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PART A
METHODOLOGY
1.0 STUDY DESIGN
The original Research Specification requested that the study address five tasks:
1. An examination of the existing evidence regarding the effectiveness of drug education with a view to producing recommendations on the elements of drug education most often associated with effectiveness
2. An examination of current drug education delivery and practice in Scottish schools.
3. An assessment of the extent to which current drug education in Scottish schools reflects the features of drug education that have been shown in the literature to be most effective.
4. An exploration of current school students' views on the value and impact of drug education they are currently receiving.
5. An exploration of the perceptions held by young adults of the drug education they received over their school careers, whether it taught them anything and how it related to other influences, in any drug use (eg. medication) or misuse.
We conducted four research exercises to address these five tasks:
A. A Literature Review examining the effectiveness of drug education in schools and the elements of drug education associated with greater impact.
B. A Survey of a representative sample Scottish schools examining current drug education delivery arrangements.
C. Classroom Observation of 100 drug education lessons in a broad-based sample of Scottish schools. The Classroom Observation will provide a detailed and rigorous assessment of drug education delivery in practice.
D. Qualitative Research with two samples of young people: current school students in both upper primary and secondary schools, and young adults (aged 16 and over) who have completed compulsory education.
The research adopted a 'funnel' design, moving from a broad perspective to an in-depth focus on a sub-sample of schools whose drug education practices will be examined in detail, alongside the perspectives of current and former students.
Firstly, the literature review examined the wide body of international published research on drug education, drawing out and summarising key recommendations regarding effective theoretical bases, content, format, timing, delivery method and teaching style. Secondly, the Survey provided a broad picture of current drug education delivery arrangements in Scottish schools in a large sample of secondary schools, primary and special schools. However, we recognised that the survey was likely to provide only limited information on actual classroom practice in relation to drug education. Our current and previous 2 work in this area suggested that even where standard curricula are adopted across schools, there is likely to be substantial variation between teachers in the extent to which key theoretical prevention constructs are understood and operationalised, recommended teaching methods are deployed, and prescribed materials are used. Surveys alone are unlikely to be able to capture this sort of information. Classroom observation is needed to examine the reality of classroom drug education practice.
Therefore, the research then focussed in detail on a broad-based sub-sample of schools, in which both the Classroom Observation and Qualitative Research with current school students were conducted. This case study approach sought to provide a rich, triangulated picture in these schools both of what is being delivered and how it is being received by students. The Qualitative Research with young adults was also conducted in the communities around these schools, to provide the retrospective and longitudinal perspective of young people who formerly attended these schools.
The aims, methods, samples and research questions for each of these four research exercises are outlined in the following sections.
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