Contemplative Pedagogy

(Source: Contributed by Donna Maurer, UMUC adjunct professor, Sociology)

Contemplative pedagogy is one strategy that has been used to facilitate learning. It is designed to increase your ability to concentrate on what you are doing in any particular moment (mindfulness). The time that you invest in learning to focus your awareness can pay rich dividends in your career as a student.

Exploring Mindfulness and Concentration Exercises to Enhance Learning

Food for thought icon

What does it mean to become more mindful? How might becoming more mindful help you learn more effectively? Does it take a lot of time? Is it hard to do? Is it something that you can do on your own, without an instructor nearby? Does it work?

What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness very basically means focusing one's awareness in the present moment. Jon Kabat-Zinn (1994), founding executive director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, defined mindfulness as "paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally" (p. 4).

Mindfulness has three key components: intention, attitude, and attention (Shapiro & Carlson, 2009).

The Challenge of Mindfulness in a Multitasking World

Multitasking has become a cultural norm, and often, it's a seeming necessity. Rapid and constant digital communications have made interactions more fluid, and often more convenient, but at the same time, it is increasingly difficult to slow down and give one's full attention to completing a single task and doing it well.

Researchers have found that multitasking while learning leads to less memory retention. According to cognitive psychologist Russell Poldrack, "Even if you learn while multitasking, that learning is less flexible and more specialized, so you cannot retrieve the information as easily. … When distractions force you to pay less attention to what you are doing, you don't learn as well as if you had paid full attention" (University of California-Los Angeles, 2006).

The multiple demands on our time and energy can make it very difficult to concentrate on coursework, reflect on course materials, and determine their meaning and value. It is also easy to become so consumed by all the various demands on our lives to the point that we lose sight of the "bigger picture." Many students find themselves asking at some in their college experience: "Why should I care about this topic that I'm learning? How does this relate to my life? How does this relate to what is happening in the world around me?" Practicing some or all of the mindfulness exercises below can be a start to answering these questions.

Five Practical Mindfulness Exercises to Enhance Learning

Mindfulness exercises may at first seem simple, but they are not necessarily easy. They help to develop concentration and focus, but they take place in a process. Some exercises might seem helpful or interesting at one time, while those that aren't so interesting to you at first may later have value. So feel free to try whatever exercise "feels right" at a particular time.

Part of mindfulness is paying attention to not only thoughts, but also feelings. So if you find yourself feeling frustrated while doing any of these exercises, just let yourself be aware of this feeling, without judging it or trying to make it go away. A key aspect of the exercises is to observe and accept your reactions.

1. Calming Down, Focusing

The simplest, easiest, and most convenient way to increase your focus and reduce stress is to learn to pay attention to your breathing. Yes, that's right! Many have said that the breath is the connector between the body and the mind. 

So just by paying attention, the mind can relax, too. As the mind relaxes, and the barrage of thoughts in the mind starts to dissipate, it becomes easier to focus. So, here is a simple exercise that you can do before you start to study or write a paper.

Try this exercise! Find a quiet place to sit where you are not likely to be disturbed. If this is not possible, put in some earplugs or wear headphones to diminish distracting noises. Then see if you can notice your breath flowing in and out. You don't need to control the breath; you can just watch it. Notice how your body feels with the breath moving in and out. See if you can keep your awareness focused inside, and if thoughts start running through your mind, you can watch them with your mind, or you can try to bring your focus back to your breath.

See if you can do this exercise for five minutes. You can even set a timer if you'd like! Once you become familiar with this experience of tuning in to your breath, you can use it anytime, even if just for a moment or two, to help you focus, calm down, or address a challenging issue. This is also an especially good practice to use before taking an exam or giving a speech.

2. Absorbing Information

Have you ever had the experience of "reading" several pages of a book, only to discover that your mind was someplace else the whole time and you had no idea what you read? English professor Kate Garretson (2010) advocates taking a mindful approach to reading and explains that "reading is an event, that is, an experience or a practice, rather than a simple apprehension of an external object (the text).  ... The stance of the reader must be active and awake" (p. 62). In other words, reading is a process in which you are actively interacting with the author's words on the page.

Adapted from Professor Garretson's suggestions, here is an exercise you can try to enhance your focus while reading.

Try this exercise! Take a segment from one of your textbooks (about three or four pages) that you find particularly tedious or difficult to understand. Start with the short breathing exercise in Exercise 1 if you like.

Then, as you are reading, focus on the writer's message, and what it is you imagine that the writer is intending to tell you. Select one or two sentences in the reading that you think conveys the author's main point. Then write out what these key sentences mean to you and set aside this piece of paper.

Then, the next day, read this same passage again, and once again, after reading it, select one or two key sentences and write out what these sentences mean to you. Did you select the same key sentences? Were your interpretations of the key sentences the same or different? Did you gain any insight from this focused reading practice?

3. Making Choices

Life often presents us with challenges or complicated situations in which we need to make choices or decisions. Often, the best path is not clear because so many factors are involved. Also, we might have conflicting feelings about our different options. When making an important decision, it is helpful to collect as much information as possible and ask the opinions of those whom you respect. Ultimately, though, you must make the decision yourself.

For example, deciding on one's major can be a complex process. After collecting all the available information and considering the possible outcomes, and how these outcomes match your goals, you can try "freewriting" to help you get in touch with your feelings about your different options. This technique, originally developed by Peter Elbow (1973), has been advocated by many writers, writing teachers, and even sociologists, such as Howard Becker, who advocated it in his highly regarded book, Writing for Social Scientists (1988).

Try this exercise! Either at your computer, or with pen and paper, write down at the top of the page a question that you would like to address; for example: How might majoring in social science help me achieve my goals? Or, what would be my ideal job and why? Or, what sorts of college courses do I like most and why? Choosing a particular question conveys your intention to explore the topic that is important to you. Then decide how much time you would like to write. Starting with 15 minutes is fine, or if you'd like, you could try 30 or 45 minutes.

Now, read your question at the top of the page again, and start to write. Just let your pen or fingers start moving and write whatever comes. Most importantly, do not stop to read what you've written and don't judge. Keep an open mind and let the writing flow. Do not be concerned about grammar, spelling, typos, organization, or anything like that … just keep writing. Try to let it be as though your thoughts are being directly transmitted to the page.

When the time is up, go back and read what you have written. Is there any insight that has surprised you? Is there any point that you'd like to explore further?

4. Communicating with Others

Human communication is an intrinsically complicated phenomenon that takes place at both verbal and nonverbal levels. Miscommunication is rampant, and often we might feel that others don't really hear what we are saying even though they may act as though they are listening. Communicating with others can be frustrating at times, because even when we do our best to communicate well, we cannot directly change how others communicate.

Taking a mindful approach can enhance communication in a variety of ways, as expressed in Susan Gillis Chapman's (2012) The Five Keys to Mindful Communication. A mindful approach to listening is sometimes called "active listening." A website called "People Communicating" offers many excellent active listening exercises that you can try with a partner.

Try this exercise! Sit face-to-face with someone else. Your partner says a short sentence, you listen to it, and render it back using similar words and sentence structure. Rearrange words or substitute words to give the message back to your partner. Ask the speaker if the message is still the same. Ask your partner if you were able to paraphrase or if you are just repeating. If the speaker tells you that you are just repeating, dare to move words around and to replace them with synonyms until you can successfully paraphrase what your speaker said. Take turns with your partner and practice this paraphrasing exercise until you both feel you are good at paraphrasing a message back (People Communicating, 2009-2010).

Learning to be a mindful listener will not only enhance your personal and professional communication but will also help you become a better social scientist, as you will become more able to understand what others are experiencing in the course of interviewing people and doing fieldwork.

5. Feeling Connected to the World

While the mindfulness exercises presented so far may seem very personal, these kinds of exercises also may enhance our understanding of the world around us and enhance our capacity to experience compassion for those who differ from us. As such, these practices can help reduce prejudice and ethnocentrism, which is important in understanding the broad diversity of cultures within society, as well as cultures throughout the world.

Psychologists Shauna L. Shapiro and Linda E. Carlson (2009) offer an expanded explanation of mindfulness in a way that applies to this broader context: "Mindfulness is about seeing clearly without one's conditioned patterns of perceiving clouding awareness, and without trying to frame things in a particular way. It is important to learn to see in this way because how a person perceives and frames the moment generates one's reality" (p. 5). It can be difficult, though, to see situations and people from a vantage point that is unclouded by our socialized way of seeing.

This simple mindfulness exercise can be used to increase empathy and understanding.

Try this exercise! Start with mindful breathing (exercise #1). After focusing on your breathing for a few moments, with your eyes closed, imagine a person (or animal) you love very much and has brought much joy to you. Imagine wishing that being perfect happiness and well-being.

Then imagine someone you don't know, someone you've never met but who has social characteristics very different from your own, perhaps a person who lives in a country that you've never visited. Imagine wishing that person perfect happiness and well-being.

You can then extend this feeling of positive regard for others in your daily social interactions. As social scientists, it is important to develop an understanding of and empathy for those who may have very different social characteristics, beliefs, and behaviors than our own.

Summary

While practicing to focus your attention with any or all of these exercises, you will learn to calm down, improve your reading comprehension, gain insights into your choices and decisions, communicate more effectively, and develop increasing empathy for others. These are just a few ways in which mindfulness training, or contemplative education, can help you grow as a student and as a concerned and active global citizen.

References

Becker, H. (1988). Writing for social scientists. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Chapman, S. G. (2012). The five keys to mindful communication. Boston: Shambala.

Elbow, P. (1973). Writing without teachers. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Garretson, K. (2010, Fall). Being allowing and yet directive: Mindfulness meditation in the teaching of developmental reading and writing. New Directions for Community Colleges, Issue 151, 51-64.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go there you are: Mindfulness meditation in everyday life. New York: Hyperion.

Kahane, D. (2009). Learning About Obligation, Compassion, and Global Justice: The Place of Contemplative Pedagogy. New Directions for Teaching & Learning, 118, 49-60.

Mills, C. W. (1959). The sociological imagination. London: Oxford University Press.

People Communicating (2009-2010). Listening exercises to help you become a better communicator. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from http://www.people-communicating.com/listening-exercises.html

Shapiro, S. L., & L. E. Carlson. (2009). The art and science of mindfulness: Integrating mindfulness into psychology and the helping professions. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

University of California-Los Angeles. (2006, July 26). Multi-tasking adversely affects brain's learning, UCLA psychologists report. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 5, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2006/07/060726083302.htm

Additional Useful Resources

The Association for Contemplative Mind in Society has a web page of links to several audio files of different kinds of guided mindfulness exercises that you can try. See: http://www.contemplativemind.org/practices/recordings

More than Sound offers many free podcasts that are related to mindfulness. For a guided mindfulness exercise on coping with change, go to: http://www.morethansound.net/blog/2012/07/working-with-mindfulness-coping-with-change/

A Final Note

The exercises provided in this module are adapted from a variety of sources, as indicated by the cited sources. Most have been altered somewhat to be more conducive to social-science learning in online environments. Have you tried these exercises? Have they been helpful to you or not?  Do you have any suggestions for improving them? E-mail donna.maurer@faculty.umgc.edu with your comments and suggestions to help improve this module.