< Issue No. 20 (2025/2026)
Sub-Reflections
Keeping Mindfulness Buddhist: An Experiment in Collaborative Teaching and Learning
Engelmajer, Pascale F., Carroll University
Rondolino, Massimo A., Carroll University
Abstract
In this article, we offer a critical reflection on a collaborative experience designing and co-teaching an honors course on mindfulness. Our primary intention was to reframe students' unexamined assumptions that conceptualize both mindfulness and honors education as "doing more": more exercises for psychological benefits, and more work for higher grades. To accomplish this, we intentionally emphasized mindfulness's roots in Buddhist thought and practices, critically juxtaposing them to contemporary secular developments. At the same time, we also presented the study of philosophy, ethics and religious studies as forms of experiential learning in the context of a liberal arts education.