Statistics - The Global E-Waste Statistics Partnership (E-Waste in Africa, 2019)
Continent / Region / Country statistics

The Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 - The Personal Data Protection Bill (2019)

Supporting Adolescent Girls Education in Zimbabwe - Thukral, H; Conrad, L; Laesecke, A; Reeves, A; Sibal, M; Zasoski, L (School-to-School International, 2019)

Teacher Training Delivery Mode Research - Tiguryera, Scholastica (Comparative International Education Society Conference, 2019)
Keywords: ⛔ No DOI found

Research on Children with Disabilities Influences Education Policy in Pakistan - Tofaris, Elizabeth; Bari, Faisal; Malik, Rabea (REAL Centre, University of Cambridge and The Impact Initiative, 2019)

Technology is transforming governance in Pakistan - Touqeer, Irum; Rontoyanni, Clelia (World Bank Group, 2019)
Punjab Excise and Taxation Service Center. Photo: World Bank Technology is changing our world faster than ever before. And Pakistan, home to more than 64 million internet users and 62 million people connected to mobile data, is no exception. As they’ve become more digital-savvy, Pakistanis are now expecting better digital ...

Making great strides yet a learning crisis remains in Tanzania: Results of the SDI and SABER service delivery surveys - Trako, Iva; Molina, Ezequiel; Asim, Salman (The World Bank, 2019)

Slum children: barrier faced by children in accessing primary education - Tripathi, Alpica (United International Journal for Research & Technology, 2019)
Children are mostly recognised by the society as diamond gift from the God, as jewellers cleaves the diamond from other unwanted and rough pieces. In the same way, parents of the children cleave off unwanted thoughts, societal behaviour and environment from the life of the society so that brilliancy of children luminous in the world. The responsibility of parents as well as government of country is to make availability of healthy and friendly environment for the learning of the children. The slum children’s faces lots of barriers and hurdles in accessing and attaining the education. The education is the eminent phase of socialising the child. Education is a power to accelerate skills and talents among children. Education helps to transform the living conditions and thinking ability of children. The right to education is not only the right to access education but also the right to receive an education of good quality. Education must be available and accessible but also acceptable and adaptable. The most of the slum children are indulging their precious time in doing labour, earning a coin, fighting daily from the challenges of life and wandering here a there for having a meal. The children are no doubt a tribute from Almighty but they should be preserve and nurture very sensitively in span of life. Urban children face a particularly complex set of challenges affecting their development and the fulfilment of their rights. The worst consequences of urbanisation, industrialisation and modernisation give birth to diverse group of children in urban areas like slum children, runaway children, working children, street children, orphan child. These children spend their precious time as rag picker, construction workers, factory workers, child beggars, migrant labourer, sex worker and domestic workers in swanky lifestyle of cities. These un-notified and homeless children are far from the reach of the policies of the government and even not noticed by the policy maker of the government. These children are deprived from their rights of survival, rights of protection, rights of development and rights of participation. These children even fight for their basic necessities of life.
Keywords: ⛔ No DOI found

Are our children learning? Uwezo Tanzania learning assessment report 2019 | Unesco IIEP Learning Portal - Twaweza East Africa (2019)

Sustainable Development Goal 4 : 4.c.1 Proportion of teachers who have received at least the minimum organized teacher training - UIS (Sustainable Development Goal 4, 2019)

Research on children with disabilities influences education policy in Pakistan - UKFIET; Education, 2019 |; Disabilities | 0 (UKFIET: The Education and Development Forum, 2019)
This impact story was written and produced by the Impact Initiative for International Development Research – a collaboration between the REAL Centre, University of Cambridge and the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. You can download and read the full impact story here.  According to new research generated by the Research for Equitable Access […]

Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform - UN (2019)

Inequalities in Human Development in the 21st Century - UNDP (2019)

Inequalities in Human Development in the 21st Century, Ghana - UNDP (2019)

Inequalities in Human Development in the 21st Century, Kenya - UNDP (2019)

Inequality in Human Development in the 21st Century, Jordan - UNDP (2019)

Access to information: A New Promise for Sustainable Development - UNESCO (2019)

ICT Transforming Education in Africa UNESCO-KFIT project update, January-March 2019 - UNESCO (2019)

ICT Transforming Education in Africa UNESCO-KFIT project update, January-March 2019 - UNESCO Digital Library - UNESCO (UNESCO, 2019)

New Methodology Shows that 258 Million Children, Adolescents and Youth Are Out of School - UNESCO (2019)

Right to education handbook - UNESCO (UNESCO, 2019)

The world is off track in achieving the global education goal, SDG4 - UNESCO (UNESCO, 2019)

Training Trainers on Gender Responsive Pedagogy | UNESCO-IICBA - UNESCO (2019)

Education sector analysis methodological guidelines. Vol. 2: Sub-sector specific analysis - UNESCO-IIEP; World Bank; UNICEF; Global Partnership for Education (2019)
The purpose of these guidelines is to provide methods for comprehensive education sector analyses to support the preparation and monitoring of education sector plans. They are an update of a 1999 document that has been used to support the preparation of approximately 70 Education Country Status Reports (CSR) in more than 40 countries. The goal of the guidelines is to strengthen national capacities in order that Government teams can conduct education sector analyses with progressively less external support.

New methodology shows that 258 million children, adolescents and youth are out of school - UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2019)

New methodology shows that 258 million Children, Adolescents and Youth are out of school - UNESCO-UIS (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, 2019)

Digital literacy for children — 10 things to know - UNICEF (2019)
Digital literacy goes beyond technical know-how. It refers to the knowledge, skills and attitudes that allow children to be both safe and empowered in an increasingly digital world. This encompasses their play,  participation, socializing, searching and learning through digital technologies. What constitutes digital literacy will vary according to children’s age, local culture and context.   Children need to be digitally literate even when they are not online. Facial scanning and artificial intelligence-based profiling increasingly affect children’s lives. Children’s schooling, social welfare and future job opportunities may depend on how well they understand the digital world around them.   Digital literacy is a growing part of any approach to skills development. It features in UNICEF’s framework which seeks to prepare children and adolescents for school, work and life. In addition to digital literacy, other interconnected skills for UNICEF are: foundational skills (literacy and numeracy); transferable skills (also known as life skills, 21st-century skills or soft skills); and job-specific skills (technical and vocational skills).   Tools to develop and assess digital literacy are proliferating. A number of digital competence frameworks have been developed by both international agencies and companies. Frameworks are a necessary starting point as they define the boundaries of what constitutes digital literacy and inform curricula and assessments. Despite using a range of labels (e.g. digital literacy, skills, citizenship), they broadly converge around the idea of a set of competencies that include technical as well as transferable skills, such as communication and problem solving.   Yet most existing tools place little emphasis on children. Digital literacy definitions usually focus on citizens of all ages and not on children specifically. UNICEF believes there is a need to focus more on digital literacy for children, who have unique needs. In this area, there is a slow change from a risk and safety paradigm towards rights-based approaches that favour expression, play and development.   Few programmes operate at scale or have been evaluated for impact. One contributing factor is the lack of global consensus and standards that makes it difficult for governments and other stakeholders to design and implement comparative and cost-effective initiatives, especially within developing countries.   Similarly, UNICEF programmes would benefit from greater coordination. While UNICEF has delivered a range of digital literacy programmes at the request of governments, a survey of 40 initiatives carried out by 37 Country Offices shows they are not well coordinated with each other, and knowledge is not systematically generated or shared about efficacy and impact.   Implementing digital literacy is not easy. According to the Country Offices surveyed, key barriers to digital literacy programming are: lack of teachers’ and trainers’ capacity; lack of ICT infrastructure; low connectivity (especially for remote areas); and a lack of understanding from decision-makers. The Country Offices are asking for policy development support, digital literacy frameworks, curriculum guidelines and practical tools, such as training manuals and toolkits.   Some existing digital literacy frameworks or tools suit UNICEF well. These include the DigComp framework of the European Commission and the Digital Kids Asia-Pacific framework developed by the UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Office in Bangkok. If using existing digital literacy frameworks, UNICEF can add value by focusing on children.   Digital literacy programmes should be context-driven. Implementing digital literacy programmes effectively requires more than simply importing a good programme from elsewhere. Beyond choosing a framework, an integrated approach to digital literacy involves undertaking a preliminary diagnostic review of the local context, developing operationalization guidelines and conducting impact assessments.

Early Literacy and Multilingual Education in South Asia - UNICEF (2019)

Every child learns: UNICEF education strategy 2019–2030 - UNICEF (2019)
UNICEF education strategy 2019–2030

Every child learns: UNICEF education strategy 2019-2030 - UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund, 2019)

Including Everyone Strengthening the Collection and Use of Data About Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Situations - UNICEF (2019)

Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey Findings Report: Zimbabwe - UNICEF (2019)

Final Report - SENEGAL - Universalia (2019)

2018 Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index - for Asia 5th Edition – December 2019 - USAID (2019)

Early Grade Reading Study II (EGRS II) - USAID (2019)
The activity team works in partnership with the Department of Basic Education to evaluate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of interventions focused on improving the performance of grade 1 and 2 learners in the subject English First Additional Language.

Improving Education Opportunities USAID Senegal Fact Sheet - USAID (2019)

How ed-tech can help leapfrog progress in education - Vegas, Emiliana; Ziegler, Lauren; Zerbino, Nicolas (Brookings, 2019)
This brief analyzes the use of ed-tech innovations around the world.

Evaluation of Inclusive Basic Education in the UNICEF Country Programmes 2012-2016 and 2017-2021 - Venäläinen, Raisa; Chultemsuren, Tamir; Tsendendamba, Batsugar (UNICEF, 2019)

Using examination and learning assessment data to uncover foundational skill gaps in Sierra Leone’s secondary schools - Waistell, Daniel; De, Sourovi; Ofori Owusu, Diana; Allen, Reg; Sanni, Kayode; Dupigny, Albert (UKFIET Conference, 2019)
Keywords: ⛔ No DOI found

Assessment of accelerated education to catch up with missed school programme in post crisis settings: Case study of selected IDP camps in Maiduguri metropolitan council - Wali, Yagana S; Muhammad Ali, Mustapha (British Journal of Educational Studies, 2019)
Keywords: ⛔ No DOI found

Redesigning the design: a review of education technology interventions in Pakistan - Waqar, Yasira; Bokhari, Tahira Batool (Pan-Commonwealth Forum 9 (PCF9), 2019)
Keywords: ⛔ No DOI found

Can’t Wait to Learn Lebanon - War Child (2019)

I'd blush if I could: closing gender divides in digital skills through education - West, Mark; Kraut, Rebecca; Ei Chew, Han (UNESCO, 2019)

Assistive technology - WHO (2019)
WHO fact sheet on assistive technology. Assistive technology enables people to live healthy, productive, independent, and dignified lives, and to participate in education, the labour market and civic life.

Liberia: Farewell 2019 - A Review of ICT Initiatives in Liberia - Wilkins, Darren (All Africa, 2019)

Examining sustained impacts of two teacher professional development programs on professional well-being and classroom practices - Wolf, Sharon; Peele, Morgan E. (Teaching and Teacher Education, 2019)
We examine second-year impacts of a 1-year pre-primary teacher training and coaching program, delivered with and without parental-awareness meetings, evaluated with a school-level randomized trial. Outcomes included teachers’ professional well-being and classroom practices. Most gains observed during the program year faded out. However, there were small sustained impacts on the implementation of training activities. Counteracting effects of the parental-awareness meetings were evident, with suggestive evidence that teachers in this treatment group displayed lower scores on one dimension of classroom qualitydSupporting Student Expressiondcompared to controls. Implications for professional development and educational quality are discussed.
Keywords: _proposed-for: Scoping review

Country Diagnostic of Senegal - World Bank (2019)

El Salvador | Data - World Bank (2019)

Ending Learning Poverty: What will it take? - World Bank (2019)

Kenya Overview - World Bank (2019)
The World Bank’s work in Kenya supports the government’s Vision 2030 development strategy, which aims to accelerate sustainable growth, reduce inequality, and manage resource scarcity.

Learning poverty - World Bank (2019)

Learning Poverty Brief - World Bank (2019)

Liberia - Improving Results in Secondary Education Project - World Bank (2019)

Nigeria | Population - World Bank (2019)

Pakistan - Learning Poverty Brief - World Bank (World Bank Group, 2019)

Population growth (annual %) - Pakistan - World Bank (World Bank Group, 2019)

Population, total - Pakistan | Data - World Bank (World Bank Group, 2019)

Project Information Document: Sierra Leone Free Education Project - World Bank (2019)

Secondary Education Quality Improvemen Project (SEQUIP) - World Bank (World Bank Group, 2019)

Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project (SEQUIP) - World Bank (2019)

The Future of Work in Africa: The Roles of Skills, Informality, and Social Protection in Unleashing the Promise of Digital Technologies for All - World Bank (World Bank, 2019)
A new World Bank report says Sub-Saharan African countries could benefit from well-harnessed technological adoption.

The Third Punjab Education Sector Project (PESP III) - World Bank (World Bank Group, 2019)

The World Bank In Zimbabwe - World Bank (2019)
The World Bank's lending program in Zimbabwe is inactive due to arrears, and the role is now limited to technical assistance and analytical work.

Urban population - Pakistan | Data - World Bank (World Bank Group, 2019)

Bangladesh - Additional Financing to the Second Reaching Out-of-School Children Project : Learning Opportunities for Displaced Rohingya Children - World Bank Group (2019)

Global learning XPRIZE: Executive summary - XPRIZE (XPRIZE, 2019)

Securing learning for children in conflict and crisis - Yarrow, Noah; Capek, Maja (World Bank, 2019)

Towards equitable access to information and opportunity for all: mapping schools with high-resolution Satellite Imagery and Machine Learning - Yi, Zhuangfang; Zurutuza, Naroa; Bollinger, Drew; Garcia-Herranz, Manuel; Kim, Dohyung (Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops, 2019)

A support programme for caregivers of children with disabilities in Ghana: Understanding the impact on the wellbeing of caregivers - Zuurmond, Maria; Nyante, Gifty; Baltussen, Marjolein; Seeley, Janet; Abanga, Jedidia; Shakespeare, Tom; Collumbien, Martine; Bernays, Sarah (Child: Care, Health and Development, 2019)

TCF - The Citizens Foundation (2018)
TCF is a non-profit organisation which provides education for those people who cannot afford it. It is an NGO run by professional people.
Keywords: auto_merged

Effectiveness of a youth-led early childhood care and education programme in rural Pakistan: A cluster-randomised controlled trial - Yousafzai, Aisha K.; Rasheed, Muneera A.; Rizvi, Arjumand; Shaheen, Fariha; Ponguta, Liliana A.; Reyes, Chin R. (PLOS ONE, 2018)
Background The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals encompass lifelong learning from birth to youth to adulthood (Goal 4) and economic opportunities for young people (Goal 8). The targets include improving access to quality early childhood care and education (ECCE) as well as learning and training opportunities for adolescents and youth. Cross-generational models for young children and youth may offer opportunities to address the interconnections between goals and targets for the next generation. We investigated whether an ECCE programme for young children (3.5–6.5 years) delivered by female youth (18–24 years) in rural Pakistan would be effective on children’s school readiness. Methods In partnership with the National Commission for Human Development in Pakistan, we implemented the ‘Youth Leaders for Early Childhood Assuring Children are Prepared for School’ (LEAPS) programme to train female youth to deliver ECCE. The effectiveness of the LEAPS programme on children’s school readiness was evaluated in a cluster-randomised controlled trial. We randomly allocated five clusters (villages) to receive the intervention (n = 170 children) and five clusters to control (n = 170 children). Children’s school readiness was assessed after nine months of intervention exposure using the International Development and Early Learning Assessment tool. Analyses was by intention-to-treat. The trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02645162. Findings At endline, the intervention group had significantly higher school readiness scores (n = 166, mean percentage score 59.4, 95% CI 52.7 to 66.2) compared with the control group (n = 168, mean percentage score 45.5, 95% CI 38.8 to 52.3). The effect size (Cohen’s d) was 0.3. Conclusion Trained female youth delivered an ECCE programme that was effective in benefitting young children’s school readiness. The cross-generational model is a promising approach to support early child development; however, further evaluation of the model is needed to assess the specific benefits to youth including their skills and economic development.
Keywords: Caregivers; Child development; Children; Human learning; Pakistan; Schools; Supervisors; Teachers

The difference between economic and financial analysis for WASH services - Ross, Ian (WASHeconomics.com, 2018)
The distinction between economic analysis and financial analysis is not always straightforward. In this post I try to clarify this. Definitions I have previously defined WASH economics as “the stud…

Education and Disability in the Global South: New Perspectives from Africa and Asia - Singal, Nidhi; Lynch, Paul; Johansson, Shruti Taneja (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018)
Education and Disability in the Global South brings together new and established researchers from a variety of disciplines to explore the complexities and dilemmas encountered in providing education to children and young people with disabilities in countries in South Asia and Africa. Applying a range of methodological, theoretical and conceptual frameworks across different levels of education systems, from pre-school to higher education, the contributors examine not just the barriers but also the opportunities within the educational systems, in order to make strong policy recommendations. Together, the chapters offer a comprehensive overview of a range of issues, including a nuanced appreciation of the tensions between the local and global in relation to key developments in the field, critiquing a globalized notion of inclusive education, as well as proposing new methodological advancements in taking the research agenda forward. Empirical insights are captured not just from the perspectives of educators but also through engaging with children and young people with disabilities, who are uniquely powerful in providing insights for future developments.
Keywords: Education / Educational Policy & Reform / General; Education / Inclusive Education; Education / Special Education / General

Getting back to normal after Ebola strikes - Daems, Typhaine; Willemot, Yves (UNICEF, 2018)
Beating Ebola starts in the classroom. It doesn't end there

Making Kolibri an All-Around Inclusive EdTech - Matic, Radina (Medium, 2018)
Interactive Components, Documentation and Beyond

Experimental evidence on scaling up education reforms in Kenya - Bold, Tessa; Kimenyi, Mwangi; Mwabu, Germano; Ng’ang’a, Alice; Sandefur, Justin (Journal of Public Economics, 2018)
What constraints arise when translating successful NGO programs to improve public services in developing countries into government policy? We report on a randomized trial embedded within a nationwide reform of teacher hiring in Kenyan government primary schools. New teachers offered a fixed-term contract by an international NGO significantly raised student test scores, while teachers offered identical contracts by the Kenyan government produced zero impact. Observable differences in teacher characteristics explain little of this gap. Instead, data suggests that bureaucratic and political opposition to the contract reform led to implementation delays and a differential interpretation of identical contract terms. Additionally, contract features that produced larger learning gains in both the NGO and government treatment arms were not adopted by the government outside of the experimental sample.
Keywords: Contract teachers; Education; External validity; Kenya; Randomized evaluation; State capacity

Sierra Leone Media Landscape Report - BBC Media Action (2018)

Reshaping adolescents' gender attitudes: evidence from a school-based experiment in India - Dhar, Diva; Jain, Tarun; Jayachandran, Seema (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2018)
Societal norms about gender roles contribute to the economic disadvantages facing women in many developing countries. This paper evaluates a school-based intervention in India that engaged adolescents in classroom discussions about gender equality for two and a half years with the goal of eroding their support for restrictive gender norms. Using a randomized controlled trial, we find that the program made attitudes 0.18 standard deviations more supportive of gender equality, or, equivalently, converted 16% of participants' regressive views. In addition, self-reported behavior became more aligned with progressive gender norms, particularly among boys. The effects observed in the short run were still present two years after the program had ended.

Reshaping adolescents' gender attitudes: evidence from a school-based experiment in India - Dhar, Diva; Jain, Tarun; Jayachandran, Seema (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2018)
Societal norms about gender roles contribute to the economic disadvantages facing women in many developing countries. This paper evaluates a school-based intervention in India that engaged adolescents in classroom discussions about gender equality for two and a half years with the goal of eroding their support for restrictive gender norms. Using a randomized controlled trial, we find that the program made attitudes 0.18 standard deviations more supportive of gender equality, or, equivalently, converted 16% of participants' regressive views. In addition, self-reported behavior became more aligned with progressive gender norms, particularly among boys. The effects observed in the short run were still present two years after the program had ended.

Impact evaluation of Tayari school readiness program in Kenya - Ngware, Moses; Hungi, Njora; Wekulo, Patricia; Mutisya, Maurice; Njagi, Joan; Muhia, Nelson; Wambiya, Elvis; Donfouet, Hermann; Gathoni, Grace; Mambe, Shem (APHRC, 2018)

Beyond Short-Term Learning Gains: The Impact of Outsourcing Schools in Liberia after Three Years [long report] - Romero, Mauricio; Sandefur, Justin (Working Paper, 2018)
After one year, outsourcing the management of ninety-three randomly-selected government primary schools in Liberia to eight private operators led to modest learning gains (Romero, Sandefur, & Sandholtz, in press). In this paper, we revisit the program two years later. After the first year, treatment effects on learning gains plateaued (e.g., the intention-to-treat effect on English was .18σ after one year, and .16σ after three years, equivalent to 4 words per minute additional reading fluency for the cohort that started in first grade). Looking beyond learning gains, the program reduced corporal punishment (by 4.6 percentage points from a base of 51%), but increased dropout (by 3.3 percentage points from a base of 15%) and failed to reduce sexual abuse. Behind these average effects, the identity of the contractor mattered. Despite facing similar contracts and settings, some providers produced uniformly positive results, while others present stark trade-offs between learning gains, access to education, child safety, and financial sustainability.

Improving Student Teachers' Digital Pedagogy through Meaningful Learning Activities - Sailin, Siti Nazuar; Mahmor, Noor Aida (Malaysian Journal of Learning and Instruction, 2018)
Purpose: This study aims to examine the attributes of meaningful learning that student teachers perceived as enabling them to improve their digital pedagogy. It is concerned with how the meaningful learning activities help to prepare student teachers to successfully integrate digital technologies in their future teaching practice. Methodology: This study adopted a qualitative research design and was underpinned by a meaningful learning theory as the theoretical and analytical framework. A total of 24 final year student teachers participated in this study. Data were mainly collected through student teachers' reflections regarding their learning experience. Thematic analysis was utilized to analyze and present the findings. Findings: The findings offer some important insights into how the learning activities carried out in this Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project have directly and indirectly accelerated the acquisition of all the five attributes of meaningful learning. The findings of this study reveal that meaningful learning activities contribute to the improvement of the student teachers' knowledge of and skills in using Web 2.0. This improvement has boosted their confidence to integrate digital pedagogy in future teaching practices. The findings also indicate that although student teachers value their experiences in meaningful learning activities, they have some concerns regarding firstly, their capacities in applying digital pedagogy and secondly, the practicality of integrating Web 2.0 tools in the school setting because of several inherent limitations. Significance: Meaningful learning activities when incorporated into teacher training programmes will expose student teachers to authentic experiences which will be beneficial for their own learning and future teaching practice.
Keywords: Educational Technology; Foreign Countries; Learning Activities; Preservice Teachers; Self Esteem; Student Attitudes; Teaching Methods; Technological Literacy; Technology Integration; Technology Uses in Education; Web 2.0 Technologies

What works? The case of inclusive education | Unesco IIEP Learning Portal - Singal, Nidhi (2018)
The Sustainable Development Goals with their commitment to ensuring all young people will have access to good quality primary and lower secondary education by 2030 have spearheaded an increased focus on children with disabilities. The SDGs explicit mention of persons with disabilities, across education and other goals have resulted in intense discussions on how to make these commitments a reality.

Licenses for open material - Wageningen University and Research (WUR, 2018)
Open materials are any material provided with an open license. You can use an open license to indicate what other people are allowed to do with your work.

The efficacy of learning analytics interventions in higher education: A systematic review - Larrabee Sønderlund, Anders; Hughes, Emily; Smith, Joanne (British Journal of Educational Technology, 2018)
Abstract Educational institutions are increasingly turning to learning analytics to identify and intervene with students at risk of underperformance or discontinuation. However, the extent to which the current evidence base supports this investment is currently unclear, and particularly so in relation to the effectiveness of interventions based on predictive models. The aim of the present paper was to conduct a systematic review and quality assessment of studies on the use of learning analytics in higher education, focusing specifically on intervention studies. Search terms identified 689 papers, but only 11 studies evaluated the effectiveness of interventions based on learning analytics. These studies highlighted the potential of such interventions, but the general quality of the research was moderate, and left several important questions unanswered. The key recommendation based on this review is that more research into the implementation and evaluation of scientifically driven learning analytics is needed to build a solid evidence base for the feasibility, effectiveness and generalizability of such interventions. This is particularly relevant when considering the increasing tendency of educational institutions around the world to implement learning analytics interventions with only little evidence of their effectiveness.
Keywords: Reviewed

The True Cost of Freemium - Ferry, Anna (CPO Magazine, 2018)

Educational Technology Standards and Frameworks - Harris, Matt; Ed.D. (The International EdTech Blog with Matt Harris Ed.D., 2018)
An overview of the most common Educational Technology Standards and Frameworks, such as ISTE, UNESCO, iNACOL, P21, SAMR, TPACK, RAT, TIM, PICRAT, SAMMS, 4Shifts

An analysis of peer reviewed publications on openness in education in half a century: Trends and patterns in the open hemisphere - Bozkurt, Aras; Koseoglu, Suzan; Singh, Lenandlar (Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2018)
Openness in education is an evolving concept which is shaped by the changing needs of societies, cultures, geographies, and economies, thus, it does not have a precise definition. By focusing on four sets of generic keywords - open education, open learning, open educational resources (OERs), and open educational practices (OEPs) - this paper examines research in openness in education through a systematic review of peer reviewed literature. In doing so, the researchers sought to draw attention to existing trends and patterns and possible future trajectories of openness in education. Content analysis, social network analysis, and text-mining are the methods used for data collection and analysis. Findings show that there has been growing interest on openness in education, particularly on OERs, across different fields. Findings also point to OEPs as an emerging area of study, which offers a fertile ground for future research. However, on closer inspection, a divide can be observed between the global north and global south in terms of research output.
Keywords: Open Education; Open Educational Practices (OEPs); Open Educational Resources (OERs); Open Learning; Openness; Reviewed

The heterogeneous effect of information on student performance: Evidence from a randomized control trial in Mexico - Avitabile, Ciro; de Hoyos, Rafael (Journal of Development Economics, 2018)
We use data from the randomized control trial of the Percepciones pilot to study whether providing 10th grade students with information about the average earnings associated with different educational attainments, life expectancy, and obtaining funding for higher education can contribute to improving student outcomes. We find that the intervention had no effects on a proxy for on-time high school completion, but a positive and significant impact on standardized test scores and self-reported measures of effort. The effects on standardized test scores are larger for girls and for students from households with relatively high incomes. We also find positive, but not statistically significant effects, on the probability of taking a university entry exam and of obtaining a high score in the exam.
Keywords: Gender; Information; School performance; Subjective expectations

Voices From Urban Classrooms: Teachers’ Perceptions on Instructing Diverse Students and Using Culturally Responsive Teaching - Bonner, Patricia J.; Warren, Susan R.; Jiang, Ying H. (Education and Urban Society, 2018)
This study explored the perceptions of 430 P-12 urban teachers regarding the instruction of diverse students and their own ability to effectively implement culturally responsive teaching (CRT). Employing qualitative methodology, four open-ended sentence stems were used to capture teachers’ thoughts, beliefs, and experiences. Results reveal teachers’ strong commitment to CRT, an understanding of behaviors which constitute CRT, a strong sense of efficacy in teaching diverse students, and anticipation of positive outcomes through proactively addressing diverse students’ needs. This research provides valuable information for school districts and schools of education as they develop culturally responsive teachers for today’s diverse classrooms.
Keywords: multicultural education; social justice; students; teachers; urban education

How well do discrete choice experiments predict health choices? A systematic review and meta-analysis of external validity - Quaife, Matthew; Terris-Prestholt, Fern; Di Tanna, Gian Luca; Vickerman, Peter (The European Journal of Health Economics, 2018)
Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) are economic tools that elicit the stated preferences of respondents. Because of their increasing importance in informing the design of health products and services, it is critical to understand the extent to which DCEs give reliable predictions outside of the experimental context. We systematically reviewed the literature of published DCE studies comparing predictions to choices made in reality; we extracted individual-level data to estimate a bivariate mixed-effects model of pooled sensitivity and specificity. Eight studies met the inclusion criteria, and six of these gave sufficient data for inclusion in a meta-analysis. Pooled sensitivity and specificity estimates were 88% (95% CI 81, 92%) and 34% (95% CI 23, 46%), respectively, and the area under the SROC curve (AUC) was 0.60 (95% CI 0.55, 0.64). Results indicate that DCEs can produce reasonable predictions of health-related behaviors. There is a great need for future research on the external validity of DCEs, particularly empirical studies assessing predicted and revealed preferences of a representative sample of participants.

Peer Tutoring - Education Endowment Foundation (Teaching & Learning Toolkit, 2018)

Preparing the next generation: Ugandans’ experiences and opinions on education - Twaweza.org (2018)
Keywords: ⛔ No DOI found

Mongolia: Systematic Country Diagnostic - World Bank (World Bank, 2018)

Lean Impact: How to Innovate for Radically Greater Social Good - Chang, Ann Mei (Wiley, 2018)
Despite enormous investments of time and money, are we making a dent on the social and environmental challenges of our time? What if we could exponentially increase our impact? Around the world, a new generation is looking beyond greater profits, for meaningful purpose. But, unlike business, few social interventions have achieved significant impact at scale. Inspired by the modern innovation practices popularized by bestseller The Lean Startup that have fueled technology breakthroughs touching every aspect of our lives, LEAN IMPACT turns our attention to a new goal--achieving radically greater social good.  Social change is far more complicated than building a new app. It requires more listening, more care, and more stakeholders. To make a lasting difference, solutions must be embraced by beneficiaries, address root causes, and include an engine that can accelerate growth to reach the scale of the needs. Lean Impact offers bold ideas to reach audacious goals through customer insight, rapid experimentation and iteration, and a relentless pursuit of impact. Ann Mei Chang brings a unique perspective from across sectors, from her years as a Silicon Valley executive to her most recent experience as Chief Innovation Officer at USAID. She brings the book to life with inspiring stories from interviews spanning more than 200 organizations across the U.S. and around the world. Whether you are a nonprofit, social enterprise, triple bottom line company, foundation, government agency, philanthropist, impact investor, or simply donate your time and money, Lean Impact is an essential guide to maximizing social impact and scale.

Data Privacy in Bangladesh A Review of Three Key Stakeholders Perspectives - Hossain, Kamal; Alam, Khabirul; Khan, Umme Saara (Seventh International Conference on Advances in Social Science, Economics and Management Study - SEM 2018, 2018)

Innovation in Mixed Methods Research: A Practical Guide to Integrative Thinking with Complexity - Poth, Cheryl N. (SAGE Publications Limited, 2018)
Explaining both why and how to use mixed methods for discovering solutions to complex research problems, this guide gives readers the tools to adapt approaches to suit their own research conditions. Written in a warm, encouraging tone and packed with helpful diagrams and visual organizers, it provides an easy-to-follow map to the mixed methods process, covering everything from ‘what is mixed methods research?’ to framing, integrating, and describing a complexity-sensitive mixed methods approach. Features include: Key questions to navigate the important concepts of each chapter Practice alerts to provide practical tips on working in the field Chapter check-ins to assess development of key skills Further reading to expand and deepen knowledge of mixed methods practices An annotated glossary to get to grips with foundational terms and revise for exams Supported throughout by real-world examples and advice from the author and other mixed methods experts, this book helps readers succeed in their projects and think innovatively about the methods they use.
Keywords: Reference / Research; Social Science / Methodology

In Bringing a Literacy Project to Scale, has Kenya Found a Holy Grail? - Bruns, Barbara (Center For Global Development, 2018)
An article of faith among development economists is that “evidence-based policy” holds the promise of faster progress. Barbara Bruns set out to find a rigorously evaluated pilot whose evidence had led to a program at scale. It wasn’t easy.

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN KENYA AS A MAJOR STRATEGY FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS - Muigai, Jecinta W. (European Journal of Education Studies, 2018)
The new Kenyan curriculum emphasizes the role of parents as essential to their children’s education and in the success of curriculum implementation. The development requires a change in how parents and the community interact with schools and education. The perception in Kenya has always been that education is the sole responsibility of the school and the teacher. And so, parental involvement in Kenya has mainly been limited to financial contributions and teacher-parent meetings. With the introduction of new curriculum, the role of parent is crucial for the academic success of the child. A literature study investigated the extent of parental involvement in primary schools in Kenya. The data is obtained from a variety of library articles addressing parental involvement in Primary schools in different counties in Kenya. The current study found that majority of parents are involved in their children’s education, however, more awareness of the parental involvement is needed and more strategies on parental involvement needs to be employed for the success of the new curriculum.  Article visualizations:
Keywords: academic achievement; parental involvement; primary schools; ⚠️ Invalid DOI

Parental Involvement in Primary Schools in Kenya as a Major Strategy for Academic Success - Muigai, Jecinta W. (European Journal of Education Studies, 2018)
Keywords: ⚠️ Invalid DOI

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN KENYA AS A MAJOR STRATEGY FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS - Muigai, Jecinta W. (European Journal of Education Studies, 2018)
The new Kenyan curriculum emphasizes the role of parents as essential to their children’s education and in the success of curriculum implementation. The development requires a change in how parents and the community interact with schools and education. The perception in Kenya has always been that education is the sole responsibility of the school and the teacher. And so, parental involvement in Kenya has mainly been limited to financial contributions and teacher-parent meetings. With the introduction of new curriculum, the role of parent is crucial for the academic success of the child. A literature study investigated the extent of parental involvement in primary schools in Kenya. The data is obtained from a variety of library articles addressing parental involvement in Primary schools in different counties in Kenya. The current study found that majority of parents are involved in their children’s education, however, more awareness of the parental involvement is needed and more strategies on parental involvement needs to be employed for the success of the new curriculum.  Article visualizations:
Keywords: academic achievement; parental involvement; primary schools; ⚠️ Invalid DOI

GirlForce: Skills, education and training for girls now - UNICEF (UNICEF DATA, 2018)
A generation of girls risk being left outside the labour force or trapped in vulnerable or low quality employment, due to a lack of skills, absence of quality jobs, and gendered expectations of their roles as caregivers. The brochure uses the most recent data to call attention to the fact that despite significant investment by the global community in the education of girls, girls are not moving into the workforce in high numbers.

Poverty and shared prosperity 2018: piecing together the poverty puzzle - World Bank (World Bank, 2018)

Can technology enable effective teacher coaching at scale? - Evans, David (2018)
Teachers are important. And many teachers in low- and middle-income countries would benefit from support to improve their pedagogical skills. But how to do it? Again and again, evidence suggests that short teacher trainings – usually held in a central location – don’t do much of anything to improve teacher ...

Basic mobile phones more common than smartphones in sub-Saharan Africa - Laura Silver; Johnson, Courtney (Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project, 2018)
Large majorities in all six sub-Saharan countries surveyed own mobile phones. Ownership is highest in South Africa, where about nine-in-ten adults own a

Mathematics from the beginning: Evaluating the Tayari preprimary program’s impact on early mathematics skills - Piper, Benjamin; Sitabkhan, Yasmin; Nderu, Evangeline (Global Education Review, 2018)
Given the dearth of research on early numeracy interventions in low- and middle-income countries, this paper presents the instructional methodology and impact results of the Tayari program. Tayari is a preprimary intervention in Kenya (2014–2019) that prepares children aged four and five for entry into primary school through materials for students, training for teachers, and continuous in-classroom support. Evidence points to the long-term benefits of developing an early foundation in mathematics. The few preprimary mathematics studies in sub-Saharan Africa have not described the instructional methodology in enough detail to add to our knowledge of best practices. The Tayari methodology was built on the Kenyan government’s preprimary syllabus to produce instruction that was developmentally sequenced, linked to out-of-school experiences, and supportive of children’s number sense. Tayari is evaluated using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and collection of longitudinal data from 2,957 children in treatment and control schools at three time points. Pupil assessment items were drawn from a growing body of research on preprimary numeracy in developing contexts, plus instruments and techniques from the Measuring Early Learning and Quality Outcomes (MELQO) program (UNESCO, UNICEF, Brookings Institution, & World Bank Group, 2017). The endline impact evaluation of the longitudinal RCT results showed statistically significant effects in the numeracy tasks of producing sets, identifying numbers, and naming shapes, while revealing no initial effects in the areas of oral and mental addition. We present recommendations for Tayari’s improvement in terms of mathematics instruction, as well as preprimary policy implications for Kenya and similar contexts.
Keywords: Sub-Saharan Africa; ⛔ No DOI found

Internet connectivity seen as having positive impact on life in sub-Saharan Africa - Silver, Laura; Johnson, Courtney (Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project, 2018)
Large majorities in all six sub-Saharan countries surveyed own mobile phones. Ownership is highest in South Africa, where about nine-in-ten adults own a
Keywords: ___working_potential_duplicate

Characteristics of effective teacher professional development: what we know, what we don’t, how we can find out - Sims, Sam; Fletcher-Wood, Harry (2018)
Several influential reviews and one meta-review have converged on the position that teacher professional development (PD) is more effective when it is: sustained, collaborative, subject-specific, draws on external expertise, has buy-in from teachers and is practice-based. This consensus view has now been incorporated in government policy and official guidance in several countries. Despite this, several recent PD programmes incorporating these characteristics have failed to have any detectable impact on pupil attainment. This article reviews the evidence underpinning the consensus, arguing that the reviews on which it based are methodologically flawed because they employ inappropriate exclusion criteria and depend on an invalid inference method. The consensus view is therefore likely to be inaccurate. Researchers would make more progress on identifying characteristics of effective professional development by looking for alignment between evidence from basic research on human skill acquisition and features of rigorously-evaluated PD interventions.
Keywords: C:International; CitedIn:OER4Schools-HHH3-A; ⛔ No DOI found

The discourse on ICT teacher professional development needs: The case of a South African teachers’ union - Dlamini, Reuben; Mbatha, Khanyisile (International Journal of Education and Development using ICT, 2018)
The prevalence and adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in education has often been guided by utopian perspectives without proper research to understand the schooling context and teachers’ ICT development needs. This paper reports on the findings from a study of in-service teachers who are members of a teachers’ union in South Africa. These teachers were surveyed using a questionnaire based on Second Information Technology in Education Study (SITES), which is an analytic framework that includes teacher characteristics, pedagogical practices and ICT use, school...
Keywords: ⛔ No DOI found

The discourse on ICT teacher professional development needs: The case of a South African teachers’ union - Dlamini, Reuben; Mbatha, Khanyisile (International Journal of Education and Development using ICT, 2018)
The prevalence and adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in education has often been guided by utopian perspectives without proper research to understand the schooling context and teachers’ ICT development needs. This paper reports on the findings from a study of in-service teachers who are members of a teachers’ union in South Africa. These teachers were surveyed using a questionnaire based on Second Information Technology in Education Study (SITES), which is an analytic framework that includes teacher characteristics, pedagogical practices and ICT use, school...
Keywords: ⛔ No DOI found

Technology functions for personalized learning in learner-centered schools - Lee, Dabae; Huh, Yeol; Lin, Chun-Yi; Reigeluth, Charles M. (Educational Technology Research and Development, 2018)
Personalized Learning (PL) has been widely promoted. Despite the increasing interest in PL, it is difficult to be implemented, because it can be complicated, costly, and even impossible without the help of powerful and advanced technology. This national survey study aimed at systematically investigating technology usage and needs of teachers in learner-centered schools in the U.S based on the conceptual framework of the Personalized Integrated Education System (PIES). PIES specifies four major functions: recordkeeping, planning, instruction, and assessment. A total of 308 learner-centered schools were identified that met at least three of the five criteria of PL: (1) personalized learning plans, (2) competency-based student progress, (3) criterion-referenced assessment, (4) problem- or project-based learning, and (5) multi-year mentoring. Survey responses of 245 teachers from 41 schools were analyzed. Results indicate that only 12% of teachers responded that they had a technology system that integrated the four major functions. Among the rest, 21% reported that they had no such systems. Technology was most widely used for planning and instruction but not for recordkeeping and assessment.

Revised Special Needs and Inclusive Education Policy - Ministry of Education (Republic of Rwanda, 2018)

Internet Connectivity Seen as Having Positive Impact on Life in Sub-Saharan Africa - Silver, Laura; Johnson, Courtney (Pew Research Center, 2018)
Keywords: ___working_potential_duplicate

Research on deep learning techniques in breaking text-based Captchas and designing image-based Captcha - Tang, Mengyun; Gao, Haichang; Zhang, Yang; Liu, Yi; Zhang, Ping; Wang, Ping (IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, 2018)
The ability of hackers to infiltrate computer systems using computer attack programs and bots led to the development of Captchas or Completely Automated Public Turing Tests to Tell Computers and Humans Apart. The text Captcha is the most popular Captcha scheme given its ease of construction and user friendliness. However, the next generation of hackers and programmers has decreased the expected security of these mechanisms, leaving websites open to attack. Text Captchas are still widely used, because it is believed that the attack speeds are slow, typically two to five seconds per image, and this is not seen as a critical threat. In this paper, we introduce a simple, generic, and fast attack on text Captchas that effectively challenges that supposition. With deep learning techniques, our attack demonstrates a high success rate in breaking the Roman-character-based text Captchas deployed by the top 50 most popular international websites and three Chinese Captchas that use a larger character set. These targeted schemes cover almost all existing resistance mechanisms, demonstrating that our attack techniques are also applicable to other existing Captchas. Does this work then spell the beginning of the end for text-based Captcha? We believe so. A novel image-based Captcha named Style Area Captcha (SACaptcha) is proposed in this paper, which is based on semantic information understanding, pixel-level segmentation, and deep learning techniques. Having demonstrated that text Captchas are no longer secure, we hope that our proposal shows promise in the development of image-based Captchas using deep learning techniques.
Keywords: CAPTCHAs; Captcha; Character recognition; Computer security; Image segmentation; Machine learning; Resistance; convolutional neural network; deep learning; image-based; security; text-based

Incorporating the dynamic mathematics software GeoGebra into a history of mathematics course - Zengin, Yilmaz (International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 2018)
The purpose of this study was to investigate pre-service teachers' views about the history of mathematics course in which GeoGebra was used. The qualitative research design was used in this study. The participants of the study consisted of 23 pre-service mathematics teachers studying at a state university in Turkey. An open-ended questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. Qualitative data obtained from the pre-service teachers were analyzed by means of content analysis. As a result, it was determined that GeoGebra software was an effective tool in the learning and teaching of the history of mathematics.
Keywords: Colleges & universities; Computer Software; Content analysis; Data acquisition; ERIC, Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE); Foreign Countries; GeoGebra; Geometry; Higher Education; History; History of mathematics; Mathematical Concepts; Mathematical Logic; Mathematical analysis; Mathematics; Mathematics Instruction; Mathematics Teachers; Preservice Teachers; Qualitative analysis; Qualitative research; Software; Student Attitudes; Teachers; Turkey; Validity; __:import:01; __:match:final; __:matched; __:study_id:2098800; __finaldtb; dynamic mathematics software; pre-service teachers' views

Incorporating the dynamic mathematics software GeoGebra into a history of mathematics course - Zengin, Yilmaz (International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 2018)
The purpose of this study was to investigate pre-service teachers' views about the history of mathematics course in which GeoGebra was used. The qualitative research design was used in this study. The participants of the study consisted of 23 pre-service mathematics teachers studying at a state university in Turkey. An open-ended questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. Qualitative data obtained from the pre-service teachers were analyzed by means of content analysis. As a result, it was determined that GeoGebra software was an effective tool in the learning and teaching of the history of mathematics.
Keywords: Colleges & universities; Computer Software; Content analysis; Data acquisition; ERIC, Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE); Foreign Countries; GeoGebra; Geometry; Higher Education; History; History of mathematics; Mathematical Concepts; Mathematical Logic; Mathematical analysis; Mathematics; Mathematics Instruction; Mathematics Teachers; Preservice Teachers; Qualitative analysis; Qualitative research; Software; Student Attitudes; Teachers; Turkey; Validity; __:import:01; __:match:final; __:matched; __:study_id:2098800; __finaldtb; dynamic mathematics software; pre-service teachers' views

Rwanda Revenue Authority becomes ICDL Accredited Test Centre - ICDL (ICDL Africa, 2018)
The Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) is a government revenue collection agency established by the Parliament of Rwanda. The RRA is charged with enforcing, assessing, collecting, and accounting for the various taxes imposed in Rwanda. As part of its work to support digitalisation and improve service delivery, the RRA is training and certifying its staff to …

How to Improve Teaching Practice? Experimental Comparison of Centralized Training and In-classroom Coaching - Cilliers, Jacobus; Fleisch, Brahm; Prinsloo, Cas; Taylor, Stephen (Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE), 2018)
We experimentally compare two modes of in-service professional development for South African public primary school teachers. In both programs teachers received the same learning material and daily lesson plans, aligned to the ofﬁcial literacy curriculum. Pupils exposed to two years of the program improved their reading proﬁciency by 0.12 standard deviations if their teachers received centralized Training, compared to 0.24 if their teachers received in-class Coaching. Classroom observations reveal that teachers were more likely to split pupils into smaller reading groups, which enabled individualized attention and more opportunities to practice reading. Results vary by class size and baseline pupil reading proﬁciency.
Keywords: C: South Africa

How Geospatial Technology Changed over Time - Rees, Eric van (Soar, 2018)
Geospatial technology has changed significantly over the years. It started in a scientific environment and has gotten a wider adoption over…

Education, poverty and "purity" in the context of adolescent girls' secondary school retention and dropout: A qualitative study from Karnataka, southern India - Ramanaik, Satyanarayana; Collumbien, Martine; Prakash, Ravi; Howard-Merrill, Lottie; Thalinja, Raghavendra; Javalkar, Prakash; Murthy, Srikanta; Cislaghi, Ben; Beattie, Tara; Isac, Shajy; Moses, Stephen; Heise, Lori; et al. (PLoS ONE, 2018)
Background Gender-related norms and poverty remain important structural barriers to secondary school attendance among adolescent girls in southern India. We analyse how gender norms interact with family deprivation and dynamics to result in girls dropping out of school; we identify the main facilitators of school retention and changes to gender socialisation. Methods Longitudinal qualitative case studies with 36 girls were nested within a cluster randomized trial to evaluate the Samata intervention targeting adolescent girls in Bagalkote and Vijayapura districts in northern Karnataka. We used two rounds of in-depth interviews, conducted in 2014 at a time when respondents were in 8th standard at the age of 13 to 14 and sixteen months later. We combined thematic and narrative analyses. Results Our study found that poverty and socioeconomic realities at the household level strongly affect conformity with discriminatory gender practices such as restricting girls’ mobility. The value placed on education by parents clearly differentiates the regular school goers from those frequently absent and others who dropped out. With active encouragement of the girls’ educational and career aspirations, parents engendered the girl’s agency to communicate openly both at home and at school, allowing subtle changes to gender performance while resisting the pressure of social sanctions. In contrast, where educational aspirations were weak, parents invested more intensely in enforcing correct performance of gender, prioritising her well-being by aiming to secure her future in a good marriage. Among poorer families, girls’ domestic duties came at the cost of schooling with concerns about protecting her sexual purity predominating. Conclusions In contexts where a strong gender ideology of virginity before marriage rules, subtle shifts in harmful gender practices are possible. Interventions aiming to improve education need to target the most deprived families, focussing on trust building through open communication.

Ensuring excellence new standards for graduate teachers | NSW Government (2018)

Technocentrism and social fields in the Indian EdTech movement: formation, reproduction and resistance - Burch, Patricia; Miglani, Neha (Journal of Education Policy, 2018)
All over the globe, educational technology (EdTech) is being sold to schools as a central mechanism for improving access to quality learning for high poverty populations. There is a growing scholarship that interrogates the institutional drivers of the ‘EdTech craze’. Building on this work, this paper examines how technocentrism as a specific strain of neoliberalism is reflected at both the organizational and institutional levels, both by private and public sectors in the case of school education in India. We argue that using institutional theory to explain complex multi-layered reforms means looking in tandem at macro principles defined through interactions in the organizational field and the re-experiencing and transformation of those processes at the micro level.

Returns to investment in education: a decennial review of the global literature - Psacharopoulos, George; Patrinos, Harry Anthony (Education Economics, 2018)
In the 60-plus year history of returns to investment in education estimates, there have been several compilations in the literature. This paper updates Psacharopoulos and Patrinos and reviews the latest trends and patterns based on 1120 estimates in 139 countries from 1950 to 2014. The private average global return to a year of schooling is 9% a year. Private returns to higher education increased, raising issues of financing and equity. Social returns to schooling remain high. Women continue to experience higher average returns to schooling, showing that girls’ education remains a priority.
Keywords: C13; J31; Returns to schooling; investments in education

Transparency in literature reviews: an assessment of reporting practices across review types and genres in top IS journals - Templier, Mathieu; Paré, Guy (European Journal of Information Systems, 2018)
The central role of information systems review articles has been recognised in a recent explosion of interest in editorials, research articles, and opinion papers investigating methods and approaches for conducting standalone reviews. In continuity with recent developments in this area, this descriptive review seeks to determine the extent to which various types of review articles published in our field are transparent, i.e., they report important methodological elements about their design. To fulfil this objective, we identified, classified, and coded 142 review articles from the Association for Information Systems (AIS) senior scholars’ basket of journals published between 2000 and 2014. Overall, our findings indicate inadequate reporting of the methods, procedures, and techniques used in a majority of reviews. Our assessment also reveals that theory development and narrative reviews, which are the most frequently published types of reviews in our field, generally were the least explicit with regard to the methods they used. Based on our observations, we recommend that authors of all forms of reviews better document design decisions so to increase trustworthiness, get meaningful results, and develop a cumulative body of knowledge in our discipline. The list of reporting items developed in this study can serve as a framework to assist prospective authors of reviews both within and outside our field.
Keywords: Literature reviews; assessment; reporting; transparency; trustworthiness

Classroom dialogue and digital technologies: A scoping review - Major, L.; Warwick, P.; Rasmussen, I.; Ludvigsen, S.; Cook, V. (Education and Information Technologies, 2018)
This article presents a systematic scoping review of the literature focusing on interactions between classroom dialogue and digital technology. The first review of its type in this area, it both maps extant research and, through a process of thematic synthesis, investigates the role of technology in supporting classroom dialogue. In total, 72 studies (published 2000–2016) are analysed to establish the characteristics of existing evidence and to identify themes. The central intention is to enable researchers and others to access an extensive base of studies, thematically analysed, when developing insights and interpretations in a rapidly changing field of study. The discussion illustrates the interconnectedness of key themes, placing the studies in a methodological and theoretical context and examining challenges for the future.
Keywords: Classroom dialogue; Collaboration; Digital technology; Edtech; Talk; _THEME: Teacher Professional Development

Facing Forward: Schooling for Learning in Africa - Bashir, Sajitha; Lockheed, Marlaine; Ninan, Elizabeth; Tan, Jee-Peng (World Bank, 2018)
This book lays out a range of policy and implementation actions that are needed for countries in sub-Saharan Africa to meet the challenge of improving learning while expanding access and completion of basic education for all. It underscores the importance of aligning the education system to be relentlessly focused on learning outcomes and to ensuring that all children have access to good schools, good learning materials, and good teachers. It is unique in characterizing countries according to the challenges they faced in the 1990s and the educational progress they have made over the past 25 years. The authors review the global literature and contribute their extensive new analyses of multiple datasets from over three dozen countries in the region. They integrate findings about what affects children's learning, access to schooling, and progress through basic education. The book examines four areas to help countries better align their systems to improve learning: completing the unfinished agenda of reaching universal basic education with quality; ensuring effective management and support of teachers; targeting spending priorities and budget processes on improving quality; and closing the institutional capacity gap. It concludes with an assessment of how future educational progress may be affected by projected fertility rates and economic growth. The primary audience for this book are policy makers in Africa, practitioners, and partners concerned about building the knowledge capital of sub-Saharan Africa.
Keywords: Education Management; Education Spending; Human Capital; Institutional Capacity; Knowledge Capital; Service Delivery; Teacher Effectiveness; Universal Basic Education

Tangerine Pilot: Report on pilot implementation - Leh Wi Lan (2018)

Interaction in a discussion list: an exploration of cognitive, social, and teaching presence in teachers’ online collaborations - Nami, Fatemeh; Marandi, S Susan; Sotoudehnama, Elaheh (ReCALL: the Journal of EUROCALL, 2018)
Discussion lists have gained a significant popularity in professional development research over the past few decades for the opportunity they provide for asynchronous interaction. This article presents findings from a small-scale case study that aimed at exploring the nature of teachers’ asynchronous exchanges in a discussion list. The data comprised the archived log of the messages in a Yahoo Group discussion list by five in-service English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers who volunteered to take part in a hybrid computer-assisted language learning (CALL) teacher education course in a state university in Iran. The discussion list was incorporated into the course to engage participants in professional dialogue on topics related to technology/CALL. During the initial data analysis, participants’ asynchronous exchanges were grouped as suggestions, questions, unclassified, answers, and delivery, drawing upon Oriogun and Cave’s (2008) SQUAD categorization, following the constant comparative method of analysis. Through a follow-up computer-mediated discourse analysis, cognitive, social, and teaching presence functional moves were identified in the data. Participants used the space not only for socializing and peer instruction but also for constructing knowledge. Despite an uneven pattern of contribution, asynchronous exchanges provided opportunities for knowledge construction at different levels of cognitive presence on topics ranging from technology tools and their affordances/constraints to computer-assisted language testing, materials development, and classroom management. The findings provide CALL teacher education researchers and course designers insights into the potential of asynchronous interaction for online and blended language teacher education.
Keywords: Asynchronous Communication; Blended Learning; CALL teacher education; CASE studies; COMPUTER assisted language instruction; Cognitive processes; Collaborative learning; Colleges & universities; Computer Mediated Communication; Computer assisted instruction--CAI; Computer assisted language learning; Critical thinking; Curriculum development; Data analysis; Discourse Analysis; Distance learning; ERIC, Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE); Educational Technology; Educational technology; English (Second Language); English as a second language instruction; Faculty Development; Foreign Countries; Foreign languages; Group Discussion; Higher Education; Higher education; Hybrid computers; Interactive learning; Iran; LANGUAGE & languages; Language Teachers; Linguistics--Computer Applications; PROFESSIONAL education; Professional development; School environment; Second Language Instruction; Second language teachers; Social factors; TEACHERS; Teacher Education Programs; Teacher education; Teachers; Teaching; Technology Uses in Education; __:import:01; __:match:final; __:matched; __:study_id:2095858; __finaldtb; asynchronous interaction; cognitive presence; online collaboration; social presence; teaching presence

World Librarians: A Peer-to-Peer Commons for Closing the Global Digital Divide - Schweik, Charlie; Smith, Jeremy; Meyer, Carl (Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, 2018)
The Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication seeks to share useful innovations, both in thought and in practice, with the aim of encouraging scholarly exchange and the subsequent benefits that are borne of scrutiny, experimentation and debate. As modes of scholarly communication, the technologies and economics of publishing and the roles of libraries evolve, it is our hope that the work shared in the journal will inform practices that strengthen librarianship and that increase access to the "common Stock of Knowledge."JLSC is particularly interested in the intersection of librarianship and publishing and the resulting role of libraries in both content dissemination and content creation. Related areas of interest include new methods for the dissemination of information and information exchange; the theory and practice of the organization, use and curation of information; and issues related to the review, credentialing, reputation and impact of scholarly work.
Keywords: ⚠️ Invalid DOI

Designing learning opportunities for the hardest to reach - Game-based mathematics learning for out-of-school children in Sudan - Stubbé, Hester (2018)
Worldwide, 61 million children are not in school. Despite many campaigns and initiatives, this number has not decreased over the last 10 years. There is a growing recognition that especially the most marginalised children will not be reached by simply expanding the current education system. Innovative education technology, coupled with a context specific approach, could provide opportunities. This thesis describes a project that attempts to provide education for hard to reach children. To support children to learn, without additional instruction from teachers, it was decided to design and develop a mathematics game, targeting children in Sudan with no ready access to education (in remote areas, nomadic or Internally Displaced People). The overall question of this thesis is: How can children in remote villages in Sudan learn mathematics from playing a mathematics game without additional instruction from teachers? As there was no existing curriculum-based, Arabic mathematics game, a new game had to be designed. Following a research-based approach, a set of requirements for a mathematics game that could reach these children was identified. Then the mathematics game was designed, developed and evaluated. To study whether children in remote villages in Sudan can learn mathematics from playing the game autonomously, two pilots were carried out. Pilot I focused on the question whether out-of-school children in remote villages in Sudan can learn mathematics from playing the game at all. Following positive results, sustained learning was studied in pilot II; a longer pilot, including more children and more, diverse, learning objectives. The question whether children can learn can be answered with a wholehearted ’yes’. Children who played the game have learned as much as, and probably more than, children in the control groups (no education in the same period; informal education in the same period). The set of requirements that was identified and the careful game design have resulted in a mathematics game that is engaging and motivating for the target population, leading to significant learning results. Unintentionally, even the flexibility of the game-based learning approach was proven: children only played an average 2-3 days a week instead of the planned five days a week and still increased their test scores significantly. This shows that skipping a few days a week, or even a whole week once in a while, does not get in the way of learning. Finally, the influence of child-related and context factors on learning effect was studied. The distance to the nearest primary school, self-esteem and self-efficacy showed positive correlations with test results, with a medium effect. At the same time, self-esteem has increased during the pilot. For the Sudan game, this does not mean immediate changes are necessary. When taking the game to a school context, changes should be made. At the same time, the design process and the game components can and have been used to adapt the game. The mathematics game has been adapted for Lebanon and Jordan, with Syrian refugees in mind. In addition, a literacy game for Sudan and Jordan was designed and developed.

Keynote Address by His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio on the theme of: "Education for Development" at the launch of the Free Quality School Education Programme - Maada Bio, Julius (2018)

Inclusive and special education approaches in developing countries - Price, Roz (Institute of Development Studies, 2018)
Keywords: ⛔ No DOI found

Investigating the self-reported professional development activities of school leaders in Ghanaian rural basic schools - Sofo, Francesco; Abonyi, Usman Kojo (Professional Development in Education, 2018)

Scaling up successfully: Lessons from Kenya’s Tusome national literacy program - Piper, Benjamin; Destefano, Joseph; Kinyanjui, Esther M.; Ong’ele, Salome (Journal of Educational Change, 2018)
Many successful piloted programs fail when scaled up to a national level. In Kenya, which has a long history of particularly ineffective implementation after successful pilot programs, the Tusome national literacy program—which receives funding from the United States Agency for International Development—is a national-level scale-up of previous literacy and numeracy programs. We applied a scaling framework (Crouch and DeStefano in Doing reform differently: combining rigor and practicality in implementation and evaluation of system reforms. International development group working paper no. 2017-01, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, 2017. https://www.rti.org/publication/doing-reform-differently-combining-rigor-and-practicality-implementation-and-evaluation) to examine whether Tusome’s implementation was rolled out in ways that would enable government structures and officers to respond effectively to the new program. We found that Tusome was able to clarify expectations for implementation and outcomes nationally using benchmarks for Kiswahili and English learning outcomes, and that these expectations were communicated all the way down to the school level. We noted that the essential program inputs were provided fairly consistently, across the nation. In addition, our analyses showed that Kenya developed functional, if simple, accountability and feedback mechanisms to track performance against benchmark expectations. We also established that the Tusome feedback data were utilized to encourage greater levels of instructional support within Kenya’s county level structures for education quality support. The results indicated that several of the key elements for successful scale-up were therefore put in place. However, we also discovered that Tusome failed to fully exploit the available classroom observational data to better target instructional support. In the context of this scaling framework, the Tusome literacy program’s external evaluation results showed program impacts of 0.6–1.0 standard deviations on English and Kiswahili learning outcomes. The program implemented a functional classroom observational feedback system through existing government systems, although usage of those systems varied widely across Kenya. Classroom visits, even if still falling short of the desired rate, were far more frequent, were focused on instructional quality, and included basic feedback and advice to teachers. These findings are promising with respect to the ability of countries facing quality problems to implement a coherent instructional reform through government systems at scale.
Keywords: ___working_potential_duplicate

Scaling up successfully: Lessons from Kenya’s Tusome national literacy program - Piper, Benjamin; Destefano, Joseph; Kinyanjui, Esther M.; Ong’ele, Salome (Journal of Educational Change, 2018)
Many successful piloted programs fail when scaled up to a national level. In Kenya, which has a long history of particularly ineffective implementation after successful pilot programs, the Tusome national literacy program—which receives funding from the United States Agency for International Development—is a national-level scale-up of previous literacy and numeracy programs. We applied a scaling framework (Crouch and DeStefano in Doing reform differently: combining rigor and practicality in implementation and evaluation of system reforms. International development group working paper no. 2017-01, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, 2017. https://www.rti.org/publication/doing-reform-differently-combining-rigor-and-practicality-implementation-and-evaluation) to examine whether Tusome’s implementation was rolled out in ways that would enable government structures and officers to respond effectively to the new program. We found that Tusome was able to clarify expectations for implementation and outcomes nationally using benchmarks for Kiswahili and English learning outcomes, and that these expectations were communicated all the way down to the school level. We noted that the essential program inputs were provided fairly consistently, across the nation. In addition, our analyses showed that Kenya developed functional, if simple, accountability and feedback mechanisms to track performance against benchmark expectations. We also established that the Tusome feedback data were utilized to encourage greater levels of instructional support within Kenya’s county level structures for education quality support. The results indicated that several of the key elements for successful scale-up were therefore put in place. However, we also discovered that Tusome failed to fully exploit the available classroom observational data to better target instructional support. In the context of this scaling framework, the Tusome literacy program’s external evaluation results showed program impacts of 0.6–1.0 standard deviations on English and Kiswahili learning outcomes. The program implemented a functional classroom observational feedback system through existing government systems, although usage of those systems varied widely across Kenya. Classroom visits, even if still falling short of the desired rate, were far more frequent, were focused on instructional quality, and included basic feedback and advice to teachers. These findings are promising with respect to the ability of countries facing quality problems to implement a coherent instructional reform through government systems at scale.
Keywords: ___working_potential_duplicate

Scaling up successfully: Lessons from Kenya’s Tusome national literacy program - Piper, Benjamin; Destefano, Joseph; Kinyanjui, Esther M.; Ong’ele, Salome (Journal of Educational Change, 2018)
Many successful piloted programs fail when scaled up to a national level. In Kenya, which has a long history of particularly ineffective implementation after successful pilot programs, the Tusome national literacy program—which receives funding from the United States Agency for International Development—is a national-level scale-up of previous literacy and numeracy programs. We applied a scaling framework (Crouch and DeStefano in Doing reform differently: combining rigor and practicality in implementation and evaluation of system reforms. International development group working paper no. 2017-01, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, 2017. https://www.rti.org/publication/doing-reform-differently-combining-rigor-and-practicality-implementation-and-evaluation) to examine whether Tusome’s implementation was rolled out in ways that would enable government structures and officers to respond effectively to the new program. We found that Tusome was able to clarify expectations for implementation and outcomes nationally using benchmarks for Kiswahili and English learning outcomes, and that these expectations were communicated all the way down to the school level. We noted that the essential program inputs were provided fairly consistently, across the nation. In addition, our analyses showed that Kenya developed functional, if simple, accountability and feedback mechanisms to track performance against benchmark expectations. We also established that the Tusome feedback data were utilized to encourage greater levels of instructional support within Kenya’s county level structures for education quality support. The results indicated that several of the key elements for successful scale-up were therefore put in place. However, we also discovered that Tusome failed to fully exploit the available classroom observational data to better target instructional support. In the context of this scaling framework, the Tusome literacy program’s external evaluation results showed program impacts of 0.6–1.0 standard deviations on English and Kiswahili learning outcomes. The program implemented a functional classroom observational feedback system through existing government systems, although usage of those systems varied widely across Kenya. Classroom visits, even if still falling short of the desired rate, were far more frequent, were focused on instructional quality, and included basic feedback and advice to teachers. These findings are promising with respect to the ability of countries facing quality problems to implement a coherent instructional reform through government systems at scale.
Keywords: Evaluation; Implementation; Literacy; National; Reading; Reform; Systems

The Effectiveness of Direct Instruction Curricula: A Meta-Analysis of a Half Century of Research - Stockard, Jean; Wood, Timothy W.; Coughlin, Cristy; Rasplica Khoury, Caitlin (Review of Educational Research, 2018)
Quantitative mixed models were used to examine literature published from 1966 through 2016 on the effectiveness of Direct Instruction. Analyses were based on 328 studies involving 413 study designs and almost 4,000 effects. Results are reported for the total set and subareas regarding reading, math, language, spelling, and multiple or other academic subjects; ability measures; affective outcomes; teacher and parent views; and single-subject designs. All of the estimated effects were positive and all were statistically significant except results from metaregressions involving affective outcomes. Characteristics of the publications, methodology, and sample were not systematically related to effect estimates. Effects showed little decline during maintenance, and effects for academic subjects were greater when students had more exposure to the programs. Estimated effects were educationally significant, moderate to large when using the traditional psychological benchmarks, and similar in magnitude to effect sizes that reflect performance gaps between more and less advantaged students.

Upping the Ante: The Equilibrium Effects of Unconditional Grants to Private Schools - Andrabi, Tahir; Das, Jishnu; Khwaja, Asim I.; Ozyurt, Selcuk; Singh, Niharika (World Bank, 2018)
This paper tests for financial constraints as a market failure in education in a low-income country. In an experimental setup, unconditional cash grants are allocated to one private school or all private schools in a village. Enrollment increases in both treatments, accompanied by infrastructure investments. However, test scores and fees only increase in the setting of all private schools along with higher teacher wages. This differential impact follows from a canonical oligopoly model with capacity constraints and endogenous quality: greater financial saturation crowds-in quality investments. The findings of higher social surplus in the setting of all private schools, but greater private returns in the setting of one private school underscore the importance of leveraging market structure in designing educational subsidies.
Keywords: Education Markets; Financial Innovation; Private Education; Return to Capital; SMEs; Small and Medium Enterprises; Student Achievement; Unconditional Cash Transfers

Teacher Professional Development around the World: The Gap between Evidence and Practice - Popova, Anna; Evans, David K.; Breeding, Mary E.; Arancibia, Violeta (World Bank, 2018)
Keywords: C:Low- and middle-income countries

First 50Mb/s Internet connection put online - Rasbey, Samer (BusinessNews.com.lb, 2018)
460,000 users to be connected to fiber optics in one year

Brain drain in higher education: Critical voices on teacher education in Yemen - Muthanna, Abdulghani; Sang, Guoyuan (London Review of Education, 2018)
Brain drain is a context-based issue and has direct impact on the quality of higher education for institutions where a significant number of instructors migrate to take up work in other countries. This is a critical problem in Yemen where higher teacher education programmes still lack teachers. Interpretive analysis of in-depth interviews with two university administrators and ten teacher educators revealed four key factors affecting the occurrence of brain drain: ineffective application of sabbatical leave regulations; failure to equalize returning teachers’ salaries with those of their colleagues; lack of resources to support research; and the presence of internal and external conflicts. The study also provides insights for decreasing brain drain in Yemen.

MyUnisa Digi-Band - unicourses (University Courses, 2018)
The my Unisa Digi-band is a device that allows students to store an offline, yet updatable , copy of their myUnisa group site on a flash drive

Research with, not about, communities — Ethical guidance towards empowerment in collaborative research, a report for the TRUST Project - Chatfield, Kate; Biernacki, Olivia; Schroeder, Doris; Cavallaro, Francesca; Cook, Julie; N’Diaye, Dieynaba; Bompart, Francois; Chennells, Roger; Toohey, Jacintha; Wynberg, Rachel; van Niekirk, Jaci; Ait, Myriam (TRUST, 2018)

10 Important Facts About Girls' Education in Somalia - Cline, Matthew (2018)

Power, knowledge and the politics of gender in the Global South - Medie, Peace A.; Kang, Alice J. (European Journal of Politics and Gender, 2018)
Critical feminists have argued that research on women and gender is not sufficiently 'global' in its representation of scholars and perspectives. We draw on these works to argue that the scholarship on women, gender and politics does not sufficiently consider the effects of the global order in the Global South. We propose the adoption of a 'global lens' to address this gap. We further examine the representation of South-based scholars by analysing leading women, gender and politics journals, and find that they are severely under-represented as authors. We propose steps to address this underrepresentation and to decolonise the scholarship.
Keywords: GENDER; GLOBAL INEQUALITY; GLOBAL SOUTH; JOURNALS; POLITICAL; PUBLICATIONS; SCIENCE

The trials of evidence-based practice in education: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials in education research 1980–2016 - Connolly, Paul; Keenan, Ciara; Urbanska, Karolina (Educational Research, 2018)
Background: The use of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in education has increased significantly over the last 15 years. However, their use has also been subject to sustained and rather trenchant criticism from significant sections of the education research community. Key criticisms have included the claims that: it is not possible to undertake RCTs in education; RCTs are blunt research designs that ignore context and experience; RCTs tend to generate simplistic universal laws of ‘cause and effect’; and that they are inherently descriptive and contribute little to theory.Purpose: This article seeks to assess the above four criticisms of RCTs by considering the actual evidence in relation to the use of RCTs in education in practice.Design and methods: The article is based upon a systematic review that has sought to identify and describe all RCTs conducted in educational settings and including a focus on educational outcomes between 1980 and 2016. The search is limited to articles and reports published in English.Results: The systematic review found a total of 1017 unique RCTs that have been completed and reported between 1980 and 2016. Just over three quarters of these have been produced over the last 10 years, reflecting the significant increase in the use of RCTs in recent years. Overall, just over half of all RCTs identified were conducted in North America and a little under a third in Europe. The RCTs cover a wide range of educational settings and focus on an equally wide range of educational interventions and outcomes. The findings not only disprove the claim that it is not possible to do RCTs in education but also provide some supporting evidence to challenge the other three key criticisms outlined earlier.Conclusions: While providing evidence to counter the four criticisms outlined earlier, the article suggests that there remains significant progress to be made. The article concludes by outlining some key challenges for researchers undertaking RCTs in education.
Keywords: Correction; RCT; Systematic reviews; context; education; educational settings; theory

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in education research – methodological debates, questions, challenges - Styles, Ben; Torgerson, Carole (Educational Research, 2018)

A Process for Co-Designing Educational Technology Systems for Refugee Children - Alain, George; Coughlan, Tim; Adams, Anne; Yanacopulos, Helen (2018)
There is a growing interest in the potential for technology to facilitate emergency education of refugee children. However, designing in this space requires knowledge of the displaced population and the contextual dynamics surrounding it. Design should therefore be informed by both existing research across relevant disciplines, and from the practical experience of those who are on the ground facing the problem in real life. This paper describes a process for designing appropriate technology for these settings. The process draws on literature from emergency education, student engagement and motivation, educational technology, and participatory design. We emphasise a thorough understanding of the problem definition, the nature of the emergency, and of socio-cultural aspects that can inform the design process. We describe how this process was implemented leading to the design of a digital learning space for children living in a refugee camp in Greece. This drew on involving different groups of participants such as social-workers, parents, and children.
Keywords: Google Scholar/ "refugee education" ICT; NOTdocs.opendeved.net; RER theme_pedagogies and modalities

Too little or too much? Actionable advice in an early-childhood text messaging experiment - Cortes, Kalena; Fricke, Hans; Loeb, Susanna; Song, David (NBER Working Paper Series, 2018)
Text-message based parenting programs have proven successful in improving parental engagement and preschoolers’ literacy development. The tested programs have provided a combination of (a) general information about important literacy skills, (b) actionable advice (i.e.,specific examples of such activities), and (c) encouragement. The regularity of the texts – each week throughout the school year – also provided nudges to focus parents’ attention on their children. This study seeks to identify mechanisms of the overall effect of such programs. It investigates whether the actionable advice alone drives previous study’s results and whether additional texts of actionable advice improve program effectiveness. The findings provide evidence that text messaging programs can supply too little or too much information. A single text per week is not as effective at improving parenting practices as a set of three texts that also include information and encouragement, but a set of five texts with additional actionable advice is also not as effective as the three-text approach. The results on children’s literacy development depend strongly on the child’s pre-intervention literacy skills. For children in the lowest quarter of the pre-treatment literacy assessments, only providing one example of an activity decreases literacy scores by 0.15 standard deviations relative to the original intervention. Literacy scores of children in higher quarters are marginally higher with only one tip per week. We find no positive effects of increasing to five texts per week.
Keywords: ___working_potential_duplicate

Technology for Inclusive Education (TFIE) Pilot Report - Digital Literacy Trust (2018)

Apping and resilience: How smartphones help Syrian refugees in Lebanon negotiate the precarity of displacement - Göransson, Markus (Clingendael Netherlands Institute of International Relations, 2018)

WRAHA: We Refugees Also Have Ambitions! - research design for an unsuccessful eCubed application - Haßler, Björn (Open Development & Education, 2018)
Keywords: dode_eth-src-dode; dode_eth-trf2-dode

Inputs, Incentives, and Complementarities in Education: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania - Mbiti, Isaac; Muralidharan, Karthik; Romero, Mauricio; Schipper, Youdi; Manda, Constantine; Rajani, Rakesh (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2018)
We present results from a large-scale randomized experiment across 350 schools in Tanzania that studied the impact of providing schools with (a) unconditional grants, (b) teacher incentives based on student performance, and (c) both of the above. After two years, we find (a) no impact on student test scores from providing school grants, (b) some evidence of positive effects from teacher incentives, and (c) significant positive effects from providing both programs. Most importantly, we find strong evidence of complementarities between the two programs, with the effect of joint provision being significantly greater than the sum of the individual effects. Our results suggest that combining spending on school inputs (which is the default policy) with improved teacher incentives could substantially increase the cost-effectiveness of public spending on education.

Education sector development plan 2016/17–2020/21: Tanzania mainland - Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (The United Republic of Tanzania, 2018)

Students Awareness and Utilization of Educational Broadcasts to Learn in Ogbomoso, Oyo State Nigeria - Olumorin, Charles Olubode; Aderoju, Musiliu Adekola; Onojah, Amos Ochayi (Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 2018)
Radio and Television are broadcast media meant to disseminate audio and video signal, messages, information or programs to wide range of audience. Radio and television are already playing a role in educating the populace non-formally through various educational channels and programs, but there is significant potential to capitalize on their ability to enhance development and learning curriculum content among secondary school students. This study: 1) Find out the awareness of educational radio and television programs by secondary school students in Ogbomoso 2) Investigate secondary school students access to educational radio and television programs in Ogbomoso and 3) Investigate problems militating against students' use of educational radio and television programs for learning. Questionnaire was used as instrument to elicit responses from 100 secondary school students on their awareness-on and access to seven educational radio and television programs. The findings revealed that the students were not aware of the educational radio and television programs even though they have access to it. The study recommends that teachers in secondary schools should include educational broadcasts as forms of stimulus variation that they could apply to their classes and educational programs producers on both radio and television should create enough awareness about the programs to enable students follow the programs at appropriate time.
Keywords: Access to Education; Audiovisual Instruction; Barriers; Distance Education; Educational Radio; Educational Television; Familiarity; Foreign Countries; Questionnaires; Secondary School Students; Student Surveys

Support to children’s education in the urban slums of Nairobi: community and parents’ perceptions with an expanded phase of an education intervention program - Abuya, Benta A.; Wekulo, Patricia; Muhia, Nelson (Qualitative Research in Education, 2018)
The objective of this paper is to examine the perceptions of community elders and parents on their roles regarding support to their children’s education. Data come from the qualitative component of a baseline survey conducted in Korogocho and Viwandani, two urban informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya. Data were collected in April-May 2016 through in-depth interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. Results demonstrated that community elders internalized their role as the face of government in their respective communities, and enforced the implementation of education policies on behalf of all children. The community leaders also saw as part of their role the need to encourage parents to be active participants in their children’s education. Female parents with boys in the program perceived that parental monitoring and follow-up was important to ensure that their children attended school, and completed work assigned by the teachers, more so in Korogocho. Overall, parents recognized the importance of the role they played in their children’s education. This is a good entry point as parental support will ensure the success and sustainability of the intervention to improve educational outcomes for children, which in turn will help their children navigate the challenging period that adolescence presents.
Keywords: teachers

Knowledge, Politics and Policymaking in Indonesia - Pellini, Arnaldo; Prasetiamartati, Budiati; Nugroho, Kharisma Priyo; Jackson, Elisabeth; Carden, Fred (Springer, 2018)
This edited volume examines key questions about evidence-informed policymaking in Indonesia. It draws on insights and evidence acquired through the implementation of the Knowledge Sector Initiative, a donor-funded programme that aims to increase the demand for and use of evidence in policymaking in Indonesia. Featuring contributions from academics, policy researchers, policymakers and development practitioners, the volume will deepen readers’ understanding of how knowledge and politics shape the policymaking process in Indonesia. As such, it will be of interest to Indonesian and international researchers, academics, students, practitioners and policymakers concerned with various aspects of evidence-informed policymaking research and processes. In particular, regional and international development practitioners and development partners interested in learning from Indonesia’s efforts to improve how evidence is used to address key development challenges will find this volume valuable.
Keywords: Political Science / Political Process / General; Political Science / Public Affairs & Administration; Political Science / Public Policy / General; Social Science / Developing & Emerging Countries; Social Science / Sociology / General

In which countries do the most highly qualified and experienced teachers teach in the most difficult schools? - Avvisati, Francesco (OECD, 2018)
Teachers are the most important school resource. In every country, teachers’ salaries and training represent the greatest share of expenditure on education; and this investment in teachers can have significant returns. Research shows that being taught by the best teachers can make a real difference in the learning and life outcomes of otherwise similar students. But not all students are equal when it comes to access to high-quality teaching. In fact, PISA data show that there are inequities in access to experienced and qualified teachers in many countries, and that they are related to the gap in learning outcomes between advantaged and disadvantaged students.

Meet the Rwandan innovation for One-Laptop-Per-Child - Bizimungu, Julius (The New Times, 2018)

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 - Kirkpatrick, Andrew; O Connor, Joshue; Campbell, Alastair; Cooper, Michael (W3C, 2018)

Literature search protocol for the African Education Research Database - Mitchell; Rose (Zenodo, 2018)
This methodological note provides an overview of the ‘Mapping education research in sub-Saharan Africa’ project. It presents the protocols for the literature search, data extraction, and development of the African Education Research Database.
Keywords: Reviewed; _not_EdTechHub; _zenodoOTHER; education research; sub-Saharan Africa

Teacher Professional Development and Student Literacy Growth: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis - Basma, Badriah; Savage, Robert (Educational Psychology Review, 2018)
This systematic review explores the impact of teacher professional development (PD) on student reading achievement. The first part of the literature evaluates all available existing systematic reviews and meta-analyses of PD intervention studies. No quality reviews of PD and reading specifically (distinct from ‘attainment’) were found. There was a little overlap of studies in existing reviews. The second part of the systematic review focuses on the most recent intervention studies exploring PD and student reading achievement. The results of a meta-analysis of all high-quality studies are presented in the third part of the paper. This analysis showed no strong evidence of publication bias and an effect size for PD on student literacy of g = 0.225. This effect was moderated by the number of hours of PD whereby studies with fewer than 30 h of PD was significant for student reading outcomes (g = 0.367, p < 0.001) but more than 30 PD hours was not significant (g = 0.143, p > .05). Following a Weight of Evidence assessment, analysis showed that nearly all high-quality articles involved shorter PD. Weight of Evidence was a significant moderator, (g = 0.408, p < 0.001 for high-quality studies, g = 0.077, p > 0.5, n.s., for medium quality studies). Our review suggests that only high-quality studies of short teacher PD currently provide evidence of impact on student’s reading achievement.
Keywords: C: International

Through the looking glass: can classroom observation and coaching improve teacher performance in Brazil? - Bruns, Barbara; Costa, Leandro; Cunha, Nina (Economics of Education Review, 2018)
We conducted a randomized evaluation of a program in Brazil that provided secondary schools with classroom observation feedback and access to expert coaching. Coaching content was based on Teach Like A Champion, by Douglas Lemov, which imparts practical strategies to increase teachers’ effectiveness by maximizing time on instruction and student engagement. In treatment schools, the program raised the skills of pedagogical coordinators tasked with supporting teachers to improve instruction, increased teachers’ time on instruction, raised student engagement and produced statistically significant student learning gains. Program schools performed 0.05–0.09 SD higher in 10th grade math and Portuguese on a state test and 0.06 SD higher in Portuguese on a national high school leaving test (12th grade). High quality coaching delivered to the coordinators via Skype kept costs at $2.40 per student, making the program a cost-effective and promising strategy for school-based efforts to raise teachers’ classroom effectiveness. (I21, I25, I28, J18, O15)
Keywords: Classroom observation; Economic development; Economic impact; Educational economics; Randomization; Teacher coaching; __:import:01; __:match:final; __:matched; __:study_id:2425900; ___working_potential_duplicate; __finaldtb

Nudging in education - Damgaard, Mette Trier; Nielsen, Helena Skyt (Economics of Education Review, 2018)
Can we nudge children, adolescents and their parents to make better decisions on education? And can we nudge teachers to support and encourage better decision making? Education decisions are taken at young ages and involve immediate costs and potential, future benefits. In such settings behavioural barriers (e.g. lack of self-control, limited attention and social norms) likely influence choices and this may motivate the use of low cost ‘nudges’ to gently push behaviour in the desired direction. Our review of nudging interventions shows that while nudging often has positive effects, the greatest effects often arise for individuals affected most by the behavioural barrier targeted by the intervention. Hence understanding underlying behavioural mechanisms is crucial. Negative effects may arise in situations where nudges potentially crowd-out intrinsic motivation, if nudges pressurise individuals, or in situations where the choice architect has an insufficient understanding of behavioural mechanisms.
Keywords: Behavioural bias; Boost policies; Human capital investment

Identifying the essential ingredients to literacy and numeracy improvement: Teacher professional development and coaching, student textbooks, and structured teachers’ guides - Piper, Benjamin; Simmons Zuilkowski, Stephanie; Dubeck, Margaret; Jepkemei, Evelyn; King, Simon J. (World Development, 2018)
Several rigorously evaluated programs have recently shown positive effects on early literacy and numeracy outcomes in developing countries. However, these programs have not been designed to evaluate which ingredients of the interventions are most essential to improve literacy outcomes. Policy makers therefore lack evidence as to whether program ingredients such as teacher professional development (PD), instructional coaching, learner materials, teachers’ guides, community support, or technology are required for program impact. The Kenya Primary Math and Reading Initiative was a randomized controlled trial that compared three treatment groups with speciﬁc ingredients and a control group. Using literacy and numeracy outcome measures for grades 1 and 2, we evaluated the beneﬁts of the following ingredients: (1) teacher PD and teacher instructional support and coaching; (2) revised student books in literacy and numeracy, at a 1:1 ratio, added to PD and instructional support; and (3) structured teacher lesson plans added to student books, PD, and instructional support. We found that two of the three combinations of ingredients had statistically signiﬁcant positive impacts on learning outcomes. The results showed that the third combination—PD, teacher instructional support and coaching, 1:1 student books, and structured teacher lesson plans—was most effective. A cost-effectiveness analysis on the ingredients showed that the option of PD and instructional support, 1:1 revised books, and teachers’ guides was the most expensive, but that the additional impact on learning made this the most cost-effective intervention. This study rigorously analyzes which ingredients for literacy and numeracy improvement would be most effective for overall impact, and suggests to policy makers that careful decisions regarding program ingredients will lead to more effectively designed and implemented interventions to improve learning in developing countries.
Keywords: Africa; C:Kenya; Literacy; Numeracy; Program Evaluation; Program evaluation; Quantitative; Randomized controlled trial; Reading; Teacher Professional Development; ___working_potential_duplicate; numeracy; randomized control trial

Impact of Online Computer Assisted Learning on Education: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in China - Bai, Yu; Tang, Bin; Wang, Boya; Auden, Emma; Mandell, Blake (2018)
Education of poor and disadvantaged populations has been a long-standing challenge for education systems in both developed and developing countries. In China, millions of students in rural areas and migrant communities lag far behind their urban counterparts in terms of academic achievement. When they fall behind, they often have no way to catch up. Many of their parents have neither the skills nor the money to provide remedial tutoring; rural teachers often do not have time to give students the individual attention they need. Given this, there is growing interest by both educators and policymakers in helping underperforming students catch up using computer assisted learning (CAL). While CAL interventions have been shown to be effective internationally and elsewhere in China, traditional software-based CAL programs are difficult and costly to implement. An online version of CAL (OCAL), however, may be able to bypass many of offline CAL’s implementation problems and enhance the remedial tutoring experience. Unfortunately, there is little empirical evidence on whether OCAL programs can be effective in improving the quality of rural primary school education in developing countries. The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of an OCAL intervention on the academic and non-academic performance of students and to explore the mechanism behind OCAL’s impact. Importantly, we also aim to assess the cost effectiveness of the new OCAL program versus traditional CAL interventions. To achieve these objectives, we carried out a randomized controlled trial (RCT) involving over 1650 fifth grade students in 44 schools in rural areas and migrant communities across China. Students in the 22 treatment schools attended two 40minute OCAL sessions during their computer class each week for one semester; the students in the other 22 schools were in the control group and did not receive any intervention. According to our findings, OCAL improved overall English scores of students in the treatment group relative to the control group by 0.56 standard deviations. This impact is large when compared with offline CAL programs. We found that OCAL also led to a positive change in the attitudes of students towards English learning and towards student aspirations for their future education level. We found three possible explanations for OCAL’s impact. After rejecting the possibility of the Hawthorne Effect or self-efficacy-induced changes, we believe interest-oriented stimulation is the main source of improvement among students. The chance for comparison and competition with peers, as well as customized remedial question banks tailored to each student’s individual needs, likely contributed to the measured increases in academic performance among students in our sample. Cost-effectiveness analysis showed that the OCAL program is more cost-effective than traditional offline CAL, a comparison which is significant for policymakers as it indicates high potential for OCAL program expansion.
Keywords: ⛔ No DOI found

Misperceived social norms: female labor force participation in Saudi Arabia - Bursztyn, Leonardo; Gonzalez, Alessandra L; Yanagizawa-Drott, David (2018)
Through the custom of guardianship, husbands typically have the ﬁnal word on their wives’ labor supply decisions in Saudi Arabia, a country with very low female labor force participation (FLFP). We provide incentivized evidence (both from an experimental sample in Riyadh and from a national sample) that the vast majority of young married men in Saudi Arabia privately support FLFP outside of home from a normative perspective, while they substantially underestimate the level of support for FLFP by other similar men – even men from their same social setting, such as their neighbors. We then show that randomly correcting these beliefs about others increases married men’s willingness to let their wives join the labor force (as measured by their costly sign-up for a job-matching service for their wives). Finally, we ﬁnd that this decision maps onto real outcomes: four months after the main intervention, the wives of men in our original sample whose beliefs about acceptability of FLFP were corrected are more likely to have applied and interviewed for a job outside of home. Together, our evidence indicates a potentially important source of labor market frictions, where job search is underprovided due to misperceived social norms.

Acceptable Use Policy - Hollingworth, Jimmy (Longhill High School, 2018)

A Global Framework of Reference on Digital Literacy Skills for Indicator 4.4.2 - Law, N.; Woo, David; Wong, Gary (UNESCO, 2018)
The objective of the Digital Literacy Global Framework (DLGF) project is to develop a methodology that can serve as the foundation for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) thematic Indicator 4.4.2: “Percentage of youth/adults who have achieved at least a minimum level of proficiency in digital literacy skills”. To achieve this objective, we have built on the European Commission’s Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp 2.0) as the initial framework and conducted four empirical studies to develop the proposed framework.

Using instructional video to improve awareness of scientific approach in science classroom - Susantini, Endang; Faizah, Ulfi; Yonata, Bertha; Kurniasari, Ika; Suryanti (Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, 2018)
Instructional videos have been developed to engage pre-service teachers to learn how to teach scientific approach in science classroom. This study aimed to improve preservice teachers' awareness of scientific approach in science classroom through instructional video along with their responses. Thirty two pre-service science teachers from Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Surabaya, Indonesia, participated in this study and observed two different instructional videos using video-analysis worksheet supplemented by the supervisor. In response to the instructional video, results showed that pre-service teachers noticed well about application of scientific approach in inquiry-based teaching and cooperative learning models. Pre-service teachers also showed positive views about the instructional videos and became a reflection for their own future teaching actions and practices. Supplementation of the video-analysis worksheet during the implementation and peer-discussion among preservice teachers can be used to improve pre-service teachers' awareness as well as to provide clear exemplary about how to integrate scientific approach at each phase of inquiry-based teaching and cooperative learning models. This study implies that the present instructional videos and followed-up video-analysis task are adequate to facilitate pre-service teachers to understand what to do in actual classroom in terms of applying scientific approach as envisioned by Indonesia curriculum reform.
Keywords: Active Learning; Biology; Chemistry; Classrooms; Cooperative Learning; Cooperative learning; Curricula; ERIC, Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE); Educational technology; Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Hypotheses; Indonesia; Inquiry; Inquiry method; Instructional Material Evaluation; Mathematics; Models; Pedagogy; Preservice Teacher Education; Preservice Teachers; Professional development; Science Instruction; Science Teachers; Science education; Sciences: Comprehensive Works; Scientific Methodology; Student Attitudes; Students; Teacher education; Teaching Methods; Teaching methods; Video Technology; Video recordings; __:import:01; __:match:final; __:matched; __:study_id:2097317; __finaldtb; ⚠️ Invalid DOI; ⛔ No DOI found

Linguistic imperialism and language decolonisation in Africa through documentation and preservation - Agyekum, Kofi (African linguistics on the prairie, 2018)
This paper addresses the politics of language use in African nations and societies. It highlights the role of power and economics in the choice of language. It discusses linguistic imperialism and language shift, and how they lead to language endangerment. The paper also discusses linguistic decolonization whereby societies resist linguistic domination and endangerment and embark on language maintenance. It touches on the methods employed in language decolonisation, namely language revitalisation, resistance, maintenance, documentation and preservation. Attention will be on lexicology, terminology and the role of radio and TV. We argue that as a society tries to redeem itself from linguistic imperialism through decolonisation, certain stronger politico-economic factors push it back into linguistic imperialism. We will find out that some of the indigenous people themselves kick against language decolonisation. The paper hinges on the theoretical base of language endangerment. Examples are taken from African and Ghanaian languages with emphasis on Akan.

Effectiveness of Teachers’ Guides in the Global South: Scripting, Learning Outcomes, and Classroom Utilization - Piper, Benjamin; Sitabkhan, Yasmin; Mejia, Jessica; Betts, Kellie (RTI Press, 2018)
This report presents the results of RTI International Education’s study on teachers' guides across 13 countries and 19 projects. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, we examine how teachers’ guides across the projects differ and find substantial variation in the design and structure of the documents. We develop a scripting index so that the scripting levels of the guides can be compared across projects. The impact results of the programs that use teachers’ guides show significant impacts on learning outcomes, associated with approximately an additional half year of learning, showing that structured teachers’ guides contribute to improved learning outcomes. During observations, we find that teachers make a variety of changes in their classroom instruction from how the guides are written, showing that the utilization of structured teachers’ guides do not create robotic teachers unable to use their own professional skills to teach children. Unfortunately, many changes that teachers make reduce the amount of group work and interactivity that was described in the guides, suggesting that programs should encourage teachers to more heavily utilize the instructional routines designed in the guide. The report includes a set of research-based guidelines that material developers can use to develop teachers’ guides that will support effective instructional practices and help improve learning outcomes. The key takeaway from the report is that structured teachers' guides improve learning outcomes, but that overly scripted teachers' guides are somewhat less effective than simplified teachers' guides that give specific guidance to the teacher but are not written word for word for each lesson in the guide.

Better Than Most: Teacher Beliefs about Effort and Ability in Uganda - Sabarwal, Shwetlena; Kacker, Kanishka; Habyarimana, James (World Bank, 2018)
Do teachers have accurate beliefs about their effort and ability? This paper explores this through a survey experiment in public-private partnership schools in Uganda, wherein teacher self-beliefs are contrasted with their beliefs about other teachers in the same school. The study finds that, on average, teachers tend to rate ability, effort, and job satisfaction more positively for themselves than for other teachers. This tendency is called high relative self-regard. The study finds no systematic evidence of high relative self-regard around perceptions of student engagement quality and available support structures. More experienced teachers are less likely to exhibit high relative self-regard, while teachers showing low effort are more likely to exhibit it. This is analogous to the Dunning-Kruger effect in psychology, except respondents rate themselves as better than most (not better than average) and variation is explored over effort (not cognitive ability). High relative self-regard is less pronounced in owner-managed public-private partnership schools, suggesting that when principle-agent problems are less severe, schools find ways to correct for inaccurate teacher self-beliefs. These results provide suggestive evidence of cognitive biases that help teachers rationalize suboptimal effort in the classroom. This in turn points to the importance of providing objective feedback to teachers about their effort and performance as one potential way to improve their performance. Teacher self-beliefs are important areas of intervention because they are likely to affect how teachers optimize their effort and training investments. Self-beliefs are also likely to affect how teachers respond to changes in incentive and accountability regimes.
Keywords: Absenteeism; Accountability; Education; Incentives; Public-Private Partnerships; Self-Belief; Self-Regard; Subjective Assessment; Teacher Effectiveness; Teaching Effort

Gender Responsive Communication for Development: Guidance, Tools and Resources - UNICEF ROSA (2018)

Boosting Prosperity, Improving Equity in North and North Eastern Kenya - World Bank (2018)

Bias in Online Classes: Evidence from a Field Experiment - Baker, Rachel; Dee, Thomas S.; Brent, Evans; John, June (Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis, 2018)
The anonymity of online discussion forums does not deter instructors from exhibiting bias in favor of white males.

Reducing student absences at scale by targeting parents’ misbeliefs - Rogers, Todd; Feller, Avi (Nature Human Behaviour, 2018)

Understanding the EdTech Product Landscape - Singh, Ashmeet (Medium, 2018)
EdTech is expanding. Today you can find an app to learn almost anything. This is causing EdTech landscape to evolve & diversify.

The achievement gap phenomenon: a practical application of modeling & simulation - Johnson, John J.; Padilla, Jose; Diallo, Saikou Y. (Society for Computer Simulation International, 2018)
The academic achievement gap is a persistent phenomenon in U.S. education system despite a long history of efforts and billions of dollars spent to correct it. Literature abounds with theories about why the gap exist, such as: student self-perception, parent involvement, teacher quality, and others. Model based approaches have been used to understand various aspects of the phenomenon. However, no models were identified that consider a comprehensive set of theories, and is specifically designed to investigate potential policies and strategies for reducing the gap. We build such a model using a methodology that includes: a) Modeling and Simulation-System Development Framework (MS-SDF); b) Systems Modeling Language (SysML); and c) a Systems Dynamics approach. Preliminary findings indicate that concepts from prevailing theories about the achievement gap can be accurately represented in a single system dynamics model. We also identify key stakeholders, functions, and variables affecting the achievement gap.
Keywords: M&S system development framework (MS-SDF); achievement gap; modeling and simulation; system dynamics; systems modeling language (SysML)

9 avantages la technologie en classe & 18 façons de l’intégrer dans ses cours - Duquesnoy, Maxime (PortailEduc, 2018)
Le site Jen Reviews propose un article intéressant sur les apports et l’intégration de la technologie dans ses enseignements. L’article (en anglais) est disponible via le lien Cet artic…

Developing Adaptive E-Learning Environment Using Cognitive and Noncognitive Parameters: - Siddique, Ansar; Durrani, Qaiser S.; Naqvi, Husnain A. (Journal of Educational Computing Research, 2018)
The falling learning outcome is one of the major challenges faced by most of the educational systems. Adaptive educational systems (AESs) are viewed as catalyst...

A computational literature review of the field of System Dynamics from 1974 to 2017 - Kunc, Martin; Mortenson, Michael J.; Vidgen, Richard (Journal of Simulation, 2018)
System Dynamics celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2017. While there have been numerous special issues in diverse journals that bring together work by System Dynamics scholars who share similar research interests, there have been no systematic reviews of scholarly activity across the broad field. This paper presents a computational literature review of the field from 1974 to 2017. A CLR automates the analysis of research articles with analysis of content (topic modelling of abstracts) to identify emergent themes in the literature. We performed a broad review of the field by initially searching using the term “System Dynamics” with more than 8000 articles. However, the results obtained were not satisfactory so we decided to restrict our sample to less than 800 articles from recognised journals and proceedings. After evaluation of the results obtained from topic modelling, we decided to use 51 topics covering most of the articles in our sample. A list of 51 topics provides enough granularity to identify relevant patterns of activity within the community of System Dynamics scholars. For each of these 51 topics, we present a commentary on the key insights obtained.
Keywords: System Dynamics; computational literature review; healthcare; methodology; supply chain

Impact of Internet Access on Student Learning in Peruvian Schools - Kho, Kevin; Lakdawala, Leah; Nakasone, Eduardo (Working Papers, 2018)
We investigate the impacts of school-based internet access on pupil achievement in Peru, using a large panel of 5,903 public primary schools that gained internet connections during 2007-2014. We employ an event study approach and a trend break analysis that exploit variation in the timing of internet roll-out up to 5 years after installation. We find that internet access has a moderate, positive short-run impact on school-average standardized math scores, but importantly that this effect grows over time. We provide evidence that schools require time to adapt to internet access by hiring teachers with computer training and that this process is not immediate. These dynamics highlight the need for complementary investments to fully exploit new technological inputs and underscores the importance of using an extended evaluation window to allow the effects of school-based internet on learning to materialize.
Keywords: Education; ICT; Internet; Schooling

Pocket Book on Bangladesh Education Statistics 2017 - BANBEIS (Bangladesh Bureau of Education Information and Statistics, 2018)

Mathematical modelling in teacher education: dealing with institutional constraints - Barquero, Berta; Bosch, Marianna; Romo, Avenilde (ZDM: The International Journal on Mathematics Education, 2018)
Considering the general problem of integrating mathematical modelling into current educational systems, this paper focuses on the "ecological dimension" of this problem--the institutional constraints that hinder the development of mathematical modelling as a normalised teaching activity--and the inevitable step of the professional development of teachers. Within the framework of the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic, this step is approached using the "study and research paths for teacher education" (SRP-TE), an inquiry-based process combining practical and theoretical questioning of school mathematical activities. We present a research study focusing on the design and analysis of an online and distance-learning course for in-service mathematics teachers based on the SRP-TE methodology. This course starts from the initial question of how to analyse, adapt and integrate a learning process related to mathematical modelling and how to sustain its long-term development. Our analysis is based on a case study consisting in four successive editions of a course for Latin American in-service mathematics teachers held at the Centre for Applied Research in Advanced Science and Technology in Mexico. The starting point is a modelling activity about forecasting the number of Facebook users, which includes functional modelling and regression. The results show how the course represents a valuable instrument to help teachers progress in the critical issue of identifying institutional constraints--most of them beyond the scope of action of teachers and students and not approached by previous research--hindering the integration of mathematical modelling in current secondary schools.
Keywords: Anthropological theory of the didactic; Barriers; Case Studies; Distance Education; ERIC, Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE); Ecological Factors; Ecology; Foreign Countries; Functions; Inservice Teacher Education; Institutional constraints; Instructional Design; Mathematical Models; Mathematical modelling; Mathematics Teachers; Mexico; Online Courses; Prediction; Regression (Statistics); Social Media; Study and research path; Teacher education; __:import:01; __:match:final; __:matched; __:study_id:2095891; __finaldtb

The Influence of Interactive Learning Materials on Self-Regulated Learning and Learning Satisfaction of Primary School Teachers in Mongolia - Li, Shengru; Yamaguchi, Shinobu; Takada, Jun-ichi (Sustainability, 2018)
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of interactive learning materials on learners’ self-regulated learning processes and learning satisfaction. A two-group experimental design was employed for 285 primary school teachers involved in teacher training. Teachers in the experimental group utilised interactive learning materials along with training videos and guidelines for their self-development at the school level. Teachers in the control group conducted self-development only with training videos and guidelines. The result was analysed using self-regulated learning theory explaining how one’s self-regulation processes affect learning satisfaction. Five self-regulation processes were identified in this study: internal motivation, motivation for better assessment, planning and organizing skills, critical and positive thinking skills, and effort regulation. The analysis was conducted in two steps. First, t-test analysis was used to identify the significant differences between the experimental group and the control group. The analysis revealed: (1) teachers conducting self-development with interactive learning materials were highly motivated to achieve better teacher assessment, (2) teachers with interactive learning materials had higher learning satisfaction. Second, the study further investigated the effect of interactive materials on the relationship between self-regulation processes and learning satisfaction, using moderation analysis. The results showed that interactive materials significantly affect the relationship between motivation for better assessment and learning satisfaction, as well as the relationship between internal motivation and learning satisfaction. These results were complemented by qualitative analysis including interviews and focus group discussions with teachers.
Keywords: ICT in education; country-specific developments; in-service teacher training; interactive learning environments; self-regulated learning

Investigating effects of using digital video in teacher training in Cambodia - Lok, Leandra; Schellings, Gonny; Brouwer, Niels; Brok, Perry Den (Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 2018)
While research has shown that video can be an effective tool in the professional learning of teachers in industrialized countries, it is unknown whether this is also true for other countries with distinctive cultural, political, and historical contexts, such as Cambodia. This paper presents results from a study which examined the effectiveness of using video to introduce student-centered teaching to teachers in Cambodia. The training consisted of collaboratively watching and discussing videos of teaching practices. A 2x2 design was used, varying group conditions (team versus pair) and...
Keywords: ⛔ No DOI found

Investigating effects of using digital video in teacher training in Cambodia - Lok, Leandra; Schellings, Gonny; Brouwer, Niels; Den Brok, Perry (Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 2018)
While research has shown that video can be an effective tool in the professional learning of teachers in industrialized countries, it is unknown whether this is also true for other countries with distinctive cultural, political, and historical contexts, such as Cambodia. This paper presents results from a study which examined the effectiveness of using video to introduce student-centered teaching to teachers in Cambodia. The training consisted of collaboratively watching and discussing videos of teaching practices. A 2x2 design was used, varying group conditions (team versus pair) and relevance of the material (model video versus action video). The findings indicated that although it was not possible to determine if there had been changes in teacher behavior, using video had led to an increase in teachers' perceived knowledge of student-centered teaching, especially for the team and the model video conditions.
Keywords: Active Learning; Behavior Change; Cambodia; Cultural Context; ERIC, Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE); Education--Computer Applications; Faculty Development; Foreign Countries; Instructional Effectiveness; Knowledge Base for Teaching; Learning; Mixed Methods Research; Questionnaires; Student Centered Learning; Studies; Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Behavior; Teacher education; Teachers; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Training; Video; Video Technology; __:import:01; __:match:final; __:matched; __:study_id:2095890; __finaldtb; ⛔ No DOI found

Proposal to the Global Partnership for Education for a contribution towards the implementation of the 2018-2020 Education Sector Plan - Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Government of Sierra Leone; UNICEF, 2018)

Digital literacies for international teacher education: a Ghanaian perspective - Taner, Lisa (The Open University, 2018)
Teacher education in Sub Saharan Africa has been highlighted as key in helping to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education across the continent. Digital technologies that support new modes of teacher education can improve access and quality in developing regions (Moon and Villet, 2017a, b; Moon, 2007; Power, 2013), however little is known about how teachers develop digital literacies to enable them to effectively use these new resources, nor the ways in which student teachers are introduced to the technologies they need to support their professional development. Given the scarcity of research in this area and with teacher support and preparation having been the least examined topics in mobile learning research, this project investigated the ways in which student teachers in one College of Education in Ghana participate in learning experiences that develop their digital literacies to support their professional development throughout the college course, both on campus and in school placements. Using ethnographic approaches within a sociocultural theoretical rationale, the aim of this research was to address the gap in literature by examining the ways in which student teachers participate in learning experiences that develop their digital literacies during their training at a College of Education in Ghana. In view of the slow pace of ICT infrastructure advancement in Ghanaian schools, tutors at one college of education are encouraging the use of student teachers’ personal devices such as mobile phones to support their professional learning, both on campus and in the absence of other equipment in school placements. Smartphone use was found to be an enabling tool for students, whose formal and informal use of communication tools such as WhatsApp supported their developing professionalism and gave them access to new ways to locate and use materials for teaching and their wider professional development, including the academic requirements of their courses.
Keywords: THEME: Curriculum and resources; THEME: Education management; THEME: Open systems; THEME: School management; THEME: Teacher Professional Development; _Source:Intuitive; ___working_potential_duplicate

Digital literacies for international teacher education: a Ghanaian perspective - Taner, Lisa (The Open University, 2018)
Teacher education in Sub Saharan Africa has been highlighted as key in helping to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education across the continent. Digital technologies that support new modes of teacher education can improve access and quality in developing regions (Moon and Villet, 2017a, b; Moon, 2007; Power, 2013), however little is known about how teachers develop digital literacies to enable them to effectively use these new resources, nor the ways in which student teachers are introduced to the technologies they need to support their professional development. Given the scarcity of research in this area and with teacher support and preparation having been the least examined topics in mobile learning research, this project investigated the ways in which student teachers in one College of Education in Ghana participate in learning experiences that develop their digital literacies to support their professional development throughout the college course, both on campus and in school placements. Using ethnographic approaches within a sociocultural theoretical rationale, the aim of this research was to address the gap in literature by examining the ways in which student teachers participate in learning experiences that develop their digital literacies during their training at a College of Education in Ghana. In view of the slow pace of ICT infrastructure advancement in Ghanaian schools, tutors at one college of education are encouraging the use of student teachers’ personal devices such as mobile phones to support their professional learning, both on campus and in the absence of other equipment in school placements. Smartphone use was found to be an enabling tool for students, whose formal and informal use of communication tools such as WhatsApp supported their developing professionalism and gave them access to new ways to locate and use materials for teaching and their wider professional development, including the academic requirements of their courses.
Keywords: THEME: Curriculum and resources; THEME: Education management; THEME: Open systems; THEME: School management; THEME: Teacher Professional Development; _Source:Intuitive; ___working_potential_duplicate

The Kio Kit: a digital learning solution engineered in Africa for the world - ITU (ITU News, 2018)
To mark Mobile Learning Week 2018, ITU News caught up with Nivi Sharma, the Managing Director of BRCK (brck.com), whose mission is to connect Africa to the internet, through providing a WiFi infrastructure to allow anyone with a smartphone to have free and open access to the internet.

Using Technology to Provide Higher Education for Refugees - Boškić, Natasha; Sork, Thomas J.; Irwin, Rita; Nashon, Samson; Nicol, Cynthia; Meyer, Karen; Hu, Sharon (Transnational Perspectives on Innovation in Teaching and Learning Technologies, 2018)
"Using Technology to Provide Higher Education for Refugees" published on 24 Mar 2018 by Brill | Sense.

Assessing social and emotional learning in Tanzania: an interview with Matthew Jukes - RTI International (Medium, 2018)
Social emotional learning is likely to be strongly influenced by culture, but global variation has yet to be captured because much of the…

Donor Organizations & the Principles for Digital Development: A Landscape Assessment and Gap Analysis. (Principles for Digital Development — Resource Development Program Asset No. 1) - Haßler, Björn; Brugha, Meaghan; Muyoya, Chisenga; Mitchell, Joel; Hollow, David; Jackson, Alan (Jigsaw and Open Develoment & Education, 2018)
Donor Organizations & the Principles for Digital Development: A Landscape Assessment and Gap Analysis. (Principles for Digital Development — Resource Development Program Asset No. 1)   Also available at https://digitalprinciples.org/resource/donor-organizations-the-principles-for-digital-development-a-landscape-assessment-and-gap-analysis/, https://digitalprinciples.org/wp-content/uploads/PDD2018_interactive.pdf
Keywords: _DOILIVE; _not_EdTechHub; _zenodoODE; dode_eth-src-dode; dode_eth-trf2-dode

Sustaining and Scaling Pedagogic Innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Grounded Insights For Teacher Professional Development - Haßler, Bjoern; Hennessy, Sara; Hofmann, Riikka (Journal of Learning for Development, 2018)
Developing sustainable and scalable educational initiatives is a key challenge in low-income countries where donor-funded short-term projects are limited by both contextual factors and programme design. In this concept paper we examine some of the issues related to in-service teacher development in the context of sub-Saharan Africa, grounded predominantly in our experiences of over 5 years of iteratively developing, refining and evaluating an intensive school-based professional learning programme for primary school teachers. “OER4Schools” integrates interactive pedagogy, Open Educational Resources (OER) and use of mobile devices (where available). The focus of this paper is on identifying what the main factors are perceived to be in sustaining and scaling up such a programme, from the perspectives of participating teachers, workshop facilitators and the research team. Synthesising our previous research and drawing on recent work in the field, we identify the key characteristics of effective and sustainable professional learning in low-resourced contexts. Such characteristics include effective peer facilitation, school-based active learning, explicit programme structure, appropriate scheduling and resourcing, and mitigating resource constraints through use of OER. Our conclusions thereby offer insights concerning the importance and impact of wider influences on participation and engagement of stakeholders and lead to recommendations for programme design and implementation, that should be taken on board by future initiatives.
Keywords: Open Educational Resources; Sustainable Development Goal 4; Teacher Professional Development; peer-facilitation; school-based active learning; sub-Saharan Africa

Sustaining and Scaling Pedagogic Innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Grounded Insights For Teacher Professional Development - Haßler, Björn; Hennessy, Sara; Hofmann, Riikka (Journal of Learning for Development, 2018)
Developing sustainable and scalable educational initiatives is a key challenge in low-income countries where donor-funded short-term projects are limited by both contextual factors and programme design. In this concept paper we examine some of the issues related to in-service teacher development in the context of sub-Saharan Africa, grounded predominantly in our experiences of over 5 years of iteratively developing, refining and evaluating an intensive school-based professional learning programme for primary school teachers. “OER4Schools” integrates interactive pedagogy, Open Educational Resources (OER) and use of mobile devices (where available). The focus of this paper is on identifying what the main factors are perceived to be in sustaining and scaling up such a programme, from the perspectives of participating teachers, workshop facilitators and the research team. Synthesising our previous research and drawing on recent work in the field, we identify the key characteristics of effective and sustainable professional learning in low-resourced contexts. Such characteristics include effective peer facilitation, school-based active learning, explicit programme structure, appropriate scheduling and resourcing, and mitigating resource constraints through use of OER. Our conclusions thereby offer insights concerning the importance and impact of wider influences on participation and engagement of stakeholders and lead to recommendations for programme design and implementation, that should be taken on board by future initiatives.
Keywords: Active Learning; Africa; Author:Haßler; C:sub-Saharan Africa; Developing Nations; Educational Technology; Elementary Secondary Education; Faculty Development; Foreign Countries; Handheld Devices; Inservice Teacher Education; Low Income Groups; Motivation; Open Educational Resources; Peer Teaching; Resource Allocation; Rural Schools; Scaffolding (Teaching Technique); Scheduling; Shared Resources and Services; Sustainable Development; Sustainable Development Goal 4; Teacher Professional Development; Technology Uses in Education; Telecommunications; ___working_potential_duplicate; dode_eth-src-dode; dode_eth-trf2-dode; peer-facilitation; school-based active learning; sub-Saharan Africa; ⛔ No DOI found

EdTech for Learning in Emergencies and Displaced Settings: A rigorous review and narrative synthesis - Save the Children (Resource Centre, 2018)
Globally, according to UNESCO (2017), 264 million children of primary and secondary school age are out school. UNESCO also estimates that worldwide roughly 100 million young people are fully illiterate. While data on attendance, enrolment, and literacy can be difficult to gather in fragile and conflict-affected settings, estimates suggest that children in these settings are roughly three times more likely to be out of school than children living in stable, but low-income countries.

Synergies Between the Principles for Digital Development and Four Case Studies - Haßler, Björn; Broadbent, E.; Cunningham, A.; Chimombo, J.; Jamil, B. R.; Kauthria, R.; Lake, L.; Rose, P.; Sarfraz, S.; Szekely, M. (Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, 2018)
This report was prepared by Bjöern Haßler for the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre, University of Cambridge, UK, with support from the Global Education & Skills Forum (GESF) Alliance on Assessment and Impact for Learning. This Alliance was co-chaired by Pauline Rose (REAL Centre, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom) and Baela Raza Jamil (Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agahi, Pakistan) and included the following members: Emma Broadbent (The Varkey Foundation, United Kingdom), Andrew Cunningham (Aga Khan Foundation, Switzerland), Joseph Chimombo (Ministry of Education, Malawi), Rashmi Kauthria (Global Teacher Prize Finalist 2017, India), Lucy Lake (Camfed, United Kingdom), Shajia Sarfraz (Independent Researcher, Pakistan) and Miguel Szekely (Center for Education and Social Studies, Mexico).
Keywords: _DOILIVE; ___working_potential_duplicate; _not_EdTechHub; _zenodoODE; dode_eth-src-dode; dode_eth-trf2-dode

Synergies Between the Principles for Digital Development and Four Case Studies - Haßler, Björn; Broadbent, E.; Cunningham, A.; Chimombo, J.; Jamil, B. R.; Kauthria, R.; Lake, L.; Rose, P.; Sarfraz, S.; Szekely, M. (Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, 2018)
This report was prepared by Bjöern Haßler for the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre, University of Cambridge, UK, with support from the Global Education & Skills Forum (GESF) Alliance on Assessment and Impact for Learning. This Alliance was co-chaired by Pauline Rose (REAL Centre, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom) and Baela Raza Jamil (Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agahi, Pakistan) and included the following members: Emma Broadbent (The Varkey Foundation, United Kingdom), Andrew Cunningham (Aga Khan Foundation, Switzerland), Joseph Chimombo (Ministry of Education, Malawi), Rashmi Kauthria (Global Teacher Prize Finalist 2017, India), Lucy Lake (Camfed, United Kingdom), Shajia Sarfraz (Independent Researcher, Pakistan) and Miguel Szekely (Center for Education and Social Studies, Mexico).
Keywords: _DOILIVE; ___working_potential_duplicate; _zenodoODE; dode_eth-src-dode; dode_eth-trf2-dode