In my master's thesis, I researched how to incorporate mindfulness into teaching English literature. The main purpose was to create a lesson in which students would study English literature while practicing mindfulness exercises, and to then examine the potential effects of this approach. I observed four indicators: the acquired knowledge of the students, their motivation to work, their concentration, and the overall satisfaction of the participants, i.e., students, teachers, and myself as the lesson provider.
The research was designed as action research, and I conducted a one-factor quasi-experiment in four 7th-grade classes at a Slovenian elementary school. I obtained the data through self-evaluation of the lesson, observations by the teachers who teach the classes, and the students who attended the lessons. The results showed that incorporating mindfulness practice into English literature classes had no statistically significant effect on students' knowledge, motivation, or concentration. The results indicate the interest of students and teachers in incorporating mindfulness into the teaching process. Analysis showed that mindfulness should be incorporated into the classroom through a longer period of time and more systematically. Only then the positive effect of mindfulness practice could be observed.
In my master's thesis, I also propose some improvements on how to prepare a better lesson that incorporates mindfulness into teaching English literature, as well as some ideas on how to improve the design of future research.
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