• A
  • A
  • A
  • ABC
  • ABC
  • ABC
  • А
  • А
  • А
  • А
  • А
Regular version of the site

‘The Biggest Priority in Education Is World Class Professional Development Programmes’

The report entitled ‘Twelve Solutions for New Education’, prepared by the Higher School of Economics and the Centre for Strategic Development, was presented at the XIX April International Academic Conference. Professors Martin Carnoy and Tomasso Agasisti, international experts on education and conference guests, have shared their views on the issues and initiatives highlighted in the report.

Мартин КАРНОЙ

Martin Carnoy, Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, USA, and Academic Supervisor of HSE International Laboratory for Education Policy Analysis

The idea of the report is to improve schooling in Russia. In fact, Russia already has a pretty good educational system. It’s a middle income country but in terms of educational system it’s quite well-developed – it has one of the highest percentages of people going to tertiary education. The main problem in the country is not education, it’s the productivity. Russian kids score on international tests as well or better than kids in the US but the productivity in the US is much higher than in Russia. It is all down to capital – what kind of jobs people have, how well the enterprises are run, how competitive they are on a global scale. The educational system was organized in the Soviet times for a very different type of a production system. It belongs to a completely different era, an industrial era. We are now in post-industrial era, even in Russia, and the labour market is much more flexible, so the whole system needs to change. Vocational skills in this economic world depreciate very quickly. However, there are certain high-growth areas which require people with technical skills and it is necessary to identify those areas. Generally, I believe that it is necessary to give people the highest level of academic education they can have.

The people that should be rewarded the most are the people that take high-cost kids and produce great things with them. You should look at the gains, not the ultimate score on a state exam

I would say that biggest priority in education is to produce world class professional development programmes for existing teachers and the report talks about that. In Russia most of the teachers are pretty good in terms of their content knowledge but they are not very good teachers. Nobody really taught them the new modern methods of engagement and teaching of kids. Such training does not come cheap. It means training teachers twice a week for a year on how to teach their subject so that all the kids in a class learn it. The report stresses the importance of increasing funding for education and I would add that it should mostly be spent on world-class professional development.

Digital content is a complement to good teaching and it can’t be a substitute for bad teaching

The results of our recent study suggest that only few Russian schools are interested in having everyone increase their achievement. There is a lot of inefficiency among low social class students. I think it is necessary to be concerned for those 20 to 30% of low social economic class kids who are quite smart and can go to a good university but do not get this chance. It’s true about other countries as well, but in Russia the big problem is that they are thrown out at the end of ninth grade which is too early to decide a kid’s future. The trouble is that nobody takes into account whether the kids are high-cost kids, or low-cost kids. Low-cost kids are already high-scoring kids, so most schools would like to work with them because they show good results. However, that's not what should be rewarded. The people that should be rewarded the most are the people that take high-cost kids and produce great things with them. You should look at the gains, not the ultimate score on a state exam.

Learning is not a game. The more it is like a game, the less you actually learn. You can teach particular skills very well online in short periods of time, but abstract conceptual thinking, or methodology are very hard to teach online

As for the digitalization, digital content is actually one of the most expensive things that can be done in a school because learning how to really use digital content requires a lot of time and effort. If the goal is to save money by introducing digital content, the results will be poor. It is important to realize that 90% of the cost of digitalization is training the teachers to work in a new way. There is a lot of data that shows that simply replacing teachers with computers does not work. Digital content is a complement to good teaching and it can’t be a substitute for bad teaching. It is claimed that ultimately the IA will be interacting and feeding back. However, even IA requires the kids to sit in front of their computer, which is not easy, even given that the computer will be less judgmental than a teacher. Kids do sit in front of computers and play games for hours, but learning is not a game. The more it is like a game, the less you actually learn. You can teach particular skills very well online in short periods of time, but abstract conceptual thinking, or methodology are very hard to teach online. It's a lot cheaper to teach a teacher to be engaging, than to get kids to like online courses.

The one place where it is absolutely necessary to introduce digital, is the management of education. There is a lot of data available on kids’ performance at school and this data can be analyzed in order to help schools individualize instruction, or even class-wise to help teachers do much better in terms of optimizing every kid's performance. Russia doesn't gather much information about the kids and that is what should be done. There should be designated supervisors who work with the teachers to help them increase their performance and who inform parents of what is going on with their children – what they are learning or not learning.


Tommaso Agasisti, Professor at Politechico di Milano, Italy

In my view, the very first priority is investing in pre-schooling. Education equality is another priority. I think that the gap that exists in Russia between advantaged and disadvantaged families is a big topic. The question is, what can we do to close the gap? Also, the potential for technology to be used in education is another priority – investing in technology is probably the most cost-effective way of improving the quality of education.

The very first priority is investing in pre-schooling. Education equality is another priority. I think that the gap that exists in Russia between advantaged and disadvantaged families is a big topic

With regard to vocational education, investment should be about fostering the entrepreneurship of the individuals and empowering them to stimulate their own economic development and future with the skills they have gained. I don’t see the investment in technology as a means in itself, rather I see it as a way to give people the tools they need, once having left a formal education environment, to continue their own educational paths. The government needs to understand how to train people to use technology as best they can, both in consuming and using the content.

The question of increased spending in education in order to improve education results is a complicated one. On the one hand, I am very aware that there are some students who can advance quickly but the system forces them to slow down. There should be increased spending in order to provide them with the tools they need to move forward. This is because they will be more productive and engaged and thereby create opportunities for the others.

The definition of ‘high achiever’ sometimes doesn’t take into account that most of the high achievers, all over the world, come from advantaged families. This is not because they are smarter or cleverer, but it’s because they had better opportunities. I have a line of research that studies students that we refer to as ‘resilience students’, that is, those from poor backgrounds who are able to make good grades. Investing in these students will most certainly pay off. However, without making this distinction, I see the risk that more resources will be diverted from poorer students to those who are already advantaged. It’s therefore important to define the talented students in order to decide where the resources should go.

Investments in teacher quality tend to have short-term results because teachers are able to better provide content and better interact with the students. Digitalization can also have some immediate results if used in a good way

Looking to other countries in order to establish a benchmark for Russia is not straightforward. I’m sceptical about picking countries and applying their solutions to completely different contexts. I usually look at different groups of countries as having various interesting approaches which others can learn from. It’s important to remember that Russia is so big and diverse internally. I really don’t believe that there is a ‘one size fits all’ solution.

In my opinion, the degree of centralization in education depends on three things.

The first is the extent to which regional governments are able to understand and capture the real needs of the citizens in that particular community. If we assume that there are heterogenous preferences across communities, then it is a good thing to decentralize. The second point, however, concerns the capacity of the local governments. The risk is that you give the regional governments some duties and responsibilities and they don’t possess the good managers to implement them. The third consideration is the extent to which the country wants to create equal opportunities for all. Given that the social characteristics of the territory tend to exert a significant impact on the educational outcomes, if you simply decentralize and don’t equilibrate the opportunities across the areas, then it will just result in growing gaps.

Tangible results of education initiatives are achieved at different rates in different areas. Investments in teacher quality tend to have short-term results because teachers are able to better provide content and better interact with the students. Digitalization can also have some immediate results if used in a good way. If the courses are designed well, this can be very beneficial for the students. The third aspect is the engagement of universities with the local territory. This can create immediate good results in terms of interaction with local governments and firms.

Regarding the involvement of universities, Russia is a huge system where there are hundreds of different tertiary institutions and so the idea of differentiating them is a good one. The Russian government has defined a pool of high class universities and provides them with financial resources to do basic research with a long-term goal of becoming more relevant in the international context. These institutions then provide the others with the tools to be more engaged locally, which is also an important mission for universities. This is clearly a great policy.

 

See also:

'You Find Yourself Thinking about Your Research 24/7'

Daria Gracheva, expert at the Institute of Education, turned to science in pursuit of methods to discern between a poorly constructed test and a well-designed one. In this interview with the HSE Young Scientists project, she discusses the '4K test,' which is intended to measure critical thinking and communication skills, shares insights on the model named after Georg Rasch, and explains how setting up an aquarium for a crab can help assess soft skills.

HSE University-St Petersburg Represents Russia at International Conference in Australia

The delegation of HSE University-St Petersburg participated in the largest educational forum-exhibition of the Asia-Pacific Association for International Education 'APAIE 2024'. The 20th anniversary conference was held in the Australian city of Perth.

Inverse Relationship Found between Propensity to Innovate and Academic Success

Mariia Evdokimova and Anastasia Stepanova, employees of HSE University’s Faculty of Economic Sciences, studied the connection between students’ personal characteristics and their desire to create something new. The researchers have found that students’ propensity to innovate lowers their GPA. The results of the work were published in the preprint ‘Students’ Propensity to Innovate: Correlates, Determinants, and Impact on GPA.’

Social Connections Help Women Achieve Academic Success

Social integration has different effects on the academic achievement of women and men. Researchers from HSE University’s Institute of Education studied the connections between academic performance and social integration among 4,500 young Russians. It turned out that this connection is much stronger than it might seem at first glance, and that it is more important for women. The results of the work were published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

25th Yasin (April) International Academic Conference Now Accepting Proposals

Reports on new research results will be presented and discussed as part of the conference’s sections. These reports will be selected based on reviews of proposals. As always, the conference programme features expert discussions of the most pressing economic, social, internal and external issues in the format of roundtables and associated events.

A University's Special Status Is Correlated with a Substantial Increase in Salaries for Graduates

A university education is a highly sought-after commodity in Russia, yet the quality of universities and their programmes varies significantly. This gives rise to risks of inequality, both in the realm of education and in the labour market, and subsequently impacts the returns on higher education, which are manifested in the salaries earned by graduates. According to a study by Ilya Prakhov, Assistant Professor of the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences, graduates from Russia’s top-tier universities enjoy a distinct advantage. The paper has been published in the International Journal of Educational Development.

HSE University and Moscow Planetarium Sign Cooperation Agreement

The parties will work to popularise science and conduct educational and research activities, including in the fields of astronomy, cosmonautics, and Earth science. The agreement also covers the implementation of joint practical programmes and internships for students.

HSE University and Agency for Strategic Initiatives Sign Cooperation Agreement

HSE University and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) have agreed to cooperate in the development of new technologies, the digital transformation of the economy, and the social development of the country. The agreement was signed by HSE University Rector Nikita Anisimov and ASI Director General Svetlana Chupsheva at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Academic Council: HSE University’s Contribution to Achieving National Goals and Development Priorities to Increase

HSE University’s Development Programme until 2030 will be improved in order to increase the university’s contribution to achieving national goals and implementing the priorities of the country’s scientific and technological development. This decision was made by the university’s Academic Council on April 26. The meeting also addressed the principles for the development of HSE University’s external communications, one of which is the creation of a high-quality information field around the university.

Keeping Up with the Neighbours: Envy as a Driver of Economic Growth

Classical economic theory assumes that economic agents are entirely self-interested and rational in their pursuit of material well-being, and that they are not affected by external factors. As a result, externalities are not considered in any way when constructing economic models. Nevertheless, some sociologists argue for a revision of modern economic theory to incorporate the ethical dimensions of economic agents' behaviour. Kirill Borissov, Professor of the Faculty of Economics at the European University in St Petersburg, spoke at the XXIV Yasin (April) International Academic Conference and shared his observations from creating his own economic model incorporating the factor of envy.