Questioning Your Research Plans

“Questioning Your Research Plans”

from Hubbard and Power,

The Art of Classroom Inquiry

Imagine you have just spent half an hour explaining your research project to an older family member. What questions might she or he ask you about your project?

Why do I think my students don’t have empathy?

What have they done to make me think this?

How will I do this research this?

How would you respond to these questions?

It’s not that I don’t think my students don’t have empathy, it’s that their empathy is either underdeveloped or suppressed. Most of my students come from home lives that are tougher compared to the average child and it is possible that showing signs of empathy makes my students vulnerable. Also, my students may not be cared for so why care for someone else.

My students tend to break things that aren't theirs, like laptops and personal items of other classmates. Also, my students are not the nicest to each other when they talk or correct each other. They tend to use curse words and speak very harshly to one another.

I plan to implement empathy lessons into the beginning of my classes and track the behavior of my students: what do they say, do they keep breaking things, how are they talking to one another?

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Imagine explaining your project to a colleague who has a very different philosophy of teaching and learning (think of a real person you know). What questions might she or he ask you about your project?

Why do our students need empathy?

Why do you care… is it really our job to teach them this?

How would you respond?

Our students need empathy so when they leave this building they are ready and prepared to interact with people in the real world. Our students can’t think its alright to break things and not consider the feelings of others.

As a teacher I do believe it is my job to not only teach content but to also teach life skills, such as, empathy. This way my students are ready for the real world academically, socially, and emotionally.

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Imagine explaining your project to one of your students. What questions might she or he ask?

What do you mean I don’t have empathy?

What is empathy anyway!?

How would you respond?

It's not that you don’t have empathy, it’s that I’m worried you don’t always use it, or really know how to use it. There are times when you should consider others feeling before you act and sometimes that doesn’t happen.

Empathy, is when a person is able to express support and care for another person, even if those two people haven’t shared similar experiences. Simply, its thinking about how something will affect a person and being there for/supporting a person.

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Imagine explaining your project to a school board member. What questions might she or he ask?

Is this even relevant to your job, shouldn’t you be teaching content so students can pass district testing?

Do you really think your students don’t have empathy? I guess that could be expected.

How would you respond?

As a teacher, my job is to prepare my students for the real world - this means that my students need to learn content and social/emotional skills. So yes, it is my job to make sure that my students have the opportunity to develop their empathy.

I do believe that some, if not most, of my students lack a developed sense or awareness of their empathy. I believe that each of my students have empathy, but they are just not aware of it, know how to use it, or are afraid to use it because it means that they are vulnerable and a target.