Effectiveness of Digital Storytelling-Based Education in Enhancing Empathy and Cooperation in Children

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a digital storytelling-based educational program in enhancing empathy and cooperation among children. Given the increasing importance of socio-emotional learning (SEL) in modern education, innovative teaching approaches such as digital storytelling offer promising avenues to foster key emotional and social competencies. The research employed a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design. The participants comprised ۶۰ children aged ۸ to ۱۰ years from primary schools in Tehran Province, selected through multi-stage cluster sampling. Participants were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = ۳۰) and a control group (n = ۳۰). The experimental group participated in a five-week structured digital storytelling program, which combined engagement with curated digital narratives and collaborative creation of their own stories. The Basic Empathy Scale and the Cooperation and Teamwork Scale for Children were used to assess the dependent variables. Data were analyzed using Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) and Univariate ANCOVAs via IBM SPSS Statistics, version ۲۶. The results showed that the experimental group exhibited significantly greater improvements in both empathy and cooperation compared to the control group (p < .۰۰۱), with large effect sizes observed for both variables. These findings highlight the potential of digital storytelling as an effective pedagogical tool for promoting socio-emotional development in children. The study recommends broader integration of digital storytelling activities into primary school curricula and underscores the need for further research on long-term and context-specific effects of such interventions.

کلیدواژه ها:

Digital Storytelling ، Enhancing Empathy ، Cooperation