School curriculum and Decision Making

Last registered on February 22, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
School curriculum and Decision Making
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0015345
Initial registration date
February 16, 2025

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
February 20, 2025, 5:16 AM EST

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

Last updated
February 22, 2025, 7:09 PM EST

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Nikhitha Mary Mathew
Affiliation
National University of Singapore
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Chitra Pratap
PI Affiliation
PI Name
Andrew Francis-Tan
PI Affiliation
National University of Singapore
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-03-15
End date
2025-06-30
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
India, Curriculum, Discrimination
JEL code(s)
C93, I24, I28, J15
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This randomized controlled trial explores the relationship between Indian school curriculum and social attitudes towards minorities. Over the last decade, several changes have been made to school textbooks in India, both by central boards of education as well as by state education departments. Significant changes in the content of social science textbooks (especially, in subjects like history and political science) have been well documented. Following previous research, this study attempts to test if the changes made to Indian textbooks affect attitudes towards minority groups. In the trial, participants will read randomly assigned excerpts from school textbooks. Some excerpts will be from older textbooks that are considered more inclusive in their representation of minorities and some will be from newer textbooks that are considered less inclusive. We will then ask participants to evaluate fictitious profiles of Indians applying for a job to examine whether exposure to different types of vignettes impacts their views of applicants with minority backgrounds. In sum, this study aims to provide insights into the effect of curriculum on social attitudes as well as on the broader social consequences of textbook revisions.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Francis-Tan, Andrew, Nikhitha Mary Mathew and Chitra Pratap. 2025. "School curriculum and Decision Making." AEA RCT Registry. February 22. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15345-1.1
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The trial involves two parts. In the first part, participants will be provided with 2 excerpts from an NCERT textbook. In the second part, participants will be provided with 10-12 fictitious profiles of job applicants to a particular job (at a bank or electronics stall). The profiles will contain the name of the applicant, educational credentials, job experiences, and a photo taken from a publicly available database of images. The participants will then evaluate the job applicants along several characteristics.
Intervention Start Date
2025-03-15
Intervention End Date
2025-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The primary outcome variables are participants’ relative ratings of applicants’ professional (qualified) and personal (trustworthy, hardworking) characteristics, across applicants’ religious backgrounds. Another set of outcomes includes direct measures of attitudes about persons of different religious backgrounds.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Participants rate the applicant profiles in terms of their qualification, trustworthiness and hardworking nature, using a scale ranging from 1-5 with lower values indicating poor evaluations and higher values indicating good evaluations. Primary outcomes are participants’ relative ratings of profiles. Relative ratings are calculated as a participant’s average rating of applicants belonging to a religious minority background minus their average rating of applicants belonging to all other backgrounds. Additionally, at the very end of the survey, participants are asked about their attitudes toward various religious groups in India. The responses to these questions are potential outcomes in the analysis as well.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
In this experiment, participants will be randomized into one of three groups:

1. Inclusive vignettes: older textbook excerpts that focus on the positive aspects of the diversity of Indian society
2. Exclusive vignettes: newer textbook excerpts that highlight the negative aspects of the diversity of Indian society
3. Control vignettes: textbook excerpts that do not deal with topics related to the diversity of Indian society.

In each case, the participants are exposed to 2 vignettes, followed by comprehension questions. In the second part of the experiment, participants are shown 10-12 profiles of fictitious job applicants applying for a job as a bank manager in a private bank or as a worker at an electronics and repair stall. Participants are randomly allocated to one of the jobs. Participants are asked to rate each job applicant on their professional and personal characteristics.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1080 respondents
Sample size: planned number of observations
1080 respondents
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
360 participants in inclusive vignettes group (180 rate bank job profiles and 180 rate stall job profiles), 360 participants in exclusive vignettes group (180 bank job and 180 stall job), 360 participants control vignettes group (180 bank job and 180 stall job).
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Total participants: 1080 Participants per group:180 Confidence level:95% Power level:0.8 Sample variance for treatment group=1.5 Sample variance for control group=1.5 Minimum detectable effect size for pairwise means test=0.35
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
National University of Singapore- IRB
IRB Approval Date
2024-10-09
IRB Approval Number
NUS-IRB-2024-870
Analysis Plan