Dare to Share the Silence: Tools and Practices of Contemplative Pedagogy in a Library Brain Booth

Contemplative Inquiry

“…Indeed, as I traced the spread of the iRelax Area's various digital, physical, and textual resources throughout the learning commons, I began to conceive of the initiative and its associated Mindful Moments program as contemplative infrastructure. This conceptual approach differs from much of the existing research in the area which generally focuses upon the distinctiveness of various contemplative initiatives, programs, spaces, and technologies within information environments rather than upon their complementarity and interdependence (Rose, Godfrey & Rose 2015;Mourer & Karadjova 2017). Echoing Leigh Star (1999) who observes that information infrastructure is both 'relational and ecological -it means different things to different groups and it is part of the balance of actions, tools, and the built environment, inseparable from them' (p. 377), contemplative infrastructure is also 'sunk into and inside of other structures, social arrangements, and technologies,' where people 'do not necessarily distinguish the several coordinated aspects' thereof (p. 381).…”

Mindfulness and gamification in the higher education classroom: Friends or foes?

“…Most of these libraries focus primarily on meditation. A recent study (Mourer & Karadjova, 2017) was the first one to involve a broader spectrum of mindfulness activities, which offer intentional brain breaks to students, faculty and staff. The results reported on high interest for this innovative approach among students.…”