UNIT 4: What is Empathy?
UNIT 4: Social Skills
Empathy; an essential Emotional Intelligence Competence/Skill
To understand what empathy is and why it is so important to develop your learners' empathy (and your own!), we will first look at the concepts of ‘sympathy’ and ‘empathy’ together. Both sympathy and empathy are essential social and emotional skills. Sympathy is what we feel when we are sorry for someone else and pity them. Empathy is very important as it is a skill that enables us to imagine what it feels like to be someone else, to feel what they must be feeling and so empathy makes us behave in positive and caring ways as we put ourselves into the position of the other person.
Here are the definitions :
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Empathy |
the ability to understand another person’s thoughts and feelings in a situation, from their point of view, rather than your own; empathy is feeling with the other person. Empathy comes from the heart and is about putting yourself in the other person’s position, feeling what they are feeling. |
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Sympathy
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a feeling of concern for someone who is experiencing something difficult or painful; feeling sorry for someone for what they are going through.
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Empathy is a very important Emotional Intelligence (EQ) competence (skill) and it is essential for building positive relationships and behaving in a caring way towards others. Empathy involves learning to deeply feel the things that other people are feeling, rather than only focusing on your own feelings. Empathy enables learners to develop behaviours that are compassionate and supportive of themselves, their classmates, teachers, family members and everyone in the wider community. These feelings of compassion and concern come from within; they are not forced onto the learners by someone else.
Now, let’s hear from teacher Sabin who is telling us about how he builds the skill of empathy with his learners at Umubano Academy: