Using Behavioral Science to Improve TaRL Delivery by Teachers in Zambia

• In Event: Applying Behavioral Science to Improve Teacher Uptake of Pedagogical Best Practices for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy in Sub-Saharan Africa and India

Proposal

In 2016, Zambia’s Ministry of Education initiated the Catch Up (CU) program to implement the Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) methodology across primary schools in Zambia. The program aims to improve learners' foundational literacy and numeracy skills by teaching them based on their individual learning level rather than their grade level. This is achieved through learner-centered instruction with play-based activities that encourages active participation among learners.

A critical factor in sustained, quality implementation of remedial programs – and improved student learning outcomes – in a student-centered program like CU is a teacher's motivation to plan and deliver CU lessons. From October 2022 to October 2024, we have been conducting a study to design and test solutions for improving teachers’ motivation to deliver CU in the classroom.

We began by conducting 30 in-depth interviews and 2,000 phone surveys with teachers in the Eastern, Southern, and Lusaka provinces to identify different factors that either enable or inhibit CU delivery, focusing on factors that influence teacher motivation. Then, we organized co-design and prioritization workshops with teachers and stakeholders to brainstorm solutions to overcome barriers and leverage enablers. Our final research phase involves testing the solutions using a “lab-in-the-field” approach with 600 teachers, where we invite teachers to a central testing location to play a series of lab games on tablets using methods and theories from behavioral science.

The findings indicate two key barriers to quality CU implementation. First, when teachers have an external locus of control, they tend to attribute poor learning outcomes to factors outside of their control (like the activities used to teach CU), even when the factors in question are within their control (teacher training includes how to teach literacy/numeracy lessons). Second, most teachers have low self-efficacy in their ability to teach CU, even when they have high curriculum knowledge. We also identified positive social norms, such as peers stepping in to help each other teach CU lessons, as levers to quality CU facilitation.

From the co-design and prioritization workshops, two high-level ideas were ultimately identified as feasible, priority solutions intended to improve how CU is delivered in the classroom:
1. Recognizing teachers for their work on CU will improve their self-efficacy and level of effort.
2. Having complete and accurate information about a CU class will internalize teachers’ sense of control over learner outcomes and increase their level of effort.

We are now completing the final testing phase of research using behavioral lab games. In these games, we put teachers in positions where they have to make different decisions and execute behaviors, and we vary how information is presented to them based on the solutions we brainstormed in the co-design workshops. We can therefore measure how their behaviors and perceptions change in response to our ideas.

After completing testing, we will present the results to the MoE and explore how the ideated solutions can be sustainably and effectively incorporated into the CU program.

At CIES, we will present the final testing results and outcomes from our conversations with the MoE.

Authors

• Morgan Kabeer, Busara Center for Behavioral Economics

• Sharon Schroen, VVOB - education for development

• Stefaan Vande Walle, VVOB - education for development

• Daniele J Ressler, Teaching at the Right Level Africa

• Denis Kyalo Wambua, Teaching at the Right Level TaRL Africa