ABSTRACT
In Chapter 2 it was argued that the different attempts of researchers within the field of EER to identify factors associated with student achievement and to explain how and why these factors influence the effectiveness status of schools start from different theoretical origins. It was also claimed that the organisational structural tradition and the learning and teaching orientations of effectiveness research should be combined. This was attributed to the fact that the organisational approach of educational effectiveness promotes actions to be taken at the level of the teaching and learning process. Similarly, the effectiveness models which are based on theories on learning (and teaching) also need the organisational approach, because education in schools is not simply about the learning of individual students and/or teaching by one individual teacher. Effective learning and teaching require schools to be effective organisations. In this context, during the past decade researchers have attempted to integrate the findings of research on the three disciplinary perspectives of EER and to develop theoretical models (e.g. Creemers, 1994; Scheerens, 1992; Slater and Teddlie, 1992; Stringfield and Slavin, 1992) that have a multilevel structure.
