What if you could create a happier and more engaged classroom, build a sense of belonging, and support a growth mindset without much effort? That was my intention creating The Effortless Mindfulness in the Classroom Toolkit as an open educational resource. This toolkit provides everything you need to incorporate brief, effective mindfulness exercises into your teaching routine, regardless of your prior experience with mindfulness or meditation.
The Pedagogical Benefits of Mindfulness
Student survey responses
I have been starting my in-person classes with just a few minutes of a centering, relaxing, and affirming mindfulness exercise for the last two years (see this example). Students tell me they appreciate the time to decompress and transition. In a recent poll, seven of seventeen students responded to an open-ended question “What should we continue doing?” with “meditation or similar” (see the image at right).
I know I personally value these rare moments of peace. Research shows that mindfulness practices offer significant benefits in educational settings including:
- Improves attention and focus while reducing anxiety
- Builds compassion and inclusion, allowing participants to bring their full selves.
- Students report that they find meditation helpful for learning, anxiety, relationships, and future careers.
- Students retain more knowledge from lectures.
In my experience, many students bring math anxiety to introductory finance courses. I see them avoiding my eye when l ask questions, procrastinating their work, and identifying as “not a math person.” These attitudes have complex causes, which any classroom intervention will have limited ability to address. Still, I see students as visibly more relaxed and engaged after a brief mindfulness exercise. Any class with anxious students (i.e., every class?) can benefit from a few minutes of peace.
How the Toolkit Makes It Easy
I designed the Toolkit to make integrating mindfulness into your teaching simple. Formatted as a PowerPoint presentation. It has a creative commons license and resides with other Open Educational Resources at CUNY’s AcademicWorks. The deck contains:
- Introductory Slides: Explain the purpose and relevance of mindfulness practices to students. They create space to address any questions or concerns.
- Meditation Scripts and Audio Files: There are fifteen scaffolded, 3-minute meditation scripts and audio recordings.
- Reflective Prompts: Each meditation includes a reflective prompt to encourage students to consolidate any insights.
Common Concerns Addressed
At the beginning of the project, I conducted an informal survey of BMCC faculty. This surfaced concerns about incorporating mindfulness into the classroom, which informed the toolkit’s design. Some faculty cited as a hurdle their own lack of experience with a mindfulness practice. To address this, the toolkit has detailed instructions, scripts, and audio files. Other faculty expressed concern about not having time to spare. Therefore, each exercise takes only three minutes. Finally, others were concerned that students would resist the practice or consider it a religious practice. I recommend making its secular nature explicit and participation optional.
Next Steps
Incorporating mindfulness into your classroom can be easy and rewarding. The Effortless Mindfulness in the Classroom Toolkit provides a simple, effective way to introduce these practices to your students, enhancing their focus, reducing anxiety, and creating a more compassionate learning environment. For more information and access to the toolkit, please visit https://academicworks.cuny.edu/bm_oers/41.
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