Mozambican learner’s achievement results

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CHAPTER 3: THEORY AND PREVIOUS RESEARCH

In search of possible explanations for the observed decrease in learner performance between 2000 and 2009 this research attempts to make use of the theoretical ideas and empirical findings in Educational Effectiveness Research (EER). This strand of research encompass all the factors within schools in particular, and the educational system in general, that might affect the learning outcomes of students in both their academic and social development (Reynolds et al., 2014).
Teddlie (1994) points out that most of EER have involved phenomena that occur throughout the school, with little emphasis on particular teaching behaviours within individual classrooms, while most teacher effectiveness studies have been concerned only with the processes that occur within classrooms, to the exclusion of school-wide factors. Therefore, the use of term ‘Educational Effectiveness’, rather than ‘teacher and/or School Effectiveness’, emphasises the importance of conducting joint school and teacher effectiveness research, which can help identify interactions between the school, classroom and student levels and their contributions to explaining variation in student outcomes, both academic and non-cognitive (Creemers, Kyriakides & Sammons, 2010,).
This review of EER is guided by the research question “What are the systemic contextual factors associated with changes in Educational Effectiveness between 2000 and 2007 in Mozambique?”, examining the strengths and limitations of the various perspectives on what constitutes EER effective schools, with a focus on developing countries. Firstly, this chapter presents an overview of studies of EER in developed and developing countries, with focus on the latter in arguing for a conceptual framework appropriate to address the research question. A critique of the EER is also presented and analysed looking for its merits and shortcomings. The role of international assessment studies in informing the education quality debate is also discussed, (Howie & Plomp, 2005), especially within the UNESCO framework of Education For All (EFA) goals²⁹ (UNESCO, 2000). Finally, it focuses on previous EER in Mozambique, pointing out the gaps and shed some light on the problem.

Educational Effectiveness Research in developed countries

Creemers, Kyriakides and Sammons (2010) summarise the theoretical development of EER in four sequential waves, each having addressed different types of research questions. During the first wave, in the early 1980s, the focus was mainly on the size of school effects. The field of school effectiveness research EER was established by showing that ‘school matters’, questioning Coleman’s (1966) argument that school makes little difference to learner achievement compared to the learner’s social background. Research by Scheerens and Bosker in early 1980 has shown up differences in the impact that particular teachers and schools have on student outcomes and how important it is for students to have effective teachers³⁰ and schools, and that school and teacher effects tend to be larger for disadvantaged groups (Scheerens & Bosker 1997). By using multilevel regression models it was possible to estimate how schools differ in terms of student outcomes when they are more or less equal in terms of the innate abilities and socio-economic background of their students (Creemers, Kyriakides & Sammons, 2010).
The second wave of EER, in later 1980 and early 1990s, emerged from the need to find factors associated with student outcomes that help to explain differences in the effectiveness of schools. A list of factors were treated as characteristics of effective teachers and schools (Creemers, Kyriakides & Sammons, 2010) The most relevant aspects of these studies were the attempts to open the “black box” of the school (Kannapel & Clements, 2005), studying the characteristics related to school organisation, form and content. These studies were aimed to investigate the effects of:

Strong educational leadership
Emphasis on acquiring basic skills
An orderly and secure environment
High expectation of learner attainment
Frequent assessment of learner progress

The third wave, in the late 1990s to early 2000s, was characterised by numerous attempts to explore the reasons why schools had different effects on outcomes/learner achievement. The development of theoretical models that show why specific factors are important in explaining variation in student outcomes (Creemers, Kyriakides & Sammons, 2010).
The research, which includes comparative studies, surveys, and conceptual multi-level analysis, has been used to interpret the results. Figure 3.1 (below) shows the framework of the models used for school effectiveness analysis, representing an integrated model that combines the major strands of educational effectiveness. The model describe the key variables at the appropriate ‘layer’ or level of school functioning (the school environment, the level of school organisation and management, the classroom level and the level of the individual student). The school context underpins the processes at school and classroom level, which in turn influences the output.
Results from cross-national studies using multi-level analysis have shown a larger school effect on learner academic performance in less developed countries in comparison to developed countries. Meanwhile, learners’ social background is more associated with school performance in developed countries than in developing countries (Heyneman & Loxley, 1976). The study by Riddell (1997) showed that differences between schools in developing countries accounted for 40% of the student achievement variance, whilst Howie (2000) found 55% of variance was explained between schools in South Africa.
It is also important that in the third wave of EER, path models emerged as an approach to assess the interrelation between the factors influencing school effectiveness. For Silins and Mulford (2002, p.431), the path model “represents the concepts and their interrelation as an attempt to bring them in structured and meaningful order that more closely represent the complexity of the reality way”. They also point out that model-building in education research involves the generation of hypotheses based on prior research and theoretical assumptions. The path model can provide the factors with direct and indirect effect on outcomes that could be considered in programmes of school improvement. Silins and Muldorf, (2004) applied path models to examine the nature of organisational learning and the leadership practices and processes that foster organisational learning in high schools and, in particular, the relationship of teacher leadership to organisational learning and to student outcomes.
In the fourth wave, the link between EER and effectiveness school improvement (ESI) was a new trend of EER, particularly after 2000 (Creemers, Kyriakides & Sammons, 2010). The research questions underlying EER are “what works?” and “why?”, while school improvement research was “practice and policy oriented and intended to change education to a desirable direction” (Creemers, 2002, p.333). EER is a source of knowledge, to know what works in school that could be used for school improvement.
CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Mozambican learner’s achievement results
1.3 Problem statement of the study
1.4 Rationale and significance of the study within Mozambique context
1.5 Challenges facing the education system .
1.6 Research questions
1.7 Structure of the thesis
CHAPTER 2: EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT
2.1 Socio-economic context
2.2 School system
2.3 Educational reforms
2.4 Summary
CHAPTER 3: THEORY AND PREVIOUS RESEARCH
3.1 Educational Effectiveness Research in developed countries
3.2 Strengths and Weaknesses with EER
3.3 International assessment studies in developing countries .
3.4 Exploring the relationships among Educational Effectiveness factors
3.5 Factors influencing Educational Effectiveness in Mozambique
3.6 Summary and conclusions
CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
4.1 SACMEQ studies
4.2 Sample
4.3 SACMEQ instrument design
4.4 Missing data analysis
4.5 Conceptual framework
4.6 Statistical approach.
4.7 Summary
CHAPTER 5: PERFORMANCE OF MOZAMBICAN LEARNERS AND CONTEXTUAL FACTORS
5.1 Methodology
5.2 Grade 6 Performance Changes in Language and Mathematics between 2000 and 2007
5.3 Variation between regions of learner’s achievement score, education access and poverty indicators
5.4 Changes in school input variables between 2000 and 2007
5.5 Changes in learning process supportive variables between 2000 and 2007
5.6 Changes in learner’s intake composition between 2000 and 2007 .
5.7 Summary
CHAPTER 6: FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH LEARNER’S ACHIEVEMENT
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Methodological approach
6.3 Building the hierarchical linear model
6.4 Variables selected for the HLM-analyses
6.5 Variables associated with learner’s reading achievement change between 2000 and in 2007
6.6 Estimating the effects of learner’s background, school inputs and processes on decrease in Reading achievement between 2000 and 2007
6.7 Variables associated with learner’s mathematics achievement change between 2000 and in 2007
6.8 Explanatory power of learner’s background, school inputs and processes on decrease in Mathematics achievement
6.9 Summary
CHAPTER 7: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Conceptual framework
7.3 Statistical approach
7.4 Main findings
7.5 Discussion, reflections and conclusions
7.6 Direction of future research
REFERENCES
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