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Educational media can positively impact young children; however, few studies have been conducted in developing countries. Researchers investigated the impact of an animated educational series, where participants were randomized to see Akili and Me versus other popular programs. In interviews with children, researchers assessed measures before and after four weeks of exposure. From Morogoro, Tanzania, 568 children (mean age - 4.8years) participated. Controlling for the child's sex, age, and...

Orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) experience poverty, stigma, and abuse resulting in poor physical, emotional, and psychological outcomes. The Teachers’ Diploma Programme on Psychosocial Care, Support, and Protection is a child-centered 15-month long-distance learning program focused on providing teachers with the knowledge and skills to enhance their school environments, foster psychosocial support, and facilitate school-community relationships. A randomized controlled trial was...

The Kenyan education system has very limited re-entry options for learners who drop out before attaining secondary school certificate. It is very difficult to access training and or secure a job that requires at least secondary school education. This study examined the prospects of initiating Open and Distance e-Learning(ODeL) in re-entry programmes into high school for out of school Young Adult Secondary School Dropouts (Y.A.S.S.D). The study focused on the enablers and challenges of...

What should be considered when developing a literacy intervention that asks teachers to implement new instructional methods? How can this be achieved with minimal support within existing policy? We argue that two broad sets of considerations must be made in designing such an intervention. First, the intervention must be effective by bridging the gap between current teacher practice and the scientific literature on effective instruction. This broad consideration is detailed with 10 design...

Since 2008, the Ministries of Education in Liberia and Kenya have undertaken transitions from small-scale pilot programs to improve reading outcomes among primary learners to the large-scale implementation of reading interventions. The effects of the pilots on learning outcomes were significant, but questions remained regarding whether such large gains could be sustained at scale. In this article, the authors dissect the Liberian and Kenyan experiences with implementing large-scale reading...

While many countries in Eastern and Southern Africa are on track for meeting the Education for All targets, there is a growing recognition of the need to improve the quality of basic education and that a focus on pedagogy and its training implications needs to be at the heart of this commitment. By drawing on three East African countries, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, which are at different stages of development with regard to the reforming of teacher education, this paper explores the...

Education policymakers are investing in information and communications technology (ICT) without a research base on how ICT improves outcomes. There is limited research on the effects of different types of ICT investments on outcomes. The Kenya Primary Math and Reading (PRIMR) study implemented a randomized controlled trial comparing the effects and cost of three interventions – e-readers for students, tablets for teachers, and the base PRIMR program with tablets for instructional...

EdTech in Rwanda: A Rapid Scan (Country Scan No. 11)

Kimenyi, E., Chuang, R., & Taddese, A. - 2020 - EdTech Hub

EdTech Hub country scans explore factors that enable and hinder the use of technology in education. This includes policies, government leadership, private-sector partnerships and digital infrastructure for education. The scans are intended to be comprehensive but are by no means exhaustive; nonetheless, we hope they will serve as a useful starting point for more in-depth discussions about opportunities and barriers in EdTech in specific countries and in this case, in Rwanda. This report was...

EdTech in Tanzania: A Rapid Scan (Country Scan No. 5)

Groeneveld, C., & Taddese, A. - 2020 - EdTech Hub

EdTech Hub country scans explore factors that enable and hinder the use of technology in education. These factors include the policy or vision for EdTech, institutional capacity, private-sector partnerships, and the digital infrastructure. The scans are intended to be comprehensive but are by no means exhaustive; however, we hope they will serve as a useful starting point for more in-depth discussions about opportunities and barriers in EdTech in specific countries, in this case, Tanzania....

Effective Teacher Education in Low-Connectivity Settings: A Curated Resource List (Helpdesk Response No. 21)

Koomar, S., Allier-Gagneur, Z., & McBurnie, C. - 2020 - EdTech Hub

This list curates resources — both tools and initiatives — that can be adapted to support teacher education in low-connectivity settings, a prevailing challenge in Madagascar. Each example identifies the challenges; necessary prerequisites; pros and cons and; costs and impact assessment data where possible.

This study investigated the effectiveness of using metacognitive prompts during testing for improving results in a Genetics Problem Solving Test (GPST). The study, a pre-test post-test, control group quasi-experimental design involving 2x2x2 analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) also investigated the moderating effects of gender and school type. A total of 2,138 high school students purposively selected from seventeen high schools in Western province, Kenya, participated in the study using three...

Previous large-scale education technology interventions have shown only modest impacts on student achievement. Building on results from an earlier randomized controlled trial of three different applications of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on primary education in Kenya, the Tusome Early Grade Reading Activity developed the National Tablets Program. The National Tablets Program is integrated into the Tusome activity by providing tablets to each of more than 1,200...

Primary school enrollments have increased rapidly in sub-Saharan Africa, spurring concerns about low levels of learning. We analyze field experiments in Kenya and Uganda that assessed whether the Reading to Learn intervention, implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation in both countries, improved early-grade literacy as measured by common assessments. We find that Ugandan literacy (in Lango) increased by 0.2 standard deviations. We find a smaller effect (0.08) on a Swahili literacy test in...

We evaluated a program to improve literacy instruction on the Kenyan coast using training workshops, semiscripted lesson plans, and weekly text-message support for teachers to understand its impact on students’ literacy outcomes and on the classroom practices leading to those outcomes. The evaluation ran from the beginning of Grade 1 to the end of Grade 2 in 51 government primary schools chosen at random, with 50 schools acting as controls. The intervention had an impact on classroom...