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Copyright of Higher Education Quarterly is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Number line accuracy (NL accuracy) shows improvement over the course of a school education. However, there are practically no cross‐country longitudinal studies of NL accuracy over the whole course of elementary school. Aims: This study investigated the developmental trajectories of NL accuracy and its types across the elementary school years in two countries—Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Sample(s): The analyses were carried out on the data collected from the sample of 508 schoolchildren at Grades 1, 2, 3 and 4 (aged 6.4–11.9 years) from Russia and Kyrgyzstan, who were surveyed as part of the 'Cross‐cultural Longitudinal Analysis of Student Success' project. Methods: The participants were administered the 'Number Line' computerized test task and a paper‐and‐pencil 'Standard Progressive Matrices' test at the end of each academic year. Results: During the course of the elementary school education, NL accuracy increases nonlinearly in both samples from Grade 1 to Grade 4, with a pronounced increase in the rate of improvement from the first to the second year. Cross‐country differences in NL accuracy were observed during each year of schooling as well as in the growth of NL accuracy. The development of NL accuracy is described by a model with two developmental types: (1) 'high start and growth' (93% of the pooled sample) and (2) 'low start and no growth' (7%). Conclusions: Both NL accuracy and the rate of its growth during elementary school depend on educational conditions. Cross‐country differences in the distribution of schoolchildren by these two developmental types were statistically insignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to study the methodological foundations of the humanities education for international students as an alternative to transhumanist ideology. The paradigmatic approach is used as a factor analysis of students' educational processes. Particular attention is paid to the substantiation of the methodological foundations of the education humanisation on the basis of modern ontologically anthropological and religious‐anthropological achievements of the philosophical field of knowledge. The novelty of the study is due to a discussion of the contradictions caused by all‐round technocratisation and informatisation, the fall of moral standards and the degradation of human behaviour. The practical significance of the study is determined by the need to develop a different pedagogy and model of education for modern students. It was concluded that the value‐oriented pedagogical cocreation is able to direct the learner's self‐development and strengthen it with effective means of self‐change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Higher Education Quarterly is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recent studies suggest that the allocation of expenditures in education is important for growth. The state of public education spending in many transition economies highlights the need for an assessment of the nature of education expenditures in these countries. This paper attempts to fill this gap in the literature by estimating the determinants of education expenditures in the Russian Federation. Results from panel data analysis show that revenue and the student-population ratio have a positive impact on education expenditures while the effect of population density is negative. Three regional variables also show significant impact. The income and price elasticity of public education expenditures are estimated to be 0.57 and −0.18, respectively, a result comparable to studies from other countries. The results presented here provide insight into how fiscal institutions and the structure of the political process in Russia may affect the degree of resource allocation in the educational sector during the transition process. JEL classifications: L10, O57. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the paper "Prevalence and socio-economic distribution of hazardous patterns of alcohol drinking: study of alcohol consumption in men aged 25-54 years in Izhevsk, Russia" by S. Tomkins and colleagues. The paper examined the association between socio-economic status and drinking. Socio-economic factors examined were education, employment status and household amenity index.

The paper tests for the existence of human capital externalities using a micro-level approach: the Mincerian wage regression augmented with the average level of education in cities. To solve identification problems arising from the endogeneity of average education, the study exploits a natural experiment provided by the process of economic transition: average education at the end of communism can be seen as exogenous in respect of wages prevailing after the start of transition. Our empirical results based on the RLMS data show that a 1 percentage point increase in the share of city residents with a university degree results in an increase of wages of city residents by about 1 percent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a representative sample of the Russian Federation, the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, to estimate the returns to education in this ex-communist country. We tackle this classic issue in labor economics with the realistic expectation of obtaining results for Russia comparable in quality and reliability to those available in developed countries and other economies in transition. Using standard regression techniques we find that the returns to education in Russia are quite low compared with those reported in the literature on countries throughout the world, in almost no specification reaching higher than 5 per cent. Moreover, there is virtually no improvement in returns to education in the 1992–99 period, a result somewhat at odds with other studies using Russian data from similar time periods. When we instrument our main regressor using policy experiments from the 1960s, we find comparable results. We also perform a selectivity correction and discover even lower returns to education for men, although they become slightly higher for women. Additionally, we find extremely low returns to tenure, which can even become negative in certain specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct a model for pricing sovereign debt that accounts for the risks of both default and restructuring, and allows for compensation for illiquidity. Using a new and relatively efficient method, we estimate the model using Russian dollar-denominated bonds. We consider the determinants of the Russian yield spread, the yield differential across different Russian bonds, and the implications for market integration, relative liquidity, relative expected recovery rates, and implied expectations of different default scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 2000s, the Russian Ministry of Education introduced educational modernization reforms built on neoliberal principles. This critical ethnographic study examines how the memories of the Soviet past are being re-narrated to assess the current educational reforms. I use Bakhtin's theory of historical becoming to analyze how the vestiges of the past co-exist with the emerging forms of the neoliberal present and shape how teacher educators and their students interpret educational reforms and their daily work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on the discourses of educational policy in Europe to focus on the implications of the Bologna Process for higher education in Russia. The Bologna Process, as a multi-dimensional discourse involving a variety of social actors, reflects some of the complexities and contradictions of globalisation, in many local cases evoking responses and leading to outcomes which were neither planned nor predicted by the official educational policy planners. The role of international organisations in the reform of Russian higher education is considered and the barriers, limitations and possible consequences of Bologna for the Russian situation are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay asks what the study of socialism and its legacies still offers anthropology of the contemporary world and argues that studying late-socialist aesthetics and practices can provide unexpected insight into late-liberal political culture, communication, and subjectivity. In the first half of the essay, we concentrate on a particular mode of parody (known in Russia as ) that imitated and inhabited the formal features of authoritative discourse to such an extent that it was often difficult to tell whether it was a form of sincere support, subtle ridicule, or a peculiar mixture of the two. In the second half of the essay, we show that what seem to be archetypically late-socialist aesthetics of parody are actually becoming significantly more familiar in places like the United States as well (e.g., the Yes Men, ). Through an analysis of the institutional and ideological conditions of “hypernormalization” in late-socialist political culture that enabled the critical parodic potential of stiob, we argue that analogous trends in Western political communication and political ideology have contributed to the rising intuitiveness and popularity of stioblike interventions in late liberalism too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context Faculty development programmes have proved successful for improving teaching skills. We investigated whether or not a successful US-based faculty development programme for improving the teaching skills of medical faculty could be transported to Russia. Methods Five seminars, based on the 7 categories of the Stanford Faculty Development Program model, were presented to 48 teachers at Kazan State Medical University in Kazan, Russia. The seminars were comprised of mini-lectures, reviews of actual videotaped teaching scenario re-enactments, interactive role plays of teaching situations, and personalised goal setting for future teaching performance. Evaluation was performed through participants' self-reported ratings of teaching ability based on a retrospective pretest/post-test questionnaire and fulfilment of commitment of change (CTC) statements written by workshop participants. Outcomes were measured at both 1 and 12 months post-intervention. Results Survey response rates were 98% (47/48) at 1 month and 81% (39/48) at 12 months. Global teaching performance improved (pretest = 38.4, 1 month post-test = 43.7, 12 months post-test = 42.5; P < 0.001) as did ratings of specific teaching behaviours (pretest = 100.2, 1 month post-test = 121.3, 12 months post-test = 116.8; P < 0.001). A total of 127 CTC statements were made and 90 (71%) were successfully instituted. Conclusions Our faculty development intervention demonstrated a positive, lasting effect on the teaching skills of Russian faculty members. This suggests that our efforts in transporting this intervention across the 2 cultures were successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emphasis placed upon interactive teaching in recent years has stimulated considerable debate about its nature. This article attempts to explore some features of teacher/pupil interaction occurring in classrooms in two countries and compares teacher/pupil interaction in mathematics lessons in St Petersburg, Russia with those in the North‐East of England. The research explores the patterns of interaction, both public and private, the number and duration of interactions and the nature of the dialogue, in both locations. Issues which are highlighted are the tension between interaction and cognitive pace, and the tension between collective involvement and response to individual needs. Close examination of the interactions in the two locations highlights differences in sequence and blend which are not immediately apparent, raising questions about the outcomes which are most highly valued in each context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a sample school population (N = 333) in Voronezh, Russia, this study investigated the comparative effect of two different types of Russian public schooling-traditional and innovative-on students' analytical, creative, and practical abilities. These abilities were assessed through (1) ratings by parents and teachers and (2) student performances on tests and other evaluative exercises, as well as student self-reports. The study found that innovative schools appear to do a better job of developing students' cognitive abilities (analytical, creative, and practical) than do more traditional institutions; in particular, the innovative schools significantly enhanced students' creative abilities. This study begins to illuminate the impact of massive societal change, and accompanying educational responses, on the cognitive development of Russian youth. Cette etude compare l'effet de deux types differents d'ecoles publiques, traditionnelle et innovatrice, sur les habiletes pratiques, creatives et analytiques d'etudiants (N = 333) recrutes a Voronezh en Russie. Ces habiletes sont evaluees a partir (1) des scores fournis par les parents et les enseignants et (2) des resultats des etudiants a des tests et exercices ainsi qu'a des questionnaires d'auto-evaluation. Les ecoles innovatrices semblent mieux developper les habiletes cognitives (analytiques, creatives et pratiques) des etudiants, en particulier leurs habiletes creatives, que ne le font les institutions traditionnelles. Cette etude met en evidence l'impact d'un changement social important et les reponses educatives qui lui sont associees sur le developpement cognitif de la jeunesse russe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]