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Bringing together research from several lines of inquiry in psychology and education, we propose a conceptual model for understanding how entrenched inequalities embedded within ecological macrosystems play out in the classroom to affect student learning. We consider how implicit teacher beliefs and belief expressions affect teacher-student interactions and relationships, student learning-related processes, and student learning outcomes. First, we review the literature on how teacher beliefs relate to student learning outcomes. Second, we discuss how teacher beliefs may shape critical classroom-level and individual-level teacher-student interactions and how these interactions can affect student factors that are critical to learning. The Teacher Beliefs and Interactions Model, a conceptual model that brings together related bodies of work that have traditionally been separate, proposes teacher beliefs as an important area of inquiry for future empirical research in education and human development.

Risks associated with school dropout have been studied in West Africa, yet more research is needed to understand what protective factors can be associated with academic resilience (i.e., remaining in school despite facing adversity). At the beginning of our longitudinal study in rural Côte d’Ivoire, 1195 students (Mage=10.75, SDage=1.42) were enrolled in fifth grade. Two years later, 7% of students had dropped out. Characteristics related to the child (e.g., child labour), family (e.g., socioeconomic status), and school (e.g., teacher quality) were first examined distinctly. We then applied a cumulative risk (CR) framework to examine child-, family-, and school-level CR and their interactions. To understand academic resilience, we used findings from our risk analysis to identify a “high-risk enrolled” subset of children and compared them to the children who dropped out. Children who dropped out were older, involved in more child labour, had poorer literacy, owned fewer books, and attended schools with poorer learning environments. Child-level CR most strongly predicted dropout (b=-.860, OR=.424); however, children with low child-level CR were more likely to drop out when family-level CR was high (b=.227, OR=1.250). School characteristics (better infrastructure and teachers) were protective for children who were at high risk of dropout yet remained enrolled. Child-, family-, and school-level factors all contributed to dropout and these factors interact to affect dropout. Although child- and family-level factors contribute significantly to dropout, certain school factors may mitigate these risks and promote academic resilience.

Literacy and numeracy are correlated throughout development, however our understanding of this relation is limited. We explored the predictors of literacy and numeracy covariance (i.e., shared fluency between literacy and numeracy) in children (N=1167, girls=563) in rural Côte d’Ivoire, with specific focus on how developmental timing of instruction may relate to covariance. Many Ivorian children experience late enrollment and grade repetition, leading to variation in age-for-grade; participants were between grades 1 to 6 but their ages ranged from 5 to 15 (M=9.19, SD=2.07). Phonological awareness, numerical magnitude, ordinality, working memory, and inhibitory control were cognitive predictors of covariance. Age-for-grade was negatively related to covariance suggesting that covariance is related to timing of instruction.

The role of executive function skills and motivation in supporting children's academic achievement is well-documented, but the vast majority of evidence is from high-income countries. Classrooms in sub-Saharan Africa tend to be large, teacher-driven, and lecture-focused, which may provide extra challenges for children to stay engaged in the learning process. Based in self-regulated learning theory, we tested the contributions of executive functions and motivation for children's literacy and numeracy skills over 1 school year. Our preregistered study of 2,500 primary school students in Côte d'Ivoire used lagged models with a robust set of demographic covariates. Executive functions were directly assessed, and children reported on their levels of motivation for schooling. Findings indicated strong longitudinal continuity of both literacy and numeracy skills over the academic year. Further, we found unique associations of executive functions and intrinsic motivation with changes in children's literacy skills and a unique association of executive functions, but not intrinsic motivation, with changes in children's numeracy skills over the school year. Overall, these results provide evidence for the importance of nonacademic skills for children's learning in a rural, sub-Saharan African context. Implications include improving access to preprimary education, the quality of primary school experiences, and teacher training and supports to increase children's early academic skills, self-regulation skills, and motivation for learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

We examined how exposure to two intervention programmes designed to improve the quality of pre-primary education in Ghana-the Quality Preschool for Ghana project-impacted children's rate of growth in academic (literacy and numeracy) and non-academic skills (social-emotional and executive function) across two school years. This cluster-randomised trial included 240 schools (

The COVID-19 pandemic led to extended school closures globally. Access to remote learning opportunities during this time was vastly unequal within and across countries. Higher-quality early childhood education (ECE) can improve later academic outcomes, but longer-term effects during crises are unknown. This study provides the first experimental evidence of how previously attending a higher-quality ECE program affected child engagement in remote learning and academic scores during pandemic-related school closures in Ghana. Children (N = 1668; 50.1% male; Msubage/sub = 10.1 years; all Ghanaian nationals) who attended higher-quality ECE at age 4 or 5 years had greater engagement in remote learning (d = .14) in October 2020, but not better language and literacy and math scores. Previous exposure to higher-quality ECE may support educational engagement during crises.

Many children in developing countries do not acquire functional literacy skills despite being in school. We apply a cumulative risk (aggregate over a range of risk) and protection framework to asse...

Research on the associations among adversity, executive function (EF), and academic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries, where developmental risk factors are more prevalent and impoverished environments are more widespread than in high income countries, is sparse. This study examines the relations among cumulative risk, EF, and learning outcomes measured 2-years later in Ghanaian third- and fourth-graders (

This study investigated how early childhood education teachers’ (N = 444) depressive and anxiety symptoms predicted their professional well-being outcomes and absenteeism over the course of one school year in Ghana. Higher anxiety and depressive symptoms predicted lower job motivation and job satisfaction and higher levels of emotional exhaustion at the end of the school year. Increased depressive symptoms were further associated with more days absent over the course of the school year. Findings point to the importance of considering teachers’ mental health for early educational quality. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

There is a growing literature on the potential of text-message-based nudge interventions to increase parent engagement and improve child learning outcomes. It is unknown whether these interventions can be effective across diverse contexts such as rural West Africa, where child labor is common and learning outcomes are very low. We use a school-randomized trial to test the impacts of a text-message intervention (two messages per week for the duration of one school year) to parents and teachers of second and fourth grade students (N = 198 classrooms, 2,243 students) in rural Cote d’Ivoire. Schools (N = 100) were randomly assigned to have messages sent to (i) parents alone, (ii) teachers alone, (iii) parents and teachers together, and (iv) control. Impacts are found only for the intervention arm targeting parents alone. Specifically, we find positive marginally statistically significant impacts on child numeracy (d = 0.07, p < .09) and increases in child labor based on child-reports (d = 0.11, p < .05). Implications are discussed for nudge-based interventions, international education, child labor, and parent engagement.

BACKGROUND: Children ages 6 to 17 years can accurately assess their own food insecurity, whereas parents are inaccurate reporters of their children's experiences of food insecurity. No globally applicable scale to assess the food insecurity of children has been developed and validated. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to develop a globally applicable, experience-based measure of child and adolescent food insecurity and establish the validity and cross-contextual equivalence of the measure. METHODS: The 10-item Child Food Insecurity Experiences Scale (CFIES) was based on items previously validated from questionnaires from the United States, Venezuela, and Lebanon. Cognitive interviews were conducted to check understanding of the items. The questionnaire then was administered in 15 surveys in 13 countries. Other items in each survey that assessed the household socioeconomic status, household food security, or child psychological functioning were selected as criterion variables to compare to the scores from the CFIES. To investigate accuracy (i.e., criterion validity), linear regression estimated the associations of the CFIES scores with the criterion variables. To investigate the cross-contextual equivalence (i.e., measurement invariance), the alignment method was used based on classical measurement theory. RESULTS: Across the 15 surveys, the mean scale scores for the CFIES ranged from 1.65 to 5.86 (possible range of 0 to 20) and the Cronbach alpha ranged from 0.88 to 0.94. The variance explained by a 1-factor model ranged from 0.92 to 0.99. Accuracy was demonstrated by expected associations with criterion variables. The percentages of equivalent thresholds and loadings across the 15 surveys were 28.0 and 5.33, respectively, for a total percentage of nonequivalent thresholds and loadings of 16.7, well below the guideline of

IntroductionMany children in developing countries grow up in environments that lack stimulation, leading to deficiencies in early years of development. Several efficacy trials of early childhood care and education (ECCE) programmes have demonstrated potential to improve child development; evidence on whether these effects can be sustained once programmes are scaled is much more mixed. This study evaluates whether an ECCE programme shown to be effective in an efficacy trial maintains effectiveness when taken to scale by the Government of Ghana (GoG). The findings will provide critical evidence to the GoG on effectiveness of a programme it is investing in, as well as a blueprint for design and scale-up of ECCE programmes in other developing countries, which are expanding their investment in ECCE programmes.Methods and analysisThis study is a cluster randomised controlled trial, in which the order that districts receive the programme is randomised. A minimum sample of 3240 children and 360 schools will be recruited across 72 district school cohort pairs. The primary outcomes are (1) child cognitive and socioemotional development measured using the International Development and Early Learning Assessment tool, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and tasks from the Harvard Laboratory for Development Studies; (2) child health (measured using height/weight for age, height-for-weight Z scores). Secondary outcomes include (1) maternal mental health, (using Kessler-10 and Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale) and knowledge of ECCE practices; (2) teacher knowledge, motivation and teaching quality (measured with classroom observation); (3) parental investment (using the Family Care Index and Home Observation Measurement of the Environment and the Child–Parent Relationship Scale); (4) water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) practices; (5) acute malnutrition (using mid-upper arm circumference). We will estimate unadjusted and adjusted intent-to-treat effects.Ethics and disseminationStudy protocols have been approved by ethics boards at the University College London (21361/001), Yale University (2000031549) and Ghanaian Health Service Ethics Review Committee (028/09/21). Results will be made available to participating communities, funders, the wider public and other researchers through peer-reviewed journals, conference presentations, social and print media and various community/stakeholder engagement activities.Trial registration numberISRCTN15360698, AEARCTR-0008500.

The transition from student-teaching to full-time teaching is an understudied period in teachers’ careers. This paper uses a cumulative risk (CR) framework to assess personal and professional risks experienced by 135 student-teachers in rural Ghana during pre-service training and later as newly qualified teachers, and examines how risks relate to their professional well-being and learning outcomes of children in their classrooms. Higher CR was associated with lower teacher motivation and personal accomplishment. Furthermore, higher CR predicted lower child numeracy skills and socioemotional development over the school year. Implications for teacher professional development and improving educational quality are discussed.

Low-cost private schools are expanding across sub-Saharan Africa and are often perceived by parents to be of better quality than public schools. This article assesses the interplay between kinderga...

Governments around the world are increasing investments in early childhood education as a way to promote children's learning and development. As research grows on the longer-term effects of early educational programs, some have hypothesized that sustained impacts may depend on the quality of children's subsequent classroom environments and may be more likely to occur in certain nonacademic domains. This study is the first to examine these questions in sub-Saharan Africa, using longitudinal data from a school-randomized trial in Ghana. A 1-year teacher-training and coaching program, delivered with (TTPA) and without (TT) parental-awareness meetings, was implemented when children were enrolled in 1 of 2 grades of preprimary school. Previous studies showed that in Year 1, the implementation year, the TT treatment had positive impacts on children's literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional development, while the TTPA treatment yielded no positive impacts for children in both grades. In this study, I examine impacts in Year 3, at the end of children's 1st or 2nd year of primary school. I find persistent positive impacts of TT on literacy, and new negative impacts of TTPA on numeracy, but these depend on levels of classroom emotional support and teacher burnout in primary school. In addition, there were small persistent impacts of both treatments on children's executive function, and these were not conditional on subsequent classroom environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Young children’s access to early childhood education (ECE) is increasing in low- and middle-income countries, though often without attention to service quality. Monitoring quality requires classroom observations, but most observation tools available were developed in high-income Western countries. In this article, we examine key issues in measuring ECE quality in low- and middle-income countries and consider challenges and opportunities in balancing theoretical grounding, cultural- and contextual-adaptation, and empirical rigor. We then review the literature on observed classroom quality in low- and middle-income countries, focusing on process quality. We find limited evidence that the constructs identified in high-income countries replicate in low- and middle-income countries. Further, the very limited evidence that ECE quality measures used in low- and middle-income countries predict child outcomes is almost exclusively cross-sectional and associations are mixed. We conclude by discussing how future research can build a stronger knowledge base about ECE quality and child development globally.

Research on classroom peer effects has focused nearly exclusively on high-income countries and on academic skills. Little is known about peer effects in low-income countries and whether effects differ under different educational environments (e.g., teacher-directed versus child-centered, conditions of concentrated advantage or disadvantage). Based on a data set of Ghanaian preprimary classrooms in the Greater Accra Region collected in the 2015-2016 school year, we use complex system networks with multilevel modeling to study the presence and magnitude of peer effects. Results corroborated small statistically significant effects on academic and nonacademic skills (d = .06-.10). Peer effects on literacy were larger for children in public schools, who are relatively more disadvantaged than their private school counterparts. Teacher-directivity intensity did not moderate peer effects.

We used a cluster-randomized, wait-list controlled trial to examine impacts of a school-based social-emotional learning intervention on Congolese students and teachers. Seventy-six school c...

We examine how incidence and accumulation of two domains of risk factors—deprivation and threat of harm—predict early childhood development, testing a framework put forth by McLaughlin and Sheridan (2016). Using the ECLSK: 11 (N = 18,200, M = 5.6 years; 48.7% female), a nationally representative sample of kindergarteners, we consider behavioral and cognitive indicators that represent different learning processes. We find partial support for the hypothesis that deprivation (but not threat) risks predict higher-order learning outcomes, with both incidence and accumulation of risk negatively predicting reading scores but mixed associations for executive function outcomes. We find support that incidence of threat (but not deprivation) risks negatively predict emotional and behavioral outcomes as hypothesized. When modeled cumulatively, however, both deprivation and threat risks predict behavioral outcomes. Finally, in line with hypothesized processes, both deprivation and threat risks negatively predict math scores, which represent pattern-learning processes. Implications for research in childhood adversity are discussed.

Using a randomized-control trial, this study evaluates a program designed to support Ghanaian kindergarten student-teachers during pre-service training through mentorship and in-classroom training. Several potential barriers to improved teaching quality and learning outcomes are examined. Findings show that the program improved knowledge and implementation of the national curriculum for individuals both when they were student-teachers and, the following year, when they became newly qualified teachers (NQTs). There were mixed impacts on professional well-being, increasing personal accomplishment and motivation but decreasing job satisfaction for NQTs. There were mixed impacts on teaching quality, with increases in child-led learning but decreases in some other aspects of quality. There were no impacts on NQTs’ student learning outcomes. The findings highlight system level challenges with both the posting of NQTs and the absence of support in their first teaching year. Implications for global early childhood education policy and teacher education are discussed.

We assessed the impacts of a teacher professional development program for public and private kindergartens in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. We examined impacts on teacher professional well-bei...