Position/Status
Kazakhstan Project Development Officer/Senior Research Associate
E-mail Address
eaw53@cam.ac.uk
Qualifications
- PhD (Leicester University)
- BSc (Leicester University)
- BSc (Manchester University)
Membership of Professional Bodies/Associations
- British Psychological Society (Chartered member CPsychol)
- British Educational Research Association (member)
Profile
Liz is a social psychologist concerned with social identity effects to explain under-representation of certain social groups in specified domains such as: women in technology and some social groups in Higher Education. Liz started her professional life with 10 years working in engineering by using and teaching mathematical modelling software for structural analysis purposes. Hence an interest in atypical careers for women and teaching conceptually challenging materials to practitioners has long standing and personal relevance. Liz applies both quantitative and qualitative methods and is happy to use either as fits purpose.
Liz joined the Faculty of Education in 2011 from the University of Leicester Institute of Lifelong Learning to initially coordinate and support the Masters' programme in Psychology and Education. When the request to develop a new Graduate School of Education (GSE) in Kazakhstan at the newly founded Nazarbayev University (NU) came to the faculty in 2012 Liz moved over to what is now called the Education Reform and Innovation (ERI) group. Here Liz worked with colleagues from UPenn in a three-way partnership with NU to achieve this ambition with the first students being admitted to NUGSE in 2014. Regular quality assurance and partnership exercises over the last decade have continued its development.
Since the initial work in Kazakhstan and the success of NUGSE ERI has taken on a variety of other international HE tasks and school-level research projects in response to requests from policymakers and universities elsewhere. Apart from continuing to work in Kazakhstan this has meant projects in Thailand Oman and Tajikistan for Liz. Throughout advancing and developing local research capacity has been a key part of the roles Liz has taken on. In Kazakhstan the shortcomings of the national assessment practices and a focus on students' perspectives in terms of wellbeing and school engagement have been particular areas of interest and direction. Consistent with a drive for equalising opportunities for all Liz has most recently been examining the new models of funding for Kazakhstani schools as they may impact on equity learning outcomes and school development.
Academic Area/Links
Academic research groups: Psychology Education and Learning Studies (PELS); Special Interest Group on young people's wellbeing and inclusion.
Research Topics
- Transitions of social cognition in adolescence.
- How social factors influence self-concept and performance of stereotyped tasks.
- Curriculum and assessment design in relation to National Qualifications Frameworks
- The implementation of systemic educational reform as it affects learning school engagement and the wellbeing of students and teachers
- Models of funding in terms of equity learning outcomes and school development
Current Research Projects
Kazakhstan Projects:
- Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education Project (NUGSE)
- Internationalisation and Education Reform in Kazakhstan Research Project (IERK)
Teaching
- Postgraduate
- Co-adviser for doctoral students at Nazarbayev University
- Co-supervisor for doctoral students at Faculty of Education
- Undergraduate
- None at present
Selected Publications
Forthcoming
Yakavets N. Winter L. Malone K. Zhontayeva Z. & Khamidulina Z. (under review). “We are learning together with our children”: teachers’ efforts to implement a curriculum reform in schools in Kazakhstan. Research Papers in Education.
Junlin Y. McLellan R. & Winter L. (under review). Which boys and which girls are falling behind? Linking adolescents' gender role profiles to motivation engagement and achievement Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
Ait Si Mhamed A. Winter L. Kanayeva G. Zhontayeva Z. & Abdimanapova L. (in preparation). From the system of norms toward school autonomy: introducing per-capita funding in Kazakhstan.
Most recent publications
Winter L. Hernández-Torrano D. McLellan R. Almukhambetova A. & Hajdukova-Brown E. (2020). A contextually adapted model of school engagement in Kazakhstan. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00758-5
Winter L. Makhmetova Z. & Kurakbayev K. (2020). Low-hanging fruit – flawed assessment and inaccurate textbooks as easy pickings in criticism of the renewed content of education (in Russian: низко висящие фрукты – легко критиковать недостатки в системе оценивания и ошибки в учебниках в контексте обновленного содержания образования) Bilim Education (білім – образование) 92(1) 2-26. Published in Kazakh and Russian by Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan I. Altynsarin National Academy of Education: Nur-Sultan Kazakhstan. ISSN 1607-2790. (also published online through KERA at https://kera.kz/storage/app/media/education-1-2020p6-25-7-26.pdf ).
Winter L. & Bridges D. (2019). Internationalisation Assessment and Parental Involvement: Educational Modernisation in Kazakhstan (2016—2019) NIS Information and Methodical Journal - Pedagogical Dialogue 30 (4) 13-25.
Winter L. Kambatyrova A. & Gungor D. (2017). Validation of a Scale to Assess Regional Variations in Attitudes Towards a Professional Development Programme to Learn the English Language for Teachers of Biology Chemistry Physics and Informatics Al-Farabi Kazakh National University Journal of Educational Sciences 4(53) 43-54.
Brown-Hajdukova E. B. Winter L. & McLellan R. (2017). Young people’s conceptualization of their wellbeing: culturally situated understandings in the context of Kazakhstan. Health 9 1542-1566. DOI: 10.4236/health.2017.911114.
Winter L. Rimini C. Soltanbekova A. & Tynybayeva M. (2014). “The Culture and Practice of Assessment in Kazakhstan: The Unified National Test Past and Present” in Educational Reform and Internationalisation: The Case of School Reform in Kazakhstan (pp. 106-132) Cambridge University Press Cambridge.
Winter L. Rimini C. Soltanbekova A. & Tynybayeva M. (2014). The Culture and Practice of Assessment in Kazakhstan: An Alternative Model and the Future” in Educational Reform and Internationalisation: The Case of School Reform in Kazakhstan (pp. 133-151) Cambridge University Press Cambridge.
Most recent conference presentations
Winter L. Yakavets N. Zhontayeva Z. Malone K. Makhmetova Z. & Khamidulina Z.
(2019 April). Changes in Purpose: Examining the Radical Transition from a Longstanding Norm-based Model of Classroom Assessment to a New Criteria-based System. Paper presented at CIES San Francisco.
Winter L. Yakavets N. & Kurakbayev K. (2018 September). Changes in Purpose: Examining the Radical Transition from a Longstanding Norm-based Model of Classroom Assessment to a New Criteria-based System. Paper presented at ECER Bolzano Italy.
Hajdukova E.B. Winter L. & McLellan R. (2017 May). Wellbeing in for and around school. Paper presented at The British Psychology Society Annual Conference Brighton United Kingdom.
Winter L. Hajdukova E.B & McLellan R. (2017 May). School engagement and wellbeing of secondary students in Kazakhstan: a mixed method study. Paper presented at The British Psychology Society Annual Conference Brighton United Kingdom.
Hajdukova E. B. Winter L. & McLellan R. (2017 April). Capturing and conceptualising young people's wellbeing using culturally sensitive tools. Paper presented at Public Mental Health event: Linking Cambridge researchers and policy and decision-makers Cambridge United Kingdom.
Hernández-Torrano D. Winter L. & McLellan R. (2016 October). Developing a holistic context-specific model to study young people's wellbeing in Kazakhstan. Paper presented at VII NIS International Research-to-Practice Conference Astana Kazakhstan.
McLellan R. Winter L. Torrano D. Hajdukova E.B. & Kurakbayev K. (2016 August). Mapping young people’s wellbeing in Kazakhstan. Paper presented at European Conference for Educational Research Dublin Ireland.
Winter L. McLellan R. & Torrano D. (2016 April). A model of wellbeing in the post-soviet context of Kazakhstan. Paper presented at British Psychology Society Annual Conference Nottingham United Kingdom.
Winter L. McLellan R. & Torrano D. (2016 March). From the UK to Kazakhstan: Understanding adapting and measuring school students' wellbeing and engagement in schools. Paper presented at Comparative and International Education Society Conference Vancouver Canada.