beEmpathy?

What is empathy? There doesn’t exist only one answer to this question. During the previously conducted exercises the students have worked with different perceptions of empathy. Based on these experiences, “beEmpathy” encourages the students to put these perceptions into words. In a survey people were asked about their definitions of empathy. Some of their answers have been collected for this task. The students are asked to discuss the different definitions. Do they agree? Can they discover new aspects of empathy? As always when it comes to different perspectives, there is no right or wrong. “beEmpathy?” enables an inspiring dispute about empathy and its multifaceted perspectives. It fosters perspective taking and intercultural competence.

NOTE:

“beEmpathy?” can be combined with “The Empathy Spectrum”. Where in the spectrum do the definitions belong? After reading the definitions out loud, the class can discuss where in the spectrum they want to place it.