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Interactive Activities · Activity 4 of 18
Developing Empathy and Creating Scenarios
Foster empathy by creating scenarios of what a student would say or do in different contexts, then provide and discuss proper behaviour models.
Key takeaways
- The activity is built on one question: “What would I do if it were me?”
- It is designed for ages 13–16, when young people are exploring identity, peer relationships, self-expression and decision-making.
- The board has three columns: the scenario, the emotions involved, and empathic responses.
- Scenarios: a friend who freezes during a public speech, a conflict of ideas in a class discussion, and a friend who asks you to do something unfair.
- Students practise concrete responses such as “Calm down, we are here for you” and “Making mistakes is normal.”
What is the aim of this activity?
Students practise what they would say or do in a situation through scenarios, and in this way acquire models of empathic behaviour. Asking “What would I do if it were me?” engages both the cognitive and the emotional side of empathy and helps students bring empathy into their daily lives.
How does the activity run in class?
The teacher divides the board into three columns: scenarios, emotions and empathic responses. For each scenario, students first name how the person might be feeling and then suggest what they would say or do.
In the first scenario a friend becomes nervous and stops during a public speech. Students name the feelings — excited, anxious, embarrassed, shy — and offer responses: “Calm down, we are here for you”, “Take a deep breath”, “Making mistakes is normal, no need to worry.”
Which other scenarios are used?
A conflict of ideas in a class discussion, where the atmosphere is tense: students name feelings such as sad, angry, uncomfortable and under pressure, and suggest “Let's respect everyone's ideas”, “Let's listen to each other” and “Having different ideas is normal.”
A friend asks you to do something unfair: students name feeling anxious, uncomfortable and stressed, and practise responses such as “I don't want to do this, but how can I help you?” and “I care about our relationship, but I cannot do something that feels wrong.”
Video transcript
Generated automatically from the video's audio or subtitles; it may contain small errors.
Developing Empathy — Part 1
Okay, today our subject is developing empathy and creating scenarios. And in this lecture, going to use the What would I do if it were me? question quickly because I ; I I this is the key question of empathy. Students practice what they would do or what they would say through scenarios. This way, they acquire models of behaviors.
What would I do if it were me? That is, if is designed to support the social-emotional developments of the students The ages are between 13 and 16. They bring this age group. They are exploring. The young people are exploring their identities, peer relationships, self-expressions, and decision-making skills.
These are crucial skills for young people. Why this activity? What do we aim to? Our aims? We have three aims here. The activity helps students to integrate empathy into their daily lives. And students put themselves in another person's shoes and ask, What would I do? How would I appear? And this process engages both cognitive and empathic emotionality.
Through this activity, young people learn to understand their own perspectives. Not only understand their I own perspectives, but also the perspectives of other students or other young people. As students, we will be learning developing empathy You know that empathy is trying to understand someone's feelings and giving responses, appropriate responses to someone. We have got three scenarios, or we have got three situations to understand this developing empathy.
And the first one is Situation 1. Your friend got excited while doing public speech. This is the situation. You see that I have divided the board into three columns. The first column is scenarios that I have written. Three situations here. And the middle column or the second column indicates emotions.
And the last column is Empathic responses. Next, think about your friend. One of your friends is ready to talk in the public speech, but suddenly, he or she got I excited. In this situation, how do you think this, how do you think your friend might be feeling? Can you tell me about his feelings?
Yes. Calm down. We are here for you. Yes. That's a good answer. That's a good feelings. Calm down. I am not right here. Calm down. We Excuse me. Before writing the Empathic responses, how do you... how your friend might be feeling, we have to say something about his or her emotions.
What do you think of emotions? I He feels excited. Very nice. He feels excited. Another idea. OK. He feels anxious. a Another idea. He feels embarrassed. Yes. He may feel...
OK. Thank you. And he could be saying, what would do with these feelings? Can you tell me some Empathic responses for this situation? Yes. Calm down. We are here for That's a good answer. Thank you.
And another idea. Another student. OK. Take a deep breath. Take a deep breath. That's good.
Developing Empathy — Part 2
We are talking about the situation one, in this situation one of our friends giving speech in the public and while before he I start to talk he got nervous and suddenly he stopped. How do you think our friend might be feeling in this situation? Of course you said before he may feel excited, he may feel nervous and A we can say something more, he may feel shy.
Okay. Okay. He may feel shy. And what would I do if the situation is like that? is If I were you, what would I do in this situation? And you said calm down, we are here for you. That's good answer. Take a deep breath. It is rather good. Indeed, nice to hear. And one more idea. Okay. Making mistakes is normal. No need to worry.
That's a really good sentence. We can... Now what did we do here? We can think about the previous emotions of our friends and the empathic responses here. Let's move to another situation, the second scenario. What is the scenario? Conflict of ideas in class discussions. Think about or imagine that two of your friends are having different ideas and arguing. In the class and the atmosphere is really tense.
How might people feel in I this situation? How might people feel in this situation? What do you think their feelings? Yes. He may feel sad. Okay. They may feel sad. Another emotion. Another idea. They may feel angry. That's good. They may feel angry. What else?
What can we say about people's feelings? And uncomfortable. Yes. Those people feel, we uncomfortable. And another idea. Pressure. Okay. You know, pressure. Now, what would I do? What would you say or do in this situation? What will be the possible empathic response for this situation? Another idea.
That's good. That's respect. Everyone's idea. Everyone's ideas. Another response. Can you think about another responses? Let's listen to each Each other. Another idea. What else? What about last response?
Don't wait. Excuse me. Again. Can you say again? Having different ideas is normal. By this way, for this situation two, we can develop some empathic response. And we come to the point of situation three. This is our last situation.
What is this situation? Making a different decision in a situation. In this situation, of your friends is asked you to do something unfalr. And you have a difficult choice. What? How do you? How can you? How do you feel? How would you feel yourself?
And how would you consider your friend's feeling? How would your your friend? Your friends feelings? In this situation How would you feel? How would you consider friend's feeling Can you say anything, Yes, they may feel anxious, Anxious, what else?
They may feel, you may feel, you may feel, what? Precious, good. That is a good answer, precious. What else? What can we say about our feelings? Uncomfortable and stressed. Really good answer. We can feel uncomfortable and stressed. think that's an emotion Now, what would I do in this situation?
What would I do? What would happen? ok What can you say? Very nice. don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. But how can I help you? It is a good sentence or thinking can help you for feelings and your friends' emotions. Another idea. can't help.
Relationships. don't want to do something wrong. That's good. care about our But cannot do that that feels wrong. Yes, these are really good empathy responses for this difficult situation. And the last one. Can you say something more? Okay. Here, today, if you want to summarize our today's course, we can Say, putting ourselves in others' shoes helps us better understand our friends and develop appropriate behavior.
18 videos
Differentiating Cognitive and Emotional Empathy
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Discriminate Between Cognitive and Affective Empathy (Ages 13–16)
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Foster Empathy: What Would You Do If…? (Ages 8–12)
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Developing Empathy and Creating Scenarios
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Moral Dilemmas and the Importance of Emotions
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Moral Dilemmas and the Importance of Emotions (Ages 13–16)
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Coping Strategies for Intense Emotions (Ages 8–12)
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Strategies for Coping with Intense Emotions
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Handling Conflict Constructively (Ages 8–12)
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Handling Conflict Constructively
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Language as an Empathetic Tool: Empathy in Digital Communication (Ages 8–12)
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Developing Active Listening Skills
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How Stereotypes Affect Empathy
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How Stereotypes Affect Empathy (Ages 13–16)
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Empathy and Textual Barriers in Digital Communication
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Communicating Negative Feedback Correctly
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How to Communicate Negative Feedback Properly (Ages 13–16)
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Understanding How Others Feel
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