Research and scholarship into educational effectiveness research (EER) is comprehensively reviewed from the UK, The Netherlands, the US, Cyprus, Belgium, Sweden, France, Germany, New Zealand, ...Australia, and other societies, dating from the field's origins in the 1970s. Issues include its history, methodological and theoretical advances, scientific properties of school effects, processes at school and classroom level behind these effects, the somewhat limited translation of findings into policy and practice across the world, and future directions for research and practice in EER and for all of the discipline more generally. Future research needs are argued to be a further concentration upon teaching/teachers, more longitudinal studies, more work on possible context specificity, exploration of the cross-level transactions between schools and their teachers/classrooms, the adoption of "efficiency" as well as "effectiveness" as outcome measures, and a renewed focus upon the education of the disadvantaged, the original focus of our discipline when it began.
This article presents a discussion of mixed methods (MM) sampling techniques. MM sampling involves combining well-established qualitative and quantitative techniques in creative ways to answer ...research questions posed by MM research designs. Several issues germane to MM sampling are presented including the differences between probability and purposive sampling and the probability-mixed-purposive sampling continuum. Four MM sampling prototypes are introduced: basic MM sampling strategies, sequential MM sampling, concurrent MM sampling, and multilevel MM sampling. Examples of each of these techniques are given as illustrations of how researchers actually generate MM samples. Finally, eight guidelines for MM sampling are presented. Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright holder.
A controversy in the mixed methods community concerns the existence of core characteristics of the field. The authors believe that contemporary characteristics exist, which will evolve as advances in ...the research field emerge. The authors discuss four characteristics and issues related to them. Methodological eclecticism describes mixed methodologists as connoisseurs of methods who expertly employ qualitative/quantitative techniques in their toolbox. Pedagogical and practical issues are considered in terms of how mixed methodologists are trained to conduct research. The second characteristic, paradigm pluralism, rejects the “incompatibility thesis” that had linked theoretical with methodological traditions. The authors contend that more than one paradigm can underlie mixed methods and discuss this further. The section on an integrative, cyclical approach to research discusses the contexts of justification and discovery and their interrelationship. The final characteristic is a set of research designs and analytical processes that were developed by mixed methodologists and distinguish it from other traditions.
School effectiveness research has emerged from virtual total obscurity to a now central position in the educational discourse that is taking place within many countries... There is now a widespread ...assumption that schools affect childrens' development, that there are regularities in the schools that 'add value', and that the task of educational policies is to improve all schools in general and the more ineffective schools in particular. With an emphasis on North America, Britain, Australia and the Third World, the authors of this comprehensive handbook review the educational research evidence collected on 'what makes a good school' and 'how to make schools good'. The authors analyse the relationship between School Effectiveness Research and other movements such as Teacher Effectiveness Research and School Improvement... The handbook covers the foundations of the field as well as the cutting-edge areas that are currently exciting interest. With material from over eighty countries, reflected in 1,500 references, this is a much needed handbook. (DIPF/orig.).
Van Houtte (2005) called for clarification of the terms "school culture" and "school climate" and the role of each in school effectiveness research. This article presents a theoretical framework for ...school culture that asserts that it is a context-specific branch of organizational culture comprised of 4 dimensions and 3 levels. This conceptualization presents school climate as the second level of school culture. The article explains the qualitative analytical process that led to the development and verification of the Comprehensive Model of School Culture. The concept of culture presented here is contrasted with statements about school culture made by Van Houtte. Implications for research and further theoretical development are discussed at the end of the article. (Contains 6 figures, 5 tables and 1 note.)
A new line of research has emerged that examines the prevalence rates of mixed methods within disciplines in the social/behavioral sciences. Research presented in this article is unique in that it ...examines prevalence rates across multiple disciplines using an established cross-disciplinary classification scheme. Results indicate that there are significant differences in the methods employed (quantitative, mixed, qualitative) in pure (psychology, sociology) as opposed to applied (education, nursing) disciplines. The prevalence rate for mixed methods research is higher in applied (16%) compared with pure disciplines (6%). Quantitative methods and the underlying postpositivistic paradigm are prevalent in articles from ‘‘elite’’ journals from pure disciplines, especially psychology. Methodological issues are discussed, including the importance of the sampling procedures employed in prevalence rates studies.
A major focus of the Louisiana School Effectiveness Study has been the search for characteristics of exemplary schooling in varied economic contexts. In this paper differential results of analyses of ...effective, typical, and ineffective schools in middle and low socioeconomic neighborhoods are presented. Implications for practitioners and for future research are discussed.
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