Loyola Degree college had organized a Webinar on 20.06.2020. The topic was
“What’s it like to be an Empathetic Teacher”. The duration of the session was 1
hour 30 minutes. The Department of Psychology had organized the event under
the leadership of Ms. Blenita Lewis, Head of the Department, Psychology and
Ms. Umaina Hafeez, Guest Faculty, Psychology. The Resource Person was Ms.
Ashwini N.V, Founder-Director of Muktha Foundation. The webinar was
conducted using Zoom Clouds Meeting. We also went live on Facebook to
reach a wider range of people. We had a total of 308 participants on Zoom.
Participants included Principals from various schools and colleges all over the
country, Professors, Lecturers, Teachers, Counsellors and students from India
and outside India. We had few participants from The United States of America,
Rome and Mauritius.
The Agenda of the Webinar:
• A message from the Principal. Fr.Francis D’Almeida SJ
• A short video to introduce the Resource person, Ms. Ashwini N.V
• Commencement of the session
• Interactive session
• Vote of thanks
The Principal of Loyola Degree College, Bengaluru, Fr. Francis D’Almeida SJ
addressed the participants with a welcome note and his perspective on an
Empathetic Teacher. He also laid emphasis on the need for Counselling during
the times of Pandemic and how an expression of empathy can go a long way in
helping people. He mentioned that teachers should show empathy throughout
their lives to their students, especially those who are suffering, with disabilities,
learning disabilities. Father also spoke a few words about Loyola Degree
College, Bengaluru and the vision of the college.
A short video was played to introduce the resource person, Ms. Ashwini N.V. It
contained her journey and accomplishments. The duration of the short video
was 01 minute 04 seconds.
The session commenced where Ms. Ashwini gave a few general instructions
before touching upon the topic. Power Point slides were used to conduct the
session. Topics were taken from the domain of psychology in order to
understand the concept of Empathetic Teacher. Difference between sympathy,
apathy and empathy was discussed. The session continued with another
important aspect called “Cognitive Distortion that affect interactions with
students”. According to Ms. Ashwini, cognitive distortions are scratches or
errors in our thinking style. Cognitive distortions are what makes a person
unempathetic. The fundamental job of a teacher is to detect the cognitive
distortion and then discard it. Eight different types of cognitive distortions were
discussed; over generalization, mind reading, personalization, labelling,
dichotomous thinking, magnification and minimization. All of these were
explained in detail with examples relevant to each one’s experiences. Ms.
Ashwini continued the session talking about “Different Listening Styles” and
how a listening skill can lead to empathy. She explained six types which
include, The Preoccupieds, The Interrupters, The Combatives, the Whatevers,
The Analysts, The Engagers. She mentioned about the Do’s and Don’ts of an
Empathetic teacher by giving examples of sentence formation and empathetic
language like, “I understand” or “I agree with you”. With this we then began the
interactive session. Participants asked questions directly to Ms. Ashwini and
few participants also used the chat mode to interact with Ms. Ashwini. The
duration of the interactive session was 20 minutes.
Few instructions were given to the participants regarding the feedback forms
and E-Certificates. Participants were assured of E-certificates for active
participation during the webinar. We concluded the webinar with a formal vote
of thanks. Ms. Blenita Lewis, Head of the Department, Psychology rendered the
vote of thanks. The session concluded at 11.45 AM.
Concluding message “Let us all inculcate Empathy as a life skill”
