AAM Foundation (US 501C3) AAM Foundation (India 80G)

7110 Redwood Blvd, #A Valmiki Temple 1, Vasant Gaon

Novato, CA 94945 Near C8/8 Vasant Vihar
+1 415 898 9528 New Delhi 110057
[email protected] +91 11 2615 3809
www.FEAIndia.org

Research Projects

The key challenge for FEA is training and mentoring of teaching staff. Other challenges include student
engagement, data analytics, evaluating program outcomes and ongoing curriculum enhancements.

1) Teaching Staff - Review FEA staff training ecosystem to improve the performance and engagement of the
teaching staff. Review of contemporary literature and international best practices to deepen the training
experience and motivate trainees to be contributors as opposed to mere participants.

2) Teaching Staff - Review how learner-driven FEA classrooms are. Measure FEA classrooms along the
continuum of teacher centered, learner centered and learner driven. Recommend interventions and
strategies to move it along the continuum.

3) Non-cognitive Components of the FEA Learning Program - Evaluate the non-cognitive skill development
components in the current program and conduct gap analysis.

4) Non-cognitive Components of the FEA Learning Program - Review and evaluate current FEA trainings,
resources and practices to upgrade the pedagogical and non-cognitive profile of the FEA teaching staff
enabling them to develop non-cognitive skills among the students consciously and consistently.

5) Recommend design framework/blueprint for measuring non-cognitive skills among staff and students.
Identify research-based benchmarks for this measurement, evaluation strategies/tools and reporting
mechanisms. If feasible, design the evaluation tool with FEA team, pilot it and embed it within the
evaluation process.

6) Cognitive Skill Development in the FEA Learning Program - Evaluate the cognitive (and metacognitive)
skill development components in the current program and conduct gap analysis. Examine its impact on
the development of the non-cognitive skills.

7) Cognitive Components of the FEA Learning Program - Review and evaluate current FEA trainings,
resources and practices to upgrade the pedagogical and cognitive (and metacognitive) profile of the FEA
teaching staff enabling them to develop thinking skills among the students consciously and consistently.

8) Feedback and Metacognitive strategies. Test how well we provide feedback to students. Develop methods
to ensure it is done consistently for all students and help students think about their own learning strategies
and educational goals. A large portion of school / college age students skip our classes around the time
they have exams in their schools. Can / should we be helping them beat these exams?

9) Recommend design framework/blueprint for measuring cognitive skills among staff and students. Identify
research-based benchmarks for this measurement, evaluation strategies/tools and reporting mechanisms.
If feasible, design the evaluation tool with FEA team, pilot it and embed it within the evaluation process.
10) Study and analyze the relationship between cognitive and non-cognitive skill development:
Patterns of cognitive and non-cognitive skills development within individual students and how
development of one impacts development of the other.

Relational impact of cognitive and non-cognitive skill development among teachers and development of
these among students that they teach.

11) Curriculum analysis – identify and tweak those parts of the curriculum where students find themselves
stumped. Set up a process to analyze student test scores on an ongoing basis to help identify weaknesses.

12) Measure Impact of Training - on quality of program delivery in the classroom; student performance,
student attendance (by making learning an engaging experience) and others.

13) Assess efficacy of the FEA Planning-Teaching-Learning-Assessment loop; it’s vertical and horizontal
alignment across levels and centers.

14) Streamline Operations - Build dashboards for delivering timely diagnostic information to different levels
of the organization so 80% of the students can graduate within the designed twelve month period.

15) Address experiential poverty - Disadvantaged students have had very few experiences and learning
opportunities. Develop strategies to avail additional learning opportunities, by optimizing use of current
resources and test their effectiveness. For example, from google.com/Culturallnstitute identify what
experiences would enrich and benefit disadvantaged students.

16) Cooperative learning strategies. Develop and test methods for cooperative learning strategies for students
in the existing FEA environment. Explore the impact of such strategies in developing collaborative
approach to problem-solving.

17) Project -based Learning Experiences - Develop and test methods for PBL for students within the existing
FEA environment. Map the PBL experiences to the existing learning outcomes of language, cognitive
skills, non-cognitive skills and other components of the FEA program paradigm.

18) Develop FEA Alumni Program - To ensure Alumni do not lose the skills they have learned, maintain their
connection with the learning centers/environment and engage with/contribute to learning of current
students. Devise and design Continuing Education programs for the Alumni to be run during lean times
in the centers.

19) Data Analytics - Measure student performance and evaluation scores against several parameters. Check
time taken to graduate by cluster of class rooms / supervisors. Rank supervisors by student's learning
outcomes. Identify clusters of centers that are above and below median performance.

20) Technology - Review the current technology penetration in the FEA program/operations, including
adaptive learning and gamification. Advise/design broadening of the FEA eduscape to include technology
strategically overcoming some of its contextual limitations.

21) Develop a method of providing career counseling on a mass scale to students from a low information
background.

22) Evaluate the effectiveness of our program for its impact on employability within 5 years of graduation,
for students who have completed their chosen formal education stream.
23) Compare FEA students with their peers who have not attended FEA for personality traits, other
psychological markers and evaluate FEA program for its impact on lives and poverty alleviation.

24) Develop a program for Volunteers to come to our class rooms and spend time and be involved in various
ways that would benefit their own personal development as well as aid our students in their learning.

25) Conduct a longitudinal study on the benefits/impact of the program to the various beneficiaries along the
intended program objectives. What kind of an effect does the program have on students? It is an open-
ended research project suggestion, but thinking about how to measure the “value-add” of this program on
someone who graduates (versus someone who does not graduate or perhaps versus someone who never
enrolls) would be very helpful.

26) FEA takes anyone who wants to learn, but students come in with different levels of English
comprehension. Does this matter currently? If so, can the curriculum be better designed to accommodate
students who are at different levels?

27) Scaling up the Freedom English Academy - Build a blueprint to attract and develop partnerships where
either our curriculum can be replicated or we can be enabled to dramatically expand our reach. Are there
similar programs taking place anywhere else in the world?

28) Long term retention of staff. What can be done to retain staff for five years and beyond?

Researchers’ Liaison:
Europe Americas Asia-Pacific
Dirk Freise Dinsha Mistree Payal Mahajan
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
+49 178 139 0000