Notice: The Mandala Sources site will be down for an update on Monday, March 24, 2025 for at least an hour between 7am and 10am EDT.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2
As interest increases in mindfulness in education programs for youth, there is a need to develop reliable measures of the quality of program implementation. This paper describes the development and psychometric properties of a measure that can be used to assess and monitor quality of implementation of mindfulness programs/curricula in typical classroom or out-of-school settings. The Teaching Mindfulness in Education Observation Scale (TMEOS) is a 28-item instrument that integrates qualitative and quantitative aspects of mindfulness instruction. Items focus on procedural adherence as well as aspects of implementation that reflect embodiment during instructional delivery (e.g., alignment with the attitudinal foundations of mindfulness). Reliability and validity data were examined and indicated that the four major scoring domains and key features showed adequate inter-rater reliability and internal consistency. We conclude that observational assessment of multiple dimension of implementation quality, including adherence and process-oriented aspects of implementation such as embodiment, can be reliably used to assess implementation quality of mindfulness programs in education settings. However, adequate preparation and training are critical. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
The heavy demands of teaching result in many teachers becoming alienated or burning out. Therefore, it is imperative to identify ways to support teachers’ internal capacities for managing stress and promoting well-being. Mindfulness is an approach with a growing foundation of empirical support in clinical as well as education settings. Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) is a mindfulness-based professional development program developed to improve teachers’ awareness and well-being and to enhance classroom learning environments. Using an explanatory design, we analyzed data from four focus groups each with three to eight teachers who participated in CARE to explore the mechanisms underlying the intervention effects. Specifically, we examined if/how the CARE intervention affected teachers’ awareness and analyzed why CARE affected particular aspects of teachers’ physical and emotional health and why some aspects were not affected. Results suggest that participants developed greater self-awareness, including somatic awareness and the need to practice self-care. Participants also improved their ability to become less emotionally reactive. However, participants were less likely to explicitly articulate an improvement in their teaching efficacy. Implications for professional development are discussed.