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All teachers know that empathy is one of the most important qualities you can bring to your student relationships. It helps teachers connect with their students and support them when they鈥檙e struggling. But did you know that empathy also helps students to excel academically?

New research that when teachers are empathetic towards students, their performance can improve. Other highlight how empathy can influence better student behaviour and emotional awareness. Empathy has been to reduce students鈥� feelings of stress, and boost their learning engagement.

But just how can you demonstrate empathy, and foster it among your students? At this stage in the school year, many teachers are feeling a bit burned out or disconnected. Here are some ideas for having more empathetic interactions with students.

How to be more empathetic as a teacher

By consciously being empathetic (and talking about empathy) in your classroom, students will start to mirror the behaviour, and develop their own abilities to empathise. Remember that empathy is both innate and nurtured, so it鈥檚 about tapping into what students naturally feel, and helping them grow their understanding of their emotions and the emotions of others.

Do a morning check-in

At the beginning of each school day or class, ask for a temperature check of students鈥� feelings that day. This could be by asking them to put a sticker on an emotions board, next to the emotion that they鈥檙e experiencing. Or you could ask them to rate their mood on a scale of 1 to 5. Or ask them to share one word that describes their current state.

This simple activity allows you to recognise how each student is as soon as they enter your classroom. You can then tailor how you interact with them and consider what type of support they need for that day.

Personalise your communication

How you talk and interact with students according to their mood and needs is an important part of empathy. If you are picking up that a student is having a difficult day, using an authoritative tone probably won鈥檛 elicit a positive response. Instead, using a softer tone and asking open-ended questions helps you meet students where they are, and show them that you understand that they鈥檙e having a challenging time.

Personalised communication also means meeting with students regularly for short, one-on-one check-ins, where you can take note of challenges and personal details they share with you. For example, if they mention that they suffer from anxiety before exams, you can offer them extra support in the approach to exam season.

Introduce a 鈥榗alm鈥� corner

Classrooms can be fast-paced, even when they鈥檙e silent. After all, learning environments come with a lot of stimulus. A calm corner is a space in the classroom for students when they are experiencing strong emotions. Here, they can sit quietly, read or talk about what鈥檚 happening. The space can also be somewhere for students to retreat when they need a break (not just in high intensity moments).

You could ask students to help design the calm corner with you, using their input to understand what helps them emotionally regulate.

How to encourage empathy in students

Empathy is a big, complex topic. However, it can be taught to students. One school in the UK even , where students were shown thought-provoking films and then had a follow-up 30-minute activity and discussion session.

While you may not have content or a curriculum dedicated to empathy, there are everyday steps you can take to encourage it within the classroom.

Teach and practise active listening

Active listening is fully focusing on what someone is saying and responding in a way that tells the person you鈥檙e really hearing them. Nodding, maintaining eye contact, and asking questions for clarity all are part of active listening.

The more you actively listen to your students, the more likely they are to mirror you. A fun activity to teach active listening is to put students in pairs and give them a few minutes to tell one another what they did at the weekend. In this short time, they have to find three things that they did which were the same 鈥� which requires careful listening.

Kindness jar

A kindness jar lets students write and submit supportive messages or observations about their peers. Everything they put in the jar is anonymous, so students can feel more confident in sharing real feelings or things that they notice. They also learn to be more attentive to people around them and recognise subtle cues about them.

Every week, you could read the supportive messages aloud to the class or to the individual the message is written for. Or, based on observations from students about their classmates, you could check-in with that student. For instance, saying 鈥渟omeone in the kindness jar noticed that you were tired this week, do you agree?鈥�.

Storytelling as prompts for emotional exploration

Storytelling goes hand-in-hand with empathy because it provides a way for students to express themselves and to step into someone else鈥檚 shoes.

Give students writing prompts that make them think about their emotions, the roots of those emotions, and why they respond to those emotions the way they do. The prompts could be:

• Write about a time you felt misunderstood
• Describe a moment when someone showed you unexpected kindness
• Tell a story from your past that you think shaped who you are

Afterwards, create a story circle where students can share (if they choose to). This time is an excellent moment for everyone to practice active listening too.

Sympathy and success in the classroom

Young people are some of the most naturally empathetic people in society. Still, they need role models and learning pathways to develop that empathy and know how to take care of themselves and to understand the people around them better.

More empathetic teachers mean more sympathy and success in the classroom!

Further reading

Understand more about how emotions and education correlate. Read Create a cycle of caring in the classroom, Boosting inclusion in the young learner classroom, and Strategies for teaching students how to disagree respectfully.

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