Thank you to those who participated in and supported our school-based research in partnership with the University of Adelaide on the topic of “Empathy and Reading in boys”.
The study yielded useful data about our Senior School student’s reading habits and preferences, which has led to purposeful discussion amongst faculties. Encouragingly, 88.67% of student respondents noted one or more genres which they enjoyed reading, although reading engagement tended to decrease as students aged. 64.28% of students reported that they read for enjoyment for less than one hour a week outside of school, which reminds us of the importance of gently compelling boys into these habits through our wide reading and broader English, literacy and Library programs. These findings demonstrate a need for us to continue to encourage and foster reading in our community. The English and Library teams, for example, will maintain their focus on offering students further reading time and access to their preferred texts.
The results showed that reading and empathy are linked. As students moved up through the year levels, their reading skills improved in a steady and predictable way. Empathy levels across the school were similar, suggesting that how well students read doesn’t depend on how empathetic they are. Our students empathy data revealed that they are better at understanding emotions (cognitive empathy) than actually feeling what others feel (affective empathy). This means they understand emotions well but could use more practice in feeling others’ emotions. Reading fiction could help them learn more about these feelings.
Students showed stronger empathy for emotions like happiness and anger than for sadness and fear. This suggests that more emotional education on these particular feelings could help our students better understand the world around them. Our pastoral care programs will continue to support and promote this emotional learning.
We also found that older students tended to have a wider range of empathy scores and a deeper understanding of emotions, showing some advantage in empathy.
Overall, the results highlight the many benefits of reading, especially fiction, in teaching empathy. We encourage our students to keep reading and exploring different perspectives and emotions through books.
Student Quotes:
“Reading is a way for me to escape reality and become immersed and invested in someone else’s story. It helps me learn and become more emotionally mature. It gives me a more rounded world view. Reading makes me feel calm and relaxed but also emotionally invested at the same time. After reading I feel much calmer and my thoughts are clearer. It helps me drain away my stress and anxiety.” – Year 10
“Reading makes me feel great. I feel as though I am going on a journey with the characters I am reading about, which, depending on the book, makes me feel different things. I feel centred and good about myself after reading. My feelings do change when I read – I feel good about myself and I feel calmer, as I spent countless hours reading as a child and into early adolescents, and thus reading brings me back to those feelings of tranquillity and no responsibility.” – Year 12
Nia O’Loughlin
Mentor Year 7
English Faculty
