Benefits of Mindfulness Professional Development for Elementary Teachers

Abstract

Using an embedded quasi-experimental mixed-method approach, this exploratory study aimed to understand the benefits of mindfulness training for elementary school teachers and leaders in one rural school district. After the delivery of two 90-minute mindfulness professional developments with on-the-job practice of strategies over 2 weeks, quantitative statistical comparisons of the intervention and inactive control groups were made using survey results from the Mindfulness in Teaching Scale (Frank et al., 2016). Qualitative analyses used intervention participant journal entry responses along with one-on-one interviews. After analyses, the results suggest mindfulness training can benefit teachers, specifically in the use of intrapersonal mindfulness practices, reshaping daily interactions with students, and reducing stress.

Associations between the Psychophysiological Impacts of Teacher Occupational Stress and Stress Biomarkers: A Systematic Review

“…Further research should explore the physiological impacts of these potential moderators. In addition, interventions with proven benefits for physical health and biomarker function should be implemented more widely, such as mindfulness or reflective supervision [21,90,92,93,94].…”