Evaluation of the Educational and Preventive Programme for Students of the Fourth Year of Primary School and Recommendations for Practice

Abstract

Research objectives (aims) and problem(s): The aim of the article is to present the results of an evaluation study of an educational and preventive programme implemented in eight year 4 groups in six Krakow primary schools. The programme, entitled KOTWICA, ran from December 2021 to June 2022. The evaluation was external and comprehensive. During the programme, the evaluation of the process and of the outcome were carried out in the pre-test–post-test format. The research question is “what are the results of the evaluation of the KOTWICA educational and preventive programme for students of the fourth year of primary school?” Research methods: Eight proprietary tools were used to evaluate the process, and two standardised tools were used to evaluate the result. The collected material was subjected to statistical processing, whilst the qualitative data was encoded, categorised and analysed using tools for qualitative data analysis. Structure of the article: At the beginning, the authors justify the undertaking of the research and introduce the subject of the study on the basis of theoretical findings and the state of research in the field of school prevention. Then the research objectives are described and the research problem is defined. In turn, the research method, the selection criteria for the study group and the principles of data collection and processing are described. The results of the research and the limitations of the research process were also described. Finally, the conclusions of the research and recommendations for the theory and policy of school prevention are described. Research findings and their impact on the development of educational sciences: The results of the evaluation allow us to conclude that the objective of the educational and preventive programme conducted in year 4 was achieved and that it met the needs of the participants. However, they do not allow us to draw clear conclusions as to the effectiveness of the educational activities, due to the limitations of the collected research material. Conclusions and/or recommendations: In the light of the results, the authors drew conclusions regarding the methodology of evaluation studies and recommendations for preventive and educational practice.

Keywords

• process enaluation
• outcome evaluation
• primary school
• preventive programms
• students