Catherine Michaud-Leclerc publie un article dans la revue Journal of Development Economics

7 janvier 2022

Catherine Michaud-Leclerc, professeure adjointe au Département d'économique, a publié un article dans le Journal of Development Economics: "Restricted Access: How the Internet Can Be Used to Promote Reading and Learning", co-écrit avec Laura Derksen (Toronto) et Pedro CL Souza (Queen Mary).

Résumé:

Can schools use the internet to promote reading and learning? We provided Wikipedia access to randomly-selected students in Malawian boarding secondary schools. Students used the online resource broadly and intensively, and found it trustworthy, including for information about news and safe sex. We find a 0.10SD impact on English exam scores, and a higher impact among low achievers (0.20SD). Students used Wikipedia to study Biology, and exam scores increased for low achievers (0.14SD). Our results show that by restricting internet access to a source of engaging and accessible reading material, it is possible to encourage independent reading and affect educational outcomes.