EXPLORING GIFTED SCHOOL GRADUATES’ ADJUSTMENT TO UNIVERSITIES IN KAZAKHSTAN: FEATURES, FACTORS, AND IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

In 2009, Kazakhstan has started a project of 20 Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS) for gifted children which now operates in all regions of Kazakhstan with an aim to accelerate the development of the educational system and prepare an intellectual elite of the country. Since 2010, the graduates of these schools have been entering Kazakhstani higher educational institutions, but little is known about the university adjustment of these students. This mixed methods dissertation aimed to explore NIS school graduates’ adjustment to university life, as well as the personal and contextual factors influencing their adjustment. It also aimed to understand how the gifted students’ experiences vary across two top Kazakhstani universities with different characteristics: autonomous Nazarbayev University and Eurasian National University, both located in the capital city Astana. Based on prior research, university adjustment was conceptualized in this study as multi-faceted construct, which involves academic, social, personal-emotional dimensions and includes such dimension as institutional attachment. The study employed a mixed-methods explanatory sequential research design. A sample of 201 students participated in an online survey, while qualitative set of data was collected with the help of individual and focus group interviews. The study revealed that gifted NIS graduates in general adjusted well to the demands of university life, though some specific environmental institution-related and student-related factors were identified as influencing their adjustment to university. Also, a set of non-institutional environmental factors, such a pre-enrollment family/financial circumstances, influence of parents on students’ choices, high societal, familial and personal expectations, as well as students’ “gifted” characteristics, have considerably influenced their adjustment process. The study also revealed that students encountered a number of specific issues while adjusting to universities, such as negotiating their identities: an identity of an adult, an identity of a higher education student, and an identity of a gifted student. It was also revealed that NIS graduates experienced a “fear to fail” and “of not looking smart enough” in peers’ and professors’ eyes and a mismatch between their expectations and actual experiences at university. The study also identified that the students had different adjustment experiences in two types of universities. Finally, the study uncovered several important issues in higher education context of Kazakhstan that have become obvious through the prism of gifted students’ adjustment experiences at these different university contexts.