Students look to their teachers for social and emotional clues. Teachers are role models of empathy. A teacher who leads by demonstrating that they understand their students’ perspectives models empathetic behavior.
Literature is an excellent way for teachers to help students see situations from different points of view. Many examples of “fractured fairy tales” share well-known stories from alternative perspectives. Using texts such as these can help children understand how different characters may view different events depending on their role or the impact they experienced from the events of the story. Students can, in turn, extrapolate this encounter with empathy to real life when their teachers ask them to consider what a classmate or friend might be thinking during a conflict.
Older students may be able to infer perspective without having to read a story written from a different point of view. To encourage them to think deeply about perspective, English teachers can ask students to rewrite sections of texts from a different character’s point of view.
Active listening is an important component of empathy. Active listening occurs when the listener truly hears what the speaker has to say, what they believe in, what they are experiencing, and what their background is.
Teaching students active listening skills can help them to develop empathy. Some examples of active listening skills include making eye contact when appropriate, focusing one’s attention and acknowledging the speaker. When students really listen to each other, they can better understand or imagine other people’s perspectives.
It can be difficult for students to refrain from immediately sharing their opinions about something. However, deferring judgment can be an important step in learning and practicing empathy. When someone immediately offers an opinion about a situation, that person is losing the opportunity to gather additional details to inform their reaction. It’s important, therefore, for teachers to encourage children to ask themselves, What more do I need to learn? or What information am I missing? before jumping to conclusions.
When you empathize with someone, you do not tell them how they are or should be feeling or what they should do. Instead, you acknowledge that you think you understand what they might be going through and how they might be feeling.
Giving students sentence starters such as “It sounds like…” or “I hear that you…” can help them react and respond with empathy. Students can also learn to respond to situations by reflecting the feelings the person is sharing and the reasons the person is giving.
Compassionate empathy is a form of empathy that emphasizes action. When students see or understand a difficult situation and feel compelled to help, they are showing compassion and empathy.
Service learning projects are excellent ways to build compassionate empathy and teach students to work together toward a common goal. These service projects can help students think about people who are living lives different from their own and show them ways that taking action can help others. Some examples of service projects that teach empathy include collecting food for a local food bank, visiting a local nursing home, fundraising for victims of a natural disaster or organizing a school clean-up event.