We’re delighted today to publish the first findings from our longitudinal study. This has been completed by Ichuli, an independent research organisation headquartered in Uganda, and was commissioned by STiR Education to understand longitudinal trends and impacts from our programme over four years in eastern Uganda and two states in India. The study’s objective is to test our five-year change hypothesis to understand how STIR’s approach focused on strengthening intrinsic motivation contributes to sustained improvements in the foundations of lifelong learning among education officials, teachers, and students.
The findings from Year 1 of the study are presented in this report to provide a lens of the progress made by Year 2 of STiR’s intervention in Uganda. Results present linkages and outcomes between the data collected across three levels of stakeholders in the education system – students, teachers and headteachers, and education officials. Findings are organised by the key measurement areas STiR uses to evaluate behaviour change: intrinsic motivation, engagement, safety, self-esteem, curiosity and critical thinking, and learning time and intentional teaching.
You can download the report in full here.
The headline findings of the report are as follows:
- Positively, teachers, head teachers and education officials report high levels of intrinsic motivation and satisfaction with their participation in the STiR programme. However, these self-reported attitudes are contradicted by high rates of absenteeism from work and at least 20% of overall daily time spent on tasks unrelated to teaching and learning.
- Independent observations of STiR’s programme activities indicate they are high-quality and well received by stakeholders, who actively engage in institutes, reflection and network meetings, and demonstrate significant levels of autonomy, mastery and purpose in their delivery of these activities. These findings were corroborated by teachers, head teachers and education officials who reported appreciating and readily participating in STiR activities to grow their skills and capacities.
- Students report liking school and are observed actively and readily engaging in classroom activities. This positively links to the observed actions of teachers in the classroom, notably regarding student praise and the equal engagement of boys and girls in lesson activities.
- Routine observations of teachers and head teachers by education officials is positively related to reports of head teachers frequently observing their own teachers, and teachers reporting that they are regularly observed by their superiors. Direct, corresponding connections across this chain of stakeholders is a positive sign that observation processes are streamlined under the programme and highly prioritised by education actors.
- Teachers and head teachers reported receiving useful feedback from observations. However, teachers, head teachers and education officials admitted that the coaching provided during feedback sessions was primarily positive and focused on offering praise, rather than constructive advice to improve instructional practice. Despite this, teachers and head teachers reported that they are inspired by receiving praise and recognition from their superiors and consider it a critical driver of their intrinsic motivation.
- Teachers overwhelmingly reported applying the instructional methods introduced by STiR and trying them in their classrooms, which aligns with observations of student engagement during lessons and teacher use of LIC themes in class. Teachers accurately described how they apply methods related to creating a positive learning environment, using learning aids, providing praise, checking for understanding and spacing practice to engage their learners. However, they were not as adept at correctly explaining how they promote a growth mind-set in their students, use effective and elaborative questioning techniques, or integrate retrieval practice in their lessons.
- Teachers reported that they are regularly observed by their peers and that feedback from these visits helps them to improve their practice. Unlike the coaching and feedback provided by head teachers and education officials, which is primarily focused on praise, peer-to-peer learning within the programme appears to be highly appreciated by teachers and provides a stronger basis for constructive support.
- Teacher time on task in the classroom is high and devoted to relevant, subject-related teaching and learning activities. But, most class activities are teacher-led and primarily involve whole group work. This corresponds to observed limitations in teachers’ ability to develop the critical and creative thinking abilities of their students during lessons, despite their demonstrated ability to deliver relevant content and information through lecture-based learning techniques.
- Teachers self-reported and were observed being welcoming and friendly towards students and calling on them by name. This corresponds to students reporting liking school and feeling safe in their academic environment. But, conversely, both teachers and students reported that corporal punishment is a common method of discipline, indicating a disconnect between purported feelings of safety at school and normalised physical punishment practices.
- Students reported high levels of determination and grit related to their academic learning. This is connected to observations of teachers encouraging students to set goals, providing them with corrective and specific feedback during lessons, acknowledging their efforts, and having a positive attitude towards helping students address their learning challenges.
Rein Terwindt, Director of Monitoring, Evaluation and Research at STiR, said: “We’re so grateful to everyone at Ichuli for all of their work in producing this study. The detailed analysis and depth of insights are incredibly helpful in improving our work with the Ministry of Education and Sports in Uganda. We’re now looking forward to the first findings from the study in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in India, which we hope to publish before the end of 2020.”