Evaluating the impact of an educational program based on building blocks

Last registered on April 27, 2018
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Evaluating the impact of an educational program based on building blocks
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0001562
Initial registration date
April 25, 2018

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
April 27, 2018, 1:40 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Brazil
Region
Nordeste

Primary Investigator

Name
Vladimir Ponczek
Affiliation
FGV
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Cristine Pinto
PI Affiliation
FGV
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Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2014-07-01
End date
2014-12-20
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
I20, I26
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Using a randomized control trial in Recife, a big city located at the Northeast in Brazil, this work collected data that will allow us evaluate the impact of a building block program on the development of cognitive and socio-emotional skills, and the mechanism behind this impact. We investigate the impact of the program at 3rd and 5th grade student (If the students are at correct school-age, they should be 9 years old at the 3rd grade, and 11 years old at the 5th grade.) in 30 public elementary schools. Half of the schools were allocate to treated group, and the other 15 were allocated to the control group. Since Recife is a big city with lots of geografic heterogeneity, we did a pairwise randomization based on the geographic location of the schools. We collected two rounds of data in 2014 of third and fifth graders enrolled in 30 elementary public schools (15 participants and 15 control-group schools). In both baseline (prior to the program) and follow-up (by the end school year) rounds, we collected data on the students' socio-emotional components (Big Five and Locus of Control) and five cognitive abilities: verbal-logical reasoning, abstract reasoning, spatial reasoning, numerical reasoning and logical reasoning.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Pinto, Cristine and Vladimir Ponczek. 2018. "Evaluating the impact of an educational program based on building blocks." AEA RCT Registry. April 27. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1562-1.0
Former Citation
Pinto, Cristine and Vladimir Ponczek. 2018. "Evaluating the impact of an educational program based on building blocks." AEA RCT Registry. April 27. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1562/history/28895
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention that combines activities using LEGO blocks with the core school curriculum. During these activities, the students are divided in groups, and they need to assume specific roles in this group. For example, one student needs to lead the discussion, another one takes notes, etc. The idea is that the activities involve curriculum content (like math concepts, science, etc.) but also help students develop cognitive skills (like reasoning and problem solving) and socio-emotional skills (like leadership, grid, extroversion, etc.). The schools that participate in program receive blocks kits with specific instructions for teachers and students. In addition, the teachers receive training to implement these activities. In each classroom, the students did the activities (one-hour session) during the regular school hours. It was not an extra-curricular activity.
Intervention Start Date
2014-08-01
Intervention End Date
2014-12-20

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Cognitive abilities, socioemotional abilities, proficiency scores, student's network
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
student's network measures as the classmates with whom the student is connected.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We use pairwise randomization to allocate 30 public schools located at the city of Recife (Brazil) into treated and control groups. Students at 3rd and 5th grades of the 15 treated schools participate in the program, and the students at 3rd and 5th grades of the control schools did not participate in the program.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by computer
Randomization Unit
Schools
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
30 schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
About 2700 students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
15 schools control, 15 schools with the building blocks program
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
December 20, 2014, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
30 schools
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
1,877 with information in both fields
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
15 schools control, 15 schools treated
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

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Program Files

Program Files
No
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials