional teachers and to provide the access to additional educational programs to those, who really need them. If the teaching educators are necessary, the participation of the low-motivated teachers is inevitably and, in some cases, the conducting them is based on the not interested universities.

Thus, a number of difficulties even in developed countries accompanies the insertion of the teaching educators. The insertion of the teaching educators is not a panacea, but in general this not a quick process brings positive effects.

2.3 The reforms of higher education in developing countries

Increasing of the quality of higher education includes the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Difficulties associated with the introduction of ICTs in higher education systems in developing countries can be divided into 2 groups (Sife, Lwoga, & Sanga, 2007, pp. 57-67). Firstly, the universities, which should serve as a good instance in the development of new technologies and in the process of their implementation in daily lives, were not ready for such changes. Universities cannot provide any technological or advisory support in view of weakness of the information infrastructure and the lack of the qualified personnel. Secondly, most of the developing countries adopted the implementation of ICTs program without clear planning stages and requirements to support this process. As a result, even in the presence of new technologies they are used inappropriately or not fully.

At the same time, with the beginning of the process of higher education reform in each of the developing countries, training courses are being developed with the account of a certain level of ICTs usage in learning and self-education. Accordingly, the educational standards cannot be achieved if only because of the fact that it does not provide all the conditions that are assumed by plans. The method of solving this problem is in the first place the methodological, technological and personnel support of the universities at a level that is projected by the curriculum in order to make these programs achievable, as well as the revision of the programs themselves in terms of what is necessary, and what is – not compulsory.

The developing countries as a whole are characterised by a mismatch between the declared level of educational standards and the fact of what knowledge the teachers are able to transmit and what practical skills they have. For example, there is a situation in Kazakhstan, when the university professors, if they want to remain as such, should be published in international scientific journals with non-zero impact factor. According to the law ‘On approval of the Rules of awarding academic titles (associate professor (assistant professor), Professor)’, a candidate for the assignment of equivalent rank should have at least two publications in journals with non-zero impact factor of the sub-base of the Web of Science Thomson Reuters database. Accordingly, the experts on Arts & Humanities directions cannot be published in the sub-base of the Web of Science, as the latest magazines do not have the impact factor, and must be published in magazines of the sub-base of Social Sciences Citation Index. There is a situation, when professionals of narrow and non-mass fields of the research, especially the humanities, have to be published not in their field and act as experts in related to their fields, but not in their own. This reduces the quality of research and, accordingly, the level of teaching.

In general, the developing countries face the problem of unreachability of quality education for the consumer. In many developing countries, even if the teachers they have reached a high level of professionalism, the access to the quality secondary education depends on the socio-economic status of the student (Akiba, LeTendre, & Scribner, 2007, pp. 369-387). This trend can be assumed in the field of higher education. Therefore, if we reform the higher educational system through the compulsory pedagogical training for teachers, and even achieve in such way more effective teaching, it does not lead directly to an increase in the level of education in the country without parallel measures to improve the access to the quality education for the population.

Firstly, in general it is necessary to seek to ensure the access to quality higher education on equal opportunities. Secondly, it should be noted that if the formation is still not accessible to people with low socio-economic status, then in the measurement of the effectiveness of higher education and training of teachers are unavoidable distortions due to unrepresentative sample of students.

The discrepancies between the formal and the real situation is manifested in other areas. In India, 25% of primary school teachers were absent on their workplaces during an undisclosed pre-test of a representative sample of public primary schools (Kremer et al., 2005, pp. 658-667). To a greater or lesser extent, this situation is typical for all developing countries: the government declares the need in specialists and requires from schools the reporting on the employment. That is why the same teacher may be enrolled in different educational institutions (but he cannot be present simultaneously in several places), and the administration turns a blind eye on this situation, as it is in need of the statistical indicators. Alternatively, a state just in principle does not have a sufficient number of qualified teachers, and then the vacancies for the job are closed not by the specialists. Therefore, until the administration of educational institutions and government agencies are interested more in indicators, which are ‘on paper’ than in a real situation, the actual, not declared, the reform of the education system is simply not possible.

One of the important aspects of the reform of the higher education system is a change in the financing of this system. A common feature of financing of higher education in both developed and developing countries is the leading role of the Government in the financial support of universities (Schiller, & Liefner, 2007, pp. 543-556). In practice, this is reflected in the fact of the supported research fields, which are traditionally considered as prestigious, and projects with predictable consequences. At the same time, less traditional, but the perspective research fields will not be supported, as well as the innovative and risky projects.

The state, in case where it allocates the money, is interested in direct economic benefit more than in the fundamental scientific researches, the results of which are used in practice only indirectly. However, if there is a financial reserve to support the fundamental, rather than applied, researches in the developed countries, than there is no such provision in developing countries, and innovative research areas cannot be supported. Thus, the scientific potential of the country cannot be implemented. The private funding does not solve the problem, as the companies are interested in the applied researches, or in the qualified workers, but not in the development of the fundamental researches. As a solution for developing countries could be a change in the strategy of the research funding at the state level and the rate of innovation.

The developing countries can characterised by another feature of the higher educational system: university teachers are often people, who are not planning to develop on the post, but have not been able to find a job outside the alma mater. Shkerina (2015, pp. 16-19) identifies the following categories of teachers of higher educational institutions on the territory of the post-Soviet countries:

1. The graduates of classical universities, studying primarily the fundamental scientific disciplines. Among these teachers, there is the opinion that the general scientific courses and fundamental courses in the specialty – this is more than enough for teaching and supersedes any pedagogy and teaching methods.
2. A small category of teachers – the graduates of the pedagogical universities. In most cases, the level of scientific knowledge among them is a little lower than of the graduates of classical universities, but in training, they often achieve better results, although sometimes unconsciously use them in relation to the student audience techniques, which are specific for the school.
3. The most numerous category of teachers of any educational institution – the graduates of this institution, who appointed on the post either because of corruption and nepotism, either because they could not be realised in any field outside the university. The second reason also causes high level of staff turnover, as teachers leave the university without having to accumulate enough experience to cope with the challenges of the profession.

This situation certainly affects the quality of higher education, which in developing countries is traditionally lower than in developed countries (Schiller, & Liefner, 2007, pp. 543-556).

It should be noted that the categorisation of the university professors as it described above, is characterised primarily for the Central Asian countries, Russia and its immediate neighbours; the states, which historically closer to European mentality, managed to avoid such a fate. For example, as Simola (2005, pp. 455-470) noted in his study of teacher education in Finland, the teachers are respected professionals, satisfied with their work and the quality of education in Finland – one of the highest in the world; and this is in spite of the long cultural and economic relations with Russia. The country has achieved such a result, in particular through the compulsory education of the schoolteachers and university professors. It makes sense to take into account the experience of the countries that have built the educational system from scratch, and thus achieved a high quality and availability of education.

2.4 Training instructors in higher education in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is a republic in Central Asia, which is characterised by all the features of this region, as well as by the problems of developing countries. Now in front of the higher education system of Kazakhstan is a number of problems:

1. The difference between the formal requirements and the actual skills of the teachers. Most of the teachers, which are brought up according to the Soviet approaches in their teaching practice, translate these approaches further, while ‘on the paper’ and in the course of scientific conferences it comes to introducing of the western standards and attempts to meet them. As a result, teachers do not know how to teach.
2. Joining the Bologna Process in 2010 entailed a number of changes, to which neither the teaching staff nor the university administration was not ready. As a result, a situation arose, where the teachers do not always understand what to teach.
3. Among the administration, teachers and students is common the misunderstanding of globalisation paradigm as ‘Americanisation’ (Zajda, 2014, pp. 441-451), as the result a pro-Western changes are perceived as undesirable. The nepotism, mobility barriers, corruption and overall rigidity of the education system, which are feature for the system, are inherited from the Soviet era. As a result, a situation, in which teaching is provided, differ by its resistance of different elements within the system.

The Central Asian countries have been carried out the reforms of higher education systems, but also the process of reforming and modernizing met with resistance. For example, in Kyrgyzstan, even after the reform, the researchers still conclude too strong centralisation of higher education (Dukenbaev, 2004, pp. 16-18) that is a trend for the entire region.

There are a number of additional difficulties faced by the higher education system of Kazakhstan in attempts to modernise it: the lack of personal participation in the management system of higher education, the lack of legal and regulatory basis for the involvement of the individuals and communities to the management of the education system, ineffective cooperation between the state institutions and public regulatory institutions in determining the content of higher education (Khairullina et al., 2016, pp. 2711-2726).

In despite of the challenges, which have to meet the higher education system of Kazakhstan, the country has all the conditions for successful reform of the system. A number of reforms, which showed that hasty reforms would turn to be ineffective, have been already conducted. Respectively, there is a need in a detailed plan, taking into account the experience of the modernisation of the higher education systems of other countries. At the same time, the economic and intellectual revival of Kazakhstan's society, associated with the entry into the WTO in 2015 and with the accession to the Bologna Process, showed that integration into the global economic and cultural processes is impossible without a sufficient number of highly skilled and highly educated personnel.

Another unique feature makes the Kazakhstan Republic unique for reforms. Considering the multi-ethnic population, it is one of the few countries in the region, which have escaped the conflict expressed in the sphere of inter-ethnic and inter-confessional relations in the restructuring of the economic and political system of the state (Kaduraliyeva et al., 2014, pp. 912-915). The studies show that the identity of the population is based more on the civil than on the national ground (Assyltayeva et al., 2012, pp. 2103-2106). The civil identity helps to balance some particularly poignant moments associated with the frequent rejection of the population of Central Asia, the Western models of development and the market, as well as the educational standards that facilitate, among other things, the cross-cultural contacts.

Thus, the main point to improve the quality of higher education is the insertion of the additional training for teachers of higher educational institutions, as well as the pre-selection for the post of highly motivated professionals. The quality of higher education is conditioned by two factors: management and teaching. With regard to higher education management and administrative decisions, that has already taken a number of innovations in Kazakhstan, although, as it was previously shown, often the form is a substitute for the content. The quality of teaching in itself often cannot be controlled in view of stagnation and corruption of the university administration and government agencies. Accordingly, it can and must change ‘from the inside’, that is the affecting the teachers themselves. The teachers, who are confident in their professional competence and who wish to improve in this area will be interested in the process and result of teaching more than in the formal innovations and private competition.

3. Discussion

In increasing of the educational level of the population, the economic indicators of the country are also increasing, so the Government is interested in improving the quality of education, including higher education. Increasing of the quality of higher education is achieved in two ways of the interrelated transformations: the organisational changes and the increase of the level of teaching in higher educational establishments. The most effective way to achieve the latter objective is the insertion of the pedagogical training programs for teachers of higher educational institutions. This is because education that is providing educational skills contributes to the great achievements of students, than the education in a particular subject area. The effect of the additional teaching educators may not be direct, through the development of the specific techniques, but indirect, through the development of the teachers’ confidence and impact on educators' underlying concepts of teaching and learning.

Determination of the teacher’s qualification is a complex problem. Akiba, LeTendre, and Scribner (2007, pp. 369-387) based on the synthesis of many studies suggest four criteria for the qualification of school teachers of mathematics: full certification as a teacher, mathematics education, education in the sphere of mathematics teaching, 3 or more years of experience in the mathematics teaching. Their research shows that the qualification of the schoolteachers of mathematics in the United States, determined to these four criteria, is on the level of the world average, and the gap in the access to highly qualified teachers between the students from the low and high socio-economic status is one of the largest in the world. Different opportunity to learn with highly qualified teachers is typical for highly developed countries (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, Norway, Japan and others), and for the less economically developed countries (Chile, Jordan, Tunisia, Bulgaria and others). This study included an analysis of the data only of secondary education teachers of one specialty, but the trend is clear.

Thus, although, in the field of teaching educators ‘the compulsory training policy is a good one’ (Trowler, & Bamber, 2005, pp. 79-93), all the real implementation of the teaching educators is accompanied by a number of problems. The duration of the training should be at least 1 year, while in increasing of its duration the efficiency also rises. At the beginning of training the teachers are prone to lose confidence in themselves as the professionals, the participants should be warned about this effect; the duration of the training is also due to the need of eliminating of this effect, since the end of the tutorial teachers feel and behave more confidently. If the training is conducted for the former schoolteachers, who were invited to teach at the university, the emphasis should be placed not only on the development of pedagogical skills that are relevant to the audience of higher education, but also in the formation and maintenance of the research activity. If the training is conducted for an audience that was not originally motivated to develop in the field of teaching in contradistinction to the fields of researching, it is important to take into account this factor and do not expect a sharp improvement of pedagogical skills, due to the lack of the participant’s interest. Finally, any innovation comes up against the inertia of the complex structures, such as universities, respectively, the insertion of the teaching educators is not a fast or quick resulting process.

A number of additional difficulties in the insertion of the teaching educators is opened in developing countries. Firstly, they are characterised by lagging behind the developed countries in the process of the technologizing of higher education, and they often do not have the internal resources to rectify this situation. The implementation of the teaching educators programs designed for the certain level of ICTs usage, so in developing countries we need either to adapt the program under the local context, or initially to provide the universities by the technological, personnel and methodological support. Secondly, the developing countries in general have a tendency of gap between the formal indicators of the effectiveness of a particular innovation and the real conditions of affairs. While the government agencies and the university administration will not change the priorities, any reform of higher education will be made soon ‘on paper’ than it actually is, and it will not be possible to measure the effectiveness of innovations. Thirdly, in developing countries, the improvement of the higher education quality does not automatically increase its accessibility, what is a big problem. Fourthly, developing countries are hardly supported by any fundamental theoretical or innovative researches, while the preference is given to the proven and traditional directions; and the new methods and approaches in teaching are often unable to receive recognition and publicity. Fifthly, the university teachers in the majority are graduates of the same university, who did not realise himself in any other sphere or was promoted thanks to the patronage, but not the people, motivated to develop in the field of teaching. Therefore, the quality of the higher teaching remains low and the outdated approaches and programs are mainly used.

4. Conclusions

One way to improve the quality of higher education is the insertion of the pedagogical training for university teachers. A number of difficulties accompanies this insertion: the duration of the process, a temporary loss of confidence by the participants, the lack of teaching materials and qualified personnel to conduct training, the total inertia of the structures of the education system. In general, it promotes positive and stable changes in the style of the teaching educators and in the students' success.

The developing countries face the additional difficulties in the process of higher educational reforming. For example, the lack of technological support for the higher education system, the low availability of the quality education for the population, the emphasis on formal indicators and the race for the numerals to the detriment of the real content, the lack of the supporting tradition of the innovative research areas – the teachers are often not interested in professional development. While the state will not solve these common problems, more specific difficulties, encountered in the implementation of compulsory training of educators, will be insurmountable. The Government of developing countries should focus on the innovation in order to improve the quality of higher education.

Kazakhstan is a typical republic of the Central Asia, which is characterised by the features of developing countries. The state needs to reform and improve the efficiency of the education system, and this goal can be achieved through the insertion of training educators. Considering the experience of other countries and the socio-historical reasons in Kazakhstan, in particular, the emphasis on the civil basis of identity and the revival of economic life, the state has all the conditions for the implementation of the mature and effective reforms, aimed at improving the quality of higher education.

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1. Department of History of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kazakh National University by name of Al-Farabi, Almaty, Kazakhstan. E-mail: saltanat.rysbekova@mail.ru

2. Department of History of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Western Kazakh National University by name of M. Utemisova, Uralsk, Kazakhstan. E-mail: rysbekova.st@gmail.com

3. Department of History of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Western Kazakh Technical Innovational University, Uralsk, Kazakhstan. E-mail: ansar_2004@mail.ru