Learning to care: An in-school humane education program improves affective and cognitive empathy among lower-elementary students
Empathy is associated with prosociality and beneficial outcomes across the lifespan. We investigated the ability a school-based program with animal-based content to affect elementary students' empathic development through a randomized control trial conducted over one academic year with ∼600 fir...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-12-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Educational Research Open |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666374023000675 |
| Summary: | Empathy is associated with prosociality and beneficial outcomes across the lifespan. We investigated the ability a school-based program with animal-based content to affect elementary students' empathic development through a randomized control trial conducted over one academic year with ∼600 first-grade students in six schools in four cities across eastern China. Both the affective and cognitive empathy of program-participating students fared better than non-participating students. The size of these effects were “medium” (cognitive empathy) and “large” (affective empathy). A school-based program can thus improve both types of human-directed empathy among lower elementary students through animal (and nature) content. Found among a large group of Chinese students, these results supporting the ability of such programs to promote healthy development among a traditionally-understudied population. |
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| ISSN: | 2666-3740 |