Contemplative pedagogy and practices spotlight: Anne Archambault

Through a lifelong contemplative and mindful practice, Anne Archambault (part-time faculty in Applied Human Sciences) has witnessed how these practices generate moments of calm or at least a pause which can enrich student’s lives and the classroom learning environment.

What motivated you to use contemplative and mindful practices in your teaching? 

With a lifelong dedication to yoga teaching and a passionate commitment to contemplative and mindful practices, Anne has personally experienced the advantages of these exercises. Recognizing the intensity of university life, she integrates various contemplative practices into her courses to benefit the students. Anne shares these practices with her students to better equip them to focus, slow down and ground themselves to better navigate academic pressures and challenges. Through her contemplative exercises, Anne aspires to teach her students lifelong skills that can help them to know themselves better and foster an enhanced communications experience with one another.

Practices 

Anne routinely incorporates various practices into her courses, which have approximately 50 students, ensuring they complement course content and align with the demands of the assigned work. Anne leads her students for about 10 minutes each class through mind and body practices, metta-meditation exercises, and other contemplative practices. These may serve as a pause between course content or help students settle into the start of class and mentally prepare for learning. Another example of how Anne aligns the practices to the course content is in the Interviewing course (AHSC 315), where she has students engage with practices that focus on sound and breath to enhance their listening skills. Anne brings a variety of musical instruments to class and encourages her students to spend a moment focusing on the sounds generated. This exercise aims to refine their listening skills and round students in the present moment. In another instance, Anne’s students developed a routine of playing music on a piano which was in her classroom before the start of the course. She observed that students entered the class smiling and were listening to the piano playing. Instead of interrupting them when class started, Anne let them continue playing for a moment until they stopped because it created a relaxed environment and fostered a sense of togetherness among her students. This became a tradition before the start of class and created a community among her students.

Benefits 

In Anne’s courses, contemplative and mindful practices create a space for a spirit of collectiveness and togetherness. Anne has seen how these practices lead to moments of joy and develop presence for oneself and consequently for one another. Cultivating a sense of presence is what enabled Anne and her students to take advantage of the flow that is created in those moments of togetherness, such as with the students playing the piano. Through the feedback received from students, Anne has found that contemplative practices benefit student learning and, more importantly, extend beyond the university setting as lifelong tools. Considering the demanding lives of university students, Anne finds it crucial to create opportunities to connect through moments of joy or calm. 

Challenges and limitations 

Anne notes it can be challenging to find time to plan and integrate these practices into her courses. In previous years, she spontaneously introduced contemplative exercises to respond to specific needs, but now she has found it helpful to routinely use them. She now plans to modify her course outline to intentionally create space to integrate contemplative practices in her courses. Anne has also noticed that some students appear uninterested and disengaged during these practices, and she responds by respecting their decision not to participate. Emphasizing the importance of freedom and choice, Anne communicates to her students that they have the autonomy to decide how and whether they engage. She recognizes that certain practices, may be triggering for some students. Therefore, she encourages student choice in their meditation object and offers them the option to step out of class during the practice if need be.

Advice on implementing these practices in your teaching 

Anne strongly suggests incorporating mindful practices into your courses as they contribute depth and richness to the curriculum. She emphasizes that you don’t need to be certified in mindfulness practices, and simplicity is the key to an effective contemplative practice. Anne encourages instructors not to hesitate, advocating for them to personally adopt a practice to become familiar and comfortable before introducing it to their courses. Additionally, she recommends using various resources, such as meditation apps and videos, to facilitate these practices. Sharing a short recording or playing music can serve as a simple contemplative practice for instructors who are new to these exercises. As with anything in life, consistent practice can lead to improvement and can help instructors feel more at ease.

Spotlighting Contemplative Practices at Concordia 

This is part of a blog series celebrating Concordia’s teaching excellence and pedagogical innovation. This series highlights how educators from various disciplines are integrating contemplative pedagogy and practices into their courses to enhance student learning, foster compassionate classroom environments, and support the well-being of both students and educators.

By intentionally using the learner-centered approaches that characterize contemplative pedagogy, these educators encourage students to cultivate inner stillness, focused attention, self-reflection and self-acceptance while nurturing peer connections and cultivating lifelong skills that are beneficial within and beyond the classroom.

Curious to learn more? Join us at the Contemplative Pedagogy Faculty Interest Group to connect with colleagues from across disciplines, explore the work of contemplative pedagogy scholars, and re-energize your relationship to teaching and learning.