Teacher perception of a brief mindfulness-based curriculum and its impact on the development of social skills and self-regulation on a preschool classroom

Author

Allison Poggendorf, James Madison UniversityFollow

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Date of Graduation

8-13-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Educational Specialist (EdS)

Department

Department of Graduate Psychology

Advisor(s)

Tammy Gilligan

Debi Kipps-Vaughn

Dannette Bronaugh

Abstract

Recent studies on mindfulness and its impact on children have found promising results, especially with social-emotional skill development. A majority of the research on mindfulness applied in educational setting tends to focus on elementary and high school students, and there is limited, but growing research that examines the impact of mindfulness among early childhood students. This current study explored the impact of a brief mindfulness-based curriculum on an intact preschool classroom. Specifically, this study examined if preschool teachers perceive mindfulness practices in the classroom to impact their students’ self-regulation skills and social skills and how likely they were to continue using mindful practices in their classroom. The results found no statistical difference in the preschool students’ self-regulation and social skills before and after the brief mindfulness intervention, however, the preschool teacher did find the mindfulness practices used in the brief mindfulness curriculum to improve certain areas of her preschoolers’ social skills and self-regulation. The preschool teacher’s responses to items on an intervention acceptability measure indicated that the brief mindfulness-based curriculum used in this intervention was beneficial, appropriate, and effective in enhancing preschool students’ self-regulation and social skills.

Recommended Citation

Poggendorf, Allison, "Teacher perception of a brief mindfulness-based curriculum and its impact on the development of social skills and self-regulation on a preschool classroom" (2022). Educational Specialist, 2020-current. 59.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/edspec202029/59