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This paper describes Project Kan é , a research endeavor aimed at exploring the role that technology can play in improving child literacy in developing communities. An initial pilot study and a subsequent four-month-long controlled field study in Ghana investigated the viability and effectiveness of an automated reading tutor in helping urban children enhance their reading skills in English. In addition to quantitative data suggesting that automated tutoring can be useful for some children...

The classification by many scholars of numerical research processes as quantitative and other research techniques as qualitative has prompted the construction of a third category, that of ‘mixed methods’, to describe studies that use elements from both processes. Such labels might be helpful in structuring our understanding of phenomena. But they can also inhibit our activities when they serve as inaccurate or limiting descriptors. Based on the observation that mixed methods are fast...

Despite their increased diffusion through rich and poor communities around the world, many people still have serious reservations about large scale investments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) within education systems. Spirited and long-running related debates related to their costs ("too expensive", their critics say), appropriateness ("students needs lots of ...

Economists emphasize the link between market returns to education and investments in schooling. Though many studies estimate these returns with earnings data, it is the perceived returns that affect schooling decisions, and these perceptions may be inaccurate. Using survey data for eighth-grade boys in the Dominican Republic, we find that the perceived returns to secondary school are extremely low, despite high measured returns. Students at randomly selected schools given information on the...

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandates that every classroom be staffed with a “highly qualified teacher.” Research supports that teachers’ content knowledge affects student achievement. However, the special education population continues to be taught by teachers who do not have the content area background they teach. In addition, accountability reports indicate that the special education population did not meet the adequate yearly progress in reading and mathematics as required under...

In business and in international development circles, much is made about the potential for 'learning from best practice'. Considerations of the use of educational technologies offer no exception to this impulse. That said, 'best practice' in the education sector is often a rather elusive concept (at best! some informed observers would say it ...

The passage of Pakistan’s 18th amendment to its constitution could mark a shift to a more representative federal system, writes Colin Cookman.

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) schools were set up as centres of excellence in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) integration, so that other schools could copy their model in e-learning. It was for this reason that they were provided with computers, e-materials, internet appliances and trained personnel. But to gauge their levels of success as e-learning centres there was need to compare them to other schools offering ICT education in Kenya. It was for this...

Despite improvements in educational indicators, such as enrolment, significant challenges remain with regard to the delivery of quality education in developing countries, particularly in rural and remote regions. In the attempt to find viable solutions to these challenges, much hope has been placed in new information and communication technologies (ICTs), mobile phones being one example. This article reviews the evidence of the role of mobile phone-facilitated mLearning in contributing to...

Find information about and locate all publications and data products on education information from the National Center for Education Statistics--NCES--. In most cases you may also browse the content of publications or download data files.

In this paper we discuss results from an analysis of a large dataset that includes virtually all sixth-grade students in Uruguay in 1996. We analyze the relationship between teacher attributes and student achievement scores and we explore the distribution of teachers according to characteristics identified as important by this analysis. We find that teachers with “important” attributes are distributed in a way that systematically favors schools with higher average achievement and...

In a pilot study of the Technology Immersion model, high-need middle schools were “immersed” in technology by providing a laptop for each student and teacher, wireless Internet access, curricular and assessment resources, professional development, and technical and pedagogical support. This article examines the fidelity of model implementation and associations between implementation indicators and student achievement. Results across three years for 21 immersion schools show that the average...

This article tries to respond to a basic question: ‘can in-service teachers of public sectors in Pakistan be reformed?’The authors ’ response to this question is: ‘yes, public teachers can be reformed, if contextual possibilities are exploited efficiently’. Although a straightforward and simplistic response to the question, this was felt necessary to counter an unfavourable bias against public sector teachers in Pakistan without recognizing the challenges that they face, and without...

Participation of beneficiaries in the monitoring of public services is increasingly seen as a key to improving their quality. We conducted a randomized evaluation of three interventions to encourage beneficiaries' participation to India: providing information on existing institutions, training community members in a testing tool for children, and training volunteers to hold remedial reading camps. These interventions had no impact on community involvement, teacher effort, or learning...

The introduction of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) presents new challenges for teachers and often meets with their belief that ICT, as well as other changes present a factor, which can cause several changes in school. Although there have been many education reforms regarding teachers’ training policy in recent years and the number of training programs has been increased, they have not been able to satisfy teachers’ needs to a substantial degree. In this research the results...

This paper reports on a survey of 358 respondents across 25 African countries into their usage of learning management systems. It concludes that while there are some enthusiastic advocates of such systems, the reality is that most African educators as yet have little knowledge about, or interest in, their usage. There remain very considerable infrastructural constraints to be overcome before they can be widely adopted for open and distance learning across the continent, and there is still...

The impact of specific actions designed to streamline and tighten the workflow processes of key actors in Madagascar's primary education sector are evaluated. To inform the strategy for scaling up, a randomized experiment was carried out over two school years. The results show that interventions at the school level, reinforced by interventions at the subdistrict and district levels, succeeded in changing the behavior of the actors toward better management of key pedagogical functions. In...

Mauritius is a small island of 1,865 square kilometres. This is equivalent to a third of the surface of Savoy. It is situated in the Indian Ocean at 20° south of the equator, on the east of Madagascar. Mauritius is a land without any evidence of human habitation until the seventeenth century. As a result, Mauritius has no indigenous population in the traditional sense, according to the definition from the United Nations: Indigenous peoples have been defined by U.N. as those having a...

In recent years there has been a growing recognition of the importance of learner autonomy and the role of individual learners in directing their own learning process, both inside and outside the classroom (Alford & Pachler, 2007; Benson, 2000; Breen, 2001; Conacher & Kelly-Holmes, 2007). However, in practice it is not always clear how to support learners in this role, and how to ensure they are ready to assume it. This paper explores some of the teaching aspects related to the development...