Sabbatical proposal for fall 2012
Submitted by
John Ernst
Department of Humanities and Fine Arts
1 November 2011
Contents
Rationale:
Proposed activities during sabbatical:
Progress toward goals:
Post-Sabbatical Benefits to College
Sample student feedback on mindfulness practices:
Works Cited and Resources:
Rationale:
The purpose of the proposed sabbatical should be characterized as a period of intensive
professional development during which I will work to weave together three strands of ongoing
intellectual foci—the utility of secular Contemplative Teaching in Communication and
Humanities classrooms as beneficial to student and teacher, the impact of emerging
technologies on the way we teach and learn, and the importance of service—with the goal of
more effectively implementing teaching strategies that holistically engage students in their
totality. In what follows, I will address each of these three aspects in turn:
I.
Contemplative Teaching and Learning. As the reading list in the Resources section at
the end of this proposal shows, the idea of mindfulness training in the classroom is
rapidly gaining pedagogical currency. While the terminology can be confusing at
first (generally synonymous terms such as,” “Mindfulness Training,” “Compassionate
Learning,” “Engaged Pedagogy,” “Transformative Education,” and so on are often
more or less interchangeably used), the idea is relatively simple even if the work
itself can be challenging. As Rick Repetti has suggested, these pedagogies “share a
fundamental valuing of what is already in the student, to be drawn out through
slow, reflective attention” (5). In my own teaching experience introducing such
practices as meditation, deep listening and reflective journaling, I have noticed that
students have generally, at the very least, seemed grateful to have a moment to
“regroup” from a hectic life outside the classroom (see student reactions at the end
of this proposal for a sampling) and fortified after such exercises to center
themselves and more thoughtfully and ethically engage in the day’s activities.
Through brief meditation exercises in Communication classes, for example, students
also are encouraged to “listen” to that relentless but often unrecognized
undercurrent of sub-vocalized discourse that runs through their minds and distracts,
distances and often negatively critiques their every action so that the delivery of an
oral presentation becomes a matter of confronting monumental fear (I don’t say this
lightly; I have had students lose varying degrees of physical sensation, weep
uncontrollably, and freeze in front of the classroom). Learning to treat one’s self
and others with mindful compassion, as has been demonstrated in the literature
time and time again, can be extremely valuable as a method to overcome fears and
to help them discover interpersonal interconnectivity.
Contemplative teaching attempts to move students toward an ethically-based
critical consciousness by helping them to understand who they are, what positions
they occupy in society, their connectedness to one another and to the world. From
this holistic understanding of self, change can emerge as students learn to nurture
positive actions and values in themselves and their communities (including the
classroom community). Contemplative teaching and learning is invitational in the
sense that it encourages students to become active partners in the construction of
knowledge with the hope that they will move toward what Terry Lewis is identified
as the main purpose of the college, to " to search for a larger purpose for their lives,
and to leave colleges better human beings" (xv), and it’s clear that students want to
learn these things from their college experience. According to a recently published
report, “two-thirds of new freshmen say that it is either “very important’ or
‘essential’ that college ‘helps you develop your personal values’ and ‘enhances your
self-understanding’” (Astin, Astin and Lindholm 3). Ultimately, contemplative
teaching attempts to fulfill such goals and requires the nurturing of respect,
gentleness, and vulnerability, a willingness to take risks, to be wrong, to be
comfortable with ambiguity and even uncertainty in the belief that from all this such
understanding arises. The sabbatical will allow me to train more deeply in
contemplative learning by attending retreats, conferences, and even the classroom
of one professor (Dan Houston) who is teaching a communication class at a New
Hampshire community college which is structured upon contemplative methods.
Moreover, I will be able to forge professional relationships with those who are far
better versed in these methods than I, and equip myself to bring what I learned back
to the classroom and college. I will have more to say about post-sabbatical
contributions later in the proposal.
II.
Contemplative Teaching and learning in the shadow the posthuman. As I discussed
during my section of the Best Practices plenary session in the spring of 2011, the
ubiquity of cellphones, laptops, ipods and other portable information/entertainment
technology has changed the learning situation quite drastically. Evidence presented
by the Kaiser Institute in 2010 based on a five year study of 8-18 year olds
(“Generation M(edia)” points to the conclusion that students are having more
difficulty engaging in activities that involve “Deep” attention (reading a novel,
writing an extended essay, even watching a feature-length film) while they are
drawn to activities that involve multi-tasking or “hyper” attention (watching
YouTube while chatting on their cellphone as music in the background, etc.) due, in
part, to the neurological changes wrought by the human/technology interface. The
perhaps grandiose term “posthuman” has been coined by Katherine Hayles to
suggest the end of a certain conception of the human “as autonomous beings
exercising their will through individual agency and choice” (288) as “machine and
meat” merge in ways that we cannot yet fully comprehend. In any case, we all,
certainly have witnessed sometimes mundane yet dramatic changes in the
attention-spans of our students during the past five years as well as more positive
tendencies such as a willingness to work collaboratively. As educators we are
compelled to reevaluate the methods we use to reach students. To this end, I
intend to use part of my sabbatical to refine the paper which was accepted by the
3rd Annual Association for Contemplative Mind in Education Conference (as part of
the poster session; next time I’m shooting for a full-on paper presentation),
“Contemplative Pedagogy in the Age of the Posthuman.” Thus, while the bulk of my
proposed sabbatical activities are center on Contemplative Pedagogy and how to
best incorporate it into the classroom, I still intend to focus on the writing of a
scholarly paper.
III.
Service and service learning: It's been gratifying for me to see that both honors
sections that I've taught over the past year have been interested in pursuing service
learning as part of their curriculum. Both last semester and this, our classes have
been involved with site visits to such places his Home Sweet Home Mission, the
Salvation Army, and the Crisis Nursery, and invited speakers such as the director of
the Neville house, the local shelter for battered women, and the volunteer
coordinator from Advocate Hospice have spoken to my classes. I perceive service
learning as fundamental to helping students recognize their biases (we openly
discussed the fear some students had of going to Home Sweet Home, and mingling
with what they preconceived as potentially dangerous, unemployed “bums,” and
how that fear was replaced by compassion and understanding. The site visits (and
later the volunteer work engaged in by the students) make it quite evident that
virtually anybody could be struggling under similar conditions given certain
variables. I think one of the tipping points for the first Honor’s group came when we
visited the sparse but clearly lovingly cared-for room of a young single mother; it
was the birthday of one of her son’s, and on one small cot was a hand-drawn
birthday card and various other meager decorations which heartbreakingly just fell
short of turning the institutional space into something rather like a “home.” The
implications for Diversity Outcomes is enormous: From this and other experiences
in service, students learn empathy and compassion, something I experienced after
the first Heartland Service Learning class I co-taught back in 1997 (it was HCC’s first)
on Family and Community Services. It is my hope to find methods of reincorporating
service leaning components into all my Introduction to Public Speaking courses.
I also engage in volunteer work on my own, having served as a caregiver for the
Advocate Hospice. Since I became a volunteer in April of 2010 (partly in response to
the murder of Joe McCauley), I have worked with six dying patients—ranging in age
from 45 to 97 years of age—and their families. My duties have ranged from picking
up and delivering medication, to cleaning gutters, and, most significantly, sitting
with those who are dying. I intend to continue this work during the sabbatical
should I be granted it, and I would also remain active with the Bloomington/Normal
Buddhist Meditation Group, which I co-founded with the interim minister of the
Unitarian Universalist Church in the fall of 2009. The group remains active and
vibrant.
Progress toward Goals:
The function of this section is to locate my sabbatical goals and interests into the larger
context of my academic life, specifically, here, my professional development relative to
Contemplative Pedagogy. Items are listed in chronological order, most recent first.
Spring 2012. Paper presentation, International Symposia for Contemplative Studies, Denver,
CO (tentative: letters of acceptance begin to go out Oct. 31 2011). “Pedagogical Mindfulness in
the Face of Grief” which details the introduction of mindfulness practices in my Honor’s
Seminar II and COMM 101
Summer 2011. “The Art of Mindful Living.” Week long intensive (and silent) retreat with Larry
Rosenberg, Ph.D., founder of the Insight Meditation Group in Cambridge, MA and Professor of
psychology at the University of Chicago and Harvard Medical School.
Winter 2011. AACC Conference on Service Learning. Lincoln Land Community College,
Springfield, IL. Attnedee.
Fall 2010: Faculty Academy II. Facilitated discussion of Parker Palmer and Arthur Zajonc’s The
Heart of Higher Education (Jossey Bass, 2010). Here, the authors point toward what they call
“transformative” and “integrative” education” as illustrated by this passage: “Values such as
compassion, social justice, and the search for truth, which animate and give purpose to the lives
of students, faculty and staff, are honored and strengthened by an integrative education. But to
be truly integrative, such an education must go beyond a ‘values curriculum’ to create a
comprehensive learning environment that reflects a holistic vision of humanity, giving attention
to every dimension of the human self” (152).
Fall 2010. Best Practices, Plenary Session. Presenter. “Pedagogical Challenges Teaching
‘Generation M” Addressed the idea of “neuroplasticity” relative to interaction with emerging
technology including social networking and smartphones. While not addressed in this
workshop, the culture of multi-tasking and ADHD can be met by mindfulness practices in the
classroom and in the personal lives of students and teachers.
Fall 2009. Faculty Academy II. Facilitated discussion of bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress
(Routledge, 1998). In this work, hooks argues for a classroom environment “which emphasizes
wholeness, a union of mind, body and spirit” and that “teachers must be actively committed to
a process of self-actualization that promotes their own well-being if they are to teach in a
manner which empowers students” 18-19). The workshop, which was originally slated to run
eight weeks, was such a positive experience for attendees that it was decided to extend the
original six week time schedule to eight.
Summer 2009. Sangha Retreat, Shambhala Mountain Center, CO. With Pema Chodron and
Sakyong Mipham. Week long retreat on mindfulness practices.
Spring 2008: “All in the Same Boat.” Three day retreat led by Pema Chodron and Tim Oldsted
at the Omega Institute, New York. Compassion and “meta” (or loving kindness) practices were
the focus of the weekend retreat.
Post Sabbatical Benefits to College:
I.
Leadership in Best Practices and Faculty Academy II and Beyond. Should my
proposal be approved, I would be well-equipped to hold Best Practices and Faculty
Academy II sessions on Contemplative Teaching which, as I hope I’ve demonstrated,
is an important emerging pedagogical direction. The most fertile area for
exploration, it seems to me, is where contemplation meets the what’s been called
the “posthuman,” as multiple, portable information and entertainment delivery
systems and social networking become fundamental communication channels.
Given that one of the salient features of new, “hyper-attentive” learning styles has
been an inclination to work in groups (even if online) as opposed to engaging in
solitary studies, the importance of both respecting the manner in which our
students now learn and cultivating compassion, sensitivity and mindful awareness
within ourselves and within our students seems axiomatic. How better to embark
on group work than from a position of mindful compassion? How better to teach?
To administer? To systematically incorporate these aspects of contemporary
pedagogy into our classroom culture at Heartland is important, and I would facilitate
workshops and Best Practice sessions with that in mind.
II.
Develop Contemplative Practices more seamlessly into the curriculum. To be frank,
my initial experiments in bringing mindfulness activities has been in fits and starts (in
no small part because, on some level, the idea of having students close their eyes
and be quiet—what goes on at the surface level of many a completive practice—is
so beyond the pale that I was sure students would rebel). As it’s become clear
through self-reporting and assessments (including the minute papers and selfevaluations students engage in) that most students are curious about the practice
and find it useful in centering themselves, I can, buttressed by the experiences
gained through the sabbatical activities, more consistently and conscientiously
weave this component into my courses activities. The key is to respect new learning
styles while working to forge ethical and exciting learning communities in each and
every classroom. My post-sabbatical goals would involve a systematic application
and assessment of classroom contemplative practices as well as sharing them with
colleagues as outlined in Part I above.
III.
Service Learning. One of the benefits of service learning is the impact of the
experience on learning. As Prentice and Robinson have demonstrated, students
who engage in service learning are more likely to retain academic content and
question their ideological biases (7-8). To revitalize the link between community
service organizations and the college has been of interest to me since co-teaching
the Community and Family Services course about a decade ago. Since that time, I’ve
noted the increased frequency of students with service learning experience—usually
through their churches or high schools—and the vitality they bring to issues of local
and global importance (hunger, poverty, poor housing conditions, etc.). Making
service learning experience part of my two honor’s section was eye-opening as both
times it was student initiative which got the gears in motion. Seeing the rapidity
with which some students embraced the Penguin Project once it came to Heartland
was gratifying: More than 100 cumulative service hours for various classes at the
college were logged by students, and the importance of the relationships these
students made with the children they helped was evident. Making service learning a
more viable option for students in Communication courses will be another postsabbatical goal, and to this end I will continue to work with Neville House, The
Penguin Project, Advocate Hospice, The Crisis Nursery and other agencies.
Embarking on more field trips (as my honor’s students did) seems a likely first step in
this direction. More broadly, however, I also plan to map community volunteer
resources through my current connections with agencies such as Advocate Hospice,
Home Sweet Home and Neville House, but also by making connections to other
agencies through Project Rise so that faculty and student interests can be more
easily be connected.
IV.
Forge Connections with Other Schools. Since its inception three years ago, I’ve
made plans to attend the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education
Conference (and have had two proposals accepted). Because of the timing (they
tend to be held in October) and the travel difficulties (the conference is always held
in Amherst, MA, home of my alma mater, but relatively far off the beaten path). The
sabbatical will, of course, render such difficulties moot (I would drive, would move
on to Concord for the classroom visit at New England Technical College, etc.), but,
for the college, my participation in each of the proposed activities for this sabbatical
would put Heartland’s name in the mix of schools who are engaging in this most
interesting aspect of contemporary pedagogical practices. I think I would make a
fine ambassador for the school, and I’m convinced that the relationships born of
these events will strengthen the nascent contemplative/non-violent communication
aspects of the college stronger.
Sample Student “Minute Paper” Feedback (10/27/2011):
Prompt: How have the Meditation practices been going for you? Would you like to continue or not.
Please submit anonymously. Unedited (originals available upon request).
I feel that the meditation at the beginning of class is a good idea. It helps me to call my thoughts and get
prepared for the class ahead.
I enjoy the meditation at the beginning of class. While I don’t get anything spiritual out of it, it is nice to
have a little pause in my day. I live a rather busy life, so a few minutes to pause and take a breath are
nice.
I really enjoy the meditation. It gives me time to reflect and become calm. Very glad that you introduced
us to this.
The meditation, for the most part, is going well. Personally, it helps to get me in a better state in class
and I can focus better. However there have been a couple of times when my mind would not come
down and it made meditation impossible.
About meditation. On speech days I found it very helpful even if I am not speaking. On the other days
like today, it felt like a waste of time and I did not participate.
I'm trying to decide if I feel less nervous due to the breathing exercises are due to having more speaking
opportunities. I'm not sure that's correlated to the breathing exercises, but it could very well be.
Therefore, I am not opposed to continuing the exercises. I would look, however, forward to more
opportunities to work in-speech breathing, timing, and nervousness control as well as audience
engagement practice.
I find the meditation to be helpful if I am the first or second person to go. After that I have too much
time to think and it doesn't help.
I enjoy the moment of relaxation. It's a good practice, even outside of class, for calming my nerves.
I feel like it is hit or miss. It depends on the day. I feel like most of the speech is preparation beforehand.
If you are completely prepared, meditation helps a lot to relax and calm you down. If you are not it
cannot really help you because you are nervous when you start because you are not prepared.
I find just a quiet helps me a little. The turning off of lights doesn't do much for me. All in all I'm still just
as nervous, so I could do without it.
I find that when I try to meditate before a speech I find myself actually getting more anxiety about my
speech. I wouldn't mind if we kept doing it, but I don't find it helps me that much because I am a
worrywart.
Yes, I think it is effective. It helps me to not worry about my potential greater judgments,
but instead on what I am trying to convey through my speech to the audien
Works Cited and Resources
The following is a sample of the recent flush of publishing activity regarding mindfulness practices in
higher education, posthuman studies, and service learning.
Astin, Alexander, Helen S. Astin and Jennifer A. Lindholm. Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can
Enhance Students’ Inner Lives. San Francisco: Jossy Bass, 2011. Print.
Chickering, Arthur W., Jon C. Dalton, and Liesa Stamm. Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in
Higher Education. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2006. Print.
Like the rest of the works cited here, the word “spirituality” is secularly defined as “a personal
commitment to a process of inner development that engages us in our totality” (7) and is thus clearly
distinct from religion. While I think that this book has been, to a degree, subsumed by Parker and
Zajonc’s below in terms of making a case for the importance of addressing the totality of teacher and
student in the classroom, it nevertheless offers valuable resources including sample syllabi, assessment
tools and workshop models.
Das, Ram and Mirabai Bush. Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service. New York: Bell
Tower, 1992. Print.
An influential book on service as compassionate action and instrumental in helping me through my first
forays into volunteerism with the Advocate Hospice, I included this book as co-author, Mirabai Bush, is
one of the facilitators at the Contemplative Retreat for Educators listed in my proposed activities
section.
Das, Ram and Paul Gorman. How Can I Help? New York: Knoph, 1987. Print.
I used portions of this book with my Honors Seminar II in the Spring of 2011 as we incorporated service
Learning into the class, largely for inspirational reasons as many of the students were nervous about the
clientele they would be serving at Home Sweet Home Mission in Bloomington.
Davidson, Richard J and Antoine Lutz. “Buddha’s Brain: Neuroplasticity and Meditation.” National
Institute of Health. 1 Jan. 2008. Web. 10 Oct. 2011.
Davidson is the director of the Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience at the University of WI, Madison,
and has worked closely with the Dali Lama to study the impact of meditation on affective states. His
work—along with Jon Kabat-Zinn—has been at the forefront of research which has helped scientifically
validate the positive impact of mediation practices (although it is not uncontroversial).
Gray, Chris Hables. Cyborg Citizen. New York: Rutledge, 2002. Print.
A very readable book about the “synergistic interfaces” between the human and the technological with
particular emphasis given to social issues such as gender, race, class and warfare. Bring genetic
engineering into the mix with the underlying theme that technology is political. Outdated before it was
published, this is still a good introduction to the subject of posthuman studies.
Hanson, Rick with Richard Mendius. Buddha’s Brain. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger, 2009. Print.
The authors, a neuropsychologist and neurologist respectively, present scientific evidence that
mindfulness practices such as meditation can stimulate neural pathways in the brain that strengthen
abilities to concentrate and lessen states of anxiety and stress. A popularization of Davison and Lutz’s
work listed above but with practical methods that could easily be incorporated into classrooms and
everyday experience.
Hayles, Katherine N. “Deep and Hyper Attention: The Generational Divide in Cognitive Modes.” U of
Florida, Department of English. No date. Web. 11 Oct. 2011.
An important analysis of the first Kaiser Foundation Study, “Generation M,” (2005) which introduced the
issues of changing learning styles given the increased use of emerging media forms from a Humanities
perspective. Important here for contemplative teaching is the concept of synaptogenesis and
neuroplasticity: that neural pathways are strengthened with use and wither away with disuse and that
the practice of meditation results in strengthening pathways associated with attention and compassion
while weakening those associated with anxiety, fear, and depression. See also Hanson and Davidson.
---. How We Became Posthuman. Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1999. Print.
hooks, bell. Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom. New York: Routeldge, 2010. Print.
The third of hooks’ “teaching trilogy” (former volumes include Teaching to Transgress: Education as the
Practice of Freedom [1994] and Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope [2003]), this most recent
continues the author’s explorations into engaged pedagogy which merges Buddhist thought (specifically
that of Thich Nhat Hahn and his notion of “engaged Buddhism”), Paulo Friere’s ideas of “liberatory
education” and feminist thought. hooks has been foundational to my work; while we are about the
same age, I consider her my intellectual godmother. Her work is challenging, inspiring and sometimes
frustrating. She is wonderful.
Huston, Dan. “Waking up to Ourselves: The Use of Mindfulness Meditation and Emotional Intelligence
in the Teaching of Communications.” New Directions for Community Colleges 151 (Fall 2010):
39-50. Print.
I have been in contact with Dan, and I intend to visit his class should my proposal be accepted. He has
also agreed to send me his course materials in advance of my visit (included a self-published textbook)
and I’ve included a copy of this essay with these materials.
Kabat-Zinn, Jon. Full Catastrophe Living. New York: Delta, 1990. Print.
Kabat-Zinn is the founder and director of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and this book
was instrumental in moving meditation practices from the religious and mystical into the secular world
of medical care. Intended to help patients deal with significant medical issues, the book went on to
become quite pop amongst mainstream as it offers clear, secular methods of coping with stress using
mindfulness practices.
Kaiser Family Foundation Study. Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year Olds. Web. Jan. 2010.
Web. 11 Oct. 2011.
Kroll, Keith (ed). New Directions for Community Colleges 151 (2010). Print
A special issue of this journal on “Contemplative Teaching and Learning” which includes general
overviews of and arguments for the importance of contemplative teaching and learning as well as
discipline-specific (music, writing, Human Services
Lewis, Harry. Excellence Without a Soul: Does Education Have a Future? New York: Publix Affairs, 2007.
Print.
Palmer, Parker and Arthur Zajonc. The Heart of Higher Education: A Call to Renewal. San Francisco,
Jossey Bass, 2010. Print.
Essential. “Long after they forget the content they learned, who they have become will endure and
determine much of the character and quality of their contributions to society and the personal
satisfaction they take in life” (107). Includes strategies for enacting campus-wide “transformative
conversations” including class work, administrative and faculty initiatives. With Mirabai Bell, Zajonc will
co-facilitate the
Repetti, Rick. “The Case for Contemplative Philosophy in Education.” New Directions in Community
Colleges 151 (2010): 5-15. Print.
Prentice, Mary and Gail Robinson. “Improving Student Learning Outcomes with Service Learning.”
American Association of Community Colleges. 2010. Print.
Rosenberg, Marshall B. Life-Enriching Education. Encitas, CA: Puddle Dancing Press, 2003. Print.
This is part of Marshall’s “non-violent communication” which centers on creating partnerships or
“interdependent learning communities” between students and teachers. I have been a sometimesparticipant in the LEE (Life Enriching Education) Group on Campus in hopes of learning how to apply
some of Rosenberg’s ideas to my class and life.
Schoeberlein, Deborah. Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfulness. Boston: Wisdom, 2009. Print.
Very pragmatic book which offers models for in class mindfulness exercises in and out of the class
(mindful speech, journaling, “noticing the gaps,” and so on. I’ve only just begun to work some of this
into my curriculum and the results have been encouraging (see “Student Voices” at the end of the
proposal).
Shermer, Michael. The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How we
Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths. New York: Times, 2011. Print.
The most recent book I’ve read. I include this as Shermer—the editor of Skeptic—is quite hard-nosed
and critical of anything smacking of New Ageism, spirituality (in the more conventional sense of eternal
or extra-corporeal aspects of the self said to beyond our brains) and, generally that which cannot be
proved by science. I suppose I include this to provide evidence that I don’t just read material that
reinforces my beliefs. Fascinating.
Simmer-Brown, Judith and Fran Grace, eds. Meditation and the Classroom. Albany: SUNY Press, 2011.
Print.
I’m currently working my way through this (the first book specifically on contemplative pedagogy from a
major university press), and while the focus is on religious studies, there are valuable essays on general
contemplative pedagogy, building ethical classrooms with the aid of mindfulness practices, and on the
contemplative teacher.
Turkel, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New
York: Basic, 2011.
A rather dystopian and thought-provoking look at how we increasingly drop interpersonal and “real
world” connectivity in favor of technological networking and interfacing so that our identities become
“virtual” and the deep connections we yearn for with others becomes lost in a digital fog. Turkel is a
Professor at MIT and while she doesn’t use the term “posthuman,” she does nicely convey a sense of
loss the comes with what Jean Baudrillard called “the ecstasy of communication.
Worley, Lee. “The Contemplative Teacher: Taking the Long View.” Naropa U, 5 Feb. 2005. Web. 10 Oct.
2011.
This essay was provided as part Contemplative Education I, the first online course I audited at Naropa
University. Lee was the teacher, and I found this essay a fine way to ease into the subject with its dual
focus on the impact of this work on student and teacher.