Jayasundara J M P V K, Gilbert Theo, Kersten Saskia, Meng Li
Department of English Language and Linguistics, School of Creative Arts, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, United Kingdom.
Department of English Language Teaching, Uva Wellassa University, Badulla, Sri Lanka.
Front Psychol. 2023 Aug 4;14:1113098. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1113098. eCollection 2023.
Associated with learning and social isolation from each other during the pandemic-driven transition to online platforms in Higher Education (HE), many students were, and remain, reluctant to turn on their video cameras to be present with each other during their online meetings.Using the Compassionate Mind Foundation's definition of compassion, not as an emotion, but as a psychobiological motivation to take wise action to help when self or others struggle, this comparative study examined (a) the deployment by students during online, task-focused group/team meetings, of taught verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that were explicitly compassionate and (b) the effects of these strategies on each other's social and learning experiences in these meetings, compared to when they did not use them.
Twenty-four STEM students from a sample of five Sri Lankan universities, were mixed, then divided into six groups of four students per group. This mixed-methods study, video-recorded and analyzed each group's task-focused group meetings before, then after, an online interactive 90-min training session (the intervention) in the Cognitive Skills of Compassionate Communications (CSCC) for groups/teams.
Using R, SPSS and Microsoft Excel to analyse the quantitative data, a statistically significant improvement in students' screen-gaze attentiveness was identified after the CSCC intervention. The qualitative data analysis explained this and other behavioral changes that were shown to enhance students' social and learning experiences in their online meetings.Given the strong historical and political drivers of current divisions across Sri Lankan student communities, these findings call for more urgent research on compassion as a cognitive competence for accelerating group/team cohesion and criticality across HE, and beyond.
在高等教育（HE）向在线平台的疫情驱动转型过程中，许多学生彼此之间缺乏学习和社交互动，并且在在线会议期间，许多学生过去和现在都不愿意打开摄像头与他人互动。本比较研究采用慈悲之心基金会对慈悲的定义，即慈悲不是一种情感，而是一种心理生物学动机，促使人们在自我或他人遇到困难时采取明智行动提供帮助，研究了以下两个方面：（a）学生在以任务为重点的在线小组/团队会议中运用明确具有同情心的口头和非口头沟通策略的情况；（b）与未使用这些策略时相比，这些策略对彼此在这些会议中的社交和学习体验的影响。
从五所斯里兰卡大学的样本中选取了24名理工科学生，将他们混合后分成六组，每组四名学生。这项混合方法研究在一次为期90分钟的在线互动培训课程（干预）之前和之后，对每个小组以任务为重点的小组会议进行了视频录制和分析，该培训课程是关于小组/团队的慈悲沟通认知技能（CSCC）。
使用R、SPSS和Microsoft Excel分析定量数据，发现CSCC干预后学生的屏幕注视注意力有统计学上的显著提高。定性数据分析解释了这一点以及其他行为变化，这些变化被证明能增强学生在在线会议中的社交和学习体验。鉴于斯里兰卡学生群体当前分裂的强烈历史和政治驱动因素，这些发现呼吁更迫切地研究慈悲作为一种认知能力，以加速高等教育及其他领域的小组/团队凝聚力和关键性。
