An Exploration of the Changes in Teachers’ Levels of Empathy when using Personalised Interventions Promoting Emotional Resilience (the PIPER Model)

Piper, D A (Dennis)¹, Muscutt, J C (Janet)^2
1Teacher/Education Consultant | Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, 33 Greenside Court, Eccles, M30 9QH, Manchester, United Kingdom
²Consultant Educational Psychologist | Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, 8, Thelwall New Road, Thelwall, WA4 2JF, Warrington, United Kingdom

 

Submission type

Oral only

Scheduled

Room 116, 11-07-2019, 13:30 - 15:00

Keywords

SEL, Teacher Stress, Empathy, Inclusion, EWB Intervention

Summary

Whilst there are a plethora of studies examining the effectiveness of social and emotional interventions in relation to fidelity to the programme (e.g.  Greenberg, 2013; Domitrovich, 2013) few have examined the factors played by teachers’ wellbeing states (Humphrey, 2013).

This paper explores the changes in teachers’ levels of empathy, during the course of using the PIPER Model (Piper, 2017), a 3 step EWB intervention, to support a pupil at risk of exclusion due to complex social, emotional and wellbeing needs.

Two research questions were formulated:

RQ1. To what extent do teachers at the start of the intervention display empathy towards a pupil with EWB needs?

RQ2.   To what extent and in what ways can that empathy be positively affected during the course of the intervention?

Teacher language was recorded through pre and post intervention interviews and a research diary was kept throughout and shared at each step with the teacher participants. Teacher language was analysed using a system developed from the work of Baron-Cohen and Wainwright (2004).

Key findings included the ways in which the core components of teachers’ levels of empathy shifted during the intervention and the importance of the Empathy-Sympathy component to maintain positive teacher intervention.

Auteurs