MINDFULNESS as solution in the learning process

A couple of months ago I decided to read a book written by the author Dr. Robert Siegel: The Mindfulness Solution with the purpose of finding a way to align all my thoughts and to gain the power of deciding whether I want to think in something or not and if its going to affect me. This book shows several ways or solutions on how a person can stop living in their routine life and start taking a moment to stop on the road and smell that flower that was never notice before. Dr. Siegel believes that nobody is alone in this life due to the difficulties that each one of us encounter everyday or as he might say, difficulties that we bring to ourselves. He sees Mindfulness as a solution or antidote that will help us reduce our suffering by living each experience in our lives. Although he does not concentrate his ideas and solutions in the learning process of a student, it can be apply as stated in the book Mindful learning by Ellen Langer.

Ellen Langer express in this book that it does not matter if we change the curriculum of the school, standard of the testing or even increasing the budget for education will make enough difference in the learning process unless students are given the opportunity to learn more mindfully. Each student should be allowed to leave the classroom environment and pursue their challenges by means of different approaches such as Connected Learning.

The author not only believes that learning more mindfully is a solution, but also that there are several myths that prevent people to achieve mindful learning. Before learning something, everybody has to go through the “basics” so that way they can continue learning. By achieving mindfulness, you will realize that this statement is completely wrong, due to the fact that you can not use the same approach on every student. Explaining math the same way to everything student will force them to think that this is the only way to do it and they will perform the calculation mindlessly. Why do you think students does not have the imagination or maybe the ability to go beyond what has been taught to them? When they taught you how to sum numbers you never though that multiplying them was even possible. Albert Einstein once said that if you judge a fish on it ability to climb a tree, the fish will live his life thinking that is a stupid thing to do, in other words teaching students the “basics” will force them to think that nothing else is possible besides what they were taught. Students need to start thinking What else can we do with this numbers? instead of asking themselves is it possible to do something else with this numbers?. Telling themselves “what else” instead of “is it possible”, will help them open their minds and believe that there is always a way; it will help them learn more mindfully.

Although the author presented seven myths, the last one that caught my attention was that people tend to think that intelligence is knowing what’s out there. Knowing what is already there will not allow you to open your mind and reflect on everything that you see because you will believe that nothing else can be done since is already “out there”. The way I see it is that Intelligence is having the ability to see everything in different perspectives and not in the way it is presented. Using the same example of the numbers, a student can know the entire multiplication table and knowing that does not mean that there is intelligence in that student, it means that he manage to memorize those results. Learning more mindfully will let the student deduct that there is more than multiplying the numbers and for me that is the real meaning of intelligence: knowing what is not out there.

Taking into account the two myth presented before, mindfulness will not only allow you to be aware of your daily experiences but also accept them. A student that is allowed to learn mindfully will achieve great things in life, will accept that there is more and that there is no basic or standard way that by knowing it will determine their intelligence.

Are there any questions?

Where do I begin?

While reading Anti-teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance and the first two chapters of Ellen Langer’s Mindful Learning, I kept thinking about a book I recently read called In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms, by Brooks and Brooks. As described in this book, students construct their own understanding of the world and transform new information based on prior experiences.

The book describes 5 principles of constructivist classrooms:

  • Teachers pose problems that are relevant
  • Teachers build lessons around primary concepts
  • Teachers seek and value the views of their students
  • Classroom activities challenge students’ uncertain beliefs
  • Teachers assess students in daily activities

A common element in these five principles is the importance of questions. To pose relevant problems, teachers ask questions about topics and problems that are relevant to the student. To identify and build ideas around primary concepts, teachers ask questions and provide materials that help students identify their own concepts. In seeking the views of their students, teachers ask students to describe their point of view to better understand students’ reasoning, existing beliefs, and perspectives. To incorporate aspects into the curriculum that challenge students’ misconceptions and suppositions, a teacher first needs to understand what those misconceptions are through questions and feedback from students. And to assess students in daily activities, teachers ask questions to better understand the type of help the student needs.

And while questions are not the only aspect of constructivism or constructivist classrooms, they are an important part. Questions are an important part of learning, and questions should be an important part of education. However, the only two questions typically asked in classroom settings by teachers are: what is the answer? and are there any questions?

These two questions do not inspire, do not encourage, and do not invite participation. So how can we inspire? How can we encourage learning, discovery, and exploration? And how can we create a dialogue instead of a monologue that students mindlessly repeat?

Educational Malaise

Horace Mann, “Father of the Common School Movement,” is credited with saying:

Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery.1

Historian, Educator and Dean of Stanford’s Graduate School of Education (1917-1933), Ellwood P. Cubberley, wrote of Mann,

No one did more than he to establish in the minds of the American people the conception that education should be universal, non-sectarian, free, and that its aims should be social efficiency, civic virtue, and character, rather than mere learning or the advancement of sectarian ends.

I could end the post now and have made my point. Educational reform is mired in a lack of clarity of vision and an unsure foundation. Mann, being the pioneer and reformer that he was, made his intents on implementing common education very clear. Now 155 years after his death, our goals seem much different. The former system was founded on principles of equality and societal benefit. The current system operates more on degree pursuit and personal benefit.

There is also prevalent within the system a sort of elitism that shuns the trades and glorifies the arts. A strong statement, sure, but nonetheless true. Tradesmen and women have lost prestige within society in lieu of graduates from four-year institutions. There is great need to restore the value of trade education.

We do students disservice in many ways, one such way is our assembly-line method of running students through primary and secondary education, assuming all students equal and promoting university attendance for all. Administrators and teachers ignore individual aptitude in lieu of further education. Instead of advising and enabling students to pursue their interests and natural talents, they are instead told that university education is a necessity. Instead of promoting studies in auto mechanics, mechanical engineering is promoted. The result is a university ripe with students not interested in their studies and confused about their purpose. Continuing the trend of holding all students on equal ground, without acknowledging aptitude and differences, faculty in higher education have to adjust grading scales and expectations, ultimately leading to perpetual grade inflation.

We need to recalibrate, reminding ourselves of what true education is: enabling students to be successful in their pursuits through critical thought. In tandem, we need to restore and revalue trade education, certification, and apprenticeship. These degrees are no less important than those awarded at four-year institutions. This would be a firm foundation from with further reform in teaching methods could stem. So before we really delve into anti-teaching and mindful learning, we need to realize that our classrooms are filled with students better suited elsewhere. Only then will we begin to understand why so many students are distracted and uninterested.

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1 http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/12/the-decline-of-the-great-equalizer/266455/
2 Ellwood P. Cubberley, Public Education in the United States (1919) p. 167

Should we really be mindful all the time?

I have mixed feelings about the chapters we read from Ellen Langer’s “The Power of Mindful Learning.” I agree that we should never become complacent in our teaching. As soon as we automatically slip into “lecture mode” and stop noticing that our students are asleep, we’re no longer really teaching anything. To paraphrase Ken Robinson, if no one is learning, then you’re not teaching. I also agree that presenting one method of doing something, like serving a tennis ball, as “the one true way” is detrimental to students’ learning. I learned to add by adding the ones place, then the tens, then the hundreds, and so on. Some children learn to add a little differently, but in the end we always get the same answer. However, I disagree that being mindful of absolutely everything we’ve learned is always beneficial. I think it’s good that we automatically drive on the left side of the road in this country. Yes, it causes problems when driving in other countries, but when in America, we just don’t have to think about it. That frees up brainpower to do other important things, like watch for pedestrians. Sometimes putting some tasks on autopilot lets you accomplish amazing things. For instance, I have been belly dancing for about four years now. By this point, certain moves, like shimmies, are ingrained in my muscle memory. That means that I can perform a lot of other moves while shimmying because I don’t have to consciously think about the shimmy anymore. Similarly, isn’t it possible that in math for instance, someone would be able to solve really complicated problems because they don’t have to waste brainpower thinking about how to differentiate? Maybe there are some things that should be mindless.

Mindfully learning about mindful learning

I am definitely on board for encouraging mindful learning. Just as I expressed in my last post, the value in inspiring learners to want to learn, engaging them in the material and encouraging them to reach out on their own in a connected learning experience, is not something that can be underestimated. According to Sir Ken Robinson, it is only when an education allows learners to be diverse, creative, and curious (that which is stifled by today’s systems) that they will be engaged and will flourish. Similar sentiments are expressed by Ellen Langer in The Power of Mindful Learning; Langer blames myths in our current mindset on the learning process for, to paraphrase, ‘stifling creativity’ and ‘silencing our questions’ [1]. Both of these underscore the importance of allowing learners to learn individually, creatively and based on their own curiosity. I agree that when someone is allowed to use their natural abilities to pursue an understanding about that which they are passionate, it is a wonderful thing. The question is: how can we inspire such learning in the systems of today or even in the systems of tomorrow? Is it physically, temporally, and economically possible to give each child the attention they need in order to help them find and pursue their passions? Sir Ken Robinson speaks to a well-rounded education, but are there enough hours in a day for a true mindful learning experience in each of requisite topics he describes? One sort of answer to these questions may be found in Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance by Mike Wesch, in which his entire class was restructured to promote “good questions” or, in his view, questions in which the only appropriate response is another question. At least in the time he had with his students, he had a success in immersing them in the topic and engaging them in mindful learning. So, for at least one college course, it is possible. How I would set up an engineering or physiology course to utilize similar immersive techniques as those Dr. Wesch implemented, I am not sure (anybody have any ideas?). Could this system be replicated to some degree at the grade school level? It may be tricky. In all, I think that the most important theme and my take-away from these resources is that one must be mindful of why they are teaching the material before they can find how best to teach it. Is it really the facts and equations that are important or is it the inspiration and skills that come from engaging with the material? In that vein, two examples from my own education come to mind: 1) In my own undergraduate physiology course (which was a typical lecture format), the most memorable moment for me was when someone asked a question and the professor answered, “I don’t know. Nobody knows, so far. People are doing research on that, but that is the boundary of our knowledge.” That small remark helped inspire me to pursue research. 2) In my Statics course, it was required that we format the answers to our homework questions in a very specific way: defining the problem, the “knowns,” and the “unknowns,” drawing a diagram, and then pursuing the solution. Do I remember any specific problems I solved this way from that class? No. But I do remember the problem solving technique and, to this day, if I have a problem to solve, it still gives me clarity when I approach the problem in this way. Whether or not we can have each of our students partake in creating the history of the world as Dr. Wesch did, maybe one small thing we as teachers can do to foster “mindful learning” is have our students know that there are boundaries to our current knowledge and that it is the point of education to gain the perspectives and tools required to tackle pushing the boundaries of that knowledge further. [1] Langer, Ellen J. The power of mindful learning. Addison-Wesley/Addison Wesley Longman, 1997.

I overthink, therefore it depends

Many of us are familiar with the quote, “I think, therefore I am” by Descartes; however, you’re probably not familiar with the satirical twitter account, @AcademicsSay. This account put out a classically sarcastic, yet all to true tweet earlier today “I overthink, therefore it depends.” Both this classic quote and its modernized parody underly an important mechanism for critical thinking- questioning.. or “overthinking.”  

This week I read “Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance” and watched several youtube videos by Michael Wesch. He makes the case that students are adamantly demanding to know “why is this relevant to me?” As a student, I can identify with this. I want to know, “how does this content advance me toward my aspirations? why is it necessary? what makes this content essential and valuable?”

If you can’t answer these questions, you can’t possibly fulfill your role?? If you can’t justify your course content, why are you teaching it?… for the money (insert sarcasm here)?? From a young age, we’re asked “what do you want to be when you grow up?” The more you ‘know’ the harder that question can become for some people. In fact, most students come to college to figure that out rather than with an agenda from which they never deviate! In some small way, as a teacher, we help them figure this out; therefore, the question “why is this relevant to me?” is more than a question. It is a solicitation to deviate from those stale power points! You know, the ones you really don’t need a power point for… because you basically have them memorized… because they never change…? This question is an opportunity, and one that poses some new and exciting opportunities as future faculty!

What do you think about “Anti-teaching?” How do you, or would you, work to instill empowerment, promote interconnectedness, and facilitate mindful learning?

The grand narrative imperative

Neil Postman asserts that meaning and significance are assured only when our learning fits within a grand narrative that motivates and guides us. I do agree that a grand narrative can help motivate students to learn; however, I think this is not the only route to meaning and significance. To the extent that I can ascertain my true motivations without much bias, I think my learning is motivated by curiosity alone and I find meaning and significance in what I can do with what I’ve learned. I’ll give an example. When working on a particular statistical model, I often wonder what happens when you violate one or more of the assumptions, so I explore this via simulation. The simulations are usually very interesting to me and I may then alter the model to accommodate the assumption violations. I may end up with a new model that is useful for improving inference in ecological studies and thus the management of wildlife species or just general ecological knowledge and I find meaning and significance in this, but that was not the motivation. It was curiosity. I like to break things and then fix them.

Again, I see that a grand narrative can help motivate learning and convey significance, but if Langer’s mindfulness ideas have merit (I think they do), then shouldn’t our narratives be individualized? Can we convince all learners that their grand narrative should be improving the well-being of a global society? Probably not. And what does the well-being of a global society have to do with art history or other seeming unrelated topics? Maybe the narrative does not to be grand and maybe we don’t need just one. Perhaps we can be motivated in different areas by subject-specific micro-narratives. I don’t really know what this even means! Personally, I don’t recall any of my teachers trying to motivate the students with a grand narrative, especially not one of a religious or nationalistic nature. If I had to say what my grand narrative for life is, it is a combination of scientific skepticism, worldview naturalism, and secular humanism.  I would probably need to find another narrative to motivate me to learn art history and find meaning in it!

Does anyone have any thoughts on narratives, the grand narrative recommended by Niel Postman, or alternative narratives? What motivates you to learn and find significance in what you are learning?

From Nokia’s “Connecting people” to Samsung’s “Inspire the world”

What if Sir Ken Robinson was to give the same talk today, would he still mention Finland as a country on the top of the education system, would he still mention “No Child Left Behind” act as a topic for irony? Two and half years have passed since sir Ken gave his talk and the world did not stand still in these years. With the complete assent to sir Ken’s talk, I want to highlight some changes that have occurred with the focus on some related points.

In the past few years, Samsung has outperformed Nokia especially after adopting Google’s Android operating system. Nokia was famous by its slogan “connecting people” however, Samsung came out by a more rigid slogan “Inspire the world”.  Looking at the fact that Nokia is Finnish and Samsung is South Korean, did South Korea outperformed Nokia in any other field than cell phones ? The answer is yes. According to http://www.mbctimes.com/, the Finland’s education system was on the top rank until 2012. However, today we can see that South Korea has snatched the lead from Finland and became on the top of the rank. With many similarities between the two systems especially in the aspects related to respecting teachers and providing exceptional environment to them, and the most important no school’s dropout.

In South Korea about 93% of all students graduate from high school on time compared to 75% in the united states according to abc news.  The country is now 100 percent literate, and at the forefront of international comparative tests of achievement, including tests of critical thinking and analysis. However, having a system without school dropout and that’s ranked on the top of world’s education systems does not mean that the system is perfect. On the contrary to the Finnish system, I can feel that the South Korean system is not applicable every where. The system is mainly successful because of the nation’s culture which traditionally values conformity, order and hard work.

This success comes at a price according to a TED talk. Students are under enormous pressure to perform. Talent is not a consideration because the culture believes in hard work and diligence above all. Andreas Schleicher said that Koreans believe that they have to get through the really tough school period to have a great future. Classes also are larger with about forty students per class with the teacher’s goal is to lead the class as a community and help develop peer relationships.

So, having two successful but different education systems,  the Finnish and the South Korean, which one is better to adopt? Actually, it depends. Some other countries with similar cultures to South Korea have already applied similar techniques and were able to achieve great success in their education systems, speaking about Japan, Singapore  and Hong Kong. These countries also has outperformed Finland in the rank. However, we can see that this type of education, under pressure, is not suitable to other countries like the United States.

The united states education system has gone up in the rank in the past few years but still not in the lead. It was ranked 17th in 2012 and  moved to the 14th in 2015. With many criticism to the No Child Left Behind act, in December 2015 President Barack Obama signed a legislation replacing it, named Every Student Succeeds Act (EESA). The new law modified parts of the previous law but did not eliminate provisions relating to the periodic standardized tests given to students. However, the law makes significant changes to the role of tests in state education systems. For example, it requires states to include a broader set of factors in school accountability systems rather than just test scores. It is aimed that this new law overcomes the drawbacks of the previous one.

Bird’s eye view: Mindful Teaching and Learning

The evening of January 6, 2016 I was flying back from Boston after having visited some of my family and my friends that I had been missing dearly since I moved to Blacksburg last Fall. I was feeling wistful to say the least, leaving my dearly beloved Boston behind me. As the plane approached Dulles airport I looked out the window to find a sea of moving lights. Long winding roads with thousands of cars moving – some slow, some fast. They were all moving in some direction and from my vantage point it all looked beautiful, serene and calm. Then I thought about my brother who would be driving in the same traffic to come pick me up from the airport and in that instant I knew he wouldn’t find what I was watching a calming experience at all! Distance provides perspective which is the reason why Mike Wesch’s concept of “grand narrative” in his article Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance stands out for me.

In the grand scheme of things, what matters most? My experience as a learner has been unique in the fact that I studied up to my M.A. in Psychology from India and then I pursued further education in U.S.A. when I decided I needed my M.Ed. in Counseling and now my Ph.D. in Counselor Education. There is a big difference between studying and pursuing education and I will try and explain what it means for me. Throughout my seventeen years of education in India, one thing that was important for everyone around me was – grades. Not sports, not arts, not music, not communication skills – just grades. Whether I retained information after the exams were over, whether I applied what I learned from my classes or whether I actually understood what I was supposed to be learning did not matter. My intelligence was held hostage by my grades.

Growing up I knew that rote memorization was necessary and there is always one and only one correct answer, even for a descriptive question for which you absolutely had to fill six sides of your answer booklet if you wanted full points. If you didn’t, well, it was assumed that you did not “study” long enough. I use the word study in quotes because it had nothing to do with studying to learn. Our teachers were testing us on memory retention rather than assessing what we had learned or the knowledge we had gained in their classes. I call this the functional fixedness of an educational system. I had a stifling experience as a learner growing up and I hope every single day that I never teach in any way that is even close to how I was taught. Therefore I agree when Mike Wesch said in his article that teaching can be considered a hindrance to learning depending on how it is used.

My experiences in pursuing education however have been different. Having the opportunity for open dialogue with my professors as well as my classmates, facilitating growth for each other and learning in depth instead of scratching the surface to acquire good grades seems to be the trend for me now. The “quality of learning” as put forth by Mike Wesch seems to be taking the lead here. Getting rid of “rigid habits” as Ellen Langer describes it in her book Mindful Learning, has become necessary. Technological advances in the field of education definitely appears to have advantages and the capacity to reinvent learning for the younger generations. But how? What else is needed?

Jon Kabat-Zinn describes the act of mindfulness as paying attention in a specific manner, focused deliberately on the present moment and in the process being non-judgmental of one’s efforts. How can this concept be applied to teaching? Mindfulness was never a new concept for me, I was taught Yoga at a young age and it incorporates significant concepts from mindfulness. It was difficult for me, however, to find the best way to apply mindfulness in my professional work. Counseling adolescents in a residential treatment facility is not an easy feat. Add state mandated paperwork to that and it easily becomes 50 something hours a week minus any peace of mind. Incorporating mindfulness into that mix appeared to be an impossible mission to undertake. To help myself with this project, I read a book called The Mindful Therapist by Daniel Siegel a few years ago. I wanted to make sense of how to pursue mindfulness in mental health counseling. It helped. Having pursued this effort for approximately four years now I can say that if I want to I can be a mindful therapist. It is by no means easy nor does it become second nature like a lot of other things do. It has to be purposeful every single time and that is the beauty in it.

Launching into the world of teaching a couple of years ago I started applying mindfulness to my teaching practices. The more I practiced the more I realized that learning for my students happened not only when I was taking steps towards being a mindful teacher but most importantly when they were mindful of what they were learning. I was trying like Mike Wesch put it very succinctly, to focus “on the quality of learning rather than the quality of teaching”. I was trying to facilitate a passion to learn which I believe would then facilitate learning for my students.

Meeting students where they are, learning with students, encouraging rather than taking an expert stance, providing food for thought, curiosity and questions rather than providing that one correct answer. Providing enough information that facilitates critical thinking, analysis as well as burning desire to find out more. Facilitating students being able to see from a bird’s eye view – moving pieces of a giant puzzle that could all be brought together if we were adamant in being purposeful, not once, not twice but every single time.


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