04/08/2022
By Julie Nash

All full-time and senior adjunct faculty at UMass Lowell are invited to apply for the 2022-2023 CELT Mini-Grants for Contemplative Pedagogy, led by CELT’s inaugural Faculty in Residence, Marlowe Miller. This mini-grant program is for faculty who wish to study, practice, and incorporate contemplative pedagogies into their courses, and who are willing to collaborate as a cohort to support each other and future faculty interested in expanding contemplative pedagogies on campus.

What is Contemplative Pedagogy?
Contemplative pedagogy teaches students how to integrate intellectual, emotional, and somatic/embodied ways of knowing by critically and thoughtfully situating first person experience as another legitimate domain of inquiry and knowledge-making within the classroom. This approach addresses the growing complexity and interconnectedness of student’s experiences in their fields of study and with the manifold issues of our time. In a biochemistry class, for example, a professor offers a capstone course in biochemistry designed to develop his students’ traditional disciplinary skills, including competence in the communication of scientific ideas, critical evaluation of the primary literature, and rigorous practices for testing hypotheses. He also teaches students the contemplative skills of pause and reflection. Using contemplative assignments, his students link self with the world as they spend time considering how they, as scientists, are situated in the world. Similarly, in an economics course, a professor uses contemplative and introspective exercises to address four learning goals: to engage students in their own learning, to encourage them to generate their own data as authorities, to enhance their focus and attention, and to foster inquiry into their roles in the world. Across the disciplines, the cultivation of an aware, nonjudgmental classroom ethos fostered by contemplative pedagogy helps students experience and understand the ways in which knowledge emerges not only from experts and critical rigor but from embodied experience and intuitive insight. As a complement to traditional pedagogy, contemplative pedagogy has proven outcomes of increased self-regulated learning, improved retention of content, and enhanced well-being.

What will this project entail?
If you are curious about ways to integrate contemplative pedagogical tools to enhance your teaching, apply for this first Contemplative Teaching Cohort. CELT will award up to 10 mini-grants of $1,000 each. Our goal is to have representation from each college. You don't have to have any experience with contemplative pedagogy; you must simply to be willing to try something new.

As a part of the cohort of faculty who participate in this project, you will commit to a course of collaborative study, developing pedagogical practices to be implemented during the Spring 2023 semester, and to assessment of the outcomes of this implementation. Additionally, participants will be expected to share their findings in a campus presentation or professional conference, or in an academic publication.

Timeline

  • Submit your applicationby May 13, 2022
  • 10 mini-grant recipients will be selected and notified by May 31, 2022
  • Initial meeting in Summer 2022 (date TBD)
  • Four monthly hands-on workshops in Fall 2022 (dates TBD) to develop your knowledge and pedagogical tools
  • Use contemplative pedagogy strategies in your chosen course in Spring 2023
  • Assess the efficacy of your interventions on student learning in Summer 2023

If you have questions, contact CELT@uml.edu.