A comprehensive multi-country research programme to evaluate and inform Can’t Wait to Learn’s development and scale

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday VI)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Journey to scale: a digital game based learning approach for children in humanitarian settings

Proposal

Innovative and scalable solutions are urgently required to address the issue of access to quality education in emergencies. Can’t Wait to Learn (CWTL) is a curriculum-based, digital game-based learning programme that teaches numeracy and reading to children and provides a potential solution to existing challenges. To adequately inform and enable impact at scale, rigorous research is essential. Prior pilots of CWTL (numeracy) in Sudan indicated positive preliminary results, and possible effects of child self-esteem and self-efficacy at baseline on learning outcomes. Yet questions remained about the estimates of effect, comparability and feasibility of implementing the programme across different settings, the feasibility of teaching reading, and factors to consider when implementing at scale.

To enhance our evidence-base, knowledge and practice, War Child Holland and partners are conducting a comprehensive series of studies in Jordan, Sudan, and Lebanon. In Lebanon, we enrolled 386 children in 22 community-based learning centres, across seven governorates. In Jordan we enrolled 98 children in two learning centres – one inside Azraq refugee camp, and one outside. In both countries we have measured numeracy learning over approximately 12 weeks of CWTL, as well as changes in psychosocial wellbeing. In Sudan, we have enrolled 336 children from 8 villages in Kassala and Sinnar states in a matched-pairs (at village level) quasi-experimental design. Half the villages are currently receiving CWTL for numeracy and Arabic reading, while half are receiving the official non-formal education programme, over six months. Lastly, 711 children from 35 Jordanian schools (inside and outside Azraq refugee camp) have been enrolled in a quasi-experimental study using a stratified design with non-random blocked assignment, comparing CWTL to education-as-usual over a period of three months. In both Sudan and the latter Jordan study, outcomes are numeracy, Arabic reading, and psychosocial wellbeing.

Our research questions focus not only on child learning and wellbeing, but also on implementation factors and experiences of participants and stakeholders in the programme. We will present preliminary impact estimates on reading, numeracy, and psychological well-being, alongside complementary qualitative findings from a comprehensive series of group and individual interviews. These results will be available across all sites by the time of the conference. Thus the findings of our research programme will contribute vital knowledge to the comparative and international education sector, via filling evidence-gaps on what works to improve educational and psychosocial outcomes in a range of protracted humanitarian crisis settings, as well as providing invaluable data on the barriers and facilitators to developing and delivering effective, accessible, and scalable solutions for education in emergencies.

Evidence from rigorous impact evaluations of education innovations in these contexts is very limited because only few studies are able to address counterfactual questions using experimental or quasi-experimental methods. We will discuss challenges encountered and lessons learned in conducting rigorous research in such settings, and the importance of good research data in informing programme development and scale, and broader practice and policy.

Authors

• Felicity Brown, War Child Holland

• Jasmine Turner, War Child Holland

• Thomas J. De Hoop, American Institutes for Research

• Kate Radford, War Child Holland

• Andrea Jetten, War Child Holland

• Mark J.D. Jordans, War Child Holland