How effective are the ‘Our Class’ resources on caring friendships for supporting children’s friendship experiences and meeting educator needs in primary school classrooms?

Description

Objectives: The paper evaluates the impact of Key Stage 2 learning resources on friendships on children’s friendship experiences and educator practice in the classroom. The materials were developed as a result of psychological research into the importance of quality reciprocal children’s friendships on self-worth.
Design: A mixed-method study is being conducted, involving a pre-post survey design with primary school children before and after a series of Relationships Education lessons on friendships (called ‘Our Class’), interviews with teachers who led the lessons and focus groups with children who participated in the lessons.
Methods: Schools were recruited via contacts and previously accessing the materials online. Participants involve primary school children (Year 3-6) and their teachers who have used the materials. Child surveys, conducted before and after the lessons, include the Harter self-perception profile (self-perception and social competence sub-scales), School Liking (adapted SLAQ; Ladd & Price, 1987; Ladd, 1990), nomination of their friends and best friends, the Friendship Quality Scale (REF), Children’s Friendship Expectations Questionnaire (Paquette MacEvoy et al, 2016) and Choosing friends (Nowland et al, 2019).
Preliminary results: Data collection and analysis is ongoing, but initial findings suggest the resources are well received by children and teachers and that they enabled appropriate and engaging discussions about pertinent friendship challenges. Challenges working with schools and conducting evaluative research will be discussed.

Period	11 Sept 2024
Event title	British Psychological Society Psychology of Education Section Conference 2024: Supporting Learners and Supporting Learning
Event type	Conference
Location	Cambridge, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	National