Mindfulness-based teaching – Portrait of Stéphane Justeau
A little-recognized aspect of higher education in France, pedagogy is the leitmotif of Professor Stéphane Justeau. The director of the Institute of Advanced Pedagogy at the ESSCA business school in Angers spoke at a CSIP MUSE workshop focused on student attention.
A few minutes of meditation at the beginning and end of each class. This practice is not found in a Californian yoga center, but in a classroom at the École supérieure des sciences commerciales d'Angers (ESSCA). The class is taught by Stéphane Justeau, director of the school's Institute of Advanced Pedagogy. The dean of the faculty came to present mindfulness meditation in a workshop on "strengthening students' attention" offered by MUSE's Center for Support of Pedagogical Innovations (CSIP) in mid-December 2020. "This unconventional intervention is part of our strategy to favor experimental approaches," explains Patrizia Tavormina, educational engineer at the CSIP, " but I admit that I was a little worried about how the invitation to meditate with their students would be received by the participating teachers."
A mandatory certificate
"In addition to the lack of pedagogical training, teaching is not valuedamong Professors," Stéphane Justeau regrets. Peers and, more broadly, the institution recognize a good publication but not a good course. This is a situation that has bothered the economist from early on, especially since a culture of teaching exists elsewhere, particularly in Anglo-Saxon countries. "In the United Kingdom, a teaching certificate is mandatory to teach in higher education," explains the ESSCA professor. " This is changing very gradually in France, with doctoral schools beginning to offer their doctoral students courses in teaching."
He quickly discovered a talent for teaching while working as a doctoral student at the university. This was especially true since his research on the impact of migration flows on wages and employment complicated his relationships with certain colleagues. "Under the pretext that my subject was reactionary, when in fact I wanted to contribute scientific evidence to these issues. It was difficult to deal with being judged for my intentions," he says. After completing his PhD in economics in 1998, he obtained a positionProfessor ESSCA. His affinity for teaching was confirmed: "I have always loved explaining and sharing knowledge, but also interacting with young people."
Quickly appointed head of the department—where he coordinates teaching in economics, law, and mathematics—he is in a prime position to hear his colleagues' complaints about students who are "not as good as they used to be," "unable to concentrate," and so on. These complaints exasperate him and prompt him to open his classroom to them to share his teaching methods,which"were already working rather well,"he says with quiet satisfaction.
Students want more
Little by little, his involvement in teaching earned him an offer from the school's management to run a teaching center within the school. So off he went to train at the teaching center in Lausanne, a benchmark in Europe. As the champion of teaching at his school, he returned to take on his new responsibilities. This involved training in education, particularly online, but also offering individualized educational advice. On the subject of distance learning, he commented in passing on "the fantastic opportunities it offers, particularly thanks to its international reach. But it is certainly not the teaching method of the future, as it lacks a socio-emotional dimension that is essential for learning."
This is a dimension that he embraces in his teaching. For him, the holy grail of teaching is capturing students' attention: "It's a fundamental pillar. Without it, there can be no learning." This is a challenge in the age of connected devices and social media, where there are constant and multiple distractions. As he practices meditation, which is recognized in scientific literature as improving attention, he has decided to introduce it into his classes (seearticle). " Mindfulness meditation is listed in Vidal, the bible for doctors," points out the man who does not want to be seen as a fanatic.
The first step is not easy, he readily admits. At a time when efficiency and speed are the order of the day, try convincing students to close their eyes and listen to their breathing. But the practice is well received and his students ask for more. And he pushes the experiment further by sharing it in his teaching courses, which he organizes around exchanges of practices.
Laurence Weil, a professor at the Montpellier Law School and participant in the MUSE workshop, does not hide her disbelief: "This proposal seemed incredible to me, as if it came from a parallel world or the22nd century. There is also a kind of immodesty in invading young people's privacy, which is very anachronistic in this day and age. But at the same time, it makes me think about my practice and opens up new horizons that re-enchant our profession!"