Memo 6 -Research Proposal

Research Proposal Template

Title

Write a two-part title. The first part is a play-on-words: the second part is a summary of the topic.

Empathic or Pathetic?

An analysis of empathy interventions on student social interactions.

By Eleanor deMuth

Purpose

Describe the study succinctly. (1 sentence)

This study will examine the effect of empathy interventions on student relationships in a classroom setting.  

What are you analyzing? Big picture (1 sentence)

This study will analyze how empathy interventions affect student relationships; specifically what students say to one another and how they feel about each other.

What tensions do you seek to erase? (1 sentence)

The goal of this study is erase the use of foul language and increase perspective taking.

In sum, what methodology, sociocultural foundation, and topic do you explore in the study? (1 sentence)

During this study data will be gathered using observations, interviews, and surveys.

Questions

Write what you hope to accomplish as a model for other teachers and qualitative researchers. (1 sentence)

The goal of this study is to create a model for increasing students ability to empathize during interactions with peers.  

What are the goals you intend to accomplish by doing this study and analyzing data? (1-2 sentences)

The analysis will hopefully reveal patterns that determine more effective methods for increasing empathic interactions among students.

Introduce the research questions. (1 sentence)

What effect with empathy interventions have on student interactions?

Paste in the primary research question and any secondary questions that are part of the same inquiry (indent each question.)

What effect with empathy interventions have on student interactions?

Specifically, how will empathy interventions change the usage of foul language between students?

Furthermore, will increased perspective taking increase student’s  positive feelings toward one another?

Conceptual Foundation

Write 3-4 paragraphs that provide a foundation to the study you intend to do.

Writing guidelines: A paragraph is 4-7 sentences (maximum). Research writing is scientific: brevity is all. Suggestion: Refer to this glossary of sociocultural terminology to capture the most efficient word choices and concepts.

Today in society, it is strongly suggested that top performing professionals and leaders need to be: honest, confident, inspiring, committed, passionate, a strong communicator, decision maker, accountable, delegator, creative, and empathetic. In this list the only quality that touches on social emotional competence is empathy. To be empathic, one must have the ability to understand the feelings and emotions of others they are interacting with.  Therefore it is strongly suggested that empathy has become a pillar for building and navigating relationships.

Empathy has also become a common message in marketing and social media within the last few years. Companies are doing all they can to communicate to the general public that they are empathic and accepting of all diversities. For instance, T-Mobile has promoted a commercial supporting equality for all races, while Toyota has produced a commercial promoting religion equality. These commercials are strongly suggesting that the companies are empathic and willing to accept all individuals. Clearly, empathy has become a necessary skill to be successful in the “real world”.

Since empathy is a necessary skill for success, empathy should be skill taught in schools along with content. However, throughout the school year, I have witnessed several interactions and situations that have me questioning whether or not my students have been taught how to be empathic. For instance, I have watched students damage school laptops with no care. I have seen students break and damage other student’s belonging without considering the feelings of the harmed student. Most significantly, I hear student use foul and explicit language when speaking to one another daily.  

Therefore, this study will focus on the implementation of empathy interventions and their effect on student interactions. Specially, student language and feelings toward one another will be observed and analyzed. To improve positive feelings, students will need to put themselves in each other shoes and try to understand the feelings of that person. This skill is not only important for the classroom and relationship building, but it is also important for preparing students for success outside of the classroom.

Scholarship

Write 3 cohesive paragraphs that discuss the scholars in the field who inspire you to conduct this study and why.

There is considerable research on empathy, especially in the field of developmental psychology which ranges from bullying, to social emotional learning, and expresion. Several sources have inspired my work in this area, however the work of Malt, Chaparro, Zuffiano & Colasante (2016) have helped narrow the large topic of empathy down to the relationship between empathy and school-based interventions.  Malt, Chaparro, Zuffiano & Colasante (2016) are known for studying school-based interventions and their effect on empathy responses in child and adolescents. I have started to read these studies with new perspective. Instead of reading these articles to inform, I am now reading them with the intent to act, specifically using them to help me determine how I will implement empathy interventions in my own classroom.  

Part of my journey has been to determine how I will measure empathy, therefore I turned to the literature to see what has been done before. This is when I found the research by Reid, Davis, Horlin, Anderson, Baughman, and Campbell (2013). These authors focused their research on determining a school appropriate scale for measuring empathy. After reviewing their work, it has become clear that along with interviewing and observing my students, I also need to survey them using a scale made specifically for empathy.

Along with implementing empathy into my classroom and measuring empathy using a school appropriate scale, I also need to gain an understanding for why my students behave in certain ways. What has caused my students to show a disregard for empathy. Do my students view empathy differently than I do? Therefore the work by Luke and Banerjee (2012) has become considerably important in inspiring my work in this area. Luke and Banerjee (2012) focus their research on how maltreated children in foster care settings understand and portray empathy. Several of my students are in foster care and therefore I could learn a lot from what Luke and Banerjee find in their research. There may be some biases i need to work through and some perspectives I need to understand about my students before I can gather and code data on empathy.

Data Collection

Describe the various data sources that you will collect during the implementation stage of your research study. (1 sentence)

Throughout this study, 3 types of data courses will be collected: observations, interviews, and surveys.

Explain how you intend to organize your data as you collect it. (1 sentence)

Observations on what students say during empathy interventions will be kept in a teacher journal, while interview and  survey raw data will be kept in an excel chart.

Outline the process you will use to analyze your data and develop your findings. (1-2 sentences)

The raw data will be coded based on common themes and patterns. Once the data is coded, the three sources will be triangulated to determine which themes are most significant.

References (APA style)

Make a complete list of the scholarship you cite throughout this research proposal.

Luke, N., & Banerjee, B. (2012). Maltreated children’s social understanding and empathy: a preliminary exploration of foster carers’ perspective. J Child Fam Stud. England, UK. University of Sussex, 237-246.

Malti, T., Chaparro, M., Zuffiano, A., & Colasante, T. (2016). School-based interventions to promote empathy- related responding in children and adolescents: a developmental analysis. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology.  45(6), 718-731.

Reid, C., Davis, H., Horlin, C., Anderson, M., Baughman, N., & Campbell, C. (2013). The kid’s empathic development scale (KEDS): a multi-dimensional measure of empathy in primary school-aged children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology. 31, 231-256.