The Effect of Promoting Empathic Behavior on Cooperation in Reciprocal Teaching of Elementary School Science

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of promoting empathy on learners' cooperation in reciprocal teaching of elementary school science. Two classes (66 students) in the 6th grade of elementary school were taught mutually in science by the same teacher, with one class receiving an intervention to promote empathy and the other without it. In the class promoting empathy, cards with example conversations were distributed during activities in which students explained natural phenomena to each other in groups. In another class, the teacher did not distribute an example conversation card for the group activities, but encouraged students to use empathy during the conversation. The cards provided examples of conversations that would indicate agreement with the questions. Questionnaires were administered before and after the validation class to verify the effectiveness of the cards. Results showed that in the class with the promotion of empathy, the scores on the cooperativeness questionnaire improved more than in the class without such a promotion, and more cooperative utterances appeared during the class. These results suggest that promoting empathy by the questioner in the class can improve cooperation by promoting empathy and encouraging effective utterances related to the improvement of cooperation.