A multidimensional model of pedagogical empathy as a form of professional empathy and designing diagnostic tools

The relevance of this study stems from the need to design and develop an accurate diagnostic approach for teachers’ professional empathy as a key competency that determines the quality of the educational process, the emotional well-being of students, and the effectiveness of an inclusive environment. The article demonstrates that traditional empathy questionnaires—originally created for clinical, cross-cultural, or general psychological purposes— do not capture the specific regulatory and communicative functions of a teacher: forecasting students’ educational trajectories, managing classroom emotions, and translating empathic impulses into consistent pedagogical actions. The proposed Empathy Scale for Teachers (EST, 2022) is fundamentally different from existing tools due to its multi-level structure, validated on a sample of Russian teachers. It measures cognitive, positive-affective, and negative-affective components, combining the assessment of predictive functions with the measurement of differentiated affective regulation and behavioral consistency. Unlike classical one-factor questionnaires, the EST takes into account the specifics of long-term teacher–student relationships and directly aligns with the tasks of learning and socialization. Theoretically, two complementary types of empathy are distinguished: interpersonal empathy, aimed at understanding an individual student’s emotional–cognitive state, and social empathy, which ensures consideration of the cultural, family, and social conditions of learning. Their integration reflects a teacher’s ability to maintain personal contact while also accounting for structural factors that influence students’ motivation and engagement. The developed model incorporates twelve typical school situations—ranging from establishing classroom rules, lesson planning, and motivating students to responding to anxiety, resolving conflicts, and assessing test results. These contexts make it possible to evaluate manifestations of interpersonal and social empathy as a systemic professional quality that supports fair interaction, emotional support, and high educational standards. Thus, the proposed multidimensional model of pedagogical empathy, together with the Empathy Scale for Teachers, provides a researchand practice-oriented foundation for comprehensive diagnostics and the development of teachers’ empathic competencies, contributing to the creation of an emotionally safe and instructionally effective learning environment.