The Central Role of Epistemic Empathy in Responsive Teaching

• In Event: 56.060 - Designing With and for the Whole Learner

Abstract

Despite the growing attention to responsive teaching in science and mathematics, there is yet much to be learned about the underlying dynamics behind teachers’ responsiveness, and how to prepare teachers to become responsive practitioners. Here, we develop the notion of “epistemic empathy” to argue that it is key to responsive teaching. We define epistemic empathy as the act of understanding and appreciating someone’s cognitive and emotional experience within an epistemic activity—i.e., an activity aimed at the construction, communication, and critique of knowledge in the pursuit of understanding. We then explore the nature of and shift in preservice teachers’ epistemic empathy in an undergraduate education course designed to promote attention and responsiveness to student thinking in science and mathematics.

Authors

• Lama Ziad Jaber, Florida State University

• Felisha Dake, Florida State University

• Sherry A. Southerland, Florida State University