Educational effectiveness research as the knowledge base of improving education

Discussing the strategies to improve and maintain the quality of education has been the concern of various education stakeholders. this paper offers a comprehensive review on educational effectiveness research (eer),which provides theory-driven and evidence-based information on what and how to improve the educational context. several key words such as eer,factors influencing student outcomes,and the dynamic model of educational effectiveness research are used to find relevant literature. the dynamic model considered to be the most influential theoretical construct in the field has four levels: the national,the school,the classroom,and the student level. the classroom level is emphasized while the national and school levels are expected to provide necessary conditions for the effectiveness of the classroom level. there are eight factors in the classroom level and the teaching skills included in these factors could be divided into five stages,ranging from easy to more difficult skills. this paper suggests there is a need to improve education through teacher improvement programs,and five stages of teaching quality in the dynamic model is used to offer individually-tailored teacher development programs. in this way,school improvement efforts could offer a space for testing theories derived from eer. finally,it is important to include student non-cognitive outcomes as parameters to measure the effectiveness of education,yet future studies should attempt to identify specific and measurable variables belonging to non-cognitive outcomes that are clearly attributed to schools. © universiti putra malaysia press.