[Exploring Life] In Mindful Learning, Ellen J. Langer describes mindful learning as “the simple act of drawing distinctions” with specific reference to learning. She draws a distinction between mindful and mindless forms of learning. Her work focuses on the integration of the Buddhist concept of awareness (or mindfulness) with modern conceptions of learning, which are largely reductionist in orientation. She refers to myths of learning or conceptions of learning that unnecessarily limit people and are mindlessly accepted as being true. In essence, Langer attempts to integrate the development of perceptual acuity into our conception of learning in order to include the perceptual qualities of awareness, attention, observation, and presence.
Mindfulness and Mindlessness
Mindfulness originated in Buddhist philosophy and is commonly positioned as a form of meditation:
According to many authorities, meditation practices may generally be grouped into two basic categories based on the emphasis placed on directing attention as one practices meditation. First, there are “concentration” practices. In these, the practitioner focuses attention (concentrates) on a narrow field, usually a single object…
The second general category of meditation practice includes all forms of meditation practice, which emphasize awareness or “mindfulness.” Such activities seek to develop and nourish present moment awareness. They encourage paying attention in a way so as to be more aware in the present moment of all that is here, and of the constantly changing nature of what is here. These “mindfulness” practices are often described as “being, not doing,” because mindfulness itself is the innate quality of human beings which is bare awareness. Mindfulness can be defined as careful, open-hearted, choiceless, present moment awareness. [UCSD Center For Mindfulness: FAQ]
Langer focuses on mindfulness that is achieved without meditation: Mindfulness is a flexible state of mind in which we are actively engaged in the present, noticing new things and sensitive to context. She positions mindlessness as the opposite of mindfulness: When we are in a state of mindlessness, we act like automatons who have been programmed to act according to the sense our behavior is made in the past, rather than the present.
If we are being mindful our awareness of the present moment is strong and our intentions and actions are responsive. In a state of mindlessness our thought patterns and therefore presence are stuck in the past, and our intentions and actions are numb and habitual.
Mindful Learning and Mindless Learning
Mindful learning originates in the notion of exploring thoughts, ideas, information, and knowledge from a variety of perspectives. It is focused on illuminating the context of the learning itself so that the experience can be apprehended and comprehended in a fluid and flexible manner. Mindful learning is about revealing a variety of ways in which understanding can be created, rather than being focused on a single perspective. In this sense, mindful learning is less about the surface appearance of information and knowledge, and more about the underlying assumptions that lead to its creation.
Most teaching unintentionally fosters mindlessness… When we ignore perspective, we tend to confuse the stability of our mind-sets with the stability of the underlying phenomenon.
- Mindful Learning, Ellen Langer
Education, and its offspring curriculum and instruction, is largely print-media-myopic. The context of education embraces limiting and misguided assumptions about learning, that is, it embraces the concept of the prerequisite, sequence, seriation, classification, and reductionism. Print media easily seduces the unwary into assuming that information is largely stable and static. Words on a page are at best static metaphors that attempt to describe dynamic phenomenon.
Education is therefore largely oriented toward mindless learning. The emphasis on mindless forms of learning under the banner of education significantly intensifies as new media is introduced into the educational environment. Modern technology encourages distraction, the disintegration of attention, and the degeneration of concentration.
Summary
Langer has coined the term mindful learning to remind us that the development of perceptual acuity is critical to learning. The origins and practice of mindfulness have an extensive history and are well established in Eastern philosophical practices. In this sense the idea of mindful learning is an example of how Eastern and Western thought patterns and ideas combine to form hybrids.
Ideally, mindfulness would form an underlying foundation for the educative experience. In reality it is likely to be denigrated to a unit of study or perhaps course of study, while the inherent mindlessness of curriculum and instructional design continue to ramble on. This is precisely how education embraces “innovation” while ensuring that nothing of substance ever changes.
