ABSTRACT
We have, in this book, ranged across nine countries and four continents in our search to understand issues to do with ‘what works’. One of our goals has also been to attempt to answer questions as to ‘why’ certain things may work. When we began this study, the education debate was becoming internationalised with the possibility being increasingly realised that other countries’ schooling practices might be useful in educational reform in different countries. We also noted that the school effectiveness discipline had recently neglected to further research its core – namely, ‘what works’ in promoting positive pupil achievement and whether ‘what works’ needs to be quantitatively and qualitatively different in different social settings. We also noted the criticisms of school effectiveness research and the need for the discipline therefore to move forward.
