The Study: An exploration of Community of Inquiry as a pedagogical tool to foster empathy in the early years of school Martyn Mills-Bayne deLissa Research Centre School of Education University of South Australia

Educational design research: engineering an empathic pedagogy within the ‘messy’ classroom context.

“My thesis is that an ‘empathic pedagogy’ [which combines Community of Inquiry pedagogies with an experiential stimulus involving observation and interaction with a mother/baby relationship] can foster empathy development.” Study Overview

1.Mother & Baby 2.Children 3.Teacher 4.Parents The Participants ‘a hallmark of research with young children is the use of multi- informant assessments’ (Dadds et al. 2008, p. 111).

The relationship and interactions between the Mother and her baby creates an experiential and interactive stimulus that provides children with a ‘template’ for authentic and caring relationships with others. Mother & Baby oA5PATQfF3Q/Tw1PRE0tbHI/AAAAAAAAAJc/WE3-poIRw8g/s1600/mother- baby.jpg&imgrefurl=

In research, we need to ensure that children’s voices are heard and valued so we can genuinely connect to their experiences. The Community of Inquiry is an ideal tool for examining the meaning of children’s thoughts and feelings that express their lived experience. Children Novosibirsk_Siberia_RUSSIA_02.jpg

The teacher and researcher form a collaborative team to develop and improve the practical and theoretical elements of the ‘empathic pedagogy’ through iterative cycles of design, implementation, analysis and re- design. Teacher

Parents are a valuable source of information for adding depth to the multi-informant data. If children are developing their empathic response, then this will be increasingly evident in the home context. Parents

What is Empathy? ‘Empathy is the spark of human concern for others, the glue that makes social life possible’ (Hoffman 2000, p. 7) ‘cognition and affect are not separate abilities or attributes. They are two dimensions of the one activity of consciousness’ (Schertz 2007, p. 171) …and how do I measure it?

Empathy Empathic Response ResponseAffectCognition

The Community of Inquiry Empathic response occurs through an intersubjective field between self and other (Molnar-Szakacs 2010; Schertz 2007) The Community of Inquiry pedagogy creates an intersubjective space that involves both cognition and affect (Verducci 1999; Schertz 2006) …and how to measure it

METHODOLOGICAL CHOICES Embracing the messy variables & adjusting the design

 Design-based research methodology was used to allow the researcher to advance practical and theoretical understanding of empathy development.  Key features of Design-based research:  acceptance of the messy nature of the classroom context with no effort made to control all variables,  the active participation of children and teachers,  iterative and flexible revision of the design throughout the research process (Barab & Squire 2004; Collins, Joseph & Bielaczyc 2004; O’Donnell 2004) Design Based Research

Educational Design Model (Mills-Bayne 2012)

Observational Matrix (Mills-Bayne 2012)

 Young children are being increasingly recognised as key participants within the research process, rather than solely being viewed as the subject of research (Clark 2005; Dockett & Perry 2005).  Elements of the Mosaic approach (Clark & Moss 2001) have been employed to explore children’s experience of the ‘empathic pedagogy’ model. Children’s Voice

‘Empathy is the spark of human concern for others, the glue that makes social life possible’ (Hoffman 2000, p. 7). If you are interested in learning more about any aspect of this study, please feel free to contact me. Martyn Mills-Bayne deLissa Research Centre School of Education University of South Australia