Measuring Psychosocial Outcomes in the Step by Step Program: A Longitudinal Study in the Czech Republic

by Miluse Havlinova, PhD, CSc, Researcher, National Institute of Public Health, Prague, and E. Hejduk, N. Kozova, E. Sulcova, L. Tomasek and E. Weinholdova

Published in Educating Children for Democracy, Issue Number 6, Winter/Spring 2004

The Step by Step Program, first introduced in the Czech Republic in 1994, brought child-centered educational practices into preschool and primary school classrooms. From its inception, the Step by Step Program raised questions for both educators and parents about its effectiveness. Would the use of an educational methodology based on individualization and learning through play meet the program’s aim to positively influence the social and personal development of children? Would the departure from traditional didactic approaches to instruction put the Step by Step children at a disadvantage, intellectually, when they transitioned to elementary school? In order to address these questions, the Open Society Fund in the Czech Republic commissioned a study to measure the impact of the Step by Step Program for kindergartens on children’s psychosocial capacities. This article reports on the design and outcomes of that study.

The Evaluation Framework

Research Design
The evaluation was designed and conducted by an independent research team. In order to maximize the scientific validity of the research, the evaluation design included the use of a large sample, a matched control group, and a longitudinal methodology to collect data at repeated intervals over a three-year period. The research sample included 821 children ages three to seven years old. In the Step by Step group, 409 children attended classrooms in 10 Step by Step kindergartens. In the control group, 412 children attended classrooms in 12 “mainstream” kindergartens without any special program. Both groups of children were equal in terms of size, the number of boys and girls, the age groups represented, family background (parents’ education, complete families), and the location and size of the kindergarten (building, size of classrooms, location within a region).

Table 1

Selection of Evaluation Instruments
The aim of the research was to identify the impact of the Step by Step Program on children’s psychological and social development. The Step by Step Program places special emphasis on developing children’s skills in the areas of communication, creativity, ability to solve problems, cope with change, think critically, and be responsible for one’s actions. To measure these characteristics, the researchers selected psychological tests, standardized for the Czech population where possible, to assess children’s intelligence, creativity, social maturity, personality, and school readiness. The measures used are described in a chart.

Schedule of Assessments and Data Analysis
The same pair of psychologists examined each child twice a year at the participating schools. At the end of each year all of the data collected were statistically processed, and results concerning both groups were compared (cross-sectional analysis of the data). A calculation of the trends and directions of development of individual characteristics over the whole monitoring period followed completion of the last wave of testing (longitudinal analysis of the data).

Table 2

Strengths and Limitations of the Study

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