Teaching With Empathy & Perspective Taking to Promote Student Retention, Engagement, and Motivation

Learn how and why you should develop empathy and perspective-taking as a skill to promote student learning, support, and retention. Develop the skills needed to support yourself and your students, leading to more effective educational settings through practices that promote empathy and perspective taking.

Empathy is one's ability to experience the emotions and perspectives of another and respond appropriately according to your role, relationship, and the context of the interaction(s). A key component of empathy, referred to as cognitive empathy, is perspective-taking. Perspective-taking requires that one be able to put themselves in another person or group's position and simulate their experiences and perspectives while remaining aware that these experiences and perspectives are not their own.

Understand and develop empathy and perspective taking within higher education settings through an ethic(s) of care. Keeling (2014) described the elements of acting within an ethic of care for the self and others as consisting of paying attention, accepting responsibility to act, being prepared to respond, and responding. Develop and practice empathy and perspective-taking in the higher education context through specific examples and guidance so that you can develop the ability to pay attention, accept responsibility to act, are prepared to act, and act as an empathetic instructor. You will focus on the strategies of paying attention and accepting responsibility to act by defining empathy and perspective-taking and discussing why and how it is needed for instructors in higher education. Next you will focus on being prepared to act and acting as it relates to preparing for and teaching classes in higher education in ways that demonstrate and apply empathy and perspective taking.

You will:
• Define empathy and perspective taking.
• Describe the relationship between empathy and student retention, engagement, and motivation.
• Identify practices of empathetic teaching.
• Apply empathetic teaching preparation and strategies to your own instructional practice.

Dr. Laura Parson earned her Ph.D. in teaching & learning, higher education from the University of North Dakota. She is the co-editor of a 4-volume series titled, Teaching and Learning for Social Justice and Equity in Education, and re-developed the Certificate in College/University Teaching program at Auburn University. She has developed and facilitated workshops on empathy and applied empathy for educators and leaders in the military. Additionally, she adapted a conceptual framework for teaching empathy in the higher education classroom, called the Curriculum of Care, and is under contract with Routledge for a book titled, Understanding and Supporting College Students with Empathy: A Guide for Higher Education Practitioners.