COVID-19-induced school closures generated great interest in tutoring as a strategy to make up for lost learning time. Tutoring is backed by a rigorous body of research, but it is unclear whether it can be delivered effectively remotely. We study the effect of teacher-student phone call interventions in Kenya when schools were closed. Schools…

Background: Information and communication technology (ICT) reading interventions can help children with reading difficulties, especially those in resource-constrained environments who otherwise might not have support. Objectives: (1) Provide an overview of ICT reading interventions used globally with primary school children. (2) Provide further…

This study investigated how a school-based professional development programme, designed by the Headteacher and staff of a Kenyan primary school, and delivered by a Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) team, supported teacher learning and growth. The TESSA team observed teaching in the classroom before the implementation of the…

Many children living in linguistically diverse low- and middle-income countries learn to read and write in multiple languages. Recent research provides implications for effective reading instruction with multilingual learners (e.g., Hall et al. in New Dir Child Adolesc Dev 166:145-189, 2019). However, there is limited empirical evidence on…

There has been a growing concern in Kenya that boys have gradually been left out of the gender equation with little research capturing their schooling experiences. When examined, boys' underachievement is treated with suspicion that has led to few studies demonstrating their marginalisation. This paper explored the manifestations of boys'…

This paper explores factors to increase the likelihood that the implementation of ABRACADABRA, a technology-based approach to teaching and learning literacy, endures and expands beyond the initial research. Started as a pilot study in 12 classrooms, the implementation spread to more than 500 primary classrooms over six years in five areas of…

This paper explains sustained effects and what worked for students in the Advancing Learning Outcomes and Transformational (ALOT Change III) program. Data comes from qualitative narratives from the baseline survey of the program collected by the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) between December 4, 2019, and January 31, 2020,…

The research examined school leaders' opinions, attitudes, and performative actions toward teacher absenteeism. Existing research has primarily focused on interventions implemented by the Teachers' Service Commission to curb teacher absenteeism, and yet since leaders are the main agents and their actions are context bound, their actual actions and…

We evaluated a program to improve literacy instruction on the Kenyan coast using training workshops, semiscripted lesson plans, and weekly text-message support for teachers to understand its impact on students' literacy outcomes and on the classroom practices leading to those outcomes. The evaluation ran from the beginning of Grade 1 to the end of…

Identification process is an important element of behavior disorder management in schools. For proper behavior management teachers need to identify learners with behavioral disorders in order to design intervention programs befitting their educational needs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze the intervention strategies teachers…

There is a dearth of literature that use research design for causal inference that estimate the effect of information and communications technology (ICT) programs on literacy outcomes in early primary, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are several programs that have used ICT at a large scale, including Los Angeles, Peru, Nicaragua, Rwanda…

If children do not learn how to read in the first few years of primary school, they will struggle to complete the cycle, and are at greater risk of dropping out. It is therefore crucial to identify and test interventions that have the potential of making a large impact, can be implemented quickly, and are affordable to be taken to scale. This is…

This paper provides a critical appraisal of the influence of examinations oriented approaches on quality education in primary schools in Kenya. The purpose of the study was to determine effects of examination oriented teaching approaches on learning achievement among primary school pupils in Kakamega County, Kenya. It explored the assumptions…

School-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) is one of the worst manifestations of gender discrimination and violates a wide range of children's rights. Education is critical in empowering and transforming the lives of young people, especially girls, yet widespread gender-based violence (GBV) in and around schools seriously undermines the…

The linguistic interdependence hypothesis (Cummins, 1979, 2000) states that children's second-language (L2) proficiency is, to some extent, a function of their first-language (L1) competence. Previous studies have examined this hypothesis with focus on a unidirectional relation from L1 to L2. In the present study, we examined…