Contemplative pedagogy for positive engagement in online teaching and learning in higher education

ABSTRACT

With the growth of online programs in higher education, students are more likely to experience various barriers and challenges while taking online courses, such as social isolation, low motivation, distraction, and mental health issues. Mindfulness-informed pedagogy, such as contemplative pedagogy, showed its promise in decreasing students’ negative emotions and increasing their self-awareness and concentration on learning environments and materials. However, limited research is available to discuss the integration of contemplative pedagogy to promote student engagement from online course design and delivery perspectives. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to discuss the benefits of contemplative pedagogy and encourage educators’ use of mindfulness-informed teaching practices in online instruction in higher education. Some effective strategies to adopt contemplative pedagogy into online course design and delivery include: the integration of mindfulness exercises, the reduction of cognitive overload, the importance of reflective learning activities, and the inclusion of socially supportive features.

摘要

随着高校在线教育的兴起，学生们在上网络课程时，难免会遇到许多困难和挑战， 比如社交孤立， 积极性降低，分心分神， 和一些心理健康的问题。依据正念发展的教学方法， 比如沉思式教学法， 在降低学生负面情绪，提高学生自我意识，和对学习环境和资料的专注性方面展现出积极的效果。然而，在这个领域的研究非常有限，尤其是讨论如何将沉思式教学法融入到网络课程的设计和教学中从而提高学生参与度。因此，这篇文章的目的就是讨论沉思式教学法的好处以及鼓励教育工作者们可以在高校在线课堂上使用正念引导的教学活动。 文章还讨论了一些可以将沉思式教学法有效融入到网络课程设计和教学中的策略，包括：尝试一些正念练习，降低认知超载的可能性，增加一些反思性学习活动， 以及包含一些社交支持属性。

KEYWORDS:

• Contemplative pedagogy
• mental health
• mindfulness-informed course design and delivery‌
• online teaching and learning
• student engagement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).