Particularly since the pandemic began, education leaders and classroom teachers have had to rethink a lot of their instructional strategies. And, one of the biggest focus areas has been around SEL and ensuring all students feel comfortable expressing their thoughts among their peers—something that's helped bring conversations about empathy into the classroom. To that end, educators have also focused much more on teaching about empathy in their lessons. Empathy, while important, isn't always something that students and teachers would naturally highlight. With how education has changed in the last two years, however, it's become increasingly important for everyone to actively consider the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of others. But, that, of course, brings with it one more thing for teachers to learn about.
Strategies for Teaching Empathy
These days, educators can weave additional concepts and nuggets into almost all their lessons. Whether it's STEM or social-emotional learning (two of the most common), they've become very creative when showing these connections. Since it stems off of social-emotional learning, empathy is often one of those concepts they can subtly (or not subtly) highlight while teaching. Understanding the roots of empathy and empathy itself can really help students find and appreciate new points of view. They may also gain new levels of appreciation, consideration, and understanding for classmates, strangers, and everyone else. And, when it comes to teaching it to children, certain approaches may be more effective than others.
Starting with modeling and observing.
Depending on student ages, modeling is one strategy educators could use to teach empathy. As its name implies, this involves educators actively stressing the importance of being empathetic in all situations and modeling ideal behavior for students to see. Since we consider empathy to be somewhat abstract, it often helps when students can see it in action. Also, simply observing how students are behaving often presents a good opportunity for educators to teach empathy. Students often wear their hearts on their sleeves and may appear upset from time to time without directly communicating their emotions. When teachers notice this, it's often helpful for them to let students know and ask them what's going on.
Leading by example.
Additional strategies teachers can use to ensure students learn about being empathetic include investing in them and listening with intent. In terms of investing in students, designing projects or assignments around their passions can help them learn to enjoy helping others. It also helps them consider the emotions and needs that others have, including complete strangers. Then, we have listening, which, of course, is a huge part of teaching. Oftentimes, however, students might just need someone to listen to them and not offer an opinion. When teachers listen to kids and truly understand why they're behaving in certain ways without offering a response, it can help students learn to do the same in conversations with their peers. Essentially, showing students how to be empathetic is one of the best ways to help them get there themselves.
Teaching Empathy by Focusing on Others
In introducing young students to the concept of empathy, one of the main goals is to have them better understand that everybody's situation is different. Especially after returning to school buildings following remote learning, some kids may have had different experiences throughout the pandemic or may have lost various things along the way. Kids, however, might not immediately realize this and, with these factors remaining relevant, it's a good opportunity to introduce its importance. Empathy commonly involves both understanding the reasons behind someone's feelings towards a particular subject or event and being able to share in those feelings despite not having a personal connection. It can also transform classroom culture and make for better school experiences.
Concepts to help students understand.
Besides teaching empathy through modeling, educators in the early grades can also introduce students to the concept of point of view. ELA specialists may already know how to do this but it's, of course, helpful in all subjects. Looking at a random image or a character from one direction, for example, and then flipping it upside-down creates an entirely different point of view. It's a simple but powerful lesson for children and one that teachers can try to tie to students' lives. On the other hand, various books and many collections of stories include valuable lessons on different perspectives. As such, students may hear stories a certain way all their lives without ever considering the opposite point of view. As plenty of movie and book fans could tell you, however, changing the storyteller could create an entirely different dynamic.
Active listening exudes empathy.
One other way to help students build empathy skills by focusing on others instead of themselves is promoting active listening. This typically involves the listener blocking out external factors and focusing 100 percent on what the speaker is saying. It's important for the student who's listening to completely stop what they're doing and even stop what they're thinking. This allows them to give their full attention to the speaker. In focusing solely on the speaker and using signals, like nods, to indicate interest, the speaker is more likely to feel heard. Then, after the conversation concludes, the listener can replay the main parts and make it a point to remember them. It's a simple strategy and one that can definitely help younger students learn to build empathy for others.
Teaching Students Empathy through STEM Education
Though most would consider empathy to be more of a soft skill, its connection to STEM education is more prominent than you may have guessed. This perceived disconnect can often be chalked up to assuming that STEM learning is highly technical and analytical. While this often is true, most STEM professionals won't succeed as effectively without a strong repertoire of soft skills. Helping students learn to develop empathy for others is a catalyst for designing better solutions. Whether a high-tech or low-tech solution, placing themselves in someone else's shoes is a fantastic strategy for driving innovation. Besides that, different students might draw different (and equally useful) conclusions, create different hypotheses, and unlock different realizations for how solutions might help or harm those using them.
Helping girls see themselves in STEM.
One strategy for weaving opportunities to learn about empathy into STEM initiatives is for teachers to see students as individuals. This means recognizing each student's strengths and weaknesses and adjusting accordingly. In doing this, they can show students what peers in similar or opposite situations need and demonstrate empathy in action. Also, teachers should actively work to dismiss gender stereotypes in STEM. Children start to believe these claims at a young age and this is often why kids shy away from STEM. For girls, in particular, they need to use empathy to show them that they're equals. Educators also must actively dismiss outward notions that STEM is about academic performance. In reality, it's about creativity, collaboration, and utilizing empathetic strategies to better design solutions.
Engaging mindfulness and curiosity.
Promoting the importance of empathy in invention, problem solving, and everyday student interaction can boost mindfulness as well. If students start to employ empathy in solution designing, the idea is that they'll hopefully start to utilize it in all areas of their lives, including interacting with their own peers. Theoretically, this could help prevent students from saying certain things, consider previously unseen points of view, and avoid negative situations. As for sparking student curiosity, active and engaging lessons can help open them up to being more empathetic. This often leads to increased self-esteem and comfortability for many kids. And, then, they're better equipped to draw on that curiosity and explore using STEM to help people.
Teaching Empathy to Students with SEL
These days, social-emotional learning is an extremely popular and important topic in the education world. Its implications range from affecting the mental health of kids to affecting how they perform academically. In order for students—especially young ones—to find the all-important social-emotional center, they need to be both self-aware and aware of all those around them. Since awareness and building relationships are each key elements of SEL, it's easy to see how empathy fits into the equation. As such, social-emotional competence involves students being able to understand, manage, and express their own emotions while also recognizing those of others. Without employing empathy, however, recognizing others' emotions will only get them so far.
Empathy and others.
Recognizing emotions in others is a big part of social-emotional learning and a pre-requisite for showing empathy. Being able to recognize others' emotions, however, often begins with students being better able to recognize their own. Many times, students simply react to their emotions, which is natural. Sometimes, however, this can create a disturbance in the classroom or something worse, like a physical altercation. If they're regularly exposed to lessons on empathy and keeping their emotions in check, however, they may react differently. And, if they can determine the proper way to react to their own feelings, students may start being able to offer advice to classmates when they see them experiencing something negative.
Understanding the impact of emotions.
It probably makes sense to a lot of adults but children don't always understand the ripple effect of their emotions. If they look upset or disengaged in the classroom, however, this could easily spread to other students and affect the overall mood. A student may think his or her emotions affect only themselves but, in reality, they extend beyond that. In cases like this, empathy can potentially help them avoid letting their emotions get the best of them. If they put themselves in their classmates' shoes, they might not publicly display that attitude for everyone to absorb. More importantly, if they tried putting themselves in their teacher's shoes, they might not want to cause a disruption or bring down the mood. And, empathy for others is what helps these particular students avoid spreading negative emotions.
Understanding Empathy to Strengthen School Communities
Most adults, if asked, will likely convey that they have an idea of what it means to be empathetic. Children, on the other hand, may take a while to grasp exactly what this means. Or, like we've said, they may truly benefit from seeing empathy in action as opposed to hearing about it. In order to truly promote empathy among students in your school community, everyone needs to fully understand what empathy means—including teachers and administrators. It may involve observing, responding, or actively seeking insight into another person's thoughts or emotions. It also, however, should involve purposeful thinking and reflecting. Beyond noticing someone's feelings, students also must truly care and value them to truly be empathetic.
Some of the barriers to empathy.
In cases of students struggling to develop empathy, it may also help to understand what could be causing this. A lot of the time, children can lack empathy for others when they feel different or distanced from them. Having had a fight or disagreement with that person in the past can also make it tougher for a student to have empathy towards that particular individual—whether that's a classmate or an educator. Plus, as is the case with many SEL-related outcomes, feelings of stress, a lack of control, or being overwhelmed can cause students to act out. To combat this, it's important for educators to recognize signs of this behavior. Then, they'll have a better idea of how to diffuse the situation and show students why empathy matters.
A culture of empathy starts with one person.
When students grasp why empathy matters—in school and in the real world—that's a strong start. Educators can help convey this by routinely modeling empathy and setting clear expectations for how students should behave. Eventually, this may even flow out of the classroom and permeate the overall school culture. Starting on a smaller scale, however, it's important for students to understand how their actions (despite possibly seeming insignificant) could lead to a hurtful outcome for someone else. Kids must respect and value their differences, recognize and reject stereotypes, and listen actively. Then, they can recognize and manage their own feelings and improve social situations. With more empathy in K-12 schools, something that seems so simple can have a power social-emotional effect on so many students.
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