820
Views
10
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Intervention, Evaluation, and Policy Studies

Improving Primary Education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: End-Line Results of a Cluster-Randomized Wait-List Controlled Trial of Learning in a Healing Classroom

, , , , , , , , & show all
Pages 413-447 | Received 07 May 2017, Accepted 17 Dec 2018, Published online: 10 May 2019

References

  • Aber, L., Brown, J. L., Jones, S. M., Berg, J., & Torrente, C. (2011). School-based strategies to prevent violence, trauma, and psychopathology: The challenges of going to scale. Development and Psychopathology, 23(02), 411–421. doi:10.1017/S0954579411000149
  • Aber, J. L., Tubbs, C., Torrente, C., Halpin, P. F., Johnston, B., Starkey, L., … Wolf, S. (2016). Promoting children's learning and development in conflict-affected countries: Testing change process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Development and Psychopathology, 29, 1–15. doi:10.1017/S0954579416001139
  • Aber, J. L., Torrente, C., Starkey, L., Johnston, B., Seidman, E., Halpin, P. F., … Wolf, S. (2016). Impacts after one year of “Healing Classroom” on children's reading and math skills in DRC: Results from a cluster randomized trial. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 10(3), 1–23. doi:10.1080/19345747.2016.1236160
  • Ager, A., Akesson, B., Stark, L., Flouri, E., Okot, B., McCollister, F., & Boothby, N. (2011). The impact of the school‐based Psychosocial Structured Activities (PSSA) program on conflict‐affected children in northern Uganda. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52(11), 1124–1133. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02407.x
  • Aguilar, P., & Retamal, G. (2009). Protective environments and quality education in humanitarian contexts. International Journal of Educational Development, 29(1), 3–16. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2008.02.002
  • Barenbaum, J., Ruchkin, V., & Schwab‐Stone, M. (2004). The psychosocial aspects of children exposed to war: Practice and policy initiatives. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45(1), 41–62. doi:10.1046/j.0021-9630.2003.00304.x
  • Barry, M. M., Clarke, A. M., Jenkins, R., & Patel, V. (2013). A systematic review of the effectiveness of mental health promotion interventions for young people in low and middle income countries. BMC Public Health, 13(1), 835. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-13-835
  • Bashir, S. (2004). Democratic Republic of Congo: Country status report on education, priorities and options for regenerating the education sector. World Bank Report, 1, 1–168. (30860-ZR). Retrieved from World Bank website: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/816721468258280534/pdf/308600ZR.pdf
  • Beleli, O., Chang, V., Feigelson, M. J., Kopel-Bailey, J. A., Maak, S. A., Mnookin, J. P., … Tafoya, S. N. (2007). Education in emergencies and early reconstruction: UNICEF interventions in Colombia, Liberia, and Southern Sudan. Online submission to the School of Public and International Affairs, New Jersey, USA: Princeton.
  • Bennell, P., & Akyeampong, K. (2007). Teacher motivation in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia: London, UK: Department for International Development (DfID).
  • Blair, C., & Razza, R. P. (2007). Relating effortful control, executive function, and false belief understanding to emerging math and literacy ability in kindergarten. Child Development, 78(2), 647–663. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01019.x
  • Blank, R. K., & De Las Alas, N. (2009). The effects of teacher professional development on gains in student achievement: How meta analysis provides scientific evidence useful to education leaders. Washington, DC: Council of Chief State School Officers.
  • Blankemeyer, M., Flannery, D. J., & Vazsonyi, A. T. (2002). The role of aggression and social competence in children's perceptions of the child-teacher relationship. Psychology in the Schools, 39(3), 293–304. doi:10.1002/pits.10008
  • Brown, J. L., Jones, S. M., LaRusso, M. D., & Aber, J. L. (2010). Improving classroom quality: Teacher influences and experimental impacts of the 4Rs program. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(1), 153–167. doi:10.1037/a0018160
  • Burde, D., Guven, O., Kelcey, J., Lahmann, H., & Al-Abbadi, K. (2015). What Works to Promote Children's Educational Access, Quality of Learning, and Wellbeing in Crisis-Affected Contexts. Education Rigorous Literature Review. Department for International Development.
  • Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students' social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82(1), 405–432. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01564.x
  • Emerson, A., Deyo, L., Shoaib, M., & Ahmed, J. (2010). Teacher peer learning groups: Contributing factors to cluster sustainability. Journal of Education for International Development, 4(3), 1–16.
  • Evans, D. K., & Popova, A. (2015). What Really Works to Improve Learning in Developing Countries? An Analysis of Divergent Findings in Systematic Reviews (Policy Research Working Paper No. 7203). Washington, DC: World Bank.
  • Frazier, J. R. (2009). A case study of a pilot teacher study group in Senegal (Unpublished dissertation). Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK.
  • Frisoli, P. S. J. (2013). Teachers’ experiences of professional development in (post) crisis Katanga Province, southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo: A case study of teacher learning circles (Doctoral Dissertations. 82). University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusets, USA.
  • Godfrey, E. B., Osher, D., Williams, L. D., Wolf, S., Berg, J. K., Torrente, C., … Aber, J. L. (2012). Cross-national measurement of school learning environments: Creating indicators for evaluating UNICEF's Child Friendly Schools Initiative. Children and Youth Services Review, 34(3), 546–557. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2011.10.015
  • Goodman, R. (1997). The strengths and difficulties questionnaire: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, disciplines, 38(5), 581–586. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.1997.tb01545.x
  • Gove, A., & Wetterberg, A. (Eds.). (2011). The Early Grade Reading Assessment: Applications and Interventions to Improve Basic Literacy (pp. 1–37). Research Triangle Park, NC, USA: RTI Press.
  • Gross, J. J. (2007). Handbook of emotion regulation. New York, NY: Guilford Publications.
  • Halpin, P. F. (2015). Assessing child outcomes: EGRA, impact evaluations, and factor scoring. Scoring teacher observations using multilevel latent class analysis. Paper presented at the World Bank (SIEF) Educational Outcomes Measurement Workshop, Washington, DC.
  • Higher Institute for Population Sciences. (2013). National survey on the situation of out-of-school children and adolescents: Democratic Republic of Congo. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso: Higher Institute for Population Sciences.
  • Jordans, M. J., Komproe, I. H., Tol, W. A., Kohrt, B. A., Luitel, N. P., Macy, R. D., & De Jong, J. T. (2010). Evaluation of a classroom‐based psychosocial intervention in conflict‐affected Nepal: A cluster randomized controlled trial. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 51(7), 818–826. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02209.x
  • Jordans, M. J., Tol, W., & Komproe, I. (2011). Mental health interventions for children in adversity: Pilot-testing a research strategy for treatment selection in low-income settings. Social Science and Medicine, 73(3), 456–466. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.06.004
  • Jordans, M. J., Tol, W. A., Komproe, I. H., & De Jong, J. V. (2009). Systematic review of evidence and treatment approaches: Psychosocial and mental health care for children in war. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 14(1), 2–14. doi:10.1111/j.1475-3588.2008.00515.x
  • Jukes, M. C., Turner, E. L., Dubeck, M. M., Halliday, K. E., Inyega, H. N., Wolf, S., … Brooker, S. J. (2017). Improving literacy instruction in Kenya through teacher professional development and text messages support: A cluster randomized trial. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 10(3), 449–481. doi:10.1080/19345747.2016.1221487
  • Kirk, J., & Winthrop, R. (2007). Promoting quality education in refugee contexts: Supporting teacher development in Northern Ethiopia. International Review of Education, 53(5–6), 715–723. doi:10.1007/s11159-007-9061-0
  • Lange-Nielsen, I. I., Kolltveit, S., Thabet, A. A. M., Dyregrov, A., Pallesen, S., Johnsen, T. B., & Laberg, J. C. (2012). Short-term effects of a writing intervention among adolescents in Gaza. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 17(5), 403–422. doi:10.1080/15325024.2011.650128
  • Larmer, M., Laudati, A., & Clark, J. F. (2013). Neither war nor peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): Profiting and coping amid violence and disorder. Review of African Political Economy, 40(135), 1. doi:10.1080/03056244.2013.762165
  • Lucas, A. M., McEwan, P. J., Ngware, M., & Oketch, M. (2014). Improving early‐grade literacy in East Africa: Experimental evidence from Kenya and Uganda. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 33(4), 950–976. doi:10.1002/pam.21782
  • Maslach, C., Jackson, S., & Leiter, M. P. (1996). Maslach Burnout Inventory (3rd ed.). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
  • McEwan, P. J. (2015). Improving learning in primary schools of developing countries: A meta-analysis of randomized experiments. Review of Educational Research, 85(3), 353–394. doi:10.3102/0034654314553127
  • Mels, C., Derluyn, I., Broekaert, E., & Rosseel, Y. (2009). Screening for traumatic exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms in adolescents in the war-affected eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 163(6), 525–530. doi:10.1001/archpediatrics.2009.56
  • Miller, K. E., & Rasmussen, A. (2010). War exposure, daily stressors, and mental health in conflict and post-conflict settings: Bridging the divide between trauma-focused and psychosocial frameworks. Social Science and Medicine, 70(1), 7–16. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.09.029
  • Murnane, R. J., & Ganimian, A. (2014). Improving educational outcomes in developing countries: Lessons from rigorous evaluations. NBER Working Paper No. 20284. Retrieved from the National Bureau of Economic Research website: http://www.nber.org/papers/w20284
  • Murphy, J. M., Guzmán, J., McCarthy, A. E., Squicciarini, A. M., George, M., Canenguez, K. M., … Smoller, J. W. (2015). Mental health predicts better academic outcomes: A longitudinal study of elementary school students in Chile. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 46(2), 245–256. doi:10.1007/s10578-014-0464-4
  • Orpinas, P., & Frankowski, R. (2001). The Aggression Scale: A self-report measure of aggressive behavior for young adolescents. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 21(1), 50–67. doi:10.1177/0272431601021001003
  • Osher, D., Kelly, D. L., Tolani-Brown, N., Shors, L., & Chen, C.-S. (2009). UNICEF child friendly schools programming: Global evaluation final report. Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research.
  • Piper, B., & Korda, M. (2011). EGRA Plus: Liberia. Program evaluation report. Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI International.
  • Piper, B., Zuilkowski, S. S., & Mugenda, A. (2014). Improving reading outcomes in Kenya: First-year effects of the PRIMR Initiative. International Journal of Educational Development, 37, 11–21. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2014.02.006
  • Piper, B., & Zuilkowski, S. S. (2015). Teacher coaching in Kenya: Examining instructional support in public and nonformal schools. Teaching and Teacher Education, 47, 173–183. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2015.01.001
  • Qouta, S. R., Palosaari, E., Diab, M., & Punamäki, R. L. (2012). Intervention effectiveness among war‐affected children: A cluster randomized controlled trial on improving mental health. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 25(3), 288–298. doi:10.1002/jts.21707
  • Reubens, A. (2009). Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA): A conceptual framework based on mathematics skills development in children. Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI International.
  • Seidman, E. (2012). An emerging action science of social settings. American Journal of Community Psychology, 50(1–2), 1–16. doi:10.1007/s10464-011-9469-3
  • Shonkoff, J. P., Garner, A. S., Siegel, B. S., Dobbins, M. I., Earls, M. F., Garner, A. S., … Wood, D. L. (2012). The lifelong effects of early childhood adversity and toxic stress. Pediatrics, 129(1), e232–e246. doi:10.1542/peds.2011-2663
  • Skinner, E. A., Kindermann, T. A., & Furrer, C. J. (2009). A motivational perspective on engagement and disaffection. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 69(3), 493–525. doi:10.1177/0013164408323233
  • Spybrook, J., Bloom, H. S., Congdon, R., Hill, C. R., Liu, X., Martinez, A., & Raudenbush, S. W. (2005, 2011). Optimal design plus empirical evidence (Version 3.01) [Computer software]. Retrieved from http://wtgrantfoundation.org
  • Spybrook, J., & Raudenbush, S. W. (2009). An examination of the precision and technical accuracy of the first wave of group-randomized trials funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 31(3), 298–318. doi:10.3102/0162373709339524
  • Starkey, L., Aber, J., & Crossman, A. M. (2018). Risk or resource: Does school climate moderate the influence of community violence on children’s social-emotional development in the Democratic Republic of Congo? Developmental Science. Manuscript submitted for publication.
  • Taylor, R. D., Oberle, E., Durlak, J. A., & Weissberg, R. P. (2017). Promoting positive youth development through school-based social and emotional learning interventions: A meta-analysis of follow-up effects. Child Development, 88(4), 1156–1171. doi:10.1111/cdev.12864
  • Torrente, C., Johnston, B., Starkey, L., Seidman, E., Shivshanker, A., Weisenhorn, N., … Aber, J. L. (2015). Improving the quality of school interactions and student well-being: Impacts of one year of a school-based program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Journal of Education in Emergencies, 1(1), 48. doi:10.17609/N8NH2N
  • UNESCO. (2015). Unesco Institute for Statistics. Online database: UIS.STAT. Retrieved from http://data.uis.unesco.org/Index.aspx.
  • United Nations. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld
  • Westbrook, J., Durrani, N., Brown, R., Orr, D., Pryor, J., Boddy, J., & Salvi, F. (2013). Pedagogy, curriculum, teaching practices and teacher education in developing countries. Final report. Retrieved from the Department for International Development website: https://www.gov.uk/dfid-research-outputs
  • Winthrop, R., & Kirk, J. (2008). Learning for a bright future: Schooling, armed conflict, and children’s well‐being. Comparative Education Review, 52(4), 639–661. doi:10.1086/591301
  • Wolf, S., Torrente, C., Frisoli, P., Weisenhorn, N., Shivshanker, A., Annan, J., & Aber, J. L. (2015). Preliminary impacts of the “Learning to Read in a Healing Classroom” intervention on teacher well-being in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Teaching and Teacher Education, 52, 24–36. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2015.08.002

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.