Action Research Design
"What happens when I use meditation in my class?"
Matthew Leader, Biology Teacher, High Tech High North County
Abstract:
Meditation can be described in many ways but is often defined as “thought upon a subject”. This action research studied the effects that meditation had on individuals and the dynamics of a project based biology class at High Tech High North County. The study examined what happened when meditation was first implemented in the form of “inward” meditation using breathing exercises over the course 4 months. The research then shifted to “outward” meditation using visualization for 2 months. The role of specific qualities, such as metacognition, stress, engagement and production, were looked at using student surveys, teacher observation and interviews. A series of variables were found to affect the dynamics of the class. The most pronounced finding was that meditation had a positive but short term effect in most students in regards to the all qualities analyzed when used only once or twice a week. In addition, extroverted students reacted more favorably to “inward” meditation while introverted students found “outward” meditation to be most beneficial. These findings indicate how the use of meditation can be applied to varied settings with a diverse student body in education.
Statement of Purpose
I've noticed in my seemingly experienced but realistically short tenure as a teacher how stressed I have become recently and how stressed other staff and students seem in the high stakes world of education. At times that stress has been helpful to my performance as an educator and has likewise increased the amount of work my students are creating. Unfortunately, I have also seen anxiety as a debilitating emotion that causes burnout in teachers and breakdowns in learning for students.
Something else I have grappled with are the many distractions in life. Teaching and age lead to many responsibilities and priorities to balance. Being a student comes with its own set of pressures and acts to juggle. Each day we all strive to stay balanced and succeed. My goal is to seek a way to help myself and others with this important part of life.
I entered the teaching profession for many reasons. Not the least of which is to help others gain a clear understanding and awareness of themselves and the world around them. I genuinely feel that awareness of oneself and one's surroundings can improve quality of life and a person's education throughout it. Awareness of one's thoughts and emotions may improve one's life by helping people better understand a situation and how to respond to it. Better decisions result improved observations, moderation and acknowledgment of emotions and understanding of what the decisions will do to those personal characteristics. My belief that certain daily practices and habits can help to deal with issues has grown slowly from my time in the classroom. By working with more and more young people I have witnessed the decisions they make. Seeing the proper and poor decisions along with the frustrations they have during their development as thinkers, creators and workers has put me on a path to find tools that help growth in a positive way.
Meditation is a tool that I believe has had a positive impact in my class and one way to build this self-awareness. Before my study I had led short periods of meditation to calm students after an active lunch or refocus students just before an assessment. The majority of the meditation sessions had been breathing and focusing exercises that lasted for a period of 2 to 3 minutes. Usually I would ask the students to focus on their breath and guide them to breath slowly and deeply. Each time, the experience was a little different but the students usually reflected on it positively. Meditation had been most powerful when I have asked students to reflect on problems and questions in a structured way. Breaking down how they feel, asking them to look at steps they've taken already in regards to their problem or situation and having them stop and look for answers from what is around them already has helped tremendously. Based on their reflections and my observations, I think it has helped certain students accomplish tasks more efficiently and look at the task ahead with an open mind. Students that were bouncing off the walls seemed to maintain their attention to the task at hand because of confidence that they could solve the problem. This seemed to be especially true when the students were asked to work on science based problems that involved critical thinking. The focus needed to carefully observe, think about what they saw, test it carefully and analyze what they thought was going on went hand in hand with the structure of the meditation and reflection of their own thoughts.
When looking back, I think the students responded positively to the meditation activities for a couple reasons. First, people are not often asked to focus in a controlled way or think about how they perceive things. Second, the students like doing something different than the norm. Meditation is an unusual activity for most that requires that metacognition. Some students were very excited to give details about how they felt and what they experienced. One student, E, said "I felt like I was floating and all I could feel was my brain." The experience was completely focused on his own reality and I think that teenagers are really searching to find themselves and discover who they are. The focus that E had was internalized but it continued to affect how he interacted and engaged in class in a positive way.
Based on student responses like E's and my own positive experiences, I feel that meditation may be a great way for students to become more of aware of their surroundings in a focused way and reduce negative distractions. E is a student that often does not think about outcomes before speaking and acting and it has gotten him into trouble both in class and at home. We (his teachers) had many meetings with his parents over the course of the year that centered around how we could help him to be less impulsive, have better focus and follow through with problems and school work. His response that all he could feel was his brain is something that made me feel great as a teacher. I think that he at least recognized that thinking was more that just a passive action and that changes in his brain occurred when he was focused. I wonder if my using meditation more in my class I can help students build cognitive awareness, make better choices, and act more like scientists who think critically and analytically with confidence.
My goal is to better understand whether or not guided meditation can relax students enough to allow them to be aware of the surroundings in a clear way that can release performance anxiety and help them to truly be engaged in their work. A meditation practice in the class that has students focus in an organized manner and releases them to make observations of their surroundings will help to form open minded and analytical people that do not give up on the task at hand. I plan to look at whether meditation helps anxiety and their performance abilities by using tasks inherent to meditation; observation and metacognition. With the action research, I hope see what effect the use of meditation has on students in my class. Hopefully with changes that I make based on their feedback, meditation will relax them, scaffold a way to see problems clearly with a focused lens, and help them to see themselves as strong students in charge of their learning.
Something else I have grappled with are the many distractions in life. Teaching and age lead to many responsibilities and priorities to balance. Being a student comes with its own set of pressures and acts to juggle. Each day we all strive to stay balanced and succeed. My goal is to seek a way to help myself and others with this important part of life.
I entered the teaching profession for many reasons. Not the least of which is to help others gain a clear understanding and awareness of themselves and the world around them. I genuinely feel that awareness of oneself and one's surroundings can improve quality of life and a person's education throughout it. Awareness of one's thoughts and emotions may improve one's life by helping people better understand a situation and how to respond to it. Better decisions result improved observations, moderation and acknowledgment of emotions and understanding of what the decisions will do to those personal characteristics. My belief that certain daily practices and habits can help to deal with issues has grown slowly from my time in the classroom. By working with more and more young people I have witnessed the decisions they make. Seeing the proper and poor decisions along with the frustrations they have during their development as thinkers, creators and workers has put me on a path to find tools that help growth in a positive way.
Meditation is a tool that I believe has had a positive impact in my class and one way to build this self-awareness. Before my study I had led short periods of meditation to calm students after an active lunch or refocus students just before an assessment. The majority of the meditation sessions had been breathing and focusing exercises that lasted for a period of 2 to 3 minutes. Usually I would ask the students to focus on their breath and guide them to breath slowly and deeply. Each time, the experience was a little different but the students usually reflected on it positively. Meditation had been most powerful when I have asked students to reflect on problems and questions in a structured way. Breaking down how they feel, asking them to look at steps they've taken already in regards to their problem or situation and having them stop and look for answers from what is around them already has helped tremendously. Based on their reflections and my observations, I think it has helped certain students accomplish tasks more efficiently and look at the task ahead with an open mind. Students that were bouncing off the walls seemed to maintain their attention to the task at hand because of confidence that they could solve the problem. This seemed to be especially true when the students were asked to work on science based problems that involved critical thinking. The focus needed to carefully observe, think about what they saw, test it carefully and analyze what they thought was going on went hand in hand with the structure of the meditation and reflection of their own thoughts.
When looking back, I think the students responded positively to the meditation activities for a couple reasons. First, people are not often asked to focus in a controlled way or think about how they perceive things. Second, the students like doing something different than the norm. Meditation is an unusual activity for most that requires that metacognition. Some students were very excited to give details about how they felt and what they experienced. One student, E, said "I felt like I was floating and all I could feel was my brain." The experience was completely focused on his own reality and I think that teenagers are really searching to find themselves and discover who they are. The focus that E had was internalized but it continued to affect how he interacted and engaged in class in a positive way.
Based on student responses like E's and my own positive experiences, I feel that meditation may be a great way for students to become more of aware of their surroundings in a focused way and reduce negative distractions. E is a student that often does not think about outcomes before speaking and acting and it has gotten him into trouble both in class and at home. We (his teachers) had many meetings with his parents over the course of the year that centered around how we could help him to be less impulsive, have better focus and follow through with problems and school work. His response that all he could feel was his brain is something that made me feel great as a teacher. I think that he at least recognized that thinking was more that just a passive action and that changes in his brain occurred when he was focused. I wonder if my using meditation more in my class I can help students build cognitive awareness, make better choices, and act more like scientists who think critically and analytically with confidence.
My goal is to better understand whether or not guided meditation can relax students enough to allow them to be aware of the surroundings in a clear way that can release performance anxiety and help them to truly be engaged in their work. A meditation practice in the class that has students focus in an organized manner and releases them to make observations of their surroundings will help to form open minded and analytical people that do not give up on the task at hand. I plan to look at whether meditation helps anxiety and their performance abilities by using tasks inherent to meditation; observation and metacognition. With the action research, I hope see what effect the use of meditation has on students in my class. Hopefully with changes that I make based on their feedback, meditation will relax them, scaffold a way to see problems clearly with a focused lens, and help them to see themselves as strong students in charge of their learning.
Meditation
Meditation can be defined a number of ways. In English, the term originated around in writings between 1175 AD and 1225AD to define the phrase “to think over” (Random House Dictionary, 2010). It wasn't for another 200 years that it was used to mean continuous though about a specific subject (Douglas Harper Etymology Dictionary, 2010). But the act of meditation has been used for many thousands of years in many cultures to do just that for a variety of reasons, many of which I have chosen to look at and consider in my class. The psychiatrist Michael West states, “Meditation is an exercise which usually involves the individual in turning attention or awareness to dwell upon a single object, sound, concept or experience”(1979 ,p. 133). In this way, meditation is training for your mind by channelling attention or awareness. In a broad sense, this is the way that meditation was used in my class, though the forms of meditation I used to channel awareness and the focus of the attention itself shifted over the course of the research. Below I discuss what meditation can look like in practice and the role meditation can play in learning.
Meditation 101
As I said meditation can be defined in many ways. A popular misconception is that meditation is thinking about nothing. Well, that's just not possible. Your mind is always active in some way. If it wasn't you wouldn't be alive. Meditation is instead clearing the mind of distraction and aligning thoughts and stimuli in some way.
What I have found is that how meditation is defined and used is determined largely by the goals and the context of the meditation. For some, the goal of meditation is simple contemplation with no means to an end. This can range from day dreaming about momentary thoughts, feelings or events. In this sense many people don't even realize they are meditating as they take time to slow down over the course of the day. Others see meditation as a vehicle for exacting personal goals. In this way meditation is undertaken to actively search for answers to life's questions. In popular western culture today the search might be for release from anxiety, help with problem solving and attainment of personal goals such as weight loss (Apaia & Lobsang, 2008). Many forms, such as transcendental meditation, follow a well studied, systematic structure that asks for daily practice to ensure maximum effectiveness in relation to personal goals. In many religions, in the east and the west, meditation is used presently and has been used historically to reach new levels of connection with oneself or with a higher being.
The context and method of meditation can vary greatly based on how someone incorporates their senses and thought processes. Many common forms of meditation deal with concentrating on what is going on with the breath. Feeling and listening to the breath in relation to air entering the nose, mouth and lungs is very important in this practice. The reason the breath is so popular as a focus of meditation is that it is a constant. If you are living, you are breathing. Although breathing is normally an unconscious act it can be controlled.
Meditation can also be focused on visual stimuli, such as an image, a candle, a mandala, or simply the darkness created by the closed eye. Focus with meditation can also be accomplished although less commonly through centering in on the other senses such as taste, touch, smell or sound (both taken in or exuded). Lastly, meditation can be undertaken with visualization of either past, present or even future scenarios.
Meditation in my class has taken two forms, both of which you will see examples of. The first is breathing exercises with no outwardly expressed goals. This breathing meditation took place in the initial months of this year and is called “inward” meditation. Due to response from students and my own observations, the form of meditation that was used in class during the latter part of the study changed to visualization or “outward” meditation. This meditation dealt with a series of visualization exercises that were based on scenarios and issues that arose that the students and I deemed to be important to the class during the latter part of the first semester.
What I have found is that how meditation is defined and used is determined largely by the goals and the context of the meditation. For some, the goal of meditation is simple contemplation with no means to an end. This can range from day dreaming about momentary thoughts, feelings or events. In this sense many people don't even realize they are meditating as they take time to slow down over the course of the day. Others see meditation as a vehicle for exacting personal goals. In this way meditation is undertaken to actively search for answers to life's questions. In popular western culture today the search might be for release from anxiety, help with problem solving and attainment of personal goals such as weight loss (Apaia & Lobsang, 2008). Many forms, such as transcendental meditation, follow a well studied, systematic structure that asks for daily practice to ensure maximum effectiveness in relation to personal goals. In many religions, in the east and the west, meditation is used presently and has been used historically to reach new levels of connection with oneself or with a higher being.
The context and method of meditation can vary greatly based on how someone incorporates their senses and thought processes. Many common forms of meditation deal with concentrating on what is going on with the breath. Feeling and listening to the breath in relation to air entering the nose, mouth and lungs is very important in this practice. The reason the breath is so popular as a focus of meditation is that it is a constant. If you are living, you are breathing. Although breathing is normally an unconscious act it can be controlled.
Meditation can also be focused on visual stimuli, such as an image, a candle, a mandala, or simply the darkness created by the closed eye. Focus with meditation can also be accomplished although less commonly through centering in on the other senses such as taste, touch, smell or sound (both taken in or exuded). Lastly, meditation can be undertaken with visualization of either past, present or even future scenarios.
Meditation in my class has taken two forms, both of which you will see examples of. The first is breathing exercises with no outwardly expressed goals. This breathing meditation took place in the initial months of this year and is called “inward” meditation. Due to response from students and my own observations, the form of meditation that was used in class during the latter part of the study changed to visualization or “outward” meditation. This meditation dealt with a series of visualization exercises that were based on scenarios and issues that arose that the students and I deemed to be important to the class during the latter part of the first semester.
My Goals for Meditation
As has been shown in clinical settings and in hospitals, meditation can significantly reduce anxiety and stress (Brantley, 2003). When I began this journey, I hoped that meditation would decrease my own students' stress levels. I also hoped that as students learned to relax their bodies and clear their mind of negative thoughts, they would experience increased metacognition, engagement and productivity.
Stress
There are many issues that confront the student each day before they can learn effectively. The largest factor I have seen expressed and personally felt during my previous years as an educator is stress. Stress, whether defined by the actual work you have to do or factors in your personal life that get you stressed-out at work, invariably leads workers to feel less productive and stifles creativity and peak performance
(Astin, 1997). A key word that Astin finds in his research is that stress makes people “feel” less productive. It can be debated as to whether stress is always a negative. I think the difference between stress and anxiety must be considered. If stress is felt as pressure to do a task or meet a deadline, than it can serve as a positive motivator for some people. If instead people become anxious due to the pressure and have a shut down response than the added pressure or stress is seen as negative.
Much of this response has to do with one's developed Mindset. As Carol Dwick states, it is critical that students “develop a growth mindset (the core belief that abilities are malleable and not fixed)” (2000, p. 8). This helps determine whether a student will perform well with stress or not. A typical student with a Growth Mindset that understands their brain changes as they learn might say, “It's much more important to learn things in my classes than it is to get the best grades” (2000, p. 8) On the other hand if those students have a Fixed Mindset, then they believe that intelligence cannot be changed and effort is doesn't matter. An example of what a Fixed Mindset student would say of effort is, “to tell the truth, when I work hard at my school work it makes me feel like I'm not very smart” (2000, p. 8). Effort and work coincide with feelings of stress in a negative way.
Much of this response has to do with one's developed Mindset. As Carol Dwick states, it is critical that students “develop a growth mindset (the core belief that abilities are malleable and not fixed)” (2000, p. 8). This helps determine whether a student will perform well with stress or not. A typical student with a Growth Mindset that understands their brain changes as they learn might say, “It's much more important to learn things in my classes than it is to get the best grades” (2000, p. 8) On the other hand if those students have a Fixed Mindset, then they believe that intelligence cannot be changed and effort is doesn't matter. An example of what a Fixed Mindset student would say of effort is, “to tell the truth, when I work hard at my school work it makes me feel like I'm not very smart” (2000, p. 8). Effort and work coincide with feelings of stress in a negative way.
Stress as a Positive
Buttell states that, “According to findings from Robert Ostermann, professor of psychology at FDU's Teaneck-Hackensack Campus, stress can actually stimulate creativity and productivity” (2009, p. 1.) My initial thoughts at the time were that I don't agree at all. I then thought about what I had seen from high performing students from past years. When pushed, they responded with really nice work. Buttel goes on to further say, that no one reaches their potential without being stressed
(2009, p. 1). I grapple with this idea as an educator. Each student is different. Each person deals with stressors in a different way, whether positively by working with vigor or negatively by shutting down. Either way, I wonder if stress helps them learn. Buttell's gives an example of a word day that parallels a class period and how production can faulter. “...By the time 3:30 in the afternoon comes around - and you realize you've done next to nothing since lunch - stress kicks in. You soon find yourself wrestling with a new idea, and the drive to get something completed before the end of the day.
Then, as the office wraps up for the day, productivity levels fall fast - with stress not far behind - and out comes the age-old workforce promise of "doing better tomorrow”(2009, p.1)
I have definitely seen this cycle occur with students during project work time, especially those that consistently procrastinate. In the same page he also makes the point you must use stress to your advantage and not let lags in productivity get you down but what about those students that let stress get them down.
I often see stress not as the motivating factor but as a limitation for students. The major issue faced in learning and living for that matter is that some people give up or give in when faced with difficulty and daily challenges. As Martinez writes, "Once frustration takes hold, it is very difficult to have an open mind."(1998, p. 87) Students deemed unsuccessful that give in to feelings of frustration do not have the tools to cope. That is not the case with everyone and this difference takes form at a young age. With children, “Stress can have positive as well as negative influences. The younger the child, the greater the impact of new events, and the more powerful and potentially negative stress becomes” (Jewett & Peterson, 2004).
I believe that academic shutdown, often seen as daydreaming or off-task behavior, that is due to stress can be changed with the right tools. Some students think of frustration and adapt to stress because it hasn't taken hold but “prolonged exposure to stress and a child's continued use of coping strategies may result in behavior patterns that are difficult to change if the child perceives the strategy as being effective” (Jewett & Peterson, 2004). For example, if spacing out and responding with “I don't get it” or other passive actions works when challenged than children will continue to use them because it works. That reaction to the stressor, whether it be a heavy workload, difficult math problem or a criticism unknowingly leads to a fixed mindset that all is not possible.
Meditation is an effective way of dealing with stress as it relaxes the body and clears the mind of thoughts that hinder positive development. According to Monoghan, "This process (meditation) is extremely restorative after a normal day of activity" (1999, p. ii). Restoration is exactly what is needed for students that seize up from anxiety and are trained to live with a fixed mindset and not concentrate actively or embrace problems as they arise internally. I do not think that this restoration needs to occur after a normal day of activity but can occur in the middle of activities and stressors. By using guided meditation as a de-stressor and to foster metacognitive experiences we can see if the quietude and reflection correlate with better performance in school and a more positive learning experience for students. Jewitt and Peterson explain that helping children identify coping strategies and teaching relaxation techniques affect students positively. The physical education researcher Giaccobi has seen, "From this research, it is clear that occupational stress is associated with burnout symptoms, job dissatisfaction and health." (2008, p. 1) I don't think the school setting varies much from any other workplace. It can be seen that stress (anxiety) can take hold of all age groups and have adverse effects. I seek to correct some of those negative effects.
I often see stress not as the motivating factor but as a limitation for students. The major issue faced in learning and living for that matter is that some people give up or give in when faced with difficulty and daily challenges. As Martinez writes, "Once frustration takes hold, it is very difficult to have an open mind."(1998, p. 87) Students deemed unsuccessful that give in to feelings of frustration do not have the tools to cope. That is not the case with everyone and this difference takes form at a young age. With children, “Stress can have positive as well as negative influences. The younger the child, the greater the impact of new events, and the more powerful and potentially negative stress becomes” (Jewett & Peterson, 2004).
I believe that academic shutdown, often seen as daydreaming or off-task behavior, that is due to stress can be changed with the right tools. Some students think of frustration and adapt to stress because it hasn't taken hold but “prolonged exposure to stress and a child's continued use of coping strategies may result in behavior patterns that are difficult to change if the child perceives the strategy as being effective” (Jewett & Peterson, 2004). For example, if spacing out and responding with “I don't get it” or other passive actions works when challenged than children will continue to use them because it works. That reaction to the stressor, whether it be a heavy workload, difficult math problem or a criticism unknowingly leads to a fixed mindset that all is not possible.
Meditation is an effective way of dealing with stress as it relaxes the body and clears the mind of thoughts that hinder positive development. According to Monoghan, "This process (meditation) is extremely restorative after a normal day of activity" (1999, p. ii). Restoration is exactly what is needed for students that seize up from anxiety and are trained to live with a fixed mindset and not concentrate actively or embrace problems as they arise internally. I do not think that this restoration needs to occur after a normal day of activity but can occur in the middle of activities and stressors. By using guided meditation as a de-stressor and to foster metacognitive experiences we can see if the quietude and reflection correlate with better performance in school and a more positive learning experience for students. Jewitt and Peterson explain that helping children identify coping strategies and teaching relaxation techniques affect students positively. The physical education researcher Giaccobi has seen, "From this research, it is clear that occupational stress is associated with burnout symptoms, job dissatisfaction and health." (2008, p. 1) I don't think the school setting varies much from any other workplace. It can be seen that stress (anxiety) can take hold of all age groups and have adverse effects. I seek to correct some of those negative effects.
Metacognition & Meditation
Martinez states that "metacognition can be seen as evaluation turned inward, especially turned toward our own ideas" (2006, p. 697). It is in simple terms "thinking about thinking" (2006, p. 696). Meditation and metacognition go hand in hand since both are focused on clarifying thoughts. Martinez states that "Metacognition should be modeled...and is integral to what the teacher must facilitate for students to succeed" (2006, p. 697). Teachers can model metacognition by guiding students through a meditation, where students reflect on how they address thoughts as they arise and how they make choices based on those thoughts. As the teacher walks students through how to look at thought processes the students are “turned inward”, channeling their thoughts and thereby facilitating awareness.
In this way, meditation can be used to scaffold metacognition and higher level thinking. According to Martinez, “Metacognition... is related to Socratic Dialogue, the evaluative step in Bloom's Taxonomy and the concept of the Vygotsky's zone of proximal development” (2006, p. 698). Evaluation must occur for a student to understand and solve a problem or tackle a task. When told to evaluate a problem or observe a phenomenon, oftentimes a student does not have the tools to correctly see what they are confronted with. The practice of meditation can help them find a starting point, and becomes the way in which students can “evaluate” a problem or situation in a clear and thorough way.
In this way, meditation can be used to scaffold metacognition and higher level thinking. According to Martinez, “Metacognition... is related to Socratic Dialogue, the evaluative step in Bloom's Taxonomy and the concept of the Vygotsky's zone of proximal development” (2006, p. 698). Evaluation must occur for a student to understand and solve a problem or tackle a task. When told to evaluate a problem or observe a phenomenon, oftentimes a student does not have the tools to correctly see what they are confronted with. The practice of meditation can help them find a starting point, and becomes the way in which students can “evaluate” a problem or situation in a clear and thorough way.
Engagement
I define engagement in the class as the act of taking part in activities with focused awareness. In terms of behavior in the class, this looks like a student who is actively working towards a specific purpose whether it be by writing, reading, communicating or participating in an activity that is assigned to complete a project. As John Wooden said though, never mistake activity for achievement. This tells us that behavior isn't everything. To be fully engaged, a person needs to demonstrate how thoughts, actions and outcomes work towards a specific product. That product may take form in an idea, a creative piece such as writing, music, scientific discovery, etc. or may be as a solution or step towards a solution. The key is that there is a purpose and the actions coincide with an end goal.
To be engaged one must disengage from the distractions around you. I will call this act of disengaging for a purpose “attending”. Arpaia and Rapgay write that, “Attending consists of identifying and disengaging from mental contents as they arise. The mental contents can be thoughts, sensations, emotions, or combinations of these...The disengagement process can take more effort than letting go”(2008, p. 65). The process of awareness and disengagement of what is unimportant to your goal is what is usually missed for students that have attention related disorders and people that feel that they get distracted easily. There is an attenuated behavioral embrace of stimuli that do not require acquisition of deeply held memories and complex cognitive function. Meditation is difficult in that the mind has to actively work to let go of those stimuli before one can attend to that which matters in the moment. This process is vital to eliminating not only distraction for the sake of focus on an activity but also to eliminate the stress that is associated with memories of past frustrations with learning and in life.
If meditation has a positive effect on stress, as explained above and stress has a common role in disengagement and performance or lack thereof, than meditation should improve engagement in the class. If students respond that meditation is allowing them to participate in class in a more relaxed, less anxious manner than one can assume it is having a positive impact on their engagement.
One study, looking at the effects meditation had on school children and attention showed that engagement relates to independence and the ability to focus attention. Roth and Creaser found that students become more independent and less anxious when meditating consistently and that students who practice meditation learn how to concentrate and can control their emotions by shifting attention. (1997, p. 152) This data was transformative in my goals and hopes within my action research. It was very different research though. The students that practiced meditation, meditated daily with fifteen minute sessions as opposed to twice a week and the results were compared to control groups. Although the tests run were very structured and were different from how the makeup of my classes and my action research plan, it clearly showed that meditation has had positive effects on anxiety and allowed students to be more attentive and task oriented.
This study also demonstrates that it is not enough to help students learn to remove distractions. We must also help them understand how to pay attention. As Phillipe R. Goldin, a Psychologist and education researcher from Stanford University said in a speech given to meditation participants at Google in 2008, “Parents and teachers tell kids 100 times a day to pay attention but we never teach them how”. As teachers we must first understand why they aren't paying attention. Again it is easier to engage in stimuli that have historically easy and positive outcomes. Meditation is how. I think that meditation can teach them how to pay attention because the first step is to disengage with a purpose attend to that which is deemed important.
To be engaged one must disengage from the distractions around you. I will call this act of disengaging for a purpose “attending”. Arpaia and Rapgay write that, “Attending consists of identifying and disengaging from mental contents as they arise. The mental contents can be thoughts, sensations, emotions, or combinations of these...The disengagement process can take more effort than letting go”(2008, p. 65). The process of awareness and disengagement of what is unimportant to your goal is what is usually missed for students that have attention related disorders and people that feel that they get distracted easily. There is an attenuated behavioral embrace of stimuli that do not require acquisition of deeply held memories and complex cognitive function. Meditation is difficult in that the mind has to actively work to let go of those stimuli before one can attend to that which matters in the moment. This process is vital to eliminating not only distraction for the sake of focus on an activity but also to eliminate the stress that is associated with memories of past frustrations with learning and in life.
If meditation has a positive effect on stress, as explained above and stress has a common role in disengagement and performance or lack thereof, than meditation should improve engagement in the class. If students respond that meditation is allowing them to participate in class in a more relaxed, less anxious manner than one can assume it is having a positive impact on their engagement.
One study, looking at the effects meditation had on school children and attention showed that engagement relates to independence and the ability to focus attention. Roth and Creaser found that students become more independent and less anxious when meditating consistently and that students who practice meditation learn how to concentrate and can control their emotions by shifting attention. (1997, p. 152) This data was transformative in my goals and hopes within my action research. It was very different research though. The students that practiced meditation, meditated daily with fifteen minute sessions as opposed to twice a week and the results were compared to control groups. Although the tests run were very structured and were different from how the makeup of my classes and my action research plan, it clearly showed that meditation has had positive effects on anxiety and allowed students to be more attentive and task oriented.
This study also demonstrates that it is not enough to help students learn to remove distractions. We must also help them understand how to pay attention. As Phillipe R. Goldin, a Psychologist and education researcher from Stanford University said in a speech given to meditation participants at Google in 2008, “Parents and teachers tell kids 100 times a day to pay attention but we never teach them how”. As teachers we must first understand why they aren't paying attention. Again it is easier to engage in stimuli that have historically easy and positive outcomes. Meditation is how. I think that meditation can teach them how to pay attention because the first step is to disengage with a purpose attend to that which is deemed important.
Productivity
Buttell describes productivity as, “Productivity = outputs / inputs (within a time period, quality considered)” (2009, p. 1) In terms of school, productivity is all measured learning and it's resultant byproducts (outputs) that come out of daily lessons, activities, experiences, etc. Productivity considered in this way is a summation of engagement in the class. In education, if the primary goal for the students is to learn than the output would be amount learned. Of course, education serves a very complex role in what should and is learned, whether it be social interaction, value systems, facts and figures or skills. The importance of productivity in the context of a project based learning is interesting. Oftentimes, productivity within a project is correlated with learning. For example, many people at High Tech High have used the often quoted phrase by Confucius and others on their syllabus, “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” Meditation seems counter intuitive to production. Most would say that sitting and doing nothing is not project based learning but if the project is to develop a more productive self, it just may be. I contend that the metacognitive thinking that occurs during meditation and the production of awareness and anxiety relief that an individual feels is a very complex form of productivity with the product being a “learned” student. This type of thinking is essential to the development of more tangible products of student learning.
Setting:
School Setting
High Tech High North County opened in the fall of 2007 as one of the first statewide benefit charters in California. HTHNC is one of nine High Tech Schools (five high schools, three middle schools and one elementary school) and closely follows the charter school's core principles and project-based format.
The design principles for High Tech High are personalization, real world connection and common intellectual mission. Each principle is integrated into the daily schedule, class structure and teaching framework. Curriculum is teacher driven and personalized to fit the needs of each student in the classroom. Advisory classes are one way in which High Tech creates a more personalized community. Each advisor visits the home of every student and serves to guide them over the course of the year with discussions, activities and one on one check ins in regards to grades, college, culture, community and future plans. The school also remains personalized by capping classes at 20 to 27 students depending on the type of class. Projects are oriented to be meaningful and community driven. Students exhibit their work to people in the community. These community members also partner with students and benefit from a presentation of their work with at the culmination of a project. Daily morning meetings are held to create and facilitate common intellectual mission among the staff from which to lead essential questions and frame curriculum. Part of the common intellectual mission is there is a no tracking of students, all students pursue the same curriculum and all students are prepared for college.
The student body at the school is pooled from the surrounding community of San Diego County North. Each grade has approximately 150 students with most students coming from San Marcos, Escondido, Carlsbad, Vista and Fallbrook. The selection of students is by chance or "lottery" based on zip code, not academics. This means grades and incoming test scores do not play a factor as to whether a student is admitted. More specifically, the lottery odds are based on the demographic that exists in the surrounding zip codes. Parents must attend an informational meeting and fill out either a paper or online application. The demographic information is highly variable and changes with each successive year. There is currently a ninth, tenth and eleventh grade and the school will matriculate the twelfth grade in the coming year.
Currently at the school there is a relatively high percentage of students with special needs that either have an IEP or 504 plan. The current number is 20% and the students are included fully into everyday classroom curriculum. The percent of students on free lunch status from the previous year is 9% and that of students that had reduced lunch status is 5%. Those numbers are expected to stay close to the same. The racial demographics are highly variable and will be changing with student entrance in the coming year.
The design principles for High Tech High are personalization, real world connection and common intellectual mission. Each principle is integrated into the daily schedule, class structure and teaching framework. Curriculum is teacher driven and personalized to fit the needs of each student in the classroom. Advisory classes are one way in which High Tech creates a more personalized community. Each advisor visits the home of every student and serves to guide them over the course of the year with discussions, activities and one on one check ins in regards to grades, college, culture, community and future plans. The school also remains personalized by capping classes at 20 to 27 students depending on the type of class. Projects are oriented to be meaningful and community driven. Students exhibit their work to people in the community. These community members also partner with students and benefit from a presentation of their work with at the culmination of a project. Daily morning meetings are held to create and facilitate common intellectual mission among the staff from which to lead essential questions and frame curriculum. Part of the common intellectual mission is there is a no tracking of students, all students pursue the same curriculum and all students are prepared for college.
The student body at the school is pooled from the surrounding community of San Diego County North. Each grade has approximately 150 students with most students coming from San Marcos, Escondido, Carlsbad, Vista and Fallbrook. The selection of students is by chance or "lottery" based on zip code, not academics. This means grades and incoming test scores do not play a factor as to whether a student is admitted. More specifically, the lottery odds are based on the demographic that exists in the surrounding zip codes. Parents must attend an informational meeting and fill out either a paper or online application. The demographic information is highly variable and changes with each successive year. There is currently a ninth, tenth and eleventh grade and the school will matriculate the twelfth grade in the coming year.
Currently at the school there is a relatively high percentage of students with special needs that either have an IEP or 504 plan. The current number is 20% and the students are included fully into everyday classroom curriculum. The percent of students on free lunch status from the previous year is 9% and that of students that had reduced lunch status is 5%. Those numbers are expected to stay close to the same. The racial demographics are highly variable and will be changing with student entrance in the coming year.
High Tech High Demographics
Enrollment | %Asian | % Hispanic | % Caucasian | % Black | % Filipino | % Pac. Islander | % Non-White | % FRL | % Male | % First Generation | % Special Ed | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
HTHMA | 324 | 6% | 30% | 36% | 12% | 5% | 2% | 55% | 29% | 51% | 24% | 8% |
HTM | 326 | 7% | 33% | 38% | 13% | 6% | 0% | 59% | 27% | 54% | 21% | 10% |
HTH | 554 | 9% | 33% | 40% | 10% | 6% | 1% | 59% | 24% | 49% | 32% | 8% |
EEC | 321 | 5% | 21% | 64% | 4% | 2% | 0% | 32% | 9% | 46% | 3% | 10% |
HTMMA | 396 | 3% | 35% | 41% | 11% | 5% | 2% | 56% | 30% | 50% | 35% | 9% |
HTHI | 395 | 6% | 32% | 40% | 14% | 5% | 1% | 58% | 21% | 50% | 26% | 7% |
HTHCV | 306 | 5% | 63% | 15% | 8% | 7% | 1% | 84% | 30% | 51% | 37% | 6% |
HTHNC | 275 | 5% | 16% | 72% | 5% | 1% | 1% | 28% | 11% | 64% | 13% | 13% |
All | 2887 | 6% | 33% | 43% | 10% | 5% | 1% | 54% | 23% | 51% | 24% | 9% |
Classroom Setting
I taught an eleventh grade Biology class with approximately 20 students per class. There were three periods of Biology with each period being one hour twenty minutes long. Two times a week there was an elective, exercise based X-block that consisted of 9th through 11th graders. Two times a week there was also an elective, curriculum-based class called a Special Interest Group that is based on any topic the teacher and students feel there is a need for and is appropriate to school curriculum. The Biology classes are integrated with humanities and math classes thematically and have a project focus. In the Biology class there was also an honors option. The students have the ability to study for the Advanced Placement test. Texts were pulled from a variety of sources, often from popular and current nonfiction and periodicals. Many project-based activities were structured to take place outside when possible or were active laboratories set up in class.
Methods:
Data Collection
Four students served as case studies. I selected students that represented a range of behaviors based on past grades, skill assessments, work completion and meditation experience. I was previously familiar with each student in the classroom setting from prior classes. Quotes and perspectives from these students were looked at in detail and these focus students were interviewed at the end of meditation research period in March.
All students were asked to complete surveys online. To begin the year the students were asked a series of questions to find out about past experiences and perspectives of meditation. Over the the course of the year, from September to March, the students were asked to reflect on what they were doing, how meditation effects them, what their stress levels were, and how effectively they are accomplishing tasks, activities and tests in class before and after meditation in the form of surveys. Each survey that ended up being analyzed was given once a month towards the end of each calendar month.
All student were also observed during meditative practice and during classroom activities and those observations were written in a journal using bulleted points detailing time, activity, emotional changes and engagement defined above. There was an emphasis on observing the focus students as far as time allotted.
All students were asked to complete surveys online. To begin the year the students were asked a series of questions to find out about past experiences and perspectives of meditation. Over the the course of the year, from September to March, the students were asked to reflect on what they were doing, how meditation effects them, what their stress levels were, and how effectively they are accomplishing tasks, activities and tests in class before and after meditation in the form of surveys. Each survey that ended up being analyzed was given once a month towards the end of each calendar month.
All student were also observed during meditative practice and during classroom activities and those observations were written in a journal using bulleted points detailing time, activity, emotional changes and engagement defined above. There was an emphasis on observing the focus students as far as time allotted.
Meditation:
September- December
Classroom meditation occurred at structured times upon entry into class on Wednesdays and Fridays but was not reserved for those times alone. Students practiced meditation on Wednesdays and Fridays before or after class meetings, inquiry and problem solving based activities and group project or lab work that necessitate full engagement for success. The meditation was inward focused meditation that centered on the breath. There was occasional meditation that occurred at other points during the week in response to feedback and analysis of how it is effecting students.
Meditation lasted between 2-5 minutes per session. Each meditation began by relaxing muscles in the body and developing comfortable positioning. The students were then guided to take deep slow breaths and focus on their breath entering and leaving their body. The students were then asked to remain focused on their breath with continued guidance. The meditations ended in the same way in which they began with me guiding a series of slow focused breaths.
Meditation lasted between 2-5 minutes per session. Each meditation began by relaxing muscles in the body and developing comfortable positioning. The students were then guided to take deep slow breaths and focus on their breath entering and leaving their body. The students were then asked to remain focused on their breath with continued guidance. The meditations ended in the same way in which they began with me guiding a series of slow focused breaths.
January - February
Classroom meditation shifted from inward focus on the breath to imagery and visualization techniques that correlate to the task at hand for the day. Each technique was free flowing and dependent on how I perceived the class reacted to the meditation.
The “outward” meditation or visualization lasted between 2 and 5 minutes and began with relaxation of muscles and positioning the body in proper alignment. I worked the students through visualization of tasks that pertain to the days activities and line of questioning.
The “outward” meditation or visualization lasted between 2 and 5 minutes and began with relaxation of muscles and positioning the body in proper alignment. I worked the students through visualization of tasks that pertain to the days activities and line of questioning.
Data Analysis
Case studies of 4 students were looked at to create anecdotal perspectives from students that have diverse backgrounds in meditation, different academic strengths and struggles and different social and emotional characteristics. This was based on prior knowledge of the student from years past and by assessing differences in responses during the first survey. Responses to the interview were coded based on values taken from the first survey in relation to personal meditation history, stress, engagement. Responses to the interview were also coded to analyze productivity, learning and understanding of material and social and emotional comparisons that were made from coinciding teacher observations. Interview data was recorded and transcribed using the program Garage Band.
Reflection of performance, engagement and meditation experiences on google forms as a survey in class or completed as homework were used to take an anecdotal look at perspectives and understanding of the case studies and the class as a whole. The perspectives and understanding check was done by assessing differences in responses during entries. Answers were coded based on values taken from the first surveys and continued with analysis of further surveys as meditation and activities progressed. In the end seven surveys were used in the analysis of a five month time period. Survey entries were analyzed to take into account personal and historical information that plays a part in student's results.
Observations were analyzed by comparing behaviors as they relate to the metacognition active during meditation and stress, engagement, and productivity before and after meditations. Behaviors related to metacognition asked directly. Those behaviors related to stress were the most difficult. I think each student reacted differently. The stress related behaviors in my case studies were fidgeting, emotional disturbance, and withdrawal. If students exhibited any of those behaviors prior to during or after meditation it was noted and compared to survey answers. Engagement and productivity were characterized by whether they were working through tasks below, at, or above rates previously exhibited in the past.
Reflection of performance, engagement and meditation experiences on google forms as a survey in class or completed as homework were used to take an anecdotal look at perspectives and understanding of the case studies and the class as a whole. The perspectives and understanding check was done by assessing differences in responses during entries. Answers were coded based on values taken from the first surveys and continued with analysis of further surveys as meditation and activities progressed. In the end seven surveys were used in the analysis of a five month time period. Survey entries were analyzed to take into account personal and historical information that plays a part in student's results.
Observations were analyzed by comparing behaviors as they relate to the metacognition active during meditation and stress, engagement, and productivity before and after meditations. Behaviors related to metacognition asked directly. Those behaviors related to stress were the most difficult. I think each student reacted differently. The stress related behaviors in my case studies were fidgeting, emotional disturbance, and withdrawal. If students exhibited any of those behaviors prior to during or after meditation it was noted and compared to survey answers. Engagement and productivity were characterized by whether they were working through tasks below, at, or above rates previously exhibited in the past.
Findings:
Chapter 1
My story as a meditating teacher
I have found out much about myself during my short tenure as a teacher. It is said that you often “find” yourself in college. When teaching found me, I wasn't confident about many things in my life. The self reflection and constant challenges that teaching has required has shaped who I am as a teacher and who I am as a person in a short amount of time. To cope with the challenges, pressures and demands of being a new teacher, I began meditating albeit infrequently but with good results
I also saw students confront many of the same challenges as they faced the many stresses and demands of the school day at a project based school. My first year teaching was with middle school students and I immediately saw a need to foster focus while keeping excitement. Also, the students changed so much over the course of the year that I could see they were confused and stressed as they were finding out more of who they were. Near the end of the school year I began having the students practice brief breathing exercises when they burst in after lunch. As a whole I thought they really liked it and it calmed them down but I did not know exactly how it was helping the students.
The brief meditation that I began using during my first year teaching such as one to two minute breathing exercises accompanied my teaching for the next three years when I felt like it was needed. I then moved on to teach 11th Grade Biology and had a chance to further study meditation and how it affects the mind and body. Seeing action research as a great opportunity to understand how meditation effects students and tailor my teaching to what I am seeing works I was inspired to find out the answer to what happens when I use meditation in my class? I thought this would be my chance to really implement meditation in a way that I thought it could help my teaching and my students. Here is the story of my journey and my findings. I hope it can help you too.
I have found out much about myself during my short tenure as a teacher. It is said that you often “find” yourself in college. When teaching found me, I wasn't confident about many things in my life. The self reflection and constant challenges that teaching has required has shaped who I am as a teacher and who I am as a person in a short amount of time. To cope with the challenges, pressures and demands of being a new teacher, I began meditating albeit infrequently but with good results
I also saw students confront many of the same challenges as they faced the many stresses and demands of the school day at a project based school. My first year teaching was with middle school students and I immediately saw a need to foster focus while keeping excitement. Also, the students changed so much over the course of the year that I could see they were confused and stressed as they were finding out more of who they were. Near the end of the school year I began having the students practice brief breathing exercises when they burst in after lunch. As a whole I thought they really liked it and it calmed them down but I did not know exactly how it was helping the students.
The brief meditation that I began using during my first year teaching such as one to two minute breathing exercises accompanied my teaching for the next three years when I felt like it was needed. I then moved on to teach 11th Grade Biology and had a chance to further study meditation and how it affects the mind and body. Seeing action research as a great opportunity to understand how meditation effects students and tailor my teaching to what I am seeing works I was inspired to find out the answer to what happens when I use meditation in my class? I thought this would be my chance to really implement meditation in a way that I thought it could help my teaching and my students. Here is the story of my journey and my findings. I hope it can help you too.
Chapter 2
The Students
The meditation study has encompassed my whole team of 11th grade of students (57 in total) over the course of the 2009/2010 school year. After much deliberation and communication, four students were chosen to represent the class as a whole one month into the year. For my findings, the student's voices and quotes are taken into account alongside general class statistics. These four students represent four unique backgrounds in relation to prior experience with meditation, challenges faced academically and personalities within the classroom. I have known each student for more than 3 years due to fact that I was their Math and Physics Teacher during their ninth grade year. With each chapter you will hear from the four students in order to understand how meditation has effected everyone differently.
The meditation study has encompassed my whole team of 11th grade of students (57 in total) over the course of the 2009/2010 school year. After much deliberation and communication, four students were chosen to represent the class as a whole one month into the year. For my findings, the student's voices and quotes are taken into account alongside general class statistics. These four students represent four unique backgrounds in relation to prior experience with meditation, challenges faced academically and personalities within the classroom. I have known each student for more than 3 years due to fact that I was their Math and Physics Teacher during their ninth grade year. With each chapter you will hear from the four students in order to understand how meditation has effected everyone differently.
D's Story
D is a student that I not only have had in class before but I have also served as his advisor at High Tech High North County. He came to High Tech High having faced many difficulties at other schools, both in regards to his own learning disabilities and in respect to how previous teachers and tutors had presented material to him. He has a processing disorder, severe disgraphia, dislexia and issues with integration of working memory. He is hard working, motivated and is great at communicating his needs but has high anxiety due to internal and external pressures. D has held average grades but he has voiced that he is at a tipping point with the amount of work received in 11th grade. He has trouble concentrating on work at school and completing assignments due to his anxiety.
A's Story
A has had a background in Eastern Philosophy, Martial Arts and is also very much a self advocate in regards to his own learning. Academically he has had ups and downs with grades ranging from A's to D's and has voiced that most of the time his grades are reflective of whether he connects with the work or not. A has recently dealt with many issues in his personal life that he feels contribute to his roller coaster of work academically and has voiced that he sometimes does not know how to cope. During project work he has shown that he really thinks outside the box and usually has grandiose ideas that inconsistently come to fruition based on whether the media he is working with interests him.
B's Story
B is a bright, high achieving student at the top of her class. She has a quiet demeanor and stays focused on the task at hand until it is done to her satisfaction. During tests she is usually the last to finish just to make sure she gets all her ideas out that relate to topics asked of her. She does well when pushed and works well under pressure. She has supportive parents that communicate that she should do whatever makes her happy. She recently expressed that she thinks she is doing well in school but wants to do better to ensure that she goes to her college of choice. She has communicated that this year she has opened up to more people and feels more comfortable socially with her peers but that may be taking away from her academics.
C's Story
C is an Honors student that the resource specialists and I have worked with for the past two years with varying levels of success to do consistent work. He blames motivation, laziness and tiredness as the reason for not beginning, continuing to work on and completing assignments when asked in class and during parent-teacher meetings. He performs well on tests and if forced to sit down and do work with tutors he shows streaks of brilliance. He has expressed that he plans to make changes this year as college is on his mind.
Chapter 3
My First Structured Classroom Meditations
During the first months of school meditation was done in a very structured way based on the concentrated breathing techniques. With the exception of three weeks during the first semester, we meditated as a class twice a week on Wednesdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays, the meditation usually took place at the beginning of class and on Fridays the meditation took place towards the end of class.
Over the course of those four months of meditation my goals for meditation in the classroom shifted quite drastically. The reason for this is twofold. I initially was looking solely at meditation in relation to student engagement. Up until November, my research question was, “How does meditation effect student engagement in the class?” The questions I asked of the students centered on how meditation changed their performance, how their focus was effected and how meditation effected stress levels. I quickly found out that there were definite changes occurring behaviorally but most were seemingly ephemeral. Although I tried not to express what I saw to my class, my questions and outlook changed based on the feedback that I was getting weekly. As mentioned before, I initially tried to gauge response to very structured breathing based meditation both from my point of view and through surveys. My observations of the students looked at behavioral changes in talking and proportional time spent working on an activity. I also conducted surveys on the computer directly after one half of the meditations.
During the first months of school meditation was done in a very structured way based on the concentrated breathing techniques. With the exception of three weeks during the first semester, we meditated as a class twice a week on Wednesdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays, the meditation usually took place at the beginning of class and on Fridays the meditation took place towards the end of class.
Over the course of those four months of meditation my goals for meditation in the classroom shifted quite drastically. The reason for this is twofold. I initially was looking solely at meditation in relation to student engagement. Up until November, my research question was, “How does meditation effect student engagement in the class?” The questions I asked of the students centered on how meditation changed their performance, how their focus was effected and how meditation effected stress levels. I quickly found out that there were definite changes occurring behaviorally but most were seemingly ephemeral. Although I tried not to express what I saw to my class, my questions and outlook changed based on the feedback that I was getting weekly. As mentioned before, I initially tried to gauge response to very structured breathing based meditation both from my point of view and through surveys. My observations of the students looked at behavioral changes in talking and proportional time spent working on an activity. I also conducted surveys on the computer directly after one half of the meditations.
The First Meditations
The first formal meditation in class took place on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 immediately when the students entered class. It was a rainy day schedule due to a light rain. The students hadn't spent much time outside and were especially antsy during the latter part of the day. The meditation that took place that day and continued all the way thru December was the “inward” thinking, breathing meditation.
To introduce the meditation I went through a series of body relaxation exercises in order to ready the mind for thought. I did not speak much of the purpose of the meditation or meditating in general and there was on average two student in each of the three classes that began the relaxation exercises giggling and joking around. I instructed the students to create good posture in their seat and flex and relax muscle groups. I started instructing them to relax their feet and then their calves and moved up until ending with their neck and face.
To address the issue of students not taking it seriously, I simply told them that it's okay to not meditate if it is difficult to stay in control. I said they could quietly step out of class and take a break until we were done. None of the students chose to take a break. That was different then when I had meditated with middle schoolers. I remember that each time in the past, with younger groups, there was usually a hand full of students who chose to walk in circles outside the class during preliminary meditations. I then told the students exactly how long the silence and breathing was going to be and began having them take deep, slow breaths. I walked them through the first ten breaths and then was quiet. I stopped the meditation after exactly two minutes of silence. In one of my three classes there was occasional giggles from three different students but during the last minute it was silent.
At the end of the meditation I had them write in their daily “life thought” journal. The question of the day referred to laboratory reading they had the night before regarding memory. I saw a marked difference in that each student seemed noticeably calmer. Although I didn't quantify it, I also thought students answered the question very thoroughly based on their responses during a brief share out. I found myself looking more closely at students that were usually more talkative at the beginning of class. In them I felt a difference in the overall mood. It went from generally chatty and unfocused before the meditation to a quiet and serious tone after.
To introduce the meditation I went through a series of body relaxation exercises in order to ready the mind for thought. I did not speak much of the purpose of the meditation or meditating in general and there was on average two student in each of the three classes that began the relaxation exercises giggling and joking around. I instructed the students to create good posture in their seat and flex and relax muscle groups. I started instructing them to relax their feet and then their calves and moved up until ending with their neck and face.
To address the issue of students not taking it seriously, I simply told them that it's okay to not meditate if it is difficult to stay in control. I said they could quietly step out of class and take a break until we were done. None of the students chose to take a break. That was different then when I had meditated with middle schoolers. I remember that each time in the past, with younger groups, there was usually a hand full of students who chose to walk in circles outside the class during preliminary meditations. I then told the students exactly how long the silence and breathing was going to be and began having them take deep, slow breaths. I walked them through the first ten breaths and then was quiet. I stopped the meditation after exactly two minutes of silence. In one of my three classes there was occasional giggles from three different students but during the last minute it was silent.
At the end of the meditation I had them write in their daily “life thought” journal. The question of the day referred to laboratory reading they had the night before regarding memory. I saw a marked difference in that each student seemed noticeably calmer. Although I didn't quantify it, I also thought students answered the question very thoroughly based on their responses during a brief share out. I found myself looking more closely at students that were usually more talkative at the beginning of class. In them I felt a difference in the overall mood. It went from generally chatty and unfocused before the meditation to a quiet and serious tone after.
Stress and the “Inward” Meditation
The initial survey I had students complete about this meditation revealed mixed, but largely positive responses. The students were asked about changes in stress levels and how they thought their ability to focus and perform changed. The chart below refers to how students assigned their own stress levels before the meditation.
When asked to rate their stress level change due to meditation, a shift occurred with all respondents. The following data is shown on the graph below reflecting stress levels after meditation.
I found the data compelling because the stress level dropped on average by a scale of two. Upon a more thorough look at the movement, the students that reported a change and had higher stress levels (3 or 4) moved down to either a one or two. There was no movement from four to three. All of the students after the meditation that responded with a three, initially responded with a three. One student kept his response a four (very stressed) and one student moved their response to a four from a two. After further questioning it became apparent that the student was mixed up with the numbering system.
After a series of the breathing meditations I found that the initial tone shift of the class and relaxation effects were mostly temporary. One student, C, consistently responded in surveys that “this meditation makes me feel calm but it doesn't change the way I work”. His response served as a prime example of how many of the students responded to the meditation. I saw that the overall tone of the class became more professional as a result of the relaxed atmosphere directly after meditating but behaviors eventually reverted back to represent whatever stress level the students came in with dependent on the work to be done that day.
One of the outliers in terms the length of time that meditation helped was B. B was adamant that meditation was helping her engage in her work. I saw it too. She was one of the respondents that went from a high level of stress (4) down two levels to a rating of 2. Many students had this response but she was one of the few that also responded that her level of stress would stay low for a “long time”. I characterized B earlier as a student that is very high performing and at the top of her class. She is also usually very reflective when journalling and responded that she continued to think about the meditation throughout the class period. I think a key part of what helped her make the breathing meditation useful in the long term was that was able to re-live it and turn her attention back to thoughts that helped calm her initially.
After a series of the breathing meditations I found that the initial tone shift of the class and relaxation effects were mostly temporary. One student, C, consistently responded in surveys that “this meditation makes me feel calm but it doesn't change the way I work”. His response served as a prime example of how many of the students responded to the meditation. I saw that the overall tone of the class became more professional as a result of the relaxed atmosphere directly after meditating but behaviors eventually reverted back to represent whatever stress level the students came in with dependent on the work to be done that day.
One of the outliers in terms the length of time that meditation helped was B. B was adamant that meditation was helping her engage in her work. I saw it too. She was one of the respondents that went from a high level of stress (4) down two levels to a rating of 2. Many students had this response but she was one of the few that also responded that her level of stress would stay low for a “long time”. I characterized B earlier as a student that is very high performing and at the top of her class. She is also usually very reflective when journalling and responded that she continued to think about the meditation throughout the class period. I think a key part of what helped her make the breathing meditation useful in the long term was that was able to re-live it and turn her attention back to thoughts that helped calm her initially.
Engagement and the “Inward” Meditation
When asked about engagement level change, the trend was also positive but was not as significant due to less of a shift in answers and a mixed result. The chart below refers to how students assigned their own engagement levels before the meditation.
On average, the students reported that they were more engaged than not but I did not ask for the factors that effected that engagement in their initial survey. They had just entered class and unlike other days, there was not instructions on the board to begin work. The students were instead instructed to look at me. In retrospect, those lack of clear instructions for assigned work may have affected engagement levels.
When asked about engagement level change due to meditation, a shift occurred, but there was movement in both directions. Most students improved by a factor of one on the engagement rating scale. The number of students that identified as very engaged improved by 4 students, but one student that rated themselves as level 3 engagement moved lower to level 2 engagement. That student felt that meditation made them “more sleepy”. The following data is shown on the graph below reflecting engagement levels after meditation.
When asked about engagement level change due to meditation, a shift occurred, but there was movement in both directions. Most students improved by a factor of one on the engagement rating scale. The number of students that identified as very engaged improved by 4 students, but one student that rated themselves as level 3 engagement moved lower to level 2 engagement. That student felt that meditation made them “more sleepy”. The following data is shown on the graph below reflecting engagement levels after meditation.
After this initial survey I was confident that meditation did have positive effects on students in some way in the classroom.
Chapter 4
The Goal Shift (Inward to Outward)
Three months went by with the formal guided breathing meditations. There was a couple of breaks due to the Thanksgiving Holiday and a week in November when no meditation took place due to daily field trips. For the most part meditation was consistent and expected. As each week progressed, I noticed some trends starting to occur. An interesting occurrence during the last weeks of the meditation is that students seemed more at ease with the meditation. Coinciding with that familiarity was a negative observation. Even though the students seemed more skilled at quickly getting into a meditative posture and mental state, most students also got faster and faster out of that state during the latter weeks. In my journal, I attributed this diminished change in staying relaxed to patterned behavior. Since meditation was more of what they were used to every day, some of the novelty wore off.
At the very beginning of the initial breathing meditations, about half (24 of 54) of the students reported that they they were able to stay relaxed throughout the class. This lasting effect was fleeting though in later meditations. The common response with many students, especially the more introverted students, was that the meditations we were doing weren't having a drastic effect on their classwork for an extended time. A trend that was seen in a subset of those shy students in the surveys from October thru December was that meditation was an ephemeral relief from the pressure's of school.
The first October meditation took place directly before a cumulative project test. After the meditation I gave a survey and asked the question, “Did you feel any different after the meditation as compared to before the meditation?”. One student responded, “I did feel calmer after the meditation though this feeling went away when we went back to working. Despite this, I think it helped me focus more during the work.” Another student, D said, “I still feel stressed, the meditation just masked it for me and I am still freaking out.” Both of these students I characterized as shy and introverted in terms of talking to peers and participating in front of large groups. Of the students that I later characterized as introverted, 21 of the 32 students (65%) gave feedback that meditation did not have lasting effects on them. Only three of the 22 students that I characterized as outgoing said that the effects did not last. One such student, an ambassador of the school said, “I felt better for a little bit, albeit sleepier, but soon after I remembered everything I needed to do.” This disparity between how introverted and extroverted students responded to the meditation was the first time I thought that meditation could really effect people differently based on personalty traits. A couple things are striking with this data. Although introverted and extroverted students initially responded similarly to how meditation helped them de-stress, its lasting effects were very different. Most introverted students seemed to not carry the meditation qualities with them throughout the day. Extroverted students on the other hand (18 of 22) responded that the meditation helped them throughout the day. Perhaps the action of being aware of yourself was something so different from their normal behavior that it changed the way they went about the rest of their day.
From October to December the response that the meditation was having only short term effects became more and more evident. By December, more than ¾ (41 of 52) of the students, when asked how they felt after the meditation, responded that they felt less stressed but only for a short amount of time. Most of the other responses didn't even refer specifically to stress or to the length of time that meditation helped at all.
Because of this response, I felt a little disheartened. I wanted meditation to really help my students. The literature led me to believe that it would. I thought, maybe if I change the way I conduct the meditations and personalize them in some way it will be more effective. During our winter break I chose to change the way meditation was conducted.
As was said before, I was seeing that breathing exercises were really helping a very selective subset of the class that was generally outgoing but the same positive responses were not heard from most of the introverted students. One example came from D. “Meditation (inward meditation) is something I realize I do all the time. I do it when I sit, when I run and even when I'm talking to people. I get stuck inside myself sometimes.” This response led me to look towards other forms of meditation that could be beneficial to him and others, perhaps everyone.
In January of that year the shift occurred. I told the class at the beginning of the term that we would be switching things up. I said it was based on student responses and things I was seeing but did not specifically say what we would be doing during the future meditations and why. Truthfully, I didn't know exactly what types of meditations I would be doing from that point forward. I knew that there were many things that could be addressed with outward meditation. I started polling other teachers and thinking of issues that my students deal with on a daily basis. I thought about self esteem, inattention to detail, decision making, listening skills, and even happiness. At the time I thought all of those issues could be helped with different forms of meditation but I did not know exactly what types from the many that I had read about recently. I chose to narrow it down to two types that I had just become familiar with through the literature: listening meditations, and visual meditations. Both meditations were “outward” meditations that were based on observation and using the senses. I originally thought that these meditations could help each one of the student issues. The first meditation I chose to do was a listening meditation.
A repeated response from students that usually performed well on tests was that the breathing techniques allowed them to think about the test more and “prepare in their mind better”. I thought this was an important response in that it pointed to a behavior that students which were consistently successful did. I did see minor changes occur with de-stressing and positive work production but it was truthfully difficult to align with meditation. Even though I was seeing some positive reaction to the actual meditation I did not see a large transition in how students perceived their own performance.
At the very beginning of the initial breathing meditations, about half (24 of 54) of the students reported that they they were able to stay relaxed throughout the class. This lasting effect was fleeting though in later meditations. The common response with many students, especially the more introverted students, was that the meditations we were doing weren't having a drastic effect on their classwork for an extended time. A trend that was seen in a subset of those shy students in the surveys from October thru December was that meditation was an ephemeral relief from the pressure's of school.
The first October meditation took place directly before a cumulative project test. After the meditation I gave a survey and asked the question, “Did you feel any different after the meditation as compared to before the meditation?”. One student responded, “I did feel calmer after the meditation though this feeling went away when we went back to working. Despite this, I think it helped me focus more during the work.” Another student, D said, “I still feel stressed, the meditation just masked it for me and I am still freaking out.” Both of these students I characterized as shy and introverted in terms of talking to peers and participating in front of large groups. Of the students that I later characterized as introverted, 21 of the 32 students (65%) gave feedback that meditation did not have lasting effects on them. Only three of the 22 students that I characterized as outgoing said that the effects did not last. One such student, an ambassador of the school said, “I felt better for a little bit, albeit sleepier, but soon after I remembered everything I needed to do.” This disparity between how introverted and extroverted students responded to the meditation was the first time I thought that meditation could really effect people differently based on personalty traits. A couple things are striking with this data. Although introverted and extroverted students initially responded similarly to how meditation helped them de-stress, its lasting effects were very different. Most introverted students seemed to not carry the meditation qualities with them throughout the day. Extroverted students on the other hand (18 of 22) responded that the meditation helped them throughout the day. Perhaps the action of being aware of yourself was something so different from their normal behavior that it changed the way they went about the rest of their day.
From October to December the response that the meditation was having only short term effects became more and more evident. By December, more than ¾ (41 of 52) of the students, when asked how they felt after the meditation, responded that they felt less stressed but only for a short amount of time. Most of the other responses didn't even refer specifically to stress or to the length of time that meditation helped at all.
Because of this response, I felt a little disheartened. I wanted meditation to really help my students. The literature led me to believe that it would. I thought, maybe if I change the way I conduct the meditations and personalize them in some way it will be more effective. During our winter break I chose to change the way meditation was conducted.
As was said before, I was seeing that breathing exercises were really helping a very selective subset of the class that was generally outgoing but the same positive responses were not heard from most of the introverted students. One example came from D. “Meditation (inward meditation) is something I realize I do all the time. I do it when I sit, when I run and even when I'm talking to people. I get stuck inside myself sometimes.” This response led me to look towards other forms of meditation that could be beneficial to him and others, perhaps everyone.
In January of that year the shift occurred. I told the class at the beginning of the term that we would be switching things up. I said it was based on student responses and things I was seeing but did not specifically say what we would be doing during the future meditations and why. Truthfully, I didn't know exactly what types of meditations I would be doing from that point forward. I knew that there were many things that could be addressed with outward meditation. I started polling other teachers and thinking of issues that my students deal with on a daily basis. I thought about self esteem, inattention to detail, decision making, listening skills, and even happiness. At the time I thought all of those issues could be helped with different forms of meditation but I did not know exactly what types from the many that I had read about recently. I chose to narrow it down to two types that I had just become familiar with through the literature: listening meditations, and visual meditations. Both meditations were “outward” meditations that were based on observation and using the senses. I originally thought that these meditations could help each one of the student issues. The first meditation I chose to do was a listening meditation.
A repeated response from students that usually performed well on tests was that the breathing techniques allowed them to think about the test more and “prepare in their mind better”. I thought this was an important response in that it pointed to a behavior that students which were consistently successful did. I did see minor changes occur with de-stressing and positive work production but it was truthfully difficult to align with meditation. Even though I was seeing some positive reaction to the actual meditation I did not see a large transition in how students perceived their own performance.
Chapter 5
Listening Meditations
I found that as the year went on the apathy that accumulated in a couple students lead them to check out and daydream frequently and generally be unaware of their surroundings. These issues were voiced, in a staff meeting, by a teacher that has this same group of students and it was something that I had recognized on numerous occasions over the course of the year . The day of the staff meeting, I led a meditation that everyone took part in but was geared towards those that have been mentally checking out. In an effort to focus those students senses in a way that would be beneficial for things to come (instructions and communication), the day's activity took place with a preface. I explained to the class what I felt had been going on in regards grade slip due to not listening and comprehending instructions and expectations. With that we also talked about how some people are asking the same question many times, and how others weren't even bothering to ask questions at all because they didn't know to or forgot what to ask. There was a divide between what was being said and what was or wasn't being heard by certain students on the team.
The Listening Meditation:
“Today we will be focusing on listening and listening skills in class. To begin the day I would like to relax your body as much as possible. Place both feet on the ground and push yourself slightly away from the table so that no part of your body is touching it. Try to take away all forms of sensory stimulation, first by putting down anything that you might be holding onto relax your muscles from the bottom up and relieve any annoyance around you like an itch or unneeded pressure. Next, close your eyes as your eyes are the most trusted and relied on form of perception through the day. Lastly, close your mouth and breath slowly, deeply and regularly through your nose. Imagine yourself opening up your ear canal to let all sounds in around you. You are first going to be taking in all sounds. Try to recognize what the sound is and where it is coming from while letting go of all of your other senses....Two minutes...I would now like you to take one of these sounds around you, the trickling water in the fish tank and focus solely it. Concentrate as much as you can on letting your mind think of only that sound. Ignore all else, continue to stay still and listen to the water...1 minute...Now focus all of your listening skills to your own body and the noises you make as you sit still...Relax and listen to your breath...1 minute...”
After the meditation, I was explicit in that I would be especially terse that day. I went through the day's agenda (it was a lab day) and gave quick instructions on how to do the next assignment. I was floored by how attentive every student seemed. There were 3 clarifying questions and all of them were relevant and did not ask to restate something. The students who typically asked questions of things I had just explained did not ask questions and did the work well. One student (A) who almost never asked a clarifying question and usually never starts to work unless individually prompted asked a clarifying question at the beginning and got right to work. I was thrilled with the results!
I surveyed the students at the end of class and received some striking feedback. Every student said they thought this form of meditation was more beneficial to them compared to what we had done previously with breathing. At first I thought wow, I should do this every time! However many students (14/25) added that it was because it was “different” and not just inherent to the listening meditation. From that I think it is safe to say that diversity is the spice of life. The first meditation, of whatever type, seems to draw an increased positive response from students. Except for the first meditation, the students did not generally feel though that stress levels changed as much as with the inward breathing meditations.
I was puzzled by the fact that more students responded that this meditation was more beneficial than the breathing meditations but stress was not a big part of that. They equated the listening meditation to a completely different set of standards. I did see distinct, positive results in the form of student engagement. The day before I had given them a lab protocol that was very similar to the one they got after the meditation. During the previous lab, 9 of 53 students did not finish within the time allotted and I had to redirect at least one student from each group of four at least once during the lab. In a very similar lab given after the listening exercise, all students finished on time, included those that did not on the previous day. I only needed to redirect 2 students that I felt were not actively contributing to their group. Also, the overall organization and clean up of the labs was greatly improved. Both labs required a considerable amount of listening to others in the group and recording what was being said and done.
Over the course of the month of January, I conducted 2 more listening meditations in the same manner. Both of the following meditations were conducted before group project work time and both surveys were given out asking about stress, engagement and student perspectives. Two themes stood out to me. The first was that with each meditation, the number of students that identified as being (Not Very Stressed- 1) decreased although each time the survey consistently showed that meditation was helpful. In other words each listening meditation was helpful to most students stress but the degree to which it effected them decreased with each consecutive meditation.
After the meditation, I was explicit in that I would be especially terse that day. I went through the day's agenda (it was a lab day) and gave quick instructions on how to do the next assignment. I was floored by how attentive every student seemed. There were 3 clarifying questions and all of them were relevant and did not ask to restate something. The students who typically asked questions of things I had just explained did not ask questions and did the work well. One student (A) who almost never asked a clarifying question and usually never starts to work unless individually prompted asked a clarifying question at the beginning and got right to work. I was thrilled with the results!
I surveyed the students at the end of class and received some striking feedback. Every student said they thought this form of meditation was more beneficial to them compared to what we had done previously with breathing. At first I thought wow, I should do this every time! However many students (14/25) added that it was because it was “different” and not just inherent to the listening meditation. From that I think it is safe to say that diversity is the spice of life. The first meditation, of whatever type, seems to draw an increased positive response from students. Except for the first meditation, the students did not generally feel though that stress levels changed as much as with the inward breathing meditations.
I was puzzled by the fact that more students responded that this meditation was more beneficial than the breathing meditations but stress was not a big part of that. They equated the listening meditation to a completely different set of standards. I did see distinct, positive results in the form of student engagement. The day before I had given them a lab protocol that was very similar to the one they got after the meditation. During the previous lab, 9 of 53 students did not finish within the time allotted and I had to redirect at least one student from each group of four at least once during the lab. In a very similar lab given after the listening exercise, all students finished on time, included those that did not on the previous day. I only needed to redirect 2 students that I felt were not actively contributing to their group. Also, the overall organization and clean up of the labs was greatly improved. Both labs required a considerable amount of listening to others in the group and recording what was being said and done.
Over the course of the month of January, I conducted 2 more listening meditations in the same manner. Both of the following meditations were conducted before group project work time and both surveys were given out asking about stress, engagement and student perspectives. Two themes stood out to me. The first was that with each meditation, the number of students that identified as being (Not Very Stressed- 1) decreased although each time the survey consistently showed that meditation was helpful. In other words each listening meditation was helpful to most students stress but the degree to which it effected them decreased with each consecutive meditation.
Stress Level Before and After 3 Listening Meditations
One of the points that stood out upon looking at the data that was consistent with the breathing meditation showed how novelty might play a large role in effecting behaviors. The first listening meditation had the most pronounced relative effect on the stress levels as compared to the two that followed.
The second theme that emerged with the listening meditation was based on what the students personalities were like, just as with the breathing meditation. The students such as B and D who are more introverted gave the strongest positive response. B stated that, “I made a point to look at things before I made a decision. It helped me talk to my group in a clear way.” When asked about how it affected the labs, D said, “I was able to follow the steps easier on the lab because I thought about what was going on around.” The acknowledged improvement of environmental awareness made me very happy as a science teacher but not everyone reacted as positively. The student that I had to redirect said of the second listening exercise, “I felt like I needed to talk about everything that I heard and I got annoyed.” I think that he let his mind wander from just focusing on what he heard to reacting to social pressures around himself. Disconnecting yourself from the social cues around you is one of the most difficult things that I have personally found required of meditation. I would think it is even more difficult for a teenager surrounded by his or her peers.
The month of January was a high point in my research. The successes achieved with the listening meditations served me very well as a teacher. Since one of the big issues that I had faced in class was finding helpful ways for students to take in what was being said in class in addition to what is read in a book or on the board, this felt like a victory. With my mini victory, I jumped into my next form of meditation.
The month of January was a high point in my research. The successes achieved with the listening meditations served me very well as a teacher. Since one of the big issues that I had faced in class was finding helpful ways for students to take in what was being said in class in addition to what is read in a book or on the board, this felt like a victory. With my mini victory, I jumped into my next form of meditation.
Chapter 6
Observational (Visual) Meditations
In science, I teach about the role of the scientific method in problem solving. The first step to good science is accurate and sound observation. From what I've seen in class, it is also the step that is most difficult for students to do correctly because many students want to rush off to make hypothesis or experiment. It seems that many people also have assumptions that get in the way of what would be solid experiments. Because of this, I chose to conduct meditations based on observations that students make of the world around them. I ended up conducting only one formal visual meditation due to time constraints.
The Visual Meditation
“Today we will be focusing on observation of the world around you. The most important step in the scientific method but often overlooked in that it seems intuitive. Because observations can easily be done improperly, much of what people consider bad “science” is actually not science at all because this integral step in the scientific method is done falsely. To begin the day I would like to relax your body as much as possible so that you can focus on all things outside of your body. Place both feet on the ground and push yourself slightly away from the table so that no part of your body is touching it. Try to take away all forms of sensory stimulation, first by putting down anything that you might be holding onto relax your muscles from the bottom up and relieve any annoyance around you like an itch or unneeded pressure. Next, close your mouth and breath slowly, deeply and regularly through your nose. Once you feel that you do not have to think about your breath any longer you are ready to see. I would like you to gaze upon an object in front of you in the class that is not moving. It can be anything you like as long as you do not have to make an effort to keep your eyes on the object and it does not change form. Blink if you need to blink but do not keep your eyes closed. Two minutes...I would now like you to take one aspect of the object central to what you've been looking at and focus solely on it. Concentrate as much as you can on letting your mind think of only what you see and try to understand everything about it. Ignore all else, continue to stay still, look at and think about the object...1 minute...Now focus all of your attention on remembering what the object looked like...1 minute...Relax take a look at the board. ”
The responses from the visual meditation closely resembled the responses from the listening meditation. The comparative statistics were also similar to the listening meditation. In regards to a change in stress levels, the initial change was not as dramatic as the breathing meditations. In fact, seven students reported that they were “more stressed” because they were now thinking about what they had seen. One of those seven students said it was because he saw more work on the board. With ignorance comes bliss. I found that to be interesting because what may have caused them stress they were oblivious to before. They had disengaged from unimportant stimulus and engaged in what was asked of them. 38 of the 52 students responded that they were more aware of what was going on around them and no student reported that they were less aware after the visualization meditation. The chart below refers to how students assigned their own awareness levels before and after the visualization.
In science, I teach about the role of the scientific method in problem solving. The first step to good science is accurate and sound observation. From what I've seen in class, it is also the step that is most difficult for students to do correctly because many students want to rush off to make hypothesis or experiment. It seems that many people also have assumptions that get in the way of what would be solid experiments. Because of this, I chose to conduct meditations based on observations that students make of the world around them. I ended up conducting only one formal visual meditation due to time constraints.
The Visual Meditation
“Today we will be focusing on observation of the world around you. The most important step in the scientific method but often overlooked in that it seems intuitive. Because observations can easily be done improperly, much of what people consider bad “science” is actually not science at all because this integral step in the scientific method is done falsely. To begin the day I would like to relax your body as much as possible so that you can focus on all things outside of your body. Place both feet on the ground and push yourself slightly away from the table so that no part of your body is touching it. Try to take away all forms of sensory stimulation, first by putting down anything that you might be holding onto relax your muscles from the bottom up and relieve any annoyance around you like an itch or unneeded pressure. Next, close your mouth and breath slowly, deeply and regularly through your nose. Once you feel that you do not have to think about your breath any longer you are ready to see. I would like you to gaze upon an object in front of you in the class that is not moving. It can be anything you like as long as you do not have to make an effort to keep your eyes on the object and it does not change form. Blink if you need to blink but do not keep your eyes closed. Two minutes...I would now like you to take one aspect of the object central to what you've been looking at and focus solely on it. Concentrate as much as you can on letting your mind think of only what you see and try to understand everything about it. Ignore all else, continue to stay still, look at and think about the object...1 minute...Now focus all of your attention on remembering what the object looked like...1 minute...Relax take a look at the board. ”
The responses from the visual meditation closely resembled the responses from the listening meditation. The comparative statistics were also similar to the listening meditation. In regards to a change in stress levels, the initial change was not as dramatic as the breathing meditations. In fact, seven students reported that they were “more stressed” because they were now thinking about what they had seen. One of those seven students said it was because he saw more work on the board. With ignorance comes bliss. I found that to be interesting because what may have caused them stress they were oblivious to before. They had disengaged from unimportant stimulus and engaged in what was asked of them. 38 of the 52 students responded that they were more aware of what was going on around them and no student reported that they were less aware after the visualization meditation. The chart below refers to how students assigned their own awareness levels before and after the visualization.
An example of the shift in awareness came from A's response that, “I usually think a lot about what I need to do but right then I thought about what was going on.” By this, I think he meant that he was aware and in the moment. Instead of getting ahead of himself he was able to think about the task at hand. A has been someone that has had difficulty starting assignments because he has grandiose ideas and plans but misses the small details. I think if he was more present in what is seen as opposed to what is on his mind there would be fewer issues with his productivity. Although he is not introverted and speaks his mind, it hasn't always correlated with what's going on in class. B responded that she “felt good because it wasn't about her”. With that response and a drastic decrease in reported stress level from very stressed (four) to not stressed (one) I think the intricacies of how outward meditation effects people differently can be seen by comparing responses to student personality.
In total, for the time period of October to February, three types of meditation were conducted with varying degrees of success in regards to stress, engagement, productivity and awareness. Metacognition seen to be an intrinsic part of all forms of meditation. All groups of students considered, the breathing meditation had the largest positive effect on stress and the general tone of the class. The listening meditation had a profound effect on engagement and productivity, specifically with following directions and completion of laboratory work. The visual meditation was seen to be very similar to the listening meditation in most respects and showed that it increased general awareness of the students surroundings. For all of these positive results to occur the students demonstrated that thinking about the their own thinking or metacognition was a requirement.
Conclusions
I have reached many conclusions over the course of this past year in regards to using meditation in my class. The implications that I have reached that will effect my own class are as varied as the responses and types of students that I teach. There have been positives and negatives and lessons learned about what happens when meditation is used in the class but I leave feeling confident that meditation has helped my students and my teaching practice this past year.
Mindset
Something that I can say with confidence is that my students at High Tech High North County think about meditation in a positive way. Although everyone responded and gave different feedback as to its effects I did not have a student that “disliked” meditation. In the beginning there were a couple of students that were “too cool” for meditation but that changed within a session and it became the cool thing to do. In the end, I think the students having a Growth Mindset in regards to meditation was vital to the successful changes that took place with most students. Those students that genuinely looked at meditation as a tool to help them learn more instead of impress me, the teacher, improved the most. I found that much of this Growth Mindset caught on because of buy in with key students. I now see that peer inclusion of new ideas and things that go on in the class is of the utmost importance.
I first started meditation in the class as a management tool. I have concluded that it works to focus a large group of students but the effects are not as drastic if the students are familiar with the meditations. In that respect, novelty might play a large role in the positive aspects of meditation but I think there is a larger force at work too. I attribute much of this initial change to a change in mindset. The students that were unfamiliar and either apathetic or had negative outlooks at the beginning were affected greatly when they first experienced that meditation was accessible and a popular activity to take part in. If their Mindset shifted from Fixed to Growth over the course of the meditations their anxiety subsided, engagement ensued and they were more aware of their surroundings.
Meditation, Stress and Engagement
When I began, one of my primary goals was to reduce students' feelings of anxiety. In academic studies the outcomes were clear and pronounced. I found the effects of meditation in regards to anxiety to be more complicated than in most of the literature I read. It is easily seen that meditation has a clear positive effect on stress in the short term. What I wished to see was if any long term effects were seen and if not, is it possible to elicit any. Long term stress level effects in students were not as distinctly cut and dry as in the many studies conducted in hospitals. Brantley's (2003) findings that stress is greatly reduced by meditation in the hospital setting pinpoint a population that are very different than my students. In the hospital so much of what his patient population are surrounded by is stagnant and negative, such as pain. In that respect, meditation is a release and I thus highly likely to elicit a positive response. In the school, there are many things such as the workload, peer groupings, time of day, etc. that factor into how a student feels about stress. When I dissected what the numbers (change in stress level) meant during the interviews, I found that the student's background in regards to stress, the type of stress and how the stress came about influenced how they responded to meditation's effects on it. I saw this because I have known and worked closely with these students for three years as opposed to a researcher handing out a survey to patients they don't know. From what I witnessed of student behavior and read from responses, so much had to do with the student's personality and the depth of their original anxiety. The student's personality in terms of how I judged them to be introverted or extroverted played a large role in how they seem to respond emotionally. That behavioral response (frustration, relief, calmness) was difficult to put into words but the connection that I felt with the students helped me to respond to their behaviors.
Meditation did cause pronounced changes in the level of anxiety for a short period of time for some students, but not for all. While meditating, students generally became less stressed with all forms of meditation. When grouping together all students, the breathing exercises and focusing inward helped the most followed by listening meditation and then visual meditation. Those breathing meditations worked well to turn the students thinking inward, towards themselves and use metacognition as Martinez said. Channelling the breath was a complex thought process for some that usually never focused only on themselves.
The students that I designated as introverted responded best in terms of both stress and engagement level to “outward” meditation in the form of listening meditations. They also responded well, but not as well, in terms of both stress and engagement to the other form of “outward” meditation used, visualization. The students that I designated as extroverted responded best to the first “inward” meditations that I used in class in the form of focused breathing. Except for some outliers, those students found that focusing on what was going on within their body calmed them in a way that was beneficial to the classroom setting. They were better able to engage in focused activity even if it meant communicating with other people, even if it was for a short period of time, because their communication became more focused on what was asked of in the class. Some students, irregardless of group, felt that they did not need to de-stress. That reason accounted for the largest portion of students that did not benefit from the relaxing aspects of meditation. Those same students usually did not benefit from positive effects of meditation in terms of increased clarity.
Of the three meditations, the outward meditations, specifically the listening had the most impressive effect on engagement. Listening to others, following along and being an independent direction follower are qualities of engagement that lead to high production. The decrease in stress and increase in engagement means that the student can be more productive in the class in every sense imaginable. Arpaia and Rapgay were correct in saying that students must first disengage in what is unimportant to be successful. The outward meditations served as a guide to disengage in the usual banter that goes through our head, ipod and speech. The students were better able to learn from their surroundings, communicate what is important to themselves and to the class and contribute in a more positive way they were retuned. Productivity as defined before will be helped because will spend more time on tasks that the teacher has directed them towards. This results in higher quality work with a given period of time. With a decrease in stress the students were more confident that they could accomplish something, in our case rigorous biology labs.
Awareness
Overall, students reported increased awareness of themselves as a result of the “inward” breathing meditations and increased awareness of the world around them as a result of the “outward” observational meditations. Much of this awareness was due to the metacognitive tasks associated with meditation such as thinking about what the body is doing and controlling what you are thinking. It was not seen as to whether this was a short term or long term effect. I believe this increased awareness has the greatest implications for the individual. This manifests in terms of better decision making, and an improvement in the quality of one's life. The students did not asked and did not report that they were happier, but I think it can be implied that good things come when you learn from your mistakes and your good fortunes.
Class Tone
The tone of the class was not something that I originally studied but after analyzing characteristics of the class and effects on individuals, I would say that the mood and emotion of the class as a whole noticeable changes. As a teacher, I believe that each student is important and how each individual responds to pedagogical techniques is at the center of my teaching practice. That being said, my perception of how the class responded as a living unit had the greatest effect on me. The positive change that meditation had as a tone changer in terms of seriousness and professionalism was seen through a compilation of responses and observations. The behavior change of my 11th grade students was subtle. Their behavior created a more relaxed atmosphere on meditation days, and I think they not only became more ready to participate but also were more aligned with my teaching style and practice. This change in tone, more than anything else, but probably as a cause of everything else, has solidified my desire to use meditation as much as possible in the years to come.
Tips for Teachers Who Use Meditation
Teach About Meditation First
This really depends on your student body. Most of my students at least knew what meditation was previous to the meditation activities in class. At the beginning of the year when I introduced by action research proposal to my student we spent a couple of minutes discussing what the act of meditation is. That was really helpful for buy in and allowing for the shift to Growth Mindset in regards to meditation. Some student expressed their hesitations based on religious beliefs and things they heard that ended up not being true such as “meditation is for cults.” I had the students read a paragraph from “Real Meditation in Minutes a Day” by Arpaia and Lobsang and I think it alleviated those associated stigmas. If students had started the first meditation thinking it diverged from core beliefs, I think the relaxation and centering techniques found in meditation would be useless.
Personalize the Guided Meditation
I think much of the positive response from the “outward” meditations was on account of me walking the students through what was surrounding them in their everyday lives. I used the feedback that they had given me in surveys to tailor the meditations. Meditation is difficult to do on your own because it takes discipline. If a teacher is there to bring the meditation student to a meditative state on their own time and at there own pace, I think the student will get much more out of it.
This also means, using a style of meditation that fits the student and the purpose. If a teacher wants to recenter the class and change the tone, I would say that “inward” meditations are the way to go. From the data, “inward”, breathing meditations also worked best to relieve anxiety. That can have an overall positive effect for activities such as test taking and public speaking. The “inward” meditations were also received best from extroverted and talkative students. This can be a way to focus students that have a tendency to think about what is going on around them too much.
“Outward”, observational meditations are the way to go if you desire the students to attend to tasks around them such as listening to a lecture of following instructions on a lab protocol. The “outward” meditations also greatly helped students in all ways that were introverted. Visual meditations and listening meditations can be a way to break kids out of their shell and open up. I think this is so valuable in the classroom setting in order to fully engage the student. A passive learner is not a lifelong learner.
Mix It Up
Novelty is an theme that became apparent about half way through my research as things stagnated in class. The data shows that the effects of meditation were much more pronounced the first time they were conducted. Mixing it up and changing the way you do things can keep it fresh for you and the students just as a good less lessons are changed to fit the situation. I do argue that there are important reasons why a meditation facilitator should stay consistent and not change. Practice leads to deeper meditations and more insight into the inward thinking and focus that meditation has to offer. Most of the literature says this. In my action research, I never spent more than 5 minutes conducting meditation activities in the class. I think building up to longer meditation sessions would be very beneficial.
Have Fun With It
The whole point is to become aware of yourself and your surroundings in positive way that can effect change. Having a positive outlook is key to that. I think the facilitator and the meditator must genuinely enjoy and accept the act of meditating in order to get all the benefits.
Meditate Yourself
This was something that I had trouble with over the period of 5 months meditating. I was so busy. The times that I did meditate meditate in a structured way though, I found that it really helped my teaching, leading meditations and outlook in general. Something that I did come to understand is that meditation can take many forms. Although the meditations I led were very structured, surfing became a way to meditate for me. While sitting in the water, I found that for the past few years of surfing I was participating in both “inward” and “outward” meditations and I didn't even know it.
Final Reflection
I began my research in the spring of 2009 unsure of what my class in the coming year would be like. I knew that I would be changing grades and subjects, from 9th grade math and physics to 11th grade biology. I did not know how that transition would affect the class' needs and my teaching practice. Over the course of the next nine months, my research came full circle in many ways. During that period of time, I changed drastically as a teacher in terms of management, curriculum delivery and with my role as a teacher leader. Much of this came about as my research evolved and I realized that what I wanted to understand was more about who I was as a teacher and who each of my students were as people and not as much about how independent structures like meditation determine what happens in class. The details and changes I made along the way during the research brought me back to looking at my classroom environment holistically instead of piece by piece.
The very first question I posed in my graduate school journal was “What does learning look like in my class?” I noted along side the question that I really didn't know how to go about answering the question but maybe that “Looking at specifics such as 'metacognition and learning' or 'meditation and learning' may be more useful.” I don't think I shared my initial question with anyone because it seemed so lofty and unanswerable in some ways when considering how actual action research rolls out. Over the course of the first few months it morphed into many different ideas:
How does outdoor education affect learning?
How does service learning affect engagement?
What happens to student perspectives when evolution is taught in the classroom?
How does stress affect learning?
How does stress affect engagement?
And so on. I share these questions because each one was accompanied by many articles and books that helped me better understand my own teaching, my own classroom and what my role as a teacher is. From these articles, it really hit home that we as teachers serve the whole person, not just a test or a way to improve efficiency.
When the year began I realized that my own stress levels and positive findings from the reading ignited a passion to further use meditation in my class and in my life. I began the first day of school wondering and asking, “How does meditation affect engagement in the classroom?” Staying consistent with guided meditations and asking questions in regards to that question was difficult in a new class. I always found that because of how High Tech High and my classroom is structured I needed to stay flexible. Sometimes at the detriment of what I felt was sound, unbiased research. Many teaching plans change quickly. Teaching partnerships change. There are extremely busy times and less busy times during the year based on when projects or presentations are due. Project and curriculum plans change as teaching partners give feedback and classes integrate between subjects . As those changes occurred so did how I implemented meditation into my classroom. I grappled with the option of having meditation relate directly to a “learning and the brain” project during the first part of the year or having meditation be a side activity that is facilitated separate from project work. In the end I chose both. Some meditations were stand alone activities to center the class and others served a purpose as a tool to get the students thinking about how their mind works and how meditation can effect their thinking. These changes over the course of the year ended up making the writing difficult for me. I was accumulated so much data because I asked a great many things but the more I saw come in, the more confused I got about what to write. I did feel that it was helping my teaching though.
From the first surveys and discussions I saw how important it was to gauge how students felt and compare that with what I was seeing in class. I became more reflective as I asked them to reflect. This has caused many sleepless nights and long conversations after school that disrupted other aspects of my life. With that disruption, each moment left me with more knowledge about how to respond in and out of class to daily events and students on an individual level.
I began the year obsessed with the students creating beautiful work and being productive. The pressure, both internal and external, to see great things come out of a project started me off micromanaging in the class. In beginning my research, I searched for ways to get the students to be “perfect workers and always focused on the moment”. I became frustrated when things weren't perfect or students went off task. During the first part of the year, I knew the students really well in some ways but I still saw some of them ninth graders. I tried to but I didn't account for their changes in behavior socially and emotionally. As the research progressed reflection on my own meditation and personal stressors helped me to see past that.
The initial research was successful. Though as I look back on it, it mattered because I came to understand that meditation can make a real difference in setting the tone of the class. I think the tone is something that is oftentimes unaccounted for in determining how the class goes over the course of the day. I used to go into my lessons and activities without regard for what was going on with the students as they came into my class. I found that the time of day, the class experience prior and personal experiences really affect their experiences from the onset. Importantly for the research, I saw that teaching was more that delivery of content but connecting with how the students were doing socially and emotionally. When meditation occurred at the beginning of class it set a tone for what I felt was important in regards to what would happen during the period.
I didn't quite see the ramifications of those first meditations until I stepped back later in the year though. My feelings during the first two months of research was that tone was of little consequence. I wanted to understand and “act” on more to really change their life. I really thought that meditation could be transformative for the whole of the student in a positive way and decided that I needed to change my action research in response to that. The meditations shifted from being very structured and “inward” to free from representations of what students had requested and what I thought they needed in class. By this I mean the listening and visual meditations were a reflection of what I thought they needed.
I realize now that the changes in the meditation changed the class dynamic but also made my own analysis of it more complex. Research just got difficult. I was responding to what I felt was a lack of success with structured meditation. It was successful for certain students and did set a clear and focused tone in the class the more and more I used it. I don't think it was unsuccessful at all now that I look at the process as a whole. As a teacher, I wanted something more. I wanted to see students that really were stressed or consistently disengaged change behaviors as is reported in literature. That wasn't quite seen.
I think the time constraints played a role in not seeing transformational experiences in the class in terms of mindfulness of what's going on around them. I also think there is so much more at work in the head of an individual than what can be asked on an exit card, survey or short interview in regards to how they respond to meditation in a short period of time in the class. It made me want to do more biological research. By seeing physiological responses such as brain activity changes and respiration or heart rate changes and comparing them to what the students had said I think both the students and I would understand things much more accurate way.
Once I changed the meditations to visualization techniques I came to see the research as much more personalized. It was at this time that I changed my question. It went from, “How does meditation affect student engagement in the classroom?” to “What happens when I use meditation in my class? The question change was needed because I was seeing much more take place with individuals in the class than just engagement levels. It was actually very difficult to gauge engagement levels since what I was seeing was often very different that the students responses. What led me to ask “what happens when” was the increased complexity. I realized that the way in which a researcher or teacher implements meditation really changes the way students see meditation. Each student reacts differently to those changes, both positively and negatively.
I will definitely continue the use of meditation in my class. I now think there is a place in the class for inward meditation and outward meditation. The important thing I've learned is how important personalization is in all of it. But the person is not just characterized by a single quality such as introverted or extroverted. To personalize, a teacher has to spend quality time with a student over the course of years and meet with their parents and survey their feelings on a consistent basis. By understanding more deeply how individuals respond to different types of meditation and by working with what's going on in their lives I feel better armed to succeed in teaching what I feel is important as a teacher. Looking at problems in a deep, detailed and aware way is vital to success both as a student and as a teacher. I am excited to extend on what I have learned with the new group of students that I will have in the coming year.
I will also continue to consistently give survey or other forms of exit slips in my class to get feedback for what I do as a teacher. I found the process to be very beneficial making changes that mattered. Writing about the process is a different matter. It has been a tenuous journey for me. I feel that I have grown and am better for it but I know that there is much more to be accomplished.
References
Arpaia, Joseph; Lobsang, Rapgay (2008) Real Meditation in Minutes a Day: Wisdom Publications, pg 8, 57, 130-137
Astin, John A. (1997) Stress Reduction through Mindfulness Meditation. Psychother Psychosom pgs 66:97-10
Brantley, J. (2003). Calming your anxious mind: How mindfulness and compassion can free you from anxiety, fear, and panic: New Harbinger.
Brown, Patricia (June 16th, 2007) In the Classroom, a New Focus on Quieting the Mind. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/16/us/16mindful.html
Buttell, Matt;(10/6/09) Stress and Productivity: friends or enemies Retrieved from http://www.hrmreport.com/news/stress-and-productivity/
Dillbeck, Micheal (1982). Meditation and flexibility of visual perception and verbal problem solving. Memory and Cognition. Vol. 10 (3), 207-215
Dweck, Carol (2000) Self Theories: Their Role in Personality and Development, Taylor and Francis Publishers
Giaccobi, Peter (2008) NATA Grant Study, Research Education Foundation
Goleman, D. J., & Schwartz, G. E. (1976). Meditation as an intervention in stress reactivity. J Consult Clin Psychol, 44(3), 456-466.
Hayes, S. C. (2005). Get out of your mind and into your life: The new acceptance and commitment therapy: New Harbinger.
Jewitt, Jan;Peterson, Karen (2004) Stress and Young Children, ERIC Digest. Retrieved from http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-4/stress.html
Kabat-Zinn, Jon (1990). Work stress, Full Catastrophe Living. Random House. 386- 395
Marra, T. (2004). Depressed and anxious: The dialectical behavior therapy workbook for overcoming depression & anxiety: New Harbinger.
Martinez, Micheal E.(2006). What is metacognition? Phi Delta Kappan, pg 696-699.
Monaghan, Patricia. Viereck, Eleanor (1999). What is meditation, Meditation: The Complete Guide. New World Library. pgs i-xxxiii
Lazar, S. W., Bush, G., Gollub, R. L., Fricchione, G. L., Khalsa, G., & Benson, H. (2000). Functional brain mapping of the relaxation response and meditation. Neuroreport, 11(7), 1581-1585.
Peters, Erin, E. ( 3/29/2009). "Metacognitive Prompting Intervention-Science" NAGT Workshops, (George Mason University), Retrieved from http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/metacognition/activities/28640.html
Roth, B., & Creaser, T. (1997). Mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction: Experience with a bilingual inner-city program. Nurse Pract, 22(3), 150-152, 154, 157 passim.
West, Micheal (1979) Meditation, British Journal of Psychiatry. pg 133, 457
Appendices
Living Resources
Spencer Nielson
4th Grade Teacher, Greenwood Elementary School
Spencer has been a mentor in furthering my own mediation practice and currently leads groups of students in mindfulness based meditation in the San Francisco Bay area.
Micheal Martinez PhD
Director of EdD Program, University of California, Irvine, College of Education. Dr. Martinez has helped me to understand the importance of defining metacognition and problem solving in the class and how it can be measured.
Jeff Moorehead PhD
Associate Professor, UCSD,,Field Studies/Statistics, Biology Department. Dr. Moorehead has given advice on how to conduct research and analyze data using statistics.
Hawazth Jazzar
Graduate Student, National University, Current research using meditation to mitigate stress and anxiety in the classroom
Parag Chowdhury PhD
Biology Teacher, High Tech High North County, Formerly worked as neurophysiologist at The Scripps Research Institute. Parag is a new colleague at High Tech High North County and has many years experience studying how the brain works and how psychological processes are accounted for biologically. Parag and I collaborate on creating projects and implementing meditation in the classroom.
Jeff Gagnon
Graduate Student, UCSD, Former middle school teacher. Jeff has been a friend that I am able to reflect with in regards to pedagogy and research.
Student Interviews
Four students were selected at the end of the first month of the first semester. At the end of the second round of meditations, in March the interviews were conducted. The students were asked the following questions to guide a conversation to understand them better.
When you hear “meditation”, what do you think of?
How do you think that meditation can affect you?
How often do you think about the way you learn?
How do you think stress effects you in class?
What does it mean to be engaged in an activity?
When do you feel most engaged at school?
How do you think meditation effects the way you learn?
Pre/Post Surveys
All students (3 groups of 20 students) took surveys using an online format (google forms) found on my classroom website at various points in the year before and after class activities and work sessions to gage the effects that meditation has on their ability to work and learn at school. During the course of the year, students were asked to reflect on what they are accomplishing, how meditation effects them in regards to metacognition, stress, awareness of surroundings and ability to learn and work. Five surveys were chosen for analysis.
Survey 1 (Week of 9/25)
1.)What is your previous experience with meditation?
2.)How do you think meditation will affect you during in class activities?
3.) When do you feel most engaged during class?
Survey 2 (Week of 10/14)
1.) What helps you to concentrate?
2.)What part of school do you need most help with being engaged in?
3.) How do you think you learn best overall in class?
Survey 3 (Week of 11/30)
1.) On a scale of 1 to 4, how stressed did you feel before the meditation?
2.) Explain how you felt before the meditation?
3.) What does it mean to be "engaged" at school?
4.) On a scale of 1 to 4 how engaged in what was going on around you before the meditation?
5.) On a scale of 1 to 4 how stressed did you feel after the meditation?
6.) Explain how you felt after the meditation?
7.) On a scale of 1 to 4 how engaged in what was going on around you after the meditation?
Survey 4 (Week of 12/13)
Please describe your experience during the meditation?
Did you feel any different after the meditation as compared to before the meditation?
What part of the meditation most helped you relax most?
Winter Break and End of Semester
Meditation Form Changed From “Inward” to “Outward”
Survey 5 (Week of 2/17)
Please explain the experience as best you can.
1.)What changes do you think might have occured in your brain during the meditation?
A common response in prior surveys is that positive effects of meditation lasted only a short time. The following questions are in response to previous feedback.
2.) What do you think can be done to continue the positive effects of meditation (If any for you, relaxation and increased awareness was given as a common response) over the course of the entire day instead of during or directly after the meditation?
3.) What do you think could be done by the teacher/others around you to keep you focused on what you are supposed to do over the course of the day.
4.) Do you think that you were more aware of yourself or your surroundings after meditation as compared to before meditation?
August 28th, 2009
Dear 11th Grade Biology Student,
In addition to being a teacher at High Tech High North County, I am also a student in High Tech High’s Teacher Leadership Master’s Program. As part of this program, I will be conducting a research study to learn more about how meditation effects student engagement in the class through self reflection and observation. I'll be working with many High Tech High students in this study and would like to invite you to be a part of it. Below is some information to help you make an informed decision:
Why I'm doing this study: I am really interested in how students work and learn most effectively in class. I would like to learn what the effects of relaxation techniques such as meditation have on student engagement. I plan to use this information the shape the way students focus on difficult tasks, deal with stress and find what works well for them in all facets of their learning. I will be sharing my findings with teachers in the graduate school program and others in the High Tech High community.
What will happen to you if you are in the study? If you participate in this study I'll ask you to meet with me for an hour-long interview to talk about your experiences in the classroom and how they contribute to your thinking. You will also be asked about problem solving techniques that you use and talk about if they work well or not based on the class project and guided focus. I will be giving surveys to the entire class that ask about your experience in the project.
Will any part of the study hurt you or help you? This study won't hurt you in any way, and it may not help you either. However, this study will provide a chance for you to think and talk about your experiences in the class and how you learn. You will be reflecting on similar information during the project reflection and Presentation of Learning so it may be good practice for future work and assessment in class.
Who will know that you are in the study? I'm going to keep whatever I hear from you separate from what I hear from other people -- other students or other teachers. I won't tell them what you tell me, and I won't tell you what they tell me. However, I will write an article or report based on the interesting things I will learn in this study. I will also present what I’ve learned to a panel at High Tech High so that it can be useful to other teachers. In either case, I will conceal your name so that no one will know who you are, or that you did or said a particular thing.
Do you have to be in the study? No, you don’t. No one will get angry or upset with you if you don’t want to do this. Just tell me if you don’t want to be in the study. And remember, you can change your mind later if you decide you don’t want to be in the study anymore.
Questions? You can ask questions at any time. You can ask now. You can ask later. You can talk to me or you can talk to your parents about this study at any time. My work telephone and e-mail are:
PH: (760)468-4402 E-mail: [email protected]
In you have concerns about this research, you can also contact my advisor, Professor Stacey Caillier, who will be supervising this research:
E-mail: [email protected]
To go ahead with this study, I need to know that you are willing to participate and that your choice to do so is entirely voluntary. Please review your rights at the bottom of this page and sign below if you agree to participate.
Sincerely,
X
IF YOU AGREE TO BE IN THE STUDY, PLEASE SIGN YOUR NAME BELOW.
Signature of the Participant _______________________________ Date _________________
Signature of the Teacher Researcher ________________________ Date__________________
The rights below are the rights of every person who is asked to be in a research study. As a research subject, you have the following rights:
To be told what area, subject, or issue is being studied.
To be told what will happen to you and what the procedures are.
To be told about the potential risks or discomforts, if any, of the research.
To be told if you can expect any benefit from participating and, if so, what the benefit might be.
To be allowed to ask any questions concerning the study, both before agreeing to be involved and during the course of the study.
To refuse to participate in the study or to stop participating after the study starts.
To be free of pressure when considering whether you wish to be in the study.
PARENT'S CONSENT FOR MINOR TO PARTICIPATE IN AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY
HIGH TECH HIGH GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
_________________________________________________________________
Title of Study: "How does meditation effect student engagement in the class?"
Researcher: Matthew Leader, Graduate Student, High Tech High Graduate School of Education
Office: (760)468-4402. Email: [email protected]
Purpose: Your child is being invited to participate in the above research study. The purpose of this study is to develop a better understanding of students' relaxation and focusing techniques, meditation and they become and stay engaged in the classroom. This project will involve forty or so teenagers and will not be used in any way to evaluate them, nor will it interfere with your family life or your child’s schooling.
Procedures: If you are agreeable to having your child participate in this study, I may meet with them for an hour-long interview to talk about their experiences in the classroom and how they contribute to their thinking. They will also be asked about the problem solving techniques that they use and talk about whether the techniques work well or not, based on the class project and guided focus.
Risks: There are no known risks to your child for participating in this study.
Benefits: It is possible that your child will not benefit directly by participating in this study. However, this study should provide your child with a valuable opportunity to think and talk about their experiences as a student and as a learner and reflect on school and project work. This may serve as valuable preparation for Presentations of Learning and Student Led Conferences.
Confidentiality: Absolute confidentiality cannot be guaranteed, since research documents are not protected from subpoena. However, the confidentiality of project records will be maintained to the fullest extent possible. Responses by your child to interview questions will be coded in such a way that her or his identity will be concealed. Your child will never be identified with any particular response, comment or materials that he/she might share with me.
Costs: There is no cost to your child beyond the time and effort required to participate in the activities described above. I will schedule interviews at times that are agreeable to you, your child and her/his teachers.
Right to refuse or withdraw: Your child may refuse to participate in this study. If you allow your child to participate, your child has the right to not answer any questions I might ask. Even if you agree, you and your child may change your mind and quit at any point.
Questions: If you have any questions, please contact me at the phone extension or e-mail address above.
Your child’s rights: The rights below are the rights of every person who is asked to be in a research study. As a research subject, your child has the following rights:
To be told what area, subject, or issue is being studied.
To be told what will happen to them and what the procedures are.
To be told about the potential risks or discomforts, if any, of the research.
To be told if they can expect any benefit from participating and, if so, what the benefit might be.
To be allowed to ask any questions concerning the study, both before agreeing to be involved and during the course of the study.
To refuse to participate in the study or to stop participating after the study starts.
To be free of pressure when considering whether they wish to be in the study.
________________________________________________________________
CONSENT: Your signature below will indicate that you have agreed to allow your child to volunteer as a research participant and that you have read and understand the information provided above:
Signature of Legal Guardian __________________________ Date ____________
Signature of Investigator _____________________________ Date ____________
Matthew Leader, Graduate Student, High Tech High Graduate School of Education
In total, for the time period of October to February, three types of meditation were conducted with varying degrees of success in regards to stress, engagement, productivity and awareness. Metacognition seen to be an intrinsic part of all forms of meditation. All groups of students considered, the breathing meditation had the largest positive effect on stress and the general tone of the class. The listening meditation had a profound effect on engagement and productivity, specifically with following directions and completion of laboratory work. The visual meditation was seen to be very similar to the listening meditation in most respects and showed that it increased general awareness of the students surroundings. For all of these positive results to occur the students demonstrated that thinking about the their own thinking or metacognition was a requirement.
Conclusions
I have reached many conclusions over the course of this past year in regards to using meditation in my class. The implications that I have reached that will effect my own class are as varied as the responses and types of students that I teach. There have been positives and negatives and lessons learned about what happens when meditation is used in the class but I leave feeling confident that meditation has helped my students and my teaching practice this past year.
Mindset
Something that I can say with confidence is that my students at High Tech High North County think about meditation in a positive way. Although everyone responded and gave different feedback as to its effects I did not have a student that “disliked” meditation. In the beginning there were a couple of students that were “too cool” for meditation but that changed within a session and it became the cool thing to do. In the end, I think the students having a Growth Mindset in regards to meditation was vital to the successful changes that took place with most students. Those students that genuinely looked at meditation as a tool to help them learn more instead of impress me, the teacher, improved the most. I found that much of this Growth Mindset caught on because of buy in with key students. I now see that peer inclusion of new ideas and things that go on in the class is of the utmost importance.
I first started meditation in the class as a management tool. I have concluded that it works to focus a large group of students but the effects are not as drastic if the students are familiar with the meditations. In that respect, novelty might play a large role in the positive aspects of meditation but I think there is a larger force at work too. I attribute much of this initial change to a change in mindset. The students that were unfamiliar and either apathetic or had negative outlooks at the beginning were affected greatly when they first experienced that meditation was accessible and a popular activity to take part in. If their Mindset shifted from Fixed to Growth over the course of the meditations their anxiety subsided, engagement ensued and they were more aware of their surroundings.
Meditation, Stress and Engagement
When I began, one of my primary goals was to reduce students' feelings of anxiety. In academic studies the outcomes were clear and pronounced. I found the effects of meditation in regards to anxiety to be more complicated than in most of the literature I read. It is easily seen that meditation has a clear positive effect on stress in the short term. What I wished to see was if any long term effects were seen and if not, is it possible to elicit any. Long term stress level effects in students were not as distinctly cut and dry as in the many studies conducted in hospitals. Brantley's (2003) findings that stress is greatly reduced by meditation in the hospital setting pinpoint a population that are very different than my students. In the hospital so much of what his patient population are surrounded by is stagnant and negative, such as pain. In that respect, meditation is a release and I thus highly likely to elicit a positive response. In the school, there are many things such as the workload, peer groupings, time of day, etc. that factor into how a student feels about stress. When I dissected what the numbers (change in stress level) meant during the interviews, I found that the student's background in regards to stress, the type of stress and how the stress came about influenced how they responded to meditation's effects on it. I saw this because I have known and worked closely with these students for three years as opposed to a researcher handing out a survey to patients they don't know. From what I witnessed of student behavior and read from responses, so much had to do with the student's personality and the depth of their original anxiety. The student's personality in terms of how I judged them to be introverted or extroverted played a large role in how they seem to respond emotionally. That behavioral response (frustration, relief, calmness) was difficult to put into words but the connection that I felt with the students helped me to respond to their behaviors.
Meditation did cause pronounced changes in the level of anxiety for a short period of time for some students, but not for all. While meditating, students generally became less stressed with all forms of meditation. When grouping together all students, the breathing exercises and focusing inward helped the most followed by listening meditation and then visual meditation. Those breathing meditations worked well to turn the students thinking inward, towards themselves and use metacognition as Martinez said. Channelling the breath was a complex thought process for some that usually never focused only on themselves.
The students that I designated as introverted responded best in terms of both stress and engagement level to “outward” meditation in the form of listening meditations. They also responded well, but not as well, in terms of both stress and engagement to the other form of “outward” meditation used, visualization. The students that I designated as extroverted responded best to the first “inward” meditations that I used in class in the form of focused breathing. Except for some outliers, those students found that focusing on what was going on within their body calmed them in a way that was beneficial to the classroom setting. They were better able to engage in focused activity even if it meant communicating with other people, even if it was for a short period of time, because their communication became more focused on what was asked of in the class. Some students, irregardless of group, felt that they did not need to de-stress. That reason accounted for the largest portion of students that did not benefit from the relaxing aspects of meditation. Those same students usually did not benefit from positive effects of meditation in terms of increased clarity.
Of the three meditations, the outward meditations, specifically the listening had the most impressive effect on engagement. Listening to others, following along and being an independent direction follower are qualities of engagement that lead to high production. The decrease in stress and increase in engagement means that the student can be more productive in the class in every sense imaginable. Arpaia and Rapgay were correct in saying that students must first disengage in what is unimportant to be successful. The outward meditations served as a guide to disengage in the usual banter that goes through our head, ipod and speech. The students were better able to learn from their surroundings, communicate what is important to themselves and to the class and contribute in a more positive way they were retuned. Productivity as defined before will be helped because will spend more time on tasks that the teacher has directed them towards. This results in higher quality work with a given period of time. With a decrease in stress the students were more confident that they could accomplish something, in our case rigorous biology labs.
Awareness
Overall, students reported increased awareness of themselves as a result of the “inward” breathing meditations and increased awareness of the world around them as a result of the “outward” observational meditations. Much of this awareness was due to the metacognitive tasks associated with meditation such as thinking about what the body is doing and controlling what you are thinking. It was not seen as to whether this was a short term or long term effect. I believe this increased awareness has the greatest implications for the individual. This manifests in terms of better decision making, and an improvement in the quality of one's life. The students did not asked and did not report that they were happier, but I think it can be implied that good things come when you learn from your mistakes and your good fortunes.
Class Tone
The tone of the class was not something that I originally studied but after analyzing characteristics of the class and effects on individuals, I would say that the mood and emotion of the class as a whole noticeable changes. As a teacher, I believe that each student is important and how each individual responds to pedagogical techniques is at the center of my teaching practice. That being said, my perception of how the class responded as a living unit had the greatest effect on me. The positive change that meditation had as a tone changer in terms of seriousness and professionalism was seen through a compilation of responses and observations. The behavior change of my 11th grade students was subtle. Their behavior created a more relaxed atmosphere on meditation days, and I think they not only became more ready to participate but also were more aligned with my teaching style and practice. This change in tone, more than anything else, but probably as a cause of everything else, has solidified my desire to use meditation as much as possible in the years to come.
Tips for Teachers Who Use Meditation
Teach About Meditation First
This really depends on your student body. Most of my students at least knew what meditation was previous to the meditation activities in class. At the beginning of the year when I introduced by action research proposal to my student we spent a couple of minutes discussing what the act of meditation is. That was really helpful for buy in and allowing for the shift to Growth Mindset in regards to meditation. Some student expressed their hesitations based on religious beliefs and things they heard that ended up not being true such as “meditation is for cults.” I had the students read a paragraph from “Real Meditation in Minutes a Day” by Arpaia and Lobsang and I think it alleviated those associated stigmas. If students had started the first meditation thinking it diverged from core beliefs, I think the relaxation and centering techniques found in meditation would be useless.
Personalize the Guided Meditation
I think much of the positive response from the “outward” meditations was on account of me walking the students through what was surrounding them in their everyday lives. I used the feedback that they had given me in surveys to tailor the meditations. Meditation is difficult to do on your own because it takes discipline. If a teacher is there to bring the meditation student to a meditative state on their own time and at there own pace, I think the student will get much more out of it.
This also means, using a style of meditation that fits the student and the purpose. If a teacher wants to recenter the class and change the tone, I would say that “inward” meditations are the way to go. From the data, “inward”, breathing meditations also worked best to relieve anxiety. That can have an overall positive effect for activities such as test taking and public speaking. The “inward” meditations were also received best from extroverted and talkative students. This can be a way to focus students that have a tendency to think about what is going on around them too much.
“Outward”, observational meditations are the way to go if you desire the students to attend to tasks around them such as listening to a lecture of following instructions on a lab protocol. The “outward” meditations also greatly helped students in all ways that were introverted. Visual meditations and listening meditations can be a way to break kids out of their shell and open up. I think this is so valuable in the classroom setting in order to fully engage the student. A passive learner is not a lifelong learner.
Mix It Up
Novelty is an theme that became apparent about half way through my research as things stagnated in class. The data shows that the effects of meditation were much more pronounced the first time they were conducted. Mixing it up and changing the way you do things can keep it fresh for you and the students just as a good less lessons are changed to fit the situation. I do argue that there are important reasons why a meditation facilitator should stay consistent and not change. Practice leads to deeper meditations and more insight into the inward thinking and focus that meditation has to offer. Most of the literature says this. In my action research, I never spent more than 5 minutes conducting meditation activities in the class. I think building up to longer meditation sessions would be very beneficial.
Have Fun With It
The whole point is to become aware of yourself and your surroundings in positive way that can effect change. Having a positive outlook is key to that. I think the facilitator and the meditator must genuinely enjoy and accept the act of meditating in order to get all the benefits.
Meditate Yourself
This was something that I had trouble with over the period of 5 months meditating. I was so busy. The times that I did meditate meditate in a structured way though, I found that it really helped my teaching, leading meditations and outlook in general. Something that I did come to understand is that meditation can take many forms. Although the meditations I led were very structured, surfing became a way to meditate for me. While sitting in the water, I found that for the past few years of surfing I was participating in both “inward” and “outward” meditations and I didn't even know it.
Final Reflection
I began my research in the spring of 2009 unsure of what my class in the coming year would be like. I knew that I would be changing grades and subjects, from 9th grade math and physics to 11th grade biology. I did not know how that transition would affect the class' needs and my teaching practice. Over the course of the next nine months, my research came full circle in many ways. During that period of time, I changed drastically as a teacher in terms of management, curriculum delivery and with my role as a teacher leader. Much of this came about as my research evolved and I realized that what I wanted to understand was more about who I was as a teacher and who each of my students were as people and not as much about how independent structures like meditation determine what happens in class. The details and changes I made along the way during the research brought me back to looking at my classroom environment holistically instead of piece by piece.
The very first question I posed in my graduate school journal was “What does learning look like in my class?” I noted along side the question that I really didn't know how to go about answering the question but maybe that “Looking at specifics such as 'metacognition and learning' or 'meditation and learning' may be more useful.” I don't think I shared my initial question with anyone because it seemed so lofty and unanswerable in some ways when considering how actual action research rolls out. Over the course of the first few months it morphed into many different ideas:
How does outdoor education affect learning?
How does service learning affect engagement?
What happens to student perspectives when evolution is taught in the classroom?
How does stress affect learning?
How does stress affect engagement?
And so on. I share these questions because each one was accompanied by many articles and books that helped me better understand my own teaching, my own classroom and what my role as a teacher is. From these articles, it really hit home that we as teachers serve the whole person, not just a test or a way to improve efficiency.
When the year began I realized that my own stress levels and positive findings from the reading ignited a passion to further use meditation in my class and in my life. I began the first day of school wondering and asking, “How does meditation affect engagement in the classroom?” Staying consistent with guided meditations and asking questions in regards to that question was difficult in a new class. I always found that because of how High Tech High and my classroom is structured I needed to stay flexible. Sometimes at the detriment of what I felt was sound, unbiased research. Many teaching plans change quickly. Teaching partnerships change. There are extremely busy times and less busy times during the year based on when projects or presentations are due. Project and curriculum plans change as teaching partners give feedback and classes integrate between subjects . As those changes occurred so did how I implemented meditation into my classroom. I grappled with the option of having meditation relate directly to a “learning and the brain” project during the first part of the year or having meditation be a side activity that is facilitated separate from project work. In the end I chose both. Some meditations were stand alone activities to center the class and others served a purpose as a tool to get the students thinking about how their mind works and how meditation can effect their thinking. These changes over the course of the year ended up making the writing difficult for me. I was accumulated so much data because I asked a great many things but the more I saw come in, the more confused I got about what to write. I did feel that it was helping my teaching though.
From the first surveys and discussions I saw how important it was to gauge how students felt and compare that with what I was seeing in class. I became more reflective as I asked them to reflect. This has caused many sleepless nights and long conversations after school that disrupted other aspects of my life. With that disruption, each moment left me with more knowledge about how to respond in and out of class to daily events and students on an individual level.
I began the year obsessed with the students creating beautiful work and being productive. The pressure, both internal and external, to see great things come out of a project started me off micromanaging in the class. In beginning my research, I searched for ways to get the students to be “perfect workers and always focused on the moment”. I became frustrated when things weren't perfect or students went off task. During the first part of the year, I knew the students really well in some ways but I still saw some of them ninth graders. I tried to but I didn't account for their changes in behavior socially and emotionally. As the research progressed reflection on my own meditation and personal stressors helped me to see past that.
The initial research was successful. Though as I look back on it, it mattered because I came to understand that meditation can make a real difference in setting the tone of the class. I think the tone is something that is oftentimes unaccounted for in determining how the class goes over the course of the day. I used to go into my lessons and activities without regard for what was going on with the students as they came into my class. I found that the time of day, the class experience prior and personal experiences really affect their experiences from the onset. Importantly for the research, I saw that teaching was more that delivery of content but connecting with how the students were doing socially and emotionally. When meditation occurred at the beginning of class it set a tone for what I felt was important in regards to what would happen during the period.
I didn't quite see the ramifications of those first meditations until I stepped back later in the year though. My feelings during the first two months of research was that tone was of little consequence. I wanted to understand and “act” on more to really change their life. I really thought that meditation could be transformative for the whole of the student in a positive way and decided that I needed to change my action research in response to that. The meditations shifted from being very structured and “inward” to free from representations of what students had requested and what I thought they needed in class. By this I mean the listening and visual meditations were a reflection of what I thought they needed.
I realize now that the changes in the meditation changed the class dynamic but also made my own analysis of it more complex. Research just got difficult. I was responding to what I felt was a lack of success with structured meditation. It was successful for certain students and did set a clear and focused tone in the class the more and more I used it. I don't think it was unsuccessful at all now that I look at the process as a whole. As a teacher, I wanted something more. I wanted to see students that really were stressed or consistently disengaged change behaviors as is reported in literature. That wasn't quite seen.
I think the time constraints played a role in not seeing transformational experiences in the class in terms of mindfulness of what's going on around them. I also think there is so much more at work in the head of an individual than what can be asked on an exit card, survey or short interview in regards to how they respond to meditation in a short period of time in the class. It made me want to do more biological research. By seeing physiological responses such as brain activity changes and respiration or heart rate changes and comparing them to what the students had said I think both the students and I would understand things much more accurate way.
Once I changed the meditations to visualization techniques I came to see the research as much more personalized. It was at this time that I changed my question. It went from, “How does meditation affect student engagement in the classroom?” to “What happens when I use meditation in my class? The question change was needed because I was seeing much more take place with individuals in the class than just engagement levels. It was actually very difficult to gauge engagement levels since what I was seeing was often very different that the students responses. What led me to ask “what happens when” was the increased complexity. I realized that the way in which a researcher or teacher implements meditation really changes the way students see meditation. Each student reacts differently to those changes, both positively and negatively.
I will definitely continue the use of meditation in my class. I now think there is a place in the class for inward meditation and outward meditation. The important thing I've learned is how important personalization is in all of it. But the person is not just characterized by a single quality such as introverted or extroverted. To personalize, a teacher has to spend quality time with a student over the course of years and meet with their parents and survey their feelings on a consistent basis. By understanding more deeply how individuals respond to different types of meditation and by working with what's going on in their lives I feel better armed to succeed in teaching what I feel is important as a teacher. Looking at problems in a deep, detailed and aware way is vital to success both as a student and as a teacher. I am excited to extend on what I have learned with the new group of students that I will have in the coming year.
I will also continue to consistently give survey or other forms of exit slips in my class to get feedback for what I do as a teacher. I found the process to be very beneficial making changes that mattered. Writing about the process is a different matter. It has been a tenuous journey for me. I feel that I have grown and am better for it but I know that there is much more to be accomplished.
References
Arpaia, Joseph; Lobsang, Rapgay (2008) Real Meditation in Minutes a Day: Wisdom Publications, pg 8, 57, 130-137
Astin, John A. (1997) Stress Reduction through Mindfulness Meditation. Psychother Psychosom pgs 66:97-10
Brantley, J. (2003). Calming your anxious mind: How mindfulness and compassion can free you from anxiety, fear, and panic: New Harbinger.
Brown, Patricia (June 16th, 2007) In the Classroom, a New Focus on Quieting the Mind. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/16/us/16mindful.html
Buttell, Matt;(10/6/09) Stress and Productivity: friends or enemies Retrieved from http://www.hrmreport.com/news/stress-and-productivity/
Dillbeck, Micheal (1982). Meditation and flexibility of visual perception and verbal problem solving. Memory and Cognition. Vol. 10 (3), 207-215
Dweck, Carol (2000) Self Theories: Their Role in Personality and Development, Taylor and Francis Publishers
Giaccobi, Peter (2008) NATA Grant Study, Research Education Foundation
Goleman, D. J., & Schwartz, G. E. (1976). Meditation as an intervention in stress reactivity. J Consult Clin Psychol, 44(3), 456-466.
Hayes, S. C. (2005). Get out of your mind and into your life: The new acceptance and commitment therapy: New Harbinger.
Jewitt, Jan;Peterson, Karen (2004) Stress and Young Children, ERIC Digest. Retrieved from http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-4/stress.html
Kabat-Zinn, Jon (1990). Work stress, Full Catastrophe Living. Random House. 386- 395
Marra, T. (2004). Depressed and anxious: The dialectical behavior therapy workbook for overcoming depression & anxiety: New Harbinger.
Martinez, Micheal E.(2006). What is metacognition? Phi Delta Kappan, pg 696-699.
Monaghan, Patricia. Viereck, Eleanor (1999). What is meditation, Meditation: The Complete Guide. New World Library. pgs i-xxxiii
Lazar, S. W., Bush, G., Gollub, R. L., Fricchione, G. L., Khalsa, G., & Benson, H. (2000). Functional brain mapping of the relaxation response and meditation. Neuroreport, 11(7), 1581-1585.
Peters, Erin, E. ( 3/29/2009). "Metacognitive Prompting Intervention-Science" NAGT Workshops, (George Mason University), Retrieved from http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/metacognition/activities/28640.html
Roth, B., & Creaser, T. (1997). Mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction: Experience with a bilingual inner-city program. Nurse Pract, 22(3), 150-152, 154, 157 passim.
West, Micheal (1979) Meditation, British Journal of Psychiatry. pg 133, 457
Appendices
Living Resources
Spencer Nielson
4th Grade Teacher, Greenwood Elementary School
Spencer has been a mentor in furthering my own mediation practice and currently leads groups of students in mindfulness based meditation in the San Francisco Bay area.
Micheal Martinez PhD
Director of EdD Program, University of California, Irvine, College of Education. Dr. Martinez has helped me to understand the importance of defining metacognition and problem solving in the class and how it can be measured.
Jeff Moorehead PhD
Associate Professor, UCSD,,Field Studies/Statistics, Biology Department. Dr. Moorehead has given advice on how to conduct research and analyze data using statistics.
Hawazth Jazzar
Graduate Student, National University, Current research using meditation to mitigate stress and anxiety in the classroom
Parag Chowdhury PhD
Biology Teacher, High Tech High North County, Formerly worked as neurophysiologist at The Scripps Research Institute. Parag is a new colleague at High Tech High North County and has many years experience studying how the brain works and how psychological processes are accounted for biologically. Parag and I collaborate on creating projects and implementing meditation in the classroom.
Jeff Gagnon
Graduate Student, UCSD, Former middle school teacher. Jeff has been a friend that I am able to reflect with in regards to pedagogy and research.
Student Interviews
Four students were selected at the end of the first month of the first semester. At the end of the second round of meditations, in March the interviews were conducted. The students were asked the following questions to guide a conversation to understand them better.
When you hear “meditation”, what do you think of?
How do you think that meditation can affect you?
How often do you think about the way you learn?
How do you think stress effects you in class?
What does it mean to be engaged in an activity?
When do you feel most engaged at school?
How do you think meditation effects the way you learn?
Pre/Post Surveys
All students (3 groups of 20 students) took surveys using an online format (google forms) found on my classroom website at various points in the year before and after class activities and work sessions to gage the effects that meditation has on their ability to work and learn at school. During the course of the year, students were asked to reflect on what they are accomplishing, how meditation effects them in regards to metacognition, stress, awareness of surroundings and ability to learn and work. Five surveys were chosen for analysis.
Survey 1 (Week of 9/25)
1.)What is your previous experience with meditation?
2.)How do you think meditation will affect you during in class activities?
3.) When do you feel most engaged during class?
Survey 2 (Week of 10/14)
1.) What helps you to concentrate?
2.)What part of school do you need most help with being engaged in?
3.) How do you think you learn best overall in class?
Survey 3 (Week of 11/30)
1.) On a scale of 1 to 4, how stressed did you feel before the meditation?
2.) Explain how you felt before the meditation?
3.) What does it mean to be "engaged" at school?
4.) On a scale of 1 to 4 how engaged in what was going on around you before the meditation?
5.) On a scale of 1 to 4 how stressed did you feel after the meditation?
6.) Explain how you felt after the meditation?
7.) On a scale of 1 to 4 how engaged in what was going on around you after the meditation?
Survey 4 (Week of 12/13)
Please describe your experience during the meditation?
Did you feel any different after the meditation as compared to before the meditation?
What part of the meditation most helped you relax most?
Winter Break and End of Semester
Meditation Form Changed From “Inward” to “Outward”
Survey 5 (Week of 2/17)
Please explain the experience as best you can.
1.)What changes do you think might have occured in your brain during the meditation?
A common response in prior surveys is that positive effects of meditation lasted only a short time. The following questions are in response to previous feedback.
2.) What do you think can be done to continue the positive effects of meditation (If any for you, relaxation and increased awareness was given as a common response) over the course of the entire day instead of during or directly after the meditation?
3.) What do you think could be done by the teacher/others around you to keep you focused on what you are supposed to do over the course of the day.
4.) Do you think that you were more aware of yourself or your surroundings after meditation as compared to before meditation?
August 28th, 2009
Dear 11th Grade Biology Student,
In addition to being a teacher at High Tech High North County, I am also a student in High Tech High’s Teacher Leadership Master’s Program. As part of this program, I will be conducting a research study to learn more about how meditation effects student engagement in the class through self reflection and observation. I'll be working with many High Tech High students in this study and would like to invite you to be a part of it. Below is some information to help you make an informed decision:
Why I'm doing this study: I am really interested in how students work and learn most effectively in class. I would like to learn what the effects of relaxation techniques such as meditation have on student engagement. I plan to use this information the shape the way students focus on difficult tasks, deal with stress and find what works well for them in all facets of their learning. I will be sharing my findings with teachers in the graduate school program and others in the High Tech High community.
What will happen to you if you are in the study? If you participate in this study I'll ask you to meet with me for an hour-long interview to talk about your experiences in the classroom and how they contribute to your thinking. You will also be asked about problem solving techniques that you use and talk about if they work well or not based on the class project and guided focus. I will be giving surveys to the entire class that ask about your experience in the project.
Will any part of the study hurt you or help you? This study won't hurt you in any way, and it may not help you either. However, this study will provide a chance for you to think and talk about your experiences in the class and how you learn. You will be reflecting on similar information during the project reflection and Presentation of Learning so it may be good practice for future work and assessment in class.
Who will know that you are in the study? I'm going to keep whatever I hear from you separate from what I hear from other people -- other students or other teachers. I won't tell them what you tell me, and I won't tell you what they tell me. However, I will write an article or report based on the interesting things I will learn in this study. I will also present what I’ve learned to a panel at High Tech High so that it can be useful to other teachers. In either case, I will conceal your name so that no one will know who you are, or that you did or said a particular thing.
Do you have to be in the study? No, you don’t. No one will get angry or upset with you if you don’t want to do this. Just tell me if you don’t want to be in the study. And remember, you can change your mind later if you decide you don’t want to be in the study anymore.
Questions? You can ask questions at any time. You can ask now. You can ask later. You can talk to me or you can talk to your parents about this study at any time. My work telephone and e-mail are:
PH: (760)468-4402 E-mail: [email protected]
In you have concerns about this research, you can also contact my advisor, Professor Stacey Caillier, who will be supervising this research:
E-mail: [email protected]
To go ahead with this study, I need to know that you are willing to participate and that your choice to do so is entirely voluntary. Please review your rights at the bottom of this page and sign below if you agree to participate.
Sincerely,
X
IF YOU AGREE TO BE IN THE STUDY, PLEASE SIGN YOUR NAME BELOW.
Signature of the Participant _______________________________ Date _________________
Signature of the Teacher Researcher ________________________ Date__________________
The rights below are the rights of every person who is asked to be in a research study. As a research subject, you have the following rights:
To be told what area, subject, or issue is being studied.
To be told what will happen to you and what the procedures are.
To be told about the potential risks or discomforts, if any, of the research.
To be told if you can expect any benefit from participating and, if so, what the benefit might be.
To be allowed to ask any questions concerning the study, both before agreeing to be involved and during the course of the study.
To refuse to participate in the study or to stop participating after the study starts.
To be free of pressure when considering whether you wish to be in the study.
PARENT'S CONSENT FOR MINOR TO PARTICIPATE IN AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY
HIGH TECH HIGH GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
_________________________________________________________________
Title of Study: "How does meditation effect student engagement in the class?"
Researcher: Matthew Leader, Graduate Student, High Tech High Graduate School of Education
Office: (760)468-4402. Email: [email protected]
Purpose: Your child is being invited to participate in the above research study. The purpose of this study is to develop a better understanding of students' relaxation and focusing techniques, meditation and they become and stay engaged in the classroom. This project will involve forty or so teenagers and will not be used in any way to evaluate them, nor will it interfere with your family life or your child’s schooling.
Procedures: If you are agreeable to having your child participate in this study, I may meet with them for an hour-long interview to talk about their experiences in the classroom and how they contribute to their thinking. They will also be asked about the problem solving techniques that they use and talk about whether the techniques work well or not, based on the class project and guided focus.
Risks: There are no known risks to your child for participating in this study.
Benefits: It is possible that your child will not benefit directly by participating in this study. However, this study should provide your child with a valuable opportunity to think and talk about their experiences as a student and as a learner and reflect on school and project work. This may serve as valuable preparation for Presentations of Learning and Student Led Conferences.
Confidentiality: Absolute confidentiality cannot be guaranteed, since research documents are not protected from subpoena. However, the confidentiality of project records will be maintained to the fullest extent possible. Responses by your child to interview questions will be coded in such a way that her or his identity will be concealed. Your child will never be identified with any particular response, comment or materials that he/she might share with me.
Costs: There is no cost to your child beyond the time and effort required to participate in the activities described above. I will schedule interviews at times that are agreeable to you, your child and her/his teachers.
Right to refuse or withdraw: Your child may refuse to participate in this study. If you allow your child to participate, your child has the right to not answer any questions I might ask. Even if you agree, you and your child may change your mind and quit at any point.
Questions: If you have any questions, please contact me at the phone extension or e-mail address above.
Your child’s rights: The rights below are the rights of every person who is asked to be in a research study. As a research subject, your child has the following rights:
To be told what area, subject, or issue is being studied.
To be told what will happen to them and what the procedures are.
To be told about the potential risks or discomforts, if any, of the research.
To be told if they can expect any benefit from participating and, if so, what the benefit might be.
To be allowed to ask any questions concerning the study, both before agreeing to be involved and during the course of the study.
To refuse to participate in the study or to stop participating after the study starts.
To be free of pressure when considering whether they wish to be in the study.
________________________________________________________________
CONSENT: Your signature below will indicate that you have agreed to allow your child to volunteer as a research participant and that you have read and understand the information provided above:
Signature of Legal Guardian __________________________ Date ____________
Signature of Investigator _____________________________ Date ____________
Matthew Leader, Graduate Student, High Tech High Graduate School of Education