Developing Students’ Mindfulness Practice to Support Engagement, Self-Regulation, and Achievement

Mindfulness, or paying attention to the present moment without judgment, has been shown to support students to meet the academic demands and pressures of an increasingly changing and challenging world. 21st century students must balance a wide array of responsibilities and make sense of vast amounts of easily accessible information most adults have never had to contend with. Understanding the diverse needs of students requires educators to employ a variety of intentional strategies to support student academic and social-emotional needs. This course will support teachers in understanding and employing mindful strategies that help them be more responsive to their students’ social-emotional and instructional needs as well as help students develop 21st Century Skills. The course prepares educators to weave simple and effective mindfulness activities into their classroom on a daily basis.

The course begins by describing some of the emotional and academic demands students face and the impact it has on their nervous system and executive brain functions. The course then defines mindfulness, details the ways mindfulness practices can support students’ varied needs, and reviews guidelines for sharing mindfulness activities with students. Learners also explore the ways mindfulness supports Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and differentiation. Additionally, the course offers guided audio and video recorded practices and other resources to help teachers experience and facilitate mindfulness activities.

Learners will also explore ways to weave mindfulness practices into class routines to support planning and preparing, classroom instruction, classroom climate, and meeting professional demands as described in the Danielson Framework for Teaching.

Objectives

In this course, learners will:

• Identify and appraise pressures modern students face and analyze some developmental changes children experience.
• Appraise the role mindfulness practices and social emotional learning play in helping students thrive and find balance in the 21st Century in and out of the classroom.
• Appraise the ways mindfulness can support a healthy classroom climate and support communication.
• Investigate and consider ways mindfulness can support student engagement.
• Analyze and appraise guidelines to sharing mindfulness activities with students.
• Design and develop strategies and an action plan to implement mindfulness based practices that support engagement and learning readiness, instructional effectiveness, a positive classroom climate, and meaningful classroom relationships.
• Analyze different implementation approaches to including mindfulness in classroom and in school.
• Communicate to stakeholders the role mindfulness can play in education, the classroom, and for students and teachers.