Inside-Outside Presence

The main purpose of this step is to become acquainted with inside-outside presence, which students will further practice in Steps 2-5. Communicate that it takes considerable practice to attain inside-outside presence. “Inside presence” refers to being aware of your body, your breath and your thoughts. “Outside presence” refers to being aware of your surroundings and other person(s).

• Attending to the body (5 mins):
  Invite students to direct their attention inwards, i.e. to the body, breath or inner sensations.  
• Attending to surroundings (5 mins):
  Invite students to slowly expand their awareness to things they can notice around them (auditory, sensory, spatial and visual). Eventually, they can also make eye contact. Eye contact in particular seems to draw the attention away from the body and to the environment. 

Students are seated and place one hand on their leg. First, instruct them to try focusing on the touch of their hand on their leg. Next, instruct them to try focusing on the touch of their leg against their hand. Then, instruct them to try both at the same time.  

Next, instruct students to couple the exercise with an image. The image should work for the individual student and help each individual person in staying aware of hand and leg at the same time. For example, students picture the skin in between their hand and leg, a space in between the two surfaces or a circle going from the hand to the leg, to the hip, to the torso, to the shoulder, to the arm, to the hand, to the leg, etc. Students can also come up with their own image.

Instruct students to make a drawing of the chosen image. Then, invite students to share how the image helps them to focus on their hand touching their leg and their leg touching their hand at the same time. 

Similar to how students tried to focus simultaneously on their hand touching their leg and their leg touching their hand in the previous step, students now focus on their body and their environment at the same time. Students translate the image that they used in Step 2 to this situation, (re-)creating the image that works best for them.      

You are advised to communicate that there is not one right way of doing this and that it works differently for everyone.

Instruct students to make a drawing of the chosen image. Then invite students to share how the image helps them to focus on the body and environment at the same time.

The image created and drawn in Step 3 shifts from being a description to being a tool, similar to a mantra. Students take this image to a daily-life situation and use it to practice inside-outside presence, such as during dinner with friends or a collective work session.

After practising in daily life, students share their experiences in class by answering the plenary reflective questions.

Students now apply the image to practice inside-outside presence in challenging situations or during a specific task that is related to the course. For example, students practice during an interview, a fieldwork situation or while communicating with clients or stakeholders. The exercise can also be done in a classroom situation, in which connecting to each other is particularly important.   

Assessment as learning aims to strengthen the learning process and the development of metacognitive skills. It empowers students to direct their own learning and to become independent, critical self-assessors.

Self-assessment

Self-regulated learning

Reflective questions