Students’ perception on blending mathematics teaching with kindness

This paper showcases the effectiveness of integrating deliberate acts of kindness (DAKs) into mathematics education at the university level. Kindness was incorporated into engaged labs, mid-class online quizzes, small-group collaboration, and final grade calculations. Instructors also learned students’ names, valued their input, and shared personal anecdotes. We analyse both qualitative and quantitative survey responses from 248 first-year students of an introductory calculus class at a large Canadian university. This study explores the interplay among student perceptions of school kindness, active and effective learning, classroom supportiveness, optimism, prosocial and social goals, life satisfaction, and academic self-efficacy. The results show that instructors’ caring behaviours were correlated with positive perceptions of instructor kindness. Furthermore, students of empathetic caring instructors had significantly higher school kindness scale scores. The insights from this study motivate educators to incorporate DAKs into their teaching to enhance student well-being. Additionally, these findings can inform future pedagogical studies and foster advancements in pedagogy research.