Mindfulness in the middle school classroom

Introduction

Some social and emotional issues can be especially problematic in the gifted population, including perfectionism, anxiety, and stress management. With the additional issues of surviving middle school with the peer pressure, hormonal changes, and the urge to fit in and belong, the daily life of a student can be overwhelming. If students learned how to monitor the physical and emotional senses tied to these problems, could they then use mindfulness techniques to help them find relief? In order to determine if mindfulness strategies could have an impact in these realms, a month-long focus on mindfulness was implemented through presentations by the school guidance counselor and having students set goals, complete reflections, and participate in daily guided meditations.

Mindfulness has gathered steam over the past few years growing into a topic in which businesses invest to help employees be innovative, sports teams rely upon to help their star athletes, and individuals use to maintain a state of happiness in a chaotic life. Although people may mistake mindfulness for meditation, meditation is a tool for helping individuals connect with their current surroundings and settle into a place where they can monitor mind frame and thought processes.

Schools have begun to see the possible outcomes attached to promoting mindfulness in classes, counseling programs, or after-school programs. Resistance to accepting mindfulness initially stemmed from the fear that meditation equated religion, and meditating was viewed as a promotion of Eastern religions. Some could not see the common theme among all religions that can be found through reflection and prayer. As school systems begin to allow more meditation activities into their classes, the possible benefits have started to surface. Perhaps, if schools implemented mindfulness studies, they could help students develop a new perception of the school environment, encourage students to develop coping mechanisms to deal with stress, and possibly help to alleviate issues tied with social and emotional disorders.

A key component for providing full services to gifted children includes addressing the social and emotional issues, including perfectionism and anxiety. Perfectionistic tendencies offer the opportunity for individuals to produce high-quality work and aid in motivation and persistence to help students overcome challenges. However, when these tendencies coincide with intense anxiety, the individual may suffer from a fear of failure (Flett and Hewitt, 2006). In extreme cases, this debilitating state leaves the student overwhelmed, unable to perform simple tasks. It can be noted when a student begins to write a paper only to erase and begin again, over and over.

Gifted children have the capacity to think about worldly topics at a young age. They may ask questions about the world, society, and the universe, and they may ponder topics such as life and death, and the existence of God. They can be acutely aware of the role of self within the context of friendships. Being able to contemplate such mature topics can be complicated for gifted children. They have the capacity to analyze situations, but they do not have tools to implement solutions which can lead to higher levels of anxiety and worry that may manifest in several forms. One consequence is excessive worry contributing to rumination. The question of how to help students manage these issues is central in gifted education.

Research on mindfulness

Mindfulness is “the practice of being consciously aware of the present moment” (Burke and Hawkins, 2012). Being mindful involves observing, participating, and accepting each moment’s experiences from a state of calmness and kindness (Albrecht et al., 2012). According to Schonert-Reichl and Lawlor (2010), introducing mindfulness skills early in life can promote social and emotional well-being and prevent the development of unhealthy behaviors.

Mindfulness has promise as an approach for helping individuals deal with emotional distress and maladaptive behavior (Bishop et al., 2004).

In a state of mindfulness, thoughts and feelings are observed as events in the mind, without overidentifying with them and without reacting to them in an automatic, habitual pattern of reactivity. This dispassionate state of self-observation is thought to introduce a “space” between one’s perception and response. Thus, mindfulness is thought to enable one to respond to situations more reflectively (as opposed to reflexively). (Bishop et al., 2004: 232)

Learning mindfulness is not an easy task, and being able to center oneself during a difficult time takes practice. Mindful attention is conscious awareness of the present moment, and at its foundation, the mindfulness movement relies on meditation as a technique for finding stillness. The Hawn Foundation has developed a 15-lesson curriculum featuring lessons about the brain (Hawn Foundation, 2011). These lessons provide strategies to help students develop a positive mind-set, improve self-regulation skills, and increase attention span.

Methods

The following research questions guided this study: (1) How can mindfulness affect how students deal with stress? and (2) Can direct instruction, daily mindfulness activities, and self-reflection influence how gifted students manage perfectionism and anxiety? Twenty-nine students in an eighth grade honors language arts class in a southeastern school in the United States were participants in the study on mindfulness with a focus on daily guided meditations to improve mindfulness mind frames.

A mixed-methods approach was used with data gathered through observations, discussions, student reflections, and a pre- and post-test on perfectionism using the Perfectionism Cognition Inventory (Flett et al., 1998) and stress using the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen et al., 1983). The study took place during the second month of the school year. The instructors devoted time for guided meditation and discussion at the beginning of class for 4 weeks.

The unit of study consisted of mindfulness discussions and daily meditation exercises in differing amounts—3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 30 minutes. Initially, the instructors looked for short online meditations focused on breathing and established a calm mood before stressful events. These included nature imagery with pictures of trees and trails through the woods (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i50ZAs7v9es). After students described the voices on these initial videos as distracting, the instructors used a different source for the guided meditations that were specifically geared for teens created by Dr Dzung Zo, a pediatrician specializing in pediatric medicine at British Columbia Children’s Hospital (http://mindfulnessforteens.com/). These online audio recordings focused on mindful breathing, sitting meditation, and body scans, an awareness and appreciation for the parts of the body.

The class discussed mindful eating, mindful walking, and how to apply meditation techniques to being mindful in everyday life including stressful areas. The instructors used the MindUp curriculum (Hawn Foundation, 2011) as a foundation for these discussions. The students were encouraged to apply the mindfulness techniques on their own in their daily lives at school and at home. Students analyzed their progress by writing five journal entries throughout the unit of study. In addition, the instructors monitored progress through observations, whole-group discussions, and individual conferences.

Results

The themes identified in the study correlated with the timeline of the study. Early in the study, students described their interpretation of mindfulness and experiences with guided meditation. Later in the study, students described how they applied the techniques in their daily lives or struggles they encountered with understanding the benefits.

Week one: Learning the process

By the end of the first week, 25 of the 29 students reported enjoying the guided meditation. They described appreciating the time for silence, learning new information through the guided meditations, and enjoying the benefits of relaxing. Four students reported issues struggling with the guided meditation, and described not enjoying the narrator’s voice, having difficulty with thoughts that occurred during the meditations, and concerns that the time spent meditating should be used to complete assignments.

For the majority of the students, practicing the daily meditations was an easy addition to their daily routines. Those who enjoyed the time devoted to stillness and breath expressed the appreciation for a period of quiet during the school day. At the end of the first week of the study, one student described his initial experiences with the guided meditation: “The first time I focused on what the narrator was saying, and the others times I worked specifically on breathing. I just like the quiet time, honestly.”

Another student shared how her family often tried to dabble in yoga. She said,

My mom and I try to do yoga every Tuesday. However, we always get so busy and we can never really do it. So this everyday helps a little. People usually don’t realize how helpful this is. They overlook it as silly or so called stupid. I try to encourage it though, because I know in the end it will help me in almost every way possible.

Students began to understand the possible benefits of the moments of silence. One student said,

I’m okay with meditation. It’s not something I look forward to, but it’s not something I dread. Sometimes I think “how is this helping anyone? All of our problems are still going to be there when we open our eyes. There are still deadlines and difficult teachers.” But then I realize that the meditation isn’t something to make your problems go away, it’s something to help you be more positive about your problems or conjure up a new point of view.

Finding videos or recordings that students would enjoy proved to be challenging. The voices of the narrators on the guided meditation videos or audio recordings bothered some of the students. They reported that the voices were too low or too slow. In addition, some of the students voiced concerns that they were not correctly meditating. One girl reported,

Good news—the narrator person no longer creeps me out. Bad news—everything is repetitive. It gets sort of hard for me to focus. I don’t know why. Maybe that is normal. I can focus on other things in my head the entire time, especially if I am absently doing something with my hands, but I have issues meditating. I used to meditate a couple times a week, but it was partially in a different language and even though the words didn’t change, the leader person kept changing their meaning so I don’t know what I was meditating to.

Weeks two and three: Applying mindfulness outside of the classroom

During the second and third weeks of the unit of study, the instructors began to encourage the students to try and use mindfulness techniques to help them in situations where they experienced intense stress and/or anxiety. Students selected an area that they wanted to focus on such as dealing with organization, worrying about past events or possible future events, family issues, weight, thoughts about death, being perfect, panic attacks, or sports. During these 2 weeks, students described how they felt about the guided meditation and if they were able to use mindfulness techniques to deal with stress. The results varied by student, but the majority of students expressed enjoyment of the mediation sessions and two-thirds of the students described thinking about mindfulness outside of the classroom.

One student explained how he realized he was being mindful when his mother picked him up in the afternoon in their convertible. He said, “When I ride in my convertible, I use mindfulness. I notice the wind and the sun on my face and what the leaves look like when we go by.” When dealing with stressful moments, several students described trying to use mindfulness techniques. One student wrote, “When I’m stressed out I don’t think about mindfulness because I’m freaking out. I have tried deep breathing when I’ve panicked before, and it did help a little bit.” Other students described how they thought to be mindful when struggling to go to sleep at night. One student described:

The mindful meditations are becoming more and more effective for me. Each day that we do them, I become more focused on relaxing and meditating than I was the last. At home, I am also calmer and more patient. I use the meditation when I have trouble falling asleep or become stressed. I think we should continue to practice these meditations in class because it helps everyone feel calm and relaxed.

Week four: Assessing the unit

Toward the end of the unit, students began reflecting on the overall process. They expressed appreciation for the time in class to meditate and the time to think about issues in their lives that cause stress and anxiety.

There were two students at the end of the unit who described how they did not enjoy the guided meditations or the time devoted to discussing mindfulness. Of the students who appreciated the unit of study, they reported learning about how to be in the moment. One student shared his thoughts about how the class time devoted to meditation helped him to develop awareness of the present moment. He shared,

I think that it is working most of the time for me because I rarely find myself thinking about other things. I pay attention to what the guy says, and I try to do what he tells me to do. I follow my breath, and I am aware of what’s going on right now and not anywhere else. I really hope we keep on doing this because I really am aware of things going on right there and then than on any other time of the day.

One boy described that he was not using the techniques outside of class, but he was benefiting from the guided meditations in class because they helped him focus. He shared,

I like doing this at school because that’s the place where I am rarely ever mentally there, and meditation really brings me into focusing on where I am. I guess I am having benefits if it’s bringing me where I’m supposed to be when I’m at school.

Others offered insight about times where they realized they had control over how they reacted to the levels of stress in their lives. One student said, “Meditation has been very helpful with my inability to let go of constant stress. I can now focus on what is happening if I want or need to.” Another student described how meditating helped her to calm down before anxiety-evoking situations:

I sometimes use the meditation skills before I do something that makes me nervous. It helps me relax and stay in the moment instead of thinking about everything I have to do. I enjoy having this time in class because it gives me a chance to have some relaxation time during the school day. I can really tell a difference when I use this. It calms me down and helps me focus.

One of the girls expressed that she was able to apply what she had learned about breathing with the larger issues in her life, specifically her perfectionistic tendencies. She shared,

I focus on my breathing during this time and when I’m trying to sleep. I liked how it was super simple with little to no background noise. I’ve been able to be less frustrated. When things aren’t perfect, I just think every day is a new experience. Take a deep breath and try again.

Discussion

In this study, no significant evidence of change was found in the pre- and posttests of perfectionism or anxiety. This may be dependent on the fact that a majority of the students do not struggle with perfectionistic tendencies that are debilitating. For the anxiety test, students reflected on their scores and said they did not see a change for several reasons: the pretest had been given at the beginning of the semester as opposed to the end of the grading period where the intensity to perform well increased. One student mentioned that he thought his scores did not improve because the stress in his life did not change, but the way in which he handled his stress changed.

Another reason these tests may not have shown significant change, even among the students scoring at the top of the perfectionistic scale, may be that the desire to be perfect at meditation overrode the possible benefits of practicing meditation (Handorf, 2012). This could have had a similar impact with students and the stress test. Perhaps, these students need to have a clinical issue with anxiety in order to see the results. In addition, the length of the study may need to be longer in order to see significant changes in the pre- and posttest scores (Handorf, 2012).

Through the qualitative data, students demonstrated growth in understanding the benefits of meditating on a daily basis. Although some students struggled to make the distinction between meditating and mindfulness, many of the students understood how meditating was an avenue for being mindful. Similar to other studies on mindfulness with adolescents (Milligan et al., 2015), the students recognized the benefits of taking time to breathe and relax in the middle of the day in order to reach a calm state of mind. Modifying instruction to meet the needs of adolescents was an important component in this process (Dellbridge and Lubbe, 2009; Thompson and Gauntlett-Gilbert, 2008). The instructors provided guidance and support as students learned to be comfortable in a quiet, reflective setting.

Limitations

This study was conducted in a region where the concept of mindfulness and meditation still correlate with religion. Because of this correlation, students whose parents are skeptical about guided meditation may have the potential to impact their students’ potential benefits from these activities. Two students did not enjoy the process of meditation and were distractions to their peers from time to time. Establishing the time as valid and important is essential to the process, and focusing on one’s breath takes a quiet environment where students are engaged in their silent contemplation, and the student buy-in is essential for success of the program.

Recommendations for future study and conclusion

The overall goal of this study was to see if students could perceive and alter their negative perfectionistic tendencies and stress levels. The positive results from the qualitative portion of the study, but not through the quantitative portion, could be used as a springboard for future investigations. First, if a teacher clearly sees that a student is struggling with a particular issue, they could recommend that the student receive mindfulness instruction in a small group, perhaps facilitated by a guidance counselor or a gifted education specialist. Within a small group setting, a student may find the safety and an added layer of intensity of instruction and discussion that is necessary to see a significant change in perfectionistic tendencies or stress levels.

In a large group setting, the atmosphere may provide too many opportunities for distractions. In addition, attitudes from students who do not have buy-in into the program can interfere with the potential benefits. Students responded positively to the overall experience, describing their enjoyment with time devoted to stillness and a focus on the breath. Serving the needs of the whole child is an important component to consider in the classroom. Lessons on mindfulness have the potential to have a long-reaching impact on students’ emotional, physical, spiritual, and mental health.