Dr. Raven's research concerns are with the nature, development, and assessment of competence and the management of public provision, especially the management of the educational system and the arrangements needed for sustainability.
The importance of Dr. Raven's research - published in many books and journal articles - is now widely recognised. He has recently lectured in Japan, China, India, Australia, Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Holland, Poland, Italy, Czechoslovakia, and Russia.
His most striking findings fall into five areas:
- The nature of competence.
He concludes that high-level competencies are heavily value-laden. Further, that political competence is the most important neglected competence in modern society. The development and assessment of such competencies poses serious dilemmas. Nevertheless, the lack of such qualities presents enormous problems for our society and the organisations of which it is composed.
- The nature and development of the ability to perceive and form orderly judgments.
He finds that this ability has been increasing at such a rate that 50% of our grandparents would be certifiable as in need of special education if assessed against today's norms. Yet, strikingly, scores on the Raven Progressive Matrices in most of the countries mentioned above are remarkably similar at any point in time. The first of these results indicates that "intelligence" is a great deal more malleable than most people had thought. The second that the relevant variables are not educational, but possibly have more to do with nutrition and hygiene.
- The barriers to effective education.
He shows that the most important barriers to effective education are far removed from the symptoms of malaise that are so obvious. They have to do with the value-laden nature of the main qualities to be fostered and society's inability to come to terms with the dilemmas which this poses. These problems are exacerbated by the sociological functions which the educational system performs for society.
- The effective management of the educational system.
His work shows that the prevalent view that the educational system is to be managed through centralised prescription of goals followed by testing to check up on teachers is misguided. Instead it is necessary to create a vibrant and innovative educational system. This requires the creation within the system of the time, the expectations, and the competencies which are required for innovation. And it requires a new interface with the public - new forms of bureaucracy and democracy.
- The Societal Learning and Management Arrangements Required for Sustainability.
Adam Smith noted that any proposal for public management which assumed "wise men" was doomed because it is impossible to know what the outcome of activities initiated by one set of people on the basis of one set of (necessarily incomplete) information will be as they engage with the effects of actions initiated by others. His market proposal was for a system which experimented and learned without anyone having to know very much. Having shown that neither market management nor current forms of public management actually operate in the long-term public interest, Dr. Raven brings to bear the results of his work on the management of the educational system to identify the developments in democracy and bureaucracy that are required to move forward.
Dr. Raven is currently devoting as much time as his other commitments will allow to work on the civic beliefs, staff appraisal systems, and institutional arrangements which are required to run modern societies effectively. Much of this is being carried out on a cross-cultural basis. In addition, work is currently in hand to refine the Edinburgh Competency Statement Blanks, a computerised version of the Edinburgh Questionnaires, and a School Improvement Kit. All three attempt to implement more appropriate forms of assessment. In addition the latter allows teachers to assess, and identify ways of improving, the quality of the developmental environments they create in their classrooms and school districts to assess, and identify ways of improving, the climate for innovation within the district and the quality of its interface with the community.