Date of Award

Spring 5-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA - Master of Arts

Department

Mindfulness Studies

First Advisor

Nancy Waring

Second Advisor

Melissa Jean

Abstract

Interest in the effects of mindful interventions in school settings continues to draw increasing interest. Mindfulness techniques for students as well as mindfulness training for teachers are consistently producing encouraging results. This study focused on teachers and support staff at the middle and high school levels. Specifically, teachers and staff who were within 0-5 years of teaching or 0-5 years new to a teaching position. Because other studies have produced positive results of mindfulness interventions on teachers, this study is focused on evaluating the impact of mindfulness training on teachers in the formative years of teaching and in new environments. This study involved nine subjects who held positions as art teachers, teaching assistants, special education teachers, wellness teachers and math teachers. Teachers were asked to complete the Beginning Teacher’s View of Self Questionnaire (BTVoSQ) as a pre and post evaluation tool. A focus group interview session was also scheduled for pre and post intervention. The intervention was a 6-week, online Mindfulness Based Teacher Preparation (MBTP) course. The primary influence on the construction of the MBTP curriculum was Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course. Other influences included Patricia Jennings Mindfulness for Teachers along with Laura Weaver and Mark Wilding’s, The 5 Dimensions of Engaged Teaching. These developing teachers’ view of self produced an increase in total score with a self-reported score on 13 items from the BTVoSQ questionnaire. These teachers also showed a noticeable improvement in self-attunement along with a recognizable improvement in the awareness of students’ emotional and attentional states during a closing interview session.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Language

English

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