Transformation of the Role of Innovations in the State Educational

Policy of the Post-pandemic Period

T. P. Cherkasova

, D. A. Ayrapetyan

and E. A. Grinchenko

Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Rostov-na-Donu, Russia

Keywords: Innovations, Generation, State Educational Policy, World Experience, Universities, Russia,

Post-Pandemic, Development Trend.

Abstract: During the forced global lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, all spheres of public activity

underwent global crisis changes. The education sector has also undergone dramatic mutations, moving to

digital formats and taking a course on the virtualization trend. Under these conditions, automatically,

according to the fundamental theories of cyclical development, the process of generating innovative

technologies took place, which in one way or another modified and adapted educational policy to the

challenges of the time and the new historical format. But the scientific literature, in practice, does not consider

the transformative role of innovation in the context of educational policy in the post-pandemic period.

Therefore, the significance of this study lies in an attempt to rethink the role of innovations embodied,

including in new technologies, in educational policy. The authors of the study used a wide methodological

spectrum, including a comparative analysis of the best practices of world powers and a point sociological

study in the format of an expert survey. On the basis of the data obtained, practical recommendations were

proposed for determining the priorities of Russia's educational policy in the post-pandemic world from the

point of view of the generation and dissemination of innovations.

1 INTRODUCTION

The development of human civilization has always

been closely dependent on a number of factors,

phenomena and processes that arise both naturally,

according to the cycles of socio-economic and

political-cultural progress, and spontaneously. Social

cataclysms, man-made and natural disasters, and

pandemics of various kind of viral infections that

claimed millions of lives were unexpected.

The era of modernity is also a part of the next

stage of socio-economic development. The beginning

of the XXI century. - this is the gradual completion of

the long 5 K-wave (based on the theory of N.D.

Kondratyev) and the fifth innovation cycle (if we take

the theory of J. Schumpeter as a basis). In this context,

the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic

in 2019-2020. turned out to be a spontaneous

phenomenon that accompanies us today at the crisis

point of the depression of both cycles, representing

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6315-8943

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5192-7904

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0175-0498

the main, albeit not natural, result of the cyclical

recession.

Despite quarantine measures and large-scale

vaccinations, the new infection has not yet been

defeated. Over the period of its existence, COVID-19

provoked a systemic crisis in all branches of human

activity, critically affecting both the economy and the

political environment. No exception, in this case, was

the educational policy of states, which, under the

onslaught of a highly contagious infection, was

forced to undergo almost complete virtualization and

a sharp transition to digital spaces, which, in turn,

served as an impetus for a fairly rapid generation of

all kinds of innovations in this area.

However, the trend towards digital education

existed even before the onset of lockdowns, to which

full-fledged scientific studies were devoted to

interpret and substantiate the observed mutations in

educational technologies. During the pandemic, they

received renewed attention from the academic

208

Cherkasova, T., Ayrapetyan, D. and Grinchenko, E.

Transformation of the Role of Innovations in the State Educational Policy of the Post-pandemic Period.

DOI: 10.5220/0011117700003439

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference "COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals" (RTCOV 2021), pages 208-214

ISBN: 978-989-758-617-0

community, the commercial sector and government

agencies. Therefore, the relevance of this study lies in

the development of a scientific justification for the

transformation of the role of innovation in

educational policy. Consequently, the purpose of our

study is to identify and analyze innovations and their

significance in the state educational policy of the

Russian Federation, which is already being

implemented in the post-pandemic period.

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The theoretical and methodological basis of the study

was the institutional paradigm, which made it

possible to clarify the role of innovation in

educational policy. To study the theoretical basis of

the problem under consideration, the analysis and

structuring of scientific literature on the innovation of

educational policy was used. In order to study the

world experience of changing the priorities of the

state educational policy of foreign countries, as well

as the practical implementation of innovative

technologies in educational systems, we actively use

comparative studies and synthesis together with the

historical method to identify qualitative and

quantitative changes in retrospect. In addition, in this

work, statistical and content analysis was used to

study parametric economic indicators and certain

regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation. In

addition, an expert survey was conducted aimed at

elucidating the role of innovations in state educational

policy within the framework of a point sociological

study.

3 LITERATURE REVIEW

The main body of scientific literature devoted to

technological changes occurring in the mainstream of

education as a social phenomenon under the influence

of COVID-19 defines them as objects of attention of

scientists in the field of educational sciences: Isaeva

T.E., Petruneva R.M. and Vasilyeva V.D., Makeeva

T.V. and Guryanchik V.N., Radina N.K. and

Balakina Yu.V., Sergeeva E.V., Cherkezova S.E., and

others. Researchers in the field of pedagogy and

psychology write about the new competencies of

teachers, electronic pedagogical culture, about the

innovative activities and potential of the teacher in the

difficult conditions of the pandemic, about the

interaction patterns of university staff, about the

psychology of students and their reactions to

lockdowns and distance learning.

However, in practice, there is no developed

theoretical and methodological base that determines

the trends that are observed in innovation processes

in the context of educational policy, along with

conceptual approaches to assessing the effectiveness

of this activity.

Interdisciplinary analysis allows us to consider

innovative transformations in educational policy

from the point of view of the synthesis of social

sciences. Scientists of various directions are puzzled

by a number of issues that can be conditionally

divided as follows: 1) transformation of the role and

model of the university in the post-pandemic world;

2) the functioning of digital educational

environments; 3) general issues of theory and practice

of the implementation of state educational policy; 4)

educational policy as an integral part of the paradigm

of innovative development.

Researchers dealing with the first block of

questions, for example, Tronina I.A., Tatenko G.I.,

Bakhtina S.S. , turn their attention to how the

university and the academic environment are

positioned in the processes of civilizational transition

to new forms of cooperation and partnership. In

particular, the authors propose a toolkit for

diagnosing a university as a regional driver of

innovative development. In turn, Bolgov V.V.,

Garanin M.A., Krasnova E.A. and Khristoforova L.V.

conduct in-depth research aimed at clarifying the

essence of education after the COVID-19 pandemic,

namely, reflecting on where it leads: to a fall or to a

jump. They developed two scenarios for the further

development of educational systems and the role of

universities in them: first, the preservation of the

trend of massization and internationalization; the

second is the comprehensive development and

support of mixed forms of education with the

prevalence of online programs.

S.I. Chernykh wrote about the functioning of

educational environments. and Borisenko I.G.

Researchers identify such important components of

the development of digital environments in education

as the implementation of STEM (Science,

Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and STEAM

(Science, Technology, Engineering, Аrts,

Mathematics), as well as a number of other concepts

that form a system of thinking at a qualitatively

different level. and students' perception of the world.

Within the framework of issues related to the

implementation of state educational policy,

Zhuravleva I.A. gives an expert assessment of its

development in a pandemic. In her opinion, the

Transformation of the Role of Innovations in the State Educational Policy of the Post-pandemic Period

209

priority direction of the state educational policy in the

context of a large-scale reorientation of the world

society to innovative tracks of social progress is to

provide universities of different levels with

information and resource technologies, without

which it is impossible to imagine the development of

science and the implementation of their own and

custom R&D. In particular, this problem can be

traced in the regions, where, often, there is a critical

lack of funding.

Finally, Lizunov V.V. writes about the

inextricable link between educational and innovation

policy, noting that the modern academic environment

represented by higher educational institutions has

three fundamental missions: educational, research

and socially significant. All these missions are aimed

at transformative changes and creative

transformations in social evolution and at a specific

contribution to the socio-economic development of

territories, the potential of human capital.

Researchers from Kazakhstan Ibatov M.K., Pak

Yu.N., Zhetesova G.S. and Pak D.Yu. believe that it

is necessary to form entrepreneurial universities that

would become catalysts for the knowledge economy.

That is, the concept of University 3.0, which goes

back to the works of J. Wissem, is to make its

functions: training of personnel with higher

education, generation of new knowledge and

technologies that would ensure socio-economic

progress and commercialization of the results of

scientific activity. A similar interpretation of the

academic sector can already be traced in the structure

of the innovation systems of some developed and

scientifically successful countries, for example, the

USA or Great Britain.

Thus, the analysis of scientific literature makes it

possible to identify the main problem segments in

educational policy, technological research in which

leads to the generation of innovations and their

further practical application.

4 RESEARCH RESULTS

It is impossible to consider the transformation of the

role of innovative technologies in educational policy

objectively without analyzing world experience. Let

us dwell on the analysis of the achievements of the

United States and China. The selection of these two

states from the general list is due to the fact that they

are not only geopolitical and economic giants, but

also the world's leading leaders in the field of

scientific and technological development. Therefore,

the experience of these states is the most remarkable,

defining and useful for the implementation of certain

trends.

The United States is rightfully one of the most

advanced countries in the modern world. According

to some estimates, the US GDP in 2021 will be about

$ 22.68 trillion. $ - almost 1.75 trillion. $ more than

2020. In addition, the state is ranked 3rd in the Global

Innovation Index (GII) 2021, which means that the

United States is almost the most innovative country

on the planet. The achievement of impressive

volumes of GDP and the first positions in the leaders

of the Index allow us to assert the effectiveness of the

course of the state educational policy and the practical

use of innovative technologies in the process of its

implementation.

During and after the pandemic, educational policy

in the United States undergoes some adjustment and

rethinking. Thus, one of its priorities in 2021 is an

intensified reorientation of the academic environment

towards the implementation of the third mission in the

concept of the national innovation system "triple

helix". Here, priority is given to commercialization

and the use of innovation as a result of educational

policy in order to ensure national security. At the

same time, the bias is made in favor of STEAM

education, which is gaining great popularity among

students of all levels. At the same time, the entire

educational system can count on significant federal

and, to a greater extent, regional assistance in the

development of digital infrastructure.

Specific innovations in the mainstream of US

education policy are as follows:

 creation and use of cloud data storage with free

access for students, students and teachers to

educational content, digital profiles, online

libraries, including libraries with reference

functions based on "rabbit holes";

 application in the field of educational

technologies of games and digital

metauniverses experimenting with augmented

reality, such as Minecraft Earth or the planned

multiplayer VR universe of Facebook Horizon,

which allows you to fully immerse yourself in

educational and working virtuality using

spatial sound and Oculus avatars;

 startup Lambda School, selling online

programming courses, and charging for them

only after the fact of employment for 2 years

and in the amount of 17% if the salary exceeds

$ 50 thousand per year. No work - no pay;

 practical implementation of 5G networks and

VR / AR technologies in educational processes

at all levels of education.

RTCOV 2021 - II International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference " COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals

(RTCOV )

210

In fact, China is not a country that formally leads

in innovative technologies (the country's ranking in

the GII 2021 is 12th place), however, the importance

of analyzing the experience of the PRC in the problem

area is that China is at the forefront of the world not

because of innovation as such. , but in view of the

successful copying of technologies, their functional

mimicry and adaptation. According to forecast data,

the country's GDP in 2021 will be about 16.64 trillion.

$, which makes China, in fact, the second largest

economy in the world and, at the same time, one of

the most diversified. Achieving similar results in a

country where most of the economic sector is under

state regulation would not be easy if it were not for

the optimal ways to modernize educational policy and

train personnel for the digital economy.

Since 2018, the Chinese government has been

actively pursuing a policy aimed at Education

Information 2.0, which has received an incredible

impetus for accelerated development in the context of

the pandemic.

As such, innovation in China's educational policy

is more process and methodological than

technological. However, the PRC has experience in

introducing innovative technologies into the

education system. For example, the launch in the

spring of 2020 of the largest online educational

platform iCourse international, which allows you to

study online courses from leading universities in

China (Beijing, Fudan, Zhejiang). There are 193

courses available in different directions: from

medicine and design to economics and virtual

modeling.

Russia is neither an innovative nor an economic

leader in comparison with the countries discussed

above. However, the pandemic did not pose a serious

threat to the educational system of the country as a

whole, and even contributed to its qualitative

modernization and the emergence of unique

innovative projects and technologies in the

educational policy track. By the Decree of the

President of the Russian Federation of July 21, 2020

No. 474 "On the national development goals of the

Russian Federation for the period up to 2030", the

transition to digital management is designated as one

of the leading development trends. Particular

emphasis is placed on the management of the quality

of education. So, during the pandemic, the leading

domestic universities set a course for the active

development of digital educational trajectories. This

was reflected in the advanced training of university

teachers, the development of specialized online

courses, the active inclusion of distance technologies

in the educational process and the implementation of

remote learning for the contingent of students and

listeners.

Thus, the Open Education platform was

popularized in the Russian Federation, which presents

massive online courses from leading Russian

universities. Another major platform, Coursera, has

intensified the virtual mobility of universities in the

formation of new forms of interaction with foreign

partners, which has included courses from the world's

leading universities in its functionality.

Particular attention in the state educational policy

is paid to the innovative experience of Russian

regions. In order to identify it, the authors conducted

a sociological study focused on determining the role

of innovation in the educational policy of the post-

pandemic period. The expert survey was attended by

representatives of the scientific and educational

community of higher educational institutions of the

Rostov region. The results of the survey show that the

majority of experts (25%) understand innovation in

the context of state educational policy as an

innovative and technological organization of

educational and scientific activities of a university.

The share of experts (11.5%) who reduce innovation

to the use of innovative techniques is smaller.

Another 7.7% believe that innovation in educational

policy is the use of ICT. Summing up, we can

conclude that 44% of experts tend to understand

innovation in educational policy as innovative ways,

tools and methods of organizing the scientific and

educational process, including its digitalization (Fig.

1).

The importance of the integrated functioning of

all of the above indicators is noted - 40.4% of the

respondents. This states the fact that innovation is a

collective concept arising from the modifications of

all educational components.

Innovative teaching methods deserve separate

consideration (Table 1).

48.1% of respondents believe that innovative

teaching methods can be reduced to the creation and

implementation of interactive curricula, new ways of

presenting and presenting educational material, the

creation of massive open online courses - MOOCs.

Another 34.6% of experts identified them as the

possibility of using Internet sites and 32.7% of those

simplified as technologies for organizing students'

independent work using electronic educational

resources. In fact, digital methods are considered by

most experts as innovative mechanisms for

organizing the educational process.

Transformation of the Role of Innovations in the State Educational Policy of the Post-pandemic Period

211

Figure 1: What do respondents understand by innovation in public education policy?

Table 1: Results of experts' answers to the question about the interpretation of the category of innovative teaching methods.

Innovative teaching methods

Interpretation of the concept Result

Creation and implementation of interactive educational programs, new ways of presenting and presenting

educational material, creation of massive open online courses - MOOCs

48,1 %

Interactive technologies or group teaching methods 36,5 %

The ability to use Internet sites in the educational process 34,6 %

Methodology for using game methods in teaching 32,7 %

The technology of organizing independent work of students using electronic educational resources,

electronic educational publications in Course-Lab and Moodle

32,7 %

Case-study as a methodology for solving specific situations - simulation; as simulated learning 26,9 %

Methodology for multimedia project training 23,1 %

Therefore, today it is not enough to traditionally

teach students, a teacher needs to continuously

improve his skills and abilities, constantly improve

his qualifications. All this optimizes the development

of our own content and technologies, including

procedures, protocols, rules for the implementation of

the educational process and regular professional

development of teaching staff in the field of distance

educational technologies in a remote format. An

equally important role in the educational process is

played by subject innovations generated within the

framework of R&D by university teachers (65.4%

according to an expert survey) and formed as a result

of R&D of leading universities (55.8%) (Fig. 2.).

5 THE DISCUSSION OF THE

RESULTS

The expert survey made it possible to identify areas

of the educational and scientific process that should

be prioritized. So, it is necessary to pay special

attention to the innovative and technological base of

the university, which is designed to become the basis

for an educational breakthrough. It is proposed to

improve the following technological sites:

 to increase the range of innovative material and

technical base: quantoriums, technoparks,

boiling points (71.2%);

RTCOV 2021 - II International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference " COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals

(RTCOV )

212

Figure 2: Ingredients of innovation and scientific breakthroughs.

 ensure the availability of special equipment for

innovative research (46.2%);

 to create a larger number of scientific

laboratories (including interuniversity ones)

and technology centers (44.2%);

 to increase the range of jobs and practice bases

for undergraduate and graduate students

through the creation of firms and joint ventures,

including with universities in other countries

(34.6%);

 to standardize the system of collective use

centers - the Center for Collective Use (11.5%).

Changes in the higher education system in Russia

after the lifting of restrictive measures related to the

pandemic will continue.

First of all, the transformations will affect the

requirements for the quality of the digital

organization of education and digital competencies of

graduates. Of course, the requirements for the

teaching staff will also undergo reorganization.

Changes are also possible of an organizational nature,

for example, a widespread reduction in the number of

universities with a parallel possibility of expanding

training remotely.

Based on the transformations outlined by us, the

directions of improving the state educational policy in

the post-pandemic period should become priorities in

terms of stimulating innovation, inducing the

technological leadership of the Russian Federation.

According to the respondents, they should be the

following areas:

 introduction of new pedagogical technologies

and methods (46.2%);

 improvement of existing and creation of

alternative programs, textbooks, teaching aids

and developments, etc. (32.7%);

 export of education (32.7);

 the organization of experimental work in the

educational process (25%);

 development of the continuous education

system (23.1%);

 creation of integration educational structures -

TSC, technology-innovative zone, business

incubators, technology parks; technopolises

(19.2%);

 individualization of education through the

creation of new educational institutions

(17.3%);

 ensuring a dominant position in the integration

of educational and research spheres (11.5%).

6 CONCLUSIONS

Summarizing the above, it becomes clear that the

process of digital transformation is fundamentally

changing the social structure of the higher education

system, slowly but surely turning it into a part of the

global network space. In a post-pandemic world, the

leading position will remain with countries that have

achieved digital supremacy and have ensured the

integration of the virtual world on their platforms.

This circumstance transforms the role of innovation

in educational policy, which is becoming a priority

area in terms of building the potential for the

generation and dissemination of future innovations.

Therefore, innovation is the result of educational

activities, on the one hand, and it is an innovative and

65,4

55,8

30,8 30,8

19,2

The results of the

research of the

teaching staff

introduced into the

educational process

Research results of

leading universities

Publications in

Scopus, Web of

Science

Laboratory tests on

Internet sites

Scientific discoveries

of Nobel laureates

Innovative achievements

Transformation of the Role of Innovations in the State Educational Policy of the Post-pandemic Period

213

technological infrastructure of universities, on the

other, capable of reproducing them.

Thus, in the post-pandemic period, the priorities

of educational policy from the point of view of the

generation and dissemination of innovations should

be:

 development of an efficient and effective

regulatory framework that provides a

qualitative assessment of the process and

results of digital education within the

framework of state educational policy;

 large-scale digitalization and modernization,

both of the organization of the educational and

scientific process in universities, as well as

technological renewal in them like "smart"

campuses;

 creation of our own (national) online

educational platforms and bringing them to the

world level of competitiveness, as well as to the

global markets of IT technologies, software

software and the EdTech industry;

 digital export of national higher education in

three directions: interstate interaction within

the framework of scientific diplomacy and

international scientific and technical

cooperation, the development of global

business networks for Russian companies and

the growth of the prestige of the Russian

education system;

 designing conditions for the development and

continuous improvement of the country's

scientific and pedagogical potential;

 popularization of the scientific sphere among

the younger generation in order to inflow

updated personnel capable of innovative

developments, search and implementation of

non-standard solutions to existing problems.

REFERENCES

Kondratyev, N.D., 1989. Problems of economic dynamics.

Moscow.

Schumpeter, J.A., 2008. The theory of economic

development. Capitalism, socialism and democracy.

Eksmo.

Isaeva, T.E., 2021. Competences and "electronic"

pedagogical culture of a teacher of higher education in

the post-pandemic world. Higher education in Russia,

30(6): p. 80-96.

Makeeva, T.V., Guryanchik, V.N. 2021. Distance

Learning: Innovation or Educational Simulator? Yalta,

No. 70(3): 45-49.

Tronina, I.A., Tatenko, G.I., Bakhtina, S.S., 2021.

Transformation of the university model as an element

of the regional innovation system. Scientific and

technical bulletins of the St. Petersburg State

Polytechnic University. Economic sciences, 14(4): 95-

109.

Bolgov, V.V., Garanin, M.A., Krasnova, E.A.,

Khristoforova, L.V., 2021. Post-pandemic education:

falling or preparing to jump? Higher education in

Russia, 30(7): 9-30.

Zhuravleva, I.A., 2021. Assessment of the implementation

of state educational policy (expert analysis). Sociology,

4: 63-74.

Lizunov, V.V., 2021. The role of modern universities in the

development of regions. The third mission of the

university. National priorities of Russia, 1(40): 66-75.

Ibatov, M.K., Pak, Yu.N., Zhetesova, G.S., Pak, D.Yu.

2021. Formation of an entrepreneurial university in the

context of modernization of education (experience of

Kazakhstan). Higher education in Russia, 30(2): 154-

168.

Wissema, J., 2009. Towards the Third Generation

University: Managing the University in Transition.

Northampton.

RTCOV 2021 - II International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference " COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals

(RTCOV )

214