This article proposes and applies a new systemic three-dimensional model and a methodology for empathy awareness and development, integrating different partial approaches found in the literature for developing empathy as a transversal competence. Background: Empathy is a competence linked to collaboration and teamwork. Perspective taking is an important component of empathy and it is key for professionals today. Even though empathy is valued in Computer Science Engineering courses, it is not yet fully addressed as an integral part of the training process. Intended outcomes: Both the model and the methodology are put into practice with a group of first year Computer Science Engineering students, highlighting the possibilities of the proposal for this course of studies. The experience presented here is an example of a classroom activity in which awareness and perspective taking are addressed, as key components, in relation to the collaborative work towards achieving empathy. Application design: The methodological proposal is applied to guide educators' decisions so that they can work on empathy in the classroom. Responses to several standardized and ad-hoc questionnaires by students from two universities are analyzed. Findings: The results revealed low to medium empathy levels in participating students, but a higher perception of their own empathic ability. The proposed methodology allows students to become aware of and develop some initial changes in relation to empathy, particularly in its perspective taking component, through classroom work.
This paper presents innovations to stimulate the autonomy of engineering students by using different active methodologies. The strategies designed to address this problem are based on analyzing students' learning styles and incorporating specific tools into teaching practice, such as "M-eRoDes", which supports the automatic evaluation and feedback of concept maps created by them. Among the main findings, the students' assessment of the activity "making concept maps" stands out as useful but not easy. Despite the difficulty, or precisely for that reason, the experience has contributed to improve their autonomy and to develop skills to express the knowledge they have learned.
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