Dare to Share the Silence: Tools & Practices of Contemplative Pedagogy in a Library Brain Booth

Abstract

A research study at a rural, public university revealed interest among college students in engaging in mindfulness and contemplative practices within their university library. This study also identified a gap between interest in contemplative pedagogy among faculty and their engagement in contemplative practices within this newly-created library space, The Library Brain Booth. This study shares the results of visits to the Library Brain Booth by both first-time and returning participants. It also provides mean usage time at each of the following stations which were created to support mindfulness and contemplation: biofeedback, color-relax, game-relax, light-relax, read-relax, silent-relax, sound-relax, audio-meditate, prompt-meditate, video-meditate, gratitude-express, and virtual reality-immerse. The results of the study are intended to support the explicit promotion of metacognition and mindfulness in the academic process, both through mindfulness activities within the library for students, and through contemplative pedagogy in information literacy instruction.