{"id":67922,"date":"2023-04-20T17:15:19","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T21:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=67922"},"modified":"2023-04-20T17:15:19","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T21:15:19","slug":"empathy-can-be-taught-at-school-and-it-can-lead-to-more-creative-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/empathy-can-be-taught-at-school-and-it-can-lead-to-more-creative-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Empathy can be taught at school \u2013 and it can lead to more creative thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Most people think that empathy \u2013 the ability to put yourself in another person\u2019s shoes \u2013 is fixed, but it\u2019s not. Empathy can be taught.\u00a0Research has shown<\/a>\u00a0that reading can help children develop empathy. Through reading, children can experience the situations of others that are very different to their own, and reflect on that experience.<\/p>\n

Further findings on the effect of teaching empathy in schools come from a programme I work with called Empathy Week. It shows pupils documentary films with a range of scenarios from different cultures, designed to inspire empathy. Early findings (which have not yet been peer-reviewed by other scientists) suggest that as little as one week of empathy lessons using these films improves pupils\u2019\u00a0emotional awareness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, in\u00a0my research<\/a>\u00a0with schools I have found that learning that incorporates empathy can also help students increase their creativity.<\/p>\n

Levels of empathy<\/strong><\/h4>\n

We have empathy to a larger or lesser extent depending on a variety of factors, including personality traits, our genes and our environment.\u00a0Research has shown<\/a>\u00a0that some, but not much, of our empathy is genetic \u2013 about 10%. This suggests that there is potentially a large amount of empathy that can be acquired from our everyday interactions.<\/p>\n

However, we can lose empathy as we grow older.\u00a0Research with children<\/a>\u00a0aged between five and nine measured their degree of empathy as they viewed scenarios depicting social injustices towards children of different races.<\/p>\n

Their brain activity was measured using an EEG (electroencephalogram<\/a>), which looked for higher levels of \u201cmu suppression\u201d \u2013 a brain frequency that is used\u00a0as an indicator<\/a>\u00a0of empathy levels.<\/p>\n

The children did not show racial bias in their empathy responses \u2013 but\u00a0previous studies<\/a>\u00a0with adults have found that adults do have this bias in their empathy responses. This suggests that people have the potential to develop biases that can reduce empathy.<\/p>\n

Empathy helps us understand what others are thinking and feeling. It\u00a0helps children<\/a>\u00a0build relationships, engage with what they are learning about, and work and play together.<\/p>\n

Promoting creativity<\/strong><\/h4>\n

My research<\/a>\u00a0has investigated the effect of teaching empathy on the social and emotional skills of creativity in design and technology classes in the UK.<\/p>\n

Pupils in year nine \u2013 aged 13 to 14 years \u2013 from two schools were assessed for their creativity levels both at the start and at the end of the academic school year. We did this using the\u00a0Torrance Test of Creative Thinking<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 which measures drawn and written responses to drawn and written prompts.<\/p>\n

After the students first took the test, one school carried on as normal with its usual design and technology lessons. At the other school, the usual lessons were replaced with a series of lessons that focused on empathy, called\u00a0Designing our Tomorrow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The students were asked to create a product for children with asthma and their families: a pack that contained the information and equipment needed to treat asthma in young children. They were prompted to be empathetic \u2013 for instance, by not being judgmental of their own designs and those of others. The students were encouraged to empathise with the people they were designing the product for.<\/p>\n

Results showed that only the school where we ran the lessons focused on empathy increased its levels of creative responses. These findings suggest that creativity can be taught \u2013 particularly with instructions that advocate the importance of empathising with the subject matter.<\/p>\n

Teaching empathy at school would help young people retain it in their repertoire of social skills, enhancing their learning and equipping them for the adult world.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Helen Demetriou is a Lecturer in Education at the University of Cambridge<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most people think that empathy \u2013 the ability to put yourself in another person\u2019s shoes \u2013 is fixed, but it\u2019s not. Empathy can be taught.\u00a0Research has shown\u00a0that reading can help children develop empathy. Through reading, children can experience the situations of others that are very different to their own, and reflect on that experience. Further […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[32441],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-67922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-empathy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEmpathy can be taught at school \u2013 and it can lead to more creative thinking - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/empathy-can-be-taught-at-school-and-it-can-lead-to-more-creative-thinking\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Empathy can be taught at school \u2013 and it can lead to more creative thinking - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most people think that empathy \u2013 the ability to put yourself in another person\u2019s shoes \u2013 is fixed, but it\u2019s not. 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