In my thesis, I explored the usefulness of mindfulness at working with children in elementary school. In the theoretical part, I defined what mindfulness means and outlined the main principles and qualities that an individual who wants to practice mindfulness must know. I applied mindfulness to work with children and found that it is possible to perform mindfulness successfully not only with adults but also with younger children whose exercises are somewhat adapted to their developmental stage and understanding. I cited some research that confirms positive effects of regular mindfulness training and described how they manifest themselves. Thus, Brantley and Millstine (2012) cite a study conducted in 2003 by Richard Davidson, Jon Kabat-Zinn, and their colleagues and found that practicing mindfulness causes demonstrable changes in brain structure.
Škobalj (2017) cites research findings on the impact of mindfulness by professor Katherine Weare (2012) on children and adolescents saying that mindfulness works well on adolescents' emotional state, their mental health, learning ability, and their physical health. Surveyed mindful children and adolescents are more popular among peers, have more friends, and have less negative emotions and less anxiety.
In the second part, I present my empirical part of the thesis that I did with a qualitative methodology. I selected five interviewees for the sample in four different elementary schools across Slovenia and interviewed them. The aims of the research were to determine how teachers of mindfulness in schools define mindfulness, to identify the reasons why developing pupil mindfulness is important, to find out how mindfulness is performed in the selected elementary schools, and to determine whether there are negative effects of mindfulness on students and what should be done to prevent it.
I have found that each performer creates his or her own way of training mindfulness in children. There are many different exercises for practicing mindfulness. However, it is especially important to perform the exercises regularly, continuously, to be persistent, patient, and not to force the child to perform. It is important for interviewees to develop pupil mindfulness, mainly because they develop emotional intelligence, social development, and other factors that, according to interviewees, are still underdeveloped by the school. Children can talk about their feelings and their thinking with no incorrect answers compared to school knowledge where mostly the correct answers are only those expected by teachers. I also found that in the opinion of the interviewees, the students' responses to the mindfulness practicing were mostly positive.
Answers to the research questions lead to the conclusion that mindfulness is made up of many elements and that for each teacher of mindfulness it another element of mindfulness is important, which indicates the subjectivity and relativity of the concept of mindfulness. The practitioners reported many positive effects they observed in themselves or in the children after performing mindful exercises. This means that mindfulness can help students and, consequently, reduce disruptive classroom behavior and improve the classroom climate. However, care must be taken when performing the exercises as there may also be a negative reaction from the children (nervousness). Some find it difficult to get in touch with themselves as difficult contents from their own past can emerge on the surface. If this happens, the activity should be interrupted and modified so that no serious negative effects occur.
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