Historically, the university was an alien establishment for Russia, reflecting the political ambition of its leadership, not the organic impetus of Russian society. In Soviet academia, the notion of university education was replaced by the concept of vocational-technical training. As a creation of the Soviet government, Soviet higher education…

Toward the end of his short life, Lev Vygotsky found himself teaching teachers in a remote part of the USSR. Though his influence as a developmental psychologist is well-established, little is known about his approach to teacher development. This article applies the researcher's core concept, the zone of proximal development to teacher education.…

Innovation is the key to productivity growth and prosperity. Most empirical cross-country analysis of the determinants of innovation focus mainly on developed countries. The objective of this study is to fill this gap in the research and analyze the determinants of innovation in transition countries of Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.…

A system of social indicators for the integrated and systemic study of rural socioeconomic development was constructed. Specific features of the system were that it: (1) embraced nearly all aspects of life activity of the rural population, ranging from work in the public sector to leisure behaviour; (2) included social indicators which measured…

Examines self-assessment as a personality structure that changes in its development as individuals mature. Explains prognosticative, actual (or correcting), and retrospective self-assessment. Develops a structural-dynamic explanatory model, characterizing self-assessment as a systemic formation. Relates self-evaluation to achievement, volitional…

This chapter presents the history, philosophy, and methodology of instructional development and instructional technology in the Soviet Union. It begins by analyzing the structure of the educational bureaucracy in the USSR and explaining the pathways through this structure through which educational decisions are made, and through which…

This paper employed a psychological-historical framework for an analytical examination of the Russian identity during the Soviet period through the fall of the Soviet Union and the transitional period that led to an establishment of the Russian Federation. A theoretical model is provided for the analysis of Russian identity that can be generalized…

Explored the relationship between knowing how to think and teaching students to think. The findings indicated that development of pupil's intellectual capacities depend on an adequate assimilation of general methods of thinking and that psychology, logic, and pedagogy can today provide the teacher with the technical resources necessary to make…

The first of the four papers in this symposium, "Towards a Meaningful HRD [Human Resource Development] Function in the Post-Command Economies of Central and Eastern Europe" (Devi Jankowicz), examines the existing knowledge-base among managers who are to be trained as HRD practitioners and suggests that efforts may be constrained by…

The contents of this book deal with worker education in France, England, the Soviet Union, Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Finland and with the international activities of the Organization for Rehabilitation through Training (ORT). Examples are presented of what can be done and what has been done to develop the potential of the worker in Europe. The…

This document presents a conceptual framework for lifelong education in the USSR that is based on interfacing education on the one hand and the scientific and technological revolution on the other to create a system of lifelong education encompassing basic in-school and other less structured, nonformal programs. The impact of the increasing…