Empathy is the ability to recognize and respond to the needs and suffering of others.
It’s a complicated human emotion, studied for years. Most researchers agree there are two kinds of empathy: cognitive and affective. For classroom teachers, it’s helpful to understand the differences. Each type of empathy, for instance, is important but uses different ways of engaging with the emotions of others.
Cognitive empathy helps students understand how other people think and feel. For example, they are better able to take other’s perspective or imagine what it’s like to walk in another person’s shoes. On the other hand, affective empathy involves actually feeling the other person’s feelings.
Empathy is a complicated emotion. Research suggests there are neurological and evolutionary variances in gender that affect empathy. For instance, girls show stronger correlations with affective empathy than boys. Some social scientists are concerned with teaching affective empathy in school-age children as it can exacerbate anxiety and depression in girls.
We know that cognitive empathy is related to prosocial behavior and altruism. This is foundational to a person’s ability to care for others and contribute to society. Therefore, teachers are uniquely positioned to cultivate empathy, helping children not only discover personal success, but also contribute to the betterment of their communities.
How is Empathy Learned?
Empathy cannot be taught through textbooks, rather it is cultivated through emotional attachment with other human beings. Research indicates that positive adolescent relationships with teachers and parents contribute significantly to a student’s development of empathy and perspective taking. Many researchers are concerned with how social networking and decreased face-to-face relationships may contribute to lower empathy among middle and high school students. Studies have linked low empathy to increased bullying, narcissism, rigid belief systems, and civic apathy. As educators, we have a moral imperative to rethink how we teach kids to care in a more hurried, impersonal, data-driven world.
The Foundation of Caring and Engaged Citizenship
Empathy is situated at “true north” in the Compass Advantage framework. It is the driver of caring and compassionate actions in the world. By developing empathy in children, teachers help them feel valued and understood while impacting social change and innovation for decades to come.
Empathy is related to all of the abilities on the compass, particularly to self-awareness at “true south.” Research suggests that the more children become aware of themselves, the better they become at understanding others. Volumes have been written about how to cultivate empathy, and there is still much to learn. In an excellent article from the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, author Roman Krznaric, Ph.D., suggests that highly empathetic people:
- Cultivate curiosity about strangers
- Challenge prejudices and discover commonalities
- Gain direct experience of other people’s lives
- Listen and open themselves to others
- Inspire mass action and social change
- Develop an ambitious imagination
Empathy and Citizenship
The above behaviors foster personal growth and lifelong learning. They also contribute to the growth of society, particularly empathy’s role in inspiring social change. William Deresiewicz underscored in his book, Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life, that the goal of education should always be “to leverage learning as an agent of social change — the kind of objective that makes leadership and citizenship into something more than pretty words.”
This article focuses on the intersection of empathy and citizenship. It’s an area of research I have pursued for more than a decade, and also the topic of my book. Tomorrow’s Change Makers: Reclaiming the Power of Citizenship for a New Generation contains in-depth interviews with students who became engaged in social and environmental causes. Through middle and high school, they were motivated to serve the greater good. Each had an ability to empathize with individuals and feel compassion for victimized, oppressed, and marginalized groups. The six habits below were derived from my research with students. They spoke about how their greatest teachers not only fostered empathy, but also inspired them to put empathy into action in the world.
Six Empathy-Building Habits of Great Teachers
1. Create meaningful relationships with students.
For children to develop the capacity to feel empathy for others, they must feel seen, felt, and understood. Teachers who know, appreciate, and respect students beyond academics help children feel cared for and increase their ability to care for others.
2. Nurture children’s self-efficacy through mentoring.
Young people with high levels of empathy attribute mentoring by teachers as a primary reason. Through mentors, they developed a belief in self. Without this sense of self-efficacy, students claim they would not have come to believe that they could help others or change the world. According to students, teachers fostered self-efficacy by:
- Supporting and encouraging
- Listening
- Setting high expectations
- Showing interest in students as individuals
- Fostering decision-making skills
- Providing another perspective during problem solving
3. Teach values associated with good citizenship.
When teachers emphasize caring, cooperation, compassion, kindness, service, and teamwork, they are powerful empathy builders. From elementary through high school, children should evolve through three developmental stages as they take on roles in society:
- Being responsible citizens through actions
- Improving their communities through leadership
- Contributing to resolving societal problems through innovative thinking
4. Inspire students to become their best selves.
Ryan, a volunteer making a difference in Boston’s Chinatown, said of his teachers, “The fact that they are so dedicated to teaching, helping, and empowering students . . . that’s such a meaningful gesture. They are always trying to give back to the next generation. That really inspires me.” Most students who developed high levels of empathy named teachers as their primary role models. They learned to become their best selves from teachers who exemplified the following traits:
- Passion and ability to inspire
- Clear and articulated set of values
- Commitment to the community
- Selflessness
- Ability to overcome obstacles in life
5. Expose students to different opinions and worldviews.
When teachers cultivate curiosity about how individuals and groups of people see the world differently, they expand children’s intellectual, interpersonal, and emotional boundaries. They help students see and understand differing perspectives. When challenged to explore prejudices, find commonalities, and glean meaning from what they imagine life would be like walking in another person’s shoes, students build a greater capacity for empathy.
6. Link curriculum to real-world service activities.
Teachers who weave meaningful service learning into their classrooms help students turn empathy into action. This type of project learning builds skills in critical thinking, planning, organizing, and problem solving. Youth gain the most from projects that push them out of their emotional comfort zones. This invites them to see the world differently. For example, Danielle participated in a geography class project that teamed up with Heifer International. It ignited a passion in her for environmental stewardship. She said, “It changed the way I saw service from something you did on the side when you had time, to a lifestyle.”
Call to Action
As educators, we must offer core principles that inspire teachers, parents, and communities to move beyond modern notions of success — to instill abilities that matter most for healthy youth development. We must bring attention to the relationships and experiences that shape the caring, curious, sociable, resilient, self-aware, honest, resourceful, and innovative adults that all youth are capable of becoming. When children chart their own paths through life with empathy at the “true north,” of their internal compasses, they not only discover personal success, but also contribute to the betterment of society.
Student Success Series for Educators
Read the nine articles in the Student Success Series:
Student Success Develops from Inside Out – (Series Introduction)
Curiosity is a Core Predictor of Academic Performance
Social Emotional Development in the Classroom
Building Resilience in Your K-12 Classroom
Metacognitive Strategies for Student Success
Academic Integrity is Essential to Learning
Teach Students to Achieve Goals
Creative Thinking Sparks Student Engagement & Discovery
What Is Empathy? How To Cultivate It In the Classroom
Free Resources for Teachers
The Compass Youth Survey for Students ages 10-17: An online survey that can help students identify, understand, and strengthen their core abilities and impact their success as a student.
Our Community Promise: a frame-ready document that many teachers have hung in their classrooms to remind them and their students of the kind of values and habits of thinking that nurture student success.
I Have a Dream: a frame-ready document created by teens that define genuine success—to engage your students.
Reframing Success: Helping Children & Teens Grow from the Inside Out: an eBook that introduces The Compass Advantage. This eBook has been widely used by schools as a “Book Club” reading to engage parents about raising healthy children and teens.
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Published: January 26, 2025