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Empathy in the classroom by Jane Joritz-Nakagawa (Tsukuba University) |
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Abstract Keywords: empathy, perspective taking |
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Empathy in the classroom by Jane Joritz-Nakagawa (Tsukuba University) |
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Abstract Keywords: empathy, perspective taking |
Background and summary of conference presentation
At the short bilingual talk on "empathy" which I facilitated, participants
discussed what it means to be empathetic, and how they might, as teachers or
in other roles such as parents, classmates, or co-workers, foster empathy
in their environments.
We distinguished between "sympathy" and "empathy." In sympathy, you share
the feelings of, or "feel along with" the other. An example might be
Americans and others feeling horror after September 11, 2001. Yet as noted
by writers such as Ciaramicoli and Ketcham (2000) and Goleman (1995),
empathy does not require sharing the other's feelings exactly but an
ability to understand or be able to take the perspective of the other. That
is to say, whether or not your feelings or perspective matches the other
person's, to some extent you have an ability to enter the other's world.
Empathy requires some emotional distance, and calls on "thinking" as well as
"feeling" skills. To attempt to construct something close to another
person's perspective requires effort, observation, listening, and imagination.
To try to illustrate empathy, we looked at a poem written by an elderly
burakumin (1) Japanese female who describes her joy at finally
learning, in her sunset years, how to read and write Japanese. The poem
begins:
Because my family was poor, I didn't go to school.
So I didn't learn to write kana (2)
I'm excited to find the characters
I've learned.
Because I've learned numbers,
I enjoy going to supermarkets
and the Thursday market,
and I don't have to humiliate myself
because I now can figure out
my room number in a hotel.
...
I wish I had ten more years to live (Kitadai, 1995, pp. 15-16)
Although none of the participants had failed to learn native literacy
skills as children, participants felt they could empathize with the speaker
in the poem in some way at some level, for example, by remembering a time
we felt humiliation as a result of not being able to do something, or
feeling inadequate or "handicapped" for some reason in a particular
situation. Although none of us were elderly, all of us have known elderly
people and could attempt to construct what it might feel like to be near the
end of one's life.
Participants agreed all persons naturally possess the ability to be
empathetic, but perhaps to different degrees, and that life experiences
might weaken this capacity. Childhood neglect and abuse, for example, is
found in the backgrounds of many serial killers who are believed to lack
empathetic feeling (Ciaramicoli and Ketcham, 2000).
Participants further agreed that skills required for empathy can be taught
(for example, listening skills; observing non-verbal behavior;
perspective-taking, etc.). Participants agreed that empathy was an
important quality for an educator. It was also noted that to foster empathy
between students (not just from teacher to students) was important.[ p. 19 ]
Applications
I will briefly describe a few techniques for creating a foundation for an
empathy-infused classroom.
1. Pedagogical approach
My pedagogical approach combines elements of cooperative learning (as in
Johnson, Johnson and Holubec, 1998; and Kagan, 1994), humanistic teaching
(Moscowitz, 1978; Hadfield, 1992), student-centered approaches (Campbell
and Kryszewska, 1992), stimulus based teaching (Woodward, 2002), and
transformative learning (Cranton, 1994).
I am a non-Japanese teacher of English teaching Japanese university students
in Japan. A teacher like myself who comes from a different background than
her students needs to understand the students' native culture(s), as well as
to be flexible, and to be a good listener and observer. A knowledge of
personality types and learning styles (see for example Fairhurst and
Fairhurst, 1995) is also useful for the empathetic teacher, as is Gardner's
(Gardner, 1993) theory of multiple
intelligences, to understand how students differ individually, have
different needs, different strengths and talents, and different ways of
working. When the teacher is able to "read" students appropriately, she
can respond with more sensitivity and efficacy.
A knowledge of relevant pedagogical techniques can equip the teacher with
tools needed for setting the stage for good interpersonal relationships and
mutual understanding in the class. For further study, I especially recommend
books on cooperative learning, a type of structured student peer group work,
such as Kagan 1994 and Johnson, Johnson and Holubec, 1998.
2. Grouping students
During most of each lesson my students work in small groups. My class size
varies, but 40 students per class is about typical or average. My university is
typical in that English courses meet once per week for 90 minutes, and 30
class meetings plus two exam periods for the academic year is ordinary for
national universities in Japan like my own.
Groups of 3 to 4 students create a working team that can pace itself to its
membership's comfort zone. Larger (than 4 member) groups reduce the total talking time of each
individual member and have a less intimate dynamic. Cooperative learning
techniques (Kagan 1994 and Johnson, Johnson and Holubec, 1998) such as
randomly rotating tasks and roles in the group, and giving students time
limits (of equal size) for speaking, can ensure that all students have an
equal chance to participate. Small groups can be given tasks more
challenging than individual students might comfortably undertake; as the
saying goes "two heads are better than one" (in Japan is a saying "three people
have the wisdom of Buddha").
On the first day of class, I have students make (tent-shaped) name cards
which sit on the desk. (If desks or tables are tiny, it is of course
possible to use small flat name cards). These cards are a device not only to
help all of us learn everyone's names, but also contain, on the inside,
various personal data about the students (their contact info, hometowns,
likes and dislikes etc.), which can be referred to during discussions or
used for groupings. Most often, I group students (into groups of 3-4
people) every session by shuffling the name cards and randomly placing the
cards on desks. This method is "random" except that I deliberately strive
for gender and, if there are non-Japanese students in the course, ethnic
diversity in the groups. (The name cards are color-coded for male/female so
that the gender diverse groups can be made quickly without taking the time
to actually read the names on the cards. Students can also assist in
shuffling and placing the cards.) Other kinds of known diversity I consider
when forming groups would include differences in age in students in the same
course. (In Japan the students' academic year is typically reflected in
their university-assigned student number, which is also written on the name
card. Thus it is easy to tell who is a lst, 2nd, 3rd or 4th year student.)
Mixing up the cards each class session means students will have different
group members to work with each time, so that over the course of the term
they should have the chance to work with everyone. A "random" approach
appears "fair" and also there may be a pleasant element of surprise each
class meeting as group membership changes.
Before using the name card grouping approach, my first year students
appeared uncomfortable deciding where to sit, and boys and girls tended to
segregate themselves. My second year students tended to stay within cliques
formed during the first year, or, if not, looked a little "lost." With the
grouping by cards method, no student is ever "left out"; everyone has a
group to sit with. Anonymous polls of my students over the past few years
have indicated students are very satisfied with and even enthusiastic about
the name card "lottery" method, feeling it's fair. Students also report
that it's good for them to work with students of the opposite gender or meet
other students they may feel too "shy" to approach on their own.[ p. 20 ]
3. Themes and activities
My courses include plenty of "ice breaker" activities and chances for
students to exchange opinions, both orally and in writing, on a variety of
topics. Many of the topics or subthemes are proposed by the students themselves.
Both because students may lack oral English ability beyond false beginner
level and because they may not know their classmates well, we start out with
simple activities which require students to exchange basic information about
themselves (for example, telling about their hometowns, hobbies and so on).
We slowly build on this foundation to include exchanging opinions on
increasingly challenging topics.
Topics we have covered in the first year required English course have
included youth culture, work/money, smoking, beauty, housework, school,
romance, animals, and violence.
Youth culture is a good place to start as my students are generally 18-19
years old. They discuss themselves and their worlds. Subsequently, we try
to see if there are trends in Japanese youth culture that also exist outside Japan
Each topic is generally approached roughly the following way: first students
explore and discuss their own personal experiences in relation to the topic.
Later (often in the 2nd session of 2 sessions) they attempt to view the
topic from a larger perspective and from someone else's perspective. Thus
for example for the topic "work" in session 1 students might talk about
their part time jobs and jobs their associates have, whereas in session 2
the discussion will shift to, for example, homelessness in the developing
and developed worlds (with which my students usually have no first hand
experience). In session 1 students have a chance to get to know each other
as they attempt to articulate their own perspectives in English while of
course simultaneously practicing basic English skills. In session 2 there
is a little bit more challenge linguistically and students engage in
perspective taking (for example, most students have not experienced
homelessness so they must imagine it and they may be asked to take the
perspective of a homeless person).To give another example, with "animals"
students might talk about pets they have had and animals they have eaten or
"worn" in session 1, but in session
2 topics will include animal rights, vegetarianism, endangered species
around the world and the like.
Activities include, especially in oral English classes, small group
discussions and role plays preceded and/or followed by short English
readings/writings on the topics. Reading and writing courses that I teach
of course include more reading and writing, but also incorporate small group
discussion and role play. For example, in a reading course students can
discuss and roleplay the characters depicted in what they are reading. In a
writing course they can write first from their own, then from another
person's perspective. My students of all courses seem to especially enjoy
discussion and role play activities. In fact, interacting with peers and
learning new opinions is the most oft-cited "favorite element" of the
course per the anonymous course evaluations.
Using the theme of the poem cited at the beginning of this paper, a student
could role play an elderly illiterate woman and another student could role
play the hotel or hospital receptionist's behavior toward her. In a
writing course, a (written) story in which the illiterate woman interacts
with other people and the environment could be created.
Varied activities and activities which require a range of skills, not merely
linguistic ones (e.g., skills such as drawing, acting, musical, etc.) can
help give all students a chance to "shine" in the class, assuming you will,
of course, have students with varying talents. One source for
collaborative classroom ideas taking into account multiple abilities is
Kagan and Kagan, 1998.
Currently I teach first year required English as well as required and
elective second year courses. The second year course topics are approached
the same way, but the topics are slightly more challenging and have
included: Materialism, multiculturalism, gender, family, growing old, stress
and loneliness, and environmental destruction.
Activities which require students to take the perspective of other students
in the class can be found in books such as Moscowitz (1978). One example is
students interviewing each other but trying to answer as if they were their
partner, not themselves.
4. Materials
Although I use a variety of materials, personal, literary, musical, and
artistic works can be memorable not only due to their emotive qualities but
also due to their structure. We all have experienced the memorability of
songs or jingles when for example we can't get them out of our heads even
when we'd like to be able to! I remember little of my junior high school
French instruction other than the words and melody of the French national
anthem, a film about everyday French life, and my teacher's moving, tearful
account of how she met her husband in the war, ended up moving to the USA,
and missed her native France.
[ p. 21 ]
As springboards for student-initiated discussions and role plays, I use
especially poems, song lyrics, and short nonfiction pieces which are often
personal narratives. I increasingly use music as it is a favorite of
students, song lyrics tend to be more easily retained compared to other kinds
of input, and the song lyrics comprise personal narratives (useful as
springboards for perspective taking). I tend to choose songs which
illustrate a topic of personal and social significance. For example,
Suzanne Vega's (1993) song "Luka" depicts child abuse from the child's
perspective:
Madonna's (1986) song "Papa Don't Preach" depicts teenage pregnancy from the
point of view of a pregnant teenage girl (rather than from the singer's
perspective, just as Suzanne Vega, above, attempts to replicate a child's
perspective). Everclear's (1997) song "Father of Mine" is a reportedly
autobiographical song that depicts a violent, alcoholic father who abandoned
his family when his son, now a father himself, was quite young. Edwin
Starr's (1970) song "War," recently made popular again due to its
appearance in a popular Jackie Chan film, attempts to describe war's effect
on various persons in the lines: "War means tears in thousands of mother's
eyes" and war makes former soldiers "disabled, bitter, and mean". Songs
like these beg perspective taking from among viewpoints such as a child, the
child's parents, and neighbors who know of the abuse of the child in Vega's
song; the speaker as a child and as a man, and the perspective of the father
and a beaten and abandoned mother in Everclear's song; effects of war on
families in Starr's song; or the teen age daughter and her father in
Madonna's song. Students can invent new characters to make a role play or
scenario in which each person of a four person group could play a part based
on the scenario emanating from the springboard work. For example, based on
Madonna's song could be a role play or scenario containing characters such
as the pregnant teen, her father, the father of her child, the girl's best
friend, the girl's mother, etc.
Most of the materials serving as the springboard and model of English in use
in my courses are found by me, but I do ask students on occasion to bring in
materials for the class. The difficulty is for students to find
level-appropriate materials on their own, as sometimes the materials they
bring in (usually from the library or internet but written for native speakers,
not language learners; language learner libraries are rare in the institutions
I work in) are not really very comprehensible to themselves or
the other students without a great deal of (too much) explanation/effort.
When I have taught more advanced classes, students have greater success in
finding materials as the range of materials within their comprehension range
is greater, yet even in those (much rarer) classes students have stated on
anonymous questionnaires that they prefer a balance of teacher and student
selected material, versus entirely teacher or student selected. It takes
some skill and experience to find language learning materials. It's my wish
for linguistic level appropriateness and not a desire to "dominate" the
class (I have the opposite desire in fact) that makes me choose many of the
materials. In addition to role play and discussion, the students I teach
currently enjoy puzzling over what lyrics, poems etc. might mean; this sort
of activity, since it's challenging and multiple interpretations are
possible, is ideal for group work and would of course precede perspective taking work.
In my English classes students propose most of the discussion questions and
often the comprehension questions (e.g. for a reading) as well, and provide
most of the content for the activities which follow (or sometimes precede)
the "stimulus" used. Students also have the opportunity to propose topics
and initiate projects. Thus, the students and I share in the course
decision-making. One of the main "materials" for the courses is thus the
students themselves — the ideas, discussions and role plays and other things
they create and display in class.[ p. 22 ]
5. Assessment and findings
Assessment in all of my English courses focuses on two areas. 50% of the
course grade is based on participation, and reflects the students' rate of
attendance assuming they have participated actively and appropriately in
class and completed the requested assignments. The other 50% of the grade
is based on a group project or the average of two group project scores.
For group projects, each group chooses a different topic, which is subject
to teacher approval. Next, each group prepares an oral presentation which
might be a role play, panel discussion, group discussion, poster or OHP
presentation, or balanced debate ending in a tie (3) , based on the
chosen topic, with each group member having an equal speaking role on the
presentation day. (For writing courses, the project would involve a written
work, perhaps with oral class presentation being additional, and for reading
courses, the presentation would be based on read material.) Social
relevance/international importance is required of the theme chosen for the
more advanced course/final project.
Assessment includes teacher, self and peer assessment. I find my own
comments are usually quite minimal, as often the students themselves as
well as peers have already pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of the
work produced. Thus, even as an assessor, I find my "listening/observer"
role to be very key to my work as a teacher.
In addition to formal assessment and the grading process that accompanies my
job, each week I engage in assessment of several areas while observing my
students work in teams. One area I observe of course is their use of
English during the activity. Another area I observe is whether they are
having any general difficulties with the assignment or task per se. But yet
another area I am observing of course is the level of cooperation, social
skill, peace and harmony that is manifested in the small groups. If there
are any difficulties in any of these areas, either I or a student from
another group discuss with the group the difficulty, ask the group to
propose solutions, and follow up later to see if the adopted proposal was successful.
Japanese generally appear to have good listening skills and empathy
(omoi-yari) is a valued trait in Japan (Stewart and Bennett 1991, pp. 150 - 169).
Japanese are socialized more toward at least outwardly harmonious
behaviors in many situations, such as "sharing the floor" when speaking.
They may tend to express conflict less openly, but may express negative
feelings in other ways (such as not attending class, or ignoring a disliked
person). In my experience working with Japanese EFL students, courses
proceed smoothly provided: a) I, the teacher, use appropriate grouping
methods and give students ample time and opportunity to get acquainted b)
goals and activity outcomes are clearly explained and are at a level
appropriate for a group working together and c) activities are intrinsically stimulating and useful.
As I have become better (more experienced) at using cooperative learning and
humanistic teaching, I, and the students, have been increasingly satisfied
both with the classroom environment on an interpersonal level as well as the
students' growing facility with English that results from the active
nature of the course activities. I have found that by having students get
to know each other in class, and by fostering an empathetic attitude through
my, the teacher's, manner, choice of activities and classroom ground rules,
that students' liking for the course and the other students in it can be
quite high. Mutual understanding, mutual attraction, and empathy are
linked. The finding of liking of other students being higher in cooperative
learning courses has been reported elsewhere (Johnson and Johnson, 1989).
Working cooperatively with other people to achieve goals has been shown to
increase a person's overall psychological health, including heightening
their perspective-taking abilities (Johnson and Johnson, 1989).
Conclusion
Above I have attempted to describe in brief our conference session and an
outline of how I attempt to create university EFL courses based on
empathetic relationships. The teacher can be empathetic towards students by
taking an attentive role as observer and supporter, valuing students' voices
and encouraging others in the class to value them, and giving students
chances to work collaboratively with all other students enrolled in the
course. Students can learn about each other in class by engaging in
self-disclosure activities such as sharing personal histories orally or in
writing and then attempting to see the world through each others' eyes.
Further, students can attempt to take the perspectives of actors in human
dramas reflected in poems, stories and non fiction articles to further hone
empathic understanding.
Endnotes
(1) Burakumin refers to an outcast group of Japanese who traditionally have done work considered "impure" and "unclean" in old Japan. Discrimination against members of this group lingers in modern times.Campbell, C. and Kryszewka, H. (1992). Learner-based teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(2) Kana is a Japanese phonetic alphabet.
(3) The approach to debate I learned in school could be roughly summarized as "demolish the opponent to the extent possible". However, this approach does not encourage listening to the other side and taking the other side's perspective (rather, it emphasizes "winning", even at the expense of learning from the other viewpoint). In my courses I prefer to emphasize perspective-taking and respect for opinions which differ from one's own. Further, complex problems never have only one legitimate point of view. Thus, "balanced" debates which conclude with the strong points of both of two sides (or of all sides if more than two) are more consonant with the course objectives, including the goals of fostering critical thinking as well as empathic understanding.
