In this article, we review the appropriateness of "mindfulness" as an educational goal and explore what it means to cultivate mindfulness as a disposition, that is, as an enduring trait, rather than a temporary state. We identify three high-leverage instructional practices for enculturating mindfulness: looking closely, exploring possibilities and perspectives, and introducing ambiguity. We conclude by exploring what it might look like to cultivate the trait of mindfulness within individual classrooms. This report includes a review of an experimental study of "conditional instruction," which explores mindfulness as a state, and then draws on a series of qualitative case studies of "thoughtful" classrooms to provide an example of conditional instruction as it might serve to develop a disposition of mindfulness.Over the past 2 decades, a wealth of experimental research has accumulated to provide the foundation for the theory of mindfulness (Langer, 1989). Ellen Langer and her colleagues have been particularly inventive at designing studies that demonstrate the conditions under which mindfulness is more likely to flourish. For the most part, these studies have consisted of limited, short-term interventions in which individuals practice drawing distinctions, receive alternative
A method for uncovering students' thinking about thinking, specifically their meta-strategic knowledge, is explored within the context of an ongoing, multi-year intervention designed to promote the development of students' thinking dispositions. The development of a concept-map instrument that classroom teachers can use and an analytic framework for interpreting students' responses is presented. In a preliminary study, the concept map instrument is piloted to evaluate changes in students' conceptions of thinking after a year's participation in classrooms where their teachers actively sought to make thinking more visible by noticing and naming the thinking observed as well as introducing and using thinking routines (Ritchhart and Perkins. Educational Leadership, 65(5), 57-61 2008). Concept maps from 239 students from grades 3 through 11 were analyzed. Results suggest that students' conceptions of thinking do improve with age but also can be substantially developed through a classroom culture where thinking is modeled and rich opportunities for thinking are present. The concept map instrument itself proved to be a robust instrument for uncovering students' thinking about thinking.Keywords Metacognitive assessment . Program evaluation . Concept maps . Metacognitive development . Thinking dispositions . Meta-strategic knowledgeIn the Cultures of Thinking Project, we seek to develop students' dispositions toward thinking by working with teachers to create classrooms where thinking is valued, visible, and actively promoted as part of the regular, day-to-day experience of all students. Because we believe that thinking dispositions are not so much learned as they are enculturated over time, our project focuses on helping teachers to understand the culture of their classrooms Metacognition
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