Table 1.
Teacher perceptions of feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness conveyed in post-training written open-ended responses
| Selected probe questionsa | Thematic domains | n (of 22) endorsing theme | Selected responses illustrating key themes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acceptability | |||
| What training activity did you like the most? Why? | All activities | 12 | ‘I liked the role plays the most, because they showed us the reality we are going to face in the classroom.’ ‘All the activities were really important, and they will help us to address our responsibilities as teachers.’ ‘I cannot say what I enjoyed the most I had the same enthusiasm I started the training with, is what I ended it with.’ ‘I like the evaluations (pre- and post-tests) because they allowed me to measure what I learned. I memorized them and I will be able to help those who have issues.’ ‘I liked all the activities of the training. They enabled me to understand the behaviors of the people in my immediate circles. It also helped me more quickly understand the students that have mental health issues, the way to approach them. This training helped me understand human reactions better.’ ‘I liked all the activities pertaining to the training because they will help me care better for my classroom.’ ‘I liked all the activities because they helped me develop my skills and knowledge further.’ ‘I liked all the activities of the training. I had fun.’ |
| Training addressed teachers’ responsibilities and experiences | 8 | ||
| Role-playing or other specific activity | 8 | ||
| Presentation quality or style | 3 | ||
| Training helps outside of school | 2 | ||
| Accommodations | 1 | ||
| No response | 1 | ||
| What training activity did you like the least? Why? | Resulted in fatigue or tiredness | 7 | ‘There are no activities that I disliked. They were all important to me.’ ‘We spent too much time on certain topics, which meant that after a while, we could no longer focus.’ ‘What I disliked is that sometimes we spent too much time seated. From a pedagogical perspective, it is recommended to take a break every 3 h. The memory otherwise gets tired.’ ‘We had too many themes during the 2½ days. Especially during the second day, during which there was no time left for questions.’ ‘The activity I enjoyed the least came from my colleagues, when they went for food those who were ahead took too much and those who were behind got nothing.’ |
| No least favorite/liked them all | 6 | ||
| No response | 6 | ||
| Manners comment | 3 | ||
| Acceptability and effectiveness | |||
| What did you learn that was valuable and that you will use in your work? | 4Rs or how to approach/ help students | 13 | ‘I learned many things, like signs and symptoms of mental illnesses, ways to approach mental illness in the classroom reality, and other theories about psychology.’ |
| ‘All’ or ‘many’/ list of several | 12 | ‘All the goals we worked on during the training were really important. I will use all of my effort to use them as a teacher in my school, in favor of the kids.’ | |
| Better understanding of mental health issues, symptoms | 6 | ‘I learned the way in which teachers can approach problems students can encounter and the appropriate ways to handle them.’ | |
| Classroom management | 4 | ‘Everything I learned is important to me because I didn't have much information about it before. I would like to use all the new knowledge in my work.’ | |
| Training helps outside of school | 4 | ‘I must admit that I was not used to helping students with mental health symptoms but now, I will do it regularly in the event of a crisis, or epilepsy or depression.’ | |
| ‘What has value for me is the way in which I must approach the students who have issues.’ ‘Everything you presented had value for me and I will use it to help my family and all the other people I will be around to help.’ ‘I know now when a child exhibits one or more symptoms of a mental health disorder. I know which behavior to adopt, how to approach him, how to engage the conversation to promote his trust. I learned the four Rs.’ ‘Everything I learned is very important to me because in the community where I live, the knowledge will be useful to me and to others too. Especially the four Rs.’ ‘Everything I learned has a lot of value. I will now find out how to apply it in classroom activities.’ ‘I learned the four Rs which are recognize, respond, refer and resiliance that I will use in my work to help students with mental health disorders.’ ‘I learned how to manage students with stress and mental health problems.’ ‘I learned many things, for instance, the numerous signs and symptoms in a depressed person […].’ |
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| What information was included that you do think will NOT be very relevant for teachers? | All information useful/none was irrelevant | 17 | ‘From my point of view, all the information was useful to the teachers because even though we had a small piece of knowledge about mental health it was not enough for us to do what we have to do normally. It's true we cannot say that we are very good, but there is another extra drop of water that has fallen into our reservoir of knowledge.’ ‘All the information is useful to teachers, as it pertains to information they encounter on their path.’ ‘All the information will be useful to the teachers because it is a tool to understand the students’ issues.’ |
| No response | 4 | ||
| Manners comment | 1 | ||
| Was there anything you did not understand? Please give specific examples. | Everything understood/ nothing not understood | 12 | ‘I understood everything because the facilitators did the work well and they used clear language.’ ‘I understood everything and especially the role plays.’ ‘There is nothing that I did not understand. But it would be even better that the facilitators think about refresher courses/sessions in a while.’ ‘Not really. Everything was clear to me. You know, when you receive training in a field that is not yours, clarity comes progressively.’ ‘I did not very much understand when you talked about defense mechanisms, such as denial, and so on.’ ‘I did not really understand how we can detect depression.’ ‘What was not clear to me was the word depression, often employed by people when they say ‘I have depression.’ I asked the question, but I did not get an answer.’ ‘The definition of certain acronyms, such as PTSD.’ |
| Information/clarification on mental illnesses | 6 | ||
| No response | 3 | ||
| Communication issues or questions | 2 | ||
| Intervention methods or logistics | 2 | ||
| Suggested refresher | 1 | ||
| Feasibility and acceptability | |||
| What are your recommendations to improve this training? What would you change? (For example, what activities, illustrations, etc. would you change?) What additional comments do you have?b |
Continue as is, continue but add refreshers, lengthen and add content, or expand | 16 | ‘Extend the pilot study to all the schools in the country.’ ‘I ask that you continue this initiative.’ ‘Please continue with this kind of training, and I wish you courage. Thank you.’ ‘I thank you for taking this initiative and I would like that you continue this work, and that you conduct more research in this field in order to be even more effective.’ ‘I recommend that we expand this training to new levels of schooling, like pre-school and grade school, secondary, and even for the teachers who already got some training today.’ ‘I would like that this training be extended to all the country's domains of work, such as the police. So when someone with mental health issues but no one to support him/her can find support/help everywhere else.’ ‘Even though this is a pilot study, I wish there had been more teachers participating, and from more schools.’ ‘Considering all of the problems in the education system in Haiti, mostly all of the problems related to mental health for students, I'm asking that the program could reach more schools, more teachers could be trained in that field.’ ‘I wish courage to all the facilitators, and I wish the leaders of the program could show a lot of interest for the other schools that have not been reached by this program.’ ‘My recommendation would be to have ongoing training to make the work already done more efficient.’ ‘I believe that this training is not only good, but also important and efficient. I would like for you to research how to continue supporting this country's teachers, faced with such natural disasters. Thank you and many congratulations to Ekip Wozo.’ ‘Congratulations to all the trainers. My wish would be to devote more time to training and for the training to continue and extend to all schools in the country. Parents should also receive information, possibly use radio or TV broadcasts.’ |
| Thank you/congratulations offered to team | 9 | ||
| Incentive or support for teachers | 7 | ||
| Lengthen, add more time for existing content | 5 | ||
| Circulate the day's agenda | 3 | ||
| More interactive | 2 | ||
| Accommodations | 1 | ||
| Add more content, no mention of adding time | 1 | ||
| Increase variety of activities | 1 | ||
| Future participation | 1 | ||
| Avoid fatigue or tiredness | 1 | ||
| Include psychiatrists | 1 | ||
| Manners comment | 1 | ||
| ‘I am satisfied with the training, and I will add that I would like to become a social worker or psychologist to be able to help you. I thank Harvard University and Zanmi Lasante. May God continue to help you. However, just one more thing I'd like to say is that I think teachers could have been given [financial] compensation.[…]’ ‘I think for such important work, the teachers lack the means to achieve the goals. We should have more means to accomplish the goals and more motivation.’ ‘This training demands a lot more days. Instead of two and a half days, at least a week.’ ‘Give the daily agenda, provide beer for those who can drink, and per diem.’ ‘I think that everyone understands the importance of time for teachers. We will need to allow the teachers to find more time to continue the good work.’ ‘I would like to add that the program would succeed if it expanded. Also, in the case of travel, it would be good if the facilitators cover some of the costs to the teachers since they are away from their family.’ |
a
Data presented in table exclude two questions specific to duration and periodicity.
b
Responses from these two questions were combined for tally and illustrative excerpts.