The Pitfalls and Pleasures of Mindful TeachingNancy KingUniversity Honors Program "I didnât like the way the professor forced discussion and pushed us to find meanings that no one else had thought of. It would have been more beneficial if she had told us the idea and had us try to support it."The above comment is part of an unsigned evaluation written by a student at the end of the course. Such comments are a regular part of most teachers end term evaluations and for some, such a seemingly deleterious comment could signify that the faculty member is not responsive to student needs. However, I see it as a sign that the student has not learned to be an active participant in his/her own education, a mindful learner. Ellen Langer of Harvard University writes, ãWe can change school curricula, change standards for testing students and teachers, increase parent and community involvement in the process of education, and increase the budget for education so that more students can become part of the computer age. None of these measures alone will make enough difference unless students are given the opportunity to learn more mindfully. With such opportunity, some of these expensive measures might well become unnecessaryä (Langer 1997, p. 2,3). I would add that where there is no mindful teaching, there is little possibility of mindful learning. Mindful Teaching Mindful teaching is an attitude, not a method. Mindful teachers
have their own independent standards and an ãinner compassä to guide them
through the turbulence of teaching classes of students, each of whom brings
his/her own agenda, attitude, expectations, and experience to each class
meeting. Mindful teachers do their best to turn passive students
into active participants; they understand education is not something one
person does to another. Rather, mindful teachers recognize that the
most important interaction in the classroom is the dialogue between those
who guide (teachers) and those who explore the territory (students).
If guides give too much information explorers stop exploring. Why
bother looking when you have all the answers, or at least think you do?
If guides give too little information, explorers may get lost. No
guides worth their salt want to lose customers. Finding a happy medium
between too much and too little guiding takes awareness. We have
to learn to observe how we guide, even as we are immersed in the process
of guiding.
A Mindful Approach Langer writes, ãa mindful approach to any activity has three characteristics which include the continuous creation of new categories; openness to new information; and an implicit awareness of more than one perspectiveä (Langer 1997, p 4). We become aware of the need for the continuous creation of new categories when disciplines connect in new ways such as biophysics and psycholinguistics. We learn to be open to new information as we explore the relationship of technology to what and how we teach. We hear how Europeans and Africans respond to actions taken by the United States and we ask questions we might not ask had we not heard theirs. Perhaps fluidity best describes a mindful approach. We know what we want to do and when given new information, we assess and choose. By contrast, a mindless approach can be summed up as ãbusiness as usual;ä
surely not an appealing definition of teaching or learning. To many people,
both teachers and students, education has to do with information.
Teachers have it and students want or need it. Although ideas differ
about the best ways to deliver information, what remains constant is the
idea that teachers know and students do not. This mindless definition
of education guarantees teachers who pass on what they know to passive
students who accept without protest wisdom handed down from on high.
I believe this process guarantees teachers who are not actively learning
and students who are not taught to ask meaningful questions or think for
themselves and therefore cannot articulate their ideas, citing support
from a variety of sources, including their own experiences.
Learning While Doing I think my first experience of mindful teaching as well as the recognition of how powerful it is, occurred when I was sixteen, a junior counselor in a camp for ãunderprivilegedä children. Without warning, I was told to take the place of a senior arts and crafts counselor who became ill and had to leave suddenly. There I was, with no preparation, scared out of my mind, facing a group of ten 9 year-old girls who were looking at me with expressions of boredom, interest, challenge, and curiosity. I was afraid that if I didnât please them they would run to the director to complain that I didnât know what I was doing. Or perhaps they would start throwing mounds of clay around, making so much commotion the director would fire me for not maintaining discipline. Out of desperation more than strategy I asked the children, ãWhat would
you like to learn?ä I was hoping for enough suggestions to last the
week.
What saved me, Iâm sure, is that inadvertently, I had piqued their curiosity and engaged their imagination. In my experience, when students are interested and involved in their own learning, discipline is a positive word. It means that students and teachers have similar goals and desire mutual outcomes. I learned many lessons that summer; perhaps the most compelling was
that each group of children was different and required particularized strategies
despite the small numbers and similar ages. One size definitely did
not fit all. Since I was so inexperienced and dared not impose my
ideas of learning, I had to figure out how to interest them in what I was
told to teach, whether this was making a puppet, weaving a potholder, painting
a picture, or making a banner. What I discovered was that the children
liked being part of the problem-solving process and they especially enjoyed
being asked what they thought and felt. Most of all they wanted to
be taken seriously. And, after more than forty-seven years in a great
variety of teaching situations, classrooms, and populations, I keep learning
that these lessons still hold true.
Mindful Teaching in the Classroom Teachers who want to teach mindfully have to adapt their teaching styles so that as they teach they are also monitoring their teaching. In a discussion they check to make sure all students are actively engaged and contributing. In a lecture, they check to see that students are alert and awake, that questions are asked and answered by everyone, not only the teacher. When necessary, teachers take active measures to improve classroom dynamics. For example, when faced with students sitting in a circle where almost none volunteered to speak, despite many different approaches, I finally asked them to paint an image of a passive student on the left side of the paper and write words that came to mind. On the right side of the paper I asked them to paint an image of an active student and to write words that came to mind. Then I asked them to write a word, phrase, idea, or even a song title, that helped them move from being passive to becoming active. When we processed their work the first thing said was, ãGosh, the images of passive student are so boring. No energy.ä Using their images, words, and ideas, the class and I talked about what they needed to learn and do in order to change their habit of remaining silent and passive, in order to become involved, to ask questions, share ideas, and voluntarily take part in discussions. One of the ideas that students began to confront was the idea that just because they didnât habitually take an active role, this didnât mean they couldnât, or that it wasnât a good idea. What it meant was that they needed to practice and they needed reassurance that if they needed help they would be helped, not only by me but by the whole class. We have since adapted a variety of classroom strategies to make participation easier for shyer students such as bringing in a passage from the text to share or to come to class with a question to ask. Once they start, students find it much easier to transform from passive to active class members. So what about the student who complained that the professor forced students to discuss? Who refused to give students ideas and compelled them to find their own meanings? Is the studentâs comment really an indictment of poor teaching? Not if your idea of good teaching is helping students to discover, to articulate, to integrate, and, upon leaving a course, be able to think independently about the course material. Just as one cannot make a horse drink, one cannot force students to become independent thinkers and doers, no matter how hard a teacher tries. Part of the problem is that many students come from high schools where they are spoon fed information and taught there is a right and wrong answer, that their task is to know which is which, especially if they want to do well on short answer and multiple choice tests. Does this kind of teaching prepare young people for a world that changes so rapidly? If we believe that university education involves more than finding one right answer, how do we help students to make the transition from answering questions to asking them, to transform from passive to active learners? There is, of course, no one right answer to these questions but underlying all strategies is mindful teaching, strategies and approaches that focus on students becoming both involved in and responsible for their own learning. Mindful teaching is not easy; negative attitudes toward active learning develop over a period of time, for many reasons. Sometimes students are angry because what they want is to sit in the back of the room, take notes, pass exams, and move on to the next class. They often dislike teachers who demand presence, participation, and contribution. Students with whom I have talked tell me there is no point in paying attention to what classmates say and feel, that participation is a waste of time because, after all, what do students know? Others view collaborative learning in the classroom as cheating. Changing these views is not easy. Teachers who believe that active participation is crucial to learning have to be prepared to deal with anger, frustration, sullen silence, jeering, non-cooperation, and endless moments where apathy threatens to drown interest and engagement. What makes the challenge both worthwhile and important is that no matter how many students refuse to respond, at least initially, there are always a few to whom the difference is so monumental it can be life-changing. For the first time in their lives, some students experience being in a classroom as exciting, an adventure filled with marvelous ideas and endless possibilities. Seeing these students come to life is worth every bit of energy and effort that it takes to transform passive students into active learners. And, if one teaches for the long term, as I do, one never knows when a former student will write or call and say, ãI finally got it,ä or take a second course because they realize they missed something the first time around. I care about all my students and as long as they are in my course I kept trying to help them become more active. It is work worth doing. Some Suggestions The techniques I use have been developed through working with students who think they have nothing to say, or nothing worth saying. They are afraid to make mistakes, to be wrong, or to admit they donât know something. When we are afraid we are tense, and when we are tense, real learning is almost impossible. So for me, the first step is to work toward establishing a collaborative environment where the group is the first resource for all group members. It is perfectly all right to admit we donât know something or to ask for help when we are unsure about how we want to phrase our response, even when we are in the role of the teacher. This takes time but it is definitely not time wasted because when one student admits not knowing something, often others are equally puzzled and are grateful for the help or information. Some teachers feel they have so much material to cover there is no time to spend on anything but giving information, yet the truth is, no teacher can ever teach everything there is to know about a subject in one semester or even one year. What we have to teach is how to learn how to know, to teach process, to give tools rather than finished products. What is a fact today may be an artifact tomorrow. What is memorized today is usually forgotten as soon as the test is over. Although students do need information, how they learn it and what they learn to do with it makes the difference between mindless and mindful teaching. One of the first steps I use to establish a healthy learning environment is requiring everyone to use ãIä rather than ãyou.ä This enables speakers to take responsibility for what they say and leaves space for people to verbalize a variety of ideas without instantaneous judgment. This also makes it easier for the teacher or class member to ask, ãWhat makes you think (or feel) as you do? Students learn to support their arguments and to recognize when they are merely repeating something someone else said or what they may have read but not understood. Even students who know what they want to say but need help saying it articulately provide learning opportunities for the whole class. Mindful teachers want to empower students to be independent participants in life as well as the classroom and we know that the necessary skills to be learned must be learned in the classroom. This is the time and place for students to explore and structure their unique learning processes, both in the service of the particular body of knowledge that the course contains, as well as ways to apply this knowledge to other areas of study. When I am not satisfied with the classroom dynamics I calmly and clearly describe my view of the situation and elicit student views in order that as a group, we can correct or change problematic situations, negotiating ideas and tactics in a collaborative manner. This always helps to reinforce the idea that we are a learning community and each person within it matters. When one person is missing the whole class is diminished because we lose that personâs point of view, experience, and contribution. I hope this small essay will begin a dialogue among teachers who teach
mindfully and those who would like to. I welcome all questions and
comments. Iâd like to close this paper with a few quotes from other
students in the same course as the student whose quote opened the paper.
The open and tolerant discussions in class were very nice as was the encouragement to develop a way of thinking /thought process as opposed to merely memorizing facts and ideas. |