Effectiveness Study of Teacher Training and Social and Financial Education in Rwanda's Primary and Secondary Schools

Active Learning Methods for Social and Financial Education in Rwanda's Primary and Secondary Schools: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

The study uses experimental methods to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational intervention in Rwanda. The intervention, designed by Aflatoun and AMIR, involves training teachers on the use of active-learning methods to implement a social and financial education curriculum with students in primary and secondary schools. Teachers then implement the social and financial curriculum with students in order to improve their personal, social, and financial competencies.

Teacher training will take place in November-December 2013 and the curriculum implementation will be evaluated in the 2014 school year.

The study will examine the following hypotheses:

1. Did teachers use of active learning methods in class increase due to the training received?
2. Did students' levels of engagement and on-task behaviour increase as a result of the intervention's pedagogy and content?

3. Did the following competencies of students improve due to the intervention?

   1. Self-efficacy
   2. Social skills
   3. Financial literacy
   4. Planning attitudes
   5. Savings attitudes
   6. Savings behavior
   7. Entrepreneurship
4. Did the intervention change student's pass rates on the primary six (P6) and secondary three (S3) final examinations for the classes in which it was implemented?
5. Did the intervention change student drop out rates in the classes which it was implemented?

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Active Learning Methods and Life-skills Education
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Child centered teaching of life-skills

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 1750
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Rwanda
  • Kigali City
    • Kigali, Kigali City, Rwanda
      • Association of Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Schools willing to participate in the intervention.
• Classes of students in grade P6 or S3 during academic year 2014
• Teachers of entrepreneurship, social studies, or mathematics

Exclusion Criteria:

• Non-consenting individuals

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Treatment as usual; Schools in which regular curriculum is delivered and teachers do not receive any additional training in child centered methodologies.
Experimental: Child centered teaching of life-skills; Training of teachers and weekly implementation of hour long sessions based on child centered teaching of life-skills education over the course of the school year in P6 and S3 classes as designed by Aflatoun Stichting Child Savings International and the Association of Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda (AMIR). The life-skills curriculum is known as Aflatoun's Child Social and Financial Education program. The training of teachers element of the intervention is known as Aflatoun Academy, which trains teachers in active learning, child centered methodologies as well as how to implement the life-skills curriculum of Aflatoun Child Social and Financial Education.	Behavioral: Child centered teaching of life-skills; The intervention includes five core components: (1) personal understanding and exploration, (2) rights and responsibilities, (3) savings and spending, (4) planning and budgeting, and (5) social and financial enterprise. The training and curriculum are both manualized. The curriculum is in English and is regionally specific (for Anglophone Africa) and has been contextualized for Rwanda. The minimum hours required by Aflatoun's fidelity guide is 20 hours which includes 10 hours of curriculum lesson and 10 hours of learning activities (savings groups, social and financial projects, club activities etc).; Other Names: Aflatoun Child Social and Financial Education; Aflatoun Academy; Social and Financial Education; AflaAcademy; Innovation for Education

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Teacher Use of Active Learning Methods (Observed)	A composite, standardized variable combining 5-items from an observational instrument filled out by enumerators observing teachers' classes.	Up to 12 months
Change in Teacher Use of Active Learning Methods (Self-reported)	A composite, standardized variable combining 7-items from a self-reported instrument capturing the confidence of teachers using these seven specified active learning methods.	Up to 8 months
Change in Teacher Use of Active Learning Methods (Student report)	A composite, standardized variable combining 4-items from students' structured interviews about their teacher's use of active learning methods.	Up to 8 months
Change in Classroom Level of Student Engagement (Observed)	A composite, standardized variable combining structured observations of 7 randomly selected students for three different 10-second intervals in each teacher's classroom using an adapted version of the PreQuip tool designed by Educans at the University of Amsterdam.	Up to 12 months
Change in Student engagement (Student report)	A composite, standardized variable combining 4-items measured using structured interviews of 7 randomly selected students in each teacher's classroom.	Up to 8 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Students' Generalized Self-efficacy Scale (GSES-10)	A composite, standardized variable generated based on the average sum scores of students on the GSES-10. The original four answer choice format has been changed to a five option format of (strongly disagree, disagree, neither disagree nor agree, agree and strongly agree).	Up to 8 months
Change in Students' Pro-Social (PS) (6-item) and Conduct Disorder (CD) (6-item) subscales of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)	A composite, standardized variable generated based on the average sum scores of students on the SDQ-CD and SDQ-PS. The original four answer choice format has been changed to a five option format of (strongly disagree, disagree, neither disagree nor agree, agree and strongly agree).	Up to 8 months
Change in Students' Financial Literacy	A composite, standardized variable combining 4-items from student structured interviews about their financial competencies.	Up to 8 months
Change in Students' Planning Attitudes	A composite, standardized variable combining 5-items from student structured interviews about their planning attitudes.	Up to 8 months
Change in Students' Savings Behavior	A composite, standardized variable combining 5-items from student structured interviews about their savings behavior.	Up to 8 months
Change in Students' Savings Attitudes	A composite, standardized variable combining 4-items from student structured interviews about their savings attitudes.	Up to 8 months
Change in Students' Entrepreneurship Attitudes & Behavior	A composite, standardized variable combining 4-items from student structured interviews about their entrepreneurship attitudes and behavior.	Up to 8 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Difference in standardized examination pass rates on primary 6 (P6) and secondary 3 (S3) tests in study classes	Comparing the standardized test passing rates of the control and experimental group after the end of the first year of the program.	December 2014
Difference in percentage drop out rates of students in study classes	Comparing the drop out rate of students in classes in the control and experimental group after the end of the first year of the program.	December 2014
Change in Teachers use of Active Learning Methods (Observed) mediates Student Engagement (Observed)	A mediation analysis to determine if increases in teachers use of active learning methods mediates an increase in student engagement in class.	Up to 12 months
Change in Student Engagement (Observed) mediates Students' change in Savings Behavior	A mediation analysis to determine if increases in students' observed engagement mediates an increase in their savings behavior.	Up to 12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Stichting Child Savings International
• Collaborators: Association of Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: September 1, 2013
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 1, 2014
• Study Completion (Actual): March 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 9, 2014
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 27, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): January 28, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): July 31, 2015
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 30, 2015
• Last Verified: July 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: education; teaching; active learning; time on task; financial education; social education; rights based education; primary school; life-skills
• Other Study ID Numbers: TOUN-2013-Rwanda-AMIR01