Effects of Prosocial Acts on 4th-6th Graders' Academic Engagement

This study tests the effects of performing daily kind acts over a 4-week period on upper elementary students' subjective well-being (happiness) and academic engagement. It also tests the correlation between increases in both measures. Upper elementary students often experience a decrease in academic engagement due to increased difficulty and complexity of academic tasks as well as the beginning of social dynamics that may draw students away from school participation both in practice and attitude. Although Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs have proven to be effective at increasing academic achievement, they require a comprehensive approach and high implementation fidelity to see these results. This study sought an alternative, easy-to-implement means to improve academic engagement through student performance of daily kind acts. Nine classes containing a total of 179 students within three Orthodox, Jewish Day schools with similar missions located in the United States were randomly assigned as part of the control or experimental group. Homework completion rates, student self-survey, and teacher survey were used to measure changes in academic engagement. Student self-survey and teacher survey were used to measure changes in subjective well-being. We tested for positive correlations between happiness and academic engagement when both engagement and subjective well-being showed improvement from pre to post testing. Results indicate that both happiness and academic engagement increase due to performing kind acts, and that those increases are positively correlated. This study has practical implications as schools consider ways to easily encourage academic engagement in students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]