Ed School Gets Grant To Study School in Third-World Countries

Through a $10 million grant, the Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Institute for International Development have begun research on a project that could change education in underdeveloped countries through the use of computer software.

Sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the five-year project has two goals--educational research in Third World countries, and communicating the results of this research to educational policy makers.

"We want to provide the largest number [of schools] with the best educational goals at the least possible cost," said Professor of Education and Development Russell G. Davis, a member of the project.

"Currently, there is a heavy reliance on teachers as the sole means of teaching [in the Third World]," said Professor of Education Noel-McGinn, director of the project. "Often there are no textbooks, no instructional materials. We want to find ways that are both more effective and cheaper."

For the first four years of the study, project members will develop software explaining how to use available funds to attain the highest level of academic achievement. These programs or "simulation models" will explain the relative values of books, radios, teacher training, electronic devices, and other teaching aids, McGinn said.

In the fifth year project members will help the schools apply this technology to their current needs.

Within the next year project members will begin studying the factors that limit a child's access to education and how effectively schools use available materials and the environmental resources, McGinn said. Members will also focus on the best size, organization, and physical layout for schools in underdeveloped countries.

Project members will introduce educational materials, such as textbooks and radios, to the schools, to measure the effectiveness of the new resources.

The researchers then will draw together the results, determine the effects of intervention in these schools, and decide what information each nation's educational leaders need to know to understand the problems in their schools.

The study results will help build the computer software planning models which will be installed in the various schools. The final step of the project will be studying the impact of computers on the learning process.