2024 Rainmaker start-up: Identifying best practice for integrating service learning within the culture of Christian schools; and A longitudinal study addressing depression/anxiety and wellbeing in Christian schools through a focus on actively developing hope for the future.

This application encompasses two projects based on prior research using the Christian Education Health Check (CEHC) questionnaire. 1.Identifying best practice for integrating service learning within the culture of Christian schools: Learning to extend love to neighbours and strangers: What elements of the Christian school climate promote authentic service learning? How can service learning be integrated authentically throughout a school? Service learning is often ad hoc and lacking in integration across a school. Our prior research has shown that service learning has the potential to set students up to face challenges in the future.
a. Develop a service-learning questionnaire to measure students’ perceptions of service learning, including the degree of authenticity and agency, based on prior research.
b. Identify Christian schools with different models of service learning. Administer the Christian Education Health Check (CEHC), Service Learning and other outcomes scales. Compare student perceptions of service learning and supportive factors within the Christian school climate of each school.
c. Collect qualitative data about service learning within the chosen schools: observations, school documents, interviews with teachers, students, parents, community
d. Evaluate service learning within each school in terms of students’ perceptions of authenticity and effectiveness, as measured by the relationship with outcome scales such as students’ adoption of moral identity and hope for the future and analysis of qualitative data.
e. Develop recommendations and resources for Christian schools based on findings of best-practice for integration of authentic service learning throughout a school
f. Run professional development sessions with teachers/executive outlining the findings and resources.
g. Test our working model for best-practice by implementing authentic service learning practices across X schools to determine whether these changes make a difference in terms of students’ perceptions of service learning and other identified outcomes such as moral identity and hope for the future.
2. A longitudinal study addressing depression/anxiety and wellbeing in Christian schools through a focus on actively developing hope for the future.
a. Measurement of depression/anxiety and wellbeing levels in 10 church schools along with use of the CEHC and the four outcomes of resilience, moral identity, spiritual awareness and hope for the future.
b. Identify relationships between CEHC scales, outcome scales and hope for the future through SEM
c. Work with teachers and students in 5 schools to develop interventions addressing malleable factors in the CEHC which positively correlated with hope with the future. Develop capacity within schools for designing and implementing evidence based interventions
d. Implement interventions within the schools, over a two-three year period, measuring CEHC, outcome scales and depression/anxiety and emotional wellbeing at the end of each year.
e. Continue measures in all 10 schools
f. Study for 4 years
g. Modifications of interventions as indicated
h. Mentoring and accountability structures
i. Analysis of interview, class observational data and questionnaires to understand changes
j. Hierarchical linear modeling, tracking groups of students across year levels, comparison with schools not implementing interventions (to determine whether the effect is developmental rather than related to the interventions)
k. Determine whether interventions have successfully improved students’ hope for the future and whether there have been changes in the levels of wellbeing, depression/anxiety.