Empathy and Perspective-Taking

Implementation

SEE Learning understands empathy as a learnable competency that grows through repeated, everyday exercises. In the SEEL approach, empathy is not taught but practised: through everyday questions that invite children to see the world through the eyes of others too.

Looking at a situation from everyday school life from two perspectives trains empathy without a separate subject being necessary for this. Questions such as ‘How do you think Matteo felt when nobody played with him?’ can arise spontaneously or be introduced as a fixed conversation format.

Concrete ideas for everyday school life
• Perspective-change cards: An everyday situation on a card – children discuss in pairs: ‘How did Person A feel? How did Person B?’
• Practising peer feedback: With sentence starters like ‘I thought it was good that…’ or ‘You could still…’, feedback becomes a learnable competency.
• Role play in the circle: Act out a typical conflict situation, then swap roles.
• ‘I see, I think, I feel’: After a shared experience, children formulate in three sentences what they perceived.

Picture books as conversation starters
• ‘Das kleine WIR in der Schule’ by Daniela Kunkel (Cycle 1 and 2): When does our class lose its sense of togetherness? What can we do so that it grows again?
• ‘Du und ich und alle Anderen’ by Marcos Farina (Cycle 1 and 2): Our feelings connect us, no matter what we look like or where we come from. Ideal for conversations about similarities and differences.

Material

Brankovic, Lidia (2023): Das Grand Hotel der Gefühle. Hatje Cantz Verlag, Berlin.
Bright, Rachel (2016): Der Löwe in dir. Magellan Verlag, Bamberg.
Llenas, Anna (2015): Das Farbenmonster. Velber Verlag.

References:

After: Selin Güler, primary school teacher and  Translationmanageri at BeLEARN