Of all the aspects of self-regulation that capture the attention of educators, the development of empathy understandably draws a good deal of focus. In order to help our learners understand why it's important to behave well, and to respect the views and learning of others, teachers often reach for empathy as a way to explain the thinking. How do you imagine it made them feel when you did that? is a question we ask when we're trying to get young people to consider the real life effects of their behaviours on other people. When I ask teachers about which self-regulation skills they feel that children and young people are currently missing, empathy always comes close to the top of the list (along with resilience). Clearly it is something that deserves and requires our focus in the classroom, but empathy can be a rather nebulous idea to grasp hold of and to figure out how to develop.
There is a very complex relationship between how the mind and body interact when we experience what we refer to as 'feelings' or 'emotions'. Feelings are essentially an embodied response to an external stimulus, which we learn to read through a process called interoception. Interoception is sometimes described as our 'eighth' sense: it is the way in which we become aware of and interrogate the information sent to our brains by our bodies. The vagus nerve, or tenth cranial nerve, helps us translate our body's reactions to the external stimuli we experience in the form of 'feelings'. We might experience our stomach clenching and our heart beating faster in response to something scary, and describe this as 'feeling nervous'. The same physiological processes also allow us to understand whether we are hot, cold, tired, hungry, in pain, and so on. Essentially, we learn to interrogate our bodies by looking 'inside ourselves' to see what is going on physically. Babies and young children start to learn how to self-regulate through their interactions with their environment, and with the people who care for them, gradually building up a picture of how their world works in their brains. At the very earliest stage, babies are very obviously egocentric, placing themselves at the centre of their world. They do not yet have the skills or the language to imaginatively reposition themselves in the place of someone else. Through their interactions with caregivers, and through the synchrony or matching of behaviours and expressions that their parents or carers demonstrate, babies begin to learn that their behaviours elicit a response in others. Through the process of interoception, they come to understand what different emotions feel like in their bodies: how it feels to be happy and laugh, what love looks and feels like, how sometimes they might feel frustrated or upset. Empathy requires an additional step beyond this initial recognition of our own feelings, because it asks us to reposition ourselves in the minds of somebody else and think about how they might experience the world. A very interesting experiment into a concept called Theory of Mind shows how this process works. The researchers (Frith and Frith, 2005) describe how Maxi eats half a chocolate bar, puts it back unfinished in the cupboard and then goes out to play. His mum finds the half eaten chocolate bar and puts it into the fridge. Then they ask: where will Maxi look for the chocolate when he comes in from playing? If you understand that he will look in the cupboard, because he has the 'false belief' that this is where it still is, then you have what is referred to as 'Theory of Mind'. You understand that other people might have different views of or beliefs about the world to you, that these beliefs will affect their behaviours, and that sometimes they will hold mistaken or wrong beliefs. Researchers have identified that Theory of Mind develops between around 3 to 5 years of age, although we see some signs of empathetic responses in babies, where they will cry when they hear another baby cry. There is some evidence that this process of developing Theory of Mind might happen later in children who are autistic. One of the ways in which we learn to 'read' other people's inner thoughts and feelings is through the gradually developing skill of interpreting verbal and non-verbal aspects of behaviour, such as facial expressions and vocal tone. When it comes to understanding language, we need to learn to 'read' the intent behind people's words, to know when they might be being sarcastic or ironic. Difficulties around reading body language, and around spotting the subtle cues that tell us when someone is not being literal, may also contribute to difficulties in the development of empathy for children and young people who have autism. For this reason, it is important for teachers to be as explicit and literal as possible, particularly when supporting learners who have special needs. We should aim to avoid using the kinds of idiomatic expressions that pepper our language (like that one!) because not only can they be difficult for learners with SEND to 'get', but they are also tricky for young people who have English as an additional language. When you think about it, being able to empathise requires a pretty amazing imaginative leap - we must mentally reposition ourselves inside someone else's mind. Clearly, this is a process that develops over a long period of time and, to be blunt, we can see that it is very poorly developed in some adults. Those people who have grown up in an environment where emotions are constantly dismissed, or where care giving is patchy or poor, can carry this lack of empathy with them into adulthood. When we talk about how some adults lack 'emotional intelligence', we are essentially saying that they lack the motivation, awareness and skills to interpret the emotions of others, and to understand and manage their emotions for themselves. A key way in which educators can support the development of empathy is through the use of stories, and of drama-based approaches, because these both require us to 'step into' someone else's shoes. When reading stories, and talking about how did it feel? for a character or what do you think they might do next? we are essentially encouraging our learners to achieve that imaginative repositioning into someone else's mind. Drama activities such as the 'conscience alley' ask children to imagine what someone else might be thinking, and to articulate it. Approaches that require children and young people to 'care for' something or someone else can be very powerful for the development of empathy as well. This might take the form of activities where two age groups work together - for instance, Year 10 students supporting Year 7 students as mentors. It might involve caring for a school dog, or taking part in charity and community activities that help our learners understand why it is important to think of others. You can find out more about practical approaches to developing empathy in my latest book, The Ultimate Guide to Self-Regulation in the Classroom. References: Frith and Frith (2005) - Theory of Mind
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AuthorSue Cowley is a teacher, trainer and the author of more than 30 books for teachers ArchivesCategories |