Abstract:

All areas of pedagogical activity in contemporary Kazakhstan are undergoing considerable changes. In the context of developing a “knowledge-based society” great attention is paid to educational reforms. New tasks set by the Head of the state in his Message to the People of Kazakhstan “Strategy: “Kazakhstan – 2050”: a new political course of the established state” require new approaches to guarantee high quality of education.

President of the state draws a special attention to enhancing the prestige of the teacher's profession and drafting a law “On the status of the teacher”. Training of teachers requires more attention to be paid to the development of critical thinking, leadership skills, functional literacy and criterion-based assessment of students’ achievements.

The role of philological science is increasing and a greater importance is attached to the issues of philological education updating, improving of the learning and methodological support of teaching language and literature, and continuity of educational strategies in the “kindergarten-school-university” system. Humanization of the society is one of the top-priority problems of the modern world.

The updated school curriculum requires improvement of the quality of language and literature textbooks and more advanced training of language teachers. The autonomous educational organization “Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools” together with the National Academy of Education named after Y. Altynsarin and teachers of secondary schools have developed a standard curriculum for grades 5–9 of regular schools. The program aims at developing a creative and aesthetically receptive reader capable of intelligent expressing of his/her thoughts in spoken and in written forms.

Basing on the standard curriculum there has been worked out an educational-methodological complex “Russian Literature” for the 8th grade of Kazakhstani regular secondary schools with Russian as the language of instruction (authors: Shashkina G.Z., Anischenko O.A., Shmeltser V.V.). The conception of the textbook, its content, structure and methods of presenting theoretical and practical material comply with the requirements of the System of the subject teaching objectives:
1. Comprehension and answering questions on the content;
2. Analysis and interpretation of the text;
3. Evaluation and comparative analysis. In accordance with these objectives, there have been worked out questions and tasks encouraging the formation of reading literacy that were grouped into several sections (“Towards text comprehension”, “Under a linguistic microscope”, “The mystery of plot and composition”, “At literary intersections”, etc.). The textbook presents strategies for critical thinking development: Venn diagram, essay, discussion chart, Bloom’s cube, RAFT, PRES formulas and other strategies that focus on cultivating students’ creative potential.

Philological education is the foundation of the spiritual development of the Kazakhstani multicultural society. The new strategy focuses on the consolidation of the Kazakhstani population and the development of cultural and historical heritage. Polylingual educational policy that is being implemented today in Kazakhstan implies parallel and simultaneous education in three languages. The implementation of the “Trinity of Languages” project, in the opinion of the Head of the state, will help Kazakhstani citizens achieve a new level of competitiveness inside and outside the country.

Keywords:

Updated content, philological education, “Trinity of Languages", school curriculum.