Abstract
Emerging research suggests that mindfulness in schools is equipping children for the future in terms of both enhanced learning and emotional regulation. As a result, schools across the globe are including mindfulness training in school curriculum to reduce stress and improve children's learning skills. Practices such as relaxation techniques, focusing exercises, emotional intelligence tools, and mental health education are being taught to teachers, parents, and children to ease pressures and optimize well-being throughout the school years.
Robert Thomas, executive director of Mindful Schools, Emeryville, California, commented in an interview on the critical need for mindfulness in schools today. Thomas stated, “We are seeing (1) high rates of teacher burnout due to stress and anxiety in unsupportive working environments, as well as (2) increasing numbers of students whose learning skills are compromised due to experiencing anxiety, trauma, depression and social isolation from living in a complex, distracted and digital world.” In fact, in 2018, public school teachers in the United States quit their jobs at the highest rate on record, according to Thomas. He urged, “We need to make a radical shift toward creating healthy, sustainable school communities in which every member has the skills and support they need to thrive. Mindfulness is unique in that it works to address these issues at the most fundamental level.”
In fact, educators and parents alike are realizing that being equipped to handle life and stressful circumstances is equally as important as their students' and children's ability to read and write. Fortunately, the education system has become more aware of the importance of developing social and emotional skills in young people, which then aids their ability to learn, according to Thomas, who said the challenge has been how to effectively cultivate those qualities. Starting with the adults may be a first priority. Thomas said, “We have found that by first allowing the adults in the school to establish a mindfulness practice, they then begin to embody the social and emotional skills that they wish to develop in their students. Mindfulness creates the foundational conditions for both educators and students upon which a social emotional learning program can be implemented.” Research demonstrates that when a teacher learns mindfulness, student academic achievement and skill development improve, according to Thomas.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, an internationally recognized pioneer and leader in the field of mindfulness and an advocate for mindfulness in schools, stated in a Harvard Magazine article that today, telling students to pay attention is not enough. 1 In a distracted world, and in a world where students face enormous daily pressures, Kabat-Zinn affirmed that children need to be in supported environments where then can learn how to pay attention. Kabat-Zinn commented, “If you are going to be in an environment like a classroom, why not help students actually get into an alignment, calmness, clarity, and emotional regulation where they can be open to what is available for them? Then you create a community of learning.” 1
In fact, children are now reporting on the perceived benefits of mindfulness training they have experienced in schools. In one pilot study, students who had completed a mindfulness curriculum were asked how they thought mindfulness skills would benefit them in the future. 2 Student respondents reported that future perceived benefits included an increased sense of calm, improved sleep, better preparation for difficult things, easing of tension and anger, enhanced sports performance, increased relaxation, more prepared before examinations, and better able to manage strong feelings. Nearly 40% of the student respondents reported that mindfulness training led specifically to states of calm and relaxation.
Mindfulness Initiatives
With experts proclaiming the benefits of mindfulness in schools and the emergence of positive research findings in enhanced learning environments, increasing number of innovative mindfulness initiatives are offered today in schools throughout the world. The following are just a few of the many interesting and current school-based initiatives: Mindful Schools is a dynamic organization within the mindfulness movement that trains educators and other professionals who work with youth to bring mindfulness into the everyday learning environment of K-12 classrooms. The organization has now trained >50,000 educators, parents, and mental health professionals, according to its website.
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Mindful School courses are available online so that anyone in the world can access the training. The organization offers a variety of courses centered on mindfulness as well as a year-long Mindful Teacher certification training program. Thomas said, “Our efforts to bring mindfulness into education originally started as a grass-roots one educator at a time movement, but now it is more common for schools to enroll groups of educators in our trainings. The motivation is that a school can develop a critical mass of skills and competency among educators that can shift the school climate in a more healthy and sustainable direction. In this way, educators are starting to see themselves as change-makers working to affect system-wide change.” The Erikson Institute, Chicago, IL, initiated a mindfulness study with K-2 students in Chicago Public Schools. The federally funded study is the “first of its kind to evaluate both social-emotional and academic outcomes through a mindfulness intervention for children in kindergarten through second grade in the Chicago Public Schools,” according to the Erikson website.
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The study seeks “to determine if children do better academically if they have the skills to deal with stress in their everyday life and a greater sense of control over their emotions,” according to the website.
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The project utilizes the Calm Classroom curriculum in collaboration with the Luster Learning Institute, which focuses on three three-minute sessions a day where both students and teachers learn mindfulness skills. Evidence-based practices include breathing, stretching, focusing, and relaxation techniques, which the creators of Calm Classroom say can cultivate a “greater sense of self-awareness, mental focus and emotional resilience within educational spaces.”
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Amanda Moreno, PhD, Associate Professor, Erikson Institute, and the project lead of this study, commented that results of their mindfulness study to date show “promises of students who are calmer, more focused, and ready to learn.”
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The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, New Haven, Connecticut, partners with schools—from preschool through high school—to foster emotional intelligence among students, school administrators, teachers, support staff, and parents. RULER, developed at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, is “an evidence-based approach for integrating social and emotional learning into schools” and is also an acronym that stands for recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, and regulating emotion.
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The RULER curriculum website stated that, “Decades of research show that these skills are essential to effective teaching and learning, sound decision making, physical and mental health, and success in school and beyond.”
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On a global note, the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Education, Damian Hinds, recently announced that mindfulness exercises would be offered in up to 370 schools in England through a series of trials to test effective ways to support children's mental health.
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In these trials, children will be exposed to mental health awareness and education along with mindfulness practices including relaxation and breathing techniques. Acting on the premise that school-aged children are at a vulnerable time in their lives, Hinds stated, “Schools and teachers don't have all the answers, nor could they, but we know they can play a special role, which is why we have launched one of the biggest mental health trials in schools. These trials are key to improving our understanding of how practical, simple advice can help young people cope with the pressures they face.”
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The innovative trials will aim to support children's mental health, well-being, and happiness.
Moving Forward
In a scholarly article, Moreno commented that there is both keen interest and strong criticism regarding the implementation of mindfulness in schools. 10 Therefore, she stated, “It is important that mindfulness-based programs adhere to sound child development principles, be aligned with the neuroscience of stress, be integrated in a holistic manner by teachers throughout the school day, and support the ethical application of ‘right-minded’ values toward increasingly self-determined and equitable classrooms.” 10
Other challenges include understanding how mindfulness appropriately fits into a classroom setting rather than, for example, a religious or clinical setting. Burnett, in a comprehensive article on mindfulness in schools pointed out “how difficult it is to clearly articulate the objective of mindfulness in schools given a new context in which it functions as neither clinical application nor spiritual practice.” 2 He offered, “Mindfulness practice could be nested within a broad range of possibilities, from the very functional (revision, sleep, sport) to the therapeutic (anger, anxiety, stress, depression), through to the more spiritual (mystery, wonder, meaning).” 2 He added that mindfulness can be presented “as a discipline which can be applied and interpreted in many different ways, whilst leaving it to the pupils to discover which, if any, is most relevant to them. This would be very much in the tradition of a liberal, pluralistic education in which, ‘the true aim of everyone who aspires to be a teacher should be, not to impart his own opinions, but to kindle minds.’” 2
In addition, Thomas commented on the need to shift the fundamental narrative about the purpose and function of schools toward one that encourages and inspires all members of the school community. This shift, he said, is essential to create the conditions in which people can grow and develop in ways that include essential life skills. Thomas said, “If we do not create environments that encourage us to be attentive, self-aware, responsive, connected, caring and nurturing with each other, it won't matter so much if we have great STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills, because we won't be able to use them for good and build the future that we want.”
Conclusion
Mindfulness in the classroom has the capacity to change lives. Educators, parents and children are benefitting from learning mindfulness skills, which helps regulate emotions, reduce stress, and increase learning capacity, and these skills are then carried out of the classroom and into their daily lives. Thomas reported that many educators who learn mindfulness skills realize that the practice can impact all aspects of their life and is not only about teaching mindfulness to children. In terms of the future, Thomas concluded, “Our vision is for all children to learn in schools that encourage greater awareness, focused attention, and the ability to cultivate greater kindness and compassion for themselves and others. We can achieve this by empowering teachers, school administrators, and all of the adults in the educational community to have a mindfulness practice of their own.”