Dr. John-Tyler Binfet

Dr. Binfet is an associate professor in the Okanagan School of Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. His research on school kindness strives to uncover how children, adolescents, and educators understand kindness in school and what they do to demonstrate kindness.  Dr. Binfet is the lead author of the School Kindness Scale and his research on kindness has been published in the Canadian Journal of School Psychology, the International Journal of Emotional Education, and the Journal of Research in Higher Education. Dr. Binfet’s new book titled “Cultivating Kindness: An Educator’s Guide” (University of Toronto Press) showcases findings from surveys and interviews asking over 3,000 students about kindness and offers practical applications for parents and educators seeking to promote kindness in children. In addition to his work on kindness, Dr. Binfet is the founder and director of UBC’s dog therapy program “B.A.R.K.” His recent book on Canine-Assisted Interventions (Routledge Press) expands and challenges our understanding of which dogs make strong therapy dogs and how we might work alongside dogs to promote well-being. In the B.A.R.K. lab at UBC, Dr. Binfet investigates the effects therapy dogs have on undergraduate students’ stress and homesickness. More information on B.A.R.K. may be found at www.bark.ok.ubc.ca. Dr. Binfet’s blog for Psychology Today titled “Canines, Kids, and Kindness” celebrates research at the intersection of therapy dogs, social and emotional learning, and kindness.