Continuing towards international perspectives in Educational Effectiveness Research

The final chapter of this book identifies five themes that run across the previous chapters and then uses these to signpost future directions for Educational Effectiveness Research (EER) and for the continuing development of international perspectives within EER. The five themes include:1. That reciprocal relationships exist between EER and International Large Scale Assessment studies.2. That ‘context stripping’ is a particularly prominent hazard to international perspectives in EER.3. That both individual investigations in EER and the field itself need to consider ways in which they can achieve greater contextual awareness.4. That EER is continuing to expand its development of theories of effective education.5. That the range of student outcomes investigated by EER continues to expand. By drawing upon these five themes, the contributions within this volume and papers published previously, a new heuristic device is proposed to help researchers scope the field of EER and to signpost directions for their research. For example, by suggesting alternative contexts that might be investigated in order to evaluate the possibility of differential educational effectiveness. Towards the continuing development of EER’s international perspective, the consequences from the five common themes of this book are then discussed, as is the importance of a continued critical appraisal as to the uses and consequences of EER research methods, the role of international organisations (including the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement; ICSEI), and implications for school improvement