International Laboratory for Evaluation of Practices and Innovations in Education

Higher Education in Federal Countries: A Comparative Study is a unique study of higher education in nine federal countries—the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, China and India. In this book, leading international scholars discuss the role of federalism and how it shapes higher education in major nation-state actors on the world stage. The editors develop an overarching comparative analysis of the dynamics of central and regional power in higher education, and the national case studies explain how each federal and federal-like higher education system has evolved and how it functions in what are highly varied contexts.  

The book makes a major contribution to higher education studies and defines a new field of comparative analysis. It also provides important insights into comparative governance and the study of federalism and federal arrangements, with their particular historical, political, legal and economic dimensions.

The previous expansion of EdTech as a substitute for traditional learning around the world, the recent full-scale substitution due to COVID-19, and potential future shifts to blended approaches suggest that it is imperative to understand input substitutability between in-person and online learning. We explore input substitutability in education by employing a novel randomized controlled trial that varies dosage of computer-assisted learning (CAL) as a substitute for traditional learning through homework. Moving from zero to a low level of CAL, we find positive substitutability of CAL for traditional learning. Moving from a lower to a higher level of CAL, substitutability changes and is either neutral or even negative. The estimates suggest that a blended approach of CAL and traditional learning is optimal. The findings have direct implications for the rapidly expanding use of educational technology worldwide prior to, during, and after the pandemic.

Numerical information can be represented in three formats: two symbolic (visual (digits) and verbal (number words)) and one nonsymbolic (analog) format. Studies have shown that the precision of symbolic numerical representation is associated with math performance. The precision of symbolic representation is mostly discussed as the precision of representation in a visual format, whereas the precision of representation in verbal format and its relation with math performance is less studied. The current study examines the precision of symbolic numerical representation in visual and verbal formats and the relationship between such precision and math performance when controlling for prior math performance, nonsymbolic numerical representation, phonological processing, reading skills and working memory. We used data from 367 Russian first graders (mean age, 7.6 years; 53% girls). To assess the precision of symbolic numerical representation, magnitude comparison tasks with digits and number words were used. It was found that the precision of symbolic representation in verbal format did not have a direct effect on math performance, but has an indirect effect via visual format of symbolic representation, even when controlling for prior math performance and other cognitive abilities.