In the literature on critical thinking education the concept of empathy barely appears. Even when researchers do mention the term empathy, its meaning and its relation to critical thinking either remain vague or are discussed mostly from a cognitive perspective, with hardly any consideration of empathy’s emotional aspect. This lack of scholarly engagement consequently influences both the way teachers understand critical thinking and the way they educate for it. My aim in this lecture is therefore to delve more deeply into the nature of the relationship between empathy and critical thinking in order to extend our understanding of this relationship and, in this way, to improve our education of critical thinking. I argue that this relationship is much more complex than has hitherto been understood. More specifically, I claim that optimal critical thinking, in effect, requires emotional empathy. Based on this conclusion, and from a praxis perspective, in the final part of the lecture I offer a number of teaching techniques and strategies that can help to improve education for critical thinking. I then offer a number of further theoretical and research questions concerning the nature of the interconnection between empathy and critical thinking.

Authors:
Raz Shpeizer, Kaye Academic College of Education, Israel

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