Back to School: Rethinking How We Teach Kindness in the Classroom

October 6, 2021

“Wait your turn.”

“Work together.”

“Don’t leave anyone out.”

Any teacher or parent is familiar with these “lessons,” which illustrate the ways we as a society have traditionally taught children values like empathy, kindness, and caring. Usually, we’re directly telling our kids how they should (and shouldn’t) act, and hopefully modeling proper behavior for them ourselves.

While these approaches are sometimes needed, even essential, we at Kindness.org wondered whether they alone were enough when it comes to teaching such important values. Our research has shown that kindness has a tangible impact on our mental, emotional, and physical health, both individually and on a large scale. We also have learned that kindness is a choice and so while we can prescribe it or encourage it, it is ultimately up to each individual to choose it. That is why our mission at Kindness.org is to educate and inspire people to do just that, to choose kindness.

So when it came to bringing this mission to life with kids, we wondered what would be the most effective way to encourage this in children? Given that every student has a different lived experience and understanding of what kindness is, as well as individualized learning needs, how could we disrupt the way we’re teaching kindness to kids?

Past research has found that incorporating social-emotional learning (SEL) programs into school curricula can have many benefits for students, including an increase in positive behavior, lower emotional stress, and even improved academic performance.¹ What’s more, these benefits have been found to last for years.²

Our own research has told us that kindness can, and should, be studied scientifically, so it stood to reason that it can, and should, be taught that same way. After all, wouldn’t students be better served by an academic approach that treats kindness like any other subject, and allows kids to discover the merits and best practices on their own, through rigorous scientific inquiry? To test our theory, we developed Learn Kind, a curriculum that could meet kids where they are, instead of a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach.

Learn Kind is a first of its kind, inquiry-based kindness and social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum for grades K-8. In 2020, we offered it free to schools nationwide and collected data from the classrooms that participated — 1,800 across 210 schools, reaching 38,000 children. We then analyzed the impact of the program in terms of the role kindness plays on student performance, relationships, and well-being. Here is what they learned — and what we did.

Developing a Kindness Curriculum

After thoroughly researching the effectiveness of other similar programs; reviewing leading research on prosocial behavior, child development, and kindness in classrooms; and surveying more than 200 U.S. educators of children K-8 about their needs, we developed Learn Kind, an eight-module, kindness-based SEL curriculum for grades K-8.

It was important to us that our program fill the gaps our research had identified in existing resources, so we offered it free of cost and built-in flexibility by offering eight modules that can be taught in any order and across any format (in-person, online, or hybrid). The program is available in three versions for grades K-2, 3–5, and 6–8, and includes instructional support for in-person, online, and hybrid learning environments. More information about the curriculum, and access to the materials, is available here.

The Learn Kind curriculum invites students to discover both the skills needed to increase kindness, and the impact it can have when they do, using the basic principles of scientific inquiry. The curriculum walks students through the idea of kindness as a scientific concept; helps them build skills that contribute to kindness, including self-awareness, empathy, and relationship skills; and has them participate in a real-world experiment to increase kindness in their classrooms, schools, homes, or communities. As it turned out, we rolled the program out at a time when it proved most crucial: during the 2020–2021 school year, when the Covid-19 pandemic forced distance and hybrid-style learning, and made fostering community and connection in classrooms extra challenging.

We engineered the Learn Kind pilot program to be as flexible and as far-reaching as possible, and it ultimately was incorporated into 1,800 classrooms across 210 schools representing 39 states and 15 countries, for a total reach of more than 38,000 students. We asked participating teachers to complete questionnaires before and after teaching the curriculum, and to give their students a letter grade on overall kindness at the beginning and end of the program. Copies of the full pre-and post-surveys are available here and here.

Getting Our Report Card

We compiled our results from 256 questionnaires, the majority (~68%) of which were completed by teachers. Sixty respondents completed both the pre-and post-program questionnaires. The sample represented all eight modules, all grades (K-8), and three learning environments: in-person, online, and hybrid models.

Everyone who participated in the pilot reported at least one positive outcome, and the majority (85%) reported multiple. Of the 60 teachers who completed the post-survey and reported teaching at least one module:

72% reported increased kind behaviors
60% reported improved student well-being
37% reported improved teacher well-being
67% reported stronger classroom community
27% reported reduced bullying behaviors

Full data and analysis (in jamovi) is available here.

The results also revealed significant and substantial increases in students’ reported ‘kindness to others,’ and overall ‘kindness grade,’ with the median kindness grade rising from a ‘C’ to a ‘B.’ While all those results are encouraging, the real impact of the program can perhaps best be described by the teachers who implemented it and experienced positive changes firsthand. Among their self-described favorite moments:

“Watching students get excited about showing kindness to others. It’s contagious!”

“During one morning routine, the students supported a student having a difficult time without my initiating.”

“Watching my kiddos self-direct their own play at recess and everyone was included. It was lovely to watch!”

“Having students show kindness to others in a variety of ways, even while virtual.”

How You Can Get Involved

Although the Learn Kind pilot is just a starting point, the data we gathered strongly suggests that students can be taught to be kinder, and that the potential payoffs include a stronger classroom community and greater well-being for students, as well as a range of other positive outcomes.

One teacher who participated in the pilot praised the curriculum as “exactly what the doctor ordered for our school and the current state of our world.” We agree, and look forward to the opportunity to continue to conduct real-world research that helps us refine our curriculum so that we can even more effectively cultivate kindness in the classroom.

If you are or know someone who might be interested in bringing Learn Kind to life in their classroom, you can sign up here, as well as learn more details and access materials. Together, we can prepare the future leaders in kindness to change the world and change the world.