Developments in the educational effectiveness research programme

Educational effectiveness as a research programme moved from an input-output paradigm to an input-process-output paradigm and, in view of the fact that so-called contextual school effectiveness is gaining in importance, this might be more properly termed a context-input-process-output-based approach. The aim of this introductory chapter is to put the state of the art of educational effectiveness research into perspective by summarizing the most important developments in output measurement, the identification of relevant input-, process- and contextual conditions and the causal modeling of these categories. Specific consideration is given to the improvement of substantive multi-level models of educational effectiveness and to available theories that could help to reveal the explanatory mechanisms behind these models

Educational effectiveness and improvement in developing societies. Some experiences from the Primary Education Quality Improvement Project in Indonesia

The improvement of education in developing societies might benefit from theory and research on educational effectiveness. ... The research evidence points at the importance of factors at the classroom level and the relatively small possibilities that the school and the above school level have to influence those factors at the classroom level. This is illustrated by the evaluation of the primary education quality improvement project in Indonesia, a project that aimed at the improvement of education through teacher professional development, provision of textbooks, community participation and management of schools. The results tend to support the general feeling about educational effectiveness. Conclusions stress the importance of the development of knowledge by (inter)national consultants, the content of the intervention - educational effectiveness and improvement and the adaptation of the knowledge to national and local circumstances - and procedural and technical knowledge how to design, implement and evaluate educational interventions. (DIPF/orig.

In Search of School’s Sausative Power. Review of Research and Effective School Models

The article has a format of a review. As such, it focuses on previous research and proposals for effective school models developed on its basis. It has been recognised that the category of school effectiveness is hardly present in Polish pedagogy, and its implications for research and improvement of school work are significant. Therefore, familiarisation with global achievements in this area is deemed valuable as a motivational and inspirational factor for scientific research among pedagogues who deal with school issues. For this purpose, a critical review of selected effective school models, which are important in the development of educational research focused on improving both the school and the school system, was carried out. The article justifies the change of approach that has been introduced into this area, as well as delineates perspectives for further research and exploration

Improving quality and equity in schools in socially disadvantaged areas

Background: Recent effectiveness studies have investigated the relationship between two dimensions of effectiveness - namely, quality and equity. Specifically, the question of whether effective schools can also reduce the initial differences in student outcomes attributed to student background factors has been examined. In this context, the Dynamic Approach to School Improvement (DASI) makes use of theory and the research findings of effectiveness studies to try to improve school effectiveness in terms of quality and equity. Purpose: This study aimed to examine whether the implementation of DASI in primary schools in socially disadvantaged areas in four European countries (Cyprus, England, Greece and Ireland) was able to promote student learning outcomes in mathematics and to reduce the impact of student background factors on student achievement in mathematics. Design and methods: A sample of 72 primary schools across the four countries was randomly split into experimental and control groups. At the beginning and at the end of the school year, mathematics tests were administered to all students of Grades 4-6 (n = 5560; student ages 9-12 years). The experimental group made use of DASI. Within-country multilevel regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the impact of the intervention and search for interaction effects between the use of DASI and student background factors on final achievement. Results: In each country, the experimental group achieved better results in mathematics than the control group. At the beginning of the intervention, the achievement gap based on socio-economic status (SES) was equally large in the experimental and the control groups. Only in the experimental group did the achievement gap based on SES become smaller. However, DASI was not found to have an effect on equity when the equity dimension was examined by focusing on the achievement gap based on either gender or ethnicity. Conclusions: Implications of findings are drawn and the importance of measuring equity in terms of student achievement gaps based on different background factors, rather than only on SES, is emphasised. We propose the evaluation of the impact of interventions on promoting equity by the use of various criteria

Competence-based education and educational effectiveness: a critical review of the research literature on outcome-oriented policy making in education

Das Papier untersucht die empirische Evidenz zu den Ergebnissen von kompetenz-basierter Bildung oder Erziehung (competence-based education)und interpretiert auch die politische Behandlung dieses Ansatzes. Methodisch wird ein Review der Forschungsliteratur in bibliographischen Datenbasen und auch in praktisch orientierten Materialien auf Basis von Stichwortsuchen (die auch ‚outcomes‘ und ‚learning‘ umfassten) und inhaltlichen Auswertungen durchgeführt. Es ergibt sich, dass es kaum Forschung zu den Ergebnissen dieses Ansatzes gibt, obwohl dieser bereits seit den 1970ern in den USA verfochten wird. Paradoxerweise gibt es trotz dem starken politisch vorgebrachten Fokus auf Lernergebnisse in diesem pädagogischen Ansatz kaum eine Überprüfung von Ergebnissen der Praxis auf Basis dieses Ansatzes. (Autorenreferat)The paper assesses the empirical evidence for outcomes of competence-based education which are envisaged by policy-makers, and gives some interpretations of how the topic is handled in the political processes. This is achieved by a review of the research literature as documented in bibliographical databases which cover academic publications and in more practical material. The searches were generic, and included not only specific competence-expressions, but also terms as ‘outcomes’ and ‘learning’. The staggering conclusion of this exercise is that there is hardly any evidence for the effectiveness of competence-based education despite the long period since the 1970s when the approach came up in the US. Whether this is an artefact of the operationalization of the outcomes of competence-based education or not, it seems that there is only very little attention to testing the policy-assumptions that competence-based education is a worthy educational innovation. As this is quite disturbing, it is recommended that more efforts are being made to prove (or falsify) the putative added value of competence-based education initiatives. (author's abstract

Students’ comments about university teaching: which links with effectiveness models?

Se presentan los resultados de un análisis temático de contenido sobre 550 comentarios dentro un proceso de evaluación instruccional en estudiantes de la Universidad de Mons. Se buscan vínculos entre las características del profesor eficaz según los estudiantes y una revisión de la literatura científica, contemplando, en primer lugar, la enseñanza efectiva en la educación primaria y secundaria, y en segundo lugar, se expone la valoración de las instrucciones acerca de los profesores en la educación superior. Los resultados informan de una relación entre los comentarios de los estudiantes y las instrucciones docentes, y que la gestión de aula del profesor dobla en dos veces a sus características personales (por ejemplo, sentido del humor).  Aquest treball presenta els resultats d'una anàlisi temàtica de contingut sobre 550 comentaris realitzats per estudiants, com a part d'un procés d'avaluacióinstruccional amb estudiants de la Universitat de Mons. Es persegueix establir un vincle entre les principals característiques del professor eficaç vistes pels estudiants i una revisió de la literatura científica contemplant, en primer lloc, l'ensenyament efectiu en l'educació primària i en la secundària, per a passar en segon lloc, a exposar la valoració dels estudiants sobre les instruccions dels seus professors en l'educació superior. Els resultats informen d'una relació entre els comentaris dels estudiants i les instruccions docents, i que la gestió d'aula del professor doblega en dues vegades a les seues característiques personals (per exemple, sentit de l'humor).This article presents the results of the thematic content analysis of 550 comments written by students as part of the student evaluation of instruction at the University of Mons. It also seeks to establish a link between the characteristics of the effective teacher as seen by students and a review of the literature on, firstly, effective teaching at the primary and secondary education, and secondly, student evaluation of instruction in higher education. The results indicate that students’ comments relate to the teacher’s instruction and class management twice as commonly as to their personal characteristics (e.g. sense of humour).