Japanese children’s perspectives on the

Appendix 14: Example of summary of Japanese annals of peer support

Title	An evaluation research of peer support programme in junior high school
Author	Tsutomu Arai, Sachiko Kurosawa & Toshio Mori
Year & publisher	(2004) Japanese Annals of Peer Support.
Aims	To explore the impacts of peer support programmes on junior high school pupils in terms of teachers’ views.
Type of Peer Support	Selected pupils were giving the training and they engaged in supporting activities such as peer tutoring, peer counselling, personal guidance, making school paper.
Samples	* Interview - 8 school teachers * Survey – 237 school teachers
Method	* Interview – structures interviews were conducted *Survey – questionnaires survey includes the following questions; teachers’ interest in peer support, the effectiveness of peer support, the disadvantage of peer support, school climate, work climate, children’s problem solving ability.
Findings	There were significant improvements in most questions and subscales after peer support activities. Especially most schools had significant improvements in “behaviours in class”, “tidiness of school”, and “obedience”. However, some schools did not show significant improvements in “relationship skill”, “school bullying” and “submission rate of assignment”.
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Title	A series of peer support sessions for teacher empowerment
Author	Shiori Ikemoto
Year & publisher	(2004) Japanese Annals of Peer Support.
Aims	To explore the impacts of peer support programmes on teacher’s work climate.
Type of Peer Support	Selected pupils were giving the training and they engaged in supporting activities such as peer tutoring, peer counselling, personal guidance, making school paper.
Samples	* Survey – 39 school teachers * Assessment of workshop for teachers- social training – 5 to 11 teachers
Method	*Questionnaire survey – some question asking teachers about their views on their feeling in school and work climate *Assessment of workshop for teachers – workshops were aimed to improve teachers’ relationship in school. In total, 4 workshops were conducted and the participants conducted the assessments after each workshop.
Findings	The survey showed that most teachers were pressed by work and two-third of teachers had more than 10 hours overtime work per week. Regarding the question “Do you suffer fro psychological stress”, more than 80% of teacher answered “yes, very often (35%)” and “yes sometimes (46%)”. In addition when asked “Do you have some problems which you want to ask for help”, 41% of them said “yes, but 59% said “no”. Through 4 workshops, teachers’ scores positively increased and most teachers were satisfied with relationship skill workshop.
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Title	Peer support in other counties: History & Trend. – Past Present and Future in a school setting -
Author	Hisako Nishiyama
Year & publisher	(2004) Japanese Annals of Peer Support.
Aims	To summarise history of peer support programmes in other counties and showed the nature of peer support programmes in western approaches.
Type of Peer Support
Samples
Method
Findings	Most training and supporting activities were carried out with selected pupils. Essentially, peer support programmes provide a flexible framework.
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Title	Peer support and self-organity
Author	Takeshi Kakegawa
Year & publisher	(2004) Japanese Annals of Peer Support.
Aims	To summarise peer support programme model as four step cycle
Type of Peer Support
Samples
Method
Findings	Kakegawa summarised peer support training model as four step cycle; 1) Training, 2) Personal planning, 3) Support and 4) Supervision. The four step cycle model seems a very useful concept to give the peer supporters opportunities for both receiving regular supports from the peer support trainers and evaluating their supporting activities. This four step cycle model summarised by Kakegawa, has been regarded as a general training model in most peer support programmes related with Japan peer support associations.
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Title	Peer support activities in a daily life
Author	Yuko Sakata
Year & publisher	(2004) Japanese Annals of Peer Support.
Aims	To show how to use current existing whole class and school activities as peer support activities.
Type of Peer Support	Selected pupils were giving the training and they organised various activities in their school such as study meeting as the preparation for exam, recycling activities (collecting cans), giving advice through the letter, organising pupil’s concert in school, greeting activities.
Samples	550 junior high school pupils
Method	*Survey – questionnaires survey includes the following *Observation by teachers. (the study did not employ any statistical method to show the significant value)
Findings	Though the activities, pupils seemed to provide help to other pupils. Teachers could see the situations where some pupils mediate some quarrels among pupils. Generally pupils seemed to positively change their behaviours in school.
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Title	The start of the peer support movement
Author	Kenichi Tokuda
Year & publisher	(2004) Japanese Annals of Peer Support.
Aims	To report the case study of peer support in upper secondary school pupils who have difficulty to go to school (school refusal).
Type of Peer Support	Selected pupils (n=9) and staff (n=6) attended 2 days discussion training (counselling) camp to share their experience and perspectives on life.
Samples	9 upper secondary school pupils who were vulnerable or were in distress.
Method	Staff’s observation and pupils’ feedback. (the study did not employ any statistical method to show the significant value)
Findings	In the training camp, vulnerable pupils could talk about their experience and opinions without hesitations. Also the experience of talking and having positive relationships with others, strengthen their self-esteem and confidence to talk with other people.
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Title	A peer support activities in high school
Author	Kuniko Nakahara
Year & publisher	(2004) Japanese Annals of Peer Support.
Aims	To explore pupils’ views on peer support programme – 2 years project -
Type of Peer Support	In the first year; only selected pupils were given the training. In the second year; all the pupils in school were engaged in the training and activities.
Samples	In the first year; 25 selected pupils In the second year; 218 pupils School teachers (n= n/a)
Method	* survey to pupils; to ask about advantages and disadvantages of peer support programme, and pupils’ behavioural change. * survey to teachers; ask about their views on peer support programme
Findings	Pupils had positive comments on peer support. Also pupils mentioned that they could talk or communicate with other pupils whom they usually did talk to. Teachers also strongly concerned how peer support influence pupils’ daily life in school.
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Title	Information “the details of establishment of Japan Peer Support Research Society”
Author	Sumio Morikawa
Year & publisher	(2004) Japanese Annals of Peer Support.
Aims	n/a
Type of Peer Support	n/a
Samples	n/a
Method	n/a
Findings	n/a
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Title	The effectiveness of the introduced peer support system on the levels of student satisfaction with high school life.
Author	Michiyo Okada
Year & publisher	(2005) Japanese Annals of Peer Support.
Aims	To examine how different types of peer support and social skills strategies give the impacts on pupils thoughts and behaviours.
Type of Peer Support	School A; no peer support activity School B; selected pupils (n=40) worked as peer supporter and their supporting activities were mainly peer counselling, and befriending. School C; School news letter was distributed to all the pupils 8 times (2 times per week) during one month. The news letters were designed to express how important to make friends is.
Samples	School A; 740 (male upper secondary school pupils School B; 795 upper secondary school pupils School C; 577 upper secondary school pupils
Method	The questionnaires were conducted 3 times; late in April (before activities), late in July (after activities) and late in September. The questionnaires composed of 4 subcategories, which were “ school life satisfaction”, “friendship”, “school fondness” and “school activity satisfaction”. The data was analysed using Bonferroni (multiple comparison).
Findings	The study showed that news letters (to express the importance of friendship) took time to give impacts on pupils’ thoughts and behaviours, but it gradually gave positive influences on pupils. Also when the distributions of news letters were stopped, pupils behaviours and thoughts did not showed their improvements.
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Title	A methodological study of effectiveness of peer support training for high school students.
Author	Shoko Sasaki
Year & publisher	(2005) Japanese Annals of Peer Support.
Aims	To examine how different research method (“pre- and post test”, “self-report method” and “case study methods”) can be used for analysing effectiveness of peer support.
Type of Peer Support	Selected pupils (n=23) were given the social skill training and carried out the supporting activities which were peer counselling, and befriending.
Samples	23 peer supporters and, 33 pupils who were not peer supporters (as control group)
Method	Peer support trainings were given to selected peer supporter 8 times within 2 months and various tests were applied for analyzing the data. *The pre- and post test was applied into the following questionnaires; Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale (1965), Kikuchi’s Social Skill Scale (1988), and Prosocial behavours scale (Taniguchi & Ura, 2003). The data was analysed using t-test. *Self-report method was applied for exploring peer supporters’ views on the social skill training. *Case study methods were applied for exploring pupils feeling and perspectives about peer support training.
Findings	The study indicated that “pre- and post test” and “self-report method” were useful to summarise the peer support’s impacts on the large number of pupils in school. Also case study methods seem to be effective for gaining the details of how each pupil views peer support training. Also in the study, as to self-esteem, the results did not show a significant difference in both peer supporters and a control group. However, as to both social skills scale and prosocial behaviours scale, the study found that peer supporters scored significantly higher after the activities than control group.
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Title	Approach to peer support in a high school
Author	Yuko Sato
Year & publisher	(2005) Japanese Annals of Peer Support.
Aims	To explore pupils’ views about peer support training by the questionnaire survey in 2 different high schools
Type of Peer Support	Selected pupils were given the social skill training. After the training, peer supporters provide befriending.
Samples	School A; selected pupils joined the peer support training sessions.16 pupils in term 1, 20 pupils in term 2 and 31 in tem 3. School B; 20 pupils in the first day, 18 pupils in the second day and 12 pupils in the last day.
Method	In school A, the peer support training sessions were conducted once per academic term (16 July, 12 December and 20 March). Each training session took 4 hours. In the school B, the training sessions were conducted 3 times a week (11, 14 & 16 July). After each the training session, the pupils were asked to answer the questionnaire surveys about peer support training (the study did not employ any statistical method).
Findings	The survey included the following questions; “raising awareness of helping others”, “sympathy”, “communication skill improvement”, “relationship skill”, “problem solving skill”, being a peer supporter”. Frequently a large number of pupils gave positive comments on questions. Also he study showed that 2 case studies of peer supporters, who overcame their negativities to communicate other pupils in school.
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