UC Education Academic participates in the "Kindness Program", which promotes the socio-emotional development of boys and girls

The program, in which UC Education academic Susana Mendive participated, was applied in the Antofagasta commune and had its closing ceremony the last week of December, where the positive results regarding its implementation were announced.

As a result of the return to face-to-face in the post-pandemic period, and facing the series of challenges that this implied for the teaching and learning process of boys and girls and the educational system in general, the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in conjunction with the Universidad Católica del Norte, the University of Antofagasta, the National Board of Kindergartens (JUNJI) , the Municipal Corporation for Social Development of Antofagasta and the Escondida mining company - BHP, implemented the "Kindness Program", in order to address the socio-emotional development of 1.300 boys and girls from the Antofagasta commune.

On December 27 and 28 this program, where he participated Susana Mendive, Associate Professor at the UC School of Education and Director of the Department of Learning and Development, held her closing ceremony, announcing the positive results of the implementation and the effects it had on the boys and girls, together with the educators inside and outside the educational unit.

“A large part of the perceptions that we have gathered from the educators is that, after implementing the first lessons, certain changes were shown in the children's behaviors, which increased the motivation and involvement of the pedagogical teams in implementing the program”, mentioned Susana Mendive.

The Faculty of Education also participated the academic Regina Lohndorf, advising the phase of training preparation and program implementation. Also Pamela Rodríguez, head of the Program of Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education, visited one of the training sessions that were held in Antofagasta, to know the experience and evaluate the possibilities of incorporating elements of this initiative in the redesign of the career.

This project was born from the "Let's Come Back Together Program” that BHP formed in 2020, and that together with the same universities sought to support companies in their reactivation after the economic crisis caused by the Coronavirus and take care of the health of people and equipment.

This Kindness Program was implemented during the second semester of 2022 in JUNJI gardens, Kindergarten Schools and VTF gardens in the commune of Antofagasta, and involved dynamics such as conscious breathing and reading stories and songs, also addressing concepts like kindness, forgiveness, gratitude and caring. The initiative included training for 130 nursery educators and assistants, where one of the main challenges was to contextualize the program developed by the Center for Research in Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to be adapted to the classrooms of northern Chile.

For the closing of the program, the preliminary results of an evaluation survey answered mostly by technicians and educators, who valued the ease of implementation of the program, its relevance and necessity, and the modifications that could be applied in future instances. The lessons that worked best with the boys and girls were  “Conscious bodies and the awareness of attention and breathing”, “Cultivating seeds” and “Making bottles of calm and practicing their use”.

This program also, says Susana Mendive, is part of a particular period, because "in this post-pandemic time there has been talk of the increase in children with special educational needs. More children who apparently have different types of disorders, developmental delays, even an increase in children who have an autism spectrum disorder, and some of the resources that were present in the program allowed these types of needs to be incorporated into some of the group dynamics, which was highly valued by the educators”.

“They all turned out well, they were useful and playful. The materials (were) adequate for the implementation of the program, It allowed us to have a moment of calm each day and to get to know each other, both inside and out, establishing more effective relationships among peers”, was one of the testimonies collected.

The program, adds Mendive, has projections for 2023 specifically in two areas. The first is to support the implementation of the program in the rest of the educational levels that have already participated, and the second is to extend its application to other kindergartens in the commune.

“There is this interest in the rest of the gardens of the commune, but it has also been seen in the new conversations that we have had the power to implement it even at the regional level, which is the scope of action of the JUNJI Regional Directorate. That means other communes in the Antofagasta region”, concludes Susana Mendive.