Teaching children to share through stories

The effects of symbolic modeling in the form of stories were examined in changing young children's sharing behavior and knowledge of sharing. Nursery school and kindergarten children who displayed a low frequency of sharing were assigned to experimental and control conditions. The experimental group heard stories and viewed slide tape shows of modeled sharing. The control group heard animal stories and viewed slide tape shows with no modeled sharing. The results were as follows: (a) The modeling group shared significantly more than the control group. (b) The modeling group increased their sharing across the three experimental days, and shared significantly more than the control group on both the second and third days. (c) The modeling group acquired significantly more knowledge about sharing. The findings provide strong evidence for the efficacy of models in both book and slide formats for young children.