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Mindfulness (2016) 7:286–288 DOI 10.1007/s12671-015-0470-z

BOOK REVIEW

Patricia A. Jennings: Mindfulness for Teachers: Simple Skills for Peace and Productivity in the Classroom. W. W. Norton, New York, NY, 2015, 288 pp Joshua C. Felver 1

Published online: 17 December 2015 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Teachers in today’s classrooms face many obstacles and difficult situations, such as inadequate pay, large classrooms, students with high rates of problem behavior, academically unprepared students, and pressure to meet the increasing demands of standardized testing. Given the inherently stressful situation of being a school teacher, it is not surprising that teacher’s have some of the highest rates of work-related stress among all occupations, with stress levels comparable to those faced by ambulance personnel, prison guards, and call-center customer service agents (Johnson et al. 2005). The intense and unrelenting stress that many teachers experience often leads to job burnout, and subsequently, teachers also have one of the highest rates of occupational attrition, with 4 % of teachers leaving the profession entirely every year (Planty et al. 2008). This combination of teacher attrition and stress ultimately affects the quality of education students receive, as there are fewer experienced teachers in the classroom and those that do remain often have a diminished sense of their own sense of efficacy which in turn impacts student achievement (Goddard et al. 2000). Taken as a whole, while it is clear that the profession of teaching is stressful and that the results of this stress are alarming, what is less clear is how this seemingly untenable situation can be addressed given the current supports and resources readily available to teachers. Programming that promotes mindfulness has become an increasingly popular method of intervention in recent years (Brown et al. 2007). Indeed, mounting scientific evidence has shown that mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) are a

* Joshua C. Felver [email protected] 1

Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, Syracuse University, 430 Huntington Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA

generally powerful and effective modality for reducing stress, suffering, and improving overall well-being. An emerging area of research interest is the application of MBI in school settings (Felver and Jennings 2016), including examining the utility of how MBI may support teacher functioning in the classroom. To meet this growing interest, Patricia Jennings has compiled her abundant experience and expertise as a mindfulness practitioner, teacher, and social scientist into Mindfulness for Teachers: Simple Skills for Peace and Productivity in the Classroom. This book provides a needed resource for teachers wishing to understand and apply the MBI both in their professional lives as teachers to reduce stress, enhance the quality of their professional life, and support the needs of student whom they serve. Beginning with the introductory section, Jennings clearly outlines the need for incorporating MBI into the profession of teaching, orienting the reader to the aforementioned challenges faced by teachers, as well as the resulting burnout and stress that can occur. The introduction to the book also orients the reader to the structure and format of the proceeding chapters, namely that each chapter will introduce a special topic for how mindfulness can be applied in teaching and, illustratively, how the reader can practice specific mindfulness activities to develop skills related to the chapter’s topic to then use in the classroom. By providing the reader a concise and informative introduction section, and by constructing the book such that each chapter follows a consistent format, Mindfulness for Teachers is an easily accessible book for those unfamiliar with the topic. Chapter 1 introduces and orients the reader to the multifaceted construct of mindfulness and details a concise overview of the germane research on MBI in school settings. For those who are familiar with mindfulness and mindfulness practice, this chapter will read as a clear and genuine illustration of how mindfulness can be used in school settings to support youth.

Mindfulness (2016) 7:286–288

For teachers generally unfamiliar with mindfulness and MBI, Jennings’ direct and cogent style of writing will easily introduce conceptually how aspects of mindfulness (e.g., acceptance, self-regulation, non-judgment) are relevant and useful in school settings. The chapter concludes with a clearly described introductory mindfulness practices (e.g., breathing awareness meditation). In Chapter 2, Jennings details what emotions are, how emotions affect both the teacher and the classroom, and how mindfulness can be utilized to best understand one’s own emotional experience. This chapter describes the importance of how having emotional regulation and self-awareness is critical to teaching students social-emotional skills, to managing classroom behavior, and to reducing teacher’s own emotional distress. Conclusion practices offer simple journaling exercises for how to monitor and reflect upon the rich emotional experience of one’s day-to-day life to illustrate the theme for the chapter. Building upon the previous chapter, Chapter 3 provides a clear explanation of how emotions affect teachers and teaching. Relevant literature concerning how difficult emotions affect one’s physiological stress response and psychological experience are provided. This chapter also details how negative emotions are often linked to our previous learning experiences and, subsequently, how one’s emotional memories influence reactions and behavior as a teacher in the classroom. Drawing upon her own experience as a teacher, Jennings offers numerous examples of not only how difficult emotions (e.g., anger, fear, sadness) can impair teaching and the classroom environment but also how mindfulness practice may mitigate the influence of these emotions. The chapter concludes with useful activities for becoming mindful of negative emotions and how to uncouple habitual reactions to these emotions. Chapter 4 details how to mindfulness can be used to cultivate positive emotional states within oneself that can then, in turn, enhance classroom climate and teaching. Similar to the previous chapter, Jennings illustrates touching examples of how positive emotions (e.g., love, gratitude, joy) can be engendered by teachers, and how these emotional qualities experienced by the teacher can have profound impact on students. This chapter details simple activities that teachers can use to set positive emotional intentions and how to begin to cultivate mindful awareness of these emotions in their lives as teachers. In Chapter 5, Jennings provides a simple guide for how to create a positive classroom environment by caring for oneself. This chapter describes the critical importance of self-care and how via addressing one’s own physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual well-being teachers become better equipped to meet the needs of their students in the classroom. The chapter concludes with simple and pragmatic practices to create a self-care

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plan and how, by using the mindful loving-kindness practice, teachers can improve their own positive emotional states and change the interpersonal dynamics with difficult students in their classroom. Chapter 6 details how many different applications of mindfulness practice can be incorporated into the intentional construction of a positive classroom environment. By drawing upon skills and concepts from the previous chapters, Jennings offers numerous suggestions for how to build a prosocial and warm classroom setting, as well as how to use mindfulness skills to prevent and respond to challenging classroom behavior. Several different descriptions of how to practice mindfulness with students in the classroom (e.g., mindfulness listening activities) are provided at the end of the chapter to provide an illustration of the content and suggestions for how to immediately begin to incorporate mindfulness into one’s classroom. The final chapter of this book presents a logical and cogent argument for why mindfulness is needed in today’s schools. To provide additional resources, this chapter also details research into the benefits of existing school-based MBI curricula, thus providing an excellent next step for those interested in learning more on this topic. This chapter concludes with an extensive and thorough list of resources for those seeking to continue to learn about and apply mindfulness, including bibliographies, websites, and training opportunities. For teachers and school personnel wishing to incorporate mindfulness into their lives, this book provides an invaluable resource. It discusses and beautifully illustrates how mindfulness can be used to reduce the stress and occupational hazards of teaching and, further, it offers a moving vision for how mindfulness can be used to transform one’s teaching and classroom learning environment. Indeed, in the introduction section, Jennings states that BMindfulness for Teachers was written to help teachers cultivate the skills they need to promote a calm, relaxed, but enlivened learning environment that can prepare children for the future by fostering creativity, innovation, collaboration, and cooperation^ (p. xvii). Drawing upon her own wealth of experience as a mindfulness practitioner, teacher, and scientist, Jennings has accomplished her own stated intentions in this book by providing a timely and inspiring illustration of how mindfulness practice can be used to reduce teacher stress and suffering, and also how mindfulness has the potential to enhance and transform teacher’s ability to educate today’s youth.

References Brown, K. W., Ryan, R. M., & Creswell, J. D. (2007). Mindfulness: theoretical foundations and evidence for its salutary effects. P s y c h o l o g i c a l I n q u i r y, 1 8 , 2 11 – 2 3 7 . d o i : 1 0 . 1 0 8 0 / 10478400701598298.

288 Felver, JC, & Jennings, PA. (2016). Applications of mindfulness-based interventions in school settings: an introduction. Mindfulness. Goddard, R. D., Hoy, W. K., & Hoy, A. W. (2000). Collective teacher efficacy: its meaning, measure, and impact on student achievement. American Education Research Journal, 2000, 479–507. doi:10. 3102/00028312037002479. Johnson, S., Cooper, C. L., Cartwright, S., Donald, I., Taylor, P., & Millet, C. (2005). The experience of work-related stress across occupations.

Mindfulness (2016) 7:286–288 Journal of Managerial Psychology, 20, 179–187. doi:10.1108/ 02683940510579803. Planty, M., Hussar, W., Snyder, T., Provasnik, S., Kena, G., Dinkes, R., et al. (2008). The condition of education 2008 (NCES 2008-031). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007065.pdf.