Improving Teacher Uptake of Effective FLN Instructions using Behavioural Principles

Last registered on September 15, 2023
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Improving Teacher Uptake of Effective FLN Instructions using Behavioural Principles
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012060
Initial registration date
September 10, 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
September 15, 2023, 8:54 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
India
Region
Uttar Pradesh

Primary Investigator

Name
Sneha Shashidhara
Affiliation
CSBC
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Sonal Garg
PI Affiliation
PI Name
Akanksha Sharma
PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-09-13
End date
2024-04-30
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
FLN, teachers, behaviour change
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Foundation Literacy and numeracy (FLN) is critical for a child's education. India’s National Education Policy (NEP) recommends a set of basic literacy and numeracy skills to be acquired by Grade 3. These requirements are not met in many districts in India for various reasons. Here, in a field experiment, we plan to test interventions targeted at improving teacher uptake of effective FLN instructions. As part of the interventions, bite-sized videos on effective teaching practices will be shared with the teachers, or summaries of daily lesson plans from the teacher guides will be made accessible through a WhatsApp Chatbot.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Garg, Sonal, Akanksha Sharma and Sneha Shashidhara. 2023. "Improving Teacher Uptake of Effective FLN Instructions using Behavioural Principles ." AEA RCT Registry. September 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12060-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

Partner

Name
Central Square Foundation
Type
none
URL
https://www.centralsquarefoundation.org/
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The first treatment arm intends to increase adoption of TGs by making accessible to teachers simplified summaries of daily lesson plans in the form of bite-sized texts or audio-notes through a WhatsApp Chatbot. A series of clicks and simple entries will enable teachers to get acquainted with the content of daily lesson plans for literacy and numeracy in a few seconds. This will be supplemented by friendly nudges and positive messaging and an in-built reward mechanism to aid habit formation.

The second treatment arm intends to increase adoption of key pedagogical practices. The treatment is centred around bite-sized videos on pedagogical practices derived from the target behaviours.
Intervention (Hidden)
The first treatment arm intends to increase adoption of TGs by making accessible to teachers simplified summaries of daily lesson plans in the form of bite-sized texts or audio-notes through a WhatsApp Chatbot. A series of clicks and simple entries will enable teachers to get acquainted with the content of daily lesson plans for literacy and numeracy in a few seconds. This will be supplemented by friendly nudges and positive messaging and an in-built reward mechanism to aid habit formation.

The second treatment arm intends to increase adoption of key pedagogical practices. The treatment is centred around bite-sized videos on pedagogical practices derived from the target behaviours.
Intervention Start Date
2023-09-13
Intervention End Date
2024-04-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Classroom observations to determine effective teaching practices, revealed preference measures using vignetters and willingness to pay
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Primary outcome is the adoption of teaching practices and teacher guide for preparation, determined by classroom observations, Endline will include 2 revealed preference measures to test adoption and valuation of teaching practices and guide.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Intention, motivation, locus of control
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
self reported measures of intention, motivation and locus of control

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Our design is a randomised control experiment. The study population will be Grade 3 teachers in government schools of Sitapur and Hardoi districts of Uttar Pradesh. Sampled schools will be randomly assigned to control or either of the two treatment arms. The recruitment criteria and the treatment arms are explained in the following sections.
Recruitment will be followed by one in-person baseline survey that includes treatment initiation and a questionnaire to measure adoption, value perception, confidence, knowledge, attitudes, past behaviour, and standard demographics. The treatment period will last 6 months, followed by an endline survey.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Cluster randomisation
Randomization Unit
panchayats
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
72 clusters per arm
Sample size: planned number of observations
10 teachers per cluster, overall 2160 teachers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Math learning outcome: 0.1 standard deviations (p-value: 0.02) increase in combined treatment arms (Impact of STIR’s programming on teacher motivation and student learning, StiR and IDinsight), gave us an estimated sample size of ~180 schools (with 2 treatment arms and 1 control)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Based on the power analyses above and other studies, we selected a sample size of 72 clusters (720 teachers) per arm, a total sample size of 2160 across 3 arms (two treatment arms and one pure control arm). With ~ 9 teachers per cluster, a 0.8 power, with an ICC of 0.33 we can detect an effect size of ~ 3 with a SD of 10.
Supporting Documents and Materials

Documents

Document Name
Pre Analysis Plan
Document Type
other
Document Description
File
Pre Analysis Plan

MD5: 4b3dc59081e6c4c2ee156c02d67b9676

SHA1: 4a08ce7a8629b6ca8eab01aa272a58fc4df97654

Uploaded At: September 10, 2023

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ashoka Institutional Review Board (IRB)
IRB Approval Date
2023-07-27
IRB Approval Number
23-E-10065-Sharma
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