Curricula have historically overlooked non-heteronormative education for elderly populations. The purpose of this study was to assess attitude changes toward same-sex relationships among Taiwanese older adults before and after taking a curriculum focused on the lived experiences of same-sex partners. Seventy-six older adults from Hualien County,…

How can educators help privileged children develop understanding of and compassion for immigrants in schools where there is very little diversity in their classrooms? The author used picture books to help children feel closer to those who came from challenging environments to find a better life in the United States. She discovered that asking…

Students' attitudes are shaped by what they read. Their perspective determines what each reader chooses to focus on and be aware of while reading. If there is a lack of guided reading or prior experience with a particular topic - such as disability - students may not be aware of its presence in a text, and they may not recognize negative character…

We used Allport's (1954) intergroup contact theory as a framework to test the effectiveness of 2 vicarious contact interventions on improving attitudes toward undocumented immigrants. The first intervention was DREAMzone, a 4-hr ally certification workshop. The second intervention was a 30-min documentary film chronicling the stories of 5…

This study utilized an action research design with qualitative methods to explore the transformative potential of a multicultural literature curriculum within a general education setting. Providing young students with opportunities to develop perspective taking and empathetic responses to others who are different, offers the critical potential for…

Empathy in college-age students is decreasing at unprecedented rates. Understanding empathy in children can act as primary prevention in tackling the problem. This study considers laugh tracks' capacity to bias reality, foster empathy, and investigate differences across time and gender in 181 fifth grade students. Findings from this…

Change within an educational context can be brought about through various means including changing the curriculum and changing educational policies so as to align them to political agendas. Since the more influential changes tend to be brought about by students directly, however, this places a responsibility on educators to channel that desire for…

In this work, we explore journal writing as a way to come to know culture, particularly cultural phenomenon, vastly different from one's own firmly held and enacted beliefs. In this research, we accept the premise that writing is a way of knowing and adopt journal writing as a tool through which students can explore the knowledge they have…

Background: Reducing mental illness stigma in youth is an important societal goal, but much of the existing literature focuses on knowledge enhancement strategies. These alone may not be sufficient to enhance empathy, change fundamental attitudes, or reduce social distance. Objective: To evaluate a youth-initiated, discussion- and empathy-based…

To investigate whether a persuasive game may serve as a way to change attitude towards the homeless and increase affective learning, this study examined, experimentally, the effects of persuasive rhetoric and ethos in a video game designed to put the player in the shoes of an almost-homeless person for thirty days. Data were collected from 5139…

Three experiments were conducted in the United States and Germany to test whether women and men endorse sexist beliefs because they are unaware of the prevalence of different types of sexism in their personal lives. Study 1 (N = 120) and Study 2 (N = 83) used daily diaries as a method to encourage individuals "to see the unseen." Results…

Background: Drug use has been noted among students in Taiwan during the past decade and schools have a role in preventing or delaying students' drug use. We developed and evaluated a school-based, drug-use prevention program integrating the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and life skills for junior high school students. Methods: We recruited 441…

Previous studies have pointed out the importance of empathy in improving attitudes toward stigmatized groups and toward the environment. In the present article, it is argued that environmental behaviors and attitudes can be improved using empathic perspective-taking for inducing empathy. Based on Batson's Model of Altruism, it was predicted that…

Suggests that individuals vary in the degree of cortical development necessary to sustain functional empathy and that most people can be trained to counterbalance the more animalistic determinants of behavior. Concludes that blockage of functional empathy by power drives forms the basis of interpersonal and social tensions. (Author/GC)

The unfortunate reality is that racism permeates life. The time that students spend in higher education offers a window of opportunity for educators to confront students' assumptions about the world and challenge them to critically analyze their experience. After students complete their education, they carry their knowledge to offices, law firms,…