Empathy and Integrative Thinking

One of the challenges we face as educators is how to develop empathy in our students.  We've all sat through the "Character Ed" calendar - "This is Empathy Month", quick give me your empathy award winners so we can print out the certificates and hand them out at the assembly. It is not effective.

We also recognize that it is easy to teach empathy when studying topics such as racism, homophobia or the Holocaust. The extremes and cruelties are so obvious that no one is left untouched. It's much more difficult to promote empathy during daily interactions between members of a school community, and yet this is where that character trait is most needed. Integrative Thinking proponents suggest that one way to develop empathy is to give learners real problems to solve where the nature of the problems require learners to understand opposing points of view in order to solve the problem.

I created this activity as a precusor to working with Opposable Models. The work is to be done independently as I wish to see where students are at in their thinking after the work we have done to date. This is also an opportunity for me to monitor writing and reading comprehension skills.

What We Consider Salient Affects Our Decisions

Due Date: Thursday, March 26, 2013

Read the following and answer all questions in your Independent Learning notebook.

Principal

We usually have to deal with problems related to devices and cellphones. Teachers sometimes have to confiscate them because kids are using them inappropriately or are on them when they shouldn’t be.  Once they are confiscated I have to deal with the angry/upset students who no longer have their devices or with parents who don’t understand why their kid can’t have their devices at all times. These people don’t always see the bigger picture. It becomes an annoyance.

Every year we have several bullying issues to deal with related to social media. It starts on Facebook or Twitter or a similar site and carries on into school. This can be quite brutal. Kids can be really mean. Sometimes parents will escalate the situation. We’ve had to call police more than once because of the seriousness of the bullying. A few times we’ve had inappropriate pictures taken of kids by their ‘friends’ during school time and then posted on to Facebook later on. Kids don’t always get that they should not be taking pictures in the change room. We also have students who are not allowed to be photographed/published and this is for safety reasons. Some kids are in hiding from an abusive parent; we are trying to protect their location and identity. Other parents have not signed the consent to photograph forms. This then creates problems for the school. There are legal issues to contend with.

Kids sometimes call home to parents on their devices to make arrangements for after school. The office who is responsible for the safety of those kids, doesn’t know what is going on. It becomes a communication headache for us.

Teacher

We are stuck between the expectations of the new world where kids need access to technology and information and the reality of limited resources in our school and classrooms. Kids need access to computers. So often time is wasted because the lab is full or there are not enough devices to go around. Allowing kids to bring their own devices means that more kids can have access to tools and information.

This creates its own set of problems. We live in a community where some families have very little income and other families are wealthy. There are kids in our classrooms whose parents can’t afford a computer at home or internet access or mobile devices for their kids. Yet, the more kids have them, the easier it becomes for everyone.

Kids, however, don’t always use them appropriately. Some kids will text friends in other classes to meet them somewhere in the school. Students should be using the school phones to contact parents, but will sometimes text or call directly. It’s a hassle to always be monitoring how kids are using their devices. It’s unfortunate that there is always that group of kids who have really poor judgement or who feel they don’t have to follow the rules. All they see are their own needs, they don’t see the needs of the larger community.

That being said, learning becomes so much more engaging and interesting when we have devices in our classrooms. We can do more things. When students have a question, they can actually find answers right away rather than having to wait until later when most likely they have forgotten their questions.

Student

I use my device all the time. I keep track of my homework on it and I can contact my parents right away if I need to ask them a question or find out if I can do something with a friend after school. The office doesn’t always let us use the phone to call home when we need to or the line- up is too long. We don’t have enough computers so I use my device to research and take notes for assignments. I can take pictures of charts, math and science lessons to help me with my homework.

I don’t see why I can’t have them out during free time or in the hallways. Games are fun to play. Sometimes I want to show my friends something that I discovered online or prove a point or we’re discussing something and we’re not sure what the answer is. I should be able to use my device when I feel I need to. I don’t think teachers always understand how and why we are using our devices.

A. Create a chart that shows the following information for each person.

1. What is salient to each person about devices in school.

2. List 2 assumptions that each person has made about devices in school.

3. List Information that each person ignores or fails to understand or does not consider salient about devices.

B.

1. What policy or rules would each person have about devices at school. Explain.

2. How might the devices in school issue be resolved so that all 3 parties are satisfied?

C.

1. How does knowing what someone considers salient help you understand their point of view?

2. Have you used the Ladder of Inference to help you resolve a conflict or recognize where you’ve gone wrong in your thinking during a different subject at school?