Faculty Teaching Excellence Program

Learning Enhancement through Mindfulness Practices

Professor Deborah Haynes, Art and Art History & Libby Residential Academic Program Director
Professor Michael Zimmerman, Philosophy, Director, Center for the Humanities and the Arts

At the university level, teaching practices are typically passed down from professor to student, without much critical reflection on what does and does not work. The whole issue of pedagogy is all too often neglected.

During the past few decades, however, substantial empirical investigation has demonstrated that certain practices--including mindfulness practices-- can reliably enhance the "learning" environment in the classroom. In this workshop, led by Deborah Haynes and Michael Zimmerman, we will present some results of such investigations. We maintain that this research justifies and encourages introducing such practices at all levels of collegiate instruction. By being familiar with empirical evidence showing the efficacy of mindfulness practices, faculty interested in introducing such practices in their teaching will be able to deal with at least certain kinds of institutional, departmental, and student resistance to such practices.

Article to be read prior to the workshop:

"Toward the Integration of Meditation into Higher Education:  A Review of Research" - by Shuana L. Shapiro, Kirk Warren Brown, and John A. Astin

In the spring semester, Professors Haynes and Zimmerman will offer a "hands-on" workshop that explores examples of such mindfulness practices.

This event will be held in ATLAS 200.