Empathy in Educational setting

 “Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another and feeling with the heart of another.” - Alfred Adler 

Have you ever had one of those days when you just needed someone to talk to, someone to really get how you were feeling? Have you ever felt totally misunderstood by your friends or teacher or family? Well, if you have, you were more than likely needing a dose of empathy. Feeling heard and understood is a human need. Everyone needs to feel understood.  So then, what is this empathy? & why is it so important to us? Can empathy be taught?Does it has any role to play in education? To get answers to these questions, lets delve deeper into understanding empathy.

Empathy- as a way of life

Empathy is the ability to emotionally understand & share the feelings of another person. It is a choice, which each one of us could develop right from our early childhood days. It plays an important role in society, as it fosters positive feelings, heals psychological problems if any, helps in resolving conflicts, helps expanding our perspectives towards looking at others. It helps to humanize the environment around us. True empathy involves, using “our feelings” to understand “feelings of someone else”, hence promoting positive social behavior. 

Empathy allows building strong social connections with others, which is essential for both physical & psychological wellbeing. Empathizing helps us to regulate our own emotions. Such emotional regulation is important, as it allows us to manage our feelings in both the times of stress or happy situations. Empathy brings in more openness, calmness, deeper intimacy, caring attitude, joy & happiness, acceptance, feeling of being loved & seen along with greater sense of self-awareness, authenticity & belongingness within. Empathy makes the world “better” 

Empathy however can be practiced in our day to day life, by small acts such as by talking in gentle tone to others, paying attention to people when they speak, try to understand their feelings behind the words, understanding non-verbal communications, paying attention to body language, doing kind gestures etc. The daily conversations could include the following phrases; “I understand how you feel”, “You’re making sense”, “I support you”, “I think you’re right”, “I admire you for…” Such phrases encourage the feeling of connection, care & inclusion. 

Empathy in Educational setting

In todays, interconnected world, empathy gives students an edge they need to lead meaningful & productive lives. It is one of the essential ingredients for leadership success & essential performance. Empathy is the foundation of a safe, caring & inclusive learning climate at the institutes. Students with apt level of empathy, display more classroom engagement, higher academic progress & better communication skills. 

Educating empathy is not like a toolkit to apply at once, but an ongoing process which needs to be embedded by the educators who are empathetic themselves. The success of imbibing empathy could be seen through student’s response. Look for smiles, joy, engagement & even tears, as lessons in empathy can be life altering experience. 

Before the students learn to empathize, they must be able to read emotions of others. It is observed that, the students who can recognize the feelings are better adjusted emotionally & are popular, outgoing & sensitive. Due to digitalization of the world today, it is reducing students’ abilities to recognize human emotions & threatening their empathetic capacities. Empathy thrives in environments prioritizing face-to-face interactions, so the key step is to help educators/teachers to create classrooms that nurture meaningful interactions & engagements with students. It all starts with arrangement of indoor furniture at the institute to communicate as a whole large group, creating opportunities to share ideas & discuss lessons. The educators can play a central role in helping students develop strong ethical responses by being there inspirational model & practicing empathy. 

It is utmost important to expand the students horizon by engaging them with perspective taking. Stepping into another’s shoes helps students understand others better. Asking students: "How would you feel if that happened to you?" can do wonders to stretch perspectives. As educators, we intuitively know that books can transport us to another world, hence reading the literature with characters exhibiting empathy, emotionally charged movies or documentaries could also help in prompting empathetic feelings through moral imaginations. It is observed that managing emotions is a better predictor of academic progress than IQ. Hence it is utmost important to make students observe their emotions/ feelings before the stress triggers them & after effects due to it. There could be some infrastructural arrangements such as calm-down corners, mood rooms, stress boxes (having sensory objects like stress balls or fidget spinners etc.) & personal counselors at the institutes. 

Practicing kindness nudges students to notice others ("I see how you feel"), care ("I'm concerned about you"), empathize ("I feel with you"), and help and comfort them ("Let me ease your pain"). Practicing kindness can also change student’s self-image and behavior. Simple kindness routines such as a good laugh together with students, morning greetings with smile, sharing couple of jokes in between lectures could help enliven the atmosphere with kindness. Empathy is never a solitary act, it’s only when we let go of our self-centeredness and feel with others that our hearts open. The practices such as working in teams/collaborations broaden students' social spheres, preparing them for a diverse work culture. Teamwork projects can strengthen students' abilities to encourage others, resolve conflicts, and disagree respectfully which are important aspects of empathy. Encouraging students to help others can activate empathy and help them see themselves as change makers: individuals who make positive changes and inspire others to follow. Here the educator can help the students to understand the importance of Giving than receiving. Community service projects, helping NGO’s, interacting with senior citizens & differently abled people around, can provide valuable learning experience. 

Above all the benefit’s described empathy makes our student’s to be better people. It is what will help them live one essential truth: We are all humans who share the same fears and concerns, and we deserve to be treated with dignity. Hence the educators like us have important work to do on the following aspects; 

1) Educating empathy as a continual process & not a onetime lesson.

2) Weaving empathy in daily content & interactions at the institute. Dialogues & one to one conversations with students could work well.

3) Appreciate the work produced by the students. Be non-judgmental/biased with students & their work.

4) Encourage students & constantly engage them to help foster kindness & empathy.

5) Create opportunities to practice taking another’s perspective and imagining what others are thinking by stretching from ‘me’ to ‘us’.

6) It is important to communicate & counsel to special cases. Address the needs of students empathetically. 

7) As educators, involve yourself with students work, try to build co-learning experiences whenever possible.

8) Channelize students to think for larger goals incorporating community involvements. Make them think big, as one family.

9) Find opportunities to incorporate Student’s feedback and respond to their needs; try to see the situation from their perspective before responding. Students' needs, not curriculum, drive the lessons and experiences.

10) Smile often – it’s a beautiful world with wonderful people. Be grateful & share gratefulness for available educational resources & infrastructure.

11) Foster emotional and social skills, like dealing with anger and frustration and solving conflicts. Cultivate/nurture the diversity of behaviors by others.

12) Practice empathy - Be clear that you expect students to care about one another and the entire Institute as community. Don’t just put it in the mission statement or on a poster – talk about it, model it, praise it, and hold students to it.

13) Listen first & then respond. Practice patience with the students.

14) Reflect upon - Collect data from students and staff at least once a year about whether they feel safe, respected, and cared about at Institute. Take time to examine the data and make efforts to address problem areas identified by students and staff.

15) Be a Role model by practicing empathy yourself, through your deeds. Inspire them.

Lets then, begin looking at our educational setting through the lens of "Empathy" & make it a better place for both educators & the learners. As Bill Bullard has rightly quoted, 

 “The highest form of knowledge is empathy.” 

Your's Empathetically,

Ar.Sujit Vasant Jadhav 

(Asst.Professor, TSAP)