Empathy mapping
What is Empathy Mapping?
Empathy mapping is a simple and effective tool that is often used in design thinking - a powerful process that is commonly used in product design, service design, software development, and business development.
It can, however, be a really useful tool for teachers and educators, especially when they are interested in knowing students’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviours about a particular topic or issue.
Empathy mapping is a tool used to help teachers gain a better understanding of their students' needs and preferences. It is used to identify students’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviours to better design learning experiences that meet their needs. It involves taking time to consider the students’ perspectives, their goals, and their challenges.
Empathy mapping is a tool that can be used in both face-to-face and online teaching contexts.
In an online context, teachers can use this tool to get to know their students better and to design learning experiences that are tailored to the needs of their students.
A simple empathy map
A simple empathy map might just be a piece of paper, a whiteboard, or an online tool, that splits a page into 4 boxes:
- Says
- Thinks
- Does
- Feel
There are more complicated versions of empathy maps, that might include much more information, but as a quick and effective tool for teachers, this is more than enough to get started with.
To use the empathy map we need to have two specific things in mind:
For teachers and educators, the first point will almost always be students, although it could be parents, colleagues, other teachers, or anyone else we are seeking to gain a better understanding of.
For the second point, it might be some situation, problem, topic, issue, or focus. For example:
- Learning in an online environment
- Climate change
- A specific examination paper
- Revising for exams
- Gender equality in the school
- A text that is being studied
- A skill that is being learned
This tool can be used to explore anything that concerns the person in the centre of the empathy map. Whether this is a global issue, a challenge facing the school community, a topic in a curriculum, a particular examination, or a challenge they are facing, they can all be used as the focus of the empathy map.
Once we know who the map is about, and what the map is about, we then need to think carefully and try and fill in as many thoughts, ideas, and suggestions for the four boxes as we can. In each case we ask ourselves:
This requires some thought and imagination if we are doing it by ourselves so it can be valuable to try and do this with other people - this may be other teachers or it may be the students themselves with the empathy map serving as the basis for a discussion and conversation.
How can teachers use empathy mapping?
You can use empathy mapping to gain a deeper understanding of your students and to identify their needs and preferences. Here are some ways teachers can use empathy mapping:
Connect with the students: Take time to connect with the students and get to know them on a personal level. Ask questions about their interests, challenges, and goals. Use the empathy map as the stimulus for open discussion.
Watch and listen: Observe student behaviour and interactions between peers. This can help teachers gain an understanding of students’ interests, motivations, and challenges.
Compare and contrast: See the differences between a map you create and that your colleagues create, or that teachers create and students create. This can be a powerful way to discuss people’s differing points of view.
Use this as a reflection tool: Building an empathy map around a topic, challenge, problem, or project when things are just starting and comparing this to another that is produced when things are coming to a close can be a great source of discussion and a tool for personal reflection.
Reflection Questions
Are there other ways in which you might want to use the empathy map with your students or colleagues?
Is there a particular situation, challenge, or scenario where it might be especially useful for you as a tool?