Instill Education

African education faces an existential challenge. By 2030, 15m teachers will be needed to address the continent’s population growth and the wave of teacher retirement. At the same time, learner outcomes have continued lagging - 61m learners are currently expected to reach adolescence without basic life skills; an indictment of the support teachers and school leaders are currently receiving in their profession. School leaders and teachers are under-supported and under-prepared to develop school and classroom environments that support learners, develop structures to identify and close learning gaps, and put learners on a path towards improved learning outcomes. Covid induced lockdowns have only served to exacerbate learning loss, and drive teachers from the profession in many countries. We are committed to solving this problem by creating more, better trained and supported teachers and school leaders across the African continent. Our solution aims to support them from the moment they decide to become a teacher to the moment they retire. 

By addressing these aspects of educator development, we strive to ensure that learning losses from the pandemic are eradicated as quickly as possible. Our competency based model ensures that teachers learn the critical skills that will drive learner improvement, including catching up on lost learning time and ensuring that there are no gaps in learner attainment. We believe that the teacher is still the greatest lever for change in every classroom. Without properly trained and supported teachers, we cannot hope to address learning losses, or future learning gains for many years to come.  

Ensuring that our content is fit for purpose is central to our design philosophy.

1. Curriculum design: firstly and most importantly, we ensure that our content is based on the latest research in online adult instruction and aligned with local contexts. We review local curricula, engage local experts in both state and non-state sectors, and align our modules both to what is required by government frameworks and is what is practically required in classrooms. Our curriculum design process essentially continuous, as through surveys at the end of all of our modules we ask questions about contextual relevance, applicability, and practicality. Users complete short surveys after each module, giving us continuous feedback on each module. We use that data, along with other participant satisfaction data, as well as formative, and summative assessment score data to inform our improvements to the design of the respective module, as well as the overall curriculum design process. This way it has been easy for us to see which modules teachers like, how they have performed on each module from a content acquisition perspective, and to spot trends in our design that need to be improved. 

2. Content designers: Our content designers are all former teachers. All have extensive experience working in classrooms from across the broad spectrum of contexts that are found in classrooms across the African continent. For example: our Dean Fellow, Annie Ndlovu, is a former teacher turned academic. She taught for several years in rural schools, and is soon to complete her PhD focusing on language teaching in rural contexts. Leading our work is Venessa Geswindt. She was a primary teacher and senior leader for over 20 years, before moving into school leadership development. She leads the design and delivery of our leadership programmes. Both Pamela Mubviri and Lyndsey Nkoy started their careers in the classroom before also moving into academia and teacher development. Both are finalising their PhDs in Foundation Phase education, and lead our design work for our online content. Where we lack the internal expertise to design content, we engage consultants who design within our frameworks for specific topics. For example; gender equity. These content designers bring deep local knowledge and expertise.

3. Focus groups and user testing: once designed, we test our content rigorously with groups of teachers, gathering feedback and updating modules. This enables our content designers to constantly learn and understand how content is received on the ground and applied in classrooms. One modules are launched, we have several ways of tracking the impact of each module. We use ‘checks for understanding’ as a formative learning tool throughout each module, which also provide us a snapshot as to what is working or not working from a learning perspective. At the end of each module we implement a survey to gather feedback on the module, asking simple questions around what users enjoyed, what they struggled with and what can be improved. With larger projects, for example with the Ghanaian National Teaching Council, we conduct broader surveys to gather data on users and their experience on the platform (our latest survey gathered over 1000 responses). Critically, we also use these focus groups for gathering data on our UX and UI experiences. Understanding the challenges faced by users is an essential part of designing our solution. The best content in the world will have no impact if users cannot access it. 

4. Local endorsement/accreditation: Finally, we ensure that all content is locally endorsed, such that content is both reviewed and approved by local teaching bodies, and that teachers are able to gain their professional development points for content completed. Within the countries we currently operate, these bodies are the Kenyan Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), the South African Council for Educators (SACE) and the Ghanaian National Teaching Council. Whilst this is a time consuming and sometimes expensive process, it ensures that we work within the system rather than outside the system. Being able to offer teachers points for modules completed offer an additional incentive, both in terms of trust that we are a legitimate institution, and by supporting teachers to maintain their teaching licenses.  Beyond this, it supports the professionalisation of the sector as a whole and demonstrates that we are committed to supporting educators throughout their career in the profession. In addition to maintaining their licenses, it also supports them in career mobility, promotion opportunities, and ultimately career longevity.

Teacher development is broken 

According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Sub-Saharan Africa will account for two-thirds, or 6.2 million, of the new teachers needed globally by 2030. The expanding school-age population will exacerbate this growing demand: for every 100 primary school students in 2012, there will be 147 primary school students in 2030. Given unavoidable demographic changes, the daunting reality is that countries in the region will have to fill almost four million existing teaching positions by 2030, as well as create and fill 2.2 million new teaching positions. Unfortunately, simply adding more space at established teacher training institutions (TTI) will not achieve this target. Nor will it engender much needed improvements in student learning and skill development. Globally, the predominant pedagogies at TTIs emphasise theoretical understanding of best practices, and not the practical, field-tested skills that today’s teachers actually need in order to serve today’s students in today’s classrooms. TTIs also fail to attract the highest quality young professionals, deepening challenges associated with teacher training and increasing costs associated with retainment and attrition. 

For existing teachers, the situation is equally as dire. Most teachers receive little support throughout their career; those who receive professional development only experience traditional, workshop-based sessions, even though research shows it is ineffective. Despite its prevalence, the workshop model’s track record for changing teachers’ practice and student achievement is abysmal. Short, one-shot workshops often don’t change teacher practice and have no effect on student achievement.

Our approach to initial teacher education and continuous professional teacher development

Instill Education’s raison d’être is anchored on the dire need to break this vicious cycle. Our mission is to Transform the quality of learning in every African classroom in financially sustainable ways. Our approach to impact is thus tiered in three horizons. 

1. First horizon: Demonstrate commercial viability and financial sustainability 

2. Second horizon: Impact quality of teaching in the public ecosystem 

3. Third horizon: Transform the overall ecosystem 

Horizon #1: Demonstrate commercial viability and financial sustainability 

As a for-profit social enterprise, we are rooted in the belief that, unless we are solving a market failure with a clear value proposition for a client willing to pay for it, our commercial viability is not guaranteed. As such, our sustainability strategy is to build on the rapidly growing role of the private / non-state sector in delivering K-12 education throughout Africa. Our market analysis highlights double digit growth in private provision, requiring between 25,000-50,000 additional teachers to join that sector by 2025 in our first two markets (Ghana, Kenya and South Africa). The problem doesn't solely lie in the number of teachers who need to enter the teaching pipeline, but the type of teacher in that pipeline, and the quality of existing teachers in classrooms. Our interviews with both state and non-state education providers have highlighted two elements in common: the quantity and quality of teachers they require to maintain their growth trajectory. 

For Initial Teacher Education (ITE)...

Our commercial viability is thus achieved through a demand-driven approach to initial teacher training. Given the practical nature of our programs (50% of each program is spent in partner schools), we believe in the following principles: 

a. Securing demand: We partner with networks of predominantly low-cost and middle-class private schools and secure their hiring pipeline. Our partners benefit from a higher quality, classroom-ready pipeline of teachers to fuel their growth and drive quality. 

b. Practicum: These partners also provide up to one year practicum / apprenticeship to our students as part of their requirements towards qualifications. Partners benefit from an extended (and low-cost) exposure to a future employee; students benefit from a practical education that improves their employability at graduation (with our partner schools or outside of our current network of schools). 

This demand-driven approach also has its benefits from a supply-side. A virtual job guarantee allows students (and Instill) to facilitate accessible financing solutions. This increases our pool of applicants and opens opportunities for financially underprivileged students. It also adds to a strong value proposition in a market where teaching traditionally is not the most attractive profession. 

Our interviews with low-cost networks of schools have also highlighted an indirect positive impact of our approach on the public sector. An important portion of new hires in private schools often leave to join the public sector (in Kenya and South Africa) for better conditions (fewer hours, pension plans). While our primary objective is to buy enough time and a solid financial backing for impacting the public sector, we believe that a considerable proportion of Instill graduates will receive strong, quality teacher training, followed by 2-3 years of career development (including their apprenticeship) in the non-state sector, preparing them to impact students in the public sector once they transition in their career. 

For our in-service professional development platform, Upskill...

The need for quality in-service professional development is undeniable. However, the challenge lies in making it both scalable and sustainable poses several challenges which have yet to be solved by existing providers. 

Our commercial viability in this modality will be driven by our ability to create a value proposition for educators, or other stakeholders in the education ecosystem, that they will be prepared to pay for. We have tested hypotheses around selling to government (B2G) and schools (B2B), but ultimately always land on the same outcome; that selling directly to educators (B2C) is the most effective and scalable proposition. 

To achieve this, we will adopt a strategy of rigorously testing of platform features to fully understand what will both drive adoption of the platform, and ongoing engagement. Initial testing has shown dramatic improvements with simple changes to our approach, but we are yet to test the monetising of features on the platform. We do not yet have answers in this space, rather hypotheses that we believe can drive a business model that delivers both scale and impact. The hypotheses remain the same as for our ITE model; educators must feel that our platform is helping them to be better educators, achieve career mobility, and to achieve recognition for their work. 

Horizon #2: Impact quality of teaching in the public ecosystem 

While we build our engine in every market for financial sustainability through private sector partnerships, the ultimate purpose of our enterprise is to impact the public sector at scale where, by any reasonable estimate, over 70% of students (who are mostly underprivileged) will be receiving a K-12 education. There are nevertheless numerous challenges that exist in partnering with the public sector including a slower pace of engagement, political cycles, the presence of unions, vested interests in the shape of public providers, as well as limited financial means. 

Despite these challenges, no scalable and meaningful impact can be achieved without public sector partnerships. This is why we include the value of community at the core of our institution. As such, we endeavour for the following: 

● We collaborate with the broader education community in the pursuit of achieving our mission 

● We build relationships in the communities in which we work by listening, learning, and showing respect 

● We strive to integrate the knowledge and wisdom present in communities to our approach, and adapt our approach in response to diverse needs 

While we ensure our financial sustainability in the first horizon, we – in parallel – will build long-term partnerships and credibility with the public sector through our in-service professional development offering, engagement in technical working groups, monitoring and evaluation, publication and advocacy for public sector education. Our eventual aim is to similarly find public sector practicum and placement partners to support specific underprivileged or under-resourced communities. This may require a longer journey and partnerships with third-party funders (corporate social responsibility, foundations, NGOs) to provide financial support to deliver the quality of initial teacher programming to a target population who may not be able to afford it. 

We believe it is important for the first two horizons to overlap and be delivered in tandem. It isn’t realistic for us to achieve long-term profitability without private sector partners AND it isn’t possible for us to reach for impact in the public sector without long-term and sustained engagement. We are also well aware of the dynamic and ever-changing nature of working with governments and public schools. We intend to use our private partnerships to buy time and build both our brand and financial strength to affect public schools. 

Horizon #3: Transform the overall ecosystem 

Beyond our typical partnerships with the public sectors, we are striving to impact the whole ecosystem. Our challenge resides in finding ways to impact the quality of learning for hundreds of millions of learners across the African continent. While the actions in the first two horizons allow us to directly and indirectly impact learners in our centres of excellence and through our distance programs, it will remain widely insufficient. The path to impact resides in partnering with, influencing, and nudging other providers across the continent. As such, we aim for the following: 

● In certain markets (e.g. smaller countries such as Rwanda, outside of major cities) where our value-add and financial sustainability is difficult to achieve, we will strive to work with existing public providers to capacitate them in delivering our accredited content. We have started exploring such partnerships, many of them will take years to conclude. 

● When we have reached a credible scale and have demonstrated impact, we intend to make our intellectual property (online content, session designs) available openly and globally for anyone wishing to implement parts or all of it. We believe our distinctive value proposition will remain in executing and innovating, rather than forever protecting our intellectual property. 

● We will continue to bring an African voice to the global education conversation through conferences, blogs, videos and other knowledge sharing and translation platforms. 

● We will make our data available (anonymised) to policy makers and academics. 

● We will implement rigorous M&E processes for all our programs (when we have the financial means), to ensure continuous improvement of our offering. 

How Upskill will transform classrooms continent wide

From its inception, Instill Education has invested time and resources into supporting existing public and private sector teachers in the development of their instructional practice. While this will not be a significant source of revenue, we are committed to supporting these teachers and to remaining involved in diverse African classrooms. This will bring several benefits. First, a presence in real classrooms will make our pre-service offering more relevant, more contextualised and more practical. Second, our evidence-informed approach for professional development has started to demonstrate impact, as measured by acquisition of teaching practices and documented ongoing development. Lastly, while there are many offerings in teacher professional development on the continent, few follow a structured process of design, development, data-analysis and iteration, and fewer still show any meaningful impact. 

Our theory of change for Upskill is as follows. In order to track the impact of the platform beyond enrolments, we have taken the Thomas Guskey Five Critical Levels of Professional Development Evaluation model and adapted it to our context. Guskey suggests that a sequential process must occur for student outcomes to improve through professional development of educators: i) Educators must enjoy the given module of work; ii) Educators must demonstrate an understanding of the concepts described; iii) Educators must apply what they have learned in a practical setting, iv) Educators must be supported by their school community or peers. The final stage of Guskey’s model is the improvement of student outcomes. This remains our true north, and the holy grail of teacher professional development. We have excluded it for now in recognition of the fact that we will not see impact on student outcomes at this early stage. 

Our adaptation of the Guskey model is anchored on the following four questions: 

1. Are educators finding that platform and content engaging? 

2. Are educators grasping and understanding the content covered?

3. Are educators able to apply the concepts within their classroom/schools?

4. Is the context enabling educators to sustain their commitment to PD?

By tracking metrics around these questions, we will eventually be able to understand the impact of an in-service only model on learner outcomes. 

We are extremely cognisant of the limits of what we are able to track against our theory of change, vs what we will need to do in the future with external researchers, over a longer time and at greater scale. Tracking a causal link between teacher or school leader interventions and learner outcomes is notoriously difficult, so we are under no illusions as to what we can lay claim to at this stage of our growth. As such, we are clearly at level 2 on the Nesta scale. We track data which is highly encouraging, but can certainly not be deemed to demonstrate causality. Similarly, we are yet to formally engage with external evaluators, although we have funds to do this on our current project and will launch this evaluation process in the coming 12 months. 

Our ownership of these limitations is demonstrated through our Guskey inspired theory of change model, and the data which we currently track and analyse (see next section). We are in advanced discussions with external evaluators and will ensure that when possible and appropriate, that we continuously seek to validate our findings and demonstrate our impact. 

We align all questions and data collection around each stage of our theory of change, and use this data to adapt and improve our model as we seek to scale and strengthen our M&E capabilities. 

Tracking our progress on impact-related metrics (Updated on June 1, 2022)

In order to track the impact of the platform beyond enrollments, we have taken the Thomas Guskey Five Critical Levels of Professional Development Evaluation model and adapted it to our context. Guskey suggests that a sequential process must occur for student outcomes to improve through professional development of educators: i) Educators must enjoy the given module of work; ii) Educators must demonstrate an understanding of the concepts described; iii) Educators must apply what they have learned in a practical setting, iv) Educators must be supported by their school community or peers. The final stage of Guskey’s model is the improvement of student outcomes. This remains our true north, and the holy grail of teacher professional development. We have excluded it for now in recognition of the fact that we will not see impact on student outcomes at this early stage. 

Our adaptation of the Guskey model is anchored on the following four questions: 

1. Are educators finding that platform and content engaging? 

2. Are educators grasping and understanding the content covered?

3. Are educators able to apply the concepts within their classroom/schools?

4. Is the context enabling educators to sustain their commitment to PD?

In each step outlined below, we deep-dive into our early findings across these four questions and extract some clear lessons learned.

Question 1: Are educators finding the platform and content engaging? 

The first step tracks whether educators are enjoying the platform and are finding it engaging. This is an important step in ensuring people come back to the platform. Guskey stresses the importance in professional development of not forgetting to attend to basic human needs, enjoyment (and comfort in in-person settings) being a key factor. There are three data points we are currently using to extract this data: 

1. Module completion rates as a percentage of enrollment: This metric ensures our modules are engaging enough for users to persist through and complete. Most of our modules use low-data approaches (no videos, light images and text), take ~30-35 mins to complete and can be completed in multiple sessions. (Fig. 3).  The results so far are exciting. Over 30% of all modules enrolled are being fully completed by users (which includes a demanding submission as evidence).  

2. Net Promoter Scores (NPS): This metric is tracked at the module level as well as the platform-level. It is a common metric used to suggest the recommend-ability of a product. (Fig. 4 & 5). The results are so far promising as well, with most modules having NPS scores over 65 which is - according to most benchmarks - excellent. 

3. Survey samples: Finally, end of module and end of activity (sections of a module e.g. See It, Name it…) surveys provide us data on their willingness to continue exploring the module and putting it in action. The data here is also promising and provides more insight on what are the drivers of engagement and completion. 

Figure 3: Module completion rates

We have learned a few lessons in the last few months. First, our initial modules (and particularly the first few activities) were too long. Modules that took longer to complete were harder to finish, so we've reduced the length of modules from 60-90 minutes, to 30-45 minutes, and are continuing to drive this down further without losing rigour. Second, the anecdotal feedback we are getting from users is that modules with clear applicability to their context, led by African voices, are more likely to be completed. Finally, we are raising the rigour for completion both for exit tickets, while revisiting whether evidence submission is warranted as a task (given there are no incentives linked to that completion). We reiterate, this engagement is in the complete absence of any incentives (we have not yet implemented basic badging or certificates of completion). Over the next few months, we are developing a playbook of non-financial and financial rewards and incentives to better understand what will drive more completion. 

The second metric is the Net Promoter Score (Figure 4). Our NPS score of 56 puts us on a level with world leading brands and education institutions. Most encouragingly, data indicates that the more people complete a module, the higher the NPS score rises for that module. The modular NPS score has enabled us to focus our redesign efforts, and continue learning what participants are enjoying and finding useful. We have also highlighted in Figure 5. The modules that have the highest NPS scores, as an indication of what educators are motivated to complete and recommend. 

Figure 4: Platform NPS scores vs. global brands

Finally, at the end of each activity (yes/no question) and at the end of each module (Scale of 1-5), we ask users specific questions around likeability, applicability and ability of these new skills to improve learner experience. The activity level data is consistent with the NPS suggests: over 95% of users “like” the content, over 96% find it clear, and over 97% look forward to continuing. Again, anecdotal evidence suggests that drop-off rates/lower completion levels are due to barriers we highlighted above (data, tech. literacy). Again, this is extremely encouraging. 

At the module level, we see similar results with a bit more granularity on the insights. Across all modules: 

1. ~88% “like” the modules they completed

2. ~80% found the content clear (and those modules that are showing lower than 75% are being reviewed)

This initial data set is extremely encouraging. 

Figure 5: Top 10 modules on platform (with highest NPS)

Question 2: Are educators grasping and understanding the content covered?
According to Guskey, in addition to liking their professional learning experiences, participants should learn something from them.’ The second step of the model requires the user to understand the concepts that have been put in place. There are three ways that we currently test the understanding of users: 

1. Exit surveys: At the end of each module, we ask educators to rate whether they learned something in the module. With the limitations that come with self-assessed learning, ~90% of the participants who completed the exit surveys are learning something new. 

2. Exit Tickets: At the end of each module, educators are required to answer a set of questions to ensure a strong understanding of what they have just learned. Designed by our expert team, these questions strive to be rigorous while enabling educators to reinforce what they have learned. Our team is in the process of reinforcing and strengthening the feedback we are getting from users and peer-reviewers. Currently, our participants are scoring between 85-90% on their exit tickets across modules. 

3. Submissions: Each module encourages educators to rapidly put in practice what they have learned and submit the evidence back on the platform (e.g. a video, a written document for a lesson plan, a reflection). We are currently working on reviewing a sample of the submission against our rubrics. Data not available yet. 

Question 3: Are educators able to apply the concepts within their classroom/schools?
In the third step of Guskey’s model, ‘the key to gathering relevant data at this level of evaluation rests in specifying clear indicators of both the degree and quality of implementation.’ While we are early in our M&E process where classroom observations will be conducted, there are two leading indicators that point to the potential for implementability. Both of these answers are self-assessed in the end-of-module survey and come with the necessary caveat around self-assessments. 

1. The module was relevant to me and my context.  All our modules have received ~85% for relevance to context on average. This is a great baseline to build from, especially when much of the content usually developed for teachers in Africa is often created in the Global North. 
2. I can use what I learned to make me better for my students.  All our modules receive ~92% agreement on this statement as well. 

Question 4: Are educators able to sustain their engagement with professional development?

Of the four steps that we are currently tracking, this is the most complex for us to accurately measure. Firstly, it is too early to assess this point given we are in the second quarter of our 12-month implementation cycle. We will continue to track data through Upskill, and grow our relationships with key partners (particularly the Ghanaian National Teachers Council) who can support us to track this metric more effectively over time. 

We also remain cognisant of what Upskill does and doesn’t do. We provide content targeting both teachers and school leaders, but at this stage cannot track the impact of our approach on the school environments in which teachers work. There are two channels through which we seek to influence ongoing engagement with teachers. The first is that all teachers, alongside registration on Upskill, are added to a Whatsapp group which is led by a local education official or ‘master trainer’. These groups are driven locally, and aim to both troubleshoot issues as they arise and drive learning through discussions of the content. This connects with our second channel; engagement with local stakeholders. For our growth and impact to continue organically, we must have local champions embedded within government, schools and the wider education community. These champions intrinsically understand local context, and are able to provide immediate on the ground support and encouragement to teachers. 

Transforming teaching, learning and leadership in every African classroom. 

Research question: What will attract and retain 1m educators across the African continent to join and stay on a learning platform that ultimately drive improvements in learner outcomes? 

In the duration of the project: 

1. Get 50000 users on the platform
2. Improve our MAU, DAU and engagement scores
3. Build a body of evidence for what works in online teacher professional development

Our mission is to reach every teacher on the African continent with high quality qualifications, professional development and support. To achieve this, we have intentionally designed a business model that can achieve both scale and sustainability. The key first step to driving impact is to attract educators to our platform, then to keep them there. Once on the platform, we can then refine our impact model and ensure that our platform causally drives improvements in learner outcomes. 

Upskill, our online platform, already has nearly 16000 users across the continent. Our belief is that through Upskill, we can create enough value for users that we can eventually charge for components of the platform. We aim to strike a balance between impact and sustainability; our content will always be free, but through running experiments and adding additional functionality to our platform we hope that we develop a value proposition that users will pay for. 

Over the duration of the sprint, we would look to run 6, two-week experimentation cycles that would drive activations and engagement with users on our platform. Fellows would work alongside our Programmes Team to execute and evaluate each experimentation cycle. We run these experiments constantly, but at this early stage of our development the capacity and expertise bought by the fellows would be invaluable. Whilst we believe that we are increasingly gaining an understanding of both the technological and educational challenges faced by our users, fresh eyes, inspiration and skills can help us transform what is already one of the fastest growing education businesses in Africa (currently we’re gaining about 1000 users a week completely organically). The success of this project will take us a huge step closer to scale and sustainability. We realise that there are more experiments to run beyond the scope of this project, but by developing the capacity and capabilities of our Programmes Team will be invaluable to the long term success of our organisation. 

At the start of the project, we would introduce fellows to our platform and our learning model. We would talk them through the challenges we face, and the opportunities in the market. We would present them with a list of the suggested experiments (see below) that we believe would drive activations, engagement, and impact. Ultimately, we would work with fellows to refine this list before embarking on the experimentation cycles themselves. 

Experiment cycles (suggested)

1. Activations: Building on the high NPS results of the platform, how can we leverage word-of-mouth, natural communities and referral networks to drive more user activations at lower costs?
2. Activations: What type of community activities (e.g. VLCs, influencer workshops) can drive more activations on the platform?
3. Activations: Does the ability to share your achievements on social media drive more activations on the platform?
4. Engagement: Does the ability to have your module submissions graded, have access to blended learning opportunities, 1:1 coach or PLC leader drive engagement on the platform?
5. Engagement: Given the lack of incentives in the system (government endorsed CPD points are not typically a great incentive), what type of incentives and rewards will drive more usage, completion and mastery of the modules?
6. Engagement: Would teachers pay to have their end-of-module certificates endorsed with CPD points from the national professional teaching body (e.g. South African Council of Educators)?

Data gathered through these experimentation cycles would help us improve our understanding of questions across our theory of change (bar impact on learner outcomes, which is still too early to measure and certainly beyond the scope of this experiment. During the sprints, we would continuously evaluate both the effectiveness of the experiment, and continue to devise new experiments to implement on the platform.