What is it about?
Building off of new research, this study shows how you can learn to "read" other people better in a few simple steps. Although described in the context of how to teach this capacity in schools, the lessons can be applied broadly.
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Why is it important?
Of the array of social emotional skills we try to teach students, helping them forge social connections with others is one of the most important. At the root of all of our social connections is our capacity to engage in social perspective taking--figuring out the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of others. This article shows how we can improve this capacity.
Perspectives
As a former teacher and school counselor, I have long appreciated how important it is to be able to "read" your students accurately. However, recently I have begun to realize that it may be even more important to simply show them that you are trying to understand where they are coming from. I hope this piece offers some ideas for how to improve the motivation to take the perspective of others and the accuracy with which we do so.
Hunter Gehlbach
University of California Santa Barbara
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Learning to walk in another’s shoes, Phi Delta Kappan, March 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0031721717696471.
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