Seeds of contemplative practices and pedagogy

Contemplative practices can be visually represented as a “tree” (Duerr, 2004). Read more from Maia Duerr about the process of developing this tree. You can also hear from our own Rosemary Reilly talking about the tree in this video. 

In this resource we use the “branches” and the “roots” of this tree to frame our presentations of the materials. In this first section, we discuss the what and why that gives us the purpose for contemplative pedagogy: what these terms mean, connect contemplative practices and pedagogy to your goals for students, discuss contemplative pedagogy and awe, and share testimonials from our own instructors and their students. 

 

The Tree of Contemplative Practices. The roots symbolize the foundation of awareness and connection, while the trunk represents the core of being present and connected to life. The branches are various groupings of practices, such as Stillness, Generative, Creative, Active, Relational, Movement, and Ritual/Cyclical, with specific examples listed on the leaves, like meditation, loving-kindness, journaling, and deep listening.
The Tree of Contemplative Practices © Maia Duerr, the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society

 

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Contemplative practices and pedagogy in the classroom Copyright © 2026 by Centre for Teaching and Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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