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Field
Last Published
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Before
October 13, 2020 09:11 AM
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After
November 17, 2020 05:26 AM
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Field
Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
Qualitative component:
A postdoctoral research assistant will conduct one-on-one semi-structured interviews (either in person or over the phone, COVID-dependent) with adults and children who have taken part in We Love Reading as well as with those who have not, to understand how We Love Reading influences education and learning. These interviews will be conducted with participants living in Amman and surrounding areas – where a substantial proportion of Syrian refugees in Jordan live – and in Za’atari refugee camp or Mafraq (depending on COVID restrictions). The postdoctoral research assistant will conduct an inductive thematic analysis on this interview data. They will transcribe the interviews, generate initial codes, and search for and review themes, resulting in an understanding of the role of non-formal education programs such as We Love Reading in their learning and education. To ensure credibility and dependability, we will use reflective commentary, second coding, and peer feedback.
Quantitative component:
A project manager and 4 fieldworkers based in Jordan will be conducting data collection for the cluster randomized controlled trial with Syrian refugee mothers and their 4-8-year-old children participating in We Love Reading groups. We will collect data from 180 mother-child dyads from the children taking part in their We Love Reading sessions, as well as 180 control women and their 180 4-8-year-old control children. Where a mother has more than one eligible child within the 4-8-year-old age range, the child closest in age to 6 years old will be sampled. Data will be collected at two timepoints (immediately before taking part in and immediately after the intervention), allowing us to evaluate the effects of We Love Reading on children’s love of reading and literacy skills. Participants will be sampled from We Love Reading training sessions in Amman and Za’atari (or, if COVID-restrictions are still in place in Za'atari, in Mafraq). We will use a cluster randomized wait-list design: women who have expressed an interest in We Love Reading sessions will be randomly assigned to the treatment or wait-listed control condition.
Sampling will be done as follows: Taghyeer will sample 60 women who have expressed an interest in being trained in delivery of We Love Reading to take part in the study. We will use coin flip randomization to determine whether these women's We Love Reading groups will be in the treatment or control condition. ~30 of the women will immediately receive the training and the other ~30 will be wait-listed for the training. The 60 women will then inform us which children they will have in their reading groups once they are trained, and fieldworkers will contact the parents of those children to see if they would be interested in taking part in our study. Following this, we will have baseline data collection with the 180 treatment mother-child dyads and the 180 wait-listed control dyads. After approximately 12 weeks, we will conduct endline data collection. Following this, the ~30 control women will take part in We Love Reading and thus all of the children will have access to this intervention.
For both baseline and endline data collection, Jordan-based fieldworkers will go to participants’ homes in groups of two, with one fieldworker collecting data from the mother and the other collecting data from the child. Data collection will consist of surveys, behavioural /cognitive tasks, and a structured mother-child observational task. This combination of psychometric measures (both child- and mother-report), behavioural measures, and direct observation will allow us to gain a holistic understanding of children’s love of reading and literacy. These measures will also allow us to establish whether the effects of We Love Reading are direct, or whether the impacts occur through changes to children’s cognitive stimulation, social stimulation, or through family relationship quality. Using this multi-method approach will provide multiple ways of assessing intervention efficacy, reducing reliance on participant self-report. To increase understanding and avoid issues arising from potential low literacy of participants, fieldworkers will ask all survey questions aloud and input the child/mother response into a laptop loaded with the survey software Qualtrics.
We will collect fidelity information from the volunteers leading the We Love Reading sessions, asking for weekly updates of what book they read, which children attended, where the session was held, and how long the We Love Reading session lasted.
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After
Qualitative component:
A postdoctoral research assistant will conduct one-on-one semi-structured interviews (either in person or over the phone, COVID-dependent) with adults and children who have taken part in We Love Reading as well as with those who have not, to understand how We Love Reading influences education and learning. These interviews will be conducted with participants living in Amman and surrounding areas – where a substantial proportion of Syrian refugees in Jordan live – and in Za’atari refugee camp or Mafraq (depending on COVID restrictions). The postdoctoral research assistant will conduct an inductive thematic analysis on this interview data. They will transcribe the interviews, generate initial codes, and search for and review themes, resulting in an understanding of the role of non-formal education programs such as We Love Reading in their learning and education. To ensure credibility and dependability, we will use reflective commentary, second coding, and peer feedback.
Quantitative component:
A project manager and 4 fieldworkers based in Jordan will be conducting data collection for the cluster randomized controlled trial with Syrian refugee mothers and their 4-8-year-old children participating in We Love Reading groups. We will collect data from 180 mother-child dyads from the children taking part in their We Love Reading sessions, as well as 180 control women and their 180 4-8-year-old control children. Where a mother has more than one eligible child within the 4-8-year-old age range, the child closest in age to 6 years old will be sampled. Data will be collected at two timepoints (immediately before taking part in and immediately after the intervention), allowing us to evaluate the effects of We Love Reading on children’s love of reading and literacy skills. Participants will be sampled from We Love Reading training sessions in Amman and Za’atari (or, if COVID-restrictions are still in place in Za'atari, in Mafraq). We will use a cluster randomized wait-list design: we will contact community based organizations, will assign them as either wait-list control or experimental organizations, (without informing them), and then will have information sessions for We Love Reading at their organizations and sample women who have expressed an interest in We Love Reading sessions at those sessions.
Sampling will be done as follows: Taghyeer will sample 60 women who have expressed an interest in being trained in delivery of We Love Reading to take part in the study. We will use coin flip randomization to determine whether the community based organization will be in the treatment or control condition. 3-5 of the organizations will immediately receive training and the other 3-5 will be wait-listed for training. Women sampled from information sessions held at each of these community based organizations will then be asked inform us which children they will have in their reading groups once they are trained, and fieldworkers will contact the parents of those children to see if they would be interested in taking part in our study. Following this, we will have baseline data collection with the 180 treatment mother-child dyads and the 180 wait-listed control dyads. After approximately 12 weeks, we will conduct endline data collection. Following this, the women interested in being trained in We Love Reading from the control organizations will take part in We Love Reading training and thus all of the children will have access to this intervention.
For both baseline and endline data collection, Jordan-based fieldworkers will go to participants’ homes in groups of two, with one fieldworker collecting data from the mother and the other collecting data from the child. Data collection will consist of surveys, behavioural /cognitive tasks, and a structured mother-child observational task. This combination of psychometric measures (both child- and mother-report), behavioural measures, and direct observation will allow us to gain a holistic understanding of children’s love of reading and literacy. These measures will also allow us to establish whether the effects of We Love Reading are direct, or whether the impacts occur through changes to children’s cognitive stimulation, social stimulation, or through family relationship quality. Using this multi-method approach will provide multiple ways of assessing intervention efficacy, reducing reliance on participant self-report. To increase understanding and avoid issues arising from potential low literacy of participants, fieldworkers will ask all survey questions aloud and input the child/mother response into a laptop loaded with the survey software Qualtrics.
We will collect fidelity information from the volunteers leading the We Love Reading sessions, asking for weekly updates of what book they read, which children attended, where the session was held, and how long the We Love Reading session lasted.
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Field
Randomization Method
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Before
We will use cluster randomization, where the children will be randomized into either treatment or control dependent on which group the person leading their We Love Reading group was randomized into. We will do this using a coin flip, such that ~50% will be in the treatment and ~50% in the wait-listed control group.
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After
We will use cluster randomization, where the children will be randomized into either treatment or control dependent on which community based organization the person leading their We Love Reading group was sampled from. We will do determine whether community based organizations are treatment or control using a coin flip, such that ~50% will be in the treatment and ~50% in the wait-listed control group. We will sample 6-10 community based organizations to get the needed sample size.
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Field
Randomization Unit
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Before
Our unit of randomization is the individual who has volunteered for the We Love Reading session. Taghyeer has a list of people who have expressed interest in leading We Love Reading sessions. We will contact these women, explain the study to them, and sample 60 who indicate being interested in taking part. We will then randomize them (50/50) into the treatment or control groups. The children who would take part in their sessions are thus randomized to treatment or wait-listed control on the basis of whether the We Love Reading volunteer is randomized to treatment or control.
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After
Our unit of randomization is the community based organization from which we draw volunteers to lead We Love Reading sessions. Taghyeer is affiliated with a number of community based organizations who would be willing to host information sessions on We Love Reading. We will gather a list of 6-10 of these who could hold the sessions in January-May 2020 and then will randomize the organizations into treatment or wait-listed control.
In the information sessions, we will sample women who are interested in being trained to lead We Love Reading sessions. If they are sampled from a treatment organization then they will receive this training right away. If they are sampled from a control organization then they will not receive this training until after endline data collection (i.e. after 12+ weeks). The children who would take part in these women's We Love Reading sessions are thus randomized to treatment or wait-listed control on the basis of whether the potential leader of the We Love Reading session is sampled from an organization which is either treatment or control.
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Field
Planned Number of Clusters
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Before
We intend for there to be 60 clusters. ~30 of these will be randomized to the treatment condition who are trained in We Love Reading immediately and ~30 will be randomized to the wait-list control condition and will be trained in We Love Reading following endline data collection.
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After
We intend for there to be 6-10 clusters. 3-5 of these will be randomized to the treatment condition who are trained in We Love Reading immediately and 3-5 will be randomized to the wait-list control condition and will be trained in We Love Reading following endline data collection. This randomization is done at the level of the community based organization and will involve coin flip randomization by the study PI.
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Field
Planned Number of Observations
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Before
We will sample 360 4-8 year old Syrian refugees and their 360 mothers (N = 360 mother-child dyads, 720 participants in total) at baseline. We expect attrition at a rate of 25%, for an endline sample of 270 mother-child dyads. As far as clusters in which the randomization will be conducted, we expect to have 60 clusters, approximately 30 of which will be treatment and 30 of which will be wait-listed control clusters.
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After
We will sample 360 4-8 year old Syrian refugees and their 360 mothers (N = 360 mother-child dyads, 720 participants in total) at baseline. We expect attrition at a rate of 25%, for an endline sample of 270 mother-child dyads. As far as clusters in which the randomization will be conducted, we expect to have 6-10 clusters, approximately 4 of which will be treatment and 4 of which will be wait-listed control clusters.
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Field
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
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Before
We intend to have the sample evenly split between the treatment and wait-listed control groups. This will entail a sample of 180 mother-child dyads in the treatment group (who take part in We Love Reading right away) and 180 mother-child dyads in the wait-listed control group (who take part in We Love Reading after endlne).
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After
We intend to have the sample approximately evenly split between the treatment and wait-listed control groups. This will entail a sample of 180 mother-child dyads in the treatment group (who take part in We Love Reading right away) and 180 mother-child dyads in the wait-listed control group (who take part in We Love Reading after endlne).
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