Park School

Mission Statement: Learning of the play, by the play, and for the play

Vision Statement: Creating, organizing, and disseminating an atmosphere of play-based learning in each locality so that all children get access to their learning-playing materials on the basis of equity and equality, and no one is left behind. 

Role of the Team Lead

The role of the team lead is elaborated below:

• Role as a Founder

As a founder, he would initially arrange all the things including the set-up cost for the school from his personal fund (without any public fundraising). Further, he would determine its mission, vision, and motto including its organizational policy.

• Role as an Organizer

As an organizer, he would organize all the operational activities of the school such as employment, admission, etc.

• Role as a Researcher

As a researcher, the Team Lead would conduct research in the following cases:

1. Conduct a demographic survey of the locality to estimate the size of the population, background, and economy of the prospective students and their families.
2.  Devise low-cost play materials, equipment, etc. that would be more user-friendly, budget-friendly, and easy to set up in any environment.
3.  Devise low-cost teaching-learning materials, equipment, etc., especially using locally available materials with mainly unconventional and unexplored ways.
4. The Team Lead would conduct, monitor, and evaluate all the research activities and would prepare a manuscript (or, manuscripts) to be submitted to an international peer-reviewed journal. 

The Team Lead and supporting team members are well-positioned to effectively support the LEAP Project because:

• The Team Lead has a decade of experience in the higher secondary to tertiary level of the education sector. He has gathered knowledge and experience about the recent trends in teaching-learning practices, including theories as well as research. He has achieved these through in-service training and completing about a hundred massive open online courses in various platforms like Coursera, Commonwealth of Learning (COL), etc. Furthermore, he has published articles in peer-reviewed journals and currently working on other manuscripts on education (low-cost chemistry laboratory materials, plagiarism, etc.)
• One of the supporting team members has also over a decade of experience in the primary-level education sector. Apart from her post-graduation, she also has completed a diploma in primary education (D.P. Ed.) from the National Academy for Primary Education (NAPE).
• Both the Team Lead and his team members are self-motivated to work and collaborate with national and international projects (and, or research) on education, especially primary education for the underprivileged group.

My solution:

Providing play-based learning through user-friendly, budget-friendly, and easy-to-set-up play materials, equipment, etc. for underprivileged children.

The problem that our solution seeks to solve: From traditional “academic mode” to “park mode” playing-learning environment. 

According to the World Bank data; until 2021, 61% of the total population of Bangladesh lives in the villages [1]. According to a report in the daily newspaper “NewAge” published on May 20, 2023, “more than 21 million Bangladeshis live in extreme poverty, and they cannot pay for the education of their children. A lack of education-friendly environment, ignorance of the parents, and financial constraints often cause dropouts from the school”[2]. The household-level national surveys revealed that “the net enrollment rate at the primary level is nearly 87%, but the rate is only 13.5% for pre-primary” [3] [4]. In addition to this context, we found the existing child education system-both government (fully free and compulsory), and non-government (paid) providing no or the least amount of support for play-based learning. Although the government has taken initiatives to incorporate play-based learning, especially at the pre-primary level [5], the lack of equal and equitable opportunities for all students caused by the absence of proper monitoring and intervention has made the initiative less effective. Further, the budget for government led-projects for setting-up play materials in primary schools is extremely high, so they are provided with selected schools with only budget availability. Apart from these, the World Bank's “Reaching Out of School Children” (ROSC II) project initiative [6] to help poor children remain seemingly limited to in-classroom activities. And importantly, provided with playing environs like a large school field, all schools are set with an “academic mode”, not a “park mode” which children like most. Even, the  BRAC's pre-schools and play labs [7] are not largely different from the traditional “academic mode”. Considering these situations, we want to provide our children with a unique opportunity where they would find themselves in a “park mode” playing-learning environment. 

References:

[1] “Rural population (% of total population) - Bangladesh | Data.”   https://data.worldbank.org/ind... (accessed May 20, 2023).

[2] “Promoting education among the underprivileged.”     https://www.newagebd.net/artic... (accessed May 20, 2023).

[3] “An Evaluation of BRAC Pre-primary Education Programme. Mirja Mohammad Shahjamal Samir Ranjan Nath - PDF Free Download.” https://docplayer.net/13664332... (accessed May 21, 2023).

[4] S. R. Nath and K. Sylva, “Children’s access to pre-school education in Bangladesh,” Int. J. Early Years Educ., vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 275–295, 2007, doi: 10.1080/09669760701516967.

[5] R. Rashid, “Exploring Play-based Pedagogy in Government Pre- primary Classrooms of Bangladesh,” vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 19–36, 2021, doi: 10.26180/c.5442096.v1.

[6] “World Bank Helps Give Bangladesh’s Poor Children a Chance at Education.” https://www.worldbank.org/en/r... (accessed May 20, 2023).

[7] “BRAC USA | Study: Play-based early childhood development initiative in Bangladesh ensures all children are equally developmentally equipped to benefit from school.” https://bracusa.org/study-play... (accessed May 20, 2023).

Our solution focuses on the Priority Approaches to integrating learning variability through (1) Integrative Research, and (2) Contextualized and Generalizable Research as described in the research agenda of the Jacobs Foundation [1]. In terms of learning variability, we prioritize it the most by incorporating multidimensional approaches to learning beyond traditional in-classroom activities. In this regard, we differentiate our effort from the traditional approaches to learning variability [2] in the following manner:

• Transforming the learning environment from “academic mode” to “park mode”
• To equip the learning environment with locally available user-friendly, budget-friendly, and easy-to-set-up play materials 
• Proving each child equal and equitable access to the playing-learning materials 
• Giving children the opportunity to interact with their playing materials while playing learning activities outside the classroom       

References:

[1] Jacobs Foundation White Paper (2023). Advancing Research on Learning Variability. Research Agenda. Compiled by Tsang JM, Fetz-Fernandes G and Cubillo A. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.7753301

[2] M. Tare and A. R. Shell, “Designing for Learner Variability: Examining the Impact of Research-based Edtech in the Classroom.”

We have conducted the following research activities that would help to establish evidence of effectiveness:

• Foundational research (literature reviews, desktop research): We have preliminarily searched about current national and international educational agenda, local government and non-government organization's responses to play-based learning in early childhood education
• Formative research: We also have carried out some basic works e.g., feasibility studies, case studies, and user interviews. To establish the “park school”, we have measured our strengths and weaknesses in site selection, budget availability, manpower, etc. Further, we have started a case study on the local BRAC-led project for drop-outs aged 3 to 6. We also have interrogated BRAC-led project students to get their feedback about schooling.  

The research/studies we have conducted revealed the following:

• Our case study analysis for our locality: In the case of play-based learning, current national and international educational agenda, local government and non-government organization's responses to play-based learning in early childhood education are not sufficient to meet the full need with maximum effectiveness
• Literature reviews: Our preliminary literature reviews revealed that no program has been taken to date for children aged 2 to 12 that helped them learn in a “park mode” environment. Rather, all they did provide an “academic mode” setting with some in-door-like play-based classroom activities.
•  User interviews: The BRAC-led project's students first showed enthusiasm in their school, later they found reluctance to their learning-playing. They accused dominating cases by elder students, lack of sufficient play materials, and importantly some (mild) physical punishment by the teacher. 
• Way forward: In these contexts, we hope our “park school” would provide an all-around diversified environment for the children to grow up with an ambiance that would foster their early development.   

Our organization's need to strengthen the evidence base of our solution:

“Park School” is totally different from the traditional schooling for children aged 2 to 6. Its different approach to teaching has been manifested in its motto, mission, and vision. As evidenced in our preliminary research, for example, our case study analysis for our locality, literature reviews, and user interviews, have revealed that there exists a large loophole in the prevailing teaching-learning method for children, especially in rural and suburban areas. Additionally, they severely lack learning variability, which we prioritize by incorporating multidimensional approaches to learning. Again, we are emphasizing that we must come out of the cocoon of the “academic mode” of the playing-learning method. Instead, the “park school” would prefer to initiate an approach as echoed in its name itself—the “park mode”. We hope it would be a new mode of playing-learning pedagogy, that might be incorporated in other schools/and, or areas of study. And, it is the right time to engage in this LEAP project because in Bangladesh children and all students are admitted to the schools before January. It means the new study session begins in January. So, if we are engaged in the LEAP project, we would be able to complete it within 12 weeks before the incoming new school session. Further, we would be able to correlate our findings with the government's local schools and provide them with both our experimental and control groups.  

We want to approach the LEAP Project with three research questions:

1. Are the children provided with the right plying-learning environment?
2. Do the children have equal and equitable access to their plying-learning environment/and, or materials?
3. Does the plying-learning environment foster “learning variability”?   

Elaboration on our selection of the type of research/studies by describing our desired outputs of the 12-week LEAP Project sprint:

Foundational research (literature reviews, desktop research): Through foundational research, we would base our solution on contemporary evidence. Through this, we would be able to show how different is our solution from traditional ones. It would also explore the foundational cause of our solution. Literature reviews would also be an inevitable part of our publication to be completed within the timeframe of the LEAP project sprint.

Formative research: Through the approaches to formative research, for example, usability studies, feasibility studies, case studies, user interviews, etc. we would be able to gather information to substantiate two things:

1. the loophole in the traditional “academic mode” of teaching-learning pedagogy, especially in the early childhood education
2. effectiveness of the “park mode” of teaching-learning pedagogy, especially in early childhood education, over the traditional one. 

This kind of research would produce solid evidence-based outputs directly from the stakeholders that would be monitored, and evaluated by the LEAP project members. This part of the research would form the core part, i.e., the results of our research work. 

Summative research: In the case of summative research, we would mainly carry out correlational studies. To explain, we would correlate our experimental group with the control group with respect to various modalities like availability, accessibility, equity and equitability, learning variability, attendance, etc. This part of the research would constitute the concluding part, i.e., the summary of our research work.        

Our organization would put these outputs into action through the:

• action-based research works
• student-community engagement
• student-teacher engagement
• multidimensional approaches to teaching and learning
• incorporation of learning variability
• ensuring the “park mode” of the learning-playing methodology 

Following the conclusion of the LEAP Project sprint, our organization plans to do with the outputs the following things:

1. The first thing we want to do is to inform the national and international community about our new approach to childhood education. We hope to do it through a research paper, hopefully, to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
2. We must then review our strengths and weaknesses found within the short operational time of the LEAP Project sprint.
3. Furthermore, we are aware that a system usually goes through some trials and errors, and in this way, the system becomes better over time when continuously reviewed and justified. With “park school”, we hope to do the same.
4. We know that the LEAP Project sprint is only for 12 weeks, we are not worried about that at all. As stated in our mission and vision statement, we have our own goals and objectives, and we hope that the LEAP Project sprint would initiate our journey, and trigger our way forward.      

Our desired short-term and long-term outcomes of the 12-week LEAP Project sprint:

1. Short-term outcomes:

• Establishment of a “test case” or prototype “park school”
• Implementation of a short international early childhood development project in a rural area (village) in Bangladesh
• Proper early childhood development for the target group
• Proper community engagement 
• Social awareness about early childhood development 
• Local demographic survey to boost further study
• To train the teachers (of park school) with hands-on students-teacher activities
• To make park school the best feeder school for local government primary school for the coming session (2024) entry

2. Long-term outcomes:

• To have the opportunity to inform the national and international community about our new approach to childhood education through one or more research papers
• Successive establishment of a “park school” in each locality
• Proper early childhood development for the whole group of students
• National and international awareness about early childhood development
• To train the teachers of other schools.
• To promote the “park mode” of early childhood education locally and globally
• To contribute to achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs)
• To cooperate with other national and international stakeholders with the same interest

Finally, the short-term and long-term outcomes stated above are not mutually exclusive; rather, they are supplemental to each other. Once, we would attain the short-term outcomes, it ultimately would pave the way to achieving the long-term ones.