Seeing Through Their Eyes: Using Empathy Maps to Understand and Respond to Student Behavior

Seeing Through Their Eyes: Using Empathy Maps to Understand and Respond to Student Behavior

What Is an Empathy Map? 

An empathy map is a visual tool that helps educators step into the perspective of their students to better understand what they think, feel, say, and do in relation to a learning experience (Gibson, 2018). Originating in design thinking, empathy maps are used to explore the student side of the learning experience by helping instructors identify needs, motivations, and barriers with the goal to remove biases and enhance access (Lammers, 2021). 

A typical empathy map includes four quadrants: 
  • Think and Feel: What’s on their mind?  
  • See: What do your learners observe in their physical space? What do they see in the course’s learning management system?   
  • Say and Do: What do learners do (and not do) in class? How do they respond to questions?  
  • Hear: What are your learners hearing from their peers, their instructors, their families?

  • A diagram of a person with text AI-generated content may be incorrect.
      

    • Why Use An Empathy Map?

    • Deepen understanding of student behavior: 

    • Faculty often encounter puzzling student behaviors, the motivated student who suddenly disengages, the quiet achiever who resists group work, or the outspoken participant who struggles to submit written work. Empathy maps help decode these patterns by revealing what might be happening beneath the surface. 

  • Support inclusive and transformative teaching: 

  • Empathy mapping aligns with transformative learning principles by centering learning around human experience. When instructors understand their students’ lived realities, such as work commitments, language barriers, or confidence issues, they can create structures that promote belonging and equity (Chen and Tsai, 2024; Gurjar and Elwood, 2024). 

  • Strengthen course design and instructional choices:

  • By applying empathy insights, instructors can refine policies, assessments, and activities. For example, recognizing that a first-generation student working 30 hours a week may feel overwhelmed might lead an instructor to: 
• Offer flexible deadlines or modular assignments. 
• Provide low-stakes practice before high-stakes tasks. 
• Use relatable, real-world examples to connect content with students’ lives. 

How to Use an Empathy Map 

Step 1: Identify puzzling student behavior. 

Start with a real scenario that made you wonder, “Why is this happening?” For instance: 
  1. A strong student’s sudden drop in participation. 
  2. A group of students who resist a collaborative tool. 
  3. A student who attends regularly but rarely submits work. 

Step 2: Gather information. 

Draw from observations, conversations, discussion posts, focus groups, and surveys. You don’t need extensive data, asking thoughtful questions can generate good insights. 

Step 3: Map your student’s experience. 

Using the four quadrants, brainstorm responses for each area: 
Think and Feel: 
See: 
Say and Do: 
Hear: 
“Is this graded?” “Do we have to use that app?” 
“I don’t know if I can keep up.” “Why do I need this?” 
Tired, anxious, uncertain 
Misses deadlines, avoids participation 
A screenshot of a computer AI-generated content may be incorrect. 

Step 4: Look for patterns and insights. 

What might be driving the student’s behavior? What assumptions might you need to revisit? You might want to identify the Pains and Gains. 
  1. Pains: What challenges or barriers are they facing (e.g., imposter syndrome, lack of experience)? 
  2. Gains: What are their goals, motivations, or desired outcomes? 

Step 5: Create the Visual Map 

Use a template (like the one by Kahoe, 2019, openly licensed via Creative Commons) or draw your own. 
Divide the map into sections for each of the dimensions above. 
Fill in each section with insights from your data. Here is an example of a completed empathy map. 
 

Step 6: Translate insight into action. 

Consider three categories of response: 
  1. Relational – Build connection (learn names, check in regularly). 
  2. Instructional – Adjust teaching methods (add scaffolding, clarify instructions). 
  3. Structural – Modify policies (flexible deadlines, clear grading rubrics). 

Step 7: Reflect and share. 

After implementing a change, reflect on the results and share your insights with colleagues. Empathy mapping is most effective when used collaboratively. 

References 

Gibbons, S. (2018, January 14). Empathy Mapping: The First Step in Design Thinking. Nielsen Norman Group. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/empathy-mapping/  

Gurjar, N., & Elwood, S. (2024). Equity-Based Empathy Mapping in Learning Experience Design. In Transdisciplinary Learning Experience Design: Futures, Synergies, and Innovation (pp. 145-167). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. 
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Huang, H. P., Tien, Y., Lin, Y. C., Yu, I. C., & Chien, N. H. (2025). Effects of empathy mapping and mini-simulation on second-year nursing students’ empathy and communication self-confidence: a quasi-experimental study. BMC Medical Education, 25(1), 109. 
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Yeung, W. L., & Ng, O. L. (2024). Using empathy maps to support design-thinking enhanced transdisciplinary STEM innovation in K-12 setting. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 34(4), 1325-1350.