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What is “Nudging” and How Does it Change Behaviour in Education? [Learning Brief]

Koomar, S. - 2024 - EdTech Hub

This Learning Brief is part of the EdTech Hub Learning Brief Series, providing practical resources for people working to improve the use of technology in education. In this brief, we look at the behaviour change strategy of leveraging concise messages at strategic decision points (i.e., ‘nudging’) to influence the behaviour of a recipient towards a desired outcome. We focus on EdTech Hub’s work concerning nudge messaging. It builds on work from messaging interventions in Ghana and Kenya,...

Radio is one of the most affordable educational technologies available for the use in education and development in developing countries. This article explores the use of school radio broadcast to assist teachers and pupils to learn and improve English language both written and spoken in Kenyan primary schools. English language occupies a central place in formal education in Kenya. It is one of the compulsory subjects in both primary (aged six to 13 years) and secondary education (aged 14 to...

Investigating the Impact of Content Repetition on Digital Personalised Learning Tools for Early Grade Learners (Evidence Brief No. 3)

Sun, C., Daltry, R., Major, L., & Friedberg, A. - 2025 - EdTech Hub

This is the third in a series of evidence briefs, reporting on four A/B/n tests which explore different features to enhance digital personalised learning (DPL) tools. This brief investigates the impact of repeating learning content for pre-primary learners on learner device usage and learning outcomes. The A/B test found that content repetition had an impact on literacy and numeracy outcomes for PP2 learners. PP2 learners’ usage of the DPL tool was significantly reduced with content...

Optimising Session Duration on Digital Personalised Learning Tools for Early Grade Learners (Evidence Brief No. 1)

Sun, C., Moustafa, N., Daltry, R., … Friedberg, A. - 2025 - EdTech Hub

This is the first in a series of evidence briefs, reporting on four A/B/n tests which explore different features to enhance digital personalised learning (DPL) tools. This brief investigates the optimal number of minutes for pre-primary learners on a classroom-integrated digital personalised learning tool to optimise learning outcomes. The A/B/C test found different levels of session duration impacted on literacy and numeracy outcomes, with the findings for numeracy dependent on grade level....

This study examined the disaster management preparedness in the education sector in Kenya, with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic period. The study adopted destktop literature review for data collection. The collected data pertains e-learning in Kenya and in other countries during the time of  the novel coronavirus pandemic. Notably, the education sector, like in many other countries, seeks to actualise the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in line with the United Nations and the Education...

School mapping consists of the building of geospatial databases of educational, demographic and socioeconomic data for educational institutions in order to support educational planning and decision making. Such databases contain data such as the geographic location of schools, the numbers of existing schools of different levels in the public and private sectors, their capacities, physical condition and facilities, enrolment and the number of teachers and their attributes. Also often included...

Girls in Kenya commonly face multiple barriers to school attendance. At the same time, mobile phone use is growing throughout the country, and particularly in urban centres including Nairobi. As this technology spreads, the possibility increases of people using mobile phones for their own development purposes, including for education and learning. This article examines mobile phone use by girls at one secondary school in Nairobi, and in particular their attempts to mediate interrupted school attendance using this technology.

The Future of EMIS: A Public Financial Management Perspective [Working Paper]

Cresswell, S., Long, C., & Fraser, A. - 2023 - EdTech Hub

Policymakers in low- and lower-middle-income countries are in a bind: while more complex EMIS designs may make processes more likely to fail following donor exit, simple EMIS designs do not provide enough information to track the effects of reforms and progress addressing the learning crisis. Even for basic measures, EMIS appear to generate inaccurate data in many cases. Reflections on EMIS implementation challenges point to demand and supply issues, with the former being the more...

Kenya is at the cusp of a “demographic dividend” that could change the country’s fortunes in the first half of the 21st century, but only if the country takes the right steps towards investing in its youth.

Performance in Mathematics in secondary school Education in Kenya remains poor. Consequently the Kenya secondary school examination (KCSE) Mathematics results continue to cause concern to all the stakeholders in the education sector. Therefore, there is serious and urgent need for intervention. Although research has indicated that computer-assisted instruction (CAI) enhances student achievement, promotes positive attitudes towards Mathematics and instruction, and improves interpersonal...

While the impressive school participation impacts of Universal Primary Education policies in Sub-Saharan Africa are widely recognized, attempts to measure learning gains from schooling remain minimal. Utilizing a unique international test score dataset, we measure and explain grade six reading and math learning outcomes in Kenya. By comparing competences between public and private schools before and after the introduction of free primary education, we find large achievement declines and...

The study aimed at investigating the preparedness and attitude of ECDE teachers in preschools, and find out the current situation as far as ICT is concerned. The researchers adopted descriptive design. To obtain information on the current status of the ICT on whether there was any significant difference in preschool teachers’ preparedness in terms of age, qualifications, and experience on ICT. 52 preschool teachers were randomly selected and a questionnaire administered to them. The data was...

The study aimed at investigating the preparedness and attitude of ECDE teachers in preschools, and find out the current situation as far as ICT is concerned. The researchers adopted descriptive design. To obtain information on the current status of the ICT on whether there was any significant difference in preschool teachers' preparedness in terms of age, qualifications, and experience on ICT. 52 preschool teachers were randomly selected and a questionnaire administered to them. The data was...

To the extent that students benefit from high-achieving peers, tracking will help strong students and hurt weak ones. However, all students may benefit if tracking allows teachers to better tailor their instruction level. Lower-achieving pupils are particularly likely to benefit from tracking when teachers have incentives to teach to the top of the distribution. We propose a simple model nesting these effects and test its implications in a randomized tracking experiment conducted with 121...

The onset of COVID-19 made governments and other education actors prioritize distance learning, particularly through education technologies (EdTechs). Most sub-Saharan African countries adopted and adapted this approach. This paper examines the extent of EdTechs’ deployment in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic among marginalized and vulnerable populations. A cross-sectional study design was adopted for the study from which this paper drew its data, with both secondary and primary data...

Girls in Kenya commonly face multiple barriers to school attendance. At the same time, mobile phone use is growing throughout the country, and particularly in urban centres including Nairobi. As this technology spreads, the possibility increases of people using mobile phones for their own development purposes, including for education and learning. This article examines mobile phone use by girls at one secondary school in Nairobi, and in particular their attempts to mediate interrupted school attendance using this technology.

The use of Short Messaging Service (SMS) for education has grown in recent years, drawing particular attention to supporting school-level learners, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This renewed interest has prompted questions about how this form of educational technology could be used in the longer term. However, despite being used in many Covid-19 responses, there are few documented examples of innovative applications in this field during the pandemic, which represents a gap in the literature....

Integrated early childhood development (ECD) programs boost child health and developmental outcomes. However, the factors contributing to the successful implementation of such programs in informal urban settlements are not well researched. We conducted 14 focus group discussions and 13 key informant interviews with 125 caregivers of children under the age of 5 years and stakeholders, exploring their views on enablers and barriers to implementing an integrated ECD program in an informal...

It is a government policy that all institutions of learning in Kenya, across the curricula embrace Information Communication Technology (ICT) as the world moves towards knowledge based economy. The evidence in literature reveals positive effects of information and communication technology in instruction. But teachers have a challenging task in integrating the tools of ICT in teaching especially those teacher educators not quite exposed to technology. This is because so many factors influence...