Teaching Empathy Research Articles

ВИДЫ ЭМПАТИИ В ПРЕПОДАВАТЕЛЬСКОЙ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ

ВИДЫ ЭМПАТИИ В ПРЕПОДАВАТЕЛЬСКОЙ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ

Teaching self-critical empathy: lessons drawn from The Tortilla Curtain and Half of a Yellow Sun

ABSTRACT Teaching and reading literature are commonly viewed as contributing to the cultivation of empathy. This article presents critical and pedagogical approaches to test this view and suggests a distinction between low-level, simple empathy inspired by the reading and teaching of The Tortilla Curtain and a more complex, self-critical understanding of empathy that acknowledges its reach and limits by reading and teaching Half of a Yellow Sun. This distinction is observed in literary criticism and theory about teaching empathy, in the examination of teaching resources, and in the personal experience of teaching Half of a Yellow Sun. The conclusion is that teachers and students should not be satisfied with simple or passive empathy, but rather can and should strive towards more critical and sceptical investigations of the power of the written word to educate towards empathy.

Fostering Empathy in Clinical Teaching and Learning Environments: A Unified Approach

This paper draws together broad insights into the notion of empathy, with specific lessons learned from current approaches to empathy within both law and medicine. The role of empathy is becoming more central to modern professionalism in both fields as they demonstrate a movement towards partnership-building, with an emphasis on patient-centred decision-making in medicine and more holistic, personalised client care within law. The paper aims to identify fundamental principles to inform the development of a unified approach to the inclusion of empathy within clinical teaching and learning environments. These principles can then be used as a basis to highlight and share best practice and consider common challenges and opportunities, as well as being drawn upon by those working within interdisciplinary clinical partnerships. Identifying and exploring fundamental principles will assist in ensuring that empathy is acknowledged and utilised in a psychologically and emotionally healthy and appropriate manner to benefit the students, clients, patients and other stakeholders involved.

See, Touch, and Feel: Enhancing Young Children's Empathy Learning Through a Tablet Game

ABSTRACTOngoing research is providing new insights into the biological rudiments of empathy and its neurobiological underpinnings. There is also growing awareness that tablet technology, when used educationally and ethically, can aid adolescents and young‐adults' empathic learning. However, there has been little attempt globally to translate this new knowledge into the learning and teaching of empathy in early years education. This small‐scale study aimed at enhancing 3–6‐year‐olds' empathy by designing a tablet game and evaluating its developmental impact by combining teachers' observation with pre‐electroencephalogram (EEG) and post‐EEG. Children in one Australian preschool, were invited to (1) attend to and perceive emotionally salient events in a story, (2) actively share the emotions of the characters identified, and (3) take others' perspectives, reasoning why a given emotion arises within the context. Repeated measures analysis of both EEG and observation data indicate that interacting with the tablet game enhanced participating preschoolers' empathic learning.

Critical imaginaries of empathy in teaching and learning about diversity in teacher education

ABSTRACT ‘Difficult’ or potentially discomforting diversity topics and critical, unsettling pedagogies often induce resistances or charges of ‘irrelevance’ in teacher education contexts. In teaching with these topics and pedagogies, there is often a significant emphasis on fostering and utilising the process of empathy in productive ways to change attitudes and reduce social injustices. Drawing on a selection of illustrative accounts from three qualitative studies in schools in Ireland, interwoven with media commentary and some personal catalytic reflections, this paper explores (a) how an emphasis on empathy is not without its limits and restrictive effects in teacher education and (b) the generative possibilities yielded by situating empathy within a queer pedagogy of emotion. This paper’s close attention to and illustration of the limits of empathy within the context of teaching about gender and sexuality diversity opens a new consideration of empathy within a queer pedagogy of emotion and considers the broader potential of this for teaching about diversity in teacher education. Ultimately, this paper advances an argument for a constant watchfulness about how we are responding to diversity dilemmas in teacher education on the premise that such attention can yield new pedagogical imaginaries and possibilities.

The Role of Empathy in Teaching and Tutoring Students with Learning Disabilities

Though enrollment of learning-disability (LD) students is on the rise in higher education, instructors are often underprepared to effectively support them. The composition pedagogy community needs more discussion of strategies to help LD students in the writing classroom. Scholarship on writing tutoring suggests that one such strategy is to exhibit active and intentional empathy. Tutoring pedagogy has long advocated approaching students with compassion through strategies such as empathic listening and interrogative, coparticipatory dialogue. To best serve all of our students, particularly those with learning disabilities or attention deficit disorders or who are on the autism spectrum, composition instructors should look to tutoring pedagogy’s model of a nonhierarchical, interrogatory, listening-based approach to working with students. These strategies begin with empathy for our students.

Development of an empathy and clarity rating scale to measure the effect of medical improv on end-of-first-year OCSE performance: a pilot study

ABSTRACTPatients want empathetic physicians who listen and understand. How do you teach and measure empathy? Medical educators, including those inspired by Alan Alda, have turned to theater to teach skills in empathetic communication. Improvisation-informedcurriculum (medical improv) draws upon foundational actors training: deep listening, emotional understanding, connections, authenticity. Arating scale to measure the impact of medical improv on empathetic and clear communication does not exist. Objective: To develop aframework and instrument, the Empathy and Clarity Rating Scale (ECRS), for measuring communication elements used by actors and physicians, and pilot ECRS to test effectiveness of medical improv on first-yearstudents’ communication skills. Design: Four medical schools collaborated. USMLE Step 2 Communication and Interpersonal Skills (CIS) domains were used as framework for discussion among three focus groups, each with clinicians, actors, communication experts, and community members with patient experience. Audiotaped discussions were transcribed; open coding procedures located emerging themes. The initial coding scheme was compared with the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) measure. ECRS content was aligned with CARE, CIS and focus group themes. Modified nominal processes were conducted to finalize the scale. We implemented procedures to establish content validity and interrater reliability. Final ECRS was used to study student performance across three levels of experience with medical improv. Results: The final ECRS was comprised of seven five-pointscale items. Narrative comments precede behaviorally anchored ratings: 5=desired, 1=ineffective, 2–4=developing based upon adjustment needed. Rater agreement across all items was 84%. There was asmall correlation between the ECRS and another measure interviewing (r=0.262, p=0.003). Students with advanced medical improv training outperformed those without (F=3.51, p=.042). Conclusion: Acommunication scale enlightened by experiences of actors, clinicians, scholars and patients has been developed. The ECRS has potential to detect the impact of medical improv on development of empathetic and clear communication.

Effects of teaching empathy online: A randomized controlled trial.

Effects of teaching empathy online: A randomized controlled trial.

Empathy and Analogy in Museum Education

ABSTRACTThis article explores concrete pedagogical strategies that leverage the power of empathy and analogical reasoning in facilitated conversations with museum visitors. After defining terms and briefly exploring the importance of empathy in object-based teaching, we introduce analogy and analogical reasoning as tools that museum educators may employ to support empathy in the galleries with visitors. Finally, we offer real, on-the-floor teaching techniques that are grounded in theory and research.

Graphic Stories as Cultivators of Empathy in Medical Clerkship Education

Physician empathy is an integral component of the patient-physician relationship and contributes to positive health outcomes. However, the direction of empathy change in medical trainees remains unclear. The aims of this study were (1) to qualitatively assess factors associated with empathy change in clerkship medical training and (2) to investigate the effect of graphic stories about diabetes self-management on affecting empathy and learning processes in medical trainees. Third and fourth year medical students (clerks) were recruited. Participants viewed two online comics, responded to empathy-exploring surveys, and were interviewed individually. Interviews were coded following an inductive thematic approach, and emergent themes were developed using the constant-comparison method. Sixteen medical students participated. Qualitative analysis revealed five themes: (1) conceptualization and perceived value of empathy, (2) barriers and facilitators of empathy, (3) empathy and burnout, (4) strategies to promote empathy and prevent burnout, and (5) comics in medical education. Empathy was highly valued by clerks; however, a spectrum of empathy change occurs in clerkship. Major barriers included the hidden curriculum, physiological stressors, and burnout. Positive role models and peer support were key strategies to maintaining empathy. Clerks perceived the comics to be an innovative, quick, and effective reminder of the value empathy. Graphic stories can be used as a medical education tool to simulate reflective practice and promote empathy retention during clerkship. Further strategies aimed at reducing burnout, improving student wellness, and fostering teaching of empathy by clinical faculty may enhance the retention of empathy by clerks.

Radical Empathy in Teaching

AbstractRadical empathy positions us to engage and connect with our students while also staying grounded in our role and responsibilities as educators.

Using literature to promote reflection in medical school

Background:In the last half century, literature has been increasingly recognized as beneficial to medical trainees in terms of teaching empathy, cultural competence, listening and interpretation skills, and reflecting on moral issues (Jones, A. H., 2013). Following the success of a McGill medical students reading club, a reading module was tentatively added to the McGill Physician Apprenticeship (PA) Course curriculum in 2016. This was based on the idea that literature could be used a springboard towards discussion and reflection upon issues related to health, illness and medical care. Methodology:PA groups are composed of six medical students, two senior students and a physician mentor, whose regular meetings throughout medical school are structured around suggested modules. As part of the reading module, all PA groups were encouraged to choose a novel, essay, short story or poem by the end of their academic first year. A discussion on the reading was to be held in early second year, with specific questions to be addressed in order to reflect on course objectives (e.g., patient-centered clinical approach, reflective practice, healer role). The students anonymously completed pre and post-module questionnaires to assess the module's learning and reflective value. Students’ opinions on the pertinence of renewing this pilot project in the future were also accumulated. Results:The first student cohort has completed the pre-questionnaires in spring 2017 and will be completing the post-module questionnaires in fall 2017.Therefore, at the moment of the abstract submission, we do not have preliminary results.

Whither the humanities?— Reinterpreting the relevance of an essential and embattled field

Contrary to the narrative of collapse that attends much of the discussion of the humanities today, recent data suggest that for many programs in the United States, at least, stagnation is the real challenge. Committed to teaching models that support faculty rather than student needs, graduate programs, in particular, are struggling to extend their reach beyond an established constituency of students interested in traditional disciplinary specialization and academic research. By emphasizing the teaching of empathy and communication, which underlie the various humanities disciplines, pursuing inter- and transdisciplinary teaching within and beyond the humanities, and securing administrative support for academic innovation, programs can find and serve a larger graduate student audience. Facing unique financial pressures, smaller colleges may prove more open to such innovation and merit greater attention in the discussion of the future of humanities graduate education.

How Do You Effectively Teach Empathy to Students?

AbstractThis chapter explores a multidisciplinary approach to teaching empathy in undergraduate and graduate universities. Specific recommended best practices are provided for using postmodernist methods of active teaching and learning on empathy.

Teaching Empathy in Healthcare: from Mirror Neurons to Education Technology

While modern medicine is moving towards genetically based personalized treatment, we still marvel daily at the healing power of the therapeutic relationships with patients. We are now closer to understanding where in the brain lies our capacity to view the world from the perspective of other people. Empathy is the ability to identify another person’s feelings and experiences and to view the world from their perspective. In healthcare provider–patient interaction, empathy improves interpersonal communication, fosters therapeutic alliance, correlates with patient and provider satisfaction, and improves patient care outcomes. Although the importance of empathy in healthcare is widely accepted, further work is due in clarifying the dimensions of empathy that are amenable to teaching and defining the role of healthcare providers’ and patients’ perception of empathy in treatment outcomes. Herein we will (1) provide a brief overview of neurobiology of empathy, (2) discuss the dimensions and conceptualizations of empathy as they apply to healthcare professions, and (3) discuss the body of literature on empathy teaching interventions, including technology options, with focus on virtual patient technology for medical, nursing, and allied health professions education.

Why teaching empathy is important for the medical degree

Empathy is a basic skill in the exercise of medicine and increases patient and physician satisfaction and improves clinical results.However, the teaching of empathy is poorly covered in the teaching plans. A number of studies have observed a reduction in empathy during the final training courses. The reasons for this decline include, the students’ excessive academic workload, the prioritization of acquiring medical expertise over humanistic knowledge, the patient load in hospitals and health centers and the physicians’ need to distance themselves from their patients. Nevertheless, intervention studies through simulation with standardized patients have shown an increase in empathy in students, which can be evaluated through the Jefferson scales: JSE-S and JSPPPE.The teaching of empathy to medical students is an important commitment in the curricular programs of medical schools.

¿Por qué es importante la enseñanza de la empatía en el Grado de Medicina?

Empathy is a basic skill in the exercise of medicine and increases patient and physician satisfaction and improves clinical results.However, the teaching of empathy is poorly covered in the teaching plans. A number of studies have observed a reduction in empathy during the final training courses. The reasons for this decline include, the students’ excessive academic workload, the prioritisation of acquiring medical expertise over humanistic knowledge, the patient load in hospitals and health centres and the physicians’ need to distance themselves from their patients. Nevertheless, intervention studies through simulation with standardised patients have shown an increase in empathy in students, which can be evaluated through the Jefferson scales: JSE-S and JSPPPE.The teaching of empathy to medical students is an important commitment in the curricular programs of medical schools.

The Importance of Empathy in Teaching: A Case Study in the Albanian School Environment

This paper attempts to assess the empathy as a skill needed in teaching. It also will note the importance of future teachers’ role in society. The application of new methods of teaching is gaining attention nowadays, but a special importance has still to be given to the social, psychological, and emotional relationship between the teacher and the student. The ability to move from one’s psychological perspective, to apprehend, to understand the other is a crucial element needed in teaching, which is considered as the skill of empathy. This case study endeavors to measure the level of empathy of in-service teachers and if they regard it as an important element in teaching. Future teachers will also be taken into consideration in order to evaluate their ability of understanding not only perceptions, thoughts and beliefs of their future students but also their needs, feelings and emotions. Another important form of empathy, also called “compassionate empathy”, takes our attention in this case study. It has to do with the ability to experience feelings that show care and emotional connection with other people’s feelings, concerns, situations, or circumstances. This paper tries to identify the current level of empathy as a skill in some schools in Albania, but it also furnishes future teachers with information regarding empathy as a skill, its importance and tools needed in order to implement this skill for a more accurate teaching process. It also will help future teachers to build a friendlier environment and make their pupils feel at ease and help them become better citizens for our society. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n3s1p551

Seeing Life in their Shoes: Fostering Empathy Toward Victims of Interpersonal Violence through Five Active Learning Activities

As educators of future law enforcement and social service personnel, one of the most important objectives of faculty members within the social sciences disciplines is to foster a sense of empathy toward victims of crime among their students. Empathy toward victims of crime, and domestic abuse in particular, is vastly important as evidence suggests that the reactions survivors encounter upon disclosure influences reporting behavior to law enforcement. Moreover, evidence indicates that by fostering empathy toward domestic abuse survivors among students, social science educators can reduce the endorsement of harmful victim-blaming attitudes that these individuals may otherwise carry with them into their public service. However, despite the importance concerning teaching empathy within the classroom, a dearth of information exists—particularly in the criminal justice pedagogical literature. To address this gap, the objective of this study was to assess several active learning activities designed specifically to foster victim empathy in students. To gather feedback about how these activities affected students, we utilized standard Likert scales as well as several free response questions.

The relationship between subjective well-being and empathy among Turkish medical students

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Background: Empathy as a part of humanistic medicine is an important component of medical education and could be taught throughout the years of medical study. In Turkey the national core medical curriculum is somewhat insufficient in terms of teaching empathy. In this study we wanted to measure empathy and to determine if there is a relationship between subjective well-being and empathy. Material & Methods: We used the Jefferson Scale of Empathy to measure empathy, Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire to measure the subjective well-being. Participants were first, third and sixth year (final-year) medical students. The total number of participants was 600 which represented 71.1% of the students of the corresponding medical school. Results: The mean empathy scores of Turkish students were found to be lower than of their counterparts in the Western countries. Female students had significantly higher scores than male students and there was a decline in empathy with increasing class-years. We found a significant positive relationship between happiness and empathy. Conclusions: Teaching empathy through the development of a new medical curriculum with a more humanistic approach should be a concern of medical schools in Turkey.