Changing trajectories of learning and development: experimental evidence from the Quality Preschool for Ghana interventions

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Penn collection
GSE Faculty Research
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
Policy and Administration
Teaching and Learning
Language and Literacy
Early childhood education
cluster-randomised trial
learning
Ghana
sub-Saharan Africa
early childhood development
Developmental Psychology
Early Childhood Education
Education
Education Policy
Pre-Elementary, Early Childhood, Kindergarten Teacher Education
Social Policy
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Author
Peele, Morgan
Contributor
Abstract

We examined how exposure to two intervention programmes designed to improve the quality of pre-primary education in Ghana—the Quality Preschool for Ghana project—impacted children’s rate of growth in academic (literacy and numeracy) and non-academic skills (social–emotional and executive function) across two school years. This cluster-randomised trial included 240 schools (N = 3,345 children, Mage = 5.2 at baseline) randomly assigned to one of three conditions: teacher training (TT), teacher training plus parental-awareness meetings (TTPA), and control. We found some evidence that the interventions altered children’s rate of growth in academic and non-academic skills for the full sample, and one unexpected finding: TTPA had negative impacts on growth in numeracy skills. When examined by grade level and gender, TT improved trajectories of younger children, and the negative effects of TTPA on numeracy were driven by boys. Implications are discussed in the context of global early childhood education policy, and teacher professional development and parental engagement programmes.

Advisor
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Publication date
2020-03-25
Journal title
Journal of the British Academy
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Comments
Recommended citation
Collection