Empathy Development: Infant to Adult

The narrative within which we each participate is but a window of the relationships we have with others. It is through our conversations and the stories that we tell to each other that we try to gain an understanding of our world. Embedded in those conversations are the feelings and emotions of others. The contextual nature along with the emotional component becomes part of our own experience. This process of listening to others, acquiring information and trying to understand context lies at the core of our human experience. If not connected with others then we exist in a vacuum, void of stories and isolated. How do we connect with others? It is at our core to empathize with others, the heart of trust development. It is not fully developed when we arrive from the womb. Our parental up-bringing coupled with the experiences when have with other adults, through school, church and within the community help to bring us to an empathic maturity that we would not be able to arrive at on our own. What is empathy and how does it develop throughout our experience?
As many definitions do, it is important that we distinguish between the terms empathy and sympathy. Ciaramicoli and Ketcham (2000) explain, "Whereas sympathy seeks to console, empathy works to understand. Empathy requires a certain emotional distance- you have to step away from the grief, fear, and anger to create a space in which your thoughts can exert a calming influence on your feelings" (p.38). It is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. It is related to both experiencing another's joy and sorrow. Empathy is one component of emotional intelligence (EI). Emotional intelligence can be divided up into two broad categories, those that refer to interpersonal relationships and those of the intrapersonal nature. Salovey and Mayer (1990) categorized EI into five domains, the first three relating to the intrapersonal: 1) self-awareness, 2) managing emotions, 3) motivating oneself, and the last two relating to the interpersonal; 4) empathy and 5) handling relationships. EI is not a personality trait or a preferred way of behaving but is itself a set of abilities.
Empathy is a core nature of individuals for which there is both an affective and cognitive component as a part of their emotional intelligence. Hoffman (2000) writes of the affective side of empathy which " . . .seems like a simple concept- one feels what the other feels" (p. 30). As a child watches the experience of another child literally, through the activation of mirror neurons, there is a neurological emotional response that arises (Rifkin, 2009, p.85). The cognitive aspect of empathy is the processing and categorization of the emotions that are being experienced. This is furthered by Hoffman in his "key requirement of an empathic response . . . the involvement of psychological processes that make a person have feelings that are more congruent with another's situation than with his own situation" (p.30).
The development of the empathic drive happens throughout a person's life time. According to Hoffman (2000) there are five levels of development, three of which are preverbal; facial mimicry, classical conditioning, direct association and two which are verbal in nature; mediated association and role taking. As an infant, children will begin to read the facial expressions of others and be able to recognize their emotional state. Through a process of classical conditioning, as the mother and child begin to further bond there will be a time when the child is able to recognize the physical state of the mother and in turn experience that state (the mother is distressed and thus so is the infant). The final preverbal stage is that of direct association. As a child is of the age to recognize another person's plight, it conjures up a past experience and the accompanying emotions. There is an association of another's pain with feelings that the observer has experienced in the past. Moving to the verbal development of children, the next stage, mediated association, requires the ability of the individual to connect with an emotional situation that is communicated verbally. This stage combines both the affective and cognitive functions to create an empathic response. Finally the last stage of empathic development is that of role taking whereby an individual is able to image what it is like to be in another person's situation. Through the act of imagining there is an empathic response that is created and the feeling associated with that are real (pp. 38-62).
In terms of instructional leadership, an understanding of the development of empathy is extremely important. Empathy is a core component in the development of prosocial behaviour. (Hoffman, 2000) "Prosocial behaviour is any behaviour that benefits others, such as sharing, cooperating, including others in play, complementing and confronting others" (Ramaswamy & Bergin, 2009, p537). Prosocial behaviour predicts academic achievement and social adjustment in school.as academic achievement depends on positive relationships with teachers and peers, as well as active engagement in the classroom. With the realization of the implication of how empathy can affect performance in school, leaders of education must then ask the question, how we can promote its development.
Tied to the relationships we form with others, empathy's development is linked to the future achievement of learners and as Jeremy Rifkin would attest to the survival of humanity as a whole. Can empathy be taught in the classroom and on the playgrounds of our schools? I would have to say yes, though some schools and play grounds better than others. I personally feel that we are doing this already in a significant way. Through the selection of modes of discipline within schools, the increasing effort to provide a human purpose to the content we are learning through a universal design of curriculum and the implementation of service learning projects in schools we are using a number of strategies that are developing the empathic maturity of our students. It is through a purposeful awareness that we need to take the next step. I feel that is needs to be embedded in all that we do, not just for the student or the community but for humanity.

References

Ciaramicoli, A., Ketcham, K. (2000). The power of empathy: A practical guide to creating intimacy, self-understanding and lasting love. New York: Dutton Press.

Hoffman, M. (2000). Empathy and Moral Development: Implications for caring and justice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Rifkin, J. (2009). The empathic civilization; The race to global consciousness in a world in crisis. New York, NY: Tarcher/ Pengiun.

Ramaswamy, V., Bergin, C. (2009). Do reinforcement and induction increase prosocial behavior? Results of a teacher-based intervention in preschools. Journal of research in Childhood Education. 23(4), 527-538

Salovey, P. & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 9, 185-211

Empathy and Educational Leadership

While driving home one night after a long day at work I was listening to one of my favourite CBC radio programs, "Ideas". That particular night I was listening to Jeremy Rifkin being interviewed on his new book the "The empathic civilization- A race to global consciousness in a world in crisis". Paul Kennedy, the host of the show, referred to the piece as a rare, serious book with big grand ideas. The interviewer asked Rifkin to recount the story that he opens his book with and in that moment I was hooked. He recounted a story of the frontlines during the First World War and the events that transpired during the first Christmas Eve. I will give an abbreviated account here.

Western frontline fighters on both sides of world war one had been bogged down fighting, many not having slept in days, just prior to Christmas Eve. The men could not get out the trenches to retrieve their dead, the setting is bleak, a low point in the human experience. In the evening of Christmas Eve, the allied forces noticed that the German frontline was beginning to literally light up. The German frontline had received small ornamental Christmas trees from the German government that could light up. It was hoped that it would  brighten the mood of the soldiers. In addition to the trees the German soldiers began to sing Christmas carols. The allied forces were stunned. After the German's sang Silent Night the allies spontaneously applauded and responded by singing carols back in English. It was a matter of time; some brave individuals crawled out of the trenches and walked across the battlefield toward the other line. Gradually, scores of men were coming out of the trenches. The two sides met in the middle, shook hands, shared pictures of their families and cooperatively buried their dead. Over the course of a couple of days the fighting on the frontline stopped. It was a transcending moment in human history. The soldiers, as Rifkin recounts, got beyond the nationalistic differences and embraced each other in their common experience of being human. The core of human nature was expressed, our empathetic nature.

It is my hope through the next series of posts that I can explore the empathic nature of people and shed some light as to the role that empathy plays in educational leadership. This core nature is, I feel, at the heart of education. It is one of the fundamental qualities that we want to foster the development of in our students, teachers and leaders. When focusing on leadership there are a number of personal traits that arise again and again in the literature pointing to beliefs, values and behaviors such as; honesty, highly developed communication skills, flexibility, support of equity and social justice. A thread that seems to weave its way through these traits is that of empathy. Empathic leaders are ones who have a highly developed ability to recognize and respond to the emotional state of the individuals with which they interact. As a result of the interactions with others, these individuals have an innate ability to develop trust, motivate and bridge gaps in education that others would have difficulty doing. Understanding what empathy is and its role in the development of relationships will enhance leadership's ability to transform school cultures by building trust and fostering collaboration in the drive to create learning organizations.

There are a number of areas of education that I would like to explore with regards to empathy. Firstly, what is our understanding of the development of the empathic drive from infant to adult? Secondly, how can educators help foster the development of empathy through the presentation of curriculum and behavior modification? How is empathy linked to the development of relationships within a staff specifically as related to trust and communication? Having a good understanding of empathy how will this support the development of a vision that is that of a learning organization? Armed with these questions I hope to generate a greater understanding of empathy and its impact on leadership.

Here is an RSA animate on the Empathic Civilization that Rifkin narrates. It is thought provoking, especially in the context of the postmodern experience. 

References

CBC (aired November 17, 2010). The empathic civilization. Ideas- CBC radio one. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2010/11/17/the-empathic-civilization-1/

Rifkin, J. (2009). The empathic civilization; The race to global consciousness in a world in crisis. New York, NY: Tarcher/ Pengiun.

Cognitive Learning Theory: Who Knew?

For those of you that are not familiar with cognitive load theory and are involved in teaching, I feel that the insights that it provides are well worth reflecting on. Cognitive load theory as I understand it, describes the amount of information that a person can handle at any given time. It can be found both in the long term storage and the short term access (RAM) cognitive areas. It can be divided up into three broad categories; intrinsic , extraneous and germane cognitive load. Intrinsic load refers to a topics level of difficulty. High intrinsic load relates to a difficult topic that contains abstract ideas which learners often do not have prior experiences that would allow greater ease of understanding. Learning organic chemistry is difficult. It is a foreign concept to most, especially when one tries to understand the complex processes that are involved in organic chemical reactions and their mechanisms. Another intrinsically loaded topic is that of unit analysis in science. I recall an experience of trying to teach this to students over the course of three days only to have the top level students really understand it.

Extraneous load is something that we as educators are occasionally guilty of creating. This refers to those times when you have made something much more difficult than it is. An example would be in those situations when you are trying to teach a concept and truly do not entirely understand yourself. You fumble through a lesson without properly looking into what would be the best examples to use in your explanation or even worse you have not worked through the examples yourself. It is important to reduce extraneous load, make information more accessible as opposed to making it more difficult.

Third in the cognitive load theory considerations is that of the germane load, ". . .germane cognitive load is the load required for schema formation and automation" (Ayers, 2006, p. 287). An example that Sweller (1998) provides in the development of schema is that of a child learning to read (p.255). A child must learn to recognize letters initially and then combining those letters into words. The letters may appear in a number of different forms. This information is stored in long term memory providing a reservoir of information for an individual to draw upon. This germane load has a positive effect on learning, particularly when it comes to the acquisition of skills.

In addition to the three aspects of cognitive load theory I would like to talk about four effects that impact classroom learning; modality effect, split attention effect, worked examples and expertise reversal effects. The modality effect refers to situations where two different modes of instruction are being combined together to enhance a learners experience. This could be as simple as the audio and video components of a presentation. The two modes of interaction lead to an enhanced experience of the material and thus a greater understanding of the information.

On the other hand, the split attention effect is one where a learner is exposed to too many modes. A common example of this would be in a classroom setting where a student is trying to take notes off of an overhead or power point presentation and the instructor continues to talk about the information on the slide, providing additional and extraneous information. This leads to a decrease in the learner's experience. The student does not know whether to listen to the instructor or focus on the notes. Essentially they are left floundering and in a state of suspension as they try to decide what information is more important. Another example would be watching a foreign movie where there are subtitles. The observer will more often than not tune out the dialogue that is happening on the screen as they can only focus on the information that is presented in the subtitles.

Chalk and talk where a teacher takes time to work step by step through a problem to obtain a solution is often thought of as an out of date approach to teaching. It has its place in learning. Worked examples pertain to a method of instruction where a step by step approach is the best way to explore a solution to a problem. It is much more difficult for a student to understand the solution to the problem when given the entire solution all at once. There are barriers that are created cognitively for the learner as they do not have the proper schema to understand the why each step was done. Thus when dealing with information that requires a step wise approach, ensure that you take the time to gradually work through examples that build up in a conceptually sequential way. Chalk and talk does have its place in a classroom.

Finally, have you ever had the situation where your students understand the information and have adequately developed the schema to solve the problems that you are giving them? In those situations it is actually detrimental to continue to provide the slow step wise approach to the solution. As the expert reversal effect comes into play learners are actually hindered by the slow stepwise methodology. Students are in a position that you are providing extraneous information that they do not require to understand the information. Their attention will be split as they try and work ahead of you to solve the problem.

Consideration of the cognitive load theory and the four learner effects that I highlighted here bring to light the complexity of the teaching profession. As teachers we are required to address the individual needs of all learners in the classroom being mindful of our instructional design. We also need to be aware of the fact that students are going to be in a number of different learning states throughout our lessons. Being mindful creating a learning environment where germane load is increased, intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load are reduced and paying attention to the design of the lesson with regards to the modality, split attention, expert reversal effects and worked examples will lead to better student outcomes.

References

Ayers, P. (2006). Impact of reducing intrinsic cognitive load on learning in a mathematical domain. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20, 287-298

Sweller, J. (2006). Discussion of emerging topics in cognitive load research: Using learner and information characteristics in the design of powerful learning environments'. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20(3), 353-357.

Sweller, J., van Merrienboer, J. and Paas, F. (1998) Cognitive Architecture and Instrucitonal Design. Educational Psychology Review 10(3), 251-296

Evolving Trends in Professional Development

Professional development (PD) is one of core principles of effective instructional leadership. Instructional leadership is often put on the back burner in terms of priorities giving way to the managerial tasks that face the principal on a daily basis. It is important that this does not occur within a school. It is through effective PD that good quality teaching and learning is facilitated, a vision for an organization is solidified, change is supported and a culture of learning is developed for all within the building.

It has been a trend for PD to be a top down initiative where teachers are presented material in a one shot workshop with hopes of changing practice. It is difficult for teachers to implement these strategies when they become a changed individual and re-enter an unchanged environment. Analogous to this is the story of students who participate in the LEAP program here in the Calgary Board of Education. "The goal of the LEAP (Learning Essential to Achieve Potential) program is to provide proactive support and interventions for junior high students identified as having mild to moderate behavioural needs" (Calgary Board of Education, 2010). These students participate in a six week program where by they gain skills to be able to survive in a traditional classroom but upon their return many individuals do not experience success. These students are re-entering an environment which has not changed. Not unlike the LEAP program the success of PD is dependant on the support and structures that the principal creates within their organization hence the need for change.

One trend that is changing our approach to PD is through the consideration of context. With regards to the development of a educational leaders as life long learning leaders Scott and Webber (2008) state that "[i]nsights gained through productive cognitive dissonance prepares learners for transitions to different responsibility levels within their organizations" (p.769). When applying this to the development of teachers the question arises as to how can we create situations where individuals get out of their comfort zone? Through the creation of vignettes, contextual situations where individuals are not sure what to do, teachers are forced to think outside of their box. Goldberg and Gallimore (1991)  further this by stating that  "[t]hese contexts should consist, preeminently, of engaging teachers in rigorous examinations of teaching; the concrete challenges and problems they face, the range of problems they face, the range of solutions, and, most important, close examination of whether,over time, there is progress in addressing these challenges" (p.69).

In addition to the contextual component of the PD, there is a requirement of embedding the PD throughout the year in the form of peer coaching. Showers and Joyce (1996) outline a number of principles of peer coaching; everyone needs to be on board, omit verbal feedback (focus on planning and developing curriculum and instruction),  the one teaching is the coach whereas the observer is the one being coached. Counter to the notion of instructional supervision, peer coaching diverges from the top down approach of commonly implemented PD. The supervision cycle of passive observation and critical feedback seems to be archaic with the introduction of embedded peer coaching.

Through efforts of  providing context and peer coaching, PD appears to be making a movement away from the on shot training efforts of the past.

References

Calgary Board of Education. (2010). Services for students with emotional/behavioural disabilities. Retrived from http://www.cbe.ab.ca/programs/spec_ed/se-emot-behav.asp#leap

Goldenberg, C., & Gallimore, R. (1991). Changing teaching takes more than a one-shot workshop. Educational Leadership(November), 69-72.

Scott, S., & Webber, C. F. (2008). Evidence-based leadership development: The 4L framework. Journal of Educational Administration, 46(6), 762-776.

Showers, B., & Joyce, B. (1996). The evolution of peer coaching. Educational Leadership, 53(6), 12-16.