Mindfulness Meditation

Curriculum development and evaluation task

EDF7053 Understanding and Expressing Ourselves

Katharine Tsoucalas

Primary students today are experiencing more stress and anxiety than ever before. Napoli, Krech &
Holley, (2005) assert that children today are experiencing stress resulting in anger and violent
behaviour, conduct disorders, and various types of anxiety, including competition and test anxiety,
in ways like never before. It is important that these children develop the skills to enhance their
mental well-being; otherwise, the result could be poor physical and mental health, dreadful social
skills, and even abominable school achievement.

Napoli, Krech & Holley, (2005) attest that schools can play an exceedingly prominent role in
meeting the needs of children and can influence childrens behaviour and emotional development in
a positive manner. Therefore, teachers are now expected to be aware of the emotional challenges
children face and are required to have the methods to deal with them. The increase in diagnoses of
Attention Deficit and Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), stress disorders, depression, and anxiety
among students place more demands upon teachers knowledge and skills within the realm of
mental wellness.
The following lessons have been created to address mental wellness in line with the Australian
Curriculum strands, sub-strands and content descriptors for grade 3 and 4 students. Mental health is
a focus of the curriculum for grade 3 and 4 students and is embedded in the Australian Curriculum
under the strand personal social and community health and sub-strands communicating and
interacting for health and wellbeing and being healthy, safe and active. As stated within the
australiancurriculum.edu.au, (2015) students undertaking instruction under the banner of mental
wellness will strive to develop skills within the areas of; self-awareness, self-management, and
social-awareness. These skills are integrated across the curriculum within the learning areas of
english and health and physical education, and the general capabilities of critical and creative
thinking, personal and social capability and intercultural understanding.

Through incorporating mental wellness in a cross-curricula manner, students will reap the benefits
of practicing meditation, mindfulness and an array of self-development and self-awareness practises
that will aim to allow them to be fully-present at school and in their every day life. Napoli, Krech
& Holley, (2005) attest that, if students can learn to be fully-present, they can increase the quality
of their learning performance by being more focused, and become better able to deal with stressful
situations. When a student is mindful, he or she becomes able to approach learning situations from a

novel perspective while drawing upon previously learned material. Therefore the selection of
mental wellness, which is relevant to the area of physical education, health, well-being or
sustainable environment, is a vital topic to incorporate into every primary classroom across the
country.

As outlined in the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authorities paper The Shape
of the Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education (ACARA, 2012) the personal, school
and community health strand, of the Australian Curriculum, recognises that health comprises
physical, social, emotional, mental and spiritual dimensions. This strand will serve to enhance
students understanding and skills to support a positive sense of self, to effectively respond to events
and transition and to engage in lifelong learning that promotes health and wellbeing. Therefore
incorporating meditation and mindfulness practises in the classroom will serve to help students
understand the topic of mental wellness and incorporate it into their daily lives.
The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (MCEETYA, 2008)
(Melbourne Declaration) provides the policy framework for the Australian Curriculum and it
includes two goals; Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence and; that all young
Australians become successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed
citizens. The second goal of this framework aligns clearly with the goals of mental wellness; as
students require both emotional health and resilience to achieve both goals of the Melbourne
Declaration.

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority outlines the importance of
students exploration of the importance of building resilience and introduce the concept of positive
self-talk; to maintain an optimistic outlook on situations. Through mindfulness, resilience and
meditation learning students will be supported to think creatively and practice effective problemsolving strategies that will enable them to persist until they reach successful outcomes in movement
and classroom settings.
Mental health promotion is described as a focus area within this particular curriculum document,
and includes developing skills to be resilient, coping strategies, early help-seeking, developing and
navigating networks of support, supporting and advocating for others (ACARA, 2012). Within,
ACARA (2012), mental health is defined as a persons cognitive and thinking processes, the

capacity to think coherently, express thoughts and feelings and respond constructively to
situations. This encompasses resilience, emotional health, dispositions, and sense of self. Students
who are involved in mental wellness programs such as Smiling Minds build upon these skills
productively and regularly. Students constructively develop the capacity to deal with change in an
emotionally appropriate manner. They develop the skills to build resilience and exhibit proper
actions, feelings and thoughts to change and general life events. Students are also required to
recognise, understand and effectively manage their emotions and in turn develop their emotional
health including the development of a positive sense of self.
It has been concluded by Napoli, Krech & Holley, (2005) that incorporating mindfulness training
into the physical education curriculum as health education is an ideal way to begin teaching
children at an early age how to deal with stress and anxiety and focus and pay attention. Therefore,
creating wellness through a mindfulness program as part of the school can become an integral part
of school life. With increases in stress, depression, and anxiety that often are caused by forces
beyond childrens control, it is vital that children learn techniques for reducing feelings of stress.
Creating overall wellbeing through a mental wellness program such as Smiling Minds, and
integrating it as part of the school curriculum can become an integral part of school life. The
consistent reinforcement of using the mindfulness and meditation activities in each class will have
long lasting effects and can filter through the childrens school experience and personal lives.
Integrating these practices into the physical education curriculum can be an excellent model to offer
students the life skills to deal with stress and increase attention skills in the classroom. Including
mindfulness training in the school curriculum will in the long run save time for teachers. When
children are able to deal with situations more effectively teachers may have fewer interruptions
during the day and more tools to deal with situations that do arise.
Current research has thoroughly analysed the topic of mental wellness and its integration into the
classroom. Lee & Yoo, (2013) explored previous studies findings that self-esteem and school
adjustment of children in the lower grades of primary school, the beginning stage of school life,
have a close relationship with development of personality, mental health and characters of children.
Therefore, the integration of mindfulness meditation and primary prevention programs such as,
Smiling Minds, and the ones explored in the study by Kraag, Zeegers, Kok, Hosman & Abu-Saad,
(2006) should be positively integrated into schools to impact on the overall mental wellness of all
primary students. It was concluded in the study that interventions such as these, that are designed
specifically to promote mental health, and reduce the incidence of adjustment problems, show

promising results across the board. Although the findings indicated that several issues have to be
resolved, primary prevention programs focusing on promoting mental health through school-based
stress management training are most likely effective and beneficial to the holistic schooling of
primary students.

In regards to the implementation of a mindfulness meditation program in schools, the study

conducted by Haraldsson et al. (2008) conducted the program as a school subject in its own right.
However an alternative could be to integrate mental wellness into all other subjects of the
curriculum, so that, for example, the school day starts with meditation relaxation training,
irrespective of subject and teacher. Whilst the pupils of this particular study were aged between 12
and 15 years, it is possible that the intervention should have included younger pupils, as the earlier
that school health promotion is introduced, the greater the satisfaction in later life.
Recent educational policy initiatives at the federal level in the United States have ushered in
Response to Intervention and school-wide behaviour supports that have the potential to involve
teachers in school mental health interventions. As schools are large providers of mental health
services for children and adolescents; teacher involvement in these initiatives is essential to the
success of their implementation. Franklin, Kim, Ryan, Kelly & Montgomery (2012) suggests that
teachers are valuable partners with school mental health professionals and may take on significant
roles in the delivery of mental health interventions in school settings.
As experienced in my first teaching practicum, some Catholic schools have introduced meditation
programmes as a form of prayer. The religious education curriculum in Catholic primary schools in
the Melbourne diocese focuses on cognitive learning but also includes prayer, ritual and liturgy
which address the affective and spiritual dimension. More recently, meditation programmes have
been implemented into the curriculum as explored in the study by de Souza, Hyde & Kehoe (2014).
This study explored teachers anecdotal evidence from some schools where meditation has been
introduced and this suggests that childrens behaviour and concentration improves. Furthermore, the
quiet and stillness associated with meditative practice appears to be valued by children and
encourages self-knowledge and a sense of belonging as well as a raised consciousness about the
world in which they live. The beneficial effects of meditation on childrens sense of self and their
tendency to become more inclusive and cooperative, and the corresponding positive impact on their
social behaviour should also be recognised (de Souza, Hyde & Kehoe, 2014).

A key resource that will be used to teach these mental wellness lessons to grade 3 and 4 primary
school students is the online resource known as Smiling Minds. This program aims to build happier,
healthier and more compassionate young people. The Mindfulness Meditation programs designed
by Smiling Minds aim to assist people in dealing with the pressure, stress and challenges of daily
life. They are used as a preemptive and proactive tool to enhance mental health and wellbeing; to
arm students with the skills to better manage stress and build resilience and ;to encourage students
to feel calm, clear and content (Rondos, 2015).

The Smiling Minds program has been developed to complement existing mental wellness programs,
and can be incorporated into classroom activities, session training, daily routine or roll call; as a
general supplement and support to the everyday curriculum; or as it will be utilised in this context
as part of a constructive series of mental wellbeing lessons in conjunction with the objectives of the
Australian Curriculum. This program has been developed as a stress management and resilience
tool, and is seen as an accessible, simple and affordable way to provide pre-emptive mental health
strategies to students in primary school settings; and secondary and adults alike. The program runs
for 5-15mins and includes an introductory session that outlines the key learnings of the mindfulness
meditation; which explore different aspects of being mindful. The daily mindfulness guides that
consolidate the learnings from the introductory session. These daily guides are designed to be used
every day after each new session, before moving onto the next. Therefore, mindful meditation is a
daily endeavour that students will engage in within the classroom. Finally, take home activities are
included in the resource and will be utilised as further reinforcement activities within the mental
wellness lessons accordingly.

As a matter of implementation, there are numerous ways in which this flexible and easily accessible
resource can be implemented into the classroom. However, as with all technologically based
resources there is scope for error and limitations in the way this can be implemented in classrooms
across the country. Lack of access to resources, unreliable internet connections and inability to
effectively stream the audio files to the classroom are critics of the way this resource is universally
provided. A more effective manner would be to provide paper-based alternatives to the audio files
required to deliver the resource to the class. Provided that all resources are readily available, there
are numerous ways that Smiling Minds can be implemented in the classroom; these include group
meditation, individual devices, and smart board use. The way in which these lessons will utilise the
resource will be through the teacher conducting group meditation on a session by session basis. The

use of a CD, computer, speaker or smart board will be utilised by teachers to guide the class through
the program together. This can be particularly beneficial to the overall success of the program as the
Smiling Minds website is highly visual and creates an additional level of engagement when
presented in this manner. It also means that the class can participate in the pre and post-evaluations
as a collective group.

Finally, the vision the Smiling Minds program has for the future is highly aligned to the Australian
Curriculum. Rondos (2015) states that our vision is for Mindfulness Meditation to be on the
Australian Curriculum by 2020. Smiling Mind complements the general capabilities of personal
and social capability and critical and creative thinking and can be included in pastoral care,
wellbeing and mental health curricula; as it has been included and aligned under within the lessons
of this current report.

In conclusion, the topic of mental wellness, and mindfulness meditation, strongly relates to the
individual health and well-being of myself as a member of the teaching profession. Schools that
employ mindfulness-based training generally view students and teachers as partners in the learning
experience. Therefore, when students use mindfulness in their learning processes, they utilise
creativity, experience cognitive flexibility, and are able to better use information to enhance
memory for instructional retention (Napoli, Krech & Holley, 2005). This in turn positively impacts
on the manner in which the teacher, myself in this discussion, conducts lessons and continues the
development of students emotional health within the classroom.
Stress within the teaching profession has a negative impact on the health and well-being of
individual teachers and on retention and recruitment for the profession as a whole (Gold et al.,
2009). Within the study conducted by Gold et al., (2009) a mindful meditation program was taught
to a group of primary school teachers and evaluated to establish its effects on levels of anxiety,
depression, and stress, as well as movement towards a stated goal and changes in awareness. The
results of the study showed improvement for most participants for anxiety, depression, and stress,
some of which were statistically significant. Therefore, mindfulness meditation is a program that
should be incorporated into a teachers overall mental wellbeing pursuits. I can confidently state that
I incorporate mindful practise into my daily life; alongside regular physical health pursuits which
include Pilates, running and strength training. This serves to demonstrate my holistic approach, and
commitment to my overall health and well-being as a member of the teaching profession. It is

imperative that I keep my physical and mental wellbeing in pristine shape as to serve as a holistic
healthy example to my students and consequently reinforce the aims of the mindful meditation
program discussed thoroughly within this report. Finally, de Souza, Hyde & Kehoe (2014) support
this notion when they outlined that to be successful, a meditation programme needs the support of
the whole school community. This requires ongoing support and professional training for the
teachers to encourage them to become practitioners themselves, affirm them in their own practice
which, in turn, will build their confidence to teach their students to meditate and be mindful in their
everyday life.

References
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