Tag "research projects"

Researchers from the Centre of Sociology of Higher Education, the Centre for Psychometrics and Measurement in Education, and the Laboratory for Curriculum Designat the Institute of Education are conducting a large-scale, longitudinal study examining how students navigate university life, and the relationship between different behavioural patterns and academic success.

In Norilsk, Russia's largest Arctic city and an industrial monotown, how do young people navigate their future in the face of extreme environmental challenges, social isolation, and labour market limitations? IOE’s researchers examine transition and mobility among vocational students of industrial specialisations.

A new paper by IOE’s Pavel Sorokin revisits one of the most ambitious ideas in modern psychology: the attempt—championed by Estonian psychologist Aaro Toomela—to rebuild cultural psychology as a unified science of the human mind and its environment. In Cultural Psychology for a Technologically Transformed Society: A Neo-Structuration Perspective, Sorokin argues that this project arrives at exactly the right moment. Our world is no longer shaped only by institutions, traditions, and language—but increasingly by digital systems and artificial intelligence that produce culture alongside humans. In this rapidly shifting landscape, understanding how the human psyche interacts with culture is no longer just an academic question. It may be essential for navigating the future.

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.

In just two years, generative AI has traveled an astonishing path—from a clever novelty to a genuine game changer in higher education. As tools like ChatGPT exploded into academic life, scholars across the globe rushed to make sense of what this new technology means for universities, teaching, and knowledge itself. That urgent, fast-moving response is what an international team of scholars—Isak Frumin, Anton Vorochkov, Margarita Kiryushina, Daria Platonova, and Evgeniy Terentiev—set out to explore in their sweeping new study, Mapping the Generative AI Research in Higher Education: 2022–2024 Insights. Published in Higher Education Quarterly, the research analyzes more than 4,000 publications produced between 2022 and 2024. The result is a vivid, data-rich portrait of a field evolving at breakneck speed—revealing not only what researchers are studying, but how, where, and with what mix of excitement, concern, and uncertainty. What emerges is academia in full sprint, trying to keep pace with a technology that refuses to slow down.

In a world where education increasingly transcends borders, Ekaterina Minaeva, Ulyana Zakharova, and Svetlana Zhuchkova set off on a research journey to explore the untapped potential of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a tool for attracting international students. Their study, published in EMOOCs 2025, asks a timely question: Can online learning platforms like Coursera and edX become the next frontier in global student recruitment?

When the COVID-19 pandemic upended daily life, it didn’t just close schools and offices—it redrew the map of family life. A study by Mikhail Goshin, Dmitry Grigoryev, Pavel Sorokin, and Polina Bochkareva, published in Frontiers in Psychology, explores how parenting styles and extracurricular activities (ECA) shaped children’s ability to adapt, stay creative, and take charge of their lives during those tumultuous years. The findings shed light on how lockdowns quietly rewired the dynamics between parents and children—and, in many cases, helped young people discover unexpected forms of independence.

On 28 August, Vera Maltseva, Director of the Center for Skills Development and Vocational Education and CERE co-founder, presented research on the evolving landscape of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Russia. This officially kicked off the CERE International Expert Seminar Series.

In September 2025, Elizaveta Korotkikh and Natalia Rosenfeld, who are both fellows of the Centre for Vocational Education and Skills Development and participants of  the Academic Postgraduate Programme for outstanding PhD candidates, completed a research visit to Tongji University in Shanghai and other leading Chinese universities.

In a world where deadlines loom and procrastination tempts, a group of researchers—Kseniya Adamovich, Aleksandra Getman, Anastasia Kapuza, and Adelina Fayzullina—set out to uncover the secrets of how adult learners tackle their assignments. Their study, published in The Language Learning Journal, dives into the habits of over 70,000 English learners on an online platform, revealing surprising truths about time management, task completion, and academic success. What they found challenges conventional wisdom and offers fresh insights into the age-old question: Does slow and steady really win the race?