Mindfulness
Richard Churches
Richard is Global Head of Research at Education Development Trust and leads its programme of global public benefit research. He has worked in education for over thirty years as a teacher, school leader, consultant and government adviser. He is the author of a number of books including Neuroscience for Teachers: Applying brain science in the classroom and Teacher-Led Research: How to design and implement randomised controlled trials written with Eleanor Dommett and Ian Devonshire.
James Gibbs
This research report looks at how mindfulness can be used to manage teacher work-related stress. The report is based on a small-scale study of the effects of stress on the structure of consciousness.
Teacher emotional state may affect classroom climate and in turn teacher and school effectiveness. Extended periods of work-related stress may harm a teacher's ability to manage emotions and have an impact on staff retention as well as a wide range of other negative effects such as lowering overall performance.
Mindfulness, as a meditative approach, has grown significantly in popularity as a means of managing stress. However, there has been limited research into its effectiveness with teachers themselves. Previous research has tended to focus mainly on the effects of using mindfulness with children and parents.
This research aimed to measure the effects of training teachers to apply mindfulness to manage work-related stress; it sought the views of teachers about the potential of using this technique in their work.
The results suggest that work-related stress significantly affects teachers, causing increased levels of negative feeling and reduced levels of positive emotion. Using mindfulness had a positive impact on the teachers. This was clear in all the evidence from the study. Specifically, following training, the application of a mindfulness technique for a short period to manage work-related stress restored teachers' levels of tension to those they experienced when sitting quietly with their eyes closed, not feeling stressed. In particular, mindfulness stops feelings of anger and muscle tension, and restores levels of self-talk (inner dialogue and discussion) to normal.