Scheduled for Research Consortium Pedagogy I Poster Session, Thursday, April 14, 2005, 1:15 PM - 2:45 PM, Convention Center: Exhibit Hall Poster Area I


Addressing the Fidelity of Personal and Social Responsibility Model Implementation

Suzanne Herzog and Paul M. Wright, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN

The Personal and Social Responsibility Model (PSRM) has had a significant impact on sport and physical education pedagogy. It is recognized as an exemplary approach to addressing affective development (Steinhardt, 1992). This model is widely applied throughout the United States and abroad (Hellison, 2003). While there is record of program evaluations and studies that validate the PSRM, one weakness in this line of inquiry is that few projects have addressed the fidelity of model implementation (Hellison & Walsh, 2002). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop and pilot a methodology for analyzing the fidelity of PSRM implementation. A process-oriented, formative evaluation was conducted in which various indicators of implementation were tracked in a 20-lesson PSRM Taijiquan program. Participants were 23 African American high school students who secured parental consent. The setting was an urban school where 100% of the students are African American and 98% live in poverty. The data source was a nine-item log maintained by participants and the program leader each day of the program. Five of these items addressed the program leader's promotion of PSRM responsibilities while the other four addressed the degree to which participants accepted these responsibilities. Categorical responses were converted to a binomial scale, either affirming successful implementation or not. According to Lund and Kirk (2002), performance based assessment tools such as this log have high face validity. Reliability was established through inter-participant agreement (80%) and program leader-participant agreement (75%). Process control statistics were used to analyze the data (Bowerman & O'Connell, 2003). The percent of affirming responses given for each item was tracked over time using control charts (p-charts), with control limits set at two standard deviations above and below the process mean. Standard guidelines for evaluating control charts indicated that the first two responsibilities (respecting the rights and feelings of others & effort) were implemented to a high degree throughout the program. Implementation of the third responsibility (self-direction) was relatively low, while the fourth and fifth responsibilities (caring & transfer) both started low but increased. These results are consistent with points made by Hellison (2003) regarding the flow of implementation in physical education classes. This study demonstrates that process control statistics can be useful in analyzing performance-based assessment data. This approach would allow practitioners to analyze formative evaluation data systematically and provide researchers with a method for addressing model fidelity in PSRM intervention research.
Keyword(s): high school issues, measurement/evaluation, youth-at-risk

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