Training Ghana’s Preschool Teachers to Improve Classroom Quality and Children’s Learning Outcomes

• In Event: Implementing Early and Middle Childhood Interventions for Population Impact Around the Globe

Abstract

Ghana, a low-middle income country in West Africa, adopted a “National Early Childhood Care and Development Policy” in 2004. As a result, Ghana has one of the highest preprimary enrollment rates on the Continent (75% net enrollment in 2015-2016). But while universal access to preschool is nearly within reach, classroom quality and children’s learning outcomes are quite low. For these reasons, the training of 27,000 untrained preschool teachers was recently declared a top education policy priority. This presentation will describe the design and evaluation of an in-service preschool teacher training and coaching (TTC) program (Quality Preschool for Ghana, or QP4G) meant to (a) improve classroom quality and children’s early learning in peri-urban and semi-rural communities and (b) inform the development of a scalable national program. We conducted a field experiment to test the impact of TTC on teacher professional well-being, classroom quality and young children’s school readiness. After one year, QP4G’s TTC: reduced teacher burnout and teacher turnover, improved the emotional supportiveness and organization/management of the classroom, and increased children’s early literacy, early numeracy and social-emotional skills. Smaller impacts on children’s school readiness persisted as children transitioned into new classrooms. Stimulated by the findings to date, there are ongoing discussions about adapting the intervention for rural communities and scaling QP4G over time. Throughout the presentation, the potential of rigorous developmental science to inform early childhood policy and practices at population scale will be explored.

Authors

• J. Lawrence Aber, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Sharon Wolf, University of Pennsylvania
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jere Behrman, University of Pennsylvania
  Non-Presenting Author

• Edward Tsinigo, Innovations for Poverty Action
  Non-Presenting Author