Measuring Empathy Among Secondary School Teachers in Sabah: A Quantitative Study
Abstract
Teacher empathy is one of the most important attributes of effective pedagogy because it influences the quality of teacher-student interactions. The purpose of the study was to examine the empathy among secondary school teachers in Sabah, Malaysia. It aimed to determine (1) the level of empathy among teachers, (2) if there were any significant differences in perceived empathy based on gender, age, and job experience, and (3) if any of the empathy items were significantly different from the hypothesized value of 3.5. The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire was administered to a sample of 69 teachers from the Kota Kinabalu area on Google Forms. Data were subsequently transferred onto a spreadsheet and analyzed by using SPSS 26.0. First, descriptive statistics indicated that a majority of Sabahan teachers tend to have an average level of empathy. Second, the t-test revealed significant differences in perceived empathy by way of age and job experience at p < .05. Third, the Wilcoxon signed rank test showed that 14 of the empathy items were significantly different from the hypothesized value at p < .001, with only one item being significantly different at p < .05. In light of the findings, some recommendations were made on ways to enhance teacher empathy in Sabah, Malaysia.
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