Opening the Contemplative Mind in the Classroom

Abstract

What we know or should know is the common focus of education. However, how we know is just as fundamental to teaching and learning. Contemporary schools emphasize both rational and sensory knowing. The rational involves calculation, explanation, and analysis; the sensory lives off of observation and measurement. Together these form the rational-empirical approach that has set the standard for knowledge across most disciplines. However, another way of knowing-contemplation-has been recognized across time, culture, and disciplines as essential to the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, yet it remains absent from today's curriculum and pedagogy. Contemplative knowing is a missing link, one that affects student performance, character, and depth of understanding. In what follows I will offer a brief orientation to contemplation, evidence of its value for contemporary education, and a range of exercises that can be applied in the classroom at any level.

Being ‘Lazy’ and Slowing Down: Toward decolonizing time, our body, and pedagogy

“…I suggest that we embody a 'less is more approach' in the learning environment and take a 'not do' approach to accumulating tasks. Hart (2004) suggests, that we tend to focus on the 'time on task', rather than the 'quality of attention' we bring to the task which requires us 'to not do for a few minutes to be more available for doing the task at hand' (p. 35). For instance, focusing on our breath and our body helps ground us in the present and nurture focused attention, escaping the pitfalls of distraction or racing thoughts.…”

Teaching Mindfulness to Year Sevens as Part of Health and Personal Development

“…In a class of thirty or more children it may be difficult for a teacher to know if something has opened up for a child that is a painful emotional experience or the teacher may not be trained to deal with it (Hart, 2004). Goodman and Kaiser Greenland (2009, pp.…”

Restoring the professor and the students: a circle process and contemplative practices in a restorative justice seminar

“…To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin (hooks, 1994, p. 13) Contemplative pedagogy is a growing practice in all academic disciplines and has generated an association of scholars, the Association for Contemplative Mind in Education as well as considerable research and course development in higher education (Hart, 2004;Palmer & Zajonc, 2010;Shapiro, Brown, & Astin, 2008). Zajonc (2009), Professor emeritus of Physics at Amherst College, former Director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society and current President of the Mind & Life Institute, advocates for contemplative practices as important pedagogical methods that transform the student and the teacher by connecting knowledge and love.…”