areas > EDUCATION

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The lack of high-quality education imposes high costs at both individual and societal level. Many strategies are being used in developing countries to maximize school enrollment, prevent dropout, and provide an effective learning environment.
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Example intervention approaches targeting educational outcomes are:
  • reducing costs (e.g., conditional cash transfers)
  • increasing school preparedness (e.g., early childhood development interventions)
  • strengthening the supply side (e.g., building new schools, investing in human capital)
  • adopting inclusive education and effective classroom practices
 
Governments and civil society invest a significant amount of time, effort, and money on improving the educational system. Yet, in many developing countries, the gaps are still large, and the knowledge about the outcomes of the implemented policies and interventions is rather limited. Many of those private and public efforts are not rigorously tested for effectiveness which raises questions about the efficient allocation of resources and whether the best strategies are being used and disseminated.
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In our lab, we engage in scientific practices to determine
  • which interventions work or do not work,
  • for whom they work,
  • through which mechanisms they work,
  • and which optimization strategies can be used to make them cost- and outcome-effective. 

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Closing the Gender Achievement Gap in STEM:
Testing a Culturally Adapted Version of a Brief Intervention 

​In the case of a gender-equality intervention, cultural norms and values related to gender practices are all likely to influence acceptability, adaptability, and effectiveness of evidence-based interventions. Using randomized controlled trials, we test how an adapted version of a brief social psychological intervention can decrease gender achievement gap in STEM fields. 
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Building 21st Century Skills:
IEL to evaluate intervention to promote creativity in children 

​Creative thinking has been identified and highlighted as an essential twenty first century skill. IEL, using cognitive tasks and measurement, serves as an independent evaluator of an intervention (funded by İŞGYO) to boost creativity in 8-12 years old children from disadvantaged neighborhoods and aims to contribute to the dissemination of an evidence-based intervention with an improved version. ​​
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What Fosters Inequality in Learning Environments? Implications of Between-School Tracking

While performance and socio-economic status differences between Turkish schools and students are well established, less is known about how Turkish schools differ on further student body and school characteristics essential for students’ learning. In collaboration with Child and Family Studies Laboratory, taking a school-centered approach and using the PISA data, we investigate differences between Turkey’s low performing vocational, low-performing academic, and high-performing academic schools with regard to family background, students’ motivational and behavioral engagement, and schools’ learning environments. 
Manuscript under review...
Motivation and Math Achievement in Turkish Students: Are They Linked with Socio-Economic Status?

​In Turkey, achievement gaps between schools, students, and socio-economic status (SES) groups are large. In the literature, achievement disparities are often explained with differences in students’ motivational beliefs. In collaboration with Child and Family Studies Laboratory, we investigate how family SES and school performance level relate to students’ motivational beliefs and achievement in math for 15-year-old Turkish students. PISA 2012 data was used to compare motivational beliefs of Turkish students across SES groups and the OECD average, as well as to test a path model predicting students’ math achievement.
Manuscript under review...