IN SEARCH OF AUTHENTIC LEARNING IN KAZAKHSTAN

The foreign faculty in Kazakhstan faced the challenge of designing a total authentic learning curricula for undergraduate students used to a traditional approach to learning. Students were asked to submit reflective learning journeys at the end of the spring 2011 semester. This study uses their stories as a springboard to explore their perspective of authentic learning. The case study was confined to data gathered from one class, which revealed that those students who remained in the course wanted to be challenged by authentic learning. To them, authentic learning was both a force driving their evolution from passive to active learners and a means for solving the real-world problems with a community of co-learners. Authentic learning is an agent of change that is worth contemplating. Its design can apply to the multiple life-spaces of a single student and other disciplines.