unavailable experiment

Last registered on March 03, 2025

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Engaging Parents and Children in Remote Learning: a Randomized Controlled Trial in China

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0015478

Initial registration date

March 02, 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

March 03, 2025, 8:50 AM EST

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

Locations

Country

China

Region

Hunan

Primary Investigator

Name

Matthew Chan

Affiliation

Wuhan University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2020-01-01

End date

2024-05-01

Keywords

Education

Additional Keywords

Remote Education, COVID-19, Randomized Controlled Trial, China

JEL code(s)

C93, I21, I24

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic led to prolonged school closures, severely disrupting early childhood learning and development. In response, I implemented an educational intervention via social media during the 2020 school closures, engaging 2,317 households across 100 kindergarten classes in Central China. This intervention emphasized the novel intersection of parental involvement and school-based education. Specifically, teachers provided structured weekly tasks to foster joint parent-child participation, while an extended group received additional teacher supervision. Over 10 weeks, the randomized controlled trial significantly improved children’s academic performance, non-cognitive skills, and reduced behavioral issues, with stronger effects in the extended group. Long-term follow-ups over three years revealed enduring effects, particularly in literacy. These gains were driven by increased parental involvement and shifts in parental beliefs. Notably, the intervention yielded greater benefits for children from lower socio-economic status, highlighting its potential to bridge educational gaps. At a cost of just 5 USD per child, the intervention demonstrates exceptional cost-effectiveness and strong scalability. Overall, these findings suggest that engaging parents during educational disruptions can effectively safeguard human capital and mitigate crisis-induced learning losses for early childhood populations.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Chan, Matthew. 2025. "Engaging Parents and Children in Remote Learning: a Randomized Controlled Trial in China." AEA RCT Registry. March 03. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15478-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention (Hidden)

Intervention Start Date

2020-01-25

Intervention End Date

2020-04-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Cognitive Skills:
Literacy: Measured through assessments of Chinese character recognition, Pinyin understanding, and basic word recognition.
Numeracy: Measured through basic arithmetic skills, including number recognition, addition, and subtraction.
Non-Cognitive Skills:
Big Five Personality Traits: Assessed through teacher evaluations based on children’s behavior during play and interactive activities, focusing on traits such as emotional regulation, self-control, agreeableness, and social interaction.
Academic Performance (Long-term):
Primary School Grades: Specifically, final exam scores in Chinese language and mathematics during follow-up assessments in the three months and three years after the intervention.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

This study uses a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the impact of educational interventions on children's cognitive and non-cognitive development during the COVID-19 pandemic. The intervention consisted of weekly educational instructions provided through a mobile platform (WeChat), with one subgroup receiving additional teacher supervision to ensure completion of tasks.

The trial involved 100 kindergarten classes from urban and rural schools across C City. These classes were randomly assigned to either a control group (no intervention) or one of two treatment groups: (1) a group receiving only educational instructions, and (2) a group receiving both educational instructions and teacher supervision.

Key outcomes include cognitive skills (literacy and numeracy), non-cognitive skills (measured using the Big Five personality traits), and long-term academic performance (final exam scores in Chinese language and mathematics). Data were collected at multiple time points: during the intervention, immediately after, and at follow-up assessments three months and three years later, when the children entered primary school.

The experimental design allows for the comparison of treatment effects on academic and personal development outcomes across different intervention conditions, with an emphasis on both immediate and long-term effects. The study aims to assess the potential for mobile-based educational interventions to mitigate learning disruptions during the pandemic.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization done in office by a computer

Randomization Unit

class

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

100 classes

Sample size: planned number of observations

2317 children

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

50 classes control, 25 classes received instruction only, and 25 classes received both instruction and supervision

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name

IRB Approval Date

IRB Approval Number

Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?

Yes

Intervention Completion Date

April 15, 2020, 12:00 +00:00

Data Collection Complete

Yes

Data Collection Completion Date

May 01, 2024, 12:00 +00:00

Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)