Contemplative Education Commons^™

Holistic Learning Theory: More Than A Philosophy, Andrew Johnson

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

Abstract. An educational philosophy identifies and clarifies a set of values and understandings with respect to education that are based on a set of beliefs. A theory is a way to explain a set of facts and understand phenomena. Philosophies are conceptual. Theories are practical. Holistic education is a philosophy of education; however, it is also a robust theory of learning that should be included with the other theories of learning. This article describes holistic education as an educational theory.

Reflections On The Heuristic Power Of Contemplative Art In Teaching And Research, Patricia Morgan

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

In this article I discuss the heuristic power of combining contemplative and creative practices using different stages of my research into learning through contemplation. This began with a realisation I had, in my first meditation retreat, about the similarities between creative and contemplative consciousness. It initiated twenty-three years of applied and theoretical research that started with contemplative art workshops I ran in rehabilitation centres. In PhD research that followed I tested a hypothesis of learning through contemplation founded on the concept of an elemental ground of learning that contained an integrating force I termed the feeling nexus. In later …

Improving Workers’ Effectiveness When Working With Unhoused Individuals, Danika J. Bralek

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

When volunteering with individuals without housing, volunteers may not know what to expect or how to act when assisting this population. Without proper preparation, these volunteers may end up further marginalizing the population they are working with, putting themselves in danger, or failing to assist these human beings. When volunteers know more about how to assist these individuals in need, they can properly manage each client’s case and assist them in receiving proper aid. In order to address preparedness for volunteers working with these vulnerable populations, I have created an instructional video addressing proper rapport building, understanding needs and correct …

Becoming The Imperfect Friend: Sḵwx̱Wú7mesh And Contemplative Pathways To Healing And Reconciliation In Higher Education, Denise Marie Findlay

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

Throughout this reflective essay I explore Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Indigenous philosophy and contemplative education as ethical pathways to healing and reconciliation in higher education. I put forth the idea of becoming the imperfect friend in a world ethos of death by a thousand cuts as a response to the violence of colonialism perpetuated in academia. I reflect on the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh values of eslhélha7kwhiws and stélmexw as contemplative dispositions that lend themselves to the process of becoming the imperfect friend. I conclude by describing a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh -led program hosted by Simon Fraser University (SFU) in 2022-2023, named Moving Together In The Ways …

Review Of The Pleasures Of Reading In An Age Of Distraction, Charles W. Connell

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of Alan Jacobs, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction (Oxford, 2011), 162 pages, $19.95, ISBN: 9780199747498.

A Socially Innovative Curriculum For An Afterschool Program, Shelinda T. Knight Davenport

Masters Projects

ABSTRACT

Since the colonial days in what is now known as America, there has been the social problem of racism. Racism has always been and remains a cancer in America’s culture. From racism, a deep hatred has spawned for other races. To the extremes, it has led to violence and murder, and most Americans believe it is more prevalently outspoken today than it has been in the last 20 years (Schaefer & Edwards, 2022). This thesis project consists of a Disrupting Racism curriculum for approximately 3rd grade, which is situated in the literature on racism and education. Grounded in culturally …

The Virtual Classroom: What Can Be Learned From The Covid-19 Lockdown, James L. Nations

Senior Theses

This paper seeks to examine the teaching practices utilized during the initial COVID-19 lockdown in higher education. This forced switch to the virtual classroom forced many professors to make innovative changes to adapt to this change in teaching modality. These changes can now be examined and evaluated for potential future application. By reviewing the current literature, performing an analysis of grades from Fall 2017 through Summer 2022, and interviewing select professors at the University of South Carolina, this paper seeks to illuminate some of the potential issues that arise when adapting in-person curriculums to the virtual classroom as well as …

Introduction To A Universal Performance Improvement Method (Chigen-Iku), Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

This brief article introduces a universal performance improvement method called Chigen-iku, which has been developed carefully and extensively over more than 25 years through more than 100 individual and group projects based on the principles that were selected through my doctorial study in the field of Instructional Psychology and Technology.

“Why You Always So Political?”: A Counterstory About Educational-Environmental Racism At A Predominantly White University, Martín Alberto Gonzalez

Chicano/Latino Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using critical race counterstorytelling, I tell a story about the experiences of Mexican/Mexican American/Xicanx (MMAX) undergraduate students at private, historically and predominantly white university in the Northeast. Drawing on in-depth interviews, participant observations, pláticas, document analyses, and literature on race and space and racism in higher education, I argue that the racially hostile campus environment experienced by MMAX students at their respective university manifests itself as a form of educational-environmental racism. Through narrated dialogue, Aurora (a composite character) and I delve into a critical conversation about how educational-environmental racism is experienced by MMAX students through a racialized landscape in the …

Middle Savannah River: An A/R/Tographic Ecopedagogical Ethnography Experimenting With Rhizomatic Perspectives, Lisa Augustine-Chizmar

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This research is an experiment in perspective. Using the four commonplaces (Schwab, 1978), I practiced letting the Savannah River teach me what there is to know about the water, the land, the people, and the other entities that depend on ki through artistic, ethnographic, and ecopedagogical lenses. The ethnographic findings describe the social actors that depend on ki and give a voice to the River. The a/r/tographic findings display the River on a canvas map through two hundred years using paint, clay, photography, video, abstract acrylics, and fabric. Together, these methods contribute to a unique ecopedagogical journey. This word cloud …

Creative Connections: A Guidebook For Arts-Based Inquiry, Julia Marshall, Kimberley D'Adamo, Ann Ledo Lane

Kimberley D'Adamo: Art, Curriculum, Publications, and Other Scholarly Works

Art-based inquiry is an approach to art education that frames art making as a form of inquiry—a way of exploring and learning about ideas, ourselves and the world. The goals of art-based inquiry are understanding important topics, imagining possibilities, and inventing new realities. Students create art in order to meet those goals and they do it with a teacher’s guidance. For Creative Connections, art-based inquiry calls for a slight shift in perspective and change in practice. Adopting art-based inquiry does not mean throwing out everything you do. It means seeing art class diff erently and adapting it to a more …

Rubrics - Creating Transparency For Effective Teaching And Learning, Seamus Harrington

Other Resources

No abstract provided.

Contemplating Library Instruction: Integrating Contemplative Practices In A Mid-Sized Academic Library, Brooke Duffy, Lisa Rose-Wiles, Martha M. Loesch

Library Publications

In recent years there has been growing interest in the integration of contemplative practices into higher education, but little has been published regarding contemplative practices or contemplative pedagogies in academic libraries. Nor have explicit links been made to critical librarianship (critlib), particularly regarding the stress associated with the profession and the “resilience narrative” of “doing more with less”. In this paper, we review the literature and describe our experiences introducing a variety of contemplative elements into our library instruction program, most recently in the virtual environment. Building on the three levels of “intervention” modeled by Barbezat and Bush (2014) to …

Research On Effects Of Grading, Heather J. Leslie Phd

Learning Design Center: Staff Scholarship

I believe we have shared goals for our students to become happy, ethical, caring, compassionate, independent, self-motivated, curious critical thinkers and lifelong learners. Decades of research on the effects of grades and grading undermines those goals. This executive summary presents just some of research on how grading affects students’ mental health, intrinsic motivation, critical thinking, and relationships with teachers and peers. Student survey results are included from a course taught without the use of grades.

Art Studio As Thinking Lab: Fostering Metacognition In Art Classrooms, Julia Marshall, Kimberley D'Adamo

Kimberley D'Adamo: Art, Curriculum, Publications, and Other Scholarly Works

What can high school art classes offer to both aspiring artists and students who have other interests and goals? Here’s an answer: thinking skills. Thinking skills are essential for all learners, and both art creation and encoun-tering art provide opportunities for complex thinking and, therefore, for honing conceptual skills. Beyond that, art experiences can spur students to reflect on how they think and to expand and refine their thinking. That is to say, art classes can cultivate metacognition.

This article pursues both trains of thought and describes how an art class can be an art thinking lab—a site for everyone …

Art Practice As Research In The Classroom: A New Paradigm In Art Education, Julia Marshall, Kimberley D'Adamo

Kimberley D'Adamo: Art, Curriculum, Publications, and Other Scholarly Works

Student experiences at Berkeley High School reveal the generative potential of the art practice-as-research approach—how deep, broad, and creative the learning can be, and how powerful this model is in changing student attitudes toward art and themselves as artists and learners. This model of self-directed, inquiry-based learning works well because student art practice is cast as research and is structured as research. As a result, students make discoveries and connections that go beyond their expectations. They also acquire skills and understandings that transfer into their academic studies. In partic-ular, they find that learning can be engaging and that a trail …

Talking With Faculty About Cognitive Science And Learning, John Girash

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

When it comes to teaching, faculty at a research-intensive institution can be very much like our students in relation to their studies: very smart people whose primary interests lie elsewhere or, at least, whose expertise is not in this area. And we hear over and over again the common wisdom that faculty want research-based ideas on teaching. This implies that we can treat the teaching of teachers about research-supported aspects of learning in ways analogous to teaching students about other academic topics.

In introducing research-based ideas into the pedagogical discussion, it can be tough to find a balance between concepts …

The Influences Affecting Curriculum Change In Selected Educational Agencies Employing Consultants In The Social Sciences Through Ndea Title Iii-B, Madge Arlene Young

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

It was the purpose of this study to identify the influences that contributed to bringing about curriculum change in selected educational agencies which employed consultants in the social sciences through NDEA Title III-B projects. The research attempted to find the ways districts planned, organized, and implemented curriculum change through the use of the NDEA consultants. It focused on the procedures, interrelationships, and interactions taking place within the structure of the projects and the agencies involved in accomplishing those projects. Neither the amount nor the direction of the changes was the intent of the study.

NOTE: Both archival copies of this …