In What Ways Does Technology-enhanced Teacher Professional Development Change Learning Outcomes in Numeracy, in Marginalised Rural Schools in Bangladesh? A Coarsened Exact Matching Study

Abstract

This paper addresses gaps in the international evidence base on the impacts of technology-enhanced Teacher Professional Development (TPD). In particular, it addresses the ways in which teachers’ participation in technology-enhanced TPD changes learning outcomes, in the contexts of marginalised rural schools. Examples of such evidence, arising from large scale studies and conducted by researchers from the global south, are rare. The paper also contributes to the small but growing evidence base on foundation numeracy skills in rural schools in Bangladesh, with a particular focus on marginalised geographic areas such as the Chittagong Hill Tracts and Hoar wetlands. The research focusses upon changes in teaching and learning associated with Anonde Ghonit Shikhi (AGS, let’s make learning math fun), one of the most popular TPD courses on Muktopaath, the national Bangla-language eLearning platform.

We present findings from a large-scale systematic study of foundation numeracy skills among primary school children, mostly aged 7-11. Over two hundred teachers and two thousand learners from ten marginalised rural upazilas participated in the study. Half of the teachers were ‘ongoing users’ of AGS who were continuing to put the programme into practice in their teaching. Other teachers were matched 1:1 to ongoing users, through Coarsened Exact Matching. A random sample of learners from both sets of teachers were assessed by independent enumerators, using the formative assessment protocol from the foundation literacy and numeracy hub.

The findings show that the blended approach to TPD in Bangladesh has had some impact on learning outcomes in marginalised rural schools. But they raise questions – what can be done to bring about greater changes in foundation numeracy skills in more schools. 

Teacher’s World: Journal of Education and Research, 51(1), 79-104