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Researchers in the field of mathematics education are beginning to appreciatethe potential of contemplative practices such as mindfulness to alleviate students’
stress and increase their focus. What researchers do not yet know is whether,
and if so how, bringing focused attention to somatic experience through a wide
variety of contemplative–somatic practices (i.e., yoga, Feldenkrais, body–mind
centering, and attending to bodily sensations in meditation) may support student
learning of specific mathematical content. As a first step toward conceptualizing
and ideating the pedagogical design and facilitation of content-oriented
contemplative exercises, we convened a workshop to explore these ideas. Here
we report on findings from this pioneering workshop, which brought together
international scholars and practitioners interested in the relations between
contemplative–somatic practice and mathematical reasoning and learning. This
report elaborates on participants’ experiences and derived pedagogical insights
to offer the field new horizons in the development of the theory and practice of
contemplative mathematics.
This article explores the history of the current reemergence of a contemplative orientation in education. While referencing an ancient history, it primarily examines the history of contemporary contemplative education through three significant stages, focusing on the third. The first was arguably initiated by the introduction of Buddhism to the United States through Chinese immigration that started in 1840, and the second began in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the establishment of three significant tertiary institutions that engage contemplative practice and theory. The third, which began in 1995 with the founding of the Centre for Contemplative Mind in Society, is introduced through five developmental influences. Linked with this is the concurrent development and growing intersection of contemplative and transformative education. This contemporary and ancient history traces the continuing presence of the contemplative in education to counter suggestions that contemplative education may be a fleeting trend. Rather, it indicates that contemplative practice, which grounds this approach in education, is an essential aspect of who we are and how we learn.
In this chapter we argue that the increasing use of contemplative practices in lawschools is significant not just in relation to enhancing resilience and diminishing
stress and depression, but that they also have major benefits in the development of
traditional legal roles. However, there is an attitudinal barrier that needs to be
overcome as law students and legal academics have commonly been resistant to the
use of these practices. It is interesting and somewhat ironic, therefore, that just as
we are developing some level of openness to practices that often seem alien to
those in the law, we also find evidence that they indeed enhance capacities for legal
and educational practice such as level of focus, ability to prioritise, the optimisation
of objectivity, higher order thinking and so on. Further, the management of ethical
issues of professional practice, which are frequently triggers for depression, may
also be improved by contemplative practices as they enhance students’ and lawyers’
ability to articulate their personal and professional ethics. In turn, this knowledge can
be used to help break down remaining barriers to the use of contemplative practices
within the legal academy. To reiterate, until recently the supposition was that the
remedial benefits of contemplative practices ameliorated negative aspects of legal
education and practice. However, now it appears that the enhancement may also be
linked to a direct correspondence between contemplation and the law.
This article examines a recurring phenomenon in students’ experience of contemplation in contemplative and transformative education. This ground-of-being phenomenon, which has been reported by students in higher and adult education settings, is a formative aspect of the positive changes they reported. It is examined here to highlight the ways in which the depth of felt or precognitive meaning that can occur in contemplative education impacts these changes. The subtlety and range of contemplative experience is described through the ground-of-being experience as a means to support the call from contemplative and transformative education theorists for pedagogies that include the subjective and contemplative.