Title: Brief intervention to encourage empathic discipline cuts suspension rates in half among adolescents
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Publication: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Related Article.
Teacher empathy reduces student suspensions, Stanford research shows
BY CLIFTON B. PARKER
"When teachers think empathically, and not punitively, about misbehaving students, they cultivate better relationships and help reduce discipline problems, Stanford research shows. Being suspended from school is typically harmful to students – it denies them opportunities to learn, damages relationships and sets them on a risky path...
“Teachers are caught between two models, a punitive model that says you have to punish kids to get them to behave and an older model that goes to the heart of the profession, which says that teaching is all about building strong relationships with children, especially when they struggle.”"
Abstract:
There is increasing concern about rising discipline citations in K–12 schooling and a lack of means to reduce them. Predominant theories characterize this problem as the result of punitive discipline policies (e.g., zero-tolerance policies), teachers’ lack of interpersonal skills, or students’ lack of self-control or social–emotional skills. By contrast, the present research examined teachers’ mindsets about discipline.
A brief intervention aimed at encouraging an empathic mindset about discipline halved student suspension rates over an academic year. This intervention, an online exercise, can be delivered at near-zero marginal cost to large samples of teachers and students. These findings could mark a paradigm shift in society’s understanding of the origins of and remedies for discipline problems.
Topic Area:(In which field / sector / perspective was this study conducted?)
Education, teachers and students relationship
Definition: (How was empathy defined?)
Benefits: (Were any benefits of empathy mentioned?)
teachers who had an intervention that encouraged an empathic mindset halved suspension rates.
Methods: (What were the methods used to train empathy?)
teachers wrote about empathic mindset
Target Group: (Who participated in this study / training?)
Measurements: (About the assessment: How was the change in empathy measured before/after the intervention/method?)
Result: (What was the result?)
teachers wrote about empathic mindset then were more inclined to be empathic.
“A focus on relationships helps humanize students.
felt better to students as well.
Posted By: Edwin Rutsch
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