Empowering Students' Life Skills and Financial Education through Curriculum Renewal and Pedagogical Training - Evidence from The Gambia

Last registered on March 15, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Empowering Students' Life Skills and Financial Education through Curriculum Renewal and Pedagogical Training - Evidence from The Gambia
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012239
Initial registration date
March 08, 2024

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
March 15, 2024, 6:32 PM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Tomohisa Miyamoto
Affiliation
Aflatoun International
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Joost de Laat
PI Affiliation
Faculty of Law, Economics, and Governance & Utrecht University School of Economics, The Netherlands
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PI Name
Hamidou Jawara
PI Affiliation
The University of The Gambia
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PI Name
Paul Schöpfer
PI Affiliation
Faculty of Law, Economics, and Governance & Utrecht University School of Economics, The Netherlands
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2023-10-02
End date
2024-07-31
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
A21, D91, I21, J24
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
More and more countries are introducing life skills and financial education into their curricula to teach students to become responsible, competent, and productive citizens. This research evaluate the effects of integrating life skills and financial education into the curriculum of schools in The Gambia. This study's two main focal points are to investigate the influence of the new curriculum and the effects of two different intensities of teacher training on the translation of the newly infused skills to the students. The study employs a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design, incorporating two treatment arms with varying intensity levels. The research will be conducted across 90 schools in regions 3 and 4 of The Gambia, reaching 450 teachers and 2,700 students. The selected schools will be randomized into three groups: a high-intensity teacher professional development group, a low-intensity teacher professional development group, and a control group that follows the conventional curriculum. If successful, this study will contribute to the roll-out of the curriculum nationally starting in 2024.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
de Laat, Joost et al. 2024. "Empowering Students' Life Skills and Financial Education through Curriculum Renewal and Pedagogical Training - Evidence from The Gambia." AEA RCT Registry. March 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12239-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

Partner

Name
Centre for Global Challenges, Utrecht University
Type
none
URL
https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/centre-for-global-challenges

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This study will evaluate the implementation of a revised grade 5 curriculum in two regions of The Gambia. Furthermore, it will assess the effectiveness of teacher training and a community of practice (CoP) to consolidate the teachers' teaching skills. Based on a social financial education curriculum developed by Aflatoun International, the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education of The Gambia revised school curriculum of Math, English, Science, and Social Studies to incorporate relevant concepts of FE and SEL. The study will evaluate the first implementation of the curriculum with 5th grade students in two regions in the Gambia, as well as pedagogical training for school teachers focusing on Active Learning Methodology.
Intervention Start Date
2023-10-23
Intervention End Date
2024-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Students' confidence, future aspiration, financial competencies, problem solving skills, communication skills, and participation
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
We will measure four aspects of confidence, namely academic self-efficacy, general self-efficacy, self-esteem, and interpersonal confidence. In future aspirations, four components (educational, income, career, and marriage) are included. Under financial competencies, we will measure students' financial knowledge, financial savviness, saving behaviour, and gender-equitative attitude about household budgeting.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Students' empathy, time preference, perceived praise behavior by teachers, perceived relationship with teachers, literacy and numeracy, growth mindset, beliefs about social mobility, knowledge and attitude about rights and responsibilities
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Our study sample includes 2700 children in 5th grade from 90 schools from two provinces of The Gambia. After the baseline data collection, the schools will be randomly assigned to one of the two treatment groups or the control group, with an equal chance of selection. Schools in the first intervention group will receive the revised curriculum, and teachers will participate in 5 days training in the beginning of the academic year. In the second intervention group, teachers will be engaged in follow-up training workshop, in addition to the same intervention in the first treatment group. Schools in the control group will receive no intervention until end-line data collection.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization is conducted in office by a computer using Stata software.
Randomization Unit
The randomization will be clustered on the school level and stratified by the two regions using Stata software.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
90 schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
2700 students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
30 schools control, 30 schools revised curriculum and teacher training, 30 schools revised curriculum, teacher training, and follow-up training workshop
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
The University of The Gambia Research Ethics Committee (UTGREC)
IRB Approval Date
2023-10-03
IRB Approval Number
UTG REC 2023-021
Analysis Plan