Contemplative Pedagogy

Contemplative pedagogy is a novel approach that brings into education theory 40 years of evidence from the neurophenomenology of mind with the wisdom from contemplative traditions. It integrates from the wisdom traditions concrete methodologies to train mental faculties for deep experiential learning. Namely, it introduces an understanding of how students’ (and teachers’) mental state(s), attention, and presence influence, hinder, or support learning.

A contemplative way of learning complements rational-logical and sensory modes of learning. Students experience contemplative exercises as personally meaningful, enriching, and empowering. By giving more significance to learners’ inner worlds (embodied experience of learning material and classroom environment), students are genuinely put at the center of the learning process. Such an approach allows teachers to recover authentic presence in the classroom, leading to a more fulfilled experience in the teaching profession.

Contemplative practices contain mind-training and embodied exercises designed to shift the habitual ways of thinking and reacting, and cultivate a better capacity for concentration, deepened awareness, and insight. In this course, teachers will be exposed to practices that:

• allow training of students’ attention,
• increase students’ awareness of their habitual ways of being and reacting,
• cultivate a greater capacity to be mindful in the class
• nurture relational qualities such as empathy and compassion in the class
• transform competitive class dynamic into a community of learners
• allow students to find meaning in the learning material by connecting with their embodied first-person experience
• reduce students’ self-centeredness and cultivate deepened self-awareness.