Contemplative Pedagogy Working Group

The ancient practice of contemplation is being explored by many institutions of higher education as a new means of enhancing liberal education.  Research demonstrates that “contemplative pedagogy”—the integration of meditative practices into higher education—facilitates the achievement of traditional educational goals such as improved cognitive and academic performance.  Studies also show that it fosters the development of the whole person, increasing capacities such as creativity, empathy, compassion, interpersonal skills and self-awareness.  Thus, contemplative pedagogy increasingly is considered a vital complement to critical reasoning, rebalancing liberal education to include head and heart, mind and body. Students have experienced it as an aid in focusing attention, improving concentration and accessing self-knowledge.  Teachers have found that it fosters their connection to students and rejuvenates their creative engagement with teaching and research.

Accordingly, the Center for Teaching is exploring the benefits of contemplative pedagogy, and other holistic means of teaching and learning, in a “Contemplative Pedagogy Working Group” that meets monthly.

Teaching and Learning Reading Group
(part of Cycle 2 in the Teaching Certificate Program)

Participants in this group will read and discuss selections from the established literature on teaching and learning in higher education.  Initial meetings will focus on core texts with broad, cross-disciplinary relevance.  Later meetings will offer participants the opportunity to focus on specific pedagogical topics, techniques, or methods related to their individual needs and interests.

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Working Group
(part of Cycle 3 in the Teaching Certificate Program)

This working group is designed to support its members in engaging in scholarly projects on student learning.  The working group will provide tools and guidance in generating researchable questions, information on qualitative and quantitative methods for investigating student learning, resources for “going public” with results, and feedback from peers on projects at all stages of development.

Service Learning Working Group

The CFT is proud to revive an earlier working group on service learning for all educators across campus. The Working Group meets once monthly to discuss the challenges and opportunities of service learning and community engagement in higher education, often focused around faculty presentations of community-based teaching and research projects, the scholarship on service learning, or other related subjects. If you are interested in signing up for notices about meetings of the Service Learning Working Group, please contact CFT Assistant Director, Joe Bandy, at joe.bandy@vanderbilt.edu.

Interested in creating a working group?

The Center for Teaching designs tailored working groups on a variety of topics, including (but not limited to):

• course design
• sustainability
• gender & pedagogy
• the scholarship of teaching and learning
• documentation of teaching effectiveness

In addition to working groups, the CFT offers the following services for individuals and groups:

• consultations with departments or other administrative units
• consultations with individual instructors, based on
  • observations of instructors in the classroom
  • video recordings of instructors teaching
  • feedback from students via focus groups