Rethinking Mindfulness in Education within Two Frameworks: Articulating the “Threefold Model of Mindful Wisdom” with the “Theory of Mental Interference”

Abstract

The existent trend of implementing mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) into public education came along with an increasing scientific record regarding the definitional construct of mindfulness, effects of various mindfulness-based interventions and their basic mechanisms. In terms of the rising definitional discourse in the interdisciplinary field of mindfulness, the “threefold model of mindful wisdom” (TMMW) was proposed. In the present paper’s quest of rethinking mindfulness in education, the relevance of the TMMW for didactics in modern Western educational systems (with special interest on the region of Germany) is examined, affirmed in several points and—with the aid of the “Theory of Mental Interference” (TMI)—methodically linked to individual learners’ needs. The TMI has been developed at the University of Hamburg since 1984 by Wagner and colleagues. This is compatible with the TMMW with regard to the concept of self and basic psychological mechanisms of “mindful exercises”. Its basic approach conceives the epistemic level of cognitive processes (1) to be unbiased by affect and (2) to be different from a level of mental interference, which in case of an arising default habitually interferes with the cognitive processes. Implications for further research, for modern educational systems and for MBPs in education are discussed.

Calmer, Kinder, Wiser: A Novel Threefold Categorization for Mindfulness-Based Interventions

“…For example, mindfulness practices included within MBIs range from practices concerning clear comprehension (sampajanna), to heedfulness-remembering what has been learned in the past about which thoughts, choices, and actions lead to happiness and which lead to suffering (appamada), and to the qualities of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic-joy, and equanimity (the brahmaviharas), which collectively are capable of clear and penetrating insight into the nature of reality (Cullen, 2011). Thus, it has become imperative to distinguish between the diverse applications of mindfulness practice and to further differentiate the interventions employing such practices (Klebanova, 2022). Consequently, the present paper is less concerned with contemporary or traditional definitions of mindfulness but rather more interested in the application of mindfulness practices, particularly with reference to the meditative techniques incorporated within MBIs.…”