Owens, Evans Awarded $1.5 Million Grant, Making a Difference with MOSAIC

Steve Evans and Julie Owens

Dr. Julie Owens and Dr. Steve Evans have done it again. Along with their colleague, Amori Mikami, Ph.D., of the University of British Columbia, the two Center for Intervention Research in Schools members have been awarded research funding for the MOSAIC (Making Socially Accepting Inclusive Classrooms) Project.

This project has been funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. Overall, Mikami, Owens, and Evans will be awarded $1.5 million over the next three years.

Making a Difference

The purpose of this project is “to help children be more inclusive, socially accepting, patient, and tolerant of classmates who may be different from them or who may be dealing with behavioral or learning problems,” according to the team. Preliminary pilot testing shows that the MOSAIC intervention helps not only the children who are subject to rejection, but also their peers.

Looking to the Future

Moving forward, the researchers will begin by integrating the MOSAIC intervention in cooperation with a small number of local teachers in Berne Union and Logan Hocking School Districts. These teachers will provide feedback to help optimize the procedures and make it more feasible to implement on a larger scale. Another pilot test will then occur to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. In the project’s final year, once the intervention is fully finalized, a randomized clinical trial will be conducted. When all is said and done, the researchers hope to have a complete, effective, and easy to implement intervention.