The ACMHE Conference

6th Annual Conference of the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education:
Intention, Method, and Evaluation

October 10-12, 2014
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
$332 – $485 (ACMHE members pay a lower rate, and limited financial aid is available)

Presentation proposal submissi0n deadline: Monday, June 30th

Faculty, staff, and administrators throughout higher education are employing contemplative practices for many reasons. These include sharpening attention; creating environments that enhance the well-being of all; addressing inclusion and access for all in support of the vibrant diversity of our institutions; deepening engagement and learning of subject matter; reflecting on and supporting meaning-making; considering the wider impacts of our actions; and ultimately supporting the development of a more just and compassionate society. Given the breadth and depth of these many intentions, the types of practices used are extremely diverse, and their assessment needs to be approached with great sensitivity. Assessment of practices designed to develop attention, for example, will be different from assessment of those practices designed to increase conceptual understanding or develop compassion and creativity.

This conference seeks to investigate the relationship between the intentions of contemplative methods and their effectiveness. How might the development and evaluation of these methods be guided by what has been discovered about the many ways we learn, the creation of meaning, and the development of meaningful assessment? How might contemplative practices inform new ways of evaluating effectiveness? We invite presentation proposals on all subjects of contemplative inquiry in higher education and will give preference to those investigating intention, method, and evaluation.

We encourage presentations on relevant teaching, evaluation, and assessment methods used in other educational approaches that share contemplative pedagogy’s emphasis on awareness, experience, inquiry, and transformation (e.g., holistic education, transformative education, engaged pedagogy, Socratic questioning, feminist pedagogy, critical race theory).

We also encourage presentations on the results of evidence-based studies throughout higher education that can challenge and deepen the use of contemplative practices inside and outside the classroom.

The conference aims to nurture a supportive and lively environment for exchanging ideas through interactive presentations, thematic paper presentations, experiential contemplative practice sessions, panel and plenary presentations, and open, unstructured time for conversation.

Presenters and participants are invited to submit related papers to The Journal of Contemplative Inquiry (ISSN: 2333-7281), which will dedicate a future issue to the topics of intention, evidence, and evaluation.

Learn more about the 2014 conference at ACMHEconference.org

Seattle skyline photo by Ryan Carver.