04/10/2023
By Julie Nash
Full-time faculty at UMass Lowell are invited to submit applications for the 2023-2024 CELT Mini-Grants for Contemplative Pedagogy. 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. Led by Professor Marlowe Miller, CELT’s inaugural Faculty-in-Residence, the 2022-23 cohort of 15 faculty explored contemplative pedagogy in a year-long journey, and the feedback we are receiving has been very positive:
Participant Reviews from 2022-23 Cohort:
“I strongly recommend Contemplative Pedagogy! Not only have Marlowe's teachings improved my pedagogical practice as a writing professor, but the sessions provided a unique opportunity to be a student again! Marlowe has crafted a series of readings, exercises, and shared moments that allow professors across disciplines to see—through an embodied experience--what it is like to experience contemplative pedagogy and how enriching it can be for our students.” (Jenna Vinson, English)
“I have truly enjoyed the supportive and thoughtful exchange of ideas with like-minded colleagues across the disciplines. The variety of approaches and the wealth of insight about contemplative techniques and pedagogy in general has helped me approach teaching and learning in a new way and see the classroom as a space for a thoughtful and compassionate engagement with the ideas, those of others but our own as well..” (Milena Gueorguieva, English)
“The workgroup led by Marlowe provided a supportive learning opportunity through reading and discussing relevant research and literature on contemplative pedagogy. As a result, in Spring 2023 I was able to integrate contemplative pedagogy in my in-class activities. Student mid-term feedback has been positive and encouraging. For example, a student noted “I enjoy this exercise. It is something I have not done in any other class in college. The approach allows students to captivate their own thoughts on the material and really reflect on the important points they want to make on the discussion board post.” (Ramraj Gautum, Nursing)
“This has been a fantastic opportunity to dive more deeply into something we do all the time but don't always have time to think about: the how (rather than just the what) of our teaching. It was so healing and reviving to do this with other colleagues, separate from administrative or other considerations, and Marlowe is very gifted at creating that space, with discussions, prompts, readings, and guest speakers. I know my assignments, students, course, and own sense of purpose as an educator really benefited from this program.” (Hilary Lustick, Education)
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 the manifold issues of our time.
In a biochemistry class, for example, a professor offers a capstone course in biochemistry designed to develop in 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, I hope you will apply for this first Contemplative Teaching Cohort. CELT will award up to 10 $1,000 mini-grants, and 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, to developing pedagogical practices to be implemented during the Spring 2024 semester, to sharing those with your cohort, and to assessment of the outcomes of this implementation. Additionally, participants will be expected to share their findings in two ways:
- as a document to be shared with other UML faculty through CELT,
- and at a either a professional gathering of faculty at UML (like the Faculty Symposium), at a professional conference, or in an academic publication.
Timeline:
- Submit your application by May 26
- Mini-Grant recipients will be selected and notified by May 30
- Recipients will attend our first cohort meeting in late August
- Recipients will attend hands-on workshops each month of the fall and spring semesters (TBD)
- Recipients are expected to develop pedagogical tools to be used in the spring, 2023 semester
- Recipients will share their experiences with the pedagogy in a presentation to the cohort during the Spring 2024 semester
- In Summer 2024 we will conclude with an assessment of students’ learning outcomes
- self-regulated learning, improved retention of content
- ability to self-regulate and return to task.
- ability to work around obstacles toward concentration.
- ability to reflect on their own learning process to improve future performance.
- ability to employ embodied experience to assist knowledge-making.
Faculty wishing to participate in this program must agree to the following:
- Participate in a launch meeting and lunch in late August.
- Participate in a monthly meeting during the fall 2023 and spring 2024 semesters. Participants are expected to attend at least 4 out of 5 meetings each semester.
- Be available for additional informal collegial support, which might include visiting classes, sharing assignments, or talking about your experience at a future workshop.
- Assess the outcomes of your pedagogical practices.
- Share your findings/experience from this project with CELT and at a local or professional conference or in a publication.