When you tell a kindergartner to "walk in someone else's shoes" it can be kind of confusing. Why should they put on someone else's shoes? What if they wear a different shoe size? Art educator and 2018 Ohio State Teacher of the Year Jonathan Juravich is interested in finding ways to teach empathy that go beyond catchphrases, and instill an awareness of others that can be expressed through action.

What is the best way to ease someone's pain and suffering? In this beautifully animated RSA Short, Dr Brené Brown reminds us that we can only create a genuine empathic connection if we are brave enough to really get in touch with our own fragilities.

The quality of student-teacher interactions is shaped by both the capacity of the teacher to cultivate trusting relationships with students and his or her ability to establish a safe, supportive classroom environment. Check out this paper which explores the role of empathy in student-teacher interactions.

Empathy — or understanding the thoughts and feelings of the people around us — is one of the most important and most trying parts of being social creatures. Stanford psychology professor Jamil Zaki PhD lays out five exercises to help build your empathy.

Four TED-Ed Innovative Educators share tips for how we can combat that by cultivating empathy in the classroom and building perspective-taking skills among students.

Next Section »