Research project
Efficacy trial of Concept Cat
- Start date: 1 October 2022
- End date: 31 March 2025
- Funding: Education Endowment Foundation
- Value: £380k (to RAND Europe – £80k to Leeds)
- Partners and collaborators: Rand Europe (Lead institution)
- Primary investigator: Prof Louise Tracey
- Co-investigators: Dr Erin Dysart
- External co-investigators: Elena Rosa Speciani at RAND Europe, Miguel Subosa, RAND Europe (Co-PI at RAND Europe)
This is a two-armed, cluster, randomised controlled trial (RCT), with an embedded implementation and process evaluation (IPE), of the Concept Cat programme delivered by Better Communications CIC.
Concept Cat is a whole-class intervention, targeting children aged between three and four, that seeks to facilitate the acquisition of key early verbal concepts. In turn, the acquisition of these early verbal concepts should support the attainment of learning competencies laid out in the Key Stage 1 core science and mathematics curricula.
The programme is being delivered as part of the Department for Education’s Early Years Recovery Programme. Within this, the Stronger Practice Hubs and the Education Endowment Foundation are working together to fund Early Years settings’ access to evidence-informed programmes. The overall aims of this funding are to support education recovery following the pandemic, and to develop our understanding of effective professional development in the early years.
The central aim of the trial is to evaluate the impact of the Concept Cat programme on early conceptual vocabulary development. Ninety settings are participating in the trial. RAND Europe are leading on the trial and on the impact evaluation.
University of Leeds is leading on the IPE. This focuses on implementation fidelity and testing the programme’s underlying Theory of Change, including settings engagement with the training and delivery and the extent to which the programme impacts on the Home Learning Environment.
Project aims
The central aim of the trial is to evaluate the impact of the Concept Cat programme on early conceptual vocabulary development.
Impact
Expected impact on policy and practice (dependent on outcomes) i.e. if positive outcomes the programme can be expected to be rolled out more widely. Peer-reviewed report will be published on the EEF website and contribute to their evidence base as presented in their Teacher Toolkit.
Publications and outputs
Currently the published protocol and further details on the study are available on the EEF website.
c. April–May 2024 the Statistical Analysis Plan (SAP) will also be published on the website.
The peer-reviewed report will be available on the website c. March/April 2025.
Any additional publications are embargoed for six months after the report is published.