Measuring Social and Emotional Skills in Preprimary Children in Kenya

• In Event: Innovative Approaches to Measuring Social Emotional Skills: Instruments and Findings From National and International Studies

Abstract

Objectives/purpose. Investments in early childhood development are understood to result in long-term benefits in children’s social, academic, health and occupational outcomes. However, much of what is known is drawn from research that has almost exclusively occurred in Western countries. This paper reports on early outcomes from the Measuring Early Learning Quality and Outcomes (MELQO) Study. The MELQO Consortium is working to develop a uniform and reliable approach for measuring children’s social-emotional, academic, and early cognitive functioning that can be used at scale and that is appropriate for use in low- and middle-income countries.

Theoretical framework. Studies from low- and middle-income countries show that, in general, participation in pre-primary education has a clear positive impact on development outcomes. However, the wide variety of metrics used in these studies makes comparison of outcomes difficult. This study contributes to filling the identified gap in social and emotional skills assessment by determining what components of a pre-primary measure of socio-emotional skills are valid and reliable as well as cost-effective to implement in low-income countries.

Methods. Children aged 3–6 years across four counties in Kenya will be individually tracked over several years as they progress through pre-primary and into primary education settings. The feasibility study reported here discusses the development and piloting of the MELQO assessment for socio-emotional skills. The assessment includes anchoring vignettes, performance tasks and story-centric prompts to gauge skills such as sharing, conflict resolution, empathy, persistence, and self-regulation. During development, the tool was adapted to the country-specific context to ensure the cultural relevance of the items.

Data sources/evidence. The MELQO tool includes items drawn from existing regional and international assessments. Items have been adapted based on field tests presented in this report. The tool is administered via electronic tablets, allowing for near real-time analysis of data. The MELQO tool uses interactive approaches to gauge a child’s skills and development. Studies are underway to render additional computer-based socio-emotional and executive function tasks on tablets, which will allow for greater flexibility in measurement.

Results/conclusions. The paper presents research evidence on the psychometric properties and efficacy of the MELQO tool, as well as assessments of the tool’s ease of use and cost effectiveness. It presents findings about adaptions of the instrument needed based on initial testing of the tool. For example, an initial pilot of the tool showed consistently high performance on the socio-emotional items among 5-6-year olds, compared to 3- and 4-year-olds, suggesting a need to further adapt items to the full range of target ages.

Scientific/scholarly significance. While substantial research exists on the effects of high-quality pre-primary experiences and on the utility of various measurement instruments, this research rarely extends into low- and middle-income country contexts. Furthermore, the approached used in high-income countries are not always relevant to or possible to sustain in low-income countries. Upon completion, the MELQO aspires to have created an open-source data collection tool with demonstrated utility, reliability, and validity that can be used in low-income countries.

Author

• Evangeline N. Nderu, RTI International