+ Learning

"Over the years, however, the research evidence keeps piling up, and it points strongly to the conclusion that a high degree of empathy in a relationship is possibly the most potent and certainly one of the most potent factors in bringing about change and learning. And so I believe it is time for me to forget the caricatures and misrepresentations of the past and take a fresh look at empathy." Carl Rogers, Empathic: An Unappreciated Way of Being

"This is one of the major ways in which change becomes possible and a more complete integration of self and behaviour is inaugurated. "

Carl Rogers, Empathic: An Unappreciated Way of Being

Why Empathy Holds the Key to Transforming 21st Century Learning

By Thom Markham

NOVEMBER 16, 2016

Empathy promotes whole-child learning

"A critical dot, overlooked in our brain-centric world, is that empathy may activate the heart. As I’ve written many times, the heart has a role in learning equal to the brain. In fact, science does not support the mistaken notion that the brain does all the work.

Research on heart rate variability and emotions shows that the heart engages the brain in constant conversation, using the language of emotions to direct the ‘state’ of the brain. To perform its role, the heart contains upwards of 40,000 neurons identical to nerve cells in the brain; eighty percent of nerve traffic then travels upward from heart to brain, making it clear that the heart influences brain function.

While we don’t fully understand the implications of this partnership, two findings have been confirmed: Anxiety and negative feelings alter the coding of the messages sent by the heart to the brain, resulting in stress or fight or flight responses; at the same time, positive emotions such as gratitude and appreciation—close cousins of empathy—show pronounced, positive effects on brain processes."

Empathy Is a A Way of Learning.

Learning the emotional landscape of another person and learning their way of being. How have they organized their inner landscape.

what is an example?

how to deal with grief, joy, conflict.

Similar to a +WAY OF KNOWING