A empatia no processo de ensinar e aprender : um estudo com professores do curso de graduação em enfermagem de uma universidade pública

Abstract

Empathy, seen as a multidimensional construct, including the components: cognitive, affective and behavioral, has been considered a necessary attribute to helping professionals, including those involved with healthcare and learning processes. Thus , the quest for understanding the phenomenon of empathy as a support for the relations of individuals, in this case between teacher and student, took over as general objective to analyze whether teachers forming nurses at a public university, viewed by students as a facilitator learning, exhibit characteristics of empathic person. A second objective, extracted from the first, was to understand the use of empathic ability, the pedagogical path, is used as a theoretical and methodological tool to facilitate the teaching and learning process. The object of study was investigated along the lines of a “Case Study”, guided by the theory of “Qualitative Research “. To analyze the results, follow the perspective of the technique of content analysis proposed by Laurence Bardin (2010). The study included students and professors of nursing undergraduate of the Federal University of Mato Grosso. Students in the role of informants to define the subject, and teachers as research subjects. Information of 24 students of 8th and 9th periods, 16 for semi-structured interviews, recorded audio, and 8 by means of an electronic questionnaire were obtained. The definition of research subjects occurred between 58 tenured teachers of undergraduate nursing. Of these, 29 were remembered by students as facilitators of learning. 2 were cited ten or more times , six times were quoted 2 , was first mentioned five times , four times 4 were cited. The others were cited between one and three times and were not part of the sample. Thus, the information related to 9 teachers were analyzed. After the analysis of the interviews with students and teachers, joining the concept of empathy, using the theoretical sciences education, elements of psychology and neuroscience, benchmarks, we found that five of the students nominated by teachers as facilitators of learning counted with some degree of empathic ability. These results also showed that the characteristics of these teachers considered empathic, present the essential elements to empathy, contemplating the cognitive, affective and behavioral components. This suggests that the teacher to convey or express “empathy “toward their students appears as one who facilitates learning. Thus , the need for inclusion of content related to science, above for the training of teachers in order to enhance the empathic ability is required.