Educational effectiveness of an intervention programme for social-emotional learning

AbstractThe 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 comp...