Improving Primary Education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: End-Line Results of a Cluster-Randomized Wait-List Controlled Trial of Learning in a Healing Classroom

Torrente, Catalina; Aber, J. Lawrence; Starkey, Leighann; Johnston, Brian M.; Shivshanker, Anjuli; Weisenhorn, Nina; Annan, Jeannie; Seidman, Edward; Wolf, Sharon; Dolan, Carly Tubbs

doi:10.1080/19345747.2018.1561963

Cited by 20 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…As hypothesized by the HC reduced-form TOC, in Cohort 1 and again replicated in Cohort 2, children improved in basic literacy skills (by an average of 3–4 months of additional growth per year compared with the rate of learning in the control group in eastern DRC) and numeracy skills (by an average of 9–10 months of growth per year) (Aber, Torrente, et al, 2017; Torrente et al, 2019; Torrente, Johnston, et al, 2015). These are promising improvements under such difficult conditions, but it must be noted that the annual rates of improvement in these skills in control schools in the eastern DRC are very slow indeed.…”

Section: Healing Classrooms (Hc) In the Drcmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…The details of the multivariate, multilevel statistical analyses employed to answer these questions are available in earlier papers (Aber, Torrente, et al, 2017; Aber, Tubbs, et al, 2017; Torrente et al, 2019; Torrente, Johnston, et al, 2015; Wolf et al, 2015). In the next part of this paper, we summarize the answers to these four classic questions we were able to derive and discuss our partnership's collective interpretation of the results (Table 1).…”

Section: Healing Classrooms (Hc) In the Drcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When the program was extended for an additional year in Cohort 1, the initial positive impacts of HC on reading, math, and school supportiveness faded out (Torrente et al, 2019). Retrospective qualitative data collection suggested that the quality of implementation probably suffered in the second year due to the addition of new treatment schools from the waitlist condition at the same time as the number of IRC staff dedicated to teacher training and monitoring declined.…”

Section: Healing Classrooms (Hc) In the Drcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We argue that the world has been developing such an ethical and normative basis for centuries. As noted earlier, these efforts entered a new stage with the passage of the CRC in 1989 (UNCRC, 1989) and have accelerated further in the following decades with the formulation of the Millennial Development Goals (covering the period from 1990 to 2015) and their successor, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, covering the period from 2015 to 2030) (UNDESA, 2015). Nearly every country in the world has signed on to both the CRC and the SDGs.…”

Section: Building a Developmental Science For Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the last three decades, (a) under the normative influence of both the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (articles 28 and 29 on the rights to education (UNCRC, 1989)) and the Sustainable Development Goals on education (SDG4), which pledges to provide all children a quality primary and secondary education (UNDESA, 2015), and (b) as the numbers of countries (and hence the number of children) affected by conflicts and crises have grown, so too have efforts devoted to promoting children's academic learning and their holistic development through access to high-quality education. In this paper, we review the opportunities and challenges we and our collaborators have faced over the last decade in designing, conducting, and using research on how to enhance the learning and development of children in crisis-affected countries via educational programming.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Children's learning and development in conflict- and crisis-affected countries: Building a science for action

et al. 2021

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This paper critically reviews the opportunities and challenges in designing and conducting actionable research on the learning and development of children in conflict- and crisis-affected countries. We approached our review through two perspectives championed by Edward Zigler: (a) child development and social policy and (b) developmental psychopathology in context. The aim of the work was to answer the following questions: What works to enhance children's learning and development in such contexts? By what mechanisms? For whom? Under what conditions? How do experiences and conditions of crisis affect the basic processes of children's typical development? The review is based on a research–practice partnership started in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2010 and expanded to research in Niger and Lebanon in 2016. The focus of the research is on the impact of Healing Classrooms (a set of classroom practices) and Healing Classrooms Plus (an additional set of targeted social and emotional learning activities), developed by the International Rescue Committee, on children's academic outcomes and social and emotional learning. We sought to extract lessons from this decade of research for building a global developmental science for action. Special attention is paid to the importance of research–practice partnerships, conceptual frameworks, measurement and methodology. We conclude by highlighting several essential features of a global developmental science for action.

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Section: Healing Classrooms (Hc) In the Drcmentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Healing Classrooms (Hc) In the Drcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Healing Classrooms (Hc) In the Drcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Building a Developmental Science For Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Children's learning and development in conflict- and crisis-affected countries: Building a science for action

et al. 2021

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Social and Emotional Learning: From Conceptualization to Practical Application in a Global Context

Brush¹,

Jones²,

Bailey³

et al. 2021

Young People and Learning Processes in School and Everyday Life

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Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an effective way to promote positive learning, health, and wellbeing outcomes among children and youth, but the field lacks consensus about which skills and competencies are most important, what they should be called, and how they should be promoted and measured across diverse global contexts. SEL is also referred to by many names, often overlapping with life skills education (LSE) and other initiatives to improve learning, health, and developmental outcomes for children and youth. This chapter begins by describing SEL and its relationship to LSE and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. It then showcases where clarity and cohesion do or do not exist within the field of SEL by exploring how SEL is conceptualized, measured, and promoted in different settings around the world. We draw on data collected over a series of research projects in which we applied a common coding system to SEL frameworks, programs, and measurement/assessment tools in order to identify areas of overlap and divergence between them. The chapter summarizes key findings from these projects while highlighting the need for deeper contextualization and localized research and development and concludes by discussing implications for research and practice.

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Measuring learning during crises: Developing and validating the Holistic Assessment of Learning and Development Outcomes (HALDO)

Krupar,

D'Sa

2024

International Journal of Educational Research Open

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Improving Primary Education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: End-Line Results of a Cluster-Randomized Wait-List Controlled Trial of Learning in a Healing Classroom

Cited by 20 publications

References 37 publications

Children's learning and development in conflict- and crisis-affected countries: Building a science for action

Children's learning and development in conflict- and crisis-affected countries: Building a science for action

Social and Emotional Learning: From Conceptualization to Practical Application in a Global Context

Measuring learning during crises: Developing and validating the Holistic Assessment of Learning and Development Outcomes (HALDO)

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