Sympathy Versus Empathy
PROCEDURALDistinguish sympathy ('I feel sorry for you') from empathy ('I understand what you're experiencing'); develop active listening skills: reflecting, paraphrasing, asking open questions, resisting the urge to problem-solve too quickly; understand empathic curiosity as genuine interest in another person's inner world; practise being present for someone in distress without trying to fix or minimise their experience; understand vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue, and how empathetic people can protect their own wellbeing while staying present for others
Mastery Evidence
Assessment Prompt
“When a friend is going through something really difficult, can [child] describe what makes a listener genuinely helpful — and explain the difference between empathy and sympathy, using an example of something that sounds supportive but actually isn't?”
Prerequisites2
- Questioning Your Own BiaseshardAges 9—11
- Systemic Inequality and AllyshiphardAges 11—12
Show full prerequisite tree
- Stereotypes and Individual Differences hard
Examining own biases builds on understanding stereotypes
- Vocabulary: social awareness hard
Understanding stereotypes requires knowing 'stereotype', 'prejudice', 'discrimination', and 'bias' as distinct terms
- Different Lives and Experiences hard
Recognising stereotypes builds on understanding diverse life experiences
- Seeing Someone Else's Point of View soft
Understanding different lives benefits from perspective-taking skills
- Vocabulary: social awareness soft
Perspective-taking practice is enriched by precise vocabulary including 'perspective', 'bias', and 'compassion'
- Vocabulary: understanding others hard
Understanding that others have perspectives and feelings requires the vocabulary of empathy and perspective
- Vocabulary: social awareness soft
Understanding diverse lives requires vocabulary for compassion, fairness, and community
- Similarities & Differences hard
Understanding different lives builds on noticing similarities/differences
- Vocabulary: understanding others soft
Noticing similarities and differences among people draws on vocabulary of community, fair, and care
- Stereotypes and Individual Differences hard
Understanding prejudice builds on recognising stereotypes
- Vocabulary: social awareness hard
Understanding stereotypes requires knowing 'stereotype', 'prejudice', 'discrimination', and 'bias' as distinct terms
- Different Lives and Experiences hard
Recognising stereotypes builds on understanding diverse life experiences
- Seeing Someone Else's Point of View soft
Understanding different lives benefits from perspective-taking skills
- Vocabulary: social awareness soft
Perspective-taking practice is enriched by precise vocabulary including 'perspective', 'bias', and 'compassion'
- Vocabulary: understanding others hard
Understanding that others have perspectives and feelings requires the vocabulary of empathy and perspective
- Vocabulary: social awareness soft
Understanding diverse lives requires vocabulary for compassion, fairness, and community
- Similarities & Differences hard
Understanding different lives builds on noticing similarities/differences
- Vocabulary: understanding others soft
Noticing similarities and differences among people draws on vocabulary of community, fair, and care
- Vocabulary: social awareness hard
Discussing prejudice and discrimination requires precise vocabulary to distinguish individual bias from systemic discrimination
- Vocabulary: ethics and citizenship hard
The bystander/upstander distinction is entirely vocabulary-dependent — these specific terms must be taught first
- Seeing Someone Else's Point of View soft
Understanding bullying impact benefits from perspective-taking
- Vocabulary: social awareness soft
Perspective-taking practice is enriched by precise vocabulary including 'perspective', 'bias', and 'compassion'
- Vocabulary: understanding others hard
Understanding that others have perspectives and feelings requires the vocabulary of empathy and perspective
- Vocabulary: ethics and citizenship hard
Understanding bullying requires precise vocabulary distinguishing bullying types including 'cyberbullying'
- Vocabulary: making decisions and keeping safe hard
Understanding that actions have consequences requires the vocabulary word 'consequence' as a named concept
- Vocabulary: making decisions and keeping safe hard
Distinguishing right from wrong requires vocabulary including 'honest', 'fair', 'trust', and 'right and wrong'
- Vocabulary: understanding others hard
Showing kindness meaningfully requires vocabulary for empathy, care, and community
- Other People's Feelings and Thoughts soft
Showing kindness benefits from knowing others have feelings
- Vocabulary: understanding others hard
Understanding that others have perspectives and feelings requires the vocabulary of empathy and perspective
- Questioning First Impressions soft
Reflecting on unconscious assumptions and biases towards others builds on the foundational habit of questioning your first reading of social situations
- Vocabulary: self hard
Questioning own assumptions requires precise vocabulary of 'assumption', 'bias', and 'perspective'
- Patterns in Your Own Reactions soft
Noticing that your first read of a situation might be wrong requires awareness of your own patterns of assumption and reaction
- Vocabulary: self hard
Noticing own patterns requires vocabulary of 'pattern', 'trigger', and 'reflect'
- Feelings Versus Actions hard
Noticing patterns in your reactions requires first understanding that feelings and responses are separable — you can only track a pattern once you're aware of the gap between feeling and action
- Naming Your Feelings hard
Understanding that feelings and actions are separate requires first being able to name and identify what you are feeling
- Vocabulary: self hard
Noticing and naming feelings requires the basic vocabulary of self-awareness and reflection
- Feeling of not understanding soft
Naming what you are feeling is emotional comprehension monitoring — the universal habit of noticing what's happening inside applied to emotional experience
- Asking for Help hard
Noticing confusion and acting on it requires already knowing that asking for help is a valid response to being stuck
- Vocabulary: self hard
Understanding the feelings-actions separation requires vocabulary to distinguish and name each component
- Spotting Patterns soft
Noticing recurring patterns in your own reactions is the PSD form of the universal pattern-recognition habit
- Connecting New & Old Ideas soft
Spotting patterns across domains is an extension of the habit of connecting new ideas to existing ones
- Thinking Before Starting hard
Making connections between new and old ideas requires the habit of activating prior knowledge first
- Persisting When It's Hard hard
Activating prior knowledge requires the foundational habit of persistent engagement with new material
- Your Impact on Others hard
Questioning your assumptions about social situations requires first having practised the harder skill of seeing yourself from another person's perspective
- Teaching It Back soft
Reflecting on how your behaviour landed on others requires being able to articulate your own thinking and intentions clearly — the self-explanation habit applied to social experience
- Explaining Mathematical Reasoning soft
The universal self-explanation habit (LtL 7-8) builds on the maths-specific practice of explaining reasoning when prompted (MT 6-7)
- Showing Your Working hard
Age 6-7 explaining with diagrams/logic builds on age 5-6 showing and telling with objects
- Numbers up to 10 into pairs soft
Explaining part-part-whole decompositions exercises showing and telling
- Addition as combining or putting together two hard
Decomposing numbers into pairs requires understanding addition as combining
- How Many in Total? hard
Understanding addition as combining groups requires knowing numbers represent quantities (cardinality)
- One-to-one counting hard
Cardinality principle builds on one-to-one correspondence — you must count correctly to know the last number tells 'how many'
- Number bonds to 9 soft
Explaining how to find number bonds to 10 exercises showing thinking with objects
- Numbers up to 10 into pairs hard
Making 10 is a specific application of decomposing numbers into pairs
- Addition as combining or putting together two hard
Decomposing numbers into pairs requires understanding addition as combining
- How Many in Total? hard
Understanding addition as combining groups requires knowing numbers represent quantities (cardinality)
- One-to-one counting hard
Cardinality principle builds on one-to-one correspondence — you must count correctly to know the last number tells 'how many'
- Listening and responding soft
Explaining mathematical reasoning orally requires basic listening and responding skills
- What the equals sign means soft
Determining whether equations are true/false exercises evaluating and justifying
- Reading +, −, and = symbols hard
Deep understanding of = requires already being able to read and write number sentences
- Reading and writing numbers to 20 hard
Writing number sentences requires reading and writing numerals
- How Many in Total? hard
Reading/writing numerals 0–20 requires understanding that numerals represent quantities (cardinality)
- One-to-one counting hard
Cardinality principle builds on one-to-one correspondence — you must count correctly to know the last number tells 'how many'
- Writing digits 0-9 hard
Writing numerals requires the motor skill of forming digits 0-9 (taught in English handwriting)
- Addition as combining or putting together two hard
Reading/writing the + symbol requires understanding what addition means
- How Many in Total? hard
Understanding addition as combining groups requires knowing numbers represent quantities (cardinality)
- One-to-one counting hard
Cardinality principle builds on one-to-one correspondence — you must count correctly to know the last number tells 'how many'
- Subtraction as taking away or separating hard
Reading/writing the − symbol requires understanding what subtraction means
- How Many in Total? hard
Understanding subtraction as taking away requires knowing numbers represent quantities (cardinality)
- One-to-one counting hard
Cardinality principle builds on one-to-one correspondence — you must count correctly to know the last number tells 'how many'
- Addition as combining or putting together two hard
Understanding commutativity of addition requires understanding addition
- How Many in Total? hard
Understanding addition as combining groups requires knowing numbers represent quantities (cardinality)
- One-to-one counting hard
Cardinality principle builds on one-to-one correspondence — you must count correctly to know the last number tells 'how many'
- Thinking Before Starting hard
Explaining in your own words requires connecting new learning to existing knowledge already held in mind
- Persisting When It's Hard hard
Activating prior knowledge requires the foundational habit of persistent engagement with new material
- Vocabulary: self hard
Reflecting on impact on others requires vocabulary of 'impact', 'perspective', and 'reflect'
- Patterns in Your Own Reactions hard
Reflecting on the impact of your behaviour on others requires first having noticed patterns in your own reactions — you need self-knowledge before you can examine your social footprint
- Vocabulary: self hard
Noticing own patterns requires vocabulary of 'pattern', 'trigger', and 'reflect'
- Feelings Versus Actions hard
Noticing patterns in your reactions requires first understanding that feelings and responses are separable — you can only track a pattern once you're aware of the gap between feeling and action
- Naming Your Feelings hard
Understanding that feelings and actions are separate requires first being able to name and identify what you are feeling
- Vocabulary: self hard
Noticing and naming feelings requires the basic vocabulary of self-awareness and reflection
- Feeling of not understanding soft
Naming what you are feeling is emotional comprehension monitoring — the universal habit of noticing what's happening inside applied to emotional experience
- Asking for Help hard
Noticing confusion and acting on it requires already knowing that asking for help is a valid response to being stuck
- Vocabulary: self hard
Understanding the feelings-actions separation requires vocabulary to distinguish and name each component
- Spotting Patterns soft
Noticing recurring patterns in your own reactions is the PSD form of the universal pattern-recognition habit
- Connecting New & Old Ideas soft
Spotting patterns across domains is an extension of the habit of connecting new ideas to existing ones
- Thinking Before Starting hard
Making connections between new and old ideas requires the habit of activating prior knowledge first
- Persisting When It's Hard hard
Activating prior knowledge requires the foundational habit of persistent engagement with new material
- Feelings Versus Actions soft
Reflecting on impact requires understanding that your actions were choices, not automatic responses to feelings — the feelings/actions distinction underpins social accountability
- Naming Your Feelings hard
Understanding that feelings and actions are separate requires first being able to name and identify what you are feeling
- Vocabulary: self hard
Noticing and naming feelings requires the basic vocabulary of self-awareness and reflection
- Feeling of not understanding soft
Naming what you are feeling is emotional comprehension monitoring — the universal habit of noticing what's happening inside applied to emotional experience
- Asking for Help hard
Noticing confusion and acting on it requires already knowing that asking for help is a valid response to being stuck
- Vocabulary: self hard
Understanding the feelings-actions separation requires vocabulary to distinguish and name each component
- Understanding Why soft
Questioning your assumptions about why someone acted a certain way is elaborative interrogation applied to social cognition — asking 'why do I think this?' rather than accepting the first explanation
- Teaching It Back hard
Asking 'why does this work?' requires first being able to explain what you know — interrogation builds on explanation
- Explaining Mathematical Reasoning soft
The universal self-explanation habit (LtL 7-8) builds on the maths-specific practice of explaining reasoning when prompted (MT 6-7)
- Showing Your Working hard
Age 6-7 explaining with diagrams/logic builds on age 5-6 showing and telling with objects
- Numbers up to 10 into pairs soft
Explaining part-part-whole decompositions exercises showing and telling
- Addition as combining or putting together two hard
Decomposing numbers into pairs requires understanding addition as combining
- How Many in Total? hard
Understanding addition as combining groups requires knowing numbers represent quantities (cardinality)
- One-to-one counting hard
Cardinality principle builds on one-to-one correspondence — you must count correctly to know the last number tells 'how many'
- Number bonds to 9 soft
Explaining how to find number bonds to 10 exercises showing thinking with objects
- Numbers up to 10 into pairs hard
Making 10 is a specific application of decomposing numbers into pairs
- Addition as combining or putting together two hard
Decomposing numbers into pairs requires understanding addition as combining
- How Many in Total? hard
Understanding addition as combining groups requires knowing numbers represent quantities (cardinality)
- One-to-one counting hard
Cardinality principle builds on one-to-one correspondence — you must count correctly to know the last number tells 'how many'
- Listening and responding soft
Explaining mathematical reasoning orally requires basic listening and responding skills
- What the equals sign means soft
Determining whether equations are true/false exercises evaluating and justifying
- Reading +, −, and = symbols hard
Deep understanding of = requires already being able to read and write number sentences
- Reading and writing numbers to 20 hard
Writing number sentences requires reading and writing numerals
- How Many in Total? hard
Reading/writing numerals 0–20 requires understanding that numerals represent quantities (cardinality)
- One-to-one counting hard
Cardinality principle builds on one-to-one correspondence — you must count correctly to know the last number tells 'how many'
- Writing digits 0-9 hard
Writing numerals requires the motor skill of forming digits 0-9 (taught in English handwriting)
- Addition as combining or putting together two hard
Reading/writing the + symbol requires understanding what addition means
- How Many in Total? hard
Understanding addition as combining groups requires knowing numbers represent quantities (cardinality)
- One-to-one counting hard
Cardinality principle builds on one-to-one correspondence — you must count correctly to know the last number tells 'how many'
- Subtraction as taking away or separating hard
Reading/writing the − symbol requires understanding what subtraction means
- How Many in Total? hard
Understanding subtraction as taking away requires knowing numbers represent quantities (cardinality)
- One-to-one counting hard
Cardinality principle builds on one-to-one correspondence — you must count correctly to know the last number tells 'how many'
- Addition as combining or putting together two hard
Understanding commutativity of addition requires understanding addition
- How Many in Total? hard
Understanding addition as combining groups requires knowing numbers represent quantities (cardinality)
- One-to-one counting hard
Cardinality principle builds on one-to-one correspondence — you must count correctly to know the last number tells 'how many'
- Thinking Before Starting hard
Explaining in your own words requires connecting new learning to existing knowledge already held in mind
- Persisting When It's Hard hard
Activating prior knowledge requires the foundational habit of persistent engagement with new material
- Systemic Inequality and Allyship hard
Advanced social awareness depends on foundational advanced empathy skills
- Stereotypes and Individual Differences hard
Understanding prejudice builds on recognising stereotypes
- Vocabulary: social awareness hard
Understanding stereotypes requires knowing 'stereotype', 'prejudice', 'discrimination', and 'bias' as distinct terms
- Different Lives and Experiences hard
Recognising stereotypes builds on understanding diverse life experiences
- Seeing Someone Else's Point of View soft
Understanding different lives benefits from perspective-taking skills
- Vocabulary: social awareness soft
Perspective-taking practice is enriched by precise vocabulary including 'perspective', 'bias', and 'compassion'
- Vocabulary: understanding others hard
Understanding that others have perspectives and feelings requires the vocabulary of empathy and perspective
- Vocabulary: social awareness soft
Understanding diverse lives requires vocabulary for compassion, fairness, and community
- Similarities & Differences hard
Understanding different lives builds on noticing similarities/differences
- Vocabulary: understanding others soft
Noticing similarities and differences among people draws on vocabulary of community, fair, and care
- Vocabulary: social awareness hard
Discussing prejudice and discrimination requires precise vocabulary to distinguish individual bias from systemic discrimination
- Vocabulary: ethics and citizenship hard
The bystander/upstander distinction is entirely vocabulary-dependent — these specific terms must be taught first
- Seeing Someone Else's Point of View soft
Understanding bullying impact benefits from perspective-taking
- Vocabulary: social awareness soft
Perspective-taking practice is enriched by precise vocabulary including 'perspective', 'bias', and 'compassion'
- Vocabulary: understanding others hard
Understanding that others have perspectives and feelings requires the vocabulary of empathy and perspective
- Vocabulary: ethics and citizenship hard
Understanding bullying requires precise vocabulary distinguishing bullying types including 'cyberbullying'
- Vocabulary: making decisions and keeping safe hard
Understanding that actions have consequences requires the vocabulary word 'consequence' as a named concept
- Vocabulary: making decisions and keeping safe hard
Distinguishing right from wrong requires vocabulary including 'honest', 'fair', 'trust', and 'right and wrong'
- Vocabulary: understanding others hard
Showing kindness meaningfully requires vocabulary for empathy, care, and community
- Other People's Feelings and Thoughts soft
Showing kindness benefits from knowing others have feelings
- Vocabulary: understanding others hard
Understanding that others have perspectives and feelings requires the vocabulary of empathy and perspective
- Seeing Someone Else's Point of View hard
Fairness understanding builds on perspective-taking ability
- Vocabulary: social awareness soft
Perspective-taking practice is enriched by precise vocabulary including 'perspective', 'bias', and 'compassion'
- Vocabulary: understanding others hard
Understanding that others have perspectives and feelings requires the vocabulary of empathy and perspective
- Vocabulary: social awareness hard
The distinction between fairness, equality, and equity requires knowing these three terms as distinct concepts
Unlocks1
- Global CitizenshiphardAges 13—14