본 연구의 목적은 독서하브루타가 학생들의 기본 인성덕목 중 공감능력과 자아존중감 함양에 미치는 효과를 검증하는 것이었다. 이러한 연구목적을 위해 동화를 중심으로 한 12차시 독서하브루타 교수-학습안을 구안하였다. 서울특별시에 소재하는 초등학교 5학년 2개 학급을 대상으로 실험집단에는 독서하브루타를 적용하였고, 통제집단에는 기존의 독서수업을 실시하였다. 수업 적용 후, 공감능력과 자아존중감 검사를 실시한 결과 실험집단에서는 공감능력과 자아존중감이 통계적으로 유의미하게 향상된 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 결과를 통해 독서하브루타가 초등학생의 인성교육에 효과적으로 적용될 수 있을 것으로 본다.

This study explores the effects of Reading Havruta on empathic ability and self-esteem of elementary school students with the following two questions; First, would Reading Havruta be effective for improving elementary school students' empathic ability? Second, would Reading Havruta be effectual for boosting elementary school student' self-esteem? To verify the questions above, two classes of fifth grade elementary school in Seoul were pre-tested to gauge their empathic ability and self-esteem. One group was designated as the experimental group while the other was the control group, with both groups being composed of 24 students separately. The experimental group participated in Reading Havruta, while the control group participated in existing procedures. The instruction lasted for 12 sessions. After the end of the experiment, a post-test was conducted to assess the effect of Reading Havruta. The findings of the study were as follows; First, compared to the control group, the experimental group that participated in Reading Havruta showed significant improvement in empathic ability. Second, compared to the control group, the experimental group that participated in Reading Havruta demoted remarkable improvement in self-esteem. The above results indicate that Reading Havruta would be useful for improving elementary school student's empathic ability and self-esteem and could be applied in classrooms to promote the personality education.