In this insightful presentation, Dr Moore will delve into data from a school survey conducted by the Young Lives study (University of Oxford) in 2016-17 to investigate educational effectiveness in three lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs): Ethiopia, India and Vietnam.
The presentation will revolve around three central questions:
1. What is meant by school or teacher effectiveness?
2. Which schools and teachers in these three countries are most effective?
3. And to what extent are they equally effective for all children?
Utilising the repeated-measures design of the Young Lives school surveys, and the cross-country comparable nature of the data, the presentation explores how methods of educational effectiveness analysis can be used to gain a greater understanding of school and teacher performance in these contexts. With learning levels frequently considered to be ‘in crisis’ in Ethiopia and India, and identified as unexpectedly high in Vietnam, the findings presented will offer the opportunity for discussion and reflection on what educational effectiveness looks like in diverse and varied contexts, whether the factors associated with effectiveness are consistent across different locations, and the extent to which effectiveness can also be said to indicate equity within education.
Discussant
The lecture will be followed by a discussion led by Research Professor Trude Nilsen. She will provide a comparative perspective by sharing her expertise on educational effectiveness within the Norwegian context. She will explore how the concepts and findings presented by Dr. Moore resonate with, and differ from, the educational dynamics in Norway. This discussion aims to enrich our understanding by juxtaposing the educational challenges and strategies of lower- and middle-income countries with those in a high-income country setting. It will also offer an opportunity for attendees to engage in a comparative analysis, fostering a broader understanding of global educational effectiveness.
The speaker
Dr Rhiannon Moore is a Lecturer in Education at The Open University (UK), where she works mainly on the distance-learning master’s in education Inclusive Practice pathway. Prior to joining the OU, Rhiannon worked as an education researcher for ten years, with a particular interest in research relating to student learning, teacher capacity, and teacher professional development in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This most recently included work on the design and implementation of a large-scale school survey undertaken in three countries (Ethiopia, India and Vietnam) as part of the Young Lives study (based at the University of Oxford).
Rhiannon completed her doctoral research at the University of Bristol with a mixed methods thesis exploring the role of teacher motivation, professional knowledge, and classroom practice on student learning in southern India. Her current research interests include preservice teacher training, teacher motivation, and measures of teacher ‘effectiveness’, particularly in lower and middle-income country contexts.