• A synthesis of effectiveness studies conducted during the fourth phase of Educational Effectiveness Research (EER)

Our research team has conducted a synthesis of effectiveness studies conducted during the fourth phase of EER. The results of this synthesis help to identify how to improve further the dynamic model of educational effectiveness, especially since the studies presented in this synthesis were carried out soon after the development of the dynamic model. More specifically, our research team conducted a search of the following databases to identify studies seeking to find factors that explain variation in student learning outcomes: Social Sciences Citation Index, and SCOPUS. We also carefully examined volumes of education-focused, peer-reviewed journals with an interest in EER and school improvement, including the journals School Effectiveness and School Improvement, Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, Teaching and Teacher Education, Studies in Educational Evaluation, Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, and British Educational Research Journal. Our search was based on the following key words: educational effectiveness, teacher effectiveness, school effectiveness, SLE, quality of teaching, and instructional effectiveness.

The following criteria for selecting and including studies were used. Firstly, we only selected studies conducted from 2005 to 2017, which were published in English and had been purposely designed to investigate the association of specific factor(s) with any type of student learning outcome. Secondly, the studies had to include explicit measures of student achievement in relation to cognitive, affective or psychomotor outcomes of schooling. In addition, these studies provided information about the validity of the instruments/methods used to measure student outcomes. Studies that aimed to measure other types of outcome, such us students’ metacognitive skills, were also included, but information on the validity of the instruments used was a requirement.

Using the approach described above, we initially identified 329 studies but of those only 160 met the selection criteria for this synthesis. These 160 studies were conducted in different countries around the world and are listed here. [Find the PDF file “Studies included in the synthesis of effectiveness studies in Ch.4”]

Characteristics of studies investigating the effect of factors included in the dynamic model used for this synthesis as well as the characteristics of studies investigating the effect of factors not included in the dynamic model used for this synthesis can be found here. [Find the pdf file “Table 1 and Table 2”]

The results of this synthesis of studies can be found in Chapter 4 of the book "Kyriakides, L., Creemers, B.P.M, Panayiotou, A., & Charalambous, E. (2021). Quality and Equity in Education: Revisiting Theory and Research on Educational Effectiveness and Improvement. London and New York: Routledge".

• A synthesis of teacher and school improvement studies examining the effects on student learning outcomes

Our research team has conducted a synthesis of improvement studies seeking to identify the effects of interventions on student learning outcomes conducted during the last 12 years (i.e., from 2005 – 2017). The aim of this synthesis is to search for links between current research on teacher and school improvement and research on using the dynamic approach (DA) to promote quality and equity in education. More specifically, our research team conducted a search of the Social Sciences Citation Index and SCOPUS to identify teacher and school improvement studies that investigated the impact of specific improvement approaches on student learning outcomes. We also carefully examined volumes of education-focused peer-reviewed journals with a focus on teacher and school improvement, including the journals School Effectiveness and School Improvement, Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, Teaching and Teacher Education, Studies in Educational Evaluation, Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability and British Educational Research Journal. Our search was based on the following key words: teacher improvement, teacher professional development, school improvement, educational change, promoting quality in education, and promoting equity in education.

The following criteria for selecting and including studies were used: firstly, we only selected studies conducted from 2005 to 2017 which were published in English and had been purposely designed to measure the impact of specific teacher and/or school interventions (i.e., improvement projects) on student learning outcomes. Secondly, the studies had to include explicit measures of student achievement in relation to cognitive, affective or psychomotor outcomes of schooling. Studies that aimed to measure other types of outcome, such as students’ metacognitive skills, were also included, but information on the validity of the instruments used was a requirement.

Using the approach described above, we managed to identify 73 studies that investigated the impact of teacher and/or school improvement projects on student learning outcomes conducted in different countries around the world. These studies are listed in here. [Find the pdf file “Studies included in the synthesis of teacher and school improvement studies in Ch.7”]

The results of this synthesis of studies can be found in Chapter 7 of the book "Kyriakides, L., Creemers, B.P.M, Panayiotou, A., & Charalambous, E. (2021). Quality and Equity in Education: Revisiting Theory and Research on Educational Effectiveness and Improvement. London and New York: Routledge".

• A meta-analysis of teacher and school evaluation studies: A step for proposing effective teacher and school evaluation mechanisms

This meta-analysis of 156 international studies investigates the extent to which research on teacher and school evaluation covers the main aspects of a comprehensive framework on teacher and school evaluation. It also emphasizes the international dimension of research on teacher and school evaluation. The list of studies included in this meta-analysis can be found here.

• Searching for the impact of national culture dimensions on student achievement: Implications for educational effectiveness research