Mindfulness and gamification in the higher education classroom: Friends or foes?

Abstract

The paper provides short overview of the gamification, mindfulness and contemplative pedagogy approaches in the higher education with focus on specific experiences in the Information Literacy (IL) field in higher education. Students seem to engage eagerly with both mindfulness activities and games in the classroom. Although at first these two might give an impression of activities which stand on opposite sides an evident overlapping has been present through employing games as mindfulness activities. The paper discusses the Brain Booth Initiative at a rural, public university as an example of an innovative practice, which shows how mindfulness and gamification complement each other in helping students optimize learning and support their wellbeing. In addition to the scholarly literature the Brain Booth initiative shows that librarians are well-positioned to adopt contemplative pedagogy in their information literacy instruction and to serve as resources for departmental faculty, who may be willing to explore its use in their courses.