Abstract:

This paper shows the application of a new systemic and three-dimensional model, the Skills, Professional & Citizenship (SPC) model, developed by the authors for working empathy in university classrooms. This proposal is based on the importance of empathy development following, among other things, the Council of Europe's guidelines on the development of competences for a democratic culture. The model, which integrates previous partial approaches, makes it possible to work on empathy in the classroom through a methodological process that goes through 6 stages: Sensibilization, Appropriation, Awareness, Deploy, Evaluation and Feedback. The work developed by the authors, with successful cases in the application of SPC in the context of engineering degrees at the University of Zaragoza, describes an experience of application in a degree programme in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the same university. The objective was to develop student empathy in the context of conflict management. In the transfer of the model to this case, we would like to highlight the use of a standardised test for the individual measurement of empathy and the work generated around three dynamics used in the classroom: Patterns of communication in the face of conflicts, Non-violent Communication and Person-centred approach. The results obtained in the individual analysis of empathy showed an average score for both: men (42 points in average) and women (47 points in average). This score is similar to the one found by the authors in other population groups. Moreover, this result is higher than that found in a previous work in the engineering context. In the results obtained with a self-assessment questionnaire on the changes perceived in the experience and subsequent feedback with the teacher, a mostly positive evaluation was observed.

The aspects in which they assessed themselves were:
1. having taken into account different and divergent points of view before concluding the task;
2. trying to understand the reasons for a behaviour that a priori I did not understand;
3. putting myself in the other person's shoes to understand how they would act in the face of an event;
4. prioritising the opinions of others ahead of my own;
5. imagining how I would feel if I were in the place of a person who was telling me about a problem.

The students felt that it was related to item 1 in which the greatest changes occurred ("I have taken into account diverse and divergent points of view before completing the task"). Otherwise, in item 5 they valued that there were least changes ("Faced with another person's problem, I have imagined how I would feel in their place"). These results open the doors for exploring how to develop new activities that will also help to improve those aspects that are least valued, especially those aimed at imagining oneself in the other person's shoes.

Keywords:

Higher Education, Model of Empathy, Soft Skills, Transversal Competence, Active Learning.