Educational Effectiveness of An Intervention Programme for Social-Emotional Learning

Mary Kathryn Sheard, Steven Ross, Alan Cheung

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The article presents a critical reflection of the use of mixed and blended methods in the first two years of a three 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. Implementation of the PATHS (NI) programme began in six schools for children aged 4 to 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.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)264-284
Number of pages20
JournalInternational Journal of Multiple Research Approaches
Volume6
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012

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