On the arts of stillness : for a pedagogy of composure

Greg Noble, Megan Watkins

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    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 languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1-7
    Number of pages7
    JournalM/C Journal
    Volume12
    Issue number1
    Publication statusPublished - 2009

    Keywords

    • academic achievement
    • discipline
    • learning
    • mind and body
    • pedagogy
    • quietude
    • self-control
    • study and teaching (primary)
    • teaching

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