Mindful by Design

A Practical Guide for Cultivating Aware, Advancing, and Authentic Learning Experiences

Caitlin E. Krause

• Publisher: Corwin
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781506388632
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

Take mindfulness beyond the buzzword and spark powerful learning environments!

This resource explores how mindfulness can improve teaching and learning, and helps students develop 21st century skills including creativity, entrepreneurship, innovation, and communication. Readers will learn how to cultivate a personal mindfulness practice that reflects their individuality, and how to create a community of care and respect through mindfulness.

Mindfulness is the building of three capacities: awareness, advancement, and authenticity. Built upon these core capacities, Mindful by Design provides 24 detailed exercises for teachers and students, including step-by-step mindfulness lessons embedded into specific curriculum areas, ready to implement immediately. This book demystifies mindfulness and allows educators to inspire powerful learning environments.

Part I

Chapter 1 Mindfulness: Beyond the Buzzword

So, what’s the buzz all about? The term mindfulness has popped up everywhere, from training regimens for Olympic athletes to keynote talks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

One summer workshop I gave used it in the working title (“Mindfulness: Beyond the Buzzword”), and the room was so packed that people had to sit on the floor. I thought this was great—everyone was so eager to hear about “mindfulness,” a topic that had been somewhat obscure in previous years. While this was encouraging to me, I realized it could be seen as a harbinger of the word’s abstract vagueness, adding confusion to complexity—if a word grows into a buzzword, it runs the risk of being commodified, exploited, misinterpreted, and ultimately misunderstood. I’m no purist, yet I’m motivated to promote and maintain the integrity of something as resonant and important as mindfulness.

It’s not too bold a statement to say that mindfulness has powers to change the entire learning environment and experience; it’s an effective change-maker that is scientifically proven to make a huge difference in quality of life. I wanted to simplify it, to demystify what was happening with the rise in popularity of the term. When someone asks me to explain what mindfulness is, I usually respond that it’s a building of three capacities: Awareness, Advancement, and Authenticity. And it’s truly nothing but a concept—until we apply and embody it.

A Practical Definition of Mindfulness

It’s a common practice to define mindfulness as a “focused awareness.” University of Massachusetts researcher Jon Kabat-Zinn (2005), famous for helping to develop mindfulness programs through his use of MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduction), calls mindfulness “awareness of the present moment on purpose without judgment.”

There are other popular definitions, too. In their co-authored book on mindfulness, aptly subtitled A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World, Mark Williams and Danny Penham (2011) call it a “simple form of meditation” that is all about “observation without criticism; being compassionate with yourself.”

The simple definition of mindfulness that I’ve created is “a way to be in the world, using Three A’s: Aware, Advancing, Authentic.”

It starts on a personal level, and has amazing results, with the potential to reach many others through this presence. Because the focus is on a state of being, the simple definition of mindfulness that I’ve created is “a way to be in the world, using Three A’s: Aware, Advancing, Authentic.”

Aware

of self; of others; of senses and context

Being aware involves increasing your focus and knowledge about the current situation, surroundings; emphasis on questions over instant answers, projecting outward, seeing all angles and factors. Sharpening listening skills and techniques. Awareness of multiple perspectives.

Advancing

active, curious, insightful stretching, outward and inward

Advancing involves using trends and methods to test assumptions and chart a course, resilience-building; adaptability. Looking at a system and seeing influences. Prioritizing the goals that have more to do with the “why” objectives. Purpose-driven organizational change. After addressing the “why,” moving outward to the “how” and then the “what.”

Authentic

accepting of self and others, without judgment

Being authentic involves developing a true voice and presence, applied to speaking, writing, and all levels of innovation and design. Questioning assumptions and judgments. Using terms that MIT’s Otto Scharmer (2009) uses, employing open mind (nonjudging), open heart (noncynicism), and open will (release of fear), this is the stage that allows for the greatest leaps in social awareness, empathy building, and rich compassion. Major personal and organizational shifts are possible here (Scharmer and Kaufer, 2013).

This approach shapes mindfulness as a choice about how to be in the world, using the three core principles of “Aware, Advancing, Authentic” as guides and a framework to turn embodiment into action. It puts the power in the individual’s hands, giving back agency, ownership, and true freedom. It’s purposeful presence with trust. For learners, this has huge impact.

Aware

of self; of others; of senses and context

Throughout this book, the mindfulness exercises are connected to the Three A’s, with details about each principle and how it directly connects to outcomes and strengths built as a result.

Advancing

active, curious, insightful stretching, outward and inward

Authentic

accepting of self and others, without judgment

Mindfulness has applications in every discipline imaginable. It’s not just insight that directs inward—it’s also an expansion outward, with curiosity and care, addressing other cultures and environments. Imagine the possibilities for education, in designing curriculum that spans the globe.

When I incorporate mindfulness into my daily life, inviting it into the classroom, I focus on both the definition of mindfulness as a way to be, and its Three As in active application, using it to actualize many benefits, including:

Since we had all built up a sense of trust and motivation between ourselves, it was easy being open about thoughts. I thought that everyone was able to share their ideas without being criticized for them, and it helped the overall classroom experience and how we collaboratively tackled problems.

I believe that an open environment is one of the best to have in a classroom as ideas are exchanged and people learn to work together on different topics that they would maybe not know how to tackle themselves. Therefore, openness and communication are key to ensure collaboration.

—Rafael, former student

• ◗ promoting presence (Aware)
• ◗ increasing focus (Advancing)
• ◗ boosting connection capacity for relational trust (Authentic)

In the different exercises in this book, I explicitly point out some of the ways the exercise enhances each of the Three As to illuminate the deliberate, intentional connections. Mindfulness sets a stable ground for learning and expanding, allowing teachers and students to connect with themselves and with others. We are more empathetic, and more compassionate—less rigid and fixed. While the word can seem vague and abstract on its own, we see mindfulness in action in engaged classrooms, and we know when mindfulness is absent from the environment and state of mind.

Thus, what it is also involves what it isn’t.

To clear up some myths and misconceptions, here are some of the useful (and surprising) discoveries I’ve made about mindfulness along the way:

Mindfulness involves mental focus and training. It is not a religion, though the word mindfulness has origins in Buddhism. In a secular way, it is truly addressing the mind itself and a way of heightening awareness.

Some exercises related to mindfulness incorporate meditation, and many of the mindfulness meditation activities will focus on the breath as a guide and a focus. You don’t have to sit on the floor or assume any special physical position in order to exercise mindfulness—it can happen anywhere, anytime.

Using mindfulness does not result in a weaker willpower, and it does not make you more passive or happy-go-lucky. In fact, mindfulness deepens the clarity with which you see the world and engage with it. It helps with everything from goal-setting to learning—with passion!

Scientific findings, as well as Jon Kabat-Zinn’s successful and well-regarded MBSR courses (mentioned earlier), have caused mindfulness to gain attention over the past few decades, and its many applications continue to be a topic of curiosity and enthusiasm in many different societal institutions and learning environments.

Mindful Qualities of Learning

When educators incorporate mindfulness into learning, amazing things start to happen. Lessons that incorporate mindfulness offer chances to build mental focus so that students and teachers are able to make authentic connections, responding to a dynamic environment that is neither rigid nor static. Research shows that mindfulness practices decrease toxic stress and anxiety, improving connections, relationships, and levels of attention. Adopting a mindfulness practice also has great benefits in social-emotional arenas, linked to compassion and empathy, among other beneficial traits. Students will be aware of this quality of mindfulness, which increases our ability as educators to dwell in the present moment, holding space for what arises and what is needed, connecting with students, and establishing relational trust in community.

You made the classroom a safe space to share thoughts. I remember looking forward to not only sharing my ideas but hearing everyone else’s. I know sharing is difficult at times. I’ve struggled with speaking in front of people, but never in your classroom. I would volunteer to share ideas and then listen to others. I felt confident in my ideas.

—Claire, former student

Mindfulness implies being more flexible and open; this requires a certain breathing space and mental acuity that we can adopt first, as educators, and then stretch to bring to our classrooms.

The benefits of mindfulness that are especially powerful for educators to consider include the following four arenas:

1. Attention management, greater awareness
2. Increased focus and concentration, less attachment and reactivity to emotion
3. Health and well-being, including calming abilities in stressful situations
4. Conscious decision-making and greater compassion for self and others

Benefits of mindfulness in education are vast, and a greater number of scientific studies, with foundations in neuroscience research and findings, are published every year. I keep up to date with the latest findings and continue to publish them online, also following others’ research and posts. Many of the current scientific findings are available on the Mindful Schools research page, which reports (with further citations online) that “When teachers learn mindfulness, they not only reap personal benefits such as reduced stress and burnout, but their schools do as well. In randomized controlled trials, teachers who learned mindfulness reported greater efficacy in doing their jobs and had more emotionally supportive classrooms and better classroom organization based on independent observations” (Mindfulschools.org, 2018).

Regarding studies relatin...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Making a Difference
• Part I
• Chapter 1 Mindfulness: Beyond the Buzzword
• Chapter 2 Creating a Mindful Learning Environment
• Part II
• Chapter 3 Mindfulness for Teachers
• Chapter 4 Mindfulness in the Classroom and Community
• Part III
• Chapter 5 The Future of Mindfulness
• References
• Index
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