Reflective Learning

Learning backlogs in mathematics and inequality in the education system are the core challenges we address. Learning losses due to Covid-19 have placed our education system under strain, threatening the quality of our future workforce. Access to quality education is key to advancing the SDGs. Statistics show that around 500 000 students have dropped out of education, with poor academic results being a major contributing factor. South African learners have been shown to have significant gaps in mathematical conceptual understanding, which prevents them from being prepared for higher-level learning. For most students, it’s a perpetuation of our discriminatory past with the learners from the poorest 60% of schools having backlogs in mathematics of, on average, four grade levels by the end of Grade nine. This challenge is not only unique to South Africa but also in India, where about 73% of year seven students are five years behind and in the United States, where about 50% of year 12 students are five years behind. 

Large swathes of students are missing out on higher education (and associated income levels) due to learning backlogs. 

For equitable education (SDG 4) we need systems that intentionally bridge learning gaps to ensure every student has the foundations in place to excel in school. Reflective Learning (RL) has studied these trends and has developed a scalable system that identifies gaps in understanding across mathematics. We are then able to create an individualised pathway to accelerate learning so that students who have fallen behind have the opportunity to catch-up.

Reflective Learnings' programme consists of an online, bandwith-lite, diagnostic and catch-up solution. It covers the core learning threads in each subject. RL is curriculum agnostic and follows the logical progression of mathematics, building on the very foundations required to master the subject. In mathematics these threads consist of numbers, fractions, measurement, data literacy, problem solving, patterns and algebra, space and shape. First, students complete a set of diagnostic questions to measure their conceptual backlogs. Based on these initial assessments, we can pin-point exactly what students know and don't know, and how far to go back to remediate. Based on initial diagnostics, we provide a personalised pathway to address these knowledge backlogs. Our metacognitive approach teaches students to become independent thinkers, and life-long learners by building on metacognitive learning characteristics such as self-awareness, perseverance, precision, and confidence. RL supports teachers by providing them with accurate data on individuals and cohorts, enabling educators the ability to gain granular insights into their students conceptual understanding and catch-up process. 

Our solution currently serves young students in South African schools (in both urban and rural areas). Our offering is cross-quintile relevant but often more needed in underserved and previously marginalised communities. Given apartheids legacy and the fact that South Africa has the highest Gini coefficient in the world, many families still live in poverty and lack access to basic urban services such as housing, water and sanitation, electricity, food and nutrition, transportation and quality schooling. Education leads to employment and consistent income is a means out of poverty. Further, quality education and equal education is required to advance the SDGs in their entirety. 

As our whole team is South African (some team members are from Botswana, Namibia and Congo), we are in close proximity to the communities that we are operate in. We are from the communities we serve and being born in South Africa (the most unequal country in the world) we have an acute understanding of the dynamics socio-economic inequality. Many of us are also part-time educators in the very communities we serve. This ensures we are in close proximity to our core focus: driving sustainable development by equipping youth with the necessary intellectual, emotional and creative capacity. 

Further, the students that we serve can eventually become part of the Reflective Learning human resources pipeline. We hope to eventually employ the individuals who have used the Reflective Learning programme, once they have graduated. By bringing in our target audience, we will be able to close the feedback loop between us and the communities we serve. 

Our program also has features that give students a direct line of communication to our services team. This allows students to raise any concerns or ideas whenever need be. In this way ideas and innovations can sprout from our community, something we are very receptive towards. 

We are a young multidisciplinary team. We have highly qualified experts in maths and science education, sustainable development studies, software development (backend and front end), marketing and business administration.

We are entering the MIT Solve initiative for the following reasons: 

* to network with international partners and counterparts who can help us scale our solution to new regions

* to disseminate our project at international conferences and events

* to further optimise our product and resources

* by bolster our legitimacy, press relations and media presence

* to gain access to funding for those who cannot afford the Reflective Learning programme

* to gain independent and international peer reviews

* to increase our social impact to students across the world who struggle with learning backlogs on a daily basis

* We are an integrated diagnostics and individualised remediation: Our main breakthrough is that we integrate diagnostics with individualised catch-up courses. Further, we have digitised this to offer the programme at scale. 

* Comprehensive Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E): We collect comprehensive data surrounding mathematical understanding and improvements. This allows us to provide teachers with exact information surrounding students knowledge gaps. Our M&E dashboard tracks engagements and allows individuals to understand the impact of our intervention. We can then use this data to prove social impact of our intervention. 

* Gamification dimension: To incentivise engagement we have effectively gamified mathematical remediation. In an age where digital gaming has become ever present and attractive amongst younger generations, our programme has several gamification features, where students are rewarded for spending more time catching-up their mathematical backlogs. It is an interactive platform where students can create customised avatars and earn tokens for mastering specific mathematical threads. 

* Build conceptual understanding opposed to fluency: Our programme focuses on developing conceptual understanding, whereas many other mathematical interventions focus on fluency. We build true understanding and drive a life long love for learning through metacognitive grooming. Many students struggle with mathematics due to metacognitive factors (ie. they don't know what they don't know, they lack precision, perseverance and self-confidencez). Our programme also measures their metacognitive status and helps them further develop to become life-long students.  

Our goals over the next five years are the following: 

* Impact 1 million students a year

* Operate within five different territories across the world

* Complete a full K12 catchup programme for mathematics, science and English

* Obtain three independent assessments proving sustained socio-economic impact

* Expand to include a sustainability sciences programme

* Commercialise our English programme

We plan to achieve these targets by establishing and maintaining strategic, symbiotic, and international partnerships. We also plan on hiring additional team members at key growth points to add capacity to scaling our businesses operations (e.g. sales, product, services, & marketing). We also want to establish relationships with higher level institutions such as universities, helping them bolster their students mathematical competencies in engineering and economics faculties. We have published one academic journal and hope to publish more detailing our advances in addressing learning deficits in STEM subjects. 

We currently use the following performance metrics: 

* Number of schools currently using RL

* Number of students currently using RL

* Average users active per school per week

* Average total users active per week 

* Number of mathematical concepts caught up 

* Number of mathematical concepts mastered 

* Students time spend on RL per week (per student)

Our theory of change is radical incrementalism. By this we ensure a solid foundation is established before moving onto the next phase of development. We want to ensure that we can deliver and execute on preliminary steps before moving on (eg. we want to make sure our services processes are able to adequately service our current 70 000 student cohort before rapidly onboarding students in other regions).

Below are points on how our TOC relates to RLs activities, outputs and outcomes:

Activities: Exploring new schools, servicing current schools, developing our product, integrating feedback from customers, engaging with CSI foundations, engaging with special projects such as social enterprise  incubation programmes 

Outputs: Students secure enrollment in STEM-oriented university  programmes, student secure high paying jobs in meaningful sectors (e.g. socio-economic development & green economy) 

Outcomes: Improved mathematical competencies, students confidence increases, improved metacognition skills, improved employment rates, improved ability for students to advance SDGs.

Our core technology is run on the internet of things. This enables us to run a mathematical diagnostic and individualised catch-up programme. Additionally, we incentivize mathematical improvements by gamification. We are currently building on the gamification element of our product by conducting research on how to connect mathematical learning behaviours, gamification, and tokenisation. We hope that this will lay the foundations for the first metaverse education platform for decentralised learning. 

Our director and co-founder is a female pedagogical expert. With all employees originating from South Africa, we naturally have an extremely mixed workforce consisting of a healthy balance of all races, genders and cultural backgrounds. Several employees come from the very areas in which we serve, ensuring active community participation in our operations. By doing this we ensure open innovation, embracing ideas that come from the very communities we serve. 

The core goal of our organisation is to empower marginalised groups through quality education solutions. The desire for addressing social inequality is a critical prerequisite condition when we consider hiring and retaining employees. Our desire for social impact in marganilised communities is evident in our product distribution: currently we are active in more lower income quintile schools than in higher income areas. 

As outlined by the social business model see below points for key information:

*Key Resources: Reflectivelearning.co platform, brand, team

*Partners + Key Stakeholders: Essential partners are our employees. Further, our relationships with independent school principles are important. Foundations and CSI fund managers are also relationally important. 

*Key Activities: Addressing mathematical learning backlogs, sales to individual schools, fundraising to sponsor lower income schools 

*Type of intervention: Online educational service 

*Channels: We reach our users and customers through online marketing and peer reviews. 

*Segments: Beneficiaries: Youth in Southern Africa, individuals who want to improve their mathematical understanding, societal added value from a new generation equipped with the skills to tackle sustainable development. Customers: Schools, university departments, CSI funds, foundations, government education departments

*Value proposition: User value proposition: Improved mathematical abilities and associated benefits of gaining access to higher income jobs related to STEM and sustainable development. Impact measures: Improved mathematical exit points, improved pass rates, increased number of students pursuing STEM degrees. Customer value proposition: Improved school ratings, improved social pipeline for employers, enhanced public goods and protection of the commons.

*Cost structure: Our biggest expense is the service component to the schools we operate within. Service fees are incorporated into our sales price and is covered by operating revenue. Servicing ensures that schools and students are capable of using our programme to the full extent for maximum impacts. For every 30 schools we expand to, we employ one additional account  manager.

*Surplus: All surplus funds that are generated from sales of the reflectivelearning.co programme are reinvested into our product, service and overall operations growth. 

*Revenue: 65% revenue comes from sales of licenses to paying schools. 35% revenue comes from sales of licenses to CSI funds and Foundations. 

Currently, our revenue stream consists of schools that pay for their own RL licenses (65%) and corporates/ foundations who purchase RL licenses for underprivileged schools (35%). All cash inflows is therefore generated through sales of our RL programme. We do not rely on grants or donations. Our social enterprise business model therefore embraces service subsidization. Our operating revenue from licenses sold sufficiently covers our operating expenses and also allows for some retained earnings to be reinvested to fuel additional growth. At key points of our businesses growth we have also leveraged external funding to support bursts of expansion (ie. hiring of additional employees in new regions & further product development). 

Our social impact is fundamentally embedded in our operations. As we provide users with the reflectivelearning.co programme, we are actively empowering youth to conceptually improve their mathematics abilities. This allows them to secure meaningful and high paying jobs in STEM careers. By securing well-paying jobs they are able to uplift themselves and their communities. 

We are profitable and self-sufficient. Over the last five years we have raised: 

$920 517 through services rendered. 

$545 460 through equity capital