| dc.description.abstract | Since the rise of positive psychology as a unique discipline, a plethora of school-based interventions have emerged. There is a growing need to understand how these interventions can be effectively evaluated and implemented within schools. This thesis aims to develop an improved system of evaluation for positive psychology school-based interventions.
This thesis develops and examines a mixed method sequential four-step evaluation process (efficacy evaluation, effectiveness evaluation, evaluation of the student voice, and a case study). To gain the data to inform these evaluations, a positive psychology school-based intervention was implemented across two school years. In 2015 a total of 144 students in Grades 5 and 6 were drawn from 8 classes in 3 schools. In the 5 classes allocated to the intervention condition the intervention was implemented by a researcher. In 2016 a total of 299 students in Grades 5 and 6 were drawn from 13 classes in 4 schools. In the 7 classes allocated to the intervention condition the intervention was implemented by the existing class primary school teachers. Data was collected from student self-report scales and questionnaires, academic tests, teacher interviews, a parent questionnaire and class observations.
The efficacy evaluation in Chapter 2 provides information on both the intervention outcomes that were linked, and those that were not linked to the intervention, when implemented by a researcher under controlled conditions. The effectiveness evaluation in Chapter 3 provides insight into the intervention outcomes linked to the intervention when implemented by primary school teachers in true to life conditions. The evaluation of the student voice in Chapter 4 provides additional information to help in the evaluation and development of the intervention. Synthesis of the results of these three evaluations also provides useful insights into the impact of the interventions and the potential measurement limitations. The case study reported in Chapter 5 identifies school-, teacher- and student-level factors that shaped how effectively the intervention was implemented in schools.
Taken together these studies demonstrate the value of using a comprehensive process to evaluate new positive psychology interventions. | en_GB |
