Projects 2011
The head of the project: M.Karnoy, I.D. Frumin
MAJOR RESEARCH RESULTS:
1. The choice of the topic for the research project formulated as “In-depth analysis of results of the international researches of quality in education and the UNE in the context of economic indicators of education” was determined by the following motivating factors:
2. 20-year domination in researches of the factors influencing on the pupils’ achievements, conclusions about priority of the family characteristics in comparison with the characteristics of the educational system;
3. absence of the unambiguous conclusions in researches devoted to identification of those characteristics of the educational system which are of importance for pupils’ achievements in comparative international researches;
4. availability up to now of the unused potential of the international comparative researches of quality of education PISA and TIMSS, namely: possibility to use the tools of these researches for integrated multivariate analysis of data: by the group of countries which had for some period of time the close characteristics of the educational systems but became different due to influence of the autonomous strategies of the educational reforms;
5. timely character of analysis of connection between the educational process characteristics and the UNE – a new obligatory assessment tool in the Russian educational practice for estimating quality of the secondary education.
The strategy of research was in establishing the cause and effect relationship between characteristics of the educational system and the results of education:
— firstly, in the cross-country comparative context – while comparing the trajectory of changes of the main indicators of educational systems in countries, possessing the above-mentioned characteristics, with the trends of national achievements of pupils in PISA and TIMSS;
— secondly, in the national context – while detecting connection between the UNE scores and teachers’ characteristics as the key agents of the educational ground.
In accordance to the strategy, the research activity was focused on the following two directions:
— assessment of the educational reform contribution in the post-Soviet countries into development of pupils’ skills to solve the problems of different types;
— assessment of connection of a teacher’s professional characteristics and educational practices with academic achievements of pupils.
— the strategy of research was determined – goal, main directions and tasks for its realization;
— the methodology of research was defined – the procedures of forming the information base, data analysis methods.
MAJOR ORGANIZATIONAL RESULTS
On the basis of results of the research project in the International Laboratory for Educational Policy Analysis at the Institute for Educational Studies (IES) of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) the following measures were fulfilled.
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The publications were prepared (the list is given in Appendix).
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The reports were delivered at the conferences (the list is given in Appendix).
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The traveling seminar of Institute for Educational Studies of NRU HSE called “Methodology of fulfilling the academic researches in the field of education” was conducted on 07- 09 December 2011.
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The lectures on the course “Economics of education” were delivered in March and September 2011. The topics - “Psychometrics in Social Science”, “Production Function in Education”, “Experimental Methods” (prof. Martin Carnoy).
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Four sets of seminars for raising qualification of scientific and pedagogical employees were organized on the basis of HSE with the help of foreign specialists. September - November 2011 (data are given in Appendix).
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Four visits of foreign specialists were organized. September - November 2011. (information about incoming mobility is given in Appendix).
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Seven business trips for raising qualification of employees of HSE were organized. November – December 2011 (information about outgoing mobility is given in Appendix).
Other information
The obtained scientific results of the research have realized the planned demands, namely:
The systematic approach to the work with enquiry forms and data analysis was described, the potentials of enquiry form information (consistency, reliability) and other sources of context data, used by IEA and OECD were assessed. This allows to solve the methodological problem, which was determined by absence of these results;
The theoretical and empiric results obtained improve possibilities of using the context information, systematized in the framework of separate researches, for analyzing trends and efficiency of the educational reforms, as well as influence of different strategy types on educational achievements of students (the UNE scores).
Taking into account the research results and experience of other countries, the following options for overcoming the limited possibilities of analysis with the use of context data were proposed:
The explanatory analysis of trends or international differences has to be focused, involving some definite aspect of country’s information (restriction is connected with lack of wide range of compared information);
Information of school level has to be used primarily in factual, but not in its self-estimated part (restriction is connected with its reliability);
Information of descriptive character (“encyclopedias of countries”) cannot be used for explanation (restriction is connected with its single-level character (level of intention), inconsistency and fragmentarity).
Considered all, for the explanation of national dynamics in achievements it is necessary to conduct independent researches at different levels of the system and then pool information derived from various sources.
Publications and texts prepared on the basis of the project results
The article was published:
Tyumenova Yu.А., Khavenson Т.Е. International comparative researches of quality of education for assessment of reform efficiency: problems, restrictions and possible solutions. // Materials of the eighth international conference “Trends in education development: Management and issues of quality assurance and enhancement”. Moscow, 2012
The article prepared for publication in international journal:
М. Carnoy, А.B. Zakharov “Influence of professional characteristics and educational practices of teachers upon educational achievements of school levers of the Russian schools".
The article being prepared for publication in international journal in 2012:
М. Carnoy, А.B. Zakharov “Influence of a student’s characteristics, family and school on educational achievements of school leavers”.