Unlocking the Power of “Super Levers” for Sustained Instructional Reform: Insights from a Behavior-Driven Study in Liberia

• In Event: Leveraging behavioral science to make instructional reforms stick: Case studies from Burundi, Liberia, Rwanda, and Zambia

Proposal

Why do certain educational reforms endure and flourish while others fade away, or only take root in specific schools or with certain teachers? What does it require to maintain new teaching practices at scale over the long haul? In a concerted effort to answer these questions, our team spearheaded a collaboration between a group of Liberian and international education experts, researchers, and behavioral scientists to design and conduct a targeted study of teacher uptake of new instructional practices for foundational literacy in Liberia. The study identified potent "super levers" – key assets from important recent efforts to boost reading outcomes in Liberia, and additional pathways – needed to make these “stick.”

Using the Actor-based Change (ABC) Framework (Koleros, 2020), we designed a small-scale, qualitative methodology to better understand the drivers of behavior change and political economy factors within the education system in Liberia. Building upon past research marrying individual-focused behavior change approaches with systems thinking (Chater & Loewenstein, in press) and the well-established behavior change wheel, also known as the “COM-B framework” (Michie, 2011), our approach centered on the premise that pivotal actors within the education ecosystem require specific capabilities, opportunities, and motivations to adopt and sustain behaviors needed to improve education outcomes at scale.

In May 2023, we examined our hypotheses in Montserrado, Margibi, Bong, and Nimba counties, interviewing 15 district education officers and vice principals of instruction, and conducting focus group discussions with 28 teachers and direct observation of 13 classrooms teaching reading. Using an actor-based workshop to analyze findings, participants shed light on the existing assets to harness and obstacles to overcome, leading us to three pivotal "super levers" to improve the sustained adoption of effective teaching practices:

1. Super Lever 1: Improve teacher capability through localized continuous professional development (CPD) focused on bite-sized, high-value instructional techniques and routines that build “muscle memory;” seeing and analyzing examples of effective teaching using these techniques; and ample practice with targeted feedback. CPD is an important component of any instructional reform, but how this CPD is conducted – the specific content and adult learning techniques, as well as the modalities – can make all the difference.

2. Super Lever 2: Improve teacher opportunity to implement new practices through an enabling environment that allows them to apply new skills. Capability alone is not enough to change behavior; teachers and their coaches need an enabling environment, including more time, as well as the appropriate materials, school and classroom organization, and other system elements, to apply what they have learned.

3. Super Lever 3: Improve teacher motivation through progress-driven inspiration, support, and recognition to motivate and sustain teaching excellence. Although low salaries and delayed payment are a constant burden, Liberian teachers’ passion for their job far outweighs this challenge. Teachers cited numerous other sources of motivation such as seeing the progress of their students, feeling supported by their supervisor and school, receiving ongoing training and coaching to continue learning themselves, opportunities for career growth, having sufficient avenues for sharing lessons learned, and recognition and appreciation.

Authors

• Edward Landreth, Chemonics International

• Jennifer Swift-Morgan, Chemonics International