Empathy in Education Engagement, Values and Achievement [Paperback]

Empathy in Education discusses the role of empathy in learning throughout all levels of education and its crucial relationship to motivation, values development and achievement, impacting from the micro to the macro levels of society. Using initial research involving interviews with teachers and student teachers in many different contexts, from nursery to sixth form lessons along side neuroscience, psychology and educational research, the author considers the intrinsic nature of affect and empathic human relationships in learning.

At a time when politicians are calling for personalized learning and the promotion of good citizenship but are still advocating an intensive, rigid curriculum, in large, one size fits all, classes, this study highlights the inherent contradictions in rhetoric and practice. Cooper offers a detailed study in empathy in teaching and learning which sheds light on the learning process in intricate detail and gives balance to the strong emphasis on mechanistic learning, curriculum and cognition which has dominated the last twenty years of learning theory and sets a foundation for future research into affective and moral issues in learning.

Bridget Cooperis Professor of Education at Sunderland University, UK.

IntroductionPart I: Empathy, Morality and Learning: A Historical Background1. Empathy: An Historical Perspective2. Empathy and Morality: The Relationship3. The Nature and Significance of Empathy in EducationPart II: New Understandings of Empathy in Learning Relationships and the Significance of Context4. A New Classification of Empathy in Learning Relationships5. The Benefits of Empathy in Teaching and Learning Relationships6. Constraints on Empathy in Learning Relationships7. Modeling Empathy and Values in the Classroom8. Empathy and Students with Particular Needs: Transformative learningPart III: Wider Implications: Empathy Beyond the School9. The Life-long Learner: Emotional Engagement as the Essence of LearlƒX