Tag "ideas & experience"

Online learning promises flexibility. In asynchronous courses, students can decide when, how, and in what order to engage with learning materials. Yet this freedom comes with new challenges. Without a prescribed learning sequence, students must design their own pathways, and these choices can shape not only how much they learn, but how difficult learning feels.

Is “pre-training” the unsung hero of effective learning—or just an unnecessary hurdle for already smart students? That’s the research quest Anna Gorbunova, Anastasiia Kapuza, Ouhao Chen, and Jamie Costley embark on in their recent study, Rethinking Pre-training: Cognitive Load Implications for Learners with Varying Prior Knowledge. Published in Frontiers in Psychology, their work dives into how priming your mind before tackling complex material can transform the learning experience, challenging long-held beliefs about how we actually absorb knowledge.

Researchers discovered that language proficiency tests could be significantly shortened by processing responses more effectively. An international team of scholars, including a researcher from the Institute of Education, demonstrated this using data from around 3,000 students who took English listening tests.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming part of everyday academic life. While much attention has been paid to how students use AI in learning, far less is known about how faculty members engage with AI tools in their own research writing and publication practices. A new study by researchers from the HSE Institute of Education and the Academic Writing Centre offers rare insights into how university instructors are navigating this emerging terrain.

Around one in three doctoral students begin their studies without clear goals, while only around 10% of graduates successfully defend their dissertations on time. What factors have influenced this trend over the last decade? Researchers from the IOE Centre of Sociology of Higher Education conducted a study examining the motivations of PhD students across Russian universities.

The KIVO Innovations in Education Contest, curated by the Laboratory for Educational Innovation Research at the HSE Institute of Education, is a long-running platform for identifying, supporting and connecting educational innovators. In 2025, the contest once again demonstrated its scale and relevance by attracting a record number of participants and showcasing diverse educational solutions. It reinforced its role as not only a competition, but also a sustainable professional community.

In our annual review, we look back at the key milestones, research highlights, international partnerships, and events that shaped the year at the Institute of Education.

Researchers from the HSE Institute of Education took part in the International Academic Forum ‘Russian Education: Inheritance and Transformation,’ held on December 5–7 at Nanjing University and organised with the support of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China. The forum explored how education systems respond to social, technological, and institutional change, with Russian education serving as the central lens for international comparison and reflection.

In October, the HSE Institute of Education fellows presented a wide range of research initiatives at the annual World Education Research Association (WERA) conference in João Pessoa, Brazil.

Three decades ago, China set out to build universities that could rival the world’s best—and it succeeded. Now, one of its leading scholars says the same model that powered that rise is holding it back. At ICHE Conference 2025, Professor Rui Yang called for a rethink of how knowledge—not just output—should drive the future.