Nowadays we live in a world full of data, that surrounds us everywhere. Data helps us to test hypotheses, recognise patterns, and make discoveries, whether it is primitive or complex; heterogeneous or homogeneous (Larose & Larose, 2014). Research and data are intertwined. They are interconnected with the most important stages of academic pursuit, i.e., collection and analysis of information. The data analysis is designed to recognise the patterns and achieve clarity in the phenomenon under study.
Data plays a specific role in any science. In education, for instance, it helps to enhance the quality of teaching (Bienkowski et al., 2012). Personalisation of education becomes more accessible. Qualitative and quantitative metrics of a student’s academic progress and preferences allow teachers to choose the content, tempo, and methods of teaching, depending on the student’s individual needs. Moreover, those metrics provide the means for the academic progress prognosis, and, when in university, academic attrition. The content, namely, the educational programme can be improved with the help of the gathered data. A collection of learning assessment materials can be updated to ensure the quality of education. The data is also significant in the management of an educational institution. The administration is able to track the finances, plan the budget, and effectively coordinate the whole system on the basis of the data. Likewise, it is interconnected with innovations in education, helping in the development of new online courses, e-textbooks, and apps focused on ensuring availability and learning efficiency.
Working with data implies its visual representation. There are many guidelines and papers on the graphical representation of the data (Maaten & Hinton, 2008; Glazer, 2011; Yau, 2024). The most significant aspects will be covered hereinafter.
Author : Tatiana Baklashova
Editorial: BRICS Countries on the Improvement of Teacher Education
Modern processes of globalization and international integration have a serious impact on the teacher training system not only in Russia, but all over the world. This process involves new agents, increases its universalization, transforms its content, develops new educational technologies, creates innovative systems of evaluation and accreditation of future and serving teachers, and gradually digitalizes teacher education. All these trends are challenges for teacher education systems in all countries of the world, including the BRICS countries. They require the development of new algorithms of activities; complicate the communication processes of all participants of teacher education.
When conducting comparative research on the basis of contrasting the unique and the common, the priority is to find a special universal methodology that will allow to act effectively in different contexts and ensure the quality of modern teacher education (Menter et al., 2017).
Transformation of Research and Innovations in the Sphere of Teacher Education: Reviewing the Results of the 9th International Forum on Teacher Education (IFTE-2023)
The aim of the study was to organize a reflexive understanding of the issues and trends in the development of the research in teacher education in Russia through the analysis of some aspects of the International Forum on Teacher Education on the basis of Kazan Federal University (https://ifte.kpfu.ru/). In this context, three tasks were solved: the development of the concepts of the “field description” of conference activities; formation of a preliminary “field image” of the IFTE-2023, identification of leading trends and urgent tasks in the organization of conference events in the near future. The research methodology included three components: conducting a survey of the Forum participants, aimed at identifying existing priorities, attitudes in the field of teacher education; analysis of the topics of “key reports”; analysis of the statements of experts participating in the panel discussion on the problems of teacher education, held on May 25, 2023 as part of IFTE-2023. The results obtained allow us to draw conclusions in the following aspects: on the use of key ideas for the study of research and innovation activities in the field of education; generalized requirements for the design of conference-oriented events on teacher education; preliminary assessment of the relevance and significance of events; conditions for improving the quality and efficiency of conference discussions; priority areas of research on practical pedagogy; activation of public participation in interdisciplinary and inter institutional projects; priorities for the transformation of teacher education.