EMPATHY, as it RELATES TO STEM PROGRAMMING at SPARK!

By Paige Gordon

 The first step in the Design Thinking Process (source: Standford University Design School or “d.school”) is to develop Empathy. Designers often begin their process by gaining empathy for
their users. The goal of the Empathize phase is to discover gaps between what people do and
 what people say they do. These gaps are the design opportunities. Designers generally use one or more of the following techniques to build empathy: interviewing and asking questions, observation, and immersion.

As adults we must challenge designers to maintain a “beginner’s mindset” so they can understand their users needs without bringing their own pre-conceived ideas to the table. As preschool designers, children often lack enough background knowledge to bring their pre-conceived ideas to the table. At school in this phase, we spend time reading, viewing, taking field trips, “front loading” information, discussing, thinking aloud, observing, asking questions, simulating, dramatic play or reenacting, and building background knowledge so preschoolers can later work to define, ideate, prototype, and test solutions. We ask: Who should we talk to about this? Who can we learn from about this? What is the experience of our users? How would we feel if we experienced this?

As the Institute of Design at Stanford discusses, “As a design thinker, the problems you are trying to solve are rarely your own—they are those of a particular group of people; in order to design for them, you must gain empathy for who they are and what is important to them. Observing what people do and how they interact with their environment gives you clues about what they think and feel. It also helps you learn about what they need. By watching people, you can capture physical manifestations of their experiences – what they do and say. This will allow you to infer the intangible meaning of those experiences in order to uncover insights. These insights give you direction to create innovative solutions. The best solutions come out of the best insights into human behavior. But learning to recognize those insights is harder than you might think. Why? Because our minds automatically filter out a lot of information without our even realizing it. We need to learn to see things “with a fresh set of eyes,” and empathizing is what gives us those new eyes. Engaging with people directly reveals a tremendous amount about the way they think and the values they hold. Sometimes these thoughts and values are not
obvious to the people who hold them, and a good
conversation can surprise both the designer and
the subject by the unanticipated insights that are
revealed. The stories that people tell and the
things that people say they do—even if they are
different from what they actually do—are strong
indicators of their deeply held beliefs about the
way the world is. Good designs are built on a
solid understanding.” (Source: http://waag.org/sites/waag/files/public/media/publicaties/design_thinking_process_guide-by-nc.pdf)

Ways to develop Empathy in Children at Home

·       REASON WITH CHILDREN–Even quite small ones, about the effects and impacts of their behavior on others and the importance of sharing and being kind is effective in promoting empathy and pro-social behavior (Clarke 1984; Kohn 1991; Ladd, Lange, and Stremmel 1983; and Zahn-Waxler, RadkeYarrow, and King 1979).

·       MODEL EMPATHETIC, CARING BEHAVIOR toward children–and toward others in the children’s presence–is strongly related to children’s development of pro-social attitudes and behavior (Eisenberg-Berg and Mussen 1978; Kohn 1991; McDevitt, Lennon, and Kopriva 1991; and Zahn-Waxler, Radke-Yarrow, and King 1979).

·       WHEN CHILDREN HAVE HURT OTHERS or otherwise caused them distress, research supports the practice of giving explanations as to why the behavior is harmful and suggestions for how to make amends (Kohn, ‘91; and Zahn-Waxler, Radke-Yarrow, and King ‘79).

·       ENCOURAGE CHILDREN TO DISCUSS THEIR FEELINGS AND PROBLEMS is positively related to the development of empathy in those children (Clarke ’84).

·       FOCUS ON SIMILARITIES BETWEEN ONESELF AND OTHERS. Activities which focus children’s attention on similarities between themselves and another person (or other persons) is effective in increasing affective and cognitive empathy (Black and Phillips 1982; Brehm, Fletcher, and West 1988; Clarke 1984; Dixon 1980; and Hughes, Tingle, and Sawin 1981).

·       HELP CHILDREN FOCUS ON THEIR OWN FEELINGS. When seeking to increase the ability of children to assume another’s perspective, it is most fruitful to have them focus first on their own feelings–the different kinds of feelings they have and what feelings are associated with what kinds of situations (Black and Phillips 1982; and Dixon 1980).

·       CROSS-AGE AND PEER INTERACTIONS. Students’ empathetic feelings, understanding, and behavior have been shown to increase as a result of serving as peer or cross-age interactions (Morgan 1983; and Yogev and Ronen 1982).