Conceptualizing the Mindful Teacher: Examining Evidence for Mindfulness Skills in Teachers' Classroom Speech and Behavior

Abstract

Mindfulness-based interventions can improve teachers' capacities for attention and emotion regulation, as well as their prosocial dispositions like compassion and forgiveness. The purpose of this set of research studies (including three case studies and a larger non-randomized treatment-control group quasi-experimental study) was to examine whether or not capacities like these, learned through participation in a mindfulness training (MT) program for teachers, become embodied and show through as changes in teachers' mindful behavior in the classroom-specifically, their ability to be calm, clear-minded and kind-hearted in their speech and behavior with students in the classroom. These studies used first-person, teacher reports and third-person, observer measures to assess potential MT-program-related impacts on changes in teachers' classroom speech and behavior over time. Results from survey and interview data showed change in teachers' perceptions of their mindful classroom behavior. The case studies showed evidence of change in teachers' calm, clear and kind classroom speech and List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………..vi List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………vii

Does your mindfulness benefit others? A systematic review and meta‐analysis of the link between mindfulness and prosocial behaviour

“…Of the 12 correlational studies, 10 were published and two were dissertations (McGarvey, ; Weltfreid, ). Of the 21 intervention studies, 18 were published, two were unpublished conference papers (Frost, ; Reb, Junjie, & Narayanan, ), and one was a dissertation (Taylor, ). Nineteen of the 21 intervention studies used a randomized controlled design, while two studies used a non‐randomized matched controlled design (McCall, Steinbeis, Ricard, & Singer, ; Montero‐Marin et al ., ).…”

Meta‐analysis of mindfulness training on teacher well‐being

“…However, less than half of the included studies contained a yoga component. Excluding Taylor () and Roeser et al () due to the duplicate studies, generally, the intervention phase of papers lasted slightly over 7 weeks ( M = 7.03, SD = 3.75) and on average, over 20 hr of mindfulness per intervention ( M = 20.58, SD = 12.31). Interventions had stark differences in mindfulness delivery models, such as how often an intervention occurred and how many minutes or hours an intervention lasted.…”