The practice of mindfulness promises a number of benefits for both students and teachers.
For example, there is growing evidence that mindfulness training improves our ability to:
- Regulate emotion (which also helps us think more clearly!)
- Improve attention
- Enhance executive function (a set of mental operations that involve focus, attention, problem solving, planning, and working memory)
- Increase motivation and learning
- Enhance empathy and promote prosocial behavior
- Reduce stress and improve wellbeing
While studies that look specifically at the effectiveness of mindfulness in a school setting are still somewhat limited, it is clear that the skills listed above offer advantages for increasing teachers’ efficacy and students’ academic success.
How mindfulness can help educators
There is a small, but growing, body of research looking at the impact of mindfulness programs on teachers, with studies finding positive improvement in teaching self-efficacy, work motivation, job performance, relationships with students, and physical health, along with a decrease in occupational stress. A 2013 randomized control trial done at the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior at the University of Wisconsin, Madison found that a modified MBSR program for teachers produced significant reductions in psychological symptoms and burnout, improved classroom organization, enhanced performance on an attention task, and increased self-compassion. The control group, in contrast, showed increases in burnout.
How mindfulness can help students
Research on the effects of mindfulness in children is growing. A 2012 review article by developmental psychologist Mark Greenberg concludes there is some evidence that mindfulness practice helps improve children’s social skills and school-related functioning. The review cites pilot studies showing increases in students’ self-reported calm, relaxation, optimism, positive affect, and self-acceptance, but notes that most of these studies are small or suffer from problems in design and measurement, which reduces confidence in their findings.
A 2014 review in Frontiers in Psychology suggests that children who have participated in a mindfulness program perform better on attention tests and this skill increases with more mindfulness training. However, this review also noted limitations of the research studies, most of which were small and did not compare mindfulness to another program.
In short
Mindfulness appears to offer great potential as a strategy for enhancing students’ social and academic success and improving teacher wellbeing and performance. Larger and better-designed research that more fully explores that promise and compares mindfulness to other programs is underway
Jon Kabat-Zinn on teaching mindfulness in schools
Mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn offers a compelling case for making mindfulness a part of the regular curriculum.
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