Hunter Gehlbach is
Associate Professor of Education at
Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is an educational psychologist who brings social
psychological principles to bear on educational challenges. His
research focuses on improving educational settings through enhancing the
social interactions of teachers and students. His specific interests within
social psychology focus on social perspective taking – how people discern
the thoughts and feelings of others within the classroom.
Hunter says, "Education is a fundamentally social act. Almost all
classroom learning (and much of the learning that occurs outside of
schools) involves social interaction – even reading entails communication
between author and reader. Our lab group’s research strives to enhance
these social interactions. Primarily through bringing social psychological
principles to bear on educational problems, we aim to impact students’
(and teachers’) learning, motivation, behavior, and psychological
well-being.
Our group focuses particularly on social perspective taking
– the capacity to figure out the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of
others – which we view as the core aptitude that people employ to navigate
their social world. By helping teachers and students improve their social
perspective taking and better understand where each other are coming from,
we aspire to improve the classroom experience for both students and
teachers."
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Social Aspects of Immersive Learning "Understanding
and fostering positive relationships with others – particularly those
who hold divergent points of view from our own – has often thought to be
enhanced by the ability to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.” Yet, a
literal interpretation of this advice seems impractical and unhelpful.
Thus, we are left to wonder whether “walking a mile in someone else’s
moccasins” will truly benefit one’s relationships and, if so, why these
benefits might occur."
A multidimensional approach "Understanding the thoughts, feelings, and motivations
of other people – social perspective taking – plays an important role in
the classroom experience. It supports the development of social skills
and academic learning. Previous research on social perspective taking
has focused on either ability or motivation to take on board another
person's perspective. According to HGSE assistant professor Hunter
Gehlbach, a more realistic approach combines ability and motivation with
other factors such as the classroom environment.After
years of work with students and teachers, Gehlbach is extending his
research to examine the ways "experts" – such as trial lawyers and
police detectives – carry out perspective taking. In an exclusive
feature, Gehlbach invites Usable Knowledge readers to test their own
perspective taking abilities."
Gehlbach, H.
(2004). A new perspective on perspective taking: A multidimensional
approach to conceptualizing an aptitude. Educational Psychology Review,
16(3), 207-234. doi: 10.1023/b:edpr.0000034021.12899.11
"Social perspective taking (SPT) is thought to be important in its own
right and is often associated with other important skills, such as
interpersonal conflict resolution. Previous research on SPT, however,
has conceptualized it as a unidimensional construct leaving scholars
with an insufficient understanding of this aptitude and how it relates
to valued educational outcomes. To best understand SPT, a
multidimensional approach should include assessments of personal
characteristics (including the propensity and the ability to engage in
SPT) and features of the situation (including features of the SPT task
and the larger context). Using Richard Snow's conceptualization of
aptitudes as a framework, this article illustrates the problems with
treating SPT as a unidimensional construct, defines SPT as a complex
aptitude, and provides a taxonomy of SPT to promote understanding and to
guide future research in this area. The taxonomy organizes and reviews
the existing literature that relates personal and situational
characteristics to SPT aptitude. Where research has not yet been
conducted, this article hypothesizes how these characteristics might
relate to SPT aptitude."
Gehlbach, H., & Brinkworth, M. E. (2012). The social perspective
taking process: Strategies and sources of evidence in taking another’s
perspective. Teachers College Record, 114(1), 226-254.
"Background/Context: Research indicates that social perspective
taking--the capacity to discern the thoughts and feelings of
others--plays a role in many important outcomes in schools. Despite the
potential benefits for students and educators, little is known about
social perspective taking (SPT) as a process.
Purpose/Research Question: If educational
researchers are ultimately to design interventions to help improve the
perspective-taking capacities of those in schools, they need to fully
understand the underlying process, that is, how social perspective
taking actually happens. Particularly important is the need to
understand what strategies individuals use and what sources of evidence
they draw from when they take the perspective of others.
Participants: To investigate this question, a sample of 18 adults from
an array of different professions (who were nominated as adept
perspective takers) and 13 high school students (who were nominated as
struggling with social perspective taking) participated in the study.
Research Design: Participants completed in-depth interviews and a
"think-aloud" protocol as part of this mixed-method exploratory study.
The interviews and think-alouds were coded for the type of social
perspective taking that strategy participants employed and for the
sources of evidence they relied on, respectively. Findings: Results
indicated that participants relied on 12 different types of SPT
strategies and drew from seven different sources of evidence when
discerning others' thoughts and feelings
Conclusions/Recommendations: These findings provide foundational
knowledge that lays groundwork for ultimately developing approaches to
teach social perspective taking. At a practical level, these findings
provide options for students and educators to experiment with as they
attempt to take the perspective of one another."
Gehlbach, H., Brinkworth, M. E., & Wang, M.-T. (2012). The social
perspective taking process: What motivates individuals to take another’s
perspective? Teachers College Record, 114(1), 197-225.
"Background/Context: A growing literature describes multiple benefits of
social perspective taking--many of which are particularly important for
schools. Despite these potential benefits for administrators,
counselors, teachers, and students, little is known about social
perspective taking as a process.
Purpose/Research Question: If educational researchers are ultimately to
design interventions to help improve the perspective-taking capacities
of those in schools, they need to fully understand the underlying
process. Particularly important is the need to understand: What
initially motivates individuals to take the perspective of others?
Participants: To investigate this question, a sample of 18 adults from
an array of different professions (who were nominated as adept
perspective takers) and 13 high school students (who were nominated as
struggling with social perspective taking) participated in the study.
Research Design: Participants completed a survey, a performance task,
and in-depth interviews as part of this mixed-method exploratory study.
The interviews served as the primary source of data and were coded for
evidence of what triggered (or inhibited) participants' motivation to
engage in the social perspective-taking process. Findings: The interview
data established the existence of 13 specific factors that impacted
participants' motivation to engage in social perspective taking across a
wide array of contexts. Seven factors generally enhanced individuals'
motivation to engage in social perspective taking; three factors were
mixed; and three factors inhibited their motivation.
Conclusions/Recommendations: This research indicates that not only might
individuals be motivated to engage in social perspective taking through
multiple pathways, but these pathways might be combined and/or interact
with one another. These motivating factors raise important issues for
further research. In addition, at a practical level, they provide a
foundation for developing structures to motivate individuals in schools
to engage in perspective taking more often."
Gehlbach, H., & Brinkworth, M. E. (2008). Motivated thinkers and the
mistakes they make: The goals underlying social cognitions and their
consequences for achievement. In M. L. Maehr, S. Karabenick & T. Urdan
(Eds.), Advances in motivation and achievement: Social psychological
perspectives. (Vol. 15, pp. 119-144). Bingley, UK: Emerald.
Gehlbach, H., Young, L. V., & Roan, L. (2012). Teaching social
perspective taking: How educators might learn from the Army. Educational
Psychology, 32(3), 295-309. doi: 10.1080/01443410.2011.652807
"Frequently and accurately discerning others’ thoughts and feelings is
associated with
multiple valued educational outcomes across an array of settings.
Despite its foundational role in
social interactions, it is unclear whether individuals can be taught to
improve their social
perspective taking capacities. This experiment assesses whether a
curriculum taught to U.S.
Army personnel (N = 116) improved their social perspective taking prior
to deployment. Results
showed that participants improved their ability to detect biases in
others, generate more initial
hypotheses to explain others’ behaviors, and adapt their hypotheses in
the face of new evidence.
The curriculum did not affect participants’ perspective taking accuracy
on a video measure. We
discuss these findings with respect to their implications for different
learning environments. "
