Fostering Social Skills in Ethnic Diversity Through Inclusive Classroom Practices.

Last registered on February 24, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Fostering Social Skills in Ethnic Diversity Through Inclusive Classroom Practices.
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0009019
Initial registration date
February 24, 2022

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 24, 2022, 4:44 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
Italy
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Michela Carlana
Affiliation
Harvard Kennedy School
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Sule Alan
PI Affiliation
European University Institute
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Marinella Leone
PI Affiliation
University of Pavia
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2021-09-19
End date
2022-06-30
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
I24, I28, C93
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Social skills are essential to building empowered and cohesive communities in ethnic diversity contexts. Recent evidence indicates that the school environment and, in particular, teaching practices are important in shaping these skills, especially for socioeconomically disadvantaged children. This project aims to design and evaluate a teacher-focused pedagogical program to promote the social inclusion of migrant children in Italian schools. The program will focus on social skills that are fundamental to healthy peer interactions, with a particular emphasis on inter-ethnic relationships. We will evaluate the program using a rich set of outcomes by combining administrative data with surveys and incentivized lab-in-the-field behavioral tasks.
External Link(s)
JPAL ESII

Registration Citation

Citation
Alan, Sule , Michela Carlana and Marinella Leone. 2022. "Fostering Social Skills in Ethnic Diversity Through Inclusive Classroom Practices. ." AEA RCT Registry. February 24. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9019-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The pedagogical intervention involves a teacher training program. The program is developed and implemented by our partner (the team of Prof. Zanetti at the Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences of the University of Pavia) and directed to teachers in primary schools. The program (DEvelopment of Social Skills: DESS) has a specific focus on adopting inclusive classroom practices with the purpose of developing key social skills to improve peer relationships, with a particular focus on inter-ethnic interactions.
Intervention Start Date
2021-10-27
Intervention End Date
2022-02-03

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Children's outcomes: trust, empathy, cooperation, altruism, social inclusion, peer violence, test scores.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Parents outcomes: attitudes, beliefs, practices and parenting styles
Teachers outcomes: attitudes, beliefs, practices and teaching styles
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The pedagogical program will be randomly assigned at the school level. Teachers in treated schools will receive pedagogical training along with a toolkit to adopt inclusive teaching practices while teaching The toolkit will serve the purpose of guiding teachers and give them ideas of classroom activities they can implement during the school year. Teachers in control schools will not receive the pedagogical training.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization was performed using the reception of the students list: treatment and control status was randomly assigned to the receipt of students lists from schools. This occurred between mid-September and mid-October 2021.
Randomization Unit
School
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
54 Schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
3240
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
27 schools control, 27 schools teacher training (treated)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Harvard University-Area Committee on the Use of Human Subjects
IRB Approval Date
2022-04-13
IRB Approval Number
IRB21-0477
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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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