Part B: Student Action Teams: The Research Evidence

1. Part B: Student Action Teams:The Research Evidence • Victorian State Program: Phase 2 • Commissioned by VicHealth • Designed to provide an evidence basis for impact of program • See more details in Holdsworth, Cahill and Smith (2003) Student Action Teams: Research

2. Setting up the research • Interviews with students and teachers at a small number of primary and secondary schools in the program • Asked them to describe the aspects of their programs that worked well • Asked them to describe program outcomes • Used student terms to design a survey that asked how frequently these descriptors happened in programs • Asked also about outcomes - worse, same or better? • For teachers: skills inventory, impact on school etc Student Action Teams: Research

3. 14 Program Description Questions I got to have a say I felt proud of what we had achieved I felt proud of the way we worked together We worked as a team We were the ones who did the work Everyone got a chance to be heard We decided what happened in this project We overcame difficulties as they came up We worked together even when we disagreed We improved our team work and cooperation skills We chose something we thought was important to work on We did something worthwhile We got to help others in our school or community We got to know each other better Produces three Program Descriptor Factors Student reports of frequency of: Sense of meaning/purpose Sense of control Sense of bonding/belonging Survey analysis: Descriptors Factor Analysis of Student Responses Student Action Teams: Research

4. Reminder: the Nancy Phillips picture Sense of bonding: with family/peers/community, to feel/be wanted, to feel/be loved, to belong, to have basic needs met Sense of control: capability, competence, impact on one’s own environment, power over one’s self, use of social/life skills, power to change one’s self and environment control bonding meaning Sense of meaning: to feel important, to feel relevant, self-esteem, sense of dignity/honour, able to accomplish tasks After Nancy Phillips, 1990 Student Action Teams: Research

5. Self-reported changes to students: Connectedness to school Connectedness to teachers Connectedness to peers Self-esteem School work Survey analysis: Outcomes Student Action Teams: Research

6. Program Descriptors: Student reports of frequency of: Sense of meaning/purpose Sense of control Sense of bonding/belonging Program Outcomes: Self-reported changes to students’: Connectedness to school Connectedness to teachers Connectedness to peers Self-esteem School work Survey analysis: Linking Descriptors and Outcomes By participant gender, year level, team size Student Action Teams: Research

7. Outcomes 1: Strong Correlations • Students who experience a high sense of meaning and purpose within their program, also report greater changes to their school, teacher and peer connectedness and to their self-esteem and school work. • These are highly significant correlations (p<.01) • Similarly, students rating their programs low on ‘sense of meaning’ are highly significantly more likely to report lower changes on all impact scales. Student Action Teams: Research

8. Outcomes 1: Correlations(cont.) • ‘Sense of belonging’ also correlates highly with all impact scales and these correlations are also highly significant. • ‘Sense of control’ correlates strongly with school connectedness and somewhat less strongly with (in order) changes to school work, changes to self-esteem and changes to teacher connectedness - though all these correlations are still highly significant. Student Action Teams: Research

9. Outcomes 2: Gender • These correlations are generally stronger for boys than they are for girls except for ‘teacher connectedness’ with ‘meaning’, and ‘peer connectedness’ with ‘belonging’. • Changes to school connectedness, peer connectedness and self-esteem are all perceived by boys to be more linked the sense of meaning and purpose in the program than are these relationships for girls. Student Action Teams: Research

10. Outcomes 3: Team size • In large teams especially certain aspects of the organisation of the projects result in high pay-off in impact. • In large teams, ‘sense of meaning’ in the project is strongly correlated with impact in most areas, but particularly with school and peer connectedness and with self-esteem. • In smaller teams, the strong correlations are between both ‘meaning’ and ‘control’ with school connectedness, and also between ‘belonging’ and self-esteem. Student Action Teams: Research

11. Outcomes 3: Team size (cont.) • In larger teams, it is particularly necessary to build in a high sense of meaning, control and belonging. In smaller teams, you can ‘get away’ with more. Student Action Teams: Research

12. Summary: • Students saw control, purpose and bonding as important descriptors of what happened in successful Student Action Teams • The occurrence of these descriptive factors was stronglycorrelated with outcomes for students • The strongest correlations were with ‘meaning’ or ‘purpose’ • These correlations were stronger for boys and for large teams - this implies the importance of ensuring that these program elements occur Student Action Teams: Research