Mindfulness in Education (2011)

Case Studies of Mindful Teachers
and Their Teaching Practices
Christine E. Sherretz
University of Louisville

The term mindfulness automatically turns some people off. The truth is being mindful is essentially recognizing different perspectives or alternative processes then the original or the norm. Mindfulness has many definitions and meanings

to many different people. In terms of education, it is important to clearly outline what I mean by mindfulness.

This article is very informative and outlines clear methods that teachers can use to incorporate mindfulness. First of all, what id mindfulness? According to

Sherretz, “mindfulness is a process in which an individual views one situation from several perspectives.” Seeing things from different perspectives has applications

across the board in education, from solving math equations to conceptualizing art pieces.

There were three participants for this study. All of them taught at Eastside Intermediate
School in New York

“The purpose of the research was to investigate the teaching practices of mindful teachers.”

The data revealed four major themes which all of the teachers practiced:

• Give students choices
• Positive classroom atmosphere
• Required an elaboration of thinking
• Process orientation (as opposed to response orientation)

Useful quotes from the article:

(Mindfulness) “asserts that problems and resolutions should be viewed from several vantage points with several possible outcomes.”

“Instead of moving in a linear fashion from question to answer, the mindful individual seeks out other vantage points to view the problem.