Social Awareness & Empathy

body signals as emotion indicators

Other people have feelings too, and I can sometimes tell what they are.

The teacher or mentor notices the student naming a feeling another person is showing — not only their own — and offering either a kind word or a specific helpful action in response, without adult prompt.

basic emotional cues; fight/flight/freeze signs in others

The same situation can look different to different people, and asking is more reliable than guessing.

The teacher or mentor notices the student describing a situation from another's perspective in words, asking 'do you want help?' before acting, and accepting a 'no' without pushing, on multiple occasions.

stress narrowing perceptual clarity in others; active listening markers; check-in and repair scaffolds

Other people signal what they need both in what they say and in what they do, and paying attention to both makes me more responsive.

The teacher or mentor notices the student attending to multiple group members during shared work, checking in with a direct question when signals are unclear, and adjusting their own actions to match what the other has said they need.

HPA axis and conflict-stress dynamics; paraphrasing and check-understanding stems; calibrated word choice

Conflict is a normal part of relationships, and repair is a specific skill that matters more than avoiding conflict in the first place.

The teacher or mentor notices the student, after a conflict, listening without interrupting, naming their own contribution to the situation, and proposing a next step that accounts for the other person's position — not only their own — across more than one occasion.

co-regulation, group stress dynamics

Conflict in groups is shaped by more than individual feelings — group norms, histories, and power dynamics all affect what is possible in repair.

The teacher or mentor notices the student facilitating repair in a group context (not only a dyad), naming a group dynamic that contributed to the conflict, and proposing steps that address needs of multiple parties rather than only defending one position.

critical neuroscience literacy; how social structures and systems shape what someone is going through; recognising oversimplified explanations

Full empathic understanding requires knowing what shapes a person's context, not only what they say they feel — and sometimes the most empathic response is to address the conditions, not just the person.

The teacher or mentor notices the student adjusting their response to someone whose experience is being shaped by structural or systemic factors, in ways that address those conditions rather than only the individual person, across more than one observed occasion.