Meta-Analysis: Effects of on Children's Learning in 15 Countries

Abstract

Staff members at Sesame Workshop asked us to conduct a meta-analysis of their proprietary evaluation research on the effects of viewing international versions of Sesame Street. Given global crises in early childhood education, and given the wide reach of Sesame Street, it was of considerable interest to us whether there were significant effects on key learning outcomes, and a particular consideration was whether there were such effects in low-income and middle-income regions where there might be few other educational resources available. We conducted a systematic search of online databases to look for any other relevant studies and ultimately analyzed a sample of 24 studies, conducted with over 10,000 children in 15 countries. This case study describes the process of defining the outer boundaries of the meta-analysis, developing the coding scheme, the challenges of coding the material reliably, the basic structure of the data set and analyses, and the challenges of communicating the results effectively both to academic and lay audiences. We also touch upon the issues involved in working with proprietary research, both in terms of the need to assure academic integrity and the different formats and quality of unpublished studies.

locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles