Insight
Closing the Learning Gap: Evidence on Teacher Training Effectiveness
A synthesis of D4Act's education evaluations across West and East Africa shows that structured pedagogy programmes - those combining scripted lesson plans with ongoing in-classroom coaching - produce the largest and most consistent gains in student learning outcomes. Our meta-analysis of 12 evaluations finds effect sizes of 0.3-0.5 standard deviations in reading and mathematics, significantly larger than the effects of one-off teacher training workshops alone (typically 0.05-0.15 SD).
The critical ingredient is not the materials - it is the coaching. Programmes that provided monthly classroom visits by trained coaches saw 3x the learning gains of programmes that relied solely on centralised training workshops.