Flexible Deadlines as Inclusive Reforms. The case of Kazakhstani High School

• In Event: Educational Improvement in Divided and Diverse Contexts: Institutional Frameworks, Equity, and Practice

Proposal

Kazakhstani post-Soviet education has been transitioning from a memory-based instructional approach towards a more inclusive one for some time. Although critical thinking is prioritized in the Kazakhstani education system, test-focused schooling prevails. Nazarbayev Intellectual School (NIS) - a school for gifted students, showcasing student-led inquiry through subject such as Cambridge’s Global Perspectives and Project Work (GPPW). Despite this implementation, the problems with self-regulation, procrastination, fairness, and deadline anxiety persist as the subject contains strict deadlines throughout the year. These challenges negatively affect different groups, such as students with attention/behavioral differences, high-achieving students, migrant students, and students from low socio-economic backgrounds. As an example, students with ADHD typically have difficulties with organization, resulting in poor marks, masking their true abilities, while high-achieving students suffer from perfectionism, leading to a negative perception of project work and academic setbacks. Additionally, two other groups: migrant students typically have inadequate support from different stakeholders, making deadlines even more stressful. In Kazakhstan and other post-Soviet countries, the majority of teachers consider inclusive education to be the work with hearing or visual impairments. However, the description of students falling within this category is broader, encompassing different types of students mentioned before. Therefore, there is a need to study new implementations of flexible deadlines in the context of inclusive education to ensure equity, fairness, and positive attitudes toward research projects. The study employs a mixed method to answer 5 research questions:
1. What are students’ perceptions of their socio-emotional and academic learning experience under an inflexible deadline?
Data collection: a survey measuring fairness, stress, procrastination, and self-regulation toward strict deadlines
Analysis: descriptive statistics
Findings: participants reported really high procrastination and stress, with fairness also being very low, along with poor self-regulation skills
Then, a flexible deadline was introduced, while students were asked to journalize this new addition. Precisely from this, the second research question follows:
2. Based on students’ diaries and assessment rubric, what are the challenges and benefits of a flexible deadline?
Data collection: assessment rubric for an assignment and reflective journals
Analysis: Thematic analysis
Findings: Students with ADHD thrived academically while reporting positive attitudes to the changes, whereas other groups received worse marks and reported even lower procrastination and self-regulation skills. Yet fairness was viewed positively by the majority of students
After decoding the diaries, it was decided that the implementation is not as effective as expected, and new changes are needed. Therefore, the researcher decided to conduct a focus group interview with GPPW teachers who have undertaken professional development at Cambridge and those holding advanced degrees in inclusive education. Therefore, the third question is:
3. Based on reflective journal findings, what modifications are necessary to design an effective deadline model?
Data collection: focus group semi-structured interviews with GPPW teachers and specialists in inclusive pedagogy
Analysis: Thematic analysis
Findings: Participants proposed improving the model by adding a token-based system in which each student will be allocated 2 extension tokens during one academic year. A token can be used once to extend a deadline. Therefore, students will be able to use extension twice, giving them limited flexibility, helping to balance accountability with autonomy
4. What are students’ perceptions of their socio-emotional and academic learning experience under a token-based deadline model?
Data collection: a survey measuring fairness, stress, procrastination, and self-regulation toward strict deadlines
Analysis: descriptive statistics
Findings: participants reported moderate stress levels, and procrastination was reduced since the participants used tokens strategically. The fairness stayed almost the same compared to the second RQ, where it was viewed positively. Lastly, time management has slightly improved since students were making conscious choices about when to use these extensions, planning ahead what they are capable of doing, and in what time frame.
5. How does students’ academic achievement change across three deadline models: strict deadline, fully flexible deadline, and token-based deadline?
Data collection: standardized project rubrics
Analysis: comparative analysis
Findings:
Strict deadlines: some students performed relatively ok, while some failed to submit an assignment
Fully flexible deadlines: ADHD students improved. However, punctuality and quality decreased in general
Token-based deadlines: more consistent quality, fewer missed deadlines, but each student submitted an assignment. Overall, achievement improved across every category.
To date, there are no studies focusing on flexible deadlines in Kazakhstan, especially at the high school level. In addition to that, only a few studies focused on how deadlines are intertwined with diverse inclusion categories. Furthermore, GPPW is a cross-curricular course that prepares students for a university. Therefore, it is crucial to prepare students to engage with research meaningfully. By exploring how an inclusive deadline policy affects learners’ experiences with research at the so-called entry level, this deadline system can better prepare students for higher education. What is more, international studies with a focus on higher education show that fully flexible deadlines are reported as beneficial, while this study shows opposite results. It shows that post-Soviet countries cannot just adapt the deadline policy because of different student needs, traditions, and local culture.

Author

• Ellina Knysheva, Nazarbayev Intellectual school of Science and Mathematics in Nauryzbay district of Almaty