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Empathy Essays

Hook examples for empathy essays, anecdotal hook.

"As I witnessed a stranger's act of kindness towards a struggling neighbor, I couldn't help but reflect on the profound impact of empathy—the ability to connect with others on a deeply human level."

Rhetorical Question Hook

"What does it mean to truly understand and share in the feelings of another person? The concept of empathy prompts us to explore the complexities of human connection."

Startling Statistic Hook

"Studies show that empathy plays a crucial role in building strong relationships, fostering teamwork, and reducing conflicts. How does empathy contribute to personal and societal well-being?"

"'Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of another.' This profound quote encapsulates the essence of empathy and its significance in human interactions."

Historical Hook

"From ancient philosophies to modern psychology, empathy has been a recurring theme in human thought. Exploring the historical roots of empathy provides deeper insights into its importance."

Narrative Hook

"Join me on a journey through personal stories of empathy, where individuals bridge cultural, social, and emotional divides. This narrative captures the essence of empathy in action."

Psychological Impact Hook

"How does empathy impact mental health, emotional well-being, and interpersonal relationships? Analyzing the psychological aspects of empathy adds depth to our understanding."

Social Empathy Hook

"In a world marked by diversity and societal challenges, empathy plays a crucial role in promoting understanding and social cohesion. Delving into the role of empathy in society offers important insights."

Empathy in Literature and Arts Hook

"How has empathy been depicted in literature, art, and media throughout history? Exploring its representation in the creative arts reveals its enduring significance in culture."

Teaching Empathy Hook

"What are effective ways to teach empathy to individuals of all ages? Examining strategies for nurturing empathy offers valuable insights for education and personal growth."

The Choice of Compassion: Cultivating Empathy

Humility and values, made-to-order essay as fast as you need it.

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Characteristics of an Ideal Mother

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The Importance of Promoting Empathy in Children

Steps for developing empathy in social situations, the impacts of digital media on empathy, the contributions of technology to the decline of human empathy, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

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The Role of Empathy in Justice System

Importance of empathy for blind people, the most effective method to tune in with empathy in the classroom, thr way acts of kindness can change our lives, the power of compassion and its main aspects, compassion and empathy in teaching, acts of kindness: importance of being kind, the concept of empathy in "do androids dream of electric sheep", the vital values that comprise the definition of hero, critical analysis of kwame anthony appiah’s theory of conversation, development of protagonist in philip k. novel "do androids dream of electric sheep", talking about compassion in 100 words, barbara lazear aschers on compassion, my purpose in life is to help others: helping behavior, adolescence stage experience: perspective taking and empathy, random act of kindness, helping others in need: importance of prioritizing yourself, toni cade bambara the lesson summary, making a positive impact on others: the power of influence, patch adams reflection paper.

Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position.

Types of empathy include cognitive empathy, emotional (or affective) empathy, somatic empathy, and spiritual empathy.

Empathy-based socialization differs from inhibition of egoistic impulses through shaping, modeling, and internalized guilt. Empathetic feelings might enable individuals to develop more satisfactory interpersonal relations, especially in the long-term. Empathy-induced altruism can improve attitudes toward stigmatized groups, and to improve racial attitudes, and actions toward people with AIDS, the homeless, and convicts. It also increases cooperation in competitive situations.

Empathetic people are quick to help others. Painkillers reduce one’s capacity for empathy. Anxiety levels influence empathy. Meditation and reading may heighten empathy.

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Is Empathy the Key to Effective Teaching? A Systematic Review of Its Association with Teacher-Student Interactions and Student Outcomes

• Review Article
• Open access
• Published: 10 March 2022
• Volume 34 , pages 1177–1216, ( 2022 )

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• Karen Aldrup   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1567-5724 1 ,
• Bastian Carstensen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5259-9578 1 &
• Uta Klusmann   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8656-344X 1  

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Teachers’ social-emotional competence has received increasing attention in educational psychology for about a decade and has been suggested to be an important prerequisite for the quality of teacher-student interactions and student outcomes. In this review, we will summarize the current state of knowledge about the association between one central component of teachers’ social-emotional competence—their empathy—with these indicators of teaching effectiveness. After all, empathy appears to be a particularly promising determinant for explaining high-quality teacher-student interactions, especially emotional support for students and, in turn, positive student development from a theoretical perspective. A systematic literature research yielded 41 records relevant for our article. Results indicated that teachers reporting more empathy with victims of bullying in hypothetical scenarios indicated a greater likelihood to intervene. However, there was neither consistent evidence for a relationship between teachers’ empathy and the degree to which they supported students emotionally in general, nor with classroom management, instructional support, or student outcomes. Notably, most studies asked teachers for a self-evaluation of their empathy, whereas assessments based on objective criteria were underrepresented. We discuss how these methodological decisions limit the conclusions we can draw from prior studies and outline perspective for future research in teachers’ empathy.

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Introduction

Students experience a range of emotions—such as enjoyment, anxiety, and boredom—while they attain new knowledge, take exams, or strive to connect with their classmates (Ahmed et al., 2010 ; Hascher, 2008 ; Martin & Huebner, 2007 ; Pekrun et al., 2002 ). Teachers are confronted with these emotions in the classroom and beyond, and their ability to read their students’ emotional signals and attend to them sensitively is vital to form positive teacher-student relationships (Pianta, 1999 ). Therefore, teachers’ social-emotional characteristics have been suggested as essential for the quality of teacher-student interactions and, in turn, students’ psychosocial outcomes (Brackett & Katulak, 2007 ; Jennings & Greenberg, 2009 ; Rimm-Kaufman & Hamre, 2010 ). Empathy is one component of teachers’ social-emotional characteristics that appears particularly relevant for the quality of teacher-student interactions from a theoretical perspective. First, empathy is considered as the origin of human’s prosocial behavior (Preston & de Waal, 2002 ). Second, in contrast to social-emotional characteristics such as emotional self-awareness or emotion regulation, empathy explicitly refers to other people rather than to the self, more specifically, to the ability to perceive and understand students’ emotions and needs (Zins et al., 2004 ).

Because of these theoretical arguments and a recent increase in empirical studies on this topic, the goal of this article is to review prior research investigating the relationship of teachers’ empathy with the quality of teacher-student interactions and, in turn, with student outcomes (see heuristic working model in Figure 1 ). We use effective teaching here as an umbrella term to refer to both interaction quality and student outcomes. Summarizing the current level of knowledge on this topic appears particularly useful for the following reasons. First, various meanings have been attached to the term empathy, and the diversity of concepts that have been used to refer to concepts closely related to empathy (e.g., emotional intelligence, perspective taking, and emotion recognition; also see Batson, 2009 ; Olderbak & Wilhelm, 2020 ) make it difficult to oversee prior research at first glance. Second, the research field has rapidly grown throughout the last decade. Thus, to understand foci of prior research and widely neglected questions is important; for example, the review will uncover possible specific underrepresented student outcomes (e.g., cognitive vs. psychosocial). Third, researchers have applied different methodological approaches. For example, self-report scales and objective tests are available and it is debatable whether both are equally valid considering the risk of self-serving bias in questionnaires (Brackett et al., 2006 ). Against this background, it is important to summarize not only the results from prior studies but also the assessment methods they applied to inform future studies in terms of which methodological approaches are best suited to obtain valid results.

Heuristic working model on the role of teachers’ empathy in the quality of teacher-student interactions and student outcomes; paths where we expect the closest associations are in bold (also see Brackett & Katulak, 2007 ; Jennings & Greenberg, 2009 )

A General Theoretical Perspective on Empathy

Historically, two distinct lines of research have evolved around empathy (for an overview see, e.g., Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004 ; Davis, 1983 ). First, from the affective perspective , empathy describes the emotional reactions to another person’s affective experiences. According to Eisenberg and Miller ( 1987 ), this means that one experiences the same emotion as the other person. Hatfield et al. ( 1993 ) described the phenomenon of “catching” other people’s emotions as emotional contagion. Affective empathy can elicit both positive and negative emotions, and because emotions are multi-componential, the subjective feelings, thoughts, expressions, and physiological and behavioral reactions can differ depending on the type of emotion (Olderbak et al., 2014 ; Scherer, 1984 ). Empathy from the affective perspective can also mean to feel something that is appropriate but not identical with the other person’s emotion, for instance, responding with concern and sympathy to another person’s sadness (e.g., Batson et al., 2002 ).

Second, from the cognitive perspective, empathy reflects a person’s ability to understand how other people feel by taking their perspective and reading their nonverbal signals (e.g., Wispé, 1986 ). Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright ( 2004 ) pointed out that theory of mind largely converges with the cognitive definition of empathy. Furthermore, models of emotional intelligence, such as the four-branch-model (Mayer & Salovey, 1997 ), include qualities resembling empathy as defined in the cognitive perspective: the ability to perceive emotions in other people’s faces accurately and to understand emotions, that is, knowing when specific emotions are likely to arise.

In accordance with Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright ( 2004 ), we define empathy as including both affective and cognitive components (for similar approaches, also see Davis, 1983 ; Decety & Jackson, 2004 ; Preston & de Waal, 2002 ). This allows for a more comprehensive understanding of empathy and its consequences because the affective component of empathy explains why we care for other people in need and are motivated to react sensitively, whereas the cognitive component explains what enables people to know and name the feelings of others (Batson, 2009 ). Preston and de Waal ( 2002 ) also support the idea that cognitive and affective empathy are entangled and complement each other in explaining prosocial behavior. They suggest that the development of cognitive empathy promotes the “effectiveness of empathy by helping the subject to focus on the object, even in its absence, remain emotionally distinct from the object, and determine the best course of action for the object’s needs” (Preston & de Waal, 2002 , p. 20).

Considering the central role of empathy in human relationships, which has also been supported empirically (Eisenberg & Miller, 1987 ; Kardos et al., 2017 ; Mitsopoulou & Giovazolias, 2015 ; Sened et al., 2017 ; Vachon et al., 2014 ), its importance in social occupations has been recognized for a long time. For instance, Rogers ( 1959 ) proposed that the therapists’ ability to accurately perceive their clients’ point of view will facilitate the therapeutic process and, in turn, produce change in personality and behavior. In line with this assumption, studies with psychotherapists and also with physicians showed that their empathy predicted their patients’ satisfaction and clinical outcomes (Elliott et al., 2018 ; Hojat et al., 2011 ). Like psychotherapists or physicians and their clients, teachers are in close interpersonal contact with their students. Hence, it seems plausible to assume a central role of empathy in their professional lives as well.

The Role of Teacher Empathy

Caring for students and establishing positive teacher-student relationships are a central part of teachers’ professional roles (Butler, 2012 ; O’Connor, 2008 ; Watt et al., 2021 ). Furthermore, providing high levels of emotional support as indicated by a positive emotional tone in the classroom, sensitive responses to students’ emotional, social, and academic needs, and consideration of their interests is one aspect of high-quality classrooms (Pianta & Hamre, 2009 ). To achieve this, the ability to read students’ (non-)verbal signals—in others words: empathy—is vital (Pianta, 1999 ). For instance, teachers’ cognitive empathy will help them better identify from a student’s facial expressions if he or she is sad about a bad grade, angry about an argument with friends, or bored with specific learning activities. Empathic teachers will know that students may feel anxious when confronted with challenging tasks or embarrassed and frustrated when repeatedly unable to answer the teacher’s questions. Having recognized negative affective states in their students, teachers’ affective empathy should motivate them to react sensitively to their students’ emotional needs, provide comfort, and encouragement (Batson, 2009 ; Weisz et al., 2020 ). The prosocial classroom model (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009 ) also integrates these ideas and further states that teachers’ social-emotional competence, of which empathy is one part, should facilitate classroom management.

Effective classroom management means that teachers establish rules and order, apply appropriate strategies to prevent student behavior problems, and maximize time on task (Emmer & Stough, 2001 ). The ability to understand reasons for classroom disturbances could facilitate behavior management. For example, noticing students’ boredom could initiate teachers to choose a different instructional approach before students start off-task activities (Nett et al., 2010 ). Furthermore, taking the perspective of adolescents, teachers will be able to recognize their need for autonomy, which would collide with a controlling classroom management strategy (Aelterman et al., 2019 ; Eccles & Midgley, 1989 ). Yet, effective classroom management may be less dependent on teacher empathy than emotional support is. After all, classroom management includes several facets that go beyond empathy, for example, productive use of time and establishment of rules. For these tasks, specific classroom management knowledges is a key prerequisite (Kunter et al., 2013 ; Shulman, 1986 ).

Finally, even though not mentioned in the prosocial classroom model, teacher empathy could also play a role in instructional support, which is the third key aspect of high-quality teacher-student interaction in addition to emotional support and classroom management (Klieme et al., 2009 ; Pianta & Hamre, 2009 ). Instructional support comprises clear and engaging instruction that promotes content understanding and presents cognitive challenges. In addition, teachers scaffold learning by providing feedback and initiating content-related class discussions (Pianta et al., 2012 ). To adapt instruction to students’ learning needs and design engaging lessons, it is necessary to recognize when students struggle understanding content and which activities they find particularly interesting or boring (Bieg et al., 2017 ; Parsons et al., 2018 ). However, in addition instructional support requires high levels of (pedagogical) content knowledge so again one could assume that empathy plays a less central role than it does for emotional support (Kunter et al., 2013 ; Shulman, 1986 ).

In summary, from a theoretical perspective, a relationship between teachers’ empathy and the quality of teacher-student interactions, in particular with emotional support, appears plausible. By increasing interaction quality, empathy should also indirectly promote student development. Here, we distinguish between cognitive development, that is, outcomes related to students’ learning of subject matter, and psychosocial development, that is, motivational, emotional, and social variables. Prior research consistently shows that emotional support is positively associated with psychosocial outcomes, such as academic interest, self-concept, peer relatedness, and behavioral engagement, whereas classroom management and instructional support are most closely related to student achievement (Aldrup et al., 2018 ; Downer et al., 2014 ; Fauth et al., 2014b ; Kunter et al., 2013 ; Nie & Lau, 2009 ; Ruzek et al., 2016 ; Scherer et al., 2016 ; Wagner et al., 2016 ; Yildirim, 2012 ). Our heuristic working model in Figure 1 illustrates the hypothesized associations between teacher empathy, the quality of teacher-student interactions, and student outcomes. To test these theoretical assumptions, different methodological approaches are available, which we will explain next.

Assessment Approaches in Researching Teacher Empathy

Researchers interested in investigating teacher empathy can choose between different measurement approaches that are distinct in terms of two key dimensions: objective assessment versus self-report questionnaires and general versus profession-specific tools. On the one hand, researchers can apply objective assessments such as the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT; Mayer et al., 2002 ). The MSCEIT comprises subtests measuring a person’s ability to perceive and understand emotions in others. For example, participants see pictures of faces and are requested to select the degree to which it expresses each of five emotions. On the other hand, several self-report questionnaires are available. One prominent scale is the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980 ) including subscales on empathic concern (“I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me.”) and perspective taking (“I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective.”). Emotional intelligence questionnaires typically include subscales on empathy as well. For example, the other-emotion appraisal subscale of the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (Wong & Law, 2002 ) assesses the ability to perceive emotions in others (“I am sensitive to the feelings and emotions of others.”).

However, it is unclear if people can validly evaluate their own empathy and especially regarding the cognitive component, which consists of knowledge and skills, a performance-based approach seems more valid. In line with these concerns, Ickes ( 2001 ) concluded that performance-based measures of empathic accuracy predict performance in social situations whereas self-report measures do not. Likewise, Brackett et al. ( 2006 ) found no association between undergraduate students’ self-reported emotional intelligence and the extent to which others perceived them as friendly and socially engaged but using an emotional intelligence test yielded statistically significant associations. Self-serving bias could be one issue reducing the validity of people’s self-reported empathy. For teachers, in particular, exaggerating their empathy appears likely because establishing close, caring connections with students is an important aspect of their professional identities (O’Connor, 2008 ; Wubbels et al., 1993 ). Finally, the use of self-report questionnaires not only poses the risk of reduced correlations due to validity issues but also of inflated correlations due to common method bias when participants report on their empathy and the dependent variables at the same time (Podsakoff et al., 2003 ). Thus, whether researchers use an objective empathy assessment or a self-report questionnaire can largely affect the results and the degree to which the findings allow for valid conclusion.

In addition, researchers in teacher empathy have to decide on the context-specificity of their instrument. On the one hand, they can use one of the tools described above that were designed for use in the general population. On the other hand, they can choose profession-specific instruments asking teachers about their empathy for students. A profession-specific assessment has several advantages. Generally, performance in specific contexts is best predicted by variables that refer to the same context (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1977 ; Weinert, 2001 ). Furthermore, in contrast to day-to-day interactions with other social partners, teacher-student interactions are unique and characterized by an asymmetric nature (Pianta, 1999 ). Teachers and students differ substantially in terms of their knowledge and experiences and this lack of similarity may impede empathy (Preston & de Waal, 2002 ). Accordingly, teachers likely require profession-specific knowledge about their students’ developmental needs and concerns to facilitate empathy (Eccles & Midgley, 1989 ; Voss et al., 2011 ).

Present Study

The present study provides a systematic review of prior empirical research on the role of teachers’ empathy in effective teaching, which comprises the quality of teacher-student interactions and student development. The relevance of teachers’ empathy and related qualities has been highlighted from a theoretical perspective for over a decade (e.g., Brackett & Katulak, 2007 ; Jennings & Greenberg, 2009 ; Rimm-Kaufman & Hamre, 2010 ). Therefore, our goal was to gather what we have learned so far and whether the empirical evidence is in line with the theoretical claim that teacher empathy is positively associated with effective teaching. Furthermore, we aimed to identify questions that have remained unanswered to date in prior research on the association between teacher empathy and the quality of teacher-student interactions and student outcomes. For instance, reviewing the literature enabled us to carve out consequences of empathy that have been underrepresented in prior research (e.g., specific domains of teacher-student interaction quality or specific student outcomes) or methodological challenges that still need to be solved for ensuring the validity of results. From our perspective, this is an important step to research that can eventually support teachers, teacher educators, school psychologists, principals, and other stakeholders in the education system in evaluating the benefits of promoting teacher empathy.

The heuristic working model (Fig. 1 ), which is largely based on the prosocial classroom model (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009 ), illustrates the hypothesized role of teachers’ empathy in the quality of teacher-student interactions and student outcomes. As outlined above, we expected to find a positive relationship between teachers’ empathy and the quality of teacher-student interactions, in particular, with emotional support. After all, empathy allows teachers to understand students’ perspectives, read their nonverbal signals, and react with concern to students needing help—these qualities are all indicators of emotional support (Pianta et al., 2012 ). In turn, by promoting high-quality teacher-student interactions, teachers’ empathy can be assumed to foster student development. However, because student outcomes are more distal to teachers’ empathy than teacher-student interactions are, we expected less pronounced associations. Furthermore, because we speculated that empathy plays a role especially in teachers’ emotional support and because prior research revealed more consistent association between emotional support and psychosocial rather than cognitive student outcomes (e.g., Fauth et al., 2014b ; Kunter et al., 2013 ), we hypothesized that empathy would have the weakest relationship with student achievement.

Moreover, we speculated that methodological decisions could affect the magnitude of the relationships between teachers’ empathy, the quality of teacher-student interactions, and student outcomes. Thus, our first goal was to determine which methodological approaches have been applied in the field and consider them in reviewing the results from prior work. Based on the principle of correspondence, we expected particularly close associations when a profession-specific rather than a general assessment tool was used to measure teachers’ empathy (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1977 ). In addition, we hypothesized that the reliance on self-report measures to assess empathy and its consequences leads to larger correlations because of common method bias (Podsakoff et al., 2003 ).

Literature Search

We conducted our literature search in PsycINFO and Web of Science in October 2020 without date restrictions. To identify relevant articles on teachers’ empathy we used the following search terms: empathy OR “ perspective taking” OR compassion OR “ emotion* intelligence” OR “ emotion* knowledge” OR “ emotion* awareness” OR “ emotion* understanding” OR “ emotion* accuracy” OR “ emotion* perception” OR “ emotion* detection” OR “ emotion* identification” OR “ emotion* recognition” OR “ teacher* sensitivity” . Using a broad set of search terms allowed us to capture constructs which show substantial conceptual overlap with empathy and are frequently discussed in independent strands of research using different terminology (Mayer et al., 2008 ; Olderbak & Wilhelm, 2020 ).

In PsycINFO, among others titles, abstracts, heading words, tables of contents, and key concepts were searched for the defined terms. We conducted a thesaurus search using the exp Teachers/ command to limit results to teacher samples. Furthermore, we limited our search to quantitative studies using the quantitative study.md command. In Web of Science, the defined terms were searched in titles, abstracts, and keywords. To limit results to teacher samples, we entered our central search terms in combination with teacher* / professor* / educator* / lecturer* / faculty*. We applied the NEAR/3 command, which identifies studies mentioning two terms close to one another (in our case, three words or less in between empathy and teacher synonyms) in any order. Moreover, we excluded the following publication types: meeting abstracts, reviews, book reviews, editorial material, letters, and biographical items. In both databases, we excluded studies written in a language not based on the Latin alphabet (e.g., Chinese, Hebrew). For studies not written in English, we used Google Translate to retrieve the necessary information. This yielded 533 records from PsycINFO and 474 records from Web of Science, resulting in 931 records in total after removing duplicates.

We pursued two strategies to supplement our database search and to identify relevant articles we may have missed. First, we screened the reference list of all studies identified as eligible for our synthesis after evaluating the full-text. Second, we conducted a Google Scholar search in December 2020 to find articles citing the studies we had identified as relevant. These strategies produced 134 additional records.

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

We included studies in our research synthesis if they met the following criteria. First, empathy had to be measured in accordance with our definition of empathy. For instance, we neither included studies measuring empathy in rather broad terms (e.g., teacher sensitivity assessed with the Classroom Assessment Scoring System; Pianta et al., 2012 ) nor did we code effects pertaining to fantasy and personal distress. Fantasy and personal distress are subscales of the frequently used Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980 ). However, Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright ( 2004 ) argued that these scales do not measure empathy. For example, the personal distress scale only partly refers to interpersonal situations (e.g., “In emergency situations, I feel apprehensive and ill-at-ease.”). Second, studies had to measure an outcome relevant to our article, that is, aspects of teacher-student interaction or student outcomes. Third, it was necessary to report the statistical significance of bivariate correlations or another statistic convertible to a bivariate correlation. However, we retained studies that reported that an effect was not statistically significant without providing the exact size of the effect. Fourth, results had to be based on a sample of at least ten teachers. Regular and special education teachers of all grade levels were included (i.e., preschool to tertiary education). Importantly, even though teachers demonstrate different behaviors to realize high-quality teacher-student interactions, the three overarching domains of emotional support, classroom management, and instructional support remain relevant from preschool to tertiary education, making the inclusion of a broad range of education levels possible (Langenbach & Aagaard, 1990 ; Pianta & Hamre, 2009 ; Schneider & Preckel, 2017 ). Fifth, we only retained the study that provided the most information if multiple articles were based on the same sample and variables.

Based on these criteria and as illustrated in the PRISMA diagram (Page et al., 2021 ) in Figure 2 , 768 records were excluded after pre-screening the abstracts of the 931 records obtained through database searching. Pre-screening the abstracts of the 134 records from citation searching and footnote chasing left 61 potentially relevant records. In total, we could not retrieve a full text for six records. Thus, we proceeded screening the full-texts of the remaining 160 records from database searching and 58 records from citation searching and footnote chasing for eligibility. These steps were conducted by the first author, and in addition, the second author read 25% of the records to verify the inter-rater reliability. Cohen’s κ was .81, and we agreed in 98% of the articles regarding the questions of whether none versus any of the exclusion criteria were met. Considering reasons for exclusion via the multiple search strategies jointly, twelve did not include a relevant outcome and 13 were excluded for other reasons (e.g., eight articles did not present quantitative results and one article was based on a duplicate sample). In contrast, a comparably large number of 95 articles did not include a relevant predictor. Most often, this was due to emotional intelligence instruments not including empathy-related subscales (e.g., Trait Meta-Mood Scale, Salovey et al., 1995 ; Emotional Quotient Inventory: Short Form; Bar-On, 2002 ). Similarly, we would have needed to exclude 58 articles because they assessed relevant variables but did not report bivariate correlations or other statistics to estimate the relationship of teacher empathy with the quality of teacher-student relationships and student outcomes. Most often these studies used an emotional intelligence instrument including empathy-related subscales (e.g., Trait Emotional Intelligence Qustionnaire, Petrides & Furnham, 2003 ; MSCEIT, Mayer et al., 2002 ), but the analyses were conducted based on the total emotional intelligence scores. Due to the large number of studies that were relevant for our synthesis but that did not report the necessary statistics, we decided to contact the authors and ask for the correlation coefficients if we considered the study particularly informative for our research questions (i.e., the independent or dependent variable was measured with instruments going beyond teacher self-report). We contacted 15 authors, six responded, and one was able to provide the information we requested. Thus, 57 articles were excluded because no relevant analyses were available. Finally, 31 articles remained after full-text reading and citation searching and footnote chasing yielded ten additional records.

PRISMA diagram of the literature search process

Processing of Search Results

For the final set of records, we extracted information on the authors, the year and type of publication, and the sample (i.e., sample size, teachers’ gender, age, and years of job experience, school level, and country). Regarding our independent variable, teacher empathy, we retrieved information on (1) the components of empathy (i.e., affective, cognitive, composite); (2) the instrument; (3) whether a teacher self-report questionnaire, an objective assessment, or other approaches were used; and (4) whether the instrument took a general, a profession-specific, or a situation-specific perspective. For our dependent variables, teacher-student interactions, and student outcomes, we retrieved information on (1) the components of teacher-student interaction (i.e., emotional support, classroom management, instructional support) and student outcomes (i.e., cognitive, psychosocial) and (2) whether a teacher self-report questionnaire, student questionnaires, student achievement tests, classroom observations, or other measurements were conducted. Again, the first author performed these steps and the second author coded 20% of the records to estimate the inter-rater reliability regarding the coding of the components of empathy and the outcome categories. Both assigned the same category to 89% of the predictor and outcome variables. Finally, we retrieved correlation coefficients and information on statistical significance. To answer our research questions, we primarily relied on vote-counting and determined the number of effects that were statistically significant at α < .05. However, we also wanted to give the reader an impression of the size of the effects. Thus, in the few cases where effect sizes other than correlations were reported, we converted them to allow for between-study comparisons. More specifically, we used the formulas provided by Thalheimer and Cook ( 2002 ) to convert F -statistics and t -statistics to Cohen’s d and the formulas provided by Borenstein ( 2009 ) to convert odds ratios to Cohen’s d and to convert Cohen’s d to r . In addition, we recoded the correlations between empathy and negative qualities of teacher-student interactions and maladaptive student outcomes to facilitate the interpretation of the correlation coefficients. Thus, positive correlation coefficients can now be interpreted as indicative of effects in line with our heuristic working model (Figure 1 ). Tables 1 , 2 , 3 , and 4 provide a summary of the reviewed articles organized depending on the methodological approach that was used. The data and the review protocol are available at PsychArchives (Aldrup et al., 2021 ).

In the following, we will first describe general characteristics of the records included in this article and will then provide details about the methodological approaches used. The main part of this section is dedicated to outlining results from prior research on the relationship of teacher empathy with teacher-student interactions and student outcomes. Table 5 gives a summary of the statistically significant effects and the effect sizes for each dependent variable, and Figure 3 provides an overview of the effect sizes depending on the methodological type of study and the dependent variable.

Overview of all effects depending on the methodological type of study and the dependent variables

General Study Characteristics

This research synthesis is based on 23 journal articles, 15 theses, two proceedings papers, and one book chapter, which were published between 2004 and 2020 ( Md = 2014, M = 2014, SD = 3.92).The 41 included records reported results from 42 independent samples from 12 different countries—mostly the USA ( n = 22), followed by Australia and China ( n = 4). The teacher samples comprised between 11 and 467 teachers ( M = 119.02, SD = 103.10). On average, the teachers were M = 36.12 years old and 76.8% were female. The majority of studies included only in-service teachers ( n = 35), who had M = 9.08 years of job experience on average. Most samples were composed either of only secondary school teachers ( n = 16) or a combination of secondary school, elementary school, and, in some cases, early childhood teachers ( n = 8). Each five to six samples included exclusively early childhood teachers, elementary school teachers, or educators at the tertiary level. Only 14 studies provided information on the school subject the participants taught: seven samples included teachers from different subject domains, three assessed English, two mathematics, one physical education, and one law teachers.

The majority of studies (93%) reported only cross-sectional analyses regarding the link between teacher empathy and teacher-student interactions or student outcomes. However, Franklin ( 2014 ) measured empathy at one time point but included two waves of student outcomes and Aldrup et al., ( 2020 ) used longitudinal data across three time points. We only considered the within-wave correlations to make results from these studies comparable to the majority of articles that were cross-sectional. Finally, using a randomized pre-post-control group design, Okonofua et al. ( 2016 ) investigated the effects of an empathic mindset intervention.

Aspects of Empathy and Measurement

In most samples, the focus was on the cognitive ( n = 28) as opposed to the affective component ( n = 8) of empathy. In five samples, both cognitive and affective empathy were assessed and in one sample, a composite measure was used. In terms of measurement instruments, self-report questionnaires were predominant ( n = 29 samples/studies). In the following, we will list the self-report tools that were used in more than one study. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980 ) was applied ten times followed by the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (Wong & Law, 2002 ), which was used four times. Three other studies measured the ability to perceive emotions in others as well, but based on the Self-Rated Emotional Intelligence Scale (Brackett et al., 2006 ). Three studies used the BarOn Emotional Quotient-Inventory , which measures the ability to understand and respect other people’s feelings (Bar-On, 1997 ). In contrast to these questionnaires designed for use in the general population, only one study applied a profession-specific instrument asking teachers, for example, “I am happy for students if they enjoy happy moments” (Wu et al., 2019 ). Likewise, the Bullying Attitudes Questionnaire (Craig et al., 2000 ; Yoon, 2004 ), which was employed in seven studies, measures teachers’ self-reported empathic concern for student victims of bullying and is therefore situated in the professional context as well.

Nine studies used approaches based on objective criteria to discriminate between more and less empathic teachers rather than using teacher questionnaires. Four studies employed the MSCEIT (Mayer et al., 2002 ). Similar tests—the Amsterdam Emotion Recognition Test (van der Schalk et al., 2011 ) , the Situational Test of Emotional Understanding (MacCann & Roberts, 2008 ), and the Test of Emotional Intelligence (Śmieja et al., 2014 )—were each used in one study. Friedman ( 2014 ) pursued a slightly different strategy and applied the newly developed Teacher Emotional Intelligence Measure , which asks teachers about their likely response to a hypothetical disciplinary incident in class in an open format. A coding manual is used to determine the teacher’s ability to perceive and understand the disputant’s emotions and to identify how other students in class would feel . Zinsser et al. ( 2015 ) conducted teacher focus groups on the role of emotions in classrooms. Based on teachers’ responses to semi-structured questions, trained coders detected the teachers’ emotion knowledge, that is, their ability to recognize and understand emotions in their students. Moreover, two studies asked students to report on their teachers’ empathy (Aldrup et al.,  2020 ; Latchaw, 2017 ). Thus, like in the studies by Friedman ( 2014 ) and Zinsser et al. ( 2015 ), the focus was on teachers’ empathy in the professional context and even more specifically in the respective subject domain. Finally, one article including two samples (Okonofua et al., 2016 ) reported results from an intervention aimed to induce an empathic mindset in their teacher-student interactions. However, the intervention study did not include a treatment check so it remains unknown whether it actually changed teacher empathy.

Effects on Teacher-Student Interactions

We identified 33 studies (34 samples) investigating the role of empathy in teacher-student interactions: 28 studies measured aspects of emotional support, ten measured classroom management, and six measured instructional support. Five studies applied measures of teacher-student interaction that we could not clearly assign to one of the interaction domains.

General Teacher-Student Interaction

Three out of five studies measuring blended aspects of teacher-student interactions found statistically significant associations (57% of the investigated effects were significant and positive; see Table 5 ). Secondary school teachers who rated their own ability to perceive other’s emotions higher evaluated their teaching performance ( r = .26, p < .001) more positively (Wu et al., 2019 ). In addition, in two studies with English as a foreign language teachers at high schools and private language institutes (Ghanizadeh & Moafian, 2010 ; Khodadady, 2012 ), teachers’ self-reported empathy was linked to their students’ ratings of teacher qualification (i.e., knowledge, self-confidence, comprehensibility; r = .10, p < .01) and students’ overall ratings of instruction ( r = .26, p < .05). In contrast, Corcoran and Tormey ( 2013 ) found no, or even counterintuitive associations of teachers’ test scores in perceiving ( r = –.15, p < .01) and understanding emotions ( r = .07, p > .05) with student teachers’ practicum performance evaluations, for example, the use of appropriate pedagogic strategies and material or the quality of teacher-student relationships. Petsos and Gorizidis ( 2019 ) did not find a relationship between secondary school teachers’ self-reported perception of other’s emotions and the extent to which students felt their teacher assigned students responsibility ( r = .08, p > .05).

Emotional Support

The number of studies finding a statistically significantly positive association between teachers’ empathy and their emotional support for students ( n = 15) slightly outweighed the number of studies not supporting this link ( n = 11) or finding mixed evidence ( n = 2). Because a substantial number of studies focused on teachers’ reactions to bullying among students as one specific aspect of emotional support, we will summarize results from this line of research separately after describing the findings for emotional support.

Six studies found statistically significant positive associations with teachers’ empathy but eleven found mixed or no evidence (25% of the investigated effects were significant and positive, 73% were not significant; see Table 5 ). Abacioglu et al. ( 2020 ) revealed that primary school teachers evaluating their perspective taking more positively reported using more culturally ( r = .33, p < .01) and socially sensitive teaching practices ( r = .24, p < .01). Similarly, teachers reporting a greater ability to perceive others’ emotions considered their attention to students needs as more pronounced ( r = .24, p < .01) (Nizielski et al., 2012 ). Furthermore, the theses by Gottesman ( 2016 ) and Metaxas ( 2018 ) showed that teachers reporting more empathy were more likely to choose emotionally supportive strategies in response to a hypothetical student exhibiting challenging behavior ( r = .36 and r = .24, p < .01). In these studies, teachers from different grade levels participated spanning pre- to high school. Finally, there were two studies using not only teacher self-report questionnaires and finding a relationship between empathy and emotional support. Khodadady ( 2012 ) found that high school students perceived better rapport with their teacher ( r = .10, p < .01) and greater teacher fairness ( r = .11, p < .01) when teachers reported greater empathy. Moreover, secondary school students reported more positive teacher-student relationships if their teacher attained higher test scores in perceiving ( r = .50, p = .02) and understanding emotions ( r = .45, p = .04) (Barłożek, 2015 ). However, neither Khodadady ( 2012 ) nor Barłożek ( 2015 ) accounted for the nesting of students in classrooms, which is associated with a higher risk of false positive findings (Snijders & Bosker, 2012 ).

Notably, eleven other studies that were not exclusively using teacher self-report questionnaires provided evidence that was less clear. Hu et al. ( 2018 ) assessed preschool teachers’ self-evaluations of their ability to perceive other’s emotions and asked both teachers and external observers to evaluate the quality of emotional support. Emotional perception was statistically significantly related only to teachers’ self-reported emotional support ( r = .31, p < .001). Swartz and McElwain ( 2012 ) asked pre-service early childhood teachers about their perspective taking and observed their responses to children’s emotional displays. Teachers’ perspective taking was unrelated to their strategies when dealing with positive emotions, but when children displayed anger or sadness, empathic teachers were more likely to show supportive ( r = .52, p < .01) rather than non-supportive behavior ( r = –.44, p < .05). Friedman ( 2014 ) also conducted classroom observations to assess the quality of emotional support. Middle and high school teachers with higher scores in a newly developed emotional intelligence test regarding their awareness, perception, and understanding of students’ emotions did not establish a more positive climate and did not show more sensitivity or regard for students’ perspectives. In addition, preschool teachers demonstrating superior emotion knowledge in a focus group were not observed to show more emotional support in the study by Zinsser et al. ( 2015 ). In a similar vein, Heckathorn ( 2013 ) did not find a statistically significant positive and even one negative correlation between teachers’ perception and understanding of emotions as assessed with the MSCEIT (Mayer et al., 2002 ) and the degree to that nontraditional evening graduate adult master’s level students perceived affiliation among learners, opportunities to influence lessons, and teacher support in terms of sensitivity and encouragement. Furthermore, high school teachers’ tests scores in emotion understanding were unrelated to their self-reported quality of teacher-student relationships (O’Shea, 2019 ) and participation in an empathic mindset intervention did not make middle school students feel more respected by their teacher—however, the intervention had an effect for students with a history of suspension (Okonofua et al., 2016 ). In the thesis by Fults ( 2019 ), there was no association between middle school teachers’ self-reported empathy and students’ perception of proximity and Wen ( 2020 ) did not establish a link between college teachers’ self-reported ability to recognize other people’s emotions and student-reported receptivity and liking of the teacher. Likewise, Petsos and Gorizidis ( 2019 ) found no statistically significant correlation between junior high school teachers’ self-reported emotion perception of others and students’ perceptions of their teachers’ helpful and friendly behavior and their understanding of students as opposed to displaying dissatisfaction and admonishing students. Finally, middle school teachers reporting greater empathy with victims of bullying or general perspective taking and empathic concern were not more likely to perceive their teacher-student relationship as close and free of conflict (Hammel, 2013 ; only empathic concern and closeness: r = .27, p < .05). To summarize, teachers who perceived themselves as empathic reported providing more emotional support. However, this impression was rarely evident in students’ and observers’ perspectives. Furthermore, higher test scores in empathy were unrelated to the quality of emotional support.

Likelihood to Intervene in Bullying

Nine of the twelve studies in this strand of research found an effect (62% of the investigated effects were significant and positive; see Table 5 ). Seven studies, including teachers from preschool to the secondary school level, found that teachers feeling empathic concern for a hypothetical student who was a victim of bullying reported a greater likelihood of intervening in the bullying situation (Byers et al., 2011 ; Dedousis-Wallace & Shute, 2009 ; Hines, 2013 ; Huang et al., 2018 ; Sokol et al., 2016 ; VanZoeren, 2015 ; Yoon, 2004 ). In these studies, the effect sizes were moderate to large (all r s > .30; see Figure 3 ). Likewise, teachers’ self-reported general empathic concern, perspective taking, and tendency to experience the feelings of others were positively associated with their likelihood to intervene in bullying from early childhood to college education (Dedousis-Wallace & Shute, 2009 ; Fifield, 2011 ; Huang et al., 2018 ; Singh, 2014 ). One exception of this pattern was the thesis by Hammel ( 2013 ). Only when the hypothetical student was the victim of social exclusion, but not when students became victims of gossip or when friends threatened to end a relationship, was there a statistically significant correlation between middle school teachers’ empathy with the victim and their likelihood to intervene. Moreover, teachers’ general empathic concern and perspective taking were not statistically significantly related with the likelihood to intervene. Similarly, Garner et al. ( 2013 ) did not find a relationship between prospective teachers’ self-reported cognitive empathy and their likelihood to intervene in bullying scenarios. Finally, when pre-service elementary and secondary teachers did not indicate their likelihood to intervene in bullying via self-report, but when they were asked in an open-format with researchers coding their responses, there was less evidence of a relationship between teachers’ self-reported empathic concern and perspective taking with their responses to bullying (Tettegah, 2007 ; 3 of 12 statistically significant effects).

Classroom Management

In seven of ten studies spanning early childhood to tertiary education, there was no statistically significant relationship between teachers’ empathy and classroom management (Abacioglu et al., 2019 ; Friedman, 2014 ; Fults, 2019 ; Gottesman, 2016 ; Hall, 2009 ; Heckathorn, 2013 ; Petsos & Gorizidis, 2019 ). As Table 5 shows, 83% of the investigated effects were not statistically significant. Except for Gottesman ( 2016 ), these studies used other than teacher self-report measures for either empathy or classroom management. In line with the trend to find an association especially when both predictor and outcome are measured via teacher self-report, Hu et al. ( 2018 ) found no association between preschool teachers’ self-reported emotional perception and observer ratings of their classroom management ( r = .03, p > .05), but they did find a link with teachers’ own perceptions of their classroom management ( r = .38, p < .001). However, two studies revealed a positive association between empathy and classroom management. In her thesis, Metaxas ( 2018 ) showed that primary and secondary school teachers reporting being more empathic were less likely to choose punitive behavior ( r = −.22, p < .01) in response to a hypothetical challenging student. Relatedly, Okonofua et al. ( 2016 ) revealed that middle school teachers participating in an empathic mindset intervention were more likely to consider empathic disciplinary strategies ( r = .40, p < .01) rather than punitive approaches ( r = −.41, p < .01). However, these results are again based on teachers’ evaluations of hypothetical scenarios.

Instructional Support

In three of six studies, all relying not only on teacher self-report questionnaires, there was no evidence (85% of the investigated effects were not significant; see Table 5 ) for a relationship between teachers’ empathy and the levels of instructional support they provide for students in secondary school or for college students (Friedman, 2014 ; Hall, 2009 ; Wen, 2020 ). Even though Heckathorn ( 2013 ) found that adults in an evening master’s program rated those teachers who obtained higher test scores in perceiving emotions as providing more organized and clear instruction ( r = .26, p < .01), there was no statistically significant correlation with understanding emotions. Moreover, neither perceiving nor understanding emotions were associated with personal goal attainment defined as the degree to which the teacher attended to students’ individual learning needs and interests. Notably, these results are based on only N = 11 teachers. Again, Hu et al. ( 2018 ) found a link between preschool teachers’ self-reported emotional perception with their self-reported quality of instructional support ( r = .36, p < .001), but not with observers’ ratings of instructional support ( r = −.03, p > .05). Khodadady ( 2012 ) obtained a small, but statistically significant positive relationship between high school teachers’ self-reported empathy and student-reported facilitation ( r = .05, p < .05). However, the nesting of students within classes was not considered in the analyses so caution is warranted in interpreting this finding.

Effects on Student Outcomes

We identified twelve studies investigating the role of empathy in student outcomes: four studies measured cognitive student outcomes and ten measured psychosocial student outcomes including, for example, student engagement, conduct problems, or prosocial behavior.

Cognitive Student Outcomes

Two of four studies, which assessed teacher empathy via student report and a test instrument, provided less support (64% of the investigated effects were not significant; see Table 5 ) for the role of secondary school teacher empathy in students’ cognitive outcomes in terms of achievement test scores, grades, and students’ self-reported abilities in mathematics (Aldrup et al.,  2020 ; Curci et al., 2014 ). Franklin ( 2014 ) found a positive relationship between elementary school teachers’ self-reported empathic concern and students’ reading ( r = .17, p < .05), but not mathematics achievement growth ( r = .00, p > .05). Latchaw ( 2017 ) revealed that college students rating their teachers’ awareness of others’ emotions higher expected a better end-of-course grade ( r = .22, p < .01).

Psychosocial Student Outcomes

Seven of ten studies found little evidence of a relationship between teacher empathy and students’ psychosocial outcomes (72% of the investigated effects were not significant; see Table 5 ). More specifically, preschool teachers who reported a greater ability in perceiving the emotions of others neither noticed more social skills nor fewer peer problems, general anxiety, emotional problems, aggressiveness, conduct problems, or hyperactivity among their students (Poulou, 2017 ; Poulou et al., 2018 ). Contrary to expectations, students even reported more frequent bullying in middle schools employing teachers who rated their empathic concern and perspective taking higher (Underwood, 2010 ). Moreover, teachers at integrated schools who perceived themselves as more empathic did not rate their students as showing less misconduct in class (Nizielski et al., 2012 ) and students did not indicate greater receptivity and involvement in these teachers’ courses (Wen, 2020 ). Likewise, in two small studies ( N ≤ 12) with teachers at a junior high school and in an adult evening master’s program, respectively, there was no association between teachers’ ability to perceive and understand emotions as measured with the MSCEIT (Mayer et al., 2002 ) and student-reported involvement in class (Heckathorn, 2013 ), their scholastic self-esteem, metacognitive beliefs, and goal setting (Curci et al., 2014 ; one of 14 correlations was statistically significant, but all rs  < .12).

In contrast, Aldrup et al., ( 2020 ) showed that secondary school students who perceived their mathematics teacher as more sensitive reported lower mathematics anxiety and were appraised as less anxious by their parents (−.18 ≤ r ≤ −.07). Okonofua et al. ( 2016 ) found that middle school students’ suspension rates were statistically significantly lower among teachers who had participated in an empathic mindset intervention ( r = –.10, p < .001). Furthermore, Polat and Ulusoy-Oztan ( 2009 ) showed that primary school students rated their emotional intelligence higher when their teachers evaluated their own ability to perceive other people’s emotions more positively ( r = .30, p < .01).

Empathy is considered one factor determining prosocial behavior among all humans (Preston & de Waal, 2002 ) and argued to be relevant for teachers’ professional effectiveness given the high social and emotional demands inherent to daily interactions with students (Brackett & Katulak, 2007 ; Jennings & Greenberg, 2009 ). Against this background, we aimed to review the empirical evidence for these theoretical assumptions and identified 41 journal articles, theses, chapters, and conference papers providing insights to the role of teacher empathy in the quality of teacher-student interactions and student outcomes. To date, most research has accumulated on the relationship between teachers’ empathy and their emotional support for students, whereas we know much less about other domains of teacher-student interactions and student outcomes. Overall, there was limited evidence for a statistically significant positive association between empathy and any of the dependent variables considered in this research synthesis. The exception were studies relying exclusively on teacher self-report for assessing empathy and their own (likely) behavior in terms of quality of teacher-student interactions (e.g., Abacioglu et al., 2020 ). In this regard, the most consistent finding was that teachers reporting greater empathy for a bullied student in a hypothetical scenario indicated a greater likelihood to intervene in the situation (e.g., Sokol et al., 2016 ; Yoon, 2004 ). Even though these studies show that feeling concerned for students in specific situations makes teachers more motivated to help them, it remains unknown whether teachers would actually behave as intended in a real classroom situation and whether they would choose appropriate interventions. Thus, at first glance, these findings do not support the theoretical assumptions of an association of teacher empathy with the quality of teacher-student interactions and student outcomes.

One explanation might be that other social-emotional characteristics are more important for predicting the quality of teacher-student interactions, emotional support in particular, and student outcomes. For example, recent studies linked teachers’ mindfulness—a nonjudgmental awareness and acceptance of one’s present experiences (Brown & Ryan, 2003 )—to higher levels of emotional support for students (Jennings, 2015 ; Jennings et al., 2017 ). Furthermore, there is growing evidence regarding the importance of teacher well-being. Prior studies found a positive association between teachers’ work enthusiasm with emotional support, student motivation, and achievement, whereas the reverse was true for burnout symptoms (Arens & Morin, 2016 ; Klusmann et al., 2016 ; Keller et al., 2016 ; Kunter et al., 2013 ; Shen et al., 2015 ). However, it is also possible that researchers have not been able to discover a relationship between empathy, the quality of teacher-student interactions, and student outcomes because they have not attended to some key methodological and conceptual issues that we consider vital for obtaining valid results in future research.

Avenues for Future Research

Dealing with common method bias and the valid assessment of empathy.

The majority of studies we reviewed applied teacher self-report measures of empathy in combination with self-report measures of interaction quality and student outcomes. This poses the risk of common method bias, which can cause positively biased associations between predictor and outcome variables (Podsakoff et al., 2003 ). Therefore, research can only provide valid conclusions about the role of teacher empathy in the quality of teacher-student interactions and student outcomes if more studies combine different data sources. To achieve this, researchers in the field have pursued different strategies.

One approach is to treat common method bias by measuring the dependent variable via student questionnaires, classroom observations, or achievement tests (e.g., Hu et al., 2018 ). This approach enables researchers to investigate whether teacher empathy becomes manifest in teachers’ actions and whether others notice differences between teachers with higher versus lower empathy. Considering the perspectives of other raters except for the teacher appears particularly important because students and external observers often perceive interaction quality differently than the teachers themselves do (e.g., Fauth et al., 2014a ; Kunter & Baumert, 2006 ). In this review, ten studies combined teacher self-report measures with other sources for assessing the outcome. The evidence in these studies was mixed and some found at least partial support for the hypothesis that empathy is associated with effective teaching (Franklin, 2014 ; Ghanizadeh & Moafian, 2010 ; Khodadady, 2012 ; Polat & Ulusoy-Oztan, 2009 ; Swartz & McElwain, 2012 ) whereas others did not (Fults, 2019 ; Hu et al., 2018 ; Petsos & Gorizidis, 2019 ; Underwood, 2010 ; Wen, 2020 ).

One explanation for the heterogeneous results could lie in the comparably small sample sizes. Only two of the studies were based on more than 100 participants—a sample size that is required for detecting medium effects—and five included 50 or less. Small sample sizes reduce the statistical power to detect meaningful effects. Yet, there is also evidence that effect sizes are larger in small samples, perhaps, because they are less likely to be published when yielding insignificant results than expensive larger studies (Slavin & Smith, 2009 ). Thus, future studies should include a sufficient number of teachers to avoid these issues.

Another reason for the inconsistent findings could be the construct validity of self-report empathy measures. Caring for others is at the core of teachers’ professional identity so self-serving bias could cause teachers to describe themselves more positively in terms of their empathy level (O’Connor, 2008 ; Wubbels et al., 1993 ). Furthermore, the self-assessment of social-emotional abilities is now questioned as correlations with objective tools are rather small but objective tools appear more closely related to social behavior (Brackett & Mayer, 2003 , Brackett et al., 2006 ). Therefore, the use of tests rather than self-report questionnaires (e.g., Hall, 2009 ) could improve the measurement of empathy in future research. At the same time, this strategy provides the opportunity to avoid common method bias. However, the few studies that have pursued this strategy have mostly yielded insignificant results. Again, only two of nine studies included more than 100 participants and five drew on only 32 teachers or less. Thus, studies with appropriate power are needed to evaluate the potential of objective empathy assessments.

In addition, we expected the closest relationship between empathy and emotional support, but as evident in Figure 3 , many of the methodologically sophisticated studies included either other domains of teacher-student interaction quality or student outcomes (e.g., Corcoran & Tormey, 2013 ; Hall, 2009 ). Thus, it was less likely to find pronounced effects in these studies from a conceptual point of view.

Finally, except for Friedman ( 2014 ), previous work with objective assessments has relied on tools that appear rather distant from teachers’ daily work with students. For example, in one subtest of the frequently used MSCEIT (Mayer et al., 2002 ), participants see images of landscapes and artwork and evaluate the degree to which the pictures express certain emotions. Consequently, it appears necessary to use measurement instruments more closely aligned with teachers’ professional tasks.

A Profession-Specific Perspective on Teacher Empathy

As the findings from our review showed, studies investigating the relationship between empathy with victims of bullying and the likelihood to intervene yielded the most robust and substantial correlations. In addition to the fact that both were assessed from the teacher perspective, one explanation for the close association could be that independent and dependent variable refer to the same situation. Another finding supporting the value of a profession-specific approach is that among the few studies of this kind, which either asked students about their teachers’ sensitivity for their emotions or intervened in teachers’ empathy with students (Aldrup et al., 2020 ; Okonofua et al., 2016 ), found statistically significant associations with interaction quality and student outcomes. However, only a few researchers have adapted and developed empathy questionnaires and tests that explicitly ask teachers to refer to the professional context; hence, more instruments of this kind are needed (Friedman, 2014 ; Wu et al., 2019 ; Zinsser et al., 2015 ). To go beyond paper-pencil formats and for a realistic assessment of cognitive empathy, the dyadic interaction paradigm (Ickes, 2001 ), which is frequently applied in empathic accuracy research, could serve as a guideline. Here, a dyad’s interaction is videotaped and each participant individually writes down their thoughts and feelings during specific episodes. Then, the partner’s task is to indicate what their counterpart experienced. In researching teachers’ empathy, one could videotape teacher-student interactions. Furthermore, teachers’ affective empathy has been only assessed via questionnaires thus far, which appears reasonable because it reflects a person’s subjective experiences. Nonetheless, one could also consider using teachers’ facial expressions in response to students’ emotions as an indicator of their affective empathy (e.g., Marx et al., 2019 ).

Moreover, in developing profession-specific instruments, considering different levels of specificity would allow us to gain additional insights about the degree to which teacher empathy is context-dependent. One option would be a situation-specific assessment as was done in bullying research (e.g., Yoon, 2004 ). Likewise, Friedman ( 2014 ) developed a tool for measuring teachers’ ability to perceive and understand students’ emotions during a hypothetical disciplinary incident in class. Another option would be a class-specific assessment. At the secondary school level in particular, teachers see different groups of students each day and it may be easier for them to empathize with some than with others, for example, depending on the students’ age or the number of lessons they see each other per week. Furthermore, Frenzel et al. ( 2015 ) showed that teachers’ emotions largely depend on the class they teach. Being in a class that elicits enjoyment rather than anger or anxiety could facilitate cognitive empathy because positive emotions promote cognitive processes (e.g., broaden-and-build theory, Fredrickson, 2001 ). Of course, one could think of several other relevant specific situations such as empathy with students struggling with content or with students from specific backgrounds who are at risk of adverse developmental trajectories. For example, Warren ( 2015 ) developed a scale measuring teacher empathy for African American males.

Importantly, when using situation- or class-specific assessments, we suggest aligning the specificity of the empathy measure and the dependent variable of interest. We will give an example to illustrate this point: The instrument developed by Friedman ( 2014 ) measures empathy in a very specific situation, but does not tell us about the teachers’ ability to recognize their students’ emotions and take their perspectives in other contexts. Hence, finding an association with dependent variables closely connected to the specific situation of the empathy measure is most likely, whereas a relationship with broader variables appears less probable. Finding no relationship between Friedman’s ( 2014 ) measure of empathy and classroom observations of teacher-student interactions is in line with this idea. Inversely, this means that one should refrain from using situation- or class-specific instruments when the research interest is in explaining teaching effectiveness more broadly.

Interplay with Other Teacher Characteristics and Students’ Prerequisites

In addition to methodological challenges, our unexpected finding could be because teacher empathy alone is not sufficient to achieve high-quality teacher-student interactions and positive student outcomes. First, a hierarchical organization of social-emotional competence is hypothesized with empathy being a precursor of more advanced abilities such as emotion and relationship management (Joseph & Newman, 2010 ; Mayer & Salovey, 1997 ). From this perspective, it can be argued that teacher empathy can only be effective in combination with knowledge and skills about effective behavior in social situations. In line with this, Aldrup, Carstensen et al. ( 2020 ) showed that teachers with greater knowledge about relationship management reported providing more emotional support and perceived their relationships with students more positively.

Second, it is possible that teacher empathy only shows when teachers are motivated to act accordingly. In other words, they may not always display their full empathic potential. Considering the finding that teachers’ emotions largely depend on the group of students they teach (Frenzel et al., 2015 ), one could speculate that teachers will be more motivated to demonstrate empathic behavior in a class they like, making a class-specific assessment of empathy particularly interesting in this line of research. Further aspects, such as emotional stability, pro-sociality, or self-efficacy, have been suggested as relevant determinants of the degree to which people perform empathic behavior (Cavell, 1990 ; DuBois & Felner, 2003 ; Rose-Krasnor, 1997 ). Furthermore, teacher empathy may interact with their well-being such that burnout and the lack of emotional resources impair teachers’ empathy (Trauernicht et al., 2021 ). Likewise, other teacher characteristics may mask their empathy. For instance, the belief that strict discipline is needed because children are naturally rebellious and lazy could lead teacher to suppress empathic tendencies (c.f., Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2006 ).

Third, empathy may not always be beneficial as is evident in the phenomenon of compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue denotes a loss of interest in empathizing with others and a lack of energy, which can result from self-giving work with people who are in pressing need for help (Adams et al., 2006 ; Knobloch Coetzee & Klopper, 2010 ). In other words, excessive empathy puts people at risk of suffering themselves. For example, teachers with greater empathy for victims of bullying also feel angrier and sadder when witnessing bullying incidents (Sokol et al., 2016 ). To alleviate negative feelings and protect one’s emotional resources, teachers may eventually distance themselves from their students (for a similar line of reasoning, also see Maslach et al., 2001 ). In line with this, prior research showed that people who feel distressed by seeing other people suffering avoid the situation or even show aggressive reactions (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1990 ). Hence, both low and extremely high levels of teacher empathy might be problematic potentially causing a nonlinear relationship with the quality of teacher-student interactions and student outcomes. Considering this, teachers may only benefit from extremely high levels of empathy if they are able to distance themselves from the emotional demands of their work. Potentially interesting moderators of the empathy-outcome relationship include emotion regulation and mindfulness. Prior research shows that they reduce negative emotions so they could be a protective resource for highly empathic teachers (Klingbeil & Renshaw, 2018 ; Lee et al., 2016 ).

In addition to investigating the interplay between empathy and other social-emotional teacher characteristics, we suggest considering whether students’ prerequisite moderate the role of empathy in the quality of teacher-student interactions and student outcomes. For example, prior research shows that teachers play a more prominent role in the development of students at risk of adverse educational trajectories (Hamre & Pianta, 2005 ; Klusmann et al., 2016 ). Hence, teacher empathy might be particularly relevant for students with a low socioeconomic status or with cognitive or social-emotional difficulties. Another important aspect might be students’ age. On the one hand, one could assume that teacher empathy is particularly relevant for young students, for example, because they are still more dependent on adult support to regulate their emotions (Calkins & Hill, 2009 ). On the other hand, student disengagement represents a particular challenge during adolescence and teachers often struggle to meet adolescents’ developmental needs (Eccles & Midgley, 1989 ; Wang & Eccles, 2012 ). Thus, teachers who consider adolescents’ perspectives and care for their feelings might be particularly important during this phase. In line with this assumption, meta-analytic evidence shows that the association between the teacher-student relationship and student engagement and achievement gets closer for older students (Roorda et al., 2017 ).

Limitations

In this article, we aimed to provide the first comprehensive overview of prior research on the relationship between teacher empathy, teacher-student interactions, and student outcomes. Therefore, we included studies from different lines of research that diverge in their operationalization of empathy. For example and as outlined in the Results section, even though both the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980 ) and the MSCEIT (Mayer et al., 2002 ) were designed to measure whether one is able to consider other’s perspectives, the types of questions/tasks differ substantially. Thus, it is unclear whether all studies actually measured the same underlying construct. A similar problem applies to our dependent variables where there was large heterogeneity in terms of the instruments.

Furthermore, we decided to consider theses, proceedings papers, and book chapters in addition to studies from peer-reviewed journals. Almost half of the studies were not from journal articles. Thus, our approach allowed for a more exhaustive overview of the field and helped to reduce the risk of publication bias. The large number of studies with insignificant results let us conclude that our strategy for reducing publication bias was successful. However, it may have reduced the quality of the included studies. Even though follow-up analyses revealed no differences between the publication types in terms of sample size or the avoidance of common method bias, we cannot rule out other potential limitations such as lower quality of data collection, preparation, and analyses in studies from sources other than journals.

In addition, a large number of studies assessed constructs relevant for our review without reporting correlation analyses. Due to our concerns about the reliance on teacher self-report measures for assessing the independent and dependent variables, we decided to contact the authors only when they had pursued a different methodological approach. Because studies that included only teacher questionnaires typically found closer associations, we should note that our decision might have reduced the number of statistically significant results.

Finally, a meta-analytical analysis would have been ideal to investigate the extent to which methodological study characteristics moderate the size of effects (Borenstein, 2009 ). Nonetheless, we decided against this approach as we identified only a relatively small number of relevant studies for most dependent variables. In addition, we had the impression that computing an overall effect size was not appropriate because of the huge heterogeneity in the research field. The different methodological approaches are not equally valid for assessing empathy and sophisticated studies typically included small samples reducing their weight in meta-analyses.

Theoretical models (e.g., Jennings & Greenberg, 2009 ) emphasize the relevance of teachers’ empathy for high-quality teacher-student interactions and positive student outcomes, but to date, only limited evidence supports this claim. Nonetheless, rather than abandoning the idea that teacher empathy is a relevant construct, we call for methodologically sophisticated studies that go beyond teacher self-report and allow for robust conclusions. Perhaps, we would otherwise overlook an important social-emotional teacher characteristic, where there is an urgent need for action given that teachers frequently struggle to recognize student emotions (Karing et al., 2013 ; Spinath, 2005 ).

References marked with an asterisk indicate studies included in the review

*Abacioglu, C. S., Volman, M., & Fischer, A. H. (2019). Teacher interventions to student misbehaviors: The role of ethnicity, emotional intelligence, and multicultural attitudes. Current Psychology . https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00498-1

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Aldrup, K., Carstensen, B. & Klusmann, U. Is Empathy the Key to Effective Teaching? A Systematic Review of Its Association with Teacher-Student Interactions and Student Outcomes. Educ Psychol Rev 34 , 1177–1216 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09649-y

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How to Help High School Students Develop Empathy

Writing exercises, opportunities for cultural exchange, and encouraging active listening can lead to more empathy among teens.

High school students spend a lot of time thinking about who they are and who they will be in the world. They think about their upcoming decisions about college and careers. All this naturally pushes them toward a lot of concern with “I.” Educators need to help ensure that the “we” stays in the picture as well. And that’s why it’s necessary to encourage empathy in high school.

8 Ways to Help High School Students Show Empathy

1. Give students a chance to express their feelings about losses. When adolescents don’t feel like they belong, they feel great despair. Now more than ever, adults must be sensitive to how much loss can destabilize high school students because it shakes their feelings of belonging. Losses in their families, not being able to interact with friends, missing teams and performance groups… these and more are being carried by high school students all the time. Particularly when students return in the fall, very early in the school year, show your empathy toward students by giving them an opportunity to write about losses. You can make it personalized, or you can allow it to be hypothetical, in which students will pour their actual feelings into prose, poetry, or other forms of artistic expression.

2. Use the prompt, “How do you think that person/those people felt?” Regardless of subject area—reading a novel, talking about scientific accomplishments, reviewing events in history, reading stories about the contemporary world—asking students to understand the emotions of the people involved exercises their empathy muscles. After a while, they will start asking themselves this question without your prompting—a key aspect of empathy.

3. Create an exchange program. Empathy and taking others’ perspectives go hand in hand. So arrange for your students to have regular exchanges—via class-to-class Zoom or the pen-pal approach (whether via old-fashioned paper or email)—with people who come from different backgrounds and situations. Consider partnering with a school overseas. Help with this can come from the European Network for Social and Emotional Competence or the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders through Rutgers University Professor Ronald Quincy. He can help connect teachers with Mandela fellows who are often teachers in Africa. You can also make arrangements with senior citizen centers, youth detention facilities, Veterans Administration centers, the Wounded Warrior Project , and related organizations. The possibilities are endless.

4. Have students study characters from books. Your students can learn by carefully observing characters they’re reading about. Ask them to consider a character’s perspective. Then have them discuss their interpretations with the class or small groups. For an added challenge, ask your students to write dialogue they anticipate might happen in upcoming chapters, using the author’s writing style as a guide.

This is an exercise that needs to be handled very carefully; the goal is to help students see other perspectives, but there’s a risk that they will denigrate others instead—for example, by replicating stereotypes or prejudices.

[ Editor’s note: This exercise has been updated since the article was first published.]

5. Listen, really listen. It’s natural and all too common for students in classes and groups to worry about what they’re going to say and not listen to others. Here is a simple antidote: Ask students to repeat the response of a classmate before giving their answer (“Afghouli said, ‘I think…’”). Cognitive psychologist Irv Sigel, who studied question asking and answering extensively, noted that there is no need to do this all the time. Once you intersperse this kind of request regularly and at varying intervals in a class, students will start to anticipate and listen more carefully.

6. Assign an essay on “me at my best.” To help leaven “I” with “we,” ask students to write an essay (in whatever format they are learning in their English classes) with this focus: When am I at my best? With whom and when? How and why does the presence of others help me be better?

7. Ask students about the movie that moves them most.  Then, ask them to do the following assignment about it. Once they have done so, they can share in pairs and small groups and report out on one another’s perspectives. This definitely has a broadening effect, as students tend to think everyone will see a “moving movie” the same way that they do.

• What is the movie?
• Summarize the plot.
• Name the main characters and describe their personalities, especially how they treat others.
• Identify three parts of the movie that gave you the strongest emotional reactions. What emotions did you feel and why?
• What was it about the movie that led you to empathize with it so much—to have the reactions intended by the writer, director, and actors?

8. Show students how to succeed and fail at interviews. Throughout high school, students will find themselves in interviews for various kinds of positions, and this will lead to college and career-related interviews in their senior year. Lynne Azarchi, author of The Empathy Advantage and inspiration for this blog, believes students need to know that interviewees are most successful when they can take the perspective of the interviewer. In advisories and group-guidance experiences, time can be devoted to these questions: What are interviewers looking for? What do they not want to see? After getting some discussion by students, be sure these key points are covered:

Desirable qualities:

• Good formal email communication
• Respectfulness during the whole interview process, including to all staff
• Preparation—knows about the company, business, or school
• Commitment to being a team player
• Willingness to go out of one’s comfort zone
• Concern for others; can speak about interest and involvement in some social, environmental, charitable, or service causes

Undesirable qualities:

• Wandering eyes
• Weak handshake
• Very short answers

Inability to read and match the interviewer in terms of loudness of voice, speed of speech, posture; disinterest in a long response

The importance of empathy—and its close cousin, compassion—is becoming more and more clear as we see what’s happening in the world around us. Let’s be sure to prepare our high school students to contribute as more considerate and caring citizens.

Why Empathy is Declining Among Students and What We Can Do

Emotional intelligence—and specifically empathy—is spiraling downward among kids.

Posted March 20, 2014

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As we keep our ear to the ground, we continue to hear reports that emotional intelligence —and specifically empathy—is spiraling downward among kids. The sociology department at the University of Michigan, led by Dr. William Axinn at the Population Studies Center , tells us that college students today are approximately 40 percent less empathetic than they were just ten years ago . That’s quite a drop. I find it quite strange that in a generation more connected to each other than ever, young adults find it increasingly difficult to feel compassion toward each other.

Why is that?

Let me remind you of the realities in their world.

1. Screen time

As screen time goes up, empathy goes down. Follow it. You will find that the more a student is in front of a video, computer, or phone screen, their level of empathy for people drops. Cognitive understanding is at an all-time high, but to feel the pain of others emotionally may just be at an all-time low.

You’re response : Balance screen time with face-to-face time and explain it. For every hour your kids spend watching a screen, they should spend equal time with people.

2. Information Overload

Between commercial messages, texts, emails, Facebook posts, Instagrams, YouTube videos, etc, a student today receives about 1,000 messages every day. It’s too much information; students are forced to develop filters in their brains to screen out data. Sadly, content that is emotionally expensive often doesn’t make the cut.

Your response : Talk about this reality with your students and let them “own” how they must filter out unnecessary information so they can digest what really matters.

3. Consequential Behavior

Kids have grown up in a world where mistakes or tragedy they witness often doesn’t carry consequences. They see a friend commit a crime , or cheat on a test, but get off easy. They see people get shot on TV or on a violent video game but it doesn’t mean anything. This desensitizes kids and makes them emotionally uninvolved.

Your response : The next time a student fails, be sure they feel the consequences. It’s a reality check. Talk over the long-term unintended price tag of failure.

4. Virtual Reality.

I’ve said this for years. Students have lots of experiences, but many are virtual . To witness something on a YouTube video that lasts two minutes and can be shut off just doesn’t enlist the emotions of a viewer. It’s a squirt of data. Herbert Simon said, “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention .”

Your response : Take your students to experience poverty or disease in a homeless shelter or a cancer ward. Nothing like “touching the real thing” to cultivate empathy.

5. Role Models.

Sometimes, students fail to develop empathy because they see a generation of adults lead with a jaded, cynical attitude . We are all wary of being taken advantage of or being conned, so we keep our guard up. Because we don’t want to be “victims” we prevent ourselves from feeling what true victims feel.

Your response : Be intentional to talking over current events, like school shootings or victims of natural disasters and share your feelings about them. Model empathy.

Tim Elmore is the founder and president of Growing Leaders, an international non-profit organization created to develop emerging leaders.

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Learn How to Write a Perfect Empathy Essay

Are you having a hard time, finding good tips and tricks on writing an empathy essay? Of course, writing it gets easy when you have the proper guidelines. Such as the  professional research paper writers  have for you in this interesting blog post.

Writing an empathy essay is like delving into understanding emotions, seeing things from other’s perspectives, and showing care and understanding. It talks about how empathy shapes relationships, impacts society, and why it’s vital for a kinder world.

No need to fret, as this blog post is like a friendly guide for beginners that will help them understand everything about writing an empathy essay. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

Table of Contents

What is an Empathy Essay?

An empathy essay or emotions essay revolves around the exploration and analysis of empathy as a concept, trait, or practice. It’s about exploring and analyzing what empathy is all about, whether it’s a concept, a trait, or something you have to practice. You know, getting into the nitty-gritty of understanding emotions, different perspectives, and how we can relate to other people’s experiences.

The point of this essay is to show how empathy is super important in relationships, connections between people, and even in society as a whole. It’s all about showing how empathy plays a big role and why it’s so important.

Key elements in empathy writing include a clear definition and explanation of empathy, supported by relatable anecdotes or case studies to illustrate its application. It should delve into empathy’s psychological and societal implications, discussing its effects on individual well-being, relationships, and society at large. Moreover, the empathy essays require a balanced exploration of challenges and complexities related to empathy, such as cultural differences, biases, and the boundaries of empathy in various situations.

Students might find it useful to consider a  professional paper writing service  for an empathy essay due to various reasons. These services often provide access to experienced writers who specialize in crafting well-researched and structured essays. Professional writers can offer a fresh perspective, present nuanced arguments, and ensure the essay meets academic standards.

Why Empathy Essay Writing is Challenging for Some Students?

Writing an essay with empathy can pose challenges for students due to several reasons.

Complex Nature of Empathy

Understanding empathy involves navigating emotional intelligence, perspective-taking, and compassionate understanding, which can be challenging to articulate coherently.

Subjectivity and Personal Experience

Expressing subjective feelings and personal experiences while maintaining objectivity in empathic writing can be difficult for students.

Navigating Sensitivity

Addressing sensitive topics and human complexities while maintaining a respectful and empathetic tone in writing can be demanding.

Handling Diverse Perspectives

Grasping and objectively presenting diverse perspectives across different cultural and social contexts can pose a challenge.

Time Constraints and Academic Pressures

Juggling multiple assignments and deadlines might limit the time and focus students can dedicate to thoroughly researching and crafting an empathy essay.

Expert Tips on Writing a Perfect Empathy Essay

Here are some tips with corresponding examples for writing an empathy essay:

Start with a Compelling Story

Begin your essay with a narrative that illustrates empathy in action. For instance, recount a personal experience where you or someone else demonstrated empathy. For instance:

Example:  As a child, I vividly recall a moment when my grandmother’s empathetic nature became evident. Despite her own struggles, she always took time to comfort others, such as when she helped a neighbor through a difficult loss.

Define Empathy Clearly

Define empathy and its various dimensions using simple language.

Example:  Empathy goes beyond sympathy; it’s about understanding and feeling what someone else is experiencing. It involves recognizing emotions and responding with care and understanding.

Use Real-life Examples

For achieving empathy in writing, incorporate real-life instances or case studies to emphasize empathy’s impact.

Example:  Research shows how empathy in healthcare professionals led to improved patient outcomes. Doctors who showed empathy were found to have patients with higher satisfaction rates and better recovery.

Explore Perspectives

Discuss different perspectives on empathy and its challenges.

Example:  While empathy is crucial, cultural differences can sometimes pose challenges. For instance, what’s considered empathetic in one culture might differ in another, highlighting the need for cultural sensitivity.

Highlight Benefits

Explain the positive outcomes of empathy in various contexts.

Example:  In workplaces, empathy fosters a more cohesive team environment. A study by the researcher found that leaders who display empathy tend to have more engaged and motivated teams.

Acknowledge Challenges

Address the complexities or limitations of empathy.

Example:  Despite its benefits, there are challenges in maintaining boundaries in empathetic relationships. It’s important to balance being empathetic and avoiding emotional burnout.

Conclude with Impact

Wrap up by emphasizing the broader impact of empathy.

Example:  Ultimately, fostering empathy creates a ripple effect, contributing to a more compassionate and understanding society, where individuals feel seen, heard, and supported.

Steps of Writing an Empathy Essay

Here are the steps for writing an empathy essay. You’ll notice that most of the steps are the same as  writing a research paper  or any such academic task.

Understanding the Topic

Familiarize yourself with the concept of empathy and its various dimensions. Define what empathy means to you and what aspects you aim to explore in your essay.

Gather information from credible sources, including academic articles, books, and real-life examples that illustrate empathy’s role and impact. Take notes on key points and examples that you can incorporate into your essays on empathy

Create an outline that includes an introduction (with a thesis statement defining the scope of your essay), body paragraphs discussing different aspects of empathy (such as its definition, importance, challenges, and benefits), and a conclusion summarizing the main points.

Introduction

Start your essay with a compelling hook or anecdote related to empathy. Introduce the topic and provide a clear thesis statement outlining what you’ll discuss in the essay.

Body Paragraphs

Each paragraph should focus on a specific aspect of empathy supported by evidence or examples. Discuss empathy’s definition, its significance in different contexts (personal, societal, professional), challenges in practicing empathy, benefits, and potential limitations.

Use Examples

Incorporate real-life examples or case studies to illustrate your points and make them relatable to the reader.

Address Counterarguments

Acknowledge differing perspectives or potential counterarguments related to empathy and address them thoughtfully within your essay.

Summarize the main points discussed in the essay. Restate the significance of empathy and its impact, leaving the reader with a lasting impression or call to action.

Edit and Revise

Review your essay for coherence, clarity, and consistency. Check for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. Ensure that your ideas flow logically and that your essay effectively communicates your thoughts on empathy.

Make any necessary revisions based on feedback or additional insights. Ensure that your essay meets the guidelines and requirements if it’s for a specific assignment. Then, finalize and submit your empathy essay.

Final Thoughts

In this blog post, we’ve tried to make writing an empathy essay easier for students. We’ve explained it step by step, using easy examples and clear explanations. The goal is to help students understand what empathy is and how to write about it in an essay.

The steps we’ve shared for writing an empathy essay are straightforward. They start with understanding the topic and doing research, then move on to outlining, writing, and polishing the essay. We’ve highlighted the importance of using personal stories, real-life examples, and organizing ideas well.

Students can benefit from our  assignment writing service  for their empathy essays. Our experienced writers can provide expert help, ensuring the essays meet academic standards and are well-written. This support saves time and helps students focus on other schoolwork while getting a top-notch empathy essay.

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Empathy and the Religious "Enemy"

Fieldwork & education with nonjudgmental, empathic listening, student essay: a tool for humanization.

In these essays, students reflect upon the study of radical religious groups, including qualitative data analysis of video interviews, through an upper level course at Miami University.

Empathy and the Religious “Enemy” — A Tool for Humanization

Coming into the first day of class, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect out of “Empathy and the Religious ‘Enemy’” except a large amount of work and the stress that was bound to follow.  In walked Dr. Hillel Gray, and I don’t think I had ever had a professor be so enthusiastic about a class. Though, I soon asked myself, “what have you gotten yourself into?” 

 I had no real experience in coding videos or analyzing those videos in any sort of significant way, and this was a hefty part of the requirements for our final paper and most of the class was based around this.  I was already in too deep to back out now, so I began going through the hours of interviews from Westboro Baptist Church, a fundamentalist Christian group that is often thought of as hateful and intolerant by mainstream society and is a part of Dr. Gray’s ongoing research project based around the idea of empathizing with those who may have radically different opinions and perspectives.  

As I was studying one of the elders of the church, Jonathan Phelps, I began to realize that there was more to these people than what is seen in the media.  This is precisely the goal of the project, not to create change of any kind in the subjects of the research, but rather to change the researcher’s, and by extension larger society’s, understanding and ability to relate to an “oppositional Other.”  

Jonathan Phelps is the son of Fred Phelps Sr., the original head and founder of Westboro Baptist Church. Through my own research, I had the opportunity to analyze the ways in which he conceptualizes empathy, and if this is the way that he puts it into practice. This analysis uncovered the connection between his religious ideology and how he is conceptualizing empathy, as well as the ways empathy may look different when “put into action,” so to speak.  

In conceptualizing empathy, Jonathan expressed a view that members of the church should not feel empathy fully toward outsiders of the church because of the possibility that it might cause them to accept the sins of that person, which is based largely on the doctrinal teachings of the church. Yet, when he was speaking about outsiders, and especially clients that he works with as a juvenile defender, he was able to express deep feelings of empathy and compassion, sometimes being brought to tears as he was discussing specific client’s cases.  This potentially was the cause of some tension I observed, when in some instances he would try to change the topic of conversation when he was beginning to get emotional.  

Viewing Jonathan through this analytical lens of conceptual and practical empathy has helped me to expand my understanding of what empathy means, as well as practicing critical distance when analyzing interview footage.  Of course, there were moments where he would express theological or moral viewpoints, but I was able to work on suspending judgement and approaching the research in an unbiased way.

Despite these findings and reflections, some may still wonder why we are doing this research.  Why would we give voice to a group that is widely thought to have hateful rhetoric? Why might we subject our researchers to this potentially harmful viewpoint (considering they often express anti-LGBTQ and anti-military opinions)?  It is a vast misconception of this project that we are sympathizing with any of these groups, or giving voice to their theological opinion. Empathy requires no moral requirement for action, and it doesn’t involve feeling pity, compassion, or sorrow for the situation that a person is in.  On the contrary, our empathic approach is about creating a cognitive and affective understanding of how they are feeling, with the goal of simply understanding their humanity and lived experiences. This could contribute to a process of humanization, which is one of the most relevant implications of this sort of methodology in our modern society.  There is often a tendency to dehumanize and villainize anyone who may be thought of as an “enemy” in any context. This can cause us to take them down to a lower status, thus making it easier to take a position of apathy or even opposition to their general welfare. Non-judgmental empathic listening has the potential to humanize those who are vilified and seen as the “enemy”, as well as giving the opportunity to forge relationships with these people allowing for enhancement of the research.  

The broader results of the project also have the potential to dispel prejudices and stereotypes through the nature of its relationship-building methodology.  By getting to know individual participants of groups which are often deemed hateful, it’s easier to see that they aren’t all of the stereotypes that are put on the whole group.  Creating familiarity and cognitive understanding of the empathy and emotions of people provides a greater ability to see them not as those stereotypes, but as who they are, and as more fully as human.  Practically, this sort of research and methodology can be helpful in having civil conversations with those who may have a different opinion. It is no shock that we live in an increasingly divisive and politically and socially polarized society, so a critical empathic approach has the potential to change the ways in which different political parties have civil discourse around issues that they differ on.  Despite being somewhat controversial research, it could be really helpful to see how those whom we see as “other” are treated as lesser, and make efforts to show that they are just people, too.  

Essay on Empathy

Students are often asked to write an essay on Empathy in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Empathy

Understanding empathy.

Empathy is feeling what others feel. It’s like stepping into someone’s shoes and understanding their emotions. Empathy helps us connect with others.

Why is Empathy Important?

Empathy is important because it builds strong relationships. It helps us understand others better, making us kinder and compassionate.

Empathy in Everyday Life

We use empathy every day. When a friend is sad, we feel their sorrow. This understanding helps us be supportive.

Developing Empathy

We can develop empathy by listening and observing others. Remember, it’s about understanding, not agreeing. Practice empathy to grow as a person.

Also check:

• Paragraph on Empathy
• Speech on Empathy

250 Words Essay on Empathy

Empathy, a fundamental aspect of human connection, is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. It’s a cognitive attribute, allowing us to perceive the world from another’s perspective. It’s not merely about feeling the same emotions, but comprehending the emotional state of another, without losing the distinction between self and other.

The Types of Empathy

Empathy manifests in three primary forms: cognitive, emotional, and compassionate. Cognitive empathy refers to understanding someone’s thoughts and emotions, acting as a bridge for communication. Emotional empathy, on the other hand, involves sharing the feelings of others, often leading to a deep emotional connection. Compassionate empathy, the most actionable, combines understanding and feeling to drive us to help, if possible.

Empathy and Society

Empathy plays a pivotal role in society. It fosters tolerance, understanding, and mutual respect, acting as the glue that holds diverse communities together. Without empathy, societies would struggle to function harmoniously, leading to a rise in conflict and misunderstanding.

The Neurobiology of Empathy

Recent research in neuroscience has discovered the existence of ‘mirror neurons,’ cells in the brain that activate both when we perform an action and when we observe someone else performing the same action. This discovery has provided a biological basis for empathy, highlighting its inherent role in our lives.

In conclusion, empathy is a powerful tool that allows us to connect with others on a profound level. It’s an essential trait for maintaining harmony within societies and understanding the world around us.

500 Words Essay on Empathy

Introduction to empathy.

Empathy, a complex psychological phenomenon, is a fundamental aspect of human interaction. It is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, a bridge between self and others. Empathy allows us to perceive the world not only from our perspective but also from the viewpoint of other individuals.

The Two Dimensions of Empathy

Empathy is broadly divided into two dimensions: affective and cognitive. Affective empathy refers to the sensations and feelings we get in response to others’ emotions. It’s the ability to respond emotionally to another’s psychological state. Cognitive empathy, on the other hand, involves understanding others’ emotions from a more intellectual perspective. It’s the ability to identify and understand other people’s emotions.

The Role of Empathy in Society

Empathy plays a crucial role in society. By fostering understanding and compassion, it helps build strong and healthy relationships. It’s the foundation of effective communication, conflict resolution, and cooperation. Empathy is also a key aspect of leadership as it helps leaders understand and address the needs and concerns of their team members.

Empathy and Moral Development

Empathy is closely linked to moral development. It is the emotional response that propels us towards altruistic behavior. Empathy encourages us to act in ways that benefit others, even at a cost to ourselves. It is the driving force behind acts of kindness and compassion, shaping our moral decisions and ethical conduct.

Empathy in the Digital Age

In the digital age, empathy is more important than ever. With the rise of virtual communication, understanding and sharing the feelings of others can be challenging. However, empathy can help bridge this gap. It can help us navigate the complex digital landscape, fostering meaningful connections and promoting positive online interactions.

Empathy: A Skill to be Cultivated

Empathy is not just an innate ability; it’s a skill that can be cultivated. Through active listening, perspective-taking, and emotional intelligence training, we can enhance our empathic abilities. By fostering empathy, we can promote a more understanding, compassionate, and harmonious society.

In conclusion, empathy is a vital human capacity that enables us to understand and share the feelings of others. It plays a crucial role in our interpersonal relationships, moral development, and societal harmony. In the digital age, cultivating empathy is more important than ever. By enhancing our empathic abilities, we can foster a more understanding and compassionate society.

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Kindness and Compassion for Students

What are they.

Compassion is defined as the feeling that arises when you perceive another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering.

Compassion can arise from empathy —the more general ability to understand and feel others’ emotions—but goes further by also including the desire to help. Of course, we can feel compassion without acting on it, and not all helpful acts are motivated by compassion.

When compassion does lead to action, we often call the result kindness. Kindness always includes the intention to benefit other people, especially (though not always) at a cost or risk to ourselves.

Research has shown that compassion and kindness are deeply rooted in human nature–our first impulse is to cooperate rather than compete. Even toddlers spontaneously help people in need out of genuine concern for their welfare. This innate kindness, however, often gets lost in a society built on competition. Schools have a golden opportunity to cultivate the compassionate side of students by creating a school culture in which kindness is valued and practiced.

• A science teacher sets up his classroom to cultivate students’ innate kindness and cooperation, rather than their selfish and competitive natures. He takes the time at the start of the school year to get to know students and for students to get to know each other by doing some fun icebreakers from Playworks, like Crooked Circle .
• To create an inclusive and connected classroom climate, students sit in a large circle for discussions and in small groups during regular instruction.
• Everyone is encouraged to practice self-care, taking short breaks when they need to in the “Chillax Corner”, and to take care of each other—noticing when a fellow student might be having a hard time and connecting with him or her.
• The curriculum is taught with a “prosocial” lens, taking into consideration how the scientific content might be used to benefit students’ communities and society in general.

Children’s understanding of kindness and compassion change as they mature. For example, their ability to be compassionate grows as they develop their perspective-taking ability and emotion regulation. Elementary age students and younger may view kindness mainly in concrete ways, such as in terms of the consequences of actions; whereas, older children and teens can appreciate the intentions behind the actions, allowing them to better navigate complex situations.

• A first grader might say kindness is asking someone to play, taking turns, or helping someone who is hurt.
• A high schooler gives his friend a hard time for choosing to go to the movies rather than study for an important test. At first, his friend is upset, but then realizes that the admonishment was made in his best interest.

Why Are They Important?

Research has found that practicing compassion and kindness can improve health, well-being, and relationships, as well as academic achievement. Of course, beyond our own lives, these qualities strengthen our communities and may even be vital to the survival of our species as a whole.

Kindness and compassion make us happier.

• Compassion training programs, even very brief ones, strengthen reward circuits in the brain and lead to lasting increases in self-reported happiness.
• Compassion training also enables us be more altruistic , and kindness does seem to be its own reward —giving to others activates those pleasure circuits and actually makes people, including kids , happier than spending money on themselves.

Compassion makes us more resilient.

• Feeling compassion helps us to overcome empathic distress —or the feeling for others that makes us so upset that we want to run away rather than help. We are better able to handle the strong emotions that occur when faced with others’ suffering.

Kindness and compassion are good for our health.

• Feeling compassionate can reduce the risk of heart disease by helping slow the heart rate , and compassion training has been shown to reduce stress hormones and boost the immune system.
• Acts of kindness such as donating money help lower blood pressure .
• People who volunteer are healthier overall, and teens who volunteer to help younger kids show reduced risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Kindness and compassion improve our relationships.

• Compassion is associated with more satisfaction and growth in friendships and makes us less vindictive towards others.
• Compassionate behavior is highly valued in romantic relationships: In surveys of over 10,000 people across 37 cultures, kindness was rated the most important quality in a mate, and the only one universally required.
• Altruism promotes social connections in general and creates ripple effects of generosity in communities.

Kindness and compassion benefit education.

• Preschoolers and elementary schoolers prompted to perform acts of kindness show increased well-being and social competence; in turn, prosocial (kind and helpful) peer interactions increase middle schoolers’ positive emotions and life satisfaction.
• Prosocial behavior in elementary school predicts higher academic achievement in middle school, and it predicts academic achievement in high school.
• High-quality service learning programs, which put compassion into action by combining classroom learning with real-world community service, have been shown to improve academic performance, student attitudes and behavior, and school climate.
• When high schoolers see their school as a kind place, they are more interested and motivated to learn .

Practice Collections

Seeds of Self-Compassion

Art on Purpose

Assessing Your School Climate

Courage Blooms

Inspiring Climate Awareness Through Gratitude

Courage Creatures

Identifying Acts of Courage

Courageous and Compassionate Citizens

Developing the Courage to Speak Up

The Bystander’s Dilemma: What Does Courage Look Like?

Finding Awe in Collective Acts of Kindness

Creating Musical Playlists for the Classroom

The Beauty of Collective Effervescence

Finding Awe In Everyday Moral Beauty

Letting Music Shape You

People Can Change: Recognizing Our Potential for Growth

Listening with Compassion

Building Collaborative Classroom Norms

GGIE Online Courses for Educators

Do you want to dive deeper into the science behind our GGIE practices? Enroll in one of our online courses for educators!

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Essay on Empathy for Students

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. It’s something we all possess but not everyone uses. When empathy is present, we feel what others are feeling and respond with caring and compassion.

It’s easy for people to forget about their own needs when they focus on someone else’s. They might say or do things that may not be what they want to say or do, but they’re focused on how they’re making the other person feel.

With empathy, we can see where others are coming from and offer unconditional support.

It is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. It also means understanding what others are thinking or feeling.

Empathy is a fundamental part of who we are, and it’s our responsibility to nurture it. We can’t live without empathy because it affects how we interact with others, which in turn impacts our individual health and well-being.

When we see others in pain, our natural response is to want to help. This is one of humanity’s great qualities–our empathy.

However, this quality can be taken too far if we begin to take on the emotions of other people without knowing them well.

There are times where it’s appropriate for us to feel empathy, but there are also times when it’s not appropriate. If you’re feeling lonely or sad, here are some ways that will make you feel less alone.

Origin of Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. It’s a powerful tool that can change both us and the world around us. The word empathy comes from the Greek word “empatheia.” “Empatheia” is a combination of two words: “en” and “patheia.”

Etymologically, this means that we feel with or suffer along with someone else. Empathy brings us together and makes the world a smaller place. Here, are some ways empathy has changed lives and made our world a better place.

What is empathy?

Empathy has been described as the ability to share another person’s feelings. It’s one of the most important values in a person’s life. When we share our own feelings with others, it builds trust and intimacy.

When we feel compassion for someone and want to help, it means we care about them and want them to feel better.

Many people have difficulty describing how they feel about a particular situation, and that’s OK. They might feel grief over the loss of a loved one and think of themselves as the grieving person, for example. That doesn’t mean they don’t care about the loss, it just means they have a hard time describing their feelings.

Why is empathy important?

Research has shown that we can express our feelings more openly, be more sympathetic, and connect to others more easily when we empathize.

There are three major advantages to empathy.

First, empathy is a form of emotional intelligence, which means people who are skilled in empathy are more intelligent and capable of achieving their goals.

Second, empathy is the basis of compassion. Compassion is an emotion that inspires and supports us to act, love, and care for others.

Finally, empathy is how we develop relationships. Empathy is an emotional skill that starts in early childhood.

Children with empathy skill development or who show empathy are more likely to be caring and compassionate adults.

Benefits of empathy

Empathy brings compassion, selflessness, and integrity to any job, and it can also have an immense impact on our lives as individuals.

Here are some ways empathy can benefit society as a whole:

• Empathy enhances our ability to understand. We know how to speak but we know very little about how to understand. A lack of understanding can actually be a problem in society and it does a great deal of damage.
• It helps us understand what others are feeling. We can respond by having compassion for those that we feel are suffering.
• When we become empathic toward others, we are better able to see their situation and feel what they feel.
• Empathy reduces prejudice. It is often linked with our own emotions.

How empathy helps with people’s mental health

People who have an empathetic attitude can have positive effects on their mental health. Their positive behaviors and feelings are contagious to others and that leads to a lot of positivity for everyone involved.

People can help others if they have empathy for them. They feel what others feel and are motivated to reach out to them, because they can see that they need it.

A health psychologist might say that empathy is the ability to understand the emotions of another person.

It’s an important skill to learn and develop as part of a healthy self-care routine. Knowing how to put yourself in other’s shoes and reach out to them with understanding and care can be a powerful asset.

It’s a great skill to have, because it can reduce feelings of isolation and help people feel loved and cared for.

How to develop your own empathy skills

The good news is that empathy is something that can be learned. Our thoughts and actions have consequences, and the most powerful part of any relationship is to choose the one we want to have.

Empathy can be improved by practicing it every day. This means putting yourself in the shoes of others, especially in a situation when they are feeling a certain way, we can develop empathy.

How we can use empathy

Why do we need empathy? It is the key to building a strong community. By using empathy, we can connect with others.

This allows us to understand each other and respond with care and compassion.

One of the greatest benefits of empathy is that it can help us to create compassion in our community.

It’s important that we take care of each other and help others whenever possible. It’s also important to understand what is going on in people’s minds and hearts.

We should make the effort to understand what people are feeling and experiencing, rather than just seeing what they do.

To put it another way, we should try to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. With compassion, we will be able to do this.

A valuable skill that is now so essential in our society, we should help kids develop the skill, and parents can start training their children from a young age.

They can begin to model empathy, and teach them how to be kind and giving by example.

With a little effort, they will soon learn that others are experiencing different feelings and that it is important to respond to them with understanding.

If you liked this essay, you can leave a comment below.

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Bruce Drysdale 5th-grade student advances to national finals in DAR's essay contest

Bruce Drysdale fifth grader Lia Martinonis has advanced to the national finals in the Daughters of the American Revolution 2024 Essay Contest, and each time her essay has advanced, her family has celebrated with a cake.

She is anxiously hoping for more cake. Martinonis is one of eight fifth-grade finalists in the nation, and so far, she's won three awards for her essay — one at the local level, one at the state level and the latest for the Southeastern Division.

"I am unbelievably proud. I have felt both shocked and pleased each time I learned that I had won," she said.

And there's prize money involved: $1,000 for first place, $500 for second place and $250 for third place. The winners will be recognized at the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Continental Congress, which is being held June 26-30 in Washington, D.C.

The topic for the contest was “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Essay writers were asked to imagine they were a newspaper reporter for The Philadelphia Times on May 14, 1897, and the newspaper's editor asked them to attend and report on the first public performance of John Philip Sousa’s new march, “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” The students were to tell about Sousa’s life and the story behind the song.

Lia was with her family on April 20 in Durham to receive the state award, her mother, Andrea, said.

"This essay contest has been an incredible experience for Lia. My daughter aspires to be a writer when she grows up," Andrea Martinonis said. "This opportunity has given her the confidence to pursue that dream. Lia researched the essay subject, learned about American history, honed her writing skills, and read her speech to a large audience at the initial award ceremony. 

"As an educator, I couldn't be more pleased that DAR sponsors this contest, encouraging students to write essays and learn about our nation's past. As a parent, I am thrilled that my daughter chooses to spend her free time reading and writing and that her interests and skills are being recognized."

More: North Henderson student one of four grand prize winners in national essay contest

Lia said her teacher, April Summey, assigned the essay contest to her class.

"I remember being frustrated when drafting my essay, but now I am so glad my hard work paid off. I still cannot believe this is all happening," Lia Martinonis said.  

This part of her essay describes Sousa talking about composing his new march:

"...Sousa said that he composed the song in his head on his return to America as he grieved the death of his beloved band manager, David Blakely. Sousa said, “In a kind of dreamy way, I used to think over old days at Washington when I was leader of the Marine Band…when we played at all public functions, and I could see the Stars and Stripes flying from the flagstaff.” He also stated, “And that flag of ours became glorified… And to my imagination it seemed to be the biggest, grandest flag in the world, and I could not get back under it quick enough.”

More: Apple Valley Middle student one of four grand prize winners in national contest

Summey called Lia a phenomenal, gifted student who "always goes above and beyond."

"She thrives on a challenge and is an avid learner. Her contagious curiosity shines brightly as she lights up upon acquiring new knowledge," Summey said. "Every year, my fifth grade students work on the DAR essay. They are given a prompt and required to read multiple primary and secondary sources about the topic in order to prepare. I am very passionate about the contest, because it helps students learn history and get excited about it." 

Dean Hensley is the news editor for the Hendersonville Times-News. Email him with tips, questions and comments at [email protected]. Please help support this kind of local journalism with a subscription to the Hendersonville Times-News.

Teacher's 'Clever' Hack For Catching Students Using ChatGPT On Essay

A leading educator has shared a simple hack for catching out students using ChatGPT to write their essays for them.

Though ChatGPT's terms of use say those aged 13 to 18 should only use it with parental permission, research suggests a worrying number of students are already misusing AI in the classroom.

Earlier this month, a survey conducted by the Center for Democracy and Technology revealed a significant increase in U.S. student discipline issues related to the use of generative AI chatbots.

The nationally representative surveys of K-12 public school teachers found 64 percent said students at their school had got into trouble for using or being accused of using AI on a school assignment . That represented a 16 percent increase on the previous year.

Daina Petronis is a full-time curriculum designer and former high school English teacher who runs the online teaching resources community mondaysmadeeasy.com. She believes that while there may come a day when the likes of ChapGPT have a place in the classroom, right now the biggest challenge facing teachers when it comes to language learning models (LLMs) is their potential misuse.

"In theory, LLMs can benefit learning, but there needs to be plenty of support in place to ensure that they are not being misused ," Petronis told Newsweek .

Much of Petronis's work involves researching trends in education, not least when it comes to the use of ChatGPT, the methods available to help teachers catch those using LLMs illicitly, and the limitations around them.

"I am often approached by companies developing AI-detection tools who are looking to promote their software to my audience," she said. "Before sharing these tools with my community, I always ask their representatives about their accuracy. The consistent response from these companies is that there is no surefire method to detect AI."

Another method endorsed by some involves asking the LLM if it produced the work in question. "I've actually tested this with several samples of original writing alongside text generated by an LLM," Petronis said. "I used my own writing that was published years ago and it falsely claimed to have generated it. I also used the writing that it had generated, and it didn't recognize it."

Thankfully, Petronis has hit upon a much simpler approach at weeding out the cheats using what she calls a "trojan horse" hack. In a video posted to her TikTok account mondaysmadeeasy, she explained "this hack is pretty clever and can show you exactly what to look out for without the use of any software of special programs."

She begins by splitting her essay prompt—the title of the essay given to her students—into two paragraphs before adding a sentence in-between in white using the smallest size possible. The idea is that if the essay prompt is copied and pasted into ChatGPT, the teacher can then search for the sentence hidden in the small white font when the assignment is submitted.

Though the video has been watched over one million times, garnering plenty of praise in the process, Petronis acknowledges there are "limitations" to the method.

"If a student happens to notice that there is hidden text in their assignment prompt, then there are some possible outcomes: they can either remove the text or mistake it as a part of the instructions," she said.

However, she feels the positives far outweigh the negatives. "What makes the trojan horse arguably more effective than other methods is that it offers a point of reference that is easy to identify and discuss with a student," she said. "I would not feel comfortable talking to a student about their writing process just because an AI detection tool or an LLM indicates that it's been plagiarized. But if I saw that their work had my trojan horse terms in it, I could simply ask them about it in an open-ended way."

Though the clip has been praised for highlighting a simple way to tackle plagiarism, Petronis said some watching the clip "misunderstood" the message of the video as being "anti-AI." Petronis refutes this suggestion.

"Even though this video sparked a lot of controversy, I think many of us have the same goal—we want what is best for students," she said. "While some people believe this involves training children on AI so that they can use it in the workforce, educators also understand literacy to be a more valuable skill and a prerequisite for using AI appropriately."

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When It’s Time for an Aging Driver to Hit the Brakes

The “car key conversation” can be painful for families to navigate. Experts say there are ways to have it with empathy and care.

By Catherine Pearson

Sherrie Waugh has been yelled at, insulted and wept upon in the course of her job administering driving tests. Typically these extreme reactions happen when she is forced to render an upsetting verdict: It’s time to hang up the car keys.

Ms. Waugh, a certified driving rehabilitation specialist with The Brain Center, a private neuropsychology practice in Indiana, often works with older drivers, putting them through an assessment that measures things like visual skills, reaction time and processing speed.

“I had one gentleman, who had early onset dementia, who was just sitting here crying,” Ms. Waugh said. “His wife was out in the car and she was crying. And we all came back, and we were all crying. Because it’s so hard.”

Decisions about when an older person (or someone whose physical or mental circumstances make operating a vehicle dangerous) should stop driving are often agonizing. They can rock the driver’s sense of independence and identity, and add to the responsibilities that many family caregivers shoulder.

“It’s a major, major loss for older people,” said Lauren Massimo, an assistant professor at Penn Nursing. “It’s been described to me as dehumanizing.”

But it is important to raise concerns as soon as you have them, experts said, and there are ways to make the car key conversation less painful for older drivers and their loved ones.

Get a good look at the problem.

Before you ask a partner or parent to give up driving, do your research, experts say. Ms. Waugh, for instance, is surprised by the number of caregivers she sees who raise concerns about older drivers they haven’t actually driven with recently.

“If they need to pick up something at the grocery store, hop in the car,” she said. Take note: Are they missing traffic lights or safety signs? Are they struggling to maintain the speed limit or stay in their lane? Are they becoming confused about directions, particularly on familiar routes? Those are all signs that their driving skills may be waning.

And beware of ageism, especially when figuring out how to approach the conversation.

“It’s really not about their age,” said Marvell Adams Jr., the chief executive officer of the nonprofit Caregiver Action Network. “It’s about changes in their ability, which can happen to anyone.”

Mr. Adams suggested this opening gambit for a talk: “‘Hey, you know, I noticed it looks like your tires are getting beat up. Are you hitting the curb more often?’” His own mother made the decision to stop driving herself, he said, after she hit the gas pedal instead of the brake.

Pin the decision on someone else.

The driving conversation is one of the hardest parts of Dr. Massimo’s job as a health care provider who works with patients with neurodegenerative disease, she said. But she is happy to relieve caregivers of that burden.

“Make the provider the bad guy,” she said.

Many of Ms. Waugh’s clients come to her through referrals from primary care doctors, neurologists or eye doctors, though family members also reach out directly. She charges $175 for a 90-minute clinical assessment, and $200 for a road evaluation — fees that she acknowledged might be prohibitive for some families. (She has not succeeded in getting insurance to reimburse her clients.) But, experts say, professional driving evaluations can offer objectivity and clarity.

Ms. Waugh recently saw an older client who used to teach driver’s education and was miffed that his wife and doctor had been urging him to stop driving. During the evaluation, he struggled to finish short-term memory tests, including a simple maze and a counting exercise. When Ms. Waugh showed him his results, he finally understood that he posed a safety risk to himself and others on the road.

Have solutions ready.

Although giving up driving is rarely easy, services such as grocery delivery and ride-sharing apps can lessen the inconvenience and offer continued autonomy and independence, Mr. Adams said.

Make a plan for how you will help a retired driver get around. In addition to ride-sharing apps, the experts also mentioned public transportation and car pools, as well as friends and family members who might be able to give rides.

Consider risk-reduction strategies, too, Mr. Adams said. Maybe your partner or parent is safe to drive during the day, but not at night and not on the highway.

Even though older drivers and their family members may be loath to do it, look ahead.

“Make this a part of the conversation early,” said Cheryl Greenberg, who coaches seniors and their families on life transitions and planning in North Carolina. “You know, ‘You’re 60 years old and you’re driving just fine, but Mom, what would you do if the time came and you were less comfortable and less able?’”

All of the experts said that it was important to make space for big emotions around these conversations.

“Be empathic,” Dr. Greenberg said. “Don’t just go in and say, ‘Well, now you’re done driving.’ Listen. Ask questions that might help them be centered in the process.”

Catherine Pearson is a Times reporter who writes about families and relationships. More about Catherine Pearson

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Earth Day celebrated at charter school in SE Gainesville

Caring and Sharing Learning School hosted its Earth Day program on Monday where students from different grades performed and essay contest winners were chosen.

“I am very pleased with the celebration,” said Nkwanda Jah, executive director of the Cultural Arts Coalition which sponsored the essay contest. “Thank you again for putting on the best program for Earth Day.”

Jah hosts the East Gainesville Science Club at the school every Wednesday and the George Washington Carver Science Club.

All students participated in the singing of Life Every Voice and Sing and the school song led by music instructor Angie Terrell.

Guardian Newsletter: Gainesville-based nonprofit to host after-school program focused on youth gun violence

Judge Gloria Walker of the 8th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida introduced Baylea Carey as the first-place winner of the Earth Day essay contest.

“I encourage each and every one of us to dream big,” Walker said. “You too can be anything you put your mind to as long as you work hard and believe in yourself.”

Topson Favor, who came in second in the contest, was introduced by State Rep. Yvonne Hinson, D-Gainesville.

“Thank you for recognizing the Earth and the importance of keeping it,” Hinson said. “We only have one Earth, and we have to take care of it.”

Josiah Sheppard and Barrington Carey were recognized for receiving honorable mentions as contestants in the essay contest by Alachua County Commissioner Mary Alford.

Alachua County Commissioner Charles “Chuck” Chestnut IV read a proclamation on behalf of the Alachua County commission that mentioned that Earth Day was established in 1970.

Desmon Duncan-Walker, who represents District 1 on the Gainesville City Commission, told the students and those attending the program that she was proud of their efforts to save the earth.

“I am so encouraged and inspired to see you all celebrate Earth Day,” Duncan-Walker said. “I have great hope for District One and Gainesville because you are leaving it better than you found it. That is the purpose of Earth Day. Thank you for being one of the most phenomenal educational institutions that I have ever witnessed.”

The Soaring Dancing Eagles, comprised of students from all grade levels, danced to Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror which was choreographed by Elois Waters.

The program also featured the school’s third-grade students reciting a poem by Joyce Kilmer titled “Trees.”

“It is important that we celebrate the Earth, the freedom and sustenance we get from being the children of the planet,” said Keturah Acevedo, CSLS office manager and host of the event that also featured an African drum and dance presentation by the Patricia Hilliard-Nunn Sankofa Legacy Dancers and Drummers.

Tom Kay, executive director of the Alachua County Conservation Trust, along with students and staff planted trees behind the school and CSLS principal Curtis Peterson awarded Kay with a certificate for his participation.

Jah and Clyde Hall, who taught at the school for 11 years, are the co-founders of the Earth Day celebration at the award-winning charter school in southeast Gainesville.

“Every second here is a historical moment,” Hall said. “These teachers love the children and make sure they become what they need to be. She (Jah) is really invested in the Gainesville community. She is Ms. Gainesville.”

Guests were welcomed to the program by Aaliyah Baker.

“Earth Day is like a big party for our planet but instead of presents, we make a promise to take care of it,” Baker said. “Forests and oceans are filled with life, and it is up to us to take care of those gifts. Let’s prepare to cherish our planet every single day.”