A Systematic Review: What’s Kindness in School and How to Grow It?

Abstract

Cases of bullying are still high in schools even after implementing moral lessons to teach students about being kind to others. This phenomenon shows that further studies on the concept of kindness are still needed, especially in the school environment. A deep understanding of the concept of kindness in schools can help schools to develop appropriate programs or interventions to improve student kindness in schools. The purpose of this research is to understand the concept of kindness in school. A systematic review has been carried out to gain a better understanding of the concept of kindness in schools. This research examines 150 articles collected from 3 databases (Google Scholar, Science direct, and Ebsco). A total of 26 relevant articles were used for review after the selection process based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Finally, 4 themes emerged after reviewing relevant articles about kindness in school, namely definitions, concepts, impacts, and interventions that can be applied in schools. Kindness in school means activities performed by a person to help others and show respect, which can impact students and teachers at school. Teachers can increase the kindness of students by reading out folklore, illustrated storybooks, acts of kindness, intentional acts of kindness, counting kindness, and loving-kindness meditation.