EDC 230 - Chapter 7

    

    The seventh chapter of The Growth Mindset Playbook by Annie Brock and Heather Hundley discusses why empathy matters in the classroom. It can affect minor or significant moments, like a classmate hurting another classmate’s feelings to the school-to-prison pipeline. Effectively understanding empathy and teaching students by modeling it will strengthen the teacher’s relationship with the students. The authors define it by saying, “Empathy, simply defined, is the ability to understand and identify with the feelings and emotions of others” (Brock and Hundley 94). This displays that empathy is essential in the classroom setting because it affects how students, parents, and faculty interact with one another. It is recommended in the chapter that teachers apply an unconditional positive regard approach. This will help teachers care about their students regardless of their gender, background, financial state, ethnicity, etc. Students' behaviors must be looked past when dealing with empathy; allowing their behavior to judge how you treat students enables a fixed mindset. 

    It is often seen that there is so much pressure on academic performance that it overwhelms students. In contrast, if the teacher did not let that aspect heavily influence their opinion of the students, then they could develop a growth mindset. I can personally relate to this because I had a teacher that could not look past test scores. This teacher created a hostile environment where students were afraid to ask for help and were seen as nothing more than a letter grade. The difference between sympathy and empathy is also mentioned. The authors say, “Feeling for our students is sympathy. Feeling with our students is empathy” (Brock and Hundley 98). This shows a clear comparison of meaning between sympathy and empathy and that feeling with your students is vital for a welcoming and supportive environment. There are some ways to model empathy to students: StoryCorps, role-play, Socratic seminar, media, engineering project, empathy authors, empathy museum, humans of New York, other shoes, and reflective practice. These exercises listed will help model empathy. 

    Something in the text that I found helpful in schools is restorative justice. This is a process that would facilitate communication and promote empathy among students. Instead of isolating the situation, it would help students move past it through a human-centered approach. Overall, this does not take away from using discipline in the classroom. It shows that it can be used positively to support the student rather than making them feel worse. Paving the way for students to receive the most beneficial learning experience supports learning and growth.