Behavioral nudges and feedback lead to improved pre-primary teacher practices in Kenya

Abstract

Many national pre-primary curricula call for classroom practices that support children’s autonomy and teacher-child dialogue, but these practices are observed inconsistently. Teachers in low-resource settings often lack affordable, scalable support and professional development to adopt these practices. This four-month, blinded, incomplete factorial randomized controlled trial evaluated whether low-cost, tech-enabled feedback and behavioral nudges can improve pre-primary teachers’ adoption of seven target practices in Mombasa, Kenya. Teachers ( n= 129) were randomized into one of three intervention arms: (1) business as usual (control); (2) observation feedback and weekly WhatsApp nudges (feedback and nudge); or (3) observation feedback, weekly WhatsApp nudges, and two in-person meetings facilitated by early childhood trainers (feedback and nudge + cluster). The primary outcome was the number of target practices observed at endline, adjusting for baseline. Relative to control, teachers in the feedback and nudge arm implemented 0.92 additional practices ( d = 0.45), and those in the feedback and nudge + cluster arm 0.94 ( d = 0.45). The similar effects across arms suggest no statistically detectable incremental benefit of adding cluster meetings in this sample; the design does not permit conclusions about cluster meetings as a standalone component. Seventy-five percent of teachers reported that the nudges were helpful in improving their understanding of target practices and that they would recommend them to fellow teachers. Attrition was under 1%. Embedding feedback and behavioral nudges within existing early childhood quality assurance and professional development systems may therefore offer a scalable approach to strengthening classroom practice in low- and middle-income contexts.