Children in an early childhood classroom at a school in Pakistan. Copyright Sadaf Shallwani. All rights reserved.
Earlier I posted about the ‘Investing in Mothers and Children’ international symposium held about ten days ago to mark the official launch of the inter-disciplinary Fraser Mustard Institute for Human Development at the University of Toronto.
I was fortunate to be able to present some of my research work from Pakistan at the poster session held at the conference. Below is the abstract for the poster I presented.
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Title: Effects of an early childhood intervention on classroom quality and child outcomes in Pakistan *
Author: Sadaf Shallwani, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Background: Early childhood intervention programmes around the world have been found to enhance children’s cognitive and social competencies in the short and long term (C. Kagitcibasi et al., 2009; K. Sylva et al., 2008). In Pakistan, however, only 43% of preschool children have access to preschool education (UNESCO, 2009). The Aga Khan Foundation implemented an intervention programme to improve access to quality early childhood care and education in Pakistan. This included improving learning environments and processes in preschool and early grade classrooms.
Objective: This research study examines the effects of the RCC intervention on classroom quality in preschool and Grade 1, and children’s learning achievement in Grade 1, at government schools in the province of Sindh.
Method: Stratified random sampling was used to select intervention schools. Comparison non-intervention schools were randomly sampled from the same districts. Research assistants gathered school-level information, observed classroom processes and environments, and assessed children’s early literacy and numeracy.
Results: Findings indicate that RCC classrooms demonstrated higher quality than non-RCC classrooms at both preschool and Grade 1 levels. Classroom quality was correlated with higher average literacy and numeracy scores in Grade 1.
Discussion and Conclusion: The RCC intervention seems to have had a substantial impact on preschool and early grade classroom quality and learning achievement at government schools in Pakistan. Teacher training seems to play a critical role in this process.
The poster is here (pdf).
Citation: Shallwani, S. (September, 2012). Effects of an early childhood intervention on classroom quality and child outcomes in Pakistan. Poster presented at the Connaught Global Challenge International Symposium (Investing in Mothers and Children: Developmental Trajectories, Health, Learning and Society), Toronto.
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Please drop me a line if you are interested in more details. Thanks for reading!
Sadaf Shallwani
* Note: This research study was funded and supported by the Aga Khan Foundation-Geneva, the Aga Khan Foundation-Pakistan, and the Royal Netherlands Embassy. Support was also provided by the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto).
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Sadaf Shallwani 
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Nice! Are you writing it up for publication?
Janet – thanks for the support! Yes I’d like to write it up for publication – hoping to do that on the side as I’m writing my thesis over the next few months..!
Look forward to reading more of your work as it comes out!
Thanks!