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The Second National Mindfulness in Schools Conference will take place on Friday September 30th at Tonbridge School, Kent www.mindfulnessinschools.org
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MINDFULNESS IN EDUCATION ~ Learning to live calmly in the present moment
TEACHER TRAINING INTERNSHIP
Mindfulness Based teachers are professionals with a background in health/social care, clinical practice, education, therapy, administration or medicine.
CORPORATE
Mindfulness at Work. Mindfulness training for Organisations, Business, Hospitals and Schools.
PROGRAMME INFO
Oxford Mindfulness runs 8 week programmes of Mindfulness throughout the year. See Programme Information page for dates.
We also run Day Retreats which are suitable for beginners as well as those with experience of meditation practice.
One day Introduction to Mindfulness workshops.
ABOUT US
GALLERY
Mindfulness in Schools:
Oxford Mindfulness is committed to disseminating mindfulness
in schools and colleges.
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THE MARIGOLD TRUST
Established to teach mindfulness programmes to teachers in training, schools and higher education. Please contact info@oxmindfulness.org |
Mindfulness Stress Management
programmefor teachers
Mindfulness training promotes wellbeing, teaches the skills to reduce and manage stress and anxiety and helps to deal with emotional and physical problems. We all have times in our lives when we experience difficulty, stress and struggle. The classroom can be a very stressful environment.
Mindfulness is a modern form of skills training using simple exercises, paying attention to things as they actually are rather than the way we want them to be, to develop awareness of the present moment, aware of ourselves experiencing, aware of BEING aware, rather than automatic DOING.
This enables us:-
· To become familiar with the working of our mind.
· To recognise old unskilful habits of mind and behaviour.
· To get out of our heads and the constant commentary of our thoughts.
· To become aware of our thinking, seeing thoughts as mental events, ideas, and not necessarily fact or the truth.
· To live in the present moment neither dwelling on the past [ruminating ], or worrying about the future [catastrophising].
· To forge new, beneficial thinking patterns in the brain.
· To transform relationships.
· To respond to life rather than reacting to events.
Teachers who practice mindfulness experience a reduction in their stress levels in their personal and professional lives. They are able to model this awareness and its benefits to the students in the classroom.
Scientific research shows that mindfulness improves concentration, self-regulation, behaviour, self-awareness, self-esteem, relationships and academic and sports achievement. Mindfulness is recommended by NICE [the National Institute for Clinical Excellence], and The Mental Health Foundation.
Jini Lavelle has been conducting research with mindfulness in schools for the last 2 years at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre under the direction of Professor Mark Williams. She established the first programme of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, for the public in England, in 1999.
The Marigold Trust aims to offer mindfulness programmes in-house, to school teachers and colleges.
Mindfulness For Schools is a new syllabus for teachers and students co-authored by Jini Lavelle available from www.mindfulnessforschools.com.
The syllabus is currently being piloted in secondary schools in Oxfordshire and is one of the projects supported by the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, University of Oxford, www.oxfordmindfulness.org under the direction of Professor Mark Williams.
For further information please contact info@oxmindfulness.org
Copies of the Mindfulness syllabus can be obtained from www.mindfulnessforschools.com
before and after
Mindfulness: Attention, Emotional Regulation and Learning
Self-regulation—the ability to be aware of our attention and emotions, and to direct them consciously—is a master key that unlocks broader educational goals, enabling the mind to focus in ways that support academic learning as well as social and emotional skills. Self-regulation enables us to make conscious choices in response both to our outer experiences and to the feelings and thoughts they engender within us. The skills and habits of mind involved in regulating attention and emotion are the foundation of ‘self-knowledge’ that expresses the classical ideal of education, and are essential for cooperation and responsible moral conduct as a community member, as well as for personal resilience in the face of adversity.
As neuroscience probes the brain’s executive functions that control attention and emotion, we are beginning to understand how malleable these mechanisms are. Self-regulation is a learnable skill as well as a prerequisite for other forms of learning. Beyond the common-sense observation that better attention in the classroom leads to better learning, practices that hone mindful awareness and focused attention may also foster higher-order skills in reasoning, critical thinking, and learning how to learn. We are beginning also to understand the brain mechanisms that link early stress, or nurturing care, to later emotional health and self-regulation, and to identify developmentally sensitive periods of growth.
Recent programs in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) have shown impressive results in teaching children techniques for emotional regulation in social interactions. Meanwhile, neuroscientists have been studying contemplative practices that hone attention and emotional regulation in adults. The evidence from adult studies is compelling, and suggests that, with insight from developmental neuroscience and psychology, contemplative learning may be a strong complement to SEL programs. In laying the groundwork for collaborative research strategies, we consider what contemplative techniques may be effective in fostering self-regulation, how they interact with training in ethical values, and how to introduce them in developmentally appropriate ways. Developmental issues are crucial, from earliest childhood, when self-regulation creates a stable and safe space for cognitive learning, through adolescence, when self-regulatory capacities, if developed in time, can creatively and productively channel the energy unleashed in puberty.
Statement from Mind Life Institute – Educating World Citizens for the 21st Centuary. October 2009