Reforms and Innovation in Education: Implications for the Quality of Human Capital (Science, Technology and Innovation Studies)

This book investigates the interrelationship between educational reforms and pedagogical and technological innovations, as well as the implications of this relationship for the quality of human capital. By analyzing recent educational reforms in Russia and the US, the authors shed new light on how these reforms may help or hinder innovations, such as the introduction of computer technologies into classrooms, new methods of teacher evaluation, constructivist teaching methods, and governance in public schools. Taking labor economics as a useful lens for conceptualizing the diffusion of innovation, in the first part of the book the authors analyze book how certain power arrangements can block educational innovations in schools. In the second part they examine recent educational reforms in the US and Russia. The final part presents a vision of the next generation of educational reforms, which may enable innovation diffusion, rather than hamper it.-- Provided by publisher Annotation This book investigates the interrelationship between educational reforms and pedagogical and technological innovations, as well as the implications of this relationship for the quality of human capital. By analyzing recent educational reforms in Russia and the US, the authors shed new light on how these reforms may help or hinder innovations, such as the introduction of computer technologies into classrooms, new methods of teacher evaluation, constructivist teaching methods, and governance in public schools. Taking labor economics as a useful lens for conceptualizing the diffusion of innovation, in the first part of the book the authors analyze book how certain power arrangements can block educational innovations in schools. In the second part they examine recent educational reforms in the US and Russia. The final part presents a vision of the next generation of educational reforms, which may enable innovation diffusion, rather than hamper it Front Matter ....Pages i-v Introduction (Alexander M. Sidorkin, Mark K. Warford)....Pages 1-9 Educational Innovation Diffusion: Confronting Complexities (Mark K. Warford)....Pages 11-36 The Nature of Educational Innovation (Arthur K. Ellis)....Pages 37-51 People Matters: Innovations in Institutionally Weak Contexts (Peter A. Safronov)....Pages 53-67 Innovators from Within and from Without the Education System (Diana Koroleva, Tatiana Khavenson)....Pages 69-83 Identifying Factors Associated with the Survival and Success of Grassroots Educational Innovations (Ivan Smirnov)....Pages 85-98 Understanding Technology Integration Failures in Education: The Need for Zero-Order Barriers (Ilias Karasavvidis, Vassilis Kollias)....Pages 99-126 Human Capital and Innovations in Education (Alexander M. Sidorkin)....Pages 127-139 Back Matter ....Pages 141-142