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In this article, we present the perspectives on learning through play (LtP) of children (3–12 years) in three research sites (Bangladesh, Colombia, and Uganda). Conceptualizations across the three research sites and ages were similar: (1) children associated learning with play if the activity was fun and social; and (2) distinctions between play and learning were defined by content, modality, materials, and location. Children in the study viewed teachers as initiators/instructors/decision-makers but not co-players  By moving teachers from a primarily teacher-directed approach to more guided-play approaches, we are not only asking teachers to give up some control but are also asking children to think about adults in fundamentally different ways. In developing LtP programs, we often consider the varying roles of an adult and assume that children want to and know how to take over the increased agency. However, our research highlights that we may need to couple professional development for teachers with approaches that support children to change their perceptions of agency and choice in the classroom.

Applying the Science of Learning to Teacher Professional Development and Back Again: Lessons from 3 Country Contexts (2024), Trends in Neuroscience and Education

Jennifer M. Zosh, Angela Pyle, Nikhit D'Sa*, Carina Omoeva, Sue Robson, Martin Ariapa, Mauro Giacomazzi, Gopal Dey, Eduardo Escallón, Carolina Maldonado-Carreño, Kazi Ferdous Pavel, Rafael Contreras Gomez, Brian Dooley, Eleanor Newsome

Evidence from the science of learning suggests that playful learning pedagogical approaches exist along a spectrum and can support student learning. Leveraging active engagement, iterative, socially interactive, meaningful, and joyful interactions with content also supports student learning. Translating these concepts into guidance and support for teachers is lacking. We introduce a tool designed to support teachers in implementing across the facilitation spectrum and leverage the characteristics that help children learn. Across three international contexts, we engaged with 1207 teachers, and the tool was used 4911 times. Student age, the intended learning goal, and context influenced teachers’ use of the tool, suggesting that contextualization is critical, even when basing programs on evidence-based, universal principles given by the science of learning. Science of learning research must be effectively translated but we must use evidence from teachers and real-life classrooms to inform those studying the science of learning.

The Effects of Adding Social-Emotional Learning to a Comprehensive Education Intervention in El Salvador on Teacher Well-being: a Mixed Methods Evaluation (2024), Educational Research and Evaluation, Volume 29

Fernanda Soares* and Nina Cunha

Recently, the interest and support for projects that promote teachers’ social and emotional competencies (SEC) and well-being is increasing world-wide, partly as a result of the growing recognition of the importance of teacher’s SEC and well-being to effective classroom management and positive classroom climate. This article employs a mixed-method approach to assess the effects of the El Salvadorian Integrated Systems of Full-Time Inclusive Schools (SI-EITP), which offers in-service teacher professional development (TPD) combined with a socioemotional learning intervention, on teacher well-being. Findings from the cluster-randomized controlled trial with no baseline show null results for most teacher well-being outcomes analyzed. Interviews suggest limited effects on teachers’ mindfulness and emotion regulation and indicate that teachers’ participation in TPD was potentially increasing their stress levels and emotion exhaustion. We recommend that TPD program designs consider how the delivery mode and intensity may influence teachers’ stress.

Explaining Variation in Treatment Effects: An Impact Evaluation and Mixed-Methods Study of Variation in Early Grade Reading Program Effects (2024), Comparative Education Review, Volume 67

TJ D’Agostino, Danice Brown Guzmán, Paul Perrin, Anasthasie Liberiste-Osirus, and Kate Schuenke-Lucien*

This article contributes to understanding the effectiveness of early grade reading interventions in low-income-country contexts and how and why such interventions vary in their effectiveness across schools. It presents the results from an impact evaluation of an early grade reading intervention in Haiti with a mixed-methods analysis of factors that explain variation in program effects. We study program impact using a randomized controlled trial experimental research design and find significant treatment impact on students’ literacy skills, including on students’ reading comprehension in Creole. We use a mixed-methods design to explore variation in program effects across school sites. Key factors that explain variation in program effects include the frequency of instructional coaching visits; the dosage and uptake of treatment, which was linked to student and teacher absenteeism and the exclusive use of the treatment curriculum; the behaviors of school leaders; the fluency and quality of lesson delivery; and the remoteness of schools.

Teacher RePlay and Children ReAct: pilot testing a formative toolkit to support playful learning in the classroom (2024), Frontiers in Education, Volume 9

Carina Omoeva, Jennifer M. Zosh, Angela Pyle, Nikhit D'Sa*, Rafael Contreras Gomez, Brian Dooley, Mauro Giacomazzi, Martin Ariapa, Carolina Maldonado-Carreño, Eduardo Escallón, Gopal Dey, Kazi Ferdous Pavel, Ciara Laverty

Playful learning has seen a resurgence of interest in the past decade, particularly in contexts where play is not traditionally part of a teacher’s repertoire. Teachers interested in exploring the integration of play in their classrooms need formative tools and resources that help them to reflect and assess their own practice and their ability to create a playful learning experience for their students. This study presents the results of two rounds of pilot testing in three countries for Teacher RePlay, a new open-source toolkit designed to support teachers interested in reflecting on and deepening their learning through play practice. The toolkit includes the main Teacher RePlay observation protocol for teachers, as well as Children ReAct, a complementary protocol for a photo-elicited focus group discussion with children, intended to directly assess children’s experiences and reflections on learning through play. Upon observation, teachers receive customized coaching suggestions and tips designed to strengthen their learning through play practice. Initial results from the piloting indicate that the toolkit holds strong potential for teachers interested in better understanding and deepening their playful learning practice. This paper discusses the development, validation, successes, and challenges of the Teacher RePlay toolkit, and identifies future directions for its use.

Investing in our Youth: Conversations in Science and Theology to Support a Faith-based and Scientific Approach to Creating Change for the World's Youth (2023), Amazon

Read in English and French.

Neil Boothby*, Lou DelFra

Presented as a conversation between two colleagues at the University of Notre Dame —a priest and a psychologist— Invest in our Youth explores the synergies between early childhood development science and Catholic Social Tradition. For Fr. Lou DelFra, CSC and Neil Boothby, Ed.D., their decades of experience working in high-poverty areas underscore the irreplaceable role faith-based institutions play in the delivery of long-term pathways forward; therefore, finding deeper linkages between the sciences and faith, which are often in short supply in a postmodern context, are more important than ever. Developed for those championing change for children in the most vulnerable parts of our world, Fr. DelFra and Dr. Boothby present the science and theology behind investing in early childhood development and illustrate how Catholic Social Tradition paints a directive to address the needs of those at the margins of society, while science, in turn, shows us how to do so.

Child-led resistance in the streets of the global south: Decolonial perspectives of violence against children outside of family care (2023), Child Abuse & Neglect, Volume 143

Amy E. Ritterbusch, Laura Liévano-Karim, Rachel Budker, Sarah R. Meyer, Neil Boothby*, Firminus Mugumya, Clare Bangirana, Timothy Opobo, Doreen Ampumuza, John Bosco Apota, Cate Mbabazi, Christine Nabukenya, Adam Kayongo, Fred Ssembatya

Violence against children (VAC) remains an urgent global dilemma and researchers and policymakers alike continue to work tirelessly to devise strategies aiming to end VAC. However, the perspectives and expertise of children themselves remain underrepresented in the drafting and implementation of these strategies against VAC. This paper draws attention to the marginalization of children living outside of family care and centers their perspective.

“Well-being, that word is very wide”: Understanding how teachers in Uganda define and navigate their occupational well-being (2023), International Journal of Educational Research

Nikhit D'Sa*, Monica Fontana, Martin Ariapa, Hannah Chandler*, Edison Nsubuga, and Emily Richardson

Teachers in Uganda are overstretched and exhausted. Occupational well-being—how teachers feel and function—is associated with satisfaction and retention. Yet, we know little about what teacher well-being looks like in low-resource contexts. We worked with 148 Ugandan teachers to understand how they conceptualize well-being. They described well-being as economic, social, emotional, and physical health. Female teachers were more focused on displaying (over receiving) respect while teachers working with refugee children more frequently described the need for intrinsic motivation and training. We discuss not only the broader implications for understanding TWB in other low-resource and fragile contexts but also how interventions in Uganda need to focus on the interpersonal dynamics that are more proximal to teachers’ lived experiences.

Fluid Families and Harshness as Adaptation in Haitian Childcare: An Approach to Improving Life Outcomes for Haitian Children (2022), Parenting Across Cultures

Kate Schuenke-Lucien*, Abigail Mills*, and Bryanna Beamer 

Childcare decisions made by biological parents and extended families in Haiti must be understood in the context of Haiti’s uniquely complicated and tumultuous history and modern-day conditions of extreme deprivation. Haitian parenting and child care choices are fundamentally shaped by the culturally and historically conditioned norm of fluid family structures and the use of harsher approaches in normative parenting practices. These are separate from cases of abuse in childcare as necessary adaptations to harsh living conditions. We argue that Haitian parenting, although qualitatively different from accepted normative parenting approaches in Western industrialized democracies, has in many ways evolved in ingenious and exceptional ways to protect children in a climate that is harshly unfavorable to positive outcomes for children, regardless of the parenting approaches employed. Our argument and analysis of parenting excludes extreme abusive parenting and mistreatment that is often promoted by alcoholism or mental health problems. Rather, our focus is on normative and typical Haitian parenting. For those concerned with improving outcomes for Haitian children and families, we hope to provide a deeper and more nuanced understanding of how and why Haitian parenting and childcare practices are as they are. This culturally and historically grounded knowledge should advance two goals for those desiring to support Haitian parents and caregivers. The first highlights unique assets in extended and fluid family structures in Haiti that can be leveraged and the second clarifies ways in which understanding the context and environment in which caregivers make decisions about discipline is needed to diminish violence against Haitian children.

“I always tell my children to learn from me”: Parental engagement in social and emotional learning in Malawi (2022), International Journal of Educational Research 

Jeongmin Lee*

Parental involvement is increasingly becoming an integral part of children's education globally. This article presents parents’ beliefs and strategies to contextualize relevant discourse in social and emotional learning (SEL) in Malawi. I interviewed 21 parents of primary school-aged children discussing (a) issues affecting children socially and emotionally, (b) parents’ role in supporting SEL, and (c) strategies used in the process. This revealed various parental knowledge and strategies of SEL in the homes as well as socio-cultural networks and resources in the communities that complemented within-family SEL. Policy implications for the creation of system-wide SEL beyond school settings are discussed.

Early literacy skill development and motivation in the low-income context of Haiti (2022), International Journal of Educational Research 

Monica J.Kowalski, Andrew J.Elliot, Juan CarlosGuzman, and Kate Schuenke-Lucien*

Research on literacy interventions occasionally focuses on motivation, but such research in low- and mid-income countries is all but nonexistent. Recently, Guzmán, Schuenke-Lucien, D’Agostino, Berends, & Elliot (2021) demonstrated that an intervention, Read to Learn, had a positive influence on literacy skills of first and second grade Haitian students; motivation was assessed, but not examined, in that study. We used the Guzmán, Schuenke-Lucien, D’Agostino, Berends, & Elliot (2021) data set and an integrative conceptual approach to test relations between the intervention, seven theoretically-grounded achievement motivation variables, and two “gold standard” outcomes – reading achievement and intrinsic interest in reading. 

"I can teach what’s in the book”: Understanding the why and how behind teachers’ implementation of a social‐emotional learning (SEL) focused curriculum in rural Malawi (2021), British Journal of Educational Psychology 

Lee, J.*,  and Simmons Zuilkowski, S.

Contextualizing the role of teachers in social-emotional learning (SEL) in Malawi, we examine how teachers’ comfort with, commitment to, and perceived school culture toward SEL relate to their actual teaching of it. Using surveys from 432 primary school teachers (20–60 years old), we found teacher comfort and supportive school culture were positively related to integration of SEL into classroom instruction, while commitment had no statistically significant relationship with implementation. We explore plausible explanations for these findings by interviewing 42 teachers. Together, our findings highlight the importance of teacher support systems and cultural compatibility of the curriculum for successful SEL implementation.

Literacy environments: K-12 and Adult. In F. Maggino (Ed.) (2021) Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research. Springer, Cham. Easton, P. and Lee, J.*

The term “literacy environment” has been increasingly used over the last two decades to designate the characteristics of larger social settings that influence the acquisition, use, and retention of literate and numerate skills by those who are involved in acquiring them. A weak literacy environment gives little support and creates little incentive for the acquisition and use of these skills, whereas a rich one – often referred to as a “literate environment” (e.g., Shannon 2019) – has a markedly positive effect on learning, use, and retention. There are obviously gradations between these two poles.

Developing and Validating the International Social and Emotional Learning Assessment: Evidence from a Pilot Test with Syrian Refugee Children in Iraq (December 2021), Journal on Education in Emergencies

Nikhit D'Sa*, and Allyson Krupar

The growing focus on social and emotional learning (SEL) for children of primary grade age in conflict-affected and fragile contexts necessitates an understanding of the effects these programs have. However, the dearth of valid and reliable measures of SEL skills in low-resource and crisis contexts has constrained the generation of this evidence. The few tools that have robust psychometric properties were developed for use in high-resource contexts; they often have usage costs, limit adaptations, and focus on adults as respondents. To address this gap, we developed the International Social and Emotional Learning Assessment (ISELA), an adaptable, cost-free, open-source, performance-based measure of self-concept, stress management, perseverance, empathy, and conflict resolution in children between ages 6 and 12. In this study, we focused on establishing the validity and reliability of the ISELA when used with Syrian refugee children in Iraq. 

Leveraging community-based innovations during COVID-19 to strengthen the Haitian school system (March 2021), Perspectives in Education

Neil Boothby*, Anna Hart*, Hannah Chandler*, and Dominique Dupuy

War, natural disasters, and other emergencies regularly disrupt children’s education in developing countries. The digital divide has long since affected low-resource and rural schools’ responses to crises that necessitate distance learning, often excluding children in remote and rural parts of countries from internet-dependent online learning programmes. In no place is this truer than in Haiti where, prior to August 2020, political unrest combined with the COVID-19 pandemic caused learners to miss 60% of their scheduled days in the 2019–2020 school year with only 45% of Haitian households having access to a power source, let alone internet or a smart device, that would enable them to participate in online learning. This study presents findings from exploratory research on the readiness of the Haitian education system to withstand crises and the impact of COVID-19 on the system and its learners.

What’s faith got to do with it? A scoping study on local faith communities supporting child development and learning (January 2021), International Journal of Educational Development

T.J. D'Agostino, Nikhit D'Sa*, and Neil Boothby*

In a scoping study on the role of local faith communities in relation to child development and learning in low- and middle-income countries, we note the need for more scholarly attention on this topic, especially in the areas of ECD and primary and secondary education. We find very little literature that explores the current contributions of these faith communities or the impact of interventions. Most literature focuses on interventions driven by international actors that engage faith-actors in instrumentalist ways. We argue for an approach that seeks to recognize and support faith-communities as existing systems that support child development and learning, and believe such an approach will be more sustainable, respectful, and effective.

Causes of family separation and barriers to reunification: Syrian refugees in Jordan (July 2020), Journal of Refugee Studies.

Hannah Chandler*, Neil Boothby*, Zahirah McNatt, Margaret Berrigan, Laura Zebib, Patricia Elaine Freels, Hamza Alshannaq, Noor Majdalani, Ahmed Mahmoud, and Esraa Majd

In a scoping study on the role of local faith communities in relation to child development and learning in low- and middle-income countries, we note the need for more scholarly attention on this topic, especially in the areas of ECD and primary and secondary education. We find very little literature that explores the current contributions of these faith communities or the impact of interventions. Most literature focuses on interventions driven by international actors that engage faith-actors in instrumentalist ways. We argue for an approach that seeks to recognize and support faith-communities as existing systems that support child development and learning, and believe such an approach will be more sustainable, respectful, and effective.

Organising primary grade literacy environments in Mozambique (July 2020), Learning Environments Research

Jeongmin Lee*, Stephanie Simmons Zuilkowski, and Nikhit D’Sa* 

Integrating new knowledge into everyday practices: teacher pedagogy in early grade literacy in rural Mozambique (March 2020), Literacy

Jeongmin Lee*, Nikhit D'sa*, and Stephanie Simmons Zuilkowski

Improving Reading Instruction and Students’ Reading Skills in the Early Grades: Evidence From a Randomized Evaluation in Haiti (2020), Reading Research Quarterly 

Juan Carlos Guzmán, Kate Schuenke-Lucien*, Anthony J. D’Agostino, Mark Berends, and Andrew J. Elliot

Adopt, contextualize, or adapt? Understanding the complexities of modifying or developing a measure of children’s social and emotional competencies in the NISSEM Global Briefs (September 2019), NISSEM

Nikhit D'Sa*

“What’s happening in Syria even affects the rocks”: a qualitative study of the Syrian refugee experience accessing noncommunicable disease services in Jordan (June 2019), Conflict and Health

Z. McNatt, PE. Freels, H. Chandler,*, M Fawad, S. Qarmout, AS. Al-Oraibi, N. Al-Tammi, and N. Boothby*

INEE Guidance Note on Psychosocial Support (June 2018), Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)  

Zahirah McNatt, Dr. Neil Boothby*, Dr. Mike Wessells, and Rita Lo

Rethinking Child Protection in Emergencies (May 2018), International Journal of Child Health and Nutrition

Cyril Bennouna, Hana-Tina Fischer, Michael Wessells, and Neil Boothby*

Impact of Separation on Refugee Families: Syrian Refugees in Jordan (April 2018), Columbia Global Centers

Zahirah McNatt, Neil Boothby*, Hamza Al-Shannaq, Hannah Chandler*, Patricia Freels, Ahmed S. Mahmoud, Noor Majdalani, and Laura Zebib

Monitoring and reporting attacks on education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia (August 2017), Disasters

Cyril Bennouna, Elburg van Boetzelaer,  Lina Rojas, Kinyera Richard, Gang Karume, Marius Nshombo, Leslie Roberts, and Neil Boothby*

Beyond Survival: The Case for Investing in Young Children Globally (June 2016), National Academy of Medicine

G. Huebner, N. Boothby*, J. L. Aber, G. L. Darmstadt, A. Diaz, A. S. Masten, H. Yoshikawa, I. Redlener, A. Emmel, M. Pitt, L. Arnold, B. Barber, B. Berman, R. Blum, M. Canavera, J. Eckerle, N. A. Fox, J. L. Gibbons, S. W. Hargarten, C. Landers, C. A. Nelson III, S. D. Pollak, V. Rauh, M. Samson, F. Ssewamala, N. St Clair, L. Stark, R. Waldman, M. Wessells, S. L. Wilson, and C. H. Zeanah

Assessing the impact of microfinance programming on children: an evaluation from post-tsunami Aceh (November 2014), Disasters

Lindsay Stark, Nafessa Kassim, Thalia Sparling, Dale Buscher, Gary Yu, and Neil Boothby*

What are the most effective early response strategies and interventions to assess and address the immediate needs of children outside of family care? (October 2012), Child Abuse and Neglect

Cyril Bennouna, Hana-Tina Fischer, Michael Wessells, and Neil Boothby*

Coordinated and evidence-based policy and practice for protecting children outside of family care (October 2012), Child Abuse and Neglect

Neil Boothby*, Robert L. Balster, Philip Goldman, Michael G. Wessells, Charles H. Zeanahe, and Gillian Huebner

The impact of the school-based Psychosocial Structured Activities (PSSA) program on conflict-affected children in northern Uganda (May 2011) The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

Alastair Ager, Bree Akesson, Lindsay Stark, Eirini Flouri, Braxton Okot, Faith McCollister, and Neil Boothby*

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