Video and Audio from the Contemplative Teaching and Learning Initiative
Contemplative Teaching and Learning promotes awareness of self, others and the world by infusing classroom life and teaching with experiential practices such as mindfulness, yoga, tai chi, reflective journaling and others. It deepens learning and builds inner strengths and skills including attention, self-regulation and compassion.
Contemplative Teaching and Learning Symposium, November 2012
Watch highlights from the initiative's second annual symposium, The Art and Science of Contemplative Teaching and Learning: Exploring Ways of Knowing, held November 16-18, 2012 at The Garrison Institute.
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Contemplative Teaching and Learning Symposium, November 2011
Watch highlights from the initiative's inaugural symposium, Advancing the Science and Practice of Contemplative Teaching and Learning, held November 4-6, 2011 at The Garrison Institute.
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Video of Selected Education Presentations
Dr. Dan Siegel: Time-In - Reflection, Relationships and Resilience at the Heart of Internal Education
Dr. Dan Siegel's keynote presentation from the Garrison Institute Contemplative Teaching and Learning Initiative's November 2012 symposium, The Art and Science of Contemplative Teaching and Learning: Exploring Ways of Knowing.
Adele Diamond: Child Development and the Brain - Insight to Help Every Child Thrive
In her talk, "Child Development and the Brain: Insights to Help Every Child Thrive," Dr. Adele Diamond explores the science underlying the emerging fields of Contemplative Teaching and Learning (CTL) and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL).
Pamela Seigle: Advancing the Science and Practice of Contemplative Education
Pamela Seigle, Executive Director of Courage and Renewal Northeast and Garrison Institute Education Leadership Council member, guides participants in a singing practice at the 2011 Education Symposium. In this practice participants “have the opportunity to listen to [their] own voices and then to the voices of others…in unison, harmony or dissonance.”
The Hawn Foundation - The MindUp Program
This video produced by the Hawn Foundation illustrates the value of contemplative practices in the classroom and features Initiative on Contemplation and Education (CTL) Director Tish Jennings, Advisory Board member Dan Siegel and Education Leadership Council member Kim Schonert-Reichl.
Video Interview with Tobin Hart
CTL Director Tish Jennings interviews Tobin Hart, Professor of Psychology at the University of West Georgia and Leadership Council member. He speaks about the need for a new vision and practice for education that can cultivate the inner strengths our children need to navigate the complex world of the 21st Century.
Video Interview with Adele Diamond
Adele Diamond, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, Canada Research Chair in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience and a member of the Garrison Institute's Contemplation and Education Leadership Council, discusses her work on the neural bases of cognitive development. She provides insights into topics such as academic outcomes for young children, stress effects on the brain and how contemplative practices might affect executive functions and cognitive control.
Audio of Selected Education Presentations
Daniel Siegel: “Brain” vs. “Mind” and Our Approach to Education
Garrison Institute Luncheon, Century Club, New York, November 18, 2010
Initiative on Contemplation and Education Senior Advisor Dr. Dan Siegel explains the distinction between the anatomical view of the “brain,” which is the chief focus of most neurologists and educators, vs. the “mind,” a concept which encompasses reflection, attunement to others and how relationships and experience change the structure of the brain, and which provides a neurological basis for a deeper approach to education. “Modern-day schools pay almost no attention to the inner, subjective nature of mental life,” he said. “But you can teach teachers to go from teaching reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmatic to a fourth “R” – reflection – and maybe a fifth and sixth “R” – relationships and resilience.”
Or click here to download the MP3
Tish Jennings: Preliminary Results of Research with Teachers
Garrison Institute Luncheon, Century Club, New York, November 18, 2010
Initiative on Contemplation and Education (CTL) director Dr. Tish Jennings previews preliminary results of current research on our CARE for Teachers (Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education) contemplative-based professional development program for teachers. Under a major grant from the US Department of Education’s Institute for Education, CTL and its research partner Penn State University are midway through the second year of a two-year, in-depth study. Preliminary data show that an overwhelming majority of teachers say CARE improved their sense of well-being, self-awareness, and ability to manage classroom behavior and establish and maintain supportive relationship with students. Most thought they saw an improvement in their students’ pro-social and on-task behavior and academic performance.
Learning, Doing, Being: a New Science of Education - Interview with Adele Diamond
On Being, American Public Media, November 19, 2009
'What Adele Diamond is learning about the brain challenges basic assumptions in modern education. Her work is scientifically illustrating the educational power of things like play, sports, music, memorization and reflection. What nourishes the human spirit, the whole person, it turns out, also hones our minds.' Adele Diamond is a member of the Garrison Institute's Contemplation and Education Leadership Council.
Visit America Public Media's On Being website to learn more
Or click here to stream the MP3 recording
Daniel Siegel: Keynote Address
Developmental Issues in Contemplative Education Symposium, Garrison Institute, April, 2008
Human development can be shaped toward resilience and well-being by cultivating the innate capacity for reflection. When we come to reflect on the mind we develop the essential skill of mindsight that enables children, adolescents, and adults to develop resilience in the face of stress, to bolster social and emotional intelligence, and to build the capacity to live life with flexibility and exuberance, compassion and empathy, self-understanding and well-being. Daniel Siegel compares the scientific explorations of secure attachment, mindful awareness, executive brain function, and mental health while reviewing the core proposal that reflection is a way of attuning to one’s own inner world such that the social circuits of the brain are activated and developed. The result of teaching reflection as a basic skill would be the growth of the most human dimensions of our brains–our prefrontal cortex–while cultivating well-being in our minds, and kindness in our relationships with each other, and ourselves.
Linda Lantieri: Contemplative Practices to Cultivate Inner Strength in Children
Developmental Issues in Contemplative Education Symposium, Garrison Institute, April, 2008
In her work as Founding Director of the Inner Resilience Program, Linda Lantieri has seen that the capacity to be more in control of one’s thoughts, emotions, and physiology can form a sort of internal safety net that gives children the inner preparedness they need to face the challenges and opportunities of life. Using principles derived from modern brain research, Linda authored Building Emotional Intelligence: Techniques to Cultivate Inner Strength in Children (Sounds True, 2008) in which teachers, parents and children are introduced to calming and focusing practices. This presentation focuses on the approaches used to meet the various developmental needs of both the adults and young people that are implementing this work.
Tish Jennings and Arthur Zajonc: Applied Mindfulness in Montessori and Waldorf Curricula
Developmental Issues in Contemplative Education Symposium, Garrison Institute, April, 2008
Contemplation can be applied to not only what one teaches but how one teaches. Former Montessori teacher, school director and teacher educator Tish Jennings and Waldorf school and teacher’s college founder and Amherst College professor Arthur Zajonc introduce applied contemplative activities from both these alternative educational methodologies. They also discuss ways to apply these ideas in traditional educational settings.