Method

Research and implementation of mindfulness strategies started in late September. At the start of almost every class, we spent 5 minutes doing a clearing. I asked students if there was anything they needed to get off their chest to be fully present for music. For the younger groups, I guided the clearings by asking students who were having a good day to share why and then asking students who were having a bad day to share why. Clearings were consistent, but I also incorporated other mindfulness strategies like meditation and yoga to regulate the students. These strategies are detailed in the Mindfulness Toolkit.

Measurement of the effectiveness of these strategies was recorded in two ways. First was a survey designed to measure a student’s empathy, emotional regulation, and sense of belonging. Students read statements and then recorded their agreement or disagreement with the statement using a Likert scale. During the research phase, there were two modules of music, in which I saw two separate classes of both grade 4s and grade 6s. Each group was surveyed within the first week of the module and again two weeks before the end of the module. Although the same strategies were implemented in the grade 8 classroom, surveys were not completed because seeing the grade 8s every other day (instead of daily like the grade 4s and 6s) reduced classroom time by half, therefore causing the effects of the implemented MBIs to be less significant. The second measurement method was anecdotal notes taken before, during, and after implementing a particular mindfulness strategy. These notes included how the students behaved or responded to the lesson, how they responded to the particular MBI and their reactions/change in behaviour after the intervention. Notes were also taken on perceived changes in classroom culture and other effects of MBIs.

Considering the existing research on the implementation of MBIs in schools and classrooms, I believe that incorporating mindfulness-based interventions in the classroom will have a perceived positive effect (anecdotal evidence) but will not significantly improve survey scores due to the short-term nature of this research and the implementation of the interventions.

Survey Results

After survey results were collected, responses to each question were converted to a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the least positive outcome and 5 being the most positive. On a positively framed statement (e.g. “I know how someone is feeling while I am talking to them”), strongly disagree on the response scale became 1 and strongly agree became 5. On a negatively framed statement (e.g. “I worry that my classmates will judge me”), strongly disagree became 5 and strongly agree became 1. Scores were then converted to a percentage of the most optimal outcome (if every student chose a response valued at 5). Table 1 shows the scores for each survey by module and class in each of the three categories. A 1.0 would mean that every student responded with the most positive response for every statement in the category. A 0.0 would mean that every student responded with the least positive response for every statement in that category. Changes in empathy ranged from 0.02-0.04 (α = 0.83) and consistently had the largest improvement across all three categories. Emotional regulation increased by 0.01-0.04 (α = 0.68) and belonging by 0.01-0.04 (α = 0.63) from pre-test to post-test. These increases of about 1-4% are not statistically significant and are consistent with existing research that mindfulness strategies are most effective if practiced consistently for a year or more. Eight weeks is not enough time to train students to use these strategies independently in their daily lives.

Table 1 | Percentage of positive outcomes in each category by module and grade in both pre- and post-test.

Anecdotal Evidence

In terms of anecdotal evidence, there was a perceived positive effect when incorporating clearings and other MBIs in the classroom setting. By the end of the second week of clearings, students approached me before class started to clear with me one-on-one. Students would also clear at the end of class as we were walking back to their homeroom. As students got more comfortable with the practice, the things that were cleared became more personal. Students were better able to advocate for themselves (e.g. “I didn’t sleep well last night, so please be patient with me today”) and were more respectful of their peers’ clearings. On difficult days, we spent more time on clearings, making sure every student could share their thoughts. We were able to resolve social issues in the group very quickly using this method, and students were better able to communicate and problem solve with one another.

When the students were particularly dysregulated, we spent some time meditating on a piece of music (it was music class, after all!) and practicing deep breathing techniques. These sessions went on for 3-5 minutes and were immediately effective. Most students mentioned feeling better or wishing we could spend longer meditating. Once we resumed the class, students were better focused on the current task and listened to instructions more intently. Taking deep breaths together also had a similar effect when the students came in from PE feeling hyper, and a few breaths were often all we needed to get back on track. They also became a cue to get settled and ready for music class. Finally, when students were getting antsy, we took a break with some yoga. It took just 2 minutes but helped to use up some energy and get the students refocused. They were highly receptive to learning new poses, like tree pose, and were already well-practiced in incorporating the breath. These and other strategies in the Mindfulness Toolkit are effective “band-aid fixes” for re-grounding students at the moment. However, to be effective in the long term, teachers need to commit to their implementation and practice with students over a more extended period.