Social-emotional competencies are widely recognized for their positive effects on improving academic achievement and reducing dropout rates among elementary school students. This study investigated the effects of an 8-session plant-mediated healing agricultural program on the social-emotional competencies of upper elementary school students. A total of 200 students in grades 4-6 participated, with 100 assigned to the experimental group and 100 to the control group. The experimental group engaged in structured plant cultivation activities including seed planting, transplanting, plant care, observation journaling, and harvesting over eight weeks, while the control group received regular curriculum instruction. Social-emotional competencies were assessed using a validated 21-item instrument based on CASEL’s framework, measuring five domains: emotion recognition and regulation, self-management, empathy, positive relationship building, and responsible behavior. Pre- and post-tests were administered to both groups.
Results indicated significant improvements in the experimental group across all five competency domains. ANCOVA analyses revealed statistically significant differences between groups in emotion recognition and regulation (F=18.42, p<.001, η²=.085), self-management (F=15.67, p<.001, η²=.073), empathy (F=21.35, p<.001, η²=.097), positive relationship building (F=19.28, p<.001, η²=.089), and responsible behavior (F=12.54, p<.001, η²=.061). The experimental group showed particularly notable gains in empathy and positive relationship building, suggesting that collaborative plant care activities fostered perspective-taking and cooperative interactions. These findings suggest that plant-mediated healing agricultural programs can serve as effective interventions for enhancing elementary students' social-emotional competencies, offering practical implications for integrating nature-based experiential learning into school curricula.

Authors:
Jonghun Kim, Konkuk University, South Korea
Minsun Sung, Konkuk University, South Korea

About the Presenter(s)
Jonghun Kim, is an Associate Professor of Department of Education at Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea. His research focuses on the politics of inclusion and exclusion in curriculum studies, teacher education and multicultural education.

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