Preliminary Evidence on the Efficacy of Mindfulness Combined with Traditional Classroom Management Strategies

Abstract

The current case study combined mindfulnessbased strategies with a classroom behavior management treatment package, to assist teachers with managing 3rd grade student behaviors. Two teachers (Classroom teacher and Specials teacher) and six students within the same classroom were observed using a 5-min momentary time sampling procedure. A delayed multiple baseline across settings (e.g., Classroom teacher, Specials teacher) design was used to assess student behaviors across baseline (A), classroom behavior management treatment package (CBM) (B), CBM plus mindfulness (C), and CBM plus mindfulness and selfmonitoring (D) for two students. Behavioral treatment alone increased on-task behaviors for four of six (66%) students compared to baseline; however, five of six (83%) students increased and sustained high rates of on-task behaviors when mindfulness exercises were added to the behavior analytic techniques. These preliminary results support the combination of mindfulness-based strategies with traditional behavior analytic interventions for increasing student on-task behaviors in classroom settings. Keywords Behavior analysis . Mindfulness . Classroom behavior managementBehavior analytic interventions have been used in classroom settings to attenuate for issues with traditional classroom management strategies (e.g., Armendariz & Umbreit, 1999;Doggett, Edwards, Moore, Tingstrom, & Wilczynski, 2001;Gresham, 2004;Lee, Sugai, & Horner, 1999). A behavior analytic approach not only objectively identifies both skill deficits and overt problem behaviors, but also utilizes quantitative measures of behavior to make intervention decisions and denote behavior change. Antecedent manipulations (e.g.,

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