Community Learning Circles: Promoting Positive Development

Community Learning Circles

Promoting Positive Development for Early Primary Children in Bangladesh

Marilou Hyson, Kamal Hossain, and Didarul Anam Chowdhury

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t’s a hot, humid Wednesday afternoon in the Bangladeshi village where 8-year-old Rani, a first-grader, lives with her parents and three sisters. Rani and her friends have been out of school since midday. Most days, Rani spends the long afternoon hours sitting and talking with her friends, walking around her village, keeping an eye Marilou Hyson, PhD, is a U.S.-based early childhood development and education consultant who works on early childhood issues in the United States and internationally. The former associate executive director for professional development at NAEYC, Marilou provides technical assistance to Save the Children’s PROTEEVA project in Bangladesh. [email protected] Kamal Hossain, MSc, MEd, has been the program director of Save the Children’s USAID-funded SUCCEED project and currently serves as program director for PROTEEVA. khossain@ savechildren.org Didarul Anam Chowdhury, MEd, MD, is the deputy project director for PROTEEVA. He was primarily responsible for designing and overseeing implementation of Community Learning Circles in SUCCEED and now in PROTEEVA. [email protected] Photos © Didarul Anam Chowdhury. Illustration © Susan L. Roth. This article is available in an online archive at www.naeyc.org/ yc/pastissues.

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on her younger sister, and doing a few chores. While she is waiting for her parents to return from working in the rice fields, she sometimes watches television at a neighbor’s house or at a shop in the market. To understand what’s missing from Rani’s experiences— and what may enrich them—we should briefly step back from Rani’s village to view the larger context.

Children and primary education in Bangladesh One of the poorest and most densely populated countries in the world, Bangladesh has faced many challenges during its almost 40-year history as an independent nation. Yet the country has recently made substantial progress in improving young children’s survival and protection. It now provides health care, nutrition, immunization, and education services, including expanded access to primary education. The government’s Comprehensive Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Policy Framework (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Ministry of Women’s and Children’s Affairs 2009) aims to promote better outcomes

Reprinted from Young Children • November 2010

for children birth to age 8, as defined in Bangladesh’s new Early Learning and Development Standards. These policy initiatives, however, have not substantially improved the lives of Rani and other children in her village (USAID 2007; UNICEF 2009; UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2009). Like most Bangladeshi children, Rani did not attend preschool or kindergarten—few such programs exist, and certainly not in poor communities such as Rani’s village. When Rani reached age 6 (the standard, legal age for school entry), her parents, like more than onequarter of all families in Bangladesh, chose not to enroll her because they continued to need her help at home. At age 8 Rani is finally attending school. Despite the fact that she is a lively, inquisitive child, it is difficult for her to acquire the foundations for school success. Not having had early care and education has already placed Rani and her friends significantly behind those Bangladeshi children whose parents knew about and could afford preschool or kindergarten (pre-primary) classes. Rani also experiences limited instructional time. Like 90 percent of the primary schools in Bangladesh, Rani’s school is on double shifts. Her school day lasts no longer than two-and-one-half hours, which is among the lowest number of student-teacher contact hours in the world. And during those hours, Rani does not receive high-quality instruction. Rani’s school, like many others, often has vacant teaching positions, and so it hires inexperienced, underqualified (almost one-quarter have no training at all), and often unmotivated teachers. Teaching methods are didactic and emphasize memorization rather than critical and creative thinking. In part because of typically late school entry and poor teaching practices, only 55 percent of all children in Bangladesh reach grade 5 (UNICEF 2009). Those who do finish primary school are poorly educated: only half of primary school graduates meet minimum national competencies. According to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2009), a recent internal report from Bangladesh’s Department of Primary Education found that almost 70 percent of fifth grade graduates were unable to read newspaper headlines The CLC goal was to in Bangla, the use 6- to 8-year-olds’ valunational language, and 87 percent able out-of-school time in could not do joyful and challenging ways, simple mathematical involving them in interactive calculations.

learning games and other activities to develop their cognitive, language, and social skills. Reprinted from Young Children • November 2010

Save the Children’s Community Learning Circles There is no simple solution to Bangladesh’s primary education crisis. However, in 2005 Save the Children began implementing an innovative way to fill some of the gaps— Community Learning Circles (CLCs). In developing its comprehensive program Early Learning for School Success (SUCCEED), funded by USAID (United States Agency for International Development), Save the Children aimed to reduce the learning and developmental risks for young children in Bangladesh (Aboud, Hossain, & O’Gara 2008). As one part of its approach, SUCCEED created informal, village-based after-school programs. The CLC goal was to use 6- to 8-year-olds’ valuable out-of-school time in joyful and challenging ways, involving them in interactive learning games and other activities to develop their cognitive, language, and social skills.

The benefits of afterschool programs Most research on so-called out-of-school time programs has been conducted in the United States (Vandell, Shumow, & Posner 2005; National Institute on Outof-School Time 2006; Hall & Gruber 2007; Little 2007; Vandell, Reisner, & Pierce 2007; Afterschool Alliance 2009; Stonehill et al. 2009). Although cultural differences must be taken into account, the results of the research suggest that U.S. children who participate in after-school programs are likely to experience many benefits: • Higher test scores and grades • Improved skills in specific academic areas, such as literacy and mathematics • Improved school attendance and engagement in learning • Greater likelihood of staying in school • Less grade repetition • Fewer behavior problems • Enhanced personal and social skills • Improved self-esteem The research also indicates that the benefits are likely to be greatest for children most at risk because of poverty and other difficulties—in other words, children like those in Rani’s village. Equally important, high-quality afterschool programs produce the greatest benefits. 13

What and why: An overview of Community Learning Circles Three afternoons a week, Community Learning Circles bring together groups of 6- to 8-year-old children to play games. These games strengthen children’s competence in core primary school subjects while at the same time building skills in logical reasoning, critical thinking, and peer interaction.

Getting started. The villages selected for possible establishment of CLCs had recently begun Save the Children/ SUCCEED preschools (too late for children Rani’s age group), but the idea of having after-school programs for early primary children was new. To get the CLCs under way, Save the Children needed the community members to buy in to the idea. Project team members held discussions with primary school teachers, imams (leaders in local mosques), and other community stakeholders. Meetings in village courtyards brought together children and families to learn about CLCs. When community members learned that the activities would help their children succeed in school, they strongly supported the CLC concept. Each village selected two volunteer facilitators to lead its CLC, usually teenage girls

or young When community members adults learned that the activities who could develop would help their children a “big sister” succeed in school, they relationship with the chilstrongly supported the dren. The facilitaCommunity Learning tors participated in a two-day orientation Circle concept. and training intended to help them learn how to use the games and materials with the children. Most CLCs met in a courtyard, outbuilding, or field near the village. Property owners were usually very willing to let the children use their space three afternoons a week once they understood the purpose of the CLCs.

CLC games and other materials. The learning games used during the CLC sessions were developed by one of Save the Children’s regional partners. Sets of materials were organized into tool kits. A tool kit might include, for example, memory games, geometry puzzles, books, activity cards, musical instruments, yarn, dice, and jump ropes. Materials intentionally reflected Bangladeshi culture, and some traditional games already familiar to the children were included. Every few months during the school year, the CLCs each received a new tool kit containing games similar to those in the previous kit but with greater variety and challenge. In all, more than 1,800 Community Learning Circles received the materials from 2005 to 2009 (Mizan 2009).

A typical afternoon in a CLC: Rani’s experience What difference might a Community Learning Circle make in a village like Rani’s? Because the village has a Community Learning Circle three afternoons a week and her parents agreed that she could attend, Rani now has something

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different, more interesting, and more valuable to do in the Finally, one of the facilitators calls the whole CLC group afternoons (in contrast to the way she used to spend the together for a concluding discussion: What games did the hours after school). children play today? What new things did they learn or what On this Wednesday, Rani walks from her home to a did they practice? What do the children think they might gathering place in the shade of a tree. A colorful banner like to play the next time the CLC meets? After a good-bye announces that this is a CLC day. As Rani arrives, she meets song, Rani runs home to tell her family about her afternoon. several of her friends, who are also CLC participants. She greets the two teenage CLC facilitators and joins the other children, who are already playing with a few games that have been set out on a mat as they wait for others to arrive. When everyone has gathered, a facilitator rings a bell, greets the group, and shows the children which games they may play on this day. With the facilitators’ help, the chilActive Kids Pyramid poster and tablets dren pair up or form small groups, depending on the game they choose. Although Rani and her friends are eager to get started, a few children seem reluctant, and a facilitator helps them find partners to play with. Rani starts by playing a board game with her friends Nilima and Usha. They take turns rolling dice and moving their game pieces through a “forest,” counting off the steps on the path. Each time they land their game piece, they must name and describe the tree, plant, animal, or bird pictured at that spot on the board. The Laminated, 24” x 18” poster game supports multiple competenItem #4130 • Members: $12.00 20% savings cies in oral language, vocabulary, • Non-members: $15.00 mathematics, and in knowledge of the natural environment. Handout tablets, 11” x8½”, 50 sheets per tablet After playing the forest game, Rani Item #4131 • Members: $8.00 20% savings joins her friend Dalia to play a favor • Non-members: $10.00 ite fishing game. The cardboard fish used in this game have letters on one side and numbers on the other, so there are many variations for playing. Up Down and All Around (DVD) With a facilitator’s encouragement, today Rani and Dalia use the game Through movement games, activities, and lessons to practice addition. For example, this DVD brings movement and exercise into the Rani says to Dalia, “Can you fish for classroom for all children ages 2 and up. Produced by Leaping Legs. 43 min. 9?” Dalia then uses the fishing pole Item #8031 • Members: $16.00 20% savings • Non-members: $20.00 and magnet to “hook” any combination of fish whose numbers add up to 9—a 1 and an 8; a 2, a 3, and a 4; and so on. After playing that game for TOLL FREE: 800-424-2460 a while, the girls join a larger group in the adjoining field where children ORDER ONLINE: w w w.naeyc.org/store are playing a traditional Bangladeshi game similar to hopscotch.

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They noticed how interested the children were in these kinds of activities—and that their learning was improving. Although most primary schools in Bangladesh use didactic teaching methods, upon seeing the value of this “playful learning,” many teachers asked how they might use similar activities in class. In response, Save the Children began aligning the CLC activities more explicitly with the government’s primary school learning standards/competencies and provided more than 450 primary schools with CLC games and other materials.

Looking to the future: Lessons learned

The impact of CLCs so far: Children, parents, and teachers

USAID has recently funded Save the Children for another five years of early childhood work in Bangladesh. The new PROTEEVA project builds on, expands, and applies the lessons learned from SUCCEED, including those learned from CLCs. These lessons will influence the design of PROTEEVA’s after-school component. Additionally, these insights may help others who want to use community-based after-school programs to improve outcomes for children at risk.

What are the effects of experiences like these? Now that the USAID-funded SUCCEED project has concluded, and as the new USAID-funded project PROTEEVA (Promoting Talent through Early Education) gets under way, Save the Children has been reflecting on this question. There has not Lesson 1: Simplify and streamline after-school proyet been a thorough evaluation of the Community Learning gramming for sustainable implementation. As mentioned Circles independent of other interventions that were part of earlier, the CLCs were only one of a number of SUCCEED the overall SUCCEED program. However, participating chilprograms for primary grade children, all going on within dren appear to benefit in many ways. Akther and colleagues the same communities. Sometimes communities had dif(2007) found that, as compared with children who did not ficulty juggling the different programs. Many communities attend CLCs, CLC participants showed somewhat better seemed unsure about how they could implement such school performance in math and literacy. Other benefits of programs when project funding ended (Mizan 2009). For participating in CLCs have been observed and documented. this reason, from the very beginning of the PROTEEVA For example, community facilitators and project officers project, Save the Children will help other communities noted that children are keenly interested in the CLC learnplan strategies that can sustain these activities over time. ing games—more so than in other available games the Save the Children will also revise the CLC games and other children might play. materials, including guides for the volunteer facilitators Additionally, parents have a better understanding of their and community leaders, to make sure that the guides are as children’s learning potential, having observed their chilclear, simple, and self-explanatory as possible. dren happily engrossed in activities that are both creative and mentally challenging. Because most CLCs meet out Lesson 2: Ensure that after-school facilitators have doors in the heart of the village, parents and others in the the capacity to implement the program effectively. An community can see their children’s involvement firsthand; action research report on the CLCs (Akther et al. 2007) in fact, many parents have wanted to involve their other notes that only a few of the young volunteers understood children, even if they were older or younger than the the learning goals and concepts (such as mathematitarget age. Parents living near the CLC venue cal principles) behind the various CLC games. have contributed to the CLC’s operaPerhaps for this reason, they often tion by taking care of the CLC tool changed how the games were played kits between sessions. in ways that reduced their educaParents have a better under Teachers in the early pritional benefits. mary grades also have been The authors of the report standing of their children’s learning influenced by the CLCs. believe that the differences potential, having observed their children Many became aware of in academic skills between the games the children participants in CLCs and happily engrossed in activities that are were playing in the children who did not both creative and mentally challenging. after-school program. attend a CLC might have

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been even greater if the CLC volunteer facilitators had consistently implemented the activities as they were intended. The problem was especially acute with the youngest children (grade 1), who could have used more facilitator scaffolding to help them play the games as they were designed. Because the facilitators are volunteers, and because the budget for CLC training in PROTEEVA will continue to be limited, a greater investment in training and supervision is unlikely. The best options for helping the facilitators grasp the learning goals and concepts behind the games are to revise current training programs to address the problems identified in SUCCEED’s CLC program and to make the facilitator guides/directions even more explicit and user-friendly.

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Lesson 3: Strengthen links between in-school and out-of-school learning. At first, the games used in the CLCs were simply intended to develop basic literacy, math, and reasoning skills in a playful, social way without necessarily aligning with the government’s primary school competencies. The children Opportunities to strengthen what children were learning in school were who have partitherefore not fully realized. cipated in CLCs As the project evolved over time, the Save the Children team bring new enthuchose the CLC games and other siasm for learning materials to more closely match competencies in grades 1 and 2 into the classroom; (Akther et al. 2007) and thereby teachers become strengthen what children were learning in school. As more convinced that first and second grade teachers children do learn learned about the CLCs and the activities, they not only asked for through playful such materials but also created a interactions. demand for support in using them in their classrooms—they asked that the CLC games be more closely connected with their textbooks and the lessons in the curriculum, and they asked for additional training. According to Mizan (2009), some teachers who tried to use CLC games and learning strategies in the classroom simply used the guidebooks developed for the CLC volunteer facilitators. Other teachers participated in professional development workshops in which they learned to further modify the materials to meet the needs of the early primary curriculum. However, a recent survey (Mizan 2009) suggests that many teachers still do not see the materials as a potential support for children’s mastery of academic competencies or as an alternative to didactic methods. Rather, although these teachers may use the materials, they view the games simply as enjoyable extracurricular activities. Based on this feedback, the PROTEEVA project will give curriculum alignment even more attention and will communicate that alignment to large numbers of early primary Reprinted from Young Children • November 2010

teachers. An array of professional development workshops will also be offered to schools to expand teachers’ capacity to implement child-friendly, interactive learning across multiple curriculum areas.

Beyond Bangladesh The approach used in Save the Children’s Community Learning Circles is consistent with recent recommendations about practices to foster in out-of-school time programs (Moore, Brome-Tinkow, & Collins 2010) and may hold promise for other settings that serve early primary grade children. Clearly, it would be better if the school days were longer, the curriculum more developmentally appropriate, and the teaching methods more engaging. Such reforms are priorities in Bangladesh and elsewhere but will take time to achieve. In the meantime, Bangladesh’s CLCs have contributed to children’s well-being by extending the hours available for learning beyond those spent in the classroom and by using those hours for playful, engaging, challenging learning activities. When a community implements such a program, ripples spread out beyond the place where children spend a few afternoons a week. The children who have participated in CLCs bring new enthusiasm for learning into the classroom; teachers become convinced that children do learn through playful interactions; families see their children’s abilities in new ways; adolescent facilitators grow in status and confidence in their ability to support younger children’s learn17

ing; and community members take pride in a program they helped to develop. With adaptations to different cultures and contexts, Community Learning Circles can contribute to efforts by educators and other out-of-school time advocates to improve outcomes for children in the early primary grades.

References Aboud, F.E., K. Hossain, & C. O’Gara. 2008. The SUCCEED project: Challenging early school failure in Bangladesh. Research in Comparative & International Education 3: 294–305. Afterschool Alliance. 2009. Afterschool programs: Making a difference in America’s communities by improving academic achievement, keeping kids safe and helping working families. Fact Sheet. Washington, DC: Author. www.afterschoolalliance.org/After_out.cfm Akther, N., H. Afroj, D. Roy, & A. Roy. 2007. Report of the action research on the effectiveness of toy and game materials (CLC), September. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Save the Children–USA. Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Ministry of Women’s and Children’s Affairs (Working Group). 2009. Comprehensive Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) policy framework. Final Draft. Dhaka, Bangladesh. www.ecd-bangladesh.net/PDF%20files/ Comprehensive%20ECCD%20Policy%20Framework...DRAFT.pdf Hall, G., & D. Gruber. 2007. Making the case: Quality afterschool programs matter. Wellesley, MA: Wellesley College, Wellesley Centers for Women, National Institute on Out-of-School Time. www.niost.org/pdf/ MSC_brief_Hall_Gruber.pdf Little, P.M. 2007. The quality of school-age child care in after-school settings. Research-to-Policy Connections, No. 7. New York: National Center for Children in Poverty, Child Care and Early Education Research Connections. www.nccp.org/publications/pdf/text_739.pdf

Mizan, A.N. 2009. Perceptions of teachers on the impact of using CLC games and materials: A new technique of teaching. Report prepared for Save the Children–USA. Moore, K.A., J. Brome-Tinkow, & A. Collins. 2010. Practices to foster in out-of-school-time programs. Research-to-Results Brief. Washington, DC: Child Trends. www.childtrends.org/files/Child_Trends2010_01_28_RB_Practices2Foster.pdf National Institute on Out-of-School Time. 2006. Making the case: A fact sheet on children and youth in out-of-school time. Wellesley, MA: Author. www.niost.org Stonehill, R.M., P.M. Little, S.M. Ross, L. Neergaard, L. Harrison, J. Ford, S. Deich, E. Morgan, & J. Donner. 2009. Enhancing school reform through expanded learning. Naperville, IL: Learning Point Associates. http://staging.learningpt.org/pdfs/EnhancingSchoolReformthrough ExpandedLearning.pdf UNICEF. 2009. Quality primary education in Bangladesh. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Author. www.unicef.org/bangladesh/Quality_Primary_Education %281%29.pdf UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 2009. Bangladesh: Report blasts primary education. Dhaka, Bangladesh: IRIN Humanitarian News and Analysis. USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development). 2007. Current conditions: Education. www.usaid.gov/bd/programs/education.html Vandell, D.L., E.R. Reisner, & K.M. Pierce. 2007. Outcomes linked to highquality afterschool programs: Longitudinal findings from the Study of Promising Afterschool Programs. Report to the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. www.policystudies.com/studies/youth/Promising%20 Programs%20FINAL.pdf Vandell, D.L., L. Shumow, & J. Posner. 2005. After-school programs for low-income children: Differences in program quality. In Organized activities as contexts of development: Extracurricular activities, after school and community programs, eds. J.L. Mahoney, R.W. Larson, & J.S. Eccles, 437–56. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

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