Garner 2018

Source:   RESEARCH STUDY/ARTICLE

APA Citation:

Garner, P. W., Bender, S. L., & Fedor, M. (2018). Mindfulness-based SEL programming to increase preservice teachers’ mindfulness and emotional competence. Psychology in Schools, 55(4), 1-14.

Author bio:

Pamela W. Garner – School of Integrative Studies, George Mason University

Stacy L. Bender – University of Massachusetts Boston

Megan Fedor – Montgomery College

Central Argument/Thesis:

Mindfulness-based practices (MBP) and social-emotional learning (SEL) practices may encourage the development of dispositions and social and emotional skills that have been found to improve teachers’ capacity to react to and respond appropriately to challenging student behavior 3

We predicted that preservice teachers participating in an MBP intervention infused with SEL content would show higher increases in mindfulness and emotional competence than their counterparts assigned to a control condition that included only meditative awareness. 3

We expected that MBP and SEL intervention participants would be more apt to report believing in the importance of appropriate classroom behavior for children’s learning and development than their colleagues randomly assigned to the control group, reflecting the focus of the MBP and SEL infused intervention on increasing preservice teachers’ ability to respond appropriately to challenging student behavior. 3

Discussion – Conclusion:

Consistent with the hypothesis, mindfulness scored increased, but increased more significantly for the MBP and SEL intervention participants 8

The present moment focus, attentional self-awareness, and sustained engagement of mindfulness meditation, when accompanied by training in aspects of emotional competence, may produce changes in the ability to bring awareness to everyday activities in ways that could reduce stress for beginning teachers. 8

We found that participants in both groups showed an increase in the reported use of negative display rules (i.e., the demands to suppress negative classroom emotion), although the intervention group showed a greater boost. Emotional display rules represent the ability to exercise control of one’s emotions in accordance with professional norms. The inauthentic or required display of specific emotions in professional settings can result in burnout. When individuals are able to express negative emotions in adaptive ways, they may experience low levels of stress-induced physiological arousal, which should require less effortful control to management their feelings. 9

Training in MBP and SEL may help preservice teachers learn to internalize the regulation of negative emotion as part of their professional identities as teachers. 9

Key finding: increases in mindfulness and emotional competence from pretest to posttest were associated with preservice teachers’ perceptions of how children’s negative classroom behavior can affect their academic and social developmental outcomes. Training in mindfulness and SEL may make a meaningful difference in preservice teachers’ own wellbeing and emotional competence, which could positively impact their interpretations of children’s challenging behavior. Preservice teachers who are mindful as well as emotionally competent may be particularly able to respond appropriately to distressed students and less likely to approach students from a deficit-oriented perspective. 9

Offering mindfulness-based SEL training to beginning teachers may help to improve teacher wellbeing and to identify instructional placements for teachers that allow for a greater classroom ‘fit’ for emotionally and behaviorally dysregulated students, practices that would benefit both teachers and students. 10

Beginning teachers are often called on to implement SEL interventions in their classrooms and having a ‘head start’ could improve the outcomes that are achieved for these programs. 10

Notable Quotes (w/page numbers):

Approximately 50% of teachers leave the classroom within the first five years (DeAngelis & Presley, 2011). Almost 20% of these that remain in the profession report experiencing significant stress because of work overload and student demands. 1

The majority of teacher burnout interventions are typically conducted at the secondary level, with a focus on the development of reflective skills, mindfulness, and emotional competence. 1

Compared to students with other majors, education undergraduates start their careers with high dispositions for stress and burnout and experience significant concern about how to cope with the challenges of teaching as early as three months into their teacher preparation programs 2

Research shows that preservice teachers who participate in an MBP intervention show improvements in teaching self-efficacy, mindfulness, and life satisfaction. 2

Preservice teachers exposed to MBPs report less stress and are open to adopting mindfulness as a strategy for beginning the school day (Hartigan, 2017). 2

Teacher emotions are critically important for determining the quality of the classroom climate 2

MBP and SEL programs are complimentary in that they have similar goals of cultivating emotion regulation ability, empathy, and the capacity to be resilient in challenging personal and professional situations (Lawlor, 2016). This similarity in goals and desired outcomes suggest that MPBs and SEL skill training can be easily integrated 2

[SEL component of the intervention] participation has resulted in fewer parental emotionally dismissive emotion socialization beliefs and more emotion coaching behaviors in response to negative emotion-related behavior. 4

Project notes:

87 out of 96 enrolled students (age range 19-26) participated in the study; all but 4 were female.

Participants were randomly assigned to either the intervention (n=44) or control group (n=43) 3

6-week MBP and SEL interventions took place prior to the introduction of social-emotional course content (attachment, temperament, social competence, prosocial behavior, peer relationships, teacher-student relationships). 3

Studies to find:

Brown, R. (2017). The perceived impact of mindfulness instruction on preservice elementary teachers. Childhood Education, 93, 136-146

Fives, H., Hamman, D., & Olivarez, A. (2007). Does burnout begin with student-teaching? Analyzing efficacy, burnout, and support during the student-teaching semester. Teaching and Teacher Training, 23, 916-934.

DeAngelis, K. J., & Presley, J. B. (2011). Toward a more nuanced understanding of new teacher attrition. Education and Urban Society, 43, 598-626.

Hartigan, B. F. (2017). Mindfulness in teacher education: A constructivist approach to stress reduction for teacher candidates and their students. Childhood Education, 93, 153-158.

Mansield, C., Beltman, S., Broadley, T., & Weatherby-Fell, N. (2016). Building resilience in teacher education: An evidenced informed framework. Teaching and Teacher Education, 54, 77-87.

Onchwari, J. (2010). Early childhood inservice and preservice teachers’ perceived levels of preparedness to handle stress in their students. Early Childhood Education Journal, 37, 391-400.

Palomera, R., Fernandez-Berrocal, P., & Brackett, M. A. (2008). Emotional intelligence as a basic competency in preservice teacher training: Some evidence. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 6, 437-454