Overview and initial findings Improving young children's learning in economically developing countries: A scoping review Overview and initial findings

Scoping reviews – exploratory systematic research describe the nature and extent of research in a broad area identify gaps and directions for future research serve as translational research, showing how findings can be applied to improve policies, practices and outcomes provide a basis for systematic reviews or meta-analyses RIGOUR Systematic Review SCOPING REVIEW Literature Review

Rationale Early learning (starting from birth) has lasting effects on lifelong learning Economically developing countries are investing more in early learning Research can guide investment in fit-for-purpose interventions REVIEW QUESTION What effective interventions have been implemented recently in economically developing countries to improve children’s learning in the years before school?

Research process 319 ERIC 131 PsycINFO 247 SCOPUS 21 A+ Educ. 26 Grey lit. 42 Secondary* 786 unique references The most common reason for excluding studies (n=59) was because there were no measures of the impact of the intervention on children’s learning. All abstracts reviewed by two reviewers 222 studies selected for inclusion* Categorisation of studies 121 studies in categories of interest* To focus at system level, we excluded studies focused on a specific pedagogy, or a specific cohort of children. Full-text data extraction

Number of studies Argentina 2 Colombia 3 Mexico 7 Senegal 1 Bangladesh 10 1 7 5 6 3 9 1 1 Image: Wikimedia Commons 2008 1 Number of studies Argentina 2 Colombia 3 Mexico 7 Senegal 1 Bangladesh 10 Columbia Mozambique Solomon Islands Bolivia Costa Rica Nepal South Africa Botswana Ecuador Nicaragua Turkey 9 Brazil Ethiopia 5 Pakistan Uganda Cambodia India 6 Paraguay Uruguay Chile Indonesia Peru Vietnam China Jamaica Philippines Zambia * Excludes studies in multiple countries

Categories of included studies From Rao, Sun, Chen and Ip’s 2017 effectiveness review Category Description n Child-focused Intervention provides a program for children 36 Parent-focused Intervention provides training and support to parents 37 Comprehensive Intervention involves wider community participation 4 Income Intervention primarily provides income support to families 8 Two additional categories were important for our review Category Description n Quality Intervention involves enhancing the quality of a program 21 Comparative Study compares two or more interventions 5

“Fitness-for-purpose” What problems did the interventions aim to address?

Preschool/ECEC: From access to equality and quality Some interventions addressed access to preschool/ECEC (n=11) More studies were concerned with inequalities in access (n=17) Many studies identified the quality of preschool/ECEC programs as a concern (n=17), especially in countries where ECEC is being “scaled up”

Children ready to learn: Overcoming the effects of disadvantage Interventions often responded to the effects of poverty on early learning (n=17), especially (but not only) cash transfer programs Many interventions responded to the effects of health issues on early learning (n=14), especially programs for very young children

Home environments for learning: Addressing family resources and attitudes Several interventions responded to concern about the quality of the home learning environment for young children (n=8) Others identified the need to improve parent-child interactions (n=6) Only a few considered cultural practices that affect early learning (n=4)

A framework for ECD interventions

Questions? jennifer.jackson@acer.org