Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) holds promise for enhancing the educational experience by providing personalized feedback and interactive simulations. While its integration into classrooms would improve education, concerns about how students may use AI in the class has prompted research on the perceptions related to the intention to implement GAI, such as perceived benefits, limitations and associated risks in teaching and learning practices. This study examines the perceptions of GAI among 366 students in the United Arab Emirates based on survey results. To do that, initially factor analysis was utilized to identify the relevant scales, followed by comparing the mean values for each scale based on the extent of agreement with the statement regarding students' willingness to use ChatGPT. The study revealed a high awareness among respondents regarding the benefits, limitations, and risks of using ChatGPT. The research confirms that awareness of potential benefits is related to the intention to use ChatGPT in the future. Contrary to expectations, a positive relationship was found between awareness of limitations and the intention to use ChatGPT, challenging traditional views that limitations act as barriers. Similarly, awareness of risks is positively related to the willingness to use ChatGPT, suggesting a nuanced relationship between risk perception and technology adoption in education.The current study provides new insights into the importance of informing individuals about the limitations and risks of ChatGPT, in addition to its benefits, as these factors are closely related to making a positive decision regarding its further usage.

The previous expansion of EdTech as a substitute for traditional learning around the world, the recent full-scale substitution due to COVID-19, and potential future shifts to blended approaches suggest that it is imperative to understand input substitutability between in-person and online learning.We explore input substitutability in education by employing a novel randomized controlled trial that varies dosage of computer-assisted learning (CAL) as a substitute for traditional learning through homework.Moving from zero to a low level of CAL, we find positive substitutability of CAL for traditional learning.Moving from a lower to a higher level of CAL, substitutability changes and is either neutral or even negative.The estimates suggest that a blended approach of CAL and traditional learning is optimal.The findings have direct implications for the rapidly expanding use of educational technology worldwide prior to, during and after the pandemic.

In recent decades, more than 65 countries conduct international monitoring of student results - TIMSS and PISA. it is believed that they differ by the format of the tasks: TIMSS tests academic knowledge, while PISA investigates real-life problems. This is especially true for the math test. In this study, we show by the example of 25 countries participating in both studies that 12 countries have average or below average PISA scores with high TIMSS scores, but countries with low TIMSS and high PISA were not found. Using the example of one of these 12 countries, Russia, applying the methods of automatic text analysis, we evaluated the texts of the tasks of both tests 2009-2019 from the point of view of life problems. The results showed that the PISA tasks are the most voluminous, it contains more words per task. At the same time, according to most formulas for text complicity, PISA tasks are the simplest for reading than TIMSS texts, and almost do not contain mathematical terms. Thus, the hypothesis that PISA is more focused on real-life problems has been confirmed, but it is also proved that PISA should be easier for students. However, TIMSS results are usually higher in most countries. To sum up, it could be suggested for education policy to include real-life problems in the curriculum to prepare students for further life.

All over the world, educational and, particularly, curriculum reforms face different issues, including communication with teachers. To implement reforms successfully, politicians should consider the teacher agency since teachers deliver all the innovations to schools. Agency is an autonomous activity to change routine practices. The high level of agency is related to teacher’s belief in the possibility to influence the results of the work. This study focuses on the teachers’ perceptions about the role of school, family and students themselves in academic success. A mixed methods strategy was used to analyze the results of a Russian national survey of over 4,000 teachers and 12 focus groups. Results showed that over half of teachers believed that their work and other school factors do not affect the students’ academic success. The most crucial factors of success, according to teachers, were students’ diligence and motivation, as well as family contribution. Many teachers believed that the academic success factors are beyond their control, the school is just an instrument to unleash the students’ potential. Thus, many teachers had attitudes that do not encourage a high level of agency that define teacher practices transformation during curriculum reforms implementation.

Teachers’ expectations may affect the academic performance of their pupils, leading to the effect of “self-fulfilling prophecies”. Teachers form their expectations about the academic performance of their pupils based on the information they possess about the latter. The present study tested a hypothesis about a correlation between the teacher’s disposal of information about the pupil’s ranking on an initial diagnostic test at the beginning of the first grade and the pupil’s academic performance at the end of the first grade. It also tested the hypothesis that the teacher’s disposal of information about the pupil’s ranking can affect his or her expectations about the level of the pupil’s cognitive skills. In this large-scale cluster randomized controlled experimental study, the participants included 4,460 first-grade students from 188 schools in a Russian region. We divided the schools into the experimental and control groups randomly. The teachers in the control group received information about the basic skills of their pupils. In contrast, experimental group teachers additionally received information about their pupils’ ranking based on a combination of indicators of their cognitive (basic reading and math) and non-cognitive (personal and socio-emotional) skills. The study did not confirm the hypotheses.

Women have been systematically disadvantaged in the labour market. This could be explained by a complex association of factors, such as the lower speed of women’s professional growth within companies, their under-representation in management positions, and the unequal distribution of caregiving and housework between men and women. The rise of the gig economy—a market system that is based on hiring independent contractors and freelance workers as opposed to creating full-time contracts—has brought researchers and policymakers into a discussion on the effects of online platforms and flexible work arrangements on labour market gender parity. In this study, we examine the case of the largest online English-language school in Eastern Europe, Skyeng. Data on 6,461,404 lessons given by 13,571 teachers demonstrate that women had fewer working hours than men in most age categories, but especially for ages 30–35. The workload deficit for the women could be partly attributed to the fact that they worked less often than the men did in the evenings (7–10 p.m.). We conclude that, despite the flexible work arrangements the gig economy has offered, the women taught fewer classes than the men (i.e., having fewer paid working hours), which in turn led to a gender pay gap. The rapid growth of the gig economy makes it important to monitor gender-gap dynamics as well as discuss potential mechanisms eliminating gender inequality in the labour market.

Purpose The study examines how teachers and school administrative staff perceive external and internal barriers to the implementation of technologies into the teaching process and how teachers and school administrative staff technology readiness is related to these perceptions. These data were used for discussion and construction of an explanatory model. Design/methodology/approach The data from 8,188 Russian respondents who took the survey just before the first massive lockdown announcement due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) was used. First, descriptive statistics were shown for two groups: teachers and administrative staff. Second, confirmatory factor analysis was applied to construct external and internal barriers scales. These scales were then used as dependent in a series of regressions with the technology readiness index (TRI) and the respondent role in schools as independent variables. Findings Results showed that administrative staff compared to teachers were more likely to select internal barriers related to teachers, while teachers were more likely to choose external obstacles. The technology optimism scale was negative, and negative attitudes toward technologies were positively related to both barriers. Originality/value The originality of the study lies in determining the relationship between the technology readiness and choosing barriers perception as well as comparing the sense of responsibility for the introduction of technologies in schools experienced by teachers and administrators.

Computational thinking is a way of reasoning about the world in terms of data. This mindset channels number crunching toward an ambition to discover knowledge through logic, models and simulations. Here we show how computational cognitive science can be used to reconstruct and analyse the structure of computational thinking mindsets (forma mentis in Latin) through complex networks. As a case study, we investigate cognitive networks tied to key concepts of computational thinking provided by: (i) 159 high school students enrolled in a science curriculum and (ii) 59 researchers in complex systems and simulations. Researchers' reconstructed forma mentis highlighted a positive mindset about scientific modelling, semantically framing data and simulations as ways of discovering nature. Students correctly identified different aspects of logic reasoning but perceived "computation" as a distressing, anxiety-eliciting task, framed with math jargon and lacking links to real-world discovery. Students' mindsets around "data", "model" and "simulations" critically revealed no awareness of numerical modelling as a way for understanding the world. Our findings provide evidence of a crippled computational thinking mindset in students, who acquire mathematical skills that are not channelled toward real-world discovery through coding. This unlinked knowledge ends up being perceived as distressing number-crunching expertise with no relevant outcome. The virtuous mindset of researchers reported here indicates that computational thinking can be restored by training students specifically in coding, modelling and simulations in relation to discovering nature. Our approach opens innovative ways for quantifying computational thinking and enhancing its development through mindset reconstruction.

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education research indicates a gender gap in how students perceive their mathematical ability. Even when there are no gender disparities in math achievement, girls tend to have lower expectations of success and lower self-reported proficiency in the subject than boys. Empirical findings show that development of growth mindset could bridge the gender gap in students’ perceptions of their mathematical ability and enhance girls’ interest in math. Formative feedback is one of the possible tools to foster the development of growth mindsets. This study investigates the impact of an e-learning platform with automated feedback on the development of growth mindsets in elementary school children. Empirical data was collected during an experiment which involved 6,300 third grade students from 343 regional schools in Russia. Statistically significant differences were revealed between students in the control group and those who used the e-learning platform (experimental group). However, the effects of using the platform were significantly lower for girls than boys. The results obtained in this study point to the great potential of e-learning platforms with instant feedback in fostering growth mindsets in mathematics among elementary school children. Furthermore, it appears vital to integrate tailored feedback for boys and girls to mitigate gender differences in school math education.

Множество исследований информационно-коммуникационных технологий (ИКТ) в образовании показывают, что для их успешного применения в образовательном процессе необходимо учитывать характеристики ключевых агентов образования — учителей. В данной работе исследуется связь между индивидуальными характеристиками учителей начальной школы, в частности сопротивления переменам, и использованием ими ИКТ в учебном процессе. Для этого были проанализированы данные опроса 347 учителей третьих классов. Проведенное структурное моделирование показало, что навыки ИКТ учителей положительно связаны с использованием ИКТ на уроках, при этом сопротивление переменам является медиатором этой связи. В то же время уровень сопротивления переменам отрицательно связан с использованием ИКТ на уроках и никак не связан с использованием ИКТ в личных целях. Таким образом, даже обладая навыками ИКТ, учителя не стремятся применять их в классе и менять свою рутинную профессиональную деятельность. Это важно учитывать при внедрении инноваций в образовательный процесс, также необходимо обратить особое внимание на преодоление такого внутреннего барьера к инновациям, как сопротивление переменам среди учителей. Благодарность. Статья подготовлена в результате проведения исследования в рамках Программы фундаментальных исследований Национального исследовательского университета «Высшая школа экономики» (НИУ ВШЭ) и с использованием средств субсидии в рамках государственной поддержки ведущих университетов Российской Федерации «5-100».

Concept mapping is a popular tool for knowledge structure assessment. In recent years, both the amount of research about concept maps and their measurement ability have grown. It has been shown that concept maps with different types of tasks, for instance, links between concepts given or selected by a respondent, provide information about the different aspects of students’ knowledge structure. This study explores features of concept mapping with and without a list of concepts. At first, eleven masters students constructed concept maps with a topic on statistical data analysis and, after three weeks, repeated the task with the same topic and a predefined list of concepts. Both types of concept maps were evaluated using traditional scoring indicators and indicators from the network analysis. All indicators were tested for significant differences, and then the content of these maps was analysed. Results show that the list of concepts forced respondents to construct more connective maps, which is related to a more developed knowledge structure. Moreover, it is easier for them, when including even abstract concepts, to define their role in the domain. However, respondents use concepts and group them in different ways depending on the instruction. It seems that respondents feel a “list stress”, which leads to differences in the content. These findings demonstrate the possibilities of using different concept mapping tasks for learning and assessment.

The present-day knowledge society expects school education to ensure the development of higher-order thinking skills, such as novel problem solving. Experimental evidence shows that such skills can be developed in students by using classroom activities enhancing higher-order cognitive processes more often. However, the impact of such activities on knowledge acquisition in specific disciplines, mathematics in particular, remains unclear. Data obtained in the longitudinal study Trajectories in Education and Careers conducted on a TIMSS-PISA sample is used to evaluate the presence of teaching practices that promote higher- and lower-order thinking in the classroom and the correlations between those strategies, on the one hand, and teacher characteristics and mathematics achievement at the end of 9th grade, on the other hand. Teaching practices of both types were found to be related positively to student achievement in mathematics. Yet, higher-order thinking teaching practices have a stronger positive effect on mathematics achievement gains between 8th and 9th grades, whereas the effects of practices implying lower-order thinking lose their significance or become negative a year later. It is also shown that the use of a specific type of teaching practices is not related to teacher credentialsor qualifications.

Ларина Галина Сергеевна - кандидат наук об образовании, научный сотрудник Центра психометрики и измерений в образовании. E-mail: larina.gala@gmail.comКапуза Анастасия Васильевна - научный сотрудник Международной лаборатории оценки практик и инноваций в образовании. E-mail: akapuza@hse.ruНациональный исследовательский университет «Высшая школа экономики».Адрес: 101000 Москва, ул. Мясницкая, 20.В современном информационном обществе школьное образование должно обеспечивать развитие умения решать незнакомые задачи, быстро ориентироваться в больших объемах информации, принимать решения в ситуации неопределенности. Экспериментально установлено, что такие умения можно сформировать, если чаще использовать на уроках задания, в решение которых вовлечены когнитивные процессы высокого порядка. Однако остается открытым вопрос об эффектах использования таких заданий для усвоения предметных знаний, в частности по математике. На данных лонгитюдного исследования «Траектории в образовании и профессии», включающего тесты TIMSS и PISA, авторы оценивают представленность в повседневной учебной работе практик преподавания, вовлекающих два типа когнитивных процессов - высокого и низкого порядка, и их связь с характеристиками учителей. Также рассматривается связь между этими практиками и результатами учащихся по математике в конце 9‑го класса. Установлено, что использование и тех и других практик положительно связано с результатами учеников по математике. Однако задания, вовлекающие когнитивные процессы высокого порядка, дают более сильный положительный эффект с точки зрения результатов по математике в 8‑м классе и спустя один учебный год. Эффекты практик преподавания, направленных на развитие когнитивных навыков низкого порядка, спустя год теряют значимость или становятся отрицательными. Показано, что использование рассматриваемых практик не связано с такими характеристиками учителя, как квалификационная категория или полученное образование.

We present three new standardised network concept map (CM) measures that can provide unique information about learning-related progress, which cannot be determined from previously known measures. Grounded in cognitive development theory on the one hand, and network theory on the other hand, our measures reveal how knowledge is stored, distributed and retrieved. We validated the new measures by testing their ability to discriminate between CMs of respondents with different levels of competency in statistics (students before and after taking an introductory statistics course and experts in the field of statistics). We also validated our measures against the most commonly used traditional and network measures. Based on a small sample of respondents, we show that two of the newly proposed compound measures reveal significant differences between experts and novices in the field, with higher values for experts, showing that expert knowledge is better distributed, more connected and balanced. More importantly, our measures were sensitive enough to show learning-related progress for students, albeit statistically non-significant, while common indicators from network theory did not demonstrate these small shifts. The validity of our new measures can be inferred from the consistency of the results from different sets of measures.

Experimental studies rarely consider the shape and nature of the education production function, which is useful for deriving optimal levels of input substitution in increasingly resource constrained environments. Because of the rapid expansion of EdTech as a substitute for traditional learning around the world and against the backdrop of full-scale temporary substitution due to the coronavirus pandemic, we explore the educational production function by using a large randomized controlled trial that varies dosage of computer-assisted learning (CAL) as a substitute for traditional learning. Results show production is concave in CAL. Moving from zero to a low level of CAL, the marginal rate of technical substitution (MRTS) of CAL for traditional learning is greater than one. Moving from a lower to a higher level of CAL, production remains on the same or a lower isoquant and the MRTS is equal to or less than one. The estimates are consistent with the general form of a Cobb-Douglas production function and imply that a blended approach of CAL and traditional learning is optimal. The findings have direct implications for the rapidly expanding use of educational technology worldwide and its continued substitution for traditional learning.

Appears in: EDULEARN20 Proceedings Publication year: 2020Pages: 7847-7852ISBN: 978-84-09-17979-4ISSN: 2340-1117doi: 10.21125/edulearn.2020.1978Conference name: 12th International Conference on Education and New Learning TechnologiesDates: 6-7 July, 2020Location: Online Conference

The present-day knowledge society expects school education to ensure the development of higher-order thinking skills, such as novel problem solving. Experimental evidence shows that such skills can be developed in students by using classroom activities enhancing higher-order cognitive processes more often. However, the impact of such activities on knowledge acquisition in specific disciplines, mathematics in particular, remains unclear. Data obtained in the longitudinal study Trajectories in Education and Careers conducted on a TIMSS-PISA sample is used to evaluate the presence of teaching practices that promote higher- and lower-order thinking in the classroom and the correlations between those strategies, on the one hand, and teacher characteristics and mathematics achievement at the end of 9th grade, on the other hand. Teaching practices of both types were found to be related positively to student achievement in mathematics. Yet, higher-order thinking teaching practices have a stronger positive effect on mathematics achievement gains between 8th and 9th grades, whereas the effects of practices implying lower-order thinking lose their significance or become negative a year later. It is also shown that the use of a specific type of teaching practices is not related to teacher credentials or qualifications.