Empathy and Education

Empathy can be thought of as a "superpower" students as young as 3rd grade can learn and develop, writes Roberto Brandao of New Jersey's Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County

Here are some actionable ways educators can teach empathy in the classroom.

 

Teaching empathy through project-based learning
One way that schools can teach students empathy is engaging students in creative, interdisciplinary technology projects focused on building empathy. For example, at SSDS, our 3rd graders recently collaborated with change management and marketing guru Cynthia Phillips — founder and CEO of The Disruptive Factory, a social change consultancy — as testers and ambassadors for a new animated cartoon series and a transmedia campaign called “Verti.” This year-long project introduces students to fictional characters in the animated cartoon and will ultimately culminate in students building prototypes of a space station they think would benefit the characters, promoting empathy.        

 

Creating empathy maps

Research shows the best way for students to begin to understand empathy is by doing — which is why one of the best things educators can do is to promote active learning. 

 

Designing a curriculum that teaches active listening
Another way to promote empathy is through active listening, which is why I created Pocket Empathy, an exercise that teaches 3rd graders the skill of active listening. 

 

Integrating design thinking

Teaching kids about empathy starts with demonstrating what it means to maintain a positive mindset that’s reflected in the way they speak. 

Read About the World
In the classroom, reading has long been a powerful way to help students see situations from different perspectives. Read aloud sessions, such as “Those Shoes,” help students understand topics such as empathy, but teachers don’t always have to only turn to fictional stories for these lessons. News articles and other nonfiction about current events are also a great tool. They help create opportunities for students to understand what is going on in the world and for them to consider how they would feel in situations facing students in other places.

“We discuss nonfiction articles that are about the lives and circumstances of people from around the world,” says middle school Language Arts teacher Kayla Hanson. “Then we talk about how it would feel to go through what those in the article went through. We talk about things that could make their situation easier and how we would treat those people.”

Beyond being a well-constructed film following the life and times of a fascinating man, the main theme of Won’t You Be My Neighbor? was a message sorely needed in today’s world: what made Mr. Rogers successful and great was his relentless, unwavering commitment to empathy. 

...

 Its central idea is that behavioral interventions work best when prefaced by empathy, and much like with Mr. Rogers, Faber and King practice what they preach. Their approach to the book was so deeply empathetic that as I read I couldn’t help but feel them to be kindred spirits, which in turn opened me up to truly listen to their philosophy.

 

Matt

One school’s EmpathyLab project on refugees has shifted pupil attitudes about the world and their place in it'

 

That work was part of a pilot project my school, Moorlands primary academy in Norfolk, was trialling for EmpathyLab. As a teacher, I’ve long been aware of the importance of using stories to help develop children’s understanding of other people.

 

But I hadn’t thought about how to embed it more systematically into the classroom until I was at an English conference in 2015. There, I was introduced to Miranda McKearney, founder of the Reading Agency. She shared research by the Cambridge University professor Maria Nikolajeva which found that “reading fiction provides an excellent training for young people in developing and practising empathy and theory of mind, that is, understanding of how other people feel and think”.

Opinion: research shows that the development of empathy is essential to healthy social and emotional functioning

By Pat Dolan and Cillian Murphy, UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre

This year, we mark 50th anniversary of the horrific assassinations of Dr Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. In the six months prior to his death, Kennedy had said that he discovered what it meant to empathise and this came directly from his witnessing the poverty of, and prejudice towards, African Americans in the deep south of America. He said he had "walked in their shoes" and it had a very deep effect on him personally, leading him to become a stronger campaigner for civil rights. 

Regardless of any view of him or the Kennedy family dynasty, what is key is the fact that by seeing and understanding the experiences of those who were oppressed he "self discovered" empathy. Interestingly, many years later, former US President Barack Obama has also referred to "empathy deficit" as a major problem in the US. 

“The education system forces people to unlearn the empathy they were born with. It’s a system based on always seeming strong, contributing to the economy, and being number one. Being number one is the rule of game, and how we relate to others is fundamentally dismissed.” –Bernard Amadei, Ashoka Fellow and founder of Engineers Without Borders USA

More than two decades ago, scientists made a discovery that fundamentally altered the way we think about empathy. While observing monkeys, they noticed that certain brain cells responded both when a monkey performed an action and when that monkey watched another monkey perform the same action. The same cells can be found in the human brain. These cells, called mirror neurons, fire when we see something happening to someone else that we could imagine happening to ourselves, from stubbing a toe to winning the lottery.

Empathy is one of the most important skills for kids to learn. It will help them to become kinder, stronger individuals. As a teacher, you have a great opportunity to help students become empathetic. In your classroom, you can give students the opportunity to practice empathy. Try making it fun with engaging activities. And don’t forget to practice empathy yourself. You’re an excellent role model for your students!

 

 

1. Creating Opportunities to Practice Empathy

1. Encourage students to get to know one another. 
2. Start a Random Acts of Kindness Project. 
3. Help students find volunteer opportunities.

2. Planning Interactive Activities

1. Take a “temperature check” at the beginning of class.
2. Use the “write around” if you’d like students to work on writing skills.
3. Use an appreciation box as an ongoing activity.
4. Choose books that inspire empathy.
5. Hold a class discussion about the book you all read. 

 

3. Demonstrating Empathy with Your Actions

1. Be a good role model. 
2. Listen actively.
3. Help students understand point of view. 

 

 

 

Rasmussen is one of the students organizing a peaceful demonstration that day — one focused on empathy rather than politics.

 

“We might not be able to change what happens hundreds of miles away from us,” said Principal Julie Yamamoto. “…but we, every day, get to decide what kind of person we’re going to be and are we going to be kind.”

 

Both students and staff will be allowed to participate in the 17-minute observance — one minute for each of those who lost their lives in the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Valentines Day. 

Hillsdale Elementary School in the West Ada School District has six “brand new” teachers this year. They’re infants, and they’re helping teach an important lesson about empathy. 

Nine-month-old Boomer Schaat is one of the babies participating in school counselor Kerry Elder’s social project, which explores the idea that understanding the emotions of a baby can lead to the development of empathy.

“Babies don’t hide their feelings, so they’re able to watch that and relate it to themselves, which teaches them empathy,” Elder said. 

The benefits of empathy in education include building positive classroom culture, strengthening community, and preparing students to be leaders in their own communities.

3 Benefits of Empathy in Education

1. Empathy builds positive classroom culture.
With the diversity of students entering classrooms each day, paralleled by an increase in globalization, it's more necessary than ever for teachers to actively construct a positive classroom culture. ...

2. Empathy strengthens community.
Given that the definition of empathy involves understanding another's feelings without having experience, empathy sets students up to deepen relationships with their current classmates and people that they know outside of school...

3. Empathy prepares your students to be leaders in their community.
Leaders must understand the people that they lead and be able to show that they care. Leadership articles emphasize human development as an essential leadership quality...

Becoming a more empathetic teacher comes from a desire to educate children with genuine connection and understanding. Here are 6 ways you can do just that.

 

6 Ways of Becoming a More Empathetic Teacher

How can you foster this mindset in the classroom and succeed in becoming a more empathetic teacher? Below are just a few examples of ways you can introduce empathy into your classes.

 

1. Model it. Your students are watching you, even when you think they are not. Portray an attitude of empathy in the classroom by showing compassion, positive regard, and understanding for all with whom you interact. Continue this behaviour in the halls, the cafeteria, and even with how you interact with other teachers.
2. Try to communicate empathy. An empathetic teacher uses teachable moments in class to explain how one student or even a character in a story might be feeling during a certain situation. This will get your students thinking about things from the perspectives of others.
3. Emphasize shared values and common interests. ..
4. Offer a safe environment to discuss differences. ...
   
   
5. Use self-disclosure. ...
   
   
6. Create opportunities for collaboration

Given all of the benefits of cultivating children’s empathy, following Denmark’s example both at home and in schools could have a profound effect on children’s happiness and success.

 

During the “Klassens Time”, the students are encouraged to discuss challenges they are experiencing both in and outside of school. If no student has a problem to discuss, they simply come together as a group to relax and “hygge” or cozy together. If teachers observe any issues emerging among students, they also use the gathering as an opportunity to explore any problems together.

 

 

Overview

1. Reimagining Education
2. Teachers Talk ~ Changemaker Education
3. Why Empathy? A Case for Promoting Empathy in Schools
4. Changemaker Classrooms
5. Changemaker Educators
6. Changemaker Students

Empathy

In a world of fast change and increasingly complex problems, empathy is emerging alongside reading and math as the new literacy. Check out our ‘Case for Promoting Empathy in Schools’.

• Free Online Empathy Course: a roadmap to changemaker classrooms. Practical tips and ideas from 60 leading elementary schools, 21 social entrepreneurs, and leading experts from across the Ashoka network on how to instill empathy in children, in classrooms, in action plans and resources to help prepare them for the world ahead.
• Start Empathy Elementary School Toolkit: for teachers and parents.
• Rules of Kindness: Start Empathy & GenerationOn Toolkit.
• 5 Points for Your Empathy Arsenal: Start Empathy.

Empathy is the underrated ability to understand and share the feelings of another. It's a fundamental ability, for any person in any time in any context, but

Teach active listening

Active listening is a very effective teaching method: it consists in helping pupils to free their own mind, allowing them to focus on the words and concepts expressed by others.

 

Furthermore, young students have to focus on their interlocutor’s body language, in order to catch also non-verbal signals and to get better empathically in touch with him.

 

These are the steps that educators have to teach students to follow to learn active listening:

• – Stop doing what you are doing and interrupt your internal thoughts
• – Focus on your interlocutor, staring at his eyes
• – Think that by listening to others you can learn something useful for you
• – Reflect on what your interlocutor said, analyzing it internally

At UW-La Crosse’s Fall for Education Conference Nov. 3-4, Borba will share how to teach students the nine essential habits of empathy — lessons from her latest book, “UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World.”

Borba, an expert in childhood development, has been featured on “Today,” “Dateline,” “The View,” “Dr. Phil,” “Dr. Oz” and “The Early Show.”

UW-L’s Fall for Education conference is a professional development opportunity for area pre-kindergarten-grade 12 teachers and administrators, as well as UW-L’s Master of Education-Professional Development graduate program students.

If you attend the live session, you’ll be emailed a CE certificate within 24 hours of the webinar. If you view the recording and would like a CE certificate, join the Social-Emotional Learning, Positive Behavior, and Student Achievement community and go to the Webinar Archives folder to take the CE quiz.

Bullying, alienation, and self-doubt should not—and need not—plague any students in our classrooms. In this edWebinar, a sought-after educational consultant offers proven, practical teaching practices that mobilize student empathy. Join us as Dr. Michele Borba shares proactive, no-cost strategies you can use the very next day in your classroom and can weave into existing lesson plans. You’ll learn:

How to create an emotionally safe learning culture to reduce peer cruelty and enhance respect and social responsibility
Simple cooperative strategies that boost student connection, increase learning engagement, and promote inclusion
Techniques to expand student perspective taking, cultivate empathy, and build social-emotional learning (SEL)

 

Next week, sophomores at Lakota West will be asked to leave their classrooms and put down the books for an entire day.

 

Monday's lesson will be on empathy.

 

"It's really neat to see those students from different backgrounds and different experiences bond, learn about each other," school counselor Michael Anderson said. "We want to get the students to communicate with each other."

At a time of deepening divisions in the United States, a new campaign to spread kindness, empathy, and equity sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Education launched today in middle and high schools around the country.

More than 130 schools in 28 states and 14 countries have signed on to participate in the Caring Schools #CommonGood campaign by taking concrete steps to deepen students’ care for others, increase equity in the college admissions process, and decrease “excessive achievement pressure” in places where it is high. Harvard is providing a list of detailed suggestions for schools, such as

 

giving students time to talk “across the aisle” with people who have opposing viewpoints and supporting “sustained community service.”

By LAURA FAY 
March 6, 2018

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COMPASSION AND FRIENDSHIP
Demonstrating compassion for your students is not the same as wanting your students to like you. Many new teachers fall into the trap of desiring their students’ approval, especially when teaching older students who are close to the teacher in age, but that can lead to a lack of mutual respect.

To show compassion to students is to take the time and effort to understand their perspective, while continuing to make choices that are best for their learning experience. Showing compassion does not mean you’re a student’s friend—it means you care about their progress and are invested in their future.

By itself, compassion is an important life skill. As a part of classroom management, compassion can enhance the effectiveness of any strategies you would normally put in place.

Compassion gives students an opportunity to trust your choices and have faith in the requests you make of them. Classroom management procedures and explicit instruction are important, but students who know you’re invested in them are more inclined to respect you and follow your lead.

Thomas Friedman’s concept of ‘STEMpathy’
Friedman’s most significant point in the talk can inform teaching, lesson design, and assessment. The future, Friedman said, isn’t about what we know. “Nobody cares what you know, because the Google machine knows everything,” he said. Rather, he argued, the future is about what we can do with what we know.

The thing that makes us uniquely different from computers, Friedman pointed out, is our humanity and empathy. If we can unite that with STEM education, students will be armed with “STEMpathy” that cannot be found in an algorithm. “The faster the world gets, the more everything old and slow matters, the things you can’t download,” he said.