resonate in the German context? Conceptualizing Mindful Teaching. ⢠Ellen Langer's Research on Mindfulness. ⢠Profes
The Mindful Teacher
Exzellenzforum Akademie des deutschen Schulpreises
Elizabeth MacDonald, Boston Public Schools Dennis Shirley, Boston College
Struktur des Vortrages Introduction Alienated Teaching: Ein Fallbeispiel Conceptualizing Mindful Teaching Structuring the Mindful Teacher Seminar Seven Synergies of Mindful Teaching
Alienated Teaching: Ein Fallbeispiel
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Lack of autonomy with curriculum
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State accountability measures
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Disconnect between theory and practice
Reflection •
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Can teaching ever be excellent when teachers use practices that we believe are limited value to children? What kinds of cultural spaces are available to teachers to share our misgivings about instructional programs, or to adopt them selectively into our pre-existing repertoire of practices?
Turn and Talk Does the concept of “alienated teaching” resonate in the German context?
Conceptualizing Mindful Teaching • • •
Ellen Langer’s Research on Mindfulness Professional Learning Communities Engaged Buddhism
The Mindful Teacher Seminar • • • • • • • •
Pressing Concerns Selective Vulnerability Scholarly Research Formal Meditation Work on Psychological Intrusions The Tuning Protocol Debriefing Assignments
Mindfulness Assignments •
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Shift your focus to one or two of the students in your classroom who have been most marginal to your awareness and write how that shift in focus changes your relationship with pupils. Examine an area that troubles you in your classroom or school and explore ways that you could use mindfulness practices to change how you are viewing the problem and shift its dynamics.
Generative Themes •
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What should I do when my beliefs about teaching conflict with new mandates? How should I act when they do not match the onthe-ground realities of my classroom? How can I bring the demands of my work life under control? How can I create some boundaries so that my personal life is not overwhelmed by my professional obligations?
Generative Themes •
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What does it mean to be a teacher leader? How can I help to support networks for teachers in a way that leads to my personal and professional renewal? How can I develop positive relationships with parents and other community members who are important constituencies in my school? How can I help myself to remain mindful of different perspectives and detached from my own point of view when I find myself becoming judgmental?
Mindful Teacher The Mindful Teacher offers teachers to be emotionally, intellectually and professionally supported in a collegial setting. It is a place where teachers can speak honestly about their needs and concerns including those of their students. Mindful Teacher is a place where a teacher’s voice is heard and their leadership is fostered, nurtured and supported.
Turn and Talk In what kinds of ways do you support teacher inquiry and reflection in your schools?
Seven Synergies of Mindful Teaching • • •
New Conceptual Frame Seven Qualities The Idea of Synergy
Weltoffenheit The first and most important synergy is a commitment to open-mindedness. Research shows that learners in all kinds of situations quickly fall prey to ingrained habitual modes of acting and believing that prevent them from being open to new kinds of information that call for new responses.
Caring The second synergy of mindful teaching relates to a disposition of caring, or even loving, at the heart of teaching. Education without a disposition of caring at the center must remain a hollow and ultimately truncated enterprise that inevitably will produce a reaction of skepticism and justifiable resistance among learners.
Stopping In an institutional setting in which innovative overload has become normalized as a routine form of everyday life, the third synergy of mindful teaching is simply stopping. While formal meditation might be an optimal way of stopping and re-centering oneself, busy teachers cannot always do this, so it is important to recall that meditation can be very informal and can occur in the midst of teaching activities with the right frame of mind.
In an institutional setting in which innovative overload has become normalized as a routine form of everyday life, the third synergy of mindful teaching is simply stopping. While formal meditation might be an optimal way of stopping and re-centering oneself, busy teachers cannot always do this, so it is important to recall that meditation can be very informal and can occur in the midst of teaching activities with the right frame of mind.
Professionalism Of course, it is all very well and good to be open-minded, loving, and to stop and think as educators. But what good does this avail students if one doesn’t know the subject matter one is teaching, has a limited range of vocabulary for conveying ideas to students, and makes no effort to keep abreast of recent research findings or reforms in one’s profession? We cannot emphasize sufficiently the fourth synergy of mindful teaching, which is professional expertise.
Authentic Alignment Educators hear endless amounts today about the need to align their instruction with district standards, professional association standards, state standards, and state curriculum frameworks. Teachers need to ask themselves if their teaching approaches are aligned with their own understanding of teaching as a profession, and when dissonance occurs, they need opportunities to reframe their activities.
Integrative and Harmonizing A sixth synergy of mindful teaching is that it is integrative and harmonzing. Expert teachers incorporate new practices into their repertoire without entirely abandoning previous strategies. Mindful teaching skillfully blends the old and the new, leading to a broad and diverse instructional repertoire that can be personalized for individual learners.
Collective Responsibility The seventh synergy of mindful teaching is collective responsibility. Teachers have a special role to play as those civic professionals who are entrusted with the education of the young. The transformation of accountability systems into more community-based, informative and learning-enhancing kinds of assessment and transparency must be part of a broader change strategy for the years to come.
We want to support teacher leadership at all levels. Teachers have a voice that deserves to be heard and we need to think as leaders in a mindful way of how we can impact teaching and learning. www.mindfulteacher.com
