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Empathy in the Middle-School History Classroom Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 5-2019 Empathy in the Middle-School History Classroom: The Effects of Reading Different Historical Texts on Theory of Mind, Empathic Concern, and Historical Perspective-Taking Jared P. Collette Utah State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Collette, Jared P., "Empathy in the Middle-School History Classroom: The Effects of Reading Different Historical Texts on Theory of Mind, Empathic Concern, and Historical Perspective-Taking" (2019). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 7433. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/7433 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EMPATHY IN THE MIDDLE-SCHOOL HISTORY CLASSROOM: THE EFFECTS OF READING DIFFERENT HISTORICAL TEXTS ON THEORY OF MIND, EMPATHIC CONCERN, AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE-TAKING by Jared P. Collette A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Education Approved: Suzanne H. Jones, Ph.D. Kathleen Mohr, Ph.D. Major Professor Committee Member Jeff Nokes, Ph.D. Kerry Jordan, Ph.D. Committee Member Committee Member Nicole Pyle, Ph.D. Richard S. Inouye, Ph.D. Committee Member Vice Provost for Graduate Studies UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, Utah 2019 ii Copyright Jared P. Collette 2019 All rights reserved iii ABSTRACT Empathy in the Middle-School History Classroom: The Effects of Reading Different Historical Texts on Theory of Mind, Empathic Concern, and Historical Perspective-Taking by Jared P. Collette, Doctor of Philosophy Utah State University, 2019 Major Professor: Suzanne Jones, Ph.D. Department: School of Teacher Education and Leadership Theoretical and empirical evidence indicate a possibility that reading certain types of historical texts could improve theory of mind (ToM), empathic concern (EC), and historical perspective-taking (HPT). The objective of this study was to compare the effect of reading a collection of primary documents in comparison to a historical narrative on ToM, HPT, and EC for adolescents in an eighth-grade history class. Students were randomly assigned to read either a historical narrative or a collection of adapted historical documents with approximately the same length, estimated Lexile score, and Flesch- Kincaid grade level. This study controlled for student comprehension scores, ToM scores, estimated amount of reading frequency, gender, and age. Afterwards, students were assessed on ToM, EC, and HPT using age-appropriate and valid measures. The results demonstrated no statistical difference for individuals assigned to read either text as measured by ToM, EC, and HPT. Individuals with higher standardized iv comprehension scores in the historical document group were more likely to read for a longer period of time than individuals with higher comprehension scores in the narrative group. Empathic emotions for the narrative group were significantly correlated with higher HPT. The researcher argues that better ToM assessments need to be developed for adolescents and the relationship of reading historical texts and empathy for adolescents should be a topic of future research. (208 pages) v PUBLIC ABSTRACT Empathy in the Middle-School History Classroom: The Effects of Reading Different Historical Texts on Theory of Mind, Empathic Concern, and Historical Perspective-Taking Jared P. Collette Theoretical and empirical evidence indicate a possibility that reading certain types of historical texts could improve different constructs of empathy that include theory of mind (ToM), empathic concern (EC), and historical perspective-taking (HPT). The objective of this study was to compare the effect of reading a collection of primary documents in comparison to a historical narrative on ToM, HPT, and EC for adolescents in an eighth-grade history class. Students were randomly assigned to read either a historical narrative or a collection of adapted historical documents with approximately the same length, and reading level. This researcher controlled for student comprehension scores, ToM scores, estimated amount of reading frequency, gender, and age. Post reading, students were assessed on ToM, EC, and HPT using age-appropriate and valid measures. The results demonstrated no statistical difference for individuals assigned to read either text as measured by ToM, EC, and HPT. Individuals with higher comprehension abilities in the historical document group were more likely to read for a longer period of time than individuals with high comprehension abilities in the narrative group. Empathic emotions for the narrative group were significantly correlated with higher HPT. The vi researcher argues that better ToM assessments need to be developed for adolescents and the relationship of reading historical texts and empathy for adolescents should be a topic of future research. vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Suzanne Jones for her help, direction, guidance, and support. I would like to thank my children, my mother, my wife’s parents for their love and support, my siblings, and my nieces and nephews for their love, support, and prayers. Most of all I would like to thank my wife, who deserves this dissertation as much as I do. Her hard work in a variety tasks made it possible for me to labor solely on this project. Jared P. Collette viii DEDICATION For Nisha ix CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... iii PUBLIC ABSTRACT ................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................. vii DEDICATION ............................................................................................................... viii LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................... xi LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 1 Social and Emotional Development among Adolescents ................................. 1 Social and Emotional Learning ........................................................................ 3 Empathy Defined .............................................................................................. 4 Empathy and Reading ...................................................................................... 6 Activating Empathy by Reading History ......................................................... 8 Historical Texts: Account and Traces .............................................................. 9 Gaps in the Literature ....................................................................................... 12 Summary .......................................................................................................... 12 Brief Description of Study ............................................................................... 13 II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE .................................................................. 15 Social and Emotional Learning ........................................................................ 16 Adolescence ...................................................................................................... 18 Clinical Definitions of Empathy ....................................................................... 27 How We Engage in Theory of Mind ................................................................ 28 How We Engage in Empathic Concern ............................................................ 30 How We Engage in Historical Perspective-Taking .......................................... 35 Reading-Empathy Hypothesis .......................................................................... 56 Activation of Theory of Mind through the Reading of Historical Texts .......... 70 Gaps in the Research Literature ....................................................................... 71 Summary .......................................................................................................... 73 III. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................... 75 Study Design .................................................................................................... 75 Participants ....................................................................................................... 77 x Materials ........................................................................................................... 78 Procedures ........................................................................................................ 92 IV. RESULTS ......................................................................................................... 97 Preliminary Analysis ........................................................................................ 97 Influence of Historical Texts on Theory of Mind ...........................................
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