MINDFULNESS IN SCHOOLS PROJECT TEACHERS’ NOTES Introducing Paws b © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 This is an introduction to Mindfulness in Schools Projects’ Paws b curriculum. If you are already working in a school or educational setting, this introductory session can be a useful way to raise awareness, providing colleagues and senior management with some background information about mindfulness, dispelling any myths about what it is/isn’t, and hopefully creating a sense of curiosity about what the students will be doing with you during the course of the next 6-12 sessions. If you are offering Paws b from outside the school/organisation in question, this introduction can act as a really useful ‘sales pitch’ for both mindfulness and the curriculum itself. Welcome! Paws b is a classroom-based mindfulness curriculum for 7-11 year olds. It is made up of 6 themes that can be delivered over 6 weeks (one hour sessions) or 12 weeks (30 minute sessions). The curriculum was co-developed by teachers with students from Ysgol Pen Y Bryn in North Wales alongside a senior mindfulness teacher and trainer with the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University in Wales (one of the most renowned institutions for mindfulness research and practice). © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 2 Before we go any further, let’s do a short arrival practice. It is a good idea to lead them through something short and simple here. This is really just intended to settle them ‘into the present moment’, and perhaps draw their attention to how busy their minds were when they arrived. Suggested practice – 4-5 minutes: Coming to sit in a comfortable position, holding a dignified and relaxed posture. Closing the eyes if this feels right for you, or lowering the gaze to the floor, and beginning by giving full attention to the sensations of breathing. Just noticing the full course of the in-breath and the full course of the outbreath, and where in your body you might be feeling these sensations most strongly. Seeing if you can sustain your attention on the full course of in-and the outbreath - not thinking about the breath, sensing just this in-breath and just this out-breath. Seeing if you can bring a quality of curiosity to the physical sensations involved in the in-breath, and releasing or ‘letting go’ on the out-breath. If the mind wanders, just noticing where it has gone, and gently bringing your spotlight of attention back to your breath. When we notice that we are distracted and return to our object of attention, we are nurturing a mindful awareness. On this next out-breath, slowly opening the eyes and coming back to the room. There is no need for a lengthy enquiry into this practice, but a ‘How was that? Did that feel OK?’ is a nice way to bring the practice to a close before moving on. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 3 What we were doing in that practice was simply beginning to train our attention. When the attention wanders, which it will most certainly do at some point, we simply acknowledge where it has gone and gently, kindly guide it back to a focal point – in this case, the sensations of breathing. This is very close to the core meaning of mindfulness, which is PAYING ATTENTION TO THE PRESENT MOMENT. While it is a little more complex than that, this very much captures the spirit of mindfulness. Mindfulness is about training the mind to be in the present moment, whatever is happening, be that good or bad. The benefits of training the attention has long been recognised, but the potential value of doing so in an educational context were beautifully acknowledged back in 1890 by William James. Considered to be the founder of modern psychology, James put forth a challenge to the education system: [Read quote aloud then click onto the next slide] © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 4 While William James did not have fully developed methodologies to help him realise this aim, on the other side of the world techniques for training the attention had been cultivated by a variety of contemplative traditions over many thousands of years. [Click] © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 5 Each of the world’s great faiths and wisdom traditions has a contemplative strand that includes a practice of ‘presence’ - of mindfulness in some form. For over 2,500 years , practitioners had been developing the psychological understanding of ‘present moment awareness’, and contemporary mindfulness practice tends to draw particularly on the practical and theoretical principles and perspectives developed within the Buddhist tradition. However, much of mindfulness practice today takes place within an entirely secular context. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 6 Today, interdisciplinary findings within the fields of neuroscience and mindfulness are starting to deepen our understanding, of the mind and the body. This cover of an edition of National Geographic magazine captures this essence beautifully. With the advent of technology, in particular fMRI, scientists can observe the structure and function of the brain and any changes taking place. Practitioners with tens of thousands of hours of mindfulness training have expanded our conventional belief of human potential - in terms of our ability to focus our attention and develop greater capacity for emotional wellbeing, good mental health, compassion, ability to learn and even physical health. You might want to mention here the research evidence summaries listed on Mindfulness in Schools Project’s website: http://mindfulnessinschools.org/research/research-evidence-mindfulnessyoung-people-general/ This includes a really accessible research summary by Professor Katherine Weare: ‘Evidence for the Impact for Mindfulness on Children and Young People’. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 7 A really key feature of the Paws b curriculum is the neuro-scientific content. The Paws b development team worked with a leading neuroscientist (Dusana Dorjee) at Bangor University in order to get the most accurate and up-to-date information as possible about the brain. This is Team Brain! Children who take part in the Paws b course come away with a really clear understanding of 4 key areas of the brain that we know can be developed and that work together as a team: [Click through the 4 areas which come up in the following order] Prefrontal cortex: The area of the brain with over all responsibility for making choices, paying attention and therefore helping us learn more effectively. Hippocampus: This helps us with memory, especially in linking old and new experiences. Amygdala: (There are 2 of these, but we tend to refer to them in the singular) This reacts automatically in response to perceived threat. Its job is to keep us safe, but sometimes it gets in the way of making wise choices. Insula: (Again, there are 2 of these, but we tend to refer to them in the singular) This helps us recognise how our body state is (tired, hungry etc.) and helps us to tune in to how other people are feeling. “The insula is extremely important in detecting emotions in general and specifically in mapping bodily responses to emotion — such as heart rate and blood pressure — and making that information available to other parts of the brain.” – Dr. Richard Davidson. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 8 Recent developments in neuroscience now allow us to really appreciate the extent to which the brain, and therefore thought and behaviour, continue to change throughout our lives. The more we have particular types of thoughts and feelings, the more this repetition creates stronger synaptic connections – ‘wider roads’, if you like. This makes us more likely to have this particular type of thought or feeling again. Useful phrase from neuroscience : “Neurons that fire together wire together.” © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 9 So, we now know that we can shape this remarkable instrument housed in our heads. We can, literally, change our brains by training our minds. If we are feeling unhappy, if we are feeling deeply stressed, if we worry a lot, if we feel confused, then there are things that we can do about this. But it takes time and practice! [Read this quote by Thoreau to emphasise this] © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 10 This brings us to the work of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn to whom anyone who is teaching mindfulness in secular contexts today is surely indebted. Dr. Kabat-Zinn is Professor of Medicine Emeritus and creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre. Dr. Kabat-Zinn developed the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program over 30 years ago whilst working with patients experiencing chronic pain at the hospital. He took many traditional and long-established mindfulness practices and made them accessible to wider audiences with significant results. MBSR has been taken through many hundreds of rigorous research studies and has helped to inform the development of Paws b. A moving documentary about Jon Kabat-Zinn’s work can be found on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEJGPuPFIvc © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 11 If you want an accessible introduction to mindfulness and a clear description of the MBSR programme in detail, Jon Kabat-Zinn’s book, ‘Full Catastrophe Living’ is an excellent place to start. In the fifteen years since its initial publication, Full Catastrophe Living has sold over 400,000 copies worldwide. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 12 And it is Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definitions of mindfulness that people still turn to in terms of its applications to daily life . © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 13 Inspired by the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, Dr. Mark Williams, John Teasdale and Zindel Segal, co-developers of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), took many of the same themes from MBSR and built upon them in order to support those suffering from depression. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 14 What followed was ‘Finding Peace in a Frantic World’. An accessible and structured introduction to mindfulness that takes the reader through an 8 week course of brief practices and accompanying readings. It is this book and the research of Dr. Wiliams which informs the Paws b curriculum as well as its sister curriculum, .b (for 11-18 year-olds). © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 15 Thanks to the extensive body of sound research evidence about the benefits of MBCT, it has been endorsed by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence in the UK and can be prescribed by doctors for the treatment of Depression. It is worth mentioning here that currently the percentage of doctors who do this is low due to lack of awareness and of qualified MBCT teachers. But what does this have to do with teaching young people? [Click] © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 16 This graph perhaps gives us cause to understand one very powerful argument for the introduction of mindfulness training for young people, and the critical importance of supporting our youth in their mental health. In 1967, the average age of onset of Major Depression was 31-33 years of age. [Click] Over a 30 year period, this [Click] slipped down to 13-15 years of age. As Chris Cullen, co-founder of Mindfulness in Schools Project has stated, “The average levels of anxiety for teenagers today are equivalent to those inpatient psychiatric patients in the 1950s. We really do face a mental health epidemic.” While there are very many complex reasons for these surprising statistics, there is clearly a need for those working in education to support young people early on, giving them the tools to skillfully navigate life. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 17 The World Health Organisation states that by 2030, mental health will be the biggest cause of burden out of all health conditions, including heart conditions and cancer. The term “burden” is not an emotive or pejorative term, but a scientific term that is measured in years of lost life due to early death or severe disability brought on by illness, in this case depression. However, there is much work going on at many levels to address this issue... © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 18 In the UK, 2014 saw the launch of All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) [Click] to study the benefits of bringing mindfulness into public policy. [Click again] The Mindfulness APPG is supported by The Mindfulness Initiative [Click], a coalition of Oxford, Exeter and Bangor Universities to advocate for a better understanding of mindfulness as a low cost intervention and its potential in a range of public services. [Click again] Bangor, Exeter, and Oxford Universities have been at the forefront of research, teaching and training in this growing field. The APPG offers an exciting opportunity to bring policy makers together in conversation with academics and practitioners to consider how the evidence for mindfulness can inform policy. You may want to mention the important characters in this photo: (Left to right) Lord Richard Layard, Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn, Chris Cullen and Professor Mark Williams at No.10 Downing Street. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 19 In the US, Congressman Tim Ryan is doing a great deal to promote awareness of mindfulness. In his book ‘A Mindful Nation’ he has set out his vision of a what it would be like to integrate mindfulness training into a wide range of areas of society. It makes for inspiring reading. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 20 The scope of this evidence is increasing exponentially. This graph show the huge increase in research publications on mindfulness over 20 years to 2013. MBCT was developed in the mid- to late 1990s and you can see the huge impact that this had on the number of publications. The MBCT manual came out in 2002. It is great testimony to the work and scientific rigour of Williams, Teasdale and Segal that MBCT has had such a significant impact in moving mindfulness into the mainstream. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 21 Many of the applications of mindfulness to date have been focused the areas of clinical need and mental health. The extent to which aspects of mindfulness practice help with difficulties such as anxiety, chronic pain and psychosomatic illness is now well-established. Such has been the impact of mindfulness in the clinical field that there is an increasing interest by organisations looking to support their employees, or people they work with in terms of mental health and resilience. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 22 More recent applications of mindfulness training have been seen in: [Click through the images one at a time] The workplace, with multinational companies such as Google, Apple , IBM, Proctor and Gamble and Goldman Sachs offering regular mindfulness sessions to their employees. Studies of mindfulness-based interventions have shown reductions in employee stress levels (McCraty et al. 2003); improvements in well-being (Collard & Walsh, 2008). A recent INSEAD report indicated that mindfulness-based leadership interventions resulted in behaviours that were more likely to lead to greater levels of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In Prisons: Research on the effects of Mindfulness-Based Interventions with prison staff and police is slowly emerging in both the UK and USA. These include apparent reductions in reactivity, impulsivity, aggression, vulnerability to depression, addiction, suicide and self-harm, and increased capacity for selfregulation, metacognition, empathy and management of emotions. Counselling: The concept of mindfulness in counselling is not new and has been the subject of exploration for about 30 years, but it is increasingly becoming an integral and informative part of the therapeutic relationship. Education: The number of mindfulness programmes designed for young people is now growing rapidly, particularly in developed countries such as the US and the UK. Mindfulness in Schools Project is one of several well-respected organisations whose aim is to provide an accessible introduction to mindfulness for young people and those who work with them with, often with very classroom-friendly resources. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 23 Paws b is one such example. Paws b is for children of 7-11 years of age, and is offered formally as a series of PSHE (Social and Emotional Learning) lessons, and informally through integrating the learning and practice of mindfulness in all National Curriculum subjects and in the children’s everyday lives. Paws b was designed by teachers for teachers, and at the most simple level is an awareness-raising exercise to give all students a taste of mindfulness so that they know about it and can return to it later in life if they choose to do so. But let’s go back to basics and ask two important questions: 1. What is mindfulness ? 2. How might it benefit young people? [Depending on the group you are working with, based on what they know about mindfulness already, you might want to give them time to reflect on these questions in small groups and feed back to the larger group as a whole]. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 24 Paws b was designed by experienced classroom and mindfulness teachers: a core development team of Tabitha Sawyer and Rhian Roxburgh, teachers at Ysgol Pen Y Bryn in North Wales, and Sarah Silverton, a senior mindfulness teacher and trainer with the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University in Wales. and at the most simple level is an awareness-raising exercise to give all students a taste of mindfulness so that they know about it and can return to it later in life if they choose to do so. But let’s go back to basics and ask two important questions: 1. What is mindfulness ? 2. How might it benefit young people? [Depending on the group you are working with, based on what they know about mindfulness already, you might want to give them time to reflect on these questions in small groups and feed back to the larger group as a whole]. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 25 After feedback…. On a very simple level, mindfulness can be described as: [Click] Sustained voluntary attention - a focused mind attending to an object of choice. [Click] Through practice it allows for the development of positive and nourishing attitudes such as kindness, curiosity, compassion and gratitude (critically, towards oneself as well as towards others) [Click] It’s the opposite of forgetfulness or a distracted mind [Click] A great metaphor is that mindfulness is a spotlight. We can shine the spotlight of our attention: • in a laser-like manner on a subtle sensation • or diffusely attending to a large group of people And what are the qualities of a powerful spotlight? Through Mindfulness Training we are cultivating our attention and developing a focused mind and an open attitude. There is also a growing body of evidence emphasizing the effects this practice has on memory, learning and executive functioning. For more information about this, refer to Professor Katherine Weare’s study: http://mindfulnessinschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/MiSP-ResearchSummary-2012.pdf © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 26 It is this tuning in to present moment experiences that provides such a wonderful opportunity for learning. [Read the quote on the slide] You may be familiar with the idea of the Socratic Method. As Socrates suggested, ‘If we openly and objectively look at what is in front of us and ask the right questions we will discover how things are for ourselves and not just because we are told what to think.’ Essentially, we can encourage our students to “See for themselves”. Of course, all of this needs to be seen in the context of the often rapid and remarkable developmental changes children go through. From one year to the next, we see dramatic changes in terms of a child’s cognitive abilities, moral understanding, world view, relationships, and needs. Chip Wood’s book, ‘Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14’ summarises some of these very clearly… [Click through the next 5 slides, allowing time to read through each description] © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 27 © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 28 So let’s now ask ourselves a few very key questions: If you had to list 6 or 7 essential skills or states (emotional, practical, intellectual or other) that children today might need to take with them on their journey through adolescence and adulthood, what would they be? How will they need to be and what will they need to be able to do? You can do this as a ‘popcorn’ exercise – just asking them to call out their ideas, and writing them on a whiteboard or piece of paper. If this is a longer session (ie more than an hour) you might like to ask the group to work in smaller groups and draw up a list of 6 essential skills. You can then ask them to feed these back to the wider group and see if there is a consensus, and if/how these might sit alongside the mindfulness skills listed on the slide. Hopefully, what will emerge are some of those skills listed on this slide. Mindfulness can help support and sustain a sense of well-being, but there is a lot more potential there in terms of essential skills and states that mindfulness can foster. Systematic, reliable research (namely Randomised Control Trials) has provided evidence for the impact of mindfulness on the capacity for… [Click through the 7 factors] If we can provide the means to foster some of these skills and states, how might this affect a young person’s life as they move forwards into adolescence and adulthood? What effect might this have on society? © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 33 29 At the end of the day mindfulness training is about flourishing: not just about moving AWAY from negative states of mind or experiences, but learning how to deal with these skilfully. As Jon Kabat-Zinn famously said: “You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” In other words, life is guaranteed to throw you ‘curve balls’ – we will all experience difficulty at some stage in our lives, but if we can develop skills that allow us to ride through the stormy times, or even change our relationship with them, the potential for flourishing is increased immeasurably. But mindfulness isn’t just about dealing with difficulty; it also increasing our potential to turn TOWARDS more positive, healthy, peaceful, nourishing experiences. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 34 30 This brings us back to teacher embodiment. Teaching can be a very tiring and stressful job, so as part of caring for the children in your classroom, you have a responsibility to care of yourself. Research shows that any relational based curriculum is only successful if the adults are cultivating these same qualities within themselves. This is what is called “Empathic Concern” – where the teacher embodies and models kindness, compassion, emotional self-regulation, a sense of wellbeing, in order to create a mindful classroom. This is why we ask that anyone who trains to teach mindfulness to young people has an established practice of their own. You can say more about this in terms of the prerequisites for training to teach Paws b or .b if there is interest. Information about this can be found on the MiSP website: http://mindfulnessinschools.org/prerequisites-for-training-courses/ © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 35 31 And if you were in any doubt about the extent to which your own state of wellbeing might affect a child’s experience in the classroom, Haim Ginott’s words act as a very salutary reminder…. [Allow them time to read the quote or read it aloud] © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 36 32 So with this thought ringing in our ears, let us now turn our attention to what we need in our own Mindfulness Toolbox. If we were to teach mindfully, how would we do this? Some of these may be familiar ideas you use already in the classroom. Others might be more of a departure from the norm. As before, you can do this as a ‘popcorn’ exercise – just asking them to call out their ideas, and writing them on a whiteboard or piece of paper. Again, if this is a longer session (ie more than an hour) you might like to ask the group to work in smaller groups and draw up a list of 6 essential techniques or approaches needed to engage them . You can then ask them to feed these back to the wider group and see if there is a consensus, and if/how these might sit alongside the those listed on the slide. Hopefully, what will emerge are some of those skills listed on this slide. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 37 33 Ultimately, this is much of the intention behind Paws b. With these 6 themes, students learn how to aim and sustain attention as well as recognise the role attention plays in their school work, their relationships, and in the way they communicate, both at school and at home. Through the use of practical exercises, film clips, audio files and worksheets, the children are engaged and encouraged to explore skills and techniques that, once learned, will always be with them. Each lesson includes Home Practice to help support the student to make connections between the mindfulness practices and the application to their everyday lives. There have been many reports where siblings and parents are inspired to practise, too! © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 34 So let’s finish with a short film clip of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn speaking about Mindfulness in Education, and explaining the ways in which there is both a need and recognised benefits of having mindfulness within schools. [Click to move to next slide, and then click on Play] [You only need to play up to 3.23 Re-emphasize what Jon says about those who teach it needing to take care of it, which is why Mindfulness in Schools Project has prerequisites of “teacher as practitioner”] © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 39 35 At this point you might want to invite any questions, or simply thank them for listening. © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 41 36 Notes © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 42 Notes © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 © Mindfulness in Schools Project, 2015 44
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