Using Picture Books to Promote Young Children’s Empathy Development

• Main Authors: JEN-SUH SU, 蘇貞夙
• Other Authors: Jui-ching Cheng
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/83037255714762805020

碩士 === 國立屏東教育大學 === 幼兒教育學系 === 97 === Using Picture Books to Promote Young Children’s Empathy Development Abstract This research is mainly about assisting children to display “emphatic behavior” by using emphatic picture books.” In the discussion of emphatic picture books, children could express their own viewpoints and the ways of solving problems in a way of role replacement or imagination by recognizing the emotions of the characters in the picture books. In this way, children’s performance of emphatic behavior could be induced. The subjects are six children in the class where the researcher teaches. The picture books were chosen according to the classification of “101 good books” and the children’s development in Chi-chi Class. Once the twelve “emphatic picture books” were chosen, the instruction of emphatic picture books was given to 21 six-year-old children in Chi-chi Class. The teaching period was from nine to nine-fifty in the morning every Wednesday and lasted for twelve weeks. This is a qualitative research and includes observation and recording, children’s interviews, parents’ interviews, teaching reflection, and the collection of the related information about children to realize the children’s performance of empathy before and after the given course. This research took the viewpoint of the mixture of cognition and emotion to analyze the differences of the children’s performance of empathy before and after the research. According to Hoffman’s integrated viewpoint, empathy is the interaction of cognition and emotion. Therefore, the performance of empathy includes three dimensions: cognition, emotion, motivation. Thus, this research guided the discussion of the questions in the picture books in the way of general questions based on the framework of questions which were mentioned by Aidan Chambers, collected and observed the data of interviews, and analyzed children’s behaviors to try to improve children’s performance of empathy with the help of the picture books. The purpose of this research lies in the children’s performance of empathy before and after the instruction of picture books, and the process of the instruction of picture books. The results are as below: 1. Empathic picture books could effectively help the children perform their empathy. 2. The impetus of picture books course could achieve the win-win effects of class management and the improvement of children’s empathy. 3. The impetus of picture books course could enhance the quality of interaction between children and others. 4. The levels in the development of children’s empathy could be promoted by implementing the empathic picture books course. 5. The effect of the implementation of the empathic picture books course could be influenced by the style of family education. In teaching techniques, discussion in the way of general questions would help guide children go deep into the situation of picture books and express their innermost and latent thoughts. Keywords: Picture Book, Children’s Empathy Development