Empathy

Self-Assessment Survey: Empathy

When taking the Self-Assessment Survey: Empathy I scored, “You should probably focus more on empathy in your classroom instruction.” This accurately reflects my struggles to be both expect the very best effort from each of my students while at the same time understanding how my students may struggle to achieve their best. I have found that trying to "step into their shoes", recognize their feelings, and using that understanding to guide my actions and inform my teaching helps me to be more empathetic.

Ideas and Strategies to Develop Empathy

Our students struggle to be empathetic. Empathy is when you step into another persons shoes, understand their feelings, and use that understanding to guide the actions that you take. There are many factors that limit their empathy ranging from technology and social media that guide students to interact only with like minded peers and their frequent household moves with fewer deep friendships, insights into their friends, and the resulting empathy that develop over time. So, it is very important that we continue to strive to improve our own empathy and the empathy of our students.

• Listen and Understand
  Begin by engaging students in activities where they listen to one another and gain an understanding of each other's point of view. Discussion on literature, history, and current events are great starting points to listen to one another and understand each other's point of view. Activities that provide a safe space for students to tell their story help students explore their own backgrounds and biases help students better understand why they are the way they are and when giving their presentations others gain insight into them.
  

• Internalize
  When students Internalize their understanding of empathy by placing themselves into another person's shoes they really begin to understand what it means to be empathetic. Having students engage in a debate where they are asked to take another person's perspective or to read a book that presents a diverse economic, racial, ethnic perspectives can help them internalize empathy.
  

• Project
  When students project how they would react in a similar situation they are working to understand another’s perspective (empathy). Learning about biases and perspectives by looking at the way journalists tell the story can help students and discussing these perspectives can help students project empathy.

• Planning and intervening
  Planning and intervening are important steps to teach students how to be both empathetic and to effectively plan to take action to make a positive change. Service learning and getting involved in a charitable cause can help students recognize a problem by being empathetic and empowering them to work to make a change.

Recommended Resources: Empathy

• "Nine Competencies for Teaching Empathy"

• "4 Proven Strategies for Teaching Empathy"

• "A Quick-Guide To Teaching Empathy In The Classroom"