Empathy and Critical Thinking in K-12: Educator Professional Learning
Educator Professional Learning
Through research-based, nonpartisan professional learning, Penn State’s Hammel Family Human Rights Initiative assists preK-12 educators in investigating and responding to difficult issues in their classrooms and schools. The Initiative provides program participants with strategies and considerations for enhancing their teaching practice to foster the student development of crucial skills, including critical thinking, active listening, civic discourse and empathy.
Participating educators refine their pedagogical skills, while engaging in critical reflection to analyze their students, classrooms and communities through trauma-informed, asset-based, equitable and contextually responsive lenses. Through engaging in this collaborative professional learning, educators bolster classroom learning environments, supporting students in constructing a more holis tic understanding of difficult issues, thus empower ing students to sharpen their perspectives while respecting others’.
The Initiative’s Approach:
Participants and their students develop an inquiry mindset about responding to the difficult issues they encounter. Our approach weaves in trauma-informed, asset-based and equitable practices and is contextually responsive.
Activities were student-centered and focused on discussion and reflection, empowering students in their learning.
– Alyssa Hockensmith, Teacher
The Initiative works with educators across grade levels and content areas to explore difficult issues through a framework of practitioner inquiry. Our programming fosters a community of learners committed to cultivating student agency and curiosity, centers educators as professionals and provides them with practical classroom strategies and personalized support. Through a collaborative community with their colleagues, participants are supported in implementing strategies and insights into their classrooms. Besides critical thinking and empathy, their students develop voice and agency in their learning and an ability to problem-solve, all while understanding a difficult issue from multiple perspectives.
KEY BENEFITS FOR STUDENTS
Our program equips educators with the skills and strategies to facilitate civic discourse and student inquiry into difficult issues in their classrooms. Participating educators implementing their learning can lead to many beneficial outcomes for the students they serve, such as:
1.
Critical Thinking Skills
Through engaging with complex and challenging topics, educators foster critical thinking skills in students. They can guide students to question, fact find, and analyze evidence, in order for students to form their own opinions.
2. Voice and Agency
Inquiry-based methods in classrooms can support learning environments where students have opportunities to form and voice their opinions, explore perspectives and take informed action as they synthesize their learning. This encourages a sense of agency in students as they are empowered to take ownership of their learning.
3. Problem-Solving Abilities
Our approach encourages students to grapple with real-world problems and seek solutions collaboratively. By participating in discussions and activities centered around difficult issues, students develop problemsolving abilities and a sense of efficacy in addressing societal challenges.
4. Empathy and Perspective-Taking
Exploring difficult issues through inquiry promotes empathy and perspective-taking skills in students. Facilitated discussions can encourage students to consider multiple viewpoints and understand the experiences of others, thus developing empathy.
The Initiative partners with educational entities, such as school districts, to offer customized professional learning to meet the varied needs of urban, suburban and rural communities across the country. Our programs include year and semester-long cohorts, workshops and online modules. Participation helps in fulfilling district and state professional requirements, including the awarding of continuing education units. Initiative programming sessions are designed and led by the Initiative’s facilitator team, all with their own K-12 classroom experience.
It is so important for students to be able to think from diverse perspectives, drawing on multiple sources. This approach allows for their own curiosity to lead to a better understanding of difficult issues.
– Becki Zanardi, Teacher
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING OFFERINGS
Year and Semester-long Cohort Programs
Our flagship program is our sustained year or semesterlong educator cohort centered on difficult issues and student learning, gathering educators across grade levels, content areas, and years of experience in the classroom.
Workshops
We offer specialized workshops tailored to a school’s needs, presented as a brief series or standalones. These workshops focus on various topics relevant to today’s educational landscape.
Online Learning Modules
We offer a series of free, online learning modules designed to provide flexible and accessible opportunities for all educators:
Trauma-Informed Practices
Learn strategies to recognize and respond to the impact of trauma on students and educators.
Teaching Difficult Issues
Gain tools and approaches for addressing sensitive and challenging topics in the classroom.
Using Media to Facilitate Difficult Discussions
Discover how to effectively use media as a tool for engaging students in difficult discussions. To access our full learning module library, visit professionallearning.psu.edu
Our commitment to rigorous research informs our practice and demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach. So far, this research has led to the publication of studies in peer-reviewed journals, including School-University Partnerships, Journal of Teacher Education, Journal of Practitioner Research and Action in Teacher Education. Scholars who independently reviewed the papers described the Initiative’s approach to professional learning as novel, innovative and widely needed.
Participant testimonials consistently reflect how our educator-centered professional learning programming is far more beneficial to them than traditional “sit and get” professional development. Educators repeatedly express feeling valued through our unique programming, collaboration and individual support provided.
[This] process is difficult, yet rewarding, because it forces you to think deeply and intentionally about your approach. It’s affecting my teaching by fostering reflection, which then directly impacts student learning.
