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Home / 2017 / May / 30 / UBC study determines classroom kindness declines as students get older
Research

UBC study determines classroom kindness declines as students get older

May 30, 2017

Teachers believe they have considerable influence on student kindness in the classroom but according to a new study from UBC’s Okanagan campus, this influence seems to decline as students get older.

“When we examined trends across different grades it became obvious that teachers of younger students have a more favorable view of their influence on student kindness than teachers of older students,” says study lead author John Tyler Binfet, an assist. prof. in UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Education.

According to Binfet’s study of more than 200 teachers in the Okanagan Valley, 79 per cent of respondents believe they have a very strong influence on children’s kindness. This influence may have far-reaching implications for student behaviour in later years.

UBC Assist. Prof. John Tyler Binfet.

UBC Assist. Prof. John Tyler Binfet.

“As students enter the upper grades, their relationships with teachers become less personal and more formal and this may influence the lack of kindness observed by teachers as students get older.”

More than 90 per cent of respondents considered students to be generally kind, while nearly 80 per cent of teachers reported that kindness is directed towards them fairly often or all of the time. However, Binfet notes this definitely changes as students get older.

“A teacher’s understanding of what it means to be kind at school likely influences their interactions with students and colleagues,” he says. “A teacher’s professional responsibility has a large effect on student behaviour both inside and outside the classroom setting.”

Understanding how teachers think about and enact kindness not only helps students’ interact positively with one another, it also contributes to the community of the school and beyond, he adds.

“Increasingly, teachers are expected to shape both the social skills and intellectual lives of their students,” says Binfet. “Findings from this study help define our understanding of a teacher’s role in the classroom and how they thereby influence society.”

Binfet’s study was recently published in the International Journal of Emotional Education.

Media Contact

Jill Dickau
Communications Coordinator
Faculty of Education

The University of British Columbia
Okanagan campus
Tel: 250 807 9666
E-mail: jill.dickau@ubc.ca

Content type: Media Release
More content from: Okanagan School of Education

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About UBC Okanagan

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose traditional, ancestral and unceded territory the campus resides. The most established and influential global rankings all consistently place UBC in the top five per cent of universities in the world, and among the top three Canadian universities.

The Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. For more visit ok.ubc.ca.

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We respectfully acknowledge the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples, in whose traditional, ancestral, unceded territory UBC Okanagan is situated.

 

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