Children's Issues Centre:
Otago University
Amazing ME Pilot Evaluation
August 1998 Abstract
In 1995 a team of professionals with child related backgrounds
got together to develop a life skills programme for the early childhood
education sector. The result was the development of a series of
five videos called Amazing Me. The
videos are presented by Suzy Cato who also hosts the Kids TV programme
You and Me aired in New Zealand
on TV3. The aim was to replicate the format that has been so successful
for You and Me and apply it
to Amazing Me. This report describes
an evaluation of the videos prior to final release. The intention
of this study was to gain some feedback from a small group who are
part of the target audience – the early childhood sector –
in order to provide information for the development of the resource
in its final stages before release.
A group of ten children in a kindergarten were selected to participate
in the programme. Parents were brought into the programme by presenting
to them one video a week, which they then took home for their children
to view. The children were also shown each video twice over a week
as a group in the kindergarten. Another group of 10 children within
the kindergarten were selected as a control group. The children
were given a pretest and posttest set of questions with each video
to monitor some of the learning outcomes. Parents kept a diary of
their observations over the five week study recording what they
saw happening at home. Both parents and teachers filled out an evaluation
form at the end of the programme. Finally, two researchers took
running records during the time that the children were viewing the
videos at the kindergarten.
The data gathered shows that the videos are likely to be an effective
medium for supporting the development of life skills in young children.
The children participating in the programme showed improved responses
to questions between pretest and posttest assessment. Running records
and parents' diaries presented data which indicated that the children
were learning and using the knowledge and skills from the programme.
Parents also found that they were learning and benefiting from being
involved in such a programme. Both parents and teachers acknowledged
the value of the programme, but its success related very much to
the way in which the programme was introduced to staff, parents
and children.
In conclusion, there is evidence that the programme Amazing
Me will be successful, and indeed it has a lot to offer,
but success will be determined by the way that the programme is
packaged and introduced to early childhood centres throughout New
Zealand. Implications for the ongoing development of the videos
as a resource are considered.
Amazing ME Press Cuttings
|
