The relative importance of school discipline and education investment on competitiveness: the mediating role of educational performance

The purpose of this study is to combine seemingly unrelated factors to partly explain global competitiveness. The study argues that school discipline and education investment affect competitiveness with the association being mediated by educational performance. Partial Least Square (PLS) modelling is used to analyse the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data and the World Bank Government Expenditure on Education data to explain World Economic Forum (WEF) data on competitiveness. Five dimensions of school discipline (students listening well, noise levels, teacher waiting time, students working well, class start time) are hypothesised to affect academic performance in reading, math and science, and to ultimately impact competitiveness. Findings confirm the relative importance of school discipline (88%) in comparison to education investment (12%) on educational performance, with both variables also being found to be significantly associated with competitiveness indirectly. This study demonstrates further the time effects of discipline, more specifically that discipline dimensions (students listen well in 2003 and students work well in 2009) are associated with competitiveness in 2012. Implications for school policy and further research are also discussed.