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How to educate low-income students most efficiently? A retrospective of 27 years at the World Bank
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A retrospective of 27 years at the World Bank Helen Abadzi World Bank [email protected] October 24, 2013
Transcript of How to educate low-income students most efficiently? A retrospective of 27 years at the World Bank
Life After the World Bank !http://24vesti.mk/za-zhivotot-15-10-2013
An exciting future for education World Bank: Global practices, interest in science and
solutions
United Nations and donor community:
Post 2015 agenda: 126 million children still out of school
How to train students’ minds (brains) most efficiently?
My 27-year search for answers to fit these challenges
Clueless in Washington in 1987…in 1985 – “I need a friend in DC! Come along and interview!”
Stavros Apergis “Double take” on a CV with 9 languages
Douglas Keare in LAC needed an evaluation specialist
Nov. 1985 interviews
January 1987 was hired from Greece
as a long term consultant
I was 35 years old
26.5 years at a glance – work in LAC 1987
WBI (EDI) 1988
MENA 1989
South Asia In 1991 (regularized)
OED (IEG) 1995
GPE December 2009
Parallel life: 17 years as a Staff Association delegate and counselor
Fun time with languages and history To do the job well I studied more languages
Total of 19 at least at intermediate level
I published several historical articles
see them in academia.edu
Origins of core sectoral concepts
Bank should finance primary education George Psacharopoulos, on returns to education in 1985
Human capital around 1988
“President Barber Conable Women in development” – 1989
Education for All !! 1990
“Assessments” - Marlaine Lockheed
Wolfensohn 1995: Poverty alleviation Cross-cutting themes, “integrators”
Rise of generalists
The 1980s-1990s education staff were technical specialists
Actual educators: superintendents, teachers Economists Architects Sociologists no psychologist
UNESCO Cooperative program – experts to about 1989 But lacked a scientific framework, quantitative skills
They were replaced by generalists “Education sector specialist” formalized in 1998
Anyone be an education specialist Premium for political instincts Earlier debates were replaced by keeping discretion
Main issues I tried to solve through the years for low-income countries Why does adult literacy fail?
Why do students fail to read for years?
How to convert financing to instructional time?
How to get sustainable textbooks?
Memory research: the missing conceptual framework
WBI 1989 wanted to know – How do people learn?
I wrote “Cognitive psychology in the seminar room”
Daily monitoring of 5 internet websites since 1996
Pieces fill puzzle on how to optimize learning
Interacted with scientists, hired some
More than 30 articles, papers, books
I took classroom videosbought $700 Sony slimcam in 1993,
did many more in IEG starting 2002
The mystery failures of adult literacyWhy can’t adults become fluent readers? 1992 - task manager appraising adult ed. in
Bangladesh• Do we all become dyslexics for new scripts?
Project canceled, cofinancing to ADB
Literacy projects folded worldwide
Looking for solutions for 20 years
In 2000-2002 in IEG got grant, experimented
Burkina Faso: 1-1.5 words per second needed
Neuroimaging research on the problem in 2012
Best learner vs. Infrequent reader,who learned in childhoodBangladesh literacy program 1994
11/24/2013 Helen Abadzi author, © World Bank 13
Bangladesh 1993-94
Why can’t low-income students learn reading? “Audits” by the Internal Evaluation Group
Alain Barbu: don’t just diagnose, get solutions
contacted reading scientists (2005 - thanks to Bob)
2004: A message to the EDUFAM distribution list
Luis Crouch responded - EGRA resulted
Bank controversy: words per minute? We are a bank!
Then reading became a global priority
How to convert financing to teaching time? Need to measure and define it
assess the “memorability of various activities”
Located Jane Stallings who had retired
Bob, Benoit Millot and I got a Dutch grant
Barbara Bruns continued the work in LAC
Instructional time now a standard measure
Remedial actions still needed
Relevant lessons from cognitive science to low-income students We can all learn anything more efficiently if we abide
by the rules of memory
Rules more rigid for less educated people
Speed and automaticity above all !
To perform skills, we must act in milliseconds
The biggest obstacles in Bank projects are “low level”, neurological:
Chunks too big to be ‘digested’ without help
So why is there little progress on learning?Donor agency staff can be an obstacle Our reference point is the people we know
We prescribe for them, not for the poor !
perfomance
Instructional time, materials, feedback, analyses, nutrition
We and our children
The very poor
To improve quality in all countries and levelsComponents, activities for donor investments
Fluency in the prerequisite skills of every educational stage
Remediation of gaps if prerequisite skills were not learned
Efficient classroom time use for teaching, practice, feedback
Sustainable textbooks (of some sort) for all to take home
Teacher (instructor) training for content, methods, and fluency in execution
Supervision based on the above
Why not?
Consider the biggest obstacle of all
Sobering research findingsCitations available
Sketches from internet sites - thanks
Evolutionary psychology basics Different survival pressures resulted in certain
behavioral differences Men had to create functional teams for hunting
Women had to survive in polygamous situations
We seem to have inherited response probabilities
Work environments should be gender-free but are not
“Evolutionary” decisions are instant, emotional People do not understand why they feel certain ways
We all gender-stereotype every minute! We perceive people’s gender (and race) in milliseconds
We make unconscious differential decisions
We look for certain patterns in men and women
We reject those who don’t fit the expected cultural pattern
Expected behaviors change over the years
But still gender-related patterns emerge
Men: likeability vs. competence2 unrelated dimensions
>--------------------------------------------------<
Sweet
S.O.B
>-------------------------------------------------<
ineffective• gets job done
Women: competence and popularity mixed together
To be considered competent, women must first be liked!
Your next employee or colleague
>--------------------------------------------------< Great teamplayer!
Not popular enough to succeed
Female authority appears harsh
For men, attention to competence, strategy
For women, attention to personality
“She acts like a general” !
Why does this disturb us?
An angry man gets his wayan angry woman gets the highway Implication: Successful women must be very calm
Example: Angela Merkel
But is a rare profile !
Women are expected to have better social skills than men Penalized if they fall short
Confidence is interpreted as lack of social skills
Confident, straight-talking women
Not hired!
Disagreeableness premiums He is an SOB but he is effective
we will promote him
24% premium
She makes people upset but we decided to keep her for a while
5% premium
Men are considered more crediblehave ‘executive presence’ The less we know about a topic the more we depend on
a person’s reputation
Trustworthy appearance matters more than actual information about credibility (Rezlescu et al. 2013)
Women often may lack the look associated with intellectual authority
Controversial statements made by women are rejected
Furthermore,men’s voices are more memorableMale voices: thunder of authority
Men can show passion and aggression
Cynicism, grimaces, sarcasm permitted
Women must stay calm, speak in flat voice
Women’s arguments easily overpowered just by nonverbal cues
Women’s messages may be forgotten
Women often are not heard Did Sheila just say something?
Just running her mouth; but John has a worthwhile idea
Woman against woman:Millennia of polygamy andthe poisonous “queen bee” effect Limited patience with other women
Controlling other women for conformity
Tendency to remove potential competitors
relational aggression
“catfights” and negative business outcomes
Men settle women’s fights
Men and women treat their same gender very differently
After a keg of beer, we agreed to disagree
Men may state positions, debate, disagree, compete. make up
YOU know how she got that promotion!
Women may keep quiet, then exclude, spread rumors
Access restrictedfor non-conforming womenHe has faults, but when he talks people pay attention
Too controversial !
Better invite someone else
Female scientists or politicians defined by personality traits
Rosalind FranklinDiscovered double helix
Julia GuillardPrime MinisterAustralia
Confident, straight-talking women may get eliminated by both genders!Several such top-tier women eliminated in the World Bank
You should not lecture!You won’t be allowed!
World Bank studies:Anonymized staff evaluations could be “gendered” Gender salary gap 10-25%
Catalyst Study - 1998
150 staff evaluations (OPEs) – gender could be discerned
In my 17 years of Staff Association counseling I saw:
39 year old men ok for GH, but women of the same age are immature
Struggle of a 50-year old woman whose GH promotion was canceled last minute
woman dogged by a GH female team leader who was intent on canceling her appearances, stopping publications
Performance evaluation trends:Men prepared for future leadershipWomen scrutinized for personality faults
He is promising, we will mentor him
It’s up to her to attain our standards
Gender perceptions may eliminate the top female leaders Not selected: “You are too direct” !
Female World Bank manager:
“I fired her because she was too proud” !
Women and men who make it and stay at the workplace may not be comparable
The most decisive women have been eliminated !
Selective pruning of women may result in different profilesMen may be hired for technical savvy
Women may be hired for social competence
Making things look right
Differential promotions maintain gender stereotypes
World Bank job candidates, consultants
Those selected as regular staff may be selected for lower stature
Outcome:Innovative ideas promoted by women may be doomed Evolutionary traits overwhelm the workplace
Sidelined innovators get no chance to shape policies
May get limited visibility, no funding
End up less confident and thus less convincing
Outstanding intellectual property may be reallocated to others!
Example: Rosalyn Franklin, discoverer of double helix
Are younger women doing better?Mitigating the evolutionary patterns? Millennials: More savvy in negotiating the various obstacles But… High-pitched female voices
Would you trust them to carry on your message?
Instead, young men learn to sound serious and consequential
So does the gender-credibility gap close? Or does it move to new ground?
Innovation cannot happen with ½ the innovators hobbled Particularly in fields that have many women
Education post 2015 absolutely needs cognitive science Research and dissemination must go on
Learning efficiency issues must become better known
But donor agencies, education have many women Higher possibility of backbiting, “catfights”
Disregard of female innovation
Exclusion of female mavericks
Hiring experts of social propriety vis-a-vis real solutions
Unwarranted credence toward men’s statements
To educate the poor should more men be hired??
Greater awareness may help navigate obstacles Hopefully current managers are enlightened
can through gender complexities
Implement the right ideas
Speed up needed innovations for the education of the poor
Great thanks to the managers who believed in my contributions Douglas Keare
Timothy King
Martin Karcher
Grant Sinclair
Roger Slade
Bob Prouty
And my husband, Theodore
Think about all this..
