Balancing Empathy and Effectiveness

Dear professor,

In our college careers, we have taken a variety of courses ranging from labs, humanities courses, and lecture-based science classes. Each of these courses comes with their own unique course load and expectations. Many are also the source of the extreme stress we feel during the school year. Grades are important in most courses, and the stress of curves or difficult exams make learning difficult to fully enjoy. On top of this, overlapping due dates and large projects intensify the feeling of overwhelming stress. We have found that the best way to relieve some stress in difficult courses is to learn in an empathetic classroom. Many of the techniques we discuss in this section of Dear Professor are inspired by the actions of former professors who have used empathy to shift their courses from intimidating to interesting. They have found a way to maintain the rigor in class while still providing opportunities and flexibility for students, which is what we hope this section can provide to you.

Although university provided resources can be beneficial, most are advertised as a student’s responsibility to seek out and use. Finding ways to emphasize these resources and use tools to promote empathy in class may help to bridge the gap between professor and student, as well as give students greater access to university resources.

This leaves the question: How can professors teach with empathy while still instructing effective and successful courses?