This report summarizes the results from a three-month pilot research activity in Kaolack, Senegal designed to test whether communications techniques can bring about changes in family members’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to their children learning to read. At the end of three months, family members in Kaolack demonstrated strong recall of the main messages of the campaign and were much more likely than control families to espouse beliefs supportive of their children learning to read.

Social and Behavior Change Communication is the systematic application of interactive, theory-based, and research-driven communication processes and strategies to address tipping points for change at the individual, community, and social levels. The files included with this resource include the presentation and background materials used during a seminar on SBCC delivered by Karen Schmidt and Joe DeStefano. The agenda for this SBCC Seminar, delivered in May 2014, was: Part 1: What is Social and Behavior Change Communication? Part 2: What is the history and theoretical basis for SBCC? Part 3: What is the best way to develop a SBCC Strategy?

This report discusses two overarching themes for the behavior change communication (BCC) activity under Education Data for Decision Making (EdData II), Task Order 20. We begin by presenting a summary of pertinent health behavior theories and studies, which aim to inform the BCC activity and suggest possible techniques and strategies that can be applied to the education sector. We then move to describing a proposed applied research study, which will use the results of the health behavior studies to develop a possible model to be used for implementing a literacy intervention in a developing country.