The Science and the So What? #6
Where are the Studies on the Effects of Teachers’ Mindfulness Practices on Students?
effMarcy Crawford and Louis Wilde, Ph.D.
The Science
In a comprehensive review of mindfulness training in primary and secondary school classrooms, Meiklejohn, et al (2012) identify three basic approaches: “indirect (the teacher develops a personal mindfulness practice and embodies mindfulness attitudes and behaviors throughout the school day); direct (programs teach the students mindfulness exercises and skills); or a combination of direct and indirect approaches.” Developing a personal meditation practice is held to benefit teacher well-being directly and student well-being indirectly due to a reduction in the “stress-contagion” effect and an increase in classroom management skills. However, while the authors review many studies of mindfulness training programs for teachers and mindfulness interventions in the classroom, they fail to cite a single study of the effects of teachers’ personal mindfulness practices on student outcomes.
The So What?
One part of Meiklejohn, et al (2012) reviews three mindfulness-based training programs for teachers. According to the authors, “these three programs … share a tendency to build from personal mindfulness practice to include more relational dimensions of mindfulness practice, such as listening more deeply and developing emotional awareness, empathy, and compassion in the classroom.” That is, they augment the teacher’s personal meditation practice with training in relational mindfulness. Since maintaining a personal meditation practice takes time and may not appeal to many teachers, and since it may take a long period of sustained, regular practice for the benefits of a personal meditation practice to manifest in the classroom, the question arises how important is the personal meditation practice compared to the training in relational mindfulness? The published research on mindfulness is a long way away from answering this question since, as the authors indicate, existing research has not even addressed the question how a personal meditation practice, with or without augmentation, affects student outcomes. In their words, it is left to future research “to continue to investigate the short- and long-term impacts of mindful teachers in the classroom, for example, on classroom climate, teaching style, teacher efficacy, as well as the impact on students’ learning.”
Meiklejohn, J., Phillips, C., Freedman, M. L., Griffin, M. L., Biegel, G., Roach, A., Frank, J., Burke, C., Pinger, L., Soloway, G., Isberg, R., Sibinga, E., Grossman, L., & Saltzman, A., “Integrating Mindfulness Training into K-12 Education: Fostering the Resilience of Teachers and Students.” Mindfulness, 3 (2012): 291-307.