Promoting Social Responsibility in Children and Early Adolescents: Research Findings from a Universi

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Promoting Social Responsibility in Children and
Early Adolescents  Research Findings from a
University - School Board Partnership

• Association for Moral Education
• Dana Point, California
• November 12, 2004

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Papers in Session

• 1. The Relation of Social Responsibility to 
  School Belonging and Prosocial Behaviors Among
  Children and Early Adolescents
• Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl, Molly Lawlor,
  Jeannie Kerr
•  
• 2. Significant School - Based Adults Impact on
  Individual  and Social Responsibility
• Denise Buote and Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl
•  
• 3. Implementing Programs to Promote Students
  Social Responsibility  What Do Teachers and
  Administrators Have to Say?
• Lisa Pedrini

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Background

• The promotion of social responsibility and
  social-emotional development in students has long
  been considered to be a goal of education.
• In 1997, in British Columbia (BC), Canada, Social
  Responsibility was identified as one of four
  performance standards - a standard that should be
  promoted to the same degree of reading, writing,
  and numeracy.
• In response to the increased focus on social
  responsibility in BC, a partnership was formed
  between the University of British Columbia's
  Faculty of Education and the Vancouver School
  Board.   

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Overview of Session

• The Case for Considering the Social Side of
  Learning
• British Columbia Ministry of Education and Social
  Responsibility
• Vancouver School Board (VSB) Focus on Social
  Responsibility
• The VSB partnership with UBC
• Research in three schools
• Seaview Elementary School
• Oceanview Elementary School
• Cityview Elementary Community School

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Making the Case for the Social Side of Learning

• There is a growing concern about childrens
  social and emotional adjustment and mental
  health
• 15 to 30 of school-age children are at risk
  for successful development and require support
  and assistance (OECD, 1995).
• 1 in 5 children (20) identified with mental
  health problems (Offord et al., 1991 Romano et
  al., 2001).
• 75 - 80 of children and youth do not receive
  the services they need (National Advisory Mental
  Health Council, 1990).

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Making the Case for the Social Side of Learning

• A comprehensive mission for schools is to
  educate students to be knowledgeable,
  responsible, socially skilled, healthy, caring,
  and contributing citizens. (Greenberg,
  Weissberg, Utne OBrien, Zins, Fredericks,
  Resnik, Elias, 2003)

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Making the Case for the Social Side of Learning

• The aim of education is growth or development,
  both intellectual and moral. (Dewey, 1964, p.
  213.)
• Educators are influencing childrens social and
  emotional development in many ways already via
  the hidden curriculum (Jackson, 1968).
• those unstated norms, values, and beliefs that
  are implicitly taught in schools (Giroux, 1983,
  p. 47).
• Analytical intelligence (IQ) accounts for only
  10 to 15 of job success and other real-world
  outcomes (Goelman, 1995).

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Balancing Educating the Mind with Educating the
Heart

• Recently, Noble Peace Prize Laureate, Archbishop
  Desmond Tutu said
• Educating the mind without educating the heart
  has produced brilliant scientists who used their
  intelligence for evil.

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Why is it Important to Promote Social
Responsibility?

• Socially responsible and prosocial behavior are
  important educational outcomes, critical to
  school adjustment, and should be promoted with
  the same frequency as the development of academic
  skills (Wentzel, 1991).
• Social responsible behavior correlates positively
  with academic achievement
• Helps create safe, orderly, and positive school
  environments that facilitate learning and
  interpersonal relationships.
• Motivates students to becomes more engaged in the
  learning process.

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Social Responsibility A Definition

• The term socially responsible behaviour
  highlights the importance of internalizationtakin
  g over the values and attitudes of society as
  ones own so that socially acceptable behavior is
  motivated not by anticipation of external
  consequences but by intrinsic or internal
  factors
• Grusec Goodnow
• as cited in Bear, Telzrow and deOliveira, 1997

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BC Social Responsibility Performance Standards

• Distributed, in draft form, in 2000.
• Intended to provide educators, students, and
  families with a common set of expectations, along
  with materials for evaluating individual
  students, groups of students, or school
  populations.

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B.C. Social Responsibility Performance Standards
4 aspects 1. Contributing to the classroom and
school community 2. Solving problems in peaceful
ways 3. Valuing diversity and defending human
rights 4. Exercising democratic rights and
responsibilities
Not Yet Within Expectations Meets
Expectations (Minimally) Fully Meets
Expectations Exceeds Expectations
See http//www.bced.gov.bc.ca/perf_stands/social_r
esp.htm
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Vancouver School Board (VSB) District Direction
in Social Responsibility

• The goal recognizes that contributing in the
  classroom and school community in the areas of
  volunteering, leading, participating, and
  cooperating is as important as academic,
  intellectual, physical, artistic and aesthetic
  achievement. Social responsibility addresses the
  overarching goal of developing thoughtful,
  responsible and active citizens.
• VSB Accountability Contract, 2002.

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VSB Social Responsibility Initiative(Spring,
2001 present)

• Key Aspects of the Plan
• Goal By 2005/2006 every school in Vancouver
  will be actively developing as a social
  responsibility learning community
• UBC/VSB partnership (w/ Schonert-Reichl Hymel)
• Professional Development
• Research effectiveness
• Partnership Schools Developing Demonstration
  Sites
• One secondary, four elementary schools
• Work collaboratively with VSB Learning Services
  Staff UBC
• Focus Schools
• Focus Day Conferences
• Other professional development

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The VSB/UBC Partnership Identifying the
Essential Ingredients for Promoting Social
Responsibility in Children

• A Developmental Approach
• Creation of a Caring Context
• A Strengths-Based Approach
• Attention to Implementation and Evaluation

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A Systemic Approach

• Social responsibility is not seen as a program,
  but rather an embedded, integrated approach that
  ideally permeates an entire school community.

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Theoretical Perspectives

• Constructivism considering the childs
  perspective (Piaget)
• Caring communities (Battistich et al., 1997 Ryan
  Powelson, 1991 Noddings, 1992)
• Resiliency (Garmezy, 1985 Luthar, 2003 Werner
  Smith, 1992)
• Attachment theory (Ainsworth, 1977 Bowlby, 1973
  Watson, 2003)
• School-Based Promotion of Social Emotional
  Competence (Elias et a., 1997 Weissberg
  Greenberg, 1998)

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A Focus on Creating Caring School Communities

• The educational environment has a profound
  influence childrens social, emotional, and
  academic well-being.
• Caring communities are places where members
• care about and support each other
• actively participate in and have influence on the
  groups activities and decisions
• feel a sense of belonging and identification with
  the group
• have common norms, goals, and values (Battistich
  et al., 1997 p. 137)

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Why Care About Care?

• Childrens engagement or disengagement in
  institutions, such as schools, depends largely on
  whether childrens fundamental needs for
  belonging, autonomy, and competence are being
  fulfilled (Deci Ryan, 1985 Ryan Powelson,
  1991).
• These basic needs are met when children have the
  opportunity to participate actively in a
  cohesive, caring group that shares a common
  purpose that is, a community.

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The Vancouver School Board (VSB) Context

• over 55,000 students
• 91 elementary schools and 13 annexes
• 18 secondary schools (48 alternate programs)
• 61 first languages other than English spoken at
  home
• 6 of elementary students and 8 of secondary
  students are Special Education Learners
• 94 of secondary schools and 76 of elementary
  schools identified social responsibility in their
  growth plans

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UBC/VSB PartnershipResearch Examining the
Social Side of Learning

• 1. Seaview Elementary
• 2. Mountainview Elementary
• 3. Cityview Elementary

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School Locations and Vulnerability
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Inner City Vancouver - Context

• BC Stats Local Health Area reports that
  Vancouver is 1 crime region in Province. Ranks
  1of 78.
• The Vancouver Police Department corroborates
  high crime statistics in these areas
  Prostitution ranks 1 or 2 Violent crime
  highest in City.
• Information from sources such as the Community
  Asset Mapping Project (CAMP) identifies social
  issues in the wider community study conducted
  by Dr. Clyde Hertzman, UBC
• The area in general is characterized by high
  crime and socially at risk children.

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Demonstration School 1 Seaview Elementary
School

• Community has the lowest SES in Canada
• K-7 elementary school 196 students
• Inner city funded
• LD-BD District Class
• 75 Students speaking English as an
  Additional Language
• 13 Students of First Nations Ancestry

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Seaview Benefits of Being a Demonstration School

• 4,000 annually for 5 years from VSB
• Access to VSB staff for consultation and
  collaboration
• Staff Professional Development
• Meetings with partnership schools
• UBC staff to guide, implement, and analyze
  research

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Seaview Initiatives Prior to the Partnership

• Second Step, Care Kit
• Focus on Bullying
• Roots of Empathy
• Catch Them Being Good
• Counsellor pullout and classroom sessions
• Academic competence

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3 Dimensions of Change

• Context A Caring School Community
• Opportunities for Student Learning and Growth in
  Social Responsibility
• Evaluation

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1st Dimension of ChangeContext A Caring
School Community

• Code of Conduct Principles of Care
• Discipline Non-punitive, restorative
• Buddy Classes
• Class Meetings
• Common Language
• Student Committee

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2nd Dimension of ChangeOpportunities for
Learning and Growth

• Developmental Approach
• - Informed by Developmental Theory
• - Child-Centred
• Strengths-Based Approach
• - strategies, skills and dispositions

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Opportunities for Learning and Growth

• Supervised Play Area
• Grade Grouped weekly lessons
• Opportunities to practice SR
• Collaborative Learning practices
• Integration of SR themes in curriculum
• SR Performance Standards

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3rd Dimension of ChangeEvaluation

• The Social Responsibility Performance Standards
• Research Partnership with UBC

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The S.R. Performance Standards

• Grade groupings of K-3, 4-5, 6-8
• Continuum of Expectations
• 4 strands
• Solving Problems in Peaceful Ways
• Contributing to Classroom/School Community
• Valuing Diversity Defending Human Rights
• Exercising Democratic Rights/Responsibilities

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Collaboration
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Getting Together to Share
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Connections Through Acting
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Research Partnership with UBC

• Seaview Central Question from School Staff
• Does a sense of autonomy and belonging at school
  encourage internalization of socially responsible
  attitudes and beliefs promoted by the school?

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Operationalizing the Schools Question into a
Research Question

• What are the relations of classroom/school
  supportiveness and autonomy to dimensions of
  social-emotional competence (empathy,
  perspective-taking) and social responsibility?

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Seaview StudyMethod

• Participants
• 125 students, 3rd to 7th grades
• 37 girls
• 65 from two-parent families
• 26 first language English, 25 Chinese, 22
  Vietnamese, and 27 other
• 13 First Nations Ancestry
• 96 of children participated

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Measures

• Empathy Perspective-Taking (IRI Davis, 1983)
• Caring Classroom School/Community (Developmental
  Studies Center, 2002)
• Classroom Supportiveness
• e.g., The students in my class really care about
  each other.
• Classroom Autonomy
• e.g.,In my class students have a say in deciding
  what goes on.
• School Belonging
• e.g.,Teachers and students treat each other with
  respect in this school.

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Measures (contd)

• Social Responsibility (Wentzel, 1998)
• Prosocial Peers
• e.g., How often do you try to be nice to kids
  when something bad has happened to them?
• Prosocial Academics
• e.g., How often do you try to share what youve
  learned with your classmates?
• Social Responsibility Peers
• e.g.,How often do you try to keep promises that
  youve made to other kids?
• Social Responsibility Academics
• e.g., How often do you try to do what your
  teacher asks you to?

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Question What are the relations of
classroom/school supportiveness to dimensions of
social-emotional competence and social
responsibility?
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Relations of Caring Environment to Social
Responsibility Dimensions Correlations
Regression Analyses
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Essential Ingredients for Promoting Social
Responsibility in Children

• A Developmental Approach
• Creation of a Caring Context
• A Strengths-Based Approach
• Attention to Implementation and Evaluation

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Demonstration School 2Mountainview
ElementaryResearch Questions

• What is the relation of social responsibility
  dimensions to students social, emotional, and
  behavioral adjustment?
• How does social responsibility vary by students
  grade level?
• What is the relation between students social
  responsibility and a caring classroom
  environment?
• What are the dimensions of the school environment
  that are important to students?

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Mountainview StudyMethod

• Participants
• 80 students, 4th-7th grades
• 55 girls
• 80 two-parent families
• 16 first language English, 50 Chinese, 15
  Vietnamese, and 19 other
• 65 of children participated in the study

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Measures

• Social Responsibility (Wentzel, 1998)
• Prosocial Peers,
• Prosocial Academics,
• Responsibility Peers,
• Responsibility Academics
• Behavioral Dimensions (Self-Reports)
• Prosocial Behaviors (Bandura et al., 1996)
• Antisocial Behaviors (Bandura et a., 1996)

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Measures (contd)

• Empathy Perspective-Taking (IRI Davis, 1983)
• Caring Community (Battistich et al., 2002)
• Classroom Autonomy
• In my class students have a say in deciding what
  goes on.
• Classroom Supportiveness
• The students in my class really care about each
  other.

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Question 1 What is the link between social
responsibility and students social, emotional,
and behavioral adjustment?

• Findings revealed that all social responsibility
  dimensions were significantly associated with
• Empathy ()
• Perspective-taking ()
• Prosocial behaviors ()
• Antisocial Behaviors (-)

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Question 2 How does social responsibility vary
by students grade level?
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Question 3 What is the relation between social
responsibility dimensions and a caring
classroom environment?
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Question 4 What are the dimensions of the
school environment that are important to
students?

• What is your favorite thing about Mountainview?
• Environment
• Physical environment of the school itself.
• its a safe place, not too crowded,
  the soccer field
• Curriculum/extra-curricular activities
• Including all curriculum, extra-curricular
  activities such as sports and field trips.
• reading, art, the lunch program, field
  trips
• Resources
• Educational resources that aid childrens
  learning.
• computers, books, it has a computer lab
  
  
  
  

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What are your favorite?

• Interpersonal Relationships Staff
• Relations between students and staff.
• the teachers are very kind, secretaries,
  principal, vice-principal is nice
• Interpersonal Relationships Peers/students
• Relations among students themselves (positive).
  
•  teams, I get to see my friends at school
•  
• Relational Environment
• The overall social-emotional environment of
  Mountainview.
• people respect each other, nice people,
  fair rules,
• Other
• everything, posters.

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What is your favorite thing?Response frequencies

• Environment 14.12
• Curriculum/extra curricular 37
• Resources 2.82
• Interpersonal Relationships Staff 16.67
• Interpersonal Relationships Peers 15.54
• Relational Environment 12.43
• Other 1.41

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If you could change one thing about
Mountainview, what would it be?

• Environment
• The physical environment of the school itself.
• less litter/more garbage cans, a better
  playground
• Curriculum/extra-curricular activities
• Including all curriculum, extra-curricular
  activities such as sports and field trips.
• more P.E., longer recess, more sports and
  music.
• Resources
• All beneficial resources that aid childrens
  learning (resources students would like access
  to).
• more books, computers, bigger library,
  more equipment

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If you could change?

• Interpersonal Relationships Staff
• Relations between students and staff (negative,
  or needs improvement).
• nicer teachers, more supervisors, more
  helpers
• Interpersonal Relationships Peers
• Relations among students themselves (negative,
  or needs improvement)
• more people helping others, more friends
• Relational Environment
• The overall social-emotional environment of
  school.
• more school spirit , more fair rules
• Bullying Prevalence of bullying at school.
• less bullying, no more bullies

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If you could change one thingResponse
frequencies

• Environment 30.54
• Curriculum/extra curriculum 25.75
• Resources 13.77
• Interpersonal Relationships Staff 3.60
• Interpersonal Relationships Peers 1.80
• Relational Environment 11.34
• Bullying 7.19
• Other 6.0