A Study on the Importance of Teaching Empathy in Hong Kong Schools - Essay Example

A Study on the Importance of Teaching Empathy in Hong Kong Schools Background of the Study One of the crucial problems faced by educational institutions and academic community now-a-days is the lack of empathy among students and its eventual repercussions on individuals and society. Academic knowledge and skills over certain subjects can help one to attain a job and lead a successful life in economic terms. But, he/she might be an ultimate failure in life when he is evaluated from a humanitarian perspective. Gone are the days of academic brilliance and technical skills and people with high intelligent quotient may find their life miserable on account of negative attitude towards empathy for fellow beings. Therefore, empathy must begin from within one's own and right from childhood. This necessitates the need for teaching empathy at schools and colleges and thereby changing the attitude of students to fellow students and to entire society. Empathy is the quality to understand and experience the problems of others and take efforts to tackle their problems as one's own. As remarked by Adam Blanter in his work that empathy has two components and defined "First, empathy is an ability to imagine with some degree of accuracy what it's like to be in the predicament of the other person; and secondly, empathy entails the ability to communicate that awareness so the other person feels understood"(Blander, 2002). Empathy, therefore, is the capability to understand the feeling and problems of others and trying, at least to some degree to experience what others feel and take initiative to help them. Empathy is cited as the root cause for moral emotions and actions. Stressing the importance of empathy as the foundation for moral emotions, Laura Walker, Assistant Professor in the School of Family Life remarks that "It is linked to moral action. It's a feeling that compels people to act compassionately while reasoning alone might not" (Bergin). Thus, empathy education is indispensable at the very beginning of education life. It contributes a lot of benefits to students and community as a whole. In the absence of empathy education, students become merciless and unkind adults, which ultimately will lead to the development of a society where nobody can have humanitarian considerations. Many studies undertaken across countries have examined and documented the much debated issue of teaching empathy in schools and thereby developing their social skill. The results reveal that empathy is teachable and can be learnt by students. However, educators nowadays focus more on academic content than students' psychological growth. The result is devastating that schools and colleges develop anti social behaviors of students. This leads many problems arise such as drug abusing, assaulting, sexual offending, etc. Educators neglect the origin of humanistic education. Therefore, it is indispensable to start teaching empathy at school level. At this juncture, the present study is an effort to examine the importance and effectiveness of teaching empathy in Hong Kong schools. This is carried out by studying the impact of teaching empathy on the children from various schools selected at random basis for the purpose of a sample survey. The paper also tries to throw lights on the correlation between empathy and academic outcomes. Research Problem Academicians in most schools believe that student performance in academics and extra curricular activities rely heavily on academic brilliance and intelligent quotient. But studies over the years undertaken in different parts of the world demonstrate that intelligent quotient and academic skills can no longer useful for producing socially responsible citizens. The social skill and humanistic considerations among the students depend, to a great extent, on the degree of empathy they possess and the patience they show in dealing with the mentally oppressed ones. In this context, the present study is relevant to examine the importance of empathy education in Hong Kong. Also the study seeks to measure the relationship between empathy education, social skills and academic performance. Objectives of the Study The ultimate purpose of the present study is to evaluate the present scenario of schooling in Hong Kong and the relevance of imparting empathy at the school level for the purpose of improving social skills and academic performance. Specifically, the study has following objectives: 1. To evaluate the extent of empathy education implemented in Hong Kong Schools 2. To examine the significance of empathy education at Hong Kong School 3. To measure the relationship between the empathy education and social skills. 4. To measure the relationship between empathy education and academic outcomes. Hypotheses A research to be complete must have a hypothesis or group of hypotheses to prove or disprove something. A hypothesis is an assumption about the probable outcome(s) of research, which is (are) yet to be tested. The research problem, objectives and hypothesis are interrelated and expressed in different ways so as to extend the scope of the study. The probable outcome is the solution to the research problem, which demanded the very need for a research. The present study is also undertaken with certain hypotheses. They are stated as below: Empathy education and Social Skills are positively correlated Empathy education and academic performance are positively correlated The above hypotheses are called null hypotheses by statisticians and in case the above statements turn to be untrue, its alternative hypotheses are formed and accepted. The alternative hypotheses are the exact opposite of the null hypothesis and need not be expressed. Initially they are implied and in case the null hypotheses are not valid after the research, the alternative hypotheses are accepted. Literature Review The literature of empathy education is vast and varied. Innumerable studies have been carried out by scholars and educators in the field of empathy education in schools. Psychologists have also attempted in exploring new theories and concepts in the area. It is worth notable in this respect is that a large number of studies have been undertaken to examine and document the empathetic level of medical students as they are supposed to be empathetic to their patients in their professional life. The following few studies dwell on the findings and conclusions arrived at by studies undertaken across countries. The Role of Empathy in Teaching Culturally Diverse Students- Gretchen McAllister and Jacqueline Jordan Irvine This study demonstrates the experience and beliefs of 34 practicing teachers on the role of empathy as a toll to effectively handle the students of varied cultures and background. The study documents that "all of these teachers had participated in a multicultural professional development program geared to fostering culturally responsive practice and through a content analysis of more than 125 documents, three themes in teachers' practices emerged: more positive interactions with culturally diverse students, more supportive classroom climates, and more student-centered practices" (Irvine, 2002) Teaching Empathy in Law School- Rosenberg, Joshua D This article describes the experience of the author in teaching interpersonal Dynamics for Lawyers. The author begins the article by explaining his prior experience in teaching at a law school and confessed why his efforts are failed. In the article the main argument put forward by the author is "much important potential learning relevant to the practice of law and the development of values is the result not of logic, reading, or analysis, but rather of environmental influences to which the legal academy pays too little attention" (Joshua, 2002). The author is of the opinion that the teaching job at the law college will ruin certain human values including empathy. Further, the article advocates that "empathy is an extremely important value for law students to learn and describes how Interpersonal Dynamics encourages students to become more interested in and concerned for others" (Joshua, 2002). Developing Empathy in Children and Youth In this research paper, the author attempts to establish empirically that teaching empathy is important at school level and try to correlate the various aspects of social life with empathy. The study comes out with certain findings which are great value to the school children and their parents. Also, the author has recommended for the empathy training in schools and tries to throw some lights on difference in empathy when it comes to gender. The author finds that "childrearing practices positively associated with the development of empathetic understanding and behavior and empathy instructions and training enhance affective and cognitive empathy in children and adults, as well as leading to more pro-social behavior" (Cotton, 2000) The Role of Empathy in Improving Inter-group Relations- Walter G. Stephan & Krystina Finlay This article seeks to assert the significance of empathy in establishing and improving inter-group relations. In this article, the authors have categorized three types of empathy and two types of emotional empathy, reactive and parallel. This article also stresses the role pf training in enhancing empathetic skills and inter-group relations. The article makes discussions on various aspects such as "the effects of empathizing with out group members on prejudice, the processes by which empathy may make changes in prejudice are presented and cognitive dissonance" (Finlay, 2002). . An empirical study of decline in empathy in medical school-Mohammadreza Hojat , Salvatore Mangione , Thomas J Nasca , Susan Rattner , James B Erdmann , Joseph S Gonnella & Mike Magee In this empirical research, the authors seek to enquire about the level of empathy among medical students who are supposed to be empathetic towards their patients in their professional life. The authors argue that there has been a decline in the empathy level of medical students over the last several years. The study takes 125 medical students with 20 Likert scale measurement to scale their empathy level. The authors come out with the major finding that "statistically significant declines were observed in 5 items (P Read More