Description

Educational effectiveness of an intervention programme for social-emotional learning

MARY K SHEARD

University of York, North Yorkshire, England, UK

STEVEN ROSS AND ALAN CHEUNG

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

Abstract

The article presents a critical reflection of the use of mixed and blended methods in the first 2 years of a 3-year longitudinal randomised evaluation of PATHS (NI), a social and emotional intervention programme introduced in schools in a region of Northern Ireland (NI) traditionally characterised by religious and cultural diversity. As described by Durlak and Weissburg (2010), social-emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adolescents acquire the attitudes and skills to: (a) recognise and manage emotions, (b) set and achieve positive goals, (c) demonstrate care and concern for others, (d) establish and maintain positive relationships, (e) make responsible decisions, and (f ) handle interpersonal relationships effectively. Implementation of the PATHS (NI) programme began in six schools for children aged 4–11 in September 2008 as a pilot phase of the programme’s development. The article reports how the analyses of data obtained from mixed and blended methods produced complementary and contrasting results, and how this tension produced meaningful evaluation findings. Conclusions are drawn about the evaluation process and the contribution made by interviews with key stakeholders, teacher ratings of pupil behaviour, and lesson observations to our understanding of the educational effectiveness of a relatively newly-developed social and emotional intervention programme.

Keywords: evaluation, intervention, education effectiveness, social-emotional