Leveraging AI for Transformative Education

Written by BEC member Team4Tech (Jody Britten, Head of Research and Innovation, Team4Tech, and Paul Atherton, Fab Inc.)

Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to emerge as a possible solution to many of our greatest education challenges. The community of thought leaders at Ai-for-Education.org are working to revolutionize how education can harness the power of AI in safe, sustainable, and supported ways. 

The vision for Ai-for-Education.org is to ensure equitable access to AI’s potential to improve learning—inclusive of all children and teachers, irrespective of their socioeconomic status. Traditional education systems often struggle to meet the diverse needs of students, resulting in unequal learning opportunities. We are collaborating to guide the development of AI educational tools in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and are investing in AI development, supporting innovations, and helping to facilitate necessary conversations to ensure that AI use and access does not create further inequity for educators and learners globally. 

AI for Education has engaged stakeholders through open facilitated discussions, making every effort to encourage open and accessible global conversations. To date, stakeholders have included educators, NGO leaders, policymakers, professional organizations, thought leaders, and EdTech and AI developers from the private sector. 

Drawing from our convening on AI & Assessments, our work has resulted in critical findings, including: 

1. When we talk with stakeholders about how AI can help plan and develop fair, valid, and valuable assessments for teachers, learners, and other stakeholders, there is clear evidence around three shared concerns. We can organize those concerns into three consistent focus areas: accuracy, transparency (or explainability), and scalability. 

a. Accuracy focuses on how well AI performs when predicting or classifying data and helping us draw conclusions about student learning. 

b. Transparency focuses on our ability to understand and interpret the decisions or predictions made by AI models so that we leverage human oversight without replicating human errors. 

c. Scalability is the ability of the AI system to efficiently expand its operations and adapt to the increased scope and complexities that come with growth. As such, we need to ensure that  AI tools are transferable, contextually and culturally appropriate, and equitable regarding associated data and training costs.

2. Stakeholders have identified technical challenges with using AI for marking, analyzing, and improving learning. While there was agreement that using AI for assessing and evaluating student work will free teachers from a time-consuming task, we need to think more about using freed-up time to improve the quality of learning. Stakeholders have also shared the potential for AI to support the analysis and understanding of assessment data on a larger scale (including multi-country or multi-context issues). The development of tools to support AI in assessment presents an opportunity to rethink typical modes of student assessment. Stakeholders also consistently identified the financial barriers to using AI, including data analysis and high infrastructure costs to operate AI assessment tools at scale. 

The potential is vast. We recognize the need to prioritize as a sector, directing our efforts into investing in the ideas and tools that hold the most promise. After diving deep into assessments, we stepped back and hosted a working group discussion on practical ideas of how AI can enhance education. Using AI tools for translation and personalized learning emerged as the top priorities for our community. Does this resonate with your experience and context? Building on the discussion, we have put out a long list of ideas on how AI can help with education. Please cast your vote at https://ai-for-education.org/use-cases/. 

We continue to share ongoing training opportunities and community discussions around the work of AI in Education with educators through the Team4Tech Global Community of Practice. Educators and nonprofit leaders working to serve learners in under-resourced communities are welcome to join the community and learn more about the resources we are generating to ignite the use of AI to support access to quality education. 

Integrating AI in education represents a paradigm shift in how we approach teaching and learning. By addressing education challenges, providing innovative solutions, contributing to the advancement of education, and enabling adaptability, AI can transform the educational landscape and unlock the full potential of every child. Through our work at AI-for-education.org, we are proud to be at the forefront of this transformative journey benefiting learners worldwide. We invite educators and innovators to get involved and help us create positive futures enhanced and empowered by AI. Are you interested in sharing your expertise? Join the conversation at https://ai-for-education.org/get-in-touch/.

Study Exchange Visits: Embracing an Impactful Opportunity

Written by Jackson Wu-Pong (Chemonics International)

Far too often, international development projects, caught in their own hustle and bustle, don’t commit the time and energy to engage with similar projects across the country, region, or world. Study Exchange Visits offer an engaging opportunity for development practitioners and policy makers to connect across similarities and differences. In short, Study Exchange Visits involve representatives from one development project spending strategic, intentional, and mutually informative time in another project’s context. Although the initial investments cannot be ignored, project leaders should not discount the benefits of increased intra-group collaboration, mutual learning, and improved development outcomes. These opportunities for progress are especially salient as Human Rights Day marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ proclamation, with Article 26 emphasizing education as a human right.

In both Georgia and Tajikistan, education system leaders are challenged to find the right balance between centralized authority and school autonomy. Compared to Tajikistan, where nearly all decisions and authority flow directly from the President’s office and the Ministry of Education and Sciences to less-autonomous schools, the Georgian system allows extensive autonomy at the school level with less standardization, monitoring, and supportive resources. Leaders from the USAID/Tajikistan Learn Together Activity (LTA) project along with representatives from Tajikistan’s Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) visited the USAID/Georgia Educating the Future Activity (EFA) project leadership and the Georgian Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) in a Study Exchange Visit.

LTA supports the Tajik MoES’ capacity to improve literacy and numeracy skills to impact primary (Grades 1-4) students' learning outcomes nationwide. The project is in full swing, with nationwide rollouts for teacher training, school leadership support, and educational television programs in 2023. EFA is in the early stages of implementation, supporting the Government of Georgia (GoG) in enhancing the quality of pre-service teacher education programs, building the capacity of school administrators, and strengthening school autonomy with a specific focus on Educational Resource Centers (ERCs).

The following points illustrate how any implementing partner can build mutual learning and support between projects. 

The Tajik Deputy Minister of Education and Science Abdulzoda presents a traditional Chakan embroidery to the principal of No. 2 Sagarejo Nugzar Chanturia Public School following a hospitable and informative school visit.

Photo Credit: Jackson Wu-Pong, Chemonics.

 Embracing Opportunity

Implementing partners with a sufficiently large portfolio have an opportunity to dynamically support their projects by building cross-project collaboration and learning. Study Exchange Visits are an excellent vehicle for fostering such international connections between government entities and project structures.

Further, Study Exchange Visits offer immense value in team building across silos. In this example, the Tajik delegation made frequent mention of how much each of their seven officials learned from spending a week together when, during normal business, they rarely have the opportunity to collaborate across Ministerial departments.

Making the Investment

Implementing partners looking to conduct a Study Exchange Visit should build the time and expense into their initial proposals, budgets, and annual work plans. Early planning engages stakeholders in the home office and partner country while preventing last-minute panic. For the Georgia trip, the LTA team wrote a Study Exchange Visit into their Year 3 Work Plan, received approval from USAID, and then coordinated between the Georgian and Tajik Ministries to finalize agendas, attendees, and logistics.

Pairing Similar Countries

The connected countries in a Study Exchange Visit should be similar in some way, be it historical, cultural, linguistic, religious, or otherwise. Both Georgia and Tajikistan are mountainous former Soviet Union countries sharing a commitment to continued educational development. Because of these similarities, the delegations could have fruitful conversations about educating hard-to-reach communities, ethnic and linguistic minorities, teacher retention, and shifting responsibilities to schools, among many other topics on which they differed. Without their similarities, the number of differences would be overwhelming and counterproductive.

Setting up Peer-to-Peer Connections

To encourage a productive and efficient Study Exchange Visit, organizers should identify parallel job functions between delegation members and build the visit around those pairs. This allows each of the pairs to “lead” one of the meetings and have a detailed and sophisticated connection. In one example from Tbilisi, the Tajik delegation’s representative from the Department of Higher Education took a more substantial role when meeting with the Georgian National Assessment and Examination Center, which coordinates university entrance exams, and at Ilia State University compared to meetings with the Georgian Education Resource Centers, which do not interact with higher education.

Emphasizing Learning and Teaching

Implementing partners looking to arrange a Study Exchange Visit should emphasize equity between the delegations. Both delegations repeated a principle of occupying both teaching and learning roles throughout the week. These roles were established at the initial planning stages and reflect the contextual similarities and common goals between the Georgia and Tajikistan education systems. This dual mindset pulled the delegations to an equitable playing field where both could benefit rather than assuming a hierarchy of knowledge, development, and ultimately power.

 Final Thoughts

There is no denying that the financial and time costs of planning and executing Study Exchange Visits can be substantial. However, Chemonics’ experience with the Tajik delegation in Georgia demonstrates their tremendous professional value. The Tajik delegation gained essential insight by connecting with their Georgian counterparts and each other. Educators and Ministry officials in Georgia had the opportunity to reflect on their own challenges while hearing about similar obstacles in Tajikistan. Further, project teams from both countries supported each other in their shared objectives around teacher professional development, improved student learning outcomes, and the pursuit of education as a human right — and look forward to more productive project implementation as a result.

Positive Caregiving: Helping Children to Experience Nurturing Care as their Right

By BEC members Alisa Phillips (World Vision), Viktorya Sargsyan (World Vision), Katelin Wilton (Save the Children), Julia McGeown (Humanity & Inclusion), and Susan Werner Orrin

It is the right of every young child to experience quality Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) from birth to 8 years of age[1]. Yet, according to UNICEF, pre -COVID pandemic data from 196 countries showed that ECCE enrollment for the population of children between age 3 and primary school entry was 54% globally, ranging from 21% in low-income countries to 79% (almost 4 times more) in high-income countries[2]. These income disparities between ECCE access in wealthier countries and the poorest countries also influences child development outcomes. Based on neuroscience we know that the learning and achievement gap can start as early as infancy and continue to widen throughout early childhood if not addressed. Factors such as access to quality early childhood education, nurturing care through positive caregiving, and exposure to stimulating environments play crucial roles in shaping a child's learning trajectory. Quality and inclusive ECE programs whose foundation addresses these factors can improve education, health, employment outcomes and reduce poverty[3].   

On this #WorldChildrensDay, we are reminded of the importance of nurturing care for all children as we are witnessing and continue responding to multiple crises (e.g. COVID-19, impacts of climate change) and conflicts directly impacting children across the Globe. This has created increased urgency and the need to invest in evidence-based quality, inclusive, and holistic early childhood development and early childhood education opportunities to provide “Nurturing Care” that supports the whole child.  When we refer to “Nurturing Care”, we refer to the 5 integral components including:

1. Good Health

2. Adequate Nutrition

3. Responsive Caregiving

4. Security and Safety

5. Opportunities for Early Learning

The focus of these programs is to support every child thriving throughout their childhood, in school and later in life. Investing in systems that support both private and public to uphold the right for children to experience nurturing care from caregivers early in life is one essential aspect of ECCE within the quality care package.

This #WorldChildrensDay we reaffirm the important role that caregivers play in children’s well-being and holistic development. We highlight three examples that emphasize positive caregiving principles and approaches and how these contribute towards whole child outcomes and ensuring children’s right to access quality early childhood care.     

Example 1: Save the Children Uganda’s Boost for the Youngest

This program integrates responsive caregiving and early learning into the Mother & Baby Areas (MBAs) which promote breastfeeding and good nutrition among pregnant and lactating women and caregivers of children under two years old.  As part of a project to operationalize nurturing care in humanitarian settings in Uganda, MBAs offer a warm and friendly space, with comfortable rocking chairs for breastfeeding mothers; soft, clean mats on the floor where they can rest; toys for the children to play with; and sympathetic staff. Linda (age 5, pictured here) is a member of the MBA intervention where she reports that she has learnt the alphabet, names of different things, counting from 1- 20 and is now speaking English at an early age. Her class performance has improved and she is very active in all class activities, which her family attributes to the time she spent around other children in the MBA when younger.

Example 2: World Vision’s Care and Comfort for Children (3c)[4]

3c was a study (quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group, post-test only) conducted in a humanitarian context to test an integrated positive parenting intervention aligned with the nurturing care framework to determine if different dosages of positive caregiving activities would benefit caregivers and young children in Rwanda’s refugee camps of Mugombwa, Kansi, and Kigeme and host communities compared to standard care. Using a socio-ecological approach and social and behavior change methods mainly through World Vision’s Go Baby Go model, the project deployed:

1. A high dosage (HD) package that included 12 group sessions and 4 home visits in 9 months and a radio program and delivery of SMS

2. A low dosage (LD) package that included 4 groups sessions and 2 home visits in 9 months and a radio program and delivery of SMS

3. A comparison area that received only the radio program 

WV together with Sesame Workshop implemented this social and behavior change project around the themes of sensitive and responsive caregiving; nurturing a holistic child development; play-based parenting; WASH social behavior change messaging, child growth (protection from infections, responsive feeding); positive discipline, creating safe home spaces, and protecting from violence; responding to children in crisis via responsive and loving care; father’s engagement; COVID-19; and caregiver self-care. 

While the study sought various areas of inquiry,  the main objective of the intervention was to strengthen family, caregiving and community environments for children 0-5. Some of the key research questions were:

• Will caregivers who receive intervention demonstrate improved caregiving practices for optimal ECD compared to caregivers who receive standard service (radio program only) as indexed by differences in (i) engagement with play activities (ii) quality of learning environment at home (iii) responsive feeding practices?

• Will there be a difference between the HD and LD intervention groups in caregiving practices?

World Vision assessed caregiver practices using the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) which included how household members over 15 years engaged children in the last 3 days. These members were asked about reading books, looking at pictures together, singing songs, telling stories, taking the child outside of the compound, playing with the child, naming, counting or drawing with the child.  They also administered a questionnaire related to responsive feeding practices and to assess the learning environment.  While they assessed child outcomes using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, there was only significant positive movement in the personal social domain among 25–48 month old children, which suggests that there is more we need to learn to create greater impacts for holistic child outcomes.  Related to improved caregiver practices the study pointed to several encouraging outcomes.   They saw a significant percentage of mothers engaged in either HD (211/67%) or LD (148/62%) showing engagement in early learning and stimulation compared to the control (66/37%). An interesting result was that findings for all play and stimulation items were significant. While NCF principles note the importance of positive caregiving by fathers, their engagement with young children is still a challenge. There was no difference in father engagement with play activities between the groups in any of the items. However, they saw significant outcomes with both HD and LD groups in responsive feeding. It was also encouraging to see that more children had homemade toys in the intervention groups than in the control group (90% HD, 88% LD and 60% control).  While they recognize that there were some limitations to the study, in 2 weeks World Vision is conducting a study that will target those children and their caregivers that were in the 3C project to assess the long term effect of parenting projects on outcomes such as child development, school readiness and school academic achievement.  They expect that this will further contribute to the evidence-base on holistic child outcomes in humanitarian contexts.  

Example 3: Humanity & Inclusion’s Democratic Republic of Congo Program

If caregivers can monitor their child’s development well, this can lead to earlier detection of any difficulties and consequently earlier intervention from services, which leads to better health and education outcomes in the long run.

Caregivers are best placed to observe how their child is developing, but they are often unaware of norms of child development. This leads to delays in seeking specialized help in assessing child development and consequent delays in the access to support for children with developmental delays.

Humanity & Inclusion (HI) implements early childhood development and education projects in countries as diverse as Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, and Jordan. Despite the differences in context, in all these countries a strong importance is given to supporting parents so that they understand more about child development.

For example, in DRC (as shown in this photograph), HI works with community workers who either organize community awareness sessions in key community spaces or one-to-one sessions at home.

Community sessions tackle topics such as child development milestones and how parents can support child development by promoting early learning activities (e.g. creating no-cost early learning materials using recycled materials). The sessions also have a holistic focus, including health and nutrition messages, how to give positive and responsive care, as well as educating parents about “red flags” for which they should seek specialized help and where to do so.

Home visits share the same knowledge and awareness messages but also focus on specific messages based on the individual family’s needs. Therefore, if children are deemed at risk of having developmental delays, or are living in vulnerable households, home visits are the preferred option. This allows for individual care and attention that is so important to caregivers, to allow them to truly promote early childhood development. 

This is just one small aspect of the work HI carries out in ECD and early education. In other projects, HI also supports local services too — for example, to ensure that developmental screenings and assessments are implemented following a family centered approach.

In summary, the Boost for the Youngest program (Save the Children), the Care and Comfort for Children program (World Vision), and Humanity & Inclusion’s work in the DRC offer opportunities for us to celebrate and find hope on this #WorldChildrensDay that integrated positive caregiving programs can improve behaviors for caregivers in humanitarian contexts where children are the most vulnerable to strengthen their resiliency and fulfill their right to experience nurturing care.

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[1] UNESCO Tashkent Declaration  

[2] McCoy et al., 2021

[3] Tashkent Declaration

[4] Sargsyan, V., Tenorio, A., Uwera, M., Gasirikare, A., Habyarimana, J.A., Salcido, J.S., Felner, C., Rasheed, M.A., (2023). The benefits of nurturing care interventions on early child development and care: findings from a quasi-experimental study in a humanitarian setting. BMC Pediatrics.