Positive Climate for Learning

Positive Climate for Learning

health and wellbeing

The use of evidence

A high threshold was set to determine the priorities and initiatives of the Framework. An evidence hierarchy was used to include a mix of meta-analyses, systematic reviews of randomised control trials, as well as pre-post studies, quasi-experiments and evaluations of current programs used in Victoria.

While the research includes average effect sizes, it does not rely entirely on them as indicators of effective school improvement. This is because effect sizes can be problematic for several reasons. Firstly, it is difficult to accurately compare effect sizes from meta-analyses where different methods are used in estimating average effect sizes. Secondly, some meta-analyses estimate average effect sizes using only a limited number of studies and findings may be less reliable or applicable more broadly. Further, the way in which some effect size categories are developed may be of limited use operationally in schools.

Evidence of strongest impact on student outcomes

·  Programs that target social and emotional learning (SEL) have a positive and significant impact on attitudes to learning, social relationships in school, and student achievement. Programs in research aim to improve behaviour generally or for specific students and can be at the classroom level or a school-wide initiative (Education Endowment Foundation, 2015).

·  A 2012 meta-analysis of 75 studies found that the most common aims of SEL programs were to increase social skills or decrease anti-social behaviour. The authors found that there were beneficial effects across seven different outcomes: social skills, antisocial behaviour, substance abuse, positive self-image, academic achievement, mental health, and prosocial behaviour (Sklad et al, 2012).

·  A 2008 report summarised three reviews of SEL programs including 317 studies. It found that SEL programs were beneficial in both school and after-school settings and for students with and without behavioural and emotional problems. SEL programs were effective at improving social-emotional skills, attitudes about self and others, connection to school, positive social behaviour, emotional distress, and academic performance (Payton et al, 2008).

·  Effective staff are mindful of actual or potential health issues of individual students, and engage them in discussion of these issues as they arise. They also model the healthy practices that the school promotes (Moore et al, 2013).

·  Successful school health initiatives include: policies that support school health; a school health advisory committee and designated school coordinators; planning based on health assessments and review of data, which is also used for continuous evaluation and improvement; and resourcing for successful implementation (Dilley, 2009).

·  Effective schools ensure that every child has a secure, positive and ongoing relationship with at least one staff member. Staff are mindful of actual or potential mental health issues of individual students, and seek to help them with these issues as they arise. They also model the positive mental health practices that the school promotes (Moore et al, 2013).

·  The most effective mental health interventions target students’ internalising difficulties (anxiety, withdrawn behaviour, negative thinking) (Farahmand et al, 2011). At primary school level, they include encouraging cooperative and helping activities in school and community, and active parent participation. In later years, they focus on cooperative learning, social relations programs, and self-management related to alcohol and drug use (Moore et al, 2013). Schools have particular awareness of students with high or low self-concept who are more test anxious and address their fears of negative evaluation and defensiveness (Hattie, 2009).

·  School programs can have a positive impact on student psychological wellbeing (e.g. aggression, depression or anxiety or antisocial behaviour) when they simultaneously teach cognitive strategies to students and create changes in the school and family ecology that support the use of these new skills (Durlak et al, 2011; Payton et al, 2008).

·  Evidence shows that social emotional programs involving a classroom component with parent component (or school-wide initiatives) improve conduct problems, emotional distress, and academic performance (Durlak et al, 2011; Payton et al, 2008).

·  Health promotion or preventative programs are more effective when schools simultaneously focus on the behaviour of children, teachers and families, as well as the relationship between the home and school, and the needs of schools and neighbourhoods to support healthy norms and competent behaviour. Prevention programs that focus just on the student are less effective than those that simultaneously ‘educate’ the child and create positive changes across both the school and home environments (Moore et al, 2013; Sancassiani et al, 2015).

·  Effective schools engage parents at both individual and group levels in determining the social behaviours expected of students (Moore et al, 2013).

·  Reviews and meta-analyses of health-related impact studies have found varying degrees of impact on students’ academic outcomes, which vary between contexts and approaches:

o  Interventions that are associated with positive outcomes for student academic achievement are handwashing, cognitive/social skills training, increased physical education, school breakfast programs, chronic disease management training and school based health centres (Dilley, 2009).

o  Physical activity programs have consistently been found to have either a measurable positive effect on academic performance, or no detrimental effect. Extracurricular physical activity interventions can improve cognitive skills and attitudes, and some recess intervention studies improved academic behaviour and cognitive skills and attitudes (Rasberry et al, 2011).

o  There is some (limited) evidence for the effect of nutrition services or health promotion by staff on academic outcomes (Murray et al, 2007).

Key references

Dilley, J. (2009) Research Review: School-based Health Interventions and Academic Achievement. Washington State Board of Health. Retrieved from http://here.doh.wa.gov/materials/research-review-school-based-health-interventions-and-academic-achievement/12_HealthAcademic_E09L.pdf

Durlak, J., Weissberg, R., Dymnicki, A., Taylor, R., & Schellinger, K. (2011) The Impact of Enhancing Students’ Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta-Analysis of School-Based Universal Interventions Child Development, 82(1), 405–432.

Education Endowment Foundation (2015) Teaching and Learning Toolkit - Australia. Retrieved January 9, 2015, from http://australia.teachingandlearningtoolkit.net.au/

Farahmand, F., Grant, K., Polo, A., Duffy, S., & DuBois, D. (2011) School-Based Mental Health and Behavioral Programs for Low-Income, Urban Youth: A systematic and Meta-Analytic Review Clinical Psychology Science and Practice, 18(4), 372–390.

Hattie, J. (2009) Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Milton Park, UK: Routledge.

Moore, T., McDonald, M., Tollit, M., & Bennett, K. (2013) Children and young people’s health and wellbeing in educational settings: A review of the evidence. Murdoch Childrens Research Institute.

Murray, N., Low, B., Hollis, C., Cross, A., & Davis, S. (2007) Coordintated School Health Programs and Academic Achievement: A Systematic Review of the Literature Journal of School Health, 77(9), 589–600.

Payton, J., Weissberg, R., Durlak, J., Dymnicki, A., Taylor, R., Schellinger, K., & Pachan, M. (2008) The Positive Impact of Social and Emotional Learning for Kindergarten to Eighth Grade Students: Findings from Three Scientific Reviews (Technical Report) (pp. 1–50). Chicago: Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. Retrieved August 31, 2015, from http://www.lpfch.org/sel/PackardES-REV.pdf

Rasberry, C., Lee, S., Robin, L., Laris, B., Russell, L., Coyle, K., & Nihiser, A. (2011) The association between school-based physical activity, including physical education, and academic performance: A systematic review of the literature Preventive Medicine, 52, S10–S20.

Sancassiani, F., Pintus, E., Holte, A., Paulus, P., Moro, M. F., Cossu, G., & Lindert, J. (2015) Enhancing the Emotional and Social Skills of the Youth to Promote their Wellbeing and Positive Development: A Systematic Review of Universal School-based Randomized Controlled Trials Clinical Practice & Epidemiology in Mental Health, 11(Supplement 1: M2), 21–40.

Sklad, M., Diekstra, R., Ritter, M. D., Ben, J., & Gravesteijn, C. (2012) Effectiveness of school-based universal social, emotional, and behavioral programs: Do they enhance students’ development in the area of skill, behavior, and adjustment? Psychology in the Schools, 49(9), 892–909. doi:10.1002/pits.21641