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