Mindfulness-Based Breathing as a Negotiated Practice in an Elementary Classroom

• In Event: Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Social and Cultural Influences on Learning and Motivation

Abstract

The emotional climate of classrooms is important to teaching and learning, yet to date there have been few studies connecting emotions to learning environments. The potential benefit of mindfulness is an emerging field of inquiry for education researchers. Starting from the premise that teaching is emotional work, we are interested in exploring physical, cognitive and psychological effects associated with a mindfulness intervention in a mathematics classroom of students aged between 10 and 12-years-old. The paper explores a teacher and his students’ increased awareness of their emotional responses to classroom events through cogenerative dialoguing about a breathing practice at the start of each mathematics lesson and considers the potential of a mindfulness intervention to improve the emotional climate of learning environments.

Authors

• Joanna Higgins, Victoria University of Wellington

• Raewyn Eden, Victoria University of Wellington