Does making knowledge-gap salient motivate public early childhood care and education (ECCE) service providers towards professional development – A small-scale RCT with ECCE providers in Bihar, India

Last registered on August 09, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Does making knowledge-gap salient motivate public early childhood care and education (ECCE) service providers towards professional development – A small-scale RCT with ECCE providers in Bihar, India
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011520
Initial registration date
July 30, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
August 09, 2023, 2:45 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
India
Region
Bihar

Primary Investigator

Name
Prerna Dokania
Affiliation
George Washington University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Stephen Smith
PI Affiliation
George Washington University

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-07-31
End date
2023-10-31
Keywords
Behavior, Education, Governance, Labor
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Through this paper I want to study the effect of a light-touch information intervention, among early childhood care and education providers in India, on motivation towards professional development /profession related equipment. Recurring professional development or in-service training of teachers (service providers) is one of the most important policy recommendations to improve the quality of education (services). However, literature has documented that such in-service training of teachers do not always lead to definitive results in form of teacher/student outcomes. It could be attributed to poor planning, poor quality of training, lack of teacher/trainee motivation, mismatch of perceptions among
trainees and training objectives, to name a few. This paper proposes to fill some of the gap in the literature, related to trainee motivation, by collecting data on teachers' (service-providers') perception regarding in-service training and testing if information about their content-knowledge gap motivates them to choose professional development related payoffs over cash payoffs.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Dokania, Prerna and Stephen Smith. 2023. "Does making knowledge-gap salient motivate public early childhood care and education (ECCE) service providers towards professional development – A small-scale RCT with ECCE providers in Bihar, India." AEA RCT Registry. August 09. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11520-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention is in the form of information. The subjects would take a content-based knowledge test and the treatment group will be informed about their score and their knowledge gap based on their baseline estimated score, while the control group will not.
Intervention Start Date
2023-07-31
Intervention End Date
2023-08-11

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Decision on choice of payoff between combinations of cash, PD book and Education charts; Willingness to spend time on Professional Development(PD) activities, Engagement with PD material link sent on phone.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Proportion of treatment group opting for PD/education charts vs proportion of control group opting for PD/education charts, conditional on baseline perceived score

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Among treatment group, how does over-estimators' choices differ from under-estimators', conditional on baseline perceived score
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Proportion of opting for PD book/educational charts among over-estimators vs under-estimators, from among the treatment group, conditional on baseline perceived score

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Lab in the field design, where a typical session may have 30-35 respondents divided uniformly into treatment and control groups.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Treatment randomization will happen on the field, based on randomly assigned ID numbers. Even numbered ID numbers will be in the control group, and odd numbers will be in the treatment group.
Randomization Unit
Individual - Service Provider (Anganwadi worker)
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
No Clusters
Sample size: planned number of observations
450 Anganwadi workers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
approximately 225 treatment and 225 control group Anganwadi workers
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
George Washington University
IRB Approval Date
2023-07-21
IRB Approval Number
NCR234966
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials