learners greater focus during tests , reduced language anxiety , and , as one study with Thai students of English found , improved presentation skills .
So let ’ s find a definition of mindfulness that better fits our profession . Julia Hogan helps by dispelling a few misconceptions : Mindfulness is not meditation ; though an important part of meditation , mindfulness can also be achieved in other ways . Nor , as Marc Helgesen will tell us , is it “ mindlessness ;” it is not about disengaging from the world , but rather engaging with it in a more effective way . Dan Harris provides a superb working definition : “ Mindfulness is the ability to know what ’ s happening in your head at any given moment without getting carried away by it .” And Hogan provides one for “ Psychological mindfulness ” from a Northern Arizona University study : Mindfulness is “ maintaining an open , accepting , present focus or attention during day-to-day life .” With a little tweak to make it fit our purpose , it becomes : “ maintaining an open , accepting , present focus during class .”
let ’ s find a definition of mindfulness that better fits our profession
Now we have a concept that is meaningful to all of us , even if we have not come to appreciate it through meditation , and one that begs to be included as an educational objective for modern times . Why ? Because our learners need to learn how to manage their inner selves in this phrentic world .
If I may speak plainly , it ' s harder for them . The frenzy and chaos we grew up with has greatly increased in their lives . Most of us grew up in a world of movies restricted to television sets and theater screens , computers that let us connect through emails but generally stayed on our desks , and as Heather Van Fleet will inform us , limited access to telephones that once just sat on table tops . But for them , today ’ s world is much more “ phrenetic ”!
On top of that , pressure from our educational systems has been on the rise . As jobs have shifted from manufacturing to information management , salary and social status have shifted too , becoming even more closely dependent on success in school . In many locations , such as China , test anxiety has gone from being an sporadic problem to a seasonal epidemic .
So , I urge you to be mindful : School is pretty much the same as it has always been , so it is easy to miss that nothing else is . Our world has changed drastically . If your mission as a teacher is to prepare your fragile learners for this stressful world , then help them develop the ability to maintain an open , accepting , present focus during class and life .
“ Wherever you are , be there totally .”