Speakers
Description
Authors: Dominik Röding (Medizinische Hochschule Hannover), Maram Salem (FINDER Akademie), Katrin Hayn (FINDER Akademie), Ulla Walter (Medizinische Hochschule Hannover)
Background: Weitblick is a school-based participatory program that empowers German schools to develop data-informed, locally tailored strategies for selecting and implementing evidence-based interventions. This session presents key insights from a large-scale study evaluating the program, with a focus on how continuous formative and process evaluation inform real-time quality assessment and support ongoing optimization of implementation processes.
Methods: The study involved 72 schools across Germany. Annual surveys were conducted to assess key factors influencing the quality of program implementation. The results were analyzed at the individual school level and shared with program practitioners, who engaged with respective school stakeholders to reflect on the insights and collaboratively identify actions for improving ongoing implementation.
Results: The evaluation data revealed considerable variation in school-specific implementation challenges and facilitators. For instance, one school faced issues with an insufficiently goal-oriented steering group, another exhibited low team motivation, while a third school showed limited overall readiness for change. These differentiated insights guided both targeted adaptations at the individual school level and refinements to the overall program design. The use of integrated feedback loops proved essential for identifying barriers early and supporting timely, context-sensitive adjustments.
Discussion: This campfire session invites researchers and practitioners to explore the potential of interdisciplinary approaches for enhancing the evaluation and implementation of complex prevention programs. We critically examine the strengths and limitations of interviews and surveys as tools for formative and process evaluation in educational contexts and reflect on how real-time adaptation, informed by ongoing evaluation data, can improve implementation quality and outcomes.
| Conflict of interest | None to declare |
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