Universität Wien

490069 KU Social and Personal Competencies (2023W)

2.00 ECTS (1.00 SWS), SPL 49 - Lehrer*innenbildung
Continuous assessment of course work
REMOTE
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 20 participants
Language: German, English

Lecturers

Classes

DO 09.11.2023 16.45-20.00 Digital
DO 23.11.2023 16.45-20.00 Digital
DO 07.12.2023 16.45-20.00 Digital
DO 11.01.2024 16.45-20.00 Digital

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Title: Embodied Wellbeing. Personal and Social Competences for Teachers.

In this seminar, we reflect on teachers' and students' wellbeing.

Personal and social competences are increasingly relevant in the teaching profession. Nowadays teachers are not only required to transmit and evaluate pedagogical content but also to self-regulate their behavior and mood, properly manage classroom's dynamics, and promote their own as well as students’ psychophysical wellbeing.

During this course, we will see the main theories of wellbeing and the related pedagogical traditions. Then, we will discuss three different but strictly interconnected dimensions of wellbeing: personal, social, and systemic wellbeing. We will also look at some of the main terminological and semantic variations of the concept of wellbeing, such as eudaimonia, hedonism, happiness, flourishing and quality of life. Finally, we will discuss relevant practical tools and strategies to promote psychophysical wellbeing within the school context.

We will adopt the embodied education and systems thinking approaches as theoretical frameworks. On the practical side, we will engage in experiential activities in the field of mind-body practices, in particular focused and open meditation and mindfulness meditation, which has received great attention in the last decade (the so-called ‘contemplative turn’).

We will critically discuss these themes and their implementation in the educational field and in the professional training of teachers, and we will gain theoretical and practical knowledge about teachers’ personal and social wellbeing.

In particular, we will see:
- Main definitions of teachers and students’ wellbeing.
- Usage, effects and problematic issues of contemplative practices in educational settings.
- Contemplative practices for teachers and students: why, when and how to use them in the educational setting.
- How to plan and implement educational projects on quality of life at school.

This course helps students to develop professional skills and awareness for the promotion of personal and social wellbeing in educational context. By the end of the course, students will acquire the following skills:
- Recognize and use technical terminology and concepts from the fields of wellbeing and contemplative practices.
- Evaluate and promote crucial aspects of personal and social wellbeing.
- Adopt basic elements of body-mind practices in educational settings to improve teachers and students’ wellbeing.
- Design and implement wellbeing activities in classroom.
- Develop critical and scientific attitude toward mindfulness meditation and the “contemplative turn” in education.

The course will include frontal teaching, interactive discussions, case studies, group’s work, and experiential training. Teaching method is highly interactive and participatory. Learning activities are:
- Lectures with media support on central theoretical concepts and empirical topics.
- Plenary discussions.
- Small groups' work.
- One short written report and one final written project.
- Final presentation and discussion of the research project in plenary.
- Guided mindfulness experience.

The main language of the course is English.

Assessment and permitted materials

Hinweis der SPL:
Die Verwendung von KI-Tools (z. B. ChatGPT) für die Produktion von Texten ist nur dann erlaubt, wenn dies von der Lehrveranstaltungsleitung ausdrücklich gefordert wird (z. B. für einzelne Arbeitsaufgaben).
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Students are expected to attend lectures and actively participate to discussions, case studies, research tasks and exercises. There are two modalities for the examination: students can hand in either two written assignments or one written assignment plus an oral examination.

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is allowed for the written assignments of this course. Please inform the lecturer and discuss with him the modalities.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The students’ works will be evaluated on a scale from 0 to 100 points distributed as following:
- Attendance to the classes, class works and groupwork: 30 points.
- One short written report (first assignment): 20 points.
- Final project (either second assignment or oral exam): 50 points.

The final grading:
- 1 (sehr gut): 89-100 points
- 2 (gut): 76-88 points
- 3 (befriedigend): 63-75 Punkte
- 4 (genügend): 50-62 points
- (nicht genügend): 0-49 points

For the final project, students will have to apply and show proficiency with the terminology and concepts used during the course. Some options for the topic of the final project will be suggested during the course.

The lecturer will provide further information about the oral exam.

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is allowed for the written assignments of this course. Please inform the lecturer and discuss with him the modalities.

Examination topics

All of the content covered in the course. Supporting learning material will be available on Moodle, such as presentations, papers, documents, videos, slides, reference literature.

Reading list

- Albrecht, N. J., Albrecht, P. M., & Cohen, M. (2012). Mindfully teaching in the classroom: a literature review. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 37(12), n. 12.
- Brinkmann, M. (2015). Übungen der Aufmerksamkeit. In Aufmerksamkeit (pp. 199-220). Springer VS, Wiesbaden.
- Ergas O. (2014). Mindfulness in education at the intersection of science, religion, and healing. Critical Studies in Education, 55:1, 58-72.
- Francesconi, D. (2018). Eudaimonic Wellbeing and Education. In Galvin, K. T. (Ed.). Routledge International Handbook of Wellbeing. London, UK: Taylor and Francis Books. DOI: 10.4324/9781315724966-30.
- Francesconi, D., & Tarozzi, M. (2019). Embodied Education and Education of the Body: The Phenomenological Perspective. In Leib–Leiblichkeit–Embodiment (pp. 229-247). Springer VS, Wiesbaden.
- Francesconi, D., & Tarozzi, M. (2012). Embodied Education: A Convergence of Phenomenological Pedagogy and Embodiment. Studia Phaenomenologica, 12: 263-88. DOI: 10.7761/SP.12.263.
- Hirshberg, M. J., Flook, L., Enright, R. D., & Davidson, R. J. (2020). Integrating mindfulness and connection practices into preservice teacher education improves classroom practices. Learning and Instruction, 66, 101-298.
- Hyland, T. (2017). McDonaldizing spirituality: Mindfulness, education, and consumerism. Journal of Transformative Education, 15(4), 334-356.
- Hwan et al. (2017). A systematic review of mindfulness interventions for in-service teachers: A tool to enhance teacher wellbeing and performance. Teaching and Teacher Education, 64: 26-42.
- Kaltwasser, V. (2016). Praxisbuch Achtsamkeit in der Schule. Beltz.
- Meiklejohn, J., Phillips, C., Freedman, M.L. et al. (2012). Integrating Mindfulness Training into K-12 Education: Fostering the Resilience of Teachers and Students. Mindfulness, 3: 291-307.
- Roeser R. W. et al. (2012). Mindfulness Training and Teachers’ Professional Development: An emerging area of research and practice. Child Development Perspectives, 6, 2: 167-173.
- Sharp, J.E. & Jennings, P.A. (2016). Strengthening Teacher Presence Through Mindfulness: What Educators Say About the Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) Program. Mindfulness. 7: 209.
- Soloway, G. B. (2016). Preparing teacher candidates for the present: Investigating the value of mindfulness-training in teacher education. In Handbook of mindfulness in education (pp. 191-205). Springer, New York, NY.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Th 09.11.2023 07:29