Does it Work?: What Research Says about the Impact of Haiti’s Eksploratoryòm Audio Learning Program on Students’ and Teachers’ Learning

• In Event: Elevating Teaching & Learning in Haiti through an Active-Learner Pedagogy

Proposal

This presentation will share the evidence of impact of classroom and remote implementations of the Eksploratoryòm science learning series. We will focus on:

1. Our theory of change
Our theory of change is inspired by Bandura’s (1962) social learning principles that emphasize the importance of modeling behavior to affect change. In this case, Eksploratoryòm’s audio lessons model Apwòch Lekòl Vivan (Living School Approach) for teachers while also modeling the high-level skills we want teachers to engender in their students: such as curiosity, problem solving, and communication.

2. How we measure our work
We will share the strategies we use to collect information on our work using observation, questionnaires and interviews with students and teachers. We will describe our process, including the challenges involved, in developing psychometrically sound, Kreyol-language tools for measuring achievement and skill level.

3. Results from recent research
We will present the results of several recent studies of our work, including:
- Randomized controlled trial of the Lakou Kajou video series (by Dr. Dena Borzekowski, Univ of Maryland, February 2021);
- Results of a pilot test of the delivery of Eksploratoryòm, using interactive voice response (IVR) accessed via mobile phones ;
- Pre- and post-test analysis of classroom implementation of the Eksploratoryòm science program.

4. Future plans
Our plans for further research on the effectiveness of our strategy for improving teaching and learning in Haiti are mindful of the limitations of the studies completed to date. These include standardization of the measures we use to assess our work, broadening our sample strategies, and conducting more rigorous statistical analyses.

Author

• Charlotte Cole, Blue Butterfly Collaborative