Studying the teaching of kindness: A conceptual model for evaluating kindness education programs in schools

Deanna M. Kaplan, Madeleine deBlois, Violeta Dominguez and Michele E. Walsh

Evaluation and Program Planning, 2016, vol. 58, issue C, 160-170

Abstract: Recent research suggests that school-based kindness education programs may benefit the learning and social-emotional development of youth and may improve school climate and school safety outcomes. However, how and to what extent kindness education programming influences positive outcomes in schools is poorly understood, and such programs are difficult to evaluate in the absence of a conceptual model for studying their effectiveness. In partnership with Kind Campus, a widely adopted school-based kindness education program that uses a bottom-up program framework, a methodology called concept mapping was used to develop a conceptual model for evaluating school-based kindness education programs from the input of 123 middle school students and approximately 150 educators, school professionals, and academic scholars. From the basis of this model, recommendations for processes and outcomes that would be useful to assess in evaluations of kindness education programs are made, and areas where additional instrument development may be necessary are highlighted. The utility of the concept mapping method as an initial step in evaluating other grassroots or non-traditional educational programming is also discussed.

Keywords: Concept mapping; Mixed-method; Community-based participatory research; Kindness; School climate; Social-emotional learning; School program; School-based prevention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149718915301130
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:epplan:v:58:y:2016:i:c:p:160-170

DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2016.06.001

Access Statistics for this article

Evaluation and Program Planning is currently edited by Jonathan A. Morell

More articles in Evaluation and Program Planning from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().