Paper short abstract:

The mid-1990s saw the emergence of a new model – the Triple Helix – that gained currency in various fields. The key idea of the model is that innovation growth of a knowledge society is by the cooperation of universities, governments and businesses. This paper seeks to critically analyze the model.

Paper long abstract:

The mid-1990s witnessed the emergence of a new model – the so-called Triple Helix – that soon gained currency across social sciences, public policy, industrial and education management (Jacob 2006). The major idea behind the model is that the innovation development of a knowledge-based society is largely driven by the close cooperation of universities, governments and businesses. Academia is no longer expected to play its traditional roles of “cultural memory, education and research” on their own (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff 1995) but instead should be more actively engaged in producing wealth for the public in cooperation with the industry, while the government should incentivize such activities.

Given its high popularity, this paper seeks to critically analyze the Triple Helix model applicability across nations and different contexts.

Paper short abstract:

This paper offers insights into the context specific perceptions of inclusive education and experiences of children with disabilities, their parents, NGOs of/for disabled people and other stakeholders in Kazakhstan.

Paper long abstract:

The paper will present the implementation of inclusive early childhood education in Kazakhstan. The review of early childhood education substantiated with the statistics of inclusive early childhood education of independent Kazakhstan demonstrates lack of awareness among the parents of children aged 0-6 about the significance of early childhood education and what inclusive education is. The literature review with regards to Kazakhstani inclusive education shows that the legislation is weak, the implementation of inclusive education is inconsistent which seems to be weakened with the limited human and financial resources, inefficient pre-service and in-service teacher training, and passive society and private sector toward inclusive education.

It is argued that the success of inclusive education depends on the contextual factors and how its philosophy and values embedded into domestic culture and values. The reason for underdeveloped inclusive early childhood education in Kazakhstan is also contextual and expounded by range of factors, including political, economic and social variables. Based on the analysis of secondary data and the legal framework of Kazakhstan, I argue that the gap in early childhood education in the ninety’s echoes in the present practice as the inefficient implementation of inclusive early childhood education. This paper, evidenced from the secondary data analyses, attempts to demonstrate that multi-layers barriers in the implementation of inclusive early childhood education in Kazakhstan with an emphasis on the generation barrier. Having this prominence in mind, I emphasise the need for policymakers to research the insights for a better adaptation of the international standards on inclusive education.

Paper short abstract:

After the collapse of the Soviet Union Kazakhstan has undergone education policy reforms related to school curriculum. This paper tries to understand how curriculum makers had to balance between the narratives of building "united education space" and "integration into world education space".

Paper long abstract:

This paper tries to comprehend the policy dilemmas, curriculum makers in Kazakhstan had faced, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Specifically, curriculum makers had to balance between the nation-building demands of an independent country and the prevailing personality-oriented discourse of the "glasnost" period, which placed child at the center of educational process. Gradually, new demands of building market-oriented society have brought to the front the "travelling" discourse of competency-based education, which suddenly changed the rationale of policy reform towards "integration into world education space". This paper traces these paths drawing on relevant policy documents, curriculum papers, interview data with key stakeholders.

Paper short abstract:

Gamification is known to be a proven method of managing business companies’ personnel performance and motivation. In modern Russia, this practice is now gaining popularity in universities and across academia.

Paper long abstract:

Gamification is known to be a proven method of managing business companies’ personnel performance and motivation. In modern Russia, this practice is now gaining popularity in universities and across academia. Despite criticism from the advocates of traditional methods of education, the scale and variety of gamification methods and means introduced are slowly incorporated into the curriculum even as obligatory teaching practices.

This paper presents the third and Final set of results of the experiment of introducing gamification practices to teaching International Politics and International Relations at the Faculty of World Politics of Moscow State University in 2016 – 2022 and its two international branches (campuses) in Yerevan, Armenia, and Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Gamification was applied as an additional method of teaching and evaluating (including mid-semester tests and course exams at the end of it) to both graduate and undergraduate students, studying such subjects as History of International Relations (2d year of BA studies), International Security (3d year of BA studies) and Peace Research (2n year of MA studies). Both Russian and English-language courses were included. The first and second sets of results were introduced at the 2020 Euro-TLC Event and ECPR General Conference 2020 and 2021.

In this paper, I introduce two blocs of methods and practices that were applied. First, I discuss how the semester exam was divided into 3 stages with a choice for students to take a full- or partial exam using a “take-home exam” method that is still not widely recognized in Russia, and the results of this experiment. Second, the paper discusses the application of a role-play “Royal Diplomacy: Justice Revisited” with an open-ended decision and some game theory practice that were applied for graduate students. Also, I highlight the major problems with student motivation, group performance successes and failures, and some psychological-cultural issues that were revealed as obstacles or accelerators during this study experiment.