ERIC Number: EJ741869
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Sep
Pages: 20
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0161-4681
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Contemplative Education in Unexpected Places: Teaching Mindfulness in Arkansas and Austria
Holland, Daniel
Teachers College Record, v108 n9 p1842-1861 Sep 2006
Mindfulness meditation is increasingly recognized as a health promotion practice across many different kinds of settings. Concomitantly, contemplative education is being integrated into colleges and universities in order to enhance learning through reflection and personal insight. The confluence of these trends provides an opportunity to develop experiential curriculum that promotes both health and learning through the teaching of contemplative practices in higher education settings. Such curriculum, if indeed it is believed to be a valuable development in higher education, must not be reserved only for elite and highly competitive schools serving traditional college students, but must be integrated into campuses of all kinds and made accessible to any student. This emphasis on accessibility will need to consider the growing interest in contemplative learning across economic, religious, and ethnic groups, geographic contexts, and individual differences, including disability. The growth of contemplative curriculum in higher education will also need to be accompanied by meaningful and valid curriculum assessment methods in order to abide by the standards of contemporary university settings as it gently transforms many such settings. This article describes the development of an experiential course in mindfulness that was taught on two very different college campuses. The author's personal experiences and preparation for the course, the course content, the impact of the course on students, and reflections on contemplative practice as a movement in education are offered as an example of the potential for contemplative education in some unexpected places.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Teaching Methods, Metacognition, Health Promotion, Integrated Curriculum, Comparative Analysis, Experiential Learning, Course Content, Reflective Teaching, Experimental Curriculum, Educational Change, School Culture
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Arkansas; Austria
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A