The practice of Full attention or Mindfulness, more than a set of techniques for being in the present moment, is an attitude towards life .It is a style of coping that builds on personal strengths, and within the classroom, brings benefits to both students and teachers.

The aim of Mindfulness in the educational context is to help participants acquire a state of awareness and calm that will help them to self-regulate their behaviour and get to know themselves better , as well as to create an environment conducive to learning.

Teaching with Mindfulness fosters the pedagogical community, in which students flourish academically, emotionally and socially; and in which teachers take full advantage of the climate created within this educational environment . Full attention is a conscious and intentional way of tuning in to what is going on inside us and around us, and allows us to unmask automatisms and promote integral development.

Mindfulness is increasingly popular in schools

Mindfulness became popular in the West thanks to Jon Kabat-Zinn, a physician at the University of Massachusetts, who in 1978 began using Mindfulness with patients suffering from chronic stress. Since then, Mindfulness has been applied in different settings, such as the clinical, work or sports environment.

Scientific studies show that regular practitioners of Full Care have more neuronal density, greater well-being, are more efficient in their work and are less likely to suffer from depression or anxiety. In recent years, Google has been training its employees in Mindfulness with the program Search Inside Yourself , and many leading companies have followed in its footsteps.

In the educational context, Mindfulness has also been implemented in many schools and colleges. In Spain, several autonomous regions are participating in the development of this practice. The Canary Islands Government introduced for the first time an obligatory subject called Emotional Education, which includes full attention as part of its curriculum. In Andalusia, the trainer and researcher in the field of Full Consciousness and Emotional Intelligence, Olivia Recondo, gives courses in Emotional Intelligence through Full Care for trainers in collaboration with the Andalusian Government. In Aragon, the Aulas Felices Programme is carried out, in Catalonia the Treva Programme, and in the Valencian Community the Conscious Schools Programme.

Only a conscientious educator can educate consciously

Teachers are people who play a fundamental role in society, as they are responsible for the important function of educating future generations. Their work is not only focused on teaching theoretical knowledge, but they are also in charge of promoting a series of values and skills in students for their development within society .

Being a teacher is not always easy, and the high demands of being a teacher can lead to chronic stress, emotional fatigue and problems with student relationships. Mindfulness has proven to be effective in these situations. For example, reducing teacher stress, medical leave, depression, anxiety or Burnout.

Regular practice of Mindfulness provides teachers with tools that enable them to deal with problem situations and help improve their quality of life and well-being. This, in turn, has an impact on their performance and their relationship with their students, resulting in an optimal educational environment for learning.

Benefits of Mindfulness in Teachers

Some of the benefits that Mindfulness brings to teachers are the following:

  • Improves attentional focus and awareness
  • Increases responsiveness to learners’ needs
  • Promotes emotional balance
  • Supports stress management and reduction
  • Promotes healthy personal relationships at work
  • Improves the classroom climate and promotes an optimal learning environment
  • Promotes general well-being and self-esteem

Benefits of Mindfulness in Students

The ability to reflect on one’s own inner world, and on one’s own emotions and thoughts with an attitude of compassion towards oneself brings benefits to the students’ well-being, and is an essential part of Mindfulness training.

A meta-analysis carried out in 2011 by Joseph Durlak, in which 270,000 students from all academic stages participated, concluded that those students who had attended social-emotional education programs in primary school not only showed significant improvements as adolescents in behavioral issues (for example, by being less violent), but that they also obtained an improvement in their academic results compared to those who did not receive such training .

But not only emotional regulation is an essential part of Mindfulness training, and there are many studies that have provided scientific evidence on the positive influence of Mindfulness on the so-called executive functions of the brain , such as attention, memory or mental flexibility, all of which are essential for good personal and academic performance.

Regular mindfulness practice is beneficial to students for many reasons. Below are the benefits of mindfulness for students:

  • Improves academic performance
  • Improves self-concept
  • Reduces aggression and violence
  • Increases creativity
  • Improves participation in the classroom by encouraging impulse control
  • Enhancing memory
  • Improve concentration and attention
  • Reduces test anxiety
  • Encourages willingness to learn
  • Encourages self-reflection and self-help
  • Empowering empathy and understanding of others
  • Promotes pro-social behaviour and healthy interpersonal relationships
  • Improves social and emotional learning
  • Improve general health

Bibliographic references:

  • Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D. & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82(1): 405-432.
  • Frank J. et al. (2015): “The effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction on educator stress and well-being: results from a pilot study”. Mindfulness 6, 208-216.
  • Hassed Craig and Chambers, Richard (2014). Mindful learning: reduce stress and improve brain performance for effective learning. Exisle Publishing.