Week 8. Empathy
- Kseniya V.
- Mar 16, 2020
- 3 min read

When we talk about the differences between knowledge and understanding it is important to know that understanding is "Multidimensional and complicated" (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). For this reason, educators should be aware of a six-faceted view of the concept of understanding. When backward designers develop a curriculum or plan a lesson they organize the design process starting with the end results. Backward designers come up with the learning outcomes that should be observable and measurable. While creating a list of the learning outcomes designers often use the verb "demonstrate".
The concept of the 6 facets of understanding explains how students can demonstrate their understanding.
Explanation - students are able to not only operate memorized facts but, most importantly, they can justify their responses and articulate their well-supported views.
Interpretation - students should be able to make sense of the information. They are able to make meaningful connections between what they learn and their real-life experiences. They can make the information they learn accessible through images, personal stories, anecdotes, and narratives which make it personal.
Apply - students can use the new knowledge in real life in an authentic way in different contexts.
Have perspective - students should be able to recognize different perspectives and see the bigger picture. Having perspective is different from having an opinion. They can have an opinion based on the critical consideration of various perspectives.
Empathize - students should be able to "step in someone else's shoes", recognize other people's feelings.
Self-Knowledge - students recognize their own strengths, weaknesses, biases, prejudices, privileges that either enhance or hinder their understanding.
To my mind, educators should have a certain level of empathy in order to be able to recognize the manifestation of students' understanding through their performances. One way to develop your empathy is to try to be mindful of the good things that happen to you. As human beings. we tend to pay more attention to what is negative as in most cases they cause a stronger emotional response.
Since practicing mindfulness and making a list of three things I am grateful for every week is a part of my Instructional Design course, I feel like I should share my thoughts and feelings about how this routine works for me.
Last semester we did a task of a similar format. I had a revelation about how negative experiences can lose their power over my mind when you make an effort to see a lesson or even a positive thing in them. With the growth of self-help philosophy, it has unfortunately become a cliche. A lot of people prefer to give those techniques of changing their attitudes a miss since the things that become popularized lose their value. As for me, it does work. I found it hard to find to put what seemed devastating at first side under the category of 100% negative experiences. After I started feeling that way about my life, it became easier to notice the good things.
This semester, I have had another revelation about myself. I do have a high level of empathy and should not doubt my ability to empathize. I can be open about my feelings and easily relate to what other people feel, find value in the feelings and ideas of other people where they might even seem odd or not plausible. This is a great revelation for educators who reflect on their teaching and student counseling. Oftentimes educators doubt their choices and downplay the importance of their advice and guidance for students. Therefore, the lack of confidence in their abilities, the programs, curricula, or lesson plans may lack that determination and a strong course of action. We all know that students always feel it which determines their attitudes towards what they are learning.
This week's reflection on what I am grateful for required sharing my gratitude with someone and asking them to share as well. It was easy to find that I am grateful for the trees that look so gorgeous in bloom now, for the peach pie that finally worked out well, and my family being safe. I was surprised to see that my friend struggled to find anything at all. He felt irritated and could name two things out of three which happened to be the big ideas, not the small things as I recommended to ease the pain of sharing. He also asked me right away who the audience is which as he admitted later determined to a great extent what he shared. It made me remember my classes where some students whose writing skills were good enough but they were struggling with expressing their thoughts and feelings in class. Even though it can make teachers angry when their students do not talk much in class and it makes it hard to assess their speaking skills, we must be mindful of the fact that everyone is different and sharing thoughts and feelings can be easy for someone but intimidating for others.
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