AN INVESTIGATION OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A MINDMATTERS TEACHING MODULE IN SECONDARY SCHOOL CLASSROOMS
FINAL REPORT December 2005
Helen Askell-Williams Michael J. Lawson Rosalind Murray-Harvey Phillip Slee
School of Education
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Acknowledgements We would like to sincerely thank Jo Mason and the MindMatters evaluation committee and subcommittee for their support and considered comments about this investigation.
We would also like to sincerely thank, anonymously for ethical reasons, the students and teachers who agreed to having researchers from this project present in their classrooms; the school administrators who gave permissions to enter their schools and who contributed to data collection interviews; and to the members of the teacher reference group who enthusiastically contributed their expertise and well-considered perspectives to this project.
Helen Askell-Williams School of Education, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia Email:
[email protected]
Michael J. Lawson School of Education, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia Email:
[email protected]
Rosalind Murray-Harvey School of Education, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia Email:
[email protected]
Phillip Slee School of Education, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia Email:
[email protected]
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AN INVESTIGATION OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A MINDMATTERS TEACHING MODULE IN SECONDARY SCHOOL CLASSROOMS.................................1 1
Executive Summary....................................................................................................6 1.1
Background ............................................................................................................................... 6
1.2
Significance ............................................................................................................................... 6
1.3 The research design.................................................................................................................. 6 1.3.1 Identification of participants .........................................................................................................6 1.3.2 Development of instrumentation .................................................................................................6 1.3.3 Classroom observations...............................................................................................................6 1.3.4 Interviews with classroom teachers............................................................................................6 1.3.5 Interviews with school administrators.........................................................................................6 1.3.6 Teacher efficacy for teaching the UMI module .........................................................................7 1.3.7 The pre-teaching and post-teaching student questionnaires..................................................7 1.3.8 The teacher reference group workshop .....................................................................................7
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Main findings ...............................................................................................................7 2.1 Students .................................................................................................................................... 7 2.1.1 Students’ knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions ....................................................7 2.1.2 Addressing the needs of each student cohort...........................................................................7 2.1.3 Students’ level of development ...................................................................................................8 2.1.4 Transfer of learning from school to home..................................................................................8 2.2 Teachers ................................................................................................................................... 8 2.2.1 Teacher efficacy ............................................................................................................................8 2.2.2 Support for teachers .....................................................................................................................9 2.2.3 Teacher knowledge.......................................................................................................................9 2.3 The MindMatters Materials...................................................................................................... 10 2.3.1 The extent to which the UMI module is actually being taught ..............................................10 2.3.2 The classroom implementation of the UMI module................................................................10 2.3.3 The UMI materials and the MindMatters kit.............................................................................10 2.3.4 Availability of teaching-learning resources ..............................................................................11 2.3.5 Updating the MindMatters resource .........................................................................................12 2.3.6 The target audience for the UMI booklet .................................................................................12 2.4 Time......................................................................................................................................... 12 2.4.1 Time: Curriculum planning .........................................................................................................12 2.4.2 Time: Lesson planning ..............................................................................................................12 2.4.3 Time: Lesson content .................................................................................................................13 2.5 Curriculum design ................................................................................................................... 13 2.5.1 A framework to incorporate competing wellbeing initiatives .................................................13 2.5.2 A framework of progression across year levels ......................................................................13 2.5.3 A framework for the inclusion of teaching about mental health in the broader school curriculum .....................................................................................................................................13 2.6
Assessment............................................................................................................................. 14
2.7 Teacher Learning .................................................................................................................... 14 2.7.1 Potential collaborative development of teacher learning programs.....................................14 2.7.2 Drawing on the expertise of current teachers of Mental Health ...........................................15 2.7.3 Pre-service teacher education...................................................................................................15
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2.8
Levels of resource allocation by the MindMatters consortium ................................................ 15
2.9
Some tensions......................................................................................................................... 15
2.10
What are learners like? ........................................................................................................... 16
PROJECT DETAILS ..................................................................................................17 3.1
Background ............................................................................................................................. 17
3.2
Significance ............................................................................................................................. 17
4 3.3
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Research Objectives ............................................................................................................... 17
RESEARCH DESIGN.................................................................................................18 4.1
Overview of research design................................................................................................... 18
4.2 Detailed description of research design .................................................................................. 18 4.2.1 Participants...................................................................................................................................18 4.2.2 Participant background details ..................................................................................................18 4.2.3 Researchers’ role in relation to source organisation..............................................................19 4.2.4 Specific cultural/religious/language considerations................................................................20 4.2.5 Ethics approvals ..........................................................................................................................20 4.2.6 Contact and recruitment of participants ...................................................................................20 4.2.7 Information for participants ........................................................................................................21 4.2.8 Permissions..................................................................................................................................21 4.2.9 Time commitment for participants.............................................................................................21 4.2.10 Responding to burdens and risks .............................................................................................22 4.2.11 Confidentiality and anonymity....................................................................................................22 4.2.12 Value and benefits ......................................................................................................................23 4.2.13 School context statements.........................................................................................................23 4.3 Instrumentation........................................................................................................................ 23 4.3.1 The classroom observation framework ....................................................................................23 4.3.2 The teacher and administrator interviews................................................................................24 4.3.3 The teacher questionnaire .........................................................................................................25 4.3.4 The student questionnaire .........................................................................................................25 4.3.5 Researcher continuity .................................................................................................................28
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RESULTS ....................................................................................................................29 5.1 The classroom observation program....................................................................................... 29 5.1.1 Summary of lesson activities .....................................................................................................29 5.1.2 Details of lesson activities ..........................................................................................................29 5.1.3 Teacher presentation of information.........................................................................................34 5.1.4 The “brainstorming” activity ......................................................................................................34 5.1.5 Use of additional resources .......................................................................................................35 5.1.6 Teachers’ anecdotes ..................................................................................................................35 5.1.7 Students’ questions during class ..............................................................................................35 5.1.8 The exercise “learning the language of mental illness” .........................................................36 5.1.9 Discussions about equity and fair treatment ...........................................................................36 5.1.10 Discussions about individual reactions to stressful situations ..............................................36 5.1.11 Homework tasks ..........................................................................................................................39 5.1.12 Assessment tasks .......................................................................................................................40 5.1.13 Students’ reactions......................................................................................................................41 5.2 The teacher interviews ............................................................................................................ 42 5.2.1 What difficulties do you anticipate in teaching the UMI module?.........................................42 5.2.2 Goals for teaching the UMI module ..........................................................................................42 5.2.3 Support from school....................................................................................................................43 5.2.4 Comments on the content of the UMI module ........................................................................43 5.2.5 Programming................................................................................................................................45 5.2.6 What specific training and development for teaching the UMI module has been provided to you? ..........................................................................................................................................45 5.2.7 What other resources would you like to see provided by MindMatters?.............................45 5.2.8 What improvements could be made to the UMI materials? ..................................................46 5.2.9 The reliability of the MindMatters materials.............................................................................46 5.2.10 What additional resources do you use when teaching the UMI module? ...........................46 5.2.11 In what ways can the UMI module be individualised to meet special student needs? .....46 5.2.12 Do you expect the teaching of the UMI module to have an impact beyond the class and the school with students’ families and communities. .............................................................47 5.2.13 Given the opportunity, do you expect to keep teaching the UMI module? .........................47 5.2.14 Teacher professional development ..........................................................................................47 5.2.15 Teachers’ reflections on the progress of the UMI lessons ....................................................47 5.3 Interviews with teachers: Post-teaching the UMI module ....................................................... 50 5.3.1 Teachers’ knowledge..................................................................................................................50
5 5.3.2 5.3.3 5.3.4 5.3.5 5.3.6 5.3.7
The UMI materials .......................................................................................................................50 Structure of the UMI module......................................................................................................52 Time...............................................................................................................................................53 Relationships................................................................................................................................53 Additional support from MindMatters........................................................................................53 Student feedback on the UMI module......................................................................................54
5.4 The Administrator interviews................................................................................................... 55 5.4.1 How useful do you find the UMI booklet? ................................................................................55 5.4.2 What goals do you have for the teaching about mental illness? ..........................................55 5.4.3 What support do you receive from the school for teaching about mental illness? ............56 5.4.4 What further support would you like to receive from MindMatters?.....................................56 5.4.5 Programming and planning........................................................................................................56 5.4.6 Integration with other student services.....................................................................................57 5.4.7 Mandated curriculum ..................................................................................................................58 5.4.8 Two way interaction of research and practice.........................................................................58 5.5
The Teacher self-efficacy questionnaire analyses.................................................................. 59
5.6 The student questionnaire analyses ....................................................................................... 63 5.6.1 Return of consent forms .............................................................................................................63 5.6.2 Questionnaire item 1...................................................................................................................63 5.6.3 Questionnaire item 2: Knowledge (part 1) ...............................................................................67 5.6.4 Questionnaire item 3: Definitions ..............................................................................................68 5.6.5 Questionnaire item 4: Knowledge (part 2) ...............................................................................69 5.6.6 Questionnaire item 5...................................................................................................................71 5.6.7 Questionnaire item 6...................................................................................................................72 5.6.8 Questionnaire item 7: A short story ..........................................................................................75 5.6.9 Post-teaching questionnaire: Additional questions ................................................................81 5.7 Statistical analysis of student questionnaires ......................................................................... 89 5.7.1 Differences between boys and girls..........................................................................................89 5.7.2 Changes over time from pre-teaching to post teaching.........................................................91 5.7.3 Longitudinal data collection .......................................................................................................92 5.8 The teacher reference group workshop .................................................................................. 95 5.8.1 Should the UMI module be taught in schools? .......................................................................95 5.8.2 Usage of the MindMatters materials.........................................................................................95 5.8.3 Professional development (PD) ................................................................................................97 5.8.4 Teachers’ confidence..................................................................................................................99 5.8.5 Teaching about mental health across the curriculum ............................................................99 5.8.6 Students’ perceptions of the location of MindMatters in the curriculum............................102 5.8.7 Accommodating students’ learning needs.............................................................................102 5.8.8 Teacher learning........................................................................................................................103 5.8.9 Pre-service teacher education.................................................................................................104 5.8.10 Packaging of materials .............................................................................................................104 5.8.11 Teaching about Mental Health in primary schools ...............................................................104
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Appendices .............................................................................................................. 105 6.1
Appendix A: Framework for classroom observations............................................................ 105
6.2
Appendix B: Focus Interview questions/prompts for teachers and administrators ............... 106
6.3
Appendix C: Teacher efficacy scale...................................................................................... 107
6.4
Appendix D: Student questionnaire....................................................................................... 110
6.5
Appendix E: Letters of introduction and consent forms ........................................................ 119
6.6 Appendix F: School context Statements ............................................................................... 128 6.6.1 School 1 ......................................................................................................................................128 6.6.2 School 2 ......................................................................................................................................131 6.6.3 School 3 .......................................................................................................................................133
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References ............................................................................................................... 136
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1 1.1
Executive Summary Background
The MindMatters Consortium provides curriculum resources to schools to support the teaching and learning of issues related to student mental health. The MindMatters Consortium commissioned an evaluation of the classroom implementation of the curriculum resource ‘Understanding Mental Illness” (UMI) in order to provide feedback about the way that the UMI materials are used in classrooms and the way that they are received by teachers, students and administrators. The strategy for the study was to carry out a mixed-method approach employing qualitative and quantitative techniques to enable a detailed analysis of the use of the UMI materials in a small number of schools. 1.2
Significance
The MindMatters materials represent a major national curriculum development exercise in an area that is of vital importance for Australian society. To ensure the delivery of good quality teaching and learning, there is a need to investigate how new curricula are enacted in classrooms and teaching programs. 1.3
The research design
The program of research proceeded in eight stages: 1.3.1 Identification of participants Approaches were made by MindMatters staff and the researchers to a number of school principals and staff in South Australia and New South Wales seeking teachers who were teaching the UMI module in terms 2 or 3 of 2005. Teachers teaching the UMI module were difficult to find, however, eventually three schools in South Australia were identified. 1.3.2 Development of instrumentation Instruments were constructed to measure teachers’ efficacy and students’ knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions, and to guide classroom observations. The instruments contain items designed to facilitate both qualitative and quantitative analysis. 1.3.3 Classroom observations The teaching of the UMI module in three secondary school classrooms, ranging from six to ten lesson observations per school, was observed in-depth. 1.3.4 Interviews with classroom teachers Focussed interviews about the UMI materials and their classroom implementation were held with teachers, before, during and after the teaching of the UMI module. 1.3.5 Interviews with school administrators Focussed interviews about the teaching of UMI were held with school administrators.
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1.3.6 Teacher efficacy for teaching the UMI module Participating teachers were administered a questionnaire designed to investigate their efficacy for teaching the UMI module. 1.3.7 The pre-teaching and post-teaching student questionnaires Participating students were administered questionnaires, at pre-teaching and post-teaching the UMI module, about their knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions relevant to mental illness. 1.3.8 The teacher reference group workshop Near the end of the investigation, interim findings were presented to a teacher reference group for consideration and further discussion.
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2.1
Main findings
Students
2.1.1 Students’ knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions Students’ questionnaire responses indicate that at the group level, students’ knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions relating to Mental Illness improved from pre-teaching to immediate post-teaching of the UMI module. At delayed post-teaching, with cautionary interpretation due to a small number of participant responses, students’ knowledge showed a predictable decline (due to cessation of teaching and/or revision), whilst attitude and behavioural intentions continued to improve. 2.1.2 Addressing the needs of each student cohort The detailed overview of lessons illustrates that students had different levels of familiarity with the teaching-learning activities suggested by the UMI booklet. For example, group-work, student-to-student teaching activities, and role plays in front of an audience are activities that require explicit teaching of process, in addition to teaching of the subject-matter content that the activities are intended to promote. The success of some of the UMI learning relied upon students’ familiarity with some of the more active, student directed learning activities. Comments from the teachers, administrators and students in this study highlighted teachers’ pedagogical decisions about planning the proportion of student self-directed learning that occurs in a unit of work. Whereas the teacher at School 2 in this study determined that his students needed relatively strong teacher direction for the UMI lessons, the teacher and students at School 1 felt the need for more emphasis on student-directed learning. These perceptions of student need directly influenced students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the UMI module. Therefore, suggestions about the UMI module that certain activities were suitable for younger age groups, or that students would prefer an independent research project, are mediated by teachers’ and students’ perceptions about appropriate lesson design for each particular student cohort. It is up to teachers to select activities from the UMI booklet that students have the capacity to manage. This requires teachers to make decisions on two planes. The first is whether the
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subject-matter content is important enough to justify inclusion in their proposed UMI instruction. The second decision is whether the activity intertwined with the subject-matter content is suitable for their particular cohort of students. If it is not, then the teacher has to construct an alternative teaching-learning method for covering the same content. Teachers experienced in teaching about mental health will be well equipped to make such adjustments. However, it is possible that less experienced teachers will not be able to make these adjustments. (That teachers may be teaching ‘out of field’ is a recurring observation in this evaluation). Although this might be considered a common issue for teachers, it did become apparent in the present study. It is thus worthy of consideration with a view to designing the delivery of core UMI subject-matter content in adaptable ways for inclusivity. 2.1.3 Students’ level of development Feedback from teachers and students in this study illustrate acutely the range of students’ development even with the two Year levels included in the study. Students in Years 10 to 11 can range from 14 to 17 years of age. Hence, comments that aspects of the UMI module were both too simple and too complex are realistic given students’ ages, and with those ages, the potential range of students’ development. An example is provided by the comment from one student reported herein, where he was unable recognize an analogy between people’s attitudes towards asthma as a physical illness and attitudes towards a mental illness. Instead, the student interpreted asthma literally as a case of mental illness. This student’s response suggests a lack of development of the abstract thinking that is essential to understand an analogy. Teachers design their instruction with their particular student cohort in mind. However, some guidance as to the levels of the various activities in the UMI booklet might be useful, especially for teachers teaching out of their subject-matter area, or teachers teaching the UMI module for the first time. 2.1.4 Transfer of learning from school to home We did not gain a strong impression that the teaching about UMI happening in the classrooms we observed was having a direct impact upon students’ home lives, although it was beyond the scope of this study to develop instrumentation to measure this. Students who conducted one of the UMI module activities, the UMI community survey, may have engaged in conversations with family and friends abut mental illness. However, it was not generally apparent from students’ conversations, the questionnaires, or the teacher interviews that there was any obvious transfer of the UMI subject matter beyond the classroom. The extent of transfer of learning from school to home could be a site for future research. (Of course, knowledge transfer is a major issue in all subject areas, not just UMI) However, as one teacher pointed out, mental health is part of the community: No topic exists in isolation.
2.2
Teachers
2.2.1 Teacher efficacy Teachers’ responses indicated that they feel efficacious about their teaching abilities and have goals for teaching that are compatible with the UMI module.
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2.2.2 Support for teachers Teachers generally indicated that in lesson design and delivery they were given the freedom and responsibility to act relatively autonomously, but received support as required from other school personnel. They felt that the UMI materials, and the MindMatters materials in general were useful. In particular, teachers felt confident in the content UMI materials due to the credibility of the organization producing the materials. However, they had specific comments about individual aspects of the materials, such as applicability to different cohorts of students. Professional development for teaching about mental health received by teachers in this study ranged from none to MindMatters teacher workshops. Teachers seemed generally unaware of other supporting materials such as web sites and guest speakers who could complement their teaching of the UMI module. 2.2.3 Teacher knowledge A distinction can be drawn between three (of many different) kinds of teacher knowledge 1. The first is teachers’ general pedagogical knowledge, about, such things as lesson design, teacher-student relationships and successful class management. The second is profound knowledge about the subject matter at hand. The third is pedagogical content knowledge, which refers to teachers’ knowledge about how to best teach the specific subject matter at hand. 2.2.3.1 Teachers’ general pedagogical knowledge We can see from teacher participants’ responses to the teacher self-efficacy scale in this study that teachers’ feel confident about their general pedagogical knowledge in areas such as relationships with students and curriculum design. 2.2.3.2 Teachers’ content knowledge In this study, some teachers’ comments about their lack of knowledge in the area of mental health and mental illness points to the substantial issue of the availability of teachers in each school who feel that they do have adequate knowledge to teach in this field. Lack of a substantial numbers of teachers with a profound knowledge about the issues related to mental health is an issue that needs to be addressed to achieve good quality teaching about mental health in schools. 2.2.3.3 Teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge Good quality pedagogical content knowledge relies upon a combination of a profound knowledge of the subject matter, and how to best make that subject matter accessible to students. Blurring the distinctions between these types of teacher pedagogical knowledge can lead to situations where ‘good’ teachers are required to teach outside of their subject-matter disciplines. The quality of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge is related to the issue of whether teaching a module such as UMI could potentially cause a worsening of students’ knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions. Good quality teacher pedagogical content knowledge is necessary to guide students’ thinking towards reliable information sources and careful consideration of all aspects when forming attitudes and behavioural intentions.
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2.3
The MindMatters Materials
2.3.1 The extent to which the UMI module is actually being taught Another issue to consider is whether or not teaching about UMI finds a place in the curriculum at all. When we approached a number of schools (who had sent teachers to MindMatters professional development) to seek volunteers for this study, we received a variety of responses including • • • • •
they were not doing MindMatters they were not doing MindMatters this year there was no place in the curriculum for MindMatters they only did one or two sessions of MindMatters in pastoral care (or similar) they did other parts of MindMatters, such as resilience or bullying, but not UMI
We began this project with the assumption that schools were actually teaching the UMI module, but our experiences with the non-availability of schools for observation for this UMI investigation calls this into question. It has become clear that that the provision of the MindMatters suite of resources to all schools, in particular in this case the UMI resources, and teachers’ attendance at MindMatters professional development, cannot be assumed to be translating into teaching UMI in classrooms. It is fair to say that even the three schools that were eventually recruited to this evaluation study engaged with teaching the UMI module more fully for the purposes of the evaluation that they would have if the evaluation study was not underway. In some schools there is no curriculum line for the inclusion of MindMatters modules. If UMI is not specifically include in Health and Physical Education, and it often is not, then it may be relegated to pastoral care, if such lessons exist, which they may not. At best, this might translate into one or two lessons per year of UMI or other MindMatters materials. As part of the teacher reference group workshop we undertook a small survey of which schools are, and are not, teaching which parts of the MindMatters suite. Such an audit on a larger scale might be a fruitful line of enquiry. 2.3.2 The classroom implementation of the UMI module One of the most obvious findings from the classroom observations is that each of the teachers in this study addressed the UMI module of instruction in different ways. Different portions and proportions of the booklet were presented to students. In all cases, large sections of the UMI materials were not presented to students during the observed teaching events. Also, within each section of the UMI booklet, part or all of the section may have been used. None of the classes completed the UMI module in the allocated lesson time, even though up to 12 lessons were allocated in one school, which is a substantial allocation to one topic. 2.3.3 The UMI materials and the MindMatters kit The individual responses of students and teachers included in the results section are detailed and informative, and we will not repeat them here. However, we will draw attention to some of the issues.
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Some updating of the UMI materials is required if they are revisited – students are quick to pick up changes in fashion. Students’ attention to such matters can cloud the main instructional messages.
•
There were some comments from students and teachers about the use of American, rather than Australian, statistics.
•
In terms of actual approach, one teacher pointed out that the UMI materials focussed upon the symptoms of mental illness, but it would have been interesting to have more information about the causes of mental illness.
•
One student’s observation, that the UMI video seemed to present a static picture of mental illness rather than presenting mental illness as fluid and developing, seems insightful and worth further consideration.
•
One student argued for information, rather than appeals for attitude change, making the point that simply telling people what to think is not sufficient to bring about conceptual change. People need an imperative for conceptual change that comes from the realization that their existing conceptions are no longer functional2, 3. Increased knowledge through education can provoke an imperative for conceptual change.
•
The value of narrative for changing people’s conceptions could be further exploited in the UMI materials. This was noted by one respondent who suggested the use of more case studies to capture students’ interest.
•
One teacher highlighted the difficulty of dealing with profound issues such as mental illness in ways that are accessible by students of school age. There was a sense that the profound issues were dealt with in simple ways, such as with worksheets. This could have the effect of trivialising the issues. This observation was also made by some students, who suggested that they would have preferred to deal with the subject of mental illness through a research investigation, giving them the opportunity to investigate one or two issues more fully.
•
In different teaching situations, the UMI booklet may be conceptualised as a repository of information to be utilised entirely at a teacher’s discretion, or as a planned program of instruction that requires most of the information to be presented, in a certain order, to form a coherent package. These two possible conceptions will underpin subsequent evaluations of teachers’ fidelity to the UMI materials in their lesson design. It might be useful for this issue to be addressed in any subsequent publications of the UMI materials, to indicate which parts of the UMI module are considered by its designers to be “core,” and which parts are “extension.”
2.3.4 Availability of teaching-learning resources Restricted access to books, pamphlets, posters, photocopying, computers and internet access impacts upon the possibilities that teachers have for lesson design. For example, the availability of one UMI booklet in each school makes it a limited resource that tends to remain with the teacher. (One teacher needed to borrow the researcher’s UMI booklet for the duration of the UMI teaching program, as the school booklet had been mislaid). With limited resources available during lesson time, students need to rely on the teacher for access to information. This tends to promote a “teacher as fount of knowledge’ model of teaching and learning. Hypothetically, students would be able to conduct their own enquiries outside of
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regular lesson times. Students’ propensity to do this depends on many other factors, including internal motivation such as interest, external motivation such as assessment tasks, the inquiry nature of the class and school environment, the self-regulated learning skills of the students. Students’ access to resources such as appropriately stocked libraries and internet connected computers can facilitate or hinder students’ self-directed enquiries. Similarly, different amounts and configurations of the physical space available to relatively large classes of students will impact upon the nature of activities that can be undertaken within regular lessons. All of these considerations were evident during the classroom observations of this study. 2.3.5 Updating the MindMatters resource If the MindMatters kit is updated, new technology such as DVDs and the internet will provide valuable resources for relatively economical distribution of information. However, teachers also expressed a need for bound and loose leaf paper versions of materials and updates such as fact sheets. 2.3.6 The target audience for the UMI booklet The UMI booklet has the potential to be used as an information source by two sets of learners – the teachers and the students. It is worth considering whether the booklet is intended to play this dual role, or whether it might be more appropriate to have a student resource and a teacher resource.
2.4
Time
Lack of time, in a number of ways, is a recurring theme in this study. These themes are discussed below. 2.4.1 Time: Curriculum planning There exists a substantial issue of programming the teaching of UMI, and the other issues in the MindMatters suite, into the curriculum. This goes beyond just the useability of the materials provided, to faculty level, school level, and community level decisions about the imperative for teaching the material. Our discussions with the enthusiastic teachers and administrators in this study suggest that the value of teaching about the issues in the MindMatters suite is undoubtedly well-supported. However, this support is not easily translated into the crowded curriculum and tight Key Learning Area timelines. 2.4.2 Time: Lesson planning It is clear from the overview of lessons presented at the three schools included in this study, and also from the difficulties we experienced in finding schools who were teaching the UMI module to partake in this research, that there is a need to realistically consider the amount of time that will be allocated to teaching about mental illness to any one class in any one year. The number of lessons allocated to the UMI module by schools in this study was substantial, and yet these schools still did not cover the material in the UMI booklet. It is quite possible that teachers would allocate even fewer lessons to UMI if it were not the subject of a focussed evaluation. As one teacher noted, “There is enough material in the MindMatters yellow box to fill up a couple of year’s worth of health lessons." It would seem useful, therefore, for the
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main messages, or goals, of the UMI module to be sectioned into a range of potential lesson allocations, to provide guidance to teachers about what would be most important to address in say, 2, or 4, or 6, lessons, if that was all that was made available to UMI. 2.4.3 Time: Lesson content At the level of the individual lesson, the issue of time was also apparent. The UMI booklet prescribes a great deal of information to cover in single lesson time slots. For example, it can be seen from the lesson overview in Table 13 that covering the information in the fact sheets of the UMI booklet (pages 30 to 44) took two lessons in School 1 and four lessons in School 2. Thus the time required for just this one activity used up a substantial amount of the total lesson time allocated to the UMI materials. Lack of time can prevent teachers and students progressing from superficial treatment of information to deep consideration of the issues at hand. For example, during the teaching of the UMI module it was observed that sometimes students asked meaningful questions, or made extremely profound observations drawn from their own life experiences. Such student comments can provide the springboard for teachers and students to develop their intellectual engagement with the subject matter. However, the time constraints on the UMI module meant that such teaching-learning opportunities were not always able to be exploited.
2.5
Curriculum design
2.5.1 A framework to incorporate competing wellbeing initiatives It is clear that teachers have many demands from different sources about what it is that should be taught in classrooms. The MindMatters suite of materials is just one of many important areas of student wellbeing that compete for classroom air time. For example, anti-bullying programs, anti-drugs programs, the National Safe Schools Framework (NSSF), the Attributes of a Lifelong Learner all demand attention. Although some programs do incorporate elements of other programs (such as the NSSF incorporating some of the MindMatters suite) the development of a framework to assist teachers in accommodating the many wellbeing related issues may be a valuable enterprise. 2.5.2 A framework of progression across year levels Teaching about wellbeing will be less than optimally effective if it is isolated to a few teaching events at one or two year levels. The development of a framework or program of instruction that provides a spiral of instruction at appropriate levels, and without undue repetition, across year levels is worth consideration. 2.5.3 A framework for the inclusion of teaching about mental health in the broader school curriculum The UMI booklet, and the other resources in the MindMatters suite appear to operate as stand alone teaching resource packs. There is scope for further developing these resources to assist in the incorporation of teaching about mental health in other aspects of the school curriculum. 2.5.3.1 Inclusion of teaching about mental health in integrated units of work Many schools are designing integrated units of work that use a fruitful area of enquiry, or fertile question, to focus students’ learning across many key learning areas. This integrated
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unit of work approach has considerable potential for teaching about mental health. Developing integrated units of work, that provoke students to investigate topics such as UMI along with other Key Learning Areas might be one way to embed teaching and learning about mental health more fully into the curriculum. The design of integrated units of work will potentially broaden the subject area location of teaching about mental health, which tends currently to be restricted to the Health and Physical Education learning area. It will also have implications for teacher subject-matter knowledge, providing the possibility that schools could have a subject-matter expert in the school who can act as a consultant resource, but who does not have sole responsibility for teaching about mental health. Subject area location and teacher expertise are issues that warrant further investigation should a program of integrated units of work be designed. 2.5.3.2 Alternative delivery modes MindMatters could profitably investigate additional forms of instructional material design, such as: • • •
2.6
designing and delivering resources to support student mini-conference days, further collaboration with text book writers to integrate mental health into existing curriculum resources, and further collaboration with curriculum writers such as the Open Access College to identify existing and possible future resources.
Assessment
Both teachers and students value what is assessed in the school curriculum 4-6. Similarly, ongoing formative and summative assessments are essential teaching-learning strategies Students’ knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions can be assessed, as has been evidenced in the pre-and post-teaching questionnaires used in this study. The commitment to assessment in the design and delivery of the UMI module is worth consideration, as it will influence teachers’ and students’ approaches to the module.
2.7
Teacher Learning
2.7.1 Potential collaborative development of teacher learning programs Teachers need pre-service, initial in-service and ongoing in-service professional education. The models of teacher self-directed investigations and expert teacher reference group workshops discussed herein suggest two potential strategies for future teacher PD. Flinders University currently supports teachers in self-directed investigations in various topic areas, in some cases incorporating self-directed investigations into accredited postgraduate courses. We can see the potential for this model of self-directed accredited research to be extended to the arena of teaching about mental health. Flinders University would be keen to collaborate with MindMatters in developing self-directed teacher investigations of this nature. A second strategy for MindMatters could be to commission and/or convene PD modeled upon the expert teacher reference group strategy used for this project. Flinders University would be interested in collaborating in the design and delivery of this kind of teacher learning program.
15
In addition, MindMatters could consider the design and production of resources to support PD of this nature. 2.7.2 Drawing on the expertise of current teachers of mental health Although this report draws attention to areas that could be further developed in the teaching of UMI and about mental health generally, it is also clear the there exists a valuable resource of teachers who are knowledgeable about, and experienced in, teaching about mental health. This resource of experienced teachers has potential to be used in two ways 1) As collaborative teachers/mentors to work with the MindMatters consortium to work in professional development in teaching about mental health 2) As collaborative researchers to work with researchers/evaluators in evaluating the teaching of mental health 2.7.3 Pre-service teacher education Discussions about pedagogical content knowledge and teachers’ specific subject matter knowledge extend to pre-service teacher training. Currently it is unlikely that many preservice teachers will have had much professional training to equip them to teach about UMI. A similar package of resources for teacher training (Response – ability) has been developed for pre-service teacher training. It is not clear to what extent this resource has been integrated into pre-service teacher training. An audit of pre-service teacher training in the area of teaching about mental health might be warranted.
2.8
Levels of resource allocation by the MindMatters consortium
This study has been about the evaluating the implementation of the UMI materials which are targeted for use at the classroom level. However, the broader issue to be considered is whether the provision of classroom level materials should be an ongoing focus, or whether attention should be turned to other levels of teaching about mental health, such as justifying a place for such instruction in the overall curriculum, and providing frameworks of curriculum design that facilitate such inclusion. Discussions with the MindMatters evaluation sub-committee have indicated that when the MindMatters kit was first constructed, good quality information about mental health was not readily available in the general, or teaching, community. An audit of whether this is still the case, especially given the rapid rise of internet resources, could provide some guidance as to the need for further development of the MindMatters kit, or whether resources should be directed to other levels of education systems.
2.9
Some tensions
A number of tensions emerge from the classroom observations and discussions with teachers. There is a tension between the need for teachers of mental health to be well educated in the fundamental issues surrounding the subject matter, balanced against the need for teaching about mental health to be dispersed across, and embedded in, the curriculum of various
16
subject areas in order to reach as wide a range of students in diverse situations. Thus, many prospective teachers about mental health may have little expertise in the area. There is also tension between the need for an approach to whole school curriculum driven by administrators and coordinators – a top down approach, balanced against the need for teachers and students to have an input into curriculum design and delivery – a bottom up approach. There is a tension between the two philosophical approaches of “I teach my subject” and “I teach students.” These two perspectives will underpin the degree to which teachers take on responsibility for teaching about mental health. And there is tension between the degree to which the MindMatters kit is perceived as being a resource to be mined as required, or as a prescriptive package. This tension appears to be directly related to teachers’ content knowledge.
2.10 What are learners like? Thus an evaluation of the classroom implementation of the UMI module goes well beyond what can actually be observed in the classroom, and rightly so must consider to a large degree what happens well before any students are sighted. These considerations must address the question of “What are learners like?” We have argued at length elsewhere 7 that learners are • • • • • •
Situated Social Affective/emotional/motivational Cognitive Metacognitive Developmental
For maximally effective teaching and learning, the design of curriculum materials must account for these six characteristics of learners. We recommend these six characteristics as a framework for guiding the future design of MindMatters resources.
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3 3.1
PROJECT DETAILS Background
The MindMatters Consortium provides curriculum materials to schools to support the teaching and learning of issues related to student mental health. The MindMatters Consortium commissioned an evaluation of the classroom implementation of the ‘Understanding Mental Illness” (UMI) module in order to provide feedback about the way that the UMI materials are used in classrooms and the way that they are received by teachers, students and administrators. The strategy for the study was to carry out a detailed analysis of UMI use in a small number of schools. 3.2
Significance
The MindMatters materials represent a major national curriculum development exercise in an area that is of vital importance for Australian society. To ensure the delivery of good quality teaching and learning, there is a need to investigate how new curricula are enacted in classrooms and teaching programs. 3.3
Research Objectives
-To identify key features of teaching practices in the implementation of the MindMatters module “Understanding Mental Illness”. -To gather teachers’ and students’ perspectives about the UMI module, including positive and negative aspects, and suggestions for improvement. -To identify links between the module and students’ knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions. -To identify teachers’ perspectives about the relationship between the UMI module and students’ knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions. -To yield well-supported and useful generalizations about the relationship between key variables of classroom practice during the implementation of the UMI teaching module and students’ understanding of mental health. -To identify teachers’ perspectives of their own efficacy for teaching the UMI module. NB MindMatters finalised the distribution of one free teaching resource kit to every secondary school in Australia on 9 August 2002. The Understanding Mental Illness module can also be obtained in PDF from http://cms.curriculum.edu.au/MindMatters//resources/understanding.htm
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4 4.1
RESEARCH DESIGN Overview of research design
The teaching of the UMI module in three classrooms was observed in-depth. Pre and postteaching questionnaires were administered to students and teachers. In-depth focussed interviews were held with teachers and school administrators. Qualitative analysis of interview transcripts and written questionnaire responses, and quantitative analysis of categorical and scaled questionnaire responses was conducted. These analyses were presented to a teacher reference group for consideration and further discussion. 4.2
Detailed description of research design
4.2.1 Participants 4.2.1.1 Collaborating teachers Secondary school teachers who wished to collaborate with the researchers in the evaluation study, and who were implementing the MindMatters module “Understanding Mental Illness” with their classes in 2005, were recruited from 3 schools in South Australia. 4.2.1.2 The collaborating teachers’ students Secondary school students in the classes of the collaborating teachers were asked to volunteer to participate in the study. 4.2.1.3 School Administrators – one or two per school One or two administrative staff, (such as principals, deputy principals and year level or course coordinators), from each collaborating teacher’s school were invited to volunteer to participate in the evaluation. 4.2.1.4 A teacher reference group A group of secondary teachers, experienced in teaching about mental health, attended a ‘teacher reference group’ workshop to discuss and consider interim results from our evaluation of the UMI module. 4.2.2 Participant background details All participation in the study was voluntary and anonymous, and it was made clear that participants may withdraw from any aspect of the research at any time, without prejudice. The following tables provide details of the participants in this study
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Table 1: Students School
Class size for Year level observations of UMI module
Subject
School 1:
25
The body – an integrated unit of work
Year 10 Year 11
School 2:
27
Year 10
Health Physical Education
School 3:
15
Year 11
Health
and
Table 2: Teachers Years teaching Subject specialities experience
Current position
Class teacher 1
0
Biology/chemistry
Student teacher (final year)
Class teacher 2
28
Health/physical education
Teacher
Class teacher 3
30
Health, counselling, Teacher physical education
Current position
Years teaching Subject specialities experience
Coordinator
20
Biology
Teacher
3
Psychology/Biology /Science
Coordinator
25
Health
Table 3: Administrators
School 1
School 2
4.2.3 Researchers’ role in relation to source organisation As this project was awarded after a tender process there is to our knowledge no potential conflict of interest.
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4.2.4 Specific cultural/religious/language considerations The target groups of teachers, students and administrators did not comprise a group with a specific cultural, religious or language other than English background. We did not identify cultural, religious or language sensitivities during this research. 4.2.5 Ethics approvals Ethics approvals were granted by, The South Australian Department of Education, Training and Employment The Flinders University Social and Behavioural Research Ethics Committee 4.2.6 Contact and recruitment of participants 4.2.6.1 The collaborating teachers Principals and teachers who had shown an interest in teaching a MindMatters program in 2005 were verbally approached, either by a representative from the MindMatters Consortium or by the researchers, to seek volunteers who were willing to work with researchers to conduct an evaluation of the implementation of the “Understanding Mental Illness” module of instruction. The initial verbal contact was followed up by the posting of written Introduction/Information sheets (attached at Appendix E) to the prospective volunteers. The posting was followed up by email and/or telephone contact with those volunteers who wish to proceed to become a collaborating teacher. An initial interview was timetabled, at which the researcher again explained the project and answered any final questions. Formal written consent to participate in the collaborative study was sought. Volunteers were reminded that all collected data would remain anonymous, and they were free to discontinue their involvement at any stage without prejudice. Following the receipt of formal written consent, the study proceeded. 4.2.6.2 The collaborating teachers’ students Initially, letters of Introduction/Information and consent forms (attached at Appendix E) were posted to the parents/guardians of each student in the class of each collaborating teacher. Following return of consent forms signed by each parent/guardian and his or her child, the researcher provided a brief verbal presentation to the class to outline, in appropriate language, the nature of the study. In particular, students were reminded that their participation was voluntary, that the information they provided would anonymous, and that they could withdraw from the study at any time without prejudice. The study proceeded with those students who had returned signed consent forms and who assented to participating at the time of data collection. Students who had not returned signed consent forms continued with their regular class tasks at the time that consenting and assenting students engaged in the research data collection. 4.2.6.3 School Administrators Following initial contact with schools as outlined in point 1) above, school administrators in each of the schools of the collaborating teachers were verbally approached by the researchers
21
to seek the administrator’s voluntary involvement in the study. The verbal contact by the researcher was followed up by the posting of written information sheets (attached at Appendix E) to the prospective volunteers. The posting was followed up by email and/or telephone contact with those volunteers who wish to proceed. An initial interview was timetabled, at which the researcher again explained the project and answered any final questions. Formal written consent to participate was sought. Volunteers were reminded that all collected data would remain anonymous and they were free to discontinue their involvement at any stage without penalty. Following the receipt of formal written consent, the study proceeded. 4.2.6.4 Field Reference group teachers School principals and teachers experienced in teaching about mental health were verbally approached by the researchers to seek the teachers’ voluntary involvement in the field reference group. The verbal contact by the researcher was followed up by the posting of written information sheets (attached at Appendix E) to the prospective volunteers. The posting was followed up by email and/or telephone contact with those volunteers who wish to proceed. Formal written consent to participate was sought. Volunteers were reminded that all collected data would remain anonymous and they were free to discontinue their involvement at any stage without penalty. Following the receipt of formal written consent, the study proceeded. 4.2.7 Information for participants Appropriately worded Introduction/Information letters were provided for all participants. Samples of all letters are attached at Appendix E. 4.2.8 Permissions Consents and permissions were sought from •
School principals
•
School administrators
•
Teachers
•
Students and their parents (or caregivers, as appropriate)
4.2.9 Time commitment for participants 4.2.9.1 Collaborating teachers 1.a. Two (approximately) one-hour discussions about the implementation of the MindMatters module. Location: at school. 1.b. An agreed number of lessons for observation, ranging from 3 to 10. Location: at school 1.c. Following from 1.b, an agreed number of (approximately 15 minute) pre- and post- lesson discussions about each lesson, ranging from two to approximately five discussions per teacher. Location: at school. 1d. Approximately 10 minutes for the completion of a questionnaire. Location: at school.
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4.2.9.2 The collaborating teachers’ students Two or three sessions (of approximately 20 minutes each) for the completion of a questionnaire, before and after the implementation of the MindMatters module. Location: at school. 4.2.9.3 School Administrators An interview of approximately one hour duration. Location: at school. 4.2.9.4 The teacher reference group A half-day workshop (8:45am to 12:30pm). Location: at Flinders University. Funds to provide teaching relief for participating teachers were included in the budget. 4.2.10 Responding to burdens and risks The researchers are experienced teachers who are sensitive to the nature of classroom observations and teacher, student and parent interactions. The researchers possess extensive experience in conducting interviews. Care was exercised to maintain sensitive, collaborative relationships with the collaborating teachers who were willing to discuss their perspectives about the implementation of the MindMatters module and who permitted the researchers to observe in classrooms. Care was exercised to maintain professional and friendly relationships with students in classrooms when the teaching of the MindMatters module was observed. Care was taken for the researcher to maintain an unobtrusive presence in the classroom when the teaching of the MindMatters module was observed. •
Note that teachers were undertaking the teaching of the MindMatters module irrespective of the conduct of this evaluation study. It was not anticipated that the researchers would have any direct effect upon events in the classroom. If, however, a student had a sensitive interaction with the researcher(s), the student would be referred in the first instance to his or her teacher, or if this was not deemed appropriate, to the nominated school counsellor in each school. This event did not occur during the study.
4.2.11 Confidentiality and anonymity 4.2.11.1 The teachers During face to face interviews, clearly the researcher(s) knew the names of the people they were talking to. The researchers undertook to keep this information confidential. For purposes of written note-taking, audio-recording and transcription, a pseudonym was used for each participant.
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4.2.11.2 The students To permit longitudinal data collection, questionnaires were identified by students’ initials. Consent forms and questionnaires were stored in separate locations. 4.2.11.3 The reports In the writing of reports, all data is anonymous and no particular expression or point of view is linked to any person or site. 4.2.11.4 Questionnaires All questionnaires were •
Identified by initials or pseudonym. Participants’ names were not used.
•
Handed to the researcher at the school site.
4.2.11.5 Tape transcription The classroom researcher transcribed selected sections of the audio-tapes, subject to the same assurances of confidentiality and anonymity as during the classroom observations. 4.2.12 Value and benefits Evaluating the implementation of the UMI module is an essential stage of the development of teaching materials that will have direct benefits for the development and improvement of instruction. This will in turn affect teaching effectiveness and student learning outcomes. 4.2.13 School context statements The study collected data from three state secondary schools in South Australia, including two inner metropolitan and one outer metropolitan school. Students were from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Detailed school context statements are attached at Appendix F. 4.3
Instrumentation
4.3.1 The classroom observation framework To guide our observations of classroom events we adopted questions from the productive pedagogy project 8-10. The four key areas of the productive classroom processes, and sample questions within each area, are included in Table 4. The complete list of 20 questions is included at Appendix A.
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Table 4: Sample questions to guide observations of classroom practice Intellectual quality Connectedness Supportive classroom environment Recognition of difference
Are students using higher-order thinking operations within a critical framework? Is the lesson, activity, or task connected to competencies or concerns beyond the classroom? Do students determine specific activities or outcomes of the lesson? Are non-dominant cultures valued?
4.3.2 The teacher and administrator interviews We composed a series of focus questions to guide our interviews with teachers and administrators. Our aim was to provide interviewees with the opportunity to discuss a broad range of issues pertinent to teaching about mental illness, and mental health, in their school. However, we were also mindful of the need to direct the interviews to our research questions. We decided to conduct semi-focussed interviews using the questions in Table 5 as a guide. Interviews were conducted before, during and after the teaching of the UMI module and questions were modified to reflect the time and situation of the interview. Table 5: Interview questions for teachers and administrators Participants’ reactions
1. Do the MindMatters Understanding Mental Illness teaching materials make sense to you? 2. In what ways will the materials be useful?
Support for implementation
3. What sources of support do you expect to receive/have received? From your school?
School impact
4. What impact is the MM program having in your school? On school climate?
From MindMatters? On school procedures?
Rationale/ Goals
5. Is the rationale for teaching the MM module clear to you?
Participants’ knowledge
6. In what ways do the materials provide you with knowledge and information for planning teaching?
Participants’ use of materials
7. In what ways will the materials will be suitable for application in the classroom? 8. In what ways do the materials provide for special individual student needs? 9. In what ways do the materials communicate effectively with students and their broader contexts? 10. In what ways do the materials make provision for high level student intellectual engagement with the subject?
Student Learning Outcomes
11. What do you expect will be the impact on students of teaching this module? 12. What are your planned student knowledge/understanding learning outcomes? 13. What are your planned student attitudes/values learning outcomes?
Teaching outcomes
14. In what ways will you achieve the intentions and outcomes, as set out in the module? 15. In what ways do you expect this module to have an effect upon your relationship with students? 16. In what ways do you expect this module to have an effect upon the relationships between schools and the broader contexts of students and their families.
Future directions
17. Do you anticipate that, given the opportunity, you will teach this module on an ongoing basis?
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4.3.3 The teacher questionnaire We were interested in assessing the level of confidence that teachers expressed about their ability to teach the UMI module. We reviewed the self-efficacy literature 11, 12 and adapted Bandura’s 13 Teacher Self-efficacy Scale and Roberts and Henson’s 14 Self-Efficacy Teaching and Knowledge Instrument for Science Teaching to construct a 24 item Likert scale questionnaire to measure teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching the UMI module. The sample size in the present project does not permit psychometric testing of this instrument constructed specifically for this project. However participants’ responses can be interpreted at the descriptive level to provide some insight into teachers’ efficacy for teaching the UMI module. Sample items from the teacher self-efficacy questionnaire are included at Table 6. The complete questionnaire is included at Appendix C. Table 6: Sample items from the teacher efficacy for teaching the UMI module questionnaire 1. I can effectively use the MindMatters resources for teaching my class about Mental Illness
strongly disagree
2. I can motivate students who show a low interest in learning about Mental Illness.
strongly disagree
3. I can effectively deal with students’ questions about Mental Illness.
strongly disagree
4. I can overcome negative peer group and community attitudes that might affect students’ learning about Mental Illness.
strongly disagree
disagree
neutral
agree
strongly agree
1……….2..............3………...4..............5.............6..............7 disagree
neutral
agree
strongly agree
1……….2..............3………...4..............5.............6..............7 disagree
neutral
agree
strongly agree
1……….2..............3………...4..............5.............6..............7 disagree
neutral
agree
strongly agree
1……….2..............3………...4..............5.............6..............7
4.3.4 The student questionnaire We reviewed the extant literature, previous MindMatters evaluations and the UMI module to construct a questionnaire to investigate students’ knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions before and after the teaching of the UMI module. The complete questionnaire is included at Appendix D. Sample items in each category follow. 4.3.4.1 Knowledge To investigate students’ knowledge we adopted and adapted items from the UMI module of instruction. Questions were designed to allow a mix of open and closed responses. Sample questionnaire items are included in Box 1 and Table 7. Box 1: Sample open-ended-response knowledge items from student UMI questionnaire 1. In your own words, describe a person with a mental illness. _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________
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Table 7: Sample of closed-response knowledge items from student UMI questionnaire. Strongly Agree
Agree
Maybe true/Maybe false
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
1. Anyone can develop a mental 0 illness.
0
0
0
0
2. Most people fully recover from their 0 mental illness.
0
0
0
0
3. Doctors know exactly what causes 0 mental illnesses.
0
0
0
0
We also asked students what more they would like to find out about mental illness, with the questionnaire item in Box 2. Box 2: Request for information 5. List 3 (or more) things you would like to find out about mental illness. 1. 2. 3.
4.3.4.2 Attitudes: Desire for social distance To investigate students’ attitudes we created a social distance questionnaire specifically to identify secondary students’ desire for social distance to people with a mental illness. Social distance scales have previously been created to investigate respondents’ desire for social distance towards immigrants 15 and to people with mental illness. 16, 17 The social distance questionnaire contains 12 items, each requiring a response on a 7 point Likert scale. Sample items are included in Table 8 . Table 8: Sample items from the secondary student desire for social distance to people with a mental illness scale 1. Would you be willing to attend the same school as a person with a mental illness?
definitely no
2. Would you be willing to go to the movies with a person with mental illness?
definitely no
3. Would you refuse an invitation to go to the birthday party of a person with a mental illness?
definitely no
unlikely
don’t mind
likely
definitely yes
1.............2.............3.............4.............5.............6.............7 unlikely
don’t mind
likely
definitely yes
1.............2.............3.............4.............5.............6.............7 unlikely
don’t mind
likely
definitely yes
1.............2.............3.............4.............5.............6.............7
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4.3.4.3 Behavioural Intentions 4.3.4.3.1 Response to the ‘Cris’ scenario We adapted from the MindMatters web site a scenario of a young person “Cris” who was experiencing difficulties.18 The web site is available for teachers’ use when designing their own lessons. Our adaptations included making the scenario gender neutral, and translating the cartoon characterisation into text to avoid visual depictions of aggression. Our purpose in including the scenario was to elicit students’ comments about their attitudes towards the situation in the scenario and their behavioural intentions should they be faced with a similar situation. We constructed questions to allow a mix of open and closed responses to the “Cris” scenario. Sample questionnaire items are included in Table 9 and Box 3. Table 9: Sample closed response questionnaire item to ‘Cris’ scenario Think about Cris in the short story above. Do you think Cris is in a serious situation? (circle your answer) No - Not serious at all
No – not very serious
I have no thoughts about how serious it is
Yes - fairly serious
Yes - very serious
Box 3: Sample open response questionnaire item to ‘Cris’ scenario If you found yourself in the same position as Cris, write here what you would do _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________
4.3.4.3.2 Help seeking behaviour We constructed open and closed questionnaire items to identify to whom students’ might talk if they found themselves in a situation similar to the “Cris” scenario. Sample questionnaire items are included in Table 10 and Box 4.
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Table 10: Sample closed response item to identify help-seeking behavioural intentions If you found yourself in Cris’s situation and you decided to talk someone, who would it be? (Tick as many as apply to you) 1. I would not talk to anyone 2. Your best male friend 3. A teacher
[ ] [ ] [ ]
Box 4: Sample open-ended response for behavioural intentions If you found yourself in Cris’s situation and decided to tell someone about it, who do you think would be the most helpful to you? _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________
4.3.4.3.3 Intention to use substances We adapted questionnaire items from the MindMatters web site to identify whether students’ behavioural intentions included the use of tobacco, alcohol and drugs. A sample item is at Table 11. Table 11: Sample item for behavioural intentions to use substances If you found yourself in Cris’s situation, how likely would it be that you would use tobacco to help you to cope? (Circle your answer) Yes, I'd definitely use tobacco
Yes - I'm pretty sure I would use tobacco
I don’t know if I would use tobacco
No – I probably would not use tobacco
No, I would definitely not use tobacco
4.3.5 Researcher continuity All classroom observations, questionnaire administration and interviews were undertaken by the same researcher.
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5 5.1
RESULTS The classroom observation program
We arranged with each participating teacher for a researcher to observe the teaching of the UMI module. The observations (and pre-teaching and post-teaching questionnaire administration) took place during Terms 2 and 3, 2005. The researcher attended most lessons allocated to the teaching of the UMI module in each school. The only reason for missing the observation of a small number of lessons was due to timetable clashes (e.g. two lessons scheduled for the same time period). Table 12 details the total UMI lessons taught and lessons observed. Table 12: Total UMI lessons and lessons observed in each school Total UMI lessons
Lessons observed
School 1
10
8
School 2
12
10
School 3
8
6
5.1.1 Summary of lesson activities In this section we briefly overview the classroom observations. 5.1.1.1.1 A summary of the dominant observed lesson designs in each observed classroom is as follows School 1: Teacher presentation; teacher guided teacher-student discussion; and student small-group reading and discussion of the UMI materials School 2: Teacher presentation; teacher guided teacher-student discussion; and a small amount of student small-group reading and discussion of the UMI materials. School 3: Teacher guided teacher-student discussion 5.1.1.1.2 A summary of the UMI materials used in each observed classroom is as follows School 1: Information and activities in the first part of the UMI booklet and parts 1 and 2 of the UMI video were used in the lessons. School 2: Information and activities in the first part of the UMI booklet and parts 1 and 2 of the UMI video were used in the lessons. School 3: A fact sheet and a worksheet from the UMI booklet video were used in the lessons. 5.1.2 Details of lesson activities In this section we provide in-depth details about the teaching and learning activities that were observed during the teaching of the UMI module. Table 13 provides a complete overview of the lesson activities undertaken by each class during the UMI module. Detailed comments related to this set of activities are included in the following sections.
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Table 13: Overview of the lesson activities in the UMI booklet undertaken by each class during the UMI module UMI page
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
booklet Title
Activity pre-teaching questionnaire
Understanding MI
Activity 1: Brainstorm Activity 2: Introduce the unit Activity 3: Language brainstorm Activity 4: teacher talk Activity 4: teacher talk Activity 4: teacher talk Activity 4: teacher talk Worksheet: learning the language of MI Worksheet continued
School 1 lesson 1
lesson 2 lesson 2 lesson 2 lesson 2 lesson 2 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4
School 2 lesson 1
School 3 lesson 1
lesson 2 lesson 2 lesson 2 lesson 2 lesson 2 lesson 2
lesson 4
lessons 2, 3 & 4 lessons 2, 3 & 4
lessons 5 & 6
lessons 5 & 6 lessons 5 & 6
Experiences of MI Watch MindMatters video section 1 Teacher talk Homework (research) Video discussion sheet Fact sheets Fact sheets Fact sheets Fact sheets Fact sheets Fact sheets Fact sheets Fact sheets Fact sheets Fact sheets Fact sheets Fact sheets Fact sheets
lessons 3 & 4
lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4
lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6
lessons 5, 6 & 7
lesson 7
31
UMI booklet 43 44 45 46
Title
MI-the same
47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71
Changing people's minds
Labels
Activity Fact sheets Fact sheets Activity 1:specialist groups Activity 2: sharing the pieces Activity 3: Quiz Homework: survey Work sheets Work sheets Work sheets Work sheets Work sheets quiz quiz attitude survey survey record sheet
School 1 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 5 & 6 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 5 & 6 lessons 5 & 6 homework homework
School 2 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6
Activity 1: survey collation teacher talk Activity 2: MindMatters video section 2 teacher talk Activity 3: script own video Activity 4:exploring attitudes narrative key messages Activity 1: are for jars sample questions & teacher talk Activity 2: summary quiz Activity 3: creative writing Activity 4: newsletter shoes worksheet jars worksheet quiz
lessons 5 & 6 lessons 5 & 6 lessons 5 & 6 lessons 7 & 8 lessons 7 & 8
lesson 7 & 8 lesson 7 & 8 lesson 7 & 8 lesson 7 & 8
lessons 7 & 8 lessons 7 & 8
lesson 11 lesson 11 lesson 11
lessons 7 & 8 lessons 7 & 8
lesson 11 lesson 11 lesson 11
lessons 5 & 6 lessons 3 & 4 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 3, 4, 5 & 6 lessons 5 & 6 lessons 5 & 6 homework
School 3
32
UMI booklet 72 73 74 75
Title
School 1
School 2
School 3
Lessons 9 & 10 (Bronte's Story; Depression)
lessons 2, (cuckoos nest)
lesson 12
lesson 8
Seeking help Activity 1: identifying need Activity 2: identifying resources Activity 3: care of MI
76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89
Something is not quite right
90 91
Face to face
92
Activity quiz narrative
Care of MI
Taking actions
lessons 7 & 8
checklist checklist scenario cards scenario cards scenario cards scenario cards article article article article Activity 1: video section 3 sample questions & teacher talk Activity 2: actions & reactions Activity 3: discussion Activity 1: guest speaker Activity 2: reflecting Activity 3: selected video Resources post-teaching questionnaire school assessment topic feedback
lesson 9 lesson 10 lesson 10
3
33
5.1.2.1 Use of the UMI Booklet: Schools 1 and 2 engaged with the first section of the UMI module booklet. 5.1.2.2 Watching the UMI video: Schools 1 and 2 viewed parts 1 and 2 of the UMI video spread across more than one lesson. Students in both schools appeared attentive and engaged while watching the UMI video. Each teacher used the video as a trigger for extended teacher-directed student discussions about the issues covered in the video. Students also initiated student to student conversations about the contents of the video. When the opportunity arose, the researcher asked students their impressions about the scenes depicted in the video. Students’ feedback (from the two schools that watched the video) about the “1 in 5” commercials included in the video included: Student 1: Too repetitive watching all 5 commercials in a row. Student 2: They didn’t explain it enough Student 3: Why are they showing us a commercial about asthma? Is asthma a mental illness? Student 4: These commercials need to be explained – people will disregard it if they don’t know what it means. Student 5: I liked them. Student 6: The appeals didn’t appeal. Student 7: Bad acting Student 8: I liked them – especially the way they targeted different groups. 5.1.2.3 Watching commercially produced movies: About half way through the UMI program, School 2 viewed two commercial movies about mental illness (Bronte’s story and Depression). School 3 viewed a commercial movie before beginning the UMI module (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). Whole class, teacherdirected discussions were held about the movies, although the time allocated for such discussions was limited. Students appeared keen to talk about the characters and situations in the movies, and to make links between those situations and their own life experiences. 5.1.2.4 Photocopying of the UMI booklet: School 1: The teacher photocopied numerous pages from the UMI booklet, including all fact sheets and worksheets, and provided these as complete sets of handouts to all students. School 2: The teacher photocopied one each of the fact sheets from the early section of the UMI booklet and provided one fact sheet, one exercise (pages 23 & 24) and one quiz (pages 53 & 54) per student group for students to share during a class activity. The teacher also provided each student with a copy of the community attitude survey (page 55).
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School 3: The teacher in School 3 photocopied one fact sheet (depression, page 33) and one worksheet for each student (page 23). 5.1.2.5 Resources: Schools appeared to have varying levels of access to resources. For example, photocopying to enable preparation of information handouts to students to support the jigsaw activity in the UMI booklet was not budgeted for in one school. Similarly, some students had individual computers with internet access, whilst for other students, computers (and internet access) were not readily available. We noticed that two schools displayed posters relating to mental health in or near the classrooms. We did not observe hard copies of resource materials such as CDs, DVDs, books or folios about mental health either being used or being available to students in the classrooms, other than each teacher’s copy of the MindMatters resource kit. 5.1.2.6 Physical space The 25 students at School 1 had their UMI lessons in a large open-space classroom equipped with clusters of desks and chairs accommodating six to eight students per cluster. Movement of students was relatively free according to individual and group work tasks. Equipment such as whiteboards, televisions, data projectors and computers were on-hand. Student attendance per lesson ranged from 21 to 24. The 27 students at School 2 had their UMI lessons in a traditional walled classroom space with desks and chairs arranged in a U shape facing the front of the room, which included the teacher’s desk and whiteboard. The arrangement of desks and chairs was relatively fixed and occupied the whole classroom space. Movement of students was relatively constrained. A television and video was wheeled in on a trolley as required. Student attendance per lesson ranged from 15 to 24. The 15 students at School 3 had their UMI lessons in a large open-space double classroom. Chairs and tables were stacked against the wall, and arranged for each lesson as required. Movement of students around the room was free. A television and video recorder were located on a trolley in the room. Student attendance per lesson ranged from 6 to 14. 5.1.3 Teacher presentation of information Teachers at all three schools verbally presented information about various aspects of mental illness. This included factual information informed by the teachers’ reading of the UMI booklet and other sources, and anecdotal information informed by teachers’ own life experiences. Students demonstrated various levels of engagement when listening to teachers’ presentation of information, ranging from intensive attention to off-task and inattentive. During teacher directed teacher-student questioning/discussion sessions, some students asked questions about mental illnesses, some students proffered their own anecdotes from life experiences, and some students did not overtly contribute to discussions or answer questions. 5.1.4 The “brainstorming” activity (page 17 of the UMI booklet) Students at all schools completed this activity. Students appeared engaged, and called upon their prior knowledge to contribute to the lists of words associated with Mental Illness,
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Physical Illness, Mental Health and Physical Health. The activity triggered student-student and student-teacher discussions about the nature of illness and health, and how to allocate an illness to a physical or mental category, as sometimes the categories overlapped. For example, some students discussed whether a chemical imbalance is a physical illness, that happens to lead to a mental illness, and could be remedied through a physical (medication), rather than psychological (counselling) intervention. This kind of discussion has the potential to lead to students’ substantial intellectual engagement with substantive issues. It also appeared to cause considerable confusion for some students. 5.1.5 Use of additional resources The teacher at School 2 supported the introductory activity on page 17 with a newspaper clipping form the Adelaide Advertiser “Youth mental health burden” prepared as an overhead projection slide. Students appeared to engage with the contents of the article, and made connections to their own experiences, mentioning self-harming behaviours including binge drinking and drinking at home, alone. A few students were aware of the location of mental health support facilities in the community, such as community health centres. Also, a small number of students were aware of issues relating to community management of mental health, such as newspaper reports about the closure of Glenside and the allocation of sufficient or insufficient resources to alternative support facilities. 5.1.6 Teachers’ anecdotes Teachers shared with students some anecdotes about people they knew who had suffered, and recovered or partially recovered, from mental illness. Students appeared to engage with these narratives, and some students volunteered information about the experiences of people that they knew. For example Student: “My Mum, her sister and my uncles all have depression” 5.1.7 Students’ questions during class During teacher-led discussions, students generated many questions. Below is a representative selection of those questions. Student 1: Are people born with a mental illness? Student 2: If their parents have schizophrenia, will their kids have it? Student 3: Is depression hereditary? Student 4: Does it take months or weeks to get over depression? Student 5: What’s the difference between depression and manic depression? Student 6: Is autism a mental illness? Student 7: Do people really have a split personality? Student 8: Is there a chance there could be a gene? Student 9: Why are they telling us about the American statistics? Is it the same in Australia? Student 10: Is there a way to tell if we are going to go crazy? Teachers did not always have answers to their students’ questions.
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5.1.8 The exercise “learning the language of mental illness (pages 23 and 24 of the UMI booklet) This exercise was handled differently in each school: School 1 The students were given the exercise on pages 23 and 24. The teacher had removed the definitions under each term (such as delusion, depression), and asked that students read their photocopied fact sheets and write in the definitions. School 2 The students received the exercise on pages 23 and 24, but appeared unsure if it was an information sheet or a worksheet to be completed, as it contained some definitions and required other definitions to be inserted. The worksheet did not include instructions. School 3 The students received the exercise on page 23. There was no class activity relating to the exercise. 5.1.9 Discussions about equity and fair treatment Students at all schools engaged in teacher-directed discussions about issues of fair treatment for people with mental illnesses. Fairness and equity provoked students’ interest and concern. Teacher: This is an issue of social justice. Student 1: Is justice like being even? Student 2: Justice is like being fair. 5.1.10 Discussions about individual reactions to stressful situations Students were able to draw upon their own experiences to contribute to discussions about mental health Teacher: When you are stressed, how do you behave? Student 1: Angry Student 2: I feel like not doing anything Student 3: I eat Student 4: I yell Teacher: Some people can’t think clearly Student 5: Yep, that’s me. 5.1.10.1 Discussions about the similarities between mental illnesses and physical illnesses Students appeared to readily make a connection between mental illness and physical illness Student 1: Diabetes in body; Psychosis in brain. Student 2: If you are just sick you could make your own chicken soup. But if it’s a mental illness – you can’t fix yourself.
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5.1.10.2 Students’ contexts Students’ awareness of mental illnesses in their own contexts was evidenced by their responses to their teacher’s question about medication Teacher: Who’se heard of antidepressants? Student 1: Zolof – my Mum takes that Student 2: Prozac Student 3: Valium Student 4: My friend took 9 of them Student 5: My Dad used to take them Student 6: Valium – make you happy – make you sad. 5.1.10.3 The jigsaw “sharing the pieces” activity (pages 45 & 46 of the UMI booklet) Students at Schools 1 and 2 attempted this activity in class. Students at School 1 appeared familiar with variants of the jigsaw teaching-learning process, and with working in small groups. They were supported by multiple copies of the UMI booklet to be used as an information resource. Students at School 2 appeared less familiar with working in small groups, and unfamiliar with the jigsaw teaching-learning process. They were provided with one copy of each information sheet per group. Following the first round small group sharing of each information sheet, the jigsaw activity in School 2 did not progress to the stage where the ‘expert’ on each information sheet fed back to their ‘home’ group. The activity was then modified to a whole class feedback of information. Students at School 3 were allocated a modified version of the jigsaw activity for homework, where students were allocated to groups, with students in each group required to investigate one mental illness. Only one student completed this homework task, so the sharing of the ‘pieces’ of the jigsaw’ did not proceed.
5.1.10.4 Language Not all students were familiar with the language in the fact sheets. For example, the words “elation” and “bipolar” required definition for some students. Student 1: Bi Polar – that’s like polar bears – Antarctica and the other one. 5.1.10.5 Student discussions In small group discussions, students showed signs of beginning to grapple with information that went beyond the information presented in the fact sheets: Student 1: Would you rather starve yourself, or eat lots then throw up? - which would be worse? Student 2: What kind of support services could there be for eating disorders – what could they say? “Eat more?” Student 3: They tell you you’re not fat. ………………….
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Student 4: Bi-polar mood disorder. Student 5: Extreme mood swings. Is it swings or is it just drops. Student 6: People who get sacked or people who win the lottery. ………………….. Student 7: What would it be like to come to school with a mental illness? Student 8: You shouldn’t do depression just to get attention. It just deflects help from the people who really need it. Sometimes students did not carry on a discussion as such – they told their own stories without inviting a response: Student 1: My girlfriend’s Dad gets bi-polar. She said just the other day that he is entering a new phase because he came home from work and was really excited about how he is going to start up a new business…. Student 2: I actually knew a person with schizophrenia – he was like normal, except when he wasn’t. Student 3: My uncle tried to commit suicide, but they sent a helicopter and took him to hospital and he didn’t die. He has schizophrenia but he’s OK now as long as he takes his medication. Student 4: My mother and sister have panic attacks, but I think my sister puts it on. 5.1.10.6 “Labels are for jars” and “shoes” (pages 65 & 69 of the UMI booklet) Classes at schools 1 and 2 undertook this activity. Students’ conversations whilst undertaking this activity provided insight into their reactions. Student 1: Your shoes show how rich you are Student 2: They might be judged by their shoes, but I don’t really care Student 3: What has this got to do with shoes? 5.1.10.7 The UMI video Parts 1 and 2 of the UMI video was shown by the teachers in Schools 1 and 2. Students’ appeared engaged while watching the video. Student 1: These ads are all about mental illness – schizophrenia and asthma. Student 2: So what do we do? Student 3: One in 5 people suffer. Student 4: People with a mental illness do the same things as normal. Both teachers used events in the video as starting points for discussions with the class. Over the course of the UMI lessons, numerous references were made to information that had been introduced in the video. Although the video was generally well received, students made some comments worthy of attention Student 1: The clothes of the actors are out of date and that makes the situations seem not realistic.
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Student 2: The counselling situation seemed fake, because there wouldn’t have been TV cameras there if it really was a real serious situation – it would have been confidential. Student 3: Some characters and their situations are not explored as deeply as others – they just say what the situation is – they don’t actually give any information about it. 5.1.10.8 Script own video (page 61 of the UMI booklet) The teachers at Schools 1 and 2 asked students to undertake the ‘script own video’ activity, modelled on the “one in five’ scenario on the UMI video. Students at School 1 undertook the activity, but in general did not appear to develop their scripts beyond what was presented on the UMI video. For example, they enacted the same scenario as in the video, simply changing the characters’ names. There was one exception to this, where a group of students discussed alternative forms of support that could be offered to a person with a mental illness. Students wanted to know if they were being “graded’ on their presentations. Many students appeared shy about acting their role play in front of the class. Students at School 2 did not complete the activity and therefore did not progress to acting their role play in front of the class. However, students at School 2 were asked to think of ways that they could get the message about understanding mental illness across to their broader communities. The students generated a range of ideas, including Student 1: Put up posters Student 2: Distribute brochures Student 3: Do radio ads Student 4: Have big billboards Student 5: Have a TV soap (like Home and Away and Bec Cartwright) with a person with a mental illness in it Student 6: Have mental illness instruction in classrooms as compulsory Student 7: Have seminars in community centres – have people going around and presenting information Student 8: Have more stuff in newspapers and on A Current Affair Student 9: Put warnings on cigarette packets Student 10: Put warnings on bread 5.1.10.9 Connections to contemporary film and mass media All teachers made reference to current films and television and the ways that mental illnesses are portrayed. For example, Teacher 1 referred to a documentary on Howard Hughes, Teacher 2 referred to the television show 60 Minutes, which had an episode on mental illness during the teaching of the UMI module, and Teacher 3 referred to a recently popular movie. 5.1.11 Homework tasks 5.1.11.1 The community attitude survey The teachers at School 1 and School 2 set the administration of the community attitude survey (pages 55 & 56 of the UMI booklet) for homework.
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About three quarters of the students in School 1 administered part or all of the survey to their friends and family and brought the results to class. The teacher collated the results and discussed them with the class. Students noted, and were a little surprised, that the surveys gathered a wide range of responses from survey participants. This appeared to challenge students’ implicit assumptions that other people would respond to the survey questions with the same answers as themselves. One student in School 2 completed part of the survey and brought the results to class. Due to the lack of response, the community attitude survey was not discussed further in School 2. 5.1.11.2 Independent research The teacher at School 3 set an independent information gathering task for homework (the modified jigsaw activity, detailed above). One student did the homework and brought to the next class two pages of information about depression. The teacher led a discussion about the information about depression that the student had found (The information appeared to have been downloaded from the MindMatters website, although the student was unable to tell the researcher of the source of the information). The teacher at School 1 set an in-class independent internet research task. Students worked in groups of three or four to search the web. Students typed into search engines words such as ‘clinical depression” “help” “help institutes” and “psychology.” Many students found relevant and useful resources, such as the South Australian Health Resources.1 5.1.12 Assessment tasks 5.1.12.1 Formative (ongoing) assessment of knowledge in development Teachers at all schools noted the content of students’ discussions and answers to teacher questions to make ongoing informal assessments about the nature of students’ understandings about mental illness. The teacher at School 1 discussed with students, and collected, students’ completed worksheets from the UMI booklet. 5.1.12.2 Quiz (pages 53 and 54 of the UMI booklet) Students at Schools 1 and 2 completed all or part of the quiz on pages 53 and 54 of the UMI booklet. The students at School 1 completed the quiz independently. The students at School 2 completed the quiz in small groups. Teachers from both schools collected the quiz for marking. Students at School 1 were awarded individual grades. The highest scoring group at School 2 received a prize of chocolate.
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http://www.healthysa.sa.gov.au/
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5.1.12.3 Summative (final) assessment of knowledge gained The teacher at School 1 added questions for summative assessment to the post-teaching questionnaire administered by the researchers. The researchers did not have access to students’ academic results. The teachers in Schools 2 and 3 did not attach a summative assessment task to the UMI module. Note that our post-teaching student questionnaire can be considered to be a summative assessment task. Results from the post-teaching questionnaire are discussed in detail later in this report. 5.1.13 Students’ reactions During classroom observations there was no overt sense that students were distressed or negatively affected emotionally by the UMI lessons. Students did discuss some issues with concern, such as fairness and equity. Some students were very quiet, and it is difficult for an outside observer to know whether these students were unusually quiet during the UMI lessons, or whether they were usually quiet. There was no sense from the post-teaching interviews with teachers that any students were negatively affected, although teachers were aware of the contexts of some students where sensitivity could perhaps arise. At the end of the introductory discussion activity, the teacher at School 2 asked, “Who found this activity threatening?” The students joked in their responses to this question, but their message was that no, the lesson was not threatening. This sequence of events captured a sense of both the relaxed classroom context, and also that students recognised the potential seriousness of mental health issues in other contexts. However, it is worth noting recent research (Murray-Harvey, in preparation), of correlations between students' reports of apathy, aggression, depression and somatic symptoms and teachers' reports of students’ adjustment to school. The research has found low correlations between teacher ratings and students’ reports of depression and somatic problems, and high correlations between adjustment and students’ reports of aggression and apathy. One interpretation of the findings from this study is that teachers, in their busy lives, notice and attend to the behaviours that disrupt the class work, but don't notice or deal with other less intrusive issues. Students who are perhaps struggling with mental illnesses such as depression could well be the ones who are very quiet in class, and at the same time are those students who do not come to teachers’ attentions.
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5.2
The teacher interviews
If we consider the general question, “What do teachers anticipate about teaching the UMI module?, we observe from teachers’ pre-teaching responses that teachers anticipate that they will be successful in achieving their lesson objectives. They do not express doubts about their capabilities, they have appropriate goals, they are not worried about the level of support they will receive from schools, they feel that they will accommodate the various idiosyncrasies of their student populations, such as attrition and levels of interest, and they consider that the UMI materials are comprehensive. Teachers refer to the specific characteristics of their student populations, such as attrition and lack of familiarity with language and group work. A selection of teachers’ responses to the interview questions is provided below. 5.2.1 What difficulties do you anticipate in teaching the UMI module? Teachers indicated that they would need to carefully consider the characteristics of their student cohort. High rates of attrition of the students in my class due to absenteeism and attendance at other activities such as football clinics and work experience. This makes it difficult to achieve continuity from lesson to lesson. Students’ lack of experience and familiarity with the nature of some of the suggested activities, such as group work, the jigsaw activity and independent research. Organizing group membership, due to behaviour management issues and attrition, will need to be carefully thought out prior to teaching. Cannot be left to chance or student choice. Students will not complete homework tasks, for example, the community survey, so it is unlikely that this activity will be possible. I will need to prepare answers and prepare overheads, as backup in the expectation that students will not complete some tasks independently Students’ mindsets – they may not consider that a unit on UMI should be part of their Health and Physical Education course. UMI module appears to require lots of photocopied handouts. This can become difficult on limited budgets, onerous for teachers to prepare and repetitive for students to receive. My students don’t like to be challenged – they don’t like to move out of their comfort zone. Teachers will need to find ways to make the teaching of the UMI module relevant to students’ own lives. 5.2.2 Goals for teaching the UMI module Teachers’ goals for teaching the UMI module appear compatible with the aims of the MindMatters suite of teaching materials. To raise awareness of mental Illness, to de-stigmatise mental illness, to remove mental illness from being a taboo subject
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Specifically – to overcome students’ fears that they might be ‘labelled’ To make students aware of support networks To overcome students’ idea that ‘you are born with it’ and that there is therefore no cure. That mental health is a community issues that must be faced. That we must overcome being judgmental towards people with a mental illness That we must overcome discrimination due to ignorance That there are support organizations that can help to make people worthy Suicide proofing, by creating awareness and helping each other. To give the kids opportunities to talk – they want to talk a bout this stuff. To use the Mental Illness stuff to help kids to be more resilient. To teach kids how to deal with conflict – this stuff all fits in with grief and loss. Hope that the kids will realize that mental illness can be dealt with. That everyone may be faced with it. That they don’t have to fear it – but understand it. Get rid of fear and stigma. Give someone support. To understand depression and eating disorders. To broaden their horizons, understand their own value systems, clarify their values and appreciate difference. Health is part of life skills. 5.2.3 Support from school Teachers indicated that they were supported as required by other school personnel and school policies. My principal gives support and does not interfere with the individual classroom teacher’s approach The school has a wellbeing policy that integrates social, physical, spiritual and emotional/mental health, and the UMI module fits well into this wellbeing policy. Also, the school motto is TRU: tolerance, respect, understanding, and this fits in with the UMI module. I can access support if I need it 5.2.4 Comments on the content of the UMI module The UMI booklet was well-regarded as an information resource.
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The materials provided by MindMatters, in this case the UMI booklet, appear to provide the necessary content for teaching the UMI module. The resource is comprehensive It’s far more than I would think any teacher would use The time required for the whole package is more than anyone could realistically allocate. However, it has the capacity to be used in smaller doses, smaller lessons. You can have the interesting things taken out, or the eyes taken out, so that it becomes relevant to the clients to the students. The good thing about the MindMatters resource is that it has all of the correct and relevant information in one place – easily accessible. This means that students don’t have to spend ages hunting on the internet finding stuff that is not relevant or incorrect, or alarming. All the good stuff is all there, in the booklet. Also, it is at the right level for the students. We will cover some of the issues, such as substance abuse and through our drug strategy activities, however, we will stay away from eating disorders – this is too delicate an area for us to explore with the girls at this age in our class. I have used all of the MindMatters stuff. It is really valuable. It puts lots of ideas together – I wish more teachers would use it. It fits in with counselling and health teaching The strategies are really useful, especially for beginning teachers, and even older teachers, like how to put people into groups. There are lots of techniques used in the MindMatters book that teachers, were never taught at uni – even if you just use it for the group work strategies. It reinforces the concept of peer tutoring. Allows other people to learn something. The teaching materials make a lot of sense. The information sheets – finding something you can hand to a student that has the information you need, is fantastic. It is a lot of common sense. This stuff is a good starting point for staff and students. Anything that improves mental health and resilience is good. Kids are not resilient in the face of failures. When something goes wrong in their life they don’t have the resources. In presenting this stuff, I hope kids an idea of where to go for help. There are lots of ways that the MindMatters kit provides materials. There is enough scope to go laterally – it might present with an idea. You can use this stuff to make classroom practice interesting. Go to a resource, and get good ideas. I don’t always use the materials as presented – there is enough scope for people to cater for their own peculiarities. This would be a kit to recommend to all teachers. It doesn’t seem to have a political bias – it’s neutral – It gets kids and adults to clarify their own values. It has scope without prescription. It is a resource as a window to choice of what to follow up.
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This kit can be adapted for the teaching of anything, for example, alcoholism. The material in the MindMatters kit is backed up by what the kids find out through their own devices – it matches up. This makes it seem authentic 5.2.5 Programming Teachers could see how teaching about mental illness fitted in with their overall curriculum design. If this research project was not happening, I would only plan to teach about half of the UMI module, and also draw from other resources for the program for the term, such as resilience, self-esteem, consumer health and relationships. The UMI module fits in with our integrated unit of work, and also leads to our Year 12 psychology program. This year MindMatters fits into our Health elective, but next year we are changing and there won’t be a health elective, it will disappear, so any MindMatters stuff will have to fit into PE. I won’t use all of the MindMatters – it is too much. I will pick and choose, jump around. I will do 6-10 lessons on Mental Illness, then suicide. I have a major focus on life skills, proofing, skills for life. 5.2.6 What specific training and development for teaching the UMI module has been provided to you? There was variation in the training that teachers had received for teaching about mental illness. Teachers responses included: None A 2 day MindMatters workshop about 2 years ago A visit to our school by a MindMatters representative (two after- school sessions) last year A MindMatters workshop ages ago (can’t remember exactly when) 5.2.7 What other resources would you like to see provided by MindMatters? Suggestions from teachers included: What videos are available and how do I get them? What web sites support this material? For teachers and for students? Is there anyone who could visit the school as a guest speaker, such as a person who has a mental illness who could talk to the students about what it is really like? What are recent government initiatives in the area of mental illness and mental health? What music and songs are available to support the materials? (Contemporary songs about emotions, relationships, depressions, self-harm).
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What places could the class visit? 5.2.8 What improvements could be made to the UMI materials? Issues of appearance and level were suggested as possible improvements. The materials are becoming out of date. The characters in the video look a bit old fashioned. Some of the UMI activities are perhaps suited to younger year levels, and it may be a good strategy to start to introduce some of the UMI material at earlier Year levels 5.2.9 The reliability of the MindMatters materials The teachers hoped and/or assumed that the UMI materials (and MindMatters materials in general) came from a reliable source, had been trialled extensively and were proven to be good. Therefore, it was considered that the work of validating the materials had been done, and the teachers could use the materials with confidence. I wouldn’t use the yellow box in its entirety. I would look at what is there – but there is a strong seal of approval from the people who have worked with this and there is no doubt about its authenticity and value. Also, there is no need to spend time re-inventing the wheel. 5.2.10 What additional resources do you use when teaching the UMI module? Newspapers dealing with community issues were suggested as additional resources. However, the strength of the MindMatters kit was seen to be that it provided a resource in a field where there was little appropriate material. Articles in newspapers about UMI in the community are valuable resources for students and teachers. Newspaper articles can be used to raise awareness, identify stigma, encourage students to express their opinions. 5.2.11 In what ways can the UMI module be individualised to meet special student needs? Teachers made a number of suggestions about how to meet individual student’s needs: Provide students with opportunities for social interaction and to share their experiences. Provide opportunities for students to excel Connect with students’ own contexts. The materials have the potential for high level student engagement. The kit has enough flexibility where any individual student can take material and learn from it. If kids can do their own investigations then individual needs can be met. It probably doesn’t cater for special needs kids.
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5.2.12 Do you expect the teaching of the UMI module to have an impact beyond the class and the school with students’ families and communities. It was not anticipated that the teaching about UMI would have much immediate impact in students’ broader communities. I don’t expect that there will be any real effect beyond the school. Parents are reluctant to make contact with staff – few parents know what is happening at school. There would be not much impact on the school climate. It would have more impact if the MindMatters materials were used across the curriculum, not just in Health. 5.2.13 Given the opportunity, do you expect to keep teaching the UMI module? Participants all indicated that they would continue to teach about mental health and mental illness. Yes – I keep all my notes with the expectation that I will use them again. This research project has put teaching about mental illness back onto our agenda. We are looking at this whole area again, and will be incorporating more of UMI and other issues about student wellbeing and mental health in our new curriculum design. This will take a lot of planning and development of instructional modules, but there is definitely a willingness among our faculty to include this stuff. Yes, but I will add more of a research/inquiry approach – shift the focus from tolerance to information and add more depth to the subject. I will integrate it with our topics on stress and sleep, and will add more media, more whole group discussion, more biology and chemistry. 5.2.14 Teacher professional development One teacher pointed out the dilemma of teachers needing to teach about mental illness, but not having the professional expertise to do so. Most teachers didn’t feel comfortable teaching about mental illness, not comfortable dealing with adolescents, stigma, lack of understanding. Mental illness is not really understood. If you don’t feel comfortable, then how do you teach it? But you have to give kids the opportunity to find out-otherwise it’s left up to them. 5.2.15 Teachers’ reflections on the progress of the UMI lessons Following each lesson the researcher asked the teachers for their quick reflections on the progress of the lessons. A selection of teachers’ comments is provided below. 5.2.15.1 At the beginning of the UMI module There is a lot of content to cover. There is a lot of terminology to introduce and explain There seems to be a lot of expectation on student to come to grips with the content and the terminology.
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The kids do seem to want to know about this stuff. The UMI unit does seem to be demystifying some of this stuff. Years 10 and 11 can cover the age range 14 to 17. It is difficult to adjust the activities in the UMI booklet to cover what is really a broad span of different ages. We didn’t get through as much formal stuff as I thought we would. The groups are making links between physical and mental health – what about cerebral palsy – is that physical or mental? 5.2.15.2 Around the middle of the UMI module Some of this is overpowering some of these kids – The standard of the language – the terminology is off putting. This unit may be more for stage 1 (Year 11) than year 10. It has a more academic focus in the nature of its activities. It would be more accessible if it used more layman’s terms and if it just focussed on the more common mental illnesses that students are likely to come across in their everyday lives, such as anxiety and depression. If the aim is to create awareness, some of the more clinical stuff is just not necessary. There is lots of good information in this UMI booklet – but the presentation is a bit wordy. It’s too much to read through all at once. The presentation of the material is not all that engaging – it could be more colourful, cartoons, easier on the eye. It would be useful to have some of this information in the form of powerpoints that I could present to the class. The fact sheets seem to be at the right level for my class. The level of today’s worksheets (quiz) was OK. Activities such as jigsaw based group work and role plays cannot be introduced to students in isolation from other teaching and learning experiences. Students need ongoing teaching and learning of such skills across their subject areas and throughout their school experiences in order for such processes to support valuable learning experiences. Group work is not a common strategy for this class – not manageable with 28 kids in the class. Group work is better when some kids are absent and the class is smaller, say less than 20. These students are planning to go on to Year 12 psychology and chemistry – they will be looking for information from this unit of work that will provide them with some of the information that will be useful in Year 12. This information describes the symptoms, but it doesn’t tell us much about the causes – I will need to research this stuff myself to get these answers as I have no training in this kind of stuff. We didn’t get through the jigsaw activity, even though we had a double lesson, and it will be difficult to recapture this activity at the next lesson.
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There just isn’t enough time to cover all this stuff, there are only 2 more allocated sessions and then the test. There is more than enough in this package to maintain the unit a bit longer. With so much information the kids are tending to go through it roughly rather than looking deeply at the issues. The quiz relied on the kids to get the information in the group work activity. If the kids don’t do that, then they don’t get access to that bit of the information. The students’ intellectual engagement with this unit varies. Some are getting in to it. Others are not connected. 5.2.15.3 Near the end of the module Some students are starting to make connections between this material and what they know, and what they know about in the community, such as the gambling help line. These students didn’t really engage with the role play advertisement activity – they haven’t done drama and they’re not confident in performing in front of groups. The shoes activity didn’t work very well- it may be too young and not tapping in to the depth of knowledge that students have about this subject. Although these issues are profound, some of these activities don’t deal with the activities in a profound way. This runs the risk of trivialising the issues. It is difficult to present the issues in a suitable non-threatening way, while still dealing with them at a profound level. Some of these kids wrote about mental health issues in their social issues essay – so they have thought about the research they are interested in. Researcher: Are you finding this topic appropriate for this class? Teacher: Hell yeah – these kids are all about relationships, identity, puberty Mental illness is part of the community; no topic exists in isolation
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5.3
Interviews with teachers: Post-teaching the UMI module
We reviewed and categorised comments about the UMI module that teachers made after the series of UMI lessons were completed. Teachers comments related to the extent and quality of their own knowledge; the level and suitability of the materials for their students’ diverse needs; time available for delivery of the materials; the location of the UMI materials in the curriculum; the impact of the module upon students’ interpersonal relationships; and the support required for teaching the module. A selection of teachers’ comments is included below. 5.3.1 Teachers’ knowledge The UMI module might be picked up by teachers possessing differing levels of knowledge and expertise in teaching about mental health. 5.3.1.1 Teachers’ content knowledge I wasn’t too confident about answering some of the questions the students raised. 5.3.1.2 Teachers’ pedagogical knowledge The issue in teaching the UMI module is that you must know your class. You must know that what you are going to do will work with these students and that they will be successful. It is the teacher that creates the learning environment – it is what the teacher adds to the materials It is up to the teacher to make the material relevant to the students who are not interested The teacher has to decide which bits of this material to use with his class – this choice is based upon the applicability of the materials to the group: Is this worth the effort? Is the input worth the outcome? 5.3.2 The UMI materials Teachers expressed a range of opinions about the materials, according to their perceived needs of their students. 5.3.2.1 Design of materials
The materials in the UMI booklet were class based activities. I don’t think they really provided for individual needs. I need to have another look at these materials, connect them to myself, reinterpret them, then share them with the class. It wasn’t much fun. How could we make it more fun? More relevant? Perhaps bring in someone who has a mental illness – but this might be too scary for some kids. Alternative ways of presenting the information would be good – not just the booklet and the video. Perhaps a more interactive source such as a CD
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We could have had a speaker come in, to put another perspective and to give students the opportunity to ask questions. At this school students will ask questions, but I don’t always have the answers. The booklet is in an adaptable format – you can take out of it what you want. The material is put together for easy use – you could use it as an individual lesson. The choices you make are based on the applicability to the group. 5.3.2.2 The UMI video The video was considered to have good and bad points. The UMI video was too long at the beginning – it concentrated too much on depression. The kids were interested in schizophrenia – it would have been good to have more in the video about that. Also, on OCD – there was only about 30 seconds on that. The video was dated and stereotypical – it’s like – all teenagers are in a band, all fathers go fishing. Well, not many teenagers are in a band, and not many fathers go fishing. Also, the imaging – when depressed the guy had a shaved head, and when he wasn’t depressed he was happy with hair! It’s just not real. We didn’t get to part 3 of the video – no time. The video was short and to the point 5.3.2.3 Level of materials The teachers expressed a range of opinions about the level of the UMI materials, with some teachers considering the materials to be too low level, while others considered them to require language and skills that their students did not possess. This range of responses is directly related to the nature of each teacher’s student cohort, which varies from teacher to teacher, school to school, and year to year. Thus, for the UMI package to have broad applicability, it is necessary for it to contain a range of levels of activities. Some indication of the level of each activity in the module might assist teachers in selecting appropriate activities for each cohort. The UMI materials were useful in some respects, but were a bit low level for this group. Do this activity – share the information – give your opinion: this sequence is not very high level, and it is difficult to gauge whether this will have much long term impact on students. They may recall the activities, but whether they will recall the information – I’m not sure. I will teach this stuff again if given the opportunity, but next time I will do it my way a bit more rather than relying on these [UMI booklet] materials. Next time I will put more personality into it. This will make it more interesting. The whole thing needs a [student] research task where they [the students] go away and investigate something deeply, then perhaps present what they have found to the group or the class. This way they can go to their own level, and also have some choice. Students were very interested in this topic, but these materials did not sufficiently feed this interest – the materials are not high level enough and so we didn’t really get much high-level engagement.
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Some of this stuff could be introduced at Year 9. These materials are language rich, therefore students need an understanding of terminology and health concepts – some students would struggle with the concepts. The readings need language that is appropriate, with more simple terminology. We have a wide range of students, some with limited capacity – we don’t want to hold kids back, we don’t want to identify their limitations. Some kids were engaging with the materials at a higher level. Some of the academically able boys were reticent – that is the nature of this class – the kids don’t want to be seen as doing something 5.3.2.4 Content of materials As reflective teachers deliver instruction, they make ongoing informal and formal assessments about the impact of their teaching, including the materials they are using, upon their students. The reflections regarding the UMI module varied from considering that the UMI materials did communicate with the students and demystified mental illness, to the observation that the materials did not engage students to a sufficient degree to provoke deep learning. The UMI materials communicated with students. Some students didn’t see the point of some of the activities Some of the activities were a bit repetitive. The main focus of these materials seems to be developing tolerance towards people with a mental illness. But for these kids, they want to learn about science – so the science behind mental illnesses would have been more interesting to them. The UMI booklet is good for planning what to do – I picked out activities. The UMI booklet is presented in a logical manner. These students chose this topic as part of their fertile question – I’m not sure their objectives were met by this module – they were more interested in the science behind how the brain is physically affected, how do anti-depressants work and questions like that. But the UMI module was more about developing tolerance – more about attitudes. Are we brainwashing our students into thinking that all we have to do is be tolerant and have people with a mental illness integrated in to the community, rather than addressing the real issues of providing sufficient resources to fund mental health initiatives Yes, these materials make sense to the students, they are at the right level. There is nothing too ambiguous. These materials have demystified mental illness. It seems a less daunting subject to broach. 5.3.3 Structure of the UMI module I will continue to teach this stuff, but not as a four/five week block like this. I will look at the whole mental health scheme. Mental illness is just a part of it. We will continue on with resilience and relationships.
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5.3.4 Time The teachers expressed general consensus that there was insufficient time available to adequately cover the UMI materials. Given that this is likely to be the case more often than not, some sense of priority of what should definitely be covered, and what might be extension activities, would be useful for teachers’ planning. Due to time constraints we had to leave an awful lot out. There were many questions raised by students that we simply didn’t have the time to explore. There is a large amount of stuff in the mental illness – it is difficult to grab just bits of it. Especially with mental illness – I’m scared of missing an important bit and giving the wrong message. These 8 lessons hardly touched the surface. I had the best intentions of getting through more of this stuff – but I just couldn’t do it. The materials provide scope to add more or less to the lessons. 5.3.5 Relationships Whereas teachers did not generally expect the teaching of the UMI unit to have a substantial effect upon their relationships with their students, or with their students’ relationships in their family environments, they did suggest that students’ relationships with each other might be positively improved with a greater appreciations of, and tolerance for, mental health Issues. 5.3.5.1 Relationships with students I don’t see this affecting my relationships with the students – it is just another topic for them. If you use your own personal experiences in the lessons – students enjoy that. 5.3.5.2 Relationships between students Now these kids will think about the way they treat and describe others. We have some kids who have a mental illness who are on medication – Kids openly jest about it. Some kids openly brag about it. I am hoping for a change in attitudes – a great reluctance to just be flippant. I have a sense that at school, kids relationships with each other, that they won’t use some words without thinking 5.3.5.2.1 Relationships with students’ home environments I doubt that there would be any transfer of this stuff to the students’ homes. 5.3.6 Additional support from MindMatters A comment on the source of the materials in the UMI booklet. It would be useful to have the Australian statistics to support the teaching
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5.3.7 Student feedback on the UMI module Students at School 1 completed the final questionnaire in less than the allocated time. The researcher took the opportunity to convene students into a group to discuss students’ perceptions of the UMI module. Like the teachers, the students in this class expressed a range of opinions about the UMI materials. This points to the diversity of students’ needs and perceptions even within one class, not only between schools and teachers. An overview of students’ responses follows. We liked the structure and presentation of the information in the UMI booklet The worksheet based format was too low level, and would have preferred an investigatory task, such as researching the underlying chemistry of mental illness. Presenting all of the information as worksheets leaves nothing for the student to do – all of the work is done, and so there is no motivation and no challenge. I would prefer a research project with a substantial issue to investigate. Mental illness is developing and progressive, but the impression I got from the video is that it is static. Representations of mental illness need to represent development. The materials tend to give a broad brush overview and they want to force students to change their attitudes. You should know that just telling us to change our attitudes won’t make us do that. You would be better off providing us with facts and information. Then knowledge causes attitude change. I would have liked to see more detailed, actual case studies. The jigsaw technique, where information is provided is not engaging and I don’t trust other students’ interpretation of the provided materials. I didn’t have to think about it much. It was all about attitudes which we already have. It would have been much more interesting to just deal with knowledge. The shoes activity was a waste of time. What is the connection? Many of these materials were about grade 1. We are 10 and 11 – it wasn’t challenging enough. There wasn’t enough time – serious issues were just glazed over.
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5.4
The Administrator interviews
Interviews were conducted with other personnel in the school, such as topic coordinators and school counsellors. A selection of responses follow. 5.4.1 How useful do you find the UMI booklet? It depends on how you use a resource. I don’t use cookbooks, but I like to read recipes. I use the UMI booklet in the same way. I get ideas from it, but I don’t actually use it in my teaching as I design my own activities and select my own materials. For example, I don’t use the quiz or the surveys. I prefer to break the subject up more, and concentrate on one thing at a time. I linked my teaching about mental illness to our studies about personality disorders. Also, we linked to studies of nutrition, sleep and stress. The students made a strong connection between their own lives and lack of sleep and stress. It depends on how you set up the class. The UMI booklet is a resource, but I prefer the students to hunt out their own information. Teaching about mental health has to fit in with our overall curriculum, and therefore must link to public health, physiology and diet, immunology, chemistry, psychology and so on. Therefore, activities have to be chosen that fit in with students’ inquiries in these other areas. We need to focus on the reality for kids. Depression, drugs, anxiety, self-esteem, selfknowledge. The more adult things are bi-polar and schizophrenia – not so relevant to these kids. MindMatters is overwhelming, there is so much of it, it is hard to do it justice. Some schools have a pastoral care program. You can’t do it in one sitting, but you can’t afford for it to take two terms. For us to incorporate the MindMatters stuff into our curriculum I would need to write it again to use it. Take the essential points, start a program in the middle school, then perhaps develop conference days for years 11 and 12. You need to identify what the students already know. Some of our students are care providers, they already have a lot of knowledge. The teacher is the key – the UMI materials are not transferable without the teacher. It would be useful to identify significant adults, other than teachers, who are the students best resources. 5.4.2 What goals do you have for the teaching about mental illness? Students will understand the management of these conditions if they experience it themselves or how to deal with another person. Students will have increased knowledge about anxiety and depression and other illnesses. Students will not be afraid of mental illness. Students will have the opportunity to share their experiences.
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5.4.3 What support do you receive from the school for teaching about mental illness? It is important to let the school counsellor know when we are teaching a unit like this – just in case any of the students need to talk to him – so that he can be prepared. Also, we need to let students know that if they don’t feel comfortable, they don’t need to get involved. We have a welfare team to discuss issues with. 5.4.4 What further support would you like to receive from MindMatters? Regular updates and any useful bits and pieces. Brochures Advice about conferences A central resource for teachers – a regularly updated thing – like a website. Local data, statistics (not American) There are some things I’m just not confident in my knowledge about, such as the difference between mental illness and intellectual disability. A way of schools sharing the work they have done. Schools will have to tailor the materials to their own needs. Once a school has developed a module, other schools need to be able to poach it – incorporate it, pilfer it, so that not everyone has to do all the work. The MindMatters people have been fantastic. They will do anything they are asked – after school times, lots of materials, where to get resources, lots of ‘facts’ booklets, good at providing and explaining curriculum materials. 5.4.5 Programming and planning Perhaps one of the major issues that is beginning to emerge in this evaluation, from teachers’ and administrators’ perspectives, is the location of the UMI module, and other MindMatters modules, within the existing curriculum. I lament that there is nowhere in the current curriculum to place the MindMatters stuff. I anticipate that it will be incorporated into our school renewal framework – that we could design units of work that incorporate issues such as MindMatters. But there is no line in the curriculum for it at present. There is other material to include as well, for example we are trialling a child protection program, a keep safe program, anti-bullying strategies, sustainable communities, family relationships. We need a kind of umbrella program that includes child protection, (points to National Safe Schools Framework folder), MindMatters (points to yellow box), bullying (points to video package), CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services), personal development stuff and all the rest. How do you fit it all in, and how do they all fit together? We can’t just do the same thing each year – we need to stagger the information across the years. The task to make MindMatters work is to write a program, say years 8 to 12, in 5 week modules. If it isn’t planned in this way it will falter. It needs to be restructured into workable units, and make the modules not repetitive year after year.
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It needs to be taken out of the hands of the traditionalists – home economics, health and PE, and needs to be mainstreamed into classes. It is not “health” subject only. The packaging needs to be made more interesting to kids – include forensics, brain research, brain power – how brains go wrong. For example, even our Year 8 kids know about ADHD – this would give them a lead to get their teeth into something more interesting. Or drug information and genetic predispositions. This is the interesting stuff but MindMatters doesn’t go into it that deeply. As it stands the MindMatters module is too “pure” for schools. Integrated units of work include ,say, an arts focus, a literacy element, a numeracy element, multiple intelligences. You might get, say, English teachers trialling child-protection curriculum through the study of a novel. Then you might add in the latest brain research. Or a domestic violence conference – the kids get excited about that sort of thing. Because of timelines and time restrictions, open dialogue in classrooms is disappearing, it tends to get stifled. Anything that encourages openness improves relationships. There is the intimacy of talking about issues. Then there is the issue of “don’t mention it” because it may get too precious. For example, we can’t talk about ADHD, because there may be some kids in the class who have it. But ultimately it will be liberating to talk about this stuff, and for students to realise that these illnesses are not their fault, -they need to know the physiology of it. 5.4.6 Integration with other student services There is an issue about the teaching of the UMI materials that relates to the incorporation of these teaching-learning experiences within the whole school context. This has implications for curriculum planning, teacher training, support networks, and community awareness of mental health as an issue that should, or should not, be taught in classrooms. At our school there is a big emphasis on students’ mental health. Mental illness is constantly on the agenda through student counselling services, lack of emergency services in the local community, responsibility for teachers to take on issues they are not trained to deal with, relationships between behaviour management and mental illness. The MindMatters stuff on understanding mental illness needs to be located within this broader framework of how mental health and metal illness are dealt with at the whole school level. What school support services are available. What community support services there are, and where they are actually physically located. What related support services exist, such as GPs for referrals to other services. Staff turnover and consistency in these support services. Who gets referred to the behaviour management unit and for what reasons. What happens to them when they get there. Substance abuse. The variations in resources for certain types of kids, such as Guardianship kids, or NEPs (Negotiated Education Plans) All of this stuff is related. It will become more and more of a focus for us to connect schools with the community, like involving service agencies in schools. The kids will want access to things like CAHMS. It will be possible to generate referrals from the teacher, to the counsellor, to the onsite GP, who will then refer on to Specialist services. This would provide continuity and the kids would not feel betrayed when individual personnel change. If we could all gear up to the importance of this sort of stuff then the place of MindMatters in the school would become more central.
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5.4.7 Mandated curriculum It was pointed out that to the extent that some student wellbeing initiatives are mandated to be taught, while others such as MindMatters are not, then the mandated materials will take preference in finding time in the curriculum for instruction. The difference between MindMatters and the NSSF is that the NSSF is mandated, it has a schedule for implementation and will be audited, and therefore it will be done, but MindMatters is not. With NSSF, DECS district has a noticeable team with responsibility for NSSF and child protection to make certain that it is happening. But with MindMatters there is no noticeable regional team – its not mandated. 5.4.8 Two way interaction of research and practice One administrator made an interesting observation about the impact of having a researcher undertaking an investigation in a school. Having this study on MindMatters in our school has raised again the profile of MindMatters at the school – it had flagged a bit, but now it has re-emerged. Moved up the agenda so to speak and this has rekindled attention to the importance of teaching this MindMatters stuff. And so now we will be incorporating the MindMatters stuff into the design of our new units of work.
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5.5
The Teacher self-efficacy questionnaire analyses
The three teachers who were involved in the classroom observation and two administrators (who had taught about mental health in the past) completed the teacher efficacy questionnaire. The small sample size does not permit sophisticated statistical analysis of participants’ responses. However participants’ responses can be interpreted at the descriptive level to provide some insight into teachers’ efficacy for teaching the UMI module. In Table 15 we report the response frequencies for each questionnaire item. From Table 15 it can be noted that teacher efficacy is ‘neutral’ to ‘strongly agree’ for all 24 items, indicating that our participant teachers feel moderately to highly confident about all items. Although this is a small sample, it is interesting to rank the mean responses to each item, as displayed in Table 16. It can be seen that the highest scoring three items are • I can see how the Understanding Mental Illness module fits into the broader school curriculum. • I can comfortably discuss issues concerning Mental Illness with my students. • I can establish a supportive learning environment for my class when they are learning about Mental Illness. Meanwhile, the lowest scoring three items are • I can overcome negative peer group and community attitudes that might affect students' learning about Mental Illness. • I can motivate students who show a low interest in learning about Mental Illness. • I can continually invent better ways to teach the Understanding Mental Illness module. Individual teacher mean scores across all 24 items of the teacher self-efficacy scale are reported in Table 14, where it can be seen that each participant’s mean score is high (on the Likert scale 1 to 7). Thus it appears that the teacher participants feel confident about the task of teaching the UMI module. Table 14: Each participating teacher’s mean self-efficacy score
ID Teacher A
Mean self-efficacy score 6.00
Teacher B
5.38
Teacher C
5.25
Teacher D
5.38
Teacher E
6.71
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Table 15: Response frequencies to teacher self-efficacy for teaching the UMI module questionnaire strongly disagree
1. 1. I can effectively use the MindMatters resources for teaching my class about Mental Illness
disagree
neutral
.2.............. ..3
agree
strongly agree
.4............. ..5............. .6............ ..7
0
0
0
0
2
2
1
0
0
0
1
3
0
1
0
0
0
1
1
2
1
0
0
0
0
4
1
0
0
0
0
1
2
0
2
0
0
0
2
1
2
0
0
0
0
2
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
3
1
1
0
0
0
0
2
1
2
0
0
0
0
2
2
1
0
0
0
0
1
2
2
2. I can motivate students who show a low interest in learning about Mental Illness.
3. I can effectively deal with students’ questions about Mental Illness.
4. I can overcome negative peer group and community attitudes that might affect students’ learning about Mental Illness. 5. I can comfortably improvise when teaching about Mental Illness.
6. I can teach about Mental Illness as well as I can teach my other subjects.
7. I can continually invent better ways to teach the Understanding Mental Illness module. 8. I can understand the Mental Illness concepts well enough to teach about Mental Illness effectively. 9. I can help students to develop a good understanding about the issues underlying Mental Illness. 10. I can promote learning about Mental Illness whether or not there is support from the student’s home. 11. I can establish a supportive learning environment for my class when they are learning about Mental Illness.
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12. I can help students tap into their prior knowledge to facilitate their learning about Mental Illness.
0
0
0
1
0
3
1
0
0
0
1
0
4
0
0
0
0
0
1
4
0
0
0
0
0
1
2
1
0
0
0
0
2
3
0
0
0
0
2
0
3
0
0
0
0
0
2
2
1
0
0
0
0
2
2
2
0
0
0
2
0
1
2
0
0
0
0
1
0
4
0
0
0
1
1
2
1
0
0
0
0
2
2
1
0
0
0
1
1
3
0
13 I can help students to examine their beliefs and attitudes about Mental Illness
14. I can implement a variety of different teaching activities to cover the module Understanding Mental Illness 15. I can comfortably discuss issues concerning Mental Illness with my students
16. I can effectively evaluate students’ knowledge about Mental Illness
17. I can effectively evaluate students’ attitudes about Mental Illness
18. I can help students to apply their knowledge about Mental Illness to their every day life 19. I can effectively deal with sensitive issues about Mental Illness that students might raise 20. I can confidently teach the MindMatters module on Understanding Mental Illness
21. I can see how the Understanding Mental Illness module fits into the broader school curriculum 22. I can accommodate the different learning needs of individual students in teaching the Understanding Mental Illness module 23. I can work with individual students who have specific concerns when studying the Understanding Mental Illness module 24. I can help my students relate their learning in the Understanding Mental Illness module to other areas of the curriculum
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Table 16: Descending means for items in Teacher self-efficacy for teaching the UMI module 21. I can see how the Understanding Mental Illness module fits into the broader school curriculum 15. I can comfortably discuss issues concerning Mental Illness with my students 11. I can establish a supportive learning environment for my class when they are learning about Mental Illness. 9. I can help students to develop a good understanding about the issues underlying Mental Illness. 23. I can work with individual students who have specific concerns when studying the Understanding Mental Illness module 18. I can help students to apply their knowledge about Mental Illness to their every day life 12. I can help students tap into their prior knowledge to facilitate their learning about Mental Illness. 1. I can effectively use the MindMatters resources for teaching my class about Mental Illness 19. I can effectively deal with sensitive issues about Mental Illness that students might raise 14. I can implement a variety of different teaching activities to cover the module Understanding Mental Illness 10. I can promote learning about Mental Illness whether or not there is support from the student's home. 22. I can accommodate the different learning needs of individual students in teaching the Understanding Mental Illness module 20. I can confidently teach the MindMatters module on Understanding Mental Illness 16. I can effectively evaluate students' knowledge about Mental Illness 5. I can comfortably improvise when teaching about Mental Illness. 3. I can effectively deal with students' questions about Mental Illness. 13 I can help students to examine their beliefs and attitudes about Mental Illness 8. I can understand the Mental Illness concepts well enough to teach about Mental Illness effectively. 24. I can help my students relate their learning in the Understanding Mental Illness module to other areas of the curriculum 17. I can effectively evaluate students' attitudes about Mental Illness 4. I can overcome negative peer group and community attitudes that might affect students' learning about Mental Illness. 2. I can motivate students who show a low interest in learning about Mental Illness. 7. I can continually invent better ways to teach the Understanding Mental Illness module. 6. I can teach about Mental Illness as well as I can teach my other subjects.
Min
Max
Mean
5.50
7.00
6.70
5.00
7.00
6.32
5.50
7.00
6.30
5.00
7.00
6.10
5.00
7.00
5.90
5.00
7.00
5.90
4.50
7.00
5.90
5.00
7.00
5.90
5.00
7.00
5.80
5.00
6.00
5.80
5.00
7.00
5.80
4.50
7.00
5.70
4.00
7.00
5.70
5.00
6.00
5.70
4.00
7.00
5.70
4.00
7.00
5.70
4.00
6.00
5.60
5.00
7.00
5.60
4.50
6.00
5.50
4.00
6.00
5.30
5.00
6.00
5.30
4.00
7.00
5.30
4.00
7.00
5.20
4.00
6.00
5.10
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5.6
The student questionnaire analyses
5.6.1 Return of consent forms Following substantial follow up and reminders from teachers and the researcher, students returned consent forms for participation in the research at variable rates per class. For questionnaire analysis at pre-teaching and post-teaching this provided a sample size of 44, distributed as recorded in Table 17. Table 17: Consent forms returned School 1 13 of 25 students Year 10: 2 female; 3 male Year 11: 1 female; 7 male School 2 20 of 27 students Year 10: 7 female; 13 male School 3 11 of 15 students Year 11: 5 female; 6 male Although control group questionnaires were administered and collected in whole classes in schools 1 and 2, students in both control classes did not return their consent forms. Due to lack of consents, it was necessary to discontinue the proposed ‘control group’ questionnaire analysis. Note that observations of the classroom implementation of the UMI module was not affected by students’ return, or non-return, of consent forms, as collaborating teachers provided consent for observation of professional activity, and the observations were of the implementation of the UMI module, not of individual student’s performance. 5.6.2 Questionnaire item 1 5.6.2.1 In your own words, describe a person with a mental illness. An overview of students’ responses to Question 1 in the pre-teaching questionnaire is presented in Table 18. The responses have been grouped into four categories that summarised their content. Thus some students had no idea about mental illness prior to teaching and some regarded mental illness as a type of intellectual disability. Table 18: Categories and examples of students’ responses to Question 1: pre-teaching No idea “No idea” General brain dysfunction “a person with a mental illness is someone who is unhealthy in their mind” Mental Illness “a person with a mental illness is someone who is emotionally, behaviourally and mentally ill. Emotional could be depression, this is where one goes into a deep sad phase for a very long time. Behaviourally could be bi-polar manic, this is where one is happy one minute then sad the next. Mentally ill would be sychiotophrinia (sic).” Intellectual disability “A person with a mental illness is somebody who has a problem either someone who had it from birth or have developed it after some kind of accident”
64
An overview of students’ responses to Question 1 in the post-teaching questionnaire is presented in Table 19. Table 19: Summary of students’ responses to Question 1: post-teaching No idea (No response) General brain dysfunction “someone with an imbalance in the brain” Mental Illness “a person with a mental illness may have trouble with how they react with situations in life, but with help most of the causes for these 'troubles' they can be prevented allowing a person with a mental illness living a full and happy life” Intellectual disability “my brother he is 17 and had to be fed with a tube when he was a baby and he can not work very good and he cant speak he lives with a foster mum in Wallaroo”
In Table 20 the frequencies of students’ responses before and after teaching the UMI module, in each of the categories identified in Table 18 are presented. It can be seen that the most frequent category both before and after teaching is general brain dysfunction, followed by intellectual disability. Students’ responses that indicated understanding of some of the possible characteristics of a mental illness increased from 8 to 16 while those that characterised a mental illness as an intellectual disability fell from 12 to 5. the number of students who reported that they had ‘no idea’ fell from 7 to 3. Table 20: Frequencies of students’ responses to Question 1 in each category before and after teaching the UMI module no idea
general brain mental dysfunction illness
intellectual disability
total
preteaching
7
15
8
12
42
post teaching
3
19
16
5
43
5.6.2.2 All responses Table 21 and Table 22 contain the complete set of students’ responses to Question 1 – Preteaching and Post-teaching, respectively.
65
Table 21: Students’ pre-teaching responses to “in your own words” ID AAL ab ag
ah be cad cp cw db de djc dp gbh glb gm hcs JHS jm jp jrr js lm mavl mga
mh mk mk mp pjh ppr rr sb sbb sc sh sm stb tjf tnl ts
wpz WS
Students' responses
someone who suffers from a disease that affects their mental capabilities (good or bad) a person with a mental illness is someone who is emotionally, behaviourally and mentally ill. Emotional could be depression, this is where one goes into a deep sad phase for a very long time.Behaviourally could be bi-polar manic, this is where one is happy one minute then sad the next. Mentally ill would be sychiotophrinia (sp.). I got no idea HAVE NO IDEA! a person with a mental illness like depression will cry, drink, smoke, sleep and be down on them selfs like why am I not able to do this look at my house and take things out on people are really close to them a person with a mental illness is someone who is unhealthy in their mind a person with a mental illness is someone who has a disease etc that affects their mental well-being. The person may be mentally retarded. Some illnesses are Schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, Depression and paranoia I have no idea a mental illness person is someone who's brain is not functioning properly and inhibits them in some manner there are many different mental illnesses some are not at all noticeable unless you know them some change the way people might act in cirtain situations eg. Speech impedament, trouble grasping new ideas or depression A person with a mental illness has something wrong with their brain. People with mental illness can be danerous but they normally aren't a person who has a mental illness is a someone who is mentally disabled someone who cannot control their actions and their thoughts A person with a mental illness has a disability or a disease, which would affect their whole life someone who does not think at an optimal level Hard to understand, hard to get along with, hard to help, cant really socialise with them have no idea a mental illness person is someone that has a mental disability that effects their brain and how they see life someone who is 'mentally challenged' that may not be able to participate in everyday normal activities a person who has a mental illness is someone that suffers from a physical mental problem some one who is 'not all there' One who is not able to function as fast or as normal as average. This can be brought on by a natural or unnatural occurrence (eg car crash) A person not exhibiting regular behaviour on the basis of an irregularity in the brain or mind that cannot be directly attributed to their physical condition. The person may either experience a change in mood or motivation or have limited mental capacity or a general incorrectness or mindset problem A person with a mental illness is usually someone who has problems with their brain, like brain abnormalities A person who isnt mentally healthy. Someone who isnt mentally balanced out A person with a mental illness has a mistake in his mind. Something doesn't work as it's supposed to work. This can just be a minor mistake which most people can't see but it could also make them act madly someone that is a little bit slow; don't know what's goin on Hard to get along with. hard to help them. Cant really do anything with them a person with a disability that effects the way their brain works A person with a mental illness is somebody who has a problem either someone who had it from birth or have developed it after some kind of accident A person with a mental illness to me means someone who has a problem in their minds some one that may find things hard or slow They can have all sorts of symptoms. They can have suicide thoughts. Hallucinate. All sorts have no idea a person who isnt mentally healthy. Someone who doesn’t know what they are doing and cant help it a person with a mental illness has a problem mentally that sometimes cant be helped such as depression or anxiety someone that has something wrong in their head A crazy man. Someone who cannot tell which is 'right' and which is 'wrong' . Often confused or always thinking what they are doing is correct. But a mental illness can be something like depression or even addiction. It is something that is 'wrong' with the mind don’t know ozzy ozbourne can be paranoid and silly and can has changing moods about himself and other people
66
Table 22: Students’ post-teaching responses to “In your own words..” ID AAL AB ag ah be cjmh CP CW cws db DE djc DP gbh GLB gm HCS jhs jm jp
Students' written responses someone who is not all there someone that suffers from an illness that has an emotional origin or affect a person with a mental illness is someone who has emotional behavioral and thinking problems in the mind a person who is slower than others a person that has difficulty coping in everyday life that is to do with the brain a person with a mental illness is someone who is experiencing problems in their mind e.g anorexia-they think their overweight when their not or that everyone is judging them a person with a mental illness is some one who has a chemical imbalance in their brain. They would also be suffering from the symptoms of at least one mental illness eg. Hearing voices, being paranoid etc people who get depressed and has a problem with their brain that stops them from having a normal life someone who needs to be taken care of because he can't think for himself someones whos brain is either damaged or not functioning correctly. These people have a small connection to reality, and may see things differently to someone who is healthy has a mental impediment that changes the way that person acts some of the time or all of the time - some are unreliable dangerous some simply have trouble in social situations a person with a mental illness is someone who has an illness of the brain. A mental illness will effect someones mood oftidute, emotions. Any of either of them a MI is an illness that affects someone's way of thinking or making decisions Someone who is sometimes unable to control his/her actions and/or emotions a person who has a sort of illness mental and pysichilly someones whos thinking is not of an optimal level and they have a condition that effects their mood, behavior or emotions someone who needs people to care for them with out making them feel different
jrr js
a person with a mental illness is someone that is not functioning mentally as well as they could it is caused by an impedance of chemicals someone who is mentally challenged a person with a MI is someone who suffers from problems - which leads to bigger problems - illnesses - the brain
lm MGA
someone with an imbalance in the brain a person with a disease of the mind, causing abnormal thoughts, restricting ability or a change in behaviour
mh mk
is someone who has an imbalance or disorder to do with their brain a person with a mental illness has something in their brain working wrong. You cant often see this and it doesn’t affect much other things. People with a mental illness can very often live a normal life, like people with a physical illness like asthma. A mental illness doesnt affect the intellegence a person who isn't mentally balanced someone with a speech problem or someone that is a bit slower than normal people who act different from others a person with a mental illness may have trouble with how they react with situations in life, but with help most of the causes for these 'troubles' they can be prevented allowing a person with a mental illness living a full and happy life
mk mp ph R
rb rp sac sbb sh sjc slg sm stb T tjf
tjs
wpz
someone who talks to themselves a person with a mental illness is someone who is mentally unstable in one way or another a very depressed person that is in need of love and good complements. A person with mental illness is person just like every other person some one that is maybe a bit slower or out of touch someone that has something wrong mentally. Which covers a lot of illnesses a person with a mental illness is either, angry. Upset or always feeling down. Getting confused someone who has a chemical imbalance in their brain which causes them to sometimes think differently than a person who is mentally healthy someone that is unpredictable my brother he is 17 and had to be fed with a tube when he was a baby and he can not work very good and he cant speak he lives with a foster mum in wallaroo a person with a MI is someone who has experienced a traumatic event which causes them to go into a depressed state because they don’t deal with what happened or drug abuse can cause them. The person might halucinate and not be able to work out whats real and whats not someone who's mind is not running 'normally' although normal is a loose word to use. It may be because of a imbalance of chemicals in the brain. Mental illness may range from anorexia to depression or bipolar mood disorder. mental, crazy, depressed
67
5.6.3 Questionnaire item 2: Knowledge (part 1) 5.6.3.1 What do you think? Do you agree with the following statements? Tick the circle to show how true you think these statements are. Table 23 contains the frequency and percentage of students who responded to each point on a five point Likert scale to the knowledge items in Question 2, both pre and post teaching the UMI module. These items were taken from the information provided in the MindMatters UMI booklet. Substantial differences occur in students’ responses to the following items. • Item 2.2 where more students agree that most people fully recover from their Mental Illness • Item 2.4, where more students disagree and strongly disagree that people with a mental illness are dangerous. • Item 2.5, where more students agree and strongly agree that most mental illnesses can be effectively treated. Table 23: Students’ responses to Question 2, “What do you think?” before and after teaching the UMI module. Strongly Agree 1. Anyone can develop a MI.
Pre 21 47.7%
2. Most people fully recover from their MI.
Pre 0
3. Doctors know exactly what causes MI.
Pre0
4. People with a MI are dangerous.
Post 23 52.3%
Post 0
Agree Pre 15 34.1%
Maybe true/ Maybe false Post 16 36.4%
Pre 4 9.1%
Post 3 6.8%
Disagree Pre 1 2.3%
Post 0
Strongly Disagree Pre 1 2.3%
Post 0
Post 3 6.8%
Pre 4 9.1%
Post 13 29.5%
Pre 15 34.1%
Post 13 29.5%
Pre 21 47.7%
Post 13 29.5%
Pre 2 4.5%
Post 0
Pre3 6.8%
Post 3 6.8%
Pre13 29.5%
Post 10 22.7%
Pre19 43.2%
Post 22 50%
Pre7 15.9%
Pre0
Post 0
Pre2 4.5
5. Most MI can be effectively treated.
Pre0
Post 6 13.6%
Pre15 34.1%
Post 19 43.2%
Pre23 52.3%
6. Most MI occur before adulthood.
Pre0
Post 1 2.3%
Pre12 27.3%
Post 11 25%
Pre22 50%
Post 4 9.1%
Pre27 61.4
Post 13 29.5%
Post 14 31.8%
Post 20 45.5%
Post 7 15.9%
Pre11 25
Post 16 36.4%
Pre2 4.5
Post 9 20.5%
Pre4 9.1%
Post 3 6.8%
Pre0
Post 0
Pre0
Post 2 4.5%
Pre8 18.2%
Post 8 18.2%
68 (Missing responses: 2 per item)
5.6.4 Questionnaire item 3: Definitions 5.6.4.1 Match the following words with their meaning Table 24 contains the number of students who selected the correct definition, both preteaching and post-teaching of the UMI module, for each of five mental illnesses. The definitions were taken from the MindMatters UMI booklet. It can be seen from Table 24 that substantial differences occurred for the following items. •
Item 3.3 , where more students correctly identified the definition for bipolar mood disorder
•
Item 3.5 where more students correctly identified the definition for schizophrenia.
Table 24: Students’ correct definitions of mental illnesses, pre-teaching and postteaching
Pre-teaching Post-teaching correct responses correct responses (N=41) (N=40)
Meanings
1. depression
37 (84.1%)
35 (79.5%)
2. Hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting or feeling things that are not there.
2. hallucinations
35 (79.5%)
31 (70.5%)
5. A mental illness where thoughts and perceptions become disordered.
3. bipolar mood disorder
19 (43.2%)
27 (61.4%)
1. Long lasting feelings of deep anxiety and unhappiness including poor sleep and lack of energy.
4. delusion
21 (47.7%)
25 (56.8%)
4. A mistaken belief that a person has even when there is proof that the belief is incorrect.
5. schizophrenia
15 (34.1%)
28 (63.6%)
3. Previously called manic depression.
Term
(in original order)
69
5.6.5 Questionnaire item 4: Knowledge (part 2) 5.6.5.1 What do you think? Tick the circle to show how strongly you Agree, Disagree, or are Unsure about what you think about these statements. Table 25 contains the frequency and percentage of students who responded to each point on a five point Likert scale to the knowledge items in Question 4: Knowledge (Part 2), both pre and post teaching the UMI module. These items were taken from the information provided in the MindMatters UMI booklet. Substantial differences occur in students’ responses to the following items. • Item 4.1 where more students disagree and strongly disagree that people should sort out their own mental health problems. • Item 4.2 where more students agree that medication is the best treatment for mental illness. • Item 4.3 where more students strongly disagree that you can tell by looking at someone whether they have a mental illness.
70
Table 25: Students’ responses to Question 4, “What do you think?” before and after teaching the UMI module. Strongly Agree
Statements 1. people should generally sort out their own mental health problems.
2. medication is the best treatment for MI.
3. you can tell just looking at someone whether they have a MI
Agree
5. it would safer for community people with a were kept hospital.
be the if MI in
6. people see MI in the same way they see physical illness.
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
0
0
8
3
15
8
14
20
4
10
18.2%
6.8%
34.1%
18.2%
31.8%
45.5%
9.1%
22.7%
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
0
0
5
13
10
10
24
15
2
3
11.4%
29.5%
22.7%
22.7%
54.5%
34.1%
4.5%
6.8%
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
1
0
5
1
4
6
20
17
11
17
11.4%
2.3%
9.1%
13.6%
45.5%
38.6%
25%
38.6%
2.3%
4. people with a MI are generally shy and quiet.
Not sure
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
0
0
4
7
12
9
20
16
5
9
9.1%
15.9%
27.3%
20.5%
45.5%
36.4%
11.4%
20.5%
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
1
1
3
1
9
8
18
17
9
14
2.3%
2.3%
6.8%
2.3%
20.5%
18.2%
40.9%
38.6%
20.5%
31.8%
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
0
1
2
6
13
12
24
14
2
8
2.3%
4.5%
13.6%
29.5%
27.3%
54.5%
31.8%
4.5%
18.2%
71
5.6.6 Questionnaire item 5 5.6.6.1 List 3 (or more) things you would like to find out about mental illness. In Table 26 we present an overview of the broad range of issues that students indicated they wanted to know more about in relation to understanding mental illness. Table 26: Overview of students’ responses about what they would like to finds out about mental illness What causes them/most common causes How can they be cured/deadlyness of them How can they be prevented/avoided What to do if you have one How to find out if you have one Is ortism (sic) one Can it be long term if not cured What are the effects of one What mental illnesses are most likely Is depression heretattry (sic) Nothing How does it feel How to stop bad things from happening Can I get one; who can get it drugs and mentally ill patients migrants and mentally ill patients hospitals!!! Closing down the percentage of people with mental illness the percentage that can be cured the countries that are worse off with MI how can the public help why it affects some people and others not at what age they normally get it the different types; definitions; diagnosis
72
5.6.7 Questionnaire item 6 5.6.7.1 Social distance scale Students completed a 7 point Likert scale to 12 questions designed to measure their preferred social distance to people with a mental illness. Table 27 details the pre-teaching and postteaching mean scores for each item and the frequencies of responses to each item. Mean scores calculated for each item indicated an improvement in preferred social distance (higher mean score indicates less social distance) from pre-teaching to post teaching for 9 of the 12 items.
73
Table 27: Secondary student social distance scale, pre-teaching and post-teaching responses. definitely no
unlikely
don’t mind
likely
definitely yes
1.......... ..2.......... ..3........... ..4............ .5.......... ...6......... 1. Would you be willing to attend the same school as a person with a mental illness? Pre-teaching mean: 5.46 Post-teaching mean: 5.80 2. Would you be willing to go to the movies with a person with mental illness? Pre-teaching mean: 4.65 Post-teaching mean: 5.34 3. Would you refuse an invitation to go to the birthday party of a person with a mental illness? (reversed item) Pre-teaching mean: 5.30 Post-teaching mean: 5.28 4. Would you be willing to tell your friends if you had a person with a mental illness in your family? Pre-teaching mean: 5.37 Post-teaching mean: 5.23 5. Would you have a person with a mental illness as a close friend? Pre-teaching mean: 4.73 Post-teaching mean: 5.11 6. Would you ask to change classes if you had a person with a mental illness as a teacher? (reversed item) Pre-teaching mean: 5.34 Post-teaching mean: 5.30 7. Would you try to avoid a person with a mental illness? (reversed item) Pre-teaching mean: 5.01 Post-teaching mean: 5.38 8. Would you hang out with a group that included a person with a mental illness? Pre-teaching mean: 4.96 Post-teaching mean: 5. 46 9. Would you invite a person with a mental illness to your house?
.7
Pre Post
1 0
0 0
0 2
13 6
6 8
6 7
15 18
Pre Post
2 2
3 0
5 2
12 6
2 8
10 14
7 9
Pre Post
9 10
15 12
6 8
7 4
1 4
1 3
2 0
Pre Post
0 0
2 3
3 5
7 6
8 5
8 10
13 12
Pre Post
1 1
4 1
3 3
8 7
9 10
13 12
3 6
Pre Post
14 16
11 4
5 10
4 3
3 5
1 2
3 1
Pre Post
5 12
12 11
12 6
7 7
3 3
0 2
2 0
Pre Post
0 1
2 0
2 1
12 7
8 9
12 14
4 9
74
Pre-teaching mean: 4.41 Post-teaching mean: 5.00 10. Would you visit the house of a person with a mental illness? Pre-teaching mean: 4.66 Post-teaching mean: 5.37 11. Would you chat over the internet with a person with a mental illness? Pre-teaching mean: 4.76 Post-teaching mean: 5.24 12. Would you join a club, team or group that had a person with a mental illness as a member? Pre-teaching mean: 5.20 Post-teaching mean: 5.60
Pre Post
0 0
4 1
7 6
11 9
9 8
7 11
3 6
Pre Post
0 0
3 0
3 2
14 10
9 10
9 10
3 9
Pre Post
2 3
7 0
1 2
4 7
10 5
9 11
8 12
Pre Post
1 1
0 1
1 1
14 5
6 7
10 14
9 12
75
5.6.8 Questionnaire item 7: A short story 5.6.8.1 Question 7.1 Do you think Cris is in a serious situation? Table 28 details students’ responses to the ‘Cris’ scenario both before and after teaching the UMI module. It can be seen that at post-teaching, more students considered Cris to be in a fairly serious or very serious situation. Table 28: Students’ responses to the “Cris” scenario.
Pre-teaching
Post-teaching
No - Not serious at all
No – not very serious
I have no thoughts about how serious it is
Yes - fairly serious
Yes - very serious
0
9
7
22
2
20.5%
15.9%
50%
4.5%
1
5
4
26
4
2.3%
11.4%
9.1%
59.1%
9.1%
5.6.8.2 Questionnaire item 7. 2. If you found yourself in the same position as Cris, write here what you would do Students’ open-ended responses to this question, pre-teaching and post-teaching the UMI module, are categorised and presented in Table 29. It can be seen that students presented a slightly greater range of responses in the pre-teaching phase. Post-teaching, there was an increase in the number of students who nominated that they would talk to someone and see a doctor/get help. Table 29: Categorised open-ended responses to “If you found yourself in the same position as Cris, write here what you would do”
Response categories talk to someone do my work nothing I don't know appreciate some help be positive tell mum sleep it off take it as it comes make it better smash something see a doctor/get help calm myself get over it ignore it apologise counsel myself
Frequency Preteaching N=43 19 2 2 3 1 3
Frequency Postteaching N=43 22 2 4 1
2 1 1 1 4 4 2 1 1
2
5 2 6 1 1
76
5.6.8.3 Questionnaire item 7. 3. If you thought one of your friends was in the same position as Cris, write here what you would do Students’ open-ended responses to Question 7.3 are categorised in Table 30. The majority of responses revolve around talking and offering support. It is interesting to note that at postteaching three students nominated “seek advice,” a response option that did not appear before teaching. Table 30: Categories of responses to Question 7.3 “If you thought one of your friends was in the same position as Cris, What would you do?”
Category of response talk to them talk in private be calm/calm them down be a true friend/support them tell mum/parents tell them to talk to someone/ see a doctor tell the teacher/an adult don't know leave them alone (for a while) nothing help out give advice avoid them Seek advice
Preteaching frequency 16 2 3 8 4
Post teaching frequency 23 1 1 6 2
3 1 1
7 3 1
5 2 4 3 1
2 5 6 1 3
77
5.6.8.4 Questionnaire item 7.4. If you found yourself in Cris’s situation and you decided to talk someone, who would it be? (Tick as many as apply to you) Table 31 details the number of students (from the total sample of 44) who nominated each person that they would talk to if they were in a situation “similar to Cris’s.” Highest nominations were for best friends followed by close family members and then extended family members. Kids help line and telephone counselling services appeared relatively infrequently. More people were nominated post-teaching than at pre-teaching, suggesting that students could envisage a greater range of potential sources of assistance following the teaching of the UMI module. From Table 31 it does appear that most students would talk to someone. Note that even for those who selected “I would not talk to anyone”, three students at pre-teaching and all four students at post-teaching also selected some people that they would talk to. This suggests that the item “not talk” could be interpreted as one of many options, according to circumstance, rather than as an exclusive option of not talking to anyone. Table 31: Students’ selections of who they would talk to. Response option
Preteaching
Postteaching
I would not talk to anyone
5 (2)
4 (0)
Your best male friend
22
28
A teacher
5
7
Your mother or step-mother
19
20
Year or house coordinator/patron
2
6
Your minister, pastor or priest
0
2
Your father or step-father
8
17
Your best female friend
28
27
A leader in your community
1
1
A professional counsellor outside of school
6
10
Kids Help Line or other
2
5
A telephone counselling service
1
2
An adult other than your parents
8
11
Your doctor
6
4
Your sister or brother
16
17
Your grandparent
4
10
An aunty
8
9
An uncle
4
12
Student welfare or pastoral care support teacher or school counsellor
4
7
Someone else (write here)
3
8
total
152
207
78
5.6.8.5 Questionnaire item 7. 5. If you found yourself in Cris’s situation and decided to tell someone about it, who do you think would be the most helpful to you? Students’ responses to this item are collated in Table 32. Students selected similar people to talk to both pre-and post-teaching the UMI module. Table 32: Collated students’ responses to who would be most helpful to talk to. Best friend/close friend Mother Doctor Counsellor Adult friends Sibling/relative Someone I trust Parents Father Internet forum Teacher
5.6.8.6 Questionnaire items 7. 6, 7.7 & 7.8 5.6.8.6.1 Behavioural intentions concerning tobacco, alcohol and drugs In Table 33, Table 34 and Table 35, students’ response frequencies to questions about their intentions to use tobacco, alcohol and drugs in situations such as that depicted in the Cris scenario are reported. It can be observed that the majority of students indicated that, in each case, they probably would not, or definitely would not, use tobacco, alcohol or drugs. Table 33: If you found yourself in Cris’s situation, how likely would it be that you would use tobacco to help you to cope? (Circle your answer) Yes, I'd definitely use tobacco
Yes - I'm pretty sure I would use tobacco
I don’t know if No – I I would use probably tobacco would not use tobacco
No, I would definitely not use tobacco
Pre-teaching
3
3
2
8
23
Post-teaching
2
3
3
4
28
Some students commented (quietly at the back of the class) on the discrepancy between their teacher’s in-class messages about saying no to smoking, and that they had seen evidence that the teacher smoked cigarettes.
79
Table 34: If you found yourself in Cris’s situation, how likely would it be that you would use alcohol to help you to cope? (Circle your answer) Yes, I'd definitely use alcohol
Yes - I'm pretty sure I would use alcohol
I don’t know if I would use alcohol
No – I probably would not use alcohol
No, I would definitely not use alcohol
Pre-teaching
1
7
10
11
10
Post-teaching
3
4
8
11
14
Table 35: If you found yourself in Cris’s situation, How likely would it be that you would use other drugs to help you cope? (circle your answer) Yes, I'd definitely use other drugs
Yes - I'm pretty sure I would use other drugs
I don’t know if I would use other drugs
No – I probably would not use other drugs
No, I would definitely not use other drugs
Pre-teaching
0
2
3
9
25
Post-teaching
0
2
8
3
27
At the time of teaching the UMI unit there was a significant event on television dealing with sports personalities, in particular football players, taking caffeine to enhance performance. This had not escaped students’ attention: Student 1: I’m going to pop 4 caffeine tablets before football on Sunday – I’m going to be hyped up… Student 2: You have to make sure not to take NODOZE too early – otherwise it wears off before you get there [the football match]
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5.6.8.7 Questionnaire item 7.9. Would you like to tell us anything else, or make any further comments about Cris’s situation? If so – write them here. Students’ open ended reposes to the “Cris” scenario are detailed in Table 36. At pre-teaching and post-teaching, students’ opinions ranged from considering that Cris did need to discuss his/her situation with a friend or appropriate adult, to the opinion that Cris was just going through a phase and should “get over it”, to the opinion that the situation was Cris’s own fault. Table 36: Students’ open ended responses to the “Cris” scenario Pre-teaching responses Best friends are best friends because they can be trusted and keep your secrets. I think he should have told his best friend as best friends complete your life Well as chris is like my sister I would like her to see a counsellor He is a bit of a looney, may have depression. Needs someone to talk to and some way to release tension in a non threatening way Cris is just going through a stress period.HE WILL GET OVER IT!! There is no concern, he just needs to calm down and think about life Cris is probably feeling very insecure right now and assuring him that he did the right thing would probably help the situation. The support that Cris gets can make a big difference Get some help Cris, otherwise you'll find yourself in a mental hospital. Do you want that , eh? Livin it up there for the rest of your life. Well act now before it gets worse. I think many people suffer situations just like Cris. You just need to look around He definitely needs help by someone he can trust He seems to have quite a serious problem, but I would mainly call it a phase, does not seem like a serious disorder or lasting problem I would probably eat It was Cris's own fault the teacher got angry with him, the teacher wasn't picking on him Using drugs is just something that is meant to make you feel better. If you can realise they don't, you should be alright Post teaching responses It's not very serious! HE WILL GET OVER IT!! Its only serious if it has been going on for ages Sometimes people lose touch of how lucky they are and what important things are to them. They take the wrong mindset in life I think that many people suffer similar situations to Cris How long has he been behaving abnormally? I don’t know Chris's history, is he just being snappy about nothing, or has something else happened? It was mainly Chris's own fault He needs to get help but he probably wont want to because he doesn’t see his problem Get some help while you can because you don’t want to spend the rest of your life in a mental hospital I said no to all of above because Id feel to start something like that would be stupid
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5.6.9 Post-teaching questionnaire: Additional questions The post teaching questionnaire contained additional open-ended response items with a view to identifying students’ reactions to the UMI module. 5.6.9.1 What are some of the things you have learnt about mental illness that you did not know before? From Table 37 it can be seen that students commented about a wide range of new knowledge, including definitions, that mental illness can be effectively treated, that one in five Australians may suffer from a mental illness, and that people with a mental illness are not dangerous to other people. Students’ accounts of their learning are to be taken seriously, as such accounts demonstrate students’ explicit metacognitive awareness of their learning. Thus the list in Table 37 is impressive in the recount of the main messages that were promoted at the beginning of the UMI booklet and video.
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Table 37: Students’ open-ended responses about what they learnt I learnt what different mental ilnesses are. I learn't how and why they occur Some of the definitions of some of the diseases You cant tell a person by their shoes That they can happen to any body. I have learnt stuff about bipolar and schizophenia and what disorders they I know that people with mental illneses can get better and live normal lives I learnt more about the names of mental illnesses. Before the corce for example I did no know what bi-polar disorder was but now I do The amount of mental ilnesses and the amount of people with them, or that may have or have them. I did not know some of the definitions e.g schizophrenia The different between a delusion and hallucinations. I knew most of this information. 1 in 5 people will experience a mental ilness. Bipolar mood disorder was once called manic depression I did not know that anorexia and belimia were so common. I also did not know what bipolar mood disorder or shizophrenia was. I learnt the variety of illnesses was a lot wider than what I thought. I also learnt that anyone can be affected by a mental illness and most can be treated. As well as learning the symptoms of the ' main' more common I didn’t know that most mental illnesses can be affectedly treated . + I didnt know that we don’t know what (unreadable) them I know every disorder mentioned in the course I just didn’t know the symptoms in great detail That a normal person can get it Doctors don’t know what causes mental illnesses Schizophrenia abou peoples moods about mental ilnesses. Ratio stats People aren't always dangerous to the outside world That they are all not crazy and stupid DO NOT KNOW How common it is That 1 in 5 people will get a mental illness. That people pre judge a person with a mental illness That there is lots of them ? That one in 5 australians will suffer from a mental illness 1 in 5 people get one I learnt that there is many different types of mental illness That one in five person's experiences it throughout life How they're cured without medication That they can be cured without medication. That people treat mental illness people differently Pretty much everything They are not that dangerous to other people That it affects 1 in 5 men Many different symptoms of different illnesses Everything i.e. about the names, and the effects of some MIs What bi-polar mood disorder is. That a lot can be treated by medication I have learnt what bipolar mood dispoder is It can be treated and prevented A lot of different things. The way the illness effects The names of different types, their causes and treatments. Awareness was raised about the way to help people with mental illness Basic info about a few disorders, eg. Bipolar, schizophrenia, but further information would be needed
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5.6.9.2 Write here any ideas or beliefs you had about mental illness that have changed as a result of studying this module Students’ responses varied from no change, to realisations about some of the main messages in the UMI module, such as definitions, prevalence and treatment. Table 38: Students’ open-ended responses to their changing ideas and beliefs. Mental health is difficult to teach I first believed that people with mental illnesses should be kept away from the community but know I know that there's nothing wrong with having a mental illness I was one of the people that was unaware that people with mental ilness were just ordinary people and that most of them were 'safe' from being violent That people with mental ilnesses were an extreme minority, and that the majority generally had some sort of hospitalisation I am pretty open minded about mental ilnesses I thought that people with mental illnesses were very different from me I never thought that depression and anorexia were really 'mental illnesses' but now I have thought about it, I agree I thought only specific people could get a mental illness I had the belief that physcological treatment is the only soloution None None Males are as likely as females to get a mental illness Not any think I used to think that people went nuts for no reason but drugs are sometimes involved There not just physco DO NOT KNOW Nothing How people judge a person with a mental illness I didn’t think anyone can get a mental illness ? I don’t know None have changed They are different but really they aren't ? Don't know No I thought that anyone with a MI was crazy beforehand That some people react in different ways What schizophrenia ia-I thought or had the impression that it was in every case like the man in the movie "me, myself and Irene" My thoughts have not changed I came to realise that there are more people than I thought with MI Less judgemental about strangers with unusual behaviour (like spontaneous crying)
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5.6.9.3 What stands out for you as the most important thing you have learnt in this module? Students’ responses to this question include issues of fair treatment, social acceptance, effective treatment and the prevalence of mental illness. Table 39: Students’ open-ended responses to the most important thing they have learnt. People with mental illnesses should be treated the same Difference between depression and Bi -Polar disorder Mental health is more common that previously thought To treat people with mental illnesses in the same way and physical illness That your lifestyle and relationships can have a major impact on someone getting a mental ilness I have learnt a lot about depression and coping about depression Social acceptance of mental illnesses should be treated as a physical illness To accept people with mental illnesses, don’t just ignore them straight away That people with mental illnesses shouldn't be treated differently to someone that has physical illness The different types of illnesses and they way they can be treated Most things I knew already Understanding stigma around mental health nothing Mental illness is not heretitary Learning more about illnesses people get That all people deserve the right to live an easy fufilling life Treat people equal NOT DIFFERENT because someone has an illness DO NOT KNOW How common mental illness is That 1 in 5 people will get a mental illness ? That everybody should treat everybody with respect, reguardless of their mentality Not to exclude people That people with a mental illness are no different to any other person They deserve to be treated the same way as a normal person ? don’t know no That it could affect anyone How to accept or deal with people - first aid if someone had a fit That you can treat people with an illness The different kinds, how they act, what happens in their personailites. People who have a mental illness can be just like you and me How different each illness is and the treatment How to look after depressed people it is a mental illness that effects many people in my age group That mental illnesses can be cured
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5.6.9.4 Was there anything covered in this module that made you feel happy, or angry, or sad, or embarrassed? Students’ responses to this question focussed mainly upon the UMI module content, including sadness and anger at lack of fair treatment of people with mental illness I felt sad for the people and the familys of people suffering from mental illness The topic made me angry as it did not do indepth into any of the illnesses I felt angry/sad we learnt to treat it 'the same as a physical illness' rather that learnning about pyscology or chemical processes no It made me feel sad that some people with depression think the only way out is to end their life not really The trials of the people in the video was depressing, but otherwise the course was informative and interesting I feel that depressed people were majorly stereotyped I was sad because the public didn’t have the best understanding of mental illness I felt sad for the people with the illnesses The stereotypes asscociates w/ people whom are mentally ill frustrated me. I also thought the topic was a bit short which wasn’t too good no no I felt sorry for the people who have mental illnesses and werent receiving help no, NOT REALLY DO NOT KNOW no The fact that so many people will not take on a person with a mental illness makes me sad no ? I feel sad that people are so discriminative & I feel angry that some people can be so disrespectful I dislike seeing what some people with a mnetal illness to to themselves it upsets me Angry that some people don't like to be around others that have mental illness no ? no no no the movies made me upset and angry seeing how some people are treated nothing No, the movie 'someone flew over the cuckoo nest' was sad but that's bout it no no about what people had did when they had a mental illness
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5.6.9.5 What did you find interesting about this module? This question generated a range of responses from students, from very interested in the information, and noticing posters and TV advertisements, to bored. Table 40: Students’ open-ended responses about their interest in the UMI module. Learning why and how mental illnesses occur What Bipolar disorder and some of the other disorders were Acting you have a type of mental illness All of the stuff on different disorders Everything in this module was interesting I found the part about 'manic depression' very interesting Factual information and opinions on almost all the illnesses and ideals Statistics about how many people are affected I found psychotic illnesses interesting I found most aspects interesting That the chance of someone with a parent with shizophrenia developing this is only 10% Everything from depression to anxiety nothing nothing The fact that people arent empty capsules What was all the different illnesses DO NOT KNOW The facts That there are t.v ads and posters all around me that I have never noticed All the different types of mental illness nothing A lot of things. There are things people feel/do when they have a mental illness, that I didn't know about before I found how some people with a mental illness cope with it interesting That anyone may get it nothing ? not that much no Talking about people who know others with a illness and the stories The kinds of diseases there are The different types and what they're like or what happens I found it interesting to find out the numbers of how many people actually suffer from a mental illness or have before It was kinda boring I found it interesting, to see normal people with a mental illness, normal looking people can have mental illnesses Learning more about disorders
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5.6.9.6 Any other comments you would like to make about the module? Once again, students’ comments ranged from satisfied to dissatisfied with the UMI module. The first response, that it should have been taught to year six students, picks up a theme that emerged from the ‘shoes’ and ‘jars’ activities, that some students felt were suitable for younger children. It felt like it should have been taught to year sixes More psychology/biology less awareness. Why are we doing mental health in body in question? no Some of the tasks seemed a little bit 'unclear' no Paticular conditions werent covered in detail no I generally liked this module but would have liked it if it was longer I like psychiatry no It was boring and didn’t make sense It was a good module nup DO NOT KNOW no NO no I don't know. People should raise awareness about mental illness no ? no no nope no no there that’s about it It helped me talk about grief. A relative of mine died as we were studying it Further and increase/expand the teaching of mental disorders and disabilities
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5.6.9.7 Is there anything more that you would like to learn about mental illnesses? In response to this question both in the questionnaire and during class discussions, some students at School 1 indicated a preference for a more in-depth coverage of the chemistry and physiology of mental illness. For example, information about chemical processes of the brain and the constitution of drugs used to treat mental illnesses were suggested a useful and interesting topics that students would like to investigate in more depth.. Table 41: Students’ open-ended responses about what more they would like to learn about mental illness. Some of the actual chemical processes that go on and more statistics. More indepth information into mental illnesses Pyscology/biology no no I have learn't everything I need to know More statistics and what countries are more effected by mental illness, (if any) no I would like to learn more about schitzophrenia What causes them I would like to know more about psycotic illnesses I would like to study the 'common' illnesses in greater detail I'd like to know how many of the 1 in 5 people who have mental illnesses are aware of this Personality disorders no NO! No not really, I can back that up nup DO NOT KNOW no NO no not really Maybe how to tell if a friend has one How can you get it & what's the youngest age you can be diagnosed with it I'm not sure but is it passed down in generations nope ? no no nope no No I think I have learnt everything I wanna know general info
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5.7
Statistical analysis of student questionnaires
For the purpose of statistical analysis we identified: •
Three scores from the questionnaires, namely, knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions. The combinations of items that made up each score are detailed in Table 42.
•
Two time points, namely, pre-teaching and post-teaching.
•
Two groups: boys and girls
Table 42: Questionnaire items combined to form total scores for Knowledge, Attitudes and Behavioural intentions Category Knowledge Attitudes Behavioural Intentions
Questionnaire items 2, 3, 4 6 7.4, 7.6
5.7.1 Differences between boys and girls A Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) identified that, on average, girls achieved significantly higher scores at Time 1 (pre-teaching) than boys F(3,35) = 5.191, p =0 .005, with a moderate effect size (eta2=0.308). Tests of between subjects effects showed 1) A significant difference, on average, between girls and boys for knowledge F(1,37) = 4.770, p = 0.035, with a small effect size (eta2=0.114). 2) A significant difference, on average, between girls and boys for attitude F(1,37) = 11.228, p
