A team of pedagogues in the UK has discovered that children can be taught empathy, the ability to understand and empathize with others. The technique, developed by Cambridge University staff, helps the child to broaden his horizons and think more creatively. With the results of the study, you can: be familiar in the journal Improving Schools.
An international team of scientists formerly from England and France to solvethat the development of empathy is only 10% dependent on human genetics. In this context, experts from the UK decided to explore how to increase emotional intelligence among children through a school education programme.
The experiment involved students from two schools aged 11 to 14 years. At the beginning of the school year, the researchers measured students’ creativity levels with the Torrens Creative Thinking Test, which analyzes drawn and written responses to prompts.
Later, while the students in one school continued the design and technology courses as the standard curriculum, the children in the other school were given “Designing Our Future” lessons to develop empathy.
In the classroom, students made first aid kits for children with asthma, containing all the necessary information for the parent and child to treat the disease, and devices that stop asthma attacks.
At the end of the Designing Our Future course, students from both schools took the Torrens exam again. As it turned out, students who attended only empathy development classes improved their performance compared to those before the experiment began.
Teaching empathy at school can help the younger generation develop social skills and prepare students for adulthood, according to the study’s authors.