Lectio Divina: A Contemplative Pedagogy for Promoting Embodied and Creative Learning in Higher Education Classrooms

Authors

Jane E. Dalton, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Maureen P. Hall, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Catherine E. Hoyser, University of St. Joseph

Abstract

Lectio divina offers tools for creativity and discovery that engage students in embodied learning processes. This article explores lectio divina as an approach to teaching and learning in higher education that cultivates students’ multi-dimensional engagement in the classroom. Professors from English, Teacher Education, and Art Education share portraits from practice that successfully use lectio divina with creative work such as poems, story, and visual images on an intermittent basis in the classroom. These examples offer additional approaches to the use of lectio divina and provide practical glimpses into this contemplative approach as a creative and embodied pedagogy. Once a monastic practice, lectio divina has emerged as a contemporary contemplative practice that offers a pedagogical method aligned with many efforts in the 21st century to cultivate and value all dimensions of being human: mind, body, spirit.

Recommended Citation

Dalton, Jane E.; Hall, Maureen P.; and Hoyser, Catherine E. (2021) "Lectio Divina: A Contemplative Pedagogy for Promoting Embodied and Creative Learning in Higher Education Classrooms," Journal of Contemplative Inquiry: Vol. 8: No. 1, Article 9.
Available at: https://digscholarship.unco.edu/joci/vol8/iss1/9