Abstract
We live in an era in which the 'active learner' has become accepted as the fundamental goal of good teaching from early childcare to university education (Silberman; University of Melbourne University). In this paper we reflect upon the arts of stillness in contemporary classrooms based on research in schools across Sydney (Watkins and Noble). As Vitalis argued thousands of years ago, with writing, the whole body labours (cited in Ong 95). But this form of labour entails stillness, self-control and the bodily capacity for sustained intellectual engagement. Educational practice needs to not only return to an appreciation of the arts of stillness but to rethink the ways in which activity in learning is understood; the ways in which an active mind is reliant upon a composed yet capacitated body and the particular pedagogies that, from the early years of school, can promote this form of corporeal governance.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-7 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | M/C Journal |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 1 |
Publication status | Published - 2009 |
Keywords
- academic achievement
- discipline
- learning
- mind and body
- pedagogy
- quietude
- self-control
- study and teaching (primary)
- teaching