2017 ICT4D Conference

The best ICT solutions start with a question. At CRS Iraq, we asked ourselves: “How can we ensure that conflict affected children access quality education and child centred pedagogy during their displacement?” The solution? Data! In order to design effective teacher trainings, the project team wanted to understand gaps in knowledge and skills as well as attitudinal barriers of teachers. The project team also needed data post-training to measure teacher knowledge retention and behaviour change for evidence-based reporting. To meet these data needs, the education team designed a tool that would transform the classrooms they were working so hard to improve. The teacher coaching tool — a tablet based tool designed to support project staff conducting classroom observations — enabled the education team to have real-time data on teacher performance. The tool also displayed tips and key messages for project staff to share with teachers during their after class coaching session based on the results of the classroom observation. This allowed teacher coaching to be more targeted and, therefore, more effective. While collecting data is important, it is not enough to ensure that it is effectively used to improve programming. To facilitate easy and meaningful access to this data, the teacher coaching tool was linked to an online dashboard of carefully designed charts and tables. The dashboard also included key user filters that allowed decision makers to engage with, and analyse the data in a meaningful way. (see dashboard at - http://bit.ly/classRoomobservation). By employing our user centred approach to data, project staff were able to design targeted trainings, reinforce child centred pedagogy and empower teachers through effective coaching. The result? Conflict affected children are accessing quality education in their transformed classrooms.