CHAPTER 4: Western Educational Research: A Basis for Educational Reforms in Asia?

Educational reformers now have a plethora of research which has identified what works in Western classrooms. Thus, the review by Hattie (2005) reported a synthesis of over 500 meta-analyses involving 450,000 effectsizes from 180,000 studies, representing over 20 million students on various influences on student achievement. This analysis included more than 100 factors influencing educational achievement and covered various aspects of those typically identified, such as attributes of schools, homes, students, teachers, and curricula. The average or typical effect of schooling was .40 (se = .05) and this provided a benchmark figure or “standard” from which to judge the various influences on achievement, such as that of feedback. The variables which had the strongest relationship were direct instruction, .93; reciprocal teaching, .86; feedback of assessment, .79; and students’ prior cognitive ability, .71. Factors such as socioeconomic influences, .44; homework, .41; and use of calculators, .24, were only moderate influences. Thus, there is a massive amount of data producing clear evidence of which instructional approaches are likely to be most effective in Western educational settings in terms of improving student learning outcomes. Such evidence should and has sometimes been used to inform educational reforms in Western countries. But are these findings relevant for Asia?