UNIVERSITY

PARK, Pa. — An international expert in programs and practices that

foster children’s positive qualities, Kim Schonert-Reichl, will present

the 2018 Lecture on Compassion. Schonert-Reichl, director of the Human

Early Learning Partnership at the University of British Columbia, will

talk about the “School-Based Promotion of Children’s Empathy, Kindness,

and Altruism,” at 4 p.m. on April 19 in Room 22 of the Biobehavioral

Health Building on the Penn State University Park campus. The lecture is

free and open to the public.

Schonert-Reichl’s research focuses on identification of the processes

and mechanisms that foster positive human qualities such as empathy,

compassion, altruism and resiliency in children and adolescents. Her

projects include studies examining the effectiveness of classroom-based

universal social-emotional learning (SEL) programs, including such

programs as the Roots of Empathy, MindUp, and the Kindness in the

Classroom Curriculum. Schonert-Reichl is also conducting

interdisciplinary research in collaboration with neuroscientists,

psychobiologists and molecular geneticists to examine the ways in which

school-based preventative SEL interventions “get under the skin” and

result in changes in self-regulation and biological processes among

children in typical classroom settings.

She has led the development of the implementation of the Middle Years

Development Instrument (MDI), a child self-report population measure of

4th- and 7th-grade children’s social, emotional and physical well-being

and developmental assets inside and outside of school. To date, almost

90,000 children have completed the MDI in British Columbia. The MDI is

also being implemented in Australia, Germany, the U.K. and Croatia, and

work is currently underway for MDI implementation in the U.S. and across

Canada.

“Penn State has long been a leader in research on children’s

social-emotional development and the promotion of compassion and

well-being in the classroom,” Schonert-Reichl said. “I look forward to

sharing insights into my own work with the Penn State community, and

hearing about ongoing and planned work in these areas.”

In her presentation, Schonert-Reichl will offer a brief review of

ground-breaking research that demonstrates the importance of promoting

students’ social and emotional competence in schools and describe how

recent innovations in SEL can inform these efforts. She will describe

some of the current SEL initiatives in Canada and the U.S., and

highlight her own recent evaluations of universal school-based social

and emotional competence promotion programs developed from research and

theory in the fields of mindful attention awareness, SEL and positive

psychology. The explicit and intentional promotion of students’ social

and emotional competence in school is necessary for the future of

education.

“Children, adolescents, families, teachers and schools have all

benefited from Kim’s work, which is influencing the future direction of

research on children and social-emotional learning, and the creation and

implementation of educational interventions focused on mindfulness and

compassion for the classroom,” said Robert W. Roeser, Bennett Pierce

Professor in Caring and Compassion.

The Lectureship on Compassion is an annual event developed and funded

by Mark Greenberg, holder of the Edna Peterson Bennett Endowed Chair in

Prevention Research, and his wife, Christa Turksma, a curriculum

developer and teacher of mindfulness skills. The forum is intended to

showcase the findings and perspectives of outstanding researchers and

practitioners in the areas of awareness, compassion and empathy.

Schonert-Reichl received her doctorate from the University of Iowa in

educational psychology. She has published hundreds of articles, books,

special journals, chapters and reviews, and is a Fellow of the Mind and

Life Institute and a Fellow of the Botin Foundation’s Platform for

Innovation in Education. In 2009, Schonert-Reichl received the

Confederation of University Faculty Associations BC (CUFA BC) Paz

Buttedahl Career Achievement Award. As the association’s highest honor,

the award recognizes an individual for sustained outstanding

contributions to the community beyond the academy through research or

other scholarly activities over the major portion of his or her career.

She is also the recipient of the 2007 UBC Killam Teaching Prize in

recognition of excellence in undergraduate and graduate teaching, and

the 2004 Vancouver School Board Recognition Award for her work promoting

social responsibility in students.

In addition to the Lecture on Compassion, on Wednesday, April 18,

Schonert-Reichl will give a presentation on “A New Kind of Fitness:

Strengthening Social and Emotional Competence and Well-being of Children

through Social and Emotional Learning,” at 4:15 p.m. in 104 Rackley

Building. This talk is being co-sponsored with the Child Study Center in

the College of the Liberal Arts.

The College of Health and Human Development and the Edna Bennett

Pierce Prevention Research Center are hosts for the annual event. For

more information on the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center,

visit prevention.psu.edu.