We knew that Adventures Aboard the SS GRIN was an effective, engaging SEL program, and now we have independent research to back it up!
A new research study, published by WestEd and funded by the US Department of Education, has confirmed that SS GRIN “was significantly and positively associated with gains in students’ social emotional skills.”
The study, a randomized control trial (RCT), was conducted between December 2019 and May 2020 with 823 students at 19 schools in California.
The study evaluated the effectiveness of SS GRIN using FOUR completely independent well-calibrated evidence-based measures, each of which has proven to have high validity and accuracy:
- Teacher ratings of students’ behavioral and emotional strengths (BERS-2)
- Teacher ratings of students’ social skills, social acceptance, and behavioral issues (SSBI)
- A scenario-based direct performance-based assessment (SELweb)
- A simulation-based direct performance assessment of social skills (Zoo U)
SS GRIN produced medium to large positive effects in ALL FOUR of these measures, and these positive effects were “statistically highly significant” (p < 0.01) for the BERS-2, SELweb, and Zoo U measures and “statistically significant” (p < 0.05) for the SSBI.
In addition to being effective, the students completing the program were highly engaged.
The study indicated that 98.5% of the observations recorded by the trained human observers (BROMP) showed students being on-task and highly engaged with the game. The study showed that students playing SS GRIN were most often displaying behaviors associated with concentration (91.3%) or delight (4.2%), while instances of boredom (1.29%), frustration (1.4%) or confusion (1.19%) were much less frequent.
And because SS GRIN is student-driven, it has a very low burden on teachers:
- It is short in duration (nine 30–45-minute episodes)
- Doesn’t require intensive coaching or professional development
- Can be added on as a supplement to other SEL practices
Teachers indicated that “episode discussions were a good opportunity for the class to discuss the SEL topics together and that students often engaged in a deep level of reflection.”
“One of the post discussions that we were having, one of my students who, I think he’s labeled [with an intellectual disability] on his IEP, he was so into the conversation. He told me how he passed this lesson, and what he needed to accomplish. It was really good. After that, I was blown away, and I was like, ‘I have full faith in this program. This kid understood.’”
To learn more about SS GRIN or sign up for a free trial, please go to our SS GRIN product page.