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How Acts Of Kindness Facilitate Prosocial Behaviors In An Early Childhood Montessori Classroom, April L. Malley

Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers

This action research project examined how the implementation of Kindness Guidelines affected prosocial behavior among Early Childhood students. The setting was a private Montessori school, with 18 children ages two to five-years-old. Guidelines were developed using child-generated ideas on how to be kind to themselves, others, and the environment, along with teacher-made materials that illustrated acts of kindness and emotional awareness. Implementation of the intervention lasted six weeks with 20 days of data collected during two 15-20 minute observations per day. Positive and negative behaviors were recorded using tally sheets and an observation journal. Use of teacher-made materials was tracked …