Teacher Empathy Practice in Australian Elementary Classrooms: Implications for Classroom Management

• In Event: 63.085 - MTCC Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: 63.085-5 - The Importance of Teacher Knowledge, Efficacy, and Empathy in Creating Effective Classroom Management Practices

Abstract

How do Australian elementary teachers, identified by principals as effective empathisers, understand and enact empathy in their classroom management practice to provide students with social and emotional support? This study used a multidimensional operational definition to guide observations of teacher interactions with students to examine manifestations of teacher empathy practice and explicate processes whereby teachers know students’ internal states and respond with sensitive care in their classroom practice.

Author

• Paul Anthony Swan, Monash University