Raising Readers: Parental engagement and effectiveness of a reading app in Kenya

• In Event: Unlocking the potential of Quality EdTech to support Learning at Home

Proposal

The Raising Readers study explores how technology can be best used to strengthen parental and caregiver engagement with children’s reading in Kenya. Kenya has high rates of children who are unable to read, with about 70% unable to read a simple text by age 10. Through EdTech Hub, ODI in close collaboration with Worldreader, tested a range of co-designed modalities to engage parents and caregivers in their children’s reading using Worldreader’s Booksmart app. BookSmart is a free digital reading application that contains a collection of curated books in English and Kiswahili, plus activities that accompany the books. BookSmart can be used on any data enabled device, including low-end mobile phones. Books can be downloaded and read offline.

The main research question explored was: Can mobile technology enable Kenyan schools to improve parent and caregiver engagement in reading with their children? Three sub-research questions further guided our study design and analysis considering how different intervention modalities impact caregiver-child engagement, the cost effectiveness of these modalities, and how different modalities impact carer-child engagement and reading outcomes across gender and socioeconomic backgrounds.

The study engaged parents and carers of grade 3 students from 14 schools across Nairobi and Kiambu counties in Kenya. In a first phase of the study using design-based research (DBR) a co-creation process identified a set of promising modalities, which were then implemented, refined, and tested to determine how these affected carer-child engagement the most. Results in this DBR phase showed promising indicators in use of a digital tool such as BookSmart.

Overall, the intervention groups exhibited greater engagement than the control group. However, analysis of efficacy indicated that different modalities promoted different aspects of reading engagement among parents and carers.
1. There was a significant increase in the usage of the BookSmart app. At the endline, 89% of male carers and 82% of female carers were using the Booksmart app to read with their children, representing a 57% increase from baseline.
2. The cost-saving potential benefit of the Booksmart app makes it a promising choice among parents and carers. Financial barriers limit carers' access to reading resources, with 60% of the study participants earning Kshs 0 to 12,298 (i.e., US $0 to 94.89). Parents and carers saw BookSmart as a way to reduce expenses associated with purchasing multiple physical books.

A second phase of the study is underway using a quasi-experimental design. Modifying select strategies and modalities from the first phase, we moved to test three refined strategies – digital messaging, assigned reading, and hybrid training – against two control groups. This phase includes a strong emphasis on questions of cost effectiveness and learning outcomes.
So far, our research points to the pivotal role that BookSmart and similar technology can play within communities, particularly those grappling with lower literacy rates. Within an educational ecosystem, BookSmart provides access to an assortment of free books, making reading more affordable and convenient, but uptake and use of the app for shared reading depend heavily on approaches to parent and caregiver engagement.

Authors

• Susan Nicolai, Save the Children

• Amina Khan, UNESCO-ODI-EDTech Hub (Consultant)