Stop, Look, Listen: Contemplative Teaching and Learning

Abstract

In an age of overwhelming quantities of information, an increasing superficiality of understanding, and an increasing emphasis on “devices,” Christian educators can invite learners into transformational learning through focal contemplative practices that help learners sharpen their attention and deepen their experience. Participation in focal practices invites the emergence of contemplation and helps cultivate a readiness to receive the gift of contemplation. This essay explores briefly the relationship between focal practice and contemplation. It then considers three particular practices that can support and encourage contemplative knowing across a range of teaching/learning contexts: contemplative looking, contemplative reading, and contemplative play.