This research aims to develop the character education program on the basis of empathy ability and also examine it with young children. Empathy, the ability to sense, feel and understand the emotions, thoughts and experience of others, plays an important role in the character development during early childhood. Therefore, the program developed in this study is particularly focusing on empathy ability while excluding the cognitive, instrumental and technical approach. Pre/post-test design was used in order to track the changes in empathy ability of young children.
The results of this study can be summarized as follows:
First, the program was created to be composed of the empathy factors together with six characteristic virtues which are closely relevant to the daily life of four-year-old children.
Secondly, significant differences were observed in three subfactors of early childhood empathy, namely sadness, joy as well as anxiety, but there was no significant difference in mental burden.
Thirdly, regarding the change of empathy ability after applying the program, it was demonstrated that young children who were not interested in the empathic story at early stage are getting immersed in the story at middle stage and express their feelings on the main character. In addition, at conclusive stage young children became even more immersed and participated in activities, thereby not only expressing their emotions in a variety of ways but also recognizing others’ feelings from their perspectives.
Fourthly, regarding the change of the character of young children, it can be concluded that the character is intensified, and this leads to the better understanding of other people’s situations and the empathic stories, finally improving children’s attitudes for helping others.