blood flow and changes in activity patterns. The body-mind functioning
is minimized. We become less flexible and more predictable, and survival
patterns override pattern detection and problem solving. We “lose our
train of thought” and our resourcefulness.
Mindful teachers, therefore, strive to maintain a classroom environ-
ment of trust, safety, and comfort for students. Such Habits of Mind as
risk taking, questioning, listening with understanding and empathy,
remaining open to continuous learning, creating and imagining, and find-
ing humor cannot flourish under stressful conditions.
Mindful teachers know that all forms of communication—verbal and
nonverbal—are important. They pay attention to physical signals from
their students, noticing their nervousness, withdrawal, or fear. Alert to these
cues, teachers use this information to modify their own classroom behav-
ior to become more empathic and congruent with students’ feelings. Such
subtleties as a teacher’s body language, voice tone, pauses in speech,
breathing, implied value judgments, and presuppositions embedded in
language all have an effect on students’ comfort and cognition. These non-
verbal signals and feelings are as important to thinking processes as they are
to establishing a trusting relationship necessary for self-reflective learning.
Te a c h e r s k n o w t h e y c a n u s e s p e c i f i c n o n v e r b a l a n d v e r b a l b e h a v i o r s t o
nurture relationships. For example, direct eye contact and a concerned
voice and facial expression are better at conveying empathy than are words
(Burgoon, Buller, & Woodall, 1996). The teacher’s gestures, posture, and
voice qualities contribute to maintaining a trustful classroom environment.
Ta k e n t o g e t h e r , t h e s e h a v e a n e n o r m o u s i m p a c t o n f e e l i n g s o f c o n n e c t e d -
ness and rapport. Some scientists refer to this phenomenon as “mental state
resonance,” a state of alignment that permits a nonverbal form of commu-
nication that the students are being “understood” in the deepest sense; they
are “feeling felt” by the teacher (Caine & Caine, 2001). And the safer one
feels, the greater the access to neocortical functioning (see Damasio, 1994;
see also Csikszentmihalyi, 1993; Damasio, 2000; and Pert, 1997).
What Is a “Thought-Full” Environment?
When we say the classroom must be a “thought-full environment,” we are
playing on the meaning of the word thoughtful: (1) to be “full of thought”
98 Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind