Enhancing Empathy through a Creative Writing Program in Elementary School

Education is not only about the transferring of knowledge, but also cultivation strong social and emotional skills, which are necessary for strengthening competence students, their positive self-perception success in school. Empathy, refers to ability recognize another person‟s state one basic skills 21st century, helps all students grow up become active critically aware citizens. The research/intervention program "Creative Writing Social Learning Skills", implemented by 5th 6th grade elementary schools Thessaloniki, Greece, explores enhancement empathy, through use creative writing as an educational tool. Activities used were based on literary texts from Balkan countries Eastern Southeastern Europe. research sample consisted 573 who divided into Intervention Group, that program, Control attended its regular curriculum. analysis level children, especially concern us present study, was carried out using a structured improvised questionnaire, alpha Cronbach coefficients where range at very high levels. Study results showed Group exhibited statistically greater improvement assessment empathy compared Group.