The US population is becoming increasingly older. Alongside the changing mental and physical capacities that accompany aging, reduced visual function is a common occurrence for older adults. Empathy is an important and useful skill for interior designers in that this ability is extremely helpful for understanding older adults' experience in the…

Empathy is an essential human skill that can be divided into two types: (1) cognitive empathy, which is the capacity of understanding others' thoughts and emotions; and (2) affective empathy, which is the capacity to feel others' emotional states. Many educational contents exist for both types, and immersive virtual reality (VR) has been shown to…

Background: Immersive VR is still rarely used as an intervention for meeting the affective end goals of student learning despite its positive impact on affection. Also, studies regarding the use of immersive VR as an intervention for affective achievement in broader educational contexts are still lacking. Objectives: This study aimed to examine…

As a key professional competence of teachers, empathy involves whether teachers can stand in the student's position to pay attention, understand their behavior, and make reasonable judgment and explanation of it. Researchers have discovered that 360° virtual reality (360° VR), a relatively recent form of media, can be particularly powerful in…

Understanding blindness or imagining being blind can be challenging for individuals without visual impairments. One of the affordances of high-immersion virtual reality (VR) is its ability to build empathy and facilitate perspective-taking. VR can be potent when providing narrative, experience-laden education that exposes users to ideas and…

There has been increasing use of interactive technologies in the classroom today and a rising popularity of employing virtual environments as a means to engage students in sensorially rich contexts for more embodied forms of experiential learning. In particular, virtual reality (VR) or immersive virtual environments (IVEs) facilitated by…

This paper examines an intervention using experiential learning and simulations in a virtual world that can promote social proximity, tolerance, and cooperation in diverse societies. The participants in the study were 125 Jewish and Arab students living in Israel. A mixed linear model for repeated measures analysis that included time of…

Embodied Labs works at the intersection of virtual reality storytelling and healthcare workforce training to create experiences where trainees learn from embodying the perspective of the patient and members of the patient's care team. Ninety-four second-year medical students were selected to pilot a virtual reality (VR) geriatric immersion prior…

Globalization and the digitalization of our lives have made it impossible to avoid (inter)cultural encounters. In the traditional classroom environment, students are expected to juggle a myriad of choices almost simultaneously. Factors like grammar, pronunciation, word choice, etc. are all important assessment factors to consider when looking at…

Virtual environments have the potential to be an important teaching tool for emotionally sensitive issues capable of producing a sense of presence, perspective-taking and introspection in users in a risk-free, rapid feedback experience. In designing such experiences, it is essential that users are regularly engaged in a collaborative design…

Links among concurrent and longitudinal changes in pubertal development and empathic ability from ages 10 to 13 and neural responses while witnessing peer rejection at age 13 were examined in 16 participants. More advanced pubertal development at age 13, and greater longitudinal increases in pubertal development, related to increased activity in…

In response to an increasingly interdependent world, educators are demonstrating a growing interest in educating for global citizenship. Many definitions of the "good global citizen" value empathy as an especially important disposition for understanding others across national borders and cultural divides. Yet it may be difficult for…

We motivate and develop a theoretical framework for creating a distinctive Christian undergraduate management program that is directed toward providing (a) the necessary intellectual characteristics to do "well" and (b) the necessary emotional characteristics to do "good." This framework consists of seven propositions that connect the learning…