Erik De Corte - Professor Emeritus, Center for Instructional Psychology and Technology (CIP&T), University of Leuven, Belgium. Address: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Oude Markt, 13, Bus 5005 3000 Leuven, Belgium. E-mail: Erik.DeCorte@ppw.kuleuven.be

The current perspective on our society as a learning society implies that education must focus more than has been traditionally the case on fostering in students adaptive competence, i. e. the ability to apply meaningfully learned knowledge and skills flexibly in a variety of contexts. Based on the available research this article first discusses the question: What should students learn to acquire adaptive competence in a domain? It is argued that developing adaptive competence requires the acquisition of several cognitive, affective, and motivational components, namely a well-elaborated domain-specific knowledge base, heuristic methods, metaknowledge of one’s cognitive functioning, motivation and emotions, self-regulation skills for regulating one’s cognitive, motivational and emotional processes, and positive beliefs about oneself as a learner and about learning in different domains. Next the questions is addressed: What are characteristics of productive learning processes for acquiring adaptive  competence? In this respect the view of learning is presented as an Constructive, Self-regulated, Situated, and Collaborative (CSSC) process of knowledge and skill building. From a teaching perspective this leads to the question: How can such CSSC learning processes be stimulated through instructional intervention? An illustrative powerful learning environment for improving learning proficiency in beginning university students is presented.

Andrei Belov - Doctor of Science, Professor, Fukui Prefectural University, Japan. Address: Japan, 910–1195, Fukui, Eiheiji-Town, Matsuoka, Kenjojima 4-1-1. E-mail: abelov@fpu.ac.jp

Alexander Zolotov - Doctor of Science, Professor, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod. Address: 23, Gagarin str., Nizhni Novgorod, 603950, Russian Federation. E-mail: avzolotov2@gmail.com

Reduction of available financial resources, increased social differentiation of society, and drop in students in 1990–2000s gave an impulse to structural reorganization of Japanese universities. Reforms affected coverage of higher education, as well as cost and quality of university education. As state financing was being reduced, the problem of preserving the achieved opportunities of university education was solved through restructuring higher education and expanding its private sector. The state concentrated resources in a small number of selected universities, denying both strict regulation and broad support to the bulk of private educational institutions. The consumer was made responsible for comparing themselves the cost and quality of provided education and for selecting a suitable university, while the state restricted its function to disclosing information about university activities and to eliminating asymmetry of such information. Concentration of resources in a small number of educational institutions, along with overall resource reduction, resulted rather in increased differentiation between the groups of universities than in a higher average level of education in the country. A situation close to a market failure was created, and the state had to intervene in order to build vertical relations and inter-university cooperation. The search for the best possible combination of cost, quality, and social characteristics of university education in Japan is by far not over. However, the experience accumulated and the lessons of implemented reforms may be of interest for many countries including Russia.

Alexander Pronin - Senior Teacher, Faculty of Management, National Research University — Higher School of Economics (Saint Petersburg). E-mail: aspronin@hse.ru

Elena Veretennik - Ph.D. Student, Teacher, Faculty of Management, National Research University — Higher School of Economics (Saint Petersburg). E-mail: veretennik@hse.ru

Alexander Semyonov - Independent Researcher. E-mail: semenoffalex@gmail.com

Address: 17, Promyshlennaya str., Saint Petersburg, 198099, Russian Federation.

2nd Place in a Competition of Young Scientistsʼ Research Papers of 2013.

We have developed and tested a way to reorganize student groups using the Social Network Analysis (SNA) methodology. The problem defined by the administrators of the Faculty of Management at the National Research University — Higher School of Economics (Saint Petersburg) consisted in reorganizing four existing groups of second-year Bachelor’s students into three new groups. The fundamental requirement was to keep the friendly and collaborative relationships that had developed between students. Technical requirements included ensuring equal sizes of the new groups (26 students) and equivalent levels of academic performance (measured by the average semester grade). We present a solution algorithm which is based on SNA tools and includes two possible strategies for groups with different interaction patterns: 1) the “weak link” strategy (selecting the most fragmented student group that can be easily divided into loosely connected subgroups, breaking it down and distributing the clusters among the other three groups); and 2) the “melting pot” strategy (reorganizing all the four groups into entirely new clusters based on the degree of student interaction). A comparison of performance ranking scores achieved during the following 18 months revealed a growth of the average grade in groups reorganized with regard to interpersonal assessment and interaction. The suggested grouping method may be used to rearrange student groups or courses in situations where some students get dismissed or transferred, or with a view to create project teams for research classes or scientific labs.

Ilya Prakhov - Ph.D. in Economics, Research Fellow, Center for Institutional Studies, National Research University — Higher School of Economics. Address: 20, Myasnitskaya str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation. E-mail: ipra@inbox.ru

3rd Place in a Competition of Young Scientistsʼ Research Papers of 2013.

Despite the introduction of the Unified State Examination (the USE) as a new admission requirement, Russian households keep investing in preparation courses, while students spend their time on tutorials. To assess how time and money investments in preparation courses affect the USE scores, we systematized results of  empirical studies on the issue, analyzed the main forms of preparation courses in Russia and built a model of learning strategies followed by applicants that allows to evaluate return on investment in extra training in terms of the growth of the final USE scores. It was established that in new institutional admission conditions  students use the same conventional forms of preparation to exams as before, although they had been expected to resort less to extra training after unification of the examination system. We conducted a poll among first-year students and their parents, altogether including 1,600 households in the 16 largest cities of Russia.  Estimation of the modified academic performance function revealed a positive relationship between investment of money and time in preparation courses, on the one part, and results of the exam, on the other part, although the return on such investment turned out to be rather low. On the one hand, it means that USE results come from efforts applied by candidates; on the other hand, it means that students who take preparation courses may win in terms of the final results, which may bring about inequality in access to higher education. In a number of cases, the effects of school and of academic performance are more powerful than those of preparation courses. The paper formulates topics for further research: comparison of return on investment to preparation courses for students in localities with essentially different markets and tutorial opportunities (cities and towns, satellite towns, villages), analysis of learning strategies followed by students with  different motivation in their choice of university, i. e. willing to earn the minimum passing score or aspiring to get high scores in order to qualify for a top-ranked university.

Alisa Melikyan - M. Sc., Senior Teacher, Chair of Software Systems Architecture, National Research University — Higher School of Economics. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation. E-mail: amelikyan@hse.ru

We present results of a study of 27 existing international university networks created in different years and comprising 1,119 member organizations from 117 countries. We have analyzed information both posted on their official websites and publicly available online, as well as annual reports on activities of international university networks, their strategic development plans, texts of partnership agreements, interviews with representatives of network partners and coordinators. We have identified and described the key features of international university networks as a form of inter-university partnership: pre-requisites for establishment, geographical location of partners, types of partner organizations, status of partners, entry barriers for new partners, specialization profiles, financing of activities, management of activities, forms of partner cooperation. We have also analyzed engagement of higher education institutions of different countries in the international university networks, particularly membership of the leading Russian universities in such networks and in other international educational associations. It appears that Russian universities are represented insufficiently in the international university networks. Accession is a challenging task that will require universities to apply considerable efforts, both organizational (overcoming entry barriers, negotiating with networks managers and partners, ensuring a certain level of openness in activities of the university, meeting the network requirements, performing the tasks assigned to network members on time) and financial (entry and annual fees, business traveling). Collaboration with foreign universities through network interaction will promote internationalization and quicker innovation of Russian universities, as well as learning of new working techniques and accumulation of resources and knowledge.

Elena Avraamova - Doctor of Science in Economics, Professor, Head, Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Address: 11, Prechistenskaya nab., 119034, Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: eavraamova@yandex.ru

Tatyana Klyachko - Doctor of Science in Economics, Professor, CEO, Center for Continuing Education Economics, Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Address: 82, Vernadskogo pr., 119571, Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: tlk@ranepa.ru

Dmitry Loginov - Candidate of Science in Economics, Senior Researcher, Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Address: 11, Prechistenskaya nab., 119034, Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: dmitrloginov@gmail.com

In order to discover how parents of school students evaluate the state of things at school and what their expectations are in the light of the pay rise for teachers, in May and June of 2013 the Center for Continuing Education Economics under the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration questioned 3,300 parents (legal representatives) of school students in three regions of Russia: Sverdlovsk Oblast, Voronezh Oblast and Ivanovo Oblast, i. e. in a donor region, in a region with average social and economic indicators, and in a heavily subsidized region. The monitoring has been continued for the year 2014. Based on the data obtained, we have analyzed parental demands towards school education, degree of parents’ satisfaction, sufficiency of school education to pass the State Final Examination (SFE) and the Unified State Exam (USE), parents’ perception of the efficiency of school education in the context of the teacher pay rise. No essential difference was revealed between parental perceptions of the state of things at school in different regions, despite the significant gap between the living standards. Parental demands towards school are restricted to three core objectives: give children knowledge required for grown-up life and work; provide socialization (discipline, rules of behavior, getting into the habit of working, development of communication skills, etc.); inculcate interest to sports and productive hobbies. Parents believe that strong specialized schools are more productive in performing those functions. Thus, we conclude that teacher pay rise has not yet been helping reduce differentiation between schools by quality of education. Despite a rather high level of overall satisfaction with school education, parents tend to believe that their children won’t succeed in getting high SFE and USE scores with no test preparation courses. Almost one third of parents think that teacher pay rise could influence quality of education significantly (31.4%), while 40.3% feel changes would be inconsiderable. An overwhelming majority of parents count school teachers as middle class, which means that Russian teachers are no more perceived by parents and, hence, by students as economically unsuccessful, as it used to be in the early 2000s. 

Yana Kozmina - Junior Researcher, Center for Institutional Studies, National Research University—Higher School of Economics. Address: 20, Myasnitskaya str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation. E-mail: ikozmina@hse.ru

3rd Place in a Competition of Young Scientistsʼ Research Papers of 2013.

This paper aims to analyze preferences of academic teaching staff of Russian universities about research and teaching, as well as structure of their working hours, academic research performance, and related differences between universities with or without special status, based on the results of two international studies that embraced Russia: International Academic P rofession (1991–1993) and Changing Academic Profession (2007–2012). In Russia, most professors prefer teaching over academic research, unlike in many other countries, distribution of preferences being the same for teachers at “national research universities” and higher education institutions with no special status. Professors who prefer academic research over teaching acquire research skills as they study and then apply efforts to get  inancing for their research, working more hours weekly than their teaching colleagues (average 42 vs. 38 hours per week respectively). Although faculty staff who prefer research over teaching have a higher workload and solve less routine problems in their work, they suffer much less stress and are much more satisfied with what they are doing. The conclusion thus is that distribution of professor preferences reflects peculiarities of the higher education system in the USSR and the Russian Federation, such as: focus on teaching, dissociation between science and universities, poor financing of universities as such and particularly of their academic research.

Antonina Leutina - Candidate of Science, Doctor of Science Student at Moscow State University of Culture and Arts. Address: 7, Bibliotechnaya str., Khimki, 141406, Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: tonya999@list.ru

The paper is based on a content analysis of one hundred randomly sampled articles on theory and practice of upbringing published in science education journals and collections from 2006 to 2013. In the analysis, frequencies and correlation dependences were singled out. The results obtained allow to say that the modern paradigm of socialization is centered around the past, the traditions, customs, and stability. The process of socialization is supposed to be natural, non-technological and non-projectable. The key problem of socialization is deviation from social norms. Socialization is primarily associated with adaptation mechanisms of personality development and is not connected to processes of autonomation or individualization. The analyzed texts do not touch upon socialization of children with high levels of creativity. Thus, the contemporary theory of pedagogy is dominated by the adaptation paradigm of socialization. This paradigm is widespread in theoretical pedagogy destined to foresee social and economic changes, which fails to meet the requirements of society in terms of bringing up large groups of people with high levels of creativity.

Valeriya Ivaniushina - Candidate of Science, Leading Researcher, Sociology of Education and Science Laboratory, National Research University — Higher School of Economics (St. Petersburg). E-mail: ivaniushina@hse.ru

Daniil Alexandrov - Candidate of Science, Deputy CEO, National Research University — Higher School of Economics (St. Petersburg); Head, Sociology of Education and Science Laboratory. E-mail: dalexandrov@hse.ru

Address: 16, Soyuza Pechatnikov str., Saint Petersburg, 190008, Russian Federation.

The paper presents results of a large-scale research on the scope of services in extracurricular and extra-school education and on assessment of the potential role of education beyond the classroom and informal education in solving children socialization issues. The research was carried out through questioning students as consumers of education services. A new instrument was developed and tested to allow for a detailed description of various aspects of extracurricular activities and their correlation with studies and social and psychological characteristics of students. An extensive statistic material (over 6,000 questionnaires filled out by students from several regions of Russia) was used to analyze the degree of engagement in out-of-class activities among children of different age; the activities that are more popular for specific age groups; the age range when children are most engaged in such activities; the reasons for non-participation in extracurricular activities; the infrastructure of education beyond the classroom; the relative frequency of structured and non-structured classes; the correlation between out-of-class activities and development of self-esteem, feeling of community, and satisfaction. Age- and gender-related profiles of various classes are described. It appears that structured extracurricular activities, unlike unstructured ones, correlate with higher self-esteem (both overall and academic), stronger sense of belonging, and better satisfaction with school.

Efim Kogan - Doctor of Science, Professor, Director of Research and Development, Privolzhsky Branch of the Federal Institute of Education Development. E-mail: efkogan@yandex.ru

Tatyana Kuteynitsyna - Candidate of Science, Leading Researcher, Privolzhsky Branch of the Federal Institute of Education Development. E-mail: kuteinit@mail.ru

Viktoriya Prudnikova - Candidate of Science, Associate Professor, CEO, Privolzhsky Branch of the Federal Institute of Education Development. E-mail: PrudnikovAVA@yandex.ru

Address: 37, Maslennikova pr., Samara, 443056, Russian Federation.

A multi-aspect study was conducted to analyze the place and role of general education schools implementing advanced-level programs in the regional education system. The focus on this problem is dictated by the changes introduced by the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation”: the new revision excludes the type of schools, such as lyceums, gymnasiums and schools with advanced study of specific subjects, from the typology of educational institutions. The paper consists of two parts. The first part investigates the actual level of education services offered by advanced-level schools under conditions where this type of learning is not regulated by the normative standards. The second part describes development of a regional model to control advanced-level general education programs designed to motivate students to learn professions that are essential for the region. We analyzed charters, development programs, public reports, curricula and learning programs of advanced-level  educational institutions. Principals of advanced-level schools were interviewed on activities of educational institutions. It appears that when no federal or regional normative standards regulate activities of educational institutions qualifying for the ‘advanced level,’ principals use their own ideas to set goals, to create an above-limit offer of learning programs and curricula, to develop motives for the advanced-level status of educational institutions and criteria of learning program performance assessment. The paper describes the principles for organization of the regional model to implement  dvanced-level general education programs, as well as the general plan for allocation and implementation of advanced-level general education programs, and the system to control formulation and fulfillment of the State objective of advanced-level general education programs implementation.

Joanna Schiller-Walicka - Professor, Institute for the History of Science, Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw). Address: al. Solidarności 105, Warszawa, Polska. E-mail: j.schiller@onet.eu

Some widespread beliefs about school and instruction in Poland need to be reexamined. It would be an unreasonable simplification to believe that the educational system of Poland was exposed to russification throughout the whole 19th century. In reality, the educational policy of the Kingdom of Poland was not unchangeable, and the school system was different in different periods. Russification
is understood as making non-Russian communities adopt the Russian language, culture and Orthodoxy, including administrative initiatives to make non-Russians give up their national identity in favor of the Russian one. The educational system in the country, if judged by the language of teaching and by the ethnic composition of the teaching staff, was absolutely Polish in January 1863, just before the January Uprising. It was only in the 1870s that the russification began. It would even be more appropriate to talk about multiple russifications, their consequences differing in intensity and duration; meanwhile, some  of the periods of the 19th century were not affected by the phenomenon at all. We also analyze specific features of the educational policy in Poland: during the Duchy of Warsaw (1807–1815) —development of an efficient multilevel system of public education that honored interests of each social class; in the 1820s — increased control over instruction and the clerical conservative trends in changing the content of education; in the period between the November and January Uprisings — unification of the educational system of Congress Poland with the Russian one; and, finally, the return to the Polish-style instruction on the rise of the so-called Post-Sevastopol Thaw. Special focus is placed on the 46-year existence of the Russian university in Warsaw as an institution that was forced through by Russian authorities but succeeded in developing its own university traditions and goals in culture and science.

Takhir Aminov - Doctor of Science, Professor, Chair of Pedagogy of Akmullah Bashkir State Pedagogical University; Chief Research Worker, Institute of Socialization and Education of the Russian Academy of Education. Address: 3a, Octyabrskoy revolutsii str., Ufa, 450097, Bashcortostan, Russian Federation. E-mail: tahir-aminov@yandex.ru

Development of professional education in pre-revolutionary Bashkiria can be divided into two relatively independent branches: Islamic and national Russian-language education. The former was launched in the 17th century, while the latter began to evolve in the mid-18th century. Specific features of their evolution were determined by geographical, economic, historical, ethnic and religious conditions that had been formed by that time in the territory of Ufa Governorate, which is now Bashkortostan. The paper describes religious, pedagogical, medical, commercial, legal, engineering, artisanal, agricultural, and other professional educational institutions that existed at that time. We provide an analysis of teaching practices applied by professional religious educational institutions, both Islamic and Orthodox, that prepared church ministers and teachers. We argue that diversity of types of teacher education institutions characteristic of the region was a unique henomenon, as the types included: 1) teacher institutes (Orenburg, Ufa); 2) teacher seminaries (Blagoveshchensk, Belebey, Sterlitamak); 3) Russian and non-Russian teacher schools (Ufa, Birsk); 4) teaching courses and classes provided by general education institutions; 5) teaching classes provided by women’s gymnasia and progymnasia; 6) Islamic teacher education institutions; 7) Orthodox teacher education institutions (the rural localities of Nikolo-Beryozovka and Bakaly); 8) teacher training externship; 9) nonconventional forms of teacher training. Among the most significant achievements of pre-revolutionary professional ducation in Bashkiria, we should mention its multi-levelness, diversity, multifaith approach, and the aspiration of its organizers to satisfy interests of various population groups and to consider specifics of different regions. This system developed through creating a uniform educational space. Social initiatives played an important role, so education management was pretty much state and public.

Mats Hanson - Professor Emeriti, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden; Dean of Education, Skoltech. E-mail: hanson@skolkovotech.ru Address: 100, Novaya str., Skolkovo, Odintsovsky district, Moscow Region, 143025, Russian Federation.

In November 2014 in the series “The Library of the Educational Studies Journal” a new book by Edward F. Crawley, Johan Malmqvist, Soren Östlund, Doris R. Brodeur, Kristina Edström “Rethinking Engineering Education: The CDIO Approach” (2nd ed., translated by S. Rybushkina, science editor A. Chuchalin) will be out. Since an original work of professor Edward Krawley and his team was published by “Springer” in March 2014, experts overseas have already formed their opinions about it, so we offer you two reviews — by professor Mats Hanson from Sweden and professor Kleman Fortin from Canada. 

Clément Fortin - Senior Advisor to the President, Skoltech. 
Address: 100, Novaya str., Skolkovo, Odintsovsky district, Moscow Region, 143025, Russian Federation. E-mail: c.fortin@skolkovotech.ru

Ivan Pavlyutkin - Candidate of Science, Associate Professor, Department of Economic Sociology, National Research University — Higher School of Economics. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya Str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation. E-mail: euhominid@gmail.com

The book by the famous American philosopher Martha Nussbaum is part of a series of publications in support of humanities and arts. A lot of experts share the author’s idea of decay in contemporary democratic education. This is manifested in excessive amount of testing and monitoring, in a drop in university places for philosophy students, in reallocation of funds in favor of natural science and engineering higher education institutions. This paper advocates education designed to bring up citizens of the world and distinguishes between education for profit and democratic education. The existing economic growthbased model of social development should be replaced with a new model based on development of human potential. Bringing up citizens of demo cratic states aims to develop critical thinking and enable the citizens to see other people’s viewpoints and to understand them. The paper also unfolds the key principles of the so called Socratic pedagogy, which Nussbaum believes to become the central practice of humanitarian education in Western culture. The practice makes people think independently and argue without falling back on weighty or generally accepted opinions.

Margarita Kozhevnikova - Candidate of Sciences, Senior Researcher, Institute for Teacher and Adult Education, Russian Academy of Education. Address: 2 Chernyakhovskogo str.,Saint Petersburg, 191119, Russian Federation. E-mail: margaritakozh@yandex.ru

Based on the presumption that language games found in educational texts reflect teaching practices, we discuss formality, precision and rigidity as characteristics of the teaching language and as an underlying problem of the scientific method. These questions lead us to reflections on the nature of teaching, its role and mission. Investigation of terms, memes, concepts and ideologemes of the teaching language allows us to draw conclusions about language impermeability and to turn to social motives of the phenomenon. Analysis of the problem helps us find out how highly bureaucratized (affected by the “managerism paradigm”) methodology, language, social structures and relationships that prevail in teaching build a field where profound ideas of education are promoted with great difficulty. Our belief is that teaching is most efficient when perceived as an art, and the teaching profession should be regarded as an artistic one. In this case, teacher education model should include mainly training and artistic practices. The clue to finding identity of contemporary teaching is to make a fundamental distinction between theory (science) and practice, redistributing their boundaries and roles. There are few understanding problems in teaching that require scientific conceptualization, but much more of those that require efficient solutions, or practical strategies.