Elementary Education and Perspective-Taking
Empathy is an emotion that can be cultivated in childhood; as society moves more and more to the online word, however, empathy is needed as people are entering a global economy with people from various backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs. The researchers in this study provided a writing intervention to third grade students in order to promote perspective-taking skills that are displayed through their writing. The researchers developed a rubric to accurately determine the effects of the intervention on student writing and whether or not the students developed empathy for the characters studied. This study informed researchers that above all children make connections with all types of people, despite their differences. In addition to learning about the students, the researchers found that educators would benefit from professional development in order to help them teach students about different cultures and further promote perspective-taking.