Cognitive and affective outcomes in school effectiveness research

School effectiveness research has traditionally focused on basic cognitive pupil outcomes such as language and mathematics achievement. In this article however we address a research question that goes beyond this limited scope by studying both cognitive and affective outcomes of education in combination with each other. By looking at cognitive and affective outcomes at two different levels, i.e. school and the individual pupil, it is possible to make assertions about the relationship between the two outcome types at these levels. The main question in this study with respect to school effectiveness research is: ‘Can schools be both cognitive and affective effective?’

To answer this question a sample of 7,000 pupils in 212 primary schools in the Netherlands was used, providing information about cognitive, affective and pupil background variables. Firstly the relationship between affective and cognitive outcomes at pupil level is shown, using a LISREL model to show how these variables interact. Secondly the relative positions of schools with respect to their effectiveness in the cognitive and affective outcomes are compared in order to show the degree of consistency in the effectiveness of both outcome domains. These correlations appear to be small, but positive.