Studies on empathy

Abstract

For the last decade we have observed changes in the educational systems in many countries. One of the symptoms of these changes is the new approach to learners. The learners have become the focus of attention in the educational process. This tendency has considerably modified the function of a teacher. A teacher’s role has been changing: - from that of an uncreative one in relation to obligatory educational programmes to a more creative one, allowing the teacher to construct his/her own educational programmes and methods of teaching, - from presenting detailed, particular, encyclopaedic knowledge to organizing the pupils’ learning process and helping them to combine different information from a variety of sources, - from concentrating on training children primarily by rote learning and forming their personalities by patterning to stimulating their psychological development (cognition, affects, personality, and social skills) by taking into account their individuality. Such personal approach to learners supports the process of individual identification and develops responsibility for the effects (Kwiatkowska, 1990). Treating the pupils in a more individual way requires a great intellectual and emotional effort from the teachers and their authentic engagement in the educational process. It seems, therefore, that contemporary teachers should be characterized by special personality features and attitudes which would help them to achieve these goals. One of the main features of the teacher which seems to be of great importance to the educational process, is empathy. Empathy is the attitude of personality involving the capacity to respond emotionally and cognitively to other persons without the loss of objectivity (Berger, 1987, in: Williams, 1989). Empathy characterizes human relations in different situations. Empathy is linked to helping behaviour and to more effective professional functioning and it is, therefore, nearly universally valued for helping professions (Williams, 1989). Empathy is very important for a positive course in human interactions in many teacher-pupil situations (Grzywak-Kaczyńska, 1971), especially when a pupil is exceptional in some way (under or above the intellectual, social or emotional norms) and must receive special treatment from teachers. So we started to investigate the phenomenon of empathy in relation to individual differences, social interactions, and professional accomplishment of teachers. Taking into consideration the new socio-political situation in Poland, we started to be interested in the empathy of managers who are now the most important professionals in industry management and modem economy. We were also interested in relations between empathy level and functioning of children and adolescents. This book presents a collection of studies on empathy concerning the three fields of our interests. The presented studies offer many practical conclusions and we hope that the material discussed would broaden the reader’s knowledge of empathy. In the first three introductory chapters the definitions and theories of empathy have been described as well as the importance of teachers’ empathy in education and the methods of empathy measurement. The following chapters (4, 5, 6) are specially devoted to the teachers of exceptional children. The main objective of our studies presented in these chapters was to find the differences in empathy level among teachers working in different types of schools: primary school, secondary school and special school. The term ’’special school” was used in the text in the meaning of ’’school for mentally retarded and disabled children”. The other aim was to investigate the prosocial attitudes and attitudes towards mainstreaming in teachers and students of special education. It was also important to define the role of empathy in predicting these attitudes. Chapters 7 and 8 concern the psycho-social and professional functioning of teachers. The aim of these studies was to focus on the relation between empathy and personality and between temperament characteristics of teachers and a mediating role of empathy in burnout prevention. The next chapter (9) shows the differences in empathy level between teachers and managers as well as the patterns of empathy - personality relations dependent on professional experience. Chapters 10 and 11 present the studies on children, are close this study review. Chapter 10 deals with the value of empathy in prevention of depressive stages in pre-school children. In chapter 11 the relation between empathy level and school functioning of early adolescents is discussed. Chapter 12 contains the summary of conclusions and practical instructions regarding empathy training in teachers and students.