Robert W. RoeserOn Contemplative Education

MLERN MeetingApril 30 - May 1

Emerging Field of Mind, Brain & Education

Contemplative EducationWhat is it?

Contemplative EducationWhat is it?

We need the kind of education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased,

the intellect is expanded, and by which

one can stand on one’s own feet.

- Swami Vivekananda

Two Kinds of Intelligence

There are two kinds of intelligence: One acquired,as a child in school memorizes facts and conceptsfrom books and from what the teacher says,collecting information from the traditional sciencesas well as from the new sciences.

With such intelligence you rise in the world.You get ranked ahead or behind othersin regard to your competence in retaininginformation. You stroll with this intelligencein and out of fields of knowledge, getting always moremarks on your preserving tablets.

There is another kind of tablet, onealready completed and preserved inside you.A spring overflowing its springbox. A freshnessin the center of the chest. This other intelligencedoes not turn yellow or stagnate. It's fluid,and it doesn't move from outside to insidethrough the conduits of plumbing-learning.

This second knowing is a fountainheadfrom within you, moving out.

- Jallal’uddin Rumi

From the very beginning nothing has been kept from you, all that you wished to see has been there all the time before you, it was only yourself that closed the eye to the fact.

Therefore, there is in Zen nothing to explain, nothing to teach, that will add to your knowledge.

Unless it grows out of yourself no knowledge is really yours, it is only a borrowed plumage.

from Chapter 7: Satori, or Acquiring a New Viewpoint

An Introduction to Zen BuddhismD.T. Suzuki (1964, p. 92)

Aims of Contemplative EducationIn Public Schools

• An awakened and purposeful life

• Refined awareness

• Attentional skills

• Secular ethical dispositions

• Social-emotional skills

Contemplative EducationIntended Sites of Personal Transformation

• Brain & Body States & Traits

• Behavior

• Social Relationships

• Mental Representational Systems

• Qualities of Awareness (‘meta’)I

Me

We

“Identity”

Whole Person Factors in Student Learning and Achievement

Roeser, R.W., Peck, S.C. & Nasir, N.S. (2006). Self and identity processes in school motivation, learning, and achievement. In P.A. Alexander & P.H. Winne, (Eds.). Handbook of educational psychology, 2nd edition (pp. 391-424 ). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Behavioral ChoicesHealth & Well Being

Quality of LearningAchievement

Educational Attainments

Me-Selves

Commitment Pathway

I-Self

Performance

Pathway

Self KnowledgeMotive DispositionsMood & Emotion

Content KnowledgeProcedural Skills

Cognitive Abilities

Awareness and AttentionRegulatory Capacity

Body

Contemporary Educational Theory

Behavioral ChoicesHealth & Well Being

Job Satisfaction & BurnoutSocial Relationships

Quality of Teaching

Student EngagementStudent Learning & Achievement

Me-Selves

Commitment Pathway

I-Self

Performance

Pathway

Self KnowledgeMotive DispositionsMood & Emotion

Content KnowledgeProcedural Skills

Cognitive Abilities

Awareness and AttentionRegulatory Capacity

Whole Person Factors in School Teaching and Effectiveness

Body

Contemporary Educational Theory

Contemplative EducationIntended Sites of Social Transformation at Multiple Levels of School Context

(5) School - Home- Community

Links

(4) Schools

(3) Classrooms & Teachers

(2) Groups

(1) Work

Individual

Levels of Analysis

Time

(5) Linkages, involvement and coordination

(4) Organizational ethos, structure, and resources

(3) Classroom instruction, motivational climate, and teacher characteristics

(2) Activity structures and grouping strategies

(1) Design of instruction, content of curriculum

Organizational, Pedagogical, and

Interpersonal Processes

Teacher-Teacher Relationships

Teacher-Student Relationships

Student-Student Relationships

Leader-Teacher Relationships

Community-Family-School Relationships

Eccles & Roeser, 1999

Student

Contemplative School Cultures

Contemplative EducationNecessary but not sufficient in educational reform

Dr.

Jam

es C

onne

ll

• Mindfulness Training• Mindful Listening• Emotional Knowledge

For Students and Adults• Mindfulness Training• Mindful Listening• Emotional Knowledge

For Leaders

Contemplative Education

School Reform

Types of Programs, Populations and Sites for Research

Teachers ChildrenAdolescents

Contemplative EducationWhere to start?

Schools

Summer Programs

Pathways & Systems of Diffusion

ClinicsCBOs

Parents

Male 8th Grader:If we get low test scores this year, the school will take away the principals and the teachers or something like that and replace them with new teachers and they will take away our school funding too. And the principal is really worried about that. And so, the principal put the stress on the teachers, and then the teachers put the stress on us. So, we don’t have anyone to put the stress on…

Interviewer (RWR): Do you think that makes you wanna learn more?

Male 8th Grader:No, actually, because classes are not really fun.

Multi-Level Stress in Schools During an Age of Accountability through Standardized Testing

Schools have been intractable to change and the attainment of goals by reformers...the unreflective acceptance of the belief that schools exist only or primarily for children is one of the root causes of this intractability.

Schools should exist equally for the development of both faculty and students...teachers cannot create and sustain the conditions for the productive development of children if those conditions do not exist for the teachers.

from The Predictable Failure of Educational Reform

S.B. Sarason (1990, pp. xiii-xiv)

Contemplative EducationProposal to Begin with Teachers

Towards Contemplative Communities of LearningDirect and Indirect Service Models

Contemplative Programs for Students

Contemplative Programs for Teachers

Contemplative Programs for School Leaders

Contemplative Programs for Parents

Direct Services

Contemplative Programs for School Teachers to Train Students

Indirect Services

Training Trainers Diffusion Model

“Testbeds” and “Measures Development” in Mind and Life Educational Research Network (MLERN)

Contemplative Programs for Students

Contemplative Programs for Teachers

Contemplative Programs for School Leaders

Contemplative Programs for Parents

Contemplative Programs for School Teachers to Train Students

Programs are Testbeds

Research AgendaBody-Brain-Mind Behavior Social Relationships

Developmental TimeAdolescence AdulthoodChildhood

SMART in Education ProgramA Contemplative Program for Teachers

Intervention Content

SMART in Education ™ Program (Impact Foundation) offered midweek after-school at school site

70% MBSR Program (Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn et al.)20% Emotion Theory (Dr. Paul Ekman-Ekman Group)10% Forgiveness Theory (Dr. Fred Luskin)

• Program adapted and integrated by Margaret Cullen• Reviewed and refined by Florence Meleo-Meyer• Emotion portion reviewed by Paul Ekman/Ekman Group• Detailed review and documentation of program content in terms of specific learning activities, objectives and outcomes by Margaret Cullen, Gordon Thorne & Robert W. Roeser (process of manualization begun)• Pilot tested in Denver twice already and refined as 9 week program

Intervention Training and Delivery Mechanism

Intervention will be delivered by local MBSR Instructors (for sustainability) and possibly others that have the right qualifications, attitudes, embodiment, etc.

MBSR Instructors will be offered a one-day training in how to deliver SMART in Education to school teachers by Margaret Cullen (professional development for trainers).

MBSR Instructors like Florence Meleo-Meyer and others like Linda Lantieri are already working on Phase IIinterventions in which teachers are trained in how to apply techniques in their classrooms

SMART in Education ProgramA Contemplative Program for Teachers

ContemplativePractitioner

ContemplativeScientist

CurriculumSpecialist

SocialEntrepeneur

What is taught and potentially learned during a 9-week contemplative program for secondary school teachers?

Robert W. Roeser, Ph.D.

Figure 1. Hypothetical Logic Model for Contemplative Education Programs for School Teachers

INVESTMENTS PROGRAMS INTENDED OUTCOMES

Short-Term Long-Term Mid-Term

Contemplative

Wisdom

Basic

Contemplative

Materials and

Supports

Contemplative

Educators

Basic

Educational

Materials and

Supports

Staff and

Training

Funds

Participants Activities

Stress

Reduction and

Relaxation

Less Emotional

Reactivity

Greater

Self-Awareness

and Reflection

Greater Ability

to Concentrate

Enhanced

Feelings of

Compassion

Changes in

Ways of

Relating to Self

Changes in

Professional

Identity

Changes in

Pedagogical

Practices

Changes in

Ways of

Relating to

Students

Faculty

Development

Workshops

Weekend

Workshops

On-Going

Coaching

Summer

Retreats

and

Institutes

TIME

Very

Long Term

Lower

Rates of

Burnout

Greater

Efficacy

Better

Teaching

Greater

Job

Satisfaction

Improved

Health

THEORY OF INTERVENTION THEORIES OF CHANGE

Strengthening

of Habit of

Doing

Contemplative

Practices

Fostering of

Membership in

Contemplative

Community of

Practice

School

Teachers

Richie DavidsonMLERN Babson, MA 2007

Applied to SMART in Education ™

Rich Description of Intervention

• Rich description of intervention (SMART curriculum analysis)

• Specific instructions for intervention (SMART curriculum analysis)

• What is source of intervention? Based on particular tradition? How is it secularized? (MBSR, Ekman)

• Has it been modified to be age-appropriate? (not an issue)

• Who is instructor? Their training? (MBSR teachers)

• Obtain comparable age-appropriate measures on instructors

• Dosing – frequency (9 week program, 2.5 hours per sessions, 1 day retreat)

• Homework assignments? (SMART curriculum analysis)

• Videotape exemplar intervention sessions (for each instructor and students - could be possible)

• Videotape planning / training sessions for intervention (could be possible)

MLERN Guidelines on Test Bed Interventions

MBSR / SMART Curriculum Analysis (1)ProgramActivity

Learning Outcome

AchievementIndicator

ResearchMeasure

9-Dot ExerciseExamine how established or fixed mindsets can limit our actions, choices, and worldviews

Understand how creative solutions to life’s problems can be missed inthe face of fixed mindsets

e.g., Creative Thinking Tasks

Raisin Exercise

Examine the impact of conceptual beliefs on direct sensory-perceptual experience.

Understand how the senses help us obtain information about the world

Recognize the difference between direct sensory-perceptual experience and our ideas about such experiences

Become more aware of our sensory-perceptual experiences through the five senses (taste, touch, smell, sight and sound) and the faculty of awareness

Understand how the quality of attention brought to an experience can affect the nature of the experience itself (i.e.,, in terms of satisfaction, pleasure, vividness, etc.)

e.g., Line Length Judgment Task

CEB Moods & Thought Exercise

Determine the role that subjective appraisals play in stress

Increase understanding that what we “perceive” is influenced by who we are, our moods and thoughts

Identify ways in which perception can be fooled by expectations

Identify examples in teaching in which pre-established conceptions and expectations can affect teaching, responses to students and to parents, etc.

e.g., Problem Student Scenarios and Solution

Generation

MBSR / SMART Curriculum Analysis (1I)

ProgramActivity

Learning Outcome

Achievement Indicator

ResearchMeasure

Body Tour

Practice initial attentional focusing on and awareness of a gross object - the physical body

Ability to silently attend to particular parts of the body with the result of increased relaxation, stillness, patience and awareness

e.g., fMRI of somatosensory cortical areas during body scan as well as physiological and subjective well-being ratings before, during and

after activity

Sitting Meditation

Practice initial attentional focusing on and awareness of a gross object - the breath

Ability to sit straight and still

Become aware of relation between posture, stillness of body and clarity of mind

Recognition of the breath as natural, neutral and accessible object that can become a “home base” for attention and an anchor for calmness and clarity (e.g., breath is place for pausing)

Notice mental reactions when redirecting attention to the breath

Ability to focus mind on object of the breath, sound, sensation, valuation, thought, feeling, anything arising

e.g., mind wander tasks;

emotional self-efficacyless burnout

Mindfulness Skill Development

Breath Sensation-Perception Valuation Thinking-Feeling Awareness

Body

Stability Sensitivity

Simple Logic Model

SMART Program

Teacher IdentityEffects

Efficacy BeliefsEthical Dispositions

Emotional UnderstandingEmotional Self-Awareness

Attentional RegulationContemplative Practice Habits

Desire to Share Practices with Students

Teacher Outcomes

BurnoutHealth and Well-BeingHealth Care Utilization

Teaching BehaviorsSocial Relationships

Learning ActivitiesInstructor Role ModelsContemplative Wisdom

Contemplative EducationSMART Pathway of Diffusion

Teachers

ChildrenAdolescents

ChildrenAdolescents

ChildrenAdolescents

Leaders

Towards Contemplative Communities of Teaching & Learning

• Does a 9-week stress-management professional development intervention for secondary school teachers enhance job satisfaction, health outcomes, and subjective well-being; and diminish subjective and objective indicators of stress, health care utilization, and occupational burnout compared to a matched group of controls?

• Are program effects mediated by enhanced emotion or attention regulation skills among teachers?

• Are program effects mediated by changing identity beliefs and worldviews of teachers?

• Are program effects mediated by changes in cortisol rhythms?

• How does the nature of the way participants talk about stress and their method of handling stress change across the course of the 10 week sessions? As a function of program participation, do participants develop a “language of agency” with respect to dealing with stressful experiences in their lives, as well as a concomitant and enhanced sense of efficacy in dealing with emotional stressors on the job compared to control teachers?

• Do students of teachers in the intervention condition report greater emotional control and emotional support in their teachers compared to students of control teachers?

• How do secondary school teachers rate such programs compared to other teacher professional development activities in which they have participated in the past? Would they recommend this kind of program to other teachers? Why or why not?

• Do teachers see utility value in teaching their adolescent students similar practices? Why or why not? How would they recommend going about doing this?

Core Research Questions

Core Research Questions

Any evidence for transfer “off the cushion?”

Classroom Life

Home Life

Hypothetical “Spill-over” Influences of Teacher Interventions on Students

• Better health & less burnout - better attendance and energy

• Greater emotional efficacy - less emotional reactivity

• Calmer - better class management and classroom climate

• More compassionate - change in perceptions and expectations of students

• More mindful - see more and manage better

How might these factors affect students?