Prosocial Themes Research Articles

Inclusivity of students with special education needs and disabilities: memorable messages from teachers in secondary schools

ABSTRACT Given that students spend considerable time with their teachers, the instructional realm is an important context for studying memorable messages. We sought to identify memorable messages about inclusivity in the classroom that first-semester college students recall from their secondary school teachers. Specifically, this study focused on messages about the inclusion of students with special education needs and disabilities (SEND). Students recalled memorable messages that revealed prosocial themes including those that emphasised the importance of including students with SEND, treating all students equally, and reframing neurodivergence as positive.

Menurunkan Perilaku Agresif Siswa Taman Kanak-kanak Melalui Aktivitas Bermain Peran Prososial

One of the problems that parents and teachers often complain about is aggressive behavior in kindergarten students because this aggressive behavior is a problem that often occurs in children and is always there in every school year. Several studies have shown that since childhood the handling and prevention of aggressive behavior must be done. This is done in order to prevent disruptive behavior that may arise in the future and have long-term effects so that it can cause negative effects on children and continue until they are adults. One effort that can be done to reduce aggressive behavior is to develop prosocial behavior. Aggressive individuals are taught to behave in non-aggressive ways. This approach is felt to be more effective in reducing aggression by using the principle of behavior modification learning that focuses on strengthening non-aggressive behavior. Prosocial behavior developed using role playing methods with prosocial themes. The development of this prosocial behavior involved 12 kindergarten students in Yogyakarta. Prosocial behavior is taught using several indicators of prosocial behavior such as helping, sharing, entertaining and collaborating. The Time-series Group Nonequivalent No-Treatment Control Group quasi-experimental design is the design used in this study. Based on the results of this research data analysis it is proven that the aggressive behavior of students in Kinder garten can be reduced through prosocial role playing significantly in the experimental group when compared to the aggressive behavior group in the control group (z=-2.169; p<0.05).

The Prosocial-Culture-Work Nexus: An Integrative Literature Review and Future Research Agenda.

Organization culture is a potential antecedent and moderator of prosocial behaviors at work. So, what is currently known about the prosocial-culture-work nexus? Studies of this nexus may be predicted to exist in the form of research on organization cultures of three types. One would be studies of specific organization cultures representing espoused Employer Value Propositions (EVPs). One would be etic studies using constructs of organization culture. The other would be emic studies, with the 'thick description' associated with ethnography/anthropology. An integrative literature review on the prosocial-organization culture-work nexus located 22 studies. Most studies are of the etic type, while others are mainly concerned with theory development. There is no evidence of a clear concept of organization culture being used in any study. The future research agenda for the prosocial-culture-work nexus follow from this. Constructs of organization culture need to be adopted and used. There is huge scope for EVP studies to explicitly and critically explore the breadth of the prosocial themes these often contain. Etic studies are the ones where the lack of organization culture constructs is most striking, given their methodologies. More emic studies with ethnographic/anthropological depth to explore, both work organizations in single countries, and in comparative studies across countries, are needed. Better clarified prosocial constructs will not in themselves advance knowledge if the organizational culture contexts in which prosociality exists remain under-appreciated.

Values throughout the Game Space

Pro-social themes like empathy and wellbeing are gaining popularity within games to contrast the medium's stigmatised explorations of themes like violence, often to catalyse reflection or even change players' beliefs surrounding complex scenarios. These abstract themes can be classified as a game's "values": elements that are "useful or important" to game designers and their audience. Exploration of values in games was spearheaded by Values at Play, which described how values manifest in games and advocated for their explicit consideration within games and their discourse. Frameworks such as empathy, ethical, and anti-oppressive design all discuss similar values, but present ontological diversity that makes it difficult to collate games and frameworks under the values-conscious design umbrella. Such frameworks also often focus on design approaches and small-scale prototypes but pay less attention to how values influence aspects like publication and play. As such, the present research examines values within each stage of a game's lifecycle: design, development, publication, interaction, and reportage. Doing so provides an understanding of values in multiple game contexts. This provides new perspectives that form the basis of a taxonomy for values in games, which is then presented alongside practical questions for values-conscious designers, publishers, and players to guide its use.

Direct and indirect pathways to early school adjustment: Roles of young children’s mental representations and peer victimization

We examined direct and indirect associations among preschool-age children’s attachment-related mental representations of mothers and peer relationships with their early school adjustment. One hundred and eighteen preschoolers attending Head Start programs were administered a story stem completion task to measure prosocial and antisocial themes in their attachment representations. Approximately two months later, teachers reported on children’s physical and relational peer victimization and prosocial attention from peers. Another three months later, trained observers rated preschoolers’ school adjustment. Children’s prosocial themes in their attachment-related mental representations were negatively related to reported experiences of physical and relational peer victimization. Physical peer victimization was associated with poorer school adjustment and prosocial attention from peers was associated with better school adjustment. Children’s prosocial themes in their attachment-related mental representations were indirectly associated with better school adjustment via lower physical peer victimization. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research and intervention on peer victimization in early childhood.

Using Texts to Teach Cognitive-Affective Curriculum

<p><em>The study addressed a cognitive-affective gap in the textual content of a primary</em><br /><em>English curriculum. The research design was qualitative in nature. In the first part of the study, document analysis of the textbooks from grades1-5 was done to prove that empathetic and pro-social themes were under represented in them. The second part of the study was an intervention in which teachers were apprised to highlight empathetic and pro social themes in texts and teach them. The third part of the study noticed if the use of cognitive-affective texts raised awareness among students about the said themes and significantly affected their interest in academic work. The findings from document analysis, observations and interviews indicated that empathetic and pro-social themes were under represented in the textual content. The observations of integrated cognitive-affective lessons brought forth a significant increase in student interest in academic work and raised awareness about the stated themes. This was also authenticated by teachers and students in focused group interviews. The study was significant in terms of raising the importance of the stated skills at the primary level and prove that cognitive-affective use of textual content in schools could raise awareness about affective skills and prepare helpful and caring individuals for the society.</em></p><p><em><br /></em></p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> cognitive-affective, curriculum, empathy, social-emotional learning,<br />textual content</p><p><em><br /></em></p>

Television Format and Children's Executive Function.

* Abbreviation: EF — : executive function Theories regarding the impact of media on development can largely be grouped into content-based and content-independent categories.1 Content-based theories argue that the impact of media on aspects of development differs depending on content. For example, media that involve prosocial themes (eg, helping) may positively impact children’s behavior, whereas media that involve violence have the potential to negatively impact behavior. Content-independent theories argue that many of the impacts of media occur irrespective of the content children are exposed to. For example, irrespective of content, viewing media may displace other activities (eg, reading) that positively contribute to children’s intellectual development. A third theory that contains both content-based and content-independent elements is based on media form. Briefly, form-based theories argue that specific features of media may negatively impact children’s behavior. Although form-based theories are generally classified as content-independent,1 many forms commonly intersect with certain types of content. Concerns regarding form have largely focused on the pace of media (ie, the frequency of scene changes or cuts) and the impact pacing may have on aspects of executive function (EF). EF comprises a number of skills, including self-regulation, working memory, and problem solving. Empirical investigations of the potential link between pace and EF can be traced back … Address correspondence to Damian Scarf, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand. E-mail: damian{at}psy.otago.ac.nz

Empathetic and Pro-social Awareness in Primary School Students: A Case Study

The study addressed a cognitive-affective gap in a primary English curriculum and noticed whether the curriculum, texts and class activities utilized empathetic and pro-social themes in teaching English language. The findings from the document review, interviews and observations revealed that the said themes were underrepresented in the curriculum, textual content and class activities. Moreover, the teachers also did not demonstrate the required empathetic and pro-social skills in classrooms. The regular English lessons depicted a highly cognitive focus and proved teachers as inadequate role models for the said skills. Data from parents' questionnaires revealed that the stated skills were taught in theory and not in practice. However, when integrated cognitive-affective lessons were used, they brought forth a significant increase in student interest in academic work and raised awareness about the stated themes. The study was significant in terms of raising the importance of the stated skills in an educational set up and proved that a cognitive-affective approach in schools could prepare helpful and caring individuals for the society.

Rethinking Education – Emerging Roles for Teachers

The purpose of the study was to find out how teachers role modeled and taught empathetic and pro-social skills at the primary level. The study was qualitative in nature and followed a case study approach. Observations of regular English language classes were done from Grades 1-5 to see if class lessons incorporated the said themes and whether teachers displayed the stated skills in classrooms. Another set of observations were conducted after teachers were requested to highlight empathetic and pro-social themes in texts and activities. The second set of observations noticed if the use of empathetic and pro-social textual materials and activities raised awareness among students about the said themes and affected student interest and teacher behaviour in any way. Teachers were also interviewed to register their thoughts on their own empathetic and pro-social behaviours and their experience of teaching the same in classrooms. The deputy curriculum developer from Grades 1-5 was also interviewed to take her opinion about teachers as appropriate role models to teach the said skills and the time given to the development of such skills in the professional development programmes. The findings established teachers as weak role models for the demonstration of empathetic and pro-social skills in classrooms. However, they successfully incorporated and taught the same skills through texts. The paper encourages teachers to exhibit more empathetic and compassionate skills in classrooms so that students can be equipped with sound academic and affective skills for a more positive assimilation in society at large.

Relational and Overt Aggression in Disruptive Adolescents: Prediction from Early Social Representations and Links with Concurrent Problems

Children's representations of conflict and distress situations at 7 years were examined as developmental precursors to relational aggression, overt aggression, and psychiatric symptoms in early adolescence. Children were identified in early adolescence. Children were identified in preschool as normally developing or with behavior problems. Overt, but not relational, aggression, was correlated with concurrent disruptive symptoms in adolescence. Childhood predictors of adolescent aggression were found only for girls: Early hostile themes predicted more relational and overt aggression, while prosocial themes predicted less relational aggression. Also for girls only, early emotions foretold later functioning: Sadness predicted a higher ratio of relational to overt aggression, while inexpressiveness predicted disruptive, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Relational and overt aggression are discussed with regard to sex differences in symptom changes over time.

Children's Perceptions of Family Relationships as Assessed in a Doll Story Completion Task: Links to Parenting, Social Competence, and Externalizing Behavior

AbstractThis study was designed to examine the links between parenting, children's perceptions of family relationships, and children's social behavior. Seventy‐four children (M age=6.01 years; 39 boys; 35 girls) and their parents took part in the study. Children completed relationship‐oriented doll stories that were coded for coherence, prosocial themes, and aggressive themes. Parents completed a report of their child's social behavior, a parenting scale, and a number of demographic items. Teachers also completed measures of children's social competence and externalizing behavior. Warm parenting predicted both a child's representation of prosocial themes in the doll stories and social competence, whereas harsh parenting predicted both a child's use of aggressive themes in the doll stories and a child's externalizing behavior. These findings support the idea that children are constructing models of relationships out of the early interactions with caregivers, and that they use these representations to guide their social behavior.

Play between Aggressive Young Children and their Mothers

There is a growing number of pre-schoolers presenting to clinics with high levels of aggression. These children are at risk of developing conduct disorder, especially when the symptoms are severe. Treatment for older children with aggressive symptoms has often relied on teaching their parents behavior management techniques and has ignored affective and relationship issues. After presenting observations of the play interactions of aggressive pre-schoolers with their mothers and other relevant research findings, this article explores important aspects of the parent-child interaction and affective relationship. These aspects include the mother's difficulty in tolerating and modulating the child's negative affect, reluctance to enter the play metaphor and failure to gradually move aggressive play to more pro-social themes. The importance of these interactions and affective relationship aspects and their contribution to the child's difficulty are discussed in light of their implications for treatment. Also, suggestions are made for caregivers working with these children to help them self-regulate and acquire appropriate cognitive strategies to contain the negative affects.

Japanese and United States Preschool Children's Responses to Conflict and Distress

Japanese and U.S. preschool children's responses to hypothetical interpersonal dilemmas were examined as a function of culture, gender, and maternal child-rearing values. U.S. children showed more anger, more aggressive behavior and language, and underregulation of emotion than Japanese children, across different contexts of assessment. Children from the 2 cultures appeared more similar on prosocial and avoidant patterns, though in some contexts U.S. children also showed more prosocial themes. Girls from both cultures expressed more prosocial themes and sometimes more anger than boys. Maternal encouragement of children's emotional expressivity was correlated with anger and aggression in children. It was more characteristic of U.S. than Japanese mothers, while emphasis on psychological discipline (reasoning; guilt and anxiety induction) was more characteristic of Japanese than U.S. mothers. The relevance of a conceptual framework that focuses on differences in Eastern and Western cultures in self-construals regarding independence and interdependence is considered.