Contemplation in the Classroom: a New Direction for Improving Childhood Education

Research with adults suggests that contemplative practices such as meditation and yoga impart a variety of benefits, from improved attention to reduced stress. Increasingly, these practices are being adapted for use with children and introduced into childhood education in order to foster the development of key self-regulation skills required for academic achievement and emotional well-being. This article reviews empirical evidence that supports the introduction of contemplative practices into childhood education. Directions for future research are discussed.

[1]  John H. Flavell,et al.  Development of Children's Awareness of Their Own Thoughts , 2000 .

[2]  P. Goldin,et al.  Mindfulness-based stress reduction for school-age children. , 2008 .

[3]  Philip David Zelazo,et al.  Mindfulness meditation and reduced emotional interference on a cognitive task , 2007 .

[4]  S. Shapiro,et al.  Mindfulness-based stress reduction for the treatment of adolescent psychiatric outpatients: A randomized clinical trial. , 2009, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[5]  Richard J. Davidson,et al.  Theta Phase Synchrony and Conscious Target Perception: Impact of Intensive Mental Training , 2009, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[6]  Betsy L. Wisner,et al.  School-based Meditation Practices for Adolescents: A Resource for Strengthening Self-Regulation, Emotional Coping, and Self-Esteem , 2010 .

[7]  E. Torrance,et al.  Further Examination of the Quality of Changes in Creative Functioning Resulting from Meditation (Zazen) Training. , 1982 .

[8]  Philippe R Goldin,et al.  Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on emotion regulation in social anxiety disorder. , 2010, Emotion.

[9]  Richard L. Bryck,et al.  Training the brain: practical applications of neural plasticity from the intersection of cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology, and prevention science. , 2012, The American psychologist.

[10]  P. Zelazo The development of conscious control in childhood , 2004, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[11]  Lisa Miller,et al.  A Randomized Trial of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Children: Promoting Mindful Attention to Enhance Social-Emotional Resiliency in Children , 2010 .

[12]  Avshalom Caspi,et al.  The Science of the Placebo: Toward an Interdisciplinary Research Agenda. Edited by H. A. Guess, A. Kleinman, J. W. Kusek and L. W. Eng. (Pp. 332; £15.95.) British Medical Journal: London. 2002. , 2003, Psychological Medicine.

[13]  A. Jha,et al.  Mindfulness training modifies subsystems of attention , 2007, Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience.

[14]  J. Harper Yoga Therapy in Practice Teaching Yoga in Urban Elementary Schools , 2010 .

[15]  W. Chang,et al.  Academic Achievement and Transcendental Meditation: A Study with At-Risk Urban Middle School Students. , 2011 .

[16]  H. Wellman,et al.  Scaling of theory-of-mind tasks. , 2004, Child development.

[17]  Geetha B. Ramani,et al.  Positive and Negative Peer Interaction in 3- and 4-Year-Olds in Relation to Regulation and Dysregulation , 2010, The Journal of genetic psychology.

[18]  J. Flavell,et al.  Development of knowledge about the appearance-reality distinction. , 1986, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

[19]  Kam-Tim So,et al.  Three randomized experiments on the longitudinal effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique on cognition , 2001 .

[20]  Claire Hughes,et al.  Individual differences in growth in executive function across the transition to school predict externalizing and internalizing behaviors and self-perceived academic success at 6 years of age. , 2011, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[21]  H. Coelho,et al.  The Art and Science of Mindfulness. Integrating Mindfulness into Psychology and the Helping Professions , 2010 .

[22]  Christine Burke,et al.  Mindfulness-Based Approaches with Children and Adolescents: A Preliminary Review of Current Research in an Emergent Field , 2010 .

[23]  Vivian Zayas,et al.  Predicting Cognitive Control From Preschool to Late Adolescence and Young Adulthood , 2006, Psychological science.

[24]  J. Gross Emotion regulation: affective, cognitive, and social consequences. , 2002, Psychophysiology.

[25]  M. Reiser,et al.  Paths to Successful Development: The role of emotionality and regulation in children's social competence and adjustment , 2002 .

[26]  J. Heckman,et al.  A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety , 2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[27]  Beth Whipple,et al.  Playing it cool: Temperament, emotion regulation, and social behavior in preschoolers , 2004 .

[28]  Susan M. Bögels,et al.  The Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training for Children with ADHD and Mindful Parenting for their Parents , 2011, Journal of Child and Family Studies.

[29]  S. Shapiro,et al.  Teaching Self-Care to Caregivers: Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on the Mental Health of Therapists in Training , 2007 .

[30]  Megan M. McClelland,et al.  Links between behavioral regulation and preschoolers' literacy, vocabulary, and math skills. , 2007, Developmental psychology.

[31]  Lynn C Holley,et al.  Mindfulness Training for Elementary School Students , 2005 .

[32]  Scott D. Gest,et al.  Promoting academic and social-emotional school readiness: the head start REDI program. , 2008, Child development.

[33]  Diego A. Pizzagalli,et al.  Effects of early life stress on cognitive and affective function: an integrated review of human literature , 2011, Psychopharmacology.

[34]  K. Neff,et al.  The Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Self-Compassion , 2003 .

[35]  Ulrich Müller,et al.  The development of executive function in early childhood: I. The development of executive function. , 2003 .

[36]  Joan Stiles,et al.  The Fundamentals of Brain Development: Integrating Nature and Nurture , 2008 .

[37]  Alan A. Wilson,et al.  Neuroanatomical correlates of encoding in episodic memory: levels of processing effect. , 1994, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[38]  Janet A. Welsh,et al.  Social relationship deficits. , 1997 .

[39]  A. Lutz,et al.  Mental Training as a Tool in the Neuroscientific Study of Brain and Cognitive Plasticity , 2011, Front. Hum. Neurosci..

[40]  P. Zelazo,et al.  The Potential Benefits of Mindfulness Training in Early Childhood: A Developmental Social Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective , 2012 .

[41]  D. Orme-Johnson,et al.  Kohlbergian Cosmic Perspective Responses, EEG Coherence and the TM and TM-Sidhi Programme. , 1983 .

[42]  Richard J Davidson,et al.  Empirical explorations of mindfulness: conceptual and methodological conundrums. , 2010, Emotion.

[43]  Angela L. Duckworth,et al.  Self‐regulation strategies improve self‐discipline in adolescents: benefits of mental contrasting and implementation intentions , 2011 .

[44]  Anastasia Efklides,et al.  Trends and prospects in metacognition research , 2010 .

[45]  S. Smalley,et al.  Mindfulness Meditation Training in Adults and Adolescents With ADHD , 2008, Journal of attention disorders.

[46]  Susan K. Johnson,et al.  Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: Evidence of brief mental training , 2010, Consciousness and Cognition.

[47]  T. Hart Opening the Contemplative Mind in the Classroom , 2004 .

[48]  B. Pennington,et al.  Executive function deficits in high-functioning autistic individuals: relationship to theory of mind. , 1991, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[49]  R. Walsh,et al.  The meeting of meditative disciplines and Western psychology: a mutually enriching dialogue. , 2006, The American psychologist.

[50]  A. Diamond,et al.  Interventions Shown to Aid Executive Function Development in Children 4 to 12 Years Old , 2011, Science.

[51]  J. Astin,et al.  Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Health Care Professionals: Results From a Randomized Trial , 2005 .

[52]  P. Philippot,et al.  The effects of mindfulness on executive processes and autobiographical memory specificity. , 2009, Behaviour research and therapy.

[53]  S. Ghetti,et al.  Metacognitive Development in Early Childhood: New Questions about Old Assumptions , 2010 .

[54]  Daniel M. Johnson,et al.  A controlled trial of mindfulness training in schools: The importance of practice for an impact on well-being , 2010 .

[55]  Tracy A. Dennis,et al.  Emotion regulation as a scientific construct: methodological challenges and directions for child development research. , 2004, Child development.

[56]  L. Price,et al.  Early life stress and psychopharmacology , 2011, Psychopharmacology.

[57]  S. Bögels,et al.  Mindfulness Training for Adolescents with Externalizing Disorders and their Parents , 2008, Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy.

[58]  N. Allen,et al.  The Impact of Intensive Mindfulness Training on Attentional Control, Cognitive Style, and Affect , 2008, Cognitive Therapy and Research.

[59]  H. Yoshikawa,et al.  Placing emotional self-regulation in sociocultural and socioeconomic contexts. , 2004, Child development.

[60]  S. Smalley,et al.  Effects of Mindful Awareness Practices on Executive Functions in Elementary School Children , 2010 .

[61]  D. Levine,et al.  A neuropsychological theory of positive affect and its influence on cognition. , 1999, Psychological review.

[62]  P. Zelazo,et al.  Self‐Reflection and the Cognitive Control of Behavior: Implications for Learning , 2008 .

[63]  R. Sapolsky Why Stress Is Bad for Your Brain , 1996, Science.

[64]  P. Liehr,et al.  A pilot study examining the effect of mindfulness on depression and anxiety for minority children. , 2010, Archives of psychiatric nursing.

[65]  J. Flavell,et al.  Young children's knowledge about thinking. , 1995, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

[66]  Mark T. Greenberg,et al.  Feasibility and Preliminary Outcomes of a School-Based Mindfulness Intervention for Urban Youth , 2010, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[67]  J. Kabat-Zinn,et al.  Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Context: Past, Present, and Future , 2003 .

[68]  G. Schwartz,et al.  Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Medical and Premedical Students , 1998, Journal of Behavioral Medicine.

[69]  Gustavo Deco,et al.  Human Neuroscience Original Research Article Cortical Microcircuit Dynamics Mediating Binocular Rivalry: the Role of Adaptation in Inhibition , 2022 .

[70]  Ulrich Müller,et al.  The development of executive function in early childhood. , 1991, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

[71]  C. Blair,et al.  Relating effortful control, executive function, and false belief understanding to emerging math and literacy ability in kindergarten. , 2007, Child development.

[72]  Susanne M. Jaeggi,et al.  Short- and long-term benefits of cognitive training , 2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[73]  Kenneth H. Rubin,et al.  Emotionality, emotion regulation, and preschoolers' social adaptation , 1995, Development and Psychopathology.

[74]  R. Barkley Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Self‐Regulation, and Time: Toward a More Comprehensive Theory , 1997, Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBP.

[75]  M. Mckay,et al.  Intensive mindfulness training-related changes in cognitive and emotional experience , 2009 .

[76]  Richard G. Moore,et al.  Metacognitive awareness and prevention of relapse in depression: empirical evidence. , 2002, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[77]  P. Huttenlocher Neural Plasticity: The Effects of Environment on the Development of the Cerebral Cortex , 2002 .

[78]  Bruce D. McCandliss,et al.  Training, maturation, and genetic influences on the development of executive attention. , 2005, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[79]  R. Baer Mindfulness Training as a Clinical Intervention: A Conceptual and Empirical Review , 2003 .