The Compassion Learning Spiral

A Case Study on How Students Develop Compassion

May 23, 2025

If we understand how students develop the key social-emotional skills needed to enact moral values such as compassion, we can construct learning environments that bolster those skills and values. In this study, the authors map the most common learning pathway in the development of compassion, which they named the Compassion Learning Spiral (CLS): Recognition of Suffering, Evaluation, Action, Unfolding.

The following is an excerpt from the article originally published in ElementsEd Issue 02. The article is written by Tyler R. Miller, Emiliana Rodríguez, Cyntia Barzelatto, Nascira Ramia, and Christina Hinton.

Many schools view compassion as a core value and hope to nurture compassionate action within their students and faculty. We see evidence of this hope demonstrated in schools’ mission statements and operational plans; many schools have adopted programs to help situate social and emotional skill development as one of the key pillars of their institutions. Yet, if we don’t know how compassion develops as a skill, how many opportunities are we missing to cultivate compassion in everyday life? If we understand how students develop the key social-emotional skills needed to enact moral values such as compassion, we can construct learning environments that bolster those skills and values.

Compassion is a sense of concern for the suffering of others and an aspiration to see that suffering relieved. The generation of compassion is dynamic and involves both cognitive and emotional factors, as well as an appraisal process. In this study, by asking students to reflect on compassion and describe their own experiences, we mapped out a common learning pathway that many of the students followed as they engaged in situations that offered an opportunity for compassionate action. Our goal was to understand the common processes through which young people learn to be compassionate, so that educators can intentionally support those learning pathways. In addition, we aimed to identify obstacles that were commonly encountered when students were learning to be compassionate. The insights from these children are inspiring, and teachers, school leaders, and parents stand to benefit from the wisdom and guidance they shared.

Our partner school for this study was a bilingual English-Spanish school in Ecuador that includes a preschool, a primary school, and a secondary school. The school serves primarily native Ecuadorian students but also includes students from approximately twenty nationalities. Most students are from families with middle or high socioeconomic status. The school uses a program that strives to instill six pillars of character education: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship.

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