International Laboratory for Evaluation of Practices and Innovations in Education went to the ECER Conference

For the first time since the begining of the COVID-19 pandemic, our colleagues went to the international offline conference, European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) 2022, which took place in Yerevan, Armenia this year. ECER conferences are held annually, attracting researchers from more than 70 countries, and are organized by the European Educational Research Association. We asked our colleagues to share their impressions of the conference and talk about the research they presented.

Alexandra Getman

 

Anastasia Kapuza Research Fellow	Together with Pavel Buchko, we analyzed the texts of assignments for international and Russian tests in mathematics and identified several interesting findings for educational policy. At the Tracking and Testing session, I presented the results of the study. We decided not just to analyze texts with qualitative methods, but to create a model that could automatically determine the degree of proximity of a mathematical problem to the so-called real life problems - tasks that can be encountered in real life, for example, calculate the cost of repairs depending on the area of ​​a room, or the amount of money received after the currency exchange. This model showed that the texts of the Russian exams are far from the texts of the international PISA study, which confirms the hypothesis previously expressed by the experts. This means that our students rarely apply their skills in practice within the framework of the school curriculum and, above all, learn to memorize formulas and rules for solving abstract mathematical problems, while receiving deep fundamental training. It turned out to be extremely effective communication with colleagues from different countries, and I am very glad that we remain in the field of international science.
Kseniya Adamovich Research Fellow	At the conference, I presented my work on the reform of New Moscow and its consequences for schools in this area. There were similar reforms in other countries, so foreign colleagues were very interested in our case! We discussed this work with researchers from France and it turned out that the educational policies in our countries are quite similar, and many measures were taken in a similar vein. But at the same time, there are quite a few works where the effects and consequences of such decisions would be evaluated, so my results were in the spotlight. I can't wait to send this article to a foreign journal!
Iuliia Gerasimova Research Intern	It was my first international conference, so it was quite exciting to be in Yerevan! Before my speech, I managed to listen to several speakers, such as professors from Norway, who see education as a tool of coercion. I was struck by the ease of presentation of the speakers and the depth of the ensuing discussion. My presentation was in a session dedicated to assessing non-cognitive skills. I talked about the relationships I found between the level of development of social-emotional skills of younger students and the atmosphere in the classroom, which gravitates towards cooperation or competition. The conference participants asked me some technical questions about data analysis and suggested directions for further research. From the fun, I really remember the chocolate fountain at the welcome-party! It is, of course, an incomparable feeling to be in a community of passionate researchers from all over the world.
Aynur Kulieva Research Intern	Participating in an offline international conference has been my dream since I joined the Institute of Education as a trainee researcher. Yerevan turned out to be a very pleasant city, although I did not have time to explore it in its entirety. The conference went on for three days, and all three days I listened to reports about online learning and inequality in education. Many presented research in qualitative methodology, and I found some useful theoretical frameworks. As for my research, I spoke in a section with my colleagues Alexandra Getman and Ksenia Adamovich, and Italian researchers. It was on the last day of the conference, and even at 9 am, but despite this, professors from Spanish universities came to listen to us, who were actively involved in the discussion on the methodology of my future article. I really liked the easy and safe atmosphere in which it is a joy to share my work.
Alexandra Getman Research Intern	At the conference, together with Ksenia Adamovich, I made a presentation at the ICT in Education and Training session. Our study focused on the dynamics of the educational digital divide in Russian regions during the pandemic. We have identified considerable regional differences in access to distance learning related to the socio-demographic and economic characteristics of the regions, as well as an increase in the digital divide during the pandemic. After the presentation of the report, we were able to discuss it with researchers from the Swiss University of SUPSI, who offered valuable comments to complement the analysis. It was my first experience of participating in an international conference, and despite a little excitement, the presentation was successful, thanks to the openness and goodwill of my colleagues. I hope this is just the beginning and in the future we will be able to share the results of our developments more than once and get acquainted with the ideas of researchers from other countries.