Center of Excellence of the AEO “Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools” (CoE) was established on June 15, 2011. There are 15 branches in all regions of the country.

Mission: to use the best home and world experience, human and methodological resources to organize the continuous professional growth of teachers in order to improve the education system of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Vision: to be the leading organization on matters of teachers’ professional growth and actively promote educational services in the international market.

The main directions of activity of the Center of Excellence:

-       development of educational programs for in-service training of teachers of the system of preschool, secondary, secondary specialized and higher education; 

-       trainers learning in implementing the in-service training programmes;

-       training of teachers of the Republic of Kazakhstan;

-       post-course methodical support of teachers;

-       research activities and monitoring studies of teachers' professional development;

-       publishing.

Achievements of the Center of Excellence

CoE has an innovative portfolio of educational programmes and projects developed in line with global experience, international best practice and the needs of the Kazakhstani school. For the first time in the system of professional development of teachers in Kazakhstan, 11 in-service training programmes of  CoE have successfully passed unconditional certification in Accreditation, Certification and Quality Assurance Institute ACQUIN (Germany).

The development of all professional development programmes is always preceded by a pre-course monitoring study, the results of which define the scientific basis for the content of these programmes, goals, objectives and expected results. The alignment of the content of educational programmes with the real needs of teachers allows further monitoring and managing the quality of the ongoing changes in teachers' professional activities and predicting their professional development.

In-service training courses take place in several directions: 

     -  developing the subject competences of teachers; 

     -  development of teachers' meta-subject competences; 

     -  education and student well-being

     -  management and leadership;

     -  pre-school education.

One of the most striking achievements of  CoE at the international level is its participation in the UNESCO-Hamdan 2020 competition. Among 190 organisations from around the world working to improve teaching, the international jury placed CoE in the world's Top 10 for outstanding practices and achievements in enhancing teacher effectiveness.

The international jury's recognition of  CoE academic excellence and valuable experience in the professional development of teachers has become a credible tool for international trust. As part of  cooperation with the European Union project "Support to the Education System in Turkmenistan", CoE developed and implemented 9 professional development programmes for teachers in schools and colleges in Ashgabat and the provinces of Turkmenistan, staff at in-service training centers and the National Institute of Education of Turkmenistan. CoE also conducted professional development courses for teachers of general education schools in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug - Yugra (RF) and teachers of the "Bilimkana" school network (Kyrgyzstan), as well as a seminar for representatives of the Presidential Schools Network in Uzbekistan and the Ministry of Science and Education of Azerbaijan.

Since 2015 CoE  has been an official member of the Expert Council of WALS, the World Association of  Lesson Studies (headquartered at the Hong Kong Institute of Education www.walsnet.org). As part of its membership in WALS, the trainers of CoE participate in international research with leading Japanese expert scientists, actively present Kazakhstani experience at international WALS conferences, and implement the "Lesson Study Kazakhstan" project in the country's schools. CoE experience was presented at the Expert Council meeting in Beijing (2018), separate conference symposia in Amsterdam (2019) and Kuala Lumpur (2022).

The results of the  CoE were honored of Golden Medals in International Book Exhibitions in Frankfurt-am-Maine (Germany), New-York (USA), Moscow (Russia). More than 20 research papers of CoE staff have appeared in peer-reviewed international journals.

 For the first time CoE journal “Pedagogical dialogue” participated in the 5th Eurasian International Book Fair and won an honorary 2nd place in the "Science and Innovation" category for the "Values, and the School Culture" edition and 3rd place in the "Best Educational Book" nomination.

Post-course support for teachers is an important area of CoE activity. The interaction between the trainer and the trainees in the post-course period is based on the Trainer-Trainee Communication Matrix, which is an obligatory element of the professional development programme and is filled in by the group on the last day of the course. During one year, trainers observe trainees' lessons and provide constructive feedback, conduct surveys and interviews, organise individual and group consultations, analyse the results of teacher's achievements and certification, conduct support seminars and webinars on identified difficulties. The results of post-course monitoring and post-course activities are recorded in the teacher's personal account on the platform sdo.cpm.kz.

The trainers also provide systematic methodological work to teachers in two areas:

1.     Through a network of leading schools, which are structured cross-school communities that cascade best practice in teaching and school management to the teams of attached partner schools. Teachers in the leading and partner schools, working in collaboration, gain new experiences, skills that influence changes in school practice.  The number of leading schools increases every year by identifying new schools that are ready to work in partnership with other schools in the region.

2.     Through a pool of school trainers trained by the CoE  to bring the professional development system closer to the school and to provide timely methodological support to teachers. School trainers are an intra-school methodological asset that organises the professional development of colleagues on a peer-to-peer basis in several areas: teaching and learning methods and technologies, research on own practice, development of assessment tasks, development of teachers' analytical competences.

CoE electronic resources:

1)    www.cpm.kz official website of CoE 

2)    https://www.facebook.com/cpm.official.page, https://www.instagram.com/cpm_official_page/ official pages of CoE in social networks

3)    www.sdo.cpm.kz portal for conducting in-service training courses

4)    www.online.cpm.kz portal for teachers professional development

5)    www.lessonstudy.kz website for supporting teachers, conducting :esson Study

6) «Shamshyrak» https://www.facebook.com/ShamshyraqNIS и «Mektep treneri» https://www.facebook.com/groups/969120163915342 online social networking platforms for professional communities of teachers