Developing the right mindset for learning: Teaching self-regulation, focus and calm in the classroom

The author of this article is an Associate at Unlike Minds, an organisation that offers chargeable consultancy services in many fields including education. This paper presents teachers’ self-reported findings about the effects of mindfulness and meditation on student behaviour in three primary schools situated in areas with multiple deprivation indicators. Schools first participated in a programme to teach staff (and students) about how brains learn via four workshops, and chose to apply aspects of educational neuroscience to their teaching practice. In all three schools, senior management and teaching staff elected to adopt the practice of meditation for two reasons: to help students learn to self-regulate their emotions and place themselves in an emotional state conducive to learning; and to strengthen their ability to focus/resist distractions. Teachers reported the impact to be better than expected, as not only did the meditation practices improve emotion regulation and focus