3MPower Evidence Café 1: Report

Hedges, Claire; Power, Tom; Haider, Arosa Tahsin; Shifat, Nazmuzzaman; Kawser, Masud; Galib, Sabir Hasan; Fahad, Sameul Hoque; Munira, Sirajam and Parvin, Tauhida (2022). 3MPower Evidence Café 1: Report. The Open University, Milton Keynes.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.000152ae

Abstract

3MPower will generate evidence on technology use for Teacher Professional Development (TPD) in low- and middle-income countries, with a particular focus on children’s foundation numeracy skills in schools serving marginalised, low-income, rural communities.

3Mpower will study the use of numeracy TPD courses on Muktopaath - a government-led e-Learning platform used by over 400,000 teachers in Bangladesh - to answer the question “How are primary numeracy teachers using mobile learning for teacher development in rural schools and in what ways does this change learning and teaching?”

3MPower will generate evidence about the validity of every step linking teachers’ use of mobile learning to improved student learning outcomes, through at-scale mixed methods research. 3MPower includes four process evaluation studies and two quasi-experimental impact evaluation studies with 240 teachers and 3,600 learners. Qualitative methods include Participatory Ethnographic Evaluation Research (PEER) exploring rural teachers’ experiences of accessing CPD with technology and the practical application CPD to teaching and learning.

Throughout the research, 3MPower will engage a broad range of national stakeholders including government policymakers, policy implementers, teacher educators, rural education officers, and rural teachers. Stakeholders will participate in an iterative series of knowledge exchange activities, beginning with co-design and continuing throughout, through a series of Evidence Cafes. to make sense of the emerging evidence, refine the research approach, and identify implications and recommendations for policy and practice.

3MPower findings will address significant gaps in global evidence on the use of technology for teacher development in marginalised schools, the role of communities of practice, and the impacts at-scale on teaching quality and learning outcomes.