What Do Brazilian Pre-service Teachers Want? A Discrete Choice Study of Internship Preferences

Last registered on November 15, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
What Do Brazilian Pre-service Teachers Want? A Discrete Choice Study of Internship Preferences
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014830
Initial registration date
November 14, 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
November 15, 2024, 2:02 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
Brazil
Region
Salvador

Primary Investigator

Name
Andrew Avitabile
Affiliation
University of Virginia
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Louisee Cruz
PI Affiliation
World Bank
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-11-25
End date
2024-12-20
Keywords
Education, Labor
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
I21 - Analysis of Education; J24 - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity; C91 - Laboratory, Individual Behavior; C93 - Field Experiments; M53 - Personnel Economics: Training; J45 - Public Sector Labor Markets
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This document proposes a study to examine pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) valuations of internship amenities in Salvador, Brazil, through the lens of the Pedagogical Support and Activities Program (PAAP). Despite PAAP’s potential to benefit both student learning and PST development through active tutoring roles, the program currently operates below capacity, filling only about 800 of 1,500 available positions. Using survey data and a discrete choice experiment, we investigate the questions: how do PSTs value different internship amenities such as salary, schedule flexibility, and internship quality? Our findings will inform the Municipal Secretary of Education’s (Secretaria Municipal de Educação, SMED) efforts to improve PAAP recruitment and contribute to the broader literature on how PSTs value internship amenities. This research has immediate policy implications for the design of teacher training programs and adds to our understanding of PST preferences when determining where to complete student-teaching experiences.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Avitabile, Andrew and Louisee Cruz. 2024. "What Do Brazilian Pre-service Teachers Want? A Discrete Choice Study of Internship Preferences." AEA RCT Registry. November 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14830-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

Partner

Name
Secretaria Municipal da Educação, Prefeitura de Salvador
Type
municipality
URL
https://educacao3.salvador.ba.gov.br/
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This is not an intervention study, but rather a proposal to conduct a discrete choice experiment examining pre-service teachers' willingness to pay for internship amenities.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2024-11-25
Intervention End Date
2024-12-20

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The key outcome variables in this experiment are the pre-service teachers' (PSTs) choices in hypothetical internship scenarios with varying attributes. These attributes include monthly salary, commute time, scheduling flexibility, mentor teacher support, and teaching practice opportunities. Our primary outcome of interest is PSTs' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for each of these internship amenities.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
To construct WTP, we model PSTs' internship choices as a function of attributes presented in discrete choice sets. By using logistic regression within a discrete choice framework, we can estimate how much salary PSTs would forgo to gain specific amenities, such as increased mentor support or flexible scheduling. The estimated coefficients for non-salary attributes relative to the salary coefficient allow us to calculate WTP for each attribute, capturing the trade-offs PSTs make between salary and other internship amenities.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary outcomes include the heterogeneity in preferences across subgroups, such as socio-economic status, gender, level of preparedness for teaching, certification area, and university type (public vs. private). We are also interested in the likelihood of PSTs’ participation in PAAP based on demographic and background characteristics.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
For secondary outcomes, we include interaction terms in the discrete choice model to explore heterogeneity in preferences for internship attributes across subgroups. For example, we assess whether lower-SES PSTs have different WTP values for non-salary amenities compared to higher-SES peers. We also examine the likelihood of PAAP participation using a regression model with demographic predictors to see if certain groups are over- or underrepresented among PAAP interns.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The experiment uses a discrete choice design where PSTs select between two hypothetical internship options in a series of tasks, with each option differing by randomly assigned attributes. These tasks allow us to estimate the relative importance of each attribute in PSTs' decision-making and calculate WTP for each attribute. We additionally conduct heterogeneity analyses across subgroups identified as potentially significant through preliminary focus group discussions.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
The randomization method for this experiment involves independently varying each attribute level in the hypothetical internship scenarios across choice tasks. Specifically:

1. Random Assignment of Attributes: For each choice task, internship attributes—salary, commute time, schedule flexibility, mentor teacher support, and teaching practice opportunities—are independently and randomly assigned to create two unique internship options. This ensures that PSTs view a range of attribute combinations and that each attribute is orthogonally varied across tasks.

2. Choice Tasks Per Participant: Each participant completes six choice tasks. Within each task, the attribute levels are randomly determined, creating two internship options that differ across the five attributes. This randomization across tasks enables us to estimate how changes in each attribute affect the likelihood of an internship being chosen, as well as the WTP for each attribute.

3. Survey Implementation: The randomization is implemented within the survey platform (Qualtrics), which assigns attribute levels based on predefined probabilities. This platform ensures the random assignment is conducted correctly and consistently across participants.
Randomization Unit
The unit of randomization in this experiment is the individual participant (pre-service teacher). Each PST is independently presented with a set of choice tasks, where internship attributes are randomly assigned to create unique internship options within each task.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
No clusters
Sample size: planned number of observations
300 respondents given six tasks with two choices. n = 3,600.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
N/A
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Please see analysis protocol for MDE calculations
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Virginia - Institutional Review Board for the Social and Behavioral Sciences (IRB-SBS)
IRB Approval Date
2024-11-08
IRB Approval Number
6939
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Analysis Plan

MD5: 3cfa25f60a472d6faedc94fae421ce9c

SHA1: b4e161c4f4dc5a192614452d88d1bd71732f73a5

Uploaded At: November 14, 2024

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

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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