(Press-News.org) Teachers who participated in a meditation-based teacher development program utilizing the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique for four months, had significant improvements in emotional exhaustion (the leading factor in burnout), resilience, perceived stress, fatigue, and depression according to a new randomized controlled trial published today in Frontiers in Education.
"Teachers are under high levels of stress as they are asked every day to support their students' learning amidst numerous challenges," said Laurent Valosek, lead author of the study and executive director of the Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education. "This study demonstrates the benefits of meditation for strengthening teachers' mental and physical health. There is a growing body of research on the harmful effects of burnout and the need for resilience. School districts are looking to give their teachers tools for reducing fatigue and emotional exhaustion to support a more effective, sustainable teaching experience and better student outcomes."
BURNOUT AFFECTS TEACHERS WORLDWIDE
It is estimated that 70% of professionals are under constant stress, with over 20% experiencing burnout. Teachers, in particular, face significant daily demands, stress, and fatigue due to their classroom challenges and other professional activities. Burnout includes emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced sense of personal accomplishment. Signs of teacher burnout include absenteeism from work, impatience with students and colleagues, lack of commitment, poor job performance, and turnover.
TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION REDUCES BURNOUT AND IMPROVES RESILIENCE IN TEACHERS
A new randomized control study published in Frontiers in Education involved 78 teachers in the San Francisco Unified School District. The study found that during a four-month period, those practicing the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique experienced significant improvements in measures of mental, physical, and emotional health.
These findings are consistent with past research on TM showing benefits related to stress reduction and emotional health. This was the first study to investigate the effects of a meditation-based teacher development program on burnout and resilience, two key factors associated with overall mental health.
The primary outcome in the study was emotional exhaustion (the main factor in burnout), as measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). In addition to observing improvements in burnout, the researchers also found improvements in resilience, perceived stress, fatigue, and depression.
CONNECTION BETWEEN TEACHER BURNOUT AND STUDENT STRESS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES
Recent research has begun to show a direct link between teacher stress and the levels of stress in their students. Middle school students in British Columbia showed significant increases in blood cortisol levels linked to their teacher's level of burnout.
Teacher burnout is also associated with reduced student academic performance due to decreased commitment to students, less preparation, and absenteeism. Teacher absenteeism brings results in students learning from less qualified substitute teachers, and eventually results in higher teacher turnover. This research suggests a potential benefit from meditation-based teacher development programs designed to promote emotional wellness and health in teachers and build healthy emotional climates, which are associated with positive student learning.
INFORMATION:
Valosek L, Wendt S, Link J, Abrams A, Hipps J, Grant J, Nidich R, Loiselle M and Nidich S (2021) Meditation Effective in Reducing Teacher Burnout and Improving Resilience: A Randomized Controlled Study. Front. Educ. 6:627923. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2021.627923
Available from: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2021.627923/full
ABOUT THE CENTER FOR WELLNESS AND ACHIEVEMENT IN EDUCATION
The Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education (CWAE) is a San Francisco Bay Area-based non-profit organization. CWAE's mission is to optimize educational performance, reduce violence, stress, and substance abuse, and improve the psychological wellness of students, faculty, and administrators by strengthening the underlying neurophysiology of perception, learning and behavior. CWAE has served more than 15,000 youth, teachers and administrators in the San Francisco Bay Area. Among the youth served, 98% are of color and 62% live in low-income homes.
Exercise has long-been recommended as a cognitive-behavioral therapy for patients of depression, yet new evidence from the University of California of San Diego suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic changed the nature of the relationship between physical activity and mental health.
In a study of college students conducted before and during the pandemic, findings revealed the average steps of subjects declined from 10,000 to 4,600 steps per day and rates of depression increased from 32% to 61%.
The research, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also revealed short-term restoration of exercise does not meaningfully ...
During the first half of 2020, the U.S. Intermountain West region of the United States experienced four significant earthquake sequences, spanning multiple states. In the new issue of SRL, 15 papers characterize these major earthquakes and discuss how they are helping seismologists gain new insights into the tectonics of the region.
The Intermountain West is bounded by the eastern margin of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains to the west and the Rocky Mountains to the east. While its earthquake risk is often overlooked in comparison to those in California and the Pacific Northwest, the region ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect across society, but it has been especially devastating for people with substance use disorder.
A new study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, sheds light on the experience of patients with substance use disorder who were hospitalized during the initial surge of COVID-19 cases in Oregon last spring. Researchers with Oregon Health & Science University conclude that health systems nationwide could benefit from a better understanding of people who struggle with the basics.
"We need the system to be designed and implemented for patients who may lack phone access, who may not have access to WiFi or may be living on the streets," said lead ...
A combined treatment of irradiation and essential oil vapors could effectively destroy insects, bacteria and mold in stored grains. A team from the END ...
Being able to make blind people see again sounds like the stuff of miracles or even science fiction. And it has always been one of the biggest challenges for scientists. Diego Ghezzi, who holds the Medtronic Chair in Neuroengineering (LNE) at EPFL's School of Engineering, has made this issue a research focus. Since 2015, he and his team have been developing a retinal implant that works with camera-equipped smart glasses and a microcomputer. "Our system is designed to give blind people a form of artificial vision by using electrodes to stimulate their retinal cells," says Ghezzi.
Read more: https://actu.epfl.ch/news/a-retinal-implant-that-is-more-effective-against-b/
Star-spangled sky
The camera embedded in the smart glasses captures images in the wearer's field of vision, and ...
In order to stay alive, the cell must provide its various organelles with all the energy elements they need, which are formed in the Golgi apparatus, its centre of maturation and redistribution of lipids and proteins. But how do the proteins that carry these cargoes - the kinesins - find their way and direction within the cell's "road network" to deliver them at the right place? Chemists and biochemists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, have discovered a fluorescent chemical dye, making it possible for the first time to track the transport ...
More Antarctic meltwater is surfacing than was previously known, modifying the climate, preventing sea ice from forming and boosting marine productivity- according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA).
For the first time, researchers have been able to obtain full-depth glacial meltwater observations in winter, using instruments attached to the heads of seals living near the Pine Island Glacier, in the remote Amundsen Sea in the west of Antarctica.
The harsh environmental conditions in the Antarctic limit the use of most traditional observation systems, such as ships and airplanes, especially ...
Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego examining 14 years of hospital admissions data conclude that the fine particles in wildfire smoke can be several times more harmful to human respiratory health than particulate matter from other sources such as car exhaust. While this distinction has been previously identified in laboratory experiments, the new study confirms it at the population level.
This new research work, focused on Southern California, reveals the risks of tiny airborne particles with diameters of up to 2.5 microns, about one-twentieth that of a human hair. These particles - termed PM2.5 - are the ...
Satellite imagery shows that the area covered by kelp forests off the coast of Northern California has dropped by more than 95 percent, with just a few small, isolated patches of bull kelp remaining. Species-rich kelp forests have been replaced by "urchin barrens," where purple sea urchins cover a seafloor devoid of kelp and other algae.
A new study led by researchers at UC Santa Cruz documents this dramatic shift in the coastal ecosystem and analyzes the events that caused it. This was not a gradual decline, but an abrupt collapse of the kelp forest ecosystem in the aftermath of unusual ocean warming along the West Coast starting in 2014, part of a series of events that combined to decimate the kelp forests.
Published March 5 in Communications Biology, ...
Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is the most widely used diagnostic method to detect RNA viruses such as SARS-CoV-2. However, it requires expensive laboratory equipment and global shortages of reagents for RNA purification has increased the need to find simple but reliable alternatives. One alternative to the qPCR technology is RT-LAMP (reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification). This test amplifies the desired target sequences of the virus at a constant temperature, using minimal equipment compared to qPCR. In 2020, it was adapted to the detection of SARS-CoV-2. It was also shown that instead of a swab, which many people find unpleasant, it can be performed on gargle lavage samples.
First author Lukas Bokelmann and colleagues have now ...
