Contemplative Pedagogy (CP) is an instructional approach characterized by attention to the full student experience, an interest in transformative learning, and the integration of contemplative practices into the learning environment. According to Daniel Barbezat and Mirabai Bush in Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning, contemplative pedagogy “can help develop empathy and communication skills, improve focus and attention, reduce stress and enhance creativity, supporting a loving and compassionate approach to life.” These practices often include reflection, a foundational component in AAC&U’s VALUE rubric for lifelong learning and an important part of courses that include mindfulness. Classes that teach mindfulness can also result in greater resilience and agency (Weston, 2020). Contemplative classroom practices vary from the relatively simple act of starting class with a silent moment to designing mindfulness exercises that support your course learning outcomes (University of Virginia). To get you started with this form of pedagogy, we’ve compiled some information about how to prepare yourself and your students.
Strategies & Examples
Prepare Yourself
- Gain experience. As Daniel Barbezat and Mirabai Bush mention about contemplative pedagogy, “Like any other skill or subject matter, we have to know it well before we can teach it to others.” (p. 91). If you plan to lead students in a contemplative practice, you should have personal experience with that practice, and ideally some training. Some instructors choose to take 8-week mindfulness courses taught by instructors trained by the Center for Mindfulness at UMass Memorial Health. Others have taken courses through University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Healthy Minds or University of California Los Angeles’ Mindfulness Education Center. You can also build your confidence and learn more about using contemplative practices in the classroom by attending regular meetings of the CTL’s Contemplative Pedagogy Group.
- Find a practice that’s right for your class. Many people, when they think about contemplative practices, imagine sitting silently with one’s eyes closed, but contemplative practices can be quite varied, as evidenced by “The Tree of Contemplative Practices,” designed by Maia Duerr, Research Director for the Center for the Contemplative Mind in Society. Choose practices that fit your experience, comfort level, discipline, and course outcomes.
- Be responsible! Many contemplative practices have specific cultural origins, and some educators have rightfully questioned the ethics of secularizing and generalizing specific cultural practices. If you use any meditation practices in your classes, we recommend you treat them as you would a scholarly idea and cite your sources by sharing the full cultural context of the practice’s origins. (Coburn, et al., 2011)
- Start small. Some instructors prefer to introduce contemplative practices to their classes by adding a short, quiet moment at the beginning of class so students can transition into the learning environment and begin focusing on your class. Others simply play a recorded meditation from YouTube or University of California Los Angeles’ Mindfulness Education Center. If you use recorded meditations, we recommend varying the recordings to avoid disengagement.
- But think big. Contemplative pedagogy most noticeably involves leading contemplative practices in your class to support your teaching goals, but it can be much more than that. A contemplative classroom may also involve attention to assignments, pace of instruction, facilitation skills, instructor authenticity, feedback, the full student experience, and more (Barbezat and Bush, 2014; Berg and Seeber, 2016). If you want to partner with someone to think through the contemplative options that work best for you, reach out to the CTL.
Prepare Your Students
- Explain the purpose of contemplative pedagogy. Though college students have been increasingly exposed to mindfulness practices through K-12 education, we recommend explaining why you have introduced practices to your classes. To support student wellbeing? To increase focus? To promote deeper engagement with course subject matter? To enhance creativity? Whatever the case, share your intentions with students. Instructors sometimes find it useful to cite the research on mindfulness. See our “Contemplative Pedagogy Resources” page for more information on the benefits of CP.
- Make it optional. Contemplative practices aren’t for everyone, and students experiencing trauma can be unsettled by meditations that require eyes to be closed and internal feelings to be examined. Be flexible in your approach and tell students they can choose not to participate if a practice feels uncomfortable to them (Barbezat and Bush, 2014).
- Ask for feedback. Much as you would for any other teaching strategy, seek feedback from your students on how your use of contemplative practices in the classroom contributes to their learning. Consider using an exit ticket, adding an anonymous survey in Canvas, or adding a supplemental question to your course evaluation to gather this feedback.
Sample Practices
- Attention. Research on college students suggests that even a brief exposure to mindfulness meditation can increase capacity for attention (Norris et al., 2018). A simple and common way to introduce contemplation into your class is to begin class with a moment of silence to help students transition into the learning environment and develop their attention. Some instructors turn the lights down for a minute. Some ring a bell or chime and let the sounds fade, then begin. Some provide students with a reflective prompt to consider quietly for a minute.
- Breathing. Many people incorporate breathing meditations into their courses. You can find short, recorded meditations on the University of California Los Angeles’ Mindfulness Education Center website. They also provide transcripts of meditations that you can adapt to your own use with citation.
- Slow Reading. Many people have adapted lectio divina, an early Christian monastic reading practice, for classroom use (Keator, 2018). Although adaptations differ, most offer four steps for engaging with texts: reading silently (reading), reading once again out loud and seeing what associations emerge (interpreting), reacting to a text either verbally or through journaling (responding), and reading the text once again out loud with the goal of acquiring deeper understanding (experiencing wisdom).
- Beholding. To encourage depth of engagement and greater creativity, some instructors choose to integrate beholding practices into their classes. Much like contemplative reading strategies, beholding promotes a structured, more prolonged encounter with course material, such as paintings, archival items, cell diagrams, engineering schematics, or any other complex phenomenon. Give students ample time to examine the item, describe it, make associations, analyze how it works, offer possible implications, or generate new or related products (Columbia University).
- Deep listening. Listening exercises can be implemented in a variety of ways to encourage close engagement with a work of audio or another person. Deep listening to another person can help develop communication and perspective-taking skills. Typically, students are put into pairs and given 5 minutes each to speak on a topic. The listener is asked to listen in complete silence – no asking questions, no interrupting. Once the five minutes are up, the listener then repeats everything they have heard, offering no commentary or judgment. Once both partners have listened and reported what they heard, you can ask them to reflect on what it feels like to truly listen, and to truly be heard (Barbezat and Bush, 2014).
- For further classroom contemplative practices, check out the UMass Amherst Contemplative Pedagogy page, the Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning page on contemplative pedagogy, or Barbezat and Bush’s Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning.
References
Coburn, T., Grace, F., Klein, A.C., Komjathy, L., Roth, H. and Simmer-Brown, J. (2011), Contemplative Pedagogy: Frequently Asked Questions. Teaching Theology & Religion, 14: 167-174.
Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning (2017). Contemplative Pedagogy. Columbia University.
Keator, Mary. (2018). Lectio divina as contemplative pedagogy. New York, NY: Routledge.
Norris, C. J., Creem, D., Hendler, R., & Kober, H. (2018). Brief mindfulness meditation improves attention in novices: Evidence from ERPs and moderation by neuroticism. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12, 315.
Weston, L.Y. (2020). Mindfulness in class and in life: Mental health and emotional resilience alongside academic studies. Liberal Education.
In addition, the UMass Amherst Libraries maintains a comprehensive guide to contemplative studies resources, including links to articles, books, movies, instructional websites, virtual meditation opportunities, campus resources, the UMass student-run meditation group, and more.
