Partnership with IRC/NYU Global Ties

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) and NYU Global Ties have launched a multi-year strategic initiative, Education in Emergencies: Evidence for Action (3EA) aimed at improving the quality of education and children’s learning and well-being in crisis-affected countries. This initiative will implement and rigorously evaluate a set of contextually appropriate, low-cost interventions targeted at improving children’s stress, executive functioning, and basic literacy skills among refugee educational settings in Lebanon, Niger, and Sierra Leone. In partnership with the IRC and NYU Global Ties, our team will adapt and implement Brain Games at these sites, aiming to improve children's executive functioning and self-regulation skills, as well as high-quality relationships in the classroom.

Brain Games will be adapted specifically for international refugee and humanitarian settings, for example adapting games to be culturally-relevant, while still retaining core skill-building components and intervention goals. Findings from this study will allow us to learn more about (a) the effectiveness in Brain Games in high-poverty, conflict settings, specifically refugee educational settings, (b) the variability in impact of Brain Games across educational settings, and (c) what teacher, classroom, and implementation factors influence the impact of such strategies on children’s outcomes.

Research Collaborators

Larry Aber, NYU

Carly Tubbs, NYU

Lindsay Brown, NYU

Ha Yeon Kim, NYU

Paul Frisoli, Senior Technical Advisor for Education, IRC

Research, Measurement, and Evaluation Staff at IRC

Funder

Dubai Cares