A Study on Cultivating Pre-Service Teacher Empathy

Abstract

This study investigated empathy of pre-service teachers specializing in primary-school education. It was conducted to determine the factors that affect the empathy levels of students by normal University. The research questions, developed in the countryside context, aimed to determine the roles of gender, normal university or non-normal university, academic education, parental rearing patterns and personality in the empathy levels of pre-teachers. The study group consisted of students (n=287), including 170 normal university students practicing teaching in a rural area. An independent t-test was used to determine whether the empathy of pre-service teachers varied by gender and others factors. The analyses found that the student’s average empathy was high and their performance on the concern dimension of empathy varied by gender, normal university or non-normal university. The results also showed that the students’ scores on the personal distress dimension of empathy varied by academic education and personality characteristics. There were no significant differences in other dimensions.