Community Learning Circles
Promoting Positive Development for
Early Primary Children in Bangladesh
Marilou Hyson,
Kamal Hossain,
and Didarul Anam Chowdhury
I
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.
12
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
14
Reprinted from Young Children • November 2010
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
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ite fishing game. The cardboard fish
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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
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Reprinted from Young Children • November 2010
15
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
16
Reprinted from Young Children • November 2010
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.
E
CE
SPA
FO
H
EP
N
RO
O
OT
ON
PAG
HIS
T
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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