There’s a powerful phrase that states ‘Love what you do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life’. Indeed for all workers in the field of education, this is a true statement with great value. We are constantly reflecting on ways to enhance our teaching practice, relevant pedagogy, and student success. But, student success cannot only be measured in academic standards and grades alone. Student success is also measured in student well-being: academically, emotionally, behaviorally, and otherwise. In this context, we as a small team of like-minded educators, decided to tap into practices that held meaning and value in our own lives. The art of ‘Mindfulness’, a way of thinking as well as an intervention and lifestyle practice, was thus examined and analyzed as a teaching tool to improve the well-being of a group of students based on the exploration of its history, the effects of the practice on attention and focus, and in the hopes of achieving better emotional, social, and academic well-being.
Before explaining how a group of four teachers applied current research to their practice and analyzing the results of the work on approximately 100 students in their classrooms, it is essential that the concept of ‘Mindfulness’ is understood based on a definition that is generally accepted in academic circles. In their article Effects of Mindfulness on Psychological Health: A Review of Empirical Studies, Keng et al. consolidate the work from over two hundred sources, including clinical trials as well as controlled studies on the psychological health effects of mindfulness. The definition or scope of mindfulness reviewed by them is encompassed as follows:
“…most [researchers] follow the model of Bishop et al. (2004), which proposed that mindfulness encompasses two components: self-regulation of attention, and adoption of a particular orientation towards one's experiences. Self-regulation of attention refers to non-elaborative observation and awareness of sensations, thoughts, or feelings from moment to moment. It requires both the ability to anchor one's attention on what is occurring, and the ability to intentionally switch attention from one aspect of the experience to another. Orientation to experience concerns the kind of attitude that one holds towards one's experience, specifically an attitude of curiosity, openness, and acceptance.” (Keng et. al., 2011)
In simple terms, ‘Mindfulness’ is about noticing and observing one’s experiences through the awareness of thoughts and feelings in the ‘here’ and ‘now’. It is also about consciously refocusing the mind’s attention, orienting it to the present experience with an open attitude, awareness, and intention. Brining such strategies into the realm of the classroom would be highly beneficial for students in order to enhance their mental well-being and subsequently their academic success. For a practice that seems so ‘new-age’, it is actually quite the contrary. As an ancient concept with roots in Zen Buddhism and Vedanta Hindu thinking, dating back over 3000 years, the practice of Mindfulness and associated lines of thinking (i.e., meditation, calming, self-regulation, etc.) have been around for centuries.
With recent contemporary lifestyle practices emerging in the West in the ongoing rat race of life, individuals are often searching for answers to grapple with problems and challenges that are hitting them on a daily basis. For adolescents and teenagers, it manifests in trying their hardest to ‘fit in’ with the in-crowds, keeping up with homework, owning the latest pieces of technology, being the best athlete, maintaining their profiles in the online world through their social media, or just navigating life’s hurdles in a search for their identity as youths. With these activities permeating life, anxiety and stress levels have been elevating and negatively affect student minds. For a seemingly ‘connected’ world, students are often more ‘disconnected’ and ‘disengaged’ as their minds are preoccupied with stress and the pressures external to them.
In March of this year (2018), an article published for TIME magazine pointed to a number of studies indicating the rise in anxiety levels and depression amongst students in the US. Titled Record Numbers of College Students Are Seeking Treatment for Depression and Anxiety — But Schools Can't Keep Up, the article also touches on the issue of the difficulty in transitioning from elementary and high-school to the free structure of college and university, where “mental health issues creep up for the first time.” Closer to home, a survey conducted by People For Education found that in Ontario, 26% of counselors reported that one-on-one counselling for mental health problems was their biggest challenge and continues to rise. For these reasons, educators are now trying to provide strategies and tools for students to maintain sound thinking and healthy minds. Amongst these strategies is mindfulness, but just as with any novel practice or idea, mindfulness has become a ‘buzzword’ to many who don’t conceive it as a practice that holds merit.
Before beginning any of the activities, the team (four teachers) met to discuss the process of administering our lessons and work. Since the work of mindfulness is often loosely defined, we chose to use the practice of mindfulness and meditation in different forms and with the interpretation of the practices that work best for our classroom in the enhancing of emotional, social, and academic well-being. To gain a better understanding of what our students already knew about mindfulness and their own strategies, we administered a survey through Google Forms with 15 questions inquiring about a range of topics under the umbrella of ‘well-being’. Examples of questions included rating on a scale how often one feels stressed (e.g., 0 being never and 5 being always), checking off strategies they use when they are feeling overwhelmed or upset (e.g., talking to friends, listening to music, taking a walk, etc.), and indicating some of the causes of their stress (i.e., too many things going on at home, too much homework, etc.). Results of the survey have also been attached.
Approximately one hundred and fourteen students participated in the survey. While the majority of students reported that that they felt stressed sometimes and they had ways to get over their worries, about 25% of respondents(1 in every 4 students)indicated that they felt stressed and worried ’often’ or ‘all the time’. In addition, 28% of the students (32 students) also indicated that they ‘usually feel overwhelmed’ or ‘feel so overwhelmed’, which is just more than 1 out of every four students surveyed.
The full survey questions can be accessed with the following link (note these are just the questions as the results are accessible upon request): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1yWPLdxJ7WOHr4I6bQ1WcYfpkv6tfXFMDaOmhXg8Pex8/edit?usp=sharing
Breathing & Meditation
One of the activities implemented in all of the classrooms was the use of one or more of the Mindfulness apps such as Calm, Breathe, or Headspace. In one of the Grade six classes, students were given an introduction to the concept of mindfulness and how it may be novel or even uncomfortable to many because it is different and may not have been experienced before. The Calm app has a number of sessions in various series that take listeners on daily guided exercises of approximately 10 minutes. The ‘7 Days of Calm’ for beginners was the initial series the Grade 6 class listened to and experienced new strategies to control their breathing and to begin exploring new ways of calming their mental worries. As soon as the session begins, a “Breathing Ring” is played to help viewers listen to a tone and follow a pattern to inhale, hold, and exhale their breath. This prepares students for the mindfulness session of that day. During the first two sessions of Calm, students had difficulties following the voice of the guide and keeping their eyes closed or even refraining from talking and whispering to their peers. With some gentle reminders, they gradually improved their understanding of the routine and knew the expectations when they were told that a mindful breathing session would take place in the morning. Approximately half of the class of twenty-five students found that it benefited and relaxed their minds during those 15 min. of mindful breathing in the initial few sessions.
During the ‘debrief’ conversations, students themselves gave responses answering ‘why’ mindful breathing may be important and how it can help them. They even mentioned that it is difficult to bring the mind back to their breathing or the instructions of the exercise, which is exactly what mindful noting and noticing entails. An interesting find involved a few students who often said that they found it difficult to sit, concentrate, and be mindful by focusing on their thoughts. When asked why this was, one of them indicated it didn’t really help as he didn’t know what to focus on and didn’t feel he had any worries or stresses to relax. It is important to note here that the class is made up of students who have had a history of traumatic events earlier in their childhood and they have responded to these life events in various ways. While, his experience was neither right nor wrong, the student was able to articulate at a later date that he found the mindful breathing a good activity, whether he benefited from it or not. Many of the students experienced this same initial difficulty, but were able to see some improvement in their focus through the breathing practice over time.
breathing strategies we used
The Honest guys meditation
In addition, to guided meditations, we used an app called 'Calm' to help us with our mindfulness and breathing practices.
Some of the comments and results
One of the ways in which students responded was through ‘Rating cards’ indicating a before and after experience using a rating of 1-5 (1 – a poor experience and 5 – the best experience). Over two mornings on April 30th 2018 and May 2nd 2018, students filled in the short rating card and also completed the statement “Mindfulness and meditation makes me feel ________ because _____________.” Although the group of students may have had a difficult time ‘rating’ due to the language barrier and trying to make sense of the before and after concept, they all managed to score an equal or higher rating after the practice compared to before. Some of the statements are included in the tables below.
"Academic performance improves when students feel safe and connected -in short, when they are supported by a strong relationship with their teacher." -from Mindful teaching and teaching mindfulness by Deborah schoberlein david
Gratitude
The gratitude journals came out of a discussion on how students can perform ‘mindful writing’ where they make a full effort to consciously reflect on their own lives and what or why they feel grateful for. Various prompts were given to students to allow them to write with intention and push their reflective journal writing to help them take note of the people and things of value in their lives. One of the prompts included “I remember all the mentors who have shown me the way and inspired me. I feel grateful for…”. Although one of the classes included many students who were classified as ELLs (English Language Learners) due to their status as newcomers or the challenges of learning English, we made it a point to breakdown and define words such as ‘mentor’, ‘inspired’, and ‘grateful,’ to provide more choices for students to write about than just their own parents, which they were also permitted to write about. Excerpts of some student responses are listed below:
- “I remember all the mentors that helped me become a soccer player. It was my grandfather that helped me become a soccer player…It was he that helped me grow. When I talk to him, he also gives me some tips and advice about my game”. –V
- “I am thankful for my uncle and my dad because they support me. I was so shy before I was not talking to anyone, but they helped me and now I have more confidence…” –F
- “A mentor I had was my fifth grade science teacher. She helped me by inspiring me to be curious and learn as much as I can. Another mentor who inspired me is my skating teacher. She showed me how to be alert on the ice and to concentrate as much as I can in a split second decision.” –A
- “My parents inspire me to work hard to achieve my goals and to be honest. My parents always tell me that even if I don’t achieve a goal, that I should continue to work hard. These mentors have helped me be a better person and I am grateful for them.” –S
- “I am privileged to have a wonderful family to support me, to teach and nurture me. Many children around the world are not able to feel much gratitude for these subjects.” –G
As indicated by many of the statements above, the students were able to note and reflect on who brought a sense of gratitude in their lives and also why. By articulating these thoughts, they find ways to appreciate the things or people they may take for granted and learn to ‘name’ or ‘note’ these points in their mindful writing tasks. We may find ourselves committing to these during occasions such as “Thanksgiving” or other periodic occasions in the year. However, the difference here is having students set aside time on a consistent basis to reflect and show gratitude allows them to be in the moment of something intentional, while articulating the reasons behind their feelings.
Stressed minds & calm minds
Another activity provided students the opportunity to communicate their thoughts about what they felt their own ‘calm mind’ looked like and what their ‘healthy mind’ looked like. After guiding students through a number of mindfulness strategies and also discussing lessons periodically throughout the term on positive thinking and growth mindset, students were given a blank template of two silhouettes showing just the figure of a head with a thinking bubble. One side was to represent the thoughts, activities, and feelings they had or did when their minds were stressed and the other side was to represent those when they were calm. As students took the time to convey these thoughts, they used the process of being mindful to articulate specifically about what affects their minds and how it may do so. This practice allowed them to name and note the various strategies, people, or other actions and thoughts that allowed them to feel calm or stressed.
Some of the observations that related to a ‘stressed mind’ were as follows:
- More than half the students in a Grade 6 class (of students) indicated that homework, grades, or assignments were part of their stressed minds. (This included pictures of ‘work’ or words describing work such as ‘hard homework’, ‘getting good grades’, ‘tests’, ‘failing’).
- Slightly less than half of the students (11 of 25) indicated ‘loud noises’, ‘yelling’, or ‘shouting’ were part of what caused some level of stress to their minds. This was the second most frequent response given.
- Many students had written or drawn something associated with ‘sports’, particularly males, where they indicated that playing competitive games on the playground or outside of school caused them to be stressed (i.e., soccer, hockey).
- Individual responses stood out as well (e.g., taking religious classes and studying religious books, getting into arguments with friends, war or poverty or other world problems).
- Students also indicated that bullying is still a problem and that getting bullied causes them to be stressed. (This may be connected to arguing with friends or playing sports others at times).
Some of the observations that related to a ‘calm mind’ were as follows:
- More than half the students (16 of 25) expressed that listening to some type of music -whether instrumental or calming or otherwise- helped them to calm their minds.
- Students also indicated that their own family and/or friends give them a calm mind. (Although the reasons may be uncertain, it is likely that they include relationships with people in their lives who provide love, care, comfort, emotional happiness, etc.).
- Scenes of nature along with being outside in nature are factors in producing calm minds for more than a quarter of the students.
- Many students indicated that reading, playing sports, and going on YouTube gave them a sense of calm.
- Students actually wrote breathing exercises and meditation/mindfulness, which indicated that they knew how to tap into a newly learned strategy. Interesting to note is that more students had written or drawn a picture describing video games than they did the breathing or meditation/mindfulness practice.
- There were more details through words and pictures in the ‘calm mind’ thinking bubble than students had in the ‘stressed mind’ thinking bubble, which is a positive sign indicating that there is more ‘substance’ to tap into in the healthy calm minds versus a stressed.
We know the benefits of mindfulness and mindful practices...time to put theory into practice!
Reflections
As we first embarked on this journey, my own particular motivation was the need to bring about a sense of spirituality and connect students back to their own inner selves, beyond the material and everyday pursuits that we are surrounded with on a daily basis. When we were given an opportunity to pursue the project through the OTF applications, I immediately knew this task would not be considered ‘work’ since it was already a passion of mine. Further, when we know what resonates with our own thought processes and systems of thinking, we also know who we can surround ourselves with to sustain our actions and pathways. This group of educators was without a doubt the perfect set of individuals to carry the project of Mindfulness because, quite frankly, we all believed in the power of Mindfulness and Mindfulness-based practices.
Although at the onset of our project and meetings we found ourselves discussing what exactly the specifics of this project would entail and even questioned the very subjective definition of Mindfulness, we came to realize that the breadth and scope of the field was large enough to encompass all aspects of well-being. Connecting this to the well-being of ourselves and our students and using the practices of Mindfulness to influence student behaviours and performance was our biggest goal as educators. We also noticed that the fundamental step towards this goal was that we ourselves, the educators or facilitators in the classroom, have to be consistent practitioners of Mindfulness and develop the mindful attitude or thinking that is essential to bringing about Mindfulness in others.
As we read through one of the resources “Mindful Teaching & Teaching Mindfulness” by Deborah Schoberlein David, we knew that it spoke to the experiences of so many educators because of the messages that the author communicates and how we are constantly finding ways to serve the interests of our students. We also realized that we were already doing much of what she writes about and that there were many activities that we may be able to modify. Taking note of our own students’ thinking and reflecting on our own personal states of awareness has always been and will continue to be one of the most essential messages in developing mindful thinking both in and out of the classroom setting. As Schoberlein David states:
“Mindfulness promotes inner awareness and outer attunement in tandem. The more easily, and accurately, you notice what’s happening mentally, emotionally, and physically within you, the less effort you need to expend paying attention to yourself. As a result, your inner awareness parlays into more energy for focusing on other people’s experiences. This occurs when people communicate with reciprocal awareness and attention, and in the classroom this means teachers and students interact in sync.” -Pg. 72
Another key learning from Schoberlein David’s book was that essential to student success are the grounds on which our relationships are formed. We have known for a long time that students who see themselves in their learning and whose voices are valued in the classroom are much more likely to be engaged and interested. In “Happiness the Mindful Way - A practical guide” by Ken A. Verni, we are given a very realistic and wholsitic sense of how to approach mindfulness. Everything from letting go of negative feelings, to being present in the present moment, to growing our understanding about our own learning is explored in detail with easy access to the language. When we share such teachings with our students in contextualized examples, they can relate, understand, and benefit from knowing that their teachers care for their concerns. For example, giving students a sense of how to ‘deal with’ a situation or manage, cope, and face the challenge of negative thoughts or situations, is more likely to result in success than running away. If these relationships then are based in trust, care, and culturally responsive pedagogy, then our work can flourish. Thus, mindfulness in building relationships allows us to consciously invest in our students and this requires an effort on our part.
To quote Schoberlein David: “There is also a noticeable difference in students’ performance when they learn mindfully versus when they do schoolwork mindlessly. When students are really there, the classroom is alive with learning and their work shines. When they’re disengaged or distracted, well, the classroom is more likely to be dull or in chaos.” -Pg. 7
A Mindful society founder Michael ApoLlo With TiTa Angangco
The Research behind the practice
Why Mindfulness?
Christopher Willard presenting on the 7/11 breath and how to move our students from 'Fight & Flight' to 'Attend & Befriend'
Connections to the classroom
Keynote Speakers - Dr. James Doty & Sister Thệ Nghiêm
Our great team - Pilar Garcia-Yee, Tanmay Davé, and Xochitl Lugo!!
Credits:
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