Languages understood: |
English, French, Dutch |
| With which level of education are you involved? |
Adult aducation |
| What discipline do you teach (mainly)? |
Physics/science, mindfulness itself, meditation. |
| Does your school, college or faculty teach for a specific discipline or is the education more general? |
General education (e.g. primary or secondary school) |
Are you yourself working with pupils/students or are you otherwise involved in education, (e.g. educational policy)? |
(mainly) teaching pupils/students |
| What kind of organisational relation do you have with your educational work? |
Equally professional / important source of income and unpaid / volunteer work. |
| How many years is it since you first started your efforts to integrate mindfulness into your educational work? |
6 |
| On average, what age are the pupils/students with who you are working? |
26 or older. |
| Can you describe briefly what you are doing with your pupils/students to integrate mindfulness in your educational work? |
Well, first of all I teach mindfulness courses and give meditation training.
When I teach social skills, I tend to bring in moments of just being with your experience, body awareness, a body scan and a gentle moving towards mindfulness of the breathing.
The element of kindness towards yourself and others, an integral part of the practice of mindfulness, is also an element I try to bring out, using all kinds of exercises and practices.
When I teach computer skills to people - who very often have limitations (mental or emotional in the sense of having low self-confidence) -, there's the element of allowing more kindness towards themselves (starting with just giving the example where I am kind to their difficulties with learning), bringing them back to their current experience when they get nervous.
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| What is it that would be most helpful to you to (further) improve your work with integrating mindfulness in your educational work, besides deepening your own practice? |
A wider acceptance of the benefits of mindfulness by colleagues and board of school.
Very often I do feel I still have to smuggle mindfulness into what I do, into my approach but I feel I can't be too explicit about introducing this into what I do.
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| Have you noticed or heard of any changes in the behaviour of your pupils/students? |
Yes |
| What is the nature of the changes you have noticed in the behaviour of your pupils/students? |
They put less pressure on themselves, they enjoy much more what we do during the lessons. A more positive attitude towards themselves but also towards the others in the same group. |
| What is the base of the mindfulness practise you are using in your educational work? |
Buddhist based. |
