Phone tutoring boosts math scores when schools are forced to close

Mahana Basu (0:04)

Nature Podcast In a experiment, I really don't know yet, why it's black so far.

Benjamin Thompson (0:08)

Like, it sounds so simple.

Nick Howe (0:09)

They had no idea.

Dhruv Shunai (0:10)

But now the data's...

SPEAKER_5 (0:12)

I find this not only refreshing, but at some level astounding.

Benjamin Thompson (0:24)

Welcome back to The Nature Podcast. This week, how phone calls could improve math skills during school closures, and why the world map might be in for an update. I'm Benjamin Thompson.

During times of emergency or disaster, children's education can suffer, especially during periods of prolonged school closure, for example. This week, a team of researchers have been looking at a potentially cost-effective way to try and mitigate the impacts to young people's education. And they've got a Thanks...

Mahana Basu (1:06)

for watching.

Benjamin Thompson (1:06)

I'll see you next week. On the story is Mahana Basu, who joins me now. Mahana, thank you so much for being here.

Mahana Basu (1:12)

Thanks a lot for having me.

Benjamin Thompson (1:13)

So let's start by talking about the background to this work, because researchers have been looking at ways to help students with their schooling during times like this for a while.

Mahana Basu (1:22)

That's right. So one of the things that often happens in situations of emergency is that non-governmental groups, even district level school administrations, they try out different kinds of interventions to make sure that they're still reaching out to the children, still continuing their education. But what is missing is a coordinated effort to see what really works. And by that, I mean, is something that is being implemented in one district or one country, applicable or really showing results across different settings.

So that is what the researchers here have tried to do.

Benjamin Thompson (2:08)

So in this instance, they came up with an intervention and tested it in a lot of different places, then to try and find evidence as to its efficacy. Tell me about the setup. What was it looking to do? And how did this differ maybe from other experiments?

Mahana Basu (2:21)

So in this case, the setup is a randomized control trial, kind of similar to how you would plan or design a study for a new medicine or a new vaccine. It's often rare to find these kind of studies in the education setting because different countries have different setups and everyone tries to do something good for the children, but there's little rigor to actually collect data that can be applicable across settings. So that's what they have done here.

And in this study, the idea was to reach out to the students once their schools had closed. So the study period is the time when different countries were in the middle of the COVID pandemic, or the schools were shutting down for long periods of time. So the idea was to reach these students in a simple, accessible way with the technology that was there in every kind of household, even in low-resource settings. So not smartphones, not desktops or laptops or internet connections. So they went for the very basic mobile phones where you just basically can receive a call. That's all you need.

Benjamin Thompson (3:35)

And so in some instances, then teachers would reach out to students on this mobile phone while the schools were closed.

Mahana Basu (3:42)

Right, yes. So what they did was they took all the students and divided that into three groups, where one group basically was the control group. They did not get any intervention. The second group received SMS messages, text messages with very simple math problems or nudges to actually finish this math problem that they got.

And then there was a third group that would receive SMS as well as a phone call from their tutor. And in that phone call, the tutor will assess the student's ability to solve basic math problems and see whether they are actually ready to move on to the next level, whether they understood what had been taught. And for each student, that journey would be different. So over a series of these phone calls, the teacher got a chance to understand where the student was at, and then tailor the tutoring in a way that was beneficial for each student.

Benjamin Thompson (4:47)

OK. And this was tested in a randomized control trial, as you say, in different countries.

Mahana Basu (4:53)

So the trials were conducted in India, Kenya, Nepal, the Philippines and Uganda between 2020 to 2022

And most of the children were in grades 3 to 5, except in Kenya, the trial included children in grades 1 and 2 So more or less, these are all primary level children who are learning the very basics of mathematical skills.