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Evaluation Overview

An evaluation of the MindMatters core initiative was conducted by the Hunter Institute of Mental Health between 2001 and 2005. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used.

One evaluation focused on the success of the initiative in:

  • raising awareness of the underlying principles of MindMatters
  • encouraging schools to utilise the resources in a whole school manner to promote positive mental health.

The evaluation looked at schools' plans to implement MindMatters, and also assessed key indicator areas of school life, including student outcomes.

The evaluation conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) took a whole school approach. The evaluation utilised a survey on the extent to which MindMatters was being embedded into Australian secondary schools. The design involved a stratified random selection of 400 secondary schools (not necessarily MindMatters schools) that completed two surveys in 2005. One was an online survey of 197 secondary schools and was intended to provide information that could be generalised to the population of Australian secondary schools. The second, more in-depth survey was designed to elicit information about how schools interpreted concepts such as resilience and pursued policies, practices and programs to support mental health promotion and student wellbeing. This survey was administered to 70 secondary schools. The data from these two surveys was compared with data from a schools audit conducted in 1996.

A classroom study evaluation was conducted by the School of Education at Flinders University. It involved three classrooms, each of which used the same unit of work from the MindMatters booklet, Understanding Mental Illnesses. The study aimed to:

  • identify key teaching practices
  • gather teachers' and students' perspectives about the Focus Module, including positive and negative aspects and suggestions for improvement
  • identify links between the Focus Module and students' knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions
  • identify teachers' perspectives about the relationship between the Focus Module and students' knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions
  • yield well-supported and useful generalisations about the relationship between key variables of classroom practice during the implementation of the Focus Module and students' understanding of mental health.

The teaching of the Understanding Mental Illnesses video was observed in depth. The evaluators adopted a simultaneously quantitative and qualitative approach. Pre- and post-teaching questionnaires were distributed to students and teachers and in-depth interviews were held with teachers and school administrators.