Concurrent Session 3 – Looking Back to Move Forward: Exploring Shortand Long-Term (20-year) Impacts of Early Exposure (Elementary School) to Mindful-Based Learning (MBL)

Interest in, and enthusiasm for, implementing mindfulness-based curricula in school settings has been growing rapidly over the last decade. Research has begun to document the critical importance of social and emotional skills for student achievement and how these skills can be effectively nurtured through mindfulness-based skills training. In the mid 1990s, a forward-thinking teacher implemented …

Concurrent Session 3 – Innovations in Mindfulness for Educators: Complementary Approaches and Outcomes

There has been a steady increase in interest in utilizing contemplative practice to improve teaching and learning in schools. At the first International Symposium for Contemplative Studies meeting in 2012, a panel presented preliminary findings from two teacher programs. The current panel will provide a research and practice update on innovative approaches for promoting mindfulness …

Master Lecture – Secular Ethics

A Call To Care: The Mind & Life Institute’s New Ethics, Education, and Human Development Initiative (Brooke Dodson-Lavelle) Inspired by His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s call to design a curriculum and pedagogy in “secular ethics,” the Mind & Life Institute identified an important opportunity to join the growing movement of educators, scientists, and contemplatives engaged …

Master Lecture – Successes and Challenges of Mindfulness Training in Applied Settings

The science and practice of mindfulness-based interventions have witnessed exponential growth in recent years with applications in diverse settings, including health care, education, the workplace, and the military. Such expansion raises complex and engaging questions for the emerging field of contemplative science. In this panel, we discuss questions such as: What do we know and …

Master Lecture – Fostering Resilience through Mindfulness in Childhood

Early childhood is marked by substantial development in self-regulatory skills, such as executive function (EF), that support school readiness and socioemotional competence. Indeed, individual differences in EF in childhood predict a wide range of important developmental outcomes, including physical health, and EF is increasingly a target of therapeutic, remedial, and universal interventions. This lecture will …

Concurrent Session 2 – Stress Mitigation with Mindful Embodied Techniques in a Basic Science Class

Basic sciences in higher education confront a paradox, reaching the minds of many and the hearts of few. Compulsory requirements for graduation or professional schools push a high course demand, large classes, and a culture of Darwinian grading that contribute to student performance anxiety, fear of failure, intellectual disengagement, and a test-driven approach to content. …

Concurrent Session 2 – The Tears of a Scholar: Bringing Mindfulness into Higher Education

Deep feeling for life characterizes monks, healers, and scholars. However, the current context of higher education in the United States leaves behind the quest for meaning in favor of corporate cost cutting and employment-focused endeavors by which we are judged. This panel of scholars seeks to share the ongoing process of creating a master’s degree …