Global Partnership for Education WP Series on Learning
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Publication
Literacy for All in 100 Days? A Research-based Strategy for Fast Progress in Low-income Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-05-30)In low-income countries many students are marginalized very early and remain illiterate. In grades 1-3 they attend rarely, though they may officially drop out in grade 4. Many others graduate from primary school without having learned letter values. The worrisome outcomes, despite much donor investment in low-income countries, have prompted scrutiny of the methods, and textbooks used to make students literate. This document offers insights from cognitive neuroscience and evidence suggesting that students can be taught basic literacy within the first semester of grade 1, if taught in consistently spelled languages. Teaching students at risk of dropout to read as early as possible enhances equity. However, the reading methods used in many countries are complex and hard for teachers to execute. They pertain to high-income countries and to certain western European languages. English but also French, Portuguese, and Dutch have complex spelling systems. English in particular requires three years of learning time. (French requires about two). Reading instruction for English is expensive and complex. Lists of whole words must be learned, vocabulary and early training in predictions are needed in order to make sense of words that cannot be sounded out. Learning must be started at kindergarten, parents must help at home, and many weaker students require remedial instruction. Since English is an official language in many countries, the travails of learning to read in this language have been considered the normal fate of reading. Overall, reading methods must be resilient to the vicissitudes of implementation. Many activities work well in higher-income countries or small pilots, but at scale-up they sink. Governments and donors should train up to existing capacity, rather than try to raise capacity to the requirements of complex methods. -
Publication
Raising Literacy from 20 Percent to 80 Percent? A Science-Based Strategy for GPE Partner Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-05-30)Governments and donors have been working hard to develop efficient learning programs and resolve the learning crisis. Scientific lessons have already been implemented in a few countries. Global Partnership for Education (GPE) gave technical advice to Cambodia and the Gambia on reading (also on math); the reading pilots resulted in very satisfactory outcomes and expressions of appreciation by governments. Not surprisingly, other GPE partner countries have directly requested technical advice. With sharp messages and close coordination, the current mountain of problems can be reduced to a molehill in five years. Basic reading can be taught efficiently and quickly, by the middle of grade one. If such an outcome seems unbelievable, it is only because reading is taught through models tailor-made for certain western European languages. Students are to learn basic reading in local languages within the first 100 days of grade one. At the same time, they will learn the official language orally. In grade two they will receive a bridging course to transition eventually to the formal language. The many older illiterate students are to be remediated through the same 100-day program ('literate school in 100 days') and similarly receive a bridging course to the official language. One issue that is often voiced by government officials is that language of instruction for early grade reading is desirable, but students should exit early and not spend years studying in a local language. Given the need for basic literacy, it is certainly possible to follow the policy option that government's desire. In higher-income countries, students get exposed to print before school, so they progress fast in automaticity and text interpretation. Commensurately, the poor are expected to progress quickly into meaning and content. The early learning failure in low income countries is due to missing 'low level' building-block skills. -
Publication
Developing Cross-Language Metrics for Reading Fluency Measurement: Some Issues and Options
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-07-10)Since 2005, over 70 oral reading fluency tests have been given in many languages and scripts, either as part of the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) or as individual one-minute tests. Particularly in multilingual countries, reading speed and comprehension measures have been taken in multiple languages and also in multiple scripts. The development of language has a significant genetic component, which tends to create common grammatical structures. Then languages must conform to information processing limitations, notably to working memory capacity. On the basis of such features, it may be possible to develop common standards for performance improvement compare findings cross linguistically. Languages are most comparable when large chunks are used rather than single words. To arrive at some comparisons, several methods may be tried. These include: a) counting actual words in connected texts or in lists, using some conventions if needed; b) using computational solutions to arrive at coefficients of certain languages vis a vis others, such as 1 Swahili word being equivalent roughly to 1.3 English words; c) using in multiple languages lists of words of a defined length, e.g. 4 letters; d) measuring phonemes or syllables per minute, possibly dividing by average word length; and e) rapid serial visual presentation, potentially also measuring perception at the letter feature level. Overall, reading rate as words per minute seems to be a valid and reliable indicator of achievement, with 45-60 words being a range that is usable as a benchmark. -
Publication
Teaching Mathematics Effectively to Primary Students in Developing Countries: Insights from Neuroscience and Psychology of Mathematics
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-12-30)This paper uses research from neuroscience and the psychology of mathematics to arrive at useful recommendations for teaching mathematics at primary level to poor students in developing countries. The enrollment rates of the poorer students have improved tremendously in the last decade. And the global Net Enrollment Ratio (NER) has improved since 2001 from 83.2 percent to 90-95 percent except in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Making teaching of math and other subjects efficient for the poor in developing countries is a great challenge, particularly in south Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Many developing countries have explored new means of teaching math and other subjects. Mongolia changed its mathematics education, aiming to build a new set of priorities and practices, given the abandonment of earlier traditions. Similar to international trends of the time, South Africa in the 1990s extensively applied the constructivist learning philosophy which relied on exploration and discovery, with little emphasis on memorization, drill, In conformity with a belief that teachers could develop their own learning programs, there was virtual absence of a national or provincial syllabus or textbooks. Students were expected to develop their own methods for arithmetic operations, but most found it impossible to progress on their own from counting to actual calculating. This study integrates pertinent research from neuroscience and the psychology of mathematics to arrive at recommendations for curricular and efficient means of mathematics instruction particularly for developing countries and poor students at primary level. Specifically, the latest research in neuroscience, cognitive science, and discussions of national benchmarks for primary school mathematics learning, form the basis of our recommendations. These recommendations have a reasonable chance of working in the situational contexts of developing countries, with their traditions and resources.