Measuring the impact of play on social and emotional learning across five countries

• In Event: Cultural Specificity of Learning Through Play: Measure Development Across Humanitarian and LMIC Contexts and Validation with Child SEL Outcomes

Proposal

A key aim of Learning through Play (LtP) pedagogies is to improve children’s cognitive skills and academic achievement. Additionally, social and emotional learning (SEL) and other cognitive and noncognitive competencies are also improved by play (Whitebread et al, 2017). These skills are important for their contribution to effective learning and to children’s wellbeing. Despite an increased focus on SEL in recent years, however, questions of how to define SEL competencies, how to measure them, and how they are developed through play are still a matter of debate, especially as they apply to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).



Literature from high-income countries identifies a number of SEL domains that may be developed through play, such as self-regulation, agency, collaboration, negotiation, expressing ideas, trust and empathy (Elksnin & Elksnin, 2003; Singer et al, 2006). However, there is little literature to inform how play may impact children in LMICs differently than it does in high-income countries.



Furthermore, SEL competencies remain challenging to measure and most existing frameworks for assessing SEL are based on evidence from high-income countries (Jukes et al, 2018). The most recent and comprehensive review of SEL tools appropriate for LMICs was conducted in the context of education and emergencies (Jones et al., 2020). This review identified 36 SEL assessment tools. However, the majority of these tools relied on student self-reported data, which is subject to social desirability and has been found to be less useful for validly measuring changes in SEL over time or for detecting impacts of interventions (Jukes, Kaur, & Heymann, 2016). Of the 36 identified tools in the study, only 4 involved direct, performance-based assessments (i.e. ISELA, IDELA, HALDO and PRSA).



Under the LEGO Foundation-funded Play Accelerator program, we have developed and piloted a new SEL assessment for use with grade 1 to grade 3 students, to measure the relationship between playful pedagogies in the classroom and student holistic outcomes. This assessment is being used as part of an impact evaluation for Learning through Play implementation programs in five countries (Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda and Vietnam).



The newly developed SEL assessment tool includes adapted tasks from existing tools (such as ISELA), as well as newly developed tasks to measure SEL domains that recent literature cites as being related to playful pedagogy. The final domains measured in this assessment are: relationship, collaboration (conflict resolution), confidence, creativity, classroom/school learning environment and direct observation of behavior.



Our presentation will begin with an overview of the development, piloting and contextualization process for the new tool. We will then present results from baseline administrations across five countries, including confirmatory factor analyses for the six domains, as well as preliminary estimates of the relationship among SEL competencies, student academic outcomes, and playful practices in the classroom.

Authors

• Jonathan Stern, RTI International

• Matthew Jukes, RTI International

• Kellie Betts, RTI Inernational

• Margaret (Peggy) M Dubeck, RTI International