week 11 post 1

Week 11 post 1

Thesis statement:

The implementation of social emotional intelligence strategies and mindfulness exercises in k-12 schools should be mandatory.

 https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/three_mindset_shifts_that_can_help_students_succeed 

Three Mindset Shifts That Can Help Students Succeed

By chris hulleman and larry happel

The mindset GPS

Psychologists define mindsets as the attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions about ourselves, other people, and the environments we’re in 

The G stands for Growth.

• One way to overcome diverse challenges is to cultivate a growth mindset. Coined by social psychologist Carol Dweck, growth mindset refers to a person’s belief that skills and abilities can develop, especially through hard work, trying challenging things, learning from failure, and adjusting strategies to accomplish goals.
•  When we adopt a growth mindset, we are more likely to stick with things longer, perform better, and enjoy what we’re doing more than when we believe that our skills and abilities are fixed.
• The key is to help students believe that effort can make a difference.
• How does a growth mindset help when transitioning to something new? It helps students focus on what is in their control and reduces the crippling fear that they may be stuck in their current state forever. It helps them be proactive instead of reactive or disengaged.

The P stands for Purpose.

• When people find meaning and purpose in their life—whether it’s something grand like curing cancer or more modest like connecting with friends—they persist longer, enjoy what they’re doing more, and feel better about their lives.

• when students in middle school, high school, and college are able to connect what they are learning in school to what is important in their life, they learn more and become more interested in school. For example, ninth-grade science students who were prompted by their teachers to write brief essays about how what they were learning in class related to their lives—compared to other students who write a summary of the topic they were learning—improved their semester grade by nearly one full letter grade.
• instructors or mentors can encourage students to reflect on how attending school aligns with their core values. They can ask them how taking specific classes gets them closer to their goals.

The S stands for Social.

• Wanting to fit in and make social connections is a fundamental part of being human. But making social connections can take time. Research on social belonging shows that when people start something new, they often feel they’re the only one struggling and that these struggles are a permanent part of the experience. This often leads students to assume they aren’t cut out for school. This is especially true when students experience adversity, such as failing an exam.
• Across several studies, Walton and colleagues found that the belonging intervention boosts persistence, grades, and well-being compared to the control group. This was particularly true for students who were most likely to experience stereotype threat—the risk of conforming to stereotypes about your own group—such as underrepresented minority students or women in STEM fields.
• Students benefit from knowing that fitting in is a challenge that’s common and often temporary. This reminds them that being new and different doesn’t mean they don’t belong. Most people grow more comfortable in a place over time. The more students interact with others, the sooner they can build relationships and make friends. To help students develop a social mindset, instructors and mentors can remind them that others probably feel uncomfortable at first, too, and may be waiting for someone else to reach out. 
• Encouraging students to step outside their comfort zone and ask a peer to lunch or helping them start a study group before an exam can go a long way to establishing new relationships.

Mindsets are social

•  Having an adaptive mindset isn’t just about the rugged individual figuring it out on his or her own. Mindsets are also part of the social context. They can be taught and supported by caring adults. It starts with institutions recognizing that helping students be successful also includes helping them adopt the learning mindsets that will help them navigate the challenges and struggles of life.

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/eight_tips_for_teaching_mindfulness_in_high_school 

 Eight Tips for Teaching Mindfulness in High School

You have to make mindfulness class relevant to the daily lives of students. Sports, relationships, parents, teachers, friends—if you can relate it to what the students are experiencing and they understand how it can actually be useful in their lives, you start to grab their attention.

1. Scale it down

• Classes that are smaller than 12 people are very different from class sizes of 12 or more, for the students in smaller groups are much more willing to share. 
• studies of the relationship between learning and classroom size show that students perceive smaller classes as being able to foster a greater sense of belonging and togetherness, tighter relations with teachers, and more classroom participation. Classes of 12 or more are much less intimate and a bit more like typical classroom teaching.
• It helps to divide activities into small groups, or do more pair-sharing. 
• Of all the factors listed here, I firmly believe that class size is the most important in terms of determining what you teach and how you teach it.  If you can, keep the class small.

2. Foster intrinsic motivation

If students are voluntarily taking the course, it means they actually want to be there

The key for teaching compulsory classes is explaining to students why you are teaching them mindfulness. Take the time to explain how this is different from other classes—no grades, no homework, more interpersonal.

when teachers take the time to explain the meaningfulness of what they are teaching their students are often more intrinsically motivated. The result is happier, less anxious students who are more willing to learn. 

3. Start with older students

Freshman and first-semester sophomores have a lot of goofy energy and need more discipline. Doing shorter experiential exercises, like games and pair-sharing, with them is helpful.

4. Meet at least once a week

Meeting at least once a week is important. At some schools, we’ve needed to take two-week breaks, and I’ve found that it really disrupts the flow of the class. At one school, the schedule only permitted meeting once every ten school days. That was not working at all because there was no consistency, and it was more difficult to build up the necessary trust.

5. Hold 9-12 classes

I would say the absolute minimum classes would be nine (one intro, and eight full classes). However, I prefer 12 classes. The more I get to know the students, and the more conversation that we have, the deeper and more engaged the students get into the curriculum.

6. Teach in the middle of the morning

The best time to teach mindfulness is mid-morning. 

Teaching first period can be tough because the students are not yet awake—and, in fact, studies show that teenagers at about age 14 learn less in the morning, thanks to shifts in their bodies. 

7. Consider the advantages of outside and in-house teachers

I have always taught as an outside teacher, someone who goes into a school specifically to teach mindfulness classes. 

8. Remember that you are planting seeds

Every time I finish a 10-week mindfulness class, I would wonder if it was helpful at all. Did the students get it? Are these 10 hours going to change their lives? Was I doing a good job? 

Sometimes there would be direct results, like when a student would tell me how practicing something from the class changed one of her relationships or made him less angry. 

But at the end of the day, I would remember: 10 hours is not much time. I am just planting seeds. If I taught students lacrosse or piano for 10 hours, I would not expect it to change their lives.

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/mindfulness_in_education_research_highlights 

^VERY GOOD LINK

Mindfulness in Education Research Highlights

BY EMILY CAMPBELL

Barnes, V. A., Bauza, L. B., & Treiber, F. A. (2003). Impact of stress reduction on negative school behavior in adolescents. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 1(10).

Forty-five African American adolescents (ages 15–18 years) were randomly assigned to either a Transcendental Meditation (TM) group (n = 25) or a health education control group (n = 20). The TM group engaged in 15-min meditation sessions at home and at school each day for 4 months. The control group was presented 15-min sessions of health education at school each day for 4 months. Findings demonstrated that the students who received the TM program showed reduced rates of absenteeism, rule infractions, and suspensions compared to the control group.

Barnes, V. A., Treiber, F. A., & Davis, H. (2001). Impact of transcendental meditation on cardiovascular function at rest and during acute stress in adolescents with high normal blood pressure. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 51, 597–605.

This study examined the impact of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program on cardiovascular reactivity in adolescents with high normal blood pressure. Thirty-five adolescents (34 African Americans)  were randomly assigned to either TM (n = 17) or health education control (CTL, n = 18) groups. The TM group engaged in 15-min meditation twice each day for 2 months. The TM program appeared to have a beneficial impact upon cardiovascular functioning at rest and during acute laboratory stress in adolescents at-risk for hypertension, as the TM group exhibited greater decreases in resting blood pressure as well as other improvements compared to the control group.

Beauchemin, J., Hutchins, T. L., & Patterson, F. (2008). Mindfulness meditation may lessen anxiety, promote social skills, and improve academic performance among adolescents with learning disabilities. Complementary Health Practice Review, 13, 34–45.

Students with learning disabilities (LD; defined by compromised academic performance) often have higher levels of anxiety, school-related stress, and less optimal social skills compared with their typically developing peers. Previous health research indicates that meditation and relaxation training may be effective in reducing anxiety and promoting social skills. This pilot study used a pre–post no-control design to examine feasibility of, attitudes toward, and outcomes of a 5-week mindfulness meditation intervention administered to 34 adolescents diagnosed with LD. Post-intervention survey responses overwhelmingly expressed positive attitudes toward the program. All outcome measures showed significant improvement, with participants who completed the program demonstrating decreased state and trait anxiety, enhanced social skills, and improved academic performance.

Bluth, K., Campo, R. A., Pruteanu-Malinici, S., Reams, A., Mullarkey, M., & Broderick, P. C. (2015). A school-based mindfulness pilot study for ethnically diverse at-risk adolescents. Mindfulness. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1007/s12671-014-0376-1

The authors conducted a randomized pilot study of a school-based mindfulness program, Learning to BREATHE, with ethnically diverse at-risk adolescents. Twenty-seven students were randomly assigned to a mindfulness or substance abuse control class that occurred for 50 min, once a week, over one school semester. Reductions in depression were seen for students in the mindfulness class compared to controls. Initially, students’ perceived credibility of the mindfulness class was lower than that of the substance abuse class. Over the semester, perceived credibility of the mindfulness class increased while that of the substance abuse class decreased. Qualitative acceptability measures revealed that the mindfulness class helped to relieve stress and that students favored continuing the class.

Felver, J. C., Frank, J. L., & McEachern, A. D. (2014). Effectiveness, acceptability, and feasibility of the Soles of the Feet mindfulness-based intervention with elementary school students. Mindfulness, 5(5), 589-597.

This article details a pilot study of a brief mindfulness-based intervention, Soles of the Feet (SOF), for public elementary school students. Three non-disabled students with high rates of off-task behavior during general education periods were selected and taught the SOF intervention, consisting of five 20–30-min sessions. Results obtained via direct observation of student behavior in the classroom suggest that SOF may be an effective intervention to reduce off-task behavior and increase academically engaged behavior for behaviorally challenging students. Questionnaires administered to these students and their teachers suggest that SOF is socially valid, feasible, and acceptable intervention for use in public schools.

Flook, L., Goldberg, S. B., Pinger, L., & Davidson, R. J. (2015). Promoting prosocial behavior and self-regulatory skills in preschool children through a mindfulness-based kindness curriculum. Developmental Psychology, 51(1), 44-51.

Using a randomized controlled design, the present study investigated the effects of a 12-week mindfulness-based Kindness Curriculum (KC) in a sample of 68 preschool children. The KC intervention group showed greater improvements in social competence and earned higher report card grades in domains of learning, health, and social-emotional development, whereas the control group exhibited more selfish behavior over time. Interpretation of effect sizes overall indicate small to medium effects favoring the KC group on measures of cognitive flexibility and delay of gratification. Baseline functioning was found to moderate treatment effects, with KC children initially lower in social competence and executive functioning demonstrating larger gains in social competence relative to the control group.