Browsing by Subject "Perspective taking"

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Acceptance and interpersonal functioning: testing mindfulness models of empathy
(2009-08) Hoopes, Jonathan Bert; McCarthy, Christopher J.
A study on the relationship of mindfulness to empathy was conducted with undergraduate students at a large southwestern university. Previous studies suggest that mindfulness may be related to empathy, but are inconclusive due to measurement and methodological limitations. A mindfulness construct that includes axioms related to intention, attention, and attitude is suggested for researching empathy, along with statistical models that include mediation. A multifactored measure of mindfulness was hypothesized to predict perspective taking and empathic concern empathy components, which in turn would mediate the relationship of mindfulness facets to individual and interpersonal outcomes. Study results suggest a relationship of mindfulness to perspective taking, but not to empathic concern. Results from the mediation procedures were not supportive of the theorized role of empathy in relation to mindfulness on individual and interpersonal outcomes. Implications and limitations to the study design and theory are discussed.
Every body move : learning mathematics through embodied actions
(2012-05) Petrick, Carmen Julia; Martin, Taylor, 1970-
Giving students opportunities to ground mathematical concepts in physical activity has potential to develop conceptual understanding. This study examines the role direct embodiment, an instructional strategy in which students act out concepts, plays in learning mathematics. I compared two conditions of high school geometry students learning about similarity. The embodied condition participated in eight direct embodiment activities in which the students represented mathematical concepts and explored them through their movements. The observer condition participated in eight similar activities that did not involve physical activity. The students in the embodied condition had greater learning gains on a pre- and post-test, and those gains were driven by larger increases in conceptual understanding. There were also differences in the way the two conditions remembered the activities. On a survey given at the end of the unit, students in the embodied condition were more likely to write about the activities from a first person point-of-view, indicating that they had likely adopted a first person viewpoint during the activities. The embodied condition was also more likely to switch points-of-view when writing about the activities, indicating that they had likely translated among multiple viewpoints during the activities. This suggests translating between viewpoints is one mechanism for learning through direct embodiment. Students in the embodied condition also wrote more about the activities, which suggests that they remembered more about their experiences. Their survey responses included more mathematical and non-mathematical details than the responses from students in the observer condition.