Remedial Programming and Skill-Targeted SEL in Low-Income and Crisis-Affected Contexts: Experimental Evidence From Niger

Brown, Lindsay; Kim, Ha Yeon; Dolan, Carly Tubbs; Brown, Autumn; Sklar, Jennifer; Aber, J. Lawrence

doi:10.1080/19345747.2022.2139785

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Therefore, an addition of ten more activities per month (approximately two more activities per 5-day school week) would associate with a 2% increase in monthly attendance rate (0.10 increase in standard deviation), on top of an average rate of 80.7%. While exploratory, this result provides a promising strategy to increase attendance in humanitarian settings where student attendance fluctuates greatly ( Brown et al, 2019 ). Further studies are needed to examine whether it was increased engagement in the classroom, improved SEL skills, or other factors that explained the relationship between implementing a certain amount of activities and increased attendance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite their potential to buffer Sierra Leonean children from their social and emotional challenges, SEL programming was not introduced to the country’s education system until very recently ( Boisvert, 2017 ). Among the efforts to introduce SEL to such humanitarian settings, the IRC, in collaboration with the Ecological Approaches to Social Emotional Learning (EASEL) Lab at Harvard University and Global TIES for Children at New York University (NYU), developed and adapted several brief and skill-targeted SEL activities in Sierra Leone and other countries such as Niger and Lebanon ( Brown et al, 2019 , 2022 ; Dolan et al, 2021 ). In 2017–2018, the IRC implemented an SEL-infused academic program called Learn Safe in Bo in 20 primary schools in two chiefdoms (Baoma and Niawa Lenge) in Bo Town, Bo district, the second-largest city in Sierra Leone with a population of over 200,000, which was severely affected by the Ebola pandemic in 2014–2015.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Measuring the dosage of brief and skill-targeted social-emotional learning (SEL) activities in humanitarian settings

Brown

Kim

et al. 2023

Front. Psychol.

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IntroductionIn humanitarian settings, social-emotional learning (SEL) programs for children are often delivered using a field-feasible approach where the programs are more easily deployable and adaptable in the field, require minimal training, and depend less on the strict sequence and structure of the program components to elicit the intended treatment effect. However, evidence is lacking on what aspects of this implementation approach enable the SEL programming to be more beneficial to children’s SEL development.MethodIn this study, we propose and evaluate measures for three dimensions of dosage (quantity, duration, and temporal pattern) of two sets of brief and skill-targeted SEL activities (Mindfulness and Brain Games) implemented in 20 primary schools in two low-income chiefdoms of Sierra Leone.ResultsWe find preliminary evidence of predictive validity that these dosage measures could predict children’s attendance and classroom adaptive behavior.DiscussionThis study is the first to develop procedures to measure the dimensions of dosage of brief SEL activities in humanitarian settings. Our findings illuminate the need for future research on optimizing the dosage and implementation design of SEL programming using brief SEL activities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring the dosage of brief and skill-targeted social-emotional learning (SEL) activities in humanitarian settings

Brown

Kim

et al. 2023

Front. Psychol.

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“…The emerging evidence from the few rigorous evaluation studies of SEL programming in educational settings with refugee children or children affected by crises in non-WEIRD contexts has shown small to no impacts on the targeted SEL skills (Deitz et al, 2021). For example, there have now been three large-scale cluster-randomized controlled trials of Learning in a Healing Classroom for children in conflict-affected regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo; for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon; and for displaced and local children in Niger (L. Brown et al, in press; Torrente et al, 2019; Tubbs Dolan et al, 2021).…”

Section: Sel Programming In Humanitarian Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the impact of a skill-targeted social and emotional learning curriculum and its variation by pre- and postmigration conflict experiences: A cluster randomized trial with Syrian refugee children in Lebanon.

Kim¹,

Brown²,

Dolan³

et al. 2023

Journal of Educational Psychology

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Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs are increasingly embraced by the global humanitarian sector as a potential strategy for supporting refugee children's psychosocial adaptation and learning. However, little evidence is available on the effectiveness of such SEL programs in humanitarian settings. Even less is known about whether such SEL programs can be equally effective, more beneficial, or even harmful, for children who were exposed to higher levels of conflict, in the context of war and/or postmigration settings. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a universal, multicomponent, skill-targeted SEL curriculum embedded in nonformal remedial education programming, the Five-Component SEL (5CSEL), for improving 20 proximal and distal outcomes. The large-scale cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted in 57 community sites (170 classrooms) in Lebanon with 4,289 Syrian refugee children (Mage = 9.16, SD = 2.34; 50% female). It examined both the impact of 5CSEL and the impact variation by children's level of exposure to war violence, family conflict, and school victimization. The findings do not provide conclusive evidence of the effectiveness of 5CSEL. However, we find promising signs of impacts in a number of the outcomes (effect sizes = 0.06–0.18 SD), suggesting the malleability of refugee children's SEL skills across multiple domains when given sufficient, targeted, and comprehensive support. Finally, we find little evidence of variation in impact by the level of exposure to conflict experiences, supporting the arguments for the benefits of universal SEL programming. These results provide promising directions for practitioner communities to invest in further development and revision of the SEL program contents and strategies.

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“…It had no impact on children’s mental health problems or experiences of peer victimization (Torrente et al, 2015). When delivered via teachers as part of an after-school academic remedial program in a conflict-affected region of Niger, 22 weeks of access to HCT improved children’s French literacy and math skills compared to access to public school alone (Brown et al, 2023).…”

Section: Sel In Remedial Programmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Contexts of crisis and conflict where refugee students reside are often marked by a highly mobile population, household economic stressors, and unpredictable security threats (Human Rights Watch, 2016). Such factors can limit student attendance, ultimately decreasing the dosage of programming that students receive (Brown et al, 2023;Brudevold-Newman et al, 2023). Unstable contexts may, therefore, require unique implementation considerations-such as a longer duration of programming-in order to achieve impacts comparable to stable contexts.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating Program Enhancement Strategies for Remedial Tutoring: A Cluster-Randomized Control Trial With Syrian Refugee Students in Lebanon

Brown,

Gjicali,

Kim

et al. 2023

AERA Open

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Despite widespread enthusiasm for remedial education programming with refugee populations, there is little rigorous evidence on how to design and implement such programs. We employ a cluster-randomized design of non-equivalent treatment groups to test the impact of access to two types of program enhancement: longer program duration and the addition of skill-targeted social and emotional learning (SEL) activities for Syrian refugees enrolled in Lebanese public schools. We find that, compared to 10 weeks of programming, 26 weeks marginally increases students’ literacy skills (ES = 0.04) and significantly improves behavioral regulation (ES = 0.31), but students reported less positive perceptions of their public school environment (ES= −0.83 to −0.89) and remedial tutoring site (ES= −0.15 to −0.24). We also find that the addition of skill-targeted SEL activities to 26 weeks of programming results in higher student reports of school-related stress compared to programming without skill-targeted activities (ES = 0.21). Implications for program and policy are discussed.

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Remedial Programming and Skill-Targeted SEL in Low-Income and Crisis-Affected Contexts: Experimental Evidence From Niger

Cited by 5 publications

References 43 publications

Measuring the dosage of brief and skill-targeted social-emotional learning (SEL) activities in humanitarian settings

Measuring the dosage of brief and skill-targeted social-emotional learning (SEL) activities in humanitarian settings

Testing the impact of a skill-targeted social and emotional learning curriculum and its variation by pre- and postmigration conflict experiences: A cluster randomized trial with Syrian refugee children in Lebanon.

Evaluating Program Enhancement Strategies for Remedial Tutoring: A Cluster-Randomized Control Trial With Syrian Refugee Students in Lebanon

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